saudi women hit the roads for the first time as the kingdom lifts of women driving . hello i'm maryam namazie in london with al jazeera also coming up zimbabwe's president condemns a bomb attack on his campaign rally as a cowardly act. ethiopia's new prime minister also has a lucky escape following a grenade attack it's a rally which killed one person and injured dozens more. and after weeks of uncertainty iraq's prime minister forms an alliance with shiite cleric watada outsider this coalition led the maypoles.

history has been made in saudi arabia with women taking to the wheels of a cause for the first time in decades the kingdom of overturn the walls only ban on female motorists an hour ago this is one of the first women to take advantage of that law change some ladies have been taking virtual driving lessons in preparation for the move the decision is expected to boost the economy with sales of cars now expected to rise hello everyone when the t.v. you're watching history being made it's finally twelve in riyadh saudi arabia it's the twenty fourth of june. to drive you would watch me drive to my father's house and then i'll take you to a tour. that. well women's efforts to

overturn the ban go back nearly three decades in one thousand nine hundred forty women drove the cars in riyadh the first public demonstration against the ban in two thousand and seven activists submitted a petition to the van king abdullah asking for the right to drive the next year one of those activists. made a film of herself driving and posted it online dozens of women followed suit over the next few years last september king solomon finally gave orders for the band to be lifted as part of the crown prince's reform drive but in the last few weeks many prominent women's rights activists have been arrested. middle east consultant to a non-governmental organization equality now she says there are still challenges ahead for female try this and this is important for a woman at the beginning that at least they can exercise their rights to do their freedom of movement. but this is

a very good step and we are welcoming this step but of course i mean that are so many challenges including i mean that women are facing you know with the lifting of the ban is that you know they feel for having less and it is this six times more than. this is one of the distinctions and this makes women. not being able to access driving license in a fast way in addition to the limited the driving schools. in saudi arabia as equality now and as activists in the region and elsewhere we are very much concerned about that arrest of these women who have been campaigning for years to lift the ban on driving and to and guardianships this i mean this is what is

going on in saudi arabia it's crazy instead of these women prominent women have been exodus. that they should be on wheels but now they are behind bars and this is really very annoying and very alarming for us all so we are really asking the prince to to release all these women and the respect it expects off what they have done for years of activism and campaigning for their rights in saudi. moving to iraq now and a prime minister in the shack solder of announced that political blocs of forming an alliance they say the union between a victory alliance insiders siren bloc which won the largest number of seats will cross sectarian ethnic divisions potentially and help to secure a ruling bloc a body and solder say the door remains open for the remaining blocs to join them janice below says iraq urgently needs this coalition to work and it's surprising

how quickly it's been formed it's been really an extraordinary journey we're taught all solder less than a little more than ten years ago he was his mahdi army was ambushing and killing american soldiers in iraq and here he is the kingmaker after an election that we must remember had a very low turnout around thirty percent marred by many allegations of irregularities and yet he has been able to pull together the supported mehdi and to bring a body the serving prime minister and his block into this broader coalition he's about one hundred forty seats i think he needs another twenty five i think he'll get it and i think it is what iraq urgently needs you know i was saying just after the election i don't expect the coalition to happen until the beginning of

september and yet he's been able to pull things together i think in a remarkably short period of time. i think that what we're looking at now is the beginning of a broader coalition and he will be able to get these folks together. zimbabwe's president has criticised an attack on his campaign rally as a cowardly act the bomb blast happened just seconds after he addressed a stadium crowd and pull away a city and stepped into a v.i.p. tent just off the stage several people are reported to have been injured somebody faces its first election without long time data robert mugabe on july thirtieth. this is. jobs.

there is hamad tacit has more from johannesburg right now on social media people talking about how safe is it to obtain these rallies what if there's another attack so people are concerned about that of course they're also asking who could have been behind this could it be a specific individual is it a group of people are these attacks lakita increase as we head up to those elections so far the campaign has been relatively peaceful so people are quite surprised as actually happened they also surprised how this individual managed to get so close to the president and throw that grenade so a lot of uncertainty right now but again the president telling zimbabweans keep calm the security officials have things under control people much as prepare for these elections which he is will happen at the end of july. well in other developments ethiopia's new prime minister also had a lucky escape in his case a grenade attack at his first mass rally in the capital addis ababa one person died in the attack and more than one hundred sixty were injured r.b.a.

ahmed has announced a series of major reforms since taking office in april victoria gate b. has mall. this was the moment the grenade exploded close to where prime minister abby asked might was sitting. was. her few moments there was confusion before members of the security forces came onto the stage and led abby atma to safety. witnesses say they saw the man who targeted the prime minister as a prime minister were just concluded his speech and that moment there was a grenade. but i think the guy was just trying to stroll the stage. beside him just took him. just went off and on sunday it was a bloody end to a day that is started with say much optimism hundreds of thousands of ethiopians had gathered in the capital addis ababa mescal square to support their new prime

minister since taking office in april the forty two year old has announced a series of reforms including the release of tens of thousands of prisoners the opening of state owned companies to private investment and to propose peace deal with eritrea in an address to the nation after the attack could be said that those trying to divide ethiopia would not succeed in your my fellow why not but that i'm not certain groups planned and coordinated to destroy this large gathering to kill innocent people and to spill blood on our streets they have tried very hard but their entire plot has failed the questions are being raised about whether the security operation for such a large rally was adequate some of the officers have been saying that this is an attempt on the life of the prime minister and the definitely. supporting the rally was a great the most patient that there is a solid support for the reformist by the prime minister but at the same time the

the great attack have revealed that the reforms are still fragile prime minister abbey says he is determined to bring change to ethiopia but this attack highlights the lengths some will go to to try and stop him victoria. iraq's military says it killed forty five i still fighters including senior commanders in an air strike in eastern syria a military spokesman says the raid targeted a meeting of isolate is in the syrian province of darrow's or among those killed were a senior member of the group so-called ministry of war his deputy and a local commander meanwhile syrian rebel fighters have told the reuters news agency that russian jets of the party carried out as strikes in there are for the first time since the government offensive began thousands of civilians have already fled the fighting there the u.s. is called on president assad to halt the offensive which falls inside one of the internationally agreed deescalation sides. reports.

this is the first time the forces have used battle bombs in that are you know a year. helicopters struck several villages in what appears to be a major advance to take over the city but this violates a truce that was brokered by russia and the united states in africa to bring an eye and to the seven year war the americans have warned of serious repercussions if the offensive continues and the rebels who are losing ground remain defiant if. we don't recognize assad's of course he has destroyed our cities and. he destroyed syria to staying power we will never recognize. the presence of ukrainian and afghan militias. who should decide the future of the country. the

syrian army is massing troops in the area the opposition says thousands of shiite militias are also moving in dar was the focal point of the syrian uprising in two thousand and eleven but in recent years the rebels have been retreating they now control one neighborhood in the city and a few areas on the border with jordan this is a show of force by the real syrian army. for years the f.s.a. was trained by the u.s. europe and gulf countries but that support has diminished over the last two years and assad forces are largely outgunned and outnumbered the tao offensive poses challenges for all the parties the rebels cannot afford another

setback after being evicted from a just cause the clothing homes and on the asker's of damascus but of the syrian army's push continues the u.s. may in. the fear and that may trigger a wider ask collation question mark but i'll just erupt. so loud for you on the program. takis president makes a final push for support at a crucial elections that look closer than expected also. two years after britain's decision to leave the e.u. tens of thousands marched to london to demand another fight.

hello again there are some chilly nights ahead for many parts of australia temperatures really struggling and this big area of high pressure alice springs only getting out to eighteen during the day and night time temperatures going to bed zero other areas not put it will more the melbourne it just eleven degrees western australia looks up pretty good twenty one that and perth temperature nothing out of the ordinary so move that forecast through into monday you can see cool conditions are for adelaide as well sydney looks recently bright the highs of sixteen degrees across into news here are some cold out there as well so we got some snow in the southern alps but a phone effect pouts for christchurch the winds coming in from the northwest so fourteen as a high the door thaw and not fairing too badly that or cling looking rose if we draw a bright but i think the risk of rain will increase as we head through into monday so let's head up into northeastern parts of asia where we've seen some really heavy rain affecting southern parts of japan in the last day or so but that frontal system is just clearing so tokyo very much on the edge i wouldn't promise blue

skies by any means but it should be a dry picture on sunday with highs of twenty six pretty warm you notice for beijing their temperature in the mid thirty's and the risk of showers developing here through the course of monday the more the crimping should dry states should be nice and bright across japan. eighty percent of the visually impaired could be cured without access to treatment . or where there was a will there is a way. to the auto spittle covering over seventy seven countries probably everything is rationed we since today every role and in pakistan. provides free treatment for over one million patients and you know the cure revisited which is iraq.

back but look at top stories saudi women have hit the road for the first time in their country after the kingdom lifted a decades long ban on female driving. zimbabwe's president has escaped unharmed from an explosion at a campaign rally and ethiopia's new prime minister abi ahmed is also escaped a queer night attack at one of his rallies at least one person was killed and more than one hundred sixty injured. well turkey's presidential candidates have held their final rallies ahead of sunday's elections which were widely viewed as the most crucial in decades

president. urged people to get out and vote he attacked his opposition for lacking vision and boasted of his achievements while in office like new health infrastructure his main challenge him her and she also held a rally in istanbul during a massive crowd he painted a bleak picture of turkey and iran saying its currency would remain weak and its refugee problems on resolved six candidates are running for president on the reforms the winner will acquire sweeping new executive powers and i'm only takes a look at the front runner as. this election is a milestone for both of them are drawn. he hopes it will see his country resurge on the world stage he promises more democracy more freedom and more growth his supporters say he should remain president until two thousand and twenty three the centenary of the founding of modern turkey says that is we've come here to serve

not to be your masters and our journey will continue this way. don has by far the rivals will remain the dynamic candidate for the main opposition party c.h.p. is a former physics teacher he has served as a member of parliament for sixteen years in jail is most likely to make it into the final round some critics say his retore is as populist as our dons especially on syrian refugees he wants to send them home he's also vowing to lift restrictions on fundamental freedoms and restore the rule of law in turkey. the constitution hands over everything the budget jurisdiction and legislation to one person all these powers cannot be handed over to a single individual. breakaway nationalist party leader mal action air is the only female candidate called the she will by her admirers action are served as the interior minister in the ninety's a period turkish state have suppressed the policies against kurdish citizens she

has campaigned on social justice and a self-sufficient economy. is some of the also like the government i use matters to deliberately impoverish people and exploit that poverty to remain in power to be pro kurdish peoples democratic party h d p's candidates a lot of damage has run his presidential campaign from behind bars as kurdish obama he promises to lift the state of emergency restore freedom and democratic institutions. what we are living today is just a teaser for the one man regime in the actual scary part of the navy has not yet begun. so on sunday you will determine with your votes whether this obvious fear of fear begins or not he looked at it as if since presidents are gone hasn't lost an election since two thousand and two despite his upper hand in public support he faces challenges in foreign policy security and the call on me this time his rivals

are more competitive than expected. al-jazeera the stumble. three israeli soldiers have been wounded in a car running attack in the occupied west bank israeli military says a palestinian driver tried to run over the troops during a security patrol before fleeing on foot they were taken to hospital with minor injuries a search is under way for the suspect the democratic republic of congo says it will issue former vice president a diplomatic passport to return to the country after his successful appeal against a war crimes conviction to spend eleven years in prison at the hague but the verdict was overturned earlier this month is still awaiting a final sentence from the i.c.c. in another case expected in early july is returned could cause a dramatic shake up in the political landscape as it heads for elections at the end of the year faith leaders and civil rights groups have marched to the national mall in washington in honor of the poor people's campaign rally led by martin luther

king in one thousand nine hundred sixty eight protests was dominated by criticism of the u.s. president's hardline immigration policy al-jazeera as well brunell's has been at a much. gathering before the u.s. capitol a diverse group of thousands rallied under the banner of the poor people's campaign calling for a moral revival in the united states the rally featured impassioned speakers songs demanding justice and prayers from clergy of many religions including a sacred song by native americans from the apache trod. barber of north carolina is one of the main organizers of the campaign this is not fellowship this is revolution bring this mike up cause we intend to get loud and draw a crowd. the campaigners demand living wages for workers universal health care and an end to institutionalized racism police violence and mass incarceration more

funding for schools and social programs and less for the military and end to environmental destruction there are about forty million people living in poverty in the united states according to official statistics from the u.s. census bureau but some researchers say the number is much higher as high as one hundred and forty million whatever the true number for the people who gathered here it's far too many and i think that the poor people's campaign something particularly radical in calling out systemic poverty as an evil and evil that the united states can very easily quell. the campaign is modeled on a similar movement that began fifty years ago by reverend martin luther king jr before his assassination in april one thousand nine hundred sixty eight that summer tens of thousands marched and set up a sprawling camp on the national mall called resurrection city civil rights leader

jesse jackson was there the king's we must choose a healing at home and not killing abroad protester said the forced separation of migrant families by the trump administration shows the country's leadership is morally blind not just jump it's been like this since he founded this country. the immigration issue is particularly acute now campaign organizers say they are only beginning their fight they plan a major drive to get more people and their supporters to the polls in the november elections to vote for a profound change in u.s. society rob reynolds al-jazeera washington. spain's coast guard has rescued nearly six hundred migrants trying to make the journey across the mediterranean from north africa spain's maritime rescue service says it picked them up from sixteen boats in the strait of gibraltar a busy shipping lane with treacherous currents two men were pulled from a canoe and a danish container ship picked up one hundred thirteen migrants from

a boat off southern italy on friday and said it was awaiting instructions from the authorities. meanwhile the french president emanuel makana saying he favors financial sanctions on european countries that refused to take migrants with proven asylum status macron held a working lunch with the new spanish prime minister pederast sanchez in paris is the spanish made his first official visit abroad since taking office three weeks ago and meeting comes ahead of an emergency summit between e.u. leaders on sunday to address recent tensions of a migration policy review that there was useful to us about the system of sanction mechanisms which could be implemented in cases of non solidarity it's a debate we will have within a framework of financial possibilities but i am for myself in favor of having mechanisms that indeed take this into account we can't have countries that massively benefit from the solidarity of the european union and that massively voice their national selfishness when it comes to migrant issues. and that has more on this now from paris. well the main message from these two leaders in paris was

that the european union simply has to have a coordinated strategy when it comes to migration it has to be united now the french president emanuel markhor praised the new socialist prime minister pedro such as from spain saying that he had showed a gesture of solidarity when he decided to open up their doors and. where is migrants and refugees those who were rescued by that charity ship blocked by italy mike ross said it was indeed an important gesture but the migration cannot be solved in that way on a case to gates of bases what is needed is a much wider plan now both pedro sanchez and about all mark or will be at a mini migration summit in brussels on sunday and this meeting in paris was really an opportunity for these two leaders to get to know each other's the first time they met and also discuss some of the strategies which may be talked about at the summit on sunday and later in the week at the main summit there is no doubt they

are all they same page or they believe new solutions must be found they also both pro e.u. young dynamic leaders who really want more e.u. integration and what that means for them is that they must be solutions found to the migration crisis because they see the divisions that it is causing and they worry that that could threaten the future of the european union the future of the bloc in fact it might or might call it even said that we could see a wave of populism and nationalism unless something is done on out tens of thousands of and he breaks it for set protesters a march through central london on the second anniversary of the u.k.'s vote to leave the european union they are demanding a second referendum on e.u. membership once the withdrawal terms become clear leave barker explains. was united against. politicians from across the u.k.'s political divide side by side of the head of

a march attended by thousands. they arrived outside parliament with on demand a final vote on any u.k. exit deal among the demonstrators members of prime minister to resign may's own political party committed to overturning bricks it we want a people's fate deal or no deal and i think that's right it can't be right that six hundred fifty politicians sitting in parliament who are amongst themselves as indeed our government and cabinet is divided on this special i think sixty five million people in our country should have a date on the final deal the protests is part of what's being called a summit of action to put pressure on britain's leaders two years after the u.k. surprizes cision to leave the e.u. britain is still an odds of the countries who lation ship with europe the countries from the bid to divide in the fray those divisions how to deal with the reason for that i think is that since the referendum we lost the referendum was

a factor but since the reason i use government as if all of these people kind of don't exist so what this is about is basically saying that we have to at least hold open the option when she does come up with a deal for the people who are to say yeah that's what we voted for is perhaps unsurprising here in london a city that voted overwhelmingly to remain part of the e.u. that there are such crowds that they step stray shit but what is surprising is that two years after the referendum a year after crucial negotiations began between the e.u. and the u.k. there is still so much anger and so much confusion. public opinions remain largely stable since the referendum despite increasing pessimism from business is about what breaks it will mean for them this week the airplane manufacturer said that it would have to pull out of the u.k. if the government failed to secure a post breaks a trade deal putting thousands of jobs at risk. the u.k.

faces a fifty billion dollars. bill believes the e.u. complications over its border with the island and the us president will be as welcoming about british trade dispersed thought. the world changed since britain but brics it's only another vote say these people could correct post mistakes leave barca al-jazeera london a french teenager who accidentally crossed from canada into the u.s. while choking has been released after two weeks in detention it's adele a roman strayed across the border while on a beach on canada's pacific coast despite protesting her innocence she was apprehended and taken to a center two hundred kilometers south of the border robin who described the ordeal as the fright of her life is now been banned from entering the us a terminally ill afghan refugee on the pacific island of nauru has been allowed into australia for treatment sixty three year old man known as ali has spent the

last five years in a detention center after trying to reach australia by boat it's been transferred to brisbane following a campaign by doctors to get him better lung cancer treatment. a quick look at the top stories for you this hour history has been made in saudi arabia with women taking to the wheels of their cars for the first time in decades the kingdom overturned the world's only ban on female motorists an hour ago this is one of the first women to take advantage of that some ladies have been taking virtual driving lessons in preparation for the move the decision is expected to boost the economy with sales of cars expected to rise. hello everyone when it was there likely to be you're watching history being made it's finally twelve in riyadh saudi arabia it's the twenty fourth of june and women can woman as

allowed to drive you would watch me drive to my father's house and then i'll take you to a tour around riyadh. with that zimbabwe's president has condemned an attack on his campaign rally as a cowardly act a bomb blast happened just seconds after he addressed a stadium crowd in but away a city and stepped into a v.i.p. tent just off the stage meanwhile ethiopian officials say one person has died and dozens more injured after an explosion at a rally for the new prime minister ahmed was whisked away by a security immediately after the blast thought a grenade was thrown into crowds of thousands rally in the capital addis ababa. well turkey's presidential candidates have held their final rallies ahead of crucial elections on sunday the president. people to get out and vote he attacked his opposition for lacking vision while boasting of his achievements including the

country's new health infrastructure but his main challenger also held a rally in istanbul during a massive crowd he's painted a bleak picture of turkey saying its currency would remain weak and its refugee problems on result iraqi prime minister hydrilla body in the shia cleric went to solder of announce that political blocs are forming an alliance the union between a body placed victory alliance insiders siren which won the largest number of seats will cross it tearing an ethnic divisions potentially over the top stories talk to al-jazeera is next but there will be much more news coming out from doha after that in about twenty five minutes time stay with us. on june twenty fourth turkish citizens will vote in one of their most significant elections in recent years the winner will tank on new sweeping presidential powers approved in a referendum ostia will have full coverage of the vote and its impact. of the tacky

elections on al-jazeera only. you can. see. this weekend's elections in turkey millions of people go to the polls to elect the president and the new parliament it's the first time since the referendum last year when the people approved a new constitution giving more power to the presidency. today on talk to al-jazeera we discuss what president aragon hopes to achieve if he wins a new term in a conversation with the spokes person. but first another contender for the presidency the leader of the sadat party he says.