the city of lahore sent us this report. on election day pakistan's military will make its presence felt it will be responsible for security at polling stations across the country on the request of the election commission the fuckers stand more than three hundred seventy thousand troops are involved in the operation. this election campaign was more bitter than most and some say the dirtiest ever in pakistan. just in the kitchen. is full of a party that defeated in the elections. they can be totally leggo if given what full particularly lead now before the election is something that had been destroying. their way the kid with a colony very close we managed in. iran hands the front runner his promises of change of been clouded by the inclusion of so-called electable politicians who previously won seats for other parties

opponents draw parallels between him and members of his party when he criticizes the musharraf family for having children and assets abroad imran khan's also been accused of being the favored candidate of the powerful military establishment an allegation he denies. why can't the international media say that there will be a new pakistan after july twenty fifth. the party of no jailed former prime minister has been struggling to country its image of corruption since the panama papers investigation the russian is brother shahbaz has taken charge but he's also under investigation male body in the me me and my daughter maria are in prison because we started this movement to bring dignity to your vote no prime minister has ever completed a five year term in the last seventy years of fascist fun but this is the second time a democratically elected civilian government is completing its tenure and the difference is clear when elected. politicians went back to ask for votes in the areas where

they didn't deliver returns empty handed it's it's the third largest national force is the pakistan people's party led by bellarmine put those are diets but the son of the assassinated put bill has had to defend the bad state of affairs in sindh province his party has been in power for decades. for the first time people in the tribal areas can vote as part of the federation old alliances have been broken and new ones have emerged in baluchistan in the provinces nationally the ballots have been distributed and boxes are in place for one hundred six million pakistanis to vote political leaders the attempts of people rigging can only be defeated if people come out and water numbers simon job a dollar zero or lahore. so how can a visiting research fellow at the cato institute specializing in south asian affairs she says the elections have been marred with questions about how free and fair they are going to be. this is an election where political candidates

especially have been targeted which has created sort of concerns around the security of the elections as well now when it comes to fairness this is where richard is this is also an interesting development because human rights groups the media box on the media and even some politicians have accused the military of interfering in the elections which of course impacts how fair and free they would be so i think the expectation is that these elections are very crucial for pakistan's political progress and force democratic transition but there is a lot of skepticism exactly on exactly how free and fair they will be and exactly how secure they will be. you'll spot relation is is massive sixty four percent of the population is between the ages of fifteen and twenty nine voting age of pakistan is eighteen so even if you consider the ages of eighteen to twenty nine that's a big chunk of the population that's going to vote according to the. national development report that came out in may it's a pretty extensive almost two hundred plus page report that really goes in depth of

sort of to explain what is the box fans use and what do they want and essentially in that report in past elections eighty percent of youth voters have gone out and voted so it's a pretty active use that wants to participate in political process so i expect to see the same in this election as well now how they will vote is different because the youth's main concern is you know they khana me whether they are able to marry or not whether they can find employment and it's unclear whether any political party can use those demands and backs up that he can soften never ruled out a national stage so even if the youth vote for them i think they'll be really interesting to see whether or not p.t.i. can deliver. but more ahead on the news hour including threats intimidation and even death the price for speaking out on the environment in brazil. and how an academic and his damaged shoes have become icons of venezuela's economic crisis.

and pepper spraying the peloton joe we'll have the latest strange twist to this year's tour de france. israel says it's partially reopening its only commercial crossing with the besieged gaza strip it had been closed on july the ninth with only goods that israel considered for humanitarian use allowed to enter that included fuel medicine and food but a week later israel tightened the blockade by suspending fuel and gas deliveries following the closure early tricity supplies to palestinians have been cut from eight hours to just six hours a day and has more from the crossing. so trucks now have started taking this vital fuel this this oil this petrol and this cooking gas from the israeli side they the trucks arrive from gaza they fill up and then go back

across the border there's great relief here in gaza there was a a press statement released by the palestinian healthful thora to the smalling saying that unless this fuel starts to be delivered immediately then health services were risk of actually having to be closed down and we understand that the power station is still not operating that stopped yesterday there were only one of full turbines that were operating in that power station before that closure and that's a different issue the power station does not rely on oil from this border has been relying on it supplied from egypt thomas says it simply does not have enough money to pay for that vital fuel for the power station is also the issues of the amount of money that people simply have in their pockets to pay their electricity bills and this will stem from the big political rift between hamas and fatah that is going on now since hamas took power here in two thousand and seven for the last

year and a half the pollen is the dominated palestinian authority has not paid the salaries for thousands of civil servants here and hamas says is as a as a result of that that they call their electricity bills so the gas the oil for the power station cannot be bull as i say there is a sense of temporary relief here now that they saw oil gas and this this cooking gas is being transported into gaza but of course so much depends on maintaining this cease fire between hamas and israel after what can only be described as the largest escalation of violence of the last couple of weeks since the two thousand and fourteen war. sixteen senators have quits nigeria's ruling party in a major blow to president muhammadu buhari his bid for reelection the defections make the all progressives congress or a.p.c.

a minority party in the senate senate president is threatening to quit the party and thirty two members of the lower house are also changing sides most of the defectors are joining the main opposition only last week another faction of the a.p.c. said it no longer supported biharis government i'll address has more from nigeria as capital. relationship between the executive and legislature in nigeria has been solid for a very long time and the genesis of it was the election of leadership of the of two chambers of parliament when an election is well won and lost in two thousand and fifteen the ruling party of the a.p.c. wanted sutton members to contest and win positions in the house of representatives and the senate but again there were some members of the ruling party including the senate prescott of senate president would effect it and some members of the party joined him in moving to all cross competition to another party went behind the

scenes and struck a deal with members of the opposition then won some votes and then shed some seats in the senate especially and then the house of representatives that has angered the ruling party and that said this pool of friction between the party and they just as well as the executive and the legislature and some of the highlights of these squabble was the late passage of two thousand and seventeen and two thousand and eighteen budget the budget was just two months ago which of course had even some problems of the exact if i lighted now so the supporters of these legislators who defected said they have the numbers to win elections with or without the ruling party the a.p.c. and mohamed behind it but supporters of moment on the other hand feel that it was the behind what they call the blood tsunami that pushed some of these legislators into parliament in the last place with the electorate looking a bit prodigious but because it was popular then so they voted them into parliament and they believe that these will not make any impact when the elections happen in

the next six or seven months from now now the stew situation now is that what all of the they have the numbers to impeach the president if they want to lead out of a faction of the a.p.'s a.p.c. that he might just a month ago insisted that they have the numbers and they're willing to go ahead to reach the president but nigerians will be the judge when it comes to whether or not these people are popular to win elections including the president himself when they decide in february two thousand and nineteen. more than two hundred environmental activists were murdered last year worldwide making it the deadliest year on record that's according to the campaign group global witness which said the killers often work for mining or logging companies as well as criminal gangs the most dangerous country as it has been for the past few years is brazil where fifty seven activists were killed. and there are reports from by a state. anna lucy a lives in fear constantly looking over her

shoulder she says she was threatened by armed men as they ransacked her home she knows who ordered the attack and why they want to develop on the community's land but as you know we can't let the men to imitate us we need to continue they can kill me i'm not afraid of being killed i need to defend my people who have been here since fifteen sixty nine without any help from the government and now they want to destroy the forest that is part of us she's from king and lives in what's known as a kilo a community founded in the sixteenth century by a scape slaves it's brazil's oldest and its residents say they're more vulnerable than ever on drug government has been rolling back environmental and human rights legislation. since we don't know where to go for help we feel that. the federal government doesn't help us the local authorities don't care about us a mistake of mine try to bribe us with fifteen million dollars landownership in

brazil is among the most concentrated and unequal in the world those who ordered the intimidation the murders are rarely brought to justice this road and the bridge i'm standing on cut right through the middle of the king goma community there was no consultation no negotiation no compensation the authorities simply came and they built evil but it will feel was killed in by. and. i'm real to a spiritual standoff in. brazil is consistently the most dangerous country for environmental activists and these are just some of the nearly five hundred who have stood in the way murdered since two thousand and two trying to protect their land from big business. it seems that those who run the country are construction companies mining companies and the are group business when you have blundered spirits in brazil bees economic groups defined how the government. reacts to cases

of murder and threats and lucy as a people have preserved this land they don't pollute the forest but when short term profit is put before sustainable development it's the most vulnerable the already marginalized who are most risk. in their disease by a state was ill venezuelan university professor has sparked a wave of solidarity and social media after tweeting a photo of his damage use which he says he can't afford to mend even though jose borrow works at a prestigious university he owns to start dollar seventy months at the black market rate but he says since his tweet went viral he's received twelve pairs of shoes none of which he's given away. they were going to i decided to take a picture of the she's and say look this is the world of a university professor a person who has so many called if occasions but doesn't even have the way to fix the souls of the she's. i began to get frustrated because my

salary for the month of july was almost three million dollars but it wasn't enough until. well when as well as economic crisis has caused severe shortages in price hikes and with the i.m.f. predicting inflation is going to hit one million percent this year people salaries are becoming increasingly worthless the minimum wage was increased in june to five million dollars a month that's where the university professor and about a dollar seventy on the black market which will barely buy a kilo of meat opposition politicians say that sound fair because a colonel in the army and more than seventy eight dollars a month military salaries have been raised by ten percent following unrest in the army and that means even and med ranking army officer can earn thirty times as much as an electrician a nurse or a junior doctor on the minimum wage many people in these professions of walked off the job until they're paid better i don't know we can't even pay for

a ticket there are many times when we have to come one day yes and two days no because we don't have money for the right if we buy bread we no longer have enough to come to work. the u.s. has condemned recent violence in nicaragua accusing president goes government of indorsing murder and intimidation on monday crowds marched through the capital demanding justice for the three hundred people killed in these protests began and. is refusing to step down he denies that he controls the part of military groups blamed for most of the deaths but the u.s. state department is in the united states government condemns the ongoing violence and intimidation by the ortega controlled armed groups in nicaragua that includes the arbitrary arrests of seven hundred nicaraguans who have opposed the ortega government as corroborated by multiple sources we also condemned the cowardly attacks on the catholic church leadership the buildings and adherence there along with the deaths of hundreds of protesters the attacks have been widely documented

internationally and are completely unacceptable the nicaraguan government cannot continue its to excuse its behavior and blame others for its actions or the actions of those affiliated with it still had an al-jazeera accosting agency advertises for actors to protest and dining street while the emir of qatar is meeting the british prime minister. being very secure at home the teenage i saw him seekers arrested at the u.s. border intelligence iraq about their months in government detention. and in sports japan's heat wave is causing headaches for all the guys are two years out from the start of the tokyo lympics. hello big summer storms have brought flooding to pennsylvania where you can see the

tent over down the eastern side but also for to step out of the way in the slot canyons of utah flash flooding here because of course can be deadly is likely and if anything he's likely to be increasing the showers. rather more prevalent by the time we get to thursday in the part of the us by which time the rain be edging off on the atlantic side still some big showers at least in potential in the midwest the temp is still around the forty mark in texas cooler but more humid in atlanta georgia to the south of the constant through the caribbean prevailing breeze are frequent light showers the big ones haven't shown up just recently but haiti where hispania generally and cuba seem likely with a concentration on costa rica panama and colombia of cloud and therefore likely showers and there in the forecast too along with the world two big ones in cuba made about mexico looks surprisingly dry actually the next day or so so the coasters show prevalence to produce what i want to pick showers for the sas when of

course we're in winter now but we have got rain developing once again in the north east of argentina and the south east of brazil and that'll probably intensify. the world's primary could train producing nation. is at the forefront of the war on drugs we're talking about serious organized crime as a country where reaching a critical point while some have made fortunes many others have suffered at the hands of this multi-billion dollar industry worth of this business will go on forever it will not change all of global policies do who are the winners and losers of this illicit trade snow of the andes on al-jazeera fresh perspectives new possibilities. north of the public support debates and discussions swimsuit tough questions like this what comes to

mind how do you respond before how global of all could you see. winning programs take you on a journey around the globe. only says here. you're watching al-jazeera a reminder of our top stories this hour at least seventy six people have been killed and almost two hundred have been injured by fierce wildfires in the greek capital athens rescuers fear they may find more bodies in coastal areas devastated by the fire prime minister alexis tsipras has declared a state of emergency in the area is announced three days of national mourning.

hundreds of people are reportedly missing in laos after the collapse of a hydro power down it sent a wall of water downstream flooding villages and sweeping away homes and emergency disaster zone has been declared. israeli army says it shot down a syrian fighter jet after it flew into israel's air space but syrian media says the war plane never left its territory had crashed on the syrian side of the golan heights with the syrian air force has launched several raids against rebels qatar is a mirror is in london for talks with the british prime minister he met to resume a downing street with a pair discussed defense and security cooperation as well as joint work for the twenty twenty two football world cup in qatar the man is keen to strengthen relations with western allies amid a blockade on his country by neighboring arab states question mark about it has more from central london. qatar's emir and britain's prime minister bonded over

football i mean been hammered he told to resume he was impressed with the english football team. he hoped they would do better when his country hosts the next world cup it was well. this is. not us this is us. then the discussion shifted to politics crisis and bilateral relations qatar is one of the biggest investors in the u.k. and a major buyer of british military hardware. last year when saudi arabia u.a.e. bahrain and egypt sever ties with qatar and imposed a blockade doha twenty four typhoon fighter jets from the u.k. . during a ceremony. parade in central london the president of the flag over

a joint squadron of qatari and british pilots who will protect the world cup in qatar t.v. read we're building strong military cooperation based on a model approach you'll see more joint operations in the future including squadron twelve which you'll see operating soon and through the coming years that's a first step there will be more cooperation in the future rick. britain has called on all the parties involved in the gulf diplomatic crisis to set aside their differences. the u.k. is very sad about the block. a little bit really what lies between behind the blockade it doesn't see any logic or reason for the action but you must maintain good relations with all our states and that's why we are suggesting that kuwait is best placed to be the broker. qatar's charm offensive

has been in full swing since the start of the gulf crisis it's become couchette at a time when the country continues to face an embargo qatar's huge financial investments are around the world along with its agreements to apply have helped its part in this with international political heavyweights and this is important for the gulf nation as the located in country is a term that uses the crisis. as is the whole scars essential london well in the meantime the u.k. newspapers reporting that a casting agency has been seeking actors to protest against the emir's visit so high it has more on the controversy now on monday u.k. costing agency offered access twenty six dollars sake parts in what it called an anti cattle event outside downing street now people who all signed up to the agency

then posted screenshots of the call outs email sense of them by a company called extra people now the email said its client is looking for quite a large group of people to fill space outside downing street during the visit of the president of qatar those two very obvious errors that the use of the word president and the misspelling of cats as well then the email goes on to say this is an answer cats are event you will not have to do or say anything they just want to fill space. now am i who says she's one of the people who received the e-mail she tweeted that the costing agency late e-mails her again letting her know it cancels the job and the agency extra people has also tweeted this statement putting the air on taking the job down to a junior booker who hadn't consulted management now extra people also tweeted a screen grab of an e-mail sense of the agency from someone called lesley who works for a company called net chimpy are now that's also mesh mentioned in that statement but

what is next in p.r. well if you go to the web site you'll find that it's actually largely blank not much information on there for you to find out but a quick search of u.k. government records reveals that neptune was registered just three months ago however since this story emerged that chimpy all has created a twitter account saying it's never had anything to do the extra people agency but again we see basic errors repute instead of refute and lead instead of lead now it's still more clear who's really behind all of this fingers all pointing towards saudi arabia and the usa now both countries along with and egypt have imposed a blockade against cancer for more than a year and they accuse cats of funding terrorism something it humanly denies over and over again but cattle says the countries involved are building it and trying to infringe on its sovereignty. now the alleged protest seems to be the

latest p.r. stunt against the gulf states it's been known to use boats and trolls as part of its social media campaign to undermine katsa and spread misinformation in the hashtag called oppose katsav visit trending cats or came mostly from users that joined twitter in twenty seventeen all at the same time and we also did a. search on trends map just a quick one to see who are the people that are actually tweeting the hash tag and more than two thirds of those tweets were actually read suites but more importantly a significant number of the bots are pushing that and c m a hash tag seem to have originated in france we have a couple that is an exam another example as well and a lot of those seem to have been registered about two months ago on sweets and are the anti katsav propaganda doesn't just end their own social media because a series of and cats are adverts have also paid on billboards around london like

this one hey opposing the amaze visit tension between the u.s. and iran is continuing to mount on monday when the latest escalation of threats iran's foreign minister took to social media to warn donald trump to be cautious when dealing with iran so it is into iran with more. more iranian leaders have strongly condemned u.s. president donald trump for an angry tweet that he sent iran's president hassan rouhani threatening dire consequences for the country's defiance foreign minister zarif tweeted back a trying to say iran is not afraid of america and that trump should be worried iran speaker of parliament other ajani responded by calling trump a quote demagogue who did not deserve a response most in rezai a former head of iran's revolutionary guard and the secretary of iran's expediency council said it was more than fifty thousand american forces in bases in the region it's trump the should be cautious he's alluding of course to iran's repeated threat to target u.s. assets as part of its standing defensive strategy and in

a written statement the chief of staff of the iranian armed forces major general mohammad botha repeated that threat this chorus of robust defiance boils down to one thing boil the trumpet ministration continues to threaten to do whatever it takes to stop the sale of iranian oil and is the country's biggest source of revenue leaders here do not take that threat lightly on the call get to go easy on the that is america has many strategic assets if iran presses any of them they will suffer but iran never looks for tension and conflict of course we will respond to their threats with an iron fist surely we will do it i told you either everyone will shell oil or no one will iran says it doesn't want to fight but has never before been more militarily ready for one only. as a member of the national security commission i have information that allows me to tell you that americans wouldn't dare to fight us directly they may try to encourage some regional countries to start a war against iran like saudi arabia that u.a.e. bahrain or jordan but they themselves are we also don't think it is in in the

interest of the region and we never seek to confront our neighbors. right now both sides are still just exchanging strong words but people here are concerned about armed conflict after all the trump white house is unpredictable and the islamic republic of iran is not a country that backs down from a fight. meanwhile president donald trump has been speaking in kansas city about relations with iran and the nuclear deal i withdrew the united states from the horrible one sided. nuclear union. and iran is not the same country anymore that i can say. we'll see what happens but we're ready to make a real deal not the deal that was done by the previous administration which was a disaster. case parliament has approved

a new security law to prevent future attacks on the country it will grant more authority to governors extended tension periods and allow public servants to be dismissed as being passed after the lifting of a two year old state of emergency bill supporters say the law is needed to safeguard the countries from followers of u.s. based clerics a killer golan from ankara says was behind a failed to attend. the trumpet ministration has announced a multi-billion dollar aid package for u.s. farmers is being seen as an admission that americans are being hurt by the president's protectionist policies the money is aimed at shielding farmers from toms disputes with china and other leading trading partners white house correspondent kimberly hauck it has more. in many rural parts of the united states fears of an escalating trade war are real a lot of producers might not survive this. in early july the u.s. slapped twenty five percent tariffs on hundreds of chinese goods imported into the

united states china responded with its own measures targeting u.s. products china's one of the primary markets for us poor consumer being an american farmers have been hit hard by the tit for tat tariffs we actually redirected shipments to from two that were in route to china to other countries to alternative markets. with an increasing number of americans suffering the consequences of global trade tensions us president donald trump on tuesday began to lure in rural states to try and sell his trade war releasing twelve billion in aid to reassure farmers hurt by the retaliatory tariffs farmers will be the biggest beneficiary. while we're opening up markets you watch what's going to. be a little patient but it's not just china the united states has also attacked other allies like the european union with tariffs on steel and aluminum and is

threatening even more aggressive trade action if trade deals aren't renegotiated i said you have to change they don't want to change i said ok good we're going to tear a few cars they send millions of cars mercedes. all of b.m.w. . as part of the new relief package the u.s. government will buy up excess supply in an attempt to stabilise america's agricultural economy the president trouble also need farmers to go to the voting booth an upcoming november midterm elections that will determine the future control of the u.s. congress and critics are already calling this a pay out to ensure he has their support for months democrats have slammed trump accusing him of abusing his trade authority given the mounting evidence farm states are being hammered by trump's america first trade agenda still the troubled ministration is ask leading its fight in addition to tariffs already in place white

house is preparing to impose tariffs on billions more chinese goods kimberly hellcat al-jazeera washington well bill hoagland is a senior vice president of the bipartisan policy center he's joining us now from washington d.c. we appreciate your time sir given the farmers make up a significant part of donald trump's core base do you think that they're going to be satisfied with this payment as opposed to actually being able to sell their crops freely. i don't think so american farmers are basically free marketeers and they want to produce and compete in a global market they would prefer much better. the opportunity to trade openly and compete internationally and sell their goods accordingly and not be recipient of government dole such as what the president's proposing here with the twelve

billion dollars in expenditures that he would put out to somehow appease the farm population will they take the assistance obviously they probably will but i would say that that is not in the nature of the american farmer is one who he and she is one who want to compete and in disclosure market and not depend upon government bailouts let me ask you about the timing of this that secondly alluded to in her package there of course is if i understand it correctly rice payments for this are going to come fairly close to the midterm elections which are coming up in november off farmers do you think going to make the distinction between the bailout and the timing of the bailout so close to that election well i think.