and also quoting the friday protests the bigger picture here is that there is still a very fragile ceasefire fragile tense situation between israel and hamas another interesting development we have a senior hamas leadership that are not based here in gaza coming to gaza today from cairo they've been in cairo discussing with egyptian intelligence and others this cease fire deal also potentially discussing palestinian reconciliation it is important why it is important because any of those things need to be done to move forward here and improve the situation for the people it is unclear what is going to be achieved on the table we know certainly when it comes to palestinian reconciliation there is no trust between hamas and fatah certainly more urgently the cease fire needs to hold there been intensive efforts by the u.n. special envoy to the middle east peace process nic i'm glad of to try and maintain that cease fire even though it is tense will have to wait and see how those talks develop and what the delegation of hamas brings to the leadership here russia's

u.n. peacekeepers have returned to the frontier between syria and the israeli occupied golan heights for the first time since twenty twelve syrian government forces regain control of all of the territory along the border on wednesday it followed a six week military campaign against honest linked fighters and other rebel groups israel says the frontier will be quieter with president bashar assad's rule restored i relations between syria and jordan are also beginning a new chapter after the defeat of rebels near the shared border damascus says it's trying to reopen the road to the frontier the closure of crossing in twenty eleven has affected the economies of syria and neighboring states so in a hold a report from jordan's chemical. jordan wanted exports to flow through what was once a lucrative trade route the syrian government's recapture than a sea crossing from the opposition in early july was welcomed by officials here damascus says the road is now ready for use and is waiting for jordan to officially

request the resumption of commercial activity it may be using this as leverage to define a new relationship. a syrian regime they have their own political agenda they will make demands and impose conditions on jordan the opening of the border won't happen right away from my experience with the regime jordan for something in return that could be an official recognition of syrian president bashar assad's legitimacy officially jordan was one of the few arab states that didn't cut diplomatic relations with damascus and kept the channel for military cooperation and intelligence sharing open but ties were affected in the early days of the conflict jordan's king abdullah called on assad to step down that approach later changed with the priority being the protection of national security interests it has been a difficult balancing act for jordan it likes to describe its policy toward the syrian crisis as it called for a political solution and then call for regime change as

a condition to end the crisis the king to a certain extent followed an independent course from its allies who were supporting the opposition despite its cautious approach jordan along with the u.s. and saudi arabia did back the opposition in southern syria but when damascus was close to victory it convinced many rebels to surrender it is enough for them to reopen its embassy in damascus and this would be tantamount to acknowledge them until they did. bashar to stick but not the player. or definitely clearly in favor of the regime so russia is going to want there's no question about that. with that you have a neighbor like this you need to deal with that many jordanians accuse the assad government of crimes against humanity but public opinion seems ready to accept the reality because of the benefits to the struggling economy now it's a fact that assad would stay in syria and everybody wants him. not to see them but

i shan't everybody and i want to see it's very good for i want economy and i want people aboard the water board would go there the neighboring countries are on the road toward restoring relations but jordan will first have to pay a political price for their ashes into a man. and still ahead here on al-jazeera turkey react sharply after the u.s. imposes sanctions on two of its most senior ministers. and we mean the chinese farmers who are so upset about donald trump's plans for even more terrorists to stay with us. hello there the weather's changing for some of us in the northern parts of asia at the moment so thanks to this little area of cloud here it doesn't look too is

significant really does it but it's working its way southward and still pulling itself together as it does so behind that it's turning a lot fresher than it has been so you'll see some rain and then behind it it will be cooler than ahead of it so we've got temperatures of around thirty degrees there in the far northern parts of china but that we down to the mid twenty's maybe low twenty's as we head into saturday and then that rain will also be making its way towards the northern parts of japan as well so heavy downpours hit to the south of that still staying home for many of us so thirty four in tokyo and force in beijing will be up at thirty seven degrees now if you're in shanghai you'll be watching for this system that's working its way across us on friday the remains of an old typhoon it's the one that hit japan and now it's working its way towards the west it hasn't developed quite as strongly as it might have done so the winds shouldn't be too much of a problem on friday but we're still going to see a period of very heavy rain that could give us an issue with flooding perhaps in a few spots to the south of that plenty of showers here and they're stretching

their way towards the west some of them very very heavy and they were all the way down towards me and ma where we have had reports of flooding in the last few days. and the vanguard of one hundred seventy s. struggle with a new zealand crown. a maori leader. accused of terrorism. filmed over seven years. his quest for justice becomes a blueprint for a national reconciliation. witness and some toria on al-jazeera.

welcome back you're watching officer i'm so ho raman a reminder of our top stories commonwealth election observers are asking zimbabwe's electoral commission to release results of the presidential vote as soon as possible they've also denounce what they say was excessive force by security services and protests broke out on wednesday at least three people were killed. and zimbabwe's current president is calling for an independent investigation into wednesday's violence amiss and when in doubt what sense he's been talking to his opposition rival nelson chamisa to defuse the situation which means the supporters accuse the rulings on the p.f. party of rigging the election. and israel has blocked fuel and down supplies being taken into the gaza strip is a move that will make it even harder for palestinians already struggling with a lack of electricity israel's defense minister says the measure is in response to

protesters in gaza sending in century kites and balloons across the border. turkey is threatening to retaliate against the u.s. for imposing sanctions on to that senior ministers it's the latest effort by the trumpet ministration to secure the release of an american pastor andrew brunson was detained in twenty sixteen accused of helping a group that the turkish government blames for a failed coup alan fischer reports from washington d.c. . angry words have been exchanged between the u.s. and turkey over possible sanctions no the u.s. has decided to act at the president's direction the department of treasury is sanctioning turkey's minister of justice and minister of interior both of. played leading roles in the arrest and detention of pastor bronson the two ministers targeted a senior figures in the turkish government still a man so i loue is the interior minister abdul hamid gul is the justice minister the u.s.

says they are involved in organizations responsible for the continued detention of this man american pastor andrew bronson the taxi he's a spy who was involved in the field twenty sixteen coup in turkey the americans insist he is simply a christian pastor who has been targeted because he met many people from different communities while in the country the u.s. sanctions says that any property or share in property the two men may have in the united states is no blocked and it says that any u.s. citizen business or entity should no longer carry any transactions with the government ministers from talking president donald trump has tweeted his support for the pastor well vice president might pence has repeatedly called for his release the president aired a one in the turkish government i have a message on behalf of the president of the united states of america released pastor andrew bronson now or be prepared to face the consequences.

pastor brunson was recently released from prison is near but remains under house arrest. has yet been set for his trial alan fischer i'll just you know at the white house. well before the sanctions were imposed his present recipe are the ones the diplomatic toys with the u.s. had already been tarnished and it was. these threatening remarks against us will not benefit anyone we should the best solidarity with the united states and nato we have acted together with them in korea together we put up many fights such a threat against turkey a country that still fights together with the united states side by side and shows topknot solidarity in nato is not fitting for them and excuse us but we do not give credit for such threatening language. the u.s. is planning even higher tyrus on chinese imports raising them from ten percent to twenty five the move will target two hundred billion dollars worth of goods one high profile casualty of the trade battle is soybeans which are

a crucial part of the chinese diet china correspondent adrian brown has more on what that means for farmers in heilongjiang province farmland is precious in china only fifteen percent of the country is arable that makes the law should be fertile province of a long going very important especially now. close to the border with russia this is soybean country. china is the world's largest consumer of soybeans but it can't grow enough and so is reliant on imports to meet demand that means the decision to impose a twenty five percent levy on u.s. soil beans creates risk yet in this province the trade fight appears to be having a welcome impact. farmers like mn foundling are being urged by the local government to switch their fields to soit from corn offering subsidies as an incentive that'll

raise incomes moon says he has a lot to thank president trump for who won when you know when china stops importing from the united states is possible what the price of domestic soybeans welcome and that means we'll make more money. soybeans may flourish in this province but only around ten percent of those consumed in china are domestically grown the instruction to local farmers to grow more soybeans was a political priority but the reality is this china is a long way from ever being self-sufficient in soybeans which means it's going to be reliant on imports for years to come hi everybody i am a soybean in this cartoon video much china appears to be targeting u.s. farmers it's been airing on the international service of state t.v. and has a clear message in china can buy soybeans from other countries if that happens soybean farmers in the u.s.

could take an even greater hit. and the soybean plays an essential role in the chinese diet used in cooking oil source tofu as well as animal feed the government's now taking action to ensure there's no shortage of wild out the door the government is offering more subsidies to soybean farmers so i believe the government. it's been very supportive of me the whole soybean in the tree in the past cheap soybean imports hurt chinese growers but the tariff war with the united states could secure their future adrian brown al-jazeera in a long jan province northeast china now the democratic republic of congo's health ministry has confirmed four new cases of a bowler in the north eastern province of north kivu there's concern that fighting in the region could make it hard to contain the virus the ministry says there's no evidence linking these cases to the recent outbreak that killed thirty three people in the northwest and that outbreak was declared over last week dr karl is dean of

the college of public health at the university of nebraska and he says rural communities need better education to understand how a bowl is transmitted. what we saw in the last outbreak we hope to see in this outbreak which is a really active response vaccination of contacts and hopefully hopefully shut the outbreak down very quickly unfortunately this outbreak is in an active conflict zone on the border rwanda and uganda which is very different from the location of the last outbreak and that's going to pose a challenge itself in the response so there's no lack of information from a scientific standpoint we know exactly what happens the disease is natural in bats and people get infected directly from bats or from eating infected bushmeat and then if there can be a large amount of person to person spread during a funeral or potentially during a how key are in a health care setting so we know the science of ebola but what's missing is the

education of communities to help them understand that sometimes in the midst of all these people who have fever and getting sick and dying there's potentially cases of a bowl of that are very contagious and can infect others within the community so that's where the education needs to happen and to make sure that such individuals are quickly moved to health care centers to ensure that there aren't these funerals where you keep touching people and infecting others and within how care settings to ensure there's good infection control practices there's concern about the next week and what it could bring to spain and extreme temperature warnings already in place as it heads towards record highs more than one hundred firefighters on low trying to contain the blaze at the national park and the lives here in some of the highest recorded temperature for spain is forty seven point three degrees celsius is predicted it could reach fifty this weekend would be the hottest on record in continental europe. the heat wave that's been hitting northern parts of europe is

causing more problems farmers in england and wales say they haven't seen much rain for more than two months and crops are being affected journal reports. with an almost rain free july following the driest june since one thousand nine hundred twenty five britain is sweating its way through both the heat wave and drought at the moment the news we're hearing about the lack of rain for speculation about shortages it's not cool sort of northern european or british issue this time it's the whole of the northern hemisphere i'm reading hearing reports from the us canada russia sweden about long periods of high temperatures drought conditions and it's affecting harvests everywhere farmer robert lord takes me on a tour of his parched land wheat prices a way up that's good for farmers but bad of course for consumers he's worried about

his livestock so your big concern now is is the grass that you have lost effectively that would mean feat. and it's got to the situation in the last few days that we've had. and bring it out of the field the national farmers union has called it a crisis we have off on our shelves twenty four seventh's and we often don't actually ever really think about where food comes from or indeed how it gets on the shelves so i think it's a wake up call in many areas and not least around situation of market failure volatility. crucial component of a future approach of policy the long hot summer of two thousand and eighteen is a reminder says the national farmers union that britain shouldn't take its food production for granted and a timely one at that as concerns grow about the possibility of this country exiting the european union without a trade deal resulting in food shortages even stockpiling in the months ahead we

cope with the weather we manage with the weather the one thing is giving us is a lot of uncertainty. and why are you going forward and always saying as a heap of politicians wobbling as the drought continues both briggs it and a challenging climate looks set to ensure challenging times ahead jonah how al-jazeera hartford. you're watching alters their arms the whole robin these are all top news stories commonwealth election observers are asking zimbabwe's electoral commission to release results of the presidential vote as soon as possible they've also denounced what they saw was the excessive use of force by security services when protests broke out on wednesday at least three people were killed zimbabwe's current president is calling for an independent investigation into wednesday's violence and

someone in douglas says he's been talking to his opposition rival nelson chamisa to defuse the situation jimmie's the supporters accuse the ruling zanu p.f. party of rigging monday's vote the electoral commission is urging patience it is important to note that when situation is they've been made by the citizen. would they want to lead them that choice would get this big get there or the commission therefore it is or isn't barbarians to get respectful of the choices that they've been made by their fellow citizens universities and high schools across bangladesh have been ordered to close for a second day after protests that the deaths of two students thousands of young people have been blocking streets and countless dhaka since sunday and the demonstrations are spread to other cities the pair were hit by a bus witnesses say was speeding. israel has blocked fuel and gas supplies being taken into the god of the gaza strip it's

a move that will make it even harder for palestinians already struggling with a lack of electricity israel's defense minister says the measure is in response to protesters in gaza sending in century kites and balloons across the border. and turkey is threatening to retaliate against the u.s. for imposing sanctions on two of its senior ministers is the latest efforts by the trumpet ministration to get ankara to release an american pastor and drew brunson is accused of being involved in the twenty sixteen failed coup in turkey and extreme temperature warnings are in place in spain as it's welters towards record highs already more than one hundred firefighters are trying to contain the blaze at a national park and the lucy in the south the highest recorded temperature for spain is forty seven point three degrees celsius is predicted to could reach fifty this weekend and that could be the hottest ever in continental europe those were the headlines here on al-jazeera more news in half an hour but next it's inside

story. once considered a war criminal now an aspiring presidential candidate in the democratic republic of congo. after his conviction was overturned by the international criminal court in the hague jumpin bamba told challenges they're. marching against violence women in south africa protest against a long running problem of gender based the puce so what can be done to stop violence against women not just in africa but around the world this is inside story .

hello and welcome to the program today with me thousands of women have marched across south africa against gender based violence the demonstrations were organized by a campaign called total shut down south africa has one of the highest rates of violence against women last year alone around seventy thousand women both victims of sexual assault now protest as a calling on the government to take action across generational action if young men to understand how to behave before we bring in our guests malcolm webb sets up our discussion today from johannesburg. you know land that yankee had just started a degree at rhodes university in south africa when she says she was raped she went for a drink with friends she doesn't remember anything else the following day other people

told her that two different men had sex with her it's just really made me angry. really angry and through kids and i mean it has affected my relationships with men in their eyes. obviously the encounter after that i had my trust in people in general. and i guess i just was a become a prison's really and gets to say. you landers met many other students who tried of their universities and police not acting on reports of sexual assault. on the exchange students marched in broad university in twenty sixteen as part of their campaign they published a list of students and university staff on social media they said responsible for sexual assault students have also protested here the university has run in johannesburg and since the student movement began thousands more south africans have taken to social media to express their anger at the lack of justice for women

who have been raped or killed when carol mcqueen i was found murdered in johannesburg last year it prompted hundreds of thousands of tweets activists say the pressure pushed or thirty's to act her boyfriend was found guilty of the murder earlier this year ten james one a study the movement she says the social media activism and the naming of suspected rapists may not always bring justice but it breaks the silence because of the of help quickly hashtags pick up you're able to call out your rapist and there's a bunch of people who say i believe you this is your first interaction been going to the police and saying this is happened to me and the police saying well what we were where were you what time was it south africa's some of the highest rates of sexual violence in the world activists say less than one in ten. supported rapes result in conviction we asked the state prosecutor what she thinks about frustrated victims receiving justice on social media instead consider the dangers there

are a few dishes. i think we're extremely well where the burden of proof is on their kids or at least as a prosecutor i know i can sleep soundly at night because i know if i had convinced a court that someone is guilty that person really figure you'll understand rapists have never been held to account this is the authorities failed her no justice has been done malcolm webb al-jazeera johannesburg. ok there we are here we go let's bring in our guests joining us today in pretoria lerato more toying an activist who's just joined the shutdown movement in new york will be joined by person she is the u.n. women's director of policy and from nairobi we have say for corey program manager for sites a place in n.g.o.s educating and engaging youth on how politics affects society welcome to you all the rights of coming to you first how far away is south africa

from complete and total gender equality. wow. that's a hard question to answer. i don't know it could be anything from being is two hundred years it really just depends on the entire society coming together and deciding that it's had enough of gender based violence i don't think we're working on timelines i think we're just working on at this point conscience rising people around gender based violence and getting to a point where is saying that patriarchy is killing women daily and we just wanted to stop i can't give you a timeline because people have been fighting the three years in a sense if this is caused by a certain going on for decades if not more in this country understood plan a sense if this is caused by a certain intersectional aspect of different parts coming together warsaw they are . well if i may just add to what your last interview he said there that states all

states have made a commitment to end all violence by twenty thirty so when you ask how far away is the country from achieving true equality one indicator of that is ending violence and that they have promised to do by twenty thirty so there's an imperative now to speed up everything that's being done intersectionality is the ways in which different aspects of inequality come together to shape particular people's experiences whether that's race and gender or that's disability and gender sexual orientation and gender and that complicates how people understand and experience different expressions of inequality so it makes it harder to talk about all women in the same way it means we have to pay attention to the different ways in which racism and sexism cooperate and intersect with each other to make any closer to real for different people and i think we haven't done enough to recognize those inequalities whether it's women in rural areas where we disability surely to have that reflected in our approaches with

a job of work to do all of us and ship. be in what ways is masculinity or the expression of masculinity a key toxic components in this. i mean the whole idea of my skill than tim and cell phone is to be and packed and it should be put in its right place where it belongs which is in the peach because when we kind of then have conversations about how masculinity and meant relating like they have the ability or they are allowed to express suddenly emotions will set in feelings and not at there is terribly terribly wrong in society because if i look in our society now men and objects press anger anger which fuels violence violence which has been meant to the women and women's bodies for eternity is problematic in so many ways so even just starting conversations like what there actually is doing with women in south africa basically is that is a great start in just understanding that masculinity is not about

a man being allowed to get away to violence and it's not just physical most of the time it's emotional and to a point where now man gets to put their hands on a woman it's just going overboard and the fact that we're not even allowed to talk about these things will happen he and in the way that they should be talked about as being violent and being a crank is terrible and set in then african culture as well plays a big dynamic in this and then the fact that there's no knowledge and no safe place is a safe spaces for women to express all this on this all is criminal activity is is terrible because the bodies of women have become a political playground of what is that women have become a playground for people to just do what they can do and walk away with it if it's hot they can dream that we talk about violence against women to date as if it's something that we don't know exists and if it's something that we cannot fix what's selves and it's paralyzing it's i'm not. and there are so you're nodding there

corey is taking us through how to recognize the discrepancies and she's talking about african culture where you are in south africa does that african culture exist in a sense above the law of the land i would assume in south africa equality is enshrined in the last surely. i think we also have to take into context into consideration that violence is embedded in south africa's history right violence comes from we have a long history of violence in this country and to talk about african culture as if that doesn't happen within a context where the country with. the country was while most black people in this country where exposed to white violence and how that into things with masculinity particularly hyper masculinity with poverty and all those things so i don't know how to talk about african culture as if african culture exists on its own it exists within a thirty minute that's within patriarchy and even though we do have all the. north

that opposed to ensure equality this is not happening on the streets people need to be taught that you're not allowed to grab a woman while she's walking on the street you're not allowed to force a woman to have six which is called rape because you feel entitled to have fighting . you were not in there as well tennyson in new york a recent un report talked about how this issue is is generated it's in a cocktail of it being systemic institutional and structural those are big heavy issues to address which is the easiest issue for your organization to unpack and deal with. i think it would be a little. not terribly helpful for us to pick out a simple issue because there isn't one the very set of issues that your previous speakers have mentioned you know from economic arrangements to political

arrangements to failure to implement laws they're all interwoven they support each other through the structural arrangement that obtains everywhere and has particular manifestations depending on history now speaks of talked about colonialism in south africa and of course the laws that most countries have inherited article in us and our laws of those those countries that work on your rulers and there are over one hundred fifty countries in the world which still have discriminatory laws on the books many of those and heritage laws it's up to those states now to get rid of them but we also need to have women able to have a role in making decisions that impact upon their lives whether that's in politics whether that's an economic life or whether that's in simple straightforward things at home what should be straightforward what they eat when they eat whether they go out when they go out whether and who they have children with the exception and these are all interwoven is absolutely important that those laws are there you mentioned the wonderful south african constitution it's imperative that those laws

are there because that gives a signal from the state as to what's acceptable and what's not but the task goes beyond that in terms of implementing and it goes beyond laws and implementation because you can pass a law for example that men should take but can take paternity leave from work but if the social acceptance for men being active and engaged fathers isn't there then men are going to take that lead so you have to embed those those legal and political and economic measures in the bigger agenda of cultural change in your early speakers mentioning masculinity and how that shapes and is allowed to run pretty much riots on on the bodies of women is is a much bigger more complicated project and if we don't understand the linkages between those different areas we're not actually going to deliver the equality we've all been promised and women have a right to expect what's the reaction you get when n.g.o.s such as yours goes to employers politicians prime ministers.