this we can speak to scott anderson who is a fellow at the brookings institution and a former u.s. diplomat he joins me live from washington thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us so a ferocious attack by the u.s. national security adviser on the international criminal court what was the point of john bolton speech today in many regards this really reflects a longstanding agenda for mr bolton dating back to his period before he entered the george w. bush administration he was a noted critic of international institutions are part of the international institutions international law fearing that they were an effort to impose constraints on the united states limit its policymaking discretion we saw that carried through early on in the bush administration when he was involved with efforts to limit the i.c.c. is jurisdiction in effect there to withdraw the united states from the rooms that you underline the i.c.c. we saw him articulate these views shortly before joining the trump administration in an op ed in the wall street journal in late two thousand and seventeen that

looks almost identical to his remarks today and today we saw him follow up on that agenda laying out the way that he thinks the united states should push back not just not participate in but push back against the i.c.c. a threat to u.s. sovereignty and u.s. political dominance on the international scene but what could this mean for the i.c.c. the body which is meant to represent and enforce international justice and legality ave much of week as a result of this. well that's a little bit hard to tell at least in the short term the obama administration and even the late george bush administration have engaged with the i.c.c. in various ways u.s. authorities were cooperating with a number of i.c.c. investigations the trouble ministration has it hasn't been very friendly to the i.c.c. from the outset my sense is that it's ramp down those activities i don't know for certain perhaps there are some vestiges of cooperation that were still happening but now it sounds like the intent is to root those out in the wind those down it

seems unlikely to me that's going to have a major effect on any outstanding investigation to the short term much more serious will be if the united states were to follow through on these threats of sanctions against i.c.c. judges and i.c.c. personnel if they were to pursue prudent types of investigations such as those in afghanistan and in palestinian territories if they were to follow through on these measures it could have a major impact on i.c.c. personnel that have ties to the united states that they need to travel here if they have economic assets here and that could impinge upon the i.c.c. operation simply by putting a burden on those personnel but again it depends on the level of those connections and how reliant they are on those personnel and it's not clear to me they are necessarily highly reliant on those obviously will be an obstacle for any member of the nasa community not to be able to travel to the united states or engage a business here and we have seen the international criminal court trying to level the playing field under its chief prosecutor bensouda in terms of extending investigations beyond say countries in africa they like to proceed now with

a full moon investigation into alleged u.s. will crimes in afghanistan which would have been a major step for the body. that would be a major step and it would still be a major step my understanding is that right now the potential of estimation is still awaiting judicial prevail at the i.c.c. and it's not clear to me that there are any steps forthcoming now maybe mr bolton knows something that we don't about the decision that's coming down the road although the fact that this reflects longstanding views of his in my mind makes it more likely that he's essentially taking an opportunity to try to advance articulate this agenda not a silly that there's an i.c.c. decision forthcoming in all honesty i think there would be fairly unlikely that the i.c.c. would proceed with a major investigation perhaps or maybe some limited in instances the i.c.c. abide by a principle of complementarity an idea that where local and national authorities are in a position to investigate and have pursued investigations and accountability for

violations they will defer to those national authorities the united states does have an effective justice system including a military justice system at operation in afghanistan so it seems unlikely to me it would have posed a major threat but i do does to me seem that by taking this action by attempting to bully very openly the i.c.c. going to take this sort of action mr bolton may in fact have made it more likely that the i.c.c. is going to feel pressure to allow an investigation to go forward simply so that it can be clear that it's not being bullied by the united states all right well thank you very much for sharing your thoughts with us from the brookings institution scott anderson speaking to us that from washington. thank you very much meanwhile the international criminal court has responded to john bolton's speech earlier on saying a holder has mle from the hague. the united states and c.c. have had a rocky relationship since the court's inception the united states is not a member it doesn't it refuses international jurisdiction over its nationals but

following the prosecutor's decision to open a case and to investigate alleged war crimes by u.s. military personnel and u.s. intelligence personnel in afghanistan that relationship has worsened and that's when we heard john bolton really use very harsh language against the i.c.c. it's not really the first time that john bolton has use such language he was an official in the bush administration and since then he has been trying to undermine the credibility of the court now the i.c. i c c did not react to following john bolton speech but when x. excerpts of his speech were released by the media they did send us a statement now in that statement of the courts that mentions that it benefits from the membership of some one hundred fifty parties from from across the world

trying really to defend its credibility even though the united states is not a member of the court also in that statement the i.c.c. saying that it will continue its mandate to carry out what it calls in the pen with an impartial investigations almost trying to say that it's not going to pick and choose court cases and that if it wants to try the afghan case it will. the u.n. says more than thirty thousand people have been displaced by fighting in syria's last major rebel held province of idlib government and allied russian forces have increased their bombardment in the past week with aid groups worried for the safety of the three million people trapped there stephanie decker has the latest now from antakya which is close to the border with syria. there's a huge numbers given by the united nations over thirty thousand people fleeing the areas where the bombardment is taking place and going to different areas inside it of most of the people according to the united nations going into camps these are

camps that are along the turkish border turkey's borders of course remain closed some people going to stay with relatives also others according to the united nations are an informal camps and others renting it just shows you the concern going forward particularly by turkey of a mass potential civilian exodus towards its borders its borders remain closed as we've said and it has no intention of opening them up regardless of what happens it says it is on his own and it is that capacity when it comes to dealing with syrian refugees hosting already over three million inside turkey so what what they're doing to prepare for this they tell us that they already have material inside syria in the sense that they can be setting up more camps more tense also medical facilities tree our facilities if that is needed because they do expect if the offensive gets closer to the cities to the more densely populated areas they're warning and a lot of people have used this word of a potential bloodbath was

a possible fence of looms an adlib senior officials from russia turkey and iran have a right to geneva talks hosted by the u.n. holding two days of discussions on drafting a new constitution for the country david has more from geneva. the united nations has warned an all out onslaught on it lipped will endanger the lives of three million civilians trapped in the province one million of them children. the special envoy for syria has spelled out to the security council what it could mean we have been hearing it during the last few days we are all terribly concerned they are all ingredients that exist poor a perfect storm with in chile divest the king your money concert with other consequences as well the syrian refugees and activists have been staging weekly demonstrations outside the u.n. headquarters in geneva they say it's intolerable talks of

a new constitution are taking place and while bombs are falling on it live i say to the united nation says if. anything just talking without action we heard my brother next to. i lost my city i lost my country. the u.n. special envoy to syria said in terms of real politics they realize that plans could be overturned by the escalating conflict in it but that no political process should be held hostage by anything aid organizations say in recent days three hospitals have been attacked one of them twice they're calling for human observers to be based in the province when there is a storm i would be told sick by the war stay in the payson and do this don't do that to survive in the case of syria it's not even a storm there is no guidance there is no instructions you never know what to do as a civilian this secretly film footage was taken after the fall of eastern ghouta

earlier this year and shows young men who surrendered to the government being led in chains through the streets of damascus it's believed they were then conscripted into the army this digital artwork of life in rebel controlled terror. three in syria is going on display at the headquarters of the union of medical care in geneva it conveys the suffocating isolation of being under attack but nothing can convey the sheer scale of the suffering to come if the assault continues david chaytor al jazeera geneva a suicide bomb explosion in somalia's capital mogadishu has killed at least six people and injured many others the armed group al-shabaab has claimed responsibility for this latest act of violence to hit mogadishu this year it will morgan reports. the was the bomber targeted a local government building in mogadishu and was followed by gunshots oh on the top of it i was drinking tea when the car hit the cage i fell down on the ground and

saw other people on the ground as well but i was shocked the this is the second suicide blast and somalia's capital has not. claimed responsibility for that blast and dozens of other previous he said attacks in others were fighters they turned out they are talking as the they have attacked in the hour will be. attackers in the conditions somali capital you know all the last week and hello that districts like killing hearing and today they are all the districts where they are and it is a. many people are they are on their way growing they are always in their life like food that this. somalis government withheld from the african union bush talks about fighters from the capital in twenty eleven but the group still has control over territories in the southern parts of the country and continues to target both government sites and civilians in the capital the u.s.

has also been involved in targeting senior figures of the armed groups. but after more than twelve years people in mogadishu still face the new daily threats of attacks people morgan al-jazeera. and with the news hour live from london much more still ahead will he or won't be brazil's jailed former president still won't rule out running in next month's presidential election despite being banned by the top court weapons of war how starvation is being used as a tactic in the world's biggest conflicts with children in the west affected. and we'll tell you how some of the world's best surface did a competition more than one hundred fifty kilometers inland all that more coming up with peter in the sport. iraq's prime minister visited the southern city of basra to quell growing unrest

over poor public services and growing unemployment at least fifteen people have been killed in protests over the past week alone matheson has moved from baghdad. under pressure to resign the prime minister hide the body or arrives in the southern iraqi city of basra where protesters say his government is to blame for much of the corruption and neglect which have destroyed their water and power supplies and left thousands without jobs. what happened in a bathrobe was one hundred percent true to a political conflict unfortunately some political blocs have military wings and some of them wanted to burn down by the throat but thankfully there was stopped by the cooperation of the peaceful civilians yet they're going to get a body is facing calls for him to step down over the crisis in basra the iraqi government is deadlocked disputes over the result of an election in may have left politicians wrangling over power in basra fighters from the iran by the group known

in english as the league of the righteous have paraded through the streets their headquarters is one of several private and government buildings burned by protesters during a week of demonstrations against corruption which also targeted other pro iran shia groups the governor says the destruction is criminal part of many protest organizers and activists have denounced such actions and a criminal act should be denounced by the people of basra regardless of who had carried it out but is only allowed to have peaceful protests in order to deliver the people's messages to the government. three hundred kilometers to the north of basra is the city of samarra protesters there tried to storm the offices of the political party but were pushed back by police so the party's leader is shia cleric ahmad all hakim who is also part of the parliamentary coalition headed by fellow shia cleric walked out all sudden seen as a nationalist and anti iran solder is vowing to fight corruption he's demanded the

protests should hold for forty five days in that time he says the government should demonstrate that it's doing something to help bus but critics say this short visit by the prime minister won't achieve much. in basra there's a heavy military presence but there are fears that might incite more violence know there are armed groups too that could make politics and security even more complicated in basra and rob matheson al jazeera back down and joining us now to discuss what's happening there in basra is months or he is a research fellow at the middle east north africa program at chatham house where he specializes in iraq effects of course thanks very much for coming in to speak to us so remarkable developments in the past few days we have seen protests in the southern iraqi city of basra. attack or torch government buildings including the office of the dawa party the offices of the state run t.v. station and then also the headquarters of the iran backed groups in the area how

serious are these protests i mean what we've been saying is very much busser pacifically is the next fault line in the sort of the fifteen year story that is iraq since two thousand and three the people of buster but also in iraq but parts of it in both are just fed up and what they see in their capital city is a political elite that just is unable to fix anything is unable to use institutions to bring about real change because of they think that the only way to get their voice heard is through these let's say extra legal tactics and they're going against all of the elite they're not on one side there to some extent as we've discussed in the past they're really leaderless for now but they don't want to be quieted down and they've lost the barrier here and they don't think what's happening today with the government formation in the will result in any of the changes that they are demanding very basic changes by the way they want their water to be clear and clean rather than muddy and they want salaries they want

a basic standard of living they don't think that the current leadership. kurdish right left wing whatever you have it can do that and if you mention what the protest is called we have that angry about unemployment but a lack of basic services including electricity shortages probably what is most disturbing about all of this. the contaminated water and the fact that they don't have access to clean drinking water when you think about specifically web master is located in iraq by the tigris and the euphrates this i mean historically it's. where the cradle of civilization in iraq would come from it's full of resources energy water you know the environment there and. and until now millions have been spent spent on fixing it but nothing has been done and if you speak to many of the scientists many people who are expertise in fixing the water it doesn't require all

that money it doesn't require that much it just requires efficiency which means that the millions that are being invested in reconstructing iraq need to go away from the political elite and move towards trickling down to the citizens many people have said this many people think there is the expertise there but it's very difficult to see with the current institutions those kind of funds trickling down and fixing these very basic needs but it's easier said than done isn't it corruption cuts to the heart of all of these problems that is perhaps the most serious challenge facing the country and is now becoming a threat to the authority of the government is anything likely to change in the short term future to get this trickle down effect well i mean corruption is the elephant in the room i mean you can't xscape what you have in iraq today is a leadership that ran for elections that is forming a new government that have all been the same leadership since for the last fifteen years who are promising to fight corruption what does that actually mean it means

fighting against themselves what this targeting corruption means all the leaders have been part of this system there's no new leader or new new party emerging so fighting corruption many of the iraqis on the street right now are telling me it's farcical how can the same people who are part of the problem all of a sudden promised to make changes they've heard these promises before and i think fifteen years on it's gotten to the brink where they just don't believe it thank you very much for not months from chatham house. when now several armed men have attacked the headquarters of libya's national oil corporation killing at least two people in injuring ten alva's it's the first attack of its kind against top managers of libya's state oil industry which is vital to the country's economy security forces say they've now regained control of the land.