eyes are really the worst friend of strategic stability because they are hardly predictable they have a hard to do terror so the moment you introduce a new type of cruise missiles into the european theater you introduce a great deal of instability which is really what the u.s. and other european allies are concept and as far as the the whole issue of funding levels which is something that the u.s. has talked about with this with its nato allies particularly president trump could there be these comments by the u.s. ambassador be seen as a way to kind of scare up the nato ally allies into raising their defense funding levels. i think the nato allies in europe where enough that they have to scale up their budget to question is whether they're going to do it quickly enough and well enough in terms of the quantity that you get out of it you spending so i don't think it's going to change really what is on the allies mind since twenty fourteen

when russia invaded ukraine that was do re on with a court but obviously it's going to create more concern and what also it's going to do is anything that nato we do in the future all by literally the folks up at the u.s. decides to create a new media terry base in poland dissolute be seen a spot of supposed to go to skid nation visit to russia and i think the french the germans and few other nato allies will be extremely cautious when it comes to that and as far as. where things stand now between the u.s. and russia because we're still kind of heard mixed signals from washington we're where we often hear president trump saying one one thing talking very warmly about president putin in particular and then we hear something else from other senior officials like the defense minister for example like secretary of state pompei or what do you think's going on that. a few days of schizophrenia in the u.s.

policy on russia where the body and the arms at the legs what came to walk that we have seen since twenty fourteen that means pretty tough posture and increased spending and presence in europe and then you have to head meaning the white house especially the president who sent more mixed signals so far that kind of split has been manageable and the question is how long it seems that so far it's going to hold also because the congress itself is across the aisle actually broadly russia skeptic so i think president trump can only do some estimates and cannot really change the fundamentals of the u.s. policy towards russia but the problem is obviously full for nato because nato gets mixed signals russia also sees those signals and kind of use them to create more divisions are among the allies so it's not an easy political environment to be a member of the nato alliance but so far it has been roughly manageable

good to speak to you from greece. thank you very much welcome to us there from santander in spain now france has seeds assets belonging to iran's intelligence agency after accusing it of being behind a failed attack in paris this year that's according to diplomatic sources they say the intelligence unit tried to bomb an exxon iranian opposition rally in june an iranian diplomat was arrested in austria a month later the u.s. president's lawyer rudy giuliani and several former european and arab ministers attended the rally the same bus ravi has more on this from tehran. it's certainly a damning allegation and the government here has issued an equally strong denial of any involvement in this in this attack the foreign ministry spokesman baron kasumi saying that this was all an attempt to damage the good in growing

relationship between iran and france and other european countries and he suggested that it was the kind of thing that the united states and israel might actually carry out he also leveled blame against the cave the magi the cult a group that they blame as being a terrorist organization working against iran let me read you a bit of what the statement said from the foreign ministry spokesman he said once again we reject the allegations and we declare our strong objection to the arrest of an iranian diplomat and we demand his immediate release and he went on to say the evidence clearly shows the role of dissidents ill wishers and saboteurs in this farcical show so we asked french authorities to be realistic towards iran and once again warn about the evil hand of ill wishers that aim to ruin the age old ties between iran france and other influential european countries so a very clear message from iran that that all of this is just a show being put on by detractors against iran and europe at

a time when iran is trying to push forward with internationalizing its campaign to keep the twenty fifty nuclear deal alive trying to internationalize its campaign of making sure that it has support from european countries against more upcoming american sanctions. and he is the head of north american studies graduate program at the university of tehran he joins us from that good to speak with you again so what do you make of these accusations from from friday then. i don't think anyone in iran takes it seriously. most iranians believe the timing suits the purposes of iran's untag in the us and but in any case iranians are also very skeptical about the intentions of the french because the any case is a cult it is a terrorist organization they killed seventeen thousand the iranians in the one

nine hundred eighty s. and then they fought for saddam hussein as mercenaries and when i was a teenager i recall a bomb explosion less than a kilometer away from our house where i think nine or eleven people were killed including an armenian family of four and all our windows were broken so iranians have very dark memories about the role that this group played in the support that western countries have given it so it's ironic that. the french are arresting iranians in order to acting the reality that they're harboring terrorists a but isn't just the m.e. k. that's the same is this the french government it's french diplomatic sources who are saying that they have what they're calling credible intelligence that the iranian ministry of intelligence is is behind this attack and you you're saying that people in iran are very skeptical of this why. i

mean the french are in the process of trying to maintain the nuclear deal with iran so that they would there wouldn't be any motivation for trying to stir up trouble with the iranian leadership for doing this would there. no i think there are motivations of the french want their cake and they want to eat it as well they want to put pressure on iran but also preserve the nuclear agreement the french want to sell saudi arabia weapons in order to massacre the yemenis so it all is fine to starve millions of yemenis for the french president or the british prime minister the canadian prime minister or the u.s. president that's all fine because they're selling weapons to that country so yeah they they want to talk about human rights but they are the greatest human rights violators in this part of the world they speak about fighting terrorism they invade afghanistan because of al qaeda and then they support al qaeda in syria they allow

extremists to go to libya to help destroy the country but no one in france is going to go to jail for this or be punished and none of these people who for example provided saddam hussein with chemical weapons to use against the iranians for years no one in europe is ever going to go to jail in fact they're all see in c.e.o.'s of companies they're in government they're in parliament so i don't think the iranians take this sort of thing serious or serious at all western countries want to play on both sides they want to be the advocates of human rights but they also support terrorism in the trot atrocities when the need be mohammad marandi good speaker. plenty more ahead on this news hour wondering where the next meal will come from now a jump in colorado cases in yemen is adding to famine concerns. and a salary hike families on workers in the u.s.

and britain but will their working conditions improve. las vegas police reopen a sexual assault investigation involving five time world football of the year christiane our now though and he will have those details. well that's the ahead but first the u.k.'s former foreign secretary boris johnson has urged the british government to abandon its current regs a plan and in his words a get out properly from the european union his speech on the sidelines of the annual gathering of the ruling conservative party was a blatant challenge to prime minister to resign may paul brennan reports from. the queue outside a whole number one began forming more than two hours early some have doubts about boris johnson's political future others see him as a potential prime minister. there's no doubt he can draw

a crowd like no other in the current conservative party and it was his defiant rejection of the prime minister's checkers plan for brics it which most excited his loyal audience think what we could do if we had proper free trade deals and that is why it is so and so desperately wrong that we are preparing to agree terms with brussels that would make it much more difficult if not impossible to do such deals. and that's why it was such a mistake of us two is such a mistake of us to lead the to leave on the the checkers terms locked in the tractor beam i forrest johnson is the rock star of this thing this french events attracting the audience is the very same story was his appearance here i don't mind just how divisive a character i just how deep the struggle the fact it is within this party i choose days flagship policy statements on immigration and visa reform

a total eclipse by boss his appearance and his totec status among bricks its supporters continuously undermines the prime minister with a crucial e.u. summit just a couple of weeks away yes he's obviously there is some undermining of the pm but i think morris is absolutely pushing for what we need and i think at the moment the conservative party team needs somebody with a little bit more personality really pushing forward some of the key issues and i think boris is actually the person today that he raises some very good points he's heart's in the right place he's trying to challenge what's being done there are ways of doing it some of us agree with him some of us don't agree with him most people actually think that what has become the of the annual bora show the iran issue a day he makes a funny speech and then then goes again we trailed along with it by the world's media actually is a bit of a distraction one of boris johnson's aides had predicted he would hit this

conference like a ninja but this was more smash and grab and stealth attack paul brennan al-jazeera birmingham. a court in malta has once again perspire on the trial of a german ship captain who rescued refugees in the mediterranean sea maltese government says klaus peter rice commanded lifeline without a proper license is denied that the several other rescue boats were also held in the port of the letter all some are accused of the same violations to german politicians are calling on maltese authorities to release them volunteers who worked on the boats say they will not give up. no matter how many obstacles are put in our way we believe that it is. our our duty as human beings to not let others down out there simply because they have a different passport they come from a different part of this world we have the means we as the e.u.

have the means to accommodate these people and to find solutions for them and we as the sea rescue n.g.o.s also have the means to go out there and rescue them and it is around us that we are being kept here while people every day out there in the central med are dying. only barker has more on the trial from valetta. for the fates of the embry lifeline is now in limbo proceedings here in the courts of a letter have been postponed until the end of the year the lifeline is one of three vessels that have been kept in port accused of violating their licenses by conducting illegal search and rescue operations in the mediterranean two vessels are here a third of the aquarius has been deep flags and sent to the port of say in the south of france what does this mean will it now means there are no private no n.g.o.s vessels on the mediterranean able to save lives and that's course a tremendous amount of anger and frustration amongst some of the crew of the lifeline supreme court here today in the first seven months of the year around

seventeen hundred people died trying to cross the mediterranean according to the united nations the number of people making this perilous trip is actually much lower this year roughly half the number of people the attempted to make the crossing back in two thousand and seventeen but a higher proportion of dying in the process and the result of this court case and the limbo that these vessels are now in maine that there are fewer ships able and willing to save lives and dozens of refugees stranded on another boat for over a week have been allowed to enter valetta but the rescue ship aquarius which should pick them up in the mediterranean sea is now stuck. pulled its flag from it a week ago and so it's unable to sail into the port of course is also likely to go through a long winding court battle like the other rescue boats on the off hours on is the defense lawyer for captain klaus peter rush and director of human rights for the

added since foundation he says refugees need rescue boats to save them i think the driver behind all of the. rescue. is the idea that there's. not. the only way for them to reach ensures it with safety is by don't dispute them essentially so these are actions and only on that only this if they are self funded funded by the general public who want to see that it is be given the opportunity to reach you in a safe manner and not end the diet's whetstone to make well what you say is that whether or not n.g.o.s out that serious these are migrants people will continue living in war zones people will continue for the purpose of houston and they will do their best to reach a place of safety what indios of doing that see that people don't die as they attempt to save them so what they're actually doing is not encouraging people but

to simply make sure they don't die as they try to save. our russia says it's completed the delivery of the s. three hundred air defense system to its ally syria it comes after one of its planes was shot down by inaccurate syrian anti aircraft fire last month the russian defense ministry blamed israel for the incident in which twenty five of its services died it says israeli jets hid behind its aircraft pushing it into the path of syrian fire russia israel rather denies the russian accusations police are investigating the disappearance of a prominent saudi journalist in turkey. fiance says he was visiting the saudi consulate in istanbul but never came out the columnist who writes for several western publications including the washington post and the guardian is a critic of the saudi government the former ambassador to the u.s. in u.k. was always seen as a nationalist but is banned from writing in his home country. at least twenty

people have been killed and more than fifty injured in a suicide bomb attack on an election meeting in afghanistan suicide bomber targeted supporters of a provincial council member in organs many of those killed a local elders here the candidate targeted has previously spoken about the growing pressure on ice and. still ahead on. how brazil's security forces get tough on gang violence in rio slums. under the were affordable housing is dwindling and one century old solution is fading away. in sports the three time grand slam winner aiming to return to his best form and he's here with that.

halladay should've been a bit of rain thrown off from the eastern mediterranean the cloud certainly suggests it's not seen any report of a thing significant but it's an indication of the activity now in the mediterranean as the seaton slowly changes however in the immediate future it looks pretty similar thirty in beirut but a cloud possibly coming from that side showers are still pretty rare but around in the caucasus and around the southern caspian of that part of iran they're going to be in the forecast next couple of days baghdad is forty same as kuwait so it's a nice slow drop in temperature the breeze is coming out of iraq a moving van not a particularly strong one you could really call it so things are quiet on the rayburn peninsula but a cloud is possible around the coast of amman but you cannot call it the hurry for anymore so i was warmed up and skies are blue in southern africa you'd not be looking to see spring rains and you'd see it i go there fairly obvious as is this

line that comes out of namibia through botswana and particularly the eastern side of south africa now there's rain forecast to durban as the center if you like on wednesday and i think that could be quite significant look at the wind direction it's sort of also from some sort of circulation always a clue that rain may last only a day and disappears eastwards. we're . i have dedicated almost my entire professional life to that were mentioned in fight against corruption and what i have heard is that we need champions we need also to shine the light on those shampoos and this award bridges that gap that existed in this.

nominate your own version of your own child the light on what they do and to have not shine a light on your hero with your nomination for the international space award two thousand and eighteen for more information go to isa war dot com. again you're watching al-jazeera a reminder of our top stories this hour more than twelve hundred people are confirmed dead after friday's earthquake and tsunami on the indonesian island of

sort of ways the military has taken over the local airport to bring in aid and move people who'd been injured. france has seized assets belonging to iran's intelligence agency after accusing it of being behind a failed attack in paris earlier this year that's according to diplomatic sources there they say the intelligence unit tried to bomb an ex of the iranian opposition rally in june an iranian diplomat was arrested in austria a month later. the u.s. ambassador to nato says a preemptive strike against russia would be considered if moscow continues to develop a new cruise missile ok baby hutchison is accused russia of violating a treaty signed with the u.s. in one thousand nine hundred seventy. to get more on this story from rory chalons who is in moscow for us so rory what are russians saying about this. well we've heard from maria's a quarter of

a who is the foreign ministry spokes person and she's not really one to mince our words particularly when there's an opportunity to jump on something that the united states has said or done and her take on what. diplomats have said kay bailey hutchison is that it is aggressive destructive and dangerous the full quote from her is that the impression is that people making such claims are unaware of the degree of their responsibility and the danger of aggressive rhetoric who authorized this woman to make such allegations excuse me the american people do ordinary americans know that they're paying out of their pockets for so-called diplomats to behave so aggressively and destructively breaking things she suggests is easy fixing them is more difficult in american diplomacy she went on to say has got not done very much to undo the consequences of its mistakes and she says that if her comments weren't enough certainly russia's military experts would be making more

comments on this situation in the future all right more to come on that i'm sure for the moment rory chalons live for us in a moscow. there's a new threats for the population of the yemeni city of her data already caught in the battle between saudi n.r.t. coalition and hooty rebels suspected cases of cholera have almost tripled this summer and save the children report says there were one thousand three hundred forty two cholera cases in august up from fewer than five hundred in june thirty percent of the cases are children under five years old according to the world health organization data people in her data say more fighting in june damaged the water supply which may have caused the summer spike in cholera about a million people in northern yemen are already living on the verge of famine in camps but as smith reports. you can safely bet with a spoon at the ready this girl is thinking of her next meal but she doesn't know

when it will be where it will come from in northern yemen as many as a million people are living in camps beyond the reach of age groups while yemen isn't officially in a state of famine it must feel like it here. lunch has been cooking for two hours and it's not ready yet we have no gas or proper firewood you're under siege and we have nothing some of these comes have been here for four years sprouting up as people escaped fighting in towns fell under who the control let's say i don't go to school because my father has no money to buy a sports and pings when i see girls come from school i get jealous i want to be a doctor aid agencies so a combination of armed groups checkpoints airstrikes and bureaucracy often make it impossible to reach these people. we appeal again to the international and humanitarian organizations to respond rapidly to displaced people and effective communities many of whom sleep on the ground out in the open with no shelter from

the summer heat or the called of the winter today's only mirrors a plate of plain boiled rice between the family and some days that's not even this it's nowhere near the amount of nutrition these children need if they're to have any chance of surviving through this conflict and hundreds of yemenis are protesting in the southwestern city of ties against the rising cost of living in the failing value of the yemeni reale currency is expected to slide even further fuel prices have gone up and that's increased transport costs. the un says the ongoing killing and wounding of palestinian protesters at the gaza border fence by israeli forces is an affront to human rights comments were made by michael link the un special rapporteur for human rights in the palestinian territories on monday thousands of palestinians gathered near the land and sea front to rid israel to demand their right of return all fired on and thirty seven of them were injured

more than one hundred fifty palestinians have been killed by israeli forces along the border fence since the end of march. brazil is just days away from the first round of this year's general election rising crime and security are big issues more than sixty two thousand brazilians have died from violent crime in the last year breaking a record of murders in the country the increase is largely because of rival drug gangs battling for territory by the ana sanchez reports from rio de janeiro. thank you know the military operation in the streets of rio this is what poor brazilians in hundreds of slums or favelas are going through day or day out. to see another genuses they're living in fear. and i need to check of their any shootouts before i leave my home sometimes i am not able to go to work and the kids killed go to school it's not safe i received initial timur thousands of soldiers

and military police to break up organized crimes control of the favelas since the military intervention started in february more than eight hundred people have been killed in confrontations with security forces the military has been doing operations in favelas like this one for six months but human rights organizations say there have been changes but for the worse because the number of shootings have increased by at least forty percent in danger and civilians. even brazilians who live in protected compounds are afraid evie and ellen burgess are ready to move to portugal with their fifteen month old daughter a morning she's interviewed i'm going to mean a fish i have seen robberies shootings dangerous situations that i don't need to go through we live in a garden area but i don't want to live in this golden cage. the justice ministry says twenty one thousand persil ians left the country last year because of the violence. seventeen of priscilla's major cities are among the most dangerous in the

world experts say the government a stake in the wrong approach summing it up and getting to the real bear that argues ill chooses to combat the drug trade with general repression and not by investigating the criminal organizations to track the money and the weapons. the violence has been growing since the economic crisis hit the country four years ago as a result sixty six percent of brazilians favor security operations but some say civilians in the slums are getting the wrong message see two boy don't get together if you position a tank in front of the favela and send in thousands of soldiers you are saying you are the enemy whether there is support or not we think this is illegal it is wrong and immoral. critics say military operations have always been unsuccessful but until a new president takes office in january they will continue and poor brazilians will have to live in the crossfire unable to believe in a such as i just clearly janay

to namibia is holding a national conference where land distribution is one of the main topics the government has been planning to transfer forty three percent of land to disadvantaged black citizens by twenty twenty twenty seven percent there's already been redistributed according to a local union but most of the farmland in namibia is still owned by the minority white population ten back in good tell you be is a human rights lawyer in south africa he says the issue of expropriation in zimbabwe south africa and maybe it is about addressing a colonialist past. namibia of course. we are debating now is a unique situation but at the end of the day we've got to look at land as original question rather than as a narrow national question the question of land in namibia in south africa and in zimbabwe is still reflective of colonial power relations and that is the true issue

that must be resolved so this is in fact the time that we in south africa way in namibia and we in the bubble a debate in how are we going to resolve the legacy of colonialism and how are we going to resolve the enjoying legacy of such a colonialism and so it seems to me that we have to be focused on the broader question as to how is the namibian land issue going to be resolved. iraq's parliament has finally picked a new president after weeks of delays veteran kurdish politician but home sorry was among twenty candidates for the post position is always filled by a kurdish member of parliament as part of a long standing agreement let's get more on this now from hamad out o. in baghdad so how much finally iraq has a president what took you so long. while it's been a very prolonged horses was in one block had taken almost five months to conclude

but tonight members of parliament here in a race against time because today is the deadline and if they have a lot elected him start or any other of the candidates who had so far themselves candidates then there would have. some sort of a constitutional limbo they elected him he's fifty two years old a civil engineer by training a prominent kurdish politician he served as the deputy prime minister under that mr shinde or former prime minister nouri al maliki in electing but homes. preserve a tradition that has been practiced in iraq ever since the fall of the boxes redeemable for the same in two thousand and three one that gives the presidency of the country a largely symbolic position to the kurds of mosul and iraq the shias get a prime minister. while the sin is of about get the speak up position so

a constitutional limbo has been avoided tonight and the president will like this symbolic use crucial to kick starting the process of seeking for a prime minister who will form the next government and how how long is that how difficult a process is that likely to be picking the new prime minister. what's likely to happen next. well it's quite a daunting task and it's also expected to take some time before we see a prime minister in the process the president is a supposed to top the party with the biggest number of members of parliament in the national assembly that won't be easy because that has not been the toyman and the woman has gone to court the courts are more decided which has led to civil

society organization and activist as well as religious leaders such as the ground ayatollah ali sistani the needle of the shias in and out coming up and saying not to worry about was the biggest number of. members of parliament but just bring about a candidate who is not only independent book also a technocrat out now it's very easy to find a second about but an independent candidate in the current political climate in and out would be a really don't want to tell us. or i phone how about a life first there in baghdad. online giant amazon is giving three hundred fifty thousand workers a raise the company says well because in the u.s. will get a minimum of fifteen dollars an hour from next month and it's raising pay for employees outside the u.s. in the u.k. seventeen thousand employees and twenty thousand seasonal workers will be paid more amazon is taking criticism.