this voting rights advocates say is voter suppression in action the man they accuse of leading a campaign to prevent minorities from voting is georgia's secretary of state brian camp he oversees voting in the state and just happens to be running as a republican for governor he's in a dead heat against democrat stacy abrams who hopes to become georgia's first female black governor. has purged one point four million voters from state electoral rolls critics say disproportionately blacks and minorities who tend to vote for democrats georgia is one of several states who knows the state of the confederacy. the civil war has never ended as a campaign with many too many ways to continue to try to suppress the vote a lawsuit by the new georgia project and other civil rights groups says three hundred forty thousand in georgia were wrongfully purged most of them minorities it is a conflict of interest on its face. on the scale and impact

of this election video camp is strictly enforcing voter id laws in an registering those who have not voted for two elections or have moved this is someone who has to be held accountable to do his basic jobs we have made it easier to vote and hard to cheat and just because miss abrams files a flossy balts lawsuit or the new georgia project it doesn't mean it's right the lawsuit by civil rights group says similar voter purges are happening in twenty six republican controlled states across the u.s. many polling stations like this one in atlanta and you can vote early but for some voters by the time they found out there was a problem with their registration it was already too late one thousand year old linnea gordon was looking forward to voting in her first election for stacy abrams . a letter where i got. no saying that i'm even more information but i gave all the information that i needed

they sent the letter before me after seeing. more information in daniel new in this case the state has the discretion to allow his mail in ballot it's just decided not to as he phoned kemp's department he got one other bit of bad news so and that's the case with mine and my wife's that is correct. with a few days left election day his wife will also be notified that her ballot has also been rejected by the state of georgia john hendren al-jazeera at lamda. still ahead on al-jazeera thousands of sri lankans march in support of newly appointed prime minister mind rajapaksa as the political crisis over his nomination deepened spece i'm from either malaya in madagascar where this week's presidential election could be the most expensive ever yet to more than three quarters of the population lives in poverty.

study inconsistent two words describe the weather in japan northeast chart moment the weather is going from west to east so there's no real difference cold the cold still sits in mongolia and further north not so but i was just above freezing and six in the roster but here is the line of cloud to say goes from west to east so it will kill the was the sun to some degree were done to the middle teens so sendai was still twenty in tokyo it's still twelve in beijing and not much in the way of rain on this frontal system that is further south it's showing itself in shanghai back to yangtze valley to was but not quite reaching should do science this is too warm humidity is low so it's very present in hong kong at the moment but it's a running fairly steadily and fairly heavily in shanghai or least the environs and

certainly to the west will hand looks to be right in it live in degrees as well not particularly pleasant then there's a big gap of dry weather as the rains are slowly going sighs the moment they're concentrating on malaysia or from southern philippines back toward sumatra down towards singapore south of that is a good scattering of showers as a potential development a stormy weather in the southern bay of bengal we will watch that it doesn't look much yet but it's certainly on the cards otherwise expect showers to be frequent in sri lanka. in many countries pregnancy and childbirth are still extremely dangerous for mothers and babies most of their mothers where dying from the infection really being they were dying from more high blood pressure al-jazeera travels to my laue and looks at how rural communities a challenging tradition and in order to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health the word also belayer is too strong lifeline between life and death on

al-jazeera. our top stories on al-jazeera this hour the united nations human rights council is reviewing the actions of songe arabia and its record on rights violations a saudi delegation is in geneva to face questions over the murder of journalists among other issues addressing the council the delegation restated the kingdom's position that it's investigating the case and will prosecute those responsible for the killing of. we want turkey's vice president has called for an investigation

into newspaper reports that fresh o.g.'s body was disposed of by dissolving it in acid speaking to the unadorned news agency journalists a journalist sorry. i'll pay says investigators are also focusing on who gave the order of the assassination. and a wide sweep the u.s. economic sanctions targeting iran's oil and financial sectors have come into force iran's president hassan rouhani says he's countries will probably bypass the mission. now the us president says a saudi erotic coalition air strike on a school bus in yemen resulted from human error in an interview with the news website donald trump says the bombers did not know how to use the weapon properly in august a u.s. bomb was used in the attack that killed fifty one people including forty children the incident drew attention to the use of american weaponry weaponry by the saudi iraqi coalition in yemen's war meanwhile fighting has intensified there on the many

port city of hard data more than one hundred fifty fighters from the coalition and who the rebels have been killed at the weekend the united nations wants safe passage so it can deliver aid it says four hundred thousand children could die from malnutrition a warning that not to. report contains some disturbing images. the name amal means hope in arabic amal died on thursday at the age of seven the doctor who treated her says there are many more cases like has five month old ahmed abraham junaid ask rima she'll eleven months old so he had judging. mohammed hasan yemen has become a living hell a brutal war that has become a war children for which children have no single response ability the un says warring parties a making

a delivery impossible exhilaration the onset of famine three quarters of the population do not have enough food and the cost of food has increased by thirty five percent in the last year some have resorted to eating foraged leaves the un has been escalating its calls for us to say sion of hostilities and a political solution there is now an opportunity for peace in yemen this building wave of momentum must be seized i urge the parties to overcome obstacles and to resolve still existing differences so dialogue at the un facilitated consultations later these months there are plans for talks in sweden in november with renewed diplomatic efforts by the united states but not everyone may survive until then. the u.n. says four hundred thousand children under five are at risk of dying if they don't get help. around forty percent of those four hundred thousand around the port

city of her data. instead of aid trucks this is what's coming down the road the saudi immorality coalition has launched new offensives over the last week attacking sana airport and trying to retake her data thousands of troops have been sent there including so-called elite brigades commanded by the u.a.e. which says they're making progress by the civil rights. i like a macho after seizing control as you can see of the main road the main artery of supplies to the militias at various points we are now hearing to seal the last exit point we have now called in the entire city and we are advancing from all directions into the heart of the city it's not just her data that's under siege in northern yemen a new wave of those displaced has been arriving in the city of abs an influx of nearly twenty thousand people hundreds wounded by crossfire we see a lot of patients coming from very far and offering rich victims very late.

very difficult for already continue to then take care of them and ensure that they can survive here at this camp that's what life has become simply trying to survive . al-jazeera. sri lanka's parliamentary speaker says he will not accept mind-i rajapaksa as the new prime minister until he sees proof he commands a majority in parliament this development comes as sri lanka's president ordered m.p.'s to reconvene on nov fourteenth last week the president fired prime minister or any of the coma singer and replaced him with the former president minder rajapaksa when a smith has more from colombo from colombo the capital of sri lanka. really pointed prime minister rajapaksa concernedly call out a large crowd of supporters many here in the. colombo to show that there's a feeling that anything on stage with the president who gave him the job without

the backing of knowledge of the president says he's not going to recall parliament until november fourteenth but that's prompted a furious backlash from the speaker all because parliament jayasuriya he's accused the president of consistently misleading him by promising to recall parliament either today or a couple of days and and then not going through with want to promise to no suggestion is that the president president presidents are saying no is buying time rajapaksa buying time for rajapaksa gangs a few extra pieces leads to the one parliament. vote in his favor as a point of his prime minister and he does vote for him and he will of probably get away with this and will continue as this newly appointed following in. the family of a pakistani christian woman acquitted in a blasphemy case is pleading for the international community to help them leave the

country protesters have been calling for your baby's death since the supreme court ruled to free her last week maybe as husband says a government deal to release her has left the mother of five in legal limbo. was convicted in two thousand and ten of insulting islam during a dispute with her neighbors she spent eight years on death row. china's president has promised to open up access to markets and make business easier for foreign companies xi jinping made the pledge as the open a trade fair in shanghai aimed at helping the country's image as an importer he said china will no attack streamline customs checks and crime down on intellectual property theft she also criticized the those squishing protectionist trade policies who are serving. china's economic growth over the past forty years has been achieved with a commitment to opening up developments of china's economy in the future can only

be guaranteed with more openness i've made it clear before and now again that china's top will never be closed it will only open wider china will not stop its commitment to opening up a pursuing a global economy with cuba's president miguel diaz canel has missed north korean leader kim jong un in pyongyang as part of his first overseas trip since taking office in april both leaders are under u.s. economic sanctions and have vowed to strengthen their relationship since u.s. economic sanctions on sudan were lifted last year the government has been trying to rebuild neglected regions one area of investment is a historic horse built in the sixteenth century which used to be the country's main trading hub. morgan has more from so a kin in eastern saddam. crumbled buildings the remains of an area where the ottomans ruled sudan and when trade flourished on the country's second largest ports including slave trade but for sugar abraham this is the only home he's ever

known. i was born here and grew up here this place has an amazing history it was one of sudan's first ports for trade and for people people used to travel around the world for centuries so working was built by the ottomans in the sixteenth century it along with several other ports along sudan's eastern coast served as a major gateway to the gulf and the east but since sanctions were imposed on sudan in one thousand nine hundred haven't most of the country supports load in function as straight decelerated in fact is one of the traders who felt the impact. because you know a lot of goods used to come via the sea but then it slowed down with the sanctions there were less ships coming in and now we have to go to the capital to bring stocks instead of relying on nearby port. sanctions were lifted last year but says he's yet to feel any positive effect sudan's government with help from foreign countries like turkey have been working to restore still working for tourism and

trade reviving the historic and economic significance of so i can well take years but it's not just the ports tourism and investment potential that are attracting foreign investors regional park dynamics also seem to have a role just across the red sea is a regional gulf crisis and the were in yemen involving a saudi led coalition some countries such as egypt and saudi arabia fear that so working will become what is once was a military base local authorities disagree but we are told that what we're trying to do is rebuild the structure for trade and tourism so walking is less than twenty square kilometers how could you build a military base here a base could be built further north in port sudan and that's been discussed but not here it's working but i want to see a revival of the port he and his ancestors grew up on so trade can resume instead of the old structures crumbling and becoming marriage symbols of the past he will morgan al-jazeera so what can east and sudan. madagascar is gearing up for what could be the most expensive presidential election in history more than three

quarters of the population live in poverty but politicians are spending more than ever on their bid for the top office reports on the capital and on a very. deep within an town an hour revolve thousands of people eek out a living in the mountains of rubbish at the rally truck dump one of africa's largest dams it's a mess of a waste flies and stomach churning smells from beneath the dirt these people hunt for what others may consider to be waste but for them potential treasure potential at all they've been working here for twenty years he and his children are looking for any valuable metals all bones which are used to make a local medicine they earn four dollars for every bag of scrap collected. work does not pay very much and the most difficult part of doing it is digging deep into the dirt is so much dust by the time i'm sure you mention what i'm covered in sweat and sand nearly eighty percent of the population lives on less than two

dollars a day according to a world bank report one political crisis after another has significantly contributed to madagascar's high level of poverty and the country's done very little to improve the wellbeing of its population now is the madagascar hits to the polls critics say far too much money is being spent on electioneering rather than helping the poor. father pedro picker has for decades been working to help the poor in the suburb of a commercial he says while the election is a chance for democracy politicians serve their own interests he needs many of the people he's helped with food housing and education in the sunday mass. simply this . witness to this poverty of been a. madagascar for fifty years i've seen this country descend into hell and here we've shown that with education discipline and respect we can fight poverty this

week's presidential elections expected to cost even more than it did five years ago they are more candidates running and there are no laws limiting campaign spending what we know is that probably looks in two thousand was you know one of the most expensive elections in the history of what i guess can also when you compare my guess got to other countries there was a study for instance by the european union that came out in two thousand and sixteen and that basically claimed that the budget the complain budget of the last present the outgoing president one and two thousand and thirteen was forty three million u.s. dollars that actually means that he has spent you know by voter then present donald trump in the united states as campaigning draws to a close those we spoke to at the rally say they will vote they say if it's voting that saves them from life in the dump then it will be worth it i mean al jazeera

antananarivo. hello again i'm fully back to bill with the headlines on al-jazeera the un's human rights council is reviewing the actions of saudi arabia and its record on rights violations a saudi delegation is in geneva to say squash and over the matter of among other issues addressing the council the head of the delegation restated the kingdom's position that it's investigating the journalist's killing and will prosecute those responsible the saudis have come under heavy criticism from the australian delegation. a story or deploys the killing of jamal khashoggi reports that the killing was premeditated a deeply alarming story recommends saudi arabia fully cooperates with investigations related to the killing of crucial g implements legislation that hold to account government officials who preach the law and takes further measures to guarantee freedom of opinion and expression meanwhile turkey's sabah newspaper is

reporting that members of a saudi team sent to istanbul to investigate how show just killing focused instead on removing evidence the publication is reporting that among the saudi team that arrives nine days after the killing were experts on chemicals and toxicology they were reportedly given the job of getting rid of evidence in other news wide sweeping u.s. economic sanctions targeting iran's oil and financial sectors have come into force iran's president hassan rouhani says his country will hold proudly bypass the measures sri lanka's parliament's speaker says he will not accept mind the rajapaksa as new prime minister until he sees proof he commands a majority in parliament this development comes as sri lanka's president ordered m.p.'s to reconvene on nov fourteenth last week the president fired prime minister ronnie a week are missing and replaced him with the former president's mind the rajapaksa

and china's president has promised to open up access to markets and make business easier for foreign companies xi jinping made the pledge as he opened a trade fair in shanghai aimed at helping china's image as an important he says china will no attack ads and crackdown on intellectual property theft those are the headlines on al-jazeera inside story is up next stay with us. countdown to the u.s. midterm elections more than thirty million americans have already cast ballots in a vote seen as a referendum on the times presidency so in a divided electorate what role will swing voters play especially women this is inside story.

of the program i'm richelle carey it's the final stretch of the all important two thousand and eighteen u.s. midterm elections at the. voter turnout could reach record numbers so far an early voting more than thirty million americans have cast their ballots but it's one group of voters it's expected to play a crucial role and that is female voters particularly white women many are outraged by the way president speaks about women and last month that anger turned to rage after the nomination of supreme court justice brett kavanaugh who was accused of sexual assault and now with all four hundred thirty five seats in the house of representatives up for grabs and thirty five of the one hundred senate seats the midterms will certainly shape the final two years of trump's first term in office lots to discuss with our guests first white house correspondent kimberly halkett

has this report. one day after donald trump was sworn in as president hundreds of thousands of women gathered in cities across the united states to protest almost two years have passed but the u.s. president has given them little reason to change their original judgment of a man many regard with revulsion his behavior and language at times has hardened their views. after his aide omarosa manigault newman was ousted from the white house called her a crazed crying lowlife and a dog after congresswoman maxine waters encouraged her supporters to harass trump administration officials they're not going to be able to go to a restaurant they're not going to be able to stop at a gas station called waters an extraordinarily low i.q. person. but nothing has polarized the country more along gender lines than the

hearings for supreme court justice brett kavanaugh christine blas a forward accused trumps nominee of sexual assault when they were in high school truck cast doubt about her testimony mocking her recollection of the decades old event how did you get home i don't remember how did you get there i don't remember where is the place i don't remember how many years ago was it i don't know. toss attacks on women are nothing new and have been dismissed by his supporters ever since the release of a video in two thousand and sixteen threatened to derail his campaign. structure shrugged off the controversy and won the white house even today well a majority of us women still disapprove of trump at least a third still solidly approve of trump's presidency when everybody makes mistakes and they're like nobody's perfect. he's made his mistakes that everybody else is human hands i think he's a bully i do but i think you need someone like that in the office conservative women point to donald trump's historically low unemployment numbers that arise and

wait. well in office they say his appointment of a female press secretary and a significant number of female filled cabinet posts prove c. supportive of women in the workplace still the battle for the female vote is intensifying republicans have released the sixty second advert aimed at winning over suburban college educated women voters clearly shows this demographic more than most is where conservative support is waning but notably trump never appears in the advert it's a signal even republicans realize the president remains toxic to many voters and in the fight to hang on for control of congress conservatives can't afford to lose a single female vote can really help get al-jazeera the white house. introduce the panel and washington d.c. ashley pratt a board member for republican women for progress in atlanta georgia kara lerner

political reporter with think progress covering voting and election rights and in birmingham in the u.k. scott lucas professor of political science and american studies at the university of birmingham welcome to all of you so let's just first of all we'll get to the issue with female voters in a moment first the number so far seem to be quite impressive for early voting ask you what do you think is driving that. oh man i i think a lot of things you know a lot of people have asked me this question leading up to the elections who is more motivated is it republicans or is it democrats and i think it's honestly the trump factor here on both sides but you have the conservative base which is obviously very fired up to protect their status in the house and senate and they think that this referendum on trump's presidency just can't stand whereas democrats you know this is then a huge issue for them they know that if they can retake power they can have a referendum on trump and i think that that's a huge deal so that is obviously

a motivating factor for the democratic base as well but over twenty million people have already voted in early voting in states all across the country and i think the thing that's fascinating there too that i'd like to point out is that women in particular are the ones that are leading this early voting so in states like georgia florida texas tennessee over fifty three percent of women have already voted so that is a huge deal and i do think that women will turn out in huge numbers on election day as well just because of the rhetoric of this administration so i think there's a lot of things that are firing up both sides of the electorate and we will definitely come back to the rhetoric i'm glad you have brought that up actually first here i want you i want your thoughts as well what do you think is driving these huge numbers. sure i went to polling places here in georgia on friday which was the last day of the early voting period and people were wrapped around the building waiting to cast a ballot and they told me that this is not be a like any other midterm that they've experienced in the past there is way more at

stake in this midterm here in georgia there's a candidate on the ballot for governor stacy abrams who stands to make history as the first black woman governor in the country and people in georgia i spoke with many women are fired up and feel like so much of that state here and. they. want to play one million people have cast early ballots and to put that in perspective in the last midterm only two point six million people total cast out including oust so we're poised to see a record turnout here i want to bring at you pointed out the historic nature of stacy abrams running for this particular position or not people feel something different is it a fair comparison to say that that's how some people felt about voting for barack obama simply because it was a historic thing to do you think that's a fair comparison it is i have talked about is in georgia who say that they have not passed a ballot and obama was running for president so there's something about stacy

a. large part of it is the fact that she does stand to make history in the same way that obama does but people are also talking about her policies abrams would expand medicaid here in georgia well republican brian count one in and for women across the state especially low income women of color that would make a huge difference in their lives they're talking about stacy abrams the positions on public education. so it's not just the fact that she is a black woman and would be the first they're looking at this race holistically scott i want your insight as well on what is driving the huge turnout and early voting. oh i knew that i care that it's a historic moment the most important u.s. midterms in history but i would go beyond saying it's a referendum on donald trump i think cura points out for example it's a referendum on all the things it's a referendum on rights for people of color it's a referendum on education it's

a referendum on health care it's a referendum on the economy i think we're trying to feeds into that is is that probably unlike any other president in history rather than trying to appeal for consensus in terms of electoral tactics his advisors are very much going for a politics of division and that is a first of them and that type of heated language which i'm sure will discuss they're hoping it will attract some women who'll see some virtue in it but of course there's a lot of women who i think maybe put off by that and the question is how many of them along with how many young people how many people for minorities turn up not only in early voting but next tuesday to say this isn't the way we want to go the way that donald trump has portrayed america actually do represent republican women i mean you're on the board of republican women for progress do you agree with that assessment from scott that donald trump and some of the republicans are campaign campaigning on division yes and i would like to bring that up here so republican women for progress of actually open a pack this year and what we've decided to do is to support female candidates who

are moderate democrats who stand against trump's rhetoric and they're running against people who are basically rubber stamp trump republicans so here what we've decided to do is really take a stand against the rhetoric of this administration against women one that we think has been very degrading toward women back in two thousand and sixteen we took a stand against trump and said you know this is not symbolic of the republican party at all he is not going to be our standard bearer and we're a bunch of young women who say no more enough is enough and this is wrong and we're willing to put party aside for principle and to say if there is a moderate democrat out there who is a female who would be an awesome candidate. she should have the chance to go up against this and she should know that some republican women are behind her i have traditionally voted republican i do not plan to win this mid-term election i actually registered as an independent after twenty sixteen just because i was so disgusted by the future of the republican party i i do not think that it represents

me as a young woman i think that it has really strayed from its core values of limited government freedom of speech and they've really embraced a very. i think extreme wing of the party and factionalized to the point of division words do matter actually when the president just continues destructive rhetoric let me ask you something about that because i don't i don't think a lot of people really understand how significant that is for someone to choose to vote for a candidate outside of their party that's not a small thing i think you know sometimes democrats. would wouldn't did i don't think this always appreciate how a die hard that can be to switch party lines was that a difficult decision for your group to take this position you know we had a lot of conversations about it and we just decided we couldn't stand for what the republican party stood for anymore and you know while there are some republicans that we do applaud here and there senator flake one of them lisa murkowski another one for taking stands against the administration most of them have been completely

spineless and we're just deciding that we want to have spines and we want to remember this later on is a historic moment where republican women did speak out and speak up and say that enough is enough and we can't tolerate as a young woman this rhetoric to continue we can't do this for our daughters we can't do this for our sisters or for our friends and when we hear things like on that hate the hollywood access tape which i thought would have brought down his candidacy instead there were a lot of people who embraced it as just locker room talk and we all know that that is not ok and when you're talking again about your daughters your sisters and your friends or your coworkers you know that that type of rhetoric is not just something that is that in the locker room that is something that is pervasive in our culture and for a president to embrace that is a significant issue which is why then is being a relatively easy decision for us to say no more anough is enough now have people in the public and in the media been scrutinizing us for this decision of course any my might.