overcommitted parent turned activist a father's prettiest part of the if you find asian series on al-jazeera. and this is different it's that whether someone is going for some of his favorites that doesn't mean it's true i think it's how you approach an individual enough that it is a certain way of doing it you can't just inject a story in fly out. this is al jazeera. hello i'm still robin you're watching the al-jazeera news our life my headquarters here in doha coming up in the next sixty minutes the first polls close in some eastern u.s. states in a midterm election widely regarded as a referendum on donald trump's presidency. i'm john hendren in

indianapolis indiana where the polls have just closed on have more coming up. also in other news sources tell al-jazeera saudi arabia is ready to pay so-called blood money to murder journalist jamal khashoggi family and exiled a week activist to the international community to stop trying his detention of large numbers of ethnic muslims. could have a company on the news are the first polls have just closed in the u.s. for midterm elections that could reshape the country's political landscape they are the first nationwide elections since donald trump took office and are widely seen as a referendum on his first two years in power voter turnout has been much tighter than normal for midterm elections with early numbers indicating that it could be the highest turnout in a generation

a record thirty six million people cast early votes including many young people and those voting for the first time and that all comes despite some having to queue for hours in various parts of the country while republicans are trying to protect their majority in the house of representatives and the senate democrats are hoping to win back control of at least the house to try and thwart trump's agenda. over the final two years of his four year term in the house the scorecard is empty so far remember four hundred thirty five seats up for grabs here and two hundred eighteen is that magic number to take control of the house can democrats managed to flip the house that's the question and then the senate well here's what it looks like right now remember only thirty five seats just over a third of that one hundred of for grabs this time the remaining seats the democrats have to try and win twenty three and the republicans forty two so can they retain their hold of the senate or can the democrats take control we have

correspondents tracking those results very closely across the us here on the news hour john hendren is live for us in indiana where some polls have just closed and gallup has further south live for us in florida where there are two very close races for governor and senator we are further north to kristen salumi who's live in mars pennsylvania a state where several key house races wrong going and castro in the west of the country in tucson arizona where there's a very tight senate race let's go straight over to john hendren first in indianapolis indiana the home state of the vice president mike pence and of course the president himself has spent a lot of time really is sort of the midwestern states like indiana why is this particular region so important to him and to this very large race. for the midwest help trump win in two thousand and sixteen and he's hoping that it will help keep this senate in republican hands and there are three states in

particular in the midwest where there are rip democratic candidates in reliably republican states indiana is one of them i met the campaign celebration as he hopes it to be of joe donnelly he is a democrat who was elected six years ago sometimes called the accidental democrat because people were rather surprised when he was the one elected back then. donald trump is coming here to back his opponent mike braun and he's also come to missouri to back the opponent claire mccaskill another it's sitting democratic senator who is in significant trouble so his idea in coming here was to try to keep those seats or to flip those seats into republican hands and the math is really with the republicans on this there are thirty five seats that are up this year in the senate and twenty six of them are in democratic hands and only nine are in republican hands for the republicans have many more targets to shoot for joe donnelly has been

very careful here about how he has governed he's governed really as a moderate he votes with trump sixty two percent of the time he likes the border wall he is pro-life and so that is how he has maintained support here in indiana where they do vote reliably republican but they also have a history of electing moderate democrats so he's in a very tight race with mike brown polls have gone either way it's within two percentage points all of those polls seem to be within the margin of error and the democrats would have to hold all of the seats they have right now and then to and that seems like a seriously uphill battle the way they have better luck in the house joe donnelly soaping he could hold on to this seat for another six years so for the moment we'll leave it to john of course come back to the votes counted and we got a clear idea of what's happening in the midwest let's go further south to florida and to gallaher is there no land more often than alton every election that we see

in the united states whether it's a presidential election or midterms and the florida is an important state and it's a gauge of how the the nation feels. you know this is the very definition of what they call a bellwether state is a very simple reason for that the demographics in the states have flown. tend to reflect those of the entire country you can sometimes think of this state is a miniature micro version of the entire country so what happens here tends to be mirrored across the entire nation the last six presidential elections voters in this state of voted for the winning candidate three times democratic three times republican so that gives you an idea of just why this state is so important and that divisive divided nature of the electorate is already being reflected here we've got to keep races one for the senate and one for the state's governor and they are both neck and neck that senate races between bill nelson and where his party headquarters now where the hoping to celebrate later and rick scott who is

currently florida's governor it's an extremely tight race between the incumbent democrat and the republican candidate again reflecting that nature of how close these races are across the country and the other maybe more interesting race is for this state's governor between andrew gilligan a african-american progressive left wing democratic candidate and ron dissenters a man who's really molded himself in the image of donald trump and speaks like donald trump hits so same issues and again that is a race it's too close to call we just heard from bill nelson's chief of staff saying some of the early results from some of the counties in florida are key looking promising for bill nelson which would be a good thing for the democrats clearly but why we watch these races so closely is because we get a republican victory or a democratic victory that could very well be an early indicator of how things go across the entire country indeed of course we'll come back to as well and the as that situation develops there let's go further north now to pennsylvania where

kristen salumi is in the good of you with the question unlike florida no big name races there but pennsylvania still important because the president now really won that state in twenty sixteen with the promise of job creation and the democrats actually think they have a much better shot this time why. should. they when they do. i think so it's interesting i was speaking with a owner of a manufacturing business not too long ago he was quick to give president credit for business booming steel tariffs have been a big boon also for pennsylvania which has a strong steel industry even those tariffs have been controversial for other industries so the economy could be a boon it could be a help to republican candidates here in pennsylvania but democrats have reason to believe that they can take over some seats here we've seen some signs of winning the support for the president and one of those signs is a democrat who ran in

a special election earlier this year and one a district that president trump had won by twenty percent twenty percent that democrat is conor lamm and he is on the ballot again today in pennsylvania he is a middle of the road democrat but someone who ran on the issue of health care health care is now a top issue in the state and lam is going against a republican incumbent tonight really interesting a bit of a fluke that there are two incumbents in this race it's the only race in the country with two incumbents and that has to do with changes to the voting districts here in pennsylvania they were redrawn because the whole districts were found to be unconstitutional and favoring republicans so democrats think that too is going to help them in their quest to retake some of these important house seats throw in some very angry women voters and an unprecedented number of female candidates here

in pennsylvania minority groups who are fired up after that shooting that happened at a synagogue here just over a week ago killing eleven people they blame many of them president's rhetoric for this and they're motivated to come out we've seen that at the polls here all of that combined to answer your question is why democrats think that they can win some seats flew. some sense here in pennsylvania in their quest to retake the majority in the house of representatives indeed kristie it's a melting pot of issues there in pennsylvania will come back to have more analysis of course later in the day let's go over to the west of the country now and to heidi jocasta joins me now from tucson arizona and in a hugely important state where you are heidi comes with its issues of immigration and the republicans really need to win to prove a political point perhaps in the wake of the legacy of john mccain who came from that state a respected senator and

a critic of the president's really interesting fight going on where you are. that's right senator john mccain he passed away two months ago of brain cancer he was much beloved here in his home state of arizona he represented the state for decades never winning with a less than double digits and now the two women who are vying to become the new senators of this new senator of arizona have both tried to cast themselves in mccain's mold early on in the campaigns the republican nominee. sally she tried to highlight the fact that she was also a fighter pilot like mccain while her while her challenger cure system of the democrat has said that she is a moderate independent a maverick like senator mccain however i have to say that was earlier on in the campaign in the last few weeks will be really seen that race tightened to the point where it's now neck and neck there has been less discussion about mccain's legacy

and speaking with voters here in arizona no one has really mentioned him to me and so what they are talking about is immigration and the fact that trump was here as long as well as other rallies across the country using that divisive rhetoric calling a caravan of immigrants who are approaching the border an invasion endorsing a political ad that was very controversial in waiting some of those women and children who are fleeing persecution too would be murderous in the united states and that may not fall well on an independent voters in arizona who are very much still in keeping with the spirit of john mccain of being a maverick and so trumps rhetoric there may be a double edged sword he's trying to fire up his base of conservative white voters the meantime he may just turn off the moderates that his party is counting on for their votes and he may of then the latino is to make up such a large portion of the electorate in arizona as well as other border states they actually have the numbers to decide this race however the problem is few of them

historically show up to the polls for midterms as you mentioned before there how. it's been a historic surge of early voters we don't know who they are what parties they belong to but there certainly is some hope among democrats and many are latino who may deliver them when you're in or. indeed of course the polls there don't close for at least maybe another three hours and of course we'll come back to you heidi for more analysis thank you so what makes these polls important donald trump's republican party is bracing for a likely loss of seats in the house of representatives where their rivals the democrats need to gain twenty three seats to take control of that chamber of congress that if this happens it could allow the democrats to lord several committee investigations of the trump administration and possibly even impeachment proceedings of the senate several democrats are fighting to keep their seats in states that trump one in twenty sixteen so the republicans believe they can retain control of the chamber and thirty six of the fifty us states are electing governors

ten of which are considered tossups republicans control twenty nine governorships the democrats have twenty one. jostling that stage mitchell is an assistant professor in residence at northwestern university here in qatar where she teaches american government and politics good to have you with us on this very unique and special occasion it is an occasion to a certain extent good terms normally are but it has been a very divisive election a very divisive campaign in twenty sixteen how do you actually regard it as an american looking into what's going on in the u.s. a moment great thanks so hell thanks for having me it is an exciting time to look at it has been a divisive campaign the republicans are in campaign mode right now they have a right to be nervous in there they're trying to hold on to their house and senate majority is and usually in the midterm elections which are in now the republicans

are the party in power so it's the republicans will be lose some seats in those elections and the national mood is behind that shift we've got. we've got eight to nine points advantage for the democrats in terms of who you would more likely want to vote for so the question for us tonight is how big that shift is going to be whether it's going to allow the democrats to take control of the house . when we'll see what happens in the shift has been pushed along by the issues that everybody's debating and and we just talked about to just generally. be a partisan and divisive politics issue such as racism sexism. the issue of immigration the issue of health care the economy education they have all had their movements in the last two years what would you describe as the most pertinent issues that have been implicated in this particular midterm election the

issues that will be discussed when the votes have been counted yes well i think you know when you say is this a rougher. and i'm on trump right and the issues that have come up underneath trump we don't know about the results yet they haven't happened yet but we can already say that yes in terms of who is running in this election this is a referendum on trump we are seeing a huge an unprecedented number of female candidates running for the house and senate over two hundred fifty in the house and senate alone and more as you mentioned in the governor races and they are seeking to raise the percentage of women representation in the u.s. which currently is ranked one hundred fourth in the world are we're just above to g. christan in gender parity in terms of women in our political system so there's a lot of room for growth here and you know i think that these women who are running many of these women made the decision to run their first time candidates they made

that decision the day after the two thousand and sixteen election so i'm very excited to see these first time candidates these women and when many women are running for a variety of issues some are winning some are running on the basis of gender and gender issues running because they are of a different faith than maybe the majority of christianity some are running because of color and ethnicity with cola tina so while many more women are running the running for different reasons and again those are some of the issues religion and race yes i think that. it's it's important to pigeonhole women and say they're all running just on gender issues we've certainly seen gender in the rhetoric of some of these women running geno ortiz jones in the texas twenty third district a first time candidate running in a house district there she said you know if you're not at the table you're on the menu so she's very much in favor of getting more women out there you've got martha

mc sally who is in arizona which will be following she's a republican woman who. is making gender a main part of her campaign saying that she is going to tell the people in washington to grow a pair of ovaries and get the job done so these are these are women who are putting gender out there but many more women are not running necessarily on being a woman they're running for health care they're running for for other important issues that are going on here in the u.s. today how important the issue of. sexual misconduct be in the political discourse whether it's been from politicians or as we've done has just hosted the world artistic gymnastics here where we've seen simone boyle's wearing teal while she was performing again that was a huge issue with what happened in sports. sexual misconduct has

pushed we mean to just speak up the hashtag me to campaign i love that you brought up how how this has really pushed people to speak and let's remember that it's not just about who is running it's about who's voting women have since about one thousand nine hundred eighty been more likely to come out and vote anyway in these elections and in this election in particular we are seeing a huge firing up of women not just the women candidates but the women voters who are interested in coming out and voting for these candidates so i think we'll hear a lot of women's voices over the course of these next few hours and certainly we'll be having you back to discuss and underlies what's exactly going on for the mayor jocelyn thank you. well let's go to all social media producer holding. been tweeting about the election you've been tweeting about the election what is the world been saying well we're tweeting along with millions of our closest friends all around the world election is by far the top conversation in the u.s.

today and really around the world sometimes though it does feel like it's the only conversation we're seeing tens of millions of tweets with hashtags like vote today mid-term twenty eighteen and just simply hash tag vote you can see it's a bit more active on the east coast of the united states though it is becoming more of a conversation in the west there are two types of conversations really that we're seeing one urging people to vote and the other used by people who just have now we're seeing celebrities of course are leading the conversation at the moment which of course is not usual but one singer is making a significant impact last month singer taylor swift declared her support for a democrat running for senate it was a signal it was significant because she has always avoided politics i'm seeing a lot of underestimation of young voters and this new generation who now have the right to vote just in the last couple of years but these are people who grew up post nine eleven they grew up with school shooting drills at their schools these

are people who want to vote it's not enough to just want change it's not enough to just want to vote you have to go and make change by voting and today is your opportunity to do that. now she's been encouraging her one hundred twelve million followers on instagram to vote and posting their voting pictures on her account the early voting polls seem to show that it's working one million people early voted in her home state of tennessee and according to a polling site called target smart there's been a seven hundred and sixty seven percent increase in young voter turnouts compared to twenty fourteen now gun control is also a top conversation online as well students from florida where i'm from or who are involved in the park when school shooting in february are incredibly vocal online they're leading the march for our lives campaign with voting with voting really being a major component of that now this picture is trending it's of jamie gutenberg she's

one of the seventeen students who was killed in the school shooting one person wrote that if the line is long stay in it you're voting for jamie gutenburg she'll never get the chance now we also want to hear from you if you're voting in the election send us a video telling us why this election is so important to you my twitter name is out leo harding a.j. and we may even feature your video right here during our election coverage will continue to monitor the conversation online and we'll update you with more shortly back to you so. we have other news as well and we've been getting with developments in the jamal khashoggi medicaid's they have a month ago he was killed inside saudi arabia's consulate in istanbul turkish sources have told al jazeera that the kingdom is willing to pay blood money to show g.'s family and his fiance that comes to be director of the cia still has reportedly seen all the evidence related to his death to she was dispatched to

turkey last month meanwhile turkey's president of the one that is insisting the killing was awarded by the highest levels of the saudi government. in istanbul. more than a month since he was killed. body has yet to be found and there are more questions about his murder but turkish authorities have increased the pressure on the saudi government by slowly leaking vital information according to turkish sources cia director general hospital was briefed on the murder and had access to crucial evidence suggesting the order came from the highest levels of the saudi government riyadh insists no member of the ruling royal family had a role in. but during his visit to istanbul last month sandy chief

prosecutor. reportedly told turkish authorities that the king was willing to pay blood money to hush up his family and fiance he also said he had no idea about the whereabouts of the slain journalist body. and as the investigation continues turkey's foreign minister. says his country has more information wants to give a name and nobody can stop him to do that so he emphasizes in the article that the instruction didn't come from king solomon but it is also reads that those fifteen people. didn't come to stumble to murder kushnick to themselves so they got instructions from somebody so we have to find out these instructions this is the. simple question that we

have put according to the turkish daily newspaper staff of the saudi consulate try to tamper with security camera outside the consulate but turkish police managed to retrieve the footage providing the now famous image of hotshots you walking into the building on the day he was killed and we're finding out more about the teams that were sent to turkey from saudi arabia al-jazeera learned from its source there were three teams involved in the killing of. a surveillance team the death squads and the cleanup team sent later to cover up the murder for turkish officials this confirms their belief the case was premeditated and ordered by someone senior in the saudi government. is the board. it's been years since they started. coalition imposed a blockade on yemen's airports seaports and land borders the port city of data is

a lifeline for the small amount of humanitarian aid that does not wish to get into the country government troops backed by the saudi u.a.e. coalition have been battling the rebels who control the city since twenty fourteen the u.s. and the u.n. have called for a ceasefire the u.n. is warning yemen it's just three months away from a devastating famine putting thirteen million people at risk and those already weakened by a lack of food and clean water are also facing the spread of disease at least ten thousand suspected cases of cholera are reported every week and the international committee for the red cross was forced to pull out just seventy one of its staff in june over security concerns. paul morea is the president of the international committee of the red cross and he explained to us earlier how hard it is to get humanitarian supplies into the country through data. the military operations around make the situation even more complicated i just received today reports from my

colleagues in the field to try to respond together with. other organization which managed to stay in her data but we are running far below capacity of what we should be able to do and the overall situation has been fragile for yemen for quite some time war has made things worse than we have seen before so food insecurity now is a critical issue and forces as of course to do the best we can with the infrastructure we have at the present moment but we have said for quite many months now that it's not too many tier an organization which will create conditions which allow us to work at the end of today all depends on whether discrete ical juncture in which we are at the present moment finding eventually the way out of the military operations of ceasefire whether dissuade will be successful because otherwise it just in the content of what we have done in the past the situation will get more dire and we

will see more food security risks and other risks associated to it in the future as well well still ahead here on the al-jazeera news are more on the u.s. midterm elections our diplomatic editor explains the implications of the results on foreign policy. hell i was still me a few hours still to go we've already seen one front go off the atlantic show the next for this is the one to watch this is the one i had to wait on that i was running through fairly quickly so daylight hours should see everything fine the east coast with all the action other long way north crossed the border a lot of clout and cultish whether all through georgia northern florida and back towards the south texas this area i think will stay active from the point of view

of rain for thunderstorms but the rest of the us at least for days looking fairly quiet not going to last that way to get attention calgary minus three minus two ish snow shows up in the when it colorado by this time and that's quite telling because this area which i can show you as a sort of blue who care blue you is going to be dominant even move a little bit further south over the next few days a cold spell to most states to the south coast temps is never much of a worry sweater not the showers be heavy and i have certainly been from puerto rico fairly frequent recently as the satellite would prove and the sheryl's to so far lesser antilles for it's a rico and possibly as far west as haiti showers abound. a journey of personal discovery feel more american here and then more air and b.s.

al-jazeera is a mirror of would you barbara highlights the struggles and resourcefulness of one native alaskan people trying to preserve their way of my. home is one of the speaker doesn't know if. your mom's from here you can. al-jazeera correspondent we are still here. being located outside that western centric sphero of influence we're able to bring a different perspective to global events when you peel away all of the lists a covert military in the financial dog and you see the people in those words and his policies are affecting see the emotion on the face of the situation they're living in that's when all the us can identify with the story.

welcome back you're watching the news hour i'm circle robin a reminder of our top news stories the first polls have just closed in the u.s. midterm elections that could reshape the country's political landscape they are the first nationwide elections since donald trump took office and are widely seen as a referendum on his first two years in power voter turnout has been much higher than normal for midterm elections also turkish sources have told al jazeera that saudi arabia is willing to pay blood money to jamal khashoggi and his fiance the sources also reveal that cia director gina handsful has seen all the evidence related to the murder and the u.n.

says the humanitarian crisis in yemen is the worst in the world eight groups are warning the country is three months away from a devastating famine putting thirteen million people at risk government troops backed by the saudi u.a.e. coalition of trying to defeat to three rebels. a war on our top story and that's the u.s. midterm elections have a particle hey now in washington d.c. to discuss how the election is going to impact the political landscape in the u.s. over to you patty. ok so thanks so much yes it is now it's coming down to it all day we've been talking about this pivotal does critical election is going to shape american policy for perhaps a generation to tell you what happens tonight they'll definitely impact the trend presidency and now we're in the middle of it it is starting to happen the votes are being counted counted but we want to break it all down inside this excellent panel that i want to introduce you to first is alan lipman professor of history at american university poor man's been teaching all day he's also the author of the

case for impeachment also we have jeff houser here he's executive director of the revolving door project and then chris garcia he is the former deputy director of the u.s. department of commerce and a big trump supporter so gentlemen thank you all for joining me alan i want to start with you because on election night two thousand and sixteen i'm thinking back there was basically you and you who predicted the presidency so how are you feeling now i know it's early we don't have many votes and yet but what do you think how does the shape of you know i had a formula for the presidency which is why i was singularly right into a lot of abuse for that here in a very democratic washington d.c. i don't have a formula for the midterms but if i had to guess and i'm only guessing i would say democrats take the house and republicans very now really keep the senate so we have a divided government but that means there is now for the first time a check on donald trump because up until now republicans have controlled everything

and i think it's important to point out that with republicans in control they haven't been willing to check this president they haven't had investigations they haven't had hearings that would change dramatically with the democratic controlled house so chris let me ask you how worried should trump supporters be what a democratic controlled house mean for his agenda does it end it yet a great question so i think that the first thing that my colleague here predicted was possibly a house takeover by the democrats if that happens i think it actually is a very narrow narrow margin it's not going to be a landslide if that's the case. trump agenda comes to a screeching halt now the talk is been about whether there's going to be impeachment proceedings i don't think that that's going to be the case but with a democrat victory in the house what you guarantee is a trump victory in four more years of trump in twenty twenty ok let's well we don't know we don't know that because i am not talking twenty twenty this is not an american network we do more than just american politics so moving jeff let me ask you this the exit polls are coming down and the two biggest issues the people said

drove their vote donald trump at forty three percent health care forty four percent what does that tell you it tells you that democrats have been united on a message that they have chosen to talk about health care and basically talk almost about nothing else democratic ads are all about health care they all find a member of their family who has a preexisting condition or maybe they themselves have a preexisting condition and they say that if you elect the republicans and empower dollars trying to take another go against obamacare that preexisting coverage condition coverage is going to go away and so they've been running on health care and it's a sign that their voters have listened to them do you think this bodes well for democrats i think it bodes well but i exit polls have had a history of making me feel burned in the past and so it's i was feeling optimistic for democrats a few hours ago and i remain optimistic that are the exit polls are really responsible for that everybody after twenty sixteen except you of course but

everybody has this sheer of even talking about what's going to happen because i was in florida in two thousand and four canvassing and i got i heard about the exit polls and she was john kerry was not going to be president he was going to win in a landslide that in order that it had no speaking of we were talking about impeachment since see you actually literally wrote the book teach it does it happen if the dems take back to how absolutely i have to disagree with my esteem colleague here but let me explain why. i think there's going to be some pretty shocking findings from special counsel robert he hasn't spoken yet about anything directly involved with the trump campaign the trumpet administration he is up to what five or six convictions now yes that's not a witch hunt for it is his stand a lot of which is real which is not make believe ones i think we're going to have some pretty significant findings from the special counsel and the democratic base will absolutely demand if not going right to impeachment at least the first step

which is an impeachment investigation by the house judiciary committee which will be run by my old high school to pay partner jerry nadler a very shrewd very smart politician and he won't hesitate to start an impeachment investigation because you've got to be faithful to your base i want to ask you who is the better debater in high flow but chris let me ask you this is that of the gentleman concerned for this president and joe please let's not do the talking points that there's no there there i know there's a lot of smoke there's a lot of smoke in this investigation i mean his campaign manager former national security advisor and a lot of people close to the president have pled guilty to things like lying to the f.b.i. right right so that's not a conviction or any type of indication that there is any collusion that's happened with the russians the design not biased and dirty because there hasn't been any evidence for that i think about well that's not entirely reliable but i guess you were lying about whether or not they actually spoke to the russians like the time

that they said hey russian ambassador can i use the embassy to this to have a back channel communications with the putin administration yeah i mean yeah that doesn't seem slightly odd to you so i mean wasn't it the obama administration that wanted to cozy up to russia and wanted to tell mitt romney that that the one nine hundred eighty s. and calling it could deal with yeah i'm going to get what you got your case though because let me just finish the other thing that you might see when one presidential candidates have foreign policy advisers that's exactly what they're supposed to do they're supposed to predict what foreign policy wise and that will be i i think well that's this is the this. the concern right now today is that if these are questions that the f.b.i. has about some of these conversations that have been had between trump either campaign officials or president trump his family themselves something would have leaked in the leakiest white house and the leakiest f.b.i. here and i'm sure it is not going to have the first doesn't leak yes this white house is not a civil kind know doesn't like alan got his my deal all right you agree with

me that will start impeachment proceedings on donald trump and i will agree that will start impeachment proceedings on both hillary clinton and barack obama ok guys . about offense that sure don't want to talk about this this election and we saw with the election we saw with the women's march we have seen a wave of women in minority candidates like we've never seen before this book is actually popular it's don't just march run for something and a lot of people are taking this advice the numbers of women that are running are absolutely astounding for the congress for the women it is one hundred eighty five democratic women running for the u.s. house fifty two republican women running in the u.s. house this is unheard of so let me ask you this jeff does the president trumps. time in office forever change american politics or is this just the oh it's the women where it's the year of the woman again because we keep having this i think american politics is forever been changed and hopefully for the better it's been

changed in a lot of different ways but one of them the most conspicuous as you mention is starting with the women smart women have led the resistance to donald trump they are running for office in record numbers minorities who are running for office in record numbers there are a whole bunch of majority white districts and races in which african-american democrats have a real chance to win the democratic party's more diverse democratic party's volunteer base has increased by an order of magnitude the ability of democrats to fund candidates all across the country in races that would normally be considered unwinnable and to fund them with grassroots contributions from activists not corporate pacs this is a totally changed democratic party so if the democratic party has a big night tonight in the midterm elections it suggests that the democratic party has changed america has changed well let's talk a little bit about foreign policy chris let me ask you this. the president's

foreign policy has been i think fair it's fair to say completely unconstrained by this congress if the democrats take over either houses of congress how do you think that impacts his foreign policy so president also has been really about one thing it's the america first doctrine are you with america or are you against america do you believe in global elite rule or do you believe in rule by the american people as the president i think he views the presidency in the oval office through the eyes of a successful businessman in every good deal you have to put your party first if democrats take the house the question is going to be are they going to put america first are they going to actually question low gear lever you were at commerce and so you can see the numbers of what this trade war with china is doing nothing. there's a couple of farmers in iowa that would like to have a conversation with you about that sure but if he is rebuked by his base because the chinese are very smart at targeting exactly the people who support the republican leadership and this president if they turn against him does he back down

well so the question is what is the what is the trade war done right and how is effecting iowa farmers california farmers i would argue that getting a level playing field where where there were american farmers can compete more evenly with global sources of agriculture that's a great deal for america why not have a better deal for american where you know americans we have zero tariffs zero subsidies zero non-tariff barriers that is the end goal because the free market drives down price and drives up quality and that's what president trump wants alan to separate is that what is happening right now with this trade i mean close to trump has achieved nothing with his trade war i know the talking points are it's going to come in the future it's going to happen but we tell you what's vastly more important than trade war climate change trump has put every american in every citizen around the world in severe jeopardy of suffering from the ravages of catastrophic climate change by pulling us out of the powers of chords which virtually every other nation has signed on by rolling back environmental protections within the united states climate change is not something out in the

future it's here it's now we've seen these incredibly more severe hurricanes than we've seen before california is burning arizona is suffering drought one of the hawaiian islands has gone underwater venice is underwater this is the most serious existential threat facing humanity and donald trump is driving us in exactly the opposite direction just point of fact i think it is important to point out he says he's going to pull this pull the u.s. out of the pact he can't technically do that in for another right before the presidency so but in fact he had his yes in a lot of people who are the regulations and he's changed she stopped a lot of the funding for clean energy so jeff let me ask you this if the debt because the president now. the system the way it's developed perhaps not the way the founders expected the president has this insane amount of intense amount of power so if democrats take one or both chambers can they do anything about climate change because they can they do anything about paris climate change is probably

difficult in the sense of really putting in the sort of urgent the agenda that we urgently need for all the reasons that alan referenced but what i do think is going to happen is that each year there's going to need to be a budget there's going to need to be the government is going to have to be kept open and there's going to be deal making and nancy pelosi is someone i respect in a deal making situation above any politician in my lifetime and so i believe nancy pelosi will be able to attach to the budget a variety of top priorities for the democratic. coalition the democratic caucus whether or not that's been cleaned climate and i think it should i can't say for sure it will be but i think that you're going to see high stakes negotiations last minute deals being cut between the president and palosi about to keep the government going basically every time the government runs out of funding and i don't know exactly what those details are going to be but they're going to keep journalists up late at night because we're going to the last minute and you know

there isn't any. in these two years but because you like to talk about how the president is a businessman where does he deal with democrats if they do see him and it seems like we're going to take at least one chamber of all presidents have used to be a democrat himself i mean i think a lot of people forget that he's done a great job working with both sides of the aisle and he's offered up a lot of solutions i have been bipartisan i do have to ok what were those well i think comprehensive immigration reform all he wants is to build a very solid border on the on the southern border he wants to build a wall that keeps bad actors out bipartisan actually if you just if you listen exchange if you listen to democrats. only linux user and there were others that the democrats are that they have the democrats that they thought they had a deal with the president and that is some of his aides got involved in. that went away so there has been no bipartisan about immigration there's been a lot about pardons i but i don't just talk about immigration not because the president's willing to deal. you know he just signed environmental protections for the ocean to clean up you know millions of pounds of trash in the ocean not very

well covered but the president does care about the environment i think that one of the reasons he pulled out of the paris climate accord is because we were disproportionately pain when we had bad actors for example like china who were not adhering to those accords just like trying to has and i haven't seen any evidence that the chinese were not here into the paranoia we're going to have you know if there's anyone been to china i mean you looked into this not is well ahead of us an alternative in and out of the world and we're going with i would i would i would respectfully disagree with that because china has been a bad actor in a number of multilateral multinational multilateral agreements including the w.t. you know where they steal our ip not where they say you are topple i'm just saying this is how china this is not china behaves jeff they don't play by the rules well if i want to end with you jeff and the thing we started talk about this the republicans haven't provided a check at all of this president so lay out for our audience if you will the awesome power of the house subpoena what do you think that they would do what would they start looking at there because there's been

a lot of instances of just cabinet officials being you know having allegations of corruption yeah i mean think of it we're talk about the climate here and the environmental protection agency was first run by scott pruitt one of the most comically corrupt figures in the history of washington d.c. which is which is an amazing accomplishment so i mean he is at a pantheon figure in terms of corruption he's been succeeded by andrew wheeler who's definitely more buttoned down traditional d.c. figure but he's a former lobbyist on behalf of the whole industry that is the person in charge of protecting the environment of the united states so what congress can do is make andrew weil or show all of his cards where his agenda is coming from how he is benefiting the people you used to pay him in the past the most. like they're going to pay him in the future that's what the revolving door project works on is exactly people like andrew weil are in the congress republican congress was disinterested in providing any check on someone like andrew weil or and i can assure you that a democratic majority would take someone like andrew will or and change make his

life terrible to be honest and let's not forget the interior secretary now possibly the subject of a justice of us again for a land deal that's questionable in his home state so the democrats would have a lot to talk about i think is what we're we're getting at so will they have a chance to do any of these things well we're going to find out the polls are closing that basically sweeps across the country we're going to start getting exit polls probably in the next fifteen minutes we'll have a better idea of where things stand but it is going to be a lot that i think it's fair to say it's going to be an interesting night and a long night now you know it's not. we're going to be back in two hours and then i'm going. back to do. that i'm not going home but quite a party i'm still here and will be for the rest of the law but will continue with of course many of the president's signature foreign policies well still in development in the outcome of these elections could have an impact on how he proceeds on the international stage with more on this diplomatic editor james bay

he's a small. the world is watching these elections very closely and they'll be watching in iran there were fresh sanctions in the last twenty four hours most of those that were lifted under the twenty fifteen iran nuclear deal are now firmly back in place iran's already suffering a great deal of economic damage it's going to get worse they'll need now to make a political decision in tehran and in part it will depend on these elections perhaps they'll get an early indication if trump is going to be a one term or a two term president and whether they can wait him out the investigation into the death of jamal khashoggi may also be affected by the elections saudi arabia's not cooperating on handing over the suspects or on helping to find the journalist body so they could now be other legal steps if turkey requests it that could perhaps even be an international u.n. led investigation in congress watch for efforts to take action against saudi arabia under the magnitsky act or the possibility of new congressional investigations next

yemen with saudi arabia under pressure look for congress to take renewed interest in the devastating war there's already a new push for a ceasefire by the trumpet ministration and i can tell you at the u.n. in new york the u.k. is starting efforts to draw up a security council resolution on the ceasefire the plan is all of this would lead to peace talks in sweden at the end of the month highly awaited too is the trump administration's middle east peace plan the u.n. has recently been warning of fresh conflict particularly in gaza but the palestinians have already written off the still to be unveiled plan being devised by trump's son in law jared cushion and i'm also hearing whispers that the international criminal court may soon make a ruling on whether to pursue investigations into israeli actions in syria there could be a final military push by the assad regime and its russian allies efforts by the u.n. to get talks going on a new constitution have been making very little progress as a new u.n.

special envoy pederson from norway prepares to. start work afghanistan is another key priority for the administration and for the new congress after seventeen years of war the taliban has been gaining ground on the battlefield there's a new effort by the u.s. to talk to the taliban being led by top diplomats are made. but there's very little immediate prospect of progress because of afghanistan's own political calendar with presidential elections due in april next year let's move on to some other news now the emir of qatar told investors his country's economy has become stronger despite the blockade imposed on it by four arab countries shake the member in her middle tani's says exports grew by eighteen percent last year but he expressed regret over the continued dispute in the g.c.c. where saudi arabia the u.a.e. bahrain and egypt have imposed a blockade on cattle since june last year accusing it of supporting terrorism a charge that doha has strongly denied. israel's transport and intelligence

ministries on the two day trip to a man as israel attempts to bolster relations with gulf countries his rival follows last month's visit by israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu the israeli government is pushing a plan for a regional rail line that link with jordan saudi arabia and the gulf states israel has recently stepped up its contacts with the gulf states despite not having full diplomatic relations with any often. china's alleged abuse of its weak a muslim minority has been under the spotlight at geneva the un human rights council is doing a regular review of the chinese government's human rights record beijing has been accused of mass detention and discrimination that we can muslims in the show everyone brown has been allowed rare access to the province of reports for cheap. there are few more difficult places for foreign journalists to report from in china than shinji especially in. the provinces vast security and surveillance network is

in overdrive as international criticism mounts over china's internment programme for ethnic muslim we goes and other groups officially chinese government officials insist they're providing three vocational training for those deemed vulnerable to islamic extremism. but exiled leader activists say these centers are nothing less than reeducation camps were up to a million men and women are being held indefinitely without charge and a grand chinese government is doing that with the international repercussions so i believe that china would accelerate its start to wipe out the whole we were a nation if the world wouldn't be stronger

harsher and china time here i'm in believes he'd be in a camp if he returned to shin jang he says a chinese state security agent tried to persuade him to go back after he moved to israel to study early last year leaving his wife and daughter behind in shin jang the agent also a we go telephoned him repeatedly wanting details of women's contacts in israel sometimes the calls were taunting sure you're watching and it gives you it didn't give you your daughter won't turn out to be a scum like you says a voice she'll be useful to the communist party. on later the implication was clear her fate was in their hands has said that one day you will need support. one day you will need assistance from the chinese government if you go back to your homeland your family members your wife your daughter

still are in a room she before him in left china he lived here a room she the provincial capital of shin jang he used to call his daughter all the time but in february she told him don't call me or my mother again her last words to her father with these you're a bad person. with so many people missing in shin jang including his brother and sister the min is not sure if his wife and daughter are safe he also doesn't know for sure if they're still in a room she his wife divorced him just after he moved to the united states but he understands why marriage to him he says has made her a marked woman adrian brown al-jazeera interim chief. the u.s. ambassador just relying guy has weighed in on the constitutional crisis the same

parliament should have to should have a say in who the prime minister is maybe two weeks ago the president to fire the prime minister or we could have a single who's refusing to leave his official residence in colombo but smith reports. this is the official residence of sri lanka's prime minister temple trees and it's where ronald witnessing has been staying for the last twelve days refusing to leave and it's become essentially a place where his supporters rally to defend the ousted prime minister's position the center of the temple trees compound has become a sort of a headquarters for supporters of the ousted prime minister they've been having press conferences in here every day this one is for a minister who's crossing to support single and on the other side of the compound this is like banqueting hall because this is the sort of gathering place for all the people who want to keep the missing guy in the prime minister's job is banqueting hall used to hosting heads of state instead become sort of a campsite people stay here overnight to show their support for the ousted prime

minister. to put take the democracy of the country to put protect the constitution of the country and to protect the someone and of the people it does become a good lesson for the whole bird how to safeguard and how to keep respect i mean democracy that's it and you must you must thank everybody on this basis of course who are here they have been trained to democracy. in america. and occasionally prime minister asked if i minister meets his supporters and this is where final week from a singles have to stay for the last twelve days or so impertinent a single at any major lankan politician is the support of buddhist monks is the majority made here in sri lanka and is important for people to show the politicians to show that as well as a parliamentary majority they have put it behind. us. to the midterm elections of course these are the pictures coming in from nevada queues of people still waiting

several states keeping their polling stations open we'll have more. news coming in from the chosen its first female democratic governor overturning a republican incumbent more on the on the other side of the break stay with us here on al jazeera.

international. and hundred forty twelve on. u.s. and british companies have announced the biggest discovery of natural gas in west africa but what to do with these untapped natural resources is already a source of heated debate nothing much has changed they still spend most of their days looking forward to for the dry riverbed like this one five years on the syrians still feel battered or even those who managed to escape their country have been truly unable to escape the we're. getting to the heart of the matter the three big challenges facing human crime in the twenty first century and they are look real war climate change and technological destruction facing realities whatever it is they have to fear is not in me it is in the people of your kind here their story

on talk to al-jazeera. al-jazeera where and for you. the first polls are closed on results are beginning to come in from crucial midterm elections across the united states at stake every season the house of representatives one third of the senate and possibly trumps political legacy.