well warren joins an increasingly crowded field of democrats vying for the chance to challenge president on the trump eight candidates have now thrown their hat into the ring they include new jersey senator cory booker longtime prosecutor and california senator come of the harris and barack obama's former housing secretary julian castro and several others have also signaled their interest in entering the race twenty sixteen democratic camp candidate and vermont senator bernie sanders is expected to run again and form about vice president joe biden said in december he is the most qualified person for the job well eric cam is a political analyst author and radio host and he joins us now live from washington d.c. eric as we've just described this is an increasingly crowded field what are elizabeth warren's chances are actually elizabeth warren enters the race actually on a very strong footing she's got an amazing war chest she's got a rabbit base of followers and supporters and she's actually done

a lot of the legwork for the all important iowa caucuses so expect elizabeth warren to run really strong and she actually set the pace for the rest of the field as she's already attacked her her space in terms of focus on focusing on working class and middle class voters in workers and we already know that president donald trump sees her as someone who he has gone after and so i think that will actually embolden her with many of her already legion of supporters there's been some controversy about her claims to native american heritage how's that playing out now . well she like many other candidates who've already got in the race particularly camila harris and julian castro she enters the race what a normal amount of upside but also the downside because of this issue of her native american heritage that simply will not go away she has not been able to put that issue to rest and it continues to dog her and it could be zero and anchor around

her candidacy for the duration of the campaign does that i guess stand off with donald trump over that issue does that galvanize has support as a whole you know actually it does not in fact be running for president and running in the democratic primaries it will have some issue but i don't think it will be the singular focus or reason if she does not become the candidate why however if she becomes the democratic candidate and when she needs to move to the center that issue could be and could be good polls problematic for her because she will need to actually court those all important democratic swing voters and that issue could force them to stay home one is also one of a number of female democratic candidates what does all of this mean for female leadership within the party. what we're seeing i think is a race that is shaping up to look much like what we saw in two thousand and eight

when president barack obama and hillary clinton staked their candidacies for the presidency we're going to see i think an energized democratic field and also a base this energetic energized because many of the kid it is that we're seeing already at least the top tier candidates many of the democratic base are very happy with the and the issues that they are focusing on and so i think it's going to be a crowded field and we're going to see a number of people of color and women actually jockeying for the for the the for there can't for the candidates to lead the party but i think what it does is it energizes the base brings more people into the tent and overall i think it's going to make it that much more difficult for president donald trump running in two thousand and twenty political analyst eric hand speaking to us there from washington d.c. thank you eric for joining us well the governor of the u.s. state of virginia has made his first public appearance since defying calls to

resign over a racism scandal rough northern attended a funeral service for a state police trooper the democrat is facing controversy over a photo taken in one thousand nine hundred eighty four showing students dressed in black face and as the ku klux klan more than denies it was him but later admitted to wearing blackface to another college party. and it's not the only leadership scandal plaguing the state of virginia the deputy governor just in fairfax also a democrat has been accused of rape and sexual assault he's denied the allegations calling it a smear campaign how do you cast her has more on the political turmoil from the state capitol and. the turmoil engulfing virginia's president has roots in the state's racist past a century and a half ago as virginia led fellow slave owning states into the american civil war white actors painted their faces black to walk and humiliate enslaved blacks the

war ended slavery but not blackface but john was most popular character jim crow became the symbol of racial segregation that continued into the one nine hundred fifty s. and now these photos tied to virginia's current political leaders connect that racism to the present there's always necessarily been a belief that black people were inferior to justify slavery and segregation and two and two i don't want to say excuse but explain why they are lower in society in terms of income and education and so when you put on blackface you're essentially making a caricature of someone that you think is lesser then you governor ralph northam continues to resist calls to resign he's wavered on whether it's him in the photo from his college yearbook but says he did wear black face on another occasion i look back now and regret that i did not understand the harmful legacy of an action like that virginia's attorney general admitted this week he also wore black face in

the eighty's in the states senate majority leader edited a college yearbook with these photos of fellow virginia military institute students to a nightmare a nightmare in virginia right now and we needed to and two of the three leaders in the black face scandal are democrats having campaigned on racial equality to win votes in a state that was recently a republican stronghold now the democrats rise in virginia is in jeopardy and the party's national efforts to draw a contrast with the race politics of donald trump is damage. that but my. particular party but the democrats troubles in virginia go beyond race just as lieutenant governor just dims their facts seemed poised to replace the embattled governor two women including this college professor came forward to accuse fairfax of sexual assault their facts denies the allegations does anybody

think it's any coincidence that on the eve of potentially being elevated that's when this uncorroborated smear comes out does anybody believe that's a coincidence coincidence or not the cascading scandals have thrown virginia into political chaos it's unclear who will lead the state once this is all over or if the social troubles one thought to be confined to history will ever see a true end. castro al-jazeera richmond virginia. dozens of people have died in northern india after drinking contaminated alcohol the government ordered a crackdown after three separate incidents in the past few days priyanka got that reports. people in the northern indian city of so hard core are in shock families of those killed by contaminated alcohol are trying to piece together what happened to cities and the town in the same region coping with the same crisis.

he complained of severe stomach ache so i took him to get an injection he was better then slept off to come back home the pain came back so we took him to the hospital again a steady stream of patients are being we didn't to nearby hospitals time is of essence. those who couldn't be saved are piled into trucks but these are just the cases that have come to light and we know that we are trying to find out if anyone else has consumed the liquor has it been kept in any of the homes we are investigating the state governments of through our kind and. have promised to crack down on illegal brute alcohol cerm are important because we have suspended six foreign portman officials including the third the sub inspector among others who are responsible for curbing these kind of illegal train according to a latest government report at least fifteen hundred indians died from digging

contaminated alcohol in twenty fifteen the victims are often from poor communities who are unable to afford liquor from licensed shops and buy it from unregulated suppliers who use toxic chemicals and even pesticides to save costs priyanka cook the of cedar thailand's princess one rots prime ministerial campaign is now in doubt after the opposition party backtracked on her nomination the party gave in to pressure from king but you're a long gone who described his sisters and bishan as inappropriate and unconstitutional the election commission will now have the final say on her candidacy the party part of ford to run against the prime minister a former army general who led a military coup in twenty fourteen scott hyla has more from bangkok. the princess and her party on saturday making statements about what has transpired over friday and in to saturday particularly what happened late friday night with that king's statement saying that was unconstitutional for her to be on the ballot for prime

minister now she said in an instagram posting she thanked her supporters and sent a message of love her party said that they have disbanded all campaigning for the time being they said that they will abide by the king's statements on friday night now what how and where things go from here we know that the election commission will be meeting on monday morning yes to discuss what has happened over the last couple of days we knew that they were going to have to meet anyway because some of the other parties particular the pro-military party had raised question about the princess being on the ticket for prime minister that was even before the king statement so we know we'll get some possible clarity maybe some answers on monday morning when the election commission meets but we're also hearing because the king had mentioned that this is unconstitutional and other parties saying it was illegal the constitutional court might also become involved on monday so these meetings happening monday morning will hopefully give some clarity as to what's going to happen moving forward nigeria's ruling all progressives congress party has held

a rally in lagos ahead of next saturday's election president bihari is hoping to secure a second. but the main opposition party has accused the president of trying to silence his rivals the people's democratic party says it's been kicked out of it planned rally venue. democratic republic of congo's new president felix she said katie has invited all political exiles to return home he made the announcement during a visit to the neighboring republic of congo where tens of thousands of people fled during former president joseph kabila seventeen year rule many of the exiles belong to the party founded by she's a katie's late father she said he was four sworn in last month marking the first peaceful democratic transition of power since independence. on monday iran will mark the fortieth anniversary of its islamic revolution in the lead up to the anniversary we've been reporting on the changes iranians have seen in that time when i had to when i had toller ruhollah khomeini returned from exile in one nine

hundred seventy nine he'd been living in france and since then the french government has had a complex relationship with tehran the talks about that takes a look back. it was a turning point in the iranian revolution ayatollah khomeini arriving in tehran in february one nine hundred seventy nine after fourteen years in exile in iraq and france with khamenei on the flight from paris was apple has son benny sadler who later became the islamic republic's first president today benny saturday lives in exile in france he fled iran in one thousand eighty one but his memories of that flight forty years ago are vivid. some fit the plane would be shot down naturally we were scared but the excitement was stronger after thirty years of exile to see iran in the people it was more than we could imagine the enthusiasm the joy and. danny sighed helped commenee during his exile in france in one thousand nine

hundred eighty eight he says france was chosen because iranians didn't need visas at the time and there was freedom of expression the french government was an ally of evolved sharp it didn't prevent harmony's arrival saying he was free to visit for nearly five months the ayatollah lived in the countryside near paris it was in this quiet village on this street that ayatollah khomeini planned the iranian revolution and each day dozens of his followers from across europe would come here to watch him pray and listen to him preach you. the french government had hoped that harmony would bring iran democracy but if you changed after nine hundred seventy nine can focus once france realized this wasn't just a transitory state and harmony's role wasn't only symbolic the french began to rethink then events such as the u.s. embassy hostage crisis meant france really changed its mind in the one nine hundred eighty s. france backed baghdad in the iran iraq war and relations with tehran broke down they continued to be strained for decades relations improved in twenty fifteen when

france signed the iran nuclear deal they're far from one today but presidency matter will not cost supports dialogue with tehran. paris's iran as the only stable proenza middle east a ship that is a period iraq and syria are over so dear it isn't just a great power to prison and clark or like obama believes iraq is a region's only country of the future last year the french government accused iranian security forces of plotting to kill iranian any k. opposition activists on french soil it was the latest sign for france the forty years after the revolution iran is some way from being the reliable ally the paris has long wished for sasha butler al-jazeera nothing to france. britain's departure from the european union is now just six weeks away but the future of british citizens living in other member states remains in limbo as many as one and

a half million britons live in the e.u. about one hundred fifty thousand of them in germany and as dominic han explains many are worried about the impact wrecks that might soon have on their lives. at home in prince la bella composer and musician richard scott experiments with mixing up sounds he performs right across the e.u. but now fears his british nationality could make that much harder so i guess what i would most like to be is not. a playing card or a chess piece and we were told at the beginning that we weren't going to be you know we're not going to be trading with people's lives but that's exactly what is happening on both sides so yeah i feel like i'm a i'm a pawn in some game that i have no control over however britain does leave the e.u. citizens will then find themselves having to register at places like this office for foreigners it's thought around one hundred fifty thousand british citizens are

living and working in germany right now perhaps around sixty percent of them have lived here long enough to qualify to obtain german citizenship but that still leaves the other forty percent around sixty thousand people who cannot and would there for find their freedom of movement potentially impede it. and that concern is not restricted just to u.k. citizens many german firms have trade links with britain likes to be a measuring instruments in the rhineland its chief executive says the idea of the u.k. crashing out of the e.u. is really on us who does worst case scenario is the heart of the worst case scenario is a heartbreaks it which would mean customs checks at the british border in less than three months for which no one is prepared it would be an absolute chaos of course we hope for a different outcome. on the political side of the german government has tried to give reassurances about what might happen if. we want to keep the damage and

breck's it will be damaging to a minimum of course continue to try and find a solution for an orderly exit but we also must head with the eventuality that there won't be an orderly solution. all for richard scott the simple solution is to become german he's lived here long enough to do so but many thousands cannot and for them with each passing day hard drugs it sounds increasingly worrying dominic a al-jazeera burl in. saudi arabia has denied claims it has any connection with the national enquirer as the u.s. tabloids dispute with amazon boss jeff bezos escalates there's also has accused the national enquirer as publisher am i of trying to blackmail him with private photographs after he hired an investigator to prove the coverage of him was politically motivated bezos also owns the washington post which employed and murdered a saudi journalist jamal khashoggi

a stray is the largest city sydney has been hit by severe storms causing flash flooding and cutting power to thousands of homes the downpour follows record rainfall in queensland last week which led to flooding in the state's northwest astray as agriculture minister toured the area where hundreds of thousands of cattle have died. still ahead. ellen picks the legend lindsey vonn is less than a day away from her retirement they will have more in sport. desperate for more news about newton speeders person you want to take a week or two officers need to work i need the money part of it i think it's humiliating because i thought i'd be somewhere else in my life in america risking it all to dump her. tone walgreens. for a better future always saying yes to the house do you want to sleep on things. on

al-jazeera. right out of a mosque or examining the headline within with the fractious issue of palestine and israel in the u.s. news and setting the discussions what makes them different as far as you're concerned sharing personal stories with a global audience nobody feels safe explore an abundance of world class programming designed to inform motivate and inspire. the world is watching on al-jazeera.