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 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 says lieutenant governor just in fairfax 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 because 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 leave the state one place is all over or if the social troubles one thought to be confined to history well ever see a true end. castro al-jazeera richmond virginia well the weather's coming up but still. i feel like i'm like i'm a pawn in some game but i have no control over just weeks before bret's it is due to happen u.k. citizens living in e.u. countries grow increasingly worried and angry also. i'm natasha potter in the

french village where i was told of how many prime the iranian revolution. how low we've got more when she whether pushing across the middle east some rather disturbed weather actually just piling in across. the mediterranean we will have outbreaks of rainfall the eastern med just around cyprus pushing into the levant fifteen celsius in the cloud and the rain for by right looking rather disappointing on sunday will make its way further a so make the most of that sunshine in baghdad in kuwait city eighteen or nineteen degrees at just the. apologist way across iraq west assad of iran seeing some rather disturbed weather from time to time north of the country up towards the caspian sea could also see some snow little more clout there you can see just driving its way over towards afghanistan but kabul stays

largely dry it's cloudy at around eight degrees celsius some cloud to across northern parts of saudi arabia on the same weather system then so a chance of some rain in spots of rights any possibility towards central parts of saudi riyadh could see some wet weather and that really disturbed weather piling outs of kuwait city heavy downpours western parts of iran could see some localized flooding even catch your sport of rain here in kata is in doha at around twenty three degrees good chance this is right across the eastern side of south africa as well as we go on through sunday and those showers intensifying for monday. sound kill ten family members and want to tell me when the war is past and the people in power and meets the women heading an eighteen man militia . and dispensing justice with an unforgiving hand.

and eye for an hour. in iraq on al-jazeera. welcome back you're watching i was there with me cell raman a reminder of our top stories the u.s. banks syrian democratic forces they have started to push out of its last pocket of terror a trick more than twenty thousand people have been moved it's also the political crisis in venezuela has turned into a deadlock over consignment of u.s. aid sitting on the colombian side of the border the opposition is trying to work out how to get it into the country and thousands of anti-government protesters are

calling for haitian president driven our boys you to resign accusing him of being involved in corruption some demonstrators have thrown rocks at his home. let's head to south asia now where a journalist who's known for his criticism of pakistan's government has been arrested outside his home in lahore. says his father was beaten by officers as they took him away on saturday morning police say he's being investigated for making defamatory comments about the judiciary government and intelligence services journalists in pakistan say they've been working in an increasingly hostile climate since prime minister sharon can claim to power last year the government denies it's targeting the media unfairly. to north africa now where egyptian president of the a c c is set to chair the african union at its annual summit which begins in ethiopia on sunday and amnesty international fears this could undermine the a hughes commitment to human rights organizations expressed concern over the

potential impacts he sees chairmanship could have on the independence of regional human rights mechanisms and their future engagement with civil society goes on to list violations it says were carried out by egyptian authorities including enforce disappearances and mass killings during a wave of demonstrations in twenty thirteen that year the african union suspended egypt's membership when sisi led the military coup against the democratically elected president mohammed morsi tough america is a social and political commentator he says president c. sees a u. leadership will prove to be damaging. ultimately the choice of having c.c. as the leader of the e.u. is a clear indication that although things have changed. or things are supposedly changing the fact is we are. being very retrogressive we're actually going back to probably

the eighty's ninety's type of situation where the leaders are very reluctant to allow more human rights to be available to to the people and i think importantly in the fact that sisi virtually rigged an election won it by ninety seven ninety eight percent. tells you a lot about how the a you will most likely respond to any electoral issues or any political issues around elections or on the continent and i think this is going to be a very bad year for africa in terms of moving forward on monday iran will mark forty years since the islamic revolution in the lead up to the anniversary we've been reporting on the changes iranians have seen in the time when khomeini returned from exile in one thousand nine hundred nine he's been living in france and since then the french government's had a complex relationship with tehran natasha butler explains why. 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 we commonly on the flight from paris was apple has son bernie sanders who later became the islamic republic's first president today benny sajid lives in exile in france he fled iran in one thousand nine hundred one but his memories of that flight forty years ago fifty eight. 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. bunny 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 iran sharp it didn't prevent common his 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 for 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 presents a man who will not cost supports dialogue with tehran so applause to. paris is iran

as the only stable poland's middle east a ship that disappeared iraq and syria over so dear it isn't just a great power to prison on track or like obama believes iraq is a region's only country of the future of 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 the sasha butler al-jazeera nothing to france. when voters in thailand head to the polls next month many will be hoping for an outcome that leads to improved human rights particularly free speech the military has run the country since the coup in twenty fourteen as wayne hay explains from bangkok. seeking justice and says a small group gathered outside the office of the thai prime minister in bangkok and

like they risked a wrist to demand an investigation into the murder of two critics of the military government and monarchy and the disappearance of another they went missing from neighboring laos and in december the bodies of two of them were found in the mekong river teil authorities say they had nothing to do with the murders all of these cases create a fear among people like people are afraid to express their views and opinions especially about establishment such as the monarchy no one dares to do anything even to demand the rights of the dead. some york was arrested before the coup and spent seven years in jail for criticizing the royal family in articles published in his magazine i mean you know he says when he was released last year he found that human rights had to rewrite to dramatically under military rule inspiring him to continue fighting for democracy and free speech the government has used several laws to try to stifle dissent charging people with sedition or violating the

computer crimes act or things they're posted online and after the coup there was a surge in the number of people charged with insulting the monarchy. the military has also used less overt tactics like harassment to silence critics for the past ten years the hosts of this web show have divided thailand's politicians since the coup that been summoned by soldiers and continue to be watched closely. angry. these intimidation and during these time. until now they still. come in the form of information officer. on my twitter. facebook. my instagram or my wife i'm confident the election and the reintroduction of opposition voices to parliament will help ease restrictions but others aren't sure anything will change because of

a constitution that allows for an elected senators and even an appointed prime minister. in the near future is still hopeless for thailand we should brace for more chaos and conflict because i don't think a chile civilian government will before. until it is those whose voices haven't been silenced say they'll continue to use their words and actions to push for change as thailand begins another episode of its turbulent political story wayne hay al jazeera bangkok now and the immigration protesters have formed a human chain on the u.s. border with mexico chanting in support of donald trump's proposed wall they want construction to continue between el paso in the state of texas and. the mexican side trump wants congress to approve funding for his long promised border wall but democrats are refusing thousands of refugees and migrants from central america are in temporary shelters hoping the u.s. will grant them asylum. river which flows through new delhi

also polluted environmentalist can survive with needs of liters of sewage or dumped into the river every day. reports. at first it seems these fishermen are paddling to snow but the foam resting on the murky black water is sewage parts of the illinois river flowing through new delhi have been labeled dead best so polluted very life is able to survive yet many people depend on the river for their livelihood. or the pollution aphex business left with the fish used to try for now they cannot survive. because the entire city's waste is being dumped into the yemenite ever the government doesn't do anything to clean it. it's illegal yet industrial waste rubbish and untreated sewage are dumped into the young. almost four hundred million liters of sewage comes from

new delhi every day and more than half of that is left untreated. prime minister narendra modi's government has been pumping millions of dollars into projects to clean up india's rivers. but environmental experts say it's not working the delhi government has still not filed a single case under the water act against any polluter so far as the human is concerned in the whole country was in not more than twenty cases that existed under the provisions of the water prevention of pollution act which provides for imprisonment punishment for any person who is actually polluting a river. the hindu community considers the way the sacred but it ceremonies carry their own breath dog and that is they look at it then it's people who dirty the river is the residents who've made it impure but for me it's not dirty i drink this

water too. for many the river kinds is the spirit but the mix of sewage and pollution is also damaging health and destroying livelihoods laura that is badly al-jazeera that's a to europe now where britain's departure from the european union is due to happen in just six weeks and the future of one of the half million u.k. citizens living in other e.u. states is still a clear dominic kane but one of them in germany. at home in prince labelle 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 trance 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 pawn in some game no controller 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 so many german firms have trade links with britain like 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 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 so we will 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 kane al-jazeera. georgiades there with me is the whole rama reminder of our top stories that the

u.s. backed syrian democratic forces say they've started to push eisel out of its last remaining territory the kurdish fighters say the offensive is focused on the village of but who's in eastern province u.s. strives to help them to surround deisel members but in recent weeks more than twenty thousand civilians have left the area so. this battle will be sealed in the next coming days. most of the terrorist in back and is a fallen in the last two months most of hundred hours them were arrested they were foreign. there are varying numbers according to civilians who are leaving because there may be about a thousand civilians in the two in five hundred six hundred terrorists so that means there may be close to two thousand or three thousand civilians the political crisis rocking venezuela has turned into a standoff over a consignment of u.s. aid sitting on the colombian side of the border the opposition is trying to work out how to get it into the country the aid was blocked by the venezuelan military

which remains loyal to president nicolas maduro but the aid is part of american efforts to push him from power. protestors in haiti have thrown rocks at the president's home and fought with police during a third day of anti-government demonstrations at least three people have died since the rally started in the capital port au prince. demonstrators are calling for haitian president of the more easy to resign that angry about economic mismanagement and allegations of corruption from one of the. president and all of his cabinet must resign he's not thinking or acting in the interest of the people who get it one way or another we want him gone a journalist who is known for his criticism of pakistan's government has been arrested outside his home in the red sea son says his father was beaten as officers took him away on saturday morning police say he's been investigated for making defamatory and of not just comments journalists in barca's than say they've been working in an increasingly hostile climate since prime minister in runcorn came to

power last year the government denies that of course you can follow all of those stories on our website at al-jazeera dot com i'll be back with more news in half an hour but next on al-jazeera its people in power do stay with us. afghanistan has the best geology of both men and resources i'd refer to why are they so poor the measuring lawyers you guys will quit fighting which form the government. the toxic plant essentially now and the more we lead to stand the more they push back we knew it was coming the question was do we sit back and wait for to surprise them with a preemptive strike talking about going on just here. for over three years i ceased control to tara college costs of northern iraq it was

driven out in late two thousand and seventeen local militias began searching for fugitives reaching out the harshest justice on suspect fighters and civilians collaborators one of the most vengeful malicious is led by a woman. journalist tom kline went to meet a. how many years how do. you are saying the old machine something the out of all of. you need to figure down with you off the idea tell us what i mean it's.

this their share got you know what a phone you talk and hour on why he die a nothing yet a case of not just mocked and a do to open a don't close me. between two thousand and fourteen and two thousand and seventeen launch an area of northern iraq well into isis control. us back to iraqi forces we covered this territory. by september two thousand and sixteen managed to push the insurgents out of the cities you can pull shit district which lies between the cities it to create in mosul. isolated pockets of isis resistance remained. the task of mopping up isis resistance and check out a screen left the hands of different local militias one of the most high profile of these is led by we're here to mohammad al jamal the better known as

a model. i think that there are special fluent i disappointed never let anything. on my i mean if you're not an understanding and i know many muslims that you know. that this is the photo of it all and these are quite a. whole she is special insight. so. we're in sure cat about eighty kilometers south of mosul accompanied by our interpreter we're about to meet the local militias near legendary commander that is it. so. warmly received by wahid a mohammed first glance it's hard to imagine how this forty year old woman could

have such a ferocious reputation but she and her eighty man militia played a key role in driving out of town and i've since shown the determination to keep it that way. that she. left a lot. of it's been home and. surrounded africa in more than our. name amy is each other sure. and. i says to clover she caught in the summer of two thousand and fourteen a life for many of the region's hundred thousand strong population became a nightmare but what he did tells us not everyone here was against their presence.

hired men. other than as an image i would be. the one minute in. getting timothy. involved have some. news. when going enough so highly and so as. we move on to what he does headquarters to meet some of her militiamen. she took over that command from her husband who was killed fighting insurgents. or woman to wield such authority is still very rare in the arab world. the times

where the. militias like these cannot keep the peace and much of northern iraq. the regular iraqi army has been severely depleted of both men and resources. battle to save the territory but without the support of six local groups its fate isis still attempt to reestablish a presence. the men follow what he does without question. constantly vigilant thinks the insurgent force is still at large in the area. where she is so although my job. is to. defend. but to shout about. the horn over this stuff. overseas so all my job. over the past two years will he to survive numerous attempts on her life. as

a female commander she's a symbolic target for the likes of isis and off. but she's paid a high price for her to finance. the sort of the model can and how to begin a how to. channel top. general on moves this. sort of. lead in. let's. no of a shame mob wanted to be bad in the title of a shot of god to islam are going to come again it's been need to be used to. allow that ash the ruthlessness shown by isis joining its years of control has left an as yet unquenched appetite for revenge against those who've lost loved ones. going to our farm or vegas i've been in a band i. do know. there's a foreigner. and that's. because if your feet are on track mommy but they do all

the kinds of dylan thank goodness when i'm shut in on the male folk at the shop in the shit. and. yeah the only. thought is that a good teacher. is a willing to discuss on camera about what she does with the prisoners whether the most to the facebook page of informal. finance these are all blue dishes the main house main house and made for media for more main houses not. being gay i'll say i'll submit the book is racial wasn't made while i'm thinking about how much did i know but i was so nervous and what about della we're told that many of the town's inhabitants it being isis sympathizers.

now the family elders are quick to come out and pay homage if you want so i know you're going to get. caught i'm just of just a little large his control over this part of iraq has been suppressed full central government will thought and has yet to fill the vacuum. in the meantime what he does militia is the only effective law and order presence. but what that means in. article terms hasn't yet become clear. the next morning we get a chance to find out more breaking to investigate reports the families accuse of having ties with the insurgents have been on the receiving end of punishment. but he this fight is getting ready for an operation. to boost morale she disappear cigarettes. she wants to hit

the road and head to a village or battle with militants is on the way. given permission to ride along. although the area has been liberated isolated icy cells are still capable of launching sporadic attacks. the closer we get to the fighting the greater the number of checkpoints manned by iraqi forces. have to go to the village stopped by another local militia. when most of them just about. got myself a new. book out all of them where nigeria among. the general does nothing. just about how you got it i mean in the. truck.

it's. easy. to want to. walk outside of us trying to suck a cock sucker somebody else that. we're taken to a field where we are shown iraqi army weapons and ammunition captured by isis and now recover from the insurgents that now. back in the hands of the local militia really. more. of us a bit of their. own an old soul dies on. the bill but the president does have the muscle of the. obvious it would model for generations. as. i don't mean is so in a debate. where he didn't

expect to work until carefully looking for any items that could be of use to his unit. in the last. debate if you could seward. a saudi. yanni when they had any gen. shonen lao and miller she had more but. i don't. know what is the fault of. the mob what they. thought about going. is a great figure to many iraqi soldiers fighting isis. as a woman she embodies the countries all positions of the groups in the.