on the ground joining us for this historic shift in american politics to bring you more room we need documentaries and. on and on line. the joint resolution is passed. the u.s. house of representatives votes to end support for the war in yemen. i'm sami's a than this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up at least twenty seven revolutionary guards are killed in a suicide bomb attack in iraq. how racism and death threats led to one group of people to sue u.s. car giant general motors'. thomas in the pacific island country of van i want to

explain the wife born funded infrastructure projects like this new road the battle between china and the west but influence and power in the pacific. we begin in the u.s. house of representatives which has passed a resolution to end american military involvement in the saudi led war in yemen it's a direct review of the trumpet ministration support for the kingdom the measure now faces a contentious vote in the senate trump says he'll veto it shabbat council reports from washington d.c. . this is a five minute vote this is the vote that the house of representatives then controlled by the republicans refused to allow last year with control having shifted to the democrats passage of a resolution ending u.s. involvement in the yemen war it was never in doubt nearly all of the bombs that

have fallen say the same thing made in the united states of america they fall on weddings they fall on hospitals and on homes they fall on funerals reputable refugee camps and school busses i am mindful that this debate is taking place a day after the president disregarded the law and failed to report to congress who was responsible for the murder of journalist jamal to shogi. the murder of dramatic last october has moved allies members of congress against the saudi led war in yemen in fact as one republican noted democrats didn't seem concerned when the previous president began helping the bombardment of a country that would have been nice if our friends were equally concerned with president obama actually was committing us to the kinds of activities we're talking about but things have changed and if anything anger has grown on capitol hill for several reasons the white house's refusal to meet

a congressional deadline to definitively conclude whether crown prince mohammed bin salman was responsible for the killing a new york times report that revealed u.s. intelligence had intercepted a phone call in which the crown prince threatened to put a bullet into the journalist reports that despite having been officially fired as a result of his role in the killing of south alcatel he remains a close aide of the crown prince and the reported u.s. weapons supplied to saudi arabia have ended up in the hands of al qaeda fighters in yemen but it was seen as a split between conservative and progressive democrats the republicans did manage to get bipartisan support for an amendment to the bill allowing the president to continue what it calls appropriate information sharing with the saudis last year a similar resolution was passed in the republican controlled senate an unprecedented assertion of congressional authority limiting the powers of a president to make war under the war powers act the resolution sponsors are hopeful it will pass again in the senate however without

a two thirds majority from both chambers of congress president trump can and has indicated he will veto the bill the first veto of his term and the administration maintains it is acting appropriately america's not caring for america's taken more action in response to the tragic murder of jamal khashoggi i will continue to take more action but if the white house had hoped that opposition to saudi arabia would dissipate in washington in twenty nineteen they've been disappointed she every time see al-jazeera washington has to have is the co-director of just foreign policy and u.s. advocacy group lobbying congress to find an end to yemen's war he says the house votes who is likely to have leverage to negotiations on the ground. it's a wonderful bipartisan moment let's take a look at what's happening on the ground in yemen right now on december thirteenth u.n. special envoy to yemen martin griffis was able to secure

a cease fire between the two sides the hobbies and the whose peace because of the congressional pressure on the trumpet ministration in saudi arabia now that has been a fragile cease fire the suffering in yemen remains on the biblical scale twelve million people on the brink of famine and talks are resuming again right now they're actually griffiths's in who data province right now in the harbor on the boat talking to both sides they're trying to agree to the prisoner exchange fifteen thousand prisoners to be exchanged between the two sides and also to have the forces inside of data province redeployed now so this vote the timing of this vote creates tremendous leverage for those peace talks so i think you could have a real of impact on the ground. at least twenty seven members of iran's revolutionary guards have been killed in a suicide bombing near the border with pakistan the attacker drove a vehicle filled with explosives into a bus carrying the guards local media say the sunni armed group has claimed

responsibility for the attack happened as a u.s. sponsored two day summit gets under way in poland the focus is middle east security but it's widely been labeled as an anti iran conference thousands of iranians use the meeting as an opportunity to call for a change in leadership of israel's prime minister of course contriver see with his explanation of the summits become an issue but we've got this meeting is not in secret this is an open meeting with representatives of leading arab countries that are sitting down together with israel in order to advance the common interest with iran representatives from sixty nations are meeting at the are at the meeting rather in warsaw including the u.s. secretary of state and vice president but russia isn't attending the e.u. has only sent low level delegates reports from warsaw. representatives from sixty nations but almost no head of state the much anticipated

u.s. led conference to promote peace and security in the middle east convened on wednesday evening in the polish capital warsaw with a little clarity as to what it's in to achieve initially washington had said the conference was being organized to confront what it described as the iranian threat that didn't sit well with several european countries forcing president donald trump's administration should rename the meeting. despite this small yet well funded and reigning government's protest was held in warsaw addressed by one of america's most ardent pro israel politicians former new york mayor rudy giuliani who i believe there has to be complete change i have a change of regime there has to be a democratic regime that respects human rights that for a non-nuclear iran that's for a peaceful around and then we can solve the problem the middle east the absence of world leaders and the trumpet ministrations perceived pro israeli bias when it comes to dealing with the middle east is proof the iranians say that the meeting

will fail on the course of war so conference i believe it's dead on arrival or dead before arrival i don't think it would do anything it's another attempt by this stage to pursue an obsession with iran that is not well founded and i think the fact that they did not even aiming to produce any agreed text rather than just tempting to make a statement by themselves on behalf of everybody indicates to you they don't even believe it to c.d.'s if it palestinian leaders to have been critical of the meeting urging federal arab nations to downgrade their representation at the conference they remain angered at the u.s. his decision to move its embassy to illegally occupied jerusalem and are questioning its ability to act as a mediator for peace secretary of state pompei or has said participants will also focus on discussing the wars in yemen and syria and come. watching groups like i saw but when it comes to those conflicts true there is a lack of diversity in representation with russia and the forces for example not

attending for all the high expectations held by the us for the warsaw comments knows just as much cynicism being expressed by countries who continue to you answer is role in the middle east and they believe in rather than positive now the trumpet ministration will point to the fact that the israeli prime minister will be meeting with representatives of arab regimes in public but that will have little impact on the daily reality of the millions of arabs who continue to live there under illegal occupation who are trying to drive their destruction. meanwhile the u.s. has issued new iran related sanctions on nine people and two companies it's also charged a former u.s. air office force officer rather was spying for iran it comes as the international court of justice ruled iran can proceed to recover billions of dollars of assets from the u.s. the money was frozen by the supreme court three years ago the u.s.

wants the money to be given to victims of attacks blamed on iran u.s. judge says donald trump's former campaign chief is breached his plea deal by lying to investigators poor man of forty has been found in violation of his agreement with the special counsel robert muller is investigating the russian implications of two thousand and sixteen u.s. election judge rules metaphor lied about his contacts with a russian associate mike hanna has more from washington d.c. . this represents a significant victory for robert miller's team the judge has agreed with prosecutors that paul monophysite has violated his plea bargain by lying on a number of occasions to the f.b.i. and to prosecutors themselves he will face sentencing in the same court before the same judge on the thirteenth of next month and clearly he could face extensive jail

time one must remember too that manifold is also facing sentencing in a separate case this one concerning financial crimes sentencing in that particular case was postponed pending the outcome of these pre-budget hearings but very clear that the special counsel's investigation is continuing apace not clear when or whether his report is going to be publicly released in the near future. the world's largest car maker is offering a twenty five thousand dollars reward for information about a string of racist threats at one of its plants graffitti and nooses were found that the general motors fact for you know high almost two years ago now the company's being sued by former employees who say it did little to combat racism john hendren has more from toledo how they were sure marcus boyd's promotion at general motors was followed by a warning the next day there was a noose over an area to any black man in america the meaning is clear and this is

a sign up that says. he says white subordinates refused to work for him one threatened him with a heavy clutch assembly and was suspended for one day gun magazines were left on his desk these were this. eventually he chose unemployment over harassment quitting his six figure supervisor position in going jobless for eight months nine black workers suing general motors for their treatment at its toledo ohio plant say secretly placed nooses barriers to advancement in racist graffiti and language were prevail they found bananas and monkey dogs on their desks to live on sledge says blacks were called boy in worse things in africa and i've heard some of the older older white. of course of course all the time doesn't happen you know. they move.

swastikas and racist graffiti were so prevalent in one men's room that g.m. had to close it the company said it has responded working to end workplace bigotry i'm outraged our leadership is outraged that this kind of behavior might exist anywhere it's not who we are at general motors is not who we are in manufacturing and i think everyone is working hard to rid this kind of behavior from our workplace completely not everybody the ohio civil rights commission found but we do not believe that the company did enough to get to troll or to even stop this type of behavior we were thinking could not be that bad is that bad and it's worse she says the incidents have continued in twenty nine teams will hire a civil rights commissions as usually when they investigate a case like this the incidents stop but in this case they say nooses kept

reappearing even after they launched their investigation marcus boyd says he's suing to change dmce corporate culture blakeney all our hate crimes happen and right here in the plant and not the ones being brought in their response is your management you're supposed to handle because this is what we hired for general motors is in a privileged position right now and they have an opportunity at this point to show that there are global leaders on sledge says he hopes g.m. takes that opportunity he still works at the plant and at the end of each shift he says he fears what tomorrow might bring john hendren al-jazeera toledo ohio. well still ahead on al-jazeera we have more on the man on a mission to strike a deal between the world's two largest economies before march the fourth. and it's all over the road over last year's opportunity mission comes to an end.

how about disruptive winter weather to get disruptive around ontario and is the head of this frontal system here will take until i think sometime after dawn to clear the northeast on the u.s. and it will keep going through these inside of canada for a while and then things quiet and until the next storm starts to brew but the real action possibly is further west there you know it snowed in seattle the forecast for thursday brings that's the for the high and indeed some of the lower ground right there on through california down towards mexico and that spreads fairly east was during friday might even take more snow back up to seattle that's like to break yet another record and if you notice the temp is relatively high both sides of this cold front that will be wet heavy sticky cloy destructors snow again for some time during friday so that's the u.s.

and canada for dropsondes to the caribbean the picture here is a lot quieter we have seen some big showers recently and they go together i think over for example cuba jamaica and up through the bahamas but that takes some of the strain away from honduras and yucatan where the rain's been fairly heavy recently and even the showers are drifting slowly east was giving a fine day for cuba on friday and you should join them in the bahamas. with the most eight billion people in the world production is under increasing strain to keep pace with the growing little people. in fine raiment two solutions programs discovers new ways of feeding the world sustainably. eighty thousand just on this because. it's unbelievable and see there's the vegetable of the sea right there. on al jazeera.

welcome back you're watching al-jazeera time to recap the headlines the u.s. house of representatives has passed a resolution to end american military involvement in the saudi led war in yemen it's a direct rebuke of the trump administration's support for the king the measure now faces a contentious votes in the senate and u.s. president says he'll veto it. at least twenty seven members of iran's revolutionary guards have been killed in a suicide bombing near the border with pakistan drove a vehicle filled with explosives into the bus and say these suddenly group has

claimed responsibility. this came as a u.s. sponsored conference opened in poland on the loose security widely seen as an attempt to isolate iran israel's prime minister binyamin netanyahu says the meeting will focus on what he calls a common interest in the war with iraq. the u.s. treasury secretary is in china to try and end a trade war between the world's two largest economies stephen and u.s. negotiators are hoping to reach an agreement on tariffs before an early march deadline without a deal here yes taxes on chinese goods all rise to twenty five percent a very imprint has more from beijing. well it may be valentine's day but there's not much love lost between trade negotiators from china and the united states the u.s. treasury secretary steve minucci in left his hotel in beijing on thursday morning saying he was looking forward to these talks but he wouldn't elaborate for these

talks to succeed though there has to be some goodwill on both sides both sides are trying to reach a framework of a deal that they can put to president xi jinping and president donald trump for them to sign but there are a number of sticking points for the united states it's the issue of verification making sure that china sticks to its word on what is agreed here in beijing i understand that the two sides are discussing a mechanism whereby tariffs would be automatically raised if china didn't keep to its side of the bargain now of course the united states has other complaints it believes that the way china does business is unfair many of its trade practices it wants reformed in particular the vast subsidies that the government gives to domestic companies here in china and of course there's also the issue of companies here in the united states who enter into joint venture arrangements with chinese

partners being forced to hand over their intellectual property their know how as a condition for doing business here in china but these are big complex issues and it's doubtful that they can be resolved between now and early march so i think what you're likely to see here in beijing a best is a partial superficial deal on the issue of tariffs and the two sides would have to continue negotiations on those other outstanding issues. to counter china's growing influence in the south pacific us trade as prime minister says he wants to step up his country's in gauge when there recently scott morrison visited the tiny island nation of vanuatu where he discussed how the two countries can work closer together andrew thomas reports from port vila in vanuatu. most roadworks around vanuatu are overseen by someone from china and it's money from china that is praying for this either through loans on generous terms or as their buy

a huge convention center paid for by china is having its car park resurfaced across pacific island countries state link chinese companies accounting increasingly active china has been around for a long time but the nature of its definitely changed in the last few years both in terms of the quantity and the diversification analysts see projects like the as a way for china to win friends and with those recipient countries help project its power and influence we continue to try to maximise the opportunities for development for our country and also of course we are happy to support aspirations of our friends when they need us to support them with boats and so on in the united nations they have been rumors that china wants to take a specific relationships but other and establish a military base in the pacific island country there's concern too that china could strategically important assets if the pacific island countries are unable to pay

back the debts used to build them analysts in beijing though dismissed such concerns. even if these countries are in debt to china they can still make independent decisions they won't listen to china just because china is their debt collector that's very unrealistic even so the big western power in the south pacific australia is concerned its prime minister says his country should be the partner of choice in the south pacific mr. riley and prime minister by offering one of the friday has made it almost thirty years so morrison full face. stretching out in this region many say the long journey australian aid in vanuatu is more about human than physical investment in port vila australian paramedics. the training their counterparts but elsewhere in the pacific australia in partnership with the united states has just announced it will establish a naval base on papua new guinea's man of silence can you say hand on heart that

this stepping up would be happening if china's presence wasn't being felt here we're here because we believe in the region and always have and we will continue to be here because we believe in the peace and prosperity and stability and independence and sovereignty of our region analysts say australia sees china's implodes as a potential threat to sovereignty independence stability and maybe even to peace which is why the battle for influence and power in the pacific has begun after thomas al-jazeera. venezuela's opposition controlled congress is named new boards of directors to the state owned oil company opposition leader one of the appointments of directors or through the venezuelan subsidiary citgo petroleum the opposition is trying to gain control of the oil industry which various way to relies heavily on. meanwhile aid remains blogs from entering venezuela u.s.

president says but they're making a terrible mistake by not allowing it in he repeated that all options are on the table to force the venezuelan president. and certainly were reports from. opposition leader one way door sounds confident that nothing will stop him from brings food and medical aid into than israel on for every twenty third from across the colombian and brazilian borders. but president nicolas maduro vows to use the army to block it calling the main the usaid an imperialist trojan horse. so what is plan b. in israel as army remains loyal to mother little. one suggestion from opposition coalition leader medea could you know much else is to accuse me of little of crimes against humanity if he blocks the aids passage when there is a genocide or crimes against humanity the world cannot stay in the front when we are asking is. peace

a peace mission that helps these. being delivered to those who are mostly need she couldn't say whether that meant using military force but on wednesday u.s. president donald trump refused to rule it out when he met colombian president even a key ally and staunch opponent of mughal i just want to thank the president for working with us and we're working together our militaries are very focused on working together. let's see how it all turns out. mother a strong man near the colombia border says that minister is ready to defend itself from what he believes is the likeliest threat military aggression from colombia freddy but now argues colombia's leader is taking orders from his mentor former president. a sworn enemy of model. already bases colombia doesn't need the americans to invade venezuela because the colombian armed forces are ready to do it

all they need is logistical support from the us. why though insists he wants to avoid a military conflict but he's hoping the threat of one might convince venezuela's military to turn on motherhood all this as more calls for dialogue appear to four on deaf ears the clock is ticking and there are absolutely no signs of a compromise on either side and significantly for the first time the opposition appears to be united in that the only thing it's willing to discuss with president mahmoud is the time and manner of his departure. and that something metal insists is non-negotiable as the high stakes power struggle escalates. we see in human i'll just see that access at least six people have died after nearly a week of anti-government protests in the demonstrators are calling on president governor. down there angry about rising costs economic stagnation and corruption

and tuesday's seventy eight inmates escaped from a prison. green during the protests also reports of looting in the capital when you are part of has more from port au prince. anti-government demonstrations have reached day seven in haiti clashes between demonstrators and police continue and we should mention that the that the situation on the ground is rather tense apart from tear gas police have been using live direct live rounds to disperse protesters we can confirm that at least eight people have been killed within the context of this current political crisis we most recently heard of a journalist that was shot in the arm earlier this afternoon now there have been attacks against the presidential palace there was an attempted attack outside of the airport today there's been looting of stores even just driving around the city of port au prince there's roadblocks scattered across the city there's dry wood and tires presumably waiting to be set on fire in the vent that more clashes take place

and what we're hearing from people from locals here overwhelmingly is a call for the president to step down unfortunately we haven't heard any sort of speech or any or any statement from president. he says there was word that the government ministers would be meeting this afternoon although even there we still haven't heard of what that meeting was about or any sort of statement from government ministers members of the president's political opposition have joined in on the demonstrations that are taking part in these in these protests and once again there's a very unified call for the president to step down and there's one more thing that we should mention that very important is that port au prince itself the city is being brought to its knees it's pretty much at a standstill schools are closed shops are closed supermarkets are closed government services are halted and speaking to an economist earlier today he's told us that just in the last seven days the impact the economic impact of the political crisis could be measured in the tens of millions of dollars that's

a staggering amount of money considering that haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere certainly the poorest country in latin america so the sense that we get is that not only will these protests continue in the coming days there's still room for the political crisis itself to worsen. at least nine people have been killed and through after a truck collided with a minivan the crash took place on the pan-american south highway between you know and the driver of the minivan died on impact survivors have been taken to local medical centers for treatment nigeria's election commission is promising saturday's presidential vote will go ahead the two main presidential candidates will have a bihari and. signed a peace accord pledging to participate in free and fair elections the leaders of nigeria's most popular political parties and worried observers with accusations of blocking access to campaign rallies and vote rigging plans it's the end of an era in mars exploration nasa has formally announce the demise of its longest running

rover on the red planet mission lasted a remarkable fifteen years the opportunity rover landed on mars back in two thousand and four with a projected mission of just three months powered by solar panels opportunity was still going strong until communication finally seized in a massive sandstorm last june. thank you thank you. and let's take you through some of the headlines here in al-jazeera now the u.s. house of representatives has passed a resolution to end american military involvement in the saudi led war in yemen it's a direct rebuke of the trumpet ministration support for the king the measure now faces a contentious vote in the senate u.s. president says he'll veto it at least twenty seven members of iran's revolutionary guards have been killed in

a suicide bombing near the pakistan border the attacker drove a vehicle filled with explosives into their bass local media say so in the armed group has claimed responsibility. this came as a u.s. sponsored conference opened in poland on the security situation in the middle east is widely seen as an attempt to isolate iran because. we've got this meeting is not in secret this is an open meeting with representatives of leading arab countries that are sitting down together with israel in order to advance the common interest with iran. now u.s. judge says donald trump's former campaign chief has breached his play deal by lying to investigators all manifolds has been found in violation of his agreement with the special counsel robert muller is investigating russian interference in the two thousand and sixteen u.s. election the judge ruled for intentionally lied about his contacts with a russian associate venezuela's opposition controlled congress is named new boards

of directors to the state owned oil company opposition leader one way though announced the appointments of directors of truly are still very and it's us subsidiary citgo petroleum the opposition is trying to gain control of the oil industry which venezuela relies heavily on last month the u.s. which bank's credo announced impose rather sanctions on the country's oil sector and called it immoral and criminal. and you can get more on all those stories we've been telling you about if you head over to our web site al-jazeera dot com you can see the address there on the screen earthrise next stay with us. the week began with views of ninety day truce in the tip for tap us china trade all the world's largest supplier of

liquefied natural gas is leaving the biggest oil cartel we bring you the stories that are shaping the economic world we live in counting the cost on al-jazeera. there are seven and a half billion people on earth and they all need to be bad. but producing food requires huge amounts of land water and is one of the major contributors the policeman and climate change. half of the planet's habitable surface is cultivated for crops. but forests are being cleared for industrial animal farming and commercial fishing isn't.