many others that are harder to reach is of the essence delayed response to their plight will only make things worse. and catherine can join us now from turkana county catherine we spoke earlier you said you were hearing of a food aid possibly being delivered to some areas can you update us on that. yes where we are right now is trucks of food that have just been brought trucks of water as well that have just been brought here and there will be flagged off by the governor of japan and other politicians and they will be going to the different villages where people are most. in desperate need of this food and water so we have seen this movement in the last few days been there aid agencies have been bringing food and water we've seen other kenyans of goodwill just coming in here and going to the villages to to deliver this food and water but the problem is this is

a vast region with very difficult terrain very difficult for people to reach many areas using via calls it's partially populated as well we have pastoralist communities that leave here and they live far apart from each other so it's very difficult to coordinate this logistics and to make sure that this food reaches those who need it most we're talking about a population of one point two million canales and we spoke to the governor who said that a half of that population is in need of food being told that many high does have moved to neighboring countries into areas closer to the border looking for pasture and water for their animals they've left behind we meant children and the elderly who are in dire need of this food so the situation is very bad and we're not just talking about candidate we're talking about other areas as well as i mentioned in that story that you aired thirteen counties have been read by the government and

these are counties that you know where drought is prevalent i read and said we are read areas of this country i'm catherine can you compare to other countries in africa kenya is a relatively prosperous country why has it come to this situation where this many people are suffering. well i did speak to the governor at length and he said that wall piece this droughts are normal in areas like this in semi area i mean i read areas like this so droughts are profile proof and there's nothing they can do he talked about. you know it was drought in two thousand and seven where the government declared a national disaster three point four million people were affected so he's saying that this is actually a bit better but a lot of kenyans are angry about this they've been talking about it on social media we've been talking to to can as well and they said look this is something that is

predictable this drought happened every two or three years and i've covered many of them particularly here into canada come here and we talk about the same issues about him i do see interventions long term solutions and then three years later we come back to the same situation people dying livestock dying people just unable to put food on their table so kenyans saying that look if this is predictable it has to be anticipated by the government the government needs to know when this is happening and needs to make sure that even if the reserve drought that is coming that there reason are food to mitigate this effects of this drug to make sure that nobody even drought nobody gets to go to bed hungry catherine soy or connor for a thank you call or malaria and other diseases are threatening survivors. in southern africa seven hundred people are so far confirmed killed and the total is expected to rise much of the ports in the city of bear. in mozambique is damaged

or destroyed survivors have been telling our correspondent tony berkeley. they are tired and traumatized but at least these victims of cyclamen eat i are safe now each one has their own harrowing story about the time the storms came each day more of them come mostly from boozy district. on monday which a batter is sixty five years of age he had a smallholding and lived alone he was rescued after spending four days stuck in a tree without food he says his life has changed forever i say i give little who will fight the land and i have nothing to go back to my farm my house all were destroyed there is nothing left i need to start afresh but i don't know how. he lives here now in the sim or in michelle's school in bira along with twelve hundred other displaced people. kristina arrived on saturday after surviving for four days

on the roof of a church in boozy her foot was infected after she stepped on a piece of submerged roofing while waiting to safety her future like many others is something she finds difficult to contemplate. from now on life will be difficult i will need food i will need shelter he's crying for food now but i don't know what he will be crying for when we go back. these people are getting three meals a day and access to medical care so safe and sound and drive but they have no idea when they'll be able to go back to their homes that is if they have a home to go back to. the massive emergency operation involves dozens of countries and it's costing more than fifty million dollars but the focus is now changing at the moment think that the that has the cute phase of risk is pretty much over those people need to be lifted out of raging water. people and trees and the top of causes most of that is as as as those people most of those people have been risking

their artwork the think the focus area at the moment is relief getting that relief to the people who need it is now an urgent. priority before cobra and other diseases break out the situation is improving but there are still risks of further flooding sadly the risk of flooding is ever present and ultimately we have red alerts known two of the major rivers one is a disease from zimbabwe to the sea and the other is the breezy river which is a short flat river which floods very easily as a really bad soul saturation of the germs and so we're facing multiple routes that won't affect these people their concern is the next meal and how to rebuild their homes their communities and their lives tony burke three zero zero zero. plenty more ahead this news hour including cycling veronica bears down on western australia people are braced for a storm surges and violent winds. and what to do with former isel fighters and

their families well chechnya seems to have found a way. to tell you about the gymnast who's going viral with the perfect ten and her choice of music will have those details in sports. there's been fierce fighting in the yemeni city of taiz between elements of the yemeni army supported by saudi arabia and fighters backed by the united arab emirates video has been shared online of several buildings on fire in taiz after days of intense street battles sources on the scene say a number of civilians were killed in the clashes a cease fire has since come into effect between the factions much of which is yemen's third biggest cities under the control of the yemeni army this week is the fourth anniversary of the start of the military offensive in yemen led by the saudi

u.a.e. led coalition thousands of people have been killed in iran twenty two million people depend on aid yemen's falling failing a quantum e has shrunk by fifty percent since twenty fifteen more than two thirds of small and medium businesses have laid off half their employees and food prices have more than doubled. pancha gupta has more. the markets of santa wants at the crossroads of trade in the middle east. today these traders and market one of the oldest of the city are selling whatever little local farmers can produce prices a steep and out of reach for most the few who can buy are often in debt. and with a smile has a family of eight he's among the millions of yemenis for whom the war has meant sleeping on an empty stomach that murtha about how the war destroyed the gulf arabs

and the saudis and the u.a.e. destroyed us food prices are ten times higher because the yemeni real has no value at present yemen central bank is split between government controlled aden and who the controlled so now saudi arabia publicly pledged a loan of two billion dollars but only to the bank in aden to keep the currency afloat as of december it had received only three hundred forty million dollars the money from the bank of aden pay salaries of government workers most of yemen's workforce. but five hundred thousand civil servants and who the areas haven't been paid it through here as. black markets like these are try being in summer and in aden it's beyond imagination that there's oil shortage here in aden can you believe that patrol is not available in the patrol stations but is available in the black market i am astonished to see trucks carrying patrol from the even oil refineries but no idea where these trucks go and where the patrol. profits from yemen's

booming coffee industry and farms have plummeted because of high fuel prices fell yemen depended on its oil exports before the war production has almost stopped since the conflict began is under the control of emirati back fighters. but the main problem is this the port and how data to which eighty percent of food aid comes in and that is out of bounds for most. the impact of the war and the crumbly economy has forced within twenty four million yemenis to depend on aid just to survive humanitarian aid is not enough you need a political solution that is going to allow the economy to revitalize that will allow restrictions on imports to be lifted that will allow sellers to be paid the jobs created markets to be revitalized. such sectors to come back to life again so that people. you know slowly can start to sort of resume

a life that used to exist prior to the contract i hope that perhaps many yemenis still have despite the real threat of hunger and famine priyanka gupta are to see. a riot police in america have broken up a protest by teachers demanding improved contracts including pensions similar to government workers the protesters in the capital or about had planned to spend the night outside parliament before joining a larger demonstration called by opposition party several rallies started on wednesday on the eighth anniversary of moral codes are of spring protests cyclon veronica is battering the northwest coast of australia port hedland is one of the towns had by wind speeds of up to one hundred sixty kilometers an hour the storm is particularly dangerous because it's moving very slowly and so flooding is likely and in the northern territory and other storms like non-driver has weakened

allowing us trillions there to return home robert wright has more from port hedland . so i clone veronica has made landfall with full force it has built out to sea again in strength and intensity and has been battering this long stretch of west australian coastline in addition to its storm force winds it's also been accompanied by a storm surge which has started to inundate low lying areas along this coastline it's a problem of flooding that will be very worse in the coming days by the torrential rain associated with this weather system some areas are being told to expect several hundred millimeters in the coming days people here were told to expect an extreme weather event that is down what they are dealing with in addition to the flooding in the coming days they will be assessing the damage from this. ok let's take a closer look at the weather with kevin that's right and the big problem with the

storm right now we have the latest in six is that it's basically not moving at all i want to show you what we do have with the storm system here this is a satellite you saw the eye here of course we lost the eye as a beta sway towards lead the center of circulation is not on land it has not crossed the coastline it is still out in open water now a lot of the feeder bands have made its way inland port hedland saw some very heavy rain with the feeder bands right now we're talking about winds that are about one hundred forty climbers for hour the winds have come down since the last time i talked to you on air about this about ten kilometers were gusting up to about one hundred five moving to the southeast at seven so basically a very very slow crawl with the system tomorrow we're going to be steering some very heavy rain still in this area port hedland is not out of the woods yet the next twenty four hours is going to be critical the storm is that going to make its way down here toward the southwest out into the open ocean by wednesday things look a lot better but in terms of rain we're going to be seeing about one hundred sixty about five hundred millimeters of rain still across parts of this area particularly

south west of port hedland so we were watching this very carefully now the other big system we're going to be talking about here is what's happening in the down here towards the part of saudi arabia northern part of saudi arabia we do have an area of low pressure this is developing now the big problem with this storm is over the next two to three days we're going to see the storm bring some very very heavy rain across parts of iraq over here towards iran and it's iran that i'm particularly concerned about over the next forty eight to seventy two hours notice is area right here of blue in this area we could be seeing anywhere between two hundred and possibly two hundred fifty millimeters of rain across this region so this means localized flooding could be a major problem there as well as up here towards another part of iraq to see that very heavy green there that is going to be a big problems well the same storm system is going to be rain here across doha we think as we go from monday and into tuesday as well as gusty winds across much of the area so we will be watching this very carefully as we begin the week.

and so i had an al-jazeera has. been. anger and despair on the banks of the tigris river as families wait for word of their loved ones still missing the op to bury disaster in iraq. and we look at how a new government initiative in mexico could affect thousands of people reliant on social programs. and tennis is rising star continued to take down top players but her latest opponent makes her feelings that only i will explain the sport. eternity. so it could have us military occupation. my prison my freedom my heartbeats my life by languages my occupation so the

thought of a son a deal for the. jerusalem a rock and a hard to please coming soon my main interest every weekly news cycle brings a series of breaking stories and then of course there's donald trump told through the eyes of the welts jannah least that's right out of script that calls for the annihilation of israel that is not what that phrase means the listening post as we turned the cameras on the media focused on how they were told on the stories that matter the most embed is a free palestine a listening post on al-jazeera. hello

again you're watching out is there a let me take you through our top stories this hour polls have closed in thailand's first general election since the twenty four thousand military coup preliminary results are expected within the next hour but critics say it isn't truly democratic since the entire opera house is appointed by the military. government warns more than a million people are risk of starvation as parts of the country endure a severe drought conditions and thirteen counties are continuing to worsen with widespread vegetation loss and. serious kurds are calling for international help in dealing with the thousands of isel fighters they've captured during the conflict the day after u.s. backed rebels took control of last pockets of land in eastern syria the kurds warned of another threat they say the fighters kept captive along with women and

children are quote a time bomb that needs diffusing. that while many countries are turning away foreign fighters and their families chechnya has a different approach that has this report from the regional capital grozny. thank you that was pregnant with her third child when she and her family crossed the border from turkey to join eisel she says they were lured by fields betraying a land of pure islam but found torture war and oppression instead fearing reprisals from eisel she doesn't want to show her face. there was a lot of injustice there a lot of evil they not only tortured others those who were not from my school they were torturing that we do schooling there that's why the place fell apart it cannot be called islamic state things that took place there do not exist in islam after saddam's husband was killed she managed to contact chechen operatives and was put on a flight home where she became part of a deal radicalization program and it's carefully watched she was one of the last

women allowed to return the russian government now only repatriate children much to the despair of hundreds of parents who come from all over russia to chechnya urging the authorities to bring back their daughters with the chest and the challenge to the it's hard to stay hopeful for the third year there's no news about the case the last phone call fatima received from her daughter was in february two thousand and seventeen visit i was in mosul with her five children. we have the government will give a chance with these girls to be reunited with their mothers if the op sounds if they are alive they should be able to live in a normal human atmosphere with the help of the state without any worries the organization who lobbied for their return has filed of more than seven hundred russian women and fifteen hundred children still missing. of course we are worried they were women who really wanted to get to the caliphate but those women are among

the first to run away now they can get here illegally that is why if we bring them back through the program and under the close eye of the special services they will be less dangerous. while men who have returned were sent to prison women. given money and a place to live. policy of rehabilitation for former ice a limb and a stake in many by surprise. is perhaps better known for being a tough uncompromising leader an unexpected approach in a region known for its violent crackdown against people considered extremists so this policy of returning women and children from former i so territories is seen by some as a way for the biro to both those poor human rights record as well as to track potential insurgents and to promote her stature as a muslim leader. is now trying hard to convince the authorities to bring home more women despite criticism that she's helping people who joined a band organization she sees rehab elite ation of these women as the safest option

making her the only hope for parents to be reunited with their children not only in russia but parents from as far away as germany have come to her for help stop classes al-jazeera cause any russia. the number of people who died in thursday's ferry disaster northern iraq has risen to at least one hundred seven another one hundred people are still missing most of the victims were women and children heading out of walsall for a mother's day picnic but caution how time has this latest from the city has been burdened with the grief of losing two generations of their family the l. ani's young and old not came to the banks of the tigris river this mother is calling out for her nine year old daughter. had to we miss you where are you. had to come out. to deal her seven year old sister

and her father drowned on thursday when the amusement park ferry they were in capsized on the tigris river their bodies still haven't found. the lava jet ferry operator filled to the brim we couldn't bring you every moment to shoulda i so my husband and two daughters holding is. when the ferry launched within minutes all of a sudden we capsized in a city that was terrorized and destroyed by eisel the pain and anger our palpable. on friday protesters swarmed the iraqi president during his visit accusing the government of widespread corruption in efficacy and a lack of accountability on the most difficult issues as if mosul is constantly targeted bridges collapsing ferry sinking explosions we feel deeply sad and we just want to cry out and shed tears but there's

a feeling inside of us that we need to step up and help the. police have arrested nine people including the amusement park owner and ferry operators and charge them with negligence iraq's prime minister is calling for the governor of nineveh province to be sacked. for mismanagement i thought i wasn't house up enough joining cold blood enough for those politicians not being serious when are we going to benefit from those politicians coming to denounce and offering condolences people whose lives have wasted people have been waiting outside the morgue waiting for answers about their loved ones dozens of people are still missing recovering their bodies may be tricky given the swift current of the tigris river one body has already been retrieved twenty kilometers downstream from the accident. compound in the tragedy iraq's red crescent says two volunteers assisting divers searching for bodies die the tigris may be the final resting place for sons and

daughters mothers and fathers one man stood on the riverbank watching the search operation he says these are to his relatives but these victims or our family natasha going to zero mosul iraq. a presidential election is underway in our keep calm are also amid growing political tensions thirteen candidates are competing including the incumbent president. and the past few months several opponents of asa money have been tried and convicted which is limited the competition pool there been reports of clashes between police and voters at several polling stations. i'm afraid elections will not be as transparent as they should be the situation in june is very serious and this is likely to jeopardize stability and democracy in the country. so let's go back to our top story and that's the

election in thailand benjamin's i walk he is a southeast asia political analyst and the author of thailand shifting grounds between the u.s. and a rising china and he joins us on skype from bangkok thank you very much for coming on the program it's good to have you on. as we're hit we're getting some indications are preliminary results what are your expectations for these elections will exit polls seem to indicate at the moment that no surprise the earlier to leave with former prime minister texan shinawatra turns likely receive the floor observer hourly votes and that the party affiliated with tyrants military has received the second largest number of votes keep in mind that today's elections are really to see that thailand's lower house of parliament five hundred seat lower house of parliament is filled thailand's parliament consists of seven hundred fifty members all together but again for context it's important to note that we're just looking at five hundred seats today and again it looks like that jackson's party

the good time party has received a floor rally but does it not a majority of the votes. as we said it's been five years since the military took over another calling elections they said they had to stay there for stability for the stability of the country until now can you explain the significance of these elections to the thai people and will this change very much. well what has to happen alternately is for some combination of parties a coalition government basically to come up with a majority of votes in the total house of parliament in parliament again to seven hundred fifty seats which means a majority the magic number would be three hundred seventy six well in some ways the militaries go it's although they've received the second highest number of votes today only in some respects are worth more than other votes because the upper house of parliament which consists of two hundred fifty seats was selected by the military in the run up to today's election so what i was actually saying is that in

the race to three hundred seventy six seats three hundred seventy six votes the military is likely to have a two hundred fifty votes headstart and so in that sense it's hard to envisage the military not being able to form a government not being able to form or rather to elect a prime minister and so in that sense it is an open question as to how much will change in the wake of this election versus five years in the run up to it so what you're essentially saying is that regardless of how many people cast their ballots for a certain constituent or a certain party the military is still going to have quite quite a lot of influence in these elections at the interesting thing about these elections though is that lot of young people are coming into the four now and showing at casting their ballots can you tell us how that's influencing the situation. most expect that the that the younger but we will start primarily for what's called the future forward party which one of those

created really to cut into the advantage that the democratic party has always had in bangkok in particular in the urban center of bangkok exit polls seem to indicate that the future forward party has received the lowest number of votes of the other of all the parties put together but again it's difficult to say that the exit polls are still early whether or not this constitutes an overall democratic outcome in many ways will be determined by a tacit consensus though among the three key constituencies one of which is the type populous which over the last five years has not suppresion he resisted the or the military government and i believe will be unlikely to resist the results of this election rather than likely meet the results more with resignation and then resistance and the other two constituencies of course are the military here in thailand and the international community which i think is inclined to accept these elections as a return to democracy regardless of the situation i described earlier. you really

get to get your insight thank you very much america's powerful pro israel lobby aipac begins its conference on sunday and it takes place at a time of on president and pro israel visions by the trumpet ministration i can explain. it's a close relationship like none before president trump has repeatedly made clear his support of israel reversing decades of u.s. policy by moving the u.s. embassy to jerusalem and most recently recognizing israeli sovereignty over the golan heights his decision to unilaterally tear up the nuclear deal with iran another move that delighted israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu who sometimes was at a loss for words in proclaiming his gratitude for president drone. has just made history i call them. i thanked him on behalf of the people of israel.

did it again. congress too has played its role in recent days a bipartisan bill introduced in the house denouncing efforts to boycott israel as incompatible with a two state solution despite this there are clear signs of a potential split among democrats with regard to israel new representative omar controversially implied that israel was buying supporting congress a claim she subsequently withdrew but not before an intense debate among members of the democratic party caucus the first palestinian american representative in congress rushy that adding her voice in cautioning against unconditional support for israel. these new positions in the party gaining some traction a number of democratic presidential contenders have announced they will not attend the conference. senior democratic party leaders like house speaker nancy pelosi and

senate minority leader chuck schumer will take part in the conference. at issue the votes of jewish americans in twenty twenty in the last election donald trump drew just over twenty percent of the jewish vote as opposed to the nearly eighty percent cast for hillary clinton. a statistic president trump is clearly intent on reversing to the extent of labeling democrats anti semitic the democrats are very much proving to be anti israel there's no question about that and it's a disgrace i don't know what's happened to them but they are totally hentai israel frankly i think they're entitled to a common set may resonate in israel with president trump support his bolstering the prime minister's chances in next month's election but it will be a concern for an organization with the slogan connected for good one that traditionally has been staunchly bipartisan in politics both home and abroad my

kind of al-jazeera washington. soup kitchens for the poor in mexico are being shut down and so are the government programs for the most vulnerable president and as manuel lopez obrador says it's part of an effort to stamp out corruption but for many the left wing leaders decision has come as a surprise on home and has this report from mexico city. it's can community kitchens where some of the country's most vulnerable can get a cheap meal that whenever necessary to quote lou pape their life saver in feeding her family of six with his gaze wally i know it's really helped with our finances even with the gas for the stove and now i go to work rather than just worrying about cooking and until now we've never gotten say but many of them it's because only six thousand federal food kitchens have already shut as part of budget cuts to social services it's not just the soup kitchen is closing their doors funds

have also been slashed for child daycare centers and the government plan to shut down shelters for women fleeing domestic violence and give the money instead until a backlash made it change its mind. and this is all come from a president who's long championed the poor and vulnerable at school some surprise and indignation. he says the measures necessary to stamp out corruption said that i mean it's finished around thirty years of these programs which were just used to win elections and get media attention programs which encourage corruption using the name of the humble the poor to do it that's all finished they might end up as something in the government social ministry was recently implicated in a monumental corruption scandal but civil society groups say the wholesale scrapping of programs for the poor is not the answer and some worry there are.