front of my guests from around the world take the hot seat and we debate the top stories and big issues here now does it. a global icon burns but the french president promises it will rise again. we will rebuild this cathedral together undoubtedly part of the french destiny. hello and welcome to al-jazeera live from my headquarters in doha with me and as a byproduct also ahead protesters in sudan refused to back down from their demand for a civilian government. fear and despair groups thousands of libyans displaced by the

fierce fighting for control of the capital tripoli. the world has watched one of its most famous and treasured monuments go up in flames these centuries old not sure don cathedral in paris was and by a massive file on monday evening where yet to know what caused it but one thing is certain a part of our living history has been burnt to the ground president has promised to rebuild the symbol of paris and french culture. reports from paris. an unimaginable sight not for time because the ravaged by flames a symbol of paris and french history collapsing in smoke it was seven o'clock in the evening local time when the fire broke out hundreds of firefighters and emergency service workers with their within minutes as thick smoke rose above the city. people watched in shock and disbelief when i. saw the spire collapse was

shocked it's eight hundred fifty years of history it's heartbreaking model with cell phone. chaotic scenes as police try to evacuate the area. does not sound good legal. ground no paramount and. learning center started raining to the ground and that is why police here are trying to put everybody back very safe they ought to know what they're worried about is more of that roof collapsing they're worried about the smoke being toxic worried the people safety as night fell firefighters fear that the twelve sentry gothic cathedral would collapse completely after working tirelessly for hours they managed to control the fire the french president visited the site and promised to rebuild not to damage the cathedral he said that was cherished by so many senators who are not today is our history our

literature imagination the place where we have lived all our great moments epidemics our wars our liberation it is the epicenter of our lives it is the standard from which distances start and from which we can measure ourselves from paris it is full of books of paintings it is a cathedral that belongs to all frenchmen and women even to those who have never come here. firefighters say the fire could be linked to renovation work in paris as prosecutor has opened an inquiry whatever the cause the sight of a cathedral the distant majestically in paris for centuries crumbling in hours is deeply sad and people across the city and the world. al-jazeera parents. or parents and the world are watching the tragedy in a statement the vatican says it's watching what of course the symbol of christianity in france and the world with shock and sadness that says it's praying for the firefighters controlling the blaze german chancellor angela merkel says she's deeply saddened by the events in paris that have thoughts are with the french

people britain's prime minister tourism has offered her support to the people of france london's mayor so the card says he stands in sorrow over paris and the u.s. president says it's one of the greatest treasures of the world. and i've been there and i've seen it and there's no cathedral i think i could say this probably no cathedral in the world like it it's a it's a terrible scene they think it was caused by at this moment they don't know but they think it was caused by renovation and i hope that. the reason renovation you know what's that all about but it's a terrible sight to behold. when local residents and tourists reacted to the devastating fire immediately i have run away to see what's happened. i never imagined before i can't give you. an iconic piece it's

destroyed because of fire i come to believe i'm really. really just a growing just to before i die. i feel like. crying now is to me. it was such a shock for everybody nobody wants to live through that the fact that such a landmark has been lost i feel really bad for all parisians and all those who live here well the eight hundred fifty year old not cathedral as one of the finest examples of french gothic architecture constructed during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it's said to be built on a pagan run city called the t. sia lost on the cathedral suffered major damage was during the french revolution the main towers the sixty nine meters high they were the tallest structures in paris until the eiffel tower was completed in one thousand eight hundred nine nearly thirteen million people visit the cathedral every year it has been and da

a native restoration. is a professor of architectural history at new york university and he says that all is not lost. emotionally everyone is devastated and stretched but let's be clear that the main stone structure of the cathedral is extending the stone vaults have been sometimes the local lead to muddy just what has burned essentially the roof structure two thirds of the roof which is basically wooden carpentry extremely important historically because it was still the original wood work so this seems to be largely gone together with the spire which failed and so spectacularly. then which was a reconstruction of the nineteenth century in need self a great piece of work but but by no means a medieval object so would say that the cathedral as large lost its hat

but it is still standing and is perfectly rebuild of all apparently what happened was a fire and it's very often because of cyrus of such historical buildings an accident on the building site for the restoration of part of the structure so it what fire was brought from the exterior scaffoldings into the church and i would say that far is often a problem but also one shouldn't forget that in many far more damage is created by water is generated by the immense our poor ace of water then by the fire itself so we know we have it pure becomes another another curse. let's move on to. protest as in the capital are continuing their push for civilian leadership after president omar al bashir was alstad by the military the

demonstrators are holding a citadel father defense ministry compound in khartoum on monday the military council which has taken over leadership said it would appoint a new chief of staff of the army and a deputy protests have been ongoing since december triggered by a deepening economic crisis. by the sort of. jerked of the revolution cannot be achieved completely in the face of the backstage manipulations of the remnants of the regime or key demand of a civil council to guarantee the revolution and safeguarded its goals achieved with a technocratic provisional government with executive powers must be formed with a consensus of the people that are without them as a research associate at the school of oriental and african studies and he says opinions vary on the way forward for saddam. is the civilian from which you know there is some difference within. but also there is deep differences within the atom itself about the way forward especially the the. i mean if you can't in

the country because some of them don't completely bit up with the league and one of the missing that i would through it's very important right now for to learn is how to deal with the deep deep estate because with the presence of the past year and we don't know what's going on behind the scenes you know i just remember the current literally you know the military council was appointed by the top of the shield right general you know that they disappeared right now but they still deletion option between many people are saying that the still some of the political sure that still connecting with the current military council and this is what do you you know so it's very important actually that you know there should be. you know to deal with the order to give you know in a pretty clear way. salon's transitional council has confirmed its commitment to the saudi led military coalition in yemen alstad president omar bashir sent hundreds of soldiers to the horn country in twenty fifteen to help fight with the

rebels a senior military official told local media that they'll remain there until the arab alliance achieves its goals it is the first major foreign policy announcement by the country's new military rulers. now the un's on the internationally recognized government and hope the rebels have accepted a plan to withdraw their forces from the port city of what they are there the redeployment as part of a ceasefire agreed in december but has been repeatedly delayed both sides have said they'll pull back several kilometers in what would be the first voluntary withdrawal of the conflict mike hanna has more from the united nations the parties to the conflict have agreed to a phased withdrawal from the port city of the data that's according to special representative martin griffiths who says in the past week both the yemeni government and the hutu rebels have agreed to implement the two stage withdrawal that was agreed to back in february however there's been no timeline in the stablished for the first phase to begin and while the conflict continues so too

does the humanitarian crisis the council was told that some seventy percent of yemen's population already need of humanitarian relief over the last two weeks fighting nearly one hundred thousand people from. about half of other areas in which is an extremely poor water scarcity street and. three hundred thousand. yet just a few kilometers from the main water source which serves two hundred thousand people if i actually damages or cuts off this city we could very quickly see a major catastrophe and the bleak news given to the council that the un is simply running out of money the council was told that if donor nations do not increase their contributions the u.n. will be unable to carry out any humanitarian operation to libya now where two rival

sides remained locked in a battle over the capital tripoli on monday italy's prime minister met with the qatari foreign minister just epic contest and mohamed el thousand he called for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of half the libyan national forces from recently gained ground they also voiced concerns about the worsening humanitarian situation both leaders of the immediate return to talks and renewed political discussions with the un as a moderator without that one had has the latest from tripoli. this is one of the apartments that were hit by random rockets in the libyan capital tripoli here in the neighborhood this is one of the biggest neighborhoods in the libyan capital tripoli neighbors here tell us that a grad missile came this way and shattered this wall here as you can see and inside the apartment it almost destroyed everything inside the

apartment and. there are also some chorus downs turds. that were also partly destroyed by the explosion now the owners of this apartment the word defied and they left soon they had one person wanted by the explosion and it seems that this is. neighbors tell us that this is the missile that hit the apartment and exploded inside the apartment this is this seems to be a grad missile and here here in this kitchen there is a gas cylinder and. people here are very grateful that it did not explode because had it exploded it would have would have caused a huge fire in the whole bently building there's also there's also part of the the

grad missile. now everything here is partly destroyed by the explosion and since the war was carted between forces loyal to the warlords for help that and others do it to the government of national accord on april fourth several civilian locations including civilian properties and houses have been hit by random rockets and the government of national accord is accusing have to his forces of committing war crimes by targeting civilian areas with heavy weapons and airstrikes still ahead on the bulletin we'll have the latest on the investigation into donald trump's finances and the big bank at the center of it then the new brett said party meet the man on the front lines of a push to lead the european union.

but the worst is over and i all risk of tornadoes is gone offshore the satellites do shows quite clearly the cause of it all and it's wrapped around what is still further north cold enough to give some overnight snow this is the picture just before dawn monday night and then choose yours is more or less dispersed you also notice if you're watching closely the potential bit of snow still around the great lakes for example is cold enough at least not for that more obviously over the cascades you'll see snow in the telegraph to rain down towards the middle of california yes it's still raining here on and off which is green which means that we're just talking up the hundred percent full reservoirs even more probably a good thing however what i am watching is this development here this is now wednesday we feeding it from the south of our colder from the north the potential for this develop once more exists when we worked carefully i think south of all

this then the tail end of that frontal system is so violent of the u.s. is this so shero to maybe develop in the bahamas and in cuba possibly down el salvador guatemala as well for those tens disappear that it comes rather dry picture dry is still rather cloudy at least in this part of the caribbean. capturing a moment in time. snapshots of other lives. other stories. providing attempts into someone else's work. inspiring documentaries from impassioned filmmakers i'm at the front lines i feel it i know it i have the data to prove. witness on al-jazeera.

it's good to have you with us on al-jazeera and these are our top stories the centuries old what your job cathedral in paris has been and gulped i am massive fire firefighters have managed to save the main structure of the world famous cathedral it's fire and have collapsed french president a man in that hall has promised to rebuild and french billionaire funds. says he'll give more than one hundred million dollars to help with that process. protesters in sudan's capital are continuing their push for civilian leadership after president omar al bashir was ousted by the military on monday the military council said it would appoint a new chief of staff for the army and

a deputy. and after several delays the u.n. envoy says the internationally recognized government and the rebels have agreed to withdraw troops from yemen support thirty of the data both sides have said they'll pull back several kilometers. now twenty five senior international. figures have signed an open letter to the guardian newspaper urging european nations to reject any u.s. middle east peace plan that is unfair to palestinians the u.s. is preparing to announce what it calls its deal of the century the signatories say this is a critical moment for the middle east and europe they accuse the white house of departing from longstanding u.s. policy and distancing itself from the stablished international legal norms by recognizing only one side's claim to jerusalem the group says the us has demonstrated a disturbing indifference to israeli settlement expansion there urging europe to back a plan that requires the creation of a palestinian state alongside israel with east jerusalem as its capital they say an

unfair plan would fatally damage the course of a durable peace for palestinians and israelis alike well earlier we spoke with one of the six former prime ministers who signed the open letter sweden's builds says a two state solution is the only viable way forward. what kind of solution to the. permanent occupation that would be to the detriment of the if there is to meet the one nation solution with rights for everyone to be clearly unacceptable to a lot of the. state would be unacceptable to the outside world but if the goods with used boats solution particularly view of what's been happening with settlement policy and all of that but if you look at the alternatives i think you find that this is the only only avenue that you can bring both peace durable this. recognition by the rest of their word and justice. and peace to the palestinian

people those no other the weight of the trumpet mr hugh wakes up to the relatives or what is it she evil when it comes comes to peace in the middle east they would eventually find a solution among the long with the lines that has been indicated by the european union for a long time is olivar the solution that has any possibility of real success now israel's president has begun meeting with political parties to decide who form the next government of and government first with venture been ethanol has a look at party which won the highest number of seats and a party line votes netanyahu intends to build a coalition with the far right an ultra orthodox jewish party his rather than later health talks to the bill and white alliance which came a close second. congressional investigators are pursuing the u.s. president's business dealings by issuing subpoenas to multiple financial institutions to house committees have subpoenaed torture bank as part of the investigation the german back has been trumped long term lender the house

intelligence and financial services committees have also demanded documents from institutions including j.p. morgan chase bank of america and city code john hendren has more from washington d.c. . to us congressional committees are looking in to deutsche bank they are subpoenaing information would. queen of the bank donald trump and his trump organization and they are specifically looking for any information having to do with transactions involving suspected money launderers from russia and eastern europe this is not like the robert miller probe which was looking into possible collusion between the donald trump campaign and russia this is looking into financial ties between president trump and his organization and other countries now donald trump was a bit of a pariah in the banking industry he had a defaulted on loans his company had declared bankruptcy as nevertheless he managed

to get deutsche bank to lend him two billion dollars for various projects and at the time he was he took office as president there were three hundred million dollars in active projects funded by georgia and just to give you an idea of what a bad risk he was at least perceived to be in order to build trump tower in chicago he needed five hundred million dollars and he was willing to secure that with forty million dollars of his own money when he was unable to pay that his company ended up suing deutsche bank declaring that that was an act of god because of the financial collapse of two thousand and eight and two thousand and nine trump actually asked the bank for three billion dollars in damages for that in the end they settled that deal and then trump turned around and asked the bank for the money to pay back that forty million dollar loan so it is a storied history with deutsche bank and now that the democrats are taking over

these house committees in the house of representatives in congress trump is going to have to sit back and watch as a lot of his financial information that he has sought to keep secret comes out. to his journalists who've been jailed and now might have won a pulitzer prize for the very story that they have been punished for while on and to us. i have won the prestigious honor for the investigative report about the massacre of ten revenger men by myanmar security forces they were arrested in december twenty seventh thing in a serving a seven year sentence for violating the country's official secrets act russia says it is proud of their work but will celebrate when the journalists are free. also indonesia where the largest hardline muslim group is threatening to take to the streets of there is cheating and wednesday's election president is expected to win a second term in office but his opponent. is already alleging there are widespread irregularities and that's a claim that is being seized upon by some i want to take indonesia in

a more conservative direction when he reports from jakarta. a mosque known for its conservative preaching there was a final message for worshippers before the election campaigning in places of worship is illegal and while the a mom was careful with his words it was clear he wants his followers to vote for him to go to become president of the. indonesia is the largest muslim majority country in the world and is becoming increasingly divided along conservative and moderate lines. has partnered with hardline muslim groups who want indonesia to embrace islamic law or even become a caliphates they end the presidential candidates a religion there are signs of cheating in the electoral process and say they're prepared to act limited at the if we can prove they are cheating we will resort to people power we've been patient but enough is enough we have huge power we can

gather millions of people and we can easily take over the powers in parliament and what they're provided no evidence of the alleged cheating but the groups have shown they can get big numbers onto the streets in two thousand and sixteen they protested against the then governor of jakarta a christian who was eventually jailed for blasphemy. also said there was cheat. in the last presidential election that he lost to joko widodo but the case was thrown out by the courts. throughout the campaign joko widodo has enjoyed a double digit lead in most polls if the accusation by his opponent of irregularities goes unproven then the threat of street protests may just be viewed as a desperate move in the dying stages of the bid to become president. as he's known here has been criticized by some for not being religious enough so in a move seen as trying to attract the conservative vote he's chosen muslim cleric in

as his running mates some of his more liberal supporters view it as selling out for the sake of votes but others believe he had no choice and cannot avoid that. he is a very wealthy family repressive he has no political party he has no family background he has no money he is just a small furniture trader who nonetheless became president of indonesia as both he and his challenger chased the conservative muslim vote moderate indonesians may be concerned about any deals that might have been done that could see this country head in a more religiously conservative direction wayne hay al jazeera jakarta. but u.s. secretary of state has wrapped up his four nation tour of south america whether visit to the colombian border city of coca want pomp ala and colombian president yvonne duke a walk along the bridge where thousands of venezuelan refugees cross every day pales as the u.s. will use all economic and political pressure to hold president nicolas maduro to

account. the u.k.'s most high profile bracks it'd nigel farage has launched a new political party with the sole intention of leaving the european union and it is already proving polarizing reports. the english seaside has always been a favorite location for brick says something about faded glory perhaps a country in need of reminding itself how great it once was and bricks it's being metaphorically undemocratically broken on the rocks. the brand new bricks policy found an industrial estates in which to present itself to this ordinance the big announcement of this former captain of industry will stand in the european elections with a mandate to create trouble i think what i would want to do is to make sure that british interests are protected and if we can help to reform the european union the process that would be great. i mean things like objecting to the european budgets

and things like that would you want to do something like that but i think bearing in mind that the budget has historically not been signed off very often by the courts of all this is because it's been deemed to be corrupt i think would be my duty to actually object to the budget window. that's. over the road though everything i need to know about how divisive of has become a straight shown sing much develops between the pro europeans and the brits this. just in the euro because. we've got. with it we don't know what we've argued for you know what you think of them i don't see. so you see some i'm sorry i i respect their right to have a different opinion but i think obviously they're deeply mistaken and they're leading the country into chaos and trouble. so this is microcosm is the states of british politics nowadays the european elections next month effectively

a sort of mini second referendum in their own terms between those people over there who don't want breakfast at all and these people over here they want to right now. over the limit that's in a noisy. contradiction legs six is a member of the european parliament u.k. council and the it's a pain the status quo yes again never mind that his new policy has no apparent policies other than brics it's going. to status among this constituency is little short of talking like we're living in a country where the true quality system is no longer. and it needs to be broken up if recent history and the polls are to be believed then pharaoh's once again promises to undermine entirely the conservative party the last time you did that's the brics that referendum have to be called very this time well

it's a case. sure amends. and you will find that story along with extended coverage of brac sets along with the rest of the day's course on our website alycia dot com. and again on most of the problem and but the headlines on al-jazeera one of the world's most famous and treasured monuments has been devastated by a massive fire the flames quickly spread through the centuries old not afraid to run past firefighters. managed to save the main structure of the gothic monument but the spire and have collapsed the thirteenth century monument was undergoing major renovation work and some firefighters say that that may be the cause of the fire president hollande has promised to rebuild the symbol of powers and french culture natasha butler has the latest from paris. well french president

a man or mark or has spoken about the drama that has unfolded in paris with those with a fire that spread throughout the not to dumb cathedral not he has said that that fire has now been stabilized he has said that the worst has been averted and what he means is the firefighters are saying that their fears earlier that this building would collapse of in fact been averted is no longer the case they have managed to stabilize and control that blaze and what they're doing now is firing water jets at the building to try and cool it down to avoid any further parts collapsing but the flames continue the fire hasn't been extinguished protesters in sudan's capital are continuing their push for civilian leadership after toppling president omar al bashir demonstrators held a certain outside the defense ministry compound in khartoum the ruling military council said it will appoint a new chief of staff of the army after several delays the u.n.

on war to yemen says the internationally recognized government and the rebels have agreed to withdraw troops from the port city of the day they're both sides have said they'll pull back several kilometers qatar and italy have called for new political talks as libya's two viable sides remain locked in a military confrontation over the capital tripoli italy's prime minister has called for a cease fire. and the two reuters journalists who've been jailed in myanmar have won a pulitzer prize and choice who have won the prestigious on a for an investigative report about the massacre of ten one hundred men i mean mass security forces well those are the headlines on al-jazeera witness is coming up next thank you very much for watching. counting the cost big on symbolism big on rhetoric but what has brazil's president got to show for a country struggling to recover from a recession and his india's prime minister seeks another term where office and has

he actually kept his election promises counting the costs on al-jazeera. the in the. same. way but that. brought in the name on the now. now are you calling.