democratic u.s. senators are calling for congress to override the veto issued by donald trump on tuesday night the u.s. president is vetoing a joint resolution passed by members of the senate and of the house earlier this month. with call of the u.s. military to stop all support for the saudi air coalition in the yemeni civil war the supporters of this measure say that the u.s. is on the wrong side of history that the saudi air war against who the fighters has instead created a massive humanitarian catastrophe in that country which has been under civil war for more than four years they'd members of congress are also angry that the trumpet ministration is continuing the pattern of never it digged war of going into conflicts around the world without getting the express permission of congress first and they're also trying to express their disapproval and the light of the fact that

in their view no what has been held fully accountable for the burger of saudi writer jamal khashoggi back in october it is widely assumed that the saudi crown prince mohammed bin sol bond may have been behind the plot to. murder and so for those three reasons congress said that it should have some sort of limit placed on u.s. military action and yabut however the u.s. president says that he has the constitutional right to deploy the military wherever he sees fit both for us national security purposes every u.s. foreign policy purposes he said that if he approved this joint resolution number seven it would set a very bad precedent for u.s. policy going forward the question now can congress figure out how to reverse the veto and have this resolution take effect in a couple of weeks time. thousands of yemeni american shop owners in new york a boycotting one of the city's leading newspapers over its coverage of iran omar

the u.s. congresswoman has been the subject of right wing outrage over a reference she made to the nine eleven attacks christian salumi experience. celera allie's family has owned this neighborhood store for thirty three years selling groceries and newspapers to new yorkers of all walks of life but now the yemeni american is refusing to sell the new york post after it printed this cover featuring the burning twin towers and a quote from a muslim congresswoman he says representative omar's quote about someone doing something seemingly downplaying the attacks of september eleventh was taken out of context ali's says it's not the first time the conservative leaning publication has tried to equate his religion with terrorism they are always trying to make us look like muscles but if you were a horse was that paper it's all smoke alarms were all the really the key into their morning omar says since president tweeted her image interspersed with shots of the

attacks she's seen an increase in death threats against her ollie is not alone in his outrage as a member of the yemeni american merchants association which represents thousands of independent store owners in new york city association is calling on its members to boycott the post for thirty days unless they get an apology. the association first flexed its political muscle two years ago closing stores in protest of the president's travel ban which affected several muslim majority countries the post has defended its work in an editorial accusing omar and her allies of playing the victim what's out of context the editorial says she claimed that muslim civil liberties suffered as a result of the nation's reaction to nine eleven even as she completely intentionally disregarded the grim facts of that day. the yemeni american merchants association says the post editors should resign so we've been here for

a long time we've been citizens for a long time we've been contributing to american society every day new york say every day and for the post most of their newspapers would be so. through our businesses right now a couple hundred stores have committed to the boycott but they are looking to partner with other groups and keep the pressure on christian salumi al-jazeera new york. sudan's ruling military council has said the prosecutor general and two of his aides protest leaders had been demanding demonstrations have continued in the capital khartoum protesters are calling for civilian rule and want the military council to step aside morgan is in khartoum with more. the military council has announced that it has dismissed the state attorney as well as his aides they're saying it's part of reforms to the judicial system and part of a response to demands made by political parties and protesters on the streets

political parties that protestors have been saying that the judicial system is politicized and favored the former ruling party and they say that they will not stop protesting until they are reforms made not just to the judicial system but today the national intelligence and security services as well as handing over to power to a civilian interim government now political parties and military council are deferring on the mandate and the role of the transitional government the council wants to be the one supervising that government and they want the political parties to become prime minister and members of the cabinet but political parties are saying that they cannot take a cabinet they cannot speak of prime minister if they're not sure that the the that the council will not interfere in the day to day affairs of the government meanwhile hundreds of people continue to make their way to the pro to the protests in front of the army headquarters in tottenham and they have been calls for sit ins in front of headquarters around the state by the sudanese professional association the body that is spearheading the protest since last december they're saying that

if power is not handed over to civilian government that is independent from the from the interactions and has nothing to do with the military council then the protests will not end so far. the african union has given sudan fifteen days to form a government that was yesterday so they're now left with two weeks to form a government and they're nowhere near forming fat government and it's not clear yet with the difference between between political parties and the council and the mandate if they will meet that deadline france's president has vowed to rebuild notre dame cathedral within five years a huge fire destroyed its roof and spire but authorities say the eight hundred fifty year old cathedral is structurally sound donations to help restore it have reached nearly one billion dollars from paris bennett smith reports. it was a hellish scene inside one of christianity's most important cathedrals. burning

cinders rained down on the center of the cathedral such was the danger from falling debris that a robot firefighter was used. legendary gargoyles overflowed espousals of liters of water was pumped on to the flames more than eight hundred years of history but taken just eight hours to go up in flames the altar what's left of it is now exposed to the heavens. such as the importance of not to the french that the president addressed the nation. what we saw last night in paris is this ability to mobilize and unite and when during our history we've built cities ports churches many have been burned or have been destroyed by wars revolutions by our own fault each time we rebuilt them the fire of our lady reminds us that our history never stops and that we will always have tests to overcome. had been undergoing renovation when it became engulfed in

flames more than two hundred thousand kilos of lead and thousands of mediæval open beams in the roof court fight easily and fast. four hundred year old paintings hanging high in the cathedral have been damaged but firefighters and staff formed a human chain to save other artifacts. thrones golden candelabras german crusted crucifixes and other relics will be transferred to the louvre museum for storage but this united nations world heritage site will need to go through a careful lengthy and expensive restoration process it's really a site with two or not all the regions but it's the whole of france but also the whole of humanity because it's a symbol or not only for the christian world it's a symbol for the universality of it is an accurate actual language is so unique in the world there's only one. before the fire broke out the catholic church was

asking for around one hundred seventy million dollars to fund restoration work the state offered about forty five million dollars now money is being pledge from across the world but it will cost many hundreds of millions of dollars more to restore not to down to its former glory twenty four hours after the fire and there is still a sense of shock to believe what you did when you were i felt out of emotions last night with my children as we were watching t.v. so here i am now i'm sad but at the same time very happy to see the french people united we needed that to get to the scene i'm a catholic but even if you're not it's part of your life it's unimaginable it disfigures paris. people prayed and marched through the streets. messages of support came from other faiths france's chief rabbi offered friendship and support the french counsel of the muslim faith called for donations to help

restore what it called the heart of the history of france. al-jazeera pants. turkey. is demanding every run of last month's mayoral election in istanbul after an opposition candidate won by a slim margin the party is claiming electoral irregularities. c.h.b. rivals the supreme electoral council will decide if the request for a rerun has mandates. hundreds of activists have been arrested after they spent a second day blocking major roads in central london the campaign is with a group called extinction rebellion say they're trying to get world leaders to treat climate change like a global emergency event to disrupt rail services on wednesday. mexico's pope will cut a petal volcano has been spewing lava and ash in recent weeks but the increase in activity isn't scaring the thousands of people who live in the shadow of the giant

al-jazeera as manual rapido reports from problem. why would anyone want to live near an active volcano. for many of the residents of some peril we need to what is a small town nestled at the foot of mexico's book look at the volcano it's the only way of life they know. over the past few weeks however the mountain has been acting a little strange large explosions have forced massive plumes of volcanic ash seven thousand meters into the air at night bursts of fragmented lava have lit up the sky and covered the steep slopes of the mountain in a glowing blanket of molten rock over satellite all over the whole mountain was glowing then the forest caught fire. the recent increase in moderately explosive eruptions however hasn't changed day to day life farmers still

tend to their fields and children still go to school at a monitoring station that tracks seismic activity around the volcano disaster relief workers say their biggest challenge would be convincing people to evacuate from work or going to this is a volcano that people are used to living with it's a volcano there was here before people arrived and began to settle for mexico's poke at their ranks among the most dangerous volcanoes in the world not because of its potential for explosive eruptions but because of how many people choose to live so close to the mountain road. there when he has a population of about five thousand people most of them ethnic now wanted who have made their home in the shadow of the volcano for generations but will get there but there is a now what's the word meaning smoking mountain and in recent weeks the volcano really has been living up to its namesake but even though locals here tell us that volcanic activity has been calling down authorities have yet to reduce the threat

level saying everyone should be aware of the evacuation routes in the event of a truly explosive. corruption. despite the warnings from authorities nobody in this town seems fazed by the threat of this very active volcano at their backs. although we're not worried i see nothing is going to happen then again who knows the people of san pedro we need to what is do understand the risks but they tell us their livelihoods depend on the rich farmlands the volcano provides and say they would actually be more afraid if they no longer had their smoking mountain. now again i'm fully battle with the headlines on al-jazeera fighting in libya's capital has killed at least five people after shells and rockets were fired in various parts of tripoli it follows an ass strike by the un recognized government

on account of fights is no oil toward highly for half time just outside the city meanwhile tunisia's defense ministry says as many as thirteen people who were armed and carrying french diplomatic passports tried to cross its border with libya before being disarmed the french embassy in tunisia says there were security guards for the ambassador at the polls have closed after indonesia's election in which nearly two hundred people two hundred million people i should say were little to vote it's a rematch between the karen president djoko we doto and former general our boss will be until. we know very very good that whoever wins we have to remind united we don't have to back as long as it's fair and honest if jacoby wednesday will support them and if provoked whirlwinds will support him too what's important is that we don't fight but i mean. i hope off to the selection indonesia could be more developed and peaceful so of course all of us are thinking of how to make this

country better. present donald trump has vetoed a resolution passed by congress to end u.s. involvement in the saudi u.a.e. led war in yemen he called the move an attempt to weaken his constitutional power in sudan the ruling military council has silenced the prosecutor general and two of his aides a key demand of protest leaders demonstrations have continued in khartoum the demonstrators are calling for civilian rule and want the military council to step aside france's president has promised to rebuild notre dame cathedral within five years the cause of the fire that engulfed and destroyed part of an historic building is being investigated and turkey's ruling out party is demanding a rerun of the may or early election held in istanbul last month after an opposition candidate won by a slim margin bodies claiming electoral irregularities fighting rival c.h.p. the supreme electoral council will now decide if their request for a rerun has married those are the headlines on al-jazeera inside story is up next.

you know it's a very important for fan formation for many people around the world when all the cameras have gone i'm still here go into areas that nobody else is going talk to people that nobody else is talking to and bringing that story to the forefront. does the west have blood on its hands in yemen you have it is just the sand in the rhetoric coalition is using american and french weapons on civilians. war crimes being committed and is the international community turning a blind eye this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program. four years of war in yemen have killed thousands

of people and created what the u.n. say is the world's worst humanitarian crisis new evidence is linking some of those deaths to weapons made in the west at least military reports says arms sold to saudi arabia and the u.a.e. may have been used against civilians investigative journalists in the u.s. and france analyzed the classified document which was prepared for the french government is contradicted public claims from friends and the u.s. that their weapons were only used for defensive purposes and not on the front line many nations including france are part of a u.n. treaty banning the sale of weapons that fuel human rights violations and war crimes these are the main findings of the document the sandy led campaign in north yemen relies on three types of craft american british and european fighters. it also reveals that french made weapons artillery tanks ships and fighter bomber jets may

have been used in the war it says assad is and iraqis have used french warships to enforce the blockade or the port of her data french long range artillery and armored vehicles capable of firing into northern yemen are stationed along the side of border hundreds of thousands of civilians live under the threat of these arms between march two thousand and sixteen and december last year thirty five civilians including children were killed in areas within the range of those weapons the report criticizes the kingdom's military capabilities in yemen it says the saudis are operating in effectively and their efforts to secure their border with yemen has been a failure. so let's bring in our guest joining us from london mohamed jimmy hoffa's a member of the yemeni national dialogue conference peter is

a senior research in the arms transfers and the military expenditure program at the stockholm international peace research institute and he joins us by skype and in boston we have link on a former deputy national intelligence officer for transnational threats on the u.s. national intelligence council welcome to you all mohammed the classified documents of the french military intelligence along with the investigative journalism done in friends and in the u.s. revere is what the american and french officials have been denying for many years that the weapons that they are selling to the u.a.e. and saudi arabia are not for offensive purposes purposes in yemen. of course we've been listening to all of these statements for a long time from both countries on from their cows run that all these weapons are used in yemen or by the borders of saudi arabia with yemen. in

according to the policies followed in these so countries of thirty countries including they were ok. the problem is it's not that these weapons are used in in both size or in in the border by yemen and saudi idea about there are also weapons came from other countries such as iran as the united nation mentioned and many statements that have meanings of the weapons found in yemen and and some parts of saudi arabia are similar to the iranian missile manufactured in iran so. of course we are going to listen to a statement denying using these weapons but i think most of these statements are encouraged by or. they are because of the a strong relationship between the idea of and they were as from one side on between

saudi arabia on counts from the other side so i think the political economy relationship between these countries and start at a b. and m. and it is their priority in front of the politicians in these countries and not. the reports by human rights organizations he said this was supposed to be a highly classified. documents burned for the senior members of the french government now that he has been leaked how damaging is it to the french in particular. i think the first thing to say is that the document basically confirms what many others have already said before what images from the war has already shown us before several n.g.o.s and also for example the panel of experts that has been appointed by the united nations to investigate what's happening in the war in yemen they've already confirmed what is happening there and that the weapons which are being used

they are primarily from the west from the u.s. from the u.k. and also from france in a number of part of europe in states so in that sense that report is not new the new thing about it is of course that it is very clear that the french government has asked its intended ted have tended to. surface to supply such a report and they have received it they have received clear indications that french weapons are being used in the war or very close to the war and still there haven't really taken any action such as for example germany has done because germany has decided to put an arms embargo on saudi arabia for the time being and so the question will be will this report be sufficient let's say ammunition for the n.g.o.s to force the french government to rethink arm sales of

policy to saudi arabia glenn is a support likely to. spark more fireworks in the united states of america which is the main supply of weapons the sod is only an artiste. well it may have some effect i mean the report really is a bit like discovering that gambling is occurring in a casino in that sense it's there's no surprise whatsoever it also is i was interested to see that the french functioned very similarly to the united states which is you stated earlier our colleague of ours stated a moment ago that the economic interests were predominant and i would push back a little bit on that if the political decision were taken that it were not in the interests of france or or the u.k. or the united states to provide weapons then then there would be a change in policy so i would say the political military reasoning takes priority

first but the economic one of selling weapons is is quite important then to expect that weapons not be used and not go astray in a civil conflict and in a war setting is almost impossible to conceive so the challenge then becomes for the governments always how do we stop if possible use by unintended parties and that's almost impossible so there is the legal obligation to try to and then there is the political obligation to try to appear to be stopping that and then there's the public relations one of what do we do want to come in fact this is occurring that's where we are now doesn't this report pose many challenges for the government of president little muscle hard to his back by the size of them as he is on some of those wait weapons were used in military bases in areas controlled by

the government so how do you could just further raise the narrative in different parts of yemen that he is responsible for what is happening to the civilians. well i think it is very complicated when you talk about who is responsible in that area because that somehow the government sent some indications that it is not responsible for the actions of some military groups of some militants in down or in some areas in the south because they are not under its control but on the other hand of facially they are part of the of the government of the government police or security forces or of the government armed forces but i think it is not to me to decide is that are not responsible for these actions in. the war fields but the problem in

yemen and the problem of the civilians in men is that all these concerns about weapons sales to put that aside at abia or to the in monarchies this is not the consensus in the yemen in yemen but the whole concern in yemen is to end that warm and i think. the negotiation is face and i very difficult time nowadays because both parties are not willing to go to negotiation and i think that with these as specially when they refused for the last few weeks as they stated they defused to withdraw their troops from one data according to so-called agreement peter when you look at the details of the of the a confidential document it talks about laser guided missiles provided by the west to the saudis use in that attack some of them were responsible for the death of

civilians first vessels taking part in the naval blockade which the us saudis are saying is crucial to prevent any smuggling of weapons into yemen. and but the report is saying that this is also affecting the supply of food into yemen and we're talking about mortars used on the border provided by the fence that could target hundreds of thousands of visitors on the border with saudi arabia is this something that should in theory a brazen international concern about the need to at least put into place new rules about war in yemen. i think that the report shows that the weapons are being used to report shows that western countries are supplying them and as a result we can conclude that it's logic to ask from western concurrent current countries to either consider to stop those flows of arms to prevent the war or to

have to as as one part of preventing the war in yemen will continue for a long time that's one part of it the other one is that western countries are going to use their leverage which they have because they do supply arms to saudi arabia that they're going to use that leverage to convince saudi arabia to take a step back when it comes to the use of force to try to end this war i think there is widespread. agreement among many analysts and others that there is no military solution for the war in yemen so this is i think a very important role for the western suppliers to play here glenn do you think that this report along with the outcries of the hill rights activists and the n.g.o.s will be enough to push the americans and the french to follow sort of with the germans and impose an embargo on the arms sales society arabia the u.a.e. . no i don't think will be enough at all it is an element of additional pressure

potentially useful or with some impact but from my own experience and experience i think of every american official human rights organizations can have and influence but they generally will not be decisive added however in the us context now to the. strong anger at saudi arabia because of the. assassination then there comes to be a real possibility of u.s. policy change the congress has voted in a rare step in the last two years to rebuke and repudiates donald trump's position of unvarnished support for saudi arabia and that makes it possible that additional measures to constrain arms sales or or restrain saudi arabia's conduct of the war in yemen becomes more likely but the human rights

issue will contribute to that but won't be decisive mohammed is also an interesting different angle to the story in that report which says that the saudi led military campaign a guy in yemen is a series of blunders and mistakes and this is an example of that with he said a month a few months ago that the push to take over her day there would be just days months later it's still under the control of the earth is. yeah of course i mean the bottom of what they came to let's say close to its end but because of the pressure the international pressure under you and pressure on the saudi that quite a show and they stopped the battle and then won with that with these and the government representatives went to the with these to stoke on for negotiation we had now a very clear argument. for boss sides to withdraw the troops the government from the border of one day down the city or for days and that is from inside the city

and from the area surrounding the port of the city but unfortunately and no step has been taken further in implementing this agreement and there are some sort of indications that. the situation is very dangerous it might be it might come back to war because the so-called maggoty mint is frozen and it is refused according to some officers and they were not in the united nations refused to withdraw their troops from their city or for data and according to of cause the government through was not withdrawn from the border of the city well there are huge differences in the way about how to move forward it comes to the implementation of the landmark deal which was signed in store computer i mean some of the details of the reports are should be really humiliating for the saudis and particularly given that this is a pause coming from the french ministry intelligence it says that despite the

massive military hardware amassed by the saudis only its border there are still prone to spectacular attacks by the who the fighters who have less advanced weapons compared to what the saudis have. that is completely correct the images which we have already seen elsewhere on the internet and elsewhere also show that duties at times have succeeded in defeating the often very advanced military equipment that saudi arabia has and so that raises real questions about to which extent saudi arabia is able to use these weapons to derek their their total and that's not say there but most performance levels and this has been very long the case that is has been questioned in the case of saudi arabia i think the story for the united arab emirates is slightly different i think there are somewhat more pointers which indicate that they have learned a lot more over the past decade or so as they have already been in the past been

more active in using the fast arsenals they've built up glenn give us an idea about how the middle industrial complex works in the u.s. along with the decision making process of the highest levels of the white house how it comes to sending selling weapons to the u.s. a saudi arabia which is one of the biggest buyers of those weapons in the wells is it a purely commercial thing that is number one priority for the military establishment order to iran as another factor could be one of the main reasons why the other american administration is saying you know a lot because we don't want the iranians to further expand their influence in the middle is there for is just. make sure that the weapons continue to flow to saudi arabia. well all of the above before i comment on that i just like to observe that the saudi military has been given i think an impossible task and is doing it incompetently. to solve a civil war to

a to foster civil reconciliation is is not something that any military can do and that's the task they've been assigned and having a sophisticated weapons does not a an effective military or political policy make in the us context. geo strategic issues will are the ultimate. decisive point so if the united states government the white house essentially decides that a specific issue is in the vital national merican american interest then arms sales will or will not occur. barring that the economic driver of foreign military sales will be allowed to play out and will predominate so yemen if from the united states' perspective is a significant issue but not

a vital national concern and so arms sales are from that perspective a good thing and will continue but the this whole thing is more of a small girl in a big picture which is about millions of yemenis who have been evicted of their own villages entire neighborhoods destroyed thousands of people killed a deer situation which has been described by the unit.