turns in global capitals while leaders say if iran can't use distrait to sell its oil no one can they also say they intend to keep the shipping lanes near their shores wide open in everyone's best interest but behind balanced remarks in the waters near iran's southern coast are battle ready boats this is as close as we can get to an iranian warship the navy takes the security of its vessels very seriously especially around the waters of the strait of hormuz where boats like this have the job of policing traffic in the waterway but also looking out for american warships . at any time there are dozens of cargo ships visible on the horizon giving a sense of how much traffic these waterways see on a daily basis the message here is iran considers itself in charge of these waters in the middle of all this is the small but strategic hormuz island in the seventeenth century it was home to a fort for the portuguese navy one local guide says it's still the perfect place to monitor and control traffic in the strait some living here worry

a conflict could make their quite island a flash point it's already going like yes we are concerned if it happens nothing will remain here families and lives will be destroyed he knew and others doubt it will come to that no national to command a yacht namely that father hasn't been any conflict here as long as i remember i don't have any concerns maybe some people do but as far as i can remember nothing has happened to make a sparrer. this coastline doesn't have any hotels and it's not teeming with any beach goers the scenic island remains largely in developed perhaps by design where at the southernmost points of hormuz island now and the waves washing up against this rocky beach that water is from the strait of hormuz this is the straits just here and it is a very picturesque setting there are tourists that are coming through in buses it is a very nice place but make no mistake for the iranian government this place. if the

function of a pressure point backed into a corner iran's leaders say they will respond in the us will be to blame for whatever comes next the point is centuries old places like this as a reminder that they faced foreigners at their shores before and if pushed they can do it again. hormuz island in the strait of hormuz off of iran's southern coast and in an exclusive interview with al jazeera iranian foreign ministers other very few says his country does not want an escalation with the united states we have been very clear that we have no interest in escalation we have been clear that persian gulf and the strait to hold most is our lifeline we depend on them for a livelihood and we want them safe secure and free for navigation of all countries including iran president trump said that the united states spent seven trillion dollars in our region and destroyed our region and got

a lot of american blood on its hand because because of the fact that the americans died in this region without any reason without any purpose and you can watch more of this exclusive interview with iranian foreign minister javad zarif on talk to well just syria which is going to air this saturday from all four thirty g.m.t. . u.s. special counsel robert motos complained about how his report into russian meddling in the twenty six thousand election has been portrayed the justice department official says miller wrote to attorney general william barr after barr said there was no evidence the president obstructed justice when his letter said that didn't fully capture the context nature and substance of the investigations conclusions but as you to testify before the senate judiciary committee in the coming hours while an official is joining me now from the capitol hill for the latest alan essentially william appears to be going in with to some extent one hand tied behind

his back because obviously robert muller says that he essentially misrepresented what the report said. well let's not think the appearance of this letter the night before bill bar is due to give evidence to the judiciary committee is somehow i remarkable occurrence this is being leaked to make sure that bill barr has a very difficult time in front of the judiciary committee particularly from the democrats it was already going to be asked how did you manage to come up with the idea that the president was not guilty of obstruction when clearly robert mueller in the report if you read it listed at least ten incidents and said it should be up to congress and that was always going to be a driving point no they have the added ammunition of this letter from robert mueller says you didn't put it properly when i said this is what was going on you didn't give a genuine response to the american public know the department of justice and those

supporters of bill barbour said that he didn't get anything wrong it's just the whole idea of context that isn't going to fly in front of this committee particularly in front of democrats particularly we consider that three of the democrats on the committee are also presidential hopefuls as well so they're got one eye on twenty twenty. thanks very much indeed i want to bring in steve clemons he is the editor at large for the political website the hill he's joining us now from washington d.c. we appreciate your time so thank you very much indeed going by what allan was just saying there looks like william is in for a pretty rough ride but do you think given his recent history in the way he's been dealing with this that that's going to be much of a problem for him well i think that he would have been in for a rough ride even before bob muller's letter expressing real dismay with how the attorney general framed the report and so i think it was going to be tough anyway

but that said you know i think we're going to see a train wreck today i think where you know as allan just said we're going to have you know some presidential hopefuls but we have other people kind of earnestly and straightforward straight forwardly wanting to know why attorney general barr came to conclusions that are so widely different than what we've read in the four hundred plus page report and i think that's going to be what we see today and and i think it's going to be a complicated day for barr i think i think you know. he's been saying on this stop and certainly he has a right to frame things as as perhaps he wants but he's put himself in a role that no what tourney general in our history has in the past which is to put himself in as a flock for the president not someone who is seemingly concerned about the rule of law broadly as it's applied to citizens of the united states if this does go badly for william barr will the representatives who are questioning much they be able to

get to the answers that they really want to hear and if they do what happens next. well this kind of theater is is always very predictable it's a kind of kooky dance tough questions are answered you know members of congress are performing just like barr is performing and bar will answer or not and the expectation is he won't give those answers that we that we most seek or that they most seek and that the press wants to hear that said there can always be a surprise just muller's letter itself was a major surprise preceding this testimony it wasn't expected so i tend to be one who says we're going to largely see nothing new happened today but ten percent of me thinks maybe there will be a surprise and how far reveals why he did what he did or other dimensions that may make this different but as things look right now as we see the field i don't expect

barr to be very forthcoming with how he came to his can the conclusions he expressed. been regularly said that one of the things that people would really like to see would be a robot move in front of these similar hearing having questions put to him so that he would be able to elucidate in some of the points of in his report how likely is it given the fact that he has been very cautious about appearing in front of the media in front of the public how likely is it you think that that is going to happen and if it did would he be as forthcoming as people would hope he would be. well i i think that jerry nadler the chair of the house judiciary committee has made it clear that he wants miller to appear. i'm one who thinks that muller will probably appear and it will be a disappointing appearance i think muller won't go one iota beyond what's in the report maybe he will express he will confirm you know his concerns that were expressed to barr but if i were a republican grilling muller i would ask him you know i would press smaller on

if he had these views and concerns why didn't he put them in the report if he wanted to be the one that framed the issue that there was more there on the obstruction of justice issue why didn't he express those issues i mean so the republicans are going to have a legitimate line of inquiry against smaller if he gets up there because mahler did leave it to barr and others and congress to draw their own conclusions but that created an opportunity you know for the for the obscuring of things that we've seen and for people to basically define the outcome of the report that they're the way they want to and i think that was a failing if you will of bob muller and i think many people aren't saying that right now but that will certainly be part of a hearing with him and he and he may be reticent about that but my sense is he will appear but i think in the end we will hear exactly we will hear every can taken of the four hundred page report and nothing more from bob miller really good to get

your thoughts on this story from thanks a lot. olympic and world eight hundred meter champion caster semenya has lost her appeal against new testosterone rules in athletics it means it will not have to take drugs to reduce or hormone levels if she wants to defend or titles our sports correspondent lee wellings explains. this was a verdict as much to do with human rights as a fanatic says cost as a menu was appealing against a rule that would force her to take medication to reduce her testosterone level and still be allowed to compete in women's competition she lost her appeal against the rule of the court of arbitration for sport in such discrimination is unnecessary resolvable and the potion is means of achieving the ideal believes objective of preserving the integrity of female atlantics in sunday's strike you dance international competition studies from four hundred metres to one my. athletics

while governing body the. maintains it is striving for fairness it said it was plays that the regulations were found to be unnecessary reasonable and proportionate means of achieving the legitimate time of preserving the integrity of fame that takes the idea has been criticized for its handling of the issue which included the suggestion that women with rice testosterone should switch to compete against men so many responded to the verdict immediately on social media sighing sometimes it's better to react with no reaction but later she released a statement accusing the i w f of having always targeted by a specific way for a decade has tried to slow me down but this is actually made me stronger she's yet to indicate if she's prepared to consider medication in order to remain a champion i hundred metres she's a multiple olympic and world champion but can't now defend a title at this year's world championships in doha unless she takes the chemical route she can switch to long distance and did win gold in

a five thousand meters at the south african athletics championships last. week but the treatment has been questioned by the united nations human rights group by the south african government who called it a gross violation of human rights. tries to adjust to gender issues some men use words when collecting an award last year underlined the need for compassion and respect along with science and competition just the right girl you know i grew up in a dusty place. i really you know appreciate you know the support the love you know also for appreciating you know us for being who we are so we can be the best that we can be lee wellings at london on katrina catharsis is a senior visiting fellow in the global health justice partnership at yale university she's joining us now from new york thank you very much indeed for being with us how much is this case an argument about the definition of natural ability

and who should be making that definition. well i think there's a central question here that needs to be pulled apart one is is there a performance difference among athletes with different testosterone levels and that's a question that science can answer the second part of the question is whether or not that's unfair and that's a social question so i do think it's important to note with today's decision that it was not unanimous that one arbitrator felt that the i double a out did not have sufficient evidence to merit enforcement of these regulations and there are other caviar in the press release that we got today so i think you know this isn't done yet and there's the possibility that she can appeal to the swiss federal tribunals and my guess is that we're not done yet hearing about this story in this case given that society is developing and with knowledge of

a wider range of definitions of sexuality in society do you think that there is an argument for saying that sports bodies for example should be reappraising how they define needs in terms of men and women and perhaps they should be concentrating more on a level playing field of abilities rather than sexes. yes i think one of the key issues here is that there's a great deal of misunderstanding both in science and in national and international debate and conversation about both the science of sex biology and the relationship between testosterone and athleticism and so what i think we need to do is do more work on that because my fear is that this decision will foster iranians representations of both bodies of science at the same time it's also important to note that this regulation allows both discrimination against women in sports and

sports governing bodies to mandate medically unnecessary interventions in order for women to compete in the category in which they've always competed so no one disputes that women with higher to foster levels belong in the women's category what they're doing is creating a ceiling for testosterone in order to continue to compete in that category we have not seen the full hundred sixty five page report but i think it's important that public the public and other scholars are allowed to see the evidence basis especially because the un has weighed in arguing that regulations like these violate fundamental human rights such as bodily autonomy and bodily integrity cucina causes thank you very much indeed. thank you so much cycling season started in the bay of bengal rob has the mother and his don't start it quietly others come

in who is quiet about it now it's sort of in effect in sri lanka in the it's true some rain in clouds is forming to the east asian sea is going no way no it's not this massive disk here is quite a substantial storm already is when the monsoon starts to come in you get these or were trees where this is the almost version and it's currently registering winds that you would equate with a category three hurricane if you were in the atlantic so this is a major storm considering the body of water which is at about thirty thirty one degree celsius warmer than it should be on average even at this time of the year now it's moving only slowly northwest of the member it's moving will take it towards the coast of india and probably kill it too was by dish which of course takes it off these charts and will move up to catch up with it now wind is going to be one of its features but as you well know quite often to clean the long line land like bangladesh the storm surge the way us and the rain all combined to make the water the worst effect so over the next two or three days is going to be running up

the coast of india probably just of the top or calcutta and then into bangladesh take you there by saturday or sunday as wind rain storm surge and ways subject to alteration is going to be damaging. still ahead on al-jazeera brags it all out the reason why britain's conservative party is likely to suffer heavy losses in local elections. celebrations in japan as emperor not of he took assumes the throne. and in sports the best of the n.b.a. playoffs was the bucs get fired up in milwaukee just to be here with all the action . i really want to get down to the nitty gritty of the reality whether on line when you have a male chauvinist and that is change plans with in our global federation and it is really hard to get

a piece of that child or if you join us on saturday. they can speak up their mind this is a dialogue everyone has a voice to talk to us and i live you to chat and you too can be in history join the coloe phone conversations on al-jazeera. examining the headlines a collapsed economy believes that many people are struggling to survive setting the discussions people have looked away i don't think you can look that way anymore sharing personal stories with a global audience explore an abundance of world class programming designed to inform the media's motivate and inspire. the world is watching on al-jazeera.

your child is it a reminder of our top stories this hour the made a labor rally in paris has turned violent with police firing tear gas to do. protesters police say four left on a cruise groups are among the demonstrators and intending to cause trouble. forces loyal to libyan warlord twenty four have to have detained two turkish nationals on monday turkey's president's visit tell you about the ones called for help those advance towards tripoli a plot against libyan people. olympic and world eight hundred meter champion caster semenya has lost her appeal against new testosterone rules and athletics to not have to take drugs to reduce or hormone levels if she wants to defend her titles. thousands of protesters are expected on the streets of venezuela opposition leader has called for more demonstrations against president nicolas maduro while president

maduro is threatening to prosecute those involved in what he's called an attempted coup in america added to the sea and human is monitoring developments in the cuban capital havana. it was perhaps his boldest move yet opposition leader why do all appearing before dawn in front of a caracas here for space so grounded by some twenty five soldiers appealing to the military to join him by his side was leopoldo lopez perhaps than israel's most famous political prisoner he announced he'd been released from house arrest by security forces who turned against president nico last mughal ability to defend freedom out with tyranny everyone out onto the street. opposition supporters answered the call but were pushed back by security forces dozens were injured in clashes between pro and anti-government groups. after he and lopez took part in a march why dog disappeared from sight and the nagging rumors that he would be

arrested but come nightfall he issued a new call from an undisclosed location venezuelans to rise up again. we will continue calling on the armed forces to take part in the final phase of operation liberty to rescue our dignity that is why on may one we will go back onto the streets nationwide gathering in the areas we have already designated. president maduro responded on nationwide television surrounded by army officers whose continued support he depends on building. this was truly a fake a minor a simulation and that's why eighty percent of the military and police who joined them in the beginning had left them by newt but amid reports that his support may be cracking u.s. secretary of state might compel said little had been about to step down and go to cuba but was dissuaded by russia another key ally maduro says that's rubbish

and adding more fuel to the geopolitical crisis president donald trump is again pointing the finger at his warning abana that unless it immediately withdraw what he calls military help to them a doodle regime he will slap on what he is now describing as a full and complete embargo as well as height will be economic and financial sanctions. in venezuela weibo and mother who are both planning to mark international workers day with a major show of strength on the streets one to try to force the president from power the other to try to maintain it you see in human. have. in our cars one adonis one is joining us now from the argentinean capital one is set is. there any indication yet whether or not is going to get the protests that he wants. well that's what everybody is watching and waiting to see i mean it

is now on the case of numbers how many people actually do turn out on the streets across then a swathe but what we do know is these demonstrations both in favor of it all and in favor the counter demonstrations in favor of president nicolas maduro a fairly common in venice way that they've been going on pretty much since. in two thousand and thirteen large demonstrations asking him to step down he's defied those calls in the past it can be said that on tuesday the call was much much stronger than previously but what didn't happen was the large number of defections from the military that one way though was asking for some certainly defected some went back again but not in the numbers that he was hoping for to bring about substantial change and force the resignation of the departure of president nicolas maduro so now we're in the realms of accusations counter-accusations the americans saying russians are involved the russians saying

that they weren't how far cuber is involved in all of the all of this so really it's a case now sifting through that information working out what really happened and as i say to count those numbers who come out on the streets today both in favor of one way though and those in favor of president nicolas maduro doing a little protest to go ahead is there a concern that this situation could escalate further and we could end up seeing even more violence in the streets. certainly i mean we certainly saw the clashes yesterday those horrendous images of a national guard vehicle driving into into protesters hospitals are reporting many injuries say yes that is certainly the case is both sides come out on to the streets again it's a relatively common experience that there are pro and counter demonstrations they sometimes clash and again there are forces working on both sides trying to manipulate the situation trying to aggravate the situation to some degree. yes that is always a possibility and

a great fear i mean we have several countries. working outside of venezuela the lima group going to be meeting him in peru there's it was a group of interested countries who met in montevideo uruguay a little while ago the united nations spain they've all called for restraint from both sides hoping that this doesn't descend into violence but yet that is a strong possibility thanks daniel the african union has urged sudan's military council to hand over power to civilians within sixty days military council earlier warned protesters not to take the law into their own hands the demonstrators accuse the army of clinging to power and they're demanding an immediate transition to a civilian government a new round of talks between the taliban and the u.s. has begun in qatar the u.s. state department says its peace envoy zalmay khalilzad is visiting doha to meet representatives of the afghan on group it's the sixth round of talks between the two sides who are trying to find

a framework for peace in the country afghan government has not been part of the talks the man leading the taliban delegation in qatar the economy but a dog he was the right hand man of leader mullah omar and led many operations for the taliban and he was captured in two thousand and ten shelob else has more on but a dog. in a great turban taken during the u.s. television talks this is one of the few photos that exist of taliban co-founder turned political chief abdul ghani baradar in his fifties baradar has worked in the shadows his entire life we are schoolman taliban commanders about their new front man. for alongside miller baradar they first met in the. leg another the most sort of got more laboratory and i spent time together during the jihad time we had a council and we were doing military operations in kandahar together he's a very honest and good man and i think you can help the peace process baradar also

has powerful connections outside the taliban he's from the same tribe the problems arise as former president ahmed karzai among five to nine eleven because i was in the mountains neighborhood i was birthplace and when he was nearly killed baradar saved his life. yes yes you see that how. well that was probably. october two thousand and one. two months later because i became the afghan heat of state pushing himself and his savior on opposite sides of the hill for nearly a decade if i'm to bear it out of command approximately one thousand u.s. and nato soldiers were killed he was number two in other words he was assistant to a lot more so he is a core builder of taliban movement so he is a good fighter he has a lot of experience fire didn't experience from the severe time until the start i

understand you tried for peace with mullah baradar once before there was a time that we want peace the tea and so many other leaders of the taliban movement were seeking peace but the time the americans and the parks are used to to be nurses and parks and both were against peace or against and they worked together to prevent it and the the both of them together when you know rested in his housing parks that put him in prison for all those years what was your reaction when he was arrested we object to it will be stronger to. baradar was held in prison in pakistan for eight years he was only released in october at the request of u.s. special envoy zalmay khalilzad because of his reputation for being pro pigs do you think he really wants peace the taliban of all sort to who are seeking peace have paid a price with their lives for it or imprisoned. in an underground bunker

a kabul university lies an archive of taliban and government newspapers here mullah baradar holds the title of taliban deputy insurgent commander in makes now the possibility of peacemaker for the man whose image goes on printed charlotte dallas zira kabul. we're getting founder julian assange has been sentenced to fifty weeks in jail for breaching bail conditions in the u.k. the protesters outside the courtroom in london where the forty seven year old made an appearance was given asylum in the ecuador embassy for almost seven years before he was a victim last month will face a separate hearing on thursday to determine whether he should be extradited to the u.s. now he mamma has the latest from london. well there was plenty of support outside coat here for julian our son's well inside his defense lawyer handed out a letter from julian assange in which he apologized unreservedly for

disrespecting anybody who felt they'd been disrespected in the way he conducted himself over the last few years he said that he had acted in the best and only way that he thought possible now what he meant by that was outlined by his lawyer in a series of mitigating factors that he hoped would really to reduce sentence the the underlying thing being that gene assigns had always been acting through a genuine fear that he'd be sent on to the united states if britain extradited him to sweden and when he lost his appeal against that extradition that was when he sought asylum in the ecuadorian embassy now his lawyer pointed out that julian assange heads a consistently offer to cooperate with the swedish investigators and he was actually questioned in the embassy by swedish officials and soon after that his lawyer said that was when the allegations were dropped but the judge here said that julian assange had not like his lawyer had claims been held in prison like

conditions that he had been free to leave the embassy at any time to cooperate with justice stress nobody should be above the law and sentence him to fifty weeks in jail now on thursday mr assange extradition hearing for that request by the united states will begin but that process is. likely to be extremely long and drawn out according to most legal observers britain's conservative party is bracing itself for big losses in thursday's local elections as i know among traditional conservative voters who feel betrayed by brags that uncertainty reports from yorkshire in northern england. local politics is supposed to be about things like cleaning up what doctors leave behind tidying the streets really monday in stuff this picture postcard town in new york share looks like a perfect example of how to do it properly but while all these local conservatives fighting to be reelected want to talk about getting the buses to run on time their

constituents have other concerns. they getting breakfast before i get in about the actually that's quite true. very frustrating for. them frustrating yes but i find as well one of the things that has bothered me more is that people who say i voted conservative for the last sixty years and i am not voting conservative this time just to let the government know how upset we are is our only way of showing it catterick down the road has the biggest army bases in europe it's all natural conservative territory and it's where richard is trying to be reelected. if you think people want to hear my sense is that increasingly people who want bricks it want a clean break i think they feel a very watered down bricks it affectively that leaves us permanently embedded in europe with no size. is perhaps the worst of all worlds while these local

politicians are having to argue about bret's it imagine what things are going to be like for conservatives standing in next month's european elections. in which the new brics it party looks likely to rip them to shreds it is already polling double . what the conservatives are on defections found among the party faithful as teresa mayes already broken reputation will disintegrate in time. when the european elections have been just think you'd be tempted suit to vote for the brics a person that's a little secret but i think you probably know they are we need a new leader mrs may is a. ridiculous it's just a lawful stop she's gone baby gone bonkers she can't help it who wouldn't think of getting up every day and facing what she does people stabbing out from the front from the back from the side everyone has gone.