if it's at least some that were promised as part of the original iran nuclear deal two thousand and fifteen very good to talk to you about the sink you so much for joining us on al-jazeera dow kimble executive director of the arms control association. in other world news sudan's protest leaders are calling for a nationwide civil disobedience movement there accusing the military leaders of delaying transferring power to civilians by some members of the opposition parties got into a fist fight during a meeting with the military council the sudanese professionals associations which spearheaded the demonstrations was not there at the military leaders had said they could hold elections in six months if an agreement can't be reached with the opposition a two sides are at odds over who will lead so don until new elections are held and for how long but if some of the through the vote we agreed to continue demonstrations and escalate our activism this collation in itself is not the goal the revolution has yet to achieve it's the months we have not yet transition to a civilian government and we are yet to remove many of the elements from the old

regime it is clear that the reappearance of security services under resumption of their activities just like in the old days means that change has not happened yet and that we still have lots to do for all those who lost their lives that's why we will continue to march on till we achieve our demands. is in khartoum for us joins us now live on the new mom had one wonders how the opposition coalition can reach any sort of agreement with the military when they can't seem to agree amongst themselves in the first place. that's right fully the heart tremendous challenges to deal with fest they have to be united themselves again and they have to deal with the new comer or these newcomers to the negotiation table because today the military council has convened dozens of other parties some of which exist only by name according to the to the to the leaders they say some of these parties are only facades for the former regime and the former ruling congress party the fact that they have been invited to the table and given

a share of this and their visions are being discussed as seen by the. revolutionary leaders and leaders are a tactic by the military council to just you know dilute the whole process and procrastinate and create obstacles because they think these parties are only only the. appearance of the deep state and that this means the end of any hope for the people of sudan to really achieve the goals of this revolution so tremendous challenges there including as you mentioned also the disagreements between members of that evolution of the coalition itself as we have seen some of that today remember that some of the people contributing to this protest of these protests came from darfur from south called the fire from the eastern regions of sudan some of them where rebels who held up arms or force against the government for years is so it's a huge. spectrum of forces and groups that have at the

beginning before they can talk in a united voice to before they can do anything that is impactful or successful with regard to the discussions with the military they have to unite themselves they have to put aside any differences that's the big challenge now the second challenge is. that the military council doesn't seem to be even close to the real points of disagreement now we are still to talking about frameworks about preliminary steps about studying visions and so on they talked about a hundred and seventy seven proposals from different parties and institutions and political bodies that's going to take a lot of time and it is frustrating to the people of us the to the people in the city in your soul to the opposition leaders thank you for that mohammed live for us in khartoum plenty more ahead on this al-jazeera news hour including south africa votes in the most tightly contested election since the end of apartheid twenty five

years ago when live in capetown plus we assess the impact of dams and reservoirs on the world's longest free flowing rivers and the communities who depend on that and the raptors get their cars into the seventy six is in the n.b.a. playoffs people have the best of the action coming up major. u.s. president donald trump has used his executive privilege to keep democratic the democratic controlled house from getting the full uncensored report by special counsel robert muller into alleged russian interference in their twenty sixteen presidential election meanwhile the house judiciary committee is voting on whether it will hold attorney general william barr over his refusal to release an redacted report on release an edited version of miller's investigation last month his refusal to submit the full report has led to accusations that he lied to congress. i urge my

colleagues whether or not you care to see the full mode report and we should all want to see the complete report to stand up for the institution we are proud to serve no person and certainly not the top law enforcement officer in the country and be permitted to flout the will of congress and to defy is a valid subpoena no person that the attorney general not the president can be permitted to be above the law had to call him is live for us now on capitol hill patty first on the president claiming executive privilege what does that mean exactly. what it means is democrats are going to have to wait a little bit longer and take this to court so basically what executive privilege is is the courts have said in the past the certain communications that can be kept confidential from congress if it involves national security or the president being able to get good advice from those around him so we've seen presidents in the past claim executive privilege but we haven't seen this he's basically saying the

justice department the entire report is executive privilege and here's why that's could be a problem for him when it comes to that he's already waived his executive privilege and there are a lot of legal experts say think about executive privilege like toothpaste once it's out of the tube you're not getting it back in so whether or not he's going to be able to defend this in court most legal experts say no but that it will actually just add time because obviously going through the courts takes time. and where are we patty with the house judiciary committee vote on the attorney general and holding him in contempt. well both sides talk for hours and hours and then they had to take a break for lunch and they're going to be back in just about thirteen minutes we expect that they will vote along party lines to hold the attorney general in contempt of congress now there's a couple different ways that could proceed but most likely they'll try to get a judge in the civil proceeding to say hand over the mall or report if the judge

doesn't agree with congress in order william barr to do that then he has to do it or the judge can send him to prison that's how it usually works if you defy a court order but again this is going to delay it some people say it might take up to a year but and previous cases that involve national security of the presidency these sorts of things that tends to move along a little bit quicker so possibly a couple of months maybe a little bit more than that but all of that combined just means that this is not going to be settled any time soon this constant fight between the administration and congress is going to go now to the third co-equal branch. government the judiciary thank you very much for that patty cohen live for us in washington. to south africa now where the polls are about to close a millions of people have been voting in a closely contested national election the ruling african national congress is expected to win again but its margin of victory is likely to shrink opposition parties say the a.n.c. has failed to deliver on its promises to grow the economy and create jobs family to

miller has our report from cape town south africa's governing african national congress says it's confident it will win its six democratic national election and it's likely to pull that's despite internal splits factionalism the resignation of the president and a swarm of corruption allegations that stayed at the party for career months. out of this election is to speed up the process of growing our economy on an inclusive basis so that rick and a growth of the by. poor people in our country the monday we have a good thing here is we must have thurber's delivery at auburn. i don't want any further excuses i just want us to work. almost a third of south africans are unemployed and the economy is in decline the a.n.c. is competing against forty seven other parties to win the election the highest

number ever while most of them may be too small to challenge the a.n.c. the main opposition the democratic alliance remains us through it having made gains in recent local elections and newcomers the economic freedom fighters led by julius malema who was once loyal to the a.n.c. have attracted voters unhappy with the governing party whatever numbers will receive from our people will welcome them with both hands it's a monday even one vote counts will accept that those are the results and this is what the people of south africa feel abode that you have. of the thirty five million south africans eligible to vote nine million did not register observers say growing voter apathy shows how one happy people are with all political parties voters here say they're looking for change they say they want jobs houses and it's a living conditions while they have been small protests in various areas voting

hasn't been disrupted here in the township of quietly check in cape town people want to basic services like running water and electricity we didn't see any change and then now that's why you will stand up for our organization and then we need to know what are there whether you like this is there any by the people eyes grew out and. obviously by history five years ago it's way this low develop. this lot of sprawl is these low illiteracy times are sometimes days long or ten while millions of people want their lives to improve it made up result in them abandoning the a.n.c. and that's what the party may be relying on loyalty and belief from with supporters at the a in c. will do better and family joins us now live from cape town family the polls will close in a little over a half an hour now how has the voting gone. well the

electoral commission here is saying that kinley things have gone smoothly but there is some concern around the delivery of ballot papers to some polling stations either they arrived late or not to all in some cases and while the polls do close in a short while as long as voters are within the precinct of the voting station they will have the opportunity to vote even if that takes a number of hours after the voting station actually closes and so the concern from the i.c.c. at this point is getting ballot papers to places where the ballot papers haven't arrived yet and so this means voting could continue for a few more hours at some polling stations but officially they close in as you say about half an hour and there is also some complaints there also complains that the large by some opposition parties mainly around the ink that's been used to mock voters thumbs and and issues around that but so far the ice essentially is happy

with what's taken place today thank you for that from a diminished forests in cape town that's now speak to. who is a political commentator and former lecturer at the university of the western cape is live from johannesburg thank you so much for being with us on our just there are these elections today are being described as the toughest yet for the ruling party what is at stake for the n.c. . well i think what is of great importance about this election is that they come after sustained policy conflict within society and i don't think if you look at the social tension and even the economic tension within south africa at the outcry about high unemployment so what is expected that there would be a voice for affliction from the voters in this elections and expectations are that the. majority are just below sixty percent of course one has to take into

consideration that there is this my duty has been very high in any case for that are but they would most likely be reduced to be law sixty percent as south africans are beginning to reflect on what kind of leadership they want what they expect from their party and also the question of good governance that they've been there's been concern about in the last few years on this issue of good governance president made the battle against corruption a pillar of his campaign do you think he can follow through with some of the promises he made if he is elected especially when you consider that he has rivals within the a.n.c. who have close ties to former president jacob zuma. well i think it is going to be an upward hill for better or for the president for president i'm opposed to be aggressive for good is corruption i have no doubt from what i've seen so far from some of the incremental gains that have been made in the five day against corruption of god inquiries looking into impropriety across the government i

think the president will have to continue with that i don't think you would be very aggressive if you correctly state the biggest ahead he's confronted with on his quest to clean up things it is actually within the party itself i mean he has got to deal with the some of the people that are his comrades that are being implicated and not on its own will really put a brake on how fast you can go all given the fact but if you look internally he leads the party but the power balance within the party is such that he can not preside and force upon his arm to corruption i janda christie he will have to negotiate his way through it has to be gradual interesting what about the opposition parties the da the economic freedom fighters how successful have they been in getting their point across to voters. i think we've got a similar position party that there's been very dominant when it comes to get into

a point of course it is actually they couldn't fight us which started showing up in south africa selection back in twenty four did they have been very helpful and the challenge that the da is confronted with now they've got very internal problems and their projections are they d. a mild to moderate growth significantly and because they've been growing election one election in the previous election it appears but if it seems to be the one that would most likely butyl wadded in the selection and i think that could actually mean the da if they don't perform full well in this election they would have to go back to the drawing board and rethink about their style awful position but it could also mean if the if performed very well in this election it might as well be on the way to exit even more influence on south africa's policy space craft might take a very good to talk to you thank you so much for sharing your views with us as a political commentator joining us there live from johannesburg. still ahead on al-jazeera an attack targeting a sophie shrine kills at least eight people in

a pakistani city of lahore. fasting during the holy month of ramadan in yemen a country facing the world's worst humanitarian crisis hometown hero let's say noah's into the n.h.l. conference final sounds coming up in sports with peter do stay with us we're back after the break. hello we're not quite into the hawks droid dusty period yet still plenty of crowd cloud around iran spurred on by the waters of the caspian or the eastern med there's not much in the sky or you wouldn't think that's in the forecast for if you used to get the potential of producing shows and dust storms ahead of those shows if you tell. that goes from saudi arabia up through iraq towards iran and beyond to

eastern turkey and once that's gone through of course the sun comes to work again the temperature start to rise and it feels rather different but we've still got that process to go through and it's iran will get the cloud is picture stretching out through azerbaijan and the southern caucasus during friday could be some big thunderstorms out of that rather fewer and lighter ones to the south it still possible that the end of the day on thursday in north may be even in kuwait and the high ground in western society typically there was seeing fairly high temperatures now high surtees even low forty's with humidity not write down actually so little bit sticky still particular ways in this grayness which indicates humidity of course the ten which gives you more showers on friday again in western saudi arabia there's a lot of rain to come at the moment yes in the next few days i think in south africa there's the obvious feature and it's right in the middle.

subzero temperatures think stream altitude. this is where the hard part is the extraordinary journey from polish to touch it you start right by ordinary joy that. we do high up there's no oxygen. just to experience life simple pleasures. risking it all in kurdistan on al-jazeera. the climate is changing since time is running no i've never seen an elephant like. this. in the new series earthrise meet some of the people driving the struggle to suit the environment scientists are telling us that we have just twelve weirdness to make i pressed on any changes to transform every part of our economy and our society throws coming soon.

you're watching the news on al-jazeera a reminder of our top stories european nations have warned against further escalation after iran's decision to stop selling enrich uranium and heavy water tehran has given the remaining signatories of a twenty fifty nuclear agreement sixty days to keep their promises to protect its oil and banking sectors from u.s. sanctions u.s. president donald trump has uses executive private as she keep the democrats from getting the full uncensored report by special counsel robert miller into alleged russian interference in the twenty six thousand presidential election the u.s. house judiciary committee is voting on whether to hold attorney general william

barr in contempt over his refusal to release a full report and the polls are about to close in south africa's most tightly contested national elections since the end of apartheid twenty five years ago the governing african national congress is likely to retain power by the parties expected to win few a vote stand in previous elections. now pakistani christian woman who spent eight years on death row in a blasphemy case has left the country. says she is in canada six months ago she was acquitted by pakistan's supreme court a verdict led to mass protest b.b. was originally convicted in two thousand and ten after being accused of insulting prophet mohammed during a fight with her neighbor. saying in pakistan where a faction of the taliban has claimed responsibility for a suicide attack at a popular shine in the city of lahore at least eight people including five police officers were killed in a suicide bombing near one of pakistan's oldest sufi shrines victoria gate and b.

has a details. forensic scientists focused their attention on a police band damaged in the blast it was parked outside a popular sci fi shrine in the city of lahore offices responsible for guarding the entrance to women we're inside became. most of the wounded have been moved to mount hospital according to initial reports there were seventeen to twenty two wounded and rescue workers ongoing seven to ten people are in critical condition but we can't say with a bit dead or alive. a faction of the pakistani taliban has claimed responsibility analysts say it marks a new wave of what they call religious fanaticism i personally think it's extremely what islam but i also believe that this faction of the p.d.p. is not operating in full and good in pakistan because there have been some previous attempts in the office which have been foiled by the security agencies the data

dhaba shrine which dates back to the eleventh century has been targeted before a suicide attack nine years ago killed more than forty people in pakistan's government improve security across the country after an attack on a school in push our that killed more than one hundred fifty people mostly children that was five years ago but this attack shows that armed groups can still cause chaos in one of pakistan's largest cities victoria gates and. in neighboring afghanistan the taliban has claimed responsibility for an attack in the capital kabul at least nine people were injured in explosions near the attorney general's office the taliban says its target was a u.s. based agent agency count of international. now a top u.s. general says is need for a long a military presence in afghanistan joseph dunford says counterterrorism forces need to be kept there until they are no armed groups left in the country his comments

come as washington is holding talks with the taliban to seek an end to the nearly eighteen year long conflict. in turkey the main opposition party is calling for last year's general and presidential elections to be an old the appeal comes two days after the election board decided to rerun istanbul's mayoral election present or shift party lost a vote there who has the latest from istanbul. turkey his main opposition republican party c.h.p. or submitted a request to the supreme electorial boards to cancel last series general and for his national elections as well as the march third two one. stumble districts and the main opposition said even present add ons men mandate should be an old following the ousting of c.h.p. mayor in istanbul supreme election board canceled istanbul may overall result space based on the grounds that there were illegalities and irregularities in the

appointments of the ballot box officers and now the major position argues that the ballot box officials were appointed as in the same way as they were in last year's general and clothes for his then shal election following a revision in turkey is election rules in march two thousand and eighteen. in their request they had there was another issue that the main opposition raised this into a kid during local elections in one you have four voting sheets that's you elect to your local administrators mayors. local councils and local municipal councils and local officials so do the situation of the supreme of the board to council only stumble may overall result is not welcomed by the main opposition saying that it is totally unlawful that all district results should be

annulled as well so now the main opposition argues even the legitimacy of last year's presidential and general election is coup. maist by the decision of the supplement act or aboard. the international court of justice is hearing katanas case against the united arab emirates violating human rights watch us government says the u.a.e. talked it in its citizens based on their national origin when it expelled all qatar ease and stop them from entering the u.a.e. after the twenty seven thousand blockade stephanie deca has small from the hague the court is hearing a specific application by the united arab emirates who are claiming that qatar is basically how bring their efforts to implement suggestions by the court which has to do with allowing companies citizens particularly families that are intermarried and students to return to the emirates it all boils down to a website that the company citizens can use to apply for an m.r.i. t v's are they're saying qatar is blocking that website and the qataris is saying

that they're doing that for their own security juta issues with malware this is what is being heard here cutter is presenting their response and then on thursday you will have both sides giving their final statements the court will then go and deliberate it can take weeks we're told until it may gree or not whether to implement some of what the emirates once implemented the bigger picture is this it is a case that qatar has brought here because it says that politics has turned personal discrimination against its citizens really wanting something to change but if you look at the bigger picture when it comes to the political situation with the blockade almost two years on when it comes to the summer june of this year it doesn't seem to be going in the direction that is going to end anytime soon. venezuela's top court has opened criminal cases against six opposition politicians after last week's failed attempt to oust president nicolas maduro opposition backed by several western and regional nations has been leading protests to force my door

from power terisa ball reports from caracas was there tension is everywhere in venice will have a stays and parliament is not an exception to that opposition lawmakers were harassed by government supporters when they entered the building on tuesday sensitive that we don't have a mosque we are doing our best in a country that is in a crisis with a government that wants to offer ridiculous things while we are fighting just so people don't starve to death richard blanco is one of the seven lawmakers who were stripped of immunity and accused of treason and rebellion the government says that he and six others were part of an attempted coup to overthrow nicola motherhood a one week ago but over the years one of the supporters agree that if you like the code this is not a dictatorship this country is run by the people who do not accept an imposition from the north we are sovereign we are free from the empire if they want to help us they should free the money we have in accounts abroad if they do that then we could

buy the medicine we need. opposition leader why those immunity was removed last month but he has not been detained yet this is the first the meeting here at the national assembly says we are pricing a one week ago one way though has acknowledged that he has failed to convince the military to rise up against my will who are now the opposition is evaluating what to do next the military placed a crucial role in venezuela and in spite of remorse of plots and divisions their leadership has remained loyal to. the united states who is sacked if he's seeking a change in government in venezuela impose sanctions and dozens of venezuelan officials in. the past two years. the u.s. vice president mike pence and then still sanctions are not permanent in an attempt to lure members of the military to rebel against. the united states of america will consider sanctions relief for all those who step forward stand up for the

constitution and support the rule of law or general man well christopher. the former chief of the venezuelan intelligence service who just last week broke ranks with the madeira regime and rallied to the support of the venezuelan constitution and the national assembly. most analysts say the only way out of the crisis is through negotiations. the opposition and the us believe that the sanctions can replace negotiations and that is a mistake the chances that material leaves office without a rebellion from the military is almost nonexistent. for now the political and economic crisis have no end in sight caught in the middle a million savannah's who have to struggle every day to survive.

as a news just in from the us where president donald trump has issued an executive order imposing new sanctions on iran the sanctions relate to iran's metal sectors like its ions steel and copper industries the order says washington's policy is to deny tehran. any revenue from its metal exports that could fund its nuclear weapons program the measures come on the day of course that iran said it would back to back out of two of its commitments to world powers under the twenty fifteen nuclear deal it's given sixty days to the out of the signatories of the deal to comply with the agreement says we'll have more on this breaking news story in the next hour here on al-jazeera

moving on and the first ever global assessment of the world's longest rivers reveals the impact of dams and reservoirs on river eco systems and the communities who rely on them researchers from the world wildlife fund and universities maran the world use satellite imagery and other data to create the first map of our planet's river network as shows only a third of the world's longest rivers still flow freely impacting fresh water species and food security and only a quarter of the ninety one rivers not only then a thousand kilometers rivers like the mekong the blue not any amazon still have a direct connection from their source to the sea researchers estimate there are sixty thousand knowledge dams globally and more than three thousand seven hundred hydropower dams in development speak to michelle theme who is the freshwater scientists for the world wildlife fund and one of the office of the report she is live from washington d.c.

thank you very much for being with us michele these numbers seem pretty low just how serious is your assessment for river eco systems and people who rely on them. yes the findings are quite. strong and we we are concerned about them in terms of the suite of benefits that we know that free flowing rivers provide to humans in nature and how these are being impacted due to the loss of river connectivity around the world tonight these include everything from fisheries freshwater fisheries that people eat millions of people around the world depend on freshwater fish for their protein source also sediment delivery from rivers to coastal deltas and downstream flood plains it's a critical service that are benefit that free flowing reverse provide especially in an era of a changing climate and rising sea levels that flow of sediment to coaster delta

it's critical and then finally biodiversity with the publication just in the last couple days of the international panel on biodiversity and ecosystem services showing the serious decline in buyer who are still around the world where free flowing rivers remain we know that they are some of the strongholds for freshwater biodiversity and we also know that freshwater biodiversity is declining at a rate much higher than other terrestrial biodiversity it twice as fast according to the. living planet index and where dams are infrastructure president like the u.s. and europe where a lot of free flowing rivers have been lost we know that extinction rates are much higher for freshwater species in those places in the u.s. for example extinction rates have been over eight hundred fifty times what their baseline rates and we shall see i talked about you two.