the europeans were involved or not perhaps all those think about maybe fashioning some great deal with which would you bring along the partners along with what's interesting as well here and this is the skepticism that's being expressed about all these reports of some imminent iranian threat which has been which has been deepened by information that is come subsequent to john bolton statement on sunday that this aircraft carrier group was steaming its way to the region because of some sort of imminent threat minute and then it turned out it was going there anyway all the toppings it's we've got a little bit quicker it's just it's just not going to creation for a quick point stop so there is skepticism here in washington as well there is pressure on ball drop not to escalate this too far because no one wants war with iran but the question is always there are those key people around the world from who do seem to want war with iran whether this can do weakness kind of display the trudge into a war without really without really meaning to shepherd hansie with the latest on that from washington she had thank you and we were we are going to have more analysis on the story a little later on the news hour also coming out on the al-jazeera news hour

democrats vote to hold the u.s. attorney general in contempt of congress for refusing to hand over the reports into russian interference in the two thousand and sixteen election qatar accuses the u.a.e. of a campaign of violence and hatred against its citizens at the international court of justice at the hague and in sport the king of clay shows why he still reigns on the tennis courts peter explained in sport. but first polls have closed in south africa where it's been twenty five years since nelson mandela's african national congress swept to power after the end of apartheid south africans have been voting for their four hundred member national assembly which is elected for five years now the party with the most seats then chooses the president the a.n.c. is. expected to win another majority and if it does its leader cyril ramaphosa will

remain as president some forty eight political parties have taken part in these elections and more than twenty six million people have registered to vote for me the miller has more now from cape town south africa's governing african national congress says it's confident it will win it 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 the career month we're going to get out of this election is to speed up the process of growing our economy on an inclusive basis so that we can address the by and the needs of poor people in our country the month we're getting here is we must have service delivery and i've been saying that i don't want any for excuses i just want us to

work. almost a third of south africans are unemployed and the economy is in decline the agencies 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 vote is unhappy with the governing party whatever numbers will receive from our people would 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 fever abode day. of the thirty five million south africans eligible to vote nine million did not register observers say growing voter apathy shows how unhappy people are with all political parties both says 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 and. i was going to say sure and then we needed to know what's out there whether you like this is the rainy buy the people are going. to see black history five years ago it's way which is low to rise dade there's a lot of sprawl is there is no 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 its supporters

at the a in c. do better. or for me to is live for us in cape town and for me that tell us a little bit about voter turnout if we know that and also when we're expecting some results. well there's no clear picture here to round voter turnout but it certainly is a concern especially for the governing african national congress because in the past that or the number of supporters have dropped that's because many stayed away from the polls rather than possibly moving their support to other parties there is concern that that voter turnout to may be low in townships in particular here in cape town there really was bad weather and we did see some protests in some areas that are clear to what extent those protests affected operations at the polling stations and how badly they were affected or from what we saw the impact really was minimal we do know that vote counting has begun and at least twenty thousand

stations around the country a few thousand others remain open as there are still queues of people voting even though the polls did close about two hours ago everybody who's gathered they already in the queue does have the right to vote now here in the western cape or as you also mentioned earlier this is a hotly contested election and the western cape is governed by the official opposition the democratic alliance and the da though is in a position where the african national congress has to some extent renewed its image and the da could possibly be concerned about what to what extent that is but to give us an idea into to what the da expects to happen next to the success in this province was speaking to alan windy of the democratic alliance this is quite a tight fight between the governing party and the da at one point the da describing it as neck and neck what are your concerns around the voter turnout and what you

support might be like so of course we had we had rainy weather across the province today and that always has an impact we also really drove our system to get as many of our voters are as possible and i think at the end of. hey you know i didn't get to everywhere in the province but where i did get to was most impressed with the number of people standing out in long queues even in the rain and really really was amazing to see the commitment of voters prepared to actually brave the weather . and i think partly optimistic that the numbers actually did come out at the end of the day you know obviously counting is only happening right now so we'll only see over the next couple hours how it starts to gel and we'll be able to make colvin in the next few hours but generally obviously rain does drop you'll voter turnout but i still think for me i think i'm quietly optimistic that we've managed to you said it was neck and neck. and neck and neck means that we've got to get our

voters out and of course both parties are very insular very much like to take this province away from us again because we only province up until now governed by the opposition in south africa and so we've really worked very hard at retaining it and alan just very quickly this is an election that is a lot of focus on opposition parties not only yourselves but also the economic freedom fighters what does the rise of these opposition parties in the growth mean for one like you as it's been established as the dawn of democracy but i think first of all it's great that when people talk about the parties in south africa talk about the big three survey so at least we moving to wards a democracy that has some choice but still you know we've got so many parties that actually never get any seat at all in parliament and hopefully we move to a space you want to have an open free democracy but of course it is also concerning for us that every time these sort of little parties go to nibble away you know we need to end up with four or five parties that really start to focus on democracy

and so if you're twenty five years into democracy and i think one single party returning it for twenty five years and you start to see that whittle away but you know that's where we as political parties have to start to find our own space and that has been tough this is the slow. all right ellen thank you so much for your time ellen when do they have the democratic alliance restarting to see initial results trickle in and we should have at least ninety percent of the results coming in the next twenty four hours and possibly a final result by the weekend for me to for the moment thank you i u.s. house panel has voted to hold attorney general william barr in contempt of congress for refusing to hand over and under that copy of the report on russian election interference are released the censored version of the report last month his refusal to submit the edited version at the accusations that he was lying to congress about special counsel where there is concern us earlier president trump use the executive

privilege over the report shielding it from public view patty culhane is following developments in washington. after a long and contentious hearing the house judiciary committee has voted along party lines to issue a contempt of congress citation against the william bar the u.s. attorney general this is all over the robert the special counsel's report about potential collusion between the trim campaign in russia and obstruction of justice barr released a redacted version of the report the democrats who controlled the committee said that's not good enough they want to see everything that was blacked out they want to see the evidence underlying the conclusions they said the timeline did not give them that report so now they have issued this citation now both sides both parties try to paint this as a very different issue democrats say this is about checks and balances republicans say this is about getting the president we have a constitutional responsibility to serve as a check and balance on an out of control executive branch the attorney general is

totally out of control he will be held in contempt of congress i think that the my democrat colleagues are still in denial that the president was actually elected . so now it goes to the full house for a vote word again likely to pass then it seems likely the democrats will try to get a judge to order bar to release the information or be held a contempt of court which potentially actually means jail time one thing making this even more complicated the president is claiming executive privilege saying that it's confidential and that democrats in congress don't get to see this report again that is something that is likely to be challenged in the courts. catherine has accused the united arab emirates of a campaign of violence and hatred against its citizens at the international court of justice the gulf states are locked in a battle of the u.s. court over a blockade imposed on that almost two years ago stephanie decker has the latest

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 the citizens particularly families that are intermarried and students to return to the emirates it all boils down to a website that the qatari citizens can use to apply for an m.r.i. they are saying qatar is blocking that website and the guitar's is saying that they're doing that for their own security juta issues you see with malware this is what is being heard here countries 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 the emirates once implemented the bigger picture is this it is a case that qatar has brought here because it says that politics is charged 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. a faction of the pakistani taliban has claimed responsibility for a bomb blast at a popular shrine in the city of lahore at least ten people including four police officers have been killed by the explosion at one of the country's oldest sufi shrines victoria gate and b. has more. 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 for women who were inside the game. most of the wounded have been moved to mount hospital according to our 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 fits extremely what islam but i also believe that the faction of the p.d.p. is not operating in full full talking it and pakistan because there have been some previous attempts in the past have been foiled by the security agencies the data darbar 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 gayton be algis there. still to

come on al jazeera a surprising show of support for venezuela's nicolas maduro in washington as activists take over the embassy in the u.s. capital over drivers send a blunt message to management walking. the job to demand better wages and rights and peter has the sport with news of a major milestone in major league baseball. hello there it's wet and windy for some of us in europe at the moment so thanks to this is larry of low pressure that spinning its way towards the east already lots of rain with us and the winds are picking up even more for some to it's going to be very very windy over parts of france there on thursday and then on friday this whole system works its way further towards the east so generally for many of us

across europe that it's really fairly miserable is looking wet and windy the exception really is in the south so forcing greece it should be fine twenty four degrees will be our maximum temperature it should also be warm and sunny for us in rome at twenty three and some of that sunshine will just be sneaking its way into parts of spain and portugal as well but the other side of the mediterranean the temperatures have really east forcing cairo so no higher than around twenty six the thursday that we've seen back after that so by the time we get to friday we'll be up to around twenty eight elsewhere looking quite quiet really for many of us here are about getting to around twenty three degrees which is seventy three in fahrenheit across the central belt of africa formal showers has some particularly heavy ones of a possible uganda campout is expecting quite a few here and we're also expecting quite a few showers over parts of the born evil vale there will be getting to around thirty one degrees and force in lagos will be at around thirty two.

climate is changing and time is running out i've never seen an elephant like wild west type in a new series earthrise meet some of the people driving the struggle to save the environment scientists are telling us that we have just twelve years to make i present any changes to transform every part of our economy and our society earthrise coming soon on a just. rewind returns with updates on the best of al-jazeera is documentary. the moving story of two young tuchman girls in afghanistan. at last able to get an education after is a pressing taliban occupation. but what has become of their dreams. rewind pencils and bullets. on al-jazeera.

welcome back here's a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera u.s. president donald trump has impose new sanctions on iranian steel and mining industries and these threaten further action if in his words tehran does not change its behavior the measures following iran announcing its rolling back on some restrictions to its nuclear program the move stops short of violating the landmark two thousand and fifteen. and the u.s. house panel has voted to hold the attorney general william barr in contempt of congress for refusing to hand over an undried acted copy of the mole

a report on russian meddling in the two thousand and sixteen election. let's go back to our top story now iran rolling back its commitments to the two thousand and fifteen nuclear deal terror on is accused e.u. nations of failing to deliver on their commitments the agreement in the wake of crippling u.s. sanctions it's given the block sixty days to comply so what exactly did the e.u. sign up to back in two thousand and fifteen while members committed to opening a new branches of iranian banks in the e.u. countries and to allowing the transfer of funds between the e.u. and iran without authorization the bloc also committed to providing financial support for trade with iran even nations also agree to importing purchasing and transporting iranian crude oil and petroleum products as well as allowing uranium cargo flights access to airports and ending the inspection and seizure of cargo.

well for more on this we can speak to trita parsi he's the founder of the national iranian american council and professor at georgetown university he joins us live from washington sir welcome to al-jazeera and i was just reading there some of the e.u. commitments that the well that the e.u. signed up to in that agreement have they lived up to it. not really i mean it's not for a lack of desire on think the europeans in any way shape or form and to disagreement with bad intent but the problem is that as a trumpet in a stray ssion has really pressured the europeans they have almost on every account caved to that pressure and as a result iran essentially is the only country in the agreements next to russia and china that actually is living up to it so i'm not surprised that the iranians took this step i think what is surprising is that it took them so long to start reducing some of their collaboration with the agreement mindful of the fact that the un the us is not doing so i mean i guess the e.u.

and many of the countries there find themselves in a slightly impossible position because they never wanted the u.s. to reimpose sanctions on iran and now they're kind of caught between the u.s. on one side and they ran on the other do you see them changing their actions of the next sixty days do you think it's the governments of the companies or how do you foresee this unfolding. well i think first of all i think you're quite right the europeans are not in any way shape or form in an enviable position because if they . live up to their agreements obligations under the agreement they're going to have more tensions with the trumpet mr ation and their economy is far more dependent on the united states than they themselves are really realize if on the other hand they betray their obligations under agreement yes perhaps a deal could survive but the united states will sorry the other way around if they if they walk out of this agreement all together there are tensions with the united states will lessen but then the iranians will restart their nuclear program

and the u.s. and iran will once again be on a pathway towards war and the repercussions of that war will be devastating to europe the question though i think the iranians are asking themselves is is it really so that europeans cannot do anything more because thus far they have not been under any pressure from iran they've only been on the pressure from the united states now they're testing and seeing if they put some pressure on the europeans will there perhaps be a bit more political will will there perhaps be a look more creativity on the european sign to find a way to actually ensure that the iranians get what they were promised on that is deal so that this deal can survive if the iranians were trying to blow up the deal they could have done so a long time ago and just walked out what they're doing right now is to try to balance the pressure a little bit ok so i guess you know we're going to find out in the next weeks and months i guess if the europeans do change their attitude in some way can you ever see iran walking away from this deal. i certainly hope not i

think it would be extremely bad and i think the step they're taking today is also extremely regrettable at the end of the day this is not what should be happening but the reason why it is happening is because donald trump initiated this crisis it's a completely unnecessary crisis this deal was working the iranians were living up to it and if it had been implemented appropriately by the west in particular by the united states instead of sauber targeting it i think we would have been a much much better situation today and there could have been negotiations on other issues that the west and iran have differences over this is at the end of day completely the making of donald trump and that's extremely extremely regrettable trita parsi president of the national iranian american council sir thank you for sharing your views with us thank you. the activists are refusing to leave the abandoned venezuelan embassy in washington d.c. after president nicholas where there was diplomats were expelled last month the u.s. government recognizes opposition leader one weibo as the country's legitimate president

but as the plants have been unable to take up residence castro has more. work none of the people living inside washington's venezuelan embassy since april are venezuelan officials or even then a swindler they're members of an american leftist group called code pink and they moved in after the diplomats of president nicolas maduro moved out for about four weeks now we have been living inside the venezuelan embassy as guests of the legitimate venezuelan government the only legitimate government of venezuela the material administration code pink says the rise of opposition leader kong why go who has declared himself interim president is the result of a u.s. led crew. that's an accusation these programs and his whalen's strongly reject this is two thousand and eighteen election victory is in dispute and why do as leader of the national assembly is the rightful president i

would love for them to read eventually. and. this is definitely not a jewish group that. was to emphasize that point the venezuelan counter protesters have surrounded the embassy trying to pressure those barricaded inside to leave. at times the tension has escalated into skirmishes and get up. to a lot of work and they don't even know where venezuela is because none of them have this this is my venezuelan id i'm venezuelan and tony bennett told that the united states recognizes one quite oh as venezuela's president the stay. department says anyone inside the embassy without authorization is a trespasser but the vienna convention bars us police forces from entering to physically remove anyone and thus the standoff the protesters are locked inside

why dove's newly dispatched diplomats locked out. why dove's newly appointed ambassador to the u.s. can only stand outside the embassy door. self declared government in waiting has been shut out of the united nations as well along with russia and china the u.n. continues to recognize as venezuela's president meanwhile sixty five countries support why go he should be able to do what is stop what he's been doing as a question and he's being recognized by the major damage especially world but while there's disagreement in this way or there will continue to be disagreement abroad the standoff at the washington embassy a proxy for that battle. castro al-jazeera washington. a prosecutor from the international criminal court has briefed the u.n. security council on efforts to investigate crimes committed in the libyan conflict for toobin so the appeared at the united nations in new york despite her visa being

revoked by the u.s. government or diplomatic editor james bays reports ever since general half the began his advance on tripoli a month ago there have been consistent reports of atrocities of war crimes committed by his commanders some of them even documented on social media the chief prosecutor didn't refer to any specific incidents but she did give this warning to all commanders in libya the law and this is clear. when a commander knew or should have known that this abundance we are committing or about to commit crimes and failed to take all necessary and reasonable measures within his power to prevent or depressed such crimes the commander may be held criminally responsible the world health organization are still makes in the last month more than four hundred forty people have been killed in libya more than two

thousand wounded and moving sixty thousand people displaced from their homes the u.k. drew up a draw frozen illusion for the u.n. security council calling for a ceasefire but it couldn't get the other members to agree sudan's protest leaders are threatening to launch a nationwide civil disobedience movement after accusing military leaders of delaying the transfer of power to civilian rule military leaders said that they could hold elections in six months if an agreement cannot be reached with the opposition the two sides are at odds over who will lead sudan until new elections are held and for how long. the fit with the fact we agreed to continue demonstrations and escalate our activism escalation in itself is not the goal the revolution has yet to achieve its demands 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 and the 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. drivers of the ride sharing our stage the global strike demanding better pay and working conditions employees in major cities across the united states the u.k. brazil and australia shut down the app in protest during peak daytime hours the demonstrations can just days before the company lists its shares on the new york stock exchange. millions of yemenis are observing the holy month of ramadan but the country which has been ravaged by war is already on the brink of starvation many are finding it impossible to buy food after observing a day of fasting laura burden manley reports. father of four

is preparing for a rabbit with his pick of sweets and date but most of the food he's buying is approaching past its sell by date. so he works the yemen's un recognized government but like most employees who hasn't been paid for two years cash strapped he says he has little choice but to buy low quality food. in the past we used to buy a lot of things for ramadan but now we can't afford it and we look for the cheapest alternative because we don't have enough money. before the war the capital. markets would be bustling but in the. pos for years yemen's currency has shrunk as the cost of food has soared that's become a major driver behind the food crisis here. yet the purchasing power to people has become wake us since the start of the wall because of the economy and the salaries

that are not paid. most of pm and spirit imports including wheat comes from the port city of her data. but they have lost she stopped during the pos here while this fighting between with you rebels and the saudi u.a.e. coalition. with a shaky cease fire in place at the un food agency has gained access to a mill that's been closed since september. according to the plan in ten days we will begin grinding the wheat and distributing it to the provinces and the people in need of about thirty percent of the grain has been infested the un says this mill will hold enough to feed hundreds of thousands of people and it's needed. the war in yemen has caused the largest humanitarian crisis the country is on the brink of famine the u.n. says about four billion dollars is needed for urgent humanitarian aid saudi arabia and the u.a.e. have pledged money but at paying it in installments and continue to bomb controlled

areas. meanwhile muslims across the world of fasting from dawn until dusk for ramadan but too many in yemen could still go hungry at night nor about a monthly al-jazeera. in the last of our series a life displaced we look at the plight of lebanon's palestinian refugee population living in exile for more than seven decades they're scattered throughout a number of counts which have now become built up over crowded neighborhoods has this report from beirut. their number has grown over the years but the space allocated to palestinian refugees has not residents have no choice but to build upwards. as one of twelve camps across lebanon they are towns now the tents are long gone. it's been more than seventy years since palestinians who fled

or were forced from their homes in one nine hundred forty eight after the creation of israel arrived in lebanon mohamad was sixteen years old at the time at eighty six he still remembers how his grandmother told him that their days in exile would be temporary he never imagined he would be a refugee for so long. and provided. for shelter in primitive block structures with zinc roofs and the if you do started to build more permanent concrete structures. those concrete structures however are poorly built construction is not controlled many homes don't enjoy sunlight and have little ventilation the united nations which runs services in the camps considers them among the most crowded urban areas in the world palestinians are not just denied the right to adequate housing by property strictly.