by rights well eliot engel also said his committee is closely watching the u.a.e. as role in conflicts across the middle east and north africa but serious concerns remain about reports that military equipment made the united states in seoul to the immoralities has ended up in the hands of third parties even extremists we're also closely monitoring how the u.a.e. is influencing various conflicts around the world from sudan to libya to somalia and yemen has been a major concern of this committee unfortunately we have not seen nearly enough accountability for attacks against civilians let's get more on this side correspondent she had her tonsils joining us live from washington d.c. so the u.s. at least in the u.s. once again repeating their call for an end to the blockade of cotton this time because of its interests in combating iran she has. i don't got sort of thing about that because in some ways eliot engels comments that he's a democrat

a very right wing right wing hawkish democrat receives a great deal of money from the israeli lobby but also the trouble of ministration might compare the secretary of state when he was in kuwait in march of this year made a similar argument his argument was it's in the interests of the gulf states for the blockade to be lifted because they need to confront iran they need to confront the threats which the which the u.s. and israel and was great sponsor others. feel other major issues in the middle east but anything that shows how intractable the situation is because certainly all the analysts we've spoken to and we've often spoken to over the over the last couple of years say one of the reasons why we have the blockade in the first place is because the saudis and the u.a.e. don't want casa to have some kind of independent foreign policy and once the get a cut the. government to be following the dictates of the whatever is top of the agenda for the saudis and the and the m r r t's and cut us off and said no we have

a foreign agenda so that's one of the reasons and is often said that showed that one of its not the top of its agenda to overthrow the government in iran and that's perhaps one of the reasons why there is remains a blockade so it does show a certain amount of confusion intractability of this blockade if there is some dream in washington elements of washington perhaps in israel perhaps perhaps in parts of the emirates that the blockade if only the blockade could be lifted then the gulf grow unite against iran because in some ways that lack of unity on iran is one of the reasons why we have the blockades blockade in the first place so you have thank you very much for that and now that she have a chance to live and washington d.c. thank you now the international court of justice is here and cut this case against the united arab emirates of violating human rights after the government says the u.a.e. targeted its citizens based on their national origin when it expelled all. countries and stop them from entering the u.a.e. often twenty seventeen blockade stephanie deca has more 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 nemerov t.v. is all they're saying qatar is blocking that website and the guitar's is saying that they're doing that for their own security juta issues with malware this is what is being heard here qatar 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 the talk had been of an international human rights lawyer and he says it's a complex process but the courts look to looks set to rule and cutters favor. the state of qatar has been presented its case and united arab emirates has presented its response what it what is quite clear is that this is part of a bigger political battle as far as the blockade is concerned but the case before the into court of justice is extremely important because it really has affected thousands of guitar nationals in the u.a.e. it is quite clear that the u.a.e. . has embarked upon a discriminatory practice against the target nationals and as we've heard it it has affected sars education employment business interests and

a whole host of other issues so it's a very important case that needs to be argued the u.a.e. as one would expect has dismissed the allegations as they tend to amount to such as this but it's going to have to provide some strong justification for the actions because the actions are all a well established and based on credible evidence of credible reports so for the court to accept the u.a.e. position they're going to have to be convinced that first of all could tell has done nothing to prevent what they had ruled several months ago but also that the practice continues as we see in the u.a.e. is continuing to discriminate against our nationals who are plenty more ahead on the news hour and committing fasting during the holy month of ramadan in yemen a country facing the world's worst humanitarian crisis why both of activists has taken up residence in the abandoned venezuelan embassy in washington d.c. . a now the champion champions league come back don i.x.

to reach the final as the details and sport. but u.s. justice department has a few. democrats on the house judiciary committee of engaging in a politically motivated attacks after they voted to hold attorney general william barr and contempt of congress follows bars refusal to release and on redacted copy of the report on allegations of collusion with russia instead released a censored version of the report last month is being accused by democrats of misrepresenting special counsel robert miller's conclusions to protect president trump and another development on the alleged collusion the us senate intelligence panel has subpoenaed the president's son donald trump jr he's reportedly being summoned to provide answers about his contacts with russia senators are reportedly

looking to question him about his twenty seven thousand congressional testimony on plans for a trump tower project in moscow and on another front democrats in the new york state senate have approved a bill that would allow congress access to president donald trump's state tax returns the bill has to be approved by the new york state house to trump's refusal to release the information as a break from precedent for american presidents patika hayne is following all 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 special counsel's report about potential collusion between the truck 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 conclusions they said the timeline did not give them

that report. issued this citation now both sides both parties trying 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 we're likely to pass then it seems likely the democrats will try to get a judge to order bar to release the information or you could be held in 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 and congress don't get to see this report again

that is something that is likely to be challenged in the courts let's get more on this we're joined by. professor of law and faculty director of the center for ethics and the rule of law at the university of pennsylvania school and she is joining us she's joining us from there good to have you with us on allergies they are so the attorney general in contempt of congress what does that mean and how unprecedented is that. it's quite unprecedented this is actually an extraordinary situation to have the sitting attorney general of the united states who is the chief law enforcement officer of the united states government cited for contempt by a house committee and then it will go to the full house and almost certainly it will be voted. he will be voted in contempt by the full house of representatives it's an extraordinary move on the part of the house judiciary committee but it's

really been a long time in coming since barres defiance and the president's defiance and their apparent coordination in defiance of congress is really something that had to be answered by the congress if they were to preserve their powers and what happens now if the full house does vote the full house which is of course controlled by the democrats to hold william and contempt what happens to him. what will then happen is that congress has to figure out how it wants to enforce this and for that it has at least three options the first option is for them to bring a criminal referral to try to prosecute william barr for contempt of congress that's very unlikely because they would need a prosecuting authority and that would be lo and behold the justice department of which william barr is the head so it seems very unlikely that they can pursue

a criminal referral here the next possibility is that they would try to get a judge to go along with it as a civil matter and i think that's the most likely route and jerry nadler the chairman of the house judiciary committee did mention today in this press conference that that's what they were most likely going to do in that case if a judge does agree he can hold bar in civil contempt and actually have him jailed in till he complies with their requests and the third option is a very very unusual one which is for the house to use its intrinsic powers to try to enforce the judgment congress actually has its own quasar police force its sergeant at arms that's responsible for keeping order and discipline in the house and they can try to actually enforce that by using the sergeant at arms and innocent mistake what does all of this mean for president trump and the report

itself especially now that he's using executive privilege to stop it from being published. well that's right so the president has exerted executive privilege over the entire muller report and that means that it could not be released on republicans if you were correct in that assertion republicans are now asserting that they that the democrats have put william barr in an impossible position because he would be violating the law if you were to release the report however that exercise of executive privilege would be very like unlikely to be upheld in a court of law if that litigated so what it means is very complicated because if by some chance william barr does stick it out and does end up going to prison to jail awaiting a determination of whether or not he has to turn over the report or not or just refuses to turn it over in collaboration with the president's decision he could be

sitting in jail for a long time while this battle goes on and unable to function as attorney general and meanwhile ancillary fights could be going on in the courts it could take quite a long time to resolve this so it could throw us into an even deeper chaos than we're currently in miss finkelstein thank you very much for breaking all of that down for us that of clay finkelstein live in philadelphia thank you. we're going to south africa now where polls have closed in the hotly contested national election a record forty eight parties were on the ballot for the governing african national congress is expected to win but with a smaller margin let's take a look at the three main parties the a.n.c. is led by presidents of abramoff poza he was a trade union leader during the apartheid era then became one of the country's wealthiest businessmen before returning to politics from a pointer has promised to crack down on corruption and improve the stagnant economy

the opposition democratic alliance party has its first black leader you see my money poll suggested maybe using ground among its wealthy a support base the. economic freedom fighters led by julius malema won six percent of the vote in twenty fourteen and as the third largest party in parliament its plans include nationalizing mines and taking land without compensation to give to the poor while opposition parties say they expect to gain because the a.n.c. has failed to deliver on its promises to grow the economy and create jobs fundamental reports now 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 a president and a swarm of corruption allegations that stated the party. out of this election is to lead up the process of growing our economy on an inclusive braces

so that we can address the why and the needs of poor people in our country the money we are getting here is we must have service delivery at auburn. i don't want any further excuses i just want us to we're 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 new comers 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 members 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 theme about day. 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 in cape town people want to basic services like running water and electricity we didn't see any change there now that's why you will stand for i was going to say sure and then we needed to know what are there whether you like this is there any by the people are going. to support this through five years ago it's way which is low to rise data yet there's

a lot of sprawl is there is no illiteracy time so sometimes days long or ten while millions of people want their lives to improve it made up result in them abandoning the sea and that's what the party may be relying on loyalty and belief from with supporters at the a in c. will do better for me to mellow al-jazeera cape town south africa. chinese telecom giant hallways as it will apply for a stay of extradition proceedings against its chief financial officer. she appeared in court in canada on wednesday meng was arrested in vancouver last year on charges of violating u.s. trade sanctions with iran the u.s. accuses men and our way of committing bank fraud wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. still ahead on the news our changing lives the new so which treatment plant that's making a difference directing the refugees in bangladesh

a life in exile and we look at the plight of palestinian refugees living in lebanon and in sports the king of play shows why he still reigns on the tennis court peter what have you that. hello there we're expecting more severe storms over parts of north america over the next few days so thanks to this weather system here it's already given us a few tornadoes some damaging winds and some very large hail stones as well and that system is only slowly edging its way eastwards and as it does so it's going to continue to feed us with some severe weather so most at risk then is texas over houma and into kansas that's where we're most likely of seeing the old tornado over the next couple of days that system is tapping into the moisture from the gulf of

mexico so for many of us here we're going to see a lot of rain over the next day or so and the ground for some of us is already waterlogged so the rain won't be needed towards the west it is coming here to san francisco will be getting to around twenty seven degrees for the central americas a good deal of cloud of the southern half of our map but here there will also be a little bit of sunshine coming through in between further north where it looks clearer there will be more in the way of sunshine but i think for some of us particularly in cuba there's a chance of see one of all the shop showers later on during the day and solti of heavy showers there's been plenty of them over parts of parable i am the northern parts of argentina recently yet more wet weather is expected here as we head through wednesday and it sticks around for thursday as well. made on al-jazeera. as the world's biggest democracy goes to the polls we focus on the economic challenges facing india and the rise of ultra nationalism

a new series of you would win an environmental show that meets some of the people spiting to protect the planet. twenty five years up to coming to power can be am seen maintain its political dominance in south africa. an exclusive exploration of the goals and motivations behind russia's foreign policy told by those who influenced the kremlin and with brics it still looming and populism on the rise across europe will these elections become a referendum on the news so maybe on al-jazeera. the subject of more than half a dozen investigations around the world billions of dollars in stone from malaysia's sovereign wealth one on peace to investigate other nations coffers grew up on al-jazeera. land. land.

it's good to have you with us on al-jazeera these are top stories the united states has assured new sanctions on iran targeting its state and mining industries earlier iran said it would roll back some of its commitments under the twenty fifty nuclear deal the us house panel has voted to hold attorney general william bod contempt of congress for refusing to hand over and unproductive copy of the report on the russian election interference he released a sense of version of the report last month. and voted. in south africa waiting to hear the outcome of presidential and parliamentary elections the governing at african national congress as expected to when a biased smaller margin. now around the world muslims of fasting during the holy month of ramadan it is a difficult time for yemen is

a civil war has driven millions to the brink of starvation some have been driven to buying products that apos their expiration date laura burton manley has more. the other four is preparing for with his pick of sweets and dates but most of the food he's buying is approaching all past its sell by date. so he works for yemen's un recognized government like most employees he 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 past four years yemen's currency has sunk as

the cost of food has soared that's become a major driver behind the food crisis here. the purchasing power to people has become weaker since the start of the war because of the economy could locate and the salaries that are not paid. most of pm inspired imports including wheat comes from the port city of her data. but they have lost she stopped during the past year while this fighting between with you rebels and the saudi u.a.e. coalition. with a shaky cease fire in place at the u.n. 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 and made. about thirty percent of the grain has been infested the un says this 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 u.n. says about four billion dollars is the. humanitarian aid saudi arabia and the u.a.e. has pledged money paying its installment i continued to controlled areas. muslims across the world of fasting from dawn until dusk. but too many in yemen still go hungry at night. the pakistani christian woman has spent eight years on death row in a bless them a case has left the country as your baby's lawyer says she's in canada she was acquitted by pakistan's supreme court six months ago the leading to mass protests baby was originally convicted in twenty ten after being accused of insulting prophet muhammad during a fight with her neighbors. and afghanistan the taliban has claimed responsibility for an attack on an international aid organization in the capital kabul the

interior ministry said four civilians were killed and twenty four others injured after explosions and gunfire that lasted more than six hours the taliban says its target was the u.s. based aid agency counterpart international. now a top u.s. general says there is need for a longer military presence in afghanistan joseph dunford says counterterrorism forces need to be kept until there 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 conflict. so don's opposition leaders are threatening to launch an nationwide civil disobedience movement after accusing the military council of delaying the transfer of power to civilian rule follows a warning from military leaders that they could hold elections in six months if an agreement can't be reached with the opposition mama vod has the latest from thought . deadlock and threats of escalation marked one is these talks between the

opposition and the transitional military council in khartoum along with the forces of the declaration of change the military had invited dozens of other political parties to the talks they have all presented ideas to get sudan out of the crisis. we received one hundred seventy seven proposals we analyzed and research them and that can give indication of a compromise policy solution on the transitional issues of the transitional government the meeting with the political committee of the transitional military council in sudan aims to review the visions of the entities of the governing mechanisms in the transitional period. the protest leaders criticize the broadening of participation in talks as a delaying tactic by the m.t.c. designed they say to drag the process out and that evolutionary momentum lacking the how will the military council is trying to twist revolutionary choices and use

the same old ways to control and maintain power this contradicts what the council said in the beginning when they took power when they said that they don't want to stay in power and they took the protester site now we have doubts about this because they have spent their whole months progressed in aiding. the military council says it found holes in a constitutional documents submitted by the forces of freedom and change earlier this week including the omission of sharia law as the source of for legislation the f d f c says the document wasn't meant to be conclusive and ridiculed those remarks saying they were merely intended to derail but the negotiations the t.m.c. said it would call a general election within six months if no agreement is achieved a measure which to the protest leaders means a certain and full return to power by the deposed regime with the help of the deep state which they say is to inform troll. of the fit with the vote 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 transitioned 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 their resumption of their activities just like in the old days means that change has not happened. to address this issue the protest leaders say they are not only going to continue the sit in but also they may soon call for civil disobedience across the country until their demands are met by a disease or. a group of leftists activists are refusing to leave the abandoned venezuelan embassy in washington they say after president nicolas maduro as diplomats were expelled last month the u.s. government recognizes opposition leader on quiet though as the country's legitimate president and his diplomats have been unable to take up residence kustra has more.

none of the people living inside washington's venezuelan embassy since april are venezuelan officials or even then his wailing 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. who has declared himself interim president is the result of a u.s. led. that's an accusation these programs and his whalen's strongly reject they same 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 the initial. conditions definitely not a jewish. ok 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 strewn issues i need to get up having their way through a letter which they don't even know where venezuela is because none of them have this this is my venezuelan id i'm venezuela that tony bennett told that the united states recognizes. as venezuela's president the state department says anyone inside the embassy without authorization is a trespasser but the vienna convention bars u.s. police forces from entering to physically remove anyone and thus the standoff the protesters locked inside why dove's newly dispatched diplomats walked out.

why dove's newly appointed ambassador to the u.s. can only stand outside the embassy door. sill to clear government in waiting has been shut out of the united nations as well along with russia and china. the un continues to recognize as venezuela's president meanwhile sixty five countries support why don't know he should be able to do what is what he's doing doing as oppression and he's being recognized by the major demonstrations in the world but while there's disagreement in venezuela there will continue to be disagreement abroad the standoff at the washington embassy a proxy for that battle. castro al-jazeera washington overdrive as in britain the us and australia turning off the apps to demand better wages and working conditions the protests are taking place two days before his public debut on the new york stock exchange divide having giant is aiming to raise nine billion

dollars from investors and it's expected to be valued at more the ninety one billion dollars paul brennan has more from london. move us i.b.m. on friday expects to raise between forty five to fifty dollars a share that will raise some nine billion dollars for the company and valued the overall company at night to billion dollars and that's going to make some rich man either a judge of his colonic the company's founder with his eight point six percent stake that will be valued around eight billion dollars by jeff bezos the found another i was on he invested some three million back in the day and who back that will be valued somewhere in the original form a good million dollars if this i.p.o. goes to black the protesters here outside of us love that the headquarters on happy that the riches being enjoyed by the executive simply not filtering down to the drivers this is a message we need to send to the public investors in coming but that's not

acceptable if they want to find profitability dooper they need to find a way of achieving that without exploiting workers the protesters are most unhappy that the way that was business model works is to aggressively cut costs by saying. the driver sort of bearing the brunt of that a study by j.p. morgan found that between twenty seven so you. see one twenty seven seat drivers were not exactly three percent less than they had been directed to the drivers feel that they are being squeezed at a time when the company is reaping the benefits and remember as well this is a company that has never wants made a profit it's almost a good company but nevertheless investors still seem to think it is worth backing. now to the last of our series a life displaced we're looking at the plight of lebanon's palestinian refugee population which has been living in exile for more than seven decades scattered in a number of camps but in reality as camps have the combo topped neighborhoods

across fondant saying aha there has this report from beirut. their number has grown over the years.