that's why defense officials here in seoul are telling us what they know so far they detected this launch thursday afternoon here two projectiles as you mentioned they're both being launched within half an hour of each other and this is the important part here in the defense officials say we can assume these were short range missiles one traveled four hundred kilometers just over the other one nearly three hundred kilometers both of these projectiles landing in the sea separating the korean peninsula from japan now it's they were fired from a part of north korea where it's known north korea has kept to before now a number of short and medium range ballistic missiles now it's not known if these were indeed ballistic missiles that would if it was true if it was confirmed be a very serious development but nonetheless this is a serious escalation on its own the south korean government says it's extremely concerned it says it's monitoring the situation but says this does nothing to ease

the military tensions on the peninsula and it comes also during began he is the special representative from the u.s. on north korean affairs he is in seoul meeting with his counterparts the first such visit since the failed summit in hanoi in february looking at ways of maybe trying to get the negotiating process back on track that this obviously will give him and his counterparts here in seoul a lot to talk about when the talks resume here friday during and this coming only five days after another weapons test by the north rob seen as the most provocative in more than a year. that's right coming out after that test there's a very serious development and it's i think both south korea around the u.s. have been trying to downplay almost the significance of that test which was seen as widely as a provocation by north korea but both the u.s. and north south korea are very careful about trying not to upset the process of

dialogue moving forward in fact it's only been in the past day or so it seems that the u.s. the defense department has accepted that missiles or rockets were fired in that test from the east coast and we are getting just in the last couple of hours an unconfirmed report from the kyoto news service of japan quoting unnamed sources from the u.s. that the u.s. possibly might now accept the taking part in one of those tests on saturday was a ballistic short range missile as some analysts have said now if that the u.s. does conclude that a ballistic short range missile was used in that test on saturday that will be a very serious escalation because of course that would be the kind of thing the u.s. would have to respond to and just what that response would be we have to wait and see to write thank you still ahead on al-jazeera we have the latest on the fighting in syria as the rebel held a problem. here saying we're not going to take this anymore.

we're drivers demand their fair share going on strike in cities around the world. welcome to another look at the international forecast well it's pretty good across japan right now what have i seen the process of pulling out of the way process guys coming in behind this weather system straddling honshu pulling out of. it is out into the northwest pacific and there we go the sunburst very nice. the twenty six celsius the four tokyo similar temperatures there across the korean peninsula warming beijing at around thirty degrees celsius was hazy sunshine coming in here hang on to that for beijing on saturday and as you can see the korean peninsula and japan again seeing some more pleasant spring sunshine fair amount of sunshine sail

into southern china we have still got a few showers or longer spells of rain over towards the southwest china and the could see some clouds and rain for a time hong kong that's good temperatures here and about twenty nine celsius over the next couple of days nice temps just picking up quite nicely in shanghai or here around twenty eight degrees where the weather they say slides a little further south there's a place some showers rolling down into vietnam much of indochina will have the usual sunshine and shallow as thailand's exam of that west the weather as well be some showers making their way into the philippines from time to time plenty of sunshine in between shasta malaysia and indonesia. destruction and despair a group of friends resist. rescuing books from the rubble they've built

a refuge for freedom and democracy. a secret library of hope from which they endeavor to rewrite their story and that of their country. to witness. bombs on al-jazeera. allover again the top stories. on al-jazeera the european union has rejected this from a term iran gave world powers to fulfill their commitments the twenty fifth the nuclear deal that comes after to run rollback nuclear restrictions but stopped short of violating its twenty fifteen deal with world powers the us announced new sanctions

targeting iran's metal and mining industry is the us president has accused china of breaking the deal ahead of further trade talks donald trump promised to more than double tariffs on two hundred billion dollars worth of chinese goods china says it's ready to retaliate. south korea's military says north korea has fired two identified projectiles the launch took place in cool song in the north pyongyang province south korea says the projectiles were directed towards the east. sudan's opposition leaders are threatening to launch a nationwide civil disobedience movement after accusing the military council of delaying the transfer of power to civilian rule the military leaders are warning about holding elections in six months if an agreement can't be reached with the opposition. the latest from hard to. good luck and threats of escalation marked one is these talks between the opposition and the transitional billeted council. along with the forces of that the collaboration of. 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 researched 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 drug the process out and pretty revolutionary momentum. out with 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 that they took the protester site now we have doubts about this because they have spent a whole month procrastinating. the military council says it found holes in a constitutional documents submitted by the forces of freedom and change earlier this week including your mission of sharia law as the source of legislation the f.d.a. says the document wasn't meant to be conclusive and ridiculed those remarks saying there 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 have not only going to continue the sit in. they may soon call for civil disobedience across the country until their demands are met by a desire. the syrian government has recaptured a town in north west from opposition forces. as the second town so for the past week the nearby town of those captured on wednesday government forces are pushing ahead with the offensive which is now in its second week then i've heard it has more from beirut syrian government troops have pushed into rebel controlled territory it is the first time they've taken ground since launching an offensive in

the northwestern corner of syria they've captured the town of foreign a border one of the biggest towns in northern how much it has a street. teacher cloak ation because the government can now cut rebel supply lines from northern northern hama and southern the area really of military operations the past ten days has really witnessed relentless bombardment syrian and russian planes carrying out dozens of air strikes according to the united nations fifty villages have come under fire it has caused massive displacement one hundred fifty thousand people are on the move they've moved further north away from the fighting civilians continue to be killed now the scope of the operations it is not believed to be about this this military operation is not believed to be about recapturing the entire province of idlib before it started the russian president vladimir putin

said that it would be unpractical for a full scale assault for the time being because in his words the militants are among the civilian population and on wednesday russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov for the first time commented on the ongoing operation he said that the russian military is carrying out the memorandum the cease fire deal that was agreed between russia and turkey last september in his words this memorandum is so supposed to root out terrorists and not protect them so russia making it clear that they're unhappy that turkey did not fulfill its commitments according to the steel to clear a demilitarized zone around the province but at the same time it is believed that these two stakeholders are not going to rupture their relationship and are going to find some common ground that common ground could involve the government just pushing a norse just to recapture the main international highways and not take the entire

province of it let the pope has made legal changes to the law of the catholic church to make it mandatory for those who know about. sex abuse to report it the measure follows a global church abuse scandal pope francis is also requiring every catholic diocese to set up a reporting system which he says must be simple and accessible bishops will be encouraged to involve specialists from outside the church in any investigations earlier this month campaigners criticize the pope for failing to promise a zero tolerance approach to pedophile priests who cover up their crimes. leading us democrats have voted to hold attorney general william barr in contempt of congress very demanding he release an uncensored copy of robert mueller his report into suspected russian interference in the twenty sixth election the vote by the house judiciary committee on the floor of the house of representatives is following developments from 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 trim campaign in russia and obstruction of justice barr release 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 underline the conclusions they said the timeline did not give them that report so now they have 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 were at it again 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 in congress don't get to see this report again that is something that is likely to be challenged in the courts well the u.s. senate intelligence committee has more questions. as for one of the president's sons senators reportedly want to ask donald trump jr about claims that negotiations for a trump tower projects in moscow continued until june twenty sixth that's after the start of the election campaign fiji's prime minister has hit back at an australian politician who suggested fijians moved to higher ground to get away from rising

seas m.p. john alexander made the remarks after frank said australia should stop burning so much coal speaking at an emissions reduction summit in melbourne by. the impacts of global warming on his country is heartbreaking. in fiji we have already moved to the communities and have a brother. some put up as we do to be the look into. the decision to leave again if you do community reason like an easy one but the button in your home isn't some gold and gold plated beasties this isn't. for those affected it's a deeply emotional loss. and though the three young men don't know weeks up in the morning to find the ocean in the bush did slowly whether who we don't whom chenault family well known for generations. drivers around the world switched off their apps

wednesday to protest pay and working conditions later this week over a set to begin selling shares to the public a move that will rebuild eons of dollars but little will trickle down to the men and women who drive on the streets reports from los angeles. on apps off the rallying cry as ride share driver stage will one day strike in over a dozen cities in the u.s. u.k. australia and south america how could you have a conscience you should be ashamed of yourself if you drive around yelling out a company where the strike comes days in advance of the expected initial public offering of shares on wall street it could be the richest tech company i.p.o. ever expected to reap ninety billion dollars or more these workers rallying outside los angeles international airport won't be sharing that wealth they say has been

cutting their share of fears plunging many into poverty i've been driving fulltime for about a year now i live in a really small room in a house with eight other people so i pretty much have what i kind of think is this pretty much the lowest cost of living you can have it only in this day. but now i've just been having to work longer and longer hours steadily longer and longer hours every week to make the same amount of in-town strikers want an hourly wage of twenty eight dollars which they say is needed to cover the cost of fuel and car maintenance they also want benefits like health care and more transparency about what they earn and how much over takes from each rhein it's just the wild wild west with these apps they say they're going to pay you so much and then they take maybe eighty percent of what the pay is over has more than three million drivers worldwide but they are classified as independent operators not employees and

its chief rival live to have never made a profit and are racing to develop autonomous computer controlled cars to cut out drivers altogether over executives and major investors stand to make hundreds of millions of dollars each when the company goes public it's a conundrum of the new so-called gig economy that while the workers control the means of production they lay their cars and do all the work they get a little profit give us a little bit we're not asking for the millions of billions you're going to get to make it fair i think that's the bottom line for me just make it sound demanding some new rules of the right sharing road rob reynolds i'll just hear a los angeles. hello again the headlines on al-jazeera the european union has rejected the six that they all to maintain iran gave world powers to fulfill their commitments of the twenty

fifty nuclear deal that comes after to harm rollback unclear restrictions but stopped short of violating its twenty fifteen deal with world powers the us announced new sanctions targeting iran's metal on mining industries french president consul reporters the iran nuclear deal. we saved. france from the beginning and strongly with the nuclear agreement to be signed in negotiated this agreement is not enough we need to completed by twenty twenty five years following iran's political activity and regulating also the regional activity and we wish to maintain this political. we must maintain it must be within this agreement and we will do everything to make sure that happens south korea's military says north korea has fired two unidentified projectiles the launch took place in crew song in the north korean and province south korea says the projectiles were directed towards the east china says it's kept its promises on the

u.s. trade deal after president donald trump cues beijing are breaking the deal ahead of trade talks trump promised to more than double tariffs on two hundred billion dollars worth of chinese goods china says it's ready to retaliate with similar measures early results in south africa's general election suggest the ruling a.n.c. party will retain power but its share of the vote could fall below sixty percent for the first time since the end of apartheid voters have expressed frustration about corruption unemployment and racial inequality. and the pope has made legal changes to the law of the catholic church to make it mandatory for those who know about sex abuse to report it the measure follows a global church abuse scandal prancer says also requiring every catholic diocese to set up a reporting system which he says must be simple and accessible bishops will be encouraged to inform of specialists from outside the church in any investigations.

those are the latest headlines on al-jazeera inside story is coming up next so stay with us. busy iran nuclear deal dead a year after the u.s. abandoned the agreement teheran suspends parts of it and gives those countries which signed up to it an ultimatum to meet their commitments including protection from u.s. sanctions can the deal be renegotiated this is inside story. hello

and welcome to the program on im wrong donald trump called it the west steel ever the us president decided the year ago to pull out of the iran nuclear agreement which imposed limits on tehran's nuclear activities then reimpose sanctions against iran and recently extended them to threaten those countries still party to the deal iran's now reacted warning the u.k. france germany china and russia it will step up your reign in production unless they meet their commitments within sixty days britain says the decision is an unwelcome step while francaise more sanctions could be reimposed. has more from terror. exactly one year after the united states pulled out of the twenty fifth two nuclear deal iran says it will suspend cooperation with some of the commitments under the agreement president hassan rouhani that world powers know his country will not abide by stockpile limits on enriched uranium and heavy water but he said

it was a reciprocal move after the united states introduced new sanctions earlier this week designed to target the framework of the nuclear deal itself iranian experts say that the latest u.s. sanctions effectively forced iran to take some sort of action hammy him out of the main mall that john bid on. and people around the world should know that today is not the end of the nuclear deal today it's a new step for the c.p.o. way and it's within the framework of the j c.p.o. way the deal has given us this right that if the other party violates its commitments we can raise it in the joint commission in a scheduled time and that time was passed we had meetings at the level of deputy ministers and foreign ministers and europeans and our friends several times emphasized that they would compensate it somehow but practically they didn't meet their commitments. iranian leaders maintained limiting their level of cooperation with the joint comprehensive plan of action is still in keeping with the wording of

the deal if in the next two months remaining signatories to the deal can do something to help mitigate the economic pressure on iran from u.s. oil and banking sanctions rouhani said his country would gladly return to abiding by its side of the bargain but as tensions escalate between tehran and washington president hassan rouhani has latest comments put more pressure on his own partners the remaining signatories to the nuclear deal to do something to salvage an agreement that's been in jeopardy since u.s. president donald trump took office. for inside story. we'll get to our discussion in just a moment but first let's take a look at some key developments since the u.s. withdrawal in january iran's european allies began looking. for alternative channels to keep trade going despite u.s. sanctions but the trump and ministration continued putting pressure on her on last month the u.s. imposed strict sanctions on iran in all exports and put iran's revolutionary guard on a list of terrorist organizations and recently the american aircraft carrier group

the u.s.s. abraham lincoln was deployed to the strait of hormuz seventeen million barrels of oil are taken through the sea routes in the gulf every day iran has threatened to close it multiple times. let's bring in our guests in tehran mohammad marandi professor of north american studies at the university of tehran on skype from reston virginia rhenish a republican strategist and consultant and in berlin. this thing follow brookings doha center a welcome to you all like to begin with you mohammad marandi in teheran this has been a very aggressive policy by this administration this u.s. administration to iran we are all is always expecting iran to react in your opinion is this a fair reaction the events of the day. i think it's

a rather mild reaction but president rouhani has said that there will be further acts on behalf of iran if the european union does not change its policy the iranians have shown strategic patience for the last year at least actually far more than that in my opinion when the americans exited the dream and the europeans promised that they would abide by their commitments and iran has for a year now been waiting for the europeans to doing to do something and they've done nothing that they've said all the nice things that need to be said in a word to not enough and to so far the europeans have not. to run to the global financial sector which is what they have promised and they have not purchased any iranian oil which is also part of their commitment to them there are other things that they should be doing and they haven't so the iranians are giving the europeans sixty days to decide whether they're going to abide by the commandments of

trump are they going to protect their citizens their businesses their banks and abide by their commitments when the helmets we talk about this sixty day deal but the reaction almost immediately from said let's say from britain and britain said it was unwelcome step and then france said well more sanctions may be expected i don't know if that's encouraging for iran i don't know whether the europeans are going to play ball. well the iranians don't have any expectations it is rather extraordinary that the french and the british who have not been abiding by their commitments whatsoever and that they have made all sorts of promises but have not delivered on any of them at all for them to say that this is unwelcome or that or to threaten iran. i think that only angers ordinary iranians but it's expected by iranian policymakers iranians really have no option the americans are trying to

strangle the iranian people and the iranians see how the american government is trying to brutalize ordinary people in venezuela how the americans are start helping the saudis starve the people in yemen how the americans destroyed libya what they've done to syria iraq afghanistan and the iranians know quite well that appeasing the regime in washington is not going to get the country anywhere so i think what they're the rowhani administration has done is that he's shown the international community that it is iran that is abiding by its commitments that it is iran that is trying to ease tensions and that it is the united states that is pushing for escalation along with its friends in the region like netanyahu and b.s. in. mohamed bin ziad and i think that itself is a big plus and so from here on i think many or most if not all fair minded people in the international community will recognize that iran has every right to push

back rina show in reston virginia iran has every right to push back now that doesn't seem to be a unified policy from this administration toward iran on the one hand you have the u.s. president donald trump who says. rouhani is a good man he would like them to come back to the negotiating table then you have like pompei a who seems to take a more middle ground suggesting that all actions. all options are on the table and then you have john bolton who is sending the u.s. lincoln carrier group to the strait of hormuz so it doesn't seem to be unified but much more not is that a unified strategy here or is the republican party really just making up as it goes along. i think that's an interesting assessment there and the making it up as you go along because it does seem that this administration tends to do that in many ways and now in foreign policy in which we've been unified for a very long time whether you look at whichever party is in power the united states

likes to show a very composed organized deliberate front when it when confronting regimes like the one in iran so this is unusual but i have to say as you heard me talk about on your program before here i am i'm not exactly the biggest fan of this president's strategy his approach the way in which he speaks about certain leaders in the world where i don't find to be leaders however i think that we would have been best served by donald trump continuing to go about it in a way which he wanted however when he surat decided to surat itself with war hawks people like john bolton there was no other strategy of john bolton's mind he wants war and i think it's a very scary proposition at this moment in time where we have so many things we're juggling on the world stage to think of this is another issue that came in and blow up really you know right now it's in and it's in a point where i think this relationship is certainly strained the the reaction from

iran i'm not surprised but i don't know how the trumpet ministration really moves forward without letting pompei you know and bolton take their front seat and that's what president trump has decided to do you know he has listened to them they have said this iran deal was non functional and it's been flawed from the get go it's a remnant of obama's era and as we as many people know the international community president trump doesn't like anything that that president obama left behind so let's see where we go from here if this is this is a moment it's a pivotal moment and i think there's a lot of uncertainty i had no doubt lethal than as in. when we are at a pivotal moment there is a carrier group steaming toward the strait of hormuz as we speak europe has been given notice of sixty days to come to their commitments that they agreed before do

you think europe is going to be the peace broker here or do you think europe is going to have to choose a side. well things are getting more complicated for the europeans obviously now with this kind of iranian deadline and. it is hard to see how the europeans would be able to transform the special purpose vehicle instax into something that the iranian side would economically benefit from and be happy with because so the fact remains that we have the dominance of the u.s. sanctions regime globally on the banking and financial sectors and this is not going to change is a strong compliance regime when it comes to u.s. sanctions so it's really hard to see how the europeans could encourage their companies to engage in trade with iran something that they have been reluctant to do so up until now as we see from different reactions in europe europe of course

remains committed to the nuclear deal it doesn't want to see it on rival. and on the other hand there is obviously more skepticism in paris talking about the potential reimposition of sanctions on iran while in berlin we have heard from the foreign ministry that while they remain committed to the nuclear deal they are also warned to get iran against. aggressive steps this might be something kind of an escalation in the persian gulf region or in the wider west asian you know theater where you might see some kind of confrontation between iran and allied forces and u.s. forces. for an hour at the mena shell hinted at this she said that this president doesn't like anything that president obama did maybe the quickest way out of this is simply to go back to the re negotiating table.