the assessment that the british deputy commander of the coalition doesn't have this of the iraqi prime minister is telling everyone to calm down certainly indicates that that's a possibility so you can see a scenario whereby the government would exaggerate position than well intelligence can always be read more conservatively or more liberally you can take a threat more seriously or give more weight to something if you think that that's important so the line between politicization of intelligence and just being extremely conservative about how you use the intelligence can be a fine one because it is all it is needed to get these non-essential personnel out and they've been advised to leave on civilian and crosses not exactly does it you know i mean if you're going down to baghdad airport evacuating that way it's not as if there are marine helicopters coming in lifting you out of country to put you on military aircraft so this is slow busy and deliberate and it's certainly no

indication that you know bombs are landing tonight or anything of that effect right we appreciate your perspective on this thanks very much indeed douglas ollivant that my pleasure. plenty more still ahead on the news hour including more arrests in sri lanka after a series of attacks against the muslim community. conservationists in south africa find an innovative way to help save the right to. sport is coming up steph curry has put in another game winning playoff performance for the golden state warriors details of. united nations security council is discussing the war in yemen and the sanctions placed on the country this comes amid heavy fighting near the southern yemeni city of ties on saturday the u.n. says that the rebels began withdrawing from 3 major ports partly as agreed under a cease fire signed last year un talks are also taking place between warring sides

in jordan government forces backed by the saudi u.a.e. coalition have been battling who the rebels in a 4 year civil war with the u.n. humanitarian chief says that despite recent progress in the humanitarian situation in the country it's done. the specter of famine still looms 10000000 yemenis are still reliant on emergency food assistance to survive a resurgent cholera outbreak has already affected 300000 people this year and just as a point of reference that compares with 370000 in the whole of 2018 in the 1st quarter of the year more the 900 civilian casualties were reported and it's a sobering fact of the war in yemen mr president. that civilians are more likely to die in their own homes than anywhere else are diplomatic editor james bays

reports now from the united nations well we've been hearing from a briefing a monthly briefing from the un special envoy martin griffiths now the timing of the meeting i think is important because it's no coincidence that it follows the un announcing this weekend that there would be the beginning of a withdrawal from who 3 forces around to date are the key port the lifeline of yemen to get humanitarian aid in certainly said that they've been moving their positions and carrying out much of what was in the stockholm agreement at the end of last year this was the assessment from mr griffiths the moment is significant and it's worth cherishing such moments which are not as frequent as we would hope but this of course is only the beginning. these redeployments must be followed and i'm sure will be followed by concrete actions of the parties to deliver on their obligations under the stockholm agreement and i know we will hear more of this

later. we would like the parties to ensure that the momentum that we now begin to see is maintained by implementing subsequent steps of the mutual redeployments. verified monitored by the parties and ensuring the support that we need in the un to increase our role in the ports the situation in yemen is still very very grim the humanitarian situation maybe is the bit by what's happened but it's still dire across the country color of cases have been increasing this year compared to last year we're no closer of course to a bigger political settlement in yemen it took the best part of 6 months to pull out of a day to remember they control large swathes of the north of the country including the capital sanaa and there are also many other parties involved in yemen eisel fighting there. a growing southern separatist movement and then pull out of yemen

to the bigger regional picture and that's going to me make peace in yemen even harder of course with the current tension between the u.s. and iran even in the meeting specific to yemen we heard the acting u.s. ambassador jonathan cohen attacking the who thiis and blaming iran for its support of the who sees he says they supplied all the drones and the missiles that they. will attend now from noble cordie who is a former united states diplomat and deputy chief of mission in yemen he says that the situation in the country is still very volatile. martin group has so what segments trace on the progress that has been made and the data and he and his team have certainly been working tirelessly and heroically. but surely is quite aware that this progress can be very quickly eroded and that the situation overall in yemen is still very great. for one thing even if it were

totally quiet and they the and it is not there are still fighting going on there today the war goes on and the rest of the country there are some fierce battles in the north and the south of today though so these battles on further complicate why regional tensions you reported earlier mention that the u.s. announced the withdrawal of nonessential staff from its embassy and back that this is it is out of fear or is whether or imagine that in a war or some kind of clashes. and that the flashpoint could slow and in iraq this complicates the fighting in yemen. any moves in yemen has now seen as far off the broader regional saddam to venezuela now where the

opposition led assembly is going ahead despite the national guard surrounding the building for a 2nd day want to identify the blockade saying he'll still attend despite a military takeover and choose a meeting was cancelled off the police barricaded the building over an alleged a suspicious package opposition politicians have called the move and knocked off intimidation so newman has more from outside the national center. oh you are about 60 meters away from the entrance to the national assembly where after threatening to hold the meeting to day either in a park under a bridge or anywhere in public finally opposition deputies were allowed into the legislative collis but not the media in fact the media was physically pushed away from the entrance by the national guards riot police that you see behind me and who have cordoned off this entire area in fact we are being kept away the press gallery is empty but the meeting is going ahead nonetheless they are discussing among other

things the fact that a 7 more opposition deputies who are also notoriously are all very evidently not taking part in this in this session were stripped of their parliamentary immunity on tuesday and one of them has actually been given refuge at the mexican embassy made which is very significant because mexico until now has been considered one of the soft allies of president me collapse my botto it has refused to recognize that as the interim president as have most other latin american countries but now by giving this opposition deputy refuge at the embassy here in come back as that that this pressure that sort of boss support is being held or at least that i'm conditional support nick is being called into question. at $31.00 people who have appeared in court in connection with attacks against muslims in sri lanka being held in police custody while awaiting charges in mother will to the north of colombia trilling who is extending a night curfew in 2 provinces after

a series of attacks against muslims police are warning they will respond with force to any further violence at least one person was killed in riots in recent days smith reports from the new one go to north africa all to be. an appeal for calm from one of the 9 mosques attacked in a wave of violence across northwestern sri lanka this week. and from these conflict priests a show of solid. with they told us their 1st visit to a mosque there 3 weeks ago on easter sunday suicide bombers targeted churches and hotels in sri lanka killing 253 people. it's so sad that things like this had happened in. the church had been digging. a lot of hips in order to the various working these days it's become that people don't you can never know. there are certainly groups you know the more diverse you know and but the gunman months put

a stop to these sri lanka's minority muslim population is now living in fear they break the ramadan fast behind drawn curtains. there's no visiting friends and neighbors a curfew empties the streets the mosques usually busy in this muslim holy month a closed. we're not sure what will happen we're hearing reports of attacks in different places and we don't know what to do we don't really trust any government in the witnesses described what they called mobs of sinhalese young men smashing up shops in and around 30 towns and villages the businesses in this town are owned by sinhalese people who are mainly buddhist as well as muslims what mohammed jessamy watched helpless as bricks rained down on this mosque there and these people who are blames the government then why but it turned out i'm going to tell you when really we knew this was coming and the government warned there would be atrocities but they wanted this to happen to us the government thought we'd leave these areas

so those goons could unleash mayhem and. try lanka's prime minister says the country will be destabilized if sectarianism escalates more than 70 people have been arrested and are in custody facing charges related to this week's violence nightly curfews have been keeping a lid on the violence here and they'll be another want to night it's wednesday but they're only a short term measure the much greater challenge is repairing the into community relationships which have been so badly fractured by the easter sunday bombing burnitz many hours era northwestern sri lanka. the french president new zealand prime minister have led a meeting of world leaders in paris to call for greater action against online extremism of course not to lauren taylor in or european broadcast center for more or. thanks nic yes so listen darden and corps have launched the christ church call

a global pledge to get tech companies to combat violent web content it is from the u.k. calendar e.u. jordan and indonesia gathered in the french capital along with representatives from facebook twitter and google it's in response to the christ church attacks in march when a gunman opened fire to mosques killing 51 people the event was limas live streamed on facebook for 17 minutes before being taken down a little bit if it is something of our objective and was simple that what happened in christ church should never happen again it was not merely an acceptable terrorist attack life but of permission of the internet into mushing aiming to destroy any form of cohesion in our society. is going to turn natasha butler who's in paris and does more about the summit and the pledge that was launched. as far just and no new zealand's prime minister or really teamed up in order to try

and launch what they see as a global fight against violence and hate speech line now just. got the idea for this in a way for this christ church called this pledge which aims to try and encourage governments and tech companies to do more to better regulate content online she got the idea of the march killings in christchurch in which our government managed to live stream or in facebook the killing all 51 muslim worshipers well i don't say this was simply unacceptable it was unacceptable that it was live streamed and that then all of a facebook could fail to remove the video for $24.00 hours and that meant that it was seen more than a 1000000 times what she says is important now is to try and make the internet a humane place a place where people can communicate with each other but not a platform for hate so they can. gather together some representatives of

you you big u.s. tech giants you know google facebook twitter with their as well as world leaders their prime ministers from canada and from britain absent though rather notably so the u.s. they only sentinel deserver and in fact u.s. officials later said that they would not sign up to this pledge because they said it could could tail free speech will a turn nevertheless praised the meeting never before have countries and companies come together in the wake of her fickle tech to commit to an action plan that will deliver collaboratively new cheap knology a bill to make our communities ultimately safer facebook has made a start with changes to the community rules around the live stream. it was you heard the new zealand prime minister saying that facebook has already responded to the pledge by 1000 to. act limits access from

some of the users to the live stream platform but what analysts say is that this pledge really is very limited and it might be very weak in its impact and it is ability to actually combat of violence and hate speech online and that is because it is just a pledge it is not binding it can only be in force if governments decide to put rules and laws in place and it's really left to the good will all these tech companies and of politicians to want to do something to combat what she calls this terrible scourge online and i thank you jeanne. the british pound has dropped to a 3 month low this is prime minister to resign may defended an upcoming 4th vote on breaks it may 4th off critics in parliament calling for her to resign over her handling of the u.k.'s exit from the european union a deal has already been rejected 3 times by parliament m.p.'s are set to vote once again on the withdrawal agreement next month the u.k. is expected to leave the e.u.

october the 31st this is a government that wants to deliver grex it and has been working to deliver bricks it sadly so far so far the house of commons has not found a majority to do that if it is everybody in the house of commons are voted in onside with the government and the majority of conservative members of parliament we would already have left your. head of the roman catholic church has taken 8 migrant children for spending his popemobile processed and around st peter's square head of his weekly vatican address most of the children who come from syria nigeria and the democratic republic of congo arrived in italy by boat from libya others came with their families through a humanitarian corridor last month the paper has previously clashed with italy's hardline government about the need to welcome migrants. a painting by the french artist called monet has sold for more than $110000000.00 its bottom line is that

most series one of $25.00 celebrated paintings to picton his neighbors haystacks in gianni in northern france it was completed in $8090.00 and is the 1st impressionist painting to be bought for more than $100000000.00. that's it from us and i'm going back to nic you know i think there was a thank you still ahead on al-jazeera thousands of palestinians a $5.00 or is that a rally to mount some 20 years of the eviction from their lands to make way for israel. people in the mosque in the comparable be more to stay indoors will have the details. and expose the world's best don't have a tiger in their sights with the is 2nd major to. how i welcome to another look at the international full costs look it's about

across the middle east at the moment got some shop showers a little further west even across afghanistan more the pasta pakistan been a little cloudy lately there are still be a few showers here as you go on through the next day or so easing up towards us but . when i stand seeing some showers long spells of right in the coast looking snow over the high ground there's a fair amount of cloud spilling out of the southern areas of iran down towards the straits of moose pushing across into central and southern parts of pakistan but for much of iraq is dry it's hot 42 celsius in fact that 27 therefore baratz maybe a touch with beirut as we go through friday plenty of sunshine then across the levant easing across into iraq prodicus they want to see showers just coming into iran the showers continue through the east was a possibility of a shower or 2 into central parts saudi arabia where you see the clouds you could just catch the old sports of right eighty's on temperatures 30 i celsius in 40 back

to around 36 on friday little more cloud in the mix chiles of the old spots of rain lousy dry and clear across southern parts of africa at the moment there is a weather system just clearing away from the southern type but the most is fine and dry. sweden has his home. in northern iraq his homeland. from which he ran. camera in hand he returned. to film was his tiny taste to run. a story soon transformed by a chance encounter. the gal who saved my life i witnessed documentary on mountains here. for just a few months after journalist jamal a special she was killed another arab dissident was under threat norwegian security

officials had to take him from his home in oslo to a secure location after attempts at the saudis were targeting him. human rights activist to baghdad talks town jazeera new yorkers are very receptive to al-jazeera because it is such an international city they are very interested in that global perspective that al jazeera provides. and we don't know what she does or a reminder of our top stories as there are reports of gunfire near the military headquarters in the sudanese capital khartoum with several people injured protesters have been camped there for nearly 6 weeks to months civilian government and military rule. the u.s.

state department has ordered all non-emergency government employees to me of iraq immediately the order follows a warning by the u.s. military of a threat from iranian linked groups. the united nations security council has met to discuss progress being. made to end the conflict in yemen special envoy martin gryphus is praising who the rebels are beginning to withdraw from 3 major ports and is calling for more measures of these talk over previous to adopt. u.s. treasury secretary stephen h. and says that it's up to the courts to decide on releasing donald trump's tax returns stephen h. he was testifying to senators on the ways and means committee in washington he's previously blocked requests from congress to hand over trump's tax history mike hanna has more now from washington d.c. . once again steve facing questions about revealing president trump's tax report this is being a call from democrat members of congress in both senate and in the house democratic

senators during this appropriations hearing repeatedly asked the treasury secretary whether or not he agreed that the congress had the power to request the i.r.s. to explain how it was adjudicating the tax returns of a sitting president democrats arguing that congress does indeed have this right pointing to previous precedents in particular that involving richard nixon but the new chin continue to argue that the justice department had to advise the treasury that this was not the case and that there would be disagreement over this issue which would probably be up to the courts to decide this is what he had to say there is a difference in interpretation between congress and us in the department of justice around this law that not only impacts this president in this congress but has a very big impact on every single taxpayer and weaponize in the i.r.s.

in this is why there are 3 branches of government so if there is a difference of opinion this will go to the 3rd of branch of government to be resolved well the house has subpoenaed the treasury secretary to produce these tax returns of the president that to deadline that they set in that some piano apply as ends on friday at the treasury secretary making very clear that this is an issue that in all likelihood will go to the courts to decide let's bring in karen higgins who's a professor of lord the school of law and he joins us from new york with mr good's what's your position on this. and really has no idea what he's talking about the law that he's talking about says that congress has an absolute right to these tax returns it says that the treasury the i.r.s.

commissioner shall turn them over there's no room for interpretation there at all the other contention is that as he said this morning there is no legitimate legislative purpose for congress to have these tax returns and of course that's a very dangerous proposition if the president can say what's a legitimate congressional purpose well then the president has complete control over congress and the nature of cooperation between the president and congress and that's just not in the constitution violates the basic structure of separation of powers so if so why this do you think well i in the tax return in particular i mean frankly i think. trump is worried about the same sort of thing that the new york times is revealed recently which is that is a financial position and his talents as a businessman are really vastly overstated i think his tax returns which show that

there is also a possibility that his overseas untag months particularly with russia could be reflected in these tax returns he seems to have had a. some financial assistance from russia not the government but the oligarchs who are closely tied to the government and he would certainly be afraid of revealing that is there any precedent for this kind of refusal. no there really isn't the richard nixon tried to refuse to turn over the the oval office tapes and of course the supreme court unanimously said he had to turn them over. this law as i mentioned is just absolutely. unconditional and really there's a less room for argument here than in any other case so if it's unprecedented it's on the side of congress and their absolute right to have this information so where

busy is heading to the courts. well when nugent says it goes for the courts 2nd mean several things one is there could be a reference case could be referred that is to the justice department for them to initiate criminal contempt proceedings of course that's not going to happen the other route is that congress can petition the federal courts to issue an order compelling these tax returns to be turned over that's going to take a long long time to get resolved which is really the trump administration's plan they just want to slow walk and stonewall as long as they can they hope past the 2020 elections there is a 3rd way congress does have an inherent contempt power which is punitive that is that they could theoretically they could arrest steve men who can have him

held in a local detention facility until he produced those this is a contempt power though which is punitive in nature which means that they could also busy just impose fines and adam schiff congressman has suggested that they could impose fines of $25000.00 a day say until this material is turned over and this would be a tactic that congress could you in any of the areas where the trumpet ministration is stonewalling and refusing to comply with subpoenas. at the outside it's possible i think the president trump in the face of a court ordered to turn over either his tax returns or the material having to do with the mother report sponsibility he would just refuse to comply with a court order. that would be an impeachable offense and i think of both of those

things were to happen which i don't think is beyond the realm of possibility both of those were to have. up and arresting members of the administration until they comply with congressional subpoenas on a under the inherent contempt power of congress i think it becomes a real possibility and given the extreme nature of the trump administration on this issues i wouldn't completely rule that out ok all right karen again see how this unfolds preset your perspective on this thanks a lot. palestinians have held rallies and marches to mark the 71 years since they were forcibly evicted from their land to make way for the creation of israel one of the largest was in ramallah that's where the palestinian authority is based the rallies were largely peaceful israeli forces have fired at protests as the gaza border goes as health ministry is reporting that 47 people were injured and more than 250 have been killed in weekly demonstrations since march whilst.

i was internationals putting pressure on saudi arabia to free many prominent women detained a year ago the rights group described the saudi crackdown as a year of shame dozens of writers academics and journalists were operator early arrested many of them have not been able to communicate with their families and have had no legal representation during court appearances women reported being tortured and sexually abused in detention 7 detainees were released in the past few months but many more face prison terms for making statements seen as critical of the saudi government. knew but it is the interim executive director of women's much global and she joins us by skype from geneva tell us more about your sense of what's happening here. well thank you for having me it's been one year since the imprisonment and the round up of the saudi women rights offenders and every living certain member that these are the same activists that advocated for the lift on the

driving ban that the saudi kingdom so common touted as their great reform. be covered this you know of their prominent cover and these activists were arrested just one who months before the lift of the driving bad since then so here again has continued in gross violation of human rights and this has been widely reported by so many that grassroots organizing and even the united nations and during court appearances we've been reporting being sexually abused and tortured in detention yes and in october of $2800.00 after the murder after the brutal murder of democracy there were reports release a news amber that e.t.s. and the activists that were imprisoned and faced really horrific reports of torture and this has not been denied by the saudi to. your innocence army human

rights council and it ringback still is in immense violation of these rights and these women have been temporarily free but they are not slowly free and there are still some that are still present other any signs of progress at all for women's rights and saudi. it's a hard thing to say you know i think that there are a lot of grassroots organizations we are part of a coalition of 6 other organizations that are fighting to really highlight that person trustees and saudi arabia but the kingdom that southwest supports some of the united states from france from u.k. from canada countries that many people don't even realize are supporting so here it is the massive plate billions of dollars in our business in saudi arabia and we weren't women near apartments and it's. an immense it's you only see certain groups speaking we know the story about who is finding frankly the cybermen happened that

we were the stories of so many women that are leaving for their lives added suddenly so all of it you know it seems very wrong over poor women and for the president and really. what kind of pressure do you think can be brought to bear to to effect change that's a great question you know as part of this coalition we have a petition which has close to a quarter of a 1000000 signatures on it calling for the immediate out edition of the lease of saudi activists we also have been advocating at the united nations and we saw a sign really for the 1st time in march in 2900 that the human rights council iceland lent 36 member states to publicly call out saudi arabia for the 1st time ever and demand the immediate unconditional release of saudi activists so advocacy is working international pressure is working grassroots movements are working and

ringback the and the norms of people that are concerned about this is not at all working but you know we are facing a man's terrorist is there would be good to be here from you on this we do appreciate it thanks a lot thank you some. now the america mexico city has declared an emergency over its air quality and city is among the 10 most populated in the world and people there blame wildfires for the toxic mix of smoke and coffee and watches or as many as report. a nightmarish haze has taken over the skies above mexico city authorities say the dense cloud of toxic air is the result of dozens of wildfires burning in southern mexico and central america is it's the season for high temperatures and this year has been especially hot on the other hand we've all seen periods of prolonged drought. the air quality in the city has gotten so bad the local government has urged people to stay indoors as the air outside is unsafe to.