need not be feared he said that their real power is less than their outward shows of grander essentially that america's bark is worse than its bite but at the same time he also reiterated iran's position that even though iran won't back down from u.s. pressure the country does not want a war with american forces in the region janki than on this there is not going to be any war not that we know them seek war they know it will not be in their interest negotiating is poisonous as long as the us continues with the same course of action and to go shooting with the present american government is twice as poisonous. the supreme leader's latest statement comes of course as the 2050 nuclear deal continues to unravel the atomic energy organization of iran that oversees the country's nuclear activities and nuclear sites confirmed that as of wednesday iran is no longer abiding by the limits on the stockpiling of enrich uranium and heavy water things considered potential bomb making materials iran's

nuclear agency said that its announcement on wednesday is keeping in line with the announcement that president hassan rouhani made last week saying that iran would start rolling back its cooperation with the nuclear agreement let's bring in lawrence korb he's a former u.s. assistant secretary defense and joins us now live from washington d.c. so the u.s. is ordering all non-essential stuff out of iraq what do you think is behind this move and does it signal that a military confrontation is now imminent with iran. well you know they're trying to justify putting military war military forces into the region the carrier battle group and the troop transport ship at by saying that the threat from iran is increasing and you always have intelligence that basically gives you you know recommendations but what they're doing is taking worst case here and saying oh we got this and that she was going to happen they ignore the fact that we've been cooperating with the so called their shield militias to fight isis and al qaeda in

iraq for 10 years i'm lauren says an interesting point you make about the intelligence because a senior british command in iraq appears to contradict the white house threat assessment he says look there's nothing crease threat level on the ground in iraq so why is trump's assessment of odds with his allies on the ground well basically he wants to justify increasing the pressure on iran because he thinks that will bring them back to the negotiating table and he'll get a better deal and john bolton kind of feeds into that because he really wants to overthrow the regime and he wants to put all those forces in and hope that something happens so he can justify using force against iran yeah and the u.s. secretary of state might pump a 0 has told the russian president vladimir putin that the u.s. doesn't want a war with iran and also iran's leaders say look they don't want to be dragged into a war with the u.s. anyway it says all of this just saber rattling or is

a real conflict likely. well no i think it's saber rattling but the thing you have to be careful of you've got all those forces in there something's liable to happen you might get on a rainy and vote buying into one american you know ship and people would do over over react or you could have what happened with the you know the saudi tankers and the u.a.e. ships and people say oh that's a ran they're trying to test us we need to retaliate that's what you have to be very very careful it's just a final point lonesome in the other regional players like saudi arabia like israel who would love to see the u.s. bring iran to its knees i mean how much of they are influencing donald trump's foreign policies on iran. well i think they're trying to tell him to get off with with a ray and they wanted him out of the nuclear deal but they don't want to see a war even israel netanyahu would very care he doesn't want to see a war because nobody would win that type of

a gauge about or at lawrence korb from washington d.c. lawrence thank you for that all right let's return now to our top story the situation in sudan let's go back to july ahmed she's a sudanese american journalist not to miss and rejoins us again via skype from the u.s. state of pennsylvania john of the last year a little bit earlier there i want to ask you how significant do you think this development is with the military calling off talks for at least 72 hours. and thanks for having me again actually i think that the call is manipulative the transitional military council has been nothing but illegitimate irresponsible i'm inexperienced and apathetic as to the future of sudan since the beginning of these negotiations that took place after the fall shirish the situation continues to get worse by the day we're in the middle of ramadan right now and you know not only are people dealing with having to fast but most of the day the people who are muslim but i would also say that this is taken a toll on the entire country this is. a very poorly managed

transition and i think if anything at the violence over the past 2 days has been proof of that we knew that from the beginning when i met he was selected to be a part of the transitional military council i met he has a very colored history years and years ago and he was a part of the genocide and of course this is an individual ok who has been accused yet let me just let me just jump in but again just because you really are short on time i mean the deadline was fast approaching for the military to announce the makeup of the sovereign council how crucial is it that the leadership of this council needs to be a civilian and not a military figurehead. i mean it is the focal point of this entire evolution sudan has been ruled by military for most of its history since independence for the 1st time what we saw in this movement was all people from sudan coming together it didn't matter if they were muslim if they were christian if they were from doc who

are i'm sudan unfortunately relies a lot on tribalistic identity instead of a sudanese identity for the 1st time we saw a lack for civilian led government it's important it won't nothing will happen you can't move forward until that cars or i touch it at all but it hurts me that there we're having some audio problems with you on this end but thank you very much for talking to al-jazeera thank you. lots more still to come here on the news hour including anger in the alabama off of the governor signs the toughest abortion ban in the u.s. in terms of. we must not allow war take peace off the table and the u.n. says yemen is at a crossroads between war and peace. and its most runners from around the world try to come to new york's most iconic that's also.

how the u.s. is placed china's tech giant who and 70 of its affiliates on the trade block list president donald trump bought us from some using telecoms equipment made by companies that threaten national security washington believes equipment produced by the chinese company could be used to spy on the u.s. while we has repeatedly denied the allegations were additional castro joins us from washington d.c. heidi so what more do we know about this executive order that president trump aside and what's the background to this. short hair and well what they exactly have order actually leaves empty the exact target of what this ban is intended to impact but now we know because of the u.s. commerce blacklisting wall way that that as many had assumed was the intentional target of this spam which says that no u.s. individual or company can use telecommunications equipment that is from a foreign adversary now the u.s. has long been wary of huawei which is the world's 3rd largest maker of smartphones

and the pentagon and u.s. intelligence services has warned for quite a while that the chinese state could use while way to not only spy on us users invade their privacy but even use huawei to take over or disrupt u.s. networks that one day in the future could be as diverse as pipelines to electrical grid. now huawei has denied it has any of those intentions but a u.s. law does say that chinese firms must comply with the instructions of the ministry of state security and so the concern from the trump administration here is that in the future conflicts with china that if china has this ability to gain a foothold in u.s. networks with huawei or whatever telecommunications company that then that foothold may 1 day be weaponized and this ban is intended to prevent that from happening as

you say the executive order doesn't specifically mention china or who are away but of course with the u.s. and china look the tariff wall will busy impact those trade talks in some ways well certainly in fact this ban that likely will affect while way in china was discussed for more than a year it was widely reported and the reason that it may have been delayed until now was that there was still optimism that these trade talks between the u.s. and china could end amicably well we know in hindsight that that has not happened and in fact last week both countries piled on hundreds of billions of dollars of additional terrorists and now the sumption is that placing the span at this moment maybe the u.s. intending to use it as additional leverage to get china to capitulate to those trade demands heidi thank you. now the united nations security council has met to

discuss the withdrawal of who the rebels from 3 major yemeni ports as part of a deal hammered out almost 6 months ago the westing humanitarian situation was also highlighted here and brokered talks between the warring sides are taking place in jordan but wednesday saw more fighting in the southern city of taiz didn't want to get james bays reports. the port of who dado the humanitarian lifeline for yemen a place where the u.n. once again has access after an inspection by the head of the international monitoring mission general michael lawless guard who declared the who thiis had carried out a key part of the redeployment of their forces something that 1st agreed to do it talks in stockholm 6 months ago for the un this is an important step as this will allow us to start supporting the management of the ports the saudi led coalition is very skeptical claiming that hoofy fighters have handed over to the coast guard but the that unit itself is under the effective control of the hoof

these but in new york the security council the u.n. special envoy martin griffiths was positive about recent developments and mr president this moment is significant and it's worth cherishing such moments which are not as frequent as we would hope of 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 the security council also heard from top humanitarian officials from the un who warned that life for people in yemen was still very difficult with the specter of famine and cholera cases on the rise this year this meanwhile was growing tensions between iran and the us the search for a wider political peace settlement in yemen could be even more difficult the acting american ambassador fighting used his speech to attack those who fees and iran who

these must cease you avi attacks against their fellow citizens and their neighbors iran needs to stop supplying the who these with weapons to do so attacks this week against saudi infrastructure are just the latest example of how destabilizing that is the un are hoping that developments in her data will give diplomacy in yemen fresh momentum but the situation inside the country is extremely complex and the regional dynamics are becoming more difficult and dangerous james zira of the united nations and the u.n. humanitarian chief says that despite recent progress the humanitarian situation in the country is dire 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 than $900.00 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. well meanwhile back in our man where the talks between the who these and the yemeni government are taking place there been demands of the revenue by the who these from the port of the data be handed over to the central bank as a look at the. meetings are taking place and directly with the u.n. special envoy to humans office we've agreed on through to measures in order to put pressure on the delegation regarding the central bank to stop crime agreement was clear in this regard all revenue belonging to her data must be seen to the central bank accounts. international's putting pressure on saudi arabia to free prominent female activists detained a year ago the rights group described the saudi crackdown as

a year of shame dozens of writers academics and journalists were arbitrarily arrested many of them have not been able to communicate with their families and have had no legal representation or during court appearances woman reported being tortured and sexually abused in detention 7 detainees were released in the past 2 months but many more face prison terms for making statements in those critical of the saudi government. mishra newbury's the interim executive director of women's march global she says saudi arabia continues to violate the human rights of female activists detained a year ago. it's been one year since the imprisonment and the round up of the saudi women rights offenders every living certain member that these are the same activists that i've put the lift on the driving ban that the saudi kingdom so found out it as their great reform those are a great big coverage this is you know the problem with proper and these activists

were arrested just one month before the lift of the driving bad since then so europe has continued in roast fire leeson of human rights and this has been widely reported by so many that grassroots organizing and even the united nations in october of 20 18 ringback after the murder after the brutal murder of democracy there were reports released a news amber that. peace and activists that were imprisoned and faced really horrific reports of torture and this has not been denied by the saudi. since army human rights council and it still is in immense violation of these rights and these women have been temporarily free but they are not fully free and there are still some that are still in prison at least $31.00 people have appeared in court in connection with attacks against muslims in sri lanka they're being held in police custody while awaiting charges in the area

of maher we know to the north of the capital will be more of a night curfews in 2 provinces after days of sporadic violence during which mosques and businesses owned by muslims were targeted and one person was killed and the subform to respond with much more force to any further violence one of smith reports. going to an appeal for calm from one of the 9 mosques attacked in a wave of violence across northwestern lanka this week. and from these catholic priests. a show of solidarity with they told us their 1st visit to a mosque 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. hips in order to the previous working these days it's become that people don't you can never know and there are certainly

groups who 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 describe 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. jessamy watched helpless as bricks rained down on this mosque there and these people how it blames the government not my but it turned out

a military one 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 it. true 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 there'll be another want to night it's wednesday but they're only a short term measure the much greater challenge is repairing the entire community relationships which have been so badly fractured by the easter sunday bombing. but it's an al-jazeera northwest of sri lanka time for a short break here and i'll just say when we come back thousands of palestinians are fired out in gaza as they rallied to mount 71 years of his addiction from the law. and his weight as opposition leaders me to the national assembly

a day off they will stop them entering we'll have an update from caracas on this board bangladesh building up the mental map of the world cup details coming up more on that. hello there it's turning far west to for some of us in north america now it's been in the west where we've had some very bright weather recently but now we've got more in the way of clouds and that cloud is thickening up and it's going to give us some fairly heavy rain in fact for some of us it really doesn't very wet on thursday that weather pushing all the way down into the l.a. region that system works its way eastwards makes its way across the rockies still giving a little bit of wood to re weather over the high ground there and as it works its way away we'll see more clouds. as well all of that links up to the system in the east that we've got this whole trailing leg really of cloud and rain for many of us

is in the south where it's following unsettled really quite warm with atlanta getting to around $28.00 degrees i mean for the towards the south and it is more unsettled now across the central americas you can see the train like here that's making its way across the bahamas and of course piles of cuba towards the temperament those showers are likely just to gradually edge their way eastwards as we head into friday breaking off at a bit but still want to roll the show it's unlikely here elsewhere more in the way of sunshine for many of the caribbean islands for the west where we've got the real wet weather plenty of showers through parts of mexico and all the way down into panama before this was the south most of the showers in south america or in the northern parts while i'm up for the south it's fine unsettled.

final question. russia has jeopardized the united states' security interests we know what you are doing and you will not succeed perceptions from the outside looking. more to the picture from the inside. stance think russia's foreign policy is too soft. and with russian goals can be achieved not peace in the view for russia all knowledge is the .

welcome back a quick reminder the top stories on al-jazeera the head of sudan's ruling military council says he's suspending negotiations with opposition groups for 3 days he said the decision was made because of an escalation by protesters but he says continue to block the roads early on a wednesday shots were fired at the main protest site and several people were wounded. the u.s. state department has ordered all non-emergency government staff to leave iraq immediately follows a warning by the u.s. military of a threat from iranian linked groups and the u.s. has placed china's tech giant away and 70 of its affiliates on a trade block list earlier president from u.s. firms from using telecoms equipment made by companies that threaten national security. let's get you more now on the suspension of those talks between the opposition and the military in sudan the armed forces say the decision was taken

after soldiers were attacked the head of the military council spoke in the last hour journey late night t.v. address here's what he had to say. well no willing to. the armed groups inside the city an area and around it a number of bridges had been closed in that area the armed forces were targeted and a number of young people died and members of the forces some of them have died via now the peaceful nature of the revolution has begun to listen in order to protect this revolution and ensure that we fought lawlessness we have decided to stop all sorts of negotiations for $72.00 hours with the freedom and justice alliance and the removal of barricades from brugge bridges palestinians have held rallies to mark 71 years since they were forcibly evicted from their land it's known as the nakba arabic word for catastrophe and demonstrations are held annually one of the largest was in ramallah where the palestinian authority is based. israeli forces of

silence thousands of protesters at the gaza border gaza's health ministry is reporting that $47.00 people were injured more than $250.00 people have been killed if we can demonstrations since march last year attacks are going to amos's update from gaza. compared to previous protests the numbers were modest on the 71st anniversary of nakba hamas had been urging people on this day off from school and work to turn out at the border in large numbers and send a message saying that we must resist the occupation and we will not stop until we have our rights hamas is also in the midst of a 9 day cease fire with israel it was the deadliest round of violence between the 2 since the gaza war in 2014 hamas has been looking to israel to abide by pledges it made to help ease the effects of the air land and sea blockade

a blockade that has lasted for more than a decade and has had a crippling effect on gazans and this week we have seen a bit of relief though modest money $180000000.00 the 1st installment of that from qatar arrived to provide financial assistance fuel has been arriving and to the zone in the mediterranean for fishermen to cut seafood was expanded hamas has said that its ability to maintain the cease fire would quote depend on the israeli aggression for its part israel stepped up security at the border there were media reports that soldiers are being urged to exercise restraint and only fire bullets if they were facing imminent danger otherwise they needed to clear it with a senior official it's your revision this week israel is hosting it there are thousands of tourists in tel aviv and the international spotlight on israel and there is a general feeling that israel as well as hamas want to continue to keep the ceasefire

at least for the moment. the leaders of france and new zealand have launched a global campaign to get tech companies to combat violent web content their so-called christ church call comes in response to attacks in the city in march where a gunman killed 51 people at 2 mosques that shockley reports from paris. at the lease a palace the french president a new zealand's prime minister who stood a summit aimed at encouraging governments and tech giants to crackdown on violence and hate speech online representatives of internet companies including facebook twitter and google and world leaders signed a pledge called the christ church call the pledge to better regulate all my content was named after the city where a gunman killed 51 muslim worshippers in march and live streamed the massacre on facebook if you decide our objective was simple that what happened in christ church should never happen again it was not merely an acceptable terrorist attack but of

promotion what the internet into mushing aiming to destroy any form of cohesion in . order and said facebook had already responded to the pledge by announcing it would limit lifestream access for some users she also said tech company officials promise to do more to remove violent posts impose new standards and review the way in which he uses are directed to content online never before have countries and companies come together in the wake of her africa tech to commit to an action plan that will deliver collaboratively work in new technology built to make our communities ultimately safer 18 governments signed the pledge but not the united states white house officials said it would curb free speech the decision by washington not to sign up to the pledge will no doubt be disappointing for our den and macro nevertheless they will hope that this summit needs to better international regulation of online content but the pledge is non-binding it leaves

in force mint and the setting of rules up to the good will and motivation of tech bosses and political leaders this internet expert says is not only companies and governments that must act more responsibly but also individuals. we've all witnessed online harassment violence racism so it's up to people not to show discontent and act by reporting it as companies they've got algorithms that they can target negative content should favor positive content but the christchurch cool highlight is growing frustration amongst governments and citizens with relatively unfettered online powers of tech companies are doing is campaigning for what she calls a humane internet and not one that fosters real and devastating violence it's al-jazeera paris. the governor of the u.s. state of alabama signed into nor a controversial abortion bill that outlaws the procedure in almost all cases the

only exception is when a woman's health is at serious risk the bill which is the most restrictive nationwide also means doctors face 10 years in prison if they attempt to terminate a pregnancy and 99 years for carrying out the procedure abortion rights activists say they plan to challenge the law. the u.s. has suspended flights to venezuela citing reports of violence near airports in the country earlier or positionally the one guy doe defied a military blockade and to the national assembly in the capital assemblies controlled by the opposition. has more now from outside the national assembly. 60 meters away from the entrance to the national assembly where after threatening to hold the meeting today either hard under a bridge or anywhere in public finally opposition deputies were allowed into the legislative palace 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 which is very significant because mexico until now has been considered one of the allies of president. 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 hearing that that this mission that sort of support is being held or at least that i'm conditional support nic is being called into question.

india's election commission suspended campaigning for the last phase of the election. it happened in kolkata as prime minister narendra modi. the cities in the state of west bengal. scott hunter reports. thousands marching on the streets of kolkata these people are denouncing the violence the played out on their streets just the night before between supporters of opposing political party. this is not the culture of bengal we are ashamed of this. the culture of hooliganism and courted by the political parties. all political parties have co-existed. i am a former student political parties are destroying what educational institution we are protesting against this we are not part of any political party we don't want any political party to hijack or whatever political protest the chief of the ruling

baath party john to a party. was leading a campaign freight car when violence broke out of the. cut is the capital of the west bank and the b.g. is the point a lot of money resources it gets. here in new delhi the b j p holding a protest after what happened in kolkata west bengal is a critical battleground state for the party because they fared poorly there in the last election in 2014 b j p leaders say this silent protest is their effort to counter what they claim is a threat to democracy in west bengal but if someone be flagged then he's beaten up . and protect. people's cars or threaten and attack then how can one call it a democracy but no matter what political parties say about the state of democracy here the people of west bengal will decide this weekend which ones will speak for them scott al-jazeera new delhi police in bangladesh have shot dead 2 suspected

rangar human traffickers outside a refugee camp in the southeast earlier this week authorities incepted more than a 100 refugees about to make the journey to malaysia by boat bangladesh officials say traffickers are targeting working or who fled a military crackdown in. well the survival of the rhino is under threat the world wildlife fund says more than $8000.00 have been poached for their horns since 2010 but in south africa started say they've adopted an innovative way to save the species german reports. south africa is home to the world's largest population of brightness but they're under threat the horns are sort of especially by asian guy as we use as status symbols ornaments and in medicine. ranges at this private in the northern province of limpopo are trying to allies in this one to inject a toxic mixture into its own to make it worthless to poaches what we years is a is

a combination of toxins and a colorant die so that the die would would prevent people from using it for. a stated purposes but the toxins with them dissuade them from using it as a medicinal product for the mixture injected as also brazier active which makes the horns detectable if smuggled across borders. the world wildlife fund says illegal wildlife trafficking generates an estimated 9 to 23000000000 dollars each year and an international ban on rhino horn since 1907 has failed to effectively curb the trade many that the 5 attacks are left scarred at some homes are removed to deter poachers but some wildlife park owners say that creates problems iran are needed at home to be.