washington and from mexico city john homan explains how the proposed changes to u.s. immigration policy being received by the neighbors. there hasn't been any reaction so far from the mexican government to president speech on migration but in a way there's already been a sort of an answer to his rhetoric on border security to his rhetoric on people coming from central american countries mainly home to their so salvador and guatemala those countries suffering a lot of toil and a lot of poverty making their way through mexico to get to the united states president lopez obrador administration have sort of started a low profile crackdown you could perhaps call it against that type of migration just to the as an example there's been 80 percent more detentions this april of people coming through from central america and there were from the year before and there's been sort of signs that there's been

a lot less tolerance towards the so-called caravans large groups of people heading from those central american countries through mexico to the united states another sign that president lopez obrador administration has sort of tacitly tried to give president trump's of ministration some of what he wants from migration there's a policy called remain in mexico a plan from the trunk of ministration that means the people while they're looking for asylum brought to the waiting to see if granted in the united states they're put back over the border in mexico even though they're not from this country while they wait and that's happened thousands of people now are way team it's the mexican government hasn't sort of said no we're not going to do that and stop that it's another tacit sign that they're trying to present lopez obrador is sort of avoiding confrontation with president trump and trying to give him some of what he wants now what president says that the answer is in the long term. is food development an

investment from the united states government would saw the minutes go on towards those central american countries riddled with violence riddled with extreme poverty in some cases that are leaving that many people feel that they have little choice but to flee and head north he says rather than building walls and the rather than trying to stop people you have to go install this is a source by trying to help people now what we saw in president trump speech is that he's really going the other way he's talking about closing legal got some of soil and he's talking about continuing to build what he calls his rule of the border between mexico and the united states a more stunning ports of entry. plenty more ahead on this news hour including 10 years after sri lanka's civil war we need a doctor bringing hope to young people struggling with the shadows of the past and the impact of israel's blockade on gaza some foreigners living there say they've

had enough. and mom and dad are forced to choose sides as their sons go head to head in the n.b.a. playoffs. iran's foreign minister job ads are read has arrived in china he's been touring the region to shore up support after a new g.i.s. sanctions on iran's oil sector china as poss of the 2015 nuclear agreement and the biggest buyer of iranian oil well let's talk to adrian brown who's live for us in beijing so adrian zarif is continuing his tour of importers of iranian oil and china's already vowed to continue buying its crude so what's on the agenda for beijing. well it's interesting isn't it china has said it's going to continue purchasing iranian crude oil but our understanding is that china hasn't actually imported any iranian crude oil since

the beginning of may that's when president donald trump of century said the countries that have been buying oil from iran could no longer do so and that was really the fallout from the iran nuclear deal the demise of that deal because exactly just over a year ago president from walked away from the agreement and he allowed countries a basically a year to carry on trading with iran but he says that is now over so the question is is you know china going to be prepared to defy the united states and continue trading with iran or will it decide to basically reluctantly go along with the sanctions that are now being inforced against iran sanctions that china says are unilateral it says these are sanctions not imposed by the united nations but sanctions imposed by one country the united states on effectively the whole world so yes china i think is also starting to pay you know

a heavy price for supporting iran because mongering joe the chief financial officer of weiwei the telecommunications company she is now in canada awaiting extradition to the united states where she faces charges of conspiring to violate u.s. sanctions on iran 2 years ago another chinese telecommunications company zed t. basically had to pay a fine of more than a $1000000000.00 to the united states after they admitted trading with iran so you know the chinese government understands that the jurisdictional arm of the united states government is is very long right now they want to show support to to iran because iran is a country that they have good relations with it's a staunch trading part. as you pointed out you know china is iran's most important oil customer but but in fact you know the amount of oil that china now buys from

iran has been going down steadily during the past few years in 2016 less than 6 percent of all of china's oil came from a wrong of course firm iran's point of view that's a very important 6 percent but china's oil imports from iran are starting to do when it doesn't need to run as much as iran needs china adrian brown for us in beijing thank you. well now the u.s. state department is being accused of disproportionately focusing on iran and its recent report on how country is complying with controls democrats have written to the secretary of state mike pompei are raising concerns about the way they say intelligence is being politicized has he called again has more from washington. the top democrats when it comes to foreign policy in the u.s. house of representatives are unhappy with a new report from the state department that takes a look at iran basically they're saying that this report leaves a lot of information we're used to be dozens and dozens of unclassified pages now

it's simply 12 and that some previously unclassified information has been moved to the classified section there demanding answers from the state department they're arguing that they are politicizing intelligence to try and make people take a tougher stance on iran at the same time the president of the united states donald trump is sending the message that he doesn't want to see conflict with the rat he was asked by a reporter are we going to war with the red and he said i hope not and there have been reports in prominent newspapers that he has grown unhappy with his national security advisor john bolton he is a well known around hawk the president sending signals in the media and in the press that he doesn't want the conflict with iran to escalate. the saudi u.a.e. coalition says it's investigating what it calls the possibility of an accidental airstrike in yemen's capital saana on thursday the coalition insists it was targeting military positions but residential neighborhoods were also bombed at

least 6 civilians including women and children were killed. well now india's new a 7 week election is drawing to a close official campaigning ends on friday with the 7th and final phase of voting to be held on sunday the governing b j p's campaign has been highly focused on prime minister narendra modi who is seeking a 2nd term in office the opposition has accused him of stirring up hindu nationalism so how raman reports from bahrain aussie. 6 it's loud it's passionate and it's drawing crowds to the city about an hour say they've come to see priyanka gandhi for the indian national congress party drum up support her party wants to unseat the incumbent m.p. that's prime minister narendra modi for the moment it's more about political celebrity and less about politics. but analysts say

a resurgence of the opposition is countering modi's record his personality and hyper nationalism what has happened is that modi has projected himself as a personal figure who represents india india's national interests but is everyone else a seemed to be coming short of what might be nationalism in this country as a result the campaign is incredibly vitriolic incredibly personalized was on the other side of our nazi supporters of 2 other major regional parties a somali djawadi and behavior and so march parties have joined forces to take on modi the questions like these are in the final stages of the election how might they be crisscrossing takes a constituency trying to win the every single night the indian general election has been described as the most dirtiest the most divisive and the most polarized in india history. of you some members of the public agree with.

friends becoming and the media is within families that have been divisions and talks of talks on religion hindu muslim and these things have never happened in the past we are doing together regional party leaders like says the government's failure to deliver on its promises have not be dressed in favor of nationalist fervor they're not talking about ex-president are talking about and then are talking about the new marred by nation advantages they're not talking about how d.s.t. has worsened the business of local businesspeople so then. talking about the dilemma this will be only about national issues that is only because there are about 10 of them. the state of west bank goals all campaign related violence on choose date night injuring several people the election commission and did campaigning there on thursday evening but not before the prime minister spoke. you have all seen what's been happening in west been called the criminals of the ruling t.m.c.

have made the state into a living hell the type of war that has spread across this region is a stain on democracy. as the campaigning for india's weeks long general election and many are now looking forward to the final days of voting but some here wonder if democracy is reputation has already been damaged well now so how raman joins us live from the northern city of an r.c. sail campaigning is about to end so which states will be going to the polls this weekend and what's at stake. indeed we have around about an hour and a half of campaigning left in the 17 india general election and that means that no politicians anywhere in the country can certainly campaign in this particular area 7 states in one union territory going to the polls they mainly in areas of northern india such as bihar and jharkhand to the east we've got the

punjab state in the west we've got west bengal as well to the east and then of course. which sends the largest number of m.p.'s to the lok sabha. 80 here in the pradesh 13 seats are up for grabs there are 59 constituencies going to vote and the election vote itself here will begin on sunday morning the 19th of may and that will then complete the 7th and final phase of this near 2 month election and so how you're standing right now in a modi stronghold what are his chances look like a stand. alone drum modi is the incumbent member of parliament for an hour see he's standing again here in bahrain r.c. and also in a city in the state to the west. of india if he wins both of those seats he will give one of them up another for the by election but for the moment people certainly

here in the campaign is be very positive for the render modi but it comes with a cap the out in the opposition parties have said that big guns here in the past 48 hours as you saw in that report we've had priyanka gandhi akhilesh yadav mayawati and some of the big guns from the j.p. have also been here trying to drum up support the 5 years of the b j p have been in power have been quite controversial on a whole range of levels communalism to joblessness to de monetise they should when they took these big 501000 kilos out of circulation replace them with new currency created havoc in the rural areas people that work on a cash economy became bankrupt and even businesses now have the added burden of a new sales tax simpler implemented by the seeing their profits dwindle and in some cases having to lay off staff b j p n but we have not addressed those issues they

keep talking about nationalistic issues they keep talking about international relations certainly security when it comes to countries like pakistan and terror attacks and they've kept on message on those levels nuts what the opposition focused on they focused on what have you achieved what have you done for the people of india why we insist. that message seems to be getting through what will be interesting in this particular city of r. and r. c. the assumption is modi might win by what margin if there's a very large dent in his majority it will certainly undermine his own thora teeth to take the b j p forward or even take the position of prime minister these are all shifts and maybes to the moment we won't know until the vote count begins on wednesday the 23rd of may but for the mobile we'll get a good idea on sunday when we see hopefully queues of people waiting to cast their votes not just here in byron r.c. but across those 7 states in one union territory and of course we'll be covering

that live here a lot sara how around and watching all the developments in that election for us thank you. well at least 8 afghan police officers have been killed in an airstrike in the helmand province southwest of kabul the attack happened during a battle with the taliban just outside the provincial capital of lashkar gah it's not clear yet who is responsible 9 gunman suspected of being involved in the attack in pakistan have been killed during a police raid in southwestern but not just on province at least 4 officers and several others were injured after a bomb exploded outside a mosque in the provincial capital. the pakistani taliban has claimed responsibility for that attack well at least 15 people have died in flash floods caused by heavy rains overnight and mollie's capital city bomb ago 10 were killed after a bridge collapsed the government has deployed teams to bring residents to safety

and rescue efforts are ongoing. well in a few minutes we'll have the weather with everson foxtrot still ahead on al-jazeera wrecks that battle lines are drawn once again as campaigning bid begins in the u.k. the european elections plus. harvard law reporting from the lebanese shipyard were held in rio expedition proof that reportedly probably broke through your throat for gold was processed through to this year. and we'll tell you why one of the world's top rugby players has been kicked out of his national team. the west. well we've been hearing about those floods in mali you can see the shower clouds showing up quite nicely on our satellite picture roared

across the southern areas of mali seeing lots of heavy rain and you can see the thunderheads to the been brought simming across a good parts of the region imbedded we had $87.00 millimeters of rain in 24 hours in gonna well as much as $58.00 millimeters all more to get in that same time period lots of cloud still extending right across the saw how lost the showers there right through the equitorial belts down seeing some lively showers as well and those shows extend all the way up into the theo p. and highlands in a similar pictures to go on through the next couple of days lots of heavy showers coming through a similar area then further north we have got dry weather into the north of africa very little clouds showing up more clout there is generally of the whether ferrazzi warm certainly winds picking temperatures up in tripoli's for around 30 celsius on saturday for me back to 21 as we go on into sunday but by and large it does look dry across north africa and generally dry across southern africa as well little bit

of cloud just getting to the western cape the southern cape to seeing some cloud pushing through but essentially lots of dry weather the showers continuing to southern parts of tanzania and also but the most empathy. the weather sponsored by the time and ways. let me take. my place on the. west. and thousands come. to relieve the strongest solstice style moves. nation come together to. establish.

stadiums would've brought incredible. discover the wonders of the news destination to feel the women's world cup. 2019. hello again i'm just a reminder of the news this hour trips from sudan's rapid support forces have tried to remove barricades was in place by protesters outside the army had forces but they eventually gave up more demonstrations are expected in khartoum. iran's

foreign minister says practical steps are needed to save the nuclear deal from collapse the reforms countries to open their markets to iran despite u.s. sanctions he's now in china which is part of the 2015 agreement. and president donald trump has announced his battles to overcome. the u.s. immigration system the changes would strongly favor skilled migrants and make it more difficult for non english speakers and asylum seekers. let's take a closer look at trump's proposed changes to u.s. immigration policy well under the new plan 57 percent of green cards or permanent residency will be given on merit as opposed to the current 12 percent that would be based on a person's age education level english proficiency and job losses the divested of these a lottery which offers residency to people from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the u.s.

will be scrapped but the changes do not address the legal status of the so-called dreamers who are undocumented migrants brought to the u.s. as children while tom brooks's dean and professor of law and government at tara middle school and he joins us now from there tom talk us through the legality of this and the process of potentially implementing this policy. well what the donald trump's son in law christers behind this proposal has done is looked to. various countries to see if there was some kind of plan that they could tweak to bring into the united states and what they've done is decided on a point based system that australia introduced several decades ago the united kingdom has a version of it here in other countries too and what they're trying to do for the united states is effectively say right you get so many points for having certain characteristics about being a certain age or having certain qualifications having

a job offer having satisfactory level of english and if you have a kind of points the system will let you let you through that's the mechanics of how it's supposed to work the legality of it is very questionable because it seems that a lot of these distinctions say favoring the young is donald trump said in his in his speech and rather than say older workers who are working age focusing on english language ability america does not have any kind of constitutionally state language that over other speakers many americans don't speak any english seems to be arbitrary and discriminatory and i think we'll have a lot of difficulty getting getting passed i suspect will be found unconstitutional i think really what it's about is setting a marker as trump begins the be the 1st steps towards a reelection campaign rather than having a genuine immigration policy well as you say tom this will no doubt play well with his base so do you believe this is about immigration or about galvanizing support

ahead of 2020. i think it's entirely about galvanizing support me another example of this is the focus in this plan about a points based system for entry to be a working immigrant saying how this is somehow a way of being tough on asylum seekers well asylum seekers are not applying to to work as it were the normal across the fight as immigrants they are asylum seekers and that's the thing that is handled in a separate process under treaty obligations and trump it people who meet that meet certain criteria of being an asylum seeker. under under under the treaty are granted should be granted asylum different countries have different ways of assessing it but trump is kind of confusing all these things together he's playing to a characterization of immigrants as non english speaking spanish speaking maybe your own skills are low skilled coming in for

a much as his is trump wall but that's actually not what most immigrants are like so on the one hand it shouldn't really do much about immigrants coming to work in that states anyway as it were but in the end it's doing it's trying to do things in a way that is probably unconstitutional. and is really to play to his base well tom i already seeing some outrage as expected from democrats what reaction do you think is likely from the rest of transfer public and coffee. well i think that they're going to have a difficult kind of time in saying how somehow you know these the obviously some support amongst republicans for this this is planned there's certainly a very strong public mood for kind of english language and the importance of people being professional which is a kind of a popular position to have given that so much of the country is fluid to english english being a 1st language but that they are going to

a difficult time trying to sell the legality of this and then explain why it is that a very republican appointed dominated supreme court simply can't find this acceptable and how you know these players they think the coaches should be moving in so it won't be able to be made. illegal in practice so i think the they're they're barking up a tree they're not going to get very far on and given that they're the dominating party that they control most the leaders of power are going to have a hard time explain to their base why despite that huge power base they're not able to get things through that they're promising tom brooks from dharm law school thank you for your insights on out of there well in britain across party talks to strike a compromise on prime minister terry is amazing have failed labor leader jeremy corbyn says discussions have gone as far as they can the 2 sides of trying for weeks to agree on terms for the country's exit from the e.u.

britain is due to leave on march 29th but it has been delayed until october 30 fast while our poll brennan joins us now live from london also this wasn't really a surprise but one of the reasons for talks breaking down this time. now not a surprise i mean this was an effort by the prime minister and the leader of the opposition jeremy colvin to try to find some common ground between the 2 a compromise deal with the prime minister's withdrawal deal with the european union having been defeated in parliament 3 times and simply not seeing any possible way of getting a majority vote in parliament so they they went at it for 6 weeks but they've come up empty handed the reasons behind it well there's a lot of briefing happening now at number 10 downing street and the prime minister's official spokesman have said the 2 main sticking points were the idea of a permanent customs union that's what labor wanted the conservatives finding that unacceptable they said it would limit their hand as far as being able to do other trade deals with other nations and the idea of

a 2nd referendum that was another sticking point in his letter to the prime minister basically calling an end to the process jeremy corbyn set out the following he said the increased weakness and instability of your government means that can't be confidence in securing whatever might be agreed between us he's effectively saying that what is the point in doing a deal with the prime minister who's days are numbered who will probably not be prime minister come the autumn there was no confidence among the labor side that whatever was agreed would be upheld by the next prime minister and so we now go to the next stage most likely indicative votes that will happen in june but before then just next week we have the elections to the european parliament in which both main parties the conservatives and labor expect to get an absolute hammering from the electorate because of the perceived incompetence of this whole bracks of process there is poor brennan with that update from london thank you paul.

well as you've had the main u.k. parties are in disarray over bracks it just as campaigning in the european elections gets underway and brisson the entire exercise is being seen as a barometer indicating support or lack thereof for leaving the european union now anthony has more from the southwest of england. these people believe they are the defenders of democracy in britain under siege by elites which would storm the barricades and overturn the bricks and referendum the new brics it party likes to encourage this fortress mentality and clearly many english people due to their way ahead in the polls and this is a warning to parliament not just the conservative party the labor party as well if they do not deliver for exit in a meaningful form that actually is a box that we won't come test the next general election and that m.p.'s of both parties are in dire trouble assuming the polls are right the brics that party will

win at least a 3rd of the votes in the european election plus a further people in this country who actively want to leave the european union with no plan and no deal they are determined and they are organized and their opponents are in some disarray with the conservatives and labor war with themselves and each other it has fallen so far have other parties to try to fight off bricks it has a new one called change u.k. currently polling in single digits. and here's another resurgent centrist liberal democrats on around 15 percent nowhere near as high as the brics it policy so why don't they all stand together and if they don't which will get people vote for me it's going to fevers and i would be much happier if there were 9 concerts working together on a common platform it didn't happen i'm not blaming anybody it's just the way it is and now we're dealing with the reality and i think it's very clear from the polls people are gathering around the liberal democrats and i'm going to encourage them

to do that then there's the greens registering their highest ever polling in the u.k. they accepted there have been infighting between the remain supporting policies not a good look when the aim is to defend the u.k. from the disaster the brics is if we're taking it as a proxy referendum then we need to add up the votes of the brits at party not at the rates remain parties and then i think that both come out about it but honestly say it's the people in the middle who can make a difference and what we need to do is have a people's face that we can actually see where the country is now and i'm trip i'm pretty sure that that will come out full remain to the ukase voters are offered a choice between a new policy that offers no policies whatsoever other than brics states and yet which is utterly focused or several others who have coherent policies on almost everything yet which seem at odds with each other along with. the more confusing it becomes gloriously al-jazeera in the southwest of england also is of the world's biggest shipping companies are meeting in london to discuss ways to reduce

greenhouse gas emissions the industry moves 90 percent of the world's trade and has the same carbon footprint as germany has in norway where one crees chip company is setting a green example. the club and yeah it's on the west coast of norway where there's been a long rich history of ship building but this is something different to ships the roald amundsen the for itself once in a nearing completion and there are steps into the future if these nestles the fate of the this is it will take paying passengers through remote parts of the world powered partly by passing new expedition ship together is a complex process as you might imagine involving welders carpenters and plumbers and of course electricians there's more than 750 kilometers of cabling to say nothing of detailed an extensive wiring for powering the ship by self generated electricity the batteries anjan place yet so what's what are we what's going to be put in place and what will we see and distract your kind that can fit 20 and

battery cells and it will be about toast was for each cell or each rep here with this rx with we have behind us now we can reduce to 20 percent off the fuel consumption off the ship. the vessel's thrust will come from a combination of diesel and battery power batteries and cells will be constantly charged by the ship's engines as they run. kyle writes and will be captain on the roald amundsen as she attempts a northwest passage later this year really important because we have got him going to remote areas form of all areas and to be able to do you know feet footprints but you're. giving is only the green footprints we supply the polar system with the batteries but also when we do the operation in the arctic. given the shipping industry is responsible for a significant proportion of the global climate problem change cannot come soon

enough ultimately the dream is of a ship with no need of a funnel hybrid and reducing consumption is one thing but even more interesting i think is the work that it's now going into. fully electric. shipping we've seen some initiatives on that as well in norway and that's an area where. the norwegian shipping industry might get an advantage as an early adopter electric fairies can already be seen in some of the world's ports while on shore power and others enables vessels to be plugged in so engines can be switched off while docked. and hurtigruten the now planning to convert several ships like the nord cap here drawn on a combination of fuel including bio gas made from organic waste like timber and dead fish with a day when the mega ships of the world a powered by renewable energy.