from the left of center labor party is popular with many young australians. he promises high spending on schools and action to tackle climate change but many say it is the chaotic leadership of the governing party that has helped the opposition most we've got to stop us take action. we've got to stop this and take real action on fossil living we've got to stop the chaos take real action if you like. since being elected in 2013 m.p.'s of the right of center governments of the liberal party have turned against their leader twice dumping tony abbott for malcolm turnbull before throwing him out the current prime minister scott morrison . m.p.'s of the previous labor government also deposed their own leader twice. this is where you go if bill shorten is elected he'll be australia's 6th prime minister in 6 years and change your prime minister through an election would be

a break from the recent past what bill shorten is promising is a period of political stability with the full on climate change that means relatively ambitious targets for emissions reductions renewable energy and electric cars the current government has failed to act on climate change over many years and it's been rising for the last 4 years so it's really risen as a crystal if you like the government says tougher action on climate will hurt the economy it also says a labor government's policies on refugees will lead to what it calls weak your borders the government to sort of deter refugees from trying to reach australia and they sent them to detention camps on remote islands in the pacific the bottom line is as difficult as this policy is if you change it if you weaken it if you show a lack of resolve then you invite on this country and the poor souls who would type the risks the worst of all possible outcomes but labor has affectively removed refugees as an election issue by saying it's will continue those tough policies.

opinion polls can be wrong but there is one certainty turnout will be high in australia voting is compulsory with fines for those who fail to show up to vote andrew thomas al-jazeera sydney. taiwan's parliament has approved same sex marriage making the territory the 1st place in asia where it's legal i give same sex couples similar protections as there is given to others it follows years of debates about marriage equality the voter place on the international day against homophobia transphobia and by phobia. brazil's president has dismissed huge protests over education saying their politically motivated demonstrators were out in large numbers on wednesday denouncing sonars funding cuts speaking while visiting the us also norah said the demonstrations were hijacked by

his predecessor supporters who don't care about education. education is in bad shape i'd rather not have to cut or limit any funding anywhere but that's the reality if i don't do it i have to answer to the fiscal responsibility law i could even have to face impeachment and i believe no one wants this in brazil the venezuelan government's been holding talks with opposition members in norway aimed at ending a 5 month political power struggle president nicolas maduro hasn't confirmed the meeting but did say an advisor was on an important mission for peace opposition leader who says norwegian officials are trying to mediate with both sides to bring them to the table. you know. there are some invoices to norway see this on tuesday and i say begin now and then also sit it to the point of exhaustion we are not going to lead ourselves to any kind of false negotiation. the saudi u.a.e.

coalition says it's investigating what it calls the possibility of an accidental air strike in the yemeni capital sana'a on thursday the coalition insists it was targeting the military positions but residential neighborhoods also bombed at least 6 civilians and clued in women and children were killed on protesters and opposition politicians in the philippines demanding clarity on the midterm elections candidates allied to president. or big wins during monday's poll procedural violations and technical and transmission delays of voting machines have been reported general allen dogan has more from the nullah. protesters are demanding transparency and better explanation from the commission on the election serve in several reports of technical glitches and failures an heiress of machines just hours after the ballots were cast across the country now members of the

opposition are still hoping to win a few seats that's quite unlikely given the current results of the tally here in manila still many of those who support the opposition are here and saying they still hope that the opposition. seats because it is critical in order to be able to control the president through the good the church is growing power 4 with the lord not one or one in this election if not name the nation and they want us to be a new fighting and. i wish to experience. that there was a problem with the b.c.m. machine and. when i called the attention of the b.a.a. said. follow. this new club or nothing at all and then you're telling us we don't want to vote we can just go do it if you give me a bottle so what will i do with it. despite growing public pressure

protestors here admits that it is unlikely they will be able to stop the commission on elections from proclaiming the winners or at the very least releasing the final results of this elections what they assure the public though is that protests and complaints will not stop here and the cases will be filed in the courts. well right now the united nations security council is being briefed on the escalating violence in syria's rebel controlled it province it's the wilds largest cluster of internally displaced people and that's where syrian government backed by their russian allies have scaled up their military offensive un under-secretary general rosemary aid to carlo is currently addressing the council but right now let's speak to james bays our diplomatic editor who is at the united nations james what's brought about today is open session that we're seeing well they had

a closed session last week the bombardment of it live has only got worse we've heard from mr carlo about strikes barrel bombs and. and further attacks from artillery a very grim situation let's listen more now to the humanitarian chief of the u.n. mark local all september he stressed that it was quote absolutely essential to avoid a full scale battle in italy and quote and he warned that that would quote unleash a humanitarian nightmare unlike any we have seen in syria when i briefed you here on 18 september i said a full scale military onslaught could result in the worst humanitarian tragedy of the 21st century despite our warnings our worst fear is now coming true the throne with me is just summarize the united nations estimates that 3000000 people live in the area of the deescalation zone in the north west of the country

even before the recent escalation these rim on the most vulnerable people in syria particularly the 1000000 children and the 1300000 people who fled to italy from other parts of the country the area is now largely controlled by higher terrier al sham a prescribed terrorist group. the innocent civilians of course hugely outnumber the men with guns. mr president we've briefed you every month as the conflict has escalated on 27 march my director of operations alerted you to the alarming spike in civilian casualties in displacement due to fighting noting that 90 people had been killed and nearly 90000 displaced on 24 april my deputy briefed you here on a further increase in airstrikes and shelling with attacks both in the deescalation zone and from the zone into government controlled areas she described how some 200

people have been killed since february and the number of newly displaced had grown to 120000 just days later the pace of attacks increased even further with some of the most intense hostilities in almost a year my director of operations briefed you again last friday on the effects of the airstrikes the barrel bombs the ground attacks and the shelling. and yesterday the deputy regional humanitarian coordinator updated the humanitarian task force in geneva on yet a further spate of barrel bombs from helicopters air strikes heavy shelling ground attacks and counterattacks in the last 3 weeks we have reports that up to 160 people have been killed at least 180000 people have been displaced and millions of people are crammed into an ever smaller area 180000 in 3 weeks

while many people have moved to camps more than 80000 people have found themselves with nowhere to go. they are simply parked in open fields or sheltering under trees. we now have reports of 3 i.d.p. settlements being attacked 3 days ago an attack near a marketplace in. reportedly killed at least 8 civilians and injured 3 others some 17 schools have been damaged or destroyed and many more are closed with more than 400000 students unable to sit for their exams areas in government controlled western aleppo northern hamma have also been affected by hostilities resulting in civilian casualties and injuries on 14 may rockets hit the densely populated narrow camp for palestine refugees in aleppo killing at least 9 civilians and wounding 11 humanitarian agencies are trying to help people caught up in the fighting but the

response is already stretched prepositioned stocks of food have been given to 100000 people since the start of this month tents another shelter items for 25000 people are being distributed but as we've told you before a full military incursion would overwhelm all ability to respond we rapidly approaching that scenario mr president i am most of all concerned about the number of attacks damaging or destroying medical facilities i need not remind you that medical facilities are specially protected under international humanitarian law since 28 april. health actors have identified at least 18 facilities that have been damaged or destroyed by air

strikes shelling or other fighting all of them are inside the so-called deescalation zone almost all following the attacks are currently unusable. including that mom a hospital in hammer governorates attacked on 28 april magic castle hospital in how mcgovern wrote attacked on 28 april bates primary health care center in gov it attacked on 30 april. primary health care center in hamma gov it attacked on 1 may or w.h.o. supported surgical unit in cafe area in how mcgovern wrote attacked on 1 may. primary health care center in how mcgovern wrote a tacked on to may mr president i know this council appreciates brevity but i could continue listing these attacks for some time the trend has continued day after day in total the health actors have reported 20 attacks on these

18 facilities almost one a day for the last 3 weeks some facilities have been hit twice other hospitals are closing for fear of being attacked a total of 49 health facilities have partially or totally suspended activities between them they provided an average each month of at least one 171000 medical outpatient consultations and $2760.00 major surgical operations they helped more than $1400.00 women deliver their babies every month now they are not doing those things. the 20 attacks are confirmed attacks using w h o's global methodology for cataloging attacks on health facilities. this

system relies on global reporting system and a specialized network of partners on the ground to triangulate and confirm orders happened in the case reports attack these partners on the ground provide a detailed incident report. that is then verified by w.h.o. and it's checked against additional sources only those which are fully vetted and confirmed by a variety of sources are included in the list of confirmed attacks the system by the way is the one used for reporting on such attacks from afghanistan to yemen it is widely respected. mr president my office and i have in the light of the events of the last 3 weeks been asked a lot of questions by member states by n.g.o.s operating in the area by doctors in the hospitals and by families affected by the fighting let me tell you some of

their questions and what i can say in answer to them who is bombing all these hospitals i can't say but at least some of these attacks are clearly organized by people with access to sophisticated weapons including a modern air force and so-called smart or precision weapons are hospitals being deliberately targeted i don't know the people who do are the ones dropping the bombs but i can tell you is that there are a lot of attacks on these health facilities. is it true that you provide details of where hospitals are in order to protect them yes the obligation to protect civilian objects including hospitals comes from international humanitarian law we give details of some hospital locations to the parties to the

conflict so that they can comply with those obligations is the information being provided about the locations of hospitals in fact being used not to protect hospitals but to target them. i don't know again the people who can answer that question are the ones dropping the bombs many d. conflict sites which are not hospitals have not been attacked has this kind of thing happened before during the syria conflict yes then special envoy staffan de mistura and last year raised concerns about similar attacks in eastern with council members who we thought might have relevant information and who we thought could prevent a recurrence did you get satisfactory answers at that time we

have yet to receive full answers to the questions we raised last year. if i were an angel running a hospital why would i want to give you details of my location if that information is simply being used to target the hospital that is a good question we are thinking about the conclusions to draw from recent events in respect of the d conflicts and system insofar as it covers health facilities. what is your advice to parents of children who live in the deescalation zone should they take their children to the hospital in the case of an illness or injury that is a very difficult question i am deeply concerned about the impact on the health of children and their safety when so many medical facilities are being attacked what would you do if you were the parent of a child needing hospital care in the so-called deescalation zone in it live right

now i'm sorry to say that i just don't know i feel desperately sorry for parents in that horrible position hasn't the security council passed a resolution reinforcing that countries shouldn't bomb hospitals. yes security council resolution 2286 passed in 2016 specifically covered that. finally i am asked what is the point of the security council passing resolutions lying if states are not going to comply with them that mr president is also a very good question it is of course not really addressed to me thank you. i think. we've been listening to mark low

carb at the un humanitarian affairs chief briefing the united nations security council on the west wing situation and it led he has described attacks on i.d.p. camps and medical facilities within the deescalation zone there well let's bring in our diplomatic editor james bays who is at the united nations for us james as you said earlier there have been multiple closed door briefings for the security council on this what brought about today is open session. well one of the countries that called for this open session is speaking right now belgium belgium germany kuwait look after the humanitarian file with regard to syria they take special interest in that they have decided that there needs to be an open session of the security council because the bombardment of it which they addressed in a closed session last week has not ended in fact it's getting worse and there you heard from the humanitarian chief of the united nations marlow cock a particularly strong speech u.n. officials are often accused of being too diplomatic and not saying things bluntly

but he really did lay out the situation pretty strongly saying that he had warned last year that a full scale assault of it could be the worst humanitarian tragedy of the 21st century the worst humanitarian tragedy in the last 19 years and he said those fears were coming true he laid out a pretty grim picture of what's going on 17 schools damaged or destroyed 18 medical facilities damaged or describes royd 49 medical facilities not not operating because of the bombardment of bombardment that his colleague the undersecretary general for political affairs said was the result of aerial bombing of barrel bombs and of shelling or fallout full out assault on the reason we didn't get an open meeting a week ago you can see him there the russian ambassador. wasn't in new

york last week and the russians made the case the security council because he was back in moscow for a victory day celebration it wasn't a right time to have an open meeting and the rest of the council agreed with that they've now pushed ahead with the open meeting and clearly from what we've just heard the pressure will be on the russian ambassador he didn't speak to reporters on the way in i shouted at him are you bombing it live and he simply tried. his head very vigorously but we are going to hear him soon in his own meeting well james when it comes to the humanitarian situation in any of lead as you say the numbers are really stark i have or 80 killed in the last week 180000 displaced over the last few weeks is today's session likely to have any impact on what's actually happening on the ground. what it depends i think whether the bombardment stops or not remember russia is probably involved in this bombardment it seems very likely the only 2 forces that could be responsible are the syrian government and

the russians the u.n. making it quite clear that they've given the coordinates of many of these medical facilities to the warring parties so they cannot bomb them and there was even the suggestion from mr local that perhaps a question he could not answer they have been deliberately targeted from those coordinates that have been given by the united nations russia is clearly important in this whether it bomb those medical facilities or not it's the key ally of the syrian government and they're the other power that has the ability to carry out bombing in a lib remember to russia is a potent member of the security council and it's the joint guarantor with turkey of it live as a deescalation zone a place where there is not supposed to be further bombardment and battling so we'll have to listen very carefully to the russians i think also later in the meeting we'll have to listen carefully to turkey turkey has an interesting situation with

regard to russia they've been opposite sides of the syrian war but they also work quite closely together particularly in recent years diplomatic editor james bay is there for us at the united nations thank you for that analysis james. well now to sudan where protesters are gearing up for another day of demonstrations friday prayers were held just a short time ago close to the army had courses in the capital khartoum troops from a military unit called the rapid support forces tried to remove barricades was in place by protesters but eventually gave up on wednesday the military council suspended talks with the opposition for 3 days negotiators have been trying to reach a consensus about who will govern the country before new elections are called well hit morgan joins us now live from khartoum despite the violence we've seen this week the protests are continuing. yes indeed mr protesters are saying that they

will not leave their estates in front of the army headquarters which is now in its 6th week and till their demands are met and their demands have been very clear a civilian independent transitional government and accountability for the crimes committed over the past 30 years when president bush your was in power now one thing we've noticed today at the friday prayers is that the protesters and the man who led the prayers seemed to be striking a reconciliatory tone they seem to be trying to show the military council and the world that they have done what the military council has been asking for they have removed the barricades on the main streets that have been set up lately they say that they do not want to escalate the situation they want to continue negotiations they're trying to provide the environment for those negotiations so that they are not held responsible if it fails with the same time they will not be leaving their seats in front of the army headquarters a lot of them have come from various states across the country they've been there since the 6th of april and they're saying that they're waiting for the military council to say that talks will resume so that they can hear that

a transitional independent civilian government will be formed and what's the likelihood that those talks will actually resume after this 3 day porous. what the military council has said that before the 72 hours is over they will not be communicating with the opposition coalition but the question is not when the when will those talks resume or nor the likelihood of that to resume and the question is when it resumes will the 2 sides be able to agree they've been having talks for 5 weeks now they've agreed on some of the structures of the government including the legislative assembly and the executive council but the main issue or main point of contention between the 2 sides is the sovereign council now the military council is saying that it wants to be the one cherry that sovereign council which effectively will be the presidential council and it wants to have either equal representation or a majority in that council while the civilians or the opposition are saying that they want to be the one heading that council and they want to be a civilian government a civilian. so the question is when the 2 sides meet will they be able to agree

will be able to come together and decide how that sobering council will look like and who will be leading the council and effectively the transitional government or not our desires have been morgan with that update from khartoum thank you. all to algeria now where protesters are also back on the streets of the capital algiers there demanding democratic reforms and the removal of politicians from former president bush if he is government presidential elections are expected in july the longtime leader was forced to step down last month and police have arrested several people for corruption. iran's foreign minister jobs or reef is in china he's been touring the region to shore up support after the united states tighten sanctions on iran's oil sector china is part of the 25th greenland and the biggest buyer of iranian oil but ties between them are now coming under increasing pressure from washington as adrian brown explains from beijing. both china and iran are

involved in worsening dispute with the united states for china the issues trade for iran it's the threat of war iranian foreign minister zarif was last here 12 months ago just after the u.s. pulled out of the iran nuclear agreement that china helped broker it was meant to curb iran's nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief china and other nations roll out to keep buying iranian oil. as more him turn in china as one of the most important partners of this logic republic of iran it is also a political partner or a very close economic partner and also one of the remaining members of the nuclear deal monday during this new stage it is important to have close consultations with the chinese but earlier this month donald trump canceled the exemptions that had permitted such purchases just before raising tariffs on 200000000000 dollars worth of chinese goods these recent developments pose

a dilemma for china's leaders the relationship between china and iran has been affected a lot by the sanctions from america especially the recent escalating big nami sanctions and the military threat this cause a very big challenge and uncertainty in relations between china and the round creating added diplomatic pressure for china china's leaders are in a bind they still appear committed to the iran nuclear deal and maintaining trade ties but so far as we know china is not imported any iranian oil since the beginning of may a sign. perhaps the china is reluctantly going along with the sanctions it publicly opposes so does china still have iran's back no not at this point. and the other reason is that china is really not in a position to back here on right now the only the only party that can.