we saw was a very high stakes rhetoric game between our opposition and incumbent government over what the state of the country was and who who and what were the government doing about national security and of course mr modi went on to talk about that great length and has continued to do so however as the election process has continued since february and certainly the people that we've been speaking to both analysts and members of the public the one thing that keeps coming out is that the actual issues haven't been discussed the issues of health education sanitation infrastructure projects this is where the opposition have talked about what they would do and the incumbent government and the b j p have been very reluctant to talk about what they've actually achieved and that has been perhaps a weakness in the their election campaign and the weakness that the opposition of exploited whether it's got through to the masses or not martine is another thing we won't know what the result is of the campaigning until those votes are counted on

thursday. hail graham and i should say thank you very much indeed tony does live from. it's the way the next and then. pal good is astride. a change is prime minister defies the elves and the opinion polls to win reelection. all say president searing this year's eurovision song contest in israel. hello again we're here cross united states we are dealing with a severe weather event right now as we begin the week the weekend has been quite active with thunderstorms making tornadoes across parts of texas oklahoma as well as into kansas we're also talking about flooding across much of this area on sunday

the storm system makes its way across the ohio river valley and then down across the mississippi river valley up towards the north though anywhere from ontario up here towards come back it is going to be cooler and plenty of rain in the forecast but it's really as we go towards monday we're watching another system developing out of the rockies and into texas and it's right here we expect to see an extreme weather day with plenty of tornadoes coming out of this area and we will be watching this very carefully as well as flooding damaging winds and hail well here across parts of the bahamas we're looking at plenty of rain in the forecast for you not a lot of sun for nasa or freeport eventa you'll be picking up that rain as well with temperatures hovering into the low thirty's kingston a mostly cloudy day there and said to me go clouds in your forecast with a temperature of 31 and then down here across parts of what is that is not looking too bad as we end the weekend with 17 degrees but we do expect to see much more rain coming into play by the time we start the week here across borders that is an ascension more rate for you there and a temperature of 27 degrees. on

counting the cost as the. u.s. ratchets up the pressure on iran we look at the straits of hormuz the most valuable waterway in the world lanka's tourism industry takes the heat off to the east the sunday attacks and flying cars as the future just a rock counting the cost on a doozy of. a. no. no. no.

let's take a look at the top stories here it out there austria charles has called for a snap election after his deputy was forced to resign. from the far right freedom party stepped down because of the a measure of a video which showed him promising state contracts in return for campaign financing the 7th and final phase of india's general election is underway hundreds of millions of people have been casting their votes over the past 6 weeks the main contenders are the prime minister narendra modi of the b j p and the congress party is raul gandhi. and the top story today in saudi arabia saying it doesn't want a war in the gulf bought and will respond if iran chooses war the announcement comes following recent attacks on several saudi oil assets last week and the saudi king. has cooled for to meetings involving arab and go for leaders later this month to discuss regional tensions. well more on that now from washington and our

correspondent patty culhane. there are reports out of saudi arabia that the saudi crown prince mohammed bin solomon had a phone call with you. secretary of state mike pompei o from this side the state department will not confirm that a call happened much less what was discussed but we do know we do know the pompei has been making the rounds trying to gauge support for increased tensions on iran and getting pretty much tepid response from everybody so we don't know what they discussed but we do know in the past the discussions that have really proven pivotal in the relationship are those not between the secretary of state and saudi officials but between the president's son in law and senior adviser jared cushion or and mohamed bin sol none so waiting to see if there are any reports about what they're discussing this is a president who has said he doesn't want to go to war cording to reports at the same time we're seeing an escalation not only the military moves the unprecedented move to get u.s. personnel out of the baghdad embassy oil workers are being removed and now we're

hearing the federal aviation administration is warning commercial airliners to avoid the gulf for fear of being targeted on accident so obviously the u.s. is sending conflicting messages a big point is going to come in the coming days because members of congress both republicans from the president's own party and democrats are saying we want to see the intelligence we want to know why we're seeing these increased tensions so they're expecting a briefing and then coming week how they respond it could set the tone for how this moves forward. australia's ruling conservative coalition has clinched a surprise election victory prime minister scott morrison says it's a miracle although it's not yet clear i feel secure a palm tree majority andrew thomas reports from melbourne. he wasn't supposed to be the winner of australia as election opinion polls consistently had prime minister scott morrison and his rights of sense and liberal party behind the labor party rivals he and they defied expectations side friends

we're going to work to do. we all work to do and we're going to get back to work we're going to get back to work for the a strategist that we now go to work every day. if i started struggles and trials every day they're looking for a fair go and they're having a go and they're going to get a guy from our government. in the sydney hotel hosting young expected that tree party the world's euphoria. gone she won the liberal party once again have profiles not membership adi scott morrison i said i'm not maybe this job how does the liberal body and let's enjoy the next 3 you think it's ultimately the least it's almost funny for later in taking the leap to that moment. in melbourne where they were expecting a policy labor policy supports as well very subject completely i can't believe it.

shattered that cycle. yes it. does say that. the labor leader had been confident of victory there on saturday in states he had to be the gracious loser i was scott morrison good fortune and good courage in the service of our right now the national interest of 5 no less. sorry it was not the speech shorten hoped nor expected to make sure i said thanks that's exactly the selection i was making was that instead was just resigned the leadership was like this for labor c.r.u. it was set in labour's policies more action on climate change more investment in schools hospitals and infrastructure did not resonate anough one result did buck

the trend an independent candidate who campaigned hard on climate change beat a former prime minister tony abbott who once described a manmade climate change as a salute price but that was the exception overall this surprise result is a victory for a right of center politics in australia under thomas al-jazeera meldon. the un is warning of a major humanitarian crisis in somalia which is again in the grip of drought 2000000 somalis are at risk of starvation unless they get emergency aid victoria case and the reports hungry somalis arrive daily at this makeshift camp on the outskirts of the capital mogadishu their farms have failed and the animals have died sheltering here is now that best chance of surviving the drought the house the house about i was a roof i left our home and farms because of drug related conditions and conflict off farms were hit badly by the drought thankfully now we live here somalis are

leaving rural areas in the 10s of thousands to get food aid in the capital the failure of so-called long rains which usually sweep east africa between march and may has caused crop failures across the region aid agencies have scaled up efforts but say more support is needed the situation in somalia is very worrying we are just 2 years on from the 27000 drought which was a famine warning to it we were able to avoid famine through working with partners governments civil society the diaspora private sector it really was a collective effort. the new arrivals join 2 and a half 1000000 others already displaced by conflict and passed droughts in somalia with their livelihoods destroyed many of the displaced will continue to stay in camps long after the drought is over big turia gates and be al jazeera.

sudan's transitional military council says it's preparing for another round of talks with protest leaders on sunday following pressure from the un the us and the african union demonstrators were out on the streets of the capital again on saturday continuing with their demand for a civilian government. to determine the makeup of the new governing body suspended for 72 hours on wednesday after protests was extended. well as every month since protests began there sitting outside the army headquarters in culture you have reports on how they managed to keep up morale. call themselves. sudanese cool calm after sunset to join the thousands outside the military headquarters they searched for weapons at checkpoints set up by other protesters before they joined the sit in which is now in its 2nd month to make a nice living it's important to have people here at night because the attempts to

disperse to sit in mostly happens during the evening that's why we have people come and even sleep here to guard the revolution. but those who come here do more than guard their revolution which began in december before reaching its peak in early april when they began camping in front of the military headquarters and demanded the country's president ahmed and bashir and his 30 year rule. when the military ousted him on april 11th the protesters stayed on to demand power be handed to civilians. brings books every evening for protesters to buy or read for free if they can't afford the price he can now offer books that were banned by the old regime to give it up that you could have had that books used to have limited purposes during the former regime but now people can access books they couldn't find because of the oppression and the ban they were living under but this isn't just a revolution of the people it's a revolution of the mind as well. some other ways to. listening to political

debates from various parties and groups including those that were targeted by the former government with the opportunity to talk to other protective people here say my. feeling is knowledge of president that many here have heard of but haven't lived while getting a taste of how different the country can be. on this corner different cultures are displayed the dances performed are common in the west and south of sudan parts of the country that have been marred by violence. now people are traveling here to join in the revolution in their own ways. to fight sudan's future will be beautiful people will be united like never before this is what sudan's future looks like and i'm happy to be part of it. sudan's transition may not speak. for those here at the city. have seen a glimpse of the future they want and are living it here they want to back down until this sort of life becomes the norm across their country.

boeing has admitted flaws in its 737 max flight simulator software that's used to train pilots after 2 crashes involving the aircraft killed 346 people the company says its simulators couldn't replicate the conditions that contributed to the if you're paying their lives question all the lion air accident. boeing says it's fix the simulator problem it's also working on software updates for the planes themselves which are currently grounded all of them again as a former u.s. deputy assistant secretary for transportation he says the decision not to put pilots through mandatory simulator training put passengers in danger. the f.a.a. was wrong and i believe boeing was wrong i think they really need to have more information more data so that the pilots can have a better knowledge and understanding of this in caste system it was very wrong for

them to put that into the sky and the pilots didn't even know what the m. cas was to after the accidents occurred that is a risk management problem and that puts it in the realm of the challenger and the columbia shuttle accidents we can get boeing back on track and i've been calling for a long time for them to go back into a clean sheet designed to get this aircraft welfare dynamically and structurally stable right now i'm concerned about it but i'm willing to bet that inside very quietly inside boeing there are really doing some type of clean sheet redesign because this is too much every time we get a news new story about something brand new that wasn't disclosed wasn't shared with the f.a.a. and what we're doing is we're trying to do risk management and get plane back up in air but also we need to do a little bit of brand management here because we have o.e. and f.a.a. have to get the credibility back and the other safety agencies around the world going to come by those so many layers and they're going to test it themselves. the eurovision song contest in israel has been targeted by protests as this year's

competition list the netherlands one faced only caught calls over the israeli government's policies in the occupied west bank and gaza from tel of if his hairy full set. full months in the making israel's eurovision finale was at last getting underway in tel aviv fans from around europe around the world here for the music and the party thousands of police have been mobilized hugely over matching the small if the risk group of protesters nearby the competition has been the focus of pro palestinian calls for a boycott in protest of the israeli government's policies in the west bank and gaza what israel really write about glitter and happy sounds it's actually daily robbery writing of people who are just right back alright well those ticket always are arriving for the revision final they're walking past this group of protesters who say it shouldn't be happening here at all they may have failed in their endeavor to get it stopped but they are at least using this opportunity to try to get their

message across. oh israel's national broadcaster promised to put on the best show in europe vision history to an estimated audience of 200000000 people madonna provided halftime entertainment having rejected calls to boycott the event on the grounds that she would not stop playing music to suit a political agenda and that she would continue to speak out on human rights before the event is really p.r. effort was well underway with a controversial somewhat tongue in cheek promotional video referencing jewish stereotypes in the occupation along with tourist sites where the projected eurovision bumi are full and below the expectations of some hotel and restaurant owners is still allowed for a showcasing of israel's main tourist city yes c.b.s. 3 another big now so let me say. that there is. nice. but it's also provided an opportunity for a. another type of tourism the former israeli soldiers turned onto yorkie patient activists of breaking the silence have been targeting eurovision fans taking them

on tools of one of the starkest examples of conflict and occupation the divided west bank city of hebron you have this amazing liberal city with beaches and wide boulevards and then you have empty streets and a ghost town and this complexity is something that we want them to see we want them to see the full picture and we don't want to allow the israeli government to use liberal television ordered to hide occupied hebron israel has certainly made the most of you are demonstrating its ability to host a major international event but its critics have also made their mark highlighting the unresolved conflict playing out just a short drive away. television. time for the top stories here that is their king solomon of saudi arabia has called for 2 summits involving gulf and arab leaders in metherell may the 30th to discuss

escalating tensions in the gulf the u.s. has deployed an aircraft carrier and almost to the region over alleged threats from a wrong for commercial ships to sabotage off the coast of the u.a.e. last week and then all installation west of the saudi capital was attacked by yemen's rebels. have been moved to saudi arabia does not want war in the region and is not seeking it and will do its best to evade it but at the same time if the other party chooses war then we will respond with all strength and determination and will defend itself and its interests the kingdom hopes others to be wise and the iranian regime and its ija nsa to stay away from recklessness and stupid acts and spare the region instability in saudi arabia ask the international community to take responsibility to stop that regime from destabilizing the world.

austria's chancellor has called for a snap election after his deputy was forced to resign heinz christie and saw her from the far right freedom party stepped down because of the emergence of a video which showed him promising state contracts in return for campaign financing the german chancellor angela merkel who's referred to the austrian scandal was campaigning for the european elections speaking in croatia mrs merkel called on voters to stand up to what she described as politicians for sale she also warned of the threat posed by hardline nationalists indians of aging in the final phase of national elections ending a 6 week long process more than 100000000 people across 7 states are eligible to vote in sunday's poll they include those living in prime minister narendra modi's constituency. defying all predictions the australian prime minister scott morrison conservative coalition has won the general election is not yet known whether he'll

have a parliamentary majority all right jeff today those are the very latest headlines from us here at al-jazeera i'll be back in about half an hour after counting the cost. we understand the differences and the similarities of cultures across the world. and when you call home al-jazeera will bring in the news and current affairs that matter to you. al-jazeera. alarm has i'm sick of this is counting the cost on al-jazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week as a u.s. strike group steams to go straight to almost to find out how important the world's oil gateway years. plus the economic cost of the terror attacks in sri lanka as

violence against the muslim minority spreads. and the future of transport can this 1st 5 c. to electric flying car take on the might of google and. so the strait of hormuz is a critical waterway to the world for middle east oil and gas produces about a 5th of the world screwed passes through this narrow strait between a man and iran after the united states pulled waivers for nations trading with iran a string of alleged attacks on tankers and drone attacks on pipelines have increased tensions add to the makes washington ordered some embassy staff in baghdad to leave and it sent a u.s. strike group into the region as defense analyst alex go topless as more. the flagship of carrier strike group 12 is the nuclear powered u.s.s.

abraham lincoln one of the largest aircraft carriers in the world weighing in at over 100000 tons it carries some 90 aircraft including early warning aircraft and several squadrons of fighter jets each with a combat radius of 380 kilometers well beyond the range of most coastal artillery and antiship missiles alongside the carrier a fleet of ships the act is more than just protection there powerful radars can see into a country track hundreds of aircraft and they carry the weapons that can destroy targets far inland. in the open ocean it's very hard to intercept and destroy a large modern carrier group but the abraham lincoln will be operating in the relatively confined waters of the gulf much closer to iran shoreline and its costar missile batteries so what does iran have its air forces antiquated but for many years it's been producing missiles like this the collegiate fars a large antiship weapon with a range of 300 kilometers iran does have

a sizable submarine fleet with several more russian made kilo class subs that are quite enough to sneak up on the u.s. carrier group the u.s. of course it just hasn't deployed at sea it sent 4 b. $52.00 bombers to allocate air force base in qatar they don't need to fly into enemy airspace they can be loaded up with the latest weapons such as the just some stealth missile it's invisible to radar and able to hit a target at up to a 1000 kilometers away. this all adds up to a partial expression of american military might it's also aimed at sending a potent message to iran. alex joins me now on set to talk more about this so alex what message is the united states trying to send iran here a mixed message at best there are regular military deployments taking place right now it's highly unusual that there isn't an aircraft carrier group in the region. we have a large air force base just down the road here in qatar it is highly unusual that

they don't host bombers there but the announcement that they're sending bombers and aircraft carriers sounds like it's a ramp up in capabilities were an actual fact is business as usual what has changed is the rhetoric and the rhetoric is far more bellicose than it used to be and when you heard of a load of increased tension a lot of military hardware in the region the propensity for a mistake or an accident or something intentional or otherwise that will get us into a general conflict is much higher now what do we know then about this alleged sabotage of the tankers on the coast of the u.a.e. and the the oil part the saudi oil pipeline what's going on there at the moment we know less about the subject of the ships it was announced by the emir ati's and the saudis that there had been sabotage on the ships themselves the no one norwegian shipping company said that one of its tankers have been damaged by an object to be

in the hold even though the damage was minor. the next day which many analysts say is not. an coincidental is that you had an attack on a pipeline far inside saudi territory now this shows a real jump in who feed drone capabilities it was attacked by a drone traveling very slowly evading a sophisticated air defense system that managed to attack a pipeline in the same latitude as riyadh hundreds of kilometers inside the country . this is something that has never been attempted before and they succeeded and this shows a real jump in what the who these are capable of how we should topless thanks very much and you can read a lot more about alex's thoughts on this on our website at al-jazeera dot com. we join me now via skype from geneva is jeff como luciano he is an ex-pat a geo political energy and director of the executive mosque in oil and gas at least

chip program at the graduate institute in geneva thanks very much for being with us so the oil markets have risen by a 3rd over the year and they are surprisingly relaxed about recent developments in the gulf what do you make of that well it's doing that well in the market process reason but we should not sort of get over the past year if we count 12 months. the price has been higher than is fully in fact he does so clearly between. 86 and 49 governments and so on believe me i have 727273 so we are. in the meat that age or the market is reacting because it's not clear what was going to happen and there is significant that is there are also in case of

some unintended consequences what's the endgame here for washington then i mean president trump has been trying to get troops out of the middle east but his national security adviser john bolton appears to be running the show if you talk to a lot of people despite both sides saying they don't want war what do you make of that well exactly i think the magic of this but it's not just my helmet so but the intent there are people looking at the submission legs because they they see an american musician that these rowing all went group are up there in a daze and so i personally don't believe that mr trump is the president argues that or truly it's with the war so is all. letting his security advisor. being that this will.

cave in on the fact that we've got those things here and with katie and the events of the last couple of days drone attacks on a pipeline the alleged sabotage tankas of the emirates the u.s. is telling some embassy staff to leave baghdad as well it appears to be coordinated to whose benefit where it's not clear to whose fate if it's the. depending on the through sort of behind it which we both know. maybe the signals that. the saudi arabia knows you know that are there that is my the able to bite us the thought of the gauge and the strait of hormuz. that at least one possible interpretation by your note we could also be done you know those who are essential give credibility or phrase or which or their words.

or that much that is and what kind of disruption would closing the strait of hormuz due to the global flow of oil if that were to happen well exactly i think the busy issue is that there's always a basis of closing off the phrase or most of it should be demanded that 1st of all crossing the seriously is not very easy and say from me it's not necessarily because france care is latin baucus and the fact anywhere in the gov through this has been a sense that in the during the evacuation the war does not succeed is. not be the to this action officer or oil out of. iraq think that might be or there was the seriously for auction. in this case that said or it is always possible or things. beyond any pension or or players because

sometimes who were by the accident in that case it's very difficult with the well known jacomo thanks for being with us. but china has vowed to defend its companies after u.s. government decision to place one way and 70 of its affiliates on a trade blacklist calling it unreasonable washington believes equipment produced by the chinese company could be used to spy on the u.s. while he has repeatedly denied those allegations adrian brown reports now from a tech trade show in tianjin. what you see here is at the heart of the trade dispute between china and the united states the 2 countries are competing to be world leaders in artificial intelligence robotics and 5 g. technology. showcasing its achievements while away china's national tech champion its expansion plans in the united states now seem over after the u.s.

put the firm and its affiliates on a trading blacklist an issue too sensitive for this company official to discuss and i guess the country operates a company so sorry. but he's confident while away will still thrive in other markets so now laid her maybe your fire level. we hope we can cooperate each other face other countries while away officials had anticipated this move and on thursday the firm issued a statement saying the transactions wouldn't improve safety or security in the united states and would only harm consumers and companies it doesn't bode well for the full 3 trade talks between the 2 countries u.s. firms are present here the mood among one technology representative surprisingly upbeat levy is in very hard to sell us technology in china today because of the trade rules i don't think so in some way it's yes counties is open for the all the

different you know the products here and our attorney is the. customers who is what i think. america. pronounce is one of. the theme of this exhibition is artificial intelligence in china the technology is widely used in surveillance and facial recognition cameras. especially in the far western province of shin jang where they monitor track and rate members of a largely muslim group known as the week goes this. the company manufactures many of those cameras and has been promoting its expertise here but officials didn't want to tell you the reason you can't even use the u.s. government has once more targeted one of china's most successful companies leaving executives at other technology firms wondering who will be next.

now the easter sunday attacks on churches in sri lanka has led to reprisals.