claude younker the head of the european commission who's outgoing later this year was was quoted this morning as saying that he thought he assumed that the u.k. would have to have another extension after the current one ends on october 31st he may well think that there are lots of other people in the european union particular the french they were so sick of all this that they actually want the u.k. out even if it ends up being no dealers as i was saying earlier on you do have to ask yourself i mean given that when theresa may go as well as her david cameron the last conservative prime minister john major who lost his job as prime minister over the over roads of the maastricht treaty inside his own party and margaret thatcher as long ago as a 980 s. that's the last 4 conservative prime ministers who have to resign over their difficulties with the european union and across parliament they don't know what to do and i just think they're oh you know a number of european countries who just think what's the point of having

a country like the u.k. inside the e.u. when it just can't make its mind up about whether it wants to be a happy man or whether it's going to sit there complaining all the time they made it all right lawrence thanks very much david tyree lawrence lee reporting there from london. plenty more still ahead on the news hour including we believe that the president of the united states is engaged in a cover up what has the u.s. president said he walked out of a planned meeting with democratic leaders. and we'll tell you why illegal drug production is on the rise across the occupied west bank. from behind the iron curtain to germany's top league kind of form a dissident team from the east finally joined football's elites and he will be here with more in sport. so now the united states is apparently considering plans to send thousands of troops to the middle east to guard again. what it says is

a potential threat from iran u.s. news agency is reporting donald trump's national security team will be briefed on thursday and earlier the acting defense secretary played the possibility of war with iran but strongly defended the military buildup in the goal of the pentagon has deployed extra warships and fighter jets to the region over the past few weeks and mike hanna has more now from washington d.c. . various media outlets quote identified pentagon officials as saying that national security advisers will be briefed in the course of thursday one of the suggestions to be put on the table is the deployment of some $5000.00 troops to the middle east region this to support those forces already deployed in that particular area now it should be noted that the acting secretary of defense as well as the secretary of state briefed congress behind closed doors in the course of recent days they made very clear it would appear that the u.s.

is not intent on any military action it is placing is trust in what is regarded as a policy of the terence we saw that with the accelerated deployment of an aircraft strike 38 which was sent into the region weeks before it was due to be deployed the acting secretary of defense telling reporters that this policy of the term and has actually helped deflate or contain this ongoing crisis with iran so certainly added troops in the region would inflame tensions even greater the reports though not confirmed by the pentagon the pentagon say that they will not comment on any troop deployment at any time basically refusing to comment. more than 120000 students in the libyan capital are missing school because of fighting the war lord who for half there is trying to take control of tripoli several education facilities have been damaged by explosions including vital warehouses and

it's market after what had reports some schools are now being used as temporary shelters for. 50 days of fighting in southern tripoli has changed many aspects of people's lives the education ministry decided to close schools down until the end of the fasting month of ramadan but this school in the super neighborhood near the city center is the exception it's remaining open for displaced students to catch up on missed classes. my year most of us is a 12th grade science student she was displaced along with her family from the word little bee area in southern tripoli after the fighting broke out on april 4th she has joined other students in this school tim primarily but she still has concerns. i'm still worried about the missed curriculum the time wasted and the powerful where will sit exams if the original students of the school return here after

ramadan have no idea what happened to my old school it could have been damaged by the ongoing war there i don't know how long this will continue where under stress. 5 weeks ago a school in a neighborhood in southern tripoli was targeted by a fighter jet belonging to the forces of warlords have turned to days later another jet hit this education warehouse in the same neighborhood it's the government's main reserve for school supplies books turn it into ashes and the whole building collapsed by the explosion the books stored here used to be distributed to areas all over the country. millions of textbooks in this warehouse were damaged by the airstrike in mid april along with the equipment and students records libya's education minister says it's a great loss that will affect teaching across all age groups for months to come.

the education ministry is postponing classes in safer areas 2 it says that's because fuel shortages and other problems have made it difficult for students streatch their schools. education will be resumed after aid and all students from the troubled areas can resume their classes and safer areas they moved they can also be set for exams in the areas they move to although i'm sure it will face a problem of overcrowded schools by then the fighting in southern new tripoli led by have to as forces to take control of the capital has forced it nearly 70000 people to leave their homes and according to the education ministry more than 120000 students are unable to go to school other schools have been used as temporary shelters for those displaced by the fighting not only libyans but

foreign migrants and refugees as well. marianna says she's still traumatized by the sound of rocket explosions near her home her dream is to start a missing classes at the university later this year but she's worried she might not be able to fulfill her dream if the world moves closer to the city center. tripoli. in northwestern syria rebels have launched a counterattack against pro-government forces fighting has been intensifying in hama provinces since last month that's despite a turkish a russian brokered cease fire so an order this is from. the rebels have beat back gains by the syrian army and its allies in the countryside of hama province in northwest syria the town of far no back under opposition control the government says it will recapture it but the loss is

a strategic and symbolic setback. for no border was the army's 1st win since launching an offensive almost a month ago since then gains on the ground have been limited and has been facing stiff resistance. to heavy to sham an armed group many in the international community believe is linked to al qaida is in control of this region after forcing syrian rebels backed by turkey to leave earlier this year those who are back on the front lines they are cooperating in what they are calling a battle for survival but it is also an indication that turkey too has joined the fight. when you take a look at the position of turkey in the especially the clashes which has really transpired to believe that. turkey is very dedicated to its position that if the diplomacy is not working in the. turkey you show its feet for the star to every actor inside the. church wants to accept my.

3.5000000. turkey and russia work together in syria and sponsor a cease fire in the ad lib area but the offensive is testing their relationship at a time of intensifying dialogue between turkey and the united states the area of hostilities includes a belt of territory that stretches from the northern countryside of. provinces reaching the southern edges of province as well as rebel controlled villages west of aleppo city the problem ask a side wants to clear those areas from rebels in order to open trade arteries and protect. aleppo cities under its control but though progress has been made so far advancing on the ground is proving to be difficult the offensive however has depopulated villages and created a humanitarian crisis. the almost nonstop airstrikes by syrian and russian jets are

opposition controlled villages intensified since the rebel advance at least $200.00 civilians have been killed in turkey and russian ties have so far survived their relationship extends beyond syria but it is where they are bargaining and strengthening their negotiating hand. beirut. during the news you know where security in the capital is still toit's off to election results spots full of protests 6 people were killed in rockets and 200 injured on tuesday protesters are angry that the president jerk a widow was declared the winner of last month's election they say there was widespread cheating the election commission says the poll was free and opposition candidate young to is expected to challenge the results in court for his from. it's a different scene and central jakarta on thursday off to today's street protests security is still tight the barricades are still up but police have taken off their full riot gear and there's not a protest to incite the sting of tear gas still lingers in the air the clean up

crews are here they swept deadly off the streets left by riots over like the presidential challenger beyond terry has urged his supporters to refrain from resorting to violent street president joe joe issued a strong warning to demonstrate saying he will not tolerate those who seek to disrupt the security and unity of indonesia the tide of public opinion also seems to be against probable at the moment on social media and local television talk shows he and his supporters have been criticized for creating chaos during the muslim holy month of ramadan hash tag. which translates to a rest was the top trending topic on twitter in indonesia on wednesday 2 out of 5 parties in problems coalition have just been themselves from the demonstrations and saying they accept the election results still has a legal option and back just to follow a complaint with the constitutional court but the situation here is hot to read

demonstrates as may not be out on the streets on thursday but it doesn't mean they've given up their fight. u.s. president trump has accused top democrats of tearing the country apart by pursuing investigations into his administration he's refused to comply with congress off to the release of a report into russian interference in the 2016 election separately a judge's ruling may now allow democrats access to trump financial and business records can we how could this report. it was supposed to be a bipartisan meeting with democrats about fixing america's roads bridges and airport but when democrats arrived at the white house meeting on wednesday u.s. president donald trump abruptly ended it just. took a pass it was planned when we got in the room the curtains were closed why trump is upset democrats are accusing him of blocking multiple attempts to investigate him

we believe that the president united states is engaged in a cover up and cover up later called reporters to the rose garden to debunk that argument i don't do cover ups on capitol hill for the past few days there have been growing calls by democrats and at least one republican to begin impeachment proceedings against trump in an attempt to remove him from office yes there was. some lawmakers believe the president obstructed justice during the investigation into allegations his 2016 campaign worked with the russian government there has been no collusion and poor by the u.s. justice department clear trump of any collusion use them again as a legal obligation to be here still just this week trump stopped his former counsel don mcgann from testifying to congress about that investigation and on wednesday new york lawmakers voted to release trump state tax returns to congress trump is

also fighting democratic attempts to get his business records from dortch a bank what they've done is abuse this is investigation number 4 the same thing probably 5. and it really started i think pretty much from the time we came down the escalator interim donald trump argues his democratic opponents have been resisting his presidency since before it even started and continue to back efforts to impeach him but democrats are divided on whether it's even wise to launch impeachment hearings knowing it could take down trump or help him win support for his reelection kimberly hellcat al jazeera the white house a tornado has ripped through parts of the u.s. state of missouri killing at least 3 people and many homes were damaged in there were reports of major power outages in jefferson city and more severe weather is

expected in the region let's get updates on bats in the rest of the world weather his kind of that's right we're getting no break on these storms we were talking about the last 3 days actually $94.00 tornadoes in a 72 hour period and tape today is going to be another very active day we've already seen and overnight i want to show you what's going on right now this is the active well this is active radar coming from windy i want to show you 1st of all down towards missouri this is the same area this is the jefferson city area there's still a lot of active weather going on here but we're also seeing a lot of those thunderstorms over here pushing over here towards east also parts of ontario so we're going to be watching this area very carefully i want to go back to the bigger picture now and show you what's happening on the satellite image this goes back about 24 hours and watch how these thunderstorms are really erupted overnight particularly in the area of missouri right there that is the area that saw the thunderstorms and the tornado that wedge tornado that went through jefferson city now over the next few days we're still going to be looking at some very active weather the line of the frontal line still lays out across much of this

area but once that one pushes to the east back here towards the west we look for another system to develop and on this line we are going to be seeing more weather tomorrow as well as into the next several days because with the ingredients are still there that we have a lot of moisture from the gulf we have a lot of cold air behind it and we have the instability anywhere along this frontal boundary the other big factor is because it's raining so much on the same area massive amounts of flooding is still going on across much of the region. so larry will tell you about the 6 year old diplomatic stink between the canada. and the philippines that may soon be resolved. the u.k. suffers a crushing defeat in a u.n. vote on the change also on. a blow for boxing's governing body is there to take a step closer to being banned for the next olympics and he will have more on that in sport.

i really want to get down to the nitty gritty of the reality whether on line when you have a male chauvinist and that is perhaps with the entire global federation it is really hard to get a piece of that or if you join us on saturday. they're going to pick up their mind this is a dialogue everyone has a points to talk to us in our live you tube chat and you too can be in history join the global conversation on mt is iraq.

and again you're watching al-jazeera a reminder the top stories of india's prime min. modi appears to be heading to a 2nd term early vote counting suggests he's on course for a major victory in the world's biggest election 600000000 ballots are being counted . britain's prime minister to resign may is resisting calls to resign after a late has brakes that plan backfired it included a possible vote on whether to hold a 2nd to break that referendum once major legislation passes the 1st stage. security in indonesia's capital g. cancer is tight after protests over presidential election results opposition kind

of a proposed to be entered and rejected president dodos win and plans to file a complaint with the court. a video has emerged appearing to show israeli settlers setting fire to palestinian land in the occupied west bank it was released by an advocacy group which says the israelis burned fields in 2 villages last week and threw rocks at residents homes the un humanitarian affairs agency has recorded 122 settler related attacks against palestinians since the beginning of the year well the head of the un agency for palestinian refugees has appealed for urgent funding at least a 1000000 people dependent on food aid from in the gaza strip the agency says it's running out of money and it can't afford to have its food destruction distribution interrupted when israel is calling for the elimination of run well and has accused the agency of inciting violence against israel. failed. state the gaza strip. theater only new 3rd in violence against the state of.

mandate. to end well ahead of and was says the agency cannot be blamed for stalled peace efforts and vowed to continue its work. i'm always open for a critical discussion on on our services and how we do the work but i will not accept and i will firmly reject attempts to deal idjit demise palestine refugees or to undermine the credibility and legitimacy of own rose work and of its stuff palestinian police to say illegal drug production is increasing across iraq by the west bank and much of it is destined for use inside israel the palestinians face worsening economic conditions more turning to drugs as a way to make money or reports from the occupied west bank. as a young carpenter ahmed that's not his real name couldn't make ends meet so it was

difficult to turn down the chance to make some quick money when the opportunity presented itself but it landed him in prison. in. a palestinian living in israel rented the 2nd floor of my shop he brought soil seeds water tanks everything needed he told me all the medical plant and it takes a month to grow and i would get 10000 dollars in exchange i don't have to do anything i barely have any work i don't have a permit to work in israel so i accept that $2500.00 plants were found on the upper floor of his family business now he's facing up to 15 years behind bars after being charged with going to nablus plants and drug trafficking police say that illegal plantations have been spreading across the occupied west bank ever since it became more difficult to import the drugs through dishonor. brigade you have the law believes it's due to an increase in demand in israel where mary one is tolerated

for recreational use but production is illegal. but me explain over the past 4 or 5 years there's been this trend to plant drugs like this in the west bank especially synthetic cannabis known as hydro it's this one here they grow this in greenhouses or in secret labs at home this started when it became more difficult to traffic from sinai drug rates were stepped up by 30 percent in the occupied west bank last year about 33000 plants were seeds that's with an estimated market value of $7000000.00. it was the prospect of getting some of that cash that pushed some years to accept an offer to grow the plant 31 he's unemployed and has 5 children to feed. and i didn't produce for the local market it was all for export but the seeds come from israel to the bedouin they put them here at someone's place for a certain period of time depending on the type they could take 2 to 5 months to

make sure i planted them in a valley which is hard to access authorities suspect there are many more money $1.00 of fields out there but most would be in the soup called area c. which represents about 60 percent of the west bank but palestinian police are not allowed to operate there without prior consent from israel making it more likely that illegal drug production will continue to increase as the economic situation among palestinians continues to deteriorate but at that hamid al jazeera in the occupied west bank. the u.s. federal aviation administration is hosting officials from around the world in texas there to discounts the boeing 737 max but the meeting isn't open to the public or the media this comes a week after boeing said it completed a software update $346.00 people were killed when the aircraft crashed twice in less than 5 months she had returned and since report. the global fleet of nearly

400 boeing 737 max has been grounded since mid march the federal aviation administration in the u.s. says thursday's meeting will provide international aviation officials insist to any questions they have as they weigh whether the jets should fly again representatives from boeing will not to be present however since the 2 recent 737 max crashes in indonesia and ethiopia scrutiny of the aircraft developments have some wondering whether the f.a.a. and boeing should essential be treated as a single entity for example members of congress wondered why the f.a.a. took so long to ground the 737 max the public perception wise and it will take so long for us to do that because f.a.a. was just too cozy with. the 737 max was reportedly rushed to market after airbus surprised boeing with a new fuel efficient plane in 2010 instead of developing a new aircraft boeing updated its 737 model with larger engines that needed to be placed further forward on the plane but that meant the aircraft could pitch upwards in some circumstances and lead to the engine stalling to compensate boeing

developed a software fix em cas or the maneuvering characteristics or mentation system however not only did the system rely on just one sensor with a record of malfunctioning boeing didn't highlight the new system to the f.a.a. or to pilots part of being sales pitch was that despite the major design changes this was fundamentally the same plane as the 737 so the research a vacation process was speedy and costly additional pilot training would be minimal the f.a.a. took boeing at its word they make changes that you 1000 live that that. only handed over all that sort of occasion process to the manufacturers and i think you know there's there's very little evidence that shows that boeing in any way gauge any kind of robust testing. but the challenge for boeing and the f.a.a. is to reestablish that credibility the c.e.o. of ethiopian airlines for one says he'll take

a lot of convincing to use the 737 max i cannot fully say that they had been when for i wanted to penalize someone to weather the economic importance of returning the 737 max to the skies will drive the plane swift recertification in the current system that we have the wobbly wien air bus and boeing there is a sense that this is all too big to fail you know the airlines need to get these airplanes because the airlines need to upgrade their fleets they need to better fuel economy of the airplanes so there's an ebit ability of the plane coming back to service it's actually to the old days of dying in a plane crash are one in several 1000000 none of us what we've learned from the development of a sudden 37 max is coolest for confirm she had her town see al-jazeera. chinese president xi jinping visit to a red processing plant is being seen as a glimpse of a possible new front in the trade war with the united states where us 17 natural

elements used to manufacture a variety of products including small funds electric car engines and even fighter jets while china process as much as 70 percent of the world's rare earth minerals last year and the tariff or changes to the supply chain could impact many u.s. companies particularly apple and that gives spending never reach during trade negotiations jim brown has more now from beijing. it is not what president xi jinping is saying right now that's interesting it's what he's been doing for the past few days he's been touring central china and earlier this week he visited junk c. province to go to a rare earths mine now china at the moment controls about 90 percent of the world's supply of rare earths one of the country's exports to the united states but so far the trumpet ministration has not been slapping tariffs on rare earths as it has been on just about everything else that china exports to the united states so this

visit was filled with powerful symbolism now last week one state controlled newspaper suggested that perhaps it was time for china to start reducing rare earth exports to the united states as one way of hurting the trumpet ministration the other message that's been coming out from president xi jinping this week and it's a message that's been loud and clear is that it's time for china to become self-reliant when it comes to technology he feels that china has been left to vulnerable too dependent on what the united states makes things like microchips and that's why he is determined to press ahead with his made in china 2025 policy this is his signature economic policy that the trumpet ministration is desperate to dismantle but china regards that as one of its core interests and it's one concession it's simply not prepared to make 5 activists accused of plotting to

overthrow zimbabwe's government of appeared in court they were arrested on monday at the airport in harare when they were coming back from a foreign trip has more now from the capital. the state says the activists traveled abroad to see chaining and how to overthrow zimbabwe's government it also says they were taught how t.v. small firearms they've been charged with subverting a constitutional government. opposition party officials believe the allegations are false and insist the state is trying to silence voices of dissent we're now visiting the courts as frequently as we used to do. this time people are still being charged. summary executions are carrying on in the streets for any sign of dissent. with government officials say the opposition is planning what's being called winter of discontent protests over the economy the government has got

a responsibility to restore law and order in any government of the sun as well as some responsibility and the ensure that they will not be in me. one of property and there won't be any violence and those will break the law. but. several people were killed j the heavy crackdown on protesters by security forces in january hundreds were arrested and beaten they were reports of rape and torture was a protest against a fuel price hike of more than 150 percent 4 months later prices have again increased. this time by nearly 50 percent that is everything is now. there. to transport economists warn it could be a risk as. frustrating. as life becomes more of a struggle every day in zimbabwe human rights workers fear there will be more

arrests as the government try to stop protests and says are being planned by opposition groups al-jazeera. now a country that's home to nearly a 3rd of africa's elephants has decided to lift the ban on hunting botswana's government says they've increased in number in recent years to a point where they're threatening the livelihoods of small scale farmers conservations estimate there are around 130000 the offense in the country while the largest animal walking. the earth is considered vulnerable with conservationists warning that poaching is pushing it closer to extinction the world wildlife fund says the elephant population has fallen from 10000000 the beginning of the last century to just over 400000 today while botswana as population is growing those in east africa have been reduced to nearly half over the last decade by poaching travers is the president of the born free foundation he says he doesn't understand what botswana is trying to achieve by lifting the ban. the 1st thing is to remember that our is one of the wealthiest countries in sub-saharan africa we don't g.d.p.

of over 800000 u.s. dollars a year it does have around $200.00 pounds but it's a down by 14 percent since 2006 and the zimbabwe story the parts a lot of governments own position here is that trophy hunting will increase numbers this isn't there in spain published yet they try to hunt he will increase but most and non trophy hunting will also increase numbers so it doesn't appear to be about money it doesn't appear to be about reducing numbers because everyone who knows anything about trophy hunting knows that that's not a population control measure so my question is what is it about outer stands that the presence of what's one other thought to miss easy once there to be a so it's a sovereignty issue he's been very democratic he's reached out to the communities to n.g.o.s to experts in the country and has come to this decision but i think you

have to recognize that while he is entirely in cyprus you manage what's one as a population in the way that he sees fit our country is that important these are also entitled to say no they will not allow the import of elephant trophies into their countries such as the united kingdom i met with michael gove's the environment secretary only a few days ago pressed him to ban the import of elephant trade he's not just from botswana but from all other countries not possibly doing the same with the european union but other places. the u.n. general assembly has demanded that britain give up control of the trade are silent within 6 months vs says it was forced to give up the territory in the indian ocean in exchange for independence as our diplomatic editor james bass explains the un decision is a setback for britain and the united states. a humiliating to.