about. him before this is over the stands in his lot of last week he said bill should be some sort of discussions between the military institution as well as the opposition's but he would be the true truer to basically to herd this transition period of 4 to 6 months maybe elections presidential elections be held by the end of this year ok well we will have to wait to see but thank you so much for your analysis there yourself one though professor of political science and international relations thank you thank you. ok let's head back to our top story this hour this is of course we are talking about it's the joint statement from the foreign ministers of iran and iraq. is the director of the levant institute for strategic affairs he joins us now from beirut let's see if we can get some more analysis what did you think of that

declaration that was made do you think this makes life harder for the u.s. to see iran and iraq standing side by side. i could show the actually i mean the question is if iraq can sustain 2 line. iran giving the fog politically it's very unstable and it's going through a deep economic crisis i mean the best interest for iraq. from any conflict between iran and washington especially that sanctions are putting a lot of pressure on iraq and on iraq economy and in case you rock trying to avoid this. it will be subject to very hard

sanction with which will deepen the economic economic crisis it's going through now it's true there are some pro iranian media that are influential on the ground like. a god like. hezbollah like. proxies of iran are trying to exert military pressure and try to threaten some. american bases or american military bases in iraq though as it was demonstrated yesterday during. a huge protests that took place and streets of baghdad by the.

iran iraq want to distinguish it from what's happening because any did of of the country in this conflict will have a divide. effect or impact on its economy and it would threaten. is a very very fragile. that well it is a very difficult balancing act that iraq has to undertake but realistically it can't just sit on the fence do you think. this this declaration do you think it changes anything in real terms or are the iraqis just trying to buy a little time trying to placate both sides and so a breakthrough is made somewhere else. yes definitely and i think iran is trying to. leverage its position in iraq its

a clout on iraq in order to get out of its isolation this is wrong and try to use the iraqi a platform in order to. try to normalize or to start normalizing its relation ship with the arab world maybe it's a tactical move that is no doubt it's a tactical move but iran is today under isolation. the situation today is totally different from what used to be under the obama era. of opening up to iran is. now administration and he burst 180 percent course of action and that is no doubt the for a visit today to iraq. in order to try to

break this isolation and use its clout in iraq to. to to to to establish or to try to normalize its relation with the arab world and to break this embargo that washington is putting on iran ok so i doubt that we'll have to leave it there but thank you very much for joining us there live from. lots more still to come on the news hour including some published main opposition party is meeting to legs a new leader as the country struggles with an economy in crisis. the death of a teenager leads to questions over police brutality during violent protests in indonesia. and the french open is off to a bad start. one top ranked player will have the details in sports.

and the final day of voting in europe's parliamentary elections as well underway are being watched closely barometer of the strength of the far right across the continent forces are casting ballots in 21 member states including germany france and italy $751.00 politicians will be elected for a 5 year term with results expected on monday let's get more on this from david chase are you joining us now i live from brussels david bossie well underway in several countries so what's the latest. what we're hearing is there are 420000000 people eligible to vote in europe which makes it the 2nd biggest democratic exercise in the world up to india and up until now since the direct elections 1st started in 1979 we've seen nothing but

a 5 year lead decrease the number of people turning out in these elections i think mainly because they were there were felt some form of disenfranchisement from the process in brussels and strasburg they didn't feel really part of the whole thing but we are getting indications of these unofficial results that we're getting indications from various news media outlets and to social media outlets that there's an increase quite a dramatic increase in the actual turnout to that with we're seeing specifically in eastern europe now why in eastern europe because these are the countries that have been most upset by the policies formulated essentially in lynn and and in paris the german the french axis. particularly on immigration this is been one of the particular issues in this whole election and they are resenting the way that these

policies are being presented to them imposed on them and there we're seeing the beginning of a rise of the euro skeptic foods and the far right votes coming up to challenge what has been a cozy duopoly with the center right and center left for the far past few decades here in the european union and david just how significant are these elections. well for that very fact that you're not going to see europe as it has been as it was this is really changing now what happens here is that they're they form their own groupings and we've had before the center center left which is the social socialist and democrats in the center right which is young people european people spot in there being controlling the voting systems here but now we're going to get a whole lot of extra extreme right wing parties and you're

a skeptic parties trying to change that balance within the european parliament this is in a way an attempt to increase democracy in europe these fault lines these fact mentation that we're seeing in this election actually an attempt to get more muscle if you want to the european parliament to make it a real parliament in the make sure that the voices in eastern europe and on the extremes in the south of europe are heard. by the the center of power which is a century in paris and in living they want to make sure that the european union is no longer dominated and dictated to by those 2 centers of power. came david. thank you very much indeed. one of sudan's main opposition parties has rejected calls from other protest leaders to organize a general strike on choose stay and wait and see the division between opposition

groups comes after weeks of political that look they're trying to force the military to hand over power to civilian rule imran khan is live for us in cartagena errantly exactly is calling to boycotts this general strike and why they don't want participates. well ordinarily things on the ground would have been very different if this was in say before december where the party the party that said we don't want to take part in this general strike people would have listened to it and they would have said ok we won't take part in this general strike but since december since these protests began the political landscape here in sudan has changed completely now the party are very powerful not so much here in the capital khartoum but certainly and on their man province which was then main base however they've been superseded here in altering by the sudanese professionals association this is a very much a middle class rebellion against the government to lead you know that's the real

difference here we're seeing parties within hard to rise up and say we want to mount a general strike now the sudanese professional socialisation very very key statement saying they didn't want to have this strike they were being forced into the strike because the transitional military council would not negotiate in good faith so they are hoping that this gives them the upper hand but it's a very definite indicator of how the political landscape in sudan has changed before december party would have had an audience that would have listened to them right now that's completely changed and all indications are that the strike will go ahead because it's being called by the sudanese professionals association and people will heed the call for the strike. just given these changes in the political movement a certain fracturing one we could say of the opposition i mean how big a blow is this to the to the process movements. well

it really depends on who you speak to if you speak to the transitional military council they will say actually look the protesters aren't united there's nobody we can negotiate with so we have the upper hand and we are going to move forward in trying to bring peace to sudan you speak to the opposition coalition they'll tell you this is a deliberate fracturing of the protest movement the army are trying to play different factions off with each other however we are united because what the army doesn't realize and i said this earlier is that the political landscape has changed and what's uniting the protestors very interesting enough is the way the transitional military council are actually operating right now in the last few days we've seen the vice president of the transitional military council meet with saudi arabia's crown prince mohammed bin salma we've seen the chairman of the transitional military council meet with. c.c. and we've also hearing that. he's the chairman has the same name almost with the

egyptian leader is going to the u.a.e. to meet with the leader mohammed bin day that's and bring the protesters because they're saying these people the transitional military council acting like the defacto government of sudan and they're not and that's why a they called the strike but also they say that the more the army tries to behave like the leaders of the country the more united they come and the more in effect hard ball they're going to play to get their demands which is to reduce the role of the army in public political life and have a civilian leadership. imran khan my friends encourage seem thank you. we're getting reports from northern nigeria has a military convoy killing at least 20 people but it happens all the army was trying to relocate refugees from a camp for the 2nd attack in the region within a week on monday an isolated group struck a military base killing 9 soldiers interests us more from my security. local

sources say the attack happened when the military was escorting a group of civilians from the village of near saddam very towards the world on saturday morning now the military has not issued a statement regarding this attack and this is not by the way the only attack in recent days a few days ago there were claims by islamic state in west africa province that it had attacked military positions around google area killing so many soldiers just days after they released a video which they claim to show the execution of soldiers fighting the insurgency in law is nigeria recently both factions of both the islamic state in west africa problems that aligned to the islamic state of west africa province as well as the cold war. in other parts of borno state have launched attacks but the ice up targets mainly military targets in the region while both war and fighters the other

ones led by factional leader i will because i've been raiding villages for food items and the rest they missed mostly target civilians and they also attacked military positions and now the nigerian military in collaboration with the multinational joint task force the regional force like involved in the elected area have ramped up their attacks and operations against in the region claiming to have killed several of them in attacks carried out on their bases in the north east. indonesia's the species selection is now in the hands of the country's top courts following a challenge by the defeated candidates on saturday. at least 7 people have been killed in clashes between opposition protesters and police since choose day and there are no calls for a formal investigation into how police handled the situation under thomas' reports from jakarta. down a narrow alley in a poor area of jakarta is a family in mourning that this was the home of the youngest person to die in the

protests in indonesia's capital for a handful jari was 15 late on tuesday night he got what messages from excited friends there was something big going on in the center of town just 15 years old. in brand's parents don't think he took part in any bullets and i don't know how or why shot. i went to the hospital and for hours no one could tell me anything eventually they took me to a body i didn't want it to be him but he was there when i heard about it i was distraught i can't believe that he's got little. piece to make me laugh he was a kind boy a lovely boy. police say they didn't fall out of bullets last week just tear gas and rubber coated bullets to control and dispersed violent crowds. they say their action was restrained doing only what they had to but others

question. people from human rights groups say from their early investigations into what happened here last week basis spec the place of using unnecessary force and of violations of human rights. they say they've seen disturbing videos like this one of what appear to be police beating a man cowering in fear another appears to show men in uniform attacking someone who's already been detained human rights activists want a formal investigation into police tactics and actions. the police used tear gas indiscriminately and treated everyone violently peaceful protesters people who just came out to watch and those throwing stones at. last week's riots began as protests by supporters of presidential election contender. after in the media the electoral commission announced he had lost to the reelected president

joko widodo. family say he wasn't motivated by politics he was just a curious teenager his parents want to know why that led to his death and littleness al jazeera jakarta. and you guinea's prime minister is expected to quits after 7 years in the job peter and the imminent resignation follows weeks of high level defections from the ruling party he says a change of leadership is needed to ensure plant reforms are it delivers former prime minister julius chan will take over as leader. as truly is new cabinets includes a record number of 7 women as well as the 1st aboriginal minister for indigenous australians prime minister scott morrison named his reshuffled cabinets a week after his surprise general election victory for 3rd term morrison is vowing to improve the way a strains interacts with the government on everything tax to social services.

u.s. president donald trump has hinted on social media there will be no major progress on a trade deal while he's in japan so far he spends his time there taking in traditional japanese culture and on monday he and prime minister shinzo abbey will hold a bilateral summits for trade will be discussed where hate has more. to do something of a contrast as donald trump said ringside at the grand sumo tournament in tokyo alongside the 1st lady and japanese prime minister shinzo a bear and unconventional president watching the most ritualistic and traditional japanese sport was earlier in the day the 2 leaders had a round of golf but on monday the games will stop and they'll get down to business although no significant announcement on a trade deal is expected it's thought that shinzo bear won't make major concessions particularly in agriculture before an upper house election in july the us produces

one better access to japan's food and agriculture markets that have traditionally been protected by subsidies and other non-tariff areas the rural voter base is one that she won't want to risk losing ironically u.s. farmers would have had better access to japan if the united states had remained part of the trans-pacific partnership multilateral trade deal that came into force in december but donald trump all the u.s. out of that agreement after he won the election. trump also wants to revive the u.s. car industry believing that imports have harmed american innovation. as you arrived in japan classic car enthusiasts gathered outside tokyo keeping the glory days alive. what i like most is the design and also the sound of the v 8 engine i don't think the design has aged the designer who came up with his car 50 years ago is amazing. to help the revival the president wants japanese companies to invest more

in the states he made demands japan limits vehicle exports and has threatened to increase tariffs japan has been there before in the eighty's with the reagan administration what was agreed at that time was a quarter upper limit for cars and that resulted in major investments of japanese car makers in particular honda and toyota in the u.s. economy i do think that the negotiations are heading in this direction. for now this visit seems to be mainly about relationship building with japan trying hard to impress and keep the united states on side when hey al-jazeera tokyo. sorry for the weather now here steph thanks hello we're looking at the us where we've been looking at the tornadoes over the past few days but this time one of them has made a direct hit on the town let's take a look at what's happened then you can see this little area of cloud here these are all bile of thunderstorms of the marching their way across the plains actually over

the last 24 hours we've only had reports of 10 down on what we've seen recently but one of those and it only takes one it's one that's hit a town and it hit it directly and has caused quite a bit of significant damage this should be a 2 story hotel you can see one of those stories it's been almost completely ripped off so quite a bit of damage there it also hit a trailer park as well and it's almost 6 years to the day since we had another tornado hit the same place this was an e.f. 3 tornado so the winds were over 250 kilometers per hour and when it hit it was the widest ever recorded tornado that's been on the ground in the states and it stayed on the ground for 26 kilometers so you can see why that one is very much in the forefront of people's minds at the moment that the latest one it's too recent for us to have an estimation on its strength but certainly it looks like it was a bear very powerful one and there's a chance that we could see more severe storms as we head through the next few days

so this is the region where we're expecting the rain today with the greatest risk through parts of oklahoma again and northern texas hello thanks very much sir for sosa come on al-jazeera including boy vigilante groups in mexico taking justice inside their own hands. concerns over the world's biggest biometrics project some was it means for people's privacy. and japan's prime minister joins the best lawyers in some heavy lifting me and you'll see more tournaments near 0 we'll have all the details for you in sports. on counting the cost where did it all go wrong for argentina's champion of the free market can stay in power as a populist makes a comeback a potential multi-billion dollar fine on course to break up facebook and bailout number 13 for pakistan counting the cost on i just. know what.

you know. what is left of the vast indigenous knowledge that coal in isolation of the americas has assaulted for centuries. to amateur astronomers embark on a journey of discovery and reach a remote village in mexico's mayan breacher. but who has more to learn about the ways of the world a route through makes a close contemporary wreckage and its mystical past few find glances on al jazeera.

this is al-jazeera quick reminder of the top stories this hour iraq says it will stand with iran in its escalating disputes with the us iraq's foreign minister mohammad made the pledge following talks with his iranian counterparts the hijab and sorry. no one has successfully registered to stand in algeria upcoming presidential election in july 77 potential candidates said they intended savant to the top job but almost all of them failed to get the number of signatures required . on the final day of force. singing in europe's parliamentary elections is well underway vultures are casting their ballots in 21 member states including germany france and italy. as a main opposition party is choosing officially name its next president soon nelson chamisa has been interim the 0 of the movement for democratic change since last

year as the parsis 1st congress since the death of its founder morgan chung last year the m.d.c. has been plagued by infighting since his death. joins us now live from our us they've also started jet understand there's been a bit of a delay. in the record. voting isn't about underway there are some of the people will be behind me who are costing me a vote in a slow growth in 10 robin who have to vote. in this because it may mean we're just nickel issues now we know that people know that not nothing to me when the leadership party begins is going on challenge no one is challenging him and his critics say that's a good many people who wanted to challenge him were allegedly intimidated or harassed and were forced to drop out of the race that is not. the m.d.c.

the democratic party that anyone has a right to kill which leader they want now also when he speaks to a few time he has a mammoth task of trying to unite with seems to be a divided party but most people want to know why the say about you the economy which is getting worse we know that a lot of people are struggling to make ends meet nurse they know a strike in about 2 weeks if you will of the increased again by nearly 50 within them to will serve and say they can't afford to come to work every day any more no it is a struggle the m.d.c. doesn't have economic policies but some economists say that some of those policies are very similar to those of the. do they want to know anything that may be going to be more of a thing or are you going to change things up a little bit. here course from the us and so he's a but. he's going to be elected the new leader if he's on a pool where just doesn't leave the opposition. after this.

and potentially. that's the biggest challenge they have they say the reason why in the last election since 1909 when the party was formed and is because they say that they're willing to only peer into here their supporters were kidnapped some of them even killed over the years and arrested but some people are saying maybe the m.d.c. should also take some of the blame what are they going to do now that they have a new leader they are hinting that they will be protests within the next coming weeks o.b.b. economy may need this thing that those protests are going to be peaceful but the government is saying that they have information or evidence that some people are planning violent protests to allegedly topple the government the activists were arrested on monday so coming from the model relayed by the state that they went for training on how to organize. a government and how to use firearms during the

protests those activists deny those allegations nelson chamisa knows he has to do something very very different from morgan tsvangirai pick up which. does that mean it's going to morsi protest no one knows yet but what is on the back of everyone's mind is he had a big task ahead of him the main thing of course to be uniting what seems to be a divided party mentality what the plan of action is in terms of trying to put pressure i'm going to do something about the economic crisis. that thanks very much for bringing us the latest from. the congolese leader more. plans to unite still position. he recently returned to the democratic republic of congo after almost 3 years in exile could soon be is a wealthy businessman and former governor of south eastern katanga province he was once an ally of former president joseph kabila but the pair fell 8 to be was charged with property faults and barred from running in december's election votes

was won by felix g c k d so the result has been to space it well says just a kitty has been in office he's pardoned 700 prisoners including political opponents of former president movies got to meet was one of those cleared katherine sawyer son died with him in lubumbashi the main city in his political heartland of katanga i think what is important for us is the life of the congolese people i'm going to go and do my tour in the country i came by a man of peace i never killed anyone i never stolen any penny from anyone i cannot account for everything rich of god and do you still hold presidential ambitions 5 years is a lot we need to open our country to go up we need the people

of 12 better life people think there may be to be to be in government is where you can help people. where i am today in the opposition we are going to. congratulate when we can where we can congratulate you are going to criticise where you can agree and you are going to give advice when we can give some advice in the last presidential election you supported martin for you and not a politician and he's been going around the country saying that he is the legitimate president do you support those issues you see i'm not the constitutional court the constitutional court proclaimed better than just as president i'm not above the law some people are saying the president has been struggling to assad his authority you see in this question but he's formed with his predecessor joseph kabila what is

your reaction to that i know want to talk about they are quietly and what are you concerned that he surrounding himself too much with people who are allies of the former president their people refused for the 2 demanded of present and secondly they didn't vote for years candidates so i think today their people want a better future is up to president just to get to because i think he should listen to the people why the do they want for their future so you yourself have come back after almost 3 years he left the country thank you for being the cause of your fallout with the president with the with the then president joseph kabila how was your relationship now these are former presidents is it president to retire i always good to retiring i mean the opposition is goatees coalition i think when i resign because i saw the country

was called up seems i resigned we've noise and i think what is important is the future of congo to peace in the congo. a months long hunger strike by supporters of the jailed leader of a band kurdish political group in turkey has come to an end of the local and the head of the kurdistan workers party of p.k. k. called on supporters to stop on sunday they've been calling for auckland solitary confinement be lifted he's been in prisons near ystem who on charges of treason since 1999 the p.k. waged a decades long military campaign against turkey with the aim of achieving an independent kurdish state turkey considers the p k k a terrorist organization. no way is to host more talks aimed at resolving the crisis in venezuela.