even the hong kong government has a majority in the city of hama they will get it sure it's just a matter of timing but certainly this rally has been expected patience with regards to numbers that might reach the numbers that we saw on the streets to shut down parts of long haul during the occupy hong kong protests but with. india's prime minister narendra modi is in sri lanka for talks he's on a 2 day trip to some of his allies in the region his 1st since getting reelected modi is the 1st foreign leader to visit colombo since the easter sunday bombings that killed more than 250 people there's been increasing political tensions in sri lanka just months ahead of the presidential election the indian prime minister went to one of the sites where the bombings took place in sri lanka in the interim ot pay tribute to those killed at the st anthony's shrine during the easter sunday attacks modi tweeted his solidarity saying he has confidence re lankans will rise again our correspondent for nando's has more from colombo. 6 weeks after the

deadly easter sunday carnage the visit of the prime minister of india is important for sure lunker it's a gesture of confidence that things in the country are returning to normal almost as if to highlight that the prime minister stopped in anthony's church the church that was one of the 1st hit on that easter sunday morning basically father highlighting the fact that his message is that it's back things are getting back to normal he had said that the people of india stand firmly with the people of sri lanka in their fight against terror and it seems that that is very much the message of his visit even though it's just for 4 hours his 1st foreign was it after his reelection as the prime minister of india but for sri lanka it comes at a time when politics are has always in quite a while if you can use that description particularly with the special parliamentary

select committee on the easter sunday bombings having face and facing its own problems the president laying down very clearly that he would not allow any serving officers of the military all the police to appear before the select committee saying that everyone who had appeared so far all those who had been removed in fact he removed even his chief of national intelligence lots of things in terms of the testimony pointing towards the president the fact that he knew of those warnings and overall that the entire defense establishment did nothing to stop it. still ahead on our visit out call for unity and celebration off the mexico strikes a deal with the u.s. but it's at a steep cost. iraqi archaeologists appeal for urgent help to save the ancient city of babylon.

hello again across japan we are seeing more of the same some rain across much of the area not heavy but it is going to be persistent at some areas so here across much of the region on monday anywhere from tokyo all the way down here towards a saka expect to see a rainy day a little bit cooler in tokyo at 1000 degrees osaka you're going to keep moderate temperatures here at 26 degrees but unfortunately as we go towards tuesday not seeing much of a change in terms of where the rain is going to be maybe getting slightly warmer in tokyo about 20 degrees there for the korean peninsula but quite nice we are going to be seeing temperatures into the mid twenty's with plenty of sun in the forecast and then here across parts of china it is going to continue to rain in some locations we have been seeing about 100 to $125.00 millimeters per day coming out of these showers and unfortunately is going to continue over the next few days brings a very heavy rain anywhere along that southern coast actually moving

a little bit more towards the south as we go towards tuesday so hong kong it is going to be a rainy day few with the tempter there of about $31.00 degrees and then very quickly as we go towards the philippines we're going to be seeing some nice conditions up here towards luzon but down towards the south it is going to be quite rainy across parts of southern indonesia it is going to be quite nice across parts of jakarta and bali with the temperature across much of the region into the low thirty's. and natural resource that's gone on top for more than 2 decades now to see a. cold. years before israel struck its on al jazeera world tells the untold story of gaza's un exploited gas fields gaza log in is it only made us of the palestinians so it's a lot of money and how this valuable resource could have transformed palestinian lives. because the gas deal on al-jazeera.

but again you're watching i just you know reminder of all top stories the south sudanese activists they want protesters been killed as the opposition launches a campaign of civil disobedience there accusing military jointer of intimidation after the arrest of 5 leading opposition members. protesters and police of fault on election day and kazakstan demonstrators say it is far from fair voters are going to the polls to choose a successor to. lead for almost 30 years. tens of thousands of people in hong kong and hit the streets to protest a proposed extradition bill it would allow people to be sent for trial in the

chinese mainland. media in yemen say the rebels have launched several drones targeting saudi arabia in a tweet they said they were trying to hit military facilities in the airport near the yemeni border there's been no confirmation of this from the saudi government. but has more from the yemeni capital sana'a. hafiz confirmed media outlets have. international airports with the key to. its kind of. phones for drone that has been. claimed or the has been domestically made by the home of these this kind of drone. co's a big big distraction especially has been used to different areas and also

the attack on the law and that that has also closed. among. the military there so the this. has according to how the whole of these has had its targets this is not the 1st time for the whole of these 2 to launch drone attacks on juries and international airports the say that this. are in response that this airport is being used to launch air strikes against yemen so be considered as a legitimate target finance ministers from the group of 20 major economies are warning that risks from trade and international tensions are building up they have been meeting in japan before the g 20 leaders summit at the end of the month the talks focused on trade and the deal the digital economy. albania's president has cancelled local elections that were supposed to happen this month putting him on

a collision course with the prime minister who says they'll go ahead the latest development in a political crisis that has spilled out into the streets johnson reports from tehran. protesters calling for the resignation of prime minister eddie roemer were met with a cannonade of tear gas outside parliament the opposition democratic party that held this protest didn't get to the general election it is askin for but the chief another goal albania's president has called for local government elections scheduled for june 30th to be cancelled saying current conditions don't allow for real democratic representative and inclusive elections opposition leader lose him basher was jubilant before his supporters. this is the result of your unyielding strength your stand your unshakable faith in european values of freedom democracy and human dignity. but prime minister eddie roemer insists the local elections will

go ahead and has called an emergency cabinet meeting on sunday there's no constitutional court to decide the issue because it's judges are under ethical review for possible bribery and corruption this puts albania in a constitutional crisis not only do the president and prime minister disagree the opposition democratic party refuses to field mayoral candidates in the country $61.00 municipalities it is doubtful what legitimacy the socialist parties may as would enjoy if elected unopposed this was the 8th anti-government protest since the opposition democratic party walked out of parliament over 3 months ago and took its campaign to the streets to unseat the socialist government these protests are fueled by a widespread perception of corruption the government was hit by a series of scandals suggesting roma was reelected 2 years ago thanks to help from organized crime. time is. that he was not elected by them. it is.

legal it is likely that he was elected by the criminal maybe i'll be indians are disappointed at what they see as a party is in the column in the bill because the speech when rama was elected in 2013 he said that every house in albania will be given a title deed because a lot of homes have been built illegally but when he became prime minister he gave people through the supporters and others got nothing that's why i am here i work for 25 years in greece to build my house. the legitimacy of his government is already undermined by the opposition's absence from a parliament if from a insists on holding a local election with only socialist party candidates he is sure to face stiff opposition jumps at all close al-jazeera to a. model of his interim president has signed a decree calling for snap elections in september philip was appointed after a court relieved president hugo dodd on of his duties he had refused to dissolve

parliament and backed the formation of a new coalition government instead thousands have been celebrating in mexico after leaders there reached a deal with the u.s. to cancel threatened trade tariffs the event with mexico's president took place in the town of to one a year the u.s. border reports. o'reilly it was all cheers for mexican president and his will but i thought as he arrived at this rally in downtown t. one of. the event which included a march by local factory workers was initially organized as a protest against u.s. president donald trump's threat to impose up to 25 percent export tariffs on mexico the one they want to lease is here and that is my money for some of those speaking to hundreds of supporters president lopez obrador called for unity among neighbors as he outlined the importance of the relationship between mexico and the united

states if either samir see make it go the united states and mexico or not based on neighbors our border is more than 3000 kilometers long and we have a shared history that includes hostility but also cooperation and understanding. that. it was a festive atmosphere in downtown to one of many people expressed relief that the 2 countries had reached an agreement on. the important things that there is no pretext for investment to stop generating jobs in mexico but. this is very important because the americans are friends of the mexican people and we are friends of theirs. the successful negotiations between the u.s. and mexico may be a cause for celebration but the also resulted in a significant change to mexico's immigration policy since that agreement between the united states and mexico was announced the big question here in the city so close to the u.s. southern border is what will happen to the hundreds of central american asylum seekers who will now have to wait here in mexico for their asylum cases to be

processed. the threats of tariffs from the trumpet ministration have subsided at least for now and so has the anxiety many felt over the past few days along mexico's northern border. iraqi archaeologists say they need urgent help to preserve artifacts from what was the ancient babylon it is the birthplace of the world's 1st complex communities but many sides face neglect because of years of conflict charles stratford went there to find out more. on the capital city of an empire that reached its peak under king neb you could around 2600 years ago this road led to the tower of babel archaeologists say the walls were once adorned with blue ceramic designs the babylonian god murdoch rides along the famous ishtar gate. couldn't his name is carved in qunu form

a writing around 5000 years old and some of the bricks the southern palace was rebuilt on the original foundations and completed around 20 years ago but a lot of the restoration work is complicated to preservation efforts. concrete is forced moisture and salt up into the ancient foundations the water table is high because a tributary of the euphrates river is close by bricks late in the 1980 s. to reinforce some walls have made archaeological investigations difficult. problems include the shifting heavy populated areas close by we need a vast plan of excavation the remaining archaeology needs sustainable preservation because the archaeological material is being heavily eroded rising above the site perched on top of a manmade hill is a palace built for a man who often identified himself with the babylonian kings saddam hussein's

palaces an eerie reminder of iraq's more recent past. the former dictator's faces carved into the palace walls. the great holes inside the empty marble walls are covered in graffiti amuro on the ceiling seems the only thing not defiled it's saddam hussein was so obsessed with babylon that he built one of his policies here and it's from the palace walls that you get this incredible view of the ancient ruins it's believed that in the foreground here that's where the fabled hanging gardens of babylon were located and it's hoped that after years of petitioning by the iraqi government this site is soon going to get world heritage status iraqi archaeologists say the government needs to demonstrate its commitment to the sustainable preservation of babylon conflicts and political instability has

kept most international archaeological teams away for almost 30 years the importance of babylon goes beyond whether or not it's the world heritage property and that goes for many sites in this country the origin of civilization civilization itself of complex civilization the evidence of it is here in this country the origin of writing you know important governance itself kingship and the temple complex evolving over hundreds and thousands of years according to the bible god punished the babylonians for trying to build a structure to heaven and this overgrown trench is where it's believed the tower of babel once stood experts say a star archaeological investigation of babylon in the surrounding area could take centuries a site of a described as the birthplace of civilization in a country the struggling to recover from its violent recent past chance trafford al-jazeera. the french open has

a new all women's champion australia's ashley barty has been showing off a trophy after winning her maiden grand slam title she beat czech teenager mark after wonder a show in a dominant performance john i guess. australia's ashley barty had never made it to a major singles final before but up against marquette of under show over she showed she was every bit the grand slam champion. with the barty party well underway the australian took advantage of her nervous opponents clinching the 1st set 61. party quit tennis for cricket a few years ago but swapped her bats back for the racquets in 2016 the decision paid off as she continued to dominate this match. victory 6163 i was there. with the winchell new from 8 to 2nd in the world rankings.

over a little bit speechless it's incredible i played the perfect match today i'm so proud of myself and my team but it's just crazy 2 weeks. parties the 1st australian to win a singles title at roland garros is 1973. with a victory like this it's unlikely to be her last joint algis it. and as always there is lots more on our website and you 0 dot com get the latest on all the stories there. all right let's get a roundup of our top story sudanese activists say one protester was killed as the opposition launched a campaign of civil disobedience there accusing the military jointer of intimidation after the arrest of 5 leading opposition members protesters and police

are fought on election day in kazakstan demonstrators say it is far from over it's far from fair other voters are choosing a successor to nor some notable tunnels are by are full of the country's since kazakstan declared independence from the soviet union almost 30 years ago can seem john mark talk of the interim leader backed by nazarbayev is expected to win tens of thousands of people in hong kong have hit the streets to protest an extradition build post changes would allow people to be sent for trial on the chinese mainland opponents say it is another sign of hong kong losing more of the rights it was guaranteed in the 1997 handover from british rule. india's prime minister narendra modi is in sri lanka for talks it's his 1st trip to the region since his reelection is the 1st of foreign leader to visit colombo since the easter sunday bombings that killed more than 250 people with increasing political tension in sri

lanka just months before its presidential election. the media in yemen say the rebels have launched several drones targeting saudi arabia in a tweet they said they were trying to hit military facilities in the air force near the yemeni border but no confirmation of this from the saudi government. finance ministers of the group of 20 nations have met in japan of head of the g. 20 leaders summit later this month to day talks on trade and the digital economy where held as the u.s. and china remain locked in a trade war the ministers agreed on the need to reform the world trade organization and to better regulate artificial intelligence a model was interim president has signed a decree calling for snap elections to be held in september philip was appointed after a court relieved frezza igor god on of his duties he had refused to dissolve parliament and backed the formation of a new coalition government instead those are the headlines we're back in half

an hour right now and i desire it's inside story. a strategic partnership or a marriage of convenience china and russia voted to strengthen their ties both countries are engaged in standoffs with the u.s. but can they build a united front against washington this is inside story. hello

and welcome to the program on how he had seen china and russia's leaders say their countries of course are than they've ever been and that's partly due to what they see as a common threat seeing peeing and floods in your putin's meeting in st petersburg was a display of these strength off their relationship and also show of solidarity against the united states russia has been economically isolated for years jutes you western sanctions over its invasion of crimea in 2014 meanwhile china is in the grip of a trade war that the with the u.s. that seen tariffs imposed on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of gates. was speaking at the summit c.g. describes putin as a close friends and said there was scope for even greater cooperation in future. only on one of my asia our bilateral relations not reach the maximum and can become

even better if we are ready to work together with russia in order to continuously increase the effect of our country's high level cooperation with our cooperation will give our 2 peoples a bigger sense of achievement i've been able to promote the russia chinese agenda in international affairs. and last year putin spoke of new sensors of global power and an end to u.s. economic dominance. in germany where you knew economic centers have emerged and the role of regional currencies has risen the balance of powers and interest has shifted obviously those deep changes require adaptation on the part of international financial organizations and rethinking the role of the dollar after becoming the global reserve currency the u.s. dollar transformed into the instrument of pressure used by the u.s. on the rest of the world. well disputes with the us have brought china and russia cool so trade between them rose 25 percent in 20 or so record high of more than

$100000000000.00 russia is a key source of energy and natural resources that fuel the chinese economy and chinese investments in russian infrastructure projects is an economic lifeline as western sanctions start to bites well they're also cool slee aligns on many global issues including venezuela north korea syria and iran. well let's bring in our panel in moscow we have victor all of it shaping let's go analyst and commentator on international relations in particular in thailand we're joined by our inner tangan a political and economic affairs commentator specializing in china and in new jersey steven rogers he's the presidents of the america winning coalition i'd like to welcome all of you to today's discussion thanks for all of it let me start with

you do you see this new relationship between china and russia as a positive development. well no one has done more to bring moscow and beijing closer together in the past few months and past few years than washington it was the white house the american foreign policy establishment that had decided to open a new cold war against russia and at the same time as something that looks like a new cold war against china and of course feeling pressure from washington feeling pressure from the top a new study sion both china and russia are looking forward to a closer military leadership to a closer g a political affiliation ship and to a closer economic relationship of course with the steps that the white house under donald trump has sticking against chain or it is becoming more and more obvious to

the chinese neither ship that the purpose in mind in washington is not just to get a more fair trade agreement with china but to seriously hamper and diminish the cheney's influence in the world the changes geopolitical standing in the coming years and decades and cheney is economic standing as a possible competitor the united states let's say as it is quite obvious for was so it's quite awful let's see if they if from a chinese perspective that that is the case to you i know our time to do you see this new relationship as a oppose a sieve a development that will help china in the face of this this trade war increased pressure from the u.s. . i would actually agree with my colleague good what we have here is perhaps a marriage of convenience china and russia obviously have

a lot of geopolitical issues that they share their outlook is much closer than the one that donald trump is pushing but you know this this trade away from multilateralism is something that china opposes russia somewhere in between and donald trump is clearly intent on destroying the order that was created by the united states after the world war or 2 so in terms of what this means for china i think they feel that they're pushed into this situation china has resisted in the past any hind of call for any kind of formal either military or earlier political alliance they simply want to do trade but with the hostile acts going on they see you know this that for instance this attack on our way in these terrorists as the beginning as said a cold war that does not appear to have an end and will in fact separates the united states from china i have stated. no one has done more to bring china and

russia together than president donald trump a move perhaps we've heard there from minor tighen that said china's seen this mantle as somewhat reluctantly and it's all tied to the efforts of your presidents say to that. well i would not characterize this as a new cold war president trump has been very consistent in making clear that the decisions he makes are decisions that are in the best interest of the american people he has also said quite often that he understands that there are leaders throughout the world who will take positions that will be in the best interest of their people now i notice some of the wording used in the press reports over the putin sheet summit that they were speaking in a businesslike manner so these are business decisions indeed there is politics involved i believe they're going to be using their summit as leverage with regard

to the actions that the united states has taken but i don't believe anyone's pushing panic buttons yet these are decisions or at least meetings and and decisions that are being made in a businesslike manner and i've got to tell you i'm an optimist i think at the end of the day all 3 of these leaders are going to be sitting down speaking about these issues because these are addressing a global economy and we're all involved in this we're all in this together so hopefully will all come together in the near future so do you think that this relationship as stephen roach is this is a way for the china and russia to try and get the u.s. to move because it sounds an awful lot like these 2 countries share a lot of common ground economically and said how can a closer relationship between china and russia be in the best interests of u.s. workers and u.s. forces. well you know we have we've had and we

continue to have a lot of trade with china it's all about the economy it's all about money i found it very interesting that president xi in st petersburg did state that he was not looking to disrupt his relationship with the united states i believe that was a signal to the united states saying look we might all have to sit down at one point and go further with these issues so as i said no panic buttons are now being pushed these a business decisions hopefully they won't spill over into any serious negative impact going to you that something this is no has to wait i'm sorry to interrupt but so you can see to sell this this relationship would not be in the best interests of the u.s. . i would say that right now i think if there were military issues being talked about regarding the geopolitics of the region yes that would be serious but none of

that's on the table it's all economy all economic so hopefully they're not going to go down that road where the united states or nato or anyone feels that there are military threats to anyone that those things weren't discussed it was all about the economy ok and i see you shaking your heads i know tangan bridgie response that this is purely economic and not military. it's nonsense that we just witnessing it incident between a russian warship and a united states or ship in this in the south china seas this is an area that has never seen any confrontation between russia and the u.s. in recent memory you know donald trump is using big stick diplomacy i don't think taking an ostrich like approach and saying that oh it'll all work out don't know and hitting the panic buttons i think is to start talking to industry. and technology they are hitting the panic button and so are the americans consumers

when they start looking at what's happening in mexico donald trump has pushed an all fronts war against allies neighbors and those he thinks he's in contention is world view is creating the crisis so i mean i'm afraid i'm going to have to disagree with my colleague that this is all going to work out and that somehow we're in kansas and this is this is just going to be wonderful stuff and it shouldn't be worried this is very serious stuff this is the way that world war one happened at people sleepwalked into a terrible situation and i'm going to come back to you in a 2nd steven rogers but if i could just pick up with you victor all of it you here also is it didn't seem to have reacts favorably to seaver. and you also believe that there was perhaps. an opportunity for military corp do you see this. all of it as a as an the goosey ation tactic from china and russia to try and get the u.s.

to cut an easier deal or is this a more long term strategic partnership well the american foreign policy makers had believed since the late 1980 s. and the early 1990 s. after the soviet union collapsed after the worst of backed disappeared it was just beyond the ability of the to the so-called backs american world order centered on american decision making is going to last if not forever then for a very very long time and of course washington has seen in the past few years in the past decade that china's economic power and china's military capabilities have grown significantly and. and we even outpace american economic power.