tv NEWSHOUR Al Jazeera July 2, 2019 12:00am-1:01am +03
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to keep this quiet you can imagine that any posts about this are trying to be contained are being censored they definitely don't want this message these scenes to be spread around here in china we have to remember that the government here in beijing want to present themselves as strong in control as promoting harmony so these scenes the shocking scenes for them are unthinkable it's everything that they wanted to avoid so what they'll be doing right now we can probably imagine their foreign minister will be very busy trying to see what they can do to control the damage not only in hong kong but to china i think for many people in the government what they want to do is try to maintain a sense of harmony and this image that hong kong the hong kong people welcome beijing that the hong kong people are happy to be in this under the leadership of beijing so very much that will be on their minds as well as you know what they can do moving forward in all hong kong and steps that they can take certainly this is the scenes are humiliating to china but what it's easy to also imagine from beijing
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side is perhaps them trying to use these things to their advantage trying as andrew said earlier to take advantage of perhaps a pivot in public opinion about what these protesters are doing inside the ledges and legislative council building. really taking their time and really going to come down perhaps a very strongly afterwards on these protesters on the people involved there certainly beijing is not going to want to look weak in the face of what's happening there they're going to want to really show a strong arm and they're going to really say that look these are protesters for sauron we didn't we didn't provoke this and they're definitely going to want to send a strong message there. for the moment thanks very much. now let's talk more about this now with steve tsang via skype from london he is the director of the china institute of the school of oriental and african studies at the university of london thanks very much for being with us so 1st of all what do you make of the scenes
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that have been unfolding there in hong kong over the last couple of hours it is very regrettable with the use of force by the demonstrators because they are changing the situation in a very through it seeing twenty's getting to a point old danger the whole cold. if they all wind with their way to doing it then the risk of the chinese government taking much more drastic action test that much closer. yeah i mean i know a lot of people have been have been asking this question about. you know the scenes that there are been unfolding there breaking down costs getting into this building and putting graffiti on the walls and on the desks and. essentially taking over the whole the whole chamber for themselves and this movement has gotten a lot of sympathy from people in hong kong and for people around the world so i
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guess my question is. are they are they do are they helping their cause with this and with these images that we're seeing right now you know they're not helping their course and we have to make a very clear distinction. the cost that most people in hong kong support your one to 2000000 people in the streets to support. is the course of the live journal will or will be used in the legislative council to support not forward to resort to violence against either police officers or buildings and properties and therefore what are happening underground in the electricity of council at the moment are actions which do not enjoying the overwhelming support of the people in hong kong then why the cause of forcing those abused to be completely
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withdrawn and support and choice support a very important distinction to make. and you mentioned china there and how the government in mainland china and how they may react to this. but it's going to be a tough call for them as well isn't it because this is hong kong we're talking about this is a place that enjoys a great deal of autonomy. it has a unique place in the world this isn't like you know some province of of mainland china where where there isn't a lot of media attention you know whatever they do it's going to be playing out in front of the world. it is likely that beijing will give the hong kong special administrative region government and the paternity to try to resolve this effectively and within a reasonably short space of tom and if that doesn't actually happen. i suspect that beijing will don't call their orange to plans to and they will to
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a much more proactive approach it is not in the interest of hong kong or to cause to force to withdrawal of abuse to precipitate a situation where beijing's views that it will have to take direct actions to interfere into what happens in hong kong so it is read it tom that demonstrators who have broken into the legislative council building tool. with or really so how to what extent could this split the opposition in hong kong the democracy movement in hong kong i mean people like yourself who are appalled by the scenes that we're seeing here but you know many many still have sympathy for you know for what they're trying to do i mean for for the ultimate aim of what they're doing there is could could this cause a split in the camp. well i think it is already causing
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a spate in the if you're right democracy movement in hong kong it's one things to support democracy is one thing to support human rights and to support and the respect for dignity of the leader is a different thing is to a simply resort to use all of those. in order to achieve that objective it has not been in the tradition and a political culture of hong kong to resort to violence and therefore you will have the advocates prosy who were found it's difficult to support the actions of these small number of demonstrators even though we can all understand their sense of frustration and and the temptation is to take drastic actions a stay you have done is understandable but it is unwise is counterproductive it's not helpful for hong kong. or right for the moment steve saying. good to get your
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perspective on this joining us there from london thanks very much and we will of course be coming back to events in our hong kong as and when they develop just to remind you about that warning. from the hong kong police that was posted on facebook they say that they are going to quote take appropriate force in the event of obstruction of resistance and they are vising people to quote not involved in the violence to leave the vicinity as soon as possible as wayne hay was telling us a little bit earlier some protesters who were inside the chamber who got word of that did make a decision to leave but as you can see there are plenty more still there we've heard no indication we've seen rather no indication at this point of any police action but we will of course be monitoring for monitoring that for you.
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and moving on then to the other big story this monday the un's nuclear watchdog the international atomic energy agency says that iran has stockpiled more enrich uranium than allowed in the 2015 nuclear deal i.a.e.a. inspectors reported back from the islamic republic after the claims and iran has accused european powers of not doing enough to help save the nuclear deal after the us withdraw and its actions since then over the last few weeks let's take a closer look at the dispute around the 2050 nuclear deal u.s. president donald trump pulled out of the agreement last year and imposed tough new sanctions 3 months later in may iran announced it would pull back on some of its commitments under the deal by increasing production of low enrich uranium and iranian and european leaders met on saturday in vienna to try and save the agreement but there was no breakthrough and iran has accused europe are not doing enough to protect it from u.s.
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sanctions we have 3 live reports for you in this news our patty cohen will join us from washington d.c. and the tasha butler is in paris but let's begin 1st with dorsetshire bari in tehran so door so how significant is this decision then by iran. well hasn't this was a decision that was already made this is just the fact that they've carried out on what they said they were going to do on july 17th the spokesperson for iran's atomic energy organization said that they were going to increase production and exceed this 300 kilogram of stockpile of low enriched uranium at the level of 3.67 percent this is something we knew that was coming and it is now here now the important point is the foreign minister zarif has said that this is in fact what the european signatories of the nuclear agreement have forced iran to do to scale back their commitments and it is within the agreement for the rain ians that they
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are allowed to do this under the nuclear deal to ensure that the other parties withhold their end of the deal now the 2nd phase of this scaling back their commitments will come on july 7th when the 60 day period for the european deadline for the european signatories to respond to the concerns of the iranians happy is the deadline and the iranians have said that at that point their 2nd phase of scaling back from this agreement will be to increase the percentage of which uranium they will go from 3.67 percent up to 20 percent that is what you know they're capable of but they haven't decided here what percentage they will go up to this is really a test i think of what will come from the europeans in the coming days they are a means of trying to say that they are not happy with how the europeans are holding their end of the deal they haven't seen any of the benefits from this nuclear agreement and there is no point for them to actually abide by it 100 percent for
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now they are coming scaling back their commitment step by step it's not an abandonment just yet so we'll have to wait and see what the europeans will do in the coming days to see what the uranium will respond with. an open question what they will do after this let's try to get a sense of that now from. paris natasha is live for us from there so natasha what do the european powers do now because up to now they have they have appeared sympathetic to iran's situation wanting to do what they can to salvage this deal but with this action now by iran this this puts them in something of a difficult position now doesn't it. well european powers in a very difficult position in fact we've had some reaction to this decision by iran to exceed its uranium limits from the british foreign minister jeremy hunt to his call this extremely worrying indeed and i'm sure that sir that reaction will be echoed by other european powers including here in france because what these
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european powers have been trying to do ever since donald trump pulled the u.s. out of the 2015 iran deal last year and we imposed a u.s. sanctions on iran european powers have been trying to battle and fight to save this deal they say it's the best deal out there at the moment for peace and security in the region and over the past few weeks as those tensions have really been escalating between washington and tehran european powers of consistently called for carmen they've called on iran to stay within the deal not to break its commitments made under the j. c.p.o. a because european powers do not want to be in a position in which they'll suddenly have to concede that perhaps iran is breaking this deal because that would be a huge blow to their diplomatic powers of credibility is something they simply don't want to see happen because they believe it would be very dangerous that it could potentially lead to iran having a nuclear weapon it is why they've put in place a system that they hope will work in some way to enable some trade between iran and
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europe it's called in sticks it's a special payment system which allows for trade outside of the dollar currency but is only going to be for small good some medical or humanitarian items or is never going to persuade the big multinationals like the french oil giant total to do trade with iran again and really this is the problem because iran is saying to europe you're not doing enough to shield our economy from these u.s. sanctions in stakes it seems at this stage at least isn't enough and iran really seems to be turning up the pressure on these european powers on bullying or paris or london or the e.u. to really do more. all right and sasha thanks for that intention in paris for us let's cross over now to patty cole hain in washington d.c. for us so over there in washington patty they're just waking up to this news but should it be surprising to people there given this ratcheting up of tensions that
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we've seen between the u.s. and iran and. this almost seemed inevitable and i don't think it will come as any surprise because the miranda telegraphed that this was going to happen i want to point out we don't have any reaction yet from basically anyone in washington but it's the independence day holiday this week so most of washington basically just empties out that said we are told that the white house will issue some sort of statement in the coming hours of course bring that to you when we get it but in the past what we've seen is the national security advisor john bolton he's come out and said if they do this then all options are on the table i think the biggest question now though is how much status john bolton has with the president of the united states what we know is that when he went to when the president went to korea john bolton wasn't there for that historic trip but tucker carlson was he is
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a 6 fox news talk show host is very close to the president he's been railing against john bolton and saying that basically he's too much of a hawk he's trying to start a war with the red and he's told the president reportedly that if you go to war with iran you mean you will not be reelected so right now it's clear that tucker carlson who is much more of a dove when it comes to iran he has the ear of the president how where that's going to leave is where the white house stands on this well it's going to have to wait and see in the coming hours and days all right patty thanks for that plan to go hang in washington. our forces loyal to libyan award her life after have launched heavy air strikes targeting the u.n. backed government in the capital tripoli a number of people have been killed and injured following developments up close for us mahmud up there was head is in tripoli and mahmud what is the latest you're hearing there. we'll 5 government
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fighters dead and 8 others who wandered all saw there are people fighters are still under the rubble has them that as part of the airstrike launches by warplane loyal to the warlord safer have to the targeted location overnight insula had been able heard in southern. military sources with the government say that more still probably that fighter jet is an f. 16 and it's either egyptian or immorality fighter jet they tell us that those same fate of jets of 16. targeted several locations in tripoli in 2014 during the military campaign known then as operation dawn also we know that have to his forces announcing that they're going to intensify airstrikes in tripoli also the military commander of the air force commander would have to his forces
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general mohammed among 4 and i said last night that they're going to intensify the strikes in and around tripoli calling on residents to stay away from confrontation areas we're also getting reports from the city of that again that have to as fighter jet targeted the headquarters of a military camp known as the 8th of brigade headquarters we know that after have to the forces lost this city of a very young man on wednesday they have they have tried to transfer the military confrontations to other locations including southern tripoli and also the targeting of airport the only operational airport in tripoli yesterday we know that they have to the forces have to disclose that accusing turkey of providing coverage to the rival groups led by the backed government of national accord but the government much of court is just fighting this saying that it's the only institution entitle
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to use foreign weapons as a. mahmoud thank you mahmoud of the we're here in tripoli let's speak now to claudia get seanie she is the senior libya analyst for the international crisis group and joins us now from wrong thanks very much for being with us so i want to ask you 1st of all about these latest developments from libya particularly the connection with turkey and what what what essentially turkey's interest in libya is . well libya has been engulfed by this new conflict since last april which has pitted the forces allied to the internationally recognized government based in tripoli against the forces of under the command of field-marshal. turkey plays a strategic role in supporting the tripoli based government and its forces and in the past few months has agreed to transfer some equipment to these forces in
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particular we have evidence widely reported on social media of the transfer of armed personnel vehicle and some drone equipment and there were some actually turkish engineers in tripoli perhaps they're still there training government aligned forces the government in tripoli says this is completely legitimate support that turkey is offering from upon their request because they're fighting against the siege of general have there and his forces against tripoli so the latest escalation of narratives and rasher against turkey. lambasted by the commanders of the libyan national army which is half there is controlled military equipment against military force against turkey comes in the wake of recent defeat suffered by ellen
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a forces in and around tripoli so it's only natural that they are sort of trying to deflate the tension of their recent. setbacks in the in the tripoli area accusing turkey of supporting what they what they're consider. a government that fuels militia power and does not want to succumb to eliminate control and when we look at the overall situation in libya it's been on. table for some time now for several years in fact many would say since since the fall of moammar gadhafi in 2011 how do we how do we try to make sense of that if we can is it the fact that there are too many foreign powers who are they all have some sort of a stake in their center and are involved in it too much somehow.
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well you know the instability that libya has fallen in since 2011 is due to a multiple series of factors i would say 1st of all mistake of the 2011 nato led intervention not to actually carry out a serious demilitarisation or. to remove the weapons across the country 1st 2nd of all. we saw political polarization in the country affected in part also by the geopolitical divides of the region that some countries such as the u.a.e. cairo ok. on one side against the others so it's a multiple series of factors ok claudia get see thanks very much for being with us we're going to go back to hong kong now for the latest developments there as you can see protesters inside that legislative building that they are planning to hold that they broke into over 2 hours ago now and you thomas is live for us outside the
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building and you bring us up to date on on what's been happening there. it's a very very fluid situation hasn't just in the last 5 minutes or so for the 1st time . on monday we've seen 2 police approach the barricade just behind me as you can imagine the protesters off they all rushed towards the other side of this barricade which is just here now to place fans came very very close and turned around to the youths and drove off the other direction we don't know where they've gone to paul we don't know whether they've seen this barricade decided to try to approach the ledge co building the one that all the protesters now go to inside that are. all not we just don't know what happened to them but certainly it alone a lot of the protesters here you can see off put my hands on many many did because the concern of course is once the place to climb over the. barricades and meet the
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protesters there's going to be violence on the previous process where they have turned violent a couple of weeks ago now things were thrown tear gas was fired rubber bullets as well protesters almost all of them from a quick with hard hats and gas masks we've got ours i'm not wearing it obviously right now but i will if i need to and the concern of course is that's going to happen quite soon about 45 minutes ago an arab go now the place put out a statement on social media and via the media here in hong kong and i just i can find all read you a little bit of that statement it says this is from the place just over an hour ago the legislative council building was violently attacked by rioters and forced to enter illegally the rioters entered it illegally they're saying the place expressed the most serious condemnation of their actions and crucially here the police will clear the alleged co building in a short period of time how short is a short period of time i will say that was 45 minutes ago an hour ago now that they
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put out that statement. and it feels as though that could happen any moment certainly this area just behind the barricades was relatively sparsely populated by protesters who were much closer to the building itself 300 meters back an hour or so ago they've now come to this barricade to me where they thought the police were going to try to come in and as i say to place approaches barricade only to then turn around and go back to the other direction so we don't know what show what's going on but now that it has been for some hours and whatever action the police do you decide to take anju it's going to be happening in front of us in front of live cameras because we have all of the feeds there there are reporters as well who are inside the chamber with those protesters and given the fact that the police have come under criticism in the past for what was seen as a heavy handed response to the previous protesters to previous protests this is
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something that they're going to be acutely aware of isn't there and there is a delicate balance here. absolutely and all day on monday it felt as if somewhere on high a strategic decision had been made for the place not to go in to allow them to do their thing and to maintain that if any disruption happened it wasn't because the police were causing if any violence happened it wasn't because the place we're going in and while the protesters were all outside the building that standoff if you like to call it that seems to be maintained and certainly in a sense if you were working as far as the police were concerned no one could accuse them of creating a bargain situation it appears from their statement an hour or so ago now that the mass infiltration the mass occupying about building has been changed things as far as the police are concerned it's one thing for people to be noisy in reality and to some extent violent outside the bill. certainly there was
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a smashing of windows and eggs being thrown at the building but in the great scheme of things it was fairly low level going into the building and destroying a lot of what's inside that building seems to have been the point at which the place to change their mind about tactics having said that they are still not going in yet and that statement an hour or so ago even the 2 police vans approaches barricades then turning around and going the other way all of that might be tactics because remember what they're trying to say is that those people here who have not gone inside the building who are not throwing things who are in a sense peacefully demonstrating they're trying to say that all those people should clear and perhaps and of course i'm speculating here because i have no idea what's going on in the minds of the police commanders but what they could be thinking is let's put some warnings out there let's drive vans close and then reverse them again to try and concern people enough that they'll start to leave leaving only
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a hardcore of protesters inside no evidence of that has to be said i haven't seen lots of people leaving and there are definitely 10000 actually quite honestly it seems to grow in the last couple hours my guess would be closer to 20000 people now protesters don't seem to be going anywhere yeah extraordinary scenes that we're witnessing there right now and inside that building in quite a contrast to as you say the peaceful protests that began. much earlier in the day through the streets of hong kong to mark what is today the 22nd anniversary of the british handover of power on kong to china what was the sense that you're getting that talk a little bit more about the sense you're getting from protesters there about how they're viewing. what the protesters inside the building are trying to do here and whether it is helping the large of course here.
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well that is the big question because the hundreds of thousands of people marching through the streets on monday through the main streets of hong kong were calling for a very narrow issue to be sorted out and that is the formal cancellation of these extradition proposals that the government here and the legislative council were trying to pass a couple of weeks by the chief executive has said that essentially those proposals are indefinite hold on indefinite hold but she hasn't formally canceled any idea that they might come back and the protesters in the streets want her to do that and that is their one and frankly their only aim that subtle change in the government's position but one that most of those hundreds of thousands marching in the street i think would be a very significant and symbolic victory for them those here want more they don't just want the cancellation of those extradition laws they also want the
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previous protests the people involved in those protests to be released and not charged with rioting because that carries a significant prison term they want to be seen as protesters not as right as they want the resignation of the chief executive kerry lamb and many of those i've spoken to here want to go beyond that they feel they have momentum now and they want more democracy to hong kong whatever that ends up being now the government is clearly trying to draw a line between these 2 sets of protesters the peaceful ones if you like you took part in the march they put out a statement a government a couple of hours ago saying that they respect the rights of hong kong to go out in the streets and protest and that those people weren't breaking any laws but they also sent out a statement saying that these protesters are doing something very very different they are rioters they're causing criminal damage and what one feels they're trying to do is create a situation where hong kong is the. selves see 2 different groups of protesters
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some the most support the people in the streets and some that they can't because they're causing criminal damage and you feel as if if they can create cit a situation by which public opinion is still on the side of people marching in the street but not on the side of these people then perhaps public opinion will swing behind what the government is trying to do rather than what the protesters are trying to do. already we know you'll be keeping abreast of all of the latest developments there for us for the moment andrew thomas live for us there in hong kong as the protesters there continue to occupy the legislative building in hong kong what began as pro-democracy protests on this 22nd anniversary of the hand handover of hong kong to china from the united kingdom and
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a little over 2 hours ago. a number of protesters broke into that building and have now seize control over we haven't seen any police presence at this point although as andrew said they put out a statement saying that they were prepared to come in at any point and we'll of course be keeping abreast of those developments as and when anything it does happen let's take a moment now to go back to our other top story iran's announcement its exceeded the amount of enrich uranium it's allowed to possess under the 2050 nuclear deal. is the executive director at the vienna center for disarmament and nonproliferation she joins us now from vienna thanks very much for being with us so. help us understand how how having good to have you with us help us understand how important this development is then a lot of people are saying this is effectively the end of the j.c.
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way the iran nuclear deal do you think it is i don't think that's the end of the d.c. p.o.v. and frankly speaking this is more of a technical very much of the agreement and of the so-called iran deal and disappear a iran needed to cap the. stock of a floor under its uranium under 202 kilograms point 8 and now it reached 205 kilograms of that 1st of all it and now it's that it won't be doing that and this is something that was expected to happen. but i would say that none of this would need to have happened if the transferred ministration didn't withdrew from the. last year but from the from the i'm well i'm less concerned sure just when i ask you
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a little more about the significance of this from a proliferation stand for because that's obviously a major concern right now and this plan to enrich uranium brianne the 3.6 percent 3.67 percent i believe. because experts say points like you certain you have experts like yourself are saying that 20 percent enriched uranium is most of the way to weapons grade uranium alone and that that is that is a concern and that they will dig the this gets them closer to being able to build a nuclear weapon. ok i'm not sure. the covert can still hear us at the moment can you hear me hello. can you can you hear me yes ok i just know i
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can hear you yeah i wanted to ask you about. what implications this has from a proliferation standpoint because the worry particular among the european partners is that this now gets iran closer to being able to develop a nuclear weapon. this particular bridge doesn't really get around closer to the 2 than you cleared up front because them out of this material that where speaking about is insignificant in order for iran to really make a step to the acquiring material for the nuclear weapons it would have 1st of all to accumulate much more material more than 101000 kilograms now we're talking about 205 kilograms but it's not only part of the problem it would also have to
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reach it much harder. first to the 90 percent enriched uranium and that would take months to achieve it given the limited number of the centrifuges for enrichment that iran currently has more or it probably won't be able to do it without noticing of without a notice because there are the international atomic energy inspectors in iran that are closely watching watching the operation of their enrichment facilities and centrifuges so i wouldn't really. courage to rise it is the leap to the bomb or. increased capacity at this point it is more about signaling what iran wants to do is to indicate to the european partners they need to actually act and help iran with the establishing
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mechanisms that are working and that facilitate trade with iran and not be punished by the u.s. sanctions but also technically speaking this latest breach of the law and. amount is also something that happened because of the u.s. interaction of secondary sanctions and the exemption of the end of the exemptions under the us legislation of countries that are participating in the retrieval of the low end of each uranium from iran because they are there is an mechanisms. there is a mechanism to solve this issues there is a joint commission where the countries the european countries china we've got to
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leave now and rationally to get us to get together analysis of this thanks very much for being with us in a simple no worries hour gun battle between security forces and taliban fighters in the afghan capital has ended the shootout followed a huge explosion that killed at least 16 people and injured more than 100 in kabul smoke was seen billowing from an area near the u.s. embassy in the city are question while he is in kabul with the details. it was a really heavy explosion in kabul this morning on one of the busiest streets of kabul during the rush hour when number of attackers attacked logistic department of the one difference ministry out of the militias building there exploded a mini truck full of explosives and the rest of the attackers managed to take a position on the rooftop of the nearby buildings. security forces arrived at the scene they cordoned off the area and they were engaged with the attackers. claiming that us was ready for this attack and at a time when that holding be stuck with
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a u.s. official at the moment at least 11 people have been killed in sudan since sunday's mass protest demonstrators were demanding a civilian led government but security forces responded with gunfire and tear gas it was the 1st major protest since the military violently broke up a sit in nearly a month ago killing at least $100.00 people were you know how much has more. they defied warnings from the military to stay at home hundreds of thousands of sudanese filled the streets of khartoum and nearby towns with the really cool they've demanded for months hand to the power to a civilian led government. but security forces responded by opening fire and using tear gas. which is to say the army prevented them from crossing a bridge from the city of durham on to khartoum the more than normal at 1st they were shooting in the air when the crowd grew they started shooting at us. 3 bodies were found on monday morning showing signs of torture but activists accuse the
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military gentile of being behind the violence mean. the responsibility for these deaths and injuries falls squarely on the military regime dismally failed to protect the lives of peaceful sudanese civilians for the 2nd and 3rd time we witnessed live firings directed at the heads of those killed by the sudanese people proved their unwavering commitment in achieving civilian led government. the army argues that unidentified snipers fired on people and insists it only responded with force after being attacked. the military and other forces were in their stations and stones were thrown at them from within the demonstration the rapid support forces moved in and managed to hold those who are firing at them accountable investigations are being carried out at this moment. sunday's protest which
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organizes called the 1000000 man march was the largest gathering since the military broke up the sit in nearly a month ago. at least $100.00 people were killed and the media and internet blackout forced talks have collapsed between the military council and civilian groups since then and the protests coincide with the end of a deadline under a plan set up by ethiopia and the african union to resolve the crisis and for the military to hand over power. there were hopes that the balance of power would change in favor of the protest movement but the latest violence appears to indicate otherwise. so don is at a critical point but activists say the military won't deter their show of strength . al-jazeera. for the 2nd time e.u. leaders have failed to pick a new president for the bloc despite 20 hours of talks they're divided over who should succeed. as head of the european commission eastern european
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objecting to dutch socialist frontin romans who has backing from germany spain and france they'll meet again on tuesday to try and find a consensus on who will lead the e.u. for the next 5 years let's go now to wayne hay who is inside the legislative council building in hong kong the top story we've been covering for you. the protesters there taking over that building for almost 3. the hours now they stormed inside the building and wayne hay is in there amongst them for swain what is the latest the you are hearing and seeing it. yes it was still quite amazing scenes here has and you're right it was about 3 hours ago around 9 pm local time we're coming up to midnight now that the protesters managed to force their way inside the legislative council building in hong kong effectively the
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parliament here they had been surrounding this complex for the entire monday really and over the past few hours before they forced their way in they had been putting a lot of effort into trying to smash their way through very strong thick reinforced glass windows and doors and it seemed at that stage has them that it was more of a symbolic move that they weren't actually going to go inside even though they did manage to breach the exterior but then as i say at around 9 o'clock in the evening they did exactly that they stormed inside this building and all the way up several floors to where we are now which is the actual debating chamber there is still a small group of protesters in here the numbers have dropped a bit specially since rumors have been swirling suggestions coming from the police themselves through social media posts that what has happened here is extremely unlawful and they will take action soon they said to retake this building so as
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news of that notice spread certainly i think a lot of people took that opportunity to get out of this building a hard core group is still here have to say also has them they've made a lot of damage throughout this building there is a lot of graffiti on the walls and many rooms of the building they have smashed windows and doors there was water flowing through one of the lower levels so quite a serious situation of course they are not sure yet exactly what their plan is this is a fairly organic protest movement and the leaders if we can call them that who are inside this room right now are saying they're going to make an announcement within the next few minutes midnight local time about whether they will leave the legislative council building. and i don't know if you've had a chance to talk to any of the people there but what is the sense the day you're getting about why they're doing this and what they you know what their what their end game here is is what their plan is. well i think as
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far as a plan goes it's very difficult to tell even talking to some of the so-called leaders of this movement they can shed very little light on that because this really for the most part has been a bit of a leaderless movement really for the past 3 weeks of as we've seen these protests on the streets of hong kong it's been a fairly organic movement even as you observe them throughout the course of a protests like we did throughout monday you know there are many people shouting orders there are many different decisions being made in minds being changed about what to do next and i think that is the situation right now as well as far as why they made this decision it's a little bit similar as well no one can really say exactly why other than there was an overwhelming since among the masses that they feel like they needed to do something that they feel like they were backed into a corner that this was a desperate situation they feel like kerry lamb the chief executive of hong kong
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and who government simply has not been listening to them over the past 3 weeks in particular related of course to this controversial extradition bill that would allow criminal suspects to be sent to china to mainland china to face the justice system there but that's just been seen as one example of what the protesters feel is a deterioration of their rights and that this government is increasingly coming under the influence of beijing. when thanks for that wayne hay for the moment live for us there in hong kong in that inside that legislative building where hundreds of protesters have stormed the legislature on the 22nd anniversary of the cities and over to china from british rule on monday destroying pictures dubbing walls and desk with the feet in what's been seen as a direct challenge to china as anger of war began a protest over an extradition bill spiraling out of control the extraordinary scenes that we've seen over the last couple of hours police have said they plan to
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move in and clear the area shortly but we. i've not seen any indication of that so far the room of course keeping abreast of what is a very fluid situation there in hong kong and we will be back with much more on this and all of the other top stories that we are following for you here on these are live pictures that you're looking at just outside the entrance of that legislative building more in. the pages of this exercise book code unspeakable manoli compiled testimonies of victims of congolese mercenaries as this intimate evidence finds its way to international courts the central african republic is plunged into further tumult and intricate 10 of the people and a nation crippled by recent history. afrikaans part 2 of a 2 part series on al-jazeera. when the news breaks these protesters
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and the story bill that's. when people need to be eliminated immediately if you don't have the right to make a living on the story needs to be told. al jazeera has teams on the ground to bring lulu old women to interest and lightnings on air and online. the venezuela colombia border has become a stomping ground for trespassers. as desperate people transgress an illegal passage. to feed an emerging field trafficking markets. we follow that perilous journey unguarded through the line of fire. risking it all. venezuelan colombia. on al-jazeera.
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under the 2015 nuclear deal. an explosion and gun battle in the afghan capital kabul at least 10 people are dead. deadlock in brussels as european union leaders work through the night but failed to agree on who should fill the blocks top jobs. or begin in hong kong where protesters have all keep eye the territories legislative building began as many weeks ago as protests over an extradition bill and protests that began today on the 22nd anniversary of hong kong's handover to china from british rule. police said put out a statement a couple of hours ago said saying that they were ready to move in to disperse the protesters that we were seeing hundreds of them lined up right now these are live pictures. you're looking at just outside the legislative building.
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we're going to go live now to wayne hay who is inside the parliament building for so wayne i'm not sure if he's seeing these pictures outside but huge numbers of police are lined up outside and they're ready to move in as we speak. yes i think has them that has probably happened a little quicker than the people inside this building were expecting certainly they were well aware of that statement that the police made in fact we're hearing about the shouting coming out from behind us now there are still some protests does you were inside when the debating chamber so were a few floors up from where the protesters burst into the latest river i counsel building a few hours ago. we've seen this erupting quite a few times actually have to say over the past few hours as they have been in this
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room and i think what they're saying now is that they need to get out of here that is the message now coming from these protesters although some of them still seeming to file an amazing scene say this is the debating chamber as i mentioned a place where lawmakers would be sitting throughout the course of a session debating laws introducing bills and in fact those people that we saw coming in and out going through a door so it looks like most people are taking this opportunity to get out of this building at the moment has them yeah all sorts of descriptions for what we're seeing here right now waiting extraordinary unprecedented mazing i mean i would add another word to this and i would say frightening because it's really not clear right now what just what's going to happen whatever it is that's happening is unfolding in front of live cameras around the world and the authorities here have to be aware of that. i. i. yes and the
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10 scenes that you are seeing here are think i sign has them all some of the kids should really was as we've been reporting this is being a fairly organic protest movement right from the beginning about 3 weeks ago when they 1st took to the streets of hong kong to protest against the proposed extradition bill that would allow for criminal suspects to be sent to mainland china to face justice i mean that's what critics say it's a feeling i predictable legal system in mainland china and it's being because of that whole gamut nature a very confusing at times doesn't appear that they're being i many strong leaders to this movement things evolve throughout the course of a day and certainly that was the case about 3 hours ago there was even though they had been smashing or at least trying to smash the windows and the doors to this building throughout the course of monday the feeling was among the protesters that
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this was really going to be another symbolic gesture from them that it was a certainly a fairly violent aggressive way of sending a message to this government sending a message to beijing as well about the feelings of these protesters and that perhaps they weren't going to force their way and in fact as soon as they breached that exterior some of them did try to get in then they were pulled back at times by other protesters but that all changed about 3 hours ago when hundreds if not thousands of protesters came into this building and forced their way all the way to this level which is where the debating chamber is and we have to point out again has them that as they did that there was virtually no resistance from the police throughout the course of the day they had been police in the grounds of the legislative council building but as they made their way in it was as if the police just vanished there was no one stopping them the protesters who were the 1st to get to this room told us there was no one they saw no police as they came in and in. you walk around this building the signs of that are everywhere because the
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protesters have simply been able to do whatever they want over the past few hours they have drawn all over the walls there's graffiti everywhere they have torn down pictures from the walls of a wrecked and banners flags made a lot of damage in other rooms around this building as well so it's been very tense very confusing again the people here are very aware of the situation on the outside that there are police and i think it's fair to say that over the past hour or so that most protesters inside the building have taken the opportunity to leave yeah as you were saying there wayne police made a decision early on to pull back from this and allow things to play out inside the building but we are seeing the complete opposite of that right now a huge huge police presence outside the complex. there riot police with their well equipped and it appears and i mean it looks to looks
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here with whatever it is they're trying to do they're doing it with sheer force of of numbers more than anything else. yes and i think we can speculate for many hours and days to come as to why there was not more of a police presence throughout the course of the day you know this is a fear lee well fortified government building as many government buildings are and they could have protected this building as they have done over the past 3 weeks or so when we've seen the protesters on the streets this is been the focal point of those rallies for all of those protests over the past 3 weeks or so and they have protected it on those occasions so there was a sense that if they wanted to they could have done that on monday for whatever reason they did not use force for the most part today certainly earlier on monday morning there were some small clashes between protesters and police but as they took that. you know breaking into this building clearly breaking the law or along
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the way the police as i say pretty much vanished from sight this is a symbolic day the anniversary as you mentioned of the handover from great britain to china in 1997 and there was a feeling among the protesters that they needed to i think to take this to another level that's what they have been saying they needed to get the attention of the government because they felt that the government led by chief executive kerry lamb simply weren't taking notice of their demands they weren't listening to them they want kerry lamb to resign they want this extradition whale to be withdrawn not just suspended when sorry to interrupt for a moment as we're talking to you we're looking at these live pictures from outside and we are seeing signs that this is going to escalate they have started throwing what appeared to be tear gas canisters they were holding up signs just a moment ago warning protesters that they were about to do that and they are moving in right now they had put out a statement earlier saying that they would in their words use an appropriate level
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of force to clear protesters so it's. we'll wait to see as these as all of this unfolds. people will be looking at to see how restrained the police are in in this action and as i said earlier huge numbers of police. moving in right now andrew thomas i believe is is with us as well he is somewhere outside there andrea bring us up to date there is on the way you are in relation to what we're seeing there and what's happening in front of. yeah. yeah well. what i can tell you is in the last 20 minutes or so the place of move been in significant numbers we've just spent the last 15 minutes trying to get out of the position between the protesters and the place that are coming in there hundreds riot place in full. now we've managed to get behind the place lines now we
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believe will be a little bit safer than we were a few moments ago but you can just see a few of the place just in front of those flashing vans behind me now and then perhaps 200 meters beyond them is where some of the protesters all there's another position where we where there were many hundreds of place marching up the streets and we had to run to get to this position as a site where we're out of the cell in between protesters and between the place but significant numbers are going in a place now and you can see them i'm going to step out of the way so i pull in perhaps shows a little more but this is just one of perhaps 5 maybe 10 roads that collectively lead to the legislative council building which the protest is have essentially occupied and of course there are still tens of thousands of protesters maxing out of that building so. while there are hundreds of police perhaps 10000 protesters who are going in all in the so what has been
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a peaceful situation all of monday where the place was nowhere to be seen suddenly being seen in very big numbers and they're approaching this building from all directions yes certainly have you staying safe there right handy because when the kids were. wide shot there of the riot police as they move in their gas being thrown. and as you say huge numbers of them moving in now to try to clear this protest and as we were saying earlier the police of have come under criticism in the past only seen as a heavy handed way that they responded to protests a few weeks ago and one of the one of the criticisms was you know the excessive use of tear gas. all eyes will be on them and and how they handle this right now what is a very fluid to. generation unfolding in front of us. that's
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right well what the place would say and the city government here would say is that they have given these protests this plane seat of warning they told them that they were coming in about an hour and a half ago now they told them that the place would be moving in and that they would be clearing this building as i'm talking to you i can now start feeling the to guess a mile ice stinging the ice and we are probably with further away than we were probably about 7 or 800 meters away from the building where that tear gas is being fired into the crowds but even at this distance we can feel it stinging the ice on the back of the throat so the pictures you're seeing what the protest is that getting it will be that much worse not most of the protesters certainly those right outside the building that we saw here on monday were carrying at least mosques if not gas mosques they were also wrapping clingfilm around there all.
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