that name nuclear war and putting on watched more severe sanctions as well and in the end the north korean leader decided well i better go talk with president trump and see if we can settle this now and we know that that issue is still very much in the air it's not clear if that's going to reach a settlement but i suppose they can imagine the same process occurring in iran that after increased sanctions with iran facing the iranian government facing a dire consequences they may decide well we better send some special envoy who has the authority to negotiate a more comprehensive agreement that and that may be the logic that there i mean for good to speak with you richard watch thanks very much abuse. germany has rejected a u.s. request to help patrol the strait of hormuz as tensions with iran continue to mount more than a 5th of the world's oil passes through this area foreign minister hi qamar says germany wants to avoid any further escalation adding there's no military solution

to the tensions there the u.s. and want to germany to join the u.k. and france in a mission to patrol the crucial shipping link. doctors in the democratic republic of congo have quarantined 15 people in south kivu province of fears they've been infected by a bowl of all 15 members all 15 are members of the same family and recently returned from the provincial capital city of goma where a 2nd person died from a ball on wednesday a 3rd case has now been detected there catherine so i reports from nairobi. this is the clinic in goma where the man sought help before he died he fell sick days after returning home from an airborne infected area where he was working in a mining area the clinic is now closed some clinicians have been vaccinated and health workers are trying to trace people the victim made contact with. more than

a 1000000 people live in this city on the border with rwanda apical journey we did not know what was happening we just saw people looking like doctors carrying him away they said they will come back to the neatest. we are free and resident because we have seen how people are dying it would turn burn binny night and day. the 2nd worst outbreak in the country's history was declared a year ago and has since claimed the lives of 1700 people it's 2nd only to the outbreak in west africa that killed 11000 people 5 years ago health workers trying to come back to the outbreak are having to deal with militia groups and communities both hostile to them as well as poor infrastructure in vast regions where villages are hard to reach. for to mark a humble is an airborne a survivor who spends her time taking care of children whose parents are the sick or dead she also talks to people and have believed in the town of benny about the

importance of health care some congolese want to know about a new a ball a vaccine they've hired out from other jungle funds people are saying the new proposed vaccine isn't good enough workers need to seem surprised people so they can understand because this virus needs to go away the proposal by the world health organization to use a vaccine for clinical trials is controversial critics say the drug is experimental and shouldn't be tested on congolese people w.h.o. says vaccination is important for research expect. very clear. clinical trials to get more information on the. effectiveness this is a lot of more concrete recommendations the best way. for the search back in go more doctors try to work out how to stop the disease from spreading health workers in goma say the wall prepared to deal with this situation

they've set up hand washing points in different parts of the city they say the treatment centers are well equipped and they have enough personnel but they're also warning people to keep vigil avoid unnecessary contact with each other not to warry but people that we've been speaking to in goma a telling us it's very difficult to keep calm at this moment catherine soy al-jazeera nairobi kenya. or are plenty more ahead on this news hour a big move on interest rates by america's central bank president trump is not impress. 8 years on from one of the world's worst nuclear disasters japan says it's shutting down another plant in fukushima. sri lanka rediscover their groove after a disappointing world cup details coming up later in sports. all that still ahead but 1st it is day 2 of the 2nd round of debates between u.s.

democratic presidential hopefuls all eyes were on former vice president and current front runner joe biden he was criticized for a lackluster performance last month debate john hendren has been following it for a search from detroit to john that debate still going on but it looks like it's going to be coming to a close soon and joe biden very much had a target on his back once again this time around. that's right joe biden is the front runner in this race and when he walked into the fox theater behind me he might as well of had a target on his back because everybody was gunning for him you may recall in the 1st debate harris the california senator savaged him on bussing that is the policy decades ago whereby minorities were to be transferred to mostly white neighborhoods to get

a better education well that knocked his poll numbers down and hers went up so this time when he walked onto that stage embrace terrorists and he said go easy on me kid but when the questioning started it was by going who really launched the 1st strike attacking her plan for government funded health care he said the senator has had several plans so far you can't be president trump with double talk on this plan and then one after another and avalanche of attacks came from other candidates on immigration julio castro the former u.s. secretary of housing and urban development under obama said it looks like one of us has learned the lessons of the past and one of us has and that was a reference to the fact that under president obama more people were actually deported from the united states than under president trump then on criminal justice cory booker the senator from new jersey attacked by in the saying use that phony tough on crime rhetoric that destroyed my community and many others lives in newark

new jersey an urban neighborhood in a mostly minority area and then on climate change jay inslee the governor of washington state said mr vice president your argument is not with me it's with science and unfortunately your plan simply doesn't do enough and time after time every time you is hit biden struck back but polls will show in the coming days whether those attacks will leave a mark. and john that there's been criticism of the whole formats of many of these . it's a you know the fact that you've got $1010.00 of them on stage and there's the they have a limited amount of time that they can respond to it doesn't lend itself to a very substantial debate so how much can we glean about where where these candidates really stand on some of these important issues. that's absolutely true when the 1st series of debates the candidates kept interrupting

each other and it was something of a free for all so this time the rules were a little tighter and you had a shorter amounts of time the moderators were quick to interrupt and if you interrupted another candidate they took time away but what that means is it gives you a little time for quick quips and sound bites but it's not a lot of time for real substance each candidate was allowed to answer if they were criticized and there was some back and forth you were able to get into a little substance but the format for 10 candidates is just simply almost impossible to really have a meaningful debate and i think there's a lot of hope for the next debate when we're expecting instead of 20 candidates maybe 8 to 10 hours of. arrive for the moment john hendren live for us there in detroit thanks john how the u.s. central bank has cut interest rates by a quarter point the 1st reduction in a decade the head of the federal reserve cited signs of a global slowdown and the u.s.

china trade disputes the president did his disappointment he was expecting a bigger rate cut the outlook for the u.s. economy remains favorable and this action is designed to support that outlook it is intended to insure against downside risks from weak global growth and trade policy uncertainty to help offset the effects these factors are currently having on the economy and to promote a faster return of inflation to our symmetric 2 percent objective. he has more on this from washington. the chairman of the federal reserve cited 3 main factors for the rate cut the weakening global economic outlook the weakening outlook for u.s. trade around the world as a result and we conflation in the united states his argument seemed to be look the u.s. economic indicators are humming along why don't just give them a little bit of a boost with this quarter percent rate cut he denied any political pressure but we do know that dog trump has been pushing for rate cuts from the fed larger than this

one that is because clearly don't trust once the economy to keep on expanding into the 2020 economic cycle drone pilot 1st saying that he didn't see this is a long succession of rate cuts but then he clarified that suggests that there may be more rate cuts to come perhaps orszag will get more rate cuts simply because of his economic policy the only certainty over trade as a result of his trade wars and trade rhetoric but also the economic policy to prioritize enormous cuts for the wealthy and corporations and not sustainable investments into the u.s. is economy itself so he he may get his his rate cuts but he won't so much of the u.s. national security adviser says north korea's recent missile tests do not violate a pledge it made to stop testing long range weapons pyongyang tested short range missiles on wednesday state media reported leader kim jong un personally oversaw the launch is kim met the u.s.

president last month along the demilitarized zone and separates north and south korea the 2 leaders agreed to revive talks on pyongyang's nuclear program rob mcbride has more from seoul. the weapon system north korea says it tested is very different to the 2 short range ballistic missiles 1st described by south korean officials on wednesday in an official statement from its state run news agency north korea says that it was in fact a multiple guided rocket. system a test that was overseen by north korean leader kim jong un he was said to be pleased with the test a system which it said would cause inescapable distress to whoever was on the receiving end the fact that it doesn't seem to be a ballistic missile makes it less of a provocation but it also seems to indicate that if a rocket could be mistaken for a missile then it does show a significant advance in north korea's rocket technology and still this is

a system that would put much of south korea within range the timing of this test is still significant it comes just ahead of planned exercises between south korean and u.s. forces in its statements north korea made no specific reference to south korea but in another editorial wednesday it has criticized the south for so-called double dealing in being involved in these exercises meanwhile the u.s. national security advisor john bolton has been speaking on u.s. television playing down this test saying it doesn't break with kim jong un's promise that he made to donald trump not to test long range intercontinental ballistic missiles but as far as the working level talks are concerned that are meant to get under way between north korean and u.s. officials that they agreed on in their meeting on the d.m.z.

a month ago he had no news on that saying it was up to north korea to respond that basically it was for them to make the next move china says it will stop each shooting individual tram travel permits to taiwan to people from 47 mainland cities starting on thursday the decision from the culture and tourism ministry follows an increase in tension between beijing and taipei wednesday as more from shanghai. in the 1st half of this year more than $600000.00 people from china visited taiwan so this decision will certainly have an economic impact and that seems to be the motivation behind it to apply pressure on the government in taiwan led by president sighing when who very much opposes the one china principle we have the election to coming up in january next year and there's no doubt that the government in china would prefer to see a more pro beijing person in office in taipei the decision also comes after some

fairly provocative events recently we had the latest arms sale announced by the united states to taiwan worth more than $2000000000.00 that certainly angered beijing there was a visit also by president sighing when to some caribbean nation some of the few countries that still have diplomatic relations with taiwan on her way there and back she stopped off in the united states words which also angered the government in china and the government in taiwan is also offered to provide sanctuary to protesters in hong kong who have been rallying against their own government and also increasing influence from beijing. it is the most contentious part of the whole brags it would draw a deal between the u.k. and the e.u. worries over the so-called irish backstop dominating boys johnson's 1st visit to northern ireland as prime minister is vowed to overhaul the deal despite the e.u.

repeatedly turning down the embargo reports from belfast. 7 grabbing the attention of the prime minister or trying to these belfast shipyard workers are set to lose their jobs their predicament just one of the challenges northern ireland's devolved government here at stormont could be addressing if it were up and running. for its johnson promise to spend no effort to make that happen it's great to be to be here in northern ireland and. t.v. the people in or out of giving without a government without stormont for 2 years and 6 months so my prime focus this morning is to do everything i can to help that get up and running again the 5 political parties here have been talking since may about how to get the northern irish assembly back in business it was set up in 1980 as part of a peace deal that gave this part of the u.k. a degree of autonomy but issues including irish language rights and access to abortion remain divisive on top of that politicians have wildly differing views on

brics it and specifically boris johnson's insistence that the e.u. scraps the so-called irish backstop keeping the whole of the u.k. closely aligned with the u. rules until there's a trade deal in place and it's very clear that the end is the backstop that has caused all of the difficulties with the winter olympics and therefore. subject to focus negotiations and therefore we will support. other parties say the backstop is essential to prevent a hard border they're worried what they call the prime minister's hardline strategy will backfire and see the u.k. leave the e.u. without a deal that in their view would inevitably lead to physical checks at the border between northern ireland and the republic of ireland. and christian faith in the main nationalist party we could even be to push for a referendum on uniting north and south we've made it clear to him that the extensive planning that he tells us he is carrying in respect of a potential crash. the constitutional question on the issue of

a border poll here in ireland. seen feigns ultimate is and always has been achieving a united ireland to make clear warning to the prime minister is the way he's going about brics it could make up prospects a great deal more likely. for now the action at stormont is outside the parliament not in sight even if the assembly does against all expectations resume its work in the near future the challenge of protecting the good friday agreement that created it could make delivering any kind of breaks it an uphill struggle barbara al-jazeera belfast. when we come back here on al-jazeera. 6 months after it was at the center of a deadly attack by and chabad fighters a kenyan hotel reopens israel makes a surprise announcement about palestinian homes in the occupied west bank. and the woman who guided the usa to world cup glory is going out on top of the details

later in sport. hello again some very heavy rain pushing into southern sections of china now the satellite is a massive cloud an eminence all of this we have actually got a tropical storm with well actually weaken in terms of winds quite rapidly over the next 24 hours but it will notice in those rains you can see has some very top. the right their way into buying dong we could well see some flooding rains 28 degrees in hong kong with very heavy amounts to a nichols the winds will be strong they will certainly be gusting winds and we could well see some local flooding and you can see what it's doing to the temperatures in fact on friday as that woman hong kong very very wet and the same for that to the west as you can see meanwhile up to shanghai is

a dry couple of days temperatures in the mid thirty's celsius those rains extend early fall south as well certainly across into much of southern sections of thailand across into fit but it's mostly fair father to the south and by friday 7 we might just see some more rain showers pushing into one holden and eastern sections of borneo but fairly clear really set in terms of rain across much of the west 33 celsius in color and then into india again these rains have really ramped up in the last few days central sections of india down across the west and gas as well but look at this by thursday and friday we see those rains once again in the 4 calls up across into nepal bangladesh and the northeast of india. who was sponsored by countdown. to main the intersection of reality and comedy and post revolution 2 new 0. mission to entertain educate and provoke debate through satire. weapon of choice theater.

and intimate look at what inspires one of tuna's year's most popular comedians to make people laugh. my tune is the pat on al-jazeera. a conflict that is now considered to be the world's worst humanitarian crisis the only good luck will have to die this horrible stock response is really for sale and investigation into how billions of euros are made from supplying arms to saudi arabia a leader of the coalition fighting a war in the south the case is interesting to watch the amounts of money involved yemen war profiteers on al-jazeera.

and again you're watching i just did a reminder of our top stories this hour the united states has imposed sanctions on iran's foreign minister mohammad jevons relief the u.s. says he promotes what he calls the reckless agenda of iran's supreme leader so the feedback saying it's because he's considered a threat to washington's agenda. doctors in the democratic republic of congo have quarantined 15 people in south kivu province over fears they've been infected by a bowler more than 1600 people have died in the latest outbreak to hit the country since august 2800. day 2 of the 2nd round of debates between us democratic presidential hopefuls is coming to cold coming to an end in detroit many of the candidates have been sparring with former vice president and front runner joe biden. well let's get more on that now with steve clemons editor at

large of the american political news site the hill he joins us now from washington good to speak with you. so joe brought up by. the front runner once again in the last debate he seemed a bit on prepared caught off guard once again he was he was a target of the others did he did he deliver a better performance tonight i think it was a far far better performance than we saw from joe biden in the 1st round i think he knew he was going to be attacked his numbers of solidified and he put some of his opponents on the defensive particularly caramelize harris and her record as attorney general in california on criminal justice issues so it was clear that joe biden studied up on his opposition and had stories to tell about their things you know i think that it didn't it didn't change the fact that he was a target on many fronts we'll have to see what the american public feels but my sense is that nothing dramatically changed today after this that biden protected

his position whereas last time he lost a lot of ground and just just to remind ourselves there are 20 candidates in these debates that's why they had a separate one the night before with the other 10 in that one day seem to be a clear. sort of ideological divide between the the progressives the far left just water and bernie sanders and the more modest those are the more moderate rather centrist candidates was there a similarly divide that you saw in this debate. well not in the same way what was really interesting is that last night you had congressman john delaney really taking that middle centrist pragmatic lane he's pro trade he's pro globalist don't meddle with companies we saw a little bit of that tonight but the biggest the biggest divides this evening were over the costs of health care and how much role the government should have so that

was like last evening but unlike last evening there was a tremendous racial diversity on stage last night you only had white candidates because of the luck of the draw tonight you had a you know a rainbow of perspectives and so race schooling segregation what to do with donald trump's comments about baltimore and racial divides dominated a much bigger chunk of the conversation that it did last night so do you think do you think all that talk about donald trump and this and the things is he said and race and so on was at the expense of some of the kind of bread and butter issues that you mentioned earlier like health care. the more substantive issues what it was at the expense of that do you think. well i think that you know a lot of americans in particular in the midwest america you know farmers this came up last evening in a much more robust way where as farmers are saying you know while we're out here

dying under the trade deals in the sanctions that the president is the point with china nobody's buying our crops democrats want to talk about dollars from his tax returns you know trying to say the democrats are distracted by issues that are not hitting the kitchen table i think last night it was a good discussion of those kitchen table issues tonight there was less so there was discussion of health care and how to pay for it but it quickly got into these huge numbers of you know universal health care and whether it would cost $30.00 trillion dollars the moment you enter in that conversation you've left the average american behind and how he or she is navigating his way through the costs of health care and coverage so in my view last night was closer to the mark of people's pocketbook tonight was more 30000 feet you know sort of higher concept questions and in you know we'll have to see how it plays but there was

a very very big difference between these 2 groups of candidates between how close to the ground they were tonight didn't hit that in my view and did we will have to see how this does play as you said in spud's the latest polls will give some indication of that for the moment. steve clemons thanks very much for being with us . protests leaders in sudan have called for a 1000000 man march on thursday to demand justice for the killing of at least 6 demonstrators earlier in the week rallies have been taking place ever since security forces opened fire on a student protest in north called off on on monday morgan has more from neighboring ethiopia. for the 3rd successive day students in various parts of sudan raise their voices calling for justice and accountability and trials for the soldiers who opened fire on fellow students on monday at least 6 were killed and dozens injured

in north dakota fun as they protested about the cost of living the protesters called for justice are repeated by the african women. in the city how do you think the african union cares it directly denounces the killing of students taking person a peaceful process and offer our condolences to the families of those who lost their lives we use the quick arrest of those responsible for the killings and for them to stand trial and face punishments according to the laws in this country. monday's shooting happened at high school students complained about the lack of bread and the rising cost of fuel and transport as students took to the streets to mourn and point their anger at monday's killings the military council blamed the opposition put to death and ordered the closure of schools nationwide the opposition coalition known as the forces of freedom and change continues to negotiate with the military to form a transitional government oh it's aimed at replacing the military rule in place since long time president i want to be sure was ousted in april the sudanese

communist party one of the opposition parties which is part of the coalition an ounce that it wouldn't participate in talks to form a government. and we as a party will not go down that path or play a role in the transitional authority are communist party takes the side of the masses we will escalate the situation in the streets and continue effort. to achieve the hopes and aspirations of our people or to bring about radical change. most of the protests have been led by the sudanese professional association it says the communist party through people to participate want hans negotiations and called for more protests to pressure the military to relinquish power plant was sure since it was toppled all the parties said there would not participate in any of the levels of the transitional authority so the communist party is no different but that does not mean that those parties will not take part in the future government and civilian government has been the demand of demonstrators ever since they took

to the streets in december now they're also demanding justice and accountability for the rising number of protesters being killed while campaigning for change he will morgan under the. if you. are the start of a corruption trial for sudan's former president bashir has been perspiring for 2 weeks but cher was due to appear in court on wednesday is charged with corruption and possessing foreign currency illegally this year was always thrown in arrested in a military coup in april after months of protests against his rule israel's security cabinet has approved permits for the construction of $700.00 palestinian homes in the occupied west bank it's a rare announcement before a visit to israel this week by senior white house adviser general kirschner is expected to push both sides to join talks in camp david in the lead up to israeli elections in september harris foresaid has the latest from west jerusalem. well just days after carrying out an extremely controversial series of demolitions of

palestinian homes in occupied east jerusalem the israeli government is now sanctioning the construction of some $700.00 palestinian homes in the part of the occupied west bank which it controls known as area c. at the same time notably talking about the approvals of some $6000.00 units in illegal israeli settlements as well all of this coming at the same time as a tour of the region by president donald trump's son in law jared cushion or and his chief envoy to the region jason green blatt will be visiting both jordan israel qatar saudi arabia and the united arab emirates at a time when the israeli press is reporting that the u.s. intends to host a summit at camp david the presidential retreat for arab leaders to brief them on the details or at least the broad outlines of the trump peace plan now according to that reporting president trump intends to talk about in hard seeing palestinian autonomy but stopping well short of palestinian statehood and that is

a message that his ambassador to israel david friedman has also been putting out an interview on c.n.n. he said that autonomy would only be enhanced or increased up to the point that it does not affect israeli security so stopping well short of a palestinian state the palestinians of course will be entirely opposed to that in fact there has been reaction from the p.a. foreign ministry saying that this is all it intended to achieve 3 things to increase netanyahu is chance as prime minister netanyahu has chances in the israeli elections coming up in september also to consolidate normalization between israel and other arab states before the resolution of the israeli palestinian conflict and thirdly to try to achieve peace with the exclusion of the palestinians something which of course the palestinians will resolutely opposed. in northern japan all nuclear reactors in the region devastated by the earthquake and tsunami years ago are to be shut down tokyo electric power company will switch off the 4 reactors

still operating in the fukushima prefecture they are near the daiichi plant where 3 reactors melted down in the tsunami disaster and nearly 20000 people died in the tidal wave of destruction 160000 people were forced to leave their homes that contaminated homes that is and many have not returned it means japan is now left with $33.00 reactors to generate electricity nationwide compared with $54.00 before the disaster the estimated cost for dismantling and decontamination is more than $2.00 and a half $1000000000.00 and it's expected to take more than 40 years jonathan carvers a senior analyst for the world nuclear association which represents the global industry he says nuclear power should be part of the drive towards low carbon elektra's to. it's correct that since the fukushima accident it was important for

the industry to look at why that reactor or those 3 reactors have by accident and to take measures in order to make sure that doesn't happen again so of course we should look at the way in which current reactors are being operated and make sure they're safe and that has already been done but there is a need because the world's energy demand is increasing and electricity in particular that we are going to need a new electricity generation and because of the need for low carbon generation and a reliable form of generation nuclear needs to be part of that mix i think people now are looking at what is actually happening in germany so they did decide to phase out the reactors by 2022 but in doing so they have had to keep open coal stations that should have closed and so those coast ations may not close until the mid twenty's thirty's much later than many other countries in europe are managing to achieve and by keeping those co plants open germany is doing much more harm in terms of air pollution and increasing greenhouse gas emissions so even though they

have invested in renewables they're wasting that effort by keeping co plants going instead of using all their low carbon generation.