lowers report that says the white house trying to lock down the transcript of a phone call in that july call president donald trump pressed ukraine's president to find dirt on a rival presidential candidate in this case former u.s. vice president joe biden reads like a classic organized crime shakedown the report says u.s. officials told the unnamed whistleblower that they were directed by white house lawyers to transfer the transcript of a conversation to a separate electronic system that is otherwise used to store and handle classified information even though the call did not contain anything remotely sensitive that left trump's new acting director of national intelligence explaining on capitol hill why he withheld that mid august report from congress until thursday we consulted with the white house counsel's office and we were advised that much of the information the complaint was in fact subject to executive privilege a privilege that i do not have the authority to waive so a white house transcript of that call shows that trump repeatedly urged ukraine's

volodymyr zelinsky to investigate whether joe biden sought to interfere in a conflict of interest probe of the ukrainian gas company for which his son hunter biden worked at the time trump was with holding nearly $400000000.00 in aid without explanation under fire trump denies using any pressure what these guys are doing democrats are doing to this country is it grace but they're going to tie up our country because frankly this so tied up this so it's good up as the director of national intelligence testified here on capitol hill president trump was at the united nations talking to staff he told them he wanted to know who told the whistleblower about his phone call adding that they were close to a spy and then he said something that sounded menacing. according to the whistleblower several senior u.s.

officials were concerned by the president's call now exhibit number one in hearings to decide whether to impeach donald trump john hendren al-jazeera washington. still ahead on al-jazeera britain's prime minister suffers another political blow as he tries to push ahead with bricks it. was a rule change in the u.s. means for hundreds of thousands of refugees hoping to settle there. has a very unsettled picture it is across much of europe this talk of the huge amounts of stream across central areas eastern regions and to the old west a new area of low pressure right now we've seen some very stormy conditions and have a look at this this is the off some all some severe storms came through some of the audience in greece this is catalonia or off to the storm came through more than 4

times as that time average in just one day about 90 millimeters of rain so some widespread damage across the island as that storm system working its way further eastwards and moving pretty swiftly say through friday it's really going to be bulgaria on interim a new as we have the threat of some more severe storms and then really across northern europe and their central regions out to the northwest this is where the next area of low pressure will be so this is where the very heavy rain will be and some pretty strong winds as well tom it is our own fighting to battle even underneath all that rain and clouds 16 in berlin 22 pretty nice image at $28.00 as cold up there in moscow 10 celsius but still about 5 degrees below the average and it's a very simple story and south of that rain becoming much more widespread mostly case guys across much of the south some kara conditions pushing in so much of turkey and as you can see it's still pretty warm in the southwest not about day in paris with a high of 20 celsius.

you're watching al-jazeera a reminder of our top stories this hour

a british tanker that iran had detained in the strait of hormuz is on the move and it's leaving its waters stana impera departing from the port where it was taken after being seized in july. the u.s. is deploying about 3 or patriot missiles for radar systems and $200.00 personnel to help boost saudi arabia's defenses the reinforcement is in response to an attack earlier this month from the world's largest oil refinery in the kingdom. u.s. democrats are appealing for more witnesses to come forward with evidence around donald trump's july phone call with his ukrainian counterpart the president has accused whistleblower of pressuring ukraine into investigating his political rival joe biden. a un investigator has dismissed comments from the saudi crown prince mohammed. the crown prince but how many bin salman has spoken publicly for the 1st time he said he's blamed for the death of journalist jamal khashoggi but didn't know it was going to happen but agnes said saudi or thought have stifled

her investigation. reports from new york. she spent months investigating the killing of saudi journalists. and concluded it was deliberate. and extrajudicial un special rapporteur to agnes also found credible evidence linking cause you exist death to crown prince mohammed. now almost a year after the killing of hostages. the saudi consulate in turkey the crown prince also known by his initials. american network p.b.s. he bears responsibility in the murder but denies personal involvement easer crown prince of saudi arabia so clearly everything at pening in saudi arabia or related to saudi arabia is happening under his watch i you know i haven't found the

statement as riveting as maybe some people may find it. a global strain saudi arabia has relations with many countries turkey blames officials of stalling the investigation into what happened on october the 2nd this is the moment mr into the saudi consulate to retrieve documents for his upcoming wedding to his turkish fiance. is seen here waiting for him outside of the consulate but never showed up again he was killed and his body dismembered by a death squad the whereabouts of his remains still shrouded in mystery you know kind of way to how many missile we're crown prince bears responsibility he must tell us who gave the order to kill jamal where is the body and why did they kill him so brutally over the last few years saudi authorities have a skill a to understand

a busting activists here were wise defend and clerics the murder of solid saudi arabia's ties with this. and many became alarmed by involvement in the war in yemen. european countries suspended arms sales to the oil which kingdom the murder of damage the reputation of m.p.'s was described by his as a reformer a liberal and committed to radically changing his religiously conservative country he was accused of being personally involved in his murder a year on it appears he's trying to rebuild his image. new york of course income has charged 9 members of a band opposition party living in exile with attempting to stage a coup the leader of the group called for an uprising to coincide with their plan for turn in november when haye has more from bangkok. these are just the latest

charges to be laid against some senior members of the band cambodian national rescue party these members are in exile most of them left cambodia in 2017 after the party was dissolved by the courts for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government the leader of the party at that time ken said carr was arrested on treason charges and he is still being held under house arrest in phnom penh the opposition say that this is a straight a campaign by the government led by prime minister who in saying who's been in power for 34 years and with the opposition out of the way his ruling cambodian people's party went on to win all seats in last year's election so the opposition and now are saying that these latest charges against the senior members of the party are just the latest attempt by the government to try to scare them away from returning to cambodia on the 9th of november when they've called for an uprising from the people of cambodia and for members of the military to quit their jobs and

to join the uprising so they've now also been charged as well as attempting to stage a coup with intention to commit armed rebellion so if they are found guilty of these latest charges they could be jailed for up to 30 years they say they are not afraid of these latest charges and they still plan to return to cambodia on the 9th of november. britain's prime minister has been dealt another blow in his push for an early election the house of commons speaker says under current rules it would be possible to go to the polls before the 31st so in britain the shadow to leave the e.u. charlie angela has more from london. following one of the most furious debate in british parliamentary history an attempt by the speaker of the house to restore some dignity to politics. yesterday.

the house did extol no credit. there was. an atmosphere in the chamber. worse than any i've known in my 22 years in the house on both sides passions were inflamed angry words were uttered. the culture. was toxic role of the prime minster's to unite the country there are calls for boris johnson to apologize r.t. he dismissed pleas from lawmakers to tone down his divisive language and said the best way to honor the memory of the murdered m.p. joe cox was to get bricks it cox who back to remain in the e.u. referendum was killed by a far right sympathizer but there was no apology fuelling concern that this is part of the prime minister's plan to pit the people against parliament address it the

use of language yesterday i am going over the past few weeks such as the surrender bill such as invoking the war so just talking about the trial and treachery it has clearly been tested and work shocked and worked and it is entirely designed to inflame hatred to. only hours after her statement the offices of m.p. jess phillips were attacked by a man calling her a fascist meanwhile in brussels the european parliament steering group met to discuss the current state of play insisting they're still waiting for the u.k. to put forward a workable alternative deal. because a solution would mean 1st finding compromise with european union then. building compromise in westminster to pass an agreement so maybe strategies and also one believe it has been all along is to provoke. on friday the u.k.

directed minister to join the table for more talks so the moves have it. back in parliament lawmakers voted down the government's request recess during next week's conservative party conference schedule into disarray. this is now a parliament of point scoring but trust has broken down and any consensus can bring it back but there's no indication that is the prime minister's plan with just 5 weeks to go before the u.k. is due to crash out with no deal unless an extension is secured or deal passed. and. trade talks between america and china will resume next month according to us media reports it's believed the meeting will take place in beijing on october 10th the trade war between the 2 countries has softened slightly over the past few weeks with the lifting of some tariffs the u.s. is proposing to cut the u.s. is proposing to cut the number of refugees it allows into the country if the plan

is adopted the number will be limited to $18000.00 over the next year that's an all time low rights groups have criticized the move particle hain has more from washington d.c. . the u.s. president donald trump has made this a key campaign issue he wants to send a message to his core supporters that he is cracking down on immigration this goes a step further this will be the lowest number of refugees allowed into the u.s. since the law passed in the refugee program in 1980 look at just 18000 refugees and really restricting where those come from to 3 different areas iraqis who helped the u.s. during the invasion about 1500 central american migrants and 5000 people facing religious persecution so the president has sent this number he had to do it before october 1st the beginning of the fiscal year now under the law he has to consult with congress he hasn't done that in the past it doesn't appear he's done that now

now congress could take steps to try and rein in the president on this issue we've seen in the democratically controlled house they've passed legislation that would increase this number but it's highly unlikely that it would get through the republican controlled senate controlled by the president's own party now we could see human rights groups try to file lawsuits try and block this very low number just to put in perspective barack obama had about 110000 refugees now going down 218000 the courts have been unwilling in most cases to take up these sorts of cases because the president is seen when it comes to this issue is having broad latitude . protests over the disappearance of dozens of students 5 years ago have turned violent in mexico. it's believed the 43 students were abducted by a gang with the help of corrupt security forces nobody has been convicted demonstrators marched through mexico city demanding justice the government has

announced it will reopen the case calling it a crime committed by state agents. the world's top athletes are hearing counsel for the world athletics championships which gets underway later on friday but one individual will be notable by his absence for the 1st time since 2003 the event went to involve its greatest ever star and the richardson reports on how track and field is facing up to life after you saying bolt. the stage where the hopes and ambitions of the world's best athletes will soon be played out. and for the 1st time in more than a decade the sport's biggest star won't be the center of attention. this will be a world championships without you sign bolts on the start line an individual whose appeal went far beyond the running track. time then for a new generation to step up well he's a he's the go you know but the sport has to continue it's like when michael jordan

was in one basket. they had to move on to other players you know i mean and that's what we have to do in this sport now you've got lebron james you guys different heard you have other athletes and you have competition that you have that's in basketball but i think trying to do the same thing and it's just a matter of creating the narrative bolts brilliance as a sprinter and is equally sparkling performances in front of the camera in short events like bass and let it's more generally captured a global audience what the sport now desperately requires is a new breakout star both on and off the track. south africa's cast to so many look to have the performance and profile levels to rival bolt but she's been banned from competition due to new rules which attempt to restrict to star in female run as. russia's suspension due to state sponsored doping has brought off letting more unwelcome headlines it's been

a tough 4 years as there's no point in being naive about that we have to grow the sport we know that we have to reach out beyond the beltway of of athletics fans we need to form partnerships at pretty much every level co will be hoping bolt's example can help clear the path to a better future then drive to be like him to be. number not just the inspire on his level. so what not to let him know that not only can you see more. that we can see when we can perceive and. see. the world will know soon enough if lightning really can strike catalytic twice and he richardson al-jazeera. this is our jazeera and these are the top stories a british tanker that iran had detained in the strait of hormuz is on the move and

it's leaving its waters the starter imperatives departing from the port where it was taken after being seized in july al-jazeera same bus ravi is in toronto. there were $23.00 crewmembers in total on board 7 non-essential staff were released earlier in weeks previous as a humanitarian on humanitarian grounds we know that now the remaining members of the staff which included the crew included filipinos russians as well as indian nationals they are waiting on their way as you said to the united arab emirates now what this accusation against the stern apparel was that it turned off its tracking devices in iranian waters that it hit a fishing vessel but at the time that it was seized of course it did happen as you said just weeks after an iranian oil vessel was seized off the coast of japan alter it was seen very much as a retaliation the pentagon is boosting the defenses of saudi arabia following the attacks there on the world's largest oil refinery it's deploying

a battery of patriot missiles for radar systems and $200.00 personnel yemen's hooty rebels have claimed responsibility for those asteroids but riyadh and washington blame iran to iran says it wasn't involved u.s. democrats are painting for more witnesses to come forward with any evidence of donald trump's phone call with his ukrainian counterpart in july whistleblower has accused the us president of asking his ukrainian counterpart to investigate his political rival joe biden the whistleblower says white house officials tried to conceal politically sensitive information about trump's phone call with volodymyr zelinsky the u.s. is proposing to cut the number of refugees it allows into an all time low in the coming year if the plan is adopted the number will be limited to $18000.00 over the next year that's down from 30000 rights groups have criticized the move were those

the headlines or news off the inside story stay with us. conspiracy line has justice special coverage on al-jazeera. our hopes for a nuclear free world realistic it's the international day for the total elimination of nuclear weapons but many are worried a new arms race has begun so is there the political will to abolish these weapons this is inside story.

hello and welcome to the program i'm homage i'm jewel 74 years ago 2 nuclear bombs were detonated over hiroshima and nagasaki killing tens of thousands of people since then whenever a conflict between major powers rises so does the threat of nuclear war various treaties have attempted to suppress that threat yet today there are nearly $14000.00 nuclear weapons based around the world thursday marks the international day for the total elimination of nuclear weapons but it's a goal that looks increasingly less likely we begin our discussion shortly but 1st here's alex get topless with the world's current nuclear state of play. despite calls for the global reduction in nuclear weapons it is increasingly clear that a new arms race has begun arms agreements made between the united states and the then soviet union at the height of the cold war have eroded in the last few years the a.b.m. or into ballistic missile treaty was the 1st to go when the u.s. pulled out in 2002 next was the intermediate nuclear forces treaty designed to stop

one side from attacking the other by surprise that collapse this year after both the us and russia accuse the other of violations and the strategic arms reduction treaty or new start signed in 2010 looks increasingly unlikely to be renewed when it runs out in 2021 both russia and the united states have already begun their nuclear modernization programs introducing new weapon systems to those they already have china has never been constrained by treaty limitations and has been expanding its nuclear forces while north korea has its own growing stockpile in the crease only potent means to deliver them but not all nuclear threat stem from the cold war pakistan india's nuclear arsenals became an international concern during the recent crisis over india administered kashmir israel's is believed to be robust and ready for use the world has become an increasingly dangerous place and the countries

already possess nuclear weapons have only shown interest in expanding and modernizing their stockpiles experts say that makes nuclear conflict more and not less likely in the future. all right let's introduce our panel in washington d.c. lawrence korb he's a defense analyst and senior fellow at the center for american progress in glasgow by skype andrew smith the director and spokesperson for campaign against arms trade and in london paul schildt he is former director of proliferation and arms control in the british ministry of defense paul let me start with you is the elimination of nuclear weapons actually achievable in this day and age not the current political and strategic 2nd stance is no there isn't sufficient. willingness to jeopardize strategic alliance positions and there isn't enough trust to believe that other people would even if they signed up to a treaty to do so there is

a huge unsolved problem of how are you verify and inforce treaty is to do with weapons of mass destruction andrew the bulletin of atomic scientists is doomsday clock is now set at 2 minutes to midnight that's the closest it's ever been to nuclear war so how dire is the situation right now i think it's very concerning and we have to be very concerned also means that the new nuclear arms race because the results could be absolutely catastrophic agree with what hope have said but there is not at present the political will for disarm for kind of way spread disarmament we want to see borat's not to reason why not shouldn't be what we're striving to going forward because the risk is very severe the idea of a nuclear armed putin a nuclear armed tribe. that they agree approach illustration of what nuclear

weapons range well to something which should concern us all lawrence are there currently any nuclear disarmament negotiations underway and at this stage can diplomacy still work. well it can if both sides are willing the 2 major nuclear powers the united states and russia president putin has offered to extend the new start agreement which limits each side to $1550.00 deployable nuclear weapons for 5 years unfortunately president trump house and take him up on that if that expires in 2021 given the fact that the united states has gotten out of the intermediate nuclear forces agreement with with russia and then of course 'd gotten out of the nuclear arms agreement with with iran it looks like we're going in the wrong direction and nearly you know 50 years of progress from the nixon administration through obama are seem to be going 'd in the other way all right so this discussion

has become increasingly relevant giving that given the recent tensions between india and pakistan over the state of kashmir i spoke to pakistan's prime minister iran han about the possibility of a nuclear conflict here's what he had to say when do nuclear armed countries fight if they fight a conventional war there's every possibility that it's going to end up into nuclear war the unthinkable i mean you know if if said pakistan for god forbid we fight a conventional war we're losing and if a country is stuck between the choice either you surrender or you fight till death for your freedom i know pakistanis will fight to death for their freedom so that when a nuclear armed country fights to the end to the death it has consequences they

have to let me ask you when it comes to the potential for nuclear conflict there is so much concern right now when it comes to pakistan and india how worried are you that this could actually happen at some point. and something which we should be that he worried about it because in any conflict between 2 nuclear powers all it takes is one side is to transfer button and that could kill tens of thousands of people and even when we are talking about the limits and plans for reduction to being suggested $1550.00 nuclear warheads is still an awful lot of warheads that it could do to issue jetliners devastation all of it and one of what we should ideally be moving towards is bustling what ambitious targets of the eventually hunting z. to nuclear warheads and that's where we should be spying that's what we should be aiming for because the consequences of nuclear war do not bear thinking about it's lawrence the u.s. recently withdrew from the i.n.f. treaty with russia the u.s.

has accused russia flouting the conditions of the pact on the other side of that argument the russians president putin he said that he believes that the u.s. withdraw from the agreement has been counterproductive is all this going to lead to an actual new arms race between russia and the u.s. well it could because both sides are modernizing their nuclear arsenals for example to share in our defense budget the president trump has asked for what we call a low yield on nuclear weapon which is would have been prevented prohibited under the intermediate nuclear forces agreement so there is that danger and i do worry about the fact that all of this progress that had been made is being undermined our without people thinking through. the consequences remember what i had the privilege of working with president reagan he was willing to get rid of all nuclear weapons at the reykjavik meeting with secretary gorbachev and it was only because

president reagan wouldn't give up his strategic defense our nuclear defenses them that it fell apart but right after that then they signed the i.n.f. agreement which got rid of all of the intermediate weapons in europe. paul from your perspective what strategy must the united nations take as far as activating new efforts towards achieving the goal of a nuclear weapons free world well it can do there sortation thing it's good that it should talk about and we'll go on talking about the moral necessity for disarmament but actually most progress is going to come by by the actual deals particularly between russia and america and maybe china or of china decides it will sign up to some kind of limitations which it has previously refused i think the other thing that needs to be done is to focus international attention when people cheat. russia

undoubtedly cheated the i.n.f. . treaty all the nato countries despite suspicions and uncertain as it were persuaded it that it has paid no political cost it's put the blame on america it's muddied the waters and it's lent once again that it can get away with cheating and having its allies cheat and when you have that climate of distrust and successful noncompliance there's very little system confidence in making treats his work and who are you to help with that and i saw you nodding along to what paul was saying that you want to jump in with with an observation. i meant to julie the reason for it has to be the political costs to really to international lopez to be close to really to cheat to sleep do you think the lack of consequence is always something we want reasons why these things keep happening lawrence the end of the

i.n.f. treaty leaves really only one major treaty that would really i mean at least on paper act as some type of deterrent for the development of arsenals that's the new start treaty but many say that that treaty is in jeopardy as well i mean is that the case well it is if the united states doesn't agree with the russians to extend it both sides of kept that in one of the great things about the what we call the new start treaty it allows 20 inspections each year by both the both countries and that has continued even despite the problems we have with with russia it can be easily extended in fact the president trump board agreed to extend it he doesn't have to go back to the senate to get ratified nor does president putin have to go to the duma so that to get us to 2026 and in the interim we could begin to work out some of these issues i agree that the russians cheated on i.m.f.

but the way to deal with it was to get back to the table and see what you could do without before just getting out of the treaty the russian technically violated the antiballistic missile treaty by doing developing a 2nd site but we kept talking to them about it and never obligated until after the attacks of 911 president bush felt we needed a defense not against russian attacks but attacks by other other terrorist groups followed like the focus for a few moments on on china because there is growing concern about china's arsenal many say that it's not subject to any international arms control treaties so 1st of all how worrisome is that and secondly how large is china's arsenal. nobody knows they refused to give details they have a systematic refusal of transparency so that means. you can't even begin to discuss what numerical limitations would look like it i see estimates at

this in the order of $3.00 to $400.00 it's certainly growing but nobody knows and that says this that there's a practical problem there there's also a conceptual problem what nobody has got a convincing model of what the right proportions would be. how many should america have how many should russia have how many should try to have how many should the european countries nuclear countries have there's no concept of water and that could have all global balance would be even before we begin to think about the non n.p.t. states israel pakistan and india and what their numbers should be so there's a huge conceptual problem to be worked through in addition to the practicalities of verification and declarations andrew what about the iran nuclear deal obviously the u.s. withdrew from it last year what effect has that withdrawal had with regard to the fight against nuclear proliferation i think there's an instant impact has been to

increase hostilities between the u.s. and iran and feels day too late we're becoming dangerously close to yet another terrible misguided middle eastern intervention which will kill probably kill a lot of people and do actually no good. and i think this has to be seen as part of the weight of foreign policy because the nuclear powers world also 'd be extremely aggressive on what will stage and lean towards a foreign policy which has been that which has. military interventionism very high and has generally tended towards going to war 1st i think we need to return to the table and it's your turn to table return to negotiations because. only who she shoots and discussion has to be preferable to every military engagements and some it feels like we've come very close to that over recent weeks and months and i'm very concerned that it is going to carry on about it to particularly with the

current tensions between iran and saudi arabia which are becoming even worse lawrence president trump has repeatedly announced his intention to out innovate other countries when it comes to nuclear weapons and nuclear technology but he's he's also been speaking with an meeting with leaders like north korea's kim jong un what kind of message does this cynic is it all seems very contradictory. well that's part of the problem with the trump presidency he is studying these contradictory messages he says he's getting out of the iran nuclear deal because he would like to have a better deal but the fact of the matter is the way to do that was to start negotiating not get out of the deal and put the put the sanctions back on and i do worry about a nuclear arms race in the middle east between iran and saudi arabia to me that would be you know a death devastating so this was very important and the other mistake that he made about about the iran nuclear deal was saying well i don't like iran's other

behavior in the region whether aiding has will all get intervening in the syrian civil war i think you've got to separate those things we separated them when we dealt with the former soviet union when president nixon started these arms negotiations that all of us predecessors followed we did not insist that the soviet union and russia completely change its foreign policy and i think that's a key thing that we need to to to focus on you just can't change everything you should focus on the most dangerous thing which is nuclear nuclear weapons and right now trump has got a 2 trillion dollar modernization program for our nuclear weapons which not only is unnecessary but will take money away from other conventional capabilities that we need paula look to me like you you may have had a point you wanted to make i wanted to give the floor to you well couple of points i mean i think that it's absolutely correct that linkage of newton masses with

other concerns is is likely to lead to it's a general blockage but nonetheless those are the politics of the present situation and old these points are being made again and again in washington cycles so i know i'm not very optimistic that that's going to change at least on the presidency i also think that. it's important not to be too alarmist we should be concerned but not hysterical newquay numbers have gone down significantly since the end of the code cold war it's important to realize that not everybody is expanding britain and france have reduced the numbers and keeping it very low levels of about $200.00 ph and modernization is not necessarily destabilizing it's necessary to submarines and rockets wear out if you they have to be replaced and nobody wants to build obsolescence systems so that leads to modernization but that's not necessarily

a terrible thing so keep this in proportion but do worry about the advent of new technologies hypersonic missiles are going to be problematic some of the space based systems that are being introduced involve enter interactions with nuclear come on the control which could be very the stable stabilizing if attacked so it seems to me we ought to be not only obsessing about numbers and and impossible early nuclear elimination we should be very interested about the new technologies which are which are coming in which will interact with with nuclear weapons in conflicts and areas and of course on all of that we should add cyber as a disruptive and uncertain factor which which may break in and slow to slow down on the gate to terror capabilities at any point if not controlled so there's less to worry about but all symbol to worry about that we've been talking about and

governments over the years have continued to put out the concept or the narrative that nuclear weapons act is a deterrent to nuclear war from your perspective is that a valid concept. if you take that to its logical conclusion that would suggest that every country in the world to the nuclear weapon in world peace would break a bit but obviously isn't the case. i don't believe that nuclear weapons do keep us safe from the idea of it not a shot was fired mccool's war is a myth which the people of vietnam would contest very severely so would a lot of people are going through one of those. and it's not me just constantly made that is not an argument you think can be justified because all it takes is one nuclear weapon being set off and this is where i agree with paul actually that the obsession about numbers doesn't feel particularly relevant in so far as i don't think it massively effects matters with the u.k.'s 100 nuclear weapons river as 500

reality is that it would only take one to have devastating impacts and a devastating humanitarian cost we have to be working that number dying towards the $2.00 but i do think that the broader the broader issue to be concerned about is the direction of foreign policy and the political circumstances which are allowing this to happen in the 1st place lawrence let's talk briefly about one of the one of the signs of progress in the fight against nuclear proliferation i'm talking about the u.n. treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons now this can really only enter into force if about 50 more nations ratify it as i understand so in this climate in this day and age is that doable. well i don't think it's ever doable because the countries that haven't ratified it all the one's a process nuclear weapons but i do think it's sending a signal that just as we got rid of chemical and biological weapons there is hope

for that in the future and i think you know one of the things that's important to keep in mind is if you had said back in 1945 when the united states unfortunately used nuclear weapons that almost 75 years later we would not have used them i think people would have said no no no that that that's impossible so there is some optimism one thing i would like to see is our adoption up in no 1st use policy which the chinese as they're building up their arsenal they have at least publicly embrace that and that's something i think that people ought to discuss and could have much more traction than just banning nuclear or nuclear weapons andrew you know we talk a lot about the threat of nuclear weapons but if something so horrible were to actually happen could you tell our viewers a little bit about what a good a global nuclear winter would look like i mean what kind of impact are we are we talking about when it comes to the impact of life on this planet and be absolutely

devastating tennis's phases of people will lose their leaves over $98.00 would be be done to italy and discriminately as well and we would be feeling the impacts not just the morning after 3 years in the years to come as well i think that we have to be very we have to be very vigilant about france and nuclear weapons because the it comes of it would be devastating noons it would be something which would be felt by people of all ages people. and yes it would be truly devastating paula we only have about a couple minutes left but it looked like you wanted to jump in a minute ago did you want to add something well i wanted to run back on. a couple of things that we got rid of chemical and biological weapons have we we've got treaties banning them but very clearly chemical weapons are still being used in the middle east and it's and the system which is supposed to verify and in force that

has broken down because of repeated russian and chinese vetoes in the security council we don't actually have an architecture of diplomacy and law and investigation which enables us to be sure that other people have got rid of all these things that they they promised and on the biological side nobody knows who's still go to offensive capabilities so we shouldn't exaggerate what has already been achieved we should be more humble about the deficiences of our experience to date we don't have an alternative design from say the chemical weapons treaty which which would which would work magically in the nuclear case we don't know how to do this and that ought to set limits on the the kind of inflated expectations and rapid movements which are being called for and if we're talking about the ban treaty remember 60 percent of the human race is in countries nuclear countries where our alliances which say they will never sign it. maybe there's a lot of small countries around the world big numbers of nicaragua's and better

concerned want to carlos' have signed that doesn't mean there's a significant shift in important global opinion which is going to make a difference all right we've run out of times we're going to have to leave it there thanks so much to all our guests paul short andrew smith and lawrence korb. and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website al-jazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a.j. inside story for me i'm a gentle and the whole team here bye for now. some asked. others ronnie took the call. but were all complicit

in creating wild of terror and depression. now living in fear and denial they reveal their motivations and the shocking truths from the inside. witness the women advice sell on al-jazeera. when the news breaks if you like if you're told in order to get someone who can get this country out of the crisis when people need to be heard. from off this border area without a shoot out is iraq has teams on the ground for the last few months these are. the 3 long haul. back to put. documentaries and lightning on the air and online. are cures by several women of being detained you be in this country confinement all the while you have refrained from speaking to the

media why are we trying to talk about islamic studies professor tonic ramadan to al-jazeera about the ongoing break during his actions against him. yes. but you. know there are some other like. the stories generate thousands of headlines it seems that much the media is still struggling with how to deal with it with different angles from different perspectives how do you hold to separate the spin from the facts. the misinformation from the journalism how careful must future your words but some tough stuff has to be said so some critics have to be listening post on al-jazeera . in a country beset by poverty and lack of infrastructure. sometimes we risk our lives in taking these roads with cattle saving lives is a dangerous job it's

a vaccine so it's only good for 24 hours there are patients waiting for these medicines who must be in pain life's worth risking their lives a week ago one of the gang stop somebody calls on the road at that can do good work for them. risking it all guinea on al-jazeera. a british flag ship that iran detained in the strait of hormuz is leaving iranian waters 2 months after it was seized. on the back of this is that which is their life and also coming up. here is a country. if you have. us democrats search for anyone who may have evidence the

president tried to get ukraine's leader to investigate his political rival. changing the rules the white house cuts the number of refugees allowed to settle in the u.s. dropping it to his an historic low plus i'm the richardson of the world athletics championships in doha where the 1st time since 2003 the event one tap you sang on the startline. a british tanker that iran had detained is now on the move and is leaving iranian waters the stana ampera has started transmitting its location for the 1st time in weeks its owners say they'll commit further when the oil tanker reaches international waters the imperial left iran port where it was taken after being seized in july according to the reuters news agency the ship and set its

destination as port rush she'd in the united arab emirates. iran's revolutionary guards seized the ship in the strait of hormuz 2 months ago to iran says it had violated maritime rules but its owner says the company isn't aware of any formal charges it was detained just weeks after british military seized in iranian or tanker in gibraltar well let's go to our correspondent zain bus ravi who's in tehran zain and so what do we know so far about this vessel. well neve what we've heard in the last hour is an official statement by local port officials in hormuz gun province in bunder abbas saying that at 9 am local iran time that is about $530.00 g.m.t. the stand ampera was released we've seen footage on local t.v. of the anchor being pulled up in the stand imperio preparing to leave to embark on its journey on words to the united arab emirates now this has been 2 months in the

making more than 2 months since iranian naval official since iran's navy boats seized the stand ampera the accusation against the vessel was that it turned off its try monitoring tracking system when it was in iranian waters to try to evade iranian detection that it hit a fishing vessel and violated international maritime laws which is why it was detained of course it will its detention came just 2 weeks after an iranian shipping oil ship was detained off the coast of gibraltar by british military at the behest of the united states it is said and this was seen as of retaliation against that but it's release now the hope is will help to relieve some of the tension in this region that it will act as a kind of release valve for tensions between iran and the wider world especially european countries who support iran is hoping to maintain in terms of maintaining the 2050 nuclear deal and at the time of course the seizure raised great concerns.

that it would lead to continue diplomatic tensions globally not only across the region now that there's a bessel is appearing late see be on the move how might this impact tensions going forward. well it can only get better that's really the reality in this part of the world especially when it comes to iran especially it comes to tensions in the waters of the gulf surrounding iran surrounding the gulf arab countries it can only get better now when when the iranian delegations were departing for this year's u.n. general assembly earlier this week this was one of the things hanging over officials heads it was certainly one of the things no doubt that iranian officials were going to be grilled about by european leaders by other world leaders the release of this british flagged vessel and we saw in the days before president hassan rouhani was due to land in new york we heard from the iranian government

from his own office from the foreign ministry as well 'd as the iranian ambassador to the united kingdom formal statements coming out by way of press conference by twitter saying that the legal detention of this vessel had been lifted that ban had been lifted and it was free to go anyone who's ever worked with iranian bureaucracy knows it can be as complicated to navigate as the home straight itself which might explain the delay but certainly iranian officials went to new york with the promise that this vessel would be really really east and we saw a great deal of jovial meetings the optics of iran's leaders meeting with european leaders were very positive looking there was photographs and videos that circulated here on social media inside iran showing president hassan rouhani laughing with european officials chiefly with the british leader boris johnson which was certainly an indication that things were going to get better in its release today certainly iranian officials anyone calling for peace in this region will hope that this does work as

a release valve that things do start to get better but certainly there is a long way to go to ease ongoing tensions between iran and its neighbors as well as ron in the united states zain thank you very much same bus travie that in terre. saudi arabia's foreign minister has urged the international community to band together to combat iran after attacks on 2 major saudi all facilities this month the kingdom says iran was behind those attacks but tehran has denied it ibrahim bin abdulaziz was addressing the u.n. general assembly. today we bere historic responsibility the credibility of this organization and the entire world is at stake the iranian regime is leaved with one of 2 options either become a normal state that respects international laws and norms or face an internationally unified position that uses all instruments of pressure into tyrannous. well in jordan has more now from the united nations. the saudi foreign

minister's remarks could have been delivered by the israeli foreign minister or indeed by the us president donald trump that's because mr assad was very very critical of what he said has been iran's deliberately provocative and violent behavior across the middle east most notably with the attack on a saudi oil process a facility in the east of that country back on september 14th mr us often called on the international community to unify and to try to make it very clear to terror on that this sort of behavior is an act of war and is not going to be tolerated he used language which the americans have been putting forward in recent months regarding iran using maximum pressure to try to get the government in tehran to change its behavior and to ultimately return to negotiations with the u.s. on its nuclear program however it's worth pointing out that even though this attack happened nearly 2 weeks ago there is yet to have been

a security council meeting to discuss what happened and to try to figure out what should be the diplomatic way forward which is of course something that ambassador sitting on the security council really prefer to pursue that said it's very clear that the saudis are not thinking that they're going to be making any friends with terror on any time soon and that although this automatic process of continuing their political rivalry will continue. iran's president is demanding proof from those who blame to iran for the attack in saudi arabia. says talks with the u.s. of possible but only if sanctions are lifted he also says don't look from some impression tactics working diplomatic editor james pace reports from the u.n. . they spoke at the same podium in the un general assembly hall they were in the same city for 4 days but all high hopes of a breakthrough following

a flurry of diplomatic activity led by the french president emmanuel merkel came to nothing no progress and no meeting between president trump and president rouhani the dangerous deadlock continues as trump perhaps was preoccupied by the impeachment allegations against him that were being formed while he was in new york developments the iranians were clearly following closely mr president while you've been here in the u.s. how closely are you following political developments here and is iran's best hope now president trump either being impeached or being defeated in next year's election. with regard to what's happening here in america we hear the news of what's happening but it doesn't matter for us because it's an internal matter for america what's very important for us is that the american government restores the damage trust back to the world. for now the u.s.

is focusing on the drone attack in saudi arabia and it clearly wants to use its assertion that iran was behind that to add to its maximum pressure campaign on terror ron what i expect to see happen is when saudi arabia concludes its investigation and is done with the site exploitation where the attacks took place and cake they will then refer this matter to the u.n. security council for appropriate action i think that's the right thing to do because this was an attack on the world and it requires a response from the world un officials agree that this is coming back here to the security council the u.n. have had 2 separate experts in saudi arabia and they're mandated to formally report their findings. of the united nations us democrats are appealing for any witnesses to donald trump's phone call with the ukrainian president volodymyr the lansky to come forward trump has been accused of trying to persuade the ukrainian leader to investigate his rival joe biden the allegations are now at the

center of an impeachment inquiry by house democrats john hendren reports from washington d.c. . democrats have a new word for the white house response to a whistleblower this is a cover up the accusation follows a newly released whistleblowers report that says the white house trying to lock down the transcript of a phone call in that july call president donald trump pressed ukraine's president to find dirt on a rival presidential candidate in this case former u.s. vice president joe biden reads like a classic organized crime shakedown the report says u.s. officials told the unnamed whistleblower that they were directed by white house lawyers to transfer the transcript of a conversation to a separate electronic system that is otherwise used to store and handle classified information even though the call did not contain anything remotely sensitive that left trump's new acting director of national intelligence explaining on capitol hill why he withheld that mid august report from congress until thursday we

consulted with the white house counsel's office and we were advised that much of the information the complaint was in fact subject to executive privilege a privilege that i do not have the authority to waive so a white house transcript of that call shows that trump repeatedly urged ukraine's volodymyr zelinsky to investigate whether joe biden sought to interfere in a conflict of interest probe of the ukrainian gas company for which his son hunter biden worked at the time trump was with holding nearly $400000000.00 in aid without explanation under fire denies using any pressure what these guys are doing democrats are doing to this country is it grace but they're going to tie up our country because frankly this so tied up this so it's made up as the director of national intelligence testified here on capitol hill president trump was at the united nations talking to staff he told them he wanted to know who told.