because former president jacob zuma has lost an attempt to have corruption charges against him thrown out of court judges ruled he should stand trial over allegations that he accepted bribes from a french weapons company his lawyers argued the case was politically motivated motivated live now to pietermaritzburg inquisition a trial correspondent outside the court is for media so it now means then the former president jacob zuma will face trial on charges relating to about 2 and a half $1000000.00 worth of bribes. that's right mateen the actor trial has been set down for next week and so it's expected that jacob zuma will return to court now this judgment quite surprisingly was given in under 2 minutes jacob zuma was in and out of course and i think an important development for south africans wanting to see some level of accountability around so many allegations of corruption but hey what's also important is that jacob zuma

does now have the right to appeal this judgment he may go to the supreme court of appeal to have this judgment reversed whether or not they're successful is another question but as it stands he should return to court however even that people spoke and so i think for many south africans wanting answers wanting to see jacob zuma stand trial it may be a lot of time before they see this trial actually begin and get the answers they're looking for and the media there are so many allegations swirling around the person of the former president jacob zuma not just these charges relating to crimes allegedly committed the way back in the 1990 s. but there are also other initiatives legal emissions in taking place which involve the president and his alleged malfeasance. all these allegations of corruption as many others as you may. inch and they have

followed jacob zuma throughout when his time as president of south africa and it's ultimately culminated in what's been called a commission of inquiry into these allegations of corruption and in this particular case looking at his relationship with people in business in south africa and how he benefited those personal and business interests and how the spill to down to state owned into te's that were compromised by alleged corruption now this commission of inquiry is going on at least for some time and may indeed in investigations by the prosecuting authority and could possibly lead to further charges against jacob zuma perhaps members of the african national congress because many of these allegations are centered around zuma but also allege that there were other members of his party possibly involved he could again appear at that commission of inquiry and of course in that case many other questions to answer for the former president for me to

thank for that for me to miller live in peter maritzburg. want to come here down to 0 including demands for justice in ecuador granted as protests is accused the police of brutality. while planned to prevent wildfires in california has left more than a 1000000 people without power. hello there are still plenty of west and windy weather across much of northern and in particular the northwest of europe not quite a bit of god has been streaming across much of the call event in the all sea as you'll see us all is a line of shout across the southeast now here we've got more cloud in the 4 calls i want you scattered showers even a scout a thunderstorm as well and you can see that we've got to improving conditions raise a go through friday cynical southeast of the bad still quite

a bit of cloud across areas a turkey and we might just have a scottish shower there every cloudy or crawls into western russia but not cold in moscow and that layer of trout 11 degrees celsius the nice weather cools the central regions and then you can see to the north on the northwest very heavy amounts of rain through southern sections of u.k. pushing through the low countries northern sections of germany and poland and then by south it does tend to dry up quite a bit pissed a lot of much in the full cost and again it's fairly cool across into london 14 celsius the average is 18 this time of year and there's a chance of some rain showers quite a bit of cloud as well into the southwest but a much better start weekend across the southeast of europe now further to the south we've got that cloud working its way across these northern coastal areas of north africa now in expecting much in the way of range missile say the cloudy and time which is around the average. sponsor cancer. what are you protesting about how does this impact their online life facing

directly out of its lately or if you join us on this is an attack on academic freedom and on our ability to do research and teach freely this is a dialogue minard is not making it very welcoming for people to come about everyone has a voice. and i'm here to talk about the solutions on al-jazeera . to take a look at the top stories here at al-jazeera iranian state t.v. is reporting that 2 missiles may have hit in the iranian oil tanker off the saudi

arabia there's been no immediate response from riyadh the u.s. navy says it's monitoring developments closely. turkish troops say they've captured 15 villages from kurdish forces they've pushed 8 kilometers deeper into northern syria tens of thousands of people have fled the area since wednesday south africa's former president jacob zuma has lost an attempt to have corruption charges against him thrown out called judges ruled he should stand trial over allegations he accepted bribes from a french weapons company. the president has held his 1st campaign rallies since democrats launched an impeachment inquiry against him he told a crowd in minnesota that he's done nothing wrong he is accused of pressuring ukraine's leader into investigating his democratic rival joe biden childhood. was thousands of protesters calling themselves whistleblowers greeted president

donald trump in minneapolis demanding his impeachment. the largest crowd of demonstrators in recent months turned a chant trump fans once reserved for hillary clinton back on the president. it was trump's 1st rally since an inquiry into impeachment proceedings began on september 24th through feel that trying to support the values that. i think it's a raw deal. surrounded by thousands of supporters of his own in one of the longest speeches of his presidency fired back in his latest assault on a favorite target former vice president and democratic presidential rival joe biden he was only a good vice president because he understood how they kiss barack obama's ass. speaking in her own congressional district trump portrayed minneapolis' own ilhan omar as the face of the democratic party how to

hell did that ever happen i did a ha i didn't. chargers will the noma is in america hating socialist how do you have such a person representing you in minnesota i'm very angry at you people right. outside protesters and trump fans were a picture of a nation divided this is the going to live that the president's fans have to walk past thousands of n.t.t. from demonstrators in order to get to the rally. bring the trick there was. it came hours after f.b.i. agents at washington's dulles airport arrested 2 soviet born men who were linked to the president's attorney rudolph giuliani over alleged campaign finance violations the 3 are shown together here on a social media post. well hello minnesota. leading the cheering crowd inside the arena was the man who would be president if trump were impeached vice president mike pence in

a state the president narrowly lost in 2016 and hopes to win in 2020 they want to raise your vote like it never existed they want to erase your voice and they want to raise your future. but they will fail because in america the people rule again. outside in the liberal bastion of minneapolis are. the calls for his removal from office grew louder john hendren al-jazeera minneapolis. now at least 5 people have been killed in at cordele in awaken violent protests the protests is fear e s a new austerity measures introduced by president lenin what i know that have led to a massive hike in feel prices a lot in america at a tendency in human reports now from the capital. that thousands of

indigenous sickly dorrance from all over the country called for justice for a middle aged man killed during a national strike on thursday was ecuador's people's own between says he was one of 5 people killed in more than a week of protests i do not want to put up with the bodies there's an abuse of police force and we've also asked the government to lift the state of emergency which has generated more violence i think the government has lost control of the situation. inside people's cultural center building leaders of that could do as indigenous confederation paraded a policeman on to the stage. the colonel in charge told al-jazeera he'd come to negotiate the release of a patrol then good been detained but they were not allowed to leave until hours later that that's the predecessor legit. and the police has only added. explosive conflict and after 7 days since the. other here i was

asking for i. left it was. his cabin. his downloads put indigenous leaders have stopped short of asking for president lenin moreno's ouster they are demanding instead the immediate end to what they call police repression the release of all detainees and the immediate resignation of the defense and interior ministers as a precondition for a dialogue with authorities the interior ministry is being blamed for police firing tear gas into a university where women children and elderly people had taken refuge rather than the other. children because we have no one to care for them but you interior minister a woman are an assassin. the president what i know is refusing to give in to demands to restore fuel subsidies which he removed in exchange for a $5000000000.00 i.m.f.

loan or what a former assembly deputy says ecuador can't afford desperately needed credit and that all price for keeping a low capacity that moreno has to be able to negotiate with international banks and make them understand that we are a country with an enormous political crisis that we cannot be treated as though we have a stable democracy that needs a small fiscal adjustment here an adjustment can bring down the whole deck of cards . indeed ecuador has a history of governments being toppled for a lot less something few people here have forgotten you see in yemen al jazeera. the demonstrations are also being held in colombia thousands of students are taking to the streets demanding funding for education and an end to the alleged corrupt. this is it universities places are held in 17 cities including the capital bogota students and teachers when i say should say president of and do has failed to keep

instruments is to invest in the public education system the situation is escalated since last month when protesters at several of the universities were tapped by police officers as he has moved from bogota. what started as a peaceful demonstration with almost $10000.00 students a vote public and private universities here in the capital of ended up in more clashes with the police as the protesters arrived here in central plaza believers skirmishes broke out some protesters with face covered started throwing stones at the police and the police responded with tear gas and stun grenades and took over the last of the protesters dispersed this is the 6th demonstration in the last 10 days in. as students are protesting a number of cases of corruption in the administration of public universities also

demanding more resources for public universities from the government and finally protesting against the police violence the violent response of part of the police against the demonstrators and this is what also pushed the students of the private universities to join in a number another number of them stray sions happened in 17 different cities across colombia this this way with the empty placers and the students running away but they are promising that their movement that will continue until their demands are met. the world health organization says the abode or epidemic in northeastern democratic republic of congo has now been confined to a smaller area but one that's remote and is occupied by rebel groups the number of new abode cases is dropped from nearly 130 in april to 51 by mid september there were 14 new infections last week but w h a n says there's still

a long way to go before the disease will be eradicated them more than a 1000000 people in california are without power that's out of the state cut electricity to try to prevent wildfires the utility company pacific gas and electric announced a deliberate outage to try to avoid a repeat of last year's fires its power cables were blamed for the state's deadliest ever wildfire that left 85 people dead and destroyed thousands of property is its decisions that were not made that have led to this moment in history and the state of california as relates to our major investor on utility it is not conditions this is not from my perspective a climate stain story is much a story about greed and mismanagement over the course of decades over the course of years and years and years the kind of hardening of the great was not done those

were decisions that were made by pacific gas and electric more now from our correspondents in los angeles rob reynolds. more than a 1000000 people in northern and southern california will be spending tonight in the dark after the power company shut off the electricity to vast swathes of the state as a preventative measure in hopes of preventing wildfires now there are heavy winds blowing it's called the santa ana winds and it's a seasonal phenomenon wind gusts of up to 112 kilometers per hour these gusts can cause faults and sparks on power lines in wooded areas and in fact the utility p.g. and e. . was found to have been at fault. because last year because its equipment shorted out cause various wildfires that burned vast areas and

incinerated the entire town of paradise california killing $85.00 people so the outage may last for several days because once the wind dies down the utility will have to test the lines make sure there are no breaks or faults and so people are very unhappy with this they have been stockpiling food water ice batteries fuel all sorts of things there are concerns about people who are elderly or disabled or being without electricity and people are also asking why the utility has not taken steps to make the transmission lines more safe. in other countries like in europe for instance most of the transmission lines are buried underground but here in the united states they are normally strong along wooden poles basically in 1903 technology which has persisted because it's

inexpensive so again this may this situation a blackout in vast areas of california may last for days there are already some fires burning in parts of los angeles county and nearby but the central cities of los angeles san francisco oakland sacramento those are not expected to be affected by any fires and the lights are still on at least in los angeles for now. tavis to update you then on the top stories here dow jones air iran is investigating what may be 2 missile strikes on an iranian oil tanker off the coast the saudi arabia the ship is said to have been damaged but no casualties at the midpoint say it's the same thing has moved from tehran we've gotten information from iran's national oil company and here are

a few things that they've told us this is what we know so far iraq's national oil company saying that all personnel on board the vessel are safe that 2 explosions did take place the target was one of their iranian oil tankers and one explosion took place at around 5 am local time and the next at 5 20 am local time approximately 2 g.m.t. is what we think has happened now what they're saying is in the last hour we've heard from them saying that the leaking has been stopped that there was no fire on board anymore and that the tanker is in stable condition. so turkey's military says it's captured 15 villages from kurdish forces turkey's president insists the offensive in northern syria will continue despite condemnation from the international community and this is the scene live you may be able to pick out there a line of armored vehicles that's a scene live at ras al i. call up a truck it to see is the unilateral military action as we do not believe it will

address truckies underlying security concerns renewed still it is in the north east will further undermine the stability of the whole region exacerbate civilian suffering and provoke further displacements which will further increase the number of refugees and i.d.p.'s in syria and in the region. there's africa's former president jacob zuma has lost an attempt to have corruption charges against him thrown out i thought judges ruled he should stand trial over allegations that he accepted bribes from a french weapons company his lawyers argued the case was politically motivated more than a 1000000 people in california are without power after the state cut electricity to try to prevent wildfires utility company announce a deliberate outage to avoid a repeat of last year's plains is those are the headlines the stream is next.

philippines president deterred she says he's cracking down on the communist insurgency ringback but some fear it's a deadly campaign to silence his critics as the death toll rises 11 east investigates deter today's new al-jazeera. i have for me ok. here in the stream today getting justice for victims of syrian war crimes we will look at how european prosecutors in germany and other countries are building cases against suspected perpetrators now living abroad and we welcome your thoughts on how justice can be achieved share your comments with us live on twitter or in our youtube chapter. this is for it if the kind of director of human rights watch and you were in the street. could a german national court help achieve justice for victims of syrian war crimes

investigators have been attempting to track down and prosecute syrians who are believed to be responsible for torture and other atrocities committed during the country's 18 years civil war now although the alleged war crimes occurred outside german borders prosecutors are able to pursue these cases using a principle called universal jurisdiction to arrest former syrian military intelligence officers were made earlier this year in germany and the 1st war crimes trial for a high ranking syrian official could happen in 2023rd today we'll hear from those who are working to hold the syrian government accountable with us in berlin alexandra lilly kapur a legal advisor at the european center for constitutional and human rights also in berlin. syria human rights activist and photo journalist and in paris valerie parlay a legal consultant with trial international. and i guess it's good to have tom i want to take you back to a time that was probably the worst time in your life

a long way in detention in syria as you were experiencing torch. was the any point where you felt that you would get justice the people who are doing terrible things to war will actually have to save time in court. time in prison go to court and was that even a concept that was possible. i don't i don't recall it being a concept that was actually possible. i mean as a relation as someone who went out in demonstrations there was always that feeling that we're going to get into jail for things we do and not because it's unjust not because it's. it's illegal but just because the dictatorship that we were chasing was actually not ok with anything we were doing so the concept of getting into jail was in my mind during all the demonstrations that i was going out and but

the concept of getting out of jail is so hard to be thought about. the accountability they asked me about was not something that i ever thought about when i was in jail. in jail you live for the next thing you live she like you're going to die in the next hour or so it was not a concept that i was thinking of that i mean the syrian civil war is still ongoing who knows when it will and so the concept of the trial. war criminals right now if it was very unusual but that's what universal jurisdiction and neighbor was lawyers to do it enables victims to actually maybe seek some justice can you explain quite simply how it works so if someone like qur'an was tortured in syria he now lives in germany how would you invest with your 6 year work for the people who allegedly tortured him or tortured many other people. well you know

exactly you point out one of the things universal jurisdiction do and it's not unusual it's allowing someone that is not from the country that is going to prosecute. where it has was victim of crimes that were not committed in the he's in the country your workout routine you brought against victim not from the same country. and universal jurisdiction will allow him to get justice in this current state. so just to be clear the jurisdiction of states is based on the territory normally states will prosecute the crimes that are committed in their territory but universal jurisdiction that's where it's exceptional if you're going to judge people that are like for example in syria. victims or syrian the perpetrator in syria and the crime were committed in syria but

nonetheless they are prosecuted and in burien that's how it works that's a principle of universal jurisdiction and it's a level for really grave crimes crimes that we consider that or crimes against all humanity all mankind such as crimes against humanity genocide daughter. and that's why we consider that so grave that every state should tackle the issue and try to prosecute the british and valerie you mention grave crimes there and i want to bring up this tweet reminding us all of what some of those crimes were this from the global center for the responsibility to protect their right throughout the 8 year war in syria every major principle of international law has been violated indiscriminate attacks on civilians sexual violence a blockage of humanitarian aid deliberate targeting of hospitals and humanitarian workers have been the hallmarks of this war so keeping that in mind is why we see

tweets like this jonah says if there's no accountable government and sound judicial system in syria then it's better to have some kind of justice in german courts rather than nothing at all lily why i generally though. germany has a quiet broad universal yours the sion legal framework as valerie already explains that what's particularly about germany is that in comparison to other countries like sample the netherlands the suspect needs to be in a territory full investigations even to open and in germany we don't have such a requirement that means i will set a public prosecutor he's allowed to go ahead with the investigation even if there's no such a suspect present and i think what we need to also highlight here is that not only the trials are important of course it's really important that we are hopefully seeing the 1st ever trial addressing international crimes committed in syria next

year but what's also important is that the german federal prosecutor has the tools to already preserve evidence. and they had doing this already since the end of 2011 december 2007 since then the german prosecutor is collecting photo evidence video evidence but most importantly. testimonies of survivors that injure. lives to assemble now with turkey's foreign minister has the duty to be sexy general of many to let's listen to what they have to say to mother. and all the topics. has been. has been discussed today as well and the leaders meeting will be very important to prepare nato. to the upcoming years it will be the 78th year of nato. and. all the

steps that will be taking accordingly with the alliance we will have risen lucian's and we will have preparations. as an alliance and we're going to take precautions. in order to. carry out our responsibility in the region and we will continue our responsibilities all our contributions with our alliance. we are taking a huge responsibility this is very well known the general secretary. is with his visit is also is an appreciation of the fact of course we are going to continue our sacrifices and our contributions. of course 1st of all it is for the security of our nation and secondly it is for the security of our neighbors

an ally allies of course we expect our allies to cooperate with us and to support us of course this is our natural expectation turkey has a legitimate. security concerns just to say this isn't enough we want to see this in action too. of course this afternoon prime minister is going to meet. the general secretary of nato and of course he's going to share his opinions to say i'd like to give the floor to. stall stall going back and i'd like to thank him thank you. ministers over my friend thank you so much for welcoming welcoming me once again here in istanbul in turkey it's good to be back to great to meet you and i'm also looking forward as you mentioned to meet the president later on today turkey's

a strong member all our alliance we have deep relations nato allies built over decades you play a key part in what nato does from the black sea to the mediterranean you are an important to contributor to nato training missions in afghanistan on in iraq and your partner on mission in kosovo which helps maintain stability in the western balkans. nato supports turkey with the offensive missile systems helping to protect turkey is a sudden border we also supported turkey with increased air and naval presence over the years where nato has invested more than $5000000000.00 in military facilities in turkey including important

infrastructure such as naval bases radar sites. all of this clearly demonstrates nato's strong commitment to turkish security. today we have discussed the fight against terrorism turkey is at the forefront of a very volatile region know all the nato ally has suffered more ties the tanks northern nato ally is more exposed to the instability violence and turmoil from the middle east and know all the nato ally hosts so many refugees as turkey does many of them from syria ministers oversold and i also discussed turkish ongoing operation in no done syria i shared with him my serious concerns about the ongoing operation and the risk of further destabilizing the region

escalating tensions and even more human suffering why turkey has the jit to meet security concerns or expect turkey to act with restraint we have a common enemy darvish a few years ago they controlled significant territory in iraq and in syria working together in the global coalition we have liberated all this territory and millions of people these gains must not be jeopardized an imminent concern is that captured darvish terrorists must not be allowed to escape in the longer term the international community must find a.