and zuma was 1st charged in 2007 the charges were dropped 2 years later when he became president of the african national congress but last year charges of corruption racketeering and money laundering were reinstated it's been almost 15 years since zuma 1st face these charges and the latest appeal will keep zuma out of court at least for now many see this as yet another delay tactic by the former president who has repeatedly claimed he wants his day in court whatever the outcome the trial is likely to be drawn out for months to come. outside the court a couple of 100 supporters gathered to hear zuma speak. but. we asked the court to drop the charges completely because it's apparent that this case was never going to be dealt with fairly because we believe there was a conspiracy to find ways to arrest me while vocal this crowd is one of the smallest seen supporting the former president a no show by prominent provincial leaders of seumas party the a.n.c.

perhaps a sign of declining support for me al-jazeera pietermaritzburg south africa a yemeni official has told al-jazeera that u.a.e. forces and their separate us allies have given control of aiden's airport to the saudi military it's part of efforts to reach an agreement between the yemeni government and separatists in the south there are talks of giving separatist fighters roles in government as a way of uniting against the whole thing is in sun up. the european union says reaching a breakfast deal this week remains possible but the chances are becoming increasingly slim lead negotiator michel barnier made the assessment during a meeting if you ministers in luxembourg on tuesday politicians in the u.k. and in brussels are trying to reach a deal by the end of the week as the october 31st deadline approaches the leaders will be meeting for a 2 day summit from thursday. reaching an agreement. obviously

any agreement must work for everyone. of the united kingdom and the whole of the european union that we had. to turn on good intentions in the legal text scotland's 1st minister nicola sturgeon meanwhile has called for a 2nd independence referendum in 2020 addressing the scottish national party conference she said the british government's handling of bricks and. outlines the need for scotland to leave the u.k. sturgeon says she will soon request the legal powers to hold the vote the independence referendum in 2014 saw 55 percent of scots voting to remain in the u k. still ahead on al-jazeera people power ecuador's president scraps austerity measures following weeks somebody protests.

hello whilst we wait for the dry of winter and studies to come into northern china we're still looking at a fair amount of moisture in the west rain is still likely possible and likely in the west and in sichuan maybe more obviously on thursday where higher ground that comes out is snow to shanghai and hong kong for all this eastern side was or in all the northeasterly draw humidity has dropped and we are seeing the official retreat of the southwest monsoon and it rains throughout india and you get an idea of where the cloud is moving you think well that's being driven by northeast wind and you would be right that's what we're looking to come in so the change of emphasis and where the rain falls is likely to have just about started now so lucky to andhra

pradesh and the right hand side the eastern side of the peninsula in sri lanka this so the west maharastra for example looks dry most of india and all of pakistan dry for the next few weeks probably months of course but in that change of direction of the clouds we may well catch rain into the a monica and salala on this easterly drift suggests more coming off for example the gulf into the gulf states this cloud in saudi which last night produced thunderstorms up in lebanon. to speak to the climate an ecological emergency the world's leading scientists are warning of the existential crisis in the face of it reversible changes to the us all the way to out as well on. i'm a correspondent nic we'll have reports from the frontlines of the crisis and showcase new solutions to help called by the threat al-jazeera brings you

a new weekly show planet s.o.s. what sets up the facts and the science behind the issues affecting our planet's. well again the top stories on al-jazeera a small unit of syrian government soldiers is now inside the northeastern city of members turkey says to a foot soldiers were killed in an attack near the city russia says it's working to prevent any direct confrontation. the un human rights office is calling on turkey to conduct independent investigations into possible work crimes related to what's offensive in syria saying it's gathering information about summary executions shown in videos. that use they don't know shit or michel barnier says reaching

a deal this week remains possible but the chances are becoming increasingly slim politicians in the u.k. and in brussels are trying to reach a deal by the end of the week as the october 31st deadline approaches. well rudy giuliani donald trump's personal lawyer has been asked to hand over ukraine related documents to the impeachment inquiry chooses deadline to produce the documents also extends to vice president mike pence on monday the inquiry heard from the white house's former russia expert fiona hill who resigned days before trump crane's president to investigate joe biden and his son mike hanna has the latest from washington. yet another official from the trap administration has defied the presidential boycott of the going impeachment proceedings and arrived to give evidence before 3 separate congressional committees he is george kent an assistant secretary of state with responsibility in europe very much an expert on the ukraine

now the committee is unlikely to be questioning him about evidence they'd heard yesterday from another ukraine expert and russian expert fiona hill who was a member of the national security council before reining in resigning shortly before president trump's conversation with the ukraine president now according to several sources fiona hill spoke about a shadow state department that was a stablished outside normal state department protocols to deal with the ukraine and to bring pressure to bear on the ukrainian president now this was headed she says by donald sunderland a trump a donor and ambassador to the european union also involving rudy giuliani who carried out on going contacts with the ukraine officials setting up possibly a meeting with president trump in exchange for information about president trump's political opponents so certainly the congressional committees gaining

a great deal of traction they going to hear from some other administrations later officials later in the week however not clear yet whether the vice president mike pence and rudy giuliani himself are going to comply with congressional subpoenas to produce documents relating to this ongoing ukraine investigation. the son of u.s. presidential hopeful joe biden has responded to the president's criticism of his ties to ukraine hunter biden was paid $50000.00 per month as a board member with a ukrainian gas company in july donald trump aas the ukrainian president to investigate both joe and hunter biden sparking the impeachment investigation there's no evidence of any wrongdoing by hunter biden i don't know what to tell you i made a mistake. and in retrospect as it related to. creating any perception that there was wrong and so therefore i'm taking it off the table and you know i'm

making that commitment i ne body else makes that commitment but that's the commitment that i make in voting is due to finish sooner mozambique's general election the poll is taking place 2 months after the signing of a peace deal between the ruling for a party and its longtime rival the opposition party welcome what has more from up utah. people have lined up at polling stations across the country some waited in line for as long as 3 or 4 hours in similar scenes across the country except calvert delgado where the electoral commission says 7 polling stations didn't because of insecurity the government's been fighting an insurgency there for the last 2 years that conflicts displaced 60000 people so unknown how many of them lost their voting cards and haven't been able to replace them. inside the polling station voters to bring their voters card and present it to officials from the

electoral commission. can be verified that they are right eligible to vote. then held up in the attic checked for marks of indelible ink to show that people have already voted down to prevent people from voting twice and the details are checked against the electoral register and this polling station is just their registers being disputed in gaza province where opposition rights groups say $300000.00 ghost voters were added to the list the electoral commission nice any foul play is also be controversy over observers rights groups say that $3000.00 independent observers weren't given accreditation to the polling stations and so they're saying that this election lacks the transparency it should have that the electoral commission again defends itself and says it is running a free and fair poll but ultimately during the counting and during the announcement

of results it's whether or not this election has credibility in the eyes of mozambicans which will really determine whether or not the country remains at peace global economic growth this year is now predicted to be a 3 percent its lowest since the 2008 financial crisis the international monetary fund says. trade disputes are largely to blame for its latest downgrade it's also warning of trouble next year saying there is no room for policy mistakes the growth projections for 2 major middle east economies saudi arabia and iran have been sharply downgraded the i.m.f. said iran's economy will contract by a massive 9 and a half percent this year that's a 3 and a half percent drop from its april projections tighter u.s. sanctions on iran's oil exports are seen to blame meanwhile the growth forecast for saudi arabia has been slashed to just point 2 percent a substantial $1.00 percentage points lower than april's projections and 2

contractors' have died and 2 more injured in what's being described as an incident at a saudi oil refinery sodhi ranko says it happened during maintenance work at a facility in jubail just north of the mom on saudi's east coast the company says the maintenance work will carry on as plans. a firefighter has died as wildfires spread south of the lebanese capital beirut and in the north neighboring cyprus has stepped in to help as has its early. reports. these men have been battling wildfires for more than 24 hours in the mt lebanon region. they made harder by the high temperatures and strong winds the finest salted in mischief and spread to several other villages were seen people to leave their homes. every house in it caught fire look around very few people with all that.

it's the worst wildfire in decades and the environment is to ruins the risk. to the situation is very dangerous it's a disaster the damages are huge not yet received any statistics do not spare any effort to improve the capabilities of the civil defense manpower and its equipment they do not have the necessary equipment the situation is not acceptable anymore. lebanon's military planes are being used to but it's still not enough neighboring cyprus has stepped in and more support is on its way but. we contacted several european countries and we will be receiving their health clinic with within hours unlike collards planes and helicopters are able to operate at night to. a lack of water in the region is making it difficult to put out the fire trucks all having to travel to the capital beirut to restock and volunteers living in other

parts of the country also helping out where they can. but i saw the 1st as you can see this is a catastrophe that fell upon us and our fellow druze in the area we came from the but to help our fellow people here. with more than $100.00 fires. burning across mount lebanon it's still not clear how long it will take to put them out of hideouts. ecuador's president has signed a decree scrapping austerity measures that led to almost 2 weeks of violent protests runner up alone has more from quito. in a neighborhood near the outskirts of the ecuadorian capital freddy and carmen are walking back from their home their house is modest and they share the space with other members of their family. the couple make a combined income of about $500.00 per month which is just enough to get by. for the past few days however the 2 haven't been working. instead they were

participating in an indigenous movement that was calling on the ecuadorian government to abandon austerity measures that threatened to increase their cost of living a movement that was ultimately successful. say. finally the voice of indigenous people is being valued finally the government has listened if they hadn't we would have continued to go after the corrupt government that only puts money in their pocket. there are thousands of people from indigenous communities from across ecuador who like freddie and carmen flooded the streets of for more than a week the protests were against a proposed cut to a fuel subsidies program that's been in place for decades weak analysts like other to. say this policy would have had a devastating impact on the poor. and then i would be sentencing people to poverty or sending entire swaths of the ecuadorian population into poverty there are many

people who live off a subsistence economy where $1.00 means the difference between a decent meal or not eating. this is for low income families like freddie and carmen's avoiding the increase in fuel prices is being viewed as a win carmen says the fight is far from over. we say that this is all the tip beginning until all of the corrupt leaders leave this doesn't end here to fight continues until all the corruption has gone. on monday indigenous leaders cheered the victory over the government but reiterated their demand that fuel prices be reduced to earlier levels this is the scene in downtown with high. hundreds of demonstrators no longer protesting in the streets arriving at this auditorium for one last address from indigenous leaders one last celebration before they go home now that a call has returned to the streets of the ecuadorian capital and the agreement between the ecuadorian government and indigenous demonstrators means the unrest in

the country has ended the government is now faced with a new pressure to establish economic reforms that are more inclusive or otherwise face a backlash from a sector of society that has lost confidence in the country's leadership limited up a little dizzy to do it with the head of bulgarian football boris love me hya love has been forced to resign by the country's prime minister following the racist abuse of england players in a european qualifier england's black players were subjected to monkey chants and nazi salutes by some bogus area fans in sofia some held up certs mocking your way for as respect campaign to end racism in football our sports correspondent lee wellings has more. if the racism had continued to an extent then we'd have seen a situation where and this is very where we'd have had a much abandonment of course the racism did continue it just wasn't as prominent as it was in the 1st half so you wonder if the officials were actually just trying to

find a way to get the much british the england players despite this vile racist abuse actually wanted to get the match finished they wanted to win it in fact to carry on the pitch install and not rely on your wife for taking action in that why but surely it has come to the time where you wife are half to be stronger the fines are not working their paltry something times that was $20000.00 that's what macedonia were fined for racism against england players earlier in the year the stadium closures don't work the kind of action they need to look towards is to be in a position to cite a national associations legally we will kick you out of competitions if you are repeat offenders and as we constantly say there are a lot of repeat offenders out there. hello again the headlines on al-jazeera a small units

a syrian government soldiers is now inside the northeastern city of members turkey says 7 if its soldiers have been killed in the offensive so far the kurdish led syrian democratic forces say 37 of their fighters were killed in the last 48 hours russia says it's working to prevent any direct confrontation here and human rights office is calling on turkey to conduct independent investigations into possible war crimes related to what's offensive in syria saying it's gathering information about summary executions shown in videos. a yemeni official has told al jazeera that u.a.e. forces and their separatist allies have given control of airport to the saudi military it's part of efforts to reach an agreement between the yemeni government and separatists in the south there are talks of giving separatist fighters rules and government as a way of uniting against the whole fees in. the use lead negotiator michel barnier says reaching your bricks deal this week remains possible but the chances are becoming increasingly slim. in the u.k.

and in brussels are trying to reach a deal by the end of the week as the october 31st deadline approaches rudy giuliani donald trump's personal lawyer has been asked to hand over ukraine related documents to the impeachment inquiry choose the deadline to produce the documents also extensive vice president mike pence on monday the inquiry heard from the white house's former russian expert fiona hill who resigned days before trying cranes president to investigate joe biden and his son global economic growth this year is now predicted to be a 3 percent its lowest since the 2008 financial crisis the international monetary fund says trade disputes are largely to blame for its latest downgrade it's also warning of trouble next year saying there is no room for policy mistakes people are being evacuated from their homes in lebanon due to wildfires firefighters are battling at least $100.00 fires primarily in mountainous areas southeast of beirut

planes and helicopters have been sent by cyprus to help those are the headlines planets s.o.s. is coming up next on al-jazeera. i know on well bring you a planets as a rest actual from iceland where leaders of the northern most regions of the planet joining delegations from around the world to discuss the future of the outfit it is

a pristine landscape with friend john ecosystems of vos region that helps regulate our planet's weather and climate but as the ice and glasses melt once inaccessible land and walters in the arctic opening up. a calamity for some and opportunity for others the arctic circle assembly is meaty and iceland's capital of reykjavik trying to navigate the very different views on the way forward for this critical part of the world. and as excess carbon dioxide cools off planet to warm stay with us for the scientists working to see if we challenge this natural process to capture carbon at 18 the genes of clones so they can draw in most c o 2 and store it deep underground. welcome to planet s.o.s. in iceland right now by a glacial lagoon and that new york national park which is your desk a world heritage site lates it will be in the capital reykjavik where the assembly

is taking place it's the biggest summits taken is important not just because of what's going on politically in the region but also because of climate change issues which are striking the very halls. of life hit in the north temperatures they soared in the arctic this summer and that's not a novelty it's becoming a disconcerting trend greenland's ice sheet lost a staggering 12 and a half 1000000000 tons of ice in one day more than any other day since records began in 1950 and is when does get warmer and drier the loss will only get worse tick sea ice dropped to the 2nd lowest amount on rec old this year and this is something you don't see very often lightning near the north pole you need a combination of woman and cool to make lightning and there isn't usually enough of the form until this year and forest fires have burned in greater numbers and with more intensity as temperatures rise fish stocks are moving as a freshwater ice melt pours into seas that it getting warmer and the shrinking sea

ice is threatening creatures that depend on it and then as the region's glass is like many glasses all around the world the shrinking rapidly and in many cases disappearing altogether and that's the story we're seeing right here in iceland. this is an island of elemental power shape to reshape by natural forces where the landscape is constantly forged by seepage challenged geology. big glasses sweep a the active volcanoes ash from previous eruptions topics the ice through the millennia the glasses have advanced and retreated but never has a retreat to be distressed because now. classic ironic only takes me towards the solheim you could last year and the speed of retreat is very apparent so this and the case we're in the glass here was back in 2010 and this is an arch of the very

front of the place here this is where we would walk onto it stretched across this entire valley and now 9 years later there it is there's the front right back and it's continuing to melt at the exact same speed. this is one of the fastest disappearing glasses in iceland but its rate of loss is pretty much replicated wherever you go. we went to the national you know a world heritage site covering 14 percent of iceland tourists come here in the hundreds every day to see the sights but the sights the slowly disappearing what was the class here 20 years ago is now a raging torrent muddy eisman. it is a very dramatic and very visible in the strafing of the impacts of climate change and it's happening not only to the world glasses but also for the polar ice caps and the thing is that even if we do think nif it could leak missions more than a 3rd of the world's glasses will disappear by the end of the century. 3 years

old or cigarettes and it's a geologist he's been charting place the last few decades and he's well aware of the global implications the glaciers will melt the multiple to runs down to those shim and the ocean surface rises i told my friends in america just no past week the. refugees would not only be coming from mexico and central america they would become front proto and battle on the coast and the gulf coast of america of the united states. at home businesses that rely on the tourist dollars preparing for an uncertain future or living in sin runs a guest house on the farm where he's lived pretty much all his life yet seen what's difference. the last couple yes and just for maybe 30 or so called and resold 3 clicks of thanks from this site but now we only see 2 all those and one of the most

tourist attraction in iceland so of course it can have an effect on you know all the main pulling off the economic parting in iceland. this story is being repeated around the world just as the melting ice the sea level rise the water supply for hundreds of millions of people is disappearing before our very eyes. there's a bleak picture but there is no other way of telling scientists say the focus must now be on trying to save what we can at this crucial part of the planetary system. the devastating effects of climate change on glasses around the world now we're in the capital reykjavik where the arctic circle assembly is taking place there are more than 2000 delegates here all trying to find a way forward for the arctic in these changing times we spoke to some of them about what they felt were the most pressing issues ahead. well most of what we're hearing up here is about climate change and it's a huge problem you can't look at the news any day and not see another story about

it it's real it's happening and we need to find ways to combat it felt weird to me sitting in there ok this all these people are interested in my homeland and that and how i began to wonder how i stepped in the whole process that is occurring here and so i made a point to focus on the language and the problems that people. finally come to in terms of culture and education and language indigenous people small solution to a lot of the problems in the world is facing climate change sustainable development biodiversity loss and you think that the arctic could contribute a lot to solving these problems if we're going to put 12 out of the after call of course a lot of things of course but one thing which is the most important is sustainability now there are 8 technicians they are norway sweden finland denmark russia canada

the united states and iceland and they all are part of this separate organization called the arctic council which was set up to try and help resolve conflicts about the way forward for the region but laws may they couldn't even agree on a closing statement after meeting that was held in a hall now reports on the conflicting agendas of asserting a confrontational tone in the arctic. meetings of the attic council have really generation front page headlines and then in may the united states did something that had never happened in the council's 23 year history threw at him a series of us 60 of states might come patio the u.s. refused to approve a joint statement because it included the words climate change the refusal grabbed plenty of attention but something of arguably gracious significance for the future of the arctic national slipped by without much coming and that was composed of speech the day before the arctic is at the forefront of opportunity and abundance.

it houses 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil 30 percent of its undiscovered gas and an abundance of uranium rare earth minerals gold diamonds and millions of square miles of untapped resources the message was clear that the melting ice of the arctic was exposing a treasure trove of riches to be exploited and the united states claimed to take the lead to gain control of the pump aon even mention climate change once in his speech but a woman planet is what's made the scramble for resources possible in the northern reaches of our planet a warming at almost twice the global average a region once considered too cold too dangerous plagued by too many storms and i slept for much of the year well it is now opening up steady reductions in sea ice or opening new passageways and new opportunities for trade this could potentially

slash the time it takes to travel between asia and the west the speech was unapologetic and provocative questioning the intentions of major powers russia and china both of which have been increasing the prison dick but then signaling the u.s. plane to bolster its presence particularly its military just in case others don't play by the rules pump air space signaled a new era of competition even potential conflict that could wreak havoc in the outback region but drill deeper and it has ramifications for a soul exploiting the outtakes abundant oil and gas reserves more like you pitch the world's dependence on fossil fuels the more things we burn the more carbon pollution we emit and the higher global temperatures will go benteke straight my will make it easier to get to the arctic's resources but scientists say the consequences for people living for the self the hate waves the floods the rising

seas the extreme weather now vets they say will be catastrophic. as a result the arctic is creating all kinds of challenges and earlier we spoke to the chair of the arctic circle sandy and former president of ice and a live regular grimm's. the arctic by its own effort. would be ok. and if the people of the arctic would have the same living conditions for centuries they would be hopping the problem asian to all over the world to. america africa. the america. the the energy system which was created to warm up $200.00 yesterday. is constitute in a fundamental threat to the future of the author so we are seeing for the fust time in human history the interlocking off the fate of the arctic on one

hand on the rest of the world on the old. and the tissue really the core of the climate challenge that the rest of the world called destroy the off to but the magical the ice in the arctic could also destroy the rest of the world because climate change is open up the boards ways it's opened up the region for exploitation of its vast resources and that is not forecast. to only be a temporary blessing if you want to call it that because if only up for the greenland ice sheet. it would lead to to meet us rice and she leveled all over the world dr would mean that every coast of 50 whether it is should florida where the united states or whether it's in china korea. or whether it is.