the fires are still no more normative you. by. the way that you tell the story is what can make a difference. the fuel shortage in venezuela threatening new tension with the u.s. 5 iranian oil tankers are just days away from arriving in the latin american nation . comes a whole rommany watching al-jazeera live from our headquarters here in doha coming up in the next 30 minutes. millions are without power and shelters are running out of room as a powerful cyclon smashes into bangladesh and eastern india. also israel's urge

to scrap its an exception plans that the un's envoy to the middle east warns the project will threaten the 2 state solution and regional peace. voting for a new president goes ahead in burundi despite concerns over election fraud and the corona virus outbreak. welcome to al-jazeera a new standoff could be brewing between the united states iran and venezuela over a shipment of millions of dollars worth of fuel 5 iranian oil tankers could be just days away from arriving in venezuela in a bid to ease fuel shortages in the country while both countries are sanctioned by the u.s. and the white house says it's considering a response to the shipment venezuela says its military will escort the tankers as soon as they enter its territory or will be speaking to mike hanna in washington

d.c. shortly but 1st let's cross over to john holeman in mexico city taking a look at it from latin america of course what we know about the way these tankers obviously have moved from iran and they're heading towards venezuela and to a country that desperately needs fuel. exactly and iran actually desperately needs gold and that seems to be where the 2 countries have sort of met in the middle of this it's been reported since april the tons of venezuelan gold was leaving the country by plane and going towards iran so now the other way round that oil that venezuela desperately needs despite having the biggest oil reserves in the in the world quite a lot of mismanagement of the oil industry over the years and then sanctions after that from the u.s. has brought them to the point where they don't actually have any gasoline or they don't have as much gasoline as they need at the moment hence the need to bring it

in from iran so that's where the 2 countries of sort of coincided in their mutual sort of needs the moment now we what we know about the time because they're heading out is that they're in the mediterranean right now and that the 1st one could be arriving in venezuela on sunday now the reason that this obviously is very sort of controversial is stirring up problems is because the united states has tried to stop countries from doing similar deals with venezuela in the past they've managed to stop russia doing similar deals in the united arab emirates from doing similar deals so that's why this is seen as being a point of tension right now and obviously the united states is trying at the moment to bring down the rule of president nicolas maduro and this is one of the ways it's trying to do it by starving the country of this of this oil of this gasoline at the moment and that's why venezuelan president nicolas maduro a so determined that as soon as they possibly can they're going to be protecting

them and make sure they get into the country is one more element of this as well and that's one way door who a lot of countries recognize as venezuela's legitimate president he's the leader of the opposition and he's obviously against these boats getting to venezuela as well he says the iranian presence in venezuela sets a bad signal at the moment so there's a lot of different elements. here in this picture as these boats very slowly make their way across the ocean towards this latin american country john thanks very much for the update john heilemann the force in mexico city now let's cross over to mike hanna is in washington d.c. and obviously the u.s. has been ramping up the pressure on venezuela ever since the trumpet ministration came into fruition what sort of reaction can we expect from washington the beginning of a close eye on the situation. well certainly they are keeping a very close various sources are saying that ever since those tankers left on their

way to venezuela however perhaps ominously some might say there's been no formal statement either from state department or from the white house about this particular issue although clearly the sources are saying that the government well aware of that watching it very closely it does appear at this stage there no firm decision has been taken on what to do and how to deal with this particular crisis one must remember that the iranians have been flying planes into ben as well and for a number of weeks now and last month the secretary of state might pompei or made a call to all the nations to prevent overflight to privileges to iranian aircraft flying into venezuela so certainly this issue has been brewing for a while 1st of all with the overflights planes flying supplies into ben venezuela and now of course with the ships approaching the venezuela waters themselves which as we heard from john there would probably be around sunday when they actually

reach venezuela's territorial waters and where nicolas maduro says they will receive a naval escort from the venezuelans so certainly this is a very tense possibly critical type situation in terms of the fact that the u.s. has got to both venezuela and iran on very tight oil embargoes any flouting of these embargoes without some kind of response could be interpreted in u.s. eyes as taking a week stance so certainly although nothing formal is coming out of either the white house or state department at this particular time it's something that is being watched very closely by kind of for the update thanks for joining us from washington d.c. . let's take you to our other top story home we had to asia where indian authorities say the destruction from the cyclamen that's battered the east of the country is more worrying than coronavirus cycler born who was one of the strongest storms to ever hit the region although it has since been downgraded more than

$600000.00 people have been evacuated from low lying areas in west bengal an addition at least 3 people have died there including a 2 month old baby and at least 6 people have died in neighboring bangladesh the government is trying to get millions of people to emergency shelters 1200000 refugees in the overcrowded camps of cox's bazar have been asked to stay indoors until cycling passes the united nations as calls for them to be moved to the mainland well as for prom has more from india's capital new delhi. india's national disaster response force one people in the state of west bengal ahead of cycling on making landfall the storm brought heavy rain and strong winds are proven trees. more than half a 1000000 people have been evacuated to emergency shelters in west bengal and another 150000 to the state of disarray bond with their issues of actuating around

2000000 people. many people have come to the shelter since morning because the rivers banks have broken down here most of the houses aren't made of concrete and bricks people here live in basic structures as of mud. the densely populated low lying areas around the bay of bengal are used to cyclers bottom urgency authorities they will be harder to manage as they try to stop the spread to the cove on a virus. or to door disaster some law gets out. we are dealing with 2 disasters for the 1st time the 1st disaster is ongoing covered $1000.00 which you all know about and during this outbreak another disaster is now in front of us which is in the form of a cycle on. emergency shelters only being used at half capacity. that. dancing is meant and service for poor as you know.

i mean no specific names for one day. while east india and bangor they show in the storm's path heavy rain and flooding farm pond killed 2 people in sri lanka those living in coastal areas have been warned against leaving their homes until the cyclon passes elizabeth al-jazeera new delhi. is the regional vice president for the international rescue committee earlier she spoke to my colleague lauren taylor began by asking her why those in the caucasus bizarre refugee camp a particularly vulnerable. the story is a 1st of all built on sand and then next to it it's a very hilly area and that the rescreen landslides is massive we are also afraid that because of the router situation in the camp we have water stations at but they

are fragile and if one of them breaks they are having the risk of getting consummated water which would further create risk for spread of deceases and it's also as we heard i mean young children 50 percent of the 1000000 people living in the camp are children so if they are outside i mean this is a huge waste that they could be flushed away by water or be hit by debris switch are flying through the wind so there is multiple shalen just for for the population does a bit more about the response so far in terms of coronavirus how how big is the outbreak than how well handled has it been i mean so far the number of these on shore is. hopefully it is not large right now but we are projecting that we might need over 10000 beds and. we are presently together with the u.n. at the united nations and our pierre are going to save them building up to 2000 isolation beds but that will still be

a far far fetched from what is really needed so if the corona were to get a grip in the camp that there can be a major impact on everyone. let's head to the americas now where brazil has overtaken the united kingdom becoming the country with the 3rd highest number of corona virus cases in the world the health ministry is expanding use of the drug to hide truck c chloroquine as a treatment the move is being backed by president tribal sonar despite doubts over its safety and effectiveness brazil recorded its highest daily death toll on choose day with more than 1100th a toilet seats. are from up on or we're losing the battle against the virus that's the reality of the virus at this moment is winning the war these days coming up the holidays i don't see them as holidays but i see them as battle days the most important days in the fight against the virus well still ahead here on al-jazeera the changing color of antarctica how global warming is giving it

a ring. and saying it with flowers how one man's tribute to his late mother is bringing joy to the people of toronto. hello i think for now the storms are stopped in michigan and there may be flooding on the grounds a result of burst dams but the rain has gone further east through the georgia the carolinas even virginia and the breeze is still fairly cold rally's managed to get up to about 20 degrees the rain significant just inland the next development of storms that we should probably watch is this one the temperatures 32 in dallas but they haven't come off the mountains further west it's a contrast and those storms develop in either oklahoma or kansas during friday then

just slowly east was a light extending down to the south west texas south of that is still fairly active weather wise under storms in cuba maybe the cayman islands and japan. and then down towards honduras or nicaragua that's the time of year it is still quite a few frequent but light showers for both the leeward and windward islands and if you read his plan you know that as well that's through both the next 2 days it takes up the start of the weekend and if you happen to think of going to the financial or with cancun at the top think again if you want nice warm sunshine at least in the immediate future more so in the developing argentinean scene on the satellite pictures ever what is there is there be a significant drop in temperature i'm obviously beautiful skies. but the. foam approached asked by a palestinian artist using a symbol of national identity to create postage and passport stamps. last winter

some burglaries are not afraid of their appeal that can fly anywhere sending a message of resistance about the arab israeli conflict and a lot of positive come to palestine. palestine sunbonnet a stamp of defiance on al-jazeera. world. welcome back you're watching al-jazeera needs a home run a reminder of our top stories venezuela says its military will escort 5 iranian tankers bringing oil to ease years of shortages both countries are sanctioned by

the u.s. and the white house says it's considering a response to the shipment also millions of people in bangladesh and east india have fled to the coast after the strongest cycle in decades made landfall psycho on bond has battered the region with winds of up to 170 kilometers an hour destroying homes and downing power lines and brazil now has the 3rd highest number of credible as cases in the world with more than 291000 the government is expanding use of an anti malaria drug to treat covert 1000 despite little evidence that it works. the un's special middle east envoy has called on israel to abandon threats to and exports of the occupied west bank prime minister benjamin netanyahu has been given donald trump's blessing to press on but the security council has told it would hold told that it could breach international law our diplomatic editor james bays has more. many observers have predicted that prime minister netanyahu threat to

annex parts of the west bank was simply an election ploy or some in fact in office he now says he'll actually do it and that's got many of the united nations worried u.n. special coordinator nikolai mad not briefing the security council restated the un's long held position that annexation would be a serious breach of international law by israel derailing a 2 state solution but his response to palestinian president mahmoud abbas his decision to withdraw from all previous agreements and stop cooperation with israel was perhaps more surprising if i missed it openly and very frankly. whatever it will assessments i listed you know reaction to this really threat that exists and maybe it is certainly one thing it is a desperate cry for help it is a call for immediate action. it is a cry for help from

a generation of leaders that invest it their lives in building institutions and preparing the state for over a quarter of a century in the virtual session on one point there was near agreement any i think c shona of any parts of the west bank including of settlements all only would represent a violation of international law one by one security council members urged israel not to pursue a policy of annexation except for one the emission of such a statement by the us ambassador kelly craft was telling she though left it to her boss in washington d.c. the secretary of state to criticize the palestinian president but i regret that he has decided to abrogate these agreements we laid out a very clear vision for how peace could be brought we asked simply for this we asked the israelis and the palestinians to agree that that would be the basis for

negotiations between the israelis have accepted that the palestinians have continued to refuse to just simply sit down and enter into goshen based on president terms a vision for peace there so where the peace efforts go now the so-called core tat has almost been forgotten for the last couple of years it consists of the european union the u.n. russia and the united states the united nations believe it now has the best chance of reviving diplomacy james plays al-jazeera at the united nations. well forces loyal to libyan ward cleaver have to have pulled back from all frontlines near the capital tripoli they say it's to ease conditions for civilians preparing for the holiday and have called on the government's forces to do the same but fighting has continued elsewhere troops from libya's un recognized government are pushing forward west of the capital and entered the town of. on monday government

troops seize control of a major airbase from rebel fighters. burundi has held a crucial presidential election despite the current virus pandemic. is stepping down after 15 years in power but there are concerns over transparency of the international observers were barred malcolm where possible. no sign of social distancing people lined up to vote in the relief capital put in poor health experts have criticized the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic governments told people not to worry that the election should go ahead. with the results burundian should welcome and accept whoever the winner will be the rights groups say people on free to express critical views political violence have been widespread since the last elections 5 years ago they're taking place in the context of. crackdowns on civil society on the independent media we see

reports of killings arrests even disappearances of opposition members in the last few weeks in the run up the election so we're very concerned about the context that are taking place in the. international observers were actively excluded after being told they'd be quarantined for 14 days on arrival. but the government says the process is free and fair to the. outgoing president pm currencies are his route for 15 years he's accused of cracking down on critics ever since he ran for a controversial 3rd term 5 years ago opposition said it was against the constitution. ever eastern. the ruling party's candidate and his chosen successor. running against him is veteran opposition politician. he says hundreds of his supporters have been arrested. the vice president cast on. voting in bujumbura said there were no problems and we are so happy to see.

how the election will be done today because we have peace in the country and. everybody go towards without a problem. social media services were blocked as people voted many journalists and activists to thread into exile it strains the credibility of the process really in the now waiting for provisional results to be announced next week malcolm webb al-jazeera staying on the calls of the city's new prime minister has been sworn in her day after his predecessor quit over allegations that he conspired to murder his former wife with tex a majority of previously served as finance minister and will remain in office until shuttle axels elections in 2 years now the former prime minister thomas them attended the ceremony he denies any involvement in his ex-wife's death. the

nicaraguan government is being accused of covering up the number of coronavirus deaths burials are being carried out quickly and under cover of night even though only 17 feet tallit have been officially recorded but doctors say hospitals have been overrun and funeral homes are now running out of coffins as victoria gay can be reports. this wasn't the way we see arrow wanted to bury his father where. the local authorities ordered a rushed late night burial which luis on his boat pulled out of very quickly there were orders of the body must be buried and there was no turning back so the only thing i could do was try and stream it so that my friends on facebook could be there with me at the time because they forbid people to be close to the grave there were even police that kept people away luis is convinced his father a pilot for nicaraguan airline died of cope with 19. funeral directors say his

family's trauma is increasingly common they say they've been so busy in recent months they've run out of coffins. the funeral home owners all communicate with each other and we learn each other vehicles and things like that we've buried about $200.00 people a night so far without relatives without candles without anything. their experience contrasts with the government's official figures for corona virus deaths which show very few so far unlike other latin american countries president daniel hasn't implemented social distancing measures he says the spike in deaths this year from pneumonia has little to do with the coronavirus pandemic will. we have a normal cycle in mourning the deaths. the important thing is that in beating this pandemic there is no crisis in nicaragua. the doctors say hospitals are overwhelmed by patients suffering from or spirit 3 illnesses and the pan american health

organization said nicaragua's government has refused to allow its staff into any hospitals adding to concerns that ortigas downplaying the effects of the pandemic victoria gate and be. heavy flooding in the u.s. state of michigan falls nearly 10000 people from their homes the government issued an emergency declaration of the days of heavy rains caused 2 downs to burst the national weather service says it's a life threatening situation and urged everyone to get to higher ground. now what began as one man's personal project to all of the memory of his mother has become a landmark in iran's capital the memorial has also taken extra meaning joining the covert $900.00 pandemic same describe the reports from tyrone. homeowner the billies mother loved flowers. growing up he remembers their house filled with them

. every year since her passing he's planted tulips on a street to honor her memory my plan was to change the sadness of losing my mother and convert it to making other people happier so i now saw that he suffered an accidental head injury and died suddenly planting flowers for her was her son's way of coping with the grief. what began as his celebration of her life has become a major city attraction. a small flower patch 8 years ago now stretches for a city block and sadness at the subway this year there were fewer visitors than previous years not many people came to visit because of the coronavirus quarantine little by little i've seen families driving up to see the tulips from their cars as the system has a job that i was just passing by when i saw the tulip for mother's sign i was

curious to go to house of the car to see they are very beautiful. or the billy splits his time between homes in the united states and iran a foundation he set up overseas his passion project beautifying public spaces is something he says is good for the whole community and he's in talks to duplicate the project in cities around the world tulips from others imports bulbs from the netherlands staff plant tens of thousands of flowers along this teheran street every year. the flowers are time to bloom around no rose the persian new year and this has become a kind of unofficial annual event a way to mark the beginning of spring in fact this spot is so popular that it even has its own location marker on google maps in these dark days of the coronavirus the foundation is also displaying posters in memory of the men and women from iran's health care sector who died fighting cope with 19. each poster signals a grief stricken family we last saw many doctors nurses workers in the medical

field so some of the posters and and with their name and their picture at the to live side by i can do something very little. for the medical workers who lost their lives for us. the tulips last 3 to 4 weeks or the billy usually plants a 2nd round of lily flowers to make the most of the spring season. this year he decided to do something a little different he delivered lily's directly to iranian hospitals as a way to bring some joy to the places that have recently seen only tragedy a small gesture are to billy says to thank local heroes and a reminder perhaps that no matter how cold the winter there is always spring is in basra the old is here at the horizon. the climate change is having an unusual effect near the south pole by turning parts of antarctica green blooms of our

sprouting on snow giving the world's most barren continent a splash of color rising temperatures have made the spread so prolific that the algae can be seen from space more than $1600.00 growths have been identified over 2 square kilometers but the algae can absorb more carbon dioxide but scientists say the overall impact will be in significant certainly what we're seeing is in the warmer parts of the insular. moving higher up until last is an ice. i think it will really be a story whether it is in nature. 'd either iraq or further inland and i don't really see a good man to have substantial amounts of nutrients transported inland to large growth and say. on the antarctic ice sheet or anything like that.

but i think we will probably see more coverage on or islands and a shepherd is a professor of earth observation at the university of leeds he says it's another indicator of rapidly melting ice sheets. it's getting warmer and warmer there for some time now we've seen the signal of that change in the ice so you might have heard stories about ice melting or icebergs breaking off and things like but this is interesting because this is now showing is that it's warm enough to change the things that can live there as well it's definitely not a positive side of the story to think that antarctica will no longer be the cold frigid place that everyone expects it to be and will be some where the different types of creatures want to recall an ice in the very distant past i thought it was just a forest actually that was many many millions of years ago and we don't expect it to be anything like that soon but if it are we can live there and worms the algae and if they get there then something will come and eat the worms course it's

a real problem for everyone around the planet because any ice that melts ends up in the sea and we feel that instantly wherever we are around the planet even though antarctica is a very long way away it's the city's sea level changes and changes around the whole planet and in fact it effects as most in the northern hemisphere if ice is lost down south and and then in one respect the fact that we see new life forms emerging in antarctica is just another signal that the place is getting too hot and too hot for the ice to withstand. what your desire of means the whole romney a reminder of our top stories but as well it says its military will escort 5 iranian tankers bringing oil to easy as of shortages but both countries are sanctioned by the u.s. and the white house says it's considering a response to the shipment john hoeven is monitoring developments from mexico city

. it's been reported since april that tons of venezuelan gold was leaving the country by plane and going towards iran so now. the other way round the oil that venezuela desperately needs despite having the biggest oil reserves in the in the world quite a lot of mismanagement of oil industry over the years and then sanctions after that from the u.s. has brought them to the point where they don't actually have 3 any gasoline or they don't have as much gasoline as they need at the moment hence the need to bring it in from iran so that's where the 2 countries of sort of coincided then their mutual sort of needs at the moment millions of people in bangladesh and eastern india have fled the coast after the strongest cyclon in decades made landfall cyclon battered the region destroying homes and downing power lines. brazil now has the 3rd highest number of krona virus cases in the world with more than 291000 the government is

expanding use of an anti malaria drug to treat covert 19 despite little evidence that it works now the un special middle east envoy has called on israel to abandon threats to and it's part of the occupied west bank under a deal with the us israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu could begin and it's in palestinian land as soon as july but the security council was told that this could breach international law and the new prime minister has been sworn in a day after his predecessor quit over allegations that he conspired to murder his former wife look at sema judah previously served as finance minister and will remain in office until shuttled elections in 2 years former prime minister thomaston bonnie attended the ceremony he denies any involvement in his ex-wife's death there's the headlines about with more news in half an hour here on al-jazeera next counting the cost. play an important role in the.

face. hello i'm come all santamaria this is counting the cost on al-jazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week oil just because you're resource rich in 2020 doesn't mean you're making money we'll look at the economies of some opec nations which aren't making a cent in earnings thanks to the price crash the coronavirus also oil versus lithium as coal strove for green economic recovery post pandemic maybe green power could be the death knell for crude. oil giant whose economic diversification has led it to the northeast of england but critics.