stay. warm. and i think right. really great. donald trump commutes his campaign advisors prison sentence road just stowed was convicted for lying in the russian approach but now he's a free man. hello and welcome i'm peter toby you're watching al-jazeera live from our headquarters here in doha also coming up. millions of lives in the balance in syria as u.n. resolutions trying to extend cross border aged failed to win support. another blow

to press freedom in south asia the largest broadcaster in the philippines is facing a shutdown. refusing to back protesters trying to storm the serbian parliament as anger grows against the government's. top story the u.s. president donald trump has commuted the sentence of his ally roger stone he advised trump's presidential campaign and was sentenced to jail for lying to congress as part of the russia probe alan fischer reports. he has been a friend a confidant and for a very long time his biggest political supporter roger stone can thank donald trump for his freedom the veteran political consultant was due to begin a prison sentence on cheese day but with the president's granting of clemency that has gone away in a statement the white house said roger stone is a victim of the russia hopes that the left and its allies in the media perpetuated

for years in an attack. to undermine the trump presidency there was never any collusion between the campaign or the trump administration with russia it continued mr stone will be put at serious medical risk in prison he's appealed this conviction and is seeking a new trial it concludes roger stone is no a free man. was caught up in robert miller's investigation into alleged collusion between russia and the trump campaign in january last year he was charged with one count of obstruction 5 of making false statements and one of threatening a witness the charges included lying to congress during the russian investigation about his back channel links to wiki leaks during the 2016 election campaign prosecutors said he lied several times to protect donald trump after a trial in washington d.c. he was found guilty initially prosecutors recommended a 7 to 9 year sentence that was criticized by the president. he was sentenced to 40

months in jail fined $20000.00 and told to complete 250 hours of community service several times the president insisted this was a miscarriage of justice and he was considering a pardon for his old friend including this on friday i think right your son was very unfairly treated as were many before and in the meantime komi and all these guys are walking around in voting by the obama record them by my camp they would have believe that what. republicans have over the last few days given a political cover to commute the sentence but others want him against it saying it could play badly in the months leading up to the next election adam schiff who led the impeachment process against donald trump said in a statement commuting the sentence of roger stone a crony who lied in obstructed investigation to protect himself is among the most offensive to the rule of law and principles of justice just this week stone tried to stop a sentence going ahead but at a hearing on justice department said it was

a reasonable step. something the president has no who ruled out on fischer al-jazeera washington. ok let's stay with that breaking story melanie sloan is a former federal prosecutor and currently is a partner at some a strategy and she joins us from washington melanie good to talk to you again has mr trump here in effect interfered with the legal system. well of course he has mr and mr stone was convicted by a jury and he was sentenced to jail and he's done everything he can to delay that sentence and stone had been appealing to the president trygaeus suggesting that mr trump should commute his sentence and to date mr john finally did that which was basically payback for roger stone refusing to come clean about everything that he had done on behalf of the president to help him win the election in 26 roger stone is still officially guilty if you will because the sentence was it was commuted it

wasn't pardoned we saw that shot cohen earlier this week being taken back to jail because he was let out of jail because of coronavirus but he was photographed eating a high end restaurants blagojevich earlier this year old so people are reminding remembering them mr flynt i mean is there a perception there that people who were close to donald trump who did something illegal are actually getting away with it. well absolutely if you are close to mr trump and you do something illegal that helps him then he will do everything he can to help you and make sure you go free if on the other hand you are not viewed as sufficiently loyal as in the example of michael cohen then you can go back to jail i mean it's very interesting that mr trump expressed so much concern about roger stone going to jail with copd it and yet there are many many i

mean probably hundreds if not thousands of federal prisoners who are also over 70 and at risk of comity and mr trump has no concern for any of those people it's only roger stone who has basically protected president trump and failed to come clean about everything he did to help mr trump win the election and basically this is payback roger stone what do you make melanie of the timing of this a slightly different parallel universe political tactician months of thought yes roger i'll get you. i won't do anything more than commute the sentence but please wait until after the election you guys are less than 4 months away from going back to the opinion polls. i think mr chen could not wait for roger stone because stone was due to go to prison on tuesday and the judge in the stone case had been very clear that she was out of time she was no longer going to brook excuses by that

justice department or by stone about why stone was getting special treatment so stone was headed for jail so for him it was really now was the time friday night is often the time you'll see bad news dumped in washington with the idea that people won't be paying attention and mr trump had really no choice but to go ahead and do this favor for roger stone if he was going to stop stone from going to prison and i'm sure mr mr trump was worried that if you didn't help stone stone has a lot of dirt on president trump and he could spell at any time and i'm sure trump wanted to avoid that clearly it would mr trump any political friends or supporters but is it fair melanie if i say that's maybe not the point because this in trump well the guest can operate in parallel outside the political process going forward to november the. you know for any other president they would be considering how this might look for their reelection chances when this hurt their reelection and

with president trump he has all always issues and those concerns he has been willing to go to bat for michael clayton he's been willing to take on pretty much anybody who opposes him and his core constituents don't care they're willing to support him no matter why so his base is probably with him in thinking roger stone was unfairly treated well is hurt him with swing voters and republican suburban voters yes probably but i wouldn't imagine that many of those voters have already better worried about president trump because of his reaction to both the kobe and pandemic and also to their racial crisis crisis in enveloping the united states so it's really a question of whether trump lost any more than he already lost with this new action and on the other hand stone could have done him real damage if he chose to speak melanie thank you so much as ever for coming on there with your opinions melanie

sloan there joining us out of washington good to talk to. the u.n. security council has missed a deadline to reach a deal to keep cross border aid flowing into syria russia with the support of china wants to cut the number of crossings in use but the u.s. and other council members say that would deprive syrian civilians of lifesaving supplies diplomatic at its a james bays now reports the delivery of medicine food and other vital supplies to hundreds of thousands of syrians is at risk the security council deadlocked on details of the authorization of a brought into northern syria from turkey. the councils now voted 5 times in just 4 days on a new resolution 3 versions written by russia didn't pass the result of the voting is as follows 2 other texts drafted by belgium and germany were blocked the draft

resolution has not been adopted owing to the negative vote of 2 permanent members of the council even though everyone else on the council supported them russia and china use their veto. the key sticking point until now has been the border crossings that can be used to bring aid into syria most council members want the 2 existing border crossings to remain but russia backed by china wants that reduced to just one leading aid agency is very clear on this point does it matter to you how many checkpoints there are as it stands right now the northwestern syria is served by 2 cross points and both of those are extremely important at both of those service amount of people and by chopping away in excess point you are simply just trying to interrupt they'd operation and it has as no relationship with the actual situation on the ground and it will be significantly more difficult to deliberate

if that is another effort a compromise is underway and it's a concession to russia it's being proposed that the bubble how we're crossing will remain open but. will be given just 3 months to wind up operations james by his era at the united nations. last broadcast in the philippines is now off the shelf the politicians that refused to renew a.b.s. c.b.s. license the decision to appeal against the government's decision has run out close to $200.00 employees and networks of forces have been protesting outside the network's headquarters in the capital city manila c.b.s. has repeatedly been threatened by the president for its critical coverage human rights groups so the decision is a major blow to media freedom jamil and the gun joins us live from manila just to be clear jamila has this network actually done and the thing that is strictly speaking illegal. well you know

over the past 12 congressional hearings almost every possible legal accusation has been thrown against the country's biggest media network from labor violations to tax evasion even the very citizenship qualifications of its owner chairman gabby lopez they question whether he was really filipino whether he had the right to own a media channel which is actually restricted under the philippine constitution but again it all boiled down to congress voting majority against the renewal of its franchise which expired after 25 years so yesterday around 70 lawmakers voted against the renewal while around 11 voted in favor of the renewal of a.b. a c.b.s. media network to air again now they are given from that this issue and within 24 hours basically to submit an appeal to the very same debate the that made and led this position and the and hearings but the appeal should come from somebody

a lawmaker from the majority who initially voted against it so what we're seeing basically is a very narrow wing space for the media network when it comes to legal remedies but what is growing here though at the opposite is outrage against the visit and many are basically calling this a personal vendetta by the president who were repeatedly has already said in the past that he will make sure the. a.v.'s will be out before he actually steps down from office in 2022 he has long talked about basically a.b. a c.b. and failing to air his presidential campaign in 2016 and basically a.b. as he been choosing to air the presidential campaign or the campaign against him from his opposition the statement yesterday from the government says it has remained neutral but what are our rights groups are also saying here is the shutdown of the. time at a time when there is have been demick at a time when more than 3000000 filipinos have already lost their jobs the company already said the few weeks ago they will start with trenchant over on some of its

$11000.00 workers so it remains to be seen how it will be batting out in the coming hour weeks or so but it looks to be the space for legal remedies for a.v.'s c.v.s. is narrowing and it may be closed indefinitely camilla we must leave it there many thanks. still to come here on al-jazeera the coronavirus pandemic worsens across latin america affecting many in the region plus. the president. after a turkish court ruled in favor of turning the popular heritage site into a mosque from a museum. still

some very heavy rain in the forecast to take 3 will central areas of china and of course they still say more heavy rain across areas of japan as well but just look at these images this is actually from the southeast of china fusion province and still these floodwaters continue to wreak so much damage nickols also so much misery just look at this these floodwaters pouring underneath underground meanwhile across into central china this mudslides proved deadly at least 8 people have died in this you can see just the devastation this is that behind of course rescue is it doing their best to help people than meanwhile there's more rain is to say through saturday through the same central areas across towards shanghai and then we will see more rain across into kishi but not quite as heavy as it has been more rain those who go on into sunday and then you notice this front. slightly further towards the north and then through sunday very heavy rain gathering across the elysee and that will push across into much of the korean peninsula and across into n.d.'s still very heavy rains here of course to the southwest monsoon the next

couple of days saturday and sunday the heaviest rains are going to be 3 be our west bengal into the northeast and this is where the india metal face of the warnings for the next few days and all the while the rains continue out tools the west. in india identity politics on the rise what we're seeing is the construction of budget shooting cuts and loads of musical across the country and as a dockside in the 12 is reducing the grit from his off the majesty of the him to fix into something more like the team i didn't see of the british football i meet with victims of violence and discover what life is like for minorities in the country join me on my journey in search of india's soul on al-jazeera. moving forward.

welcome if you're just joining us you're watching al-jazeera live from peter davi you're headlining stories the u.s. president donald trump has commuted the sentence of. mr stone who advised presidential campaign was sentenced to jail for lying to congress 5 times as part of the russian approach. to u.n. security council votes to extend humanitarian aid to syria have failed to pass aid agencies say the decision could lead to diet consequences for millions of people. and the biggest broadcaster in the philippines is of all the politicians there refused to renew a.b.s. c.b.s. license the decisions were against the government's decision. thousands of people have protested for

a 4th day in the serbian capital belgrade over the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and what they say is the president's increasingly authoritarian rule. demonstrators threw firecrackers at police or responded with tear gas protesters defied a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people rallies began on tuesday after attempts to reimpose lockdown restrictions on friday serbia saw its highest daily death toll . she's in belgrade she describes now how friday night's protests descended into violence. everything started when a group of for protestors tore down the security fence in front of the national assembly building and they were provoking police officers they were throwing stones on the police but police officers kept calm and they didn't respond until

a couple of minutes ago and they're now the situation is quite similar with what we've seen a couple of days ago 2 days ago police officers responded with tear gas and there is happening now and the protesters are are persistent they are still in front of the national assembly building so police is not still fighting the main entrance but they are spread all over the city center and i have to say that from today in belgrade every gathering of more than 10 people is forbidden and there is a new measure against the coronavirus ok let's get more on top story that decision taken by the u.s. president donald trump in the past 2 or 3 hours to commute the prison sentence

handed down to his former campaign advisor roger stone the 67 year old was found guilty of lying to congress on 5 different occasions during the congressional inquiry committee inquiry in to allegations of russian meddling in the 2016 u.s. presidential election mr stone has been speaking in the past 15 minutes here's what he had to say. in my case. a an assistant u.s. attorney filed a motion with the court which he has sisted insisted that the mother investigation had proof beyond the crowd strikes report that the russians hacked the d.n.c. and gave the information to wiki leaks that's a lie signed by a lawyer he should be disbarred from that there is no sex proof and he knows it so you want to drain the swamp you can start by draining the people who have been in the justice department under the previous administration but who are still there

and joins us on the line from virginia alan of course ordinarily posting in washington bureau allen what's your reading of what we've been hearing from mr stone. well it fits in with what he's been saying that he wants to take his case to court he said in the conversation with donald trump then tom said he could pop them but if you pardon them that would mean that admission of guilt he didn't think the roger stone would more not he want to continue the fight in court and that seems to have been what has been agreed between the president and going just to him during the telephone call in the last few hours the problem the road just to have gone of course is that he wasn't just convicted willy nilly he decided to go in front of judy all fellow american citizens who listened to all the evidence who listened to the defense that his team to top and they decided that he would be convicted of lying to congress roger stone essentially tells the little companies continue to

cry even when things that they pickle we saw that back in 2016 during the presidential election there were he told them to continue to fight even after the infamous tape when donald trump admitted assaulting women was released many people thought that was the end of the campaign but it was roger stone that convinced him to continue to keep on fighting to make a statement that evening and to go on the offensive which is exactly what he did 2 days later at a presidential debate where he brought in women who had accused bill clinton of sexual assault and it was his intention to sit in the front row without was weaker . kicked away by the people who organized the debates not just the one very much a huge supporter of donald trump this is donald trump's 76 pocking computation of sentence in presidential chance 2 years in that's actually quite low but what will draw the attention of course is the number of times that don't trump has interfered not just the miss case but also in other cases very early on he said that your

student had been treated very badly when prosecutors announced the risk going to seek up to 7 years then can he asked the justice. and directly to intervene they got someone to do that and it was reduced to 40 months in prison and then when he was convicted donald trump said several times as he always does almost like the big reveal from a reality show that it will you pardon roger sterling well we'll wait and see what happens instantly something i'm thinking about and then we had the big reveal on a friday night not the 1st minute on this sort of thing in a friday night obviously hoping that it misses most people's attention when they don't get too much attention over the news but i can tell you that from joe biden during that the democrats are saying something has to be done here and many of those involved in congressional committees are saying that beer in a boat to hold inquiries and the 1st name on the subpoena list will be roger stone

alan thank you the outbreak of corona virus across latin america and the caribbean is getting worse several countries now rank among those with the highest per capita infection rates anywhere in the world as cases saw at least 3 leaders have now come down with covert 19. of them with few exceptions the coronavirus pandemic in latin america is worsening deaths in the region and now account for nearly half of daily coronavirus deaths worldwide and the pendennis is not scaring regional leaders. on thursday libya's interim president janine and yes announced that she along with 3 cabinet members had tested positive for the virus. then i was remaining quarantined for 14 days until a take a new test to see how i'm doing i'm feeling fine strong i will continue i can remotely nice elation. she's not the 1st in the region to become infected last month hunder and president $100.00 lendell it mandy's told reporters that he and

his wife had tested positive. a recent spike in coronavirus cases in honduras has caused concern over the possibility of the central american nation becoming the next kobe 1000 at the center. on monday brazil's president jade will sit out o. became the 2nd regional leader to contract the virus brazil remains latin america's worst hit nation also narrow however insist on reopening the economy maintaining that a spiraling economic crisis is worse than the pandemic itself. on thursday the leader of venezuela's socialist party said that he too had become infected venezuelan president nicolas maduro was quick to confirm the announcement be. has just sent a message on his green accounting forming that they are taking to. the molecular this for the 1900. $84.00 my family official coronavirus cases in venezuela stand at just over $8300.00 but the opposition has

questioned the accuracy of the data accusing the government of a lack of transparency and al-jazeera campaigning in hong kong for the legislative council elections there this weekend the pro-democracy camp is holding a primary vote to side on its candidates for the territories nearly impose national security law has been overshadowing the lead up to the vote in september difficult and joins us now from hong kong do you think when this actually happens people will vote. or is it just about the relationship between hong kong and beijing. well people here are voting on the fact that beijing has been imposing. lawson home calling like the national security law people will be voting on hong kong's autonomy people will be voting on whether they can continue this democratic movement here in hong kong but that is largely in question in these primaries that

you mentioned there are a litmus test of what it will be like in the future particularly as this will be the 1st democratic action since that national security law came into place and they've already faced many obstacles for instance the polling stations are the pollsters that were supposed to monitor these ballots and count the votes are weighted over night by the police police say it has to do with the data leakage from 20 a project they did in 2013 but the democratic camp is questioning the timing off it on top of that the polling stations for this primary campaign also which had been in many shops and district council offices are suddenly under threat because landlords say that they're not allowed to hold these primaries in these venue's and then on top of that there's the new corrupt search and corona virus but as he said the biggest issue here is a national security law and people are worried that if they do participate will they be breaking a law and so this national security law already is showing its impact on what we

saw as hong kong's democratic movement and the fight and the uphill battle that they will have in the run up to these elections ok debian thank you very much to correspond of the reporting live for us this hour hong kong. the turkish president says the 1st prayers will be held inside his stand. on july 24th after he signed a decree formally restoring the landmark status as a mosque but it's hours after a court ruled the monuments conversion from a mosque to a museum in 1934 was illegal you know sco had already cautioned against changing the status of this world heritage site and greece says it's in quotes open provocation to the civilized world. is interim director of the department of public information at unesco he says the decision is concerning. we deeply regret this decision made by the turkish authorities made without without prior discussion in

prayer consultation prayer dialogue and we call for the universal value of this splendid world heritage to be to be preserved. the implications indeed have to be discussed now and this is why we call on the turkish authorities to reestablish the day alone without delay well because concern is about the universal value in the unity of this and that of this site 1st of all as you know sophia is one element of the biggest of a bigger area the historic areas of istanbul and it was inscribed by the turkish authorities as a museum not a cathedral not as a mosque as a museum as a symbol of the many layers of civilizations that have been that have made the richness of that of the monument and as a symbol of dialogue between civilizations between europe and asia and east and west and so forth so we are concerned that the change in the status that was made

without any consultations whatsoever. may undermine this universal value in this symbol of dialogue among civilizations. recovering your top stories here on al-jazeera the u.s. president donald trump purse commuted the sentence of his ally roger stone stone who advised drums presidential campaign was sentenced to jail for lying to congress and the russia probe he says president trump needs to start firing people within the justice department. in my case. a an assistant u.s. attorney. filed a motion with the court in which he assisted consisted if the mother investigation had proof beyond a crowd strikes report that the russians hacked the d.n.c. and gave the information to wiki leaks that's why signed by

a lawyer he should be disbarred from that there is no such proof and he knows the un security council has missed the deadline to reach a deal to keep cross border aid flowing into syria 2 votes of failed to pass the 1st was vetoed by russia and china another proposal put forward by moscow failed to get any backing aid agencies are warning of dying consequences for displaced people . the biggest broadcaster in the philippines is off the air that's after politicians they refused to renew a.b.s. c.b.s. license it has repeatedly been threatened by the president over his critical coverage of him the decision to appeal against the government's decision runs out later on saturday. thousands of people have protested for a 4th day in serbia's capital belgrade over the government's handling of the corona virus pandemic and what they say is the president's increasingly authoritarian rule . another latin american politician has been quarantined compounding the virus

crisis across the region the venezuelan oil minister tata kill us army is the latest of many regional leaders to contract covert 19 breakers westing across the region the un is warning of unprecedented economic damage. turkey's president says the 1st prayers will be held inside istanbul's. on july the 24th after he signed a decree formally restoring the landmark status as a mosque hours after a court ruled the monuments conversion from moss to museum in 1904 was illegal unesco had already cautioned against changing the status of the heritage site it is an open provocation to the civilized world will keep you company from 3 g. i'll see you later at 23 g. up next a.j. selects for the moment. is the government necessary to really address some of the structural issues we listen i still think

that. travel and we meet with global news makers the stories that matter.