creativity parody and protest to challenge and change i.d.'s. gun a controversial witness documentary on al-jazeera. right . clearly. donald trump commits his former advisors prison sentence roger stone was convicted of lying in the russian probe but now he's a free man. hello i'm down jordan the saudis there are live from doha also coming up millions of lives hang in the balance in syria as u.n. resolutions trying to extend across borders they failed to win support. refusing to back down protesters tried to storm serbia's parliament as anger grows against the government. there showing.

prayers outside of fear after a turkish court ruled in favor of turning the museum into a mosque. the us 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 in the russia probe alan fischer reports. he has been a friend a confidant and for a very long time his biggest political supporter a religious student can thank donald trump through his freedom the veteran political consultant was due to begin a prison sentence on tuesday with the president's granting of clemency that has gone away in my case. an assistant u.s. attorney filed a motion with the court which he assisted says. it from our 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 a lie 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 attempt to undermine the trump presidency there was never any collusion between the campaign or the trump administration with russia he continued mr stone will be put at serious medical risk in prison he's appealed this conviction and is seeking a new trial 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 want to believe that one numerous 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 and obstructed investigation to protect trump himself is among the most offensive to the rule of law and principles of justice just this week stone tried to stop his sentence going ahead but at the hearing trump school and justice department said it was a reasonable step something the president has no who ruled out fisher al-jazeera washington well let's bring in scott anderson from washington d.c. he's a fellow in governance studies at the brookings institution scott president trump always called the special counsel probe that prosecuted roger stone a sham and a political witch hunt but has the president in fact interfered with the due process of the u.s. justice system in some ways he has done so less in this instance than in prior cases previously in the stone case and also in the flynn case we've seen some very unorthodox on doctor by the justice department relating to stone sentencing and funds charges in this case the president clearly has the authority to pursue

clemency report and that's always been an option for him but previously he wasn't willing to do so presumably because of the political costs now faced with the fact that mr stone was about to start his presence and seemed to be out of options to avoid that he's finally taken the step that no doubt is within his legal authority but certainly raises a lot of political question yeah and that's an important point to make because in terms of the legality of the president's commutation doesn't void a criminal conviction as in the case of a pod could we see trump eventually pardon roger stone. it's certainly possible that perhaps the president is calculating that there is some difference in the political costs about simply issuing a commutation now versus a full pardon i'm not sure that's true in reality most of the political cost seems likely to come with this as it's clearly letting stone off the hook from the prison sentence which is the clearest punishment he was facing and certainly stone himself

seems to be celebrating that way having noted that they were popping works in the room he was in with various conservative allies of his so but nonetheless there is a bit of a difference there but the president justified it by saying this will allow stone to continue to fight the charges against him and eventually vindicate his own name in trial and scott it is worth pointing out the trump isn't the 1st president to issue controversial pardons all competitions to friends and allies but most presidents have waited until their last days in office in order to avoid any political firestorm which is the point you're making i mean is this likely to impact trump politically in the run up to november's elections. it's hard to imagine how it doesn't it's a pretty remarkable move for that reason if the president could have simply convince mr stone to serve 4 months of his sentence just 10 percent of the stones handed down to him he could have issued this action or a full pardon on november 4th of november 5th right after the election at the point where the cost at least wouldn't be immediately applicable to him instead he decided to take this step and incur the cost in advance of the election which

appears to be an indication either that the president is acting not strategically that he's acting somewhat radically or emotionally in taking this step or perhaps that he sees his political future whether it's in the white house and perhaps in some other role as lying with his political base who buys into the narrative of the deep state that he's using to justify this act scott just a final thought to you house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff has condemned trump's clemency says nope there's one criminal justice system to trump's buddies 1 and one for everyone else are we likely to see that any further response from house committees from the democrats or is this all done and dusted pretty much . i'm sure we'll see some questions some inquiries some effort to get additional information about the reasoning process but again there's not much doubt that this is within the president's legal authority and it's not clear that there is going to be a huge amount of paper trail behind it so aside from that question that efforts to point out what a diff what it difficult and problematic thing this is from policy and political standpoint i'm not sure there is much deeper inquiry that can be pursued scott

johnson great to get your thoughts thanks for talking to al jazeera thank you thank you now the u.n. security council has missed a deadline to reach an agreement 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 of diplomatic editor james bays 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 council's 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 that follows. 2 other texts drafted by both german 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 on northwestern syria search by 2 cross points and both of those are extremely important at both of those service huge amount of people and by chopping away in excess point you were 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 under way and it's

a concession to russia it's being proposed that the bubble how are crossing will remain open but bab al salam will be given just 3 months to wind up operations james baez al-jazeera at the united nations. thousands of people have protested for a 4th day in serbia as capital belgrade over the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic what they say is the president's increasingly or thora tarion rule. demonstrators through firecrackers and police who responded with tear gas protestors define a ban on gatherings a more than 10 people called on president alexander to church to resign ronnie's began on tuesday after attempts to reimpose lockdown instructions on friday in serbia swords highest daily death toll. is in belgrade she describes how friday night's protest descended into violence everything started when a group or for protesters 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 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 that 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. a french bus driver has died 5 days after he was attacked by passengers when he reportedly asked them to wear mosques 59 year old felipe mungo was left brain dead after the assault in the city of bio on on sunday 5 men have been charged thousands of people took part in a march on wednesday to denounce the attack bus services were disrupted as drivers refused to work face coverings are compulsory on public transport in front. parts of colombia's capital bogota right to be quarantined as coronavirus cases rise in the city certain neighborhoods will face strict rolling 2 week lockdown starting from monday intensive care units in the city are reaching capacity colombia has around $134000.00 cases and about a 3rd of those are in the capital but also to come here not just here including

preparing to take on beijing pro-democracy activists in hong kong gear up for an electoral votes. chaos and find out why some people want the president to resign stay with us. hello there very unsettled sections of the united states and canada as well and we're watching this this is tropical storm fay it is expected to hold the early hours of saturday quite quickly then move inland as you can see up to the northeast and also up into eastern as a candidate together this fund which is slogging through very heavy amounts of rain expected and it will also bring the temperatures down which is a good thing but sunny a very unsettled picture out across the southwest and warm and dry in fact the

temperatures here sunday through saturday and sunday phoenix 47 that's about 7 degrees above the average and likewise across into los angeles as well how much is that about 6 degrees above average now that storm system faith will work its way up through eastern canada taking the heavy rain with it but again it'll cool things down in the wake of that but it's a very unsettled picture through much of the east as you can see some heavy rain and even the charles over some severe thunderstorms then down into central america in the caribbean plenty of thunderstorms in the very well scott says you'll see here this massive cloud. christina pushing away from mexico this is what it left behind some severe thunderstorms and this is not snow cools it's actually hail that gathered in the streets there's more rain as we go through southie on the south coast of mexico widespread shot through florida and also across into cuba. or a luxury cruise but some would never come. on. girl want

to want to investigate new zealand didn't leap. on al-jazeera. play an important role tactic human. race. where were. the. the years. welcome back a quick amount of the top stories here on the al-jazeera u.s. president donald trump is to new to the sentence of his ally roger stone stone who advised trump's presidential campaign was sentenced to jail for lying to congress

and the russians over. 2 u.n. security council votes to extend humanitarian aid to syria failed to pass aid agencies say the decision could lead to dire consequences for millions. and thousands of people protesting for a 4th day in service capital belgrade they're calling on the president alexander to resign. campaigning as kicked off in hong kong for its legislative council elections this weekend the pro-democracy camp is holding a primary vote to decide on its candidates for the territories newly imposed national security law has been overshadowing the lead up to the september vote 7 o'clock reports from hong kong. by. these images of a mob indiscriminately attacking protesters journalists and civilians in uniform last july marked a turning point in the hong kong demonstrations journalist with her it was live streaming when she was targeted i know that deprived castille live broadcast of me

being beaten up by gangs and lobsters it's terrible to watch but the thing is i do you know like that so many people they went to you know after that because they watched a park and it was this incident and last year's months of anti-government protests that inspired going to tie you to enter the political arena for the 1st time she'll run as an independent candidate in the new territories at the legislative council elections in september despite china's newly imposed national security law she's prepared to take the risk and fight for greater democratic reform in hong kong of course i'm concerned about my future of course the people here concerned about the fishery we also know that. if we do not do something if we do not resist the operator even to a tarion rule there's no future at all 1 for us to concern about. in last year's local council elections the pro-democracy camp secured 17 of the 18 districts and that's put greater competition in the pro-democracy bloc more young independent

candidates are now standing for election to the city's legislature the pro beijing camp which holds the majority acknowledges it might lose some seats but it's confident voters will support their central policy to restore order in a city rocked by months of political unrest. the upcoming election will be a tough one we will focus on issues such as restoring social stability because of last year's social unrest people hope the city can go back to normal soon as possible china's new national security looms over its campaign analysts say it effectively empowers authorities to disqualify candidates from local and pro-democracy camps who are critical of the chinese government this year i think china is taking up a much stronger position against the opposition so i guess. the opposition candidates may get this wildfire the national security law has already seen some parties withdraw from this election because some members fear the risk of

imprisonment should the pro-democracy cap secure the majority that would live in the power to enact laws and reject or prove the budget and in extreme circumstances they could even try and force the resignation of the chief executive order over the final result on september 6th the coming months are likely to narrow hong kong's political divide sarah clarke al-jazeera hong kong. the largest broadcaster in the philippines is hours away from shutting down for good that's after parliament can refuse to renew the a.b.s. c.b.s. license the decision to appeal against the government decision runs out later on saturday close to 200 employees protested outside the networks have quarters in manila maybe a c.b.s. has repeatedly been threatened by the president for its critical coverage the channel was forced to go off air in may after its franchise expired rights groups say the decision is a major blow to media freedom john allen duggan has moved from manila over the past 12 gresham though 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.s. e.b.m. 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 committee that made and lead 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 is the opposite is outrage against the decision many are basically calling this a personal vendetta by the president who are repeated he has already said in the past that he will make sure that a.b.s. will be out before he actually steps down from office in 2022. singapore's ruling party has comfortably held on to power despite its worst election result in the early a decade prime minister lee hsien looms people's action party won $83.00 out of $93.00 seats in parliament but only got 61 percent of the vote the opposition won tennessee as its best ever result the vote took place just weeks after the country emerged from a 2 month lock down the people's action party has been in power since singapore's independence in 1965. when the outcome of the election the popular vote is 61.2 percent we want $83.00 seats out of $23.00 we have a clear mandate but the percentage of the popular vote it's not as high as

a whole. and we lost one g.o.c. . nevertheless there is a prefix broad based support for the p.d.p. singaporeans understand what is at stake and why we must come together to uphold the national interest. hundreds of people in israel have protested calling on prime minister benjamin netanyahu to step down. he's on trial for corruption charges their tent in general has banned him from appointing any top legal or law enforcement officials petitioned to limit his powers while the case is ongoing netanyahu denies any wrongdoing. dozens of lebanese protesters have helen and to us rally outside the american embassy in beirut. they're demanding an end to what they say is u.s. interference in the country's affairs police use water cannon to disperse them as the 2nd and to us protest in beirut and its suburbs this week and had strained u.s.

lebanese relations. opposition supporters in mali have attacked the prime minister's office as coals for the president's resignation intensify iran had turned into chaos after protest and tried to occupy the national assembly and force the state board cost up to go off air reports. protesters attempting to burn down mollies national assembly saying the parliament no longer represents the people overwhelmed police fired tear gas outside the prime minister's office demonstrators have set up roadblocks in the capital bamako the country is on edge. and we are here right now today is the last day of president operates the. and we are calling everybody to come out. this popular idea. in an address to the nation president called for dialogue saying he would form a national unity government appoint new judges to the constitutional court and

organize a new vote in constituencies where there were allegations of fraud in favor of the ruling party during last april's parliamentary elections for protest organizer mahmoud eco this is not enough. i am not an opponent or opposed to. i am opposed to the system and the way of ruling that isn't working in the center and north of the country millions are displaced after fleeing attacks from armed groups and into communal violence mali and security forces have so far failed to bring peace despite the support of 14000 un and european troops to protest want to strip president of his power calling for a transitional government but for kate his supporters this is unacceptable. we have to sit and negotiate we each bring the monsoon. you can just demand the resignation of the sitting president. the protesters are calling for

a nationwide civil disobedience movement demonstrators have occupied government buildings and control entry and exits of the capital bamako it seems the president is unable to contain a movement that is gaining momentum nicholas hawk al-jazeera the dutch government says is taking russia to the european court of human rights for the role it played in downing malaysia airlines flight m h 17 the plane was shot down over ukraine 6 years ago killing almost 300 people but he has more. it's almost exactly 6 years since a surface to air missile blew malaysian airlines flight m.h. 17 from amsterdam out of the sky over eastern ukraine of the 298 victims more than 2 thirds were dutch 43 malaysians and $27.00 australians were also killed the dutch government says by taking russia to the european court of human rights it will be able to help individual cases already brought by relatives of some victims we have

record or context switch to reality s. so we have never let them know in a trance that we should take this step and. also sort our public reaction today that they are happy to support also get a quest for tools and justice by taking a step in the us. the missile that brought down the plane was fired from territory controlled by promo sco ukrainian rebels dutch led investigators say they have evidence it was trucked into ukraine from a russian military base moscow has repeatedly denied any involvement and on friday the russian justice ministry said it categorically rejects those allegations in march 3 russians under ukrainian were put on trial in the netherlands charged with the murder of all on board none has been extradited but the dutch government says it attaches importance to continuing separate meetings it's been holding with russia of a state responsibility trying to find in its words a solution that does justice to the enormous suffering and damage caused.

al-jazeera. emirates airlines has revealed it will cost about $9000.00 jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic flights around the world have been grounded for months emirates had around $60000.00 stop members it's already let $6000.00 go it's a 1st time the dubai carrier has disclosed the number of jobs being lost. amazon sends an e-mail telling employees to remove the video sharing app to talk from their phones were sent by mistake an internal memo said stosh would delete the out from any device that can access company e-mail because of security risks to talk is owned by a chinese company has previously come under scrutiny of fears it could share data with the government in beijing. turkey's president says the 1st prayers will be held inside istanbul's ioseph ear on july 24th after he signed a decree formally restoring the landmark status as a mosque on friday a court ruled its conversion to a museum in 1034 was illegal so i'm concerned of course. this

doesn't celebrating conversion of istanbul's iconic landmark hagia sophia back into a mosque through a much awaited court decision at dream turkish muslims have been chasing for 85 years truck children here i'm very happy i wish hard use of fear remains as a mosque until the judgment day i ask for them i also feel as a mosque is a legacy of 5 days told on mom that i got it back turkey's present project a part on the signed a presidential decree shortly after the country's highest court revoked a 934 cabinet decision that turned the other face in termes see him change i mean. like all our other mosques those of higher gas sophia will be open to all locals foreigners muslims and non muslims being the common heritage of humankind hagia sophia will continue to embrace everyone in a most sincere unique way with this new status. high gas off the ice turkey's most

popular tourist site attracting nearly $4000000.00 visitors a year and so you know ask a world heritage site and part of the historic areas of to stumble the un wants to make sure no changes are made to the structure we deeply regret this decision made by the turkish authorities made without without prior discussion and prior 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 that this is why we call on the turkish authorities to reestablish the dialogue without delay. dr turkey stop administrates afford to rule but i also feel i will be i must say again turkish people who have been awaiting for at the station for years are here to celebrate and they are impatient to have their 1st prayer inside i guess sophia was built as

a christian orthodox cathedral 1500 years ago and it was converted into a mosque after the autumn can cast in 1453 turkeys decision has caused outrage in greece and russia home to millions of orthodox followers i commend it to track bertha limo had earlier warned the decision would disappoint millions of christians around the world but present tired on say is deciding the purpose if i guess sophia is turkey's southern right see now because so al-jazeera a stumble. time for a quick check of the headlines here on al-jazeera u.s. president donald trump has committed to the sentence of his ally roger stone he was an advisor to trump's presidential campaign and was sentenced to jail for lying to congress in the russia trump says he was treated unfairly stone now wants trump to

stop firing people in the justice department in my case. a an assistant u.s. attorney. filed a motion with the court in which he assisted 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 such proof and he knows so you want to drain the swamp you can start by draining the people who have been to the justice department under the previous administration but who are still there. 2 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 many in northwestern syria depend on the aid coming in from turkey thousands of people are protesting for a 4th day in serbia's capital belgrade they're calling on president alexander to

church to resign in part due to his handling of the coronavirus. parts of colombia's capital bogota to be current team does corona virus cases rise in the city some neighborhoods with a strict rolling 2 week lockdown starting from monday intensive care units in the city are reaching capacity. the largest broadcast in the philippines is hours away from shutting down for good that's after m.p.'s refused to renew a.b.s. license the channel has until late on saturday to appeal the government's decision singapore's ruling party has come from the held on top despite its worst election result in the near decade the prime minister lee hsien looms people's action party won $83.00 out of $93.00 seats in parliament but only got 61 percent of the vote those were the headlights the news continues here on al-jazeera after one of the states are that's watching. as protests rage over police brutality and corona virus grips the nation campaigning on the election trail has been forced to take

a back seat will the presidential candidates ever hit the road and so very brand of politics to americans before the vote follow the us elections on and. it was meant to be the cruise of a lifetime a luxury trip around new zealand to soak up the country's natural beauty. but then disaster struck. a cruise ship passengers were trapped in the middle of a volcanic eruption on wife island. same the death and suffering confronted witnessing. something i never thought i'd ever see and something i had never have to see again what i want to investigate how a dream holiday turned into a deadly not men.