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other countries have to try to get through the city fides and they are soon coming up this year in tel aviv east for rehearsals are already on the way and although the stage design is different every year the man behind it has to make a. final run up to the euro vision song contest in tel aviv a key test drawing for florian vader. he designed the backdrop for the show the biggest competition of its kind on the planet. no he gets a chance to see whether everything was. must be think it's got a bit what's very important about this show in particular is that you have a connection between the audience and the people performing up on stage and this being 6 that's why it's really important to get the audience physically very close to the artists. it's a big set and big venue but the stage itself is actually relatively small and that creates an intimate party atmosphere even though when viewed as a whole it of course looks gigantic reports to the music was also. a 6 time the german stage designers shape the look of the contest the 1st rehearsals every participating country like poland is responsible fo

tel aviv to gauge the mood. beach sun and music as the east sea as it's known to its legions of followers hit tel aviv on the beach a mix of tourists and fans await saturday's grand finale with anticipation to levy visit this city when it's it's always fun and that when people from the whole europe coming here to see something i think it will become more fun then it's always. to. go in the big stage here. i am happy to represent my counter albania and read this there they go. israel is hosting this year's year edition song contest because of this single minute about silly who won in lisp and last year she will perform her new single man or banana at the final on saturday. making people come here and see how amazing israel is giving us a chance to show how how how big of a party we can make and how amazing and genuine it can be energy wise. wow. 41 nations are competing to win europe's oldest song contest it's the 3rd time is violence hosted it security has been beefed up along the beach promenade but the everglades event has not escaped the country of the sea. the event has been highly politicized from the beginni

. >> so obviously the back drop there was in tel aviv. middle east politics always a hot topic.n though eurovision has rules inserting politics into their performances, there were a few instances pr it did. >> reporter: george, that's right. eurovision has strict rules to deep apolitical. last night we saw a few instances of politics. there were calls for people to boycott competing. all of them competed. madonna at the end of her second song, she made a statement but without any words. two of her dancers, one of them had an ice railly flag on their back and one with a palestinian flag walked off arm in arm. they said they were going to do some sort of political statement unveiled the banners and that is against the rules of the competition. the organizers said there will be some sort of punishment or reprimand from iceland. that can range from a reprimand to banning them. >> the acts have been breathtaking to bazaar? >>y of them is in australia. australia has a pop opera song. that was definitely breathtaking. there were some other really interesting performances including from

east. keir simmons in tel aviv, bill neely in iraq, bill, tell me what you're seeing on the ground and help us understand the real threat to u.s. forces there. >> yeah, good morning, stephanie. there are more than 5,000 u.s. troops here in iraq. there are u.s. bases one close to where i'm standing right now, there is a u.s. consulate here in erbil, a fortified em base in baghdad. plenty of potential targets. we have to say no specific threat has been announced to any of these potential targets and no convincing evidence has been published apart from one photograph that apparently shows iranian missiles being loaded on to a boat. having said that, there are about 30 militias here in iraq, and most of them are shia, some of them directly funded and armed by iran. it's reported that a couple of weeks ago, the leader of iran's al qods force briefed those militias to be ready for anything, to prepare for any kind of conflict. but this was after the u.s. designated that revolutionary guard a terrorist entity and after iran designated the u.s. central command a terrorist entity. so we've got both

well let's go now to tel aviv where we are trying find middle east analyst mayor job at on far what could all of this mean now for the deal. the six means that the iranians of taken a decision to retaliate against president trump's decision to walk out of the long . run here and saw that they were not getting any benefits from staying in the deal . because of president trump you know he made it difficult for you here countries to do business with iran and. iranians are buying this place tremendous pressure on the government of president rouhani sure some retaliation because they believe that you know be passive about this is not going to increase iran's leverage of course the iranians also take no risk because by undertaking some of these actions especially holding on to some of that reach radio money if they increase the level of enrichment it's going to really ratchet up the pressure and also it would damage their relations europeans but you know there were as far as the iranians are mine as well and some of the moderates were concerned or were left me no other choice and they need to l

parliament voted to dissolve itself and hold a new election in september a middle east correspondent paula slater has the latest from tel aviv. well this is the 1st time in the history of israel that you have a scenario where they may lecture was held in the previous election was held on april the 9th and it was won by the incumbent prime minister benjamin netanyahu and neither of the party that won the largest amount of votes in other words and on yahoo nor the party that came 2nd was able to form a majority coalition government this will mean that israelis will head to the polls now twice in a matter of 6 months not netanyahu obviously wanted to avoid this and the sticking point was negotiations between him and a former ally and a former defense minister avigdor lieberman there's an awful needed a majority of 61 out of 120 parliament seats and he was only able to get 60 with out lieberman's support lieberman had another 5 seats but the 2 clashed over the whole issue of whether or not ultra-orthodox jews should be forced to go to the army at the moment they are exams and lieberman was pushing for him to be included but

recent election victory the deadline passed 15 minutes ago midnight let's go live to tel aviv get more from our middle east correspondent paula slay either how much of a political disruption is there what happens now. well as you say the israeli parliament has just voted to dissolve the current parliament and hold new elections come september the 17th now this is the 1st time in the history of israel that you have a scenario when an election was held in the previous election was held back on april the 9th and it was won by the incumbent prime minister benjamin netanyahu and neither the party that won the largest amount of votes in other words netanyahu nor the party that came 2nd was able to form a majority coalition government this will mean that israelis will head to the polls now twice in a matter of 6 months not netanyahu obviously wanted to avoid this and the sticking point was negotiations between him and a former ally in a former defense minister avigdor lieberman netanyahu. we needed a majority of 61 out of 120 parliament seats and he was only able to get 60 with out lieberman's support lieberman h

keir simmons is in the middle east this morning. he's in tel aviv. good mornin >> reporter: good morning. this morning reports of more threats from iran. the deputy leader ofhat revolutionary guard has said its short range missiles could reach americanarships the gulf. it comes as leaders on both sides look to back away from confrontations. in a region alreddy on ge, a u.s. carrier group assigned to the middle east and b-52 bombers deployed. more uncertainty this morning. iran's supreme leader said his country is not seeking a war. >> iranians really don't want war. >> reporter: president trump signals he doesn't want war with iran. >> will we goo war with iran? >> hope not. >> reporter: ir's shadowy military lead eer who told the militia to prepare for a proxy war with america. citing two intelligence officials. the u.s. military deployed across the region in close proximity to many countries where iran has influence. and a war with iran would mean israel in the line of fire with iranian backed forces like hezbollah on its borders. an aerial broad k

tel aviv. it's part of a new expansion between israel airlines. the first district flights to and from the middle eastf yesterday together with united airlines, there's ten weekly flights between sfo and more. israel airlines is partnering with alaska airlines for frequent pliers to earn miles. that's a lot of miles. >>> 4:49, i know you're watching the commute but hope you're watching pam and me trying to dress in some warrior colors today. ahead of tonight's game. >> i was going to do that but then i decided that what i've been doing has worked. >> depending on what happens tonight, it'll guide us how we dress next time. >> take a look at westbound 580 and the pass in the tracy super commute and we'll start there and there was a minor crash on 580 westbound but slow so might think, that's why it's slow. that's not why but it's going to be slow anyway on 205 and 580 and very slow this morning. when you get to livermore and dublin, mopefully won't look good and looking all right at the south bay commute and here it is in san jose traffic is doing okay as you drive on 17, that earlier accident at 280 h

party down, and eurovision is in that bubble, they call it a bubble in tel aviv because you don't feel like you are in the middle eastwe don't have to qualify. that is because we contribute so much money, and we have some of the biggest audience as well. so they want us in there, even if we don't get the votes. let's talk about the uk entry, it has become a better pattern over the past few years that we haven't done terribly well, but have we done a —— do we stand a better chance this year? michael wright is the singer, the song is called bigger than us, wright is the singer, the song is called biggerthan us, it wright is the singer, the song is called bigger than us, it is written by the swedish songwriter behind the swedish entry. —— michael rice. it isa swedish entry. —— michael rice. it is a bit of an swedish entry. —— michael rice. it isa bit ofanx swedish entry. —— michael rice. it is a bit of an x factor song that would have one ten or 15 years ago, but he has a very good singer. i think the public will enjoy it, i don't think it will be medically motivated against the uk because of brexit and politics. really

more soldiers to the middle east is extremely dangerous iranian foreign minister javid zarif is in baghdad for talks with his iraqi counterpart. well protest is have rallied in tel aviv against a proposed little that could protect israel's prime minister from prosecution benjamin netanyahu is facing fraud and bribery charges in multiple corruption cases his lawyer could poesy is reportedly trying to pass legislation that would grant him immunity and also he's seeking to weaken the high court of justice so that it warrants have the power to overturn any new little protecting him members of venezuela's government and opposition will meet in oslo next week for talks aimed at resolving the political crisis the developments seen as a sign of progress after months of tension between opposition leader and president nicolas maduro quite a told supporters that a rally the opposition wouldn't take part in false dialog box he's confirmed to steam will meet government representatives in norway antonio mora is the editor in chief of news a news dot com he says it's unlikely the talks will put an end to major as government the history of it as well as shows that every time a

decided to allow east scooters on the street it's been a heated debate because not everyone welcomes the devices but there are already common sight on the streets of some other cities like tel aviv and israel. electric scooters rule the tell of you streets. they fill a crucial gap in a city choked with car traffic where there's no subway and where on sabbath the buses don't even run. the scooter craze got a huge boost last year when the us started a bird launched here allowing users to rent scooters using its app. birds general manager for israel says scooters could help reduce the heavy traffic congestion in the mediterranean metropolis. start we go to the q.r. code 30 percent of our rides are between 8 and 9 am and 6 and 7 pm which essentially shows you that people that take the birds are people that are replacing cars. the scooters are meant to solve what's called the last mile problem of transport between home and a bus stop for instance allowing people to avoid taking cars. renting a scooter costs about one year 0 plus $0.12 for every minute of travel. 10 minutes and fun it's a little bit crazy i think it would be better to have. a specific good bike and that. starting

east. hicks recalled that on the flight from saudi arabia to tel aviv, the president pulled the resignation letter from his pocket, showed it to a group of senior advisors and asked them what he should do about it. during the trip, priebus asked about the resignation letter so he could return it to sessions. the president told him it was back at the white house. it was not until may 30 that the president returned the letter to sessions with a notation saying not accepted. two. the president asserts that the special counsel has conflict of interest. in the days following the special counsel's appointment, the president repeatedly told advisors including priebus, bannon, and mcgann that the special counsel has conflict of interest. the president cited as conflicts that he had worked for a law firm that represented people affiliated with the president and that mueller had disputed certain fees relating to his membership in a trump golf course in northern virginia. the president's advisers pushed back on his assertion of conflicts telling the president they did not count as true conflicts. none

in tel aviv is a columnist for the middle east news site wanted to thanks for being with us what's your interpretation of why the ceasefire now. well that's a good question the. next one should be when the next wrong and it's not always was mentioned before this is we really do ceasefire because first of all. this was mentioned in the ramadan started and the international community is watching us including. muslim world and the other thing is the israeli independence day and the european context and there was a kind of division of us between the military establishment and the political establishment the in the military day believe in the military. leading officers the analysts in the army believe that if the government will not treat the problem of gaza the embargo and gaza the suffering of the two million people in no time we will have to deal with another round of violence while the politicians are looking at the contest and the millions of people that will look at us and look at israel next week and these rallies want to celebrate the independence day thursday so if we will not see s

east now. the u.s.s. abraham lincoln joining warships and bombers sending a clear message to iran as a potential cease-fire ends a weekend of deadly violence along the israeli gaza border. from telanon, israel's ambassador to the united states. we have a substantial delay on this signal here so i'll ask the question and i'll get out of the way. there are 20 reported dead in gaza, 4 reported dead in israel. currently a cease-fire underway. what do you believe the u.s.s. lincoln and that -- and the dispatch of that ship and armada brings to the region, sir, now? >> well, the connection between everything and we can see the iranians are behind everything. the iranians are sponsoring terrorism in the region. they spent $7 billion a year on terrorism whether it's lebanon, syria, yemen, egypt, or also hamas in gaza. when we hear the word coming from tehran threatening the u.s. and israel it shows they're panicking because the sanctions are working. but we're committed to fight terrorism, to fight the proxies in the region and we saw what happened in the last few days when israel retaliated after hamas launched more than 600 rockets into our civilian population. >> julie: i wanted to a