ok let's bring in our panel today here on inside story joining us from west jerusalem we have oren felt he's a member of the party and formerly head of the hebrew headquarters for the joint list in jerusalem in tel aviv we have who she's a member of the likud party and deputy mayor of jerusalem for foreign relations and in jaffa on skype we have sami she had a he's a party politician and a member of the knesset welcome to you all. in tel aviv coming to you 1st millions of people have just voted for a man who stands accused of bribery fraud and a breach of trust what does that say about israeli voters. well i think that when you look at the charges i'm a lawyer by profession i trained in the u.k. and there's 2 things that we have to bear in mind 1st of all there's never been a case in the entire world where a quid pro quo involves positive coverage in these really press we're not talking here about cash on the lopes we're not talking here about anything which is material we're talking about 8 quo which has never in any country in any modern democracy been considered a quo in terms of bri

all right let's go live now to enron in west jerusalem and a man as you've pointed out time in less than a yeah all the polls predicting that they'll be any different to the result well there's so much math going on there's so much coalition building that has to happen for any one party in the only really 2 parties if that have a chance of getting power netanyahu likud party and benny gantz is blue and white party so they have to make deals with smaller policies but over the last few days i have been speaking to lots of israelis. didn't ask the question to them are they 1st rated with the entire political process on the overwhelming or marty has been yes we we wish there had been a deal we wish we weren't going to come to a 3rd election but here we are we have to come out and vote and i have to say it's very early in the morning the polls only opened about 1520 minutes ago and there's already a steady stream of people coming into this station in west jerusalem so it looks like people do want to come out and vote whether it will be a higher turnout than the elections in april also remains

jerusalem thank you harry afghanistan's president ashraf ghani has signed it to creep paving the way for the release of some taliban prisoners 1500 of them will be freed within 15 days in return the taliban will hand over a 1000 afghan troops it's hoped the move will lead to talks between the various and the government u.n. security council's passed a resolution which supports the deal. the coronavirus obviously the biggest global health emergency at the moment but den dey a disease spread by skaters is also a serious health issue in many countries true lanka for example has seen a major increase in infections in recent years and often and this has our report from colombia. health officials like a chimney on the prowl part of a larger effort to fight against a viral disease spread by mosquitoes he's part of the team releasing a different type of mosquito to fight it spread. the a.b.c. egypt carries the day and viruses which is infecting mostly lankans every year. the head of the national dental control unit says expanding cities have led to an increase in breeding sites. burden for h

in west jerusalem thank you. china and the united states are stepping up their war over the media china's government is threatening retaliation after the u.s. cut the number of visas for chinese journalists working in america the u.s. says the visa cap on for state run organizations follows years of intimidation and harassment of foreign journalists in china 3 wall street journal reporters were expelled from the country last month. it's as though to the race to become the u.s. democratic party's presidential candidates with super tuesday voting starting in just a few hours time 2 candidates who have dropped sights haven't orse joe biden senator inequal bashar and former mer people to judge trying to rally for the former vice president their endorsement is expected to give biden a boost as 14 u.s. states head to the holes to choose the democratic challenger to trump folks you know just a few days ago the press in the parlance declared this campaign dead. so i also understand it was such a mess so it was such as yo

jerusalem ari clearly a lot of political strategizing going on here to talk us through it all. yes even by the standards of israeli politics especially over the last year or so this is pretty exceptional stuff really byzantine maneuvering going on right now benny gantz leads the israeli opposition the the largest party in the opposition the alliance blue and white he has been given the mandate by the president because he got the most recommendations from the parliament the knesset after the elections to be prime minister there are efforts going on to try to see if a unity government between blue and white and netanyahu could take power especially at this time of emergency in dealing with the coronavirus that is what netanyahu wants and he wants to go 1st in any rotational deal as prime minister with benny gantz however at the same time there has been this constitutional crisis this week with the as you say the previous speaker refusing to hold a vote to allow the opposition to replace him to allow them with their nominated speaker cohen to put through legislation which could ha

jerusalem israel has really been on the brink of a constitutional crisis these last few days so one wonders does the resignation of the speaker really solve the problem. well not yet it seems they're getting closer but there is still some mileage in this constitutional crisis yet just to set the scene the opposition parties since the march 2nd election have in alliance a majority in the knesset the parliament $61.00 seats out of $120.00 so they have under law the right to vote in a new speaker and thereby put themselves in the driving seat in terms of the agenda of the parliament start passing legislation that the likud party of benjamin netanyahu may well not like and so edelstein had been pausing the knesset had to be suspended the knesset last week then on monday he was told by the high court that he had to have a vote to see a replacement voted in by today by wednesday rather than exceed to that ruling he has instead resigned and said his resignation would only take place or be effective from 48 hours from now that means that any vote to replace him would be further delayed into

jerusalem these latest political machinations a taking place in the shadow of the coronavirus book. benjamin netanyahu began the day adopting some of the coronavirus measures he denounced the night before the fewer than 10 ministers at the cabinet meeting the prime minister joining by video he received confirmation of his corruption trial due to start on tuesday had been pushed back by the health crisis for more than 2 months but the decisive moves were brewing at the home of the president even rivlin as he received recommendations for prime minister from newly elected factions in israel's parliament that knows likud is proposing a 6 month emergency unity government with netanyahu in charge or a 4 year rotational deal in which he serves for the 1st 2 blue and white opposition leader but he can't hasn't ruled out some kind of a deal which several members of his alliance are reported to favor but he's also been working on legislation to stop an indicted politician. from forming an administration and dances own hopes of leading a minority government would boosted by the recommendations

jerusalem it seems to be sort of a major breakdown in the functioning of israeli politics one wonders how it's going to get resolved. well indeed i mean you can start this i suppose anytime over the last year or so with 3 now inconclusive elections but certainly since last week when the speaker of the parliament a close ally as you say of netanyahu decided to try to circumvent efforts by the opposition parties who have a narrow majority in the parliament the knesset to try to replace him as speaker and thereby take over the business of the knesset by simply shutting it down and then when it reopened on monday again he refused to have the necessary votes and the high court stepped in asking him in the 1st case to have that vote then when he refused ruling that he had to institute that vote by wednesday at the latest now this is caused a huge standoff a real constitutional crisis between 2 branches of government between the the party of benjamin netanyahu especially and the courts they've been battling against the courts which they've seen as overstepping their bounds for some time of c

jerusalem thank you. the 1st one ever convicted by the international criminal court has been released from prison supporters gathered outside the jail in the capital of the democratic republic of congo to greet thomas lubanga he was found guilty in 2012 recruiting child soldiers laura but luckily his will. to his supporters thomas lubanga left macculloch prison and. here are. the 2 others he was considered one of the most dangerous move and what's now the democratic republic of congo. you know me better than these 3 international criminal court judges who tried to present me as a devil i remain thomas lubanga who suffered with you in 20022003 during these conflicts and it turi i remain the same to you my people that are not militia this young girl was among many who was taken from have family trained and forced to fight in the 2nd congress will. bang the head is a militia called the union of congolese patriots all the p.c. one of 6 groups involved in fighting for control of the mineral rich turi region be

jerusalem. this is al-jazeera these are the top stories it's only has reported a 25 percent increase in coronavirus deaths that's the largest single day up to $368.00 people died on sunday putting the total past 1800 that's nearly a week after a nationwide lockdown was declared on 16000000 people restricting travel and banning public gatherings it's really is the worst affected country outside china despite a rising infection rate in the united states the president donald trump remains optimistic speaking at the white house is short americans there's no need to hoard cleaning products and groceries as the supply chain remains healthy you don't have to buy so much take it easy just to people are going in and they're buying more they remember i guess during the conversation doug of wal-mart says that they buy more than they buy a christmas relax but doing great it all will pass. colombia is the latest nation to block all foreign travelers from entering the country its border with venezuela is alre

in west jerusalem. some were arrested for arrests were taking were carried out and as well as that there were rocks thrown at an ambulance crew who are conducting a coronavirus test as well as all this the cabinet is meeting this afternoon to discuss further tightening the measures potentially restricting the number of people who can gather in one place from 10 to 2 that yet to be decided let alone announced an. as you say behind all of this perhaps not too far behind it the negotiations take place they continue between netanyahu and benny gantz his erstwhile opponent in 3 inconclusive elections who had vowed to remove him from office now this unity government very much taking shape allowing us to stay in place ok thank you for that we'll wait to hear from harry for sort of any test results about prime minister netanyahu finally it is word chalons he is in brighton in the u.k. pretty much deserted behind you there rory but stunning to hear some really positive signs coming out of the u.k. about a sort o

jerusalem. over the last few days i have been speaking to a lot of israelis. did ask the question to them are they 1st rated with the entire political process and the overwhelming odds are it's been yes we we wish there had been a deal we wish we weren't going to come to a 3rd election but here we are we have to come out and vote and i have to say it's very early in the morning the polls only opened about 1520 minutes ago and there's already a steady stream of people coming into this station in west jerusalem so it looks like people do want to come out and vote whether it will be a higher turnout than the elections in april also remains to be seen obviously but a lot of people now are taking a look at the campaigns that were actually fought by those 2 main parties likud and blue and they're criticizing likud for taking an almost baxi approach saying that being very confident that they are going to be able to win this election and others are saying that benny gantz is white party didn't get out t

jerusalem. remember you some breaking news now and the u.s. government is bringing criminal charges against the venezuelan president nicolas maduro and at least half a dozen other venezuelan officials on thursday accusing them of involvement in drugs trafficking we'll bring you more news on that as we get it the u.s. government to bring criminal charges against venezuelan president nicolas maduro in other news the australian man accused of murdering $51.00 people in attacks on 2 new zealand mosques a year ago has admitted his guilt and tyrants change his plea from not guilty to guilty in a hearing at the high court in christchurch on thursday he also pleaded guilty to 40 counts of attempted murder and one of terrorism the 29 year old will be sentenced at a later date well new zealand's prime minister's says his guilty pleas are a small reprieve for victims' families. that they will still be i'm sure a citizen since overlayed. that the whole nation but particularly our muslim community have being

jerusalem. the u.s. justice department has charged venezuelan president nicolas maduro and several senior officials with drug trafficking the attorney general william bell announced indictments and his top lieutenants are accused of running a so-called narco state using the proceeds of the cocaine trade to make up for lost oil revenues let's speak to our latin america to my friends from chile from santiago tell us more about this and its timing. the timing is rather peculiar because it coincides with an agreement by the united nations to supply aid emergency humanitarian aid to venezuela to help to cope with the coronavirus outbreak in fact not just venezuela but most of the countries in latin america who are desperately needing it as this virus spreads but it in practical terms there's it's almost impossible to implement this indictment short of sending in u.s. troops to pluck nicolas maduro and his closest allies out of the country which is very very unlikely in the current sonari oh remember

jerusalem emraan what has benjamin netanyahu got to do now is getting extraordinarily close. what is that 60 seats where the about 73 percent of the vote being counted and he just needs one more to get that magic number of 61 and get him over the line and be able to form a government now normally israel is all about coalition building but benjamin netanyahu already has a bloc he's already built a coalition which has got him so that 60 so he just needs one more m.k. one more member of parliament now instead of building a coalition and trying to get in another political party what we're hearing is he's going to just try and get somebody to defect from another political party and join him there are a number of names being bandied around but it looks like in the next coming hours he will try and do this very quickly and get that name to come out of announce it which then puts president pressure on president rivlin to actually say today ok you can now go and form a government that's the process so all of this might happen quite quickly he is very very close however it's not over l

thank you imran khan in west jerusalem time for a look at the weather with richard we were talking about super tuesday some of them voting today what's the way the looking like. some places looking pretty grim. a quite complex situation to be trying to run through what's happened we've got this frontal zone down towards the south but there's also an area of low pressure higher up in the atmosphere that combination is producing some pretty nasty weather so that the so weather fronts are ruing to get in and see the detail of what is happening and here we've got the pictures coming out of nashville tennessee where we had a deadly storm overnight 2 people reported dead now you may look at that thinks i can actually see it in the richer world much of what it's like being in there when it happens let me show you a still from the area but better lighting and you just imagine what it must be like as that comes through in fact we've just seen some pictures coming in from daylight and this is something like 200 meters across a really big storm as it went through and there's a lot more potential ov

jerusalem the latest political dealings taking place in the shadow of course of the current us should princella benjamin netanyahu began the day adopting some of the coronavirus measures he denounced the night before the fewer than 10 ministers at the cabinet meeting the prime minister joining by video he received confirmation of his corruption trial due to start on tuesday had been pushed back by the health crisis for more than 2 months but the decisive moves were brewing at the home of the president even rivlin as he received recommendations for prime minister from newly elected factions in israel's parliament netanyahu could is proposing a 6 month emergency unity government with netanyahu in charge or a 4 year rotational deal in which he serves for the 1st 2 blue and white opposition leader benny gantz hasn't ruled out some kind of a deal which several members of his alliance are reported to favor but he's also been working on legislation to stop an indicted politician netanyahu from forming an administration and dances own hopes of leading a minority government would boost it by t

jerusalem thank you. well it. looks like a mixed bag of weather really across north america we're saying maybe saying goodbye to winter in the u.s. nice in canada in fact the residents to toronto have had their fill of snow these last few weeks when the end of winter has been really deep snow not just that around to be a corner of north america where the low temperatures were this is friday they're not particularly low but if you focus on what this means with that circulation of wind where the wind comes down out of the cold air across the great lakes the great lakes are not covered in a completely covered in ice this year so they're still relatively warm which means those winds pick up enough moisture to give you lake effect snow and lake effect snow can be pretty nasty because it conditions in upstate new york and it wasn't there for just toronto this whole area to the east the lakes got some pretty nasty weather the dems back into the hof meter of snow the winds of course themselves are quite strong wh

the plans have opened in west jerusalem this particular polling station has had a steady stream of people already now what's going to be crucial in this election is voter turnout if this polling station is anything to go by voter turnout might be quite high but will it be enough for a decisive election result that's really the key now there are 2 key players here there's the blue and white party led by benny gantz and there's the incumbent prime minister's party could lead by benjamin netanyahu neither of them seem to have a majority and that's why we're in this 3rd election within a year or so it's all about coalition building both parties have to try and get other parties to try and support them in order to be able to get that majority of $61.00 seats in the knesset the israeli parliament's now also what we're hearing from a lot of analysts is that perhaps this particular campaign was flawed on both sides they say that the party was actually far too confident in its electioneering and almost played it like it had the election in the bag already and the benny gantz campaign the blue whit

report from west jerusalem driving through tel aviv the election campaign is in full swing for the 3rd time within a year in the 2 previous general elections in a temper no party was able to form a government israelis are hoping that will change at this time it's important that they have their young son and i want him to know that we're still fighting for the future of this country. and everybody should have told it is quite frustrating to look. really see. it looks like it's all to be the same because it's our duty as a citizen and i hope now it will be different these 2 political leaders again center stage prime minister benjamin netanyahu of the the could party and his biggest rival benny gantz leader of the blue and white party neither managed a majority in last year's elections. so making deals with smaller parties is essential for me government. netanyahu has other problems indicted in 3 separate corruption cases court cases his rivals say make him unfit to be prime minister. and across israel there is a fair that this election will be inconclusive and israel will head to the pol

herefore says he's in west jerusalem he explains that netanyahu has a slight lead in opinion polls but that might not be to his advantage i think most israelis just want this ongoing grinding electoral might manage to finally come to some kind of conclusion it has been interesting in the last week or so we've seen benjamin netanyahu for the 1st time in a while his likud party taking even a narrow lead in the opinion polls but still those polls not showing enough of a decisive margin either way to get to the magic number in the israeli parliament the knesset 61 required seats required to form a coalition government i'm joined by a bit of client list and pollster mitchell barak mitchell where are we in the political horse race at the moment any prospect that netanyahu might get over the line this time well there's a saying in a row we've been in this movie before and we've actually been in this movie twice before in a year so you know it's not clear what is interesting about this election as opposed to last 2 is right before the election netanyahu looks like he's leading which may not be

jerusalem forests emraan we're getting more official results in what are they saying. well as of about 9 o'clock local about an hour ago we heard that 72 percent of the officials how they had been counted and that puts a benjamin netanyahu bloke at $59.00 seats just too shy of the 61 he needs to be able to form a majority government also the joint arab list which represents palestinian israelis is going up by one seat to 17 make him them quite a key player as well now why is a 73 percent result worth reporting well it's because it has an impact on the negotiations that are taking place right here in jerusalem between nets and you know who in the other parties to try and get to that majority figure of 61 now in the post it's always been about coalition building about getting other parties on board but we just don't need 2 seats required what we're hearing from many analysts and people close. is that benjamin netanyahu may now well be looking to defectors from all the parties to come and join him to give him $61.00 seats so all of this now is about political negotiation

jerusalem. as of wednesday benny gantz and the entire opposition were criticizing the former speaker unity edelstein and his likud party the party led by benjamin netanyahu because that will stay in had failed to allow for a vote which would have allowed the opposition to put its own person as speaker and start legislating in a way which may well have harmed benjamin netanyahu is grip on power and of course benny gantz has throughout his just over a year long political career made his brand almost entirely about removing from office replacing with a stable figure himself a prime minister that he's called corrupt poison to democracy and has said that cannot serve while indicted well all of that now looks to have evaporated because benny gantz appears ready to serve in a unity government an emergency government to tackle the coronavirus epidemic with benjamin netanyahu continuing as prime minister the reports suggest that gantz may well get a very senior job in the government foreign minister defe

jerusalem. it's an increase of more than 50 percent in cases in less than 24 hours and so it does suggest that israel is on an upward curve a fast up would curve part of that can be explained by the fact that testing is coming on stream in greater numbers there are now more than 2000 tests being done every day and the health ministry the government is talking about increasing that still further in the coming days by several 1000 so there was an expectation that the number of cases would increase but israel also has problems in terms of the number of hospital beds per population the kind of preparations it has and terms of medical equipment and so on well that america continues to brace for what many see as an inevitable large scale contagion there from mexico city man will read palo has the very latest. well we've been monitoring the region and it looks as though policies national policies are evolving overnight if we go down the list of countries in the proverbial global south and latin america

out west jerusalem . where again i'm fully battle with the headlines on al-jazeera the u.s. senate has unanimously passed a historic 2 trillion dollar coronavirus rescue package that barely is to help frontline health workers and to keep the economy afloat and will not be sent to the house of representatives for final approval mike hanna has more from washington. now up until this point this is a bipartisan action both republican and democratic senators have been supporting this particular bill but in the house you heard the governor of new york saying he's been speaking to members of the house of representatives saying that he wants them to argue for an amendment giving more funds to new york city so going to the house what was going to be straightforward debate is not likely to be so anymore the house speaker acknowledging that where before it could have been passed simply by a unanimous vote this may not be the case anymore. spain has not overtaken china to recall the 2nd highest number of corona virus deaths with nearly 3 and a half 1000 victims that's so half the number

jerusalem an explosion near an oil pipeline in nigeria has killed at least 17 people it happened in lagos where it injured more than 60 other people and destroyed dozens of homes emergency workers say it was caused by a truck that caught fire near a pipeline was previously targeted by all thieves are desirous of address as bought out from abroad he says the efforts to tackle oil theft of so far failed. this is a 2nd explosion associated with pipeline vandalism in lagos this year but by far the biggest all the deadliest with more than 15 people killed and 50 houses destroyed along with cars and other property in that particular area all thieves have continuously targeted all pipelines in that part of lagos state and other parts of southern nigeria stealing oil either petroleum products refined petroleum products or crude oil itself i don't believe for permission has been launched since 2017 to bring the situation under control but so far it has failed officials are saying that the fire that followed the explosion is now been brought under control as a pipeline products through that p

jerusalem where that decision by benny gantz is dividing his supporters. they say that they will meet again during the course of the day and they intend to announce a unity government the various leaks that and coming out into the israeli media suggest. last arguments precisely which ministry. so yes we can expect so actually it's a couple of things that happened yes this this crisis this national emergency is benny gantz leader of the opposition former leader. because it was dismissed. and he says it is because of the situation that is previous opposition to benjamin netanyahu holding office as an indicted prime minister someone 3 corruption trials he's had to set that aside and that people may talk about broken campaign promises but his call promise support the state of israel about overstaying remains the one that he's abiding by in all of this he has taken quite a lot of flack over this not only from his former partners in the opposition but also from some voters and commentators center allows the the prime minister to stay in office as we mentioned ch

gantz would quote save the lives of citizens he also ordered most schools to be closed or 4 cities in west jerusalem and says there's disagreement over which party should be included in any such emergency government. benny gantz the leader of the blue and white alliance said he didn't reject such an idea out of hand indeed he said that he felt that all of the 8 factions within the parliament the knesset recently elected in the elections of march the 2nd should be represented in such a government now that of course means that the palestinian israeli policies at the lodging houses really parties of the joint list which holds some 15 seats in the still to be formed knesset should according to that rubric be part of the government now the 2 men had a telephone conversation late on thursday night during which benjamin netanyahu was understood according to local media reports to said that no government emergency or normal sides could include what he called terrorist supporters as part of it spat rick the problem for benny gantz has always been that he is really put his whole year long loop in ko

jerusalem harry what more does prime minister netanyahu have to do to get that one state. well his spokesman was on the radio this morning saying that there are members of the knesset up for grabs from other parties who could be tempted across to join a wider right wing coalition the kinds of names that have been talked about though they were very quick to say nothing doing and that these rumors were baseless so at the moment we are still stuck in the same kind of mass that we've been stuck in for the last year or so without an obvious functional majority coalition nonetheless benjamin netanyahu is starting to have talks with members of his presumed right wing bloc he's had talks of the leader of the shas ultra-orthodox party already in the knesset he's due to have talks with the entire right wing block a little bit later on tuesday so he is seeming to take the same tactics as he did with the last election trying to shore up his core right wing block and then see if anything else could be done there are those as well who are talking about the prospects at least of a nation

jerusalem. what could happen by the end of the day is that the president ruben rivlin having judged how many recommendations he gets from the news that the newly elected members of the israeli parliament the knesset each of the rival candidates for prime minister he could decide which of those 2 men either benjamin netanyahu or benny gantz to give thirst dibbs to try to form a coalition government now benny gantz has been awarded one bonus today in the form of the mainly palestinian israeli joint list of parties all 15 of them all 15 of members have recommended benny gantz the prime minister that didn't happen after the 2nd election last time around in september the party the constituent part of that alliance declined to recommend him so should he get them and all of the other potentials people who might recommend him then he might have the edge over benjamin netanyahu despite the fact that benjamin netanyahu is the could. score more victories more scored more seats in the election than dances b

jerusalem. he's been here before for one thing in october he was given the mandate after benjamin netanyahu failed to form a coalition government after the 2nd election he failed to do so then and we eventually got to a 3rd election a couple of weeks ago now and so here we are once again the difference though this time is that he does have a majority of the newly elected parliament ariens at least recommending him for prime minister that doesn't know what a medically means meaning as a government in waiting he has 2 options really one is a minority administration supported but not incorporating the 15 palestinian israeli members of the knesset from the joint list largely palestinian israeli who supported him in their recommendations for prime minister but there are some within his own ranks within blue and white who are uncomfortable with that kind of arrangement so he might not get 61 votes the necessary majority to form such a government what he's talking about though is trying to form a broad

jerusalem emraan how do people feel about going out to the polls for the 3rd time in a year or so and what are the predictions. well let me tell you we've been speaking to not just people here but over the last few days about going to a 3rd election there is a lot of anger towards the politicians they say that the politicians needed to source of this out the 1st election not this one however that anger hasn't led to apathy in fact actually what we're saying is people coming out to vote and hoping that this one will be decisive that's the polling station that there's been a steady stream of people coming in over the last 2 hours now predictions are always very difficult to do in the last elections in april and in september voter turnout was around the 60 percent mark that was seen as being quite good if it gets any higher than that then that will be seen as also being a key decisive moment for the israeli political system whether or lead to a new government being formed is a whole other question there's a lot of electoral math that still needs to be done. the smaller parties are going

jerusalem ganske gets the 1st try at forming a coalition what sort of obstacles is he likely to come up against. well you know it's certainly not a done deal by any stretch but he does have the raw numbers as things stand at the moment 61 recommendations from today's deliberations as opposed to just 58 for benjamin netanyahu one of the 120 knesset members a stain abstaining and so for benny gantz he has had a mandate before after the 2nd election he wasn't able to form a government at that time there are some within his own party who are opposed reportedly to forming a minority government with support from the outside from palestinian israeli politicians as would be the case however this is a very different situation this time he does have the numbers because of those 15 recommendations from the palestinian israeli largely palace in israeli joint list and also 7 recommendations from avigdor lieberman's party israel to say that does give him least the chance is very much the high point of his political career so far there is the pressure still from the president riven rivlin and from

jerusalem foras and m. brown is strong finish there for netanyahu but he's not home and dry yet easy. no well this is very definitely a victory of sorts netanyahu is saying that he has won but he still needs to form a government and there's a lot of political deal making to happen before he gets to sit in the promises chair once again but before we get into all of that i want to bring in the jerusalem post chief political correspondent gil hoffman you had a very busy night you've been you've written to all schools this morning let's get into one of the things that you say one of the reasons that netanyahu had such a success in this particular election is stability voters what exactly all stability is stability voters are people who realize there's not a huge difference in the policies of likud and the blue and white party they want to see a government formed they are sick and tired of the political stalemate in israel we've got a caretaker government since december 2018 and so a lot of those people shifted

out west jerusalem i thought claimed responsibility for an attack on a sikh place of worship in afghanistan killing at least 25 people interior ministry says government stormed the religious complex in kabul earlier when say around 150 people were inside. the man accused of murdering $51.00 people in attacks on 2 new zealand moss last year as admitted to carrying out the killings brenton tyrant changes the from not guilty to guilty in a hearing at the high court in christchurch on thursday he also pleaded guilty to 40 charges of attempted murder and one of terrorism tyrant now no longer needs a trial and will be sentenced at a later date because in london has denied julian assange bail the wiki leaks founder sought to be released over the risk of contract in the coronavirus in prison he's being held in the u.k. awaiting possible extradition to the us where he may face charges relating to links about the wars in iraq and afghanistan. the alleged operator a secret sex abuse chat rooms was paraded outside a south korean court some of the women exposure online were forced to cut the word slave

jerusalem and hair is interesting isn't it because dan's nominated himself so well you reckons behind this move. we has been pretty hard in the gleaning certainly hard in the predicting benjamin netanyahu has been prime minister throughout this incredible phase of israeli politics over the last year where he's been trying to cling on to power despite 3 now inconclusive elections the fact that he's facing a court trial in may on 3 separate corruption cases and now he's been given this huge advantage by the man who's been trying for so long to replace him saying that he's poison to israeli democracy that the country cannot be led by an indicted prime minister that has been the brand of benny gantz throughout his short political career and now he's decided to step aside from all of that he says it's because he wants to save israeli democracy that he's acting as a statesman that it's not time for splits because of the national emergency over coronavirus but just yesterday he and his opposition were arguing with benjamin netanyahu as likud over the fact that the speaker had refused to step

jerusalem spain's king philip the 6th has renounced a future personal inheritance that he could see from his father the decision was made after accusations of financial irregularities that involved the former monarch king juan carlos the 1st on saturday a british newspaper the telegraph reported that king philip was named as a beneficiary of an offshore fund that controls a swiss account with a reported $72000000.00 it also claimed that the money again gifted to his father from saudi arabia. the 1st man ever convicted by the international criminal court has been released from prison supporters gathered outside the jail in the capital of the democratic republic of congo to greet thomas lubanga was found guilty in 2012 of recruiting child soldiers laura burton manley reports. to his supporters thomas lubanga left mcculloch prison and. the 2 others he was considered one of the most dangerous move in what's now the democratic republic of congo. you know me better than these 3 international criminal court judges who tried to present me as a devil i remain thomas lubanga who suffered with

jerusalem so harry what does he want to achieve here. well he says that he what is required it is a an emergency unity government one which can address the crisis the ticks as usual on hold for the duration of the crisis and allow for as he said tens of thousands of 'd lives to be saved there is some commentary as to exactly how genuine all the allegations are being in there calls for such a government whether politics doesn't intrude even in these times of emergency as well nonetheless benny gantz the leader of the blue and white alliance certainly didn't reject such an idea out of hand indeed he said that he felt that all of the 8 factions within the parliament the knesset recently elected in the elections of march the 2nd should be represented in such a government now that of course means that the palestinian israeli parties it's the largest arsons really parties of the joint list which holds some 15 seats in the still to be formed knesset should according to that rubric be part of the government now the 2 men had a telephone conversa

jerusalem so what are they telling you there. well as you can see behind me the exit polls are up on the big television screens people are looking at them they're trying to analyze the moment one exit poll puts blue and white 33 seats the other on a 32 seats now but may well change. in the day i was speaking to keep people from a blue and white who of course a mistake once they started getting their own polling back that changed in fact one of the people told me he was cautiously cautious he was very disappointed in the turnout in television it looks like it's going to be a disappointing night for. if those exit polls are accurate now as my colleague kerry was saying in april they change quite significantly so that may well be some shift going on but it doesn't mean that blue and white out of the game they're all still deals that they could make whether it pushes them along the line depends on whether the could can get to those $61.00 seats now it's all about the electoral math coalition building but certainly seen as being a dis

jerusalem. an explosion near an oil pipeline in nigeria has killed at least 16 people and destroyed dozens of buildings many others were injured in the blast in lagos emergency workers say it happened because a truck off fire near a pipeline previously targeted by oil they've been several fires in the area in the past. i'm gonna illegal gold mining is threatening farm lands destroying the landscape in poisoning water supplies leaving some communities struggling to find drinking water it's reach such proportions that treatment plants are being shut down and their warnings a country might be forced to import water. pours. the river probably in southern ghana is contaminated with mercury and cyanide and vegetation is drying off and gone as heartlands of cocoa the main ingredient of chocolate. the river is also vital for fishing farming and into. the pollution is blamed on frozen of small scale gold mines working round the clock at this one boys as young as 15 and dozens of men what they're doing is