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 trumps president ial 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 thats 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 hes appealed this conviction and is seeking a new trial concludes roger stone is no a free man. Was caught up in robert millers 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 aljazeera Washington Well lets bring in Scott Anderson from washington d. C. Hes 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 weve 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 thats always been an option for him but previously he wasnt 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 hes finally taken the step that no doubt is within his Legal Authority but certainly raises a lot of political question yeah and thats an important point to make because in terms of the legality of the president s commutation doesnt void a criminal conviction as in the case of a pod could we see trump eventually pardon roger stone. Its 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 im not sure thats true in reality most of the political cost seems likely to come with this as its 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 isnt the 1st president to issue controversial pardons all competitions to friends and allies but most president s have waited until their last days in office in order to avoid any political firestorm which is the point youre making i mean is this likely to impact trump politically in the run up to novembers elections. Its hard to imagine how it doesnt its 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 wouldnt 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 hes acting somewhat radically or emotionally in taking this step or perhaps that he sees his political future whether its 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 hes using to justify this act scott just a final thought to you House Intelligence Committee chairman adam schiff has condemned trumps clemency says nope theres one criminal Justice System to trumps 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. Im sure well see some questions some inquiries some effort to get Additional Information about the reasoning process but again theres not much doubt that this is within the president s Legal Authority and its 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 im 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 councils now voted 5 times in just 4 days on a new resolution 3 versions written by russia didnt 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 theyd 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 its a concession to russia its 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 aljazeera at the united nations. Thousands of people have protested for a 4th day in serbia as capital belgrade over the governments 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 ronnies 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 nights 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 didnt respond until a couple of minutes ago and now the situation is quite similar with what weve 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 colombias 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 prodemocracy 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 were 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 thats 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 itll cool things down in the wake of that but its 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 youll 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 its actually hail that gathered in the streets theres 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 didnt leap. On aljazeera. Play an Important Role tactic human. Race. Where were. The. The years. Welcome back a quick amount of the top stories here on the aljazeera u. S. President donald trump is to new to the sentence of his ally roger stone stone who advised trumps president ial 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 theyre calling on the president alexander to resign. Campaigning as kicked off in hong kong for its Legislative Council elections this weekend the prodemocracy 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 oclock 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 its 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 years months of antigovernment protests that inspired going to tie you to enter the political arena for the 1st time shell run as an independent candidate in the New Territories at the Legislative Council elections in september despite chinas newly imposed National Security law shes prepared to take the risk and fight for greater democratic reform in hong kong of course im 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 theres no future at all 1 for us to concern about. In last years local Council Elections the prodemocracy camp secured 17 of the 18 districts and thats put greater competition in the prodemocracy bloc more young independent candidates are now standing for election to the citys legislature the pro beijing camp which holds the majority acknowledges it might lose some seats but its 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 years social unrest people hope the city can go back to normal soon as possible chinas new National Security looms over its Campaign Analysts say it effectively empowers authorities to disqualify candidates from local and prodemocracy 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 prodemocracy 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 kongs political divide sarah clarke aljazeera hong kong. The largest broadcaster in the philippines is hours away from shutting down for good thats 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