The u. S. Secretary of state blames the countrys. Failing to end the standoff. And welcome to aljazeera headquarters and. Also ahead. Remember. Dont stop emotional defense of the president s remarks to. Spain secession crisis in the drug prepares to impose direct. Across puerto rico its not unusual to see. Absolutely devastated in the hurricane. Why people feel like theyre being deserted in the wake of a destructive storm. U. S. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson has criticized the four countries imposing an economic blockade on gaza for refusing to engage in talks to diffuse the crisis in june sali arabia the United Arab Emirates egypt and bahrain close air space and severed trade and diplomatic links with last month u. S. President donald trump offered to mediate between the parties and hope the issue would be resolved quickly but now tell us and says theres little hope of a resolution anytime soon. As jews visit the gulf in the coming days heres the state department spokeswoman. We want to see these come countries keep their focus on the areas of mutual cooperation that we have and that includes the fight against terror terrorism and other things of that nature so i think the secretary is you know certainly discouraged that nothing has been resolved just yet hes talked pretty consistently although folks havent havent paid much attention to it recently about the disappointment that the nations havent been able to solve the g. C. C. Crisis we hope that they will we hope that theyll sit down and have talks but it seems like theyre not ready to do that yet. Has more from washington d. C. Clarksons comments in an interview with Bloomberg News marked a significant change in tone gone was the optimism we heard three months ago when tillerson last visited the region instead he expressed his frustration saying there appear to be a real will unwillingness on the part of the quartet of blockading countries in. Progressing with these talks in contrast saying qatar has been very clear that theyre ready to engage now the fact that tillerson is returning to the region this following week and to push further these talks is a long ways from where the u. S. Policy on this gulf crisis started back in june if you remember thats when u. S. President donald trump was quick to come to the aid of saudi arabia praising its leadership in initiating this blockade and trying to claim credit that was a direct result of president trumps visit to the region since then the white house has been more silent on this topic while the state department has taken a lead here with tillerson returning again in this coming week. Well moving on to some other news from the u. S. Now in the white house chief of staff has defended the president s reported remarks this week so the widow of a slain soldier donald trump is accused of being insensitive during a phone call to my should johnson husband Sergeant David johnson was killed in an ambush in asia this month a member of Congress Says she heard the president s comments jon kalish told a white house News Conference that he was broken hearted by the criticism of trumps effort to offer his condolences our White House Correspondent committee how good has more from washington d. C. The white house is continuing to try and contain the controversy surrounding the president s condolence call to the widow of sergeant led David Johnson he is one of four u. S. Soldiers killed in earlier this month the president s chief of staff made a rare appearance to the White House Briefing room speaking with emotion he says that he told the president not to make that call but if he did he says he advised donald trump to tell the family that the soldier knew what he was getting into something that donald trump denied just one day earlier he knew it was going to sell for him too because he enlisted theres no reason a list in which he was where he wanted to be. Exactly where he wanted to be with jack with the people he wanted to be with when his wife was taken that was the message that was the message that was transmitted it stuns me that a member of congress were to listen in on a conversation absolutely stuns me. And i thought at least that was safe for now the democratic congresswoman who listened in on that call and who has been a critic of the president for some time Fredricka Wilson says in fact that it is her belief and she maintains that she believes donald trump did disrespect Sergeant Johnson in that call she knows the family well she has known him since he was a child mentoring him before he enlisted as a soldier still the white house is taking aim at the congresswoman saying that not only is her argument inappropriate in fact the chief of staff calling her actions selfish behavior the support for spain from european leaders as the continents a session crisis escalates but the e. U. Says it wont intervene in the dispute spains promised minister money on that a whore has the backing of french president emmanuel mccrone and german chancellor Angela Merkel they met ahead of a two day summit in Brussels European Council later donald tusk has ruled out any European Union role in the dispute between madrid and barcelona. Of course for many reasons in the permanent conductor is the Prime MinisterMariano Rajoy. Hiding to the situation in spain is about to. Position i mean. Its. Clear the. Room no space for in the kind of mediation. Initiative action. Spains government is preparing to suspend autonomy after a final deadline on thursday to draw up succession plans was ignored the process will begin on saturday when madrid decides which powers to take back from barcelona may barca reports from the cost along capital. Spains political crisis is deepening after failing to comply with the Spanish Government catalonia will now be stripped of its autonomy more cylindrical mock you for in the absence of a clear response we note that he has not answered our request and therefore we will continue procedure of triggering article one five five of the constitution to restore legality in catalonia the catalan president. Had been given until thursday morning to clarify and revoke any independence claim last week he unilaterally declared independence and suspended it to allow for talks but instead of clarifying his position sent a letter to madrid calling for an end to repression and for dialogue Prime MinisterMariano Rajoy has repeatedly refused to mediate with the secessionists were now in uncharted Territory Article one five five has never been invoked in mainland spain before you can see devolved powers over the raising of taxes Education Health care in the police soon in madrid hands of the very worst you could see the suspension of the government and the arrest of its leaders its hard to imagine any of these scenarios unfolding without more massive protests or perhaps even a change of tactics i think theres no possibility of calling like taking arms praising arms and or even like. Seeing the birth of a terrorist group i dont think that is a possibility i dont know but some kind of more aggressive i dont want to say by land but more stronger organized insurgency in terms of political insurgency and organization i think its its a problem. But madrid the show restraint amnesty internationals urged the Spanish Government to avoid a repeat of these scenes on the day of the cattle referendum. Theyve also asked for two independents leaders jailed by spanish judge to be released the Spanish Governments expected to finalize plans for direct rule at a Cabinet Meeting on saturday. In response the catalan leadership say theyll now be dependent with a vote of the Regional Parliament this tense standoff is entering a critical new phase the aljazeera. Now us President Donald Trump has boasted about has administrations handling of the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria and puerto rico during a meeting with the caribbean islands governor ricardo the president said the governments response was a ten out of ten thats despite critics saying there was spawns was insufficient especially compared to how hearkens in texas and florida were handled. How would you grade the white house. I j was a ten i would say it was probably the most difficult. When you talk about relief when you talk about search when you talk about all of the different levels. And even when you talk about lives saved. You look at the number of this was i think it was worse than katrina it was in many ways worse than anything people have ever seen or many communities and puerto rico still without basic essential one month on from the hurrican over the digging through rubble waiting for government aid that was promised but hasnt come alan fischer reports from. Fine human is got tired of waiting one month after hurricane rita struck his community was a mess so we called some friends we are in the process to clean up the creek because basically the crane was. There real damage against the houses and around twenty blanco is a ninety minute drive from san juan the islands capital the people here feel that far away from the center they are far away from a company far from the belief that anyone is going to help the government is absent there is almost no coordination woman here just staying with someone. But their reality is right here we see sometimes and i see our guard just providing some water but just a couple of patients are no more we ask and then we beg of them for at least two up some excavator to clean over. The area what were being told is this isnt a one off but there are communities across this area that have asked for and waited for government help and now theyre doing what they can where they can the hurricane they say it was a problem the greater tragedy is a lack of Government Action not far away from here at the hurricane brought a flood that overwhelmed and destroyed the bridge that was a lifeline to a nearby Mountain Community so the locals built a pulley system which carries food and water and diesel for having heard. We are going to have a great we dont know anything. You know we are just disconnected. Across the island people are putting in their own fixes to get what they need a local stream by the roadside suddenly with plastic piping becomes the only source of fresh water for clothes washing drinking and even some fun. There is no doubt puerto rico wasnt well equipped to deal with a storm the size and intensity of maria but one of the federal agencies here say few places are theres this island was pummeled by over one hundred fifty mile an hour wind what that does to the infrastructure that is in excellent condition versus ordinary condition its still the same its highly destructive for two because governor disputes things here are slowly Getting Better in the fight he says they may be getting worse in many communities fear they are being forgotten after a storm none of them will ever forget alan fischer aljazeera twenty blanco puerto rico still ahead on the bulletin and more violent protests in total as demonstrators demand changes to president ial term limits and test else spellbound winter the magic inspired by. Twenty years all. Allo much of the u. S. And eastern callen i was enjoying quiet settled warm weather but thats not true for the Pacific Northwest the first of what you would call a winter storm month is coming it is certainly boring cold read the max and temperature in seattle is forecast to be twelve degrees in the blue suggests where its subzero on the top of the mountains which means the potential for snow and that should be realized i think oregon montana maybe washington the far north of california i get up at hard rain on the coast and that study comes south but theyll be some substantial rain and snow coming out of this system to say its Quiet Society thats quiet about the gulf of mexico even that our world system is linked to cuba in jamaica is breaking up now just a few showers running through in the breeze the concentration the heaviest stuff is still from guatemala dancer costa rica towards colombia theres a hint of a circulation for being here which would suggest the rain we havea but weve had some significant spring weather further south in the constants of south america specifically in europe why where thunderstorms rattled through the night with the winds gusting enough to bring trees down thats the size of the hail storm that could be more to come in the same area. The Russian Orthodox church has deep pockets in the upper the expansion may bear its role in putins grip on power with some elevating the former k. G. B. Officer saying to president putin with our leader that. People in power investigates how afterwards attempted elimination by the soviet union religion has returned to the heart of the russian state the orthodox connection this time. Its good to have you with us on aljazeera these are our top stories the u. S. Secretary of state has criticized the four countries and posing a blockade on for refusing to engage in talks for excellence and says as ready but they solving that quartet as to negotiate. The white house chief of staff has come to the defense of u. S. President Donald Trumps call this week to the widow of a slain soldier tromp is accused of making insensitive remarks during a phone call to the widow of the soldier who was killed in an ambush in the early of a small. And european leaders a backing spain as the cost on crisis escalates and brussels Prime Minister money on a whole lot of the same support from french president and i know that truong and german chancellor Angela Merkel but the e. U. Says it wont intervene in the dispute between madrid and barcelona. Now about one hundred thousand kurds have fled the kid a cork area since it was retaken by iraqi forces on monday the United Nations says its worried by reports civilians are being forced out of their homes and businesses are being looted and destroyed from the Kurdish Regional capital at a b u stephanie deck of upholds. In a dusty abandoned Housing Project on the outskirts of these are unexpected occupants. Kurdish families who fled their homes in kirkuk and surrounding areas just a couple of days ago now scrambling for basic supplies. To man abdul karim says she left because she was scared of shia militia fighters. Who arrived alongside the iraqi army. They werent good with kurds they didnt treat us well. And imprison them even hit women my husband is dead all i could do is take my four children and we came to a build it is ours to get the bride with. Iraqi Prime Minister. Has ordered all armed groups out of kirkuk but only the iraqi army and federal police remain he insists. For the protection of civilians the men here tell us they wont return. Just like. In his family he was a policeman in kirkuk until he fled two days ago. People are saying is safe now but it is propaganda and i they came out and. They have burned houses thats why we got scared because of our families thats why we left a Political Party sold us out not all kurds are refugees this is all political. Hinting at the internal divisions among the main two kurdish political parties. Accused. Of colluding with Iraqi Government leaders iran and turkey in orchestrating the takeover of the cook complex web of age old kurdish rivalries and geopolitical interests. Through her sixty seven years. A lot happened to us we dont own our own house now we dont even know we have a house or out things. Leads to this fight that leads to this war. Where should we go now anyway what is life in iraq she asks since i was a child ive never seen happiness we were off to war she tells us. Many warned that regaining territory captured by eisel would mean little in solving iraqs complicated territorial ethnic and sectarian tensions it seems they may have been right Stephanie Decker aljazeera. The kurds and syria are celebrating after their forces backed by the u. S. Recapture the city of iraq or it had been under eisel controls and two thousand and fourteen years of airstrikes and fighting have left much of the city in ruins but the victory is a major blow to i saw was the last urban area under its control. Taliban fighters have killed forty three Afghan Soldiers in an assault in the middle of the night at a military camp the group set off two suicide car bombs at a base in the my one district of kandahar followed by hours of gunfight while the one hundred twenty people have been killed in a series of taliban attacks this week jennifer glass has more from the capital kabul. The taliban attacked the Afghan Army Base in southern afghanistan in my want near the helm on the border in the early hours of thursday morning killing forty three Afghan Soldiers there elsewhere in afghanistan at about the same time five soldiers killed five Police Killed the numers and six killed in northern province that of course coming after earlier this week two separate attacks in eastern afghanistan borders impact and in gaza killed another eighty people as well most of them Afghan Security forces some of them civilians the gardez attack involving two suicide car bombs also wounded three hundred people Security Forces as well as civilians but the fact that these attacks have taken place in the north in the east in the south and the southwest show really that the breadth of. The taliban has across the country the fact that they are able to make launch these significant major attacks across the country and hold certain areas and also that theyre willing to attack military posts and inflict large amounts of casualties shows that they really can still fight now afghanistan i think thats the message theyre trying to send to the Afghan Government and to the International Community particularly perhaps the United States government which is starting to send a several thousand additional troops here to afghanistan to support the Afghan Security forces and the and the american secretary of state saying that the United States remain in afghanistan as long as the taliban dont come to the peace table that is the ultimate goal of the Afghan Government to make peace with the taliban or fight them so that theyre no longer relevant so far that the taliban have shown really no indicate indication that they plan to come to the peace table and the fighting becomes more intense. Well the two hundred journalists have marched in malta and on of an investigative journalist who was killed in a car bomb on the island daphne. Died in an explosion on monday charlotte ballasts reports. Walking in solidarity with their late colleague and friend murdered reporter definitely cut. These journalists want a judge to protect. His sources context on her phone and computers they could be unveiled in the inquiry into her death she really believed in what she was doing and she was right or wrong on each issue she believed in it she was always two positions and she wanted to root out whatever she thought was wrong and she was driven by that by seeking the limelight most police are facing mounting pressure to ensure an independent investigation meanwhile investigators from the United StatesScotland Yard and other Forensic Experts have been called him. Laying it all voices we asked for the assistance of the f. B. I. And dutch counterparts because on the scene we realize that we might have difficulties collecting certain evidence however i reiterate the investigation is being led solely by the multiple east carolina glitzier was the countrys best known investigative journalist she was killed on monday in this car minutes after she left her home in malta Police Believe the bomb was attached beneath her car and triggered remotely the mother of three knew she was a target and in the last blog post on the day she was killed she wrote there are crooks everywhere you look now the situation is desperate two weeks prior she filed a Police Report saying she was receiving threats and the first bit of information that came out of the police force was a post. On facebook by Police Sergeant and celebrating this as a nation of the think i got it. And it took almost twenty four hours for that individual to be suspended. Or had alleged corruption against the most powerful people on the island who reports went as high as the Prime MinisterJoseph Muscat linking him to the panama paper scandal who were triggered an early election and now her reporting has resulted in her days charlotte ballasts al jazeera. Todos opposition says three people have been shot dead and a third day of protests there demanding changes to a president ial term limits. Reports. Protesters fight running battles with the police in the capital they want constitutional reforms including a two term limit for the president whose family has ruled for fifty years opposition leaders say that instead of listening to the demands of the people the government has orchestrated a brutal crackdown. We have seen Paramilitary Forces spreading in large numbers of the place where the protests took place they were all. They came in make up trucks and they were attacking the demonstrators who were gathering. Medical centers like this one a full of injured people who say they were attacked by the police. They parked starwood her and started shooting we were not even protesting we were just standing there i dont know what they were taking about they started shooting at us. Opposition activists have been demonstrating against president hu in a sim base in school guest but in recent days the violence has intensified protests to say Police Attacks on them are provoked and unjustified. Today it is getting worse i just received a seventeen year old and i have a fifteen year old. How are we going to do this youre saying you want peace look how you chase people in the streets we also want peace and for the normal constitution to be brought back and you. Miss him by still has plenty of support in tokyo the government has put conditions on where and when people can protest its also cut the internet to control what it calls hate speech and misinformation under current noses in baker who continue in office until twenty twenty protesters say despite Police Harassment and government pressure. The fight to stop that happening Victoria Gate and be al jazeera. Kenyas opposition leaders has has decision to pull out of next weeks Election Rerun remains unchanged dana made the comments our talks with top Election Officials adinda has said he would reconsider his decision to quit if electoral reforms are carried out but the election board says a free and fair vote come to be counted you should political interference. Now its been twenty years since the world fell under the spell of the boy was it harry potter the publication of his first of the first book harry potter and the philosophers star has launched a multi billion dollar franchise just a ball one has been to an exhibition of the bushes great looking at the magic that inspired it minerva mcgonigle. Teachers and school of witchcraft and wizardry listed by author j. K. Rowling as she embarked on the plot of harry potter alchemy potions her biology courses based on magical traditions found in ancient him rare books at the British Library its an encounter with real objects that helped form the books including a medieval scroll from the fifteen hundreds describing how to make the philosophers stone which could turn any metal into gold or maybe even extend life and we want to really make the link between the magic thats portrayed in the x. On the whole history of magical writings and practice that we have in the collections a sketch of hogwarts by rowling is she drew her expansive magical world twenty years on more than four hundred fifty million copies have been sold in seventy languages. Harry potter has had a massive impact on the world kids who hated books are now inspired to read the next are considered cool and even muggles are interested in magic gustaf was a professional magician before he became a psychologist specializing in the science of magic but just because academics are interested in how magic works stop one of the few how is it that we see something but we dont do we have free will then how do magicians influence our decisions. Into the five clubs well so a lot of interaction with computers is all based on a massive illusion every time you delete a falling apart or fall into your waste paper basket you know really putting anything in a basket its the soul just an illusion and so in the standing magic we might be able to enter. Human computer interaction but whats the magic that continues to fuel the very lucrative hurry potter industry brings fans to wizard locations across london you can feel like youre with it or whatever but you wake up in the morning and you realize you know i do like magic so it does make me like you long i know if i like this now. Or that or different why. Looking into the future it doesnt take magic to know that each new generation will come under the spell of harry potter Jessica Baldwin aljazeera london. Again Elizabeth Bron and daughter hala the headlines on aljazeera but u. S. Secretary of state has criticized the four countries imposing a blockade on copper rights to listen this says the saudi led quartet is on willing to negotiate despite the being ready to engage well to listen as joe to visit the gulf in the coming days heres the state department spokeswoman. We want to see these hundreds keep their focus on the areas of mutual cooperation that we have and that includes the fight against terror terrorism and other things of that nature so i think the secretary is you know certainly discouraged that nothing has been resolved just yet hes talked pretty consistently although folks havent havent paid much attention to it recently about the disappointment that the nations havent been able to do so of the g. C. C. Crisis we hope that they well we hope that theyll sit down and have talks but it seems like theyre not ready to do that yet. The white house chief of staff has come to the defense of u. S. President Donald Trumps call this week to the widow of a slain soldier trump is accused of making insensitive remarks during a phone call to the widow of the soldier who was killed in an ambush in the share earlier this month. European leaders a backing spain as the cost long crisis escalates and brussels promised a money on the holy receive support from french president emanuel and german chancellor Angela Merkel but the e. U. Says it wont intervene in the dispute between madrid and barcelona. Codes in syria celebrating after their forces backed by the u. S. Recaptured the city of raka that had been on the ice and control since two thousand and fourteen years of age strikes and fighting have left much of the city in ruins but the victory is a major blow to eisele. Fighters have killed forty three Afghan Soldiers and in a song in the middle of the night at a military camp the group set off two suicide car bombs at a base in the maiwand district of kandahar followed by a gunfight kenyas opposition leaders has has decision to pull out of next week so that remains unchanged donna made the comments after talks with top Election Officials agenda had said that he would reconsider his decision to quit if electoral reforms were carried out right those are the headlines on aljazeera people in power is coming up next ahead of the september twenty Fourth NationalElection Survey showed a satisfied with the state of their economy this is easily news biggest tech Success Story the company was bought by microsoft in two thousand and eleven we bring you the stories that are shaping the economic world we live in counting the cost at this time on ounces era