test almost forty percent of the country it's a very difficult task for these forces who are taking punishing casualties in the continuing fight. with the weather update thanks to you and i was here at then. the war is morphing we're going to see more actions in africa and less a shift in u.s. counterterrorism strategy following the deaths of four american soldiers. by the springtime flowers of a mountain lead. to the first snowfall on a winter's day. hello there has been some really heavy rain every part of south america recently is the usual line of wet weather that we see at this time of year and just to the south of that we see some very lively showers over parts of the extreme so the possible through into parts of argentina and uruguay ampyra white lots of showers of course this whole region here and they have been very very heavy

more of them are expected during the day today but eventually as we head through into sunday it will begin to clear away towards the north and as they do say behind it will be fresher than it has been so nineteen degrees in the sunshine then buenos aires and force in the french and will get to around twenty two it is warmer towards the west force in santiago we were around twenty six or twenty seven degrees at the moment now if the north and there's lots of showers here and some of the wet weather has been very heavy particular over parts of cuba across into hispaniola and across jamaica or as well but this area of rain although it's going to stick around for most of us during the day on saturday will gradually begin to clear away westwards as we head through sunday so more of us here getting away with a draw a day towards the west though still plenty of rain here that extends all the way down through guatemala and down to ward's costa rica now for the north and we've got lots of cloud of rain here as well as piling its way into the northwestern parts of the states and the western parts of canada there with sponsored by qatar.

the russian orthodox church is deep pockets in the rapid expansion. role in grip on power. with some elevating the former k.g.b. officer to saying to president putin is our leader that given to our good people in power investigates how after it's attempted elimination by the soviet union religion has returned to the heart of the russian state the orthodox connection this time on al-jazeera. again the top stories here on al-jazeera spain's prime minister's asked the senate

for permission to sack catalonians government and to call an early election. says the separatists forced madrid to take the unprecedented action. at least fifty five police officers have been killed six more wounded in an ambush in egypt the security forces were targeted in the western deserts. oasis during a raid on faces. at least eighty nine people are now known to have died in friday's mosque attacks in afghanistan i still says that one of its fighters walked into a shia mosque in the capital and detonated an explosive vest. at least eight police officers have been killed during an attack on their base in western is yeah several others were wounded in the incident close to the town of io near the border with mali interior minister says that investigation and investigation is underway earlier this month the raid near the new border claimed the lives of four u.s. and four nigerian soldiers. well in response the u.s.

is shifting its counterterrorism strategy to focus more on africa defense secretary james mattis discussed the changes with members of congress the white house is under pressure to be more forthcoming about the deaths of those american soldiers in news yeah. refugees from india have told al-jazeera how their friends were killed by soldiers at a camp in the democratic republic of congo thirty nine people died dozens were injured during a protest last month the congolese army and refugees blame each other for what happened malcolm webb reports from the town of come in yellow. esper also says bullets broke the bones in her arms when soldiers shot dozens around her died they're buried in this graveyard she says she was among a crowd of other refugees from burundi protesting peacefully here last month who says she was lucky to survive but. i can't remember everything. when i

was shot but i remember people throwing stones at house and. and then soldiers started shooting. the community of refugees belongs to a unique catholic sect from burundi they fled conflict at home to come to the neighboring democratic republic of congo where religion doesn't allow them to eat processed un food or to biometrically register in the u.n. system so they're temporarily camped here outside a base of u.n. peacekeepers in the town of cameron yola. they say that day they wanted the release of four men from their community and wrested by congolese soldiers this camera phone video was taken as the crowd gathered and sang. when the shooting began the refugees came down the road from this direction they say they met soldiers about where the blue truck is they say the soldiers opened fire without any provocation you can see bullet holes in the wall here they say the machine gun fire went on for several minutes but the security forces tell

a different story captain von locally made was there and he says the refugees overpowered him and other policeman stole a gun and used it to shoot him in the leg and attack the soldiers who then fired back in self-defense one soldier was killed mazen is amazing they have never seen such people were not afraid of bullets one kind of bible and they all kept seeing an advancing. refugees deny they took a gun or attacked the u.n. says in any case the army should not have used lethal force the army told us he acted as any army would solve the new men. came threatening and throwing store nor yet in the host country what country can tolerate that they were caned them but they didn't know what happened you'd have been nearly one hundred refugees were injured many are still recovering the government says an inquiry is under way.

meet twice a day to pray in the camp they say they were attacked after officials start up hatred against them because of their own religious beliefs the legal authority to unite the refugees say they were persecuted at home then persecuted here there's nowhere they can be safe now come where al-jazeera in the democratic republic of congo back now to the main news this hour spain's prime minister's asked the senate in madrid for permission to sack catalonia as government had to call early elections maybe on a horse said the separatists in catalonia had forced madrid to take unprecedented action let's go live now to barcelona. andrew symonds is there for us and andrew there's already been some reaction from the catalonian government to. remarks. well more of. the baseline reaction was that this suspends democracy in catalonia that was from the

spokesman for the president and then furthermore. his spokesman has announced that he will be making a statement tonight saturday nights around nine o'clock no indication of what he will say in that statement will it be a declaration of independence will it be just a declaration of defiance in terms of refusing to stand it could be one of a number of things there is no proof right now as to what he's going to say however . he will be appearing at a demonstration it's meant to be a really really large demonstration here in barcelona starts in a few hours time what he'll say at the demonstration whether he'll say anything at all is unclear there is really even though the run up to this article one five five being triggered has been known for a while there's still

a sense of deep shock here in barcelona from all persuasions all people politicians because this is the known even though i can read out a very long list of actions that wrong once taken it is still unclear as to what is going to happen in terms of dynamics will people go out on the streets demonstrate day after day rory was asked that question he didn't really answer it he just said that he had to actually institute article one five five he actually felt that he was provoked to do this by a push along in the sense that all of the actions approved more talk in taking away he said the rights of the opposition taking away the rights of democracy in what he did it was an illegal act and of course the european union is not going to get him involved in this saw the king of spain will not tolerate it he says there has to be

legality restored the question now is really whether or not whether the president of catalonia and his government will stand down voluntarily or whether they will try and stay in place add to all of this the regional police force here will that stay in place with orders from the central government or will it go its own way like it did on october the first with a referendum right now uncertainty right around the wicket many thanks indeed andrew symonds there live in barcelona. strayer is one of the most multicultural countries in the world yet latest figures show that a quarter of the population is intolerant towards other cultures and ethnicities and to thomas reports from city. in one commercial

a white man holds open the lift door for a white woman but lets the door close on a black one a white woman steps out discussed it in another taxi driver tries to pick up a white passenger before an aboriginal's one has been waiting longer the white passenger refuses to jump the queue but does australia one of the world's most multicultural countries really need like these more than other places organizers call this the believe in bendigo picnic an annual day of inclusive in a country town when my kids were growing up in melbourne to the big market to say people of any other ethnic origin you know because they just want those kind of people and so now that's changing and more people are coming to live here but the main idea is to hold an event which contrasts with another held in bendigo in like twenty fifty hundreds protesting against plans to build a mosque the ugly images tapped into a perception that australia is and australians are racist australia certainly has

a racist he story with a colonial past and an explicit white australia policy on immigration until the early one nine hundred seventy s. . today videos like the easy to find online. research is recently surveyed more than ten thousand people in australia they concluded that about a quarter also questions in a way that showed them to be intolerant of other cultures and ethnicities the same survey asked people if they'd experienced discrimination in the last year thirty nine percent of people originally from china and india said they had sixty nine percent of people from c. done and fifty nine percent of indigenous australians in australia at the moment we don't even really want to acknowledge that. institutionally. implicit and explicit. but australian society is diverse and is getting more so net

migration adds one percent to the population each year one of the highest rates in the world twenty eight percent of australians were born in other countries with the biggest numbers recently coming from india and china surveys suggest about eighty five percent of australians think multiculturalism has been good for the country and the prime minister regularly called australia the most successful multicultural society in the world some both say that is a claim too far if you kind of crow about being the most successful it can kind of paper over the fact that there are problems as well bendigo as mosque is going ahead it's difficult start to potentially the positive opened up a conversation and that's something that was probably missing from the go for them nationally to an increasing conversation about racism could have a beneficial effect andrew thomas al-jazeera that if you want to know more about main use this what has prompted spain's prime minister to ask the senate's to sack

catalyst government go to the website and i'll just do it all. good to have you with us adrian for good here in doha the top stories on al-jazeera spain's prime minister has asked the senate in madrid for permission to sack catalonia as government and to call early regional elections money out of the whole it says that the separatists in barcelona had forced madrid to take unprecedented action. i don't need. the government has had to trigger article one five five of the constitution that was not our wish or intention it never was i think that most of spain society knows this article one five five is part of our constitution and it is only invoked in extremely extraordinary circumstances no government in any democratic country can accept that the law is ignored or changed this is done by

trying to impose a criteria on someone else so early reaction now from al-jazeera sandra symonds in barcelona well more of the certainly there with the baseline reaction was that this suspends democracy in catalonia that was from the spokesman for the president and then furthermore the colors are pushed him or her as his spokesman has announced that he will be making a statement i turn a night saturday nights around nine o'clock no indication of what he will say in that statement will it be a declaration of independence will it be just a declaration of defiance at least fifty five police officers have been killed and six others wounded in an ambush in egypt the security forces were targeted in the western deserts oasis during a raid on armed fighters. at least eighty nine people are now known to have died in

friday's mosque attacks in afghanistan i saw says that one of its faces walked into a shia mosque in the capital and detonated an explosive vest at least eight police officers have been killed in an attack on their base in western new jap several others were wounded in the incident close to the town of io rule the of the border with mali as interior minister says an investigation is underway earlier this month a raid near the border killed for us and for nigerian soldiers i'll be back with the latest news on developments from spain and an explicit here on al-jazeera after inside story next.

is there a way forward in afghanistan taliban attacks this week have killed more than one hundred twenty afghans nationwide despite the u.s. air force flying more missions and dropping more bombs both u.s. strategy and the afghan government's capabilities are again being questioned this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program i'm james bays u.s. president donald trump unveiled a new american strategy in afghanistan two months ago since then there's been no letup in violence nationwide and the last few days alone have seen

a dramatic surge in taliban attacks on thursday the taliban killed nearly sixty afghan security forces in a wave of attacks across the country forty of them died when an army camp in southern kandahar province was almost wiped out on wednesday six policemen were killed in a taliban ambush in the northern province of bulk and nine policemen died in a taliban attack on please post in western farah province a few hours later at least twenty two attackers were also killed and the worst attacks were on choose day suicide bombers killed at least seventy four people when they targeted police compounds and government offices to discuss this let's bring in our panel of guests and we have in kabul male weiss wardak he's the managing director of the peace training and research organization in washington d.c. we have david said he's a senior associate at the think tank c.s.i.s. and a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for afghanistan pakistan and central

asia and in dublin we have michael semple he is the former deputy european union special representative for afghanistan and he's now a visiting research professor at queens university in belfast let's start with you mayor was or dark in kabul you're there on the ground a very violent week for afghanistan how bad are things. michael and i think to me it was quite bad to. just type and form and have homes in kabul particularly hearing what happened and back here and then i was in kandahar. which gives a kind of i mean does the purpose of afghans that the afghan security forces or losing their man and their or maybe and frustration of the opposition groups and their their circus skills and that much access to bridge. and side and side of their bases. darst kind of losing support or hope for the future negotiation to

i think an hour or so for any kind of military going where the afghan government together we did initially community so it's it was not a good news despite the afghans were expecting that there would be really peace talks and from both a particular from the opposition side there was some kind of. fighting or at least would be reducing the rent was coming. but what that didn't happen. it was a discouraging week for the last week and more losses after afghan forces we should form an afghan police and call that was was not a good news david said me in washington d.c. two months into the new trump strategy and perhaps more importantly sixteen years into this war is the u.s. winning. i think this is a really interesting time there's been some serious developments over the last ten days particularly regarding pakistan which is the core of the problem little over

a week ago the pakistani forces under severe pressure from the us recovered a canadian american couple and their three children who had been held hostage by the taliban for over almost five years that recovery center was in response to a strong set of pressures that the u.s. new policy towards pakistan has put into place following that in the last two days u.s. drones have killed two to rekey taliban pakistan the pakistani taliban who threaten pakistan but are currently in afghanistan and u.s. drones killed their top leader mr horizonte and some others that is really a gift to the pakistanis on the eve of a very important visit of secretary of state tellers and to pakistan where he will put additional pressure on pakistan to stop its support for the taliban and yes there have been a lot of violent attacks but those violent attacks are actually the taliban lashing out because they failed to achieve their campaign objectives of taking and

retaining a provincial capital this year in their campaign plan that the taliban announced in the spring of this year they laid out very ambitious goals for creating more character henri that they controlled and taking control of some major population centers they failed in that because of the aggressive new policy by the united states government of increased in for information increased intelligence and most importantly increased air power so i would say if you look at the bigger picture this new pressure on pakistan combined with the new u.s. commitment from the trump administration may well signal a turning point in this war do you agree with that michael semple we've heard about a tough approach to pakistan how much of the rest of the trump strategy is new in your in your view. yes david is absolutely right to take the developments of the past week into a wider context the the taliban over the past two months how found

u.s. air power under pressure from not just the u.s. special forces but more the afghan special forces they found them devastating they have failed as david said to take any major government position during the year but importantly they have been suffering really severe losses to such an extent that they've had to reconsider their whole tactics taliban military hoped that by the end of this year not only would they be taking provincial capitals but they would be operating with larger military formations and now they've realized that as soon as their forces start to come together into large groups they get picked off so what we have seen in the past week is a message from the taliban ok you've escalated you've hurt us we are going to escalate and they have escalated but in this escalation it's not some kind of ground taliban army with thousands of fighters who are doing it the taliban have resorted to their own version of special forces they've had they have some highly

trained so commando style people prepared to die and they send a few dozen of these into action so it's a few dozen determined on armed men with of course strong logistics about backup which david was talking about they're the ones which have inflicted the pain they haven't changed the course of the war they've demonstrated that both sides can continue to hurt each other hurt the afghan people until finally they come around to talking and in the fight there was water of course the other thing they've done is started using the u.s. as equipment against the afghan forces with stolen humvees how worried do you think the afghan security forces will be worried about this new tactic we've seen i think a number of times now and it seems to be very effective. i think one of the weakest part of the afghan government is that they're that their intelligence particularly evident among their people or its beak so they're all sleeping and afghan national

army and i was in and producing maybe and n.d.s. so that they have to come strong induct and find out the true or helping them from inside which is happening for the third or fourth time unless you're four months. these vehicles and that american. tools have been captured by the taliban and they're coming from remote villages and the afghan intelligence is failing to spot them. in stede of getting information i think from communities i think. afghans the afghan forces needs to clean up their own soldiers who are helping inform and said which has been happening for a long time i think that's the the biggest failure of the afghan government afghan security forces that they cannot support people who are helping the opposition forces from and sat and so they cannot support military vehicles for coming in from districts of it and frustrating. security forces bases

and multiple ages. i think that the security forces and afghan government needs to look at that their intelligence loop to screen out who or helping them and terms of providing intelligence or one of bringing them to the doors of their bases that's that's i think what the afghan government needs to focus on in the coming years this is been a consistent problem hasn't it david certainly there are elements within the afghan security forces who are helping the taliban or trading with the taliban giving away their weapons giving away their ammunition maybe giving away humvees i don't know. it's been a problem but it's a fairly minor problem it's wrestle problem of giving away than being purchased or being stolen or being seized in a tax the humvee attack that you mentioned a couple of days ago in my wand in khandahar province humvees were not used as fighting vehicles they were used as bombs both in that case and in the very very large truck bomb that devastated parts of kabul back in may but the taliban are

doing is using these large heavy bombs equipped with explosives that they get from pakistan to sow terror and fear among people they're not using them as part of a military strategy so i wouldn't focus too much on the fact that the equipment being used i would as michael semple had said as i said focused on the larger strategic picture and again i want to point to the cup coming visit of secretary unite us secretary of state tillotson to islamabad to meet with the pakistani leaders as a potential key turning point where pakistan may seriously begin reducing its support for the taliban of course secretary tillerson is executing a policy from president trump michael semple that took some eight months with him to come up with it and even when he announced that policy he didn't seem entirely convinced about what he was doing he said my original instinct was to pull out and historically i'd like to follow my instincts do you think with an uptick of

violence president trump down the line could change his mind. well the the strategy is not just a blank check the strategy of course is based upon afghan partners also. delivering success that this strategy depends upon the successful reform and improvement of the performance of the the afghan security forces and they also the better performance inside the afghan government which is necessary if you want to win the cooperation of the the afghan population as mere weiss was was pointing to so they. mean as it happens i think president trump was speaking extremely almost fully on that when he said that. instinct told him one thing but actually the circumstances oblige him to do something else and maybe many people can agree with that i think that he looked he looked into the void and saw

that the consequences of an abrupt end to u.s. assistance to afghanistan would be disastrous and therefore decided to persist what this strategy does is it offers more time for the afghans to bring about the kind of improvements in government that that mayor weiss talked about but it also provides an opportunity for for some kind of peace process and we presume we'll move on to talking about that this strategy is not just about. fighting your way to some kind of victory this is about creating an opportunity to shape the conditions in afghanistan and to address the security requirements both of the region and of the u.s. david said the you know the realities in washington president trump even though he's announced the strategy is still hearing lots of voices who say off to sixteen me is what is the point of this pullout there are prominent voices in the

republican party saying that. well there may there are some who are doing that you mentioned before in stings what president trump is getting is a lot of very informed and vice from key key leaders inside his own administration particularly his chief of staff former marine general john kelly his secretary of defense former marine general jim madison his national security advisor currently serving army lieutenant general mcmaster these people all know afghanistan and pakistan really well they've participated in the fighting in general kelly as he described in a very emotional news conference yesterday lost his son there these are people who understand what it will take to bring this war to a conclusion as michael said the taliban need to come to the peace table many of the taliban want to come to the peace table those who are behind the more violent actions of the taliban have been putting forward over the last several months are may not be the rulers of the taliban in the in the coming few months that's where

pakistan comes in of pakistan can force the problem on to change their tactics and move towards peace i think we could see a turning point here. dark let me ask you do you think the taliban right now are ready to come to the negotiating table do they think because american strategy has changed a number of times over the last sixteen years they can wait this one out that the americans will be gone soon. i think i mean yeah that they are trying to negotiate to but to demand definitely want because in the coming government if there's any kind of degree and that's why they have some very. offensive fighting them in the last couple of months particular these attacks is only. to get that from coming to the americans that to be or still strong to be want to if there's any kind of negotiation for peace we need to share that we would have. one to.

we're not expecting that. these contacts to happen i think i mean. and the sport of the year when you have one would think that they were going back to their sanctuaries and attribute the winter season in fighting to stop so i would say that much of this fighting is now. as it is because of the peace talks coming maybe in the winter season where the fighting season is going to be off. many many of the taliban i think that's for sure are a shower sure and maybe a. lot of them there or negotiating but we are friends particularly the public will say that it's the pakistan food is not allowing them to talk to the afghan government because they were talking on conditions and that's being strictly imposed by taliban from or trying to talk to the afghan government and we house several examples where to start again for trying to talk to afghan government to have been kidnapped or killed and the others here that there are many taliban now

that they are sneaking out of pakistan just trying to immigrate to other countries and not find a place where they could could stay because they think that peacenik negotiation is not entirely in their hands and it has been dictated by by by date donors particularly pakistan so there or taliban who would like to negotiate but to depressurize from from pakistan is keeping them out or maybe trying to get to dictate the conditions box on the ground trying to put enough in government. i've been looking at the official statistics coming from the u.s. central command of the bombings in afghanistan and one thing is clear the amount of air support the u.s. is providing to the afghan security forces is risen dramatically since donald trump became president during the first six months of this year the americans flew an average of eighty six missions each month in which some kind of munition a bomb or missile was released that compares with an average of only fifty one missions a month last year and the average number of munitions released against enemy

meaning taliban or eisel targets each month has also increased dramatically growing from one hundred eleven in two thousand and six to three hundred sixty this year michael semple is that going to be enough to force the taliban to the negotiating table no not it is perhaps a necessary condition but not a sufficient condition that military pressure a loan that will not bring the the taliban to the table in fact i think that mere weiss was making an extremely important point that i would like to to amplify which is that. there is there is a politics going on inside of the taliban movement my personal finding so far is that the the top leadership of the taliban are doing everything they can to sustain the fight they want to fight not to talk they do not have a vision of a negotiated solution at the moment however it may or wise is correct that many

inside the movement do want to move towards a settlement they want an honorable way out and i know this from many senior figures of the movement but they do not believe that it is possible while the current leadership is sustaining that the conflict the role of pakistan is very is quite complex that they are i'm not convinced of that it's simply the question are they. pakistanis saying that you have to fight on ironically several pakistani attempts to get at least symbolically go ca sions going on have failed and that the there is no love lost between the taliban leadership and the pakistani authorities if anything the taliban leadership are maneuvering to try and reduce pakistan leverage over them so i think that we should not sure we could certainly it is right for the kabul government and the u.s.

to be asking pakistan to help in terms of reducing attacks which are launched from pakistan weakening the logistical support to the taliban but i'm not sure that the pakistan of the pakistan is the right sort of interlocutor to ask to deliver the taliban to the table that i think that we have to listen very carefully to what mary weiss was saying is that that many inside the movement actually are ready to talk because they believe that they are being held back from that and i think that the afghan government helped by its international partners has got to do everything it can to facilitate that process that so that we actually make some process towards. towards stopping the fighting maybe it will be a bottom up process rather than a top down process because personally i don't believe that either quite as sure of the push our sure even though they they are quite the cutter team that mere wise referred to is actually ready to do to deliver some kind of grand bargain maybe it will have to be a bottom up process david certainly could i perhaps take you

a little bit back in time again looking at these power statistics you were a senior official in the obama administration they eased off the taliban for a time the statistics show that there is the general view from some that president obama was trying to leave afghanistan was this the time when the taliban managed to regroup was it a mistake looking back on it now it was very much a mystic. president obama made it a priority to get u.s. troops out of afghanistan and not to succeed in afghanistan his constant setting of artificial deadlines for troop and setting of troop cap numbers handicapped our military's ability to carry out what was needed in order to achieve military success back in those days as president obama breached the end of his term he reversed himself a little bit and kept more troops in afghanistan that he meant to and gave his commanders a little bit of leeway when president trump came in he gave the commanders

a lot more leeway so when many ways were sort of on the military side we're sort of clawing things back but i will echo what michael semple said is that while these increased air attacks are a net important part of a strategy and probably probably cannot succeed without them we also need to have both change inside the taliban and one other point that we've not made but i think needs to be made strongly is the afghan government needs to perform better its military its police need to do better and its overall governance efforts have to improve in order to improve increase confidence among the people that the afghan government is the right solution for their future so this is really a complex situation where you need progress militarily with pakistan with apollo and with the afghan government you've mentioned vishal time being unhelpful my question though to you michael semple is your estimation now how long might this

take well.