the smallest office on the planet and one that could soon be lost forever with an international team of scientists is determined not to let that happen without intervention to give the big i would say here to a bell just now it's a race against time to try and save a species like a chrysler that's in the marshes the plan they've all extinction tagg know this story. witness documentaries open your eyes at this time on al-jazeera. president form a national security adviser pleads guilty to lying to the f.b.i.

about his contacts with the russian ambassador. hello i'm maryam namazie in london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up the u.n. launches a wreck or daniel eight appealed for twenty two billion dollars to help more than one hundred thirty five million people in. france is all stranger refugees in bangladesh for forgiveness for the world's indifference to their plight . why zimbabweans might be disappointed by the new president's latest cabinet appointments. u.s. president donald trump's former national security adviser has pleaded guilty to lying to the f.b.i. about his contacts with russia the charges were brought by robert mueller as boss of his investigation into alleged russian meddling in last year's election flynn

says he was aust to contact russian officials by a senior member of trump's transition team reported to be. our white house correspondent it reports. a ride to get federal court in washington michael flynn ignored shouted questions by reporters. inside moments later the former national security adviser to president donald. rob pled guilty to lying to the f.b.i. court documents show the charges against flynn stem from his lying about efforts to obtain advance knowledge of how foreign governments might vote on a u.n. security council resolution about israel as well as phone conversations flynn had before trump was even sworn in as president with the former russian ambassador to the united states surrogate kiss lee ak. flynn is said to have suggested to kiss li ak sanctions put in place against russia by the obama white house may be dropped

once trump was sworn in but they did not discuss anything having to do with the united states decision to expel diplomats or or impose a censure against russia flints lies to the vice president about that phone call led to his dismissal after just three weeks in office in a statement trumps lawyer said flynt false claims mirror the false statements to white house officials which resulted in his resignation in february of this year nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than mr flynn but his plea in fact may directly tie the oval office to the investigation by special counsel robert muller and whether or not the trump campaign worked with russia this suggests that mr flynt has more information to provide about other things the white house has lied about other things the president himself may have

lied about and whether or not the white house including the president himself colluded with russia according to the former f.b.i. director james comey trump once asked him to drop the case against flynn and despite claims by the president's lawyer flynn's cooperation with the f.b.i. probe shows that most investigation is escalating and could lead to charges against an even bigger target including the president of the united states kimberly helped get al jazeera washington. let's get more on this rosalynn jordan she's in washington d.c. for us and roslyn we know that the news briefing today was counsel clearly the trauma ministration wants to dodge any questioning as to what is happening with the murder investigation and indeed what could happen next what have you been hearing that. well not only was the daily white house press briefing canceled on friday but the president was also supposed to hold

a quick media availability as part of his hosting the libyan prime minister at the white house that was also canceled because typically at these events the president will answer questions from reporters or make comments off the cuff and clearly a decision was made that they did not want to have the president speaking certainly not in front of television cameras where his words could be replayed ad nauseum throughout the coming weekend only thing that came from the white house was a statement as we heard from can really help from the president's personal lawyer time cop indicating that what michael flynn pled guilty to essentially was what the administration had already said was the reason why he was fired as the national security adviser that he wasn't upfront with the administration about his contacts with various russian officials however that doesn't mean that the president himself as

a state away from twitter he has in fact chimed in in the last couple of hours about an unrelated matter about the future of his secretary of state rex tillerson arguing that mr taylor since job is safe and that there are all the reports that he may be on his way out are basically speculation but again nothing on camera from the trumpet ministration about this development involving michael flynn again when we're speculating here they don't want to be seen on the record as having anything that could come back to heart to harm them down the road right and an enormously significant development today now that we know that michael flynn is. cooperating with baldwin his investigation but beyond washington d.c. how is this playing out with the general public and how might they be responding to this latest development now. well if you take

a look at social media focused on the united states people who are opposed to donald trump being president are basically celebrating this development saying that this is the beginning of the end of donald trump's presidency people who support donald trump are saying that this is basically nothing more than a witch hunt an effort to drive out someone who was duly elected to be the president of the united states and that this entire special investigation led by robert muller is nothing more than political trickery at play they are so it's basically falling pretty much where you would expect if you also take a look at the editorial pages of the various newspapers and magazines again depending on their political slant the analysis is the same either this is very bad news for donald trump and for his presidency or this is basically

a political witch hunt and unless and until there is more evidence of put forward by the special counsel on this case you're pretty much where you see people basically sticking to their political view of the situation all right well thank you very much charles and jordan with all the latest from washington d.c. and indeed reaction to this story as it unfolds and so bill schneider is a professor of public policy at george mason of us in the u.s. he joins us now also from washington d.c. and so it is very but we know that it would be very beneficial for michael flynn to strike a plea deal at this point in time we're not quite sure what the implications might be from south or his son but it certainly in his favor what does robert money get in return for his investigation. he gets a connection between what flynn did his conversation with the russian ambassador and the white house the actual the transition staff that became part of the white

house team it means there really was a connection flynn said not only did he have a conversation with the russian ambassador but he cleared it first with a top aide at least one top member of the trump transition team so they can't claim that they knew nothing about what was going on and how do you expect the investigation to unfold because the crucial thing in there is the fact that yes michael flynn might have had contacts with russia but he did it in consultation with all the members of the trauma team people who are still close to the president now it's the old watergate question what are the president know and when did he know it the so far the president's name is not been invoked but michael flynn has mysteriously said he discussed his conversation his his future conversation with the russian ambassador with top members a top member of the transition team was

a trump we don't know who it was that's going to come out very soon there are some suggestions that it might have been trump son in law jared questioner but we simply haven't had that confirmed yet all we know is it looks like that most dangerous of washington situations a cover up is going on. but the assumption is that it would be somebody higher up the food chain because the anyway robert little would strike a deal like this that is very much in michael flynn's favor is effectively eats into so-called high value targets. that's right and jerry kirsner is indeed a high value target he's still an important member of the white house team he's responsible for middle east negotiations that he's very high up indeed and the question then becomes what did the president know when did he know it as i said before well that's going to be investigated and these things always have a tendency to come out sooner or later. and of course we know that before sacking the then f.b.i.

director james comey president donald trump him not to prosecute michael flynn he asked him to quote that we've seen it can you see a way can't say lessing this guy what are the implications about whether the president obstructed justice it could be that he did he asked the f.b.i. director at the time to go easy on mr flynt why did he do that was this part of a cover up operation we don't know we simply don't know what this was really part of now the cooked telephone call between mr flynn and the russian ambassador took place after mr trump had won the election but before he took office so this was illegal on his face because it was a private citizen flynn was at the time a private citizen negotiating with a foreign power advising the foreign power how to respond to the government's official sanctions that the obama administration had just imposed on russia in retaliation for its interference in the election that was illegal but at the moment

it was done after the election not during the election what americans want to know is to what extent was there collusion between the trump campaign and the russians before the election even took place all right thank you very much bill schneider in washington d.c. for. now u.s. senate republicans say they have enough support to pass a controversial tax bill late friday bossy to sounded confident after securing the backing of three republican holdouts despite concerns by a senate committee that it will add a trillion dollars to the deficit president trump says the proposed cuts which include huge cuts to corporate tax will boost economic growth and the democrats who oppose the bill say they'll have a damaging impact on working families health care and property taxes.

in the united nations is launched a record appeal for more than twenty two billion dollars to help victims of conflict and humanitarian crises around the world the u.n. says more than one hundred thirty five million people across the world need aid yemen is the world's worst humanitarian crisis war has left more than twenty two million in need with a severe food shortage and an outbreak of cholera in nigeria fourteen and a half million people particularly women need aid and protection because of fighting between the military and on groups and more than thirteen million people in the democratic republic of congo need humanitarian help many were displaced by fighting a similar similar number of syrians still course up in a civil war in its seventh year a third of the money requested by the u.n. is to help them diplomatic editor james braze reports from geneva. the u.n. says it's the worst humanitarian disaster on earth in yemen the people are suffering from conflict and a continuing cholera epidemic the situation only made worse by

a saudi blockade stopping much of the food and medicine from getting to those who so desperately need it the u.n. appeal for twenty eighteen estimates there are in the country twenty two million people in need the situation in yemen is atrocious the number of people in need. of twenty eight million is approaching twenty million seven or eight million of those people are right on the verge of famine and starvation we need to get their paws fully opened so that the fields around the water systems can get in the fuel to get the food ramit country can get in. commercial food as well as the aid food can get in until those things happen the situation will continue to deteriorate and the risk of millions of lives being lost will grow yemen is just one of many civil tenures emergences making this

a time of unprecedented need in its appeal for twenty eighteen the u.n. says it believes there are almost one hundred thirty six million people in need they come up with a plan to help almost ninety one million people and that will cost twenty two point five billion dollars but i have to say i don't think we're going to get all that money you just have to look at this year twenty seventeen their appeal was fifty two point five percent funded from south sudan to syria from afghanistan to the refugees from myanmar conflict is the main cause of the human suffering and in most cases these are conflicts with no end in sight james pais al-jazeera at the united nations in geneva. i want to tell you about the program still what an autopsy is revealed about the deadly poison salvage and probably actually used during his un trial. and the world's biggest battery is turned on in australia that

herald a new era in renewable energy. welcome back we're still seeing some really heavy rain affecting parts of new south wales and down into victoria and to a lesser extent tasmania so melbourne really wet through the course of saturday sydney will start to pick up some showers too from this or complex frontal system we've got here now but it woman adelaide's nineteen degrees were somewhat dry and across western australia pretty warm for perth for the best place at the moment some showers across the northern territory moving through into sunday you see that system begins to move away so still dry cold air from the south but at least it should be somewhat dryer sydney temperatures coming down in a high of twenty four degrees for new zealand the weather's pretty quiet at the

moment and for most part looking quite good we've got sunshine across the north and twenty one in oakland and very nice indeed across the south island there with christchurch in the mid twenty's we went through into sunday you can see we've still got the area of high pressure is out there so we're likely to see more in the way of sunshine continuing as we head up into northeastern parts of asia colder air here temperatures subzero for sapporo further towards the south a few showers on the western side of honshu but otherwise it should be dry for tokyo temperatures of eleven across a crimp in draw and fine seven is a mix from pyongyang and rather chilly as we said a little but our. on counting the cost the goldilocks oil price is there such a thing as the perfect price of crude for consumers and producers of financial bubbles and big point loss the future of job creation in africa the only continent where the young outnumber the old counting the cost at this time on al-jazeera.

welcome back you're watching al-jazeera let's update you on the top stories president trump's former national security adviser has pleaded guilty to charges of lying to the f.b.i. about the extent of his contact with russia michael flynn says he was directed to do so by a senior member of trump's transition team reported to be jared kushner. the u.n. is on the record appeal for more than twenty two billion dollars mostly to help

victims of conflict around the world yemen is the worst crisis with more than twenty two million people in need. and pope francis has asked a group of ranger refugees in bangladesh for forgiveness for the world's indifference to their plight he also used the term revenge or something he avoided why that man maher earlier this week. oh as you were mentioning the syrians are very much among those in need of humanitarian assistance right now residents of a rebel held in eastern cooter of made a desperate plea for more medical and food aid the u.n. has called for the immediate evacuation of five hundred people including a hundred sixty seven children from the area which is near damascus nine people have died in recent weeks waiting for permission from the syrian government for the sick and wounded to be allowed to leave one man described how his three day old son died because he could not get access to lifesaving medicine. he needed an injection to open his lungs and this was not available i searched for it

yesterday and all the medical centers i could not find it at all it is only available in damascus and we cannot go to damascus elsewhere the head of syria's government delegation is criticize the opposition for statements made ahead of the current round of talks in geneva. for he said there can be no progress while the opposition is still demanding president bashar assad step down the government delegation has now returned to damascus and says it will decide whether to return to geneva when the negotiations resume day round of talks to find a solution to the conflict was due to continue next week. well pope francis met ranger refugees in bangladesh if that man was a military crackdown in iraq and state he apologize for the world's indifference to the suffering in austin sofa given this and he used the politically sensitive time revenge or something he avoided doing while in myanmar earlier this week stratford reports from the could have pollen cam. and i stated hundred thousand bangladeshis

crowded into the so ready park in dhaka as pope francis mass but it was later in the day after the pontiff met ricky injury fiji's that he finally publicly mention the ethnic group by name. and. will continue to recognize their rights we won't close our hearts to them we won't look in another direction the presence of god today is also cold every one of us needs to respond in the right way mohammed idris was among the small group who spoke with the pope along with his ten brothers and eight sisters he fled the military crackdown on the region just three months ago he says soldiers burnt their family home in rakhine state and shot his cousin dead. we have very happy to be in pain but we thought that so much pain and agony and that's what we want to tell the pope . this is only the second time the head of the catholic churches visited bangladesh

the last was pope john paul the second in one thousand nine hundred six this time it hasn't been easy the pope's visit to bangladesh comes as this country the united nations and international aid organizations struggle to cope with more than six hundred twenty five thousand range of refugees that have arrived here since what was the twenty fifth it's a visit that is proving a huge diplomatic challenge to the head of the catholic church. rights groups criticized the roman catholic leader for failing to say the name of angel during his three day visit to myanmar and the world since arriving in bangladesh on thursday it's believed he refrained in myanmar to prevent a potential pact clash against christians that the revenger have been persecuted for decades by the myanmar government which doesn't recognize the ethnic group range of citizenship in what was then burma was drawn in one thousand nine hundred eighty two. the pope's blessings of just

a few of the hundreds of thousands of refugees here in bangladesh will draw greater international attention to their plight they are often described as the world's largest group of stateless people. strive for al-jazeera coaxes bazaar bangladesh an autopsy is revealed the bosnian croat war criminal poisoned himself in front of un judges on wednesday likely died from heart failure after swallowing potassium cyanide investigators are trying to determine exactly how some downed pre-x. model the bottle for security a seventy two year old has just lost an appeal against a twenty year sentence for war crimes during the one thousand nine hundred. zimbabwe's new president has disappointed many by filling his first cabinet with senior military figures and ruling party loyalists but no opposition politicians a soldier who announced the military takeover on the national broadcaster has been named the minister of foreign affairs the head of the war veterans christmas monger has been handed the ministry of information and patrick chinamasa returns to run

the ministry of finance. has been gauging the reaction in the town of chinoy. the announcement by president of who is in the new government is dividing opinion zimbabweans who know the new leader is a businessman a cautiously optimistic he's picked the right team others say they are disappointed at how many military commanders and politicians in the new cabinet have strong links to robert mugabe and the former government. disappointed. to the expectation of the people of zimbabwe we were hoping that. would there be a new beginning would have also a cabinet that is responsive to what the expectations of the people expect a new policy. faces that are expected. these university graduates hope the new cabinet will deliver on the president's

promise to create jobs many graduates confines a job for twenty three year old innocent or has a bachelor's degree and is known as a graduate on a good day he makes about ten dollars selling secondhand mobile phones on the streets for me is a disappointment and i always explain about our. operations of this place because this is what is the current situation i just. was a little surprised frightened with this this. was a this is what. economists say the new cabinet has to rework scrap some of robert mugabe's policies such as indigenization a controversial policy. black empowerment is the term. and he buried. it because there's. just. one percent.

and. when i recently made british and chinese envoys the european union and the united states say they are keen to reengage with the again after years of isolation the government statistics agency is. very keen. great is more. struggling zimbabweans hope president grand bargain knows what he's doing and that his policies don't scare away investors are the seal nothing will change the reality for now is that thousands of these graduates will likely join other degree holders on the street if economy doesn't drastically improve. al-jazeera chinoy is about. measures heard that the murdered half brother of north korea's leader was carrying an antidote to the talks and that was used to poison him kim jong nam died after the nerve agent v.x. was smeared on his face at kuala lumpur airport in february two women have been charged with his murder trial is heard that came out

a dozen vials of the antidote in his bag it's not clear why he didn't use it john young has been accused of orchestrating the killing the date has been for the official abdication of japan's and proc hito which will take place on april thirtieth two thousand and nineteen he will be the first japanese monic to step down in about two hundred years the eighty three year old who's had heart surgery and cancer treatment recently said he feared his age might make it difficult to fulfill his duties. now at least nine people have been killed and thirty six injured after gunmen stormed a college and pakistan at least three men disguised in burkas arrived in a rickshaw and to the agriculture training institute in an open fire all the attackers were killed after two hours of fighting with the army and police and taliban has claimed responsibility saying it was targeting a safe house used by the i.s.i. intelligence agency. now it seems u.s.

entrepreneur mosque the man behind space x. and tesla is a man of his words. the world's largest lithium ion battery in hundred days he not only deliver the product to south australia had it switched on this friday the clean energy will power thirty thousand homes. this seemingly innocuous rural area and south australia has suddenly become home to one of the biggest sources of renewable energy in the world built in sixty days the us technology company tesla has built the largest lithium on battery which is plugged into the power grid in the state of south australia the state's premier on build the john battery which is powered by a nearby wind farm this is an example of south australia leading the world the world's largest lithium battery it's right here in jamestown in south australia and it's already supplying power to the national electricity market australia is

a major exporter of coal and it's considered one of the world's worst greenhouse gas polluters the state of south australia is demolishing is coal fired power stations and switching to renewable energy that's imperative after a freak storm last year caused a state wide blackout highlighting the supply of electricity the billionaire business tycoon mosque offered to build the battery most salient point here is that the system will be three three times more powerful than any system in the on earth . this is a this is not like a sort of short like a minor foray into the frontier it's like you know going three times for anyone going before must also promise that if it wasn't completed on time it would be free lucky for him the forty million dollars project was switched on ahead of schedule it's a exciting development electricity story just kind of been the holy grail for the whole power business for two hundred years now because if we want to move towards

variable renewables wind and solar produce their own trysting when they want not necessarily when we want and so some way of storing the excess that they're producing which can then be used when they're not generating has been something we've looked for for many years even nearby jamestown gave their verdict lifted our spirits because everybody is a happy about it and we have a question marks on that but the result in result will tail wind it because it's never been called into action we really don't know what's coming and they're doing ok so that when it if it does do the job well and good if it doesn't it's just another one of those political stunts. tesla's chief executive wasn't at the unveiling but the state's new power backup surprise i'm sure to please climate change and pollution activists and possibly pave the way for other projects worldwide.

let's update you quickly on the stories making headlines before we go u.s. president donald trump's ex national security advisor michael flynn has pleaded guilty to charges of making false statements to the f.b.i. michael flynn was forced to resign after misleading the white house in january about meeting the russian ambassador before trump was elected he says he was directed to do so by a senior member of trump's transition team reported to be jared cushion the charges were brought by special counsel robert mueller as part of his investigation into alleged russian meddling in the twenty sixteen presidential the white house says flynn statements a false correspondent kimberly. this is a significant development in the probe by robert muller into whether there was possible obstruction of justice and also collusion involving the twenty sixteen presidential campaign and of course the white house has been bracing itself for some time now given the fact that we have had three previous trump associates

charge of course paul man a fourth the campaign chair as well as an aide and also a foreign policy adviser to the presidential campaign george papadopoulos but there's no question the charges against michael flynn are the most significant because of course michael flynn had a significant part of the early days of the top administration. well moving toward other top stories this hour in the united nations is launched a record appeal for more than twenty two billion dollars to help victims of conflict and crisis around the world yemen is the world's worst crisis with more than twenty two million people in need of aid because of severe food shortages and an outbreak of cholera. pope francis met ranger refugees in bangladesh who fled me on miles military crackdown in iraq and say he apologized eight he apologized for the world's indifference to their suffering and asked them for their forgiveness and he used the politically sensitive time range up something he avoided doing

while in myanmar earlier this week nine people have been killed and thirty six injured after a gunman stormed a college in pakistan at least three men dressed in women's burkas carried out the attack in the city of. iraq today with all of our top stories that set for myself in the team here in london more news coming out from doha though after counting the cost which is now. in jakarta school students are taking up weapons to fight in deadly streets. one on one east investigates this violent phenomenon. at this time and al jazeera. has them sleeker this is counting the cost on al-jazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week all sweet spot what price there's

a barrel of oil.