you are making very pointed remarks where on line the main u.s. response to drug use and the drug trade over the last fifty years has been to criminalize or if you join us on say to no evil person this wakes up to over the morning in the sense i want to cover the world in darkness and this is a dialogue that could be worth leading to some of the confusion online about people saying they don't actually know what's going on join the colobus conversation at this time on al-jazeera. here is a very important fourth of information for many people around the world when all the cameras are gone i'm still here go into areas that nobody else is going to talk to people that nobody else is talking to and bringing that story to the forefront.

global humanitarian law fails to protect children in times of war. also coming up liberia waits to find out who won tuesday's presidential run for. vice president. hundreds of prisoners exchange in ukraine in one of the biggest swaps agreed between moscow and kiev and. people have the leisure to do whatever they want to. drive to. work. where robots take over and do most of the work. in conflict zones across the globe children are being used as both targets and as

weapons that's the conclusion from a new report by unicef the united nations children's fund children have long suffered during wartime the report says the situation has reached shocking levels and the new report says children have become front line targets and are often used as human shields many are recruited to fight an unsafe winter become standard tactics the conflict in yemen was one of the worst for children in two thousand and seventeen with five hundred killed or injured the u.n. agency also says there was widespread blatant disregard for international laws designed to protect the young people justin for scientists executive director of unicef he says children are increasingly being drawn into conflict. what we've seen in recent years and even more so in twenty seven is children being deliberately targeted i mean we've heard stories from our staff on the ground in bangladesh but also in mean maurice south about raping the children who stood by us soldiers of

right on their mothers have shot their father even brutalized those children the cells and they're saying to those children they're deliberately doing this we have stories from within syria and from a school that we worked in with snipers deliberately targeting the children in the playground i was in northern nigeria recently and i'm on children who would who had to talk to me about being forced to be human bombs for boquete her arms and this deliberately targeting of children to make them part of the complex to uproot a liason army is a is a is a new development yes it's always happened in part but it seems to be growing and growing is normal now that you can target a hospital a group of doctors in syria told me recently when i was in northern turkey how the armed groups wouldn't even come near the hospital because the hospital was more of a target than the armed groups so hospitals and schools are being deliberately attacked children are being brutalized and it feels like all the rules in war as

you say that used to at least protect civilians and children in particular in these terrible wars have all disappeared and feels like there are no rules to protect the most vulnerable children in these conflicts and our appeal is unicef is to all the warring parties whether their governments or rebel groups is it surely we can all agree that we need to protect the children. well one place where the report's findings can be seen in particularly dramatic form lebanon small country house more than a million syrian refugees. joins us from one refugee camp in lebanon's bekaa valley and then with winter a really sad saying give us an idea of what the conditions are like there for families. well life just gets more difficult when winter sets in from the cold and of course these people they don't have jobs a short while ago we saw we saw a truck here arrive and they were selling wood and i asked the woman how much does

he she says a basket of. three dollars and we don't have that money so people are poor they're vulnerable they aren't able to survive according to a new u.n. report more than half of the refugees in lebanon live below the poverty line which means they live with two point eight dollars a day per person which is really not enough and a lot of the refugees according to this u.n. report live in debt they owe money they borrow money to survive a refugee in lebanon wants to work they need to find a sponsor and then they need to pay two hundred fifty dollars in order to get a government permit and they don't have that money so they work sometimes illegally which means they're more vulnerable in their employers at times don't pay them so really life is very difficult for these people and according to the latest statistics the number now of refugees that are registered is below one million in two thousand and fourteen they surpassed one million but now there are nine hundred ninety seven thousand now where the people go a lot of them they say have been settled in the third countries according to the

u.n. program approximately fifty thousand of them a few thousands of them have made their way to europe illegally some have passed away and some have returned to syria but there are no official statistics on the numbers who have returned to syria saying that even with life being so difficult all the people who are remaining they concerned that there's going to be increased pressure on them to leave to return to syria with generally thought the syrian war is winding down. yes they are worried they're concerned especially when they hear lebanese officials say that it's time for these people to go home especially to what they call call areas in syria and yes there are calmer areas in syria there are areas where there. are the government so-called reconciliation agreements but people are scared some of them are wanted by the state others don't want to go back because they don't want to be forced into the army some of them took part in opposition activities so they feel that if they return they could be arrested also there is the question of going back to what their homes have been destroyed their

livelihoods they have no jobs who is going to support them in syria at least here they get some handouts from the united nations so people are afraid they hear about the peace talks in geneva the possible talks. but they say what peace are they talking about where's the reconciliation how can we return especially that a lot of them will say we don't want to return if the if the government is still in charge so yes people are concerned but the lebanese officials have said that they're not going to force anybody to return ok so bring us the view from the refugee camp and the back of. aid workers have been evacuating critically ill patients from eastern guta that's a rebel held area in is syria's capital damascus full people were taken from there on wednesday last month the un called for five hundred people in need of medical care to be allowed to leave but only twenty nine cases have been given approval and at least eighteen people have died while waiting. now we're getting

reports of multiple blasts in the afghan capital kabul one of them hit the office of the news agency afghan voice. and according to officials and witnesses on the scene so we will be bringing you more on this story as we get it and as we have it developing. if as a result of liberia's presidential runoff election could be announced as early as thursday local media is reporting international football legend george where is ahead of the vote count but his rival current vice president. says it's still too close to call on that day reports from the capital monrovia. liberia unsweet for the outcome of tuesday's runoff election many priests what they call a peaceful vote vote counting is underway and the process of telling results trickling in from more than five thousand polling stations across liberia why the

national initial are pulling out again. there were. a very small number of incidents to report where the incident occur and i should mention they have been dealt with on this but in most of these cases if not all the contest pits fifty one year old former football star where against seventy three year old joseph walk i who has been the country's vice president for the last twelve years but polling coincided with christmas and many chose to stay home observers say the tunnel close much lower than the fos round held in october their latrell commission says it will announce the results in four days it's what happens after whether the losing side will accept defeat that has most liberians concerned . liberia is one when that's willing to destroy the women and that will mean for us to go back to war for anybody to be president of this country and we will not do it

we are going to have peace the children of this country need peace and they also want peace and we're going to call for whom ever we decide is president of liberia international observers to are calling for calm. because. so the issue is now when you know. if you when you celebrate it is celebrated in the show because you get to be president of everybody if you lose you also accept for the first time in more than seventy years this was founded by freed american slaves will see one democratically elected government hunt power to another whoever wins will inherit tonic or me but by forming prices of liberia's main exports of rabat and i don't know and are forced depreciating currency in the past twelve years ellen johnson sirleaf has guided this country through the process of recovery

from civil war on the horrors of a bull outbreak but she too has been criticized for not doing much to talk all poverty and corruption in hog government to have it all does it or monrovia liberia . i chair is in the midst of a severe fuel shortage leading to large queues at petrol stations across the country and some regions marked here's a selling petrol at double the approved government prices back with interest reports from. the queue is more than a kilometer long and it's a common feature at most because stations across nigeria. this one is directly opposite nigeria's oil company yet it's not dispensing fuel to motorists some have been waiting ten hours i've been going through says night after does money there is no even sign off of viable moving from this position to even hope of getting if way

for decades official corruption has crippled the country's four old refineries the nigerian government imported what it needed through a subsidy system but that was hijacked by corrupt officers and businessmen at the heart of the current crisis is a demand by retailers were reviewing costs and increasing supplies in two thousand and sixteen when the government stopped subsidizing thats all the cost of a liter jumped by sixty percent the queues disappeared at least for a year now they are back and nigerians are seeing big increases in full and transportation costs. the government blames the shortages and marketers who each says want to force the prices by bit double as you had a source their products said that they were good to include as the purpose of it will approach because of the level it is going to be has moved from about thirty meter lee does but the above fifty media lead does but the question is where is this going to boil knowing you are in among the major streets and highways caucus

have plenty of petrol on offer but at three times the official price marketers say there is a shortfall and most cannot import enough to meet the demand they deny they are holding the country to run so there is a gulp on his shop for work and it gives you have come to salt importer after a long problem there is no we're. an independent medical we import everyone part of which we know the lending causes the bad one seventy one which is eight cents more than the government approved price of forty cents a liter. the impact of the crisis has a knock on effect at the markets. the cost of everything has gone up from transportation to office presence up doubled everyone's affected by the problem. the government says it's flooding the market with more petrol but right now most nigerians are worried about how to get from one point to another and the rising prices of food. ukrainian

troops have been welcomed home after the government and trade russia rebels completed a swap of hundreds of prisoners some two hundred thirty people were sent to rebel held areas in return for seventy four prisoners being held by pro russian rebels the deal was mediated by the orthodox church in moscow fighting in ukraine broke out more than three years ago after probe the separatists took over parts of the east. we will put out all their greatest efforts the maximum to point out a deal one's relatives or loved ones as soon as possible this is very important some of the ukrainian presidents have been speaking about their relief but. i feel joyful at the fact that we are finally home that i will be able to hug my relatives and close ones i will hug my little son i really want to st nicholas to bring him home for the new year but i can't believe it at the same time i can and

can't believe that we were still there in the morning and now we're at home i want to say thank you to all relatives and everyone who participated in a release and i want to say that our guys are still there and they have to be rescued. has more now from moscow. well both sides are now confirms that this prisoner swap has concluded with people being handed in both directions across the front lines in eastern ukraine the numbers that actually did scruffs the lines a big difference from the early advertize figures of three hundred six people going from kiev territory back to the east and seventy four people going from the eastern regions back into kiev territory the reasons why the numbers are different is because some people were transferred earlier and some people on both sides it seems didn't actually get want to go back to where they come from this is and events that has been quite a long time in in the making the final impetus though came as

a recent meeting in moscow there was attended by the heads of the two separatist regions in eastern ukraine by the head of the russian orthodox church patrick carroll and by representatives from kiev but the the real political will it seems as come from both kiev and also from moscow with vladimir putin saying that he was going to use his influence with the with the separatist regions to make it happen it's a breakthrough undeniably a step in the right direction and the sides now are talking about keeping this going they're doing more prisoner swaps but while people are still dying while moscow is still supplying the rebel regions with weapons and hardware etc and while there doesn't seem to be a final drive for peace this is just a step in that direction we haven't got to the destination that we want to get to yet which is a final political solution. phil ahead here on al-jazeera two years after it was

first reported the true cost of brazil decal break and matches. and despite protests argentina's government lives ahead with sweeping economic reforms. has a quiet and cold and foggy mornings of the last few days have disappeared now from western europe at that incursion of a massive cloud or coming in from the atlantic indicates pretty unsettled conditions to be honest the lines a straight north sas which means normally breeze you'd think it would be cold of that she's displacing fairly cold air anyway so the temperature difference isn't great there's a bit of a warm tuck in a long way ahead this fourteen in rome thirteen beaudry the eleven in vienna that's going to be evident just pushed this gentle way eastward of the next twenty four hours massive snows on the higher ground even temporary low ground through the outs

and the toward sudden germany rains assassin that'll be i think fairly stormy stuff for italy in the adriatic balkan style for a time but there's the warmth belgrade then twelve ten inches and still nine in vienna as it starts to rain behind it all the next systems already lined up come from the bay of biscay more rain to come through from spain and portugal london's at four degrees but in the sunshine now south of all this of course is going to be something happening the central mediterranean there is the curl of rain that is potentially still in the adriatic it might drag some rains through tunisia and catch northern libya and the temperatures are after it dropped a bit more thirteen degrees in tunis and in the wind.

reminder of our top stories this hour the u.n. is warning the scale of attacks on children in conflict zones worldwide has reached shocking levels in a new report the u.n. children's fund says there is widespread blatant disregard the international mills designed to protect the. reports of multiple blasts in the afghan capital kabul

one of them we know has hit the office of the news agency afghan voice and at least four people have been reportedly killed. ukrainian troops have been welcome time off of the government and pro russian rebels conveys a swap of hundreds of prisoners to deal with mediated by the. experts in artificial intelligence said the world is unprepared for the enormous changes automation is bringing to the global economy some say artificial intelligence could help us create an almost perfect world but they also warn it could lead to the collapse of democracy and civilization within a generation broadly explores their concerns in the final part of our series brave new world. the future is coming and it's going to affect all of us it's widely accepted that millions of jobs are going to disappear but we may not have to

work we might get paid for having fun and in this future the robots now the rhythms that will replace us could either reduces to poverty or set us free this is the time of apocalypse and utopia and this is a time where we have to start thinking concretely about how so in vision a better world out of the kind of. the collapse of this. optimists say things could be wonderful machines do nearly all the work money disappears as things are created for us automation in science negates climate change crops are grown in the deserts we create meet in our own homes. and as a species we develop because we no longer spend our time doing boring tasks to feed our children i think we might well experience a near a nice arms of creativity and of social interaction in

a very positive way if people have the leisure to do whatever they want to do they will be less frustrated by the the hassle for have it work. they will be more fearful because they'll be doing the things that interests them. it may sound a long way away after all at the moment robots only do one thing at a time like this one making car doors but what if one can do all the things that week in previous industrial revolutions change was measurable linea the difference with the forth in the revolution is that change is exponential which means it goes faster and faster all the time and it's expected that within about a generation from now a machine will be built which is better than a human and that changes everything. futurologists point to a problem where all of the world politicians discussing these things with their electorates artificial intelligence is barely mentioned in western election campaigns yet already jobs are disappearing as the robots take over the global tech

giants who in future will control vost resources are discussing privately what their responsibilities to us will be but they would rather not talk about it in public. every day i experts believe the transition to worklessness that we as humans are embarking on must be addressed now we all understood this was coming i suspect the shocks will be lower and we can start to try to mitigate against it immediately if you understand that eventually most of the population will be unable to do traditional work then you can start introducing systems to cope with it was at the moment that just sounds like saying let's spend more benefits which when you have that linear view of the world isn't really an acceptable way in british or western european politics to think the question is what we're going to do about it and so for us we believe that we need to organize citizens worldwide to recognize first of all that this is actually going to change

a lot of things and already is but crucially where do you stand on this what do you believe and how are you going to get involved in debates so that actually leads to progress in in in how you perceive it. artificial intelligence could be the best thing ever to happen to humanity but in the absence of a global political debate about its benefits the risk is that it's seen instead is a terrifying a direct threat to us. the world will be a very different place in a generation from now it is surely time for the people to be involved in what it will look like. al-jazeera. now the outbreak of the zeke a virus two years ago caused a global health emergency in many cases when the northeast of brazil the illness was linked to an increase in babies being born with a condition that severely limited their development their children and now toddlers and the extent of their health problems is becoming painfully clear but as john heilemann reports from a safe way parents are getting little help from the government. two years after the

sikh epidemic brazil in the world has moved on but not just in the least say still here. she's one of almost three thousand babies who will bloom with microcephaly an underdeveloped head and brain cools by the majority like police say we're in the north east of the country you know when al jazeera first visited received thing in two thousand and sixteen and i just said the government was yet to help them let's what's changed ali. i know the government has cut assistance for a few families i know some of them in my case i've never received anything it's been more than two years and we haven't got a thing. he leases medicine is so expensive the family's income can't cover it they have to rely on donations from friends nigeria nurses have around the clock but her conditions getting worse i've seen the mill caught up in the me i don't have too

much hope from the bottom of my heart is hard for a mother to say that but i can imagine alison ten years time in fifteen years time i don't dream about it that is why i like to make things happen today. as it is. elise a and others ecosoc to children receive receive free rehabilitation from a foundation partly funded by the government but it's overwhelmed one hundred fifty is stuck on the waiting list all the time getting deeper and maced in the semi blindness and mushy stiffness that typifies the condition wife camilla ventura says they need more funds we try not to let people forget about seeka and because you know we still have all these children and we still have a burden and it's and it's involves the government but also a public health. issue that has to be addressed and never forgotten the government

says that it hasn't forgotten as well as engaging in a massive campaign to eradicate the mosquito which carries a seek a virus that since are infected about fifty million dollars in rehabilitation centers like this one and next year it's promised eight million dollars more. at a christmas party for children with red diseases we met not a gain of the mothers who say they haven't seen enough money they feel they're struggling alone enjoying small moments in the midst of a lifelong battle for them. children. join home and. receive presume. friends and family some of the one hundred first two police officers killed in red is near this year have held a memorial to on of them police uniforms stained with red paint and plucks dedicated to the slain officer says have been displayed along a proper popular probably not since the one nine hundred ninety s. the number of police officers killed in the state of ware has surpassed one hundred

in most years yes some of. this is the way we count to say the following to society the quiet the human rights has no side we cannot be selective this is a way to embrace the police corporation and express and also directly to the relatives of the victims. argentina's president is pressing ahead with a reform agenda that includes tax and pension reform as the congress has approved his two thousand and eighteen budget plan which he says will spur growth but a series of reports from areas opponents say the changes will only hurt the most fun of all. three vegetables in front of congress when a site is senators gather to vote inside in the last session this year farmers are brought twenty thousand kilos of their produce to give away to those in need that's all right we are here so that senators know the horse they vote for has an impact on people's lives. for everyone inflation transport energy but we want to share and

draw attention to the demand that this government needs to do a lot more. was elected two years ago with a mandate to rein in government spending and rejuvenate argentina's lagging economy after years of the center left presidency of cristina fernandez the commissioner of the government of the so mike lee has pushed to have a series of laws that it says will make argentina's economy more competitive like reforming the pension and tax system but there are many here who disagree they say that the government reforms. benefiting corporations and not the country's most valuable. among them i people like. she's retired and says she couldn't miss the opportunity of getting some free food now for us you know if i was the pension i get is not enough and what i'm buying now would cost me a lot i worked all my life and now i can barely survive. despite scoring

a resounding victory in october's congressional elections mackley spent with one sparked a violent protest last week in one a side of us that left dozens of people injured and new legislation changed the way pension increases are calculated which could end up hurting the elderly and those who depend on social security. the government said there were four aim to restore order to argentina's chronically imbalance fiscal accounts as in italy and what the in the path of the argentinean economy is very tight with the possibility of crises along the way but for now i believe the government has a clear idea of what it wants to do it's trying to open up the economy to the world after years of financial isolation. argentina has a history of economic crises that have left millions living in poverty even though the government insists economic reforms will lead to a brighter future there are many hold out that the government's plans will turn out

well. i'll just. go without is there are these are the top stories reports of multiple blasts in the afghan capital kabul one of them hit the offices office of the afghan voice at least four people have been killed. he went as warning the scale of attacks on children in conflict zones worldwide has reached shocking levels in a new report the u.n. children's fund says there was widespread and blatant disregard for international laws designed to protect the young ukrainian troops have been welcomed home after the government in pro russian rebels completed a swap of hundreds of prisoners some two hundred thirty people were sent to rebel held areas in return for seventy four prisoners who had been held by pro russia rebels the deal was mediated by the orthodox church in moscow.

we will put out all their greatest hits the maximum. deal one's relatives or loved ones as soon as possible this is very important. aid workers have been evacuating critically ill patients from. the rebel held area near syria's capital damascus four people were taken from there on wednesday the un called for five hundred people in need of urgent medical care to be allowed to leave but only twenty nine cases have been given approval at least eighteen people have died last waiting the official results of liberia's presidential runoff vote could be announced as early as thursday actually general intended to terrorise his praise the peaceful conduct of the election which is set to mark the first democratic transfer of power there in more than seventy years. proves culture minister has resigned following the controversial pardoning of ex-president alberto fujimori salvador del solar was a fierce opponent of the decision for jim henri who was serving

a twenty five year term for human rights abuses and corruption was last week moved from jail to hospital president's public which inskeep denies the pardon was part of a deal to avoid his own a peach went on corruption allegations but it hasn't stopped thousands of people from taking to the streets to protest against the decision. your headlines are back with another full news bulletin here on al-jazeera that's after inside story. twenty seventeen has been full of stories that have changed the global political landscape and al-jazeera has been there to cover them all. joining us as we look back at some of our most memorable interviews of the year a special edition of talk. at this time. generous nor war the us is the united nation's budget by more than a quarter of a billion dollars but why is washington squeezing the u.n. and what's on.