president of modern times january on the. news has never been more available it's a constant barrage that it was every day but the message is simplistic you have the brain good logical rational person crazy monster and misinformation is rife dismissal and does not hold well documented accusations and evidence is part of genocide the listening post provides a critical counterpoint challenging mainstream media narratives of this time on al-jazeera. al-jazeera where every year.

at least fourteen people killed in the attack on a shia district of the afghan capital. there are live from doha also coming up unicef says global humanitarian law fails to protect children in times of war. hundreds of prisoners exchange in ukraine and one of the biggest swaps agreed between moscow and kiev on and. if people have the leisure to do whatever they want to do it. will be less frustrated by the hassles they have that we're. preparing for a world where robots take over and do most of the work. at least forty people have been killed and dozens more injured in the afghan capital kabul focused on a show. and to stick to the says he it appears to have involved multiple explosions

one of the blasts hit the office of the news agency afghan voice. heard as live for us now from kabul and what's the latest we're hearing about this attack. laura now we have more information into this incident now the incident happened that a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a cultural house belonging to. the minorities in afghanistan now this neighborhood which actually consisted of a street and the media organization. and a religious school all were together in the compound when this attack happened now this attack was a pre-planned. attack happened on a day when the the when

a ceremony was being held. at the center of this cultural center and the ceremony was about the thirty eight and the versity of the soviet invasion of afghanistan they call it the black the of afghanistan now the interior ministry says that in this attack at least. forty people have been killed and thirty others are wounded now hospital doctors telling us that the death toll may increase because there are people that are critical and they need more critical attention because they're losing a lot of blood there are people coming in rushing into the hospital to donate blood . the scene at the hospital is described to me very chaotic ok any claims of responsibility at this point. if you could i haven't heard in the can at least repeat any claims of

responsibility. no group has yet claimed responsibility for the so we know that the taliban have put out a statement denying any kind of involvement in this attack. ok so heard thank you very much that for the update from a couple of little i spoke about the motivations behind this attack by the regional security specialist mr tucker haim. this is the shia community which has been the target of the that. isis afghanistan wing of the isis did have been targeting this year community to our b two thousand and seventeen and they have been targeting the larger gatherings previously they have attacked some of the religious processions and gatherings and this was yet another one the second reason for targeting this group was that it was a media outlet that was organizing

a gathering which was committed commemorating the twenty seventh of december the day where russians invaded iran as a nine hundred seventy nine and the media targeted media and they have been targeting media outlets i mean the isis and of artists in order to make a mark media has not been providing them enough amount of coverage that they have been seeking to get activities and so they have been targeting the media outlets as here in capital kabul as well as in the regional hub in order to make sure they get weiss's least because in numbers it must as if they don't get the amount of coverage they want to get. in conflict zones across the globe children are being used as both targets and as weapons that's the conclusion from a report by unicef while children have long suffered during wartime the report says the situation worldwide has reached shocking levels it says children have become front line targets and often used as human shields many are recruited to fight off rape and slavens have become standard tactics convoys in yemen has been one of the

worst for children this year with five thousand killed or injured in an agency also says there is widespread and blatant disregard for international laws designed to protect young people justin forsythe is the deputy executive director of unicef he says children are being increasingly drawn into conflicts. 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 wrecking the children who have 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 met children who would who had

to talk to me about being forced to be i'm human bombs for boquete her arms and this deliberately targeting of children to make them part of the conflict to brutalize 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. children are amongst the most vulnerable syrian refugees facing another cold season away from the homes and says more than three point eight million refugees and internally displaced people in the region need assistance so now to joins us now live from the back. to how are people coping with yet another winter. well life is very difficult we are in one of the many tent cities if you like informal settlements in lebanon and if i just step out of the way you can see what life is like for the thousands and thousands of syrian refugees who have been here really for many many years a new u.n. report shows more than half of them live in extreme poverty extreme poverty meaning that they live on less than two point eight dollars per day per person and many of them have to rely on aid on handouts to survive many of them are in debt. so the

situation is they're very vulnerable if they want to work in lebanon for example they need to find a sponsor and after finding lebanese sponsor they have to pay two hundred fifty dollars to get the government permit people just do not have that money so some of them work illegally which makes them vulnerable of course because some of their employers decide whether or not they want to pay them or not so life is very difficult and now the u.n. saying that for the first time since two thousand and fourteen the number of refugees has actually dropped below one million. says they know what the syrian war generally believed to be winding down people came to return home all of a feeling that being pressured to do so. well now that there are less than one million refugees according to the united nations a few thousands of them have actually returned back to syria they don't have exact figures the u.n. doesn't believe it is still safe for refugees to return but some have returned but

when you ask people here a lot of them will tell you well what are we going to return home to some of them come from towns and villages which really have been razed to the ground their homes are just rubble they don't have money to go back home and and rebuild others come from areas where there are still fighting a lot of people here from the southern countryside of aleppo which is a battleground and many people cannot return because their towns and villages are under the control of the government and they're scared of the government they're scared to be forced into the army they're scared that if they return they will be accused of assisting the opposition so their fate really is unclear and they feel that the international community is not thinking about their future there are so-called reconciliation agreements in syria but those those are not really reconciliation agreements they are surrendered so people are worried they would like to go home levanon would like to see them go home because this country is under a lot of pressure but right now according to the united nations it is still not safe ok thanks very much for the update. because of the second batch of critically ill patients from. that's

a rebel held area near syria's capital damascus four people were taken from when say the u.n. called for a fight for five hundred people in need of medical care to be allowed to leave but only twenty nine cases have been given approval at least eighteen people have died while waiting. russia's president has called wednesday's explosion at a supermarket in a terrorist attack at least ten people were injured when a homemade device packed with shards of metal went off police say it was hidden inside. no one has the responsibility for the attack. ukrainian troops have been welcomed home after the government and try russian rebels conditions. 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 began more than three years ago after sept. of the east.

we will put out all their greatest efforts the maximum into pulling out a deal one's relatives or loved ones as soon as possible this is very important. some of the ukrainian prisoners have been speaking about their release. or should i . go i feel joyful at the fact that we are finally home but i will be able to hug my relatives and close ones i will hug my little son i really want st nicholas to bring him home for the new year. 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 our release and i want to say that our guys are still there and they have to be rescued. 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 bit different from the earlier 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 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. see if you enjoy mccarver is a senior research associate at george washington university in the u.s. he says this latest exchange as politically significant for both sides. first of all it is. one of your realisations of the minsk agreement between ukraine russia friends and germany that was agreed upon back in two thousand and fifteen and the article six of those agreements implied that ukraine

and the two separatist republics with the exchange all the prisoners so this is the first step since then however not all the prisoners were exchanged and there are dozens of ukrainian freeze in their wrists and the separatist prisoners. are on both sides detained and the sides don't want to give them up yet so this exchange was conducted very fast and efficient and it is very important for both russian leader put in who is running for reelection soon and. ukrainian president poroshenko who is face in major demonstration in chillan just from the opposition it seems that there are politics behind it though it's not clear but some contacts will show us that maybe something's going on politically as

as i mentioned the presidential elections that putin is facing and for promotion it was very important and this was kind of a breakthrough for him in domestic politics and even his main opponent mikhail saakashvili praised him for doing that. still ahead here on al-jazeera liberia waits to find out who won tuesday's presidential runoff football legend georgia where all vice president josep archive. and despite protests argentina's government moves ahead with sweeping economic reforms. hello there well quite a bit of time out over the southeast in parts of asia at the moment the satellite picture is showing plenty of cloud over borneo and that is giving us some fairly

prolonged outbreaks of rain in places i think over the next few days it's going to be the northern parts of borneo where we see some of the heaviest of the rains really really does look quite lively for some of us here in malaysia over the next few days meanwhile forth across the philippines more in the way of drawing weather here i'm looking largely draw my own saturday across many parts of vietnam as well and we had a bit further towards the south and for australia it's in the northwest so we've got this huge blob of clowned here this was all cyclamen but it's now disintegrating is it working as it works its way towards the south so plenty of heavy rain to be seen out of this but the winds shouldn't be too much of a problem certainly it's going to inject lots of moisture across many parts of western australia there and down through south australia as we head through friday and into saturday springs will have a fair amount of time to rethink over the next day or so but i think largely we should stay dry towards the east where we've also got a fair amount of what weather here for sydney looks like a wet day on saturday twenty eight degrees where we are might some of the soggy one

there across towards new zealand and our area of low pressure is trying to pull away it's brighter behind it eighteen degrees will be the maximum in christchurch. underground fire has been burning for over a century beneath india's largest cofield. now open coast mining has put the flames to the surface with devastating consequences for the local population. is communities are destroyed and thousand suffer from toxic fumes what lies behind this human and environmental disaster. people in power the burning city at this time on al-jazeera.

again you know what to get there as a reminder of our top stories this hour at least forty people have been killed and dozens more injured in the afghan capital kabul it's hackers focused on the shia district of the city and it is sort of involved in multiple explosions one of the blasts hit the office of the news agency afghan voice. u.n. is warning the scale of attacks on children in conflict zones worldwide has reached shocking levels in a report unicef says there's widespread blatant disregard for international laws designed to protect the young. and ukrainian troops are being welcomed home off of the government and pro russian rebels completed a swap of hundreds of prisoners the deal was mediated by the orthodox church in moscow. experts in artificial intelligence say 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 currently 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 and algorithms 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 world. 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 very will be less frustrated by the hassles they have at work. they will be more fearful because they'll be doing the things that interest 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 people call it linear . the difference with the fourth industrial 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. about every ai 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 you're saying that spend more benefits which when you have that linear view of the world isn't really an except a way in british or western european politics to think that 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 that are actually needs 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 as 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. if as a result of librarians presidential runoff election could be announced as early as thursday local media reporting international football legend george where as a has in the vote count but his rival current vice president. has it still too close to call it out over ports in the capsule in monrovia. liberia and sweet 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 all the five thousand polling stations across liberia why the national nation are pulling out. there were. very small number is it in 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 falling coincided with christmas and many chose to stay home observers say the tunnel close much lower than the fuss round held in october they looked real commission says it will announce the results in four days it's what happens often whether the losing side will accept defeat the taz 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 a calling for calm so as in most with. the

issues now when you know. if you when you celebrate is celebrating the should because you have the president of everybody if you lose you also served 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 . covering has freed a writer detained for three weeks for criticizing the government's charges against

new york based solution to professor patrice has been dropped but he's been barred from returning to the country of his birth and dying has criticised the government's handling of the succession movement in english speaking areas rights groups accuse authorities of trying to silence dissent. culture minister has resigned after a controversial pardon of former president alberto fujimori salvador was a fierce opponent of the decision who had been serving a twenty five year prison sentence for human rights abuses and corruption president pedro public denies the pardon was part of a deal to avoid his own impeachment on corruption allegations but it hasn't stopped thousands of people from protesting against the decision. argentina's president pressure pressing ahead with a reform agenda that includes tax and pension reforms congress has approved a two thousand and eighteen budget plan which he says will spur growth but as far as a barrier of course was areas have worn the changes will only hurt the most vulnerable

. free vegetables in front of congress when a site is well senators gather to vote inside in the last session this year farmers brought twenty thousand kilos of their produce to give away to those in need of us all like we are here so that senators know the what they vote for has an impact on people's lives costs have gone up for everyone in inflation transport energy but we want to share and draw attention to the demand that this government needs to do a lot more i. 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 precedence of cristina fernandez the commissioner the government of the so market 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 are benefiting corporations and north the country's most vulnerable. among them are people. 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 mackie's bench and reform sparked a violent protest last week in one of the tightest 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. you depend on social security. the government said they were for him to restore order to argentina's chronically imbalance fiscal accounts it's 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 who doubt that the government's plans will turn out well. south korea says it will not amisse trading of digital currencies the government wants to crack down on money laundering schemes using them two weeks ago so it's financial firms from dealing in virtual money are the prices for big oil and other currencies soared sparking fears of a bubble south korea accounts for around twenty percent of global bit quain transactions.

this is al jazeera and the top stories at least forty people have been killed and dozens injured in the afghan capital kabul attack has focused on the sheer districts of the city and appears to involve multiple explosions one of the blasts hit the office of the news agency afghan voice has been no claim of responsibility the united nations is warning the scale of attacks on children in conflict zones worldwide has reached shocking levels in the new reports the u.n. children's fund says there is widespread and blatant disregard for international laws designed to protect the young. ukrainian troops have been welcomed home after the government in pro russia rebels compiz 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 program rebels the deal was mediated by the orthodox church in moscow fighting in ukraine broke out more than three years ago after pro russian separatists took over parts of the east

. we will put out all their greatest hits the maximum. ones relatives or loved ones as soon as possible this is very important. aid workers evacuees a second batch of critically ill patients from eastern that's a rebel held area near syria's capital damascus four people were taken from there on wednesday last month the u.n. 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 whilst waiting. to visual results of liberia's presidential runoff vote could be announced as early as thursday actually general and trying to get terrorists has praised the peaceful conduct of the election which is set to mark the first democratic transfer of power in more than seventy years. and bruce culture minister has resigned following the controversial pardon of ex-president alberto fujimori salvatore's also there was a fierce opponents of the decision for jim moret who is serving

a twenty five year term for human rights abuses and corruption as last week moved from jail to hospital president had republican since he denies the pardon was part of a deal to avoid his only a peach bent on corruption allegations but that hasn't stopped thousands of people from taking to the streets to protest his decision those are your headlines and news on al-jazeera that's after people in power. thank you. thank. you stan the differences. and the similarities across the way. al-jazeera. an underground find has been burning for over a century india's largest.