as a force for unity the diaspora orchestra at this time the rhythm of it is a vital source of substance to the countries it flows through this nor the single on who can lay claim to. isn't going to give them the resources. but with this comes a destabilizing rivalry the country suspicious of each other's intentions in the battle for control of the republic transponding seen consultation was not up to me to come to because of some unknown field struggle over them but this time on al-jazeera. north korea is accused of earning two hundred million dollars from banned exports including selling weapons to syria and me and.

i'm sam is a band this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up i think that i think it's terrible you want to know the truth i think it's a disgrace a controversial republican memo accuses the f.b.i. of abusing its powers raising questions about the russian investigation we've reaction from the bureau. jet target opposition controlled areas of syria's provinces a government offensive intensifies plus. i'm wayne hay in the town of la one providing we will tell you about a chinese mega project that's causing through here that the lao government hopes will help open this landlocked country up. confidential u.n. report says north korea and almost two hundred million dollars last year by violating. and sanctions pyongyang is accused of supplying weapons to syria and me

and maher it's also alleged it exported coal to a number of asian countries and received help to set up front businesses and bank accounts around the world the sanctions prohibit exports of coal iron lead textiles and seafood designed to limit funding for north korea's nuclear program robert kelly is a professor of political science and diplomacy it was sam national university he says it's not surprising north korea's found ways to get around sanctions. i don't think a lot of people are surprised i think the numbers are a little bit greater than people thought you know there's been a lot of discussion about the tightening of sanctions in the last couple years every time we have a round of sanctions at the u.n. we hear about how these are the tightest sanctions ever and north korea is on the ropes. so but it's not actually surprising the north korean gauges and sanctions busting china has allowed poor sanctions to sort of go on they tolerated port sanctions now for several decades the north koreans have also engaged in

gangsterism and stuff like that since the one nine hundred seventy s. we know they sort of smuggle gold and people engage in sex trafficking and things like that but most people sort of assume is that they're sort of like they're sort of low level third party operators that are take stuff from the north koreans give them like a bag of cash and then they relabel it and stick it on a train or stick it on a ship or something like that right we know that north koreans have connections with organized crime like the accuser for example in japan throughout asia and possibly in the middle east or the north koreans again have been grooming these connections since at least the one nine hundred seventy s. i think the proper counterfactual on sanctions is to think where north korea be if we didn't have sanctions ok so yes they're porous and they don't work terribly well in the north koreans go to cheating right but if they didn't if we didn't have them at the north koreans sort of running around doing all of this above board then you know instead of having maybe fifty nuclear weapons and have two hundred or something like that right so i don't think that we should look at sanctions as some kind of cure all are solvable it's not going to be that way i'll never be that way there too many incentives the sanctions bust i think instead we need to do is just keep tightening keep having reports like this this kind of stuff in the media but

it continues to bring attention so rather than completely shutting north korea off we should narrow the pipeline and i think that's what we're really looking for right but sanctions are not going to bring about the collapse. keep calm and tackle hard that's the advice of the head of the f.b.i. to his staff after the u.s. congress released a memo accusing the bureau of being biased against the president the republican document criticizes the f.b.i. and department of justice it says they abuse their power while examining alleged ties between donald trump's campaign team and russia the f.b.i. had argued against its release saying it had grave concerns the document contained what it called material missions the fact democrats say the memo is saying that derailing special counsel robert muller's investigation into the trump campaign's allegedly links to russia following the release the white house says no changes will be made to the justice department our white house correspondent kimberly healthcare reports. republicans promised a bombshell that would destroy any idea the trump campaign colluded with the

russian government during the twenty sixteen presidential election but in the end he did not meet expectations president trying to declassify the memo written by top republicans allowing for its public release even against the advice of his own f.b.i. director and the u.s. justice department. the four page report which is part of a larger intelligence document argues f.b.i. investigators looking into alleged truck ties to russia hit the fact some of their research was funded by democratic party sources it also claims the entire investigation was biased against donald trump from the beginning and that some agents expressed views privately and i think it's a disgrace what's happening in our country and when you look at that and you see that and so many other things what's going on. a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves but democrats argue the memo is simply

a summary of republican talking points based on in accuracies house democratic leader nancy pelosi says it's all part of a plan to distract americans from the russia investigation led by special counsel robert muller and alleged campaign ties to president vladimir putin's government in a statement she said president trump has surrendered his constitutional responsibility as commander in chief by releasing highly classified and distorted intelligence by not protecting intelligence sources and methods he just sent his friend putin a book a trump himself made the argument on twitter prior to the memos release that leadership at the f.b.i. and justice department are out to get him some analysts believe that's more evidence trump is actively obstructing the investigation if you look at the words out of mr trump's own mouth the very incriminating he said repeatedly i need somebody in the justice department who will protect me it's doubtful the memos released will change public opinion about the russia investigation still there is

now an effort by some democrats and republicans to literally protect the russia probe from what many believe is a white house effort to derail the justice process kimberly held at al-jazeera washington. russian warplanes have renewed airstrikes in rebel held areas of province in syria at least seven people were killed when a car was who can aleppo the opposition in their lives have been bombarded for weeks by syrian government forces and their russian allies jets also targeted the rebel long clove of eastern of all the near the capital damascus government forces of besieged the area for five years now four hundred thousand syrians are trapped by the bombing by russian jets in the provinces supporting a major offensive by syrian government forces it's aimed at recapturing a strategically important road between the cities of aleppo and damascus troops

have been fighting opposition groups for weeks there moving northwest trying to cut off a rebel supply line the road between aleppo and damascus connects some of the few remaining opposition held areas of syria at least two people have been killed the nineteen others injured in attacks on turkish towns near the border with syria. turkey says the rockets were fired from a kurdish enclave inside syria it's been more than two weeks of intense fighting in the area turkey launched an offensive to clear the region of syrian kurdish forces known as the y. p.g. which it calls a terrorist group and the free syrian army says it will investigate allegations its fighters mutilated the corpse of a female member of the y.p. g guard in coburn is understood to have been a member of the all female kurdish women's protection unit video seen by al-jazeera appears to show free syrian army fighters standing over her body in a village near the turkish border stephanie decker joins us now from gold bar in

turkey that's near the border with syria so they've been relentless air raids on an area which is or areas which is supposed to be part of that deescalation zone where do we stand with that. you're talking about it in the province yes absolutely what you're seeing happening in it live over the last two months or so sami is intensive airstrikes and troop movement syrian government forces making advances in the southern area if you look at the map what the rebels control the group there are in charge of. the backbone of that group is the group formerly known as the mr front which is why russia will tell you it's doing what it's doing together with the syrian government they've taken a lot of territory sadly it is shrinking and this is an area that is supposed to be part of the so-called deescalation zone let's just move on to eastern part of the deescalation zone that's close to damascus that so a chlorine gas attack yesterday the sat the third sorry in about two weeks so it

gives you it's a very different picture when you're talking about what's agreed on the negotiating table they are deescalation zones but what happens on the ground is a very very different story all right about the koba mean versteeg ation where does that stand i think you're referring to video that came out two days ago we're just going to hear some outgoing shelling there is turkish base right behind us this is been intense of bombardment going along the syrian border. but yes back to that video it's gruesome sammy there's back and forth about what exactly happened you see a female kurdish fighter on the ground she is hoff naked her body seems to be mutilated the f.s.a. now saying that it will investigate because it's gained so much traction on social media in the media saying that how could people do this at some point one of the men touches her body the voice behind the camera says don't do that i'm filming so this is a huge contribution i think just briefly sami moving ahead there's more going.

moving ahead you know the issue of reconciliation when it comes to syria you have sinise you have allies you have kurds and many people will tell you that the issue of forgiveness after the seven years of war were horrific things have been done to each other is one of the main challenges when this war will end certainly at the moment it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon. looks like there's plenty of fighting going on behind you stephanie house we'll come back to you later and talk about it for now thanks so much the leaders of the palestine liberation organization are meeting to discuss ending the oslo accords and suspending the recognition of israel the palestinian president declared last month for peace agreements of nine hundred ninety three and ninety five with dead mahmoud abbas valid to reject u.s. mediation after dark trumps decision in december to recognize jerusalem as israel's capital un human rights body is calling for the immediate release of an al jazeera

journalist from jail in egypt saying his imprisonment violates international laws mahmoud hussein was jailed almost fourteen months ago for prosecutors said was broadcasting false news to spread chaos both he and al-jazeera deny the accusations hussein has repeatedly complained of mistreatment while in prison elizabeth witchell is the impunity campaign consultant of the committee to protect journalists she says many countries using vaguely worded laws imprisoned reporters when it comes to imprisonment we're seeing those numbers rise over the last few years and two thousand and seventeen was a historical high in terms of the prisoners that we've documented worldwide. so in that sense we're seeing. it it's an extremely precarious time to be a journalist particularly if you're a local journalist. you're covering you know your local communities your you are.

from the countries where we see repressive tactics. in terms of violence we're still seeing journalists attacked routinely and we're seeing still think high numbers of journalists killed last year we did record a small drop in in numbers of journalist killed and journalists murdered this is a welcome development but this is also a drop following years of historical highs in that area as well. still ahead on al-jazeera argentina's bio diesel industry in decline is it feels the impact of donald trump's america first policy plus the urge to minding their language how corsicans are finding their voice in another nationalist battle.

hello there for many of us in japan is rather wintery at the moment and that's the way it's going to stay over the next few days certainly does a cold day in tokyo and for many of us there is more snow on the horizon now as we look at the satellite picture we can see ward system here that's working its way just into puzzle and all the parts of honshu more wintry flurries out of this on sunday and also a little bit more snow across the central parts of honshu as well so looks like we are going to see more in the way of snow not only on sunday but also as we head into monday meanwhile for the west generally a lot quieter here but certainly not warm with that maximum temperature minus thirty four same beijing maximum will just be one bit further towards the south and it's also been very chilly for some of us here as well shanghai there on sunday getting to three degrees at best the temperatures also trying to recover their day we should be up to the dizzy heights of five further south hong kong will get to

around fourteen degrees in force in hanoi temperature will be seventy if we head down towards the southeast and parts of asia course far warmer than that here we're looking at a top temperature of around thirty two in manila but because it's hot on tropical we're also seeing plenty of heavy showers particularly in the southern parts of the philippines. twenty years of china's transformation. through one young girl's journey. from birth to adult hood. two decades following the development of her life and nation. i five years on rewind returns to the story of k.k. the girl from joe do you remember me at this time on al-jazeera.

welcome back you're watching al-jazeera time to recap the headlines now confidential united nations report says north korea and almost two hundred million dollars last year by violating u.n. sanctions the report says north korea supplied weapons to syria and me and mine shipped coal to countries including russia and china. the head of the f.b.i. is urging his staff to keep calm and tackle hard after the u.s. congress released a memo accusing the bureau of being biased against the president. the document says the f.b.i. and department of justice abused their power while examining alleged ties between donald trump's campaign team and russia. russian warplanes of renewed air strikes

on rebel held areas of the province in syria at least seven people were killed when a car was hit and the opposition have been bombarded for weeks by syrian government forces and their ration their russian allies. now the u.s. military is modernizing its nuclear weapons arsenal in response it says to concerns russia is expanding its caper. ability the new pentagon strategy ends the obama era push to reduce america's stockpile defense secretary james mattis says the u.s. needs to see the world as it is not as it wishes it to be defense correspondent political high and reports from washington d.c. . u.s. president donald trump never criticizes russian president vladimir putin but the pentagon is doing just that moscow retains a large stockpile of non-strategic nuclear weapons and continues to modernize those

as well as its strategic systems this report says aggression from russia concerns about china and north korea and potentially iran are the reasons the u.s. needs to modernize its nuclear weapons and it's changing the wording on when it could use them saying the u.s. could use nuclear weapons in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the u.s. what's new is they added this line extreme circumstances could include significant non nuclear strategic attacks the military was asked to clarify what that means it would that also involve the employment of biological weapons against the us population or allies would involve the use of chemical weapons against our people would involve a conventional attack in other parts of the world the context in which an attack occurred on the united states or allies would be how we would evaluate the appropriate response the plan also calls for modernizing the nuclear arsenal that's something the last administration wanted to do and at the time they said it was

going to cost more than a trillion dollars over thirty years this plan would undoubtedly be even more expensive and that has not been something that congress has been really willing to fund at this point. the u.s. also wants to build a new kind of weapon a nuclear warhead with less impact but critics say that could make nuclear war more likely they are literally having weapons that give the president more options to start a nuclear war and that is it could be dangerous particularly when you have this president who we all know is impetuous irrational and not always unsound mind recently three high ranking former diplomats went to capitol hill with the warning that the massive destructive force of a nuclear weapon was no longer appreciated or even feared by some in those days people seem to have an appreciation of what would what would be the result of a nuclear weapon or ever used i fear people have lost that sense of dread

the u.s. under president trump is trying to improve its nuclear arsenal and the potential reasons to use it they say in order to improve the odds it won't have to particle hane al-jazeera washington mexico's foreign minister says relations with the u.s. closer on the president dog than with previous administrations luis v.-day got i says they're working relationship has improved despite trump's attacks on mexican migrants and who pays to build the border wall. mexico is calling for a peaceful solution to the crisis in venezuela after the us secretary of state raised the prospect of a military up prizing president nicolas maduro is being officially named as the socialist party candidate for the presidential election in april he could extend his term for another six years if reelected opposition leaders have been jailed or banned from running for election they say venezuela has become a dictatorship and i'm a duo with the blame for widespread shortages in the country. a judge in brazil has

ordered the return of former president lula da silva us passport it was taken last week after a court up held his conviction for corruption and increased his jail term to seventeen years to twelve years rather he's likely to be barred from running in october as election but his party insists he will be its candidate and remains popular. argentina's once booming biofuels industry is suffering after its main market the united states imposed a seventy two percent tariff on imports the move is part of the trumpet ministrations america first policy designed to ensure u.s. producers don't lose out of foreign imports from rosario terrorism bowl has this report. six years ago this factory was producing sixteen thousand tons of bio diesel fuel a month now it's down to about six thousand in. the industry will grow there's no investment it worries us that the united states will stop importing or bio diesel

the interest it was created to export not only to fulfill internal nudes. some say factories located in the province of santa fe argentina as first victims of donald trump's america first approach to foreign trade the us announced a seventy two percent tariff on imports of its biodiesel american officials accuse argentina of unfairly subsidizing the country's biodiesel industry at the expense of u.s. producers. the decision is arbitrary unjustified and illegal they discarded all the arguments presented by argentina argentina has an export tax on the story of being in a different one for bio diesel it is not a subsidy this is one of mr trump's protectionist policies. almost ninety percent of argentina's biodiesel is directed to the united states cutting that flow has impacted almost thirty companies here and jobs at risk argentina is one of the

world's top soybean producers and bio diesel here is also produced with this crop it is a crucial source of income for argentina because it provides the u.s. dollars but the economy desperately needs dollars that help keep the trade balance in check since taking office president has been trying to open up argentina's economy and then i thought that argentina is trying to open its economy in bio diesel is one of the products that exports the most by losing its main means we will have to look elsewhere argentina cannot afford to lose markets if it wants to get its economy back on track environmentalist have long questioned the cost of argentina's reliance on the. entire areas of the countries for years have been destroyed to grow what is known here as green gold experts say biodiesel is different in. the united states and europe request a sustainability test so that the soya being used for bio diesel can be checked

argentina has been certified and credited for this. i didn't tina says it will file a complaint against the united states and the world trade organization in the meantime factories here will have to find new overseas markets easier to save their industry and precious jobs it is how will. i didn't. ten thousand people have had to leave their homes after heavy rains caused flooding in argentina villages beside the river in the mountainous solve the problems were worst hit the number of people rescued from the muddy waters river levels are expected to continue rising for the next four days and in neighboring bolivia at least six people have died there in floods in santa cruz more than fifty thousand people are homeless after days of heavy rain french president emmanuel mccall heads to the french island of corsica next week where nationalists are

calling for more autonomy in follows their victory in regional elections in december planning a large demonstration ahead of the president's visit there with chato reports now from objects zero. the full independence may still be a distant dream but nationalism has found a renewed force on this island the. mayor. not so long ago just singing the corsican national anthem was enough to get you beaten up by the french police here now the islanders are demanding official status for their language. of course you can roots was rapidly merge with the expression of political demands so the singing became hard for the political authorities to accept and not only the french but also some corsicans were supporters of greater fronts the confrontation

then became violent extremely violence very extreme and. the brutal struggle for corsican independence lasted for four decades before weapons were finally surrendered three years ago the political fight to the ballot box is proving much more successful. a coalition of nationalists now commands forty one out of the sixty three seats in the corsican assembly one of their key demands is for the return an amnesty of what they call their political prisoners held in jails across france because people see all this some say about what happened in the election last december was an earthquake it wasn't just the usual renewal of they are simply the corsican people revolted very an absolute in my you're ready for corsican nationalists that's the fact there are thirty simple have to think about. the nationalists have already served notice on president macron warning him that

unless he starts listening to them then hard and conflicting times lie ahead for paris and corsica course was the birthplace of napoleon the man macro is most often measured against in terms of his youth and grand visions the french president is due on the island next week will he choose a compromise will he defend the integrity of france and its language. chaytor al-jazeera course or trade in crypto currency is remains volatile with investors worried about a possible global clampdown the value of leading currency bitcoin plunged thirty percent this week sliding below eight thousand dollars for the first time since november other virtual currencies have posted big falls as regulators question their reliability now laos is investing billions of dollars in a high speed rail line being built by a chinese company it will run from united in southern china to the laotian capital

v.n. town for eventually connecting with another line being built in thailand in the third installment of our series global trade routes in hay reports from the line providing. these normally quiet previously untouched hills of northern laos and they are filled with the sights and sounds of heavy construction around the town of la one problem rapid progress is being made on a chinese built high speed train line it will cut through here and cross the mekong river on its way from southern china to the lao capital vienna. the communist government of law says it wants to landlocked country to become land linking beijing sees this project as a key part of its belt and road infrastructure plan linking china with the rest of asia europe and beyond when this line is completed it will run for more than four hundred kilometers more than sixty percent of which will consist of bridges and tunnels that makes it a very expensive project one that some say laos can't afford experts worry it will

add to the government's already heavy debt loads the cost of the project is six billion dollars with most of the money coming from chinese grants and loans this is significant because. it is only. involved in theory and so close to fifty percent of g.d.p. in this project would be in five years time so that in we can expect around ten percent of public investment just for those process. one of the stops will be just outside the one providing which is a unesco listed town for its unique lao and french architecture there is concern the new project will attract too many tourists putting a strain on the town's facilities and infrastructure. that many people and small businesses here survive off the tourism industry so the prospect of more visitors spending money is welcomed. about three years ago there were

more tourists but now there aren't as many so we are earning less money so we're looking forward to the train happening. some studies have found that china will receive most of the economic benefits from the large project it's involved in around the region laos is one of asia's poorest countries so when the railway is finished by late two thousand and twenty one it will be hoping its begin this mint will start paying off straight away wayne hay al jazeera long laos and in the final part of our global trade routes series will look at the plan trans african railway line connecting west africa with the east. archaeologists in egypt have announced the discovery of an ancient too near the pyramids of giza they say the four thousand year old vault was made for a prominent priestess who lived during ancient egypt's fifth city.

and let's take you through some of the headlines we're following here on al-jazeera now a confidential united nations report says north korea earned almost two hundred million dollars last year by violating u.n. sanctions the report says north korea supplied weapons to syria and me in march and shipped coal to countries including russia and china. the head of the f.b.i. is urging his staff to keep calm and tackle hard after the u.s. congress released a memo accusing the bureau of being biased against the president the documents says the f.b.i. and department of justice abused their power while examining alleged ties between donald trump's campaign team and russia. russian warplanes of renewed airstrikes on rebel held areas of provinces in syria at least seven people were killed when a car was hit in aleppo the opposition in have been bombarded by weeks by syrian

government forces and their russian allies. the u.n. human rights of all day is calling for the immediate release of an al jazeera journalist from jail in egypt saying his imprisonment violates international laws mahmud her saying was jailed almost fourteen months ago for what prosecutors say was broadcasting false news to spread chaos both she and al-jazeera deny the accusations hussein has repeatedly complained of mistreatment while in prison judge in brazil has ordered the return of former president lula da silva spa sport it was taken away last week after a court up held his conviction for corruption and increased his jail term to twelve years he's likely to be barred from running in october's election ten thousand people have had to leave their homes after heavy rains caused flooding in argentina villages beside the river in the mountainous south of province worst hit river

levels are expected to continue to rise for the next four days. as a headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after inside story. they say knowledge is power but education funding is declining worldwide and no way is that more parents then in sub-saharan africa in the region strained by poverty security issues and child marriages can international organizations come together to close the chapter on the literacy this is inside story.