troubles afflicting venezuela today the big picture the battle for venezuela at this time on al-jazeera. and. a russian fighter jet has been shot down in a rebel held area of serious in the province.

below one town jordan this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up it's his prime minister condemns a drive by shooting targeting african immigrants. vindication for trump the u.s. president says every public and member approves his campaign didn't collude with russia. and all aboard senegal's only passenger train as we take a look at the grand plan connecting east and west africa. a russian fighter jet has been shot down of a syria's northwest and province russia's defense ministry says the pilot managed to eject but was killed in a ground fight near the town of such a cab well russia has retaliated it says it's killed thirty fighters in the area and dozens of air strikes what has been heavy fighting in it for weeks now the u.n. says around a. hundred thousand civilians have been displaced there but it's confusion over who

exactly shot down the plane both the turks and the russians are blaming a moderate group backed by the us on saturday was also the deadliest day for turkish troops since you're sold on a freeman began last month eight turkish soldiers died in fighting some of them after their tank came under fire from kurdish forces stephanie decker has more now from the turkey syria border. a lot of luck. this is a russian fighter jet shot down by opposition forces. i mean remember the pilot manages to eject but he didn't survive. for these syrian fighters it's a huge symbolic victory. russian the syrian government have intensified their bombardment of province over the last two months government forces a slowly capturing territory in the south what is the last remaining syrian

province under full rebel control. they're inching closer to the city of soccer which lies on a strategic road linking the northwest all the way to the capital damascus territory that is now almost fully under government control. and in syria's complex web of regional and international allegiances some say this offensive has been well planned and has further implications been there are some people who are in fact wondering if there is a tacit agreement between the russians and the turks whereas the russians would actually give the green light for the turks to act in against the kurds in exchange for the russians and allies actually to capture parts of this of this. the government offered mainly adored between the mosques and thereby. that offensive against the kurdish controlled district of africa is now into its third week turkey's backing fighters from the free syrian army against the kurdish people

protection units. turkey considers the y.p. g a terrorist organization even though it's the united states is most effective in fighting i still turkey has been intensely to areas there is a base just right behind us and this is in line with what politicians here are saying the first phase of this operation the push the y.p. . away from its borders. all along that border a steady stream of military movement vehicles i mean and buses packed with syrian f.s.a. fighters this is a very visible operation but it's also a difficult one the white p.g. know the terrain well and they have been preparing for this it's the latest frontline in a war that year after year simply changes its form and never seems to end stephanie decker which is there on the turkey syria border so let's take

a closer look now at the two groups who could be involved in the downing of the plane. is an alliance of rebel groups it's claimed responsibility for the attack and is dominated by al qaida is former affiliate in syria which used to be called the al nasra front then there's josh which al-jazeera sources understand is being blamed by turkey and russia its name translates as the army of victory and its link to the free syrian army the group's been backed by the united states but richard white says on the hudson institute he says there's no evidence to support the claim that was responsible for shooting down the plane. it's very convenient to blame the u.s. for their and so i suspect that if you mean if they make such a formal statement just saying it was a us the us gave the missiles to terrorists and the terror shot it down in turkey and russia are going to unite against the us sure but the evidence does not at the moment present that the turks circus russia turkish u.s.

relations really complicated their crisscrossing ties with the kurds with the two countries as three countries on other levels so i am sure they want to avoid a repeat of what happened two years ago when the turks were blamed for shooting down a russian plane so we may see them blame the us but beyond that i'm not expecting any formal action in some reports say it was brought down my machine gun fire there are couple of reports out there saying were shot down by a missile the rebels are not known to have a surface to air missiles of this kind of range so it's possible they managed to get one on the black market or something but it machine fire is caught is pretty constant but for the most part during the russian air campaign has not had many casualties the rebels shot down a helicopter they did have a successful sabotage raid apparently with drones a few weeks ago at an air base but shooting down an airplane i think it's the first

time it's occurred and for now i would just say it's a one off incident i wouldn't if it is a curse on a regular basis and that really does mark a major change in the nam except the campaign. well the syrian government has dismissed the u.s. accusations its use chlorine in an attack on a rebel held in eastern guta as lies without evidence the volunteer rescue group called the white helmet says three people were killed in thursday's attack on the plate and many more were injured if that's true it will be the third time in a month that crew has been used by the syrian government the u.s. has accused president bashar al assad's forces of producing and using new kinds of weapons to deliver deadly chemicals it's in his prime minister has condemned a racially motivated drive by shooting saying hatred and violence will not be allowed to divide the nation six african immigrants have been injured in the central italian town of much of router police have arrested a man who draped himself with an italian flag and have been making a fascist salute peter shop reports. this was

a drive by shooting that italian police said was racially motivated firing from this vehicle the lone gunman is said to have targeted foreigners on the streets in a shooting spree that lasted over two hours. it took place in the central italian city of much errata the mayor said six people were wounded all of them black one with life threatening injuries a twenty eight year old italian name does look at try any was arrested by military police draped in an italian flag he reportedly wore during the shootings tourney had no previous criminal record and his motive for the shootings is unclear he did stand as a far right candidate for the northern league in recent local elections but received no votes in the count the italian prime minister was quick to condemn the shootings i mean ticket i mean only known for so nobody else will know what you what's rimmel

behavior cannot have ideological motivation criminals are criminals. well start to set up but to call it meant to serve it over to your state will be particularly severe against whoever thinks of nourishing the spiral of violence let's stop this let's stop this right now. tensions in mature outer had risen this week following the discovery of pamela musto pietro's body she had run away from a drug rehabilitation center on monday and police said she'd met a nigerian drug dealer the next day he was arrested by police more than six hundred thousand mainly african migrants have reached italy by boat over the past four years and the center right block says the vast majority have no right to asylum and as promised mass expulsions if it takes power peter shop al jazeera well earlier we spoke to andrea my morning who studies modern european history he says it is right wing parties are increasingly focused on immigration ahead of elections in march.

they are pushing a lot towards this and the immigrants' agenda rhetoric because you tell in many cases is getting as we all know huge influx of immigrants refugees from from africa from libya especially and so on so this is in any case creating tension as in the rest of the western globe i mean it's not just an italian story is a why there is a much wider story the point is that since the nine this some of these political forces and the immigrant forces are within the context of and there's a paradox in the context of the moderate center right in italy and this will not disappear the rhetoric will not disappear because this case will will make the. tension even stronger did that they've been in power already with silvio berlusconi since the in the ninety s. . they're not the league has been one of them one of the major part in any case

they play mend some tough one team ignorance lowell's so i mean in theory yes they can they can win the election i mean if we look at sort of it's today electoral surveys the center right is leading but we don't know with a proportional electoral proportional system if they will get a majority or not so things are very unclear now and so far but these parties i've been already influencing italian politics since a very long period now the problem is that for years and probably even today a good part of the italian media as well as never consider them as far right. the palestine liberation organization has moved to cut ties with israel p.l.o. leaders met in ramallah in the occupied west bank on saturday they voted the palestinian government to draft a plan to cut off political economic and security contacts there's been a growing tension since december when u.s. president donald trump recognized jerusalem as the capital of israel the

palestinians want east jerusalem to be a capital of any future state and israeli forces have killed a palestinian teenager during a raid in the occupied west bank israeli police say they were searching for a man in janine who they say killed a rabbi in a drive by shooting in january israeli security forces shot dead another palestinian man and injured several others during raids last month was they also linked to the shooting the military has ready to homes and bulldozed farm properties in the area twice in the past twenty four hours at least eleven soldiers have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in northern pakistan soldiers were playing volleyball in karbala a town in the swat valley thirteen others were injured kemal haida has more from islamabad. what are the reports coming out of brigid that you made also just about ten kilometers from home the main center of swat valley which is means alerted to the attack area said to have been a suicide bomber who penetrated into a ground inside

a military camp where the soldiers were playing one of the bars and then dead they're naked and we're told that it's eleven soldiers including a captain with kate is thirteen other than wounded now it should be remembered that back in two thousand and eight in the summer the pakistani military had driven out the swazi dollar bond from this area they get the deadliest attack since then on the military and they need more help was the level what they're leading that's what gets all the barn is now the overall commander of the city get another one progress on there have also taken responsibility for today the tide. the u.s. president says a republican classified memo released by congress clears him in the probe into links between russia and his presidential campaign he says this memo totally vindicates trump in probe of the russian witch hunt goes on and on there was no collusion there was no obstruction the word now used because after

a year of looking endlessly and finding nothing conclusion is dead this is an american disgrace well the memo was written by republicans on the house intelligence committee was released last friday says the f.b.i. and the justice department abused their powers by using unsubstantiated evidence to spy on a trump aide the f.b.i. had argued against its release saying it had grave concerns that the document contains what it calls material emissions of fact are democrats on the committee want to release their own memo in response they say the republican memos aimed at derailing the special counsel robert muller's investigation into the campaigns and ledged links to russia and to gallagher has been following developments from washington d.c. . well there are a couple of key questions here as to what will happen or what may happen next and chief among those is a concern that president trump will use this memo as a pretext to fire robert mueller the special counsel who's in charge of the russian

investigation democrats say if he does that it will cause a constitutional crisis we know of course that he wanted to do that back in the summer but held off on that decision because some senior members of staff threatened to resign themselves the other question is now hanging over the future of the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein he is involved in the russian investigation president trump has been talking about him in very negative terms and it's not sure what will happen to him but the attorney general has been backing him up and of course the f.b.i. been backing up their own people saying play hard and tackle hard because they are being permanently attacked by the president it really is an unprecedented situation you have a sitting u.s. president attacking his own intelligence community talking about this russian investigation as a witch hunt and saying this memo really clears his name it does not this is far from over we're not sure what will happen next but the entire nation if not the entire world is watching very closely indeed time for

a short break here not just era when we come back rex tillerson travels to argentina out of a funny place and talk to improve u.s. relations with latin america and what's on a decades long dispute between greece and macedonia gonna stay with us. hello there the clowns are all gathering across north america this week ping their way eastwards and as they do so they're bringing a fair amount of rain and some snow as well so wet weather here for the southern parts of our chart and further north that's where we're expecting the snow and some of that snow really will be very heavy that system though isn't sticking around for too long it's marching its way eastwards should be well away for most of us as we head through the day on monday still just clinging on to the east and parts of canada behind it it won't be that warm by looking at five in new york further west

another weather system working in from the pacific will be bringing a snow there as it makes its way across the rockies but for the towards the south and for many of us across the central americas plenty of sunshine not really a great deal of cherie activity at all at the moment just a couple making their way towards the coastline a bit further towards the south though in here there thoroughly has been very heavy rain in bolivia we've got a lot of flooding and that flooding is now raging its way down the route down the rivers and this is what we're seeing in the northern parts of argentina there's a car that if we wait a little bit longer we can see a lorry there being brought down by that floodwater more showers still to come as we head through the next few days gradually they are pushing their way northwards but some of them again on sunday could be very heavy. on counting the car some of the biggest names in take out with record earnings but they're also under scrutiny by regulators in what's being called a tech clash

a look at business relations between the u.k. and china plus another scandal in the german auto industry counting the cost at this time. part time for a quick recap of the top stories here a russian jets been shot down by rebels over syria's northwest and into the province russia's defense ministry says the pilot managed to object but was later killed in the town of suck. it in his prime minister has condemned

a drive by shooting targeting african immigrants warning hatred and violence will not be allowed to divide people at least the rest of them that it would be making a racist salute after six people were shot and much of. a u.s. president says a de classified memo released by congress on friday totally vindicates him of the probe into links between russia and its twenty six thousand campaign the memo was written by republicans on the house intelligence committee but the f.b.i. says it contains material admissions of. but you a sect of state is in argentina on the second stop of his five nation tour of latin america rex tillerson will meet argentina's foreign minister on sunday is using the tool to improve u.s. relations in the region friday he met mexico's president to ease worries of a donald trump's comments on immigration and trade he also wants to shore up support for washington's tough stance on venezuela's president nicolas maduro valencia is from newsweek magazine he says trump's comments have complicated tillerson strip. it's

a very difficult circumstance for secretary tillerson for one reason the country's in implementing sanctions against venezuelan officials obviously it's not in the u.s. interest to establish economic sanctions for the country as a whole and obviously tillerson was talked out of the idea of suggesting that. venezuela militaries will actually turn against my little because of the history of governments being overthrown in latin america for decades one of the things that i want to point out is twelve hours ago we've heard president trump saying that he would consider cutting funds to countries that poor drugs in the united states obviously we're talking about colombia and tillerson is going to colombia so he's not going to have an easy job to explain what trump just said moments ago and colombia is a very important south american now only ally if not the most important ally in

south america because israel is just right next to her in this well and so it's very important for for tillerson to give a great explanation to president juan manuel santos and all colombians who basically expect funds to fight drug scene colombia but at the same time a country that has been able to. in a way retain the populist wave from coming from this well another we have elections in colombia so that's plays out very well so i what i mean is that tillerson is not going to have a very easy job now the trial made this comments moments ago at the office of border of customs and border protection in northern virginia. hundreds of thousands of people are expected at a rally in the greek capital in the coming hours over the use of the name macedonia by the neighboring former yugoslav republic greece won't allow macedonia to become a member of nato or the european union without an agreement on the matter both governments have signaled they're willing to compromise but convincing their voters

may be a more difficult matter is john's or office. this is what happens when you the slavia broke apart a quarter century ago and its southern most state claimed independence as the republic of macedonia a million people gathered in the cell and the capital of the greek region of macedonia outraged that a non greek nation should lay claim to ancient greek heritage that is still the dominant view here today. they're trying to inherit all of macedonia and alexander the great this is a farce it's all happening because the americans want them and nato early attempts at compromise came to nothing the government in the former yugoslav macedonian capital scorpio refused to relinquish the term macedonia and greece rejected the use of even a composite name that included it such as northern or slow of macedonia one hundred countries recognized the new state including many nato and e.u. countries concerned for its stability and survival but greece has cited its own

security concerns as a vital part of any agreement the government would be called upon to remove articles in its constitution but implied claims its territory article forty nine talks about protecting macedonian minorities in neighboring countries article three leaves open the possibility of changing the country's borders in two thousand and eight the greeks vetoed former yugoslav macedonia as entry into nato undeterred the government in scope erected statues to ancient king alexander the great and his parents but now there's a more moderate government in scope here willing to compromise over the name and greece's official position has changed to. except a composite name that includes the word macedonia but as far as greeks are concerned these are legal niceties that skirts the real issue which is national identity but this. name symbolize something if i come to her house and we say we're going to have the same surname that means we have the same father and same right

this is not right and we're not obliged to give with us professor foreigners daucus agrees that a nation comprised principally of slavs has no historic claim but says charity is in the greek interest we don't like them being called core calling themselves macedonians bed with their skin they call themselves and they need an identity can we convince our macedonians public opinion that giving them a bit of identity from. home history will not chris's interest the talks that reopened last month or over the country's name and do not address identity or ethnicity but as both peoples see the two issues as interlinked reaching an agreement they will accept appears a difficult jumps or opel us al-jazeera for us. that the british government is introducing new rules that allow for the seizure of suspicious assets the times newspaper is reporting the measures are aimed at holding unexplained wealth that's

often connected to money laundering security minister ben wallace told the paper the government will investigate foreign nationals with more than seventy thousand dollars in assets if they can't adequately explain how they got it london's banking and property markets are propped up by hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign money thora to suspect some of that cash is laundered robert barrington's from transparency international explain the scope of money laundering in the u k. there is an interesting figures around the u.k.'s national crime agency says that the round one hundred billion dollars. the money that comes through london stays in london every year so it's big in scale we also know that there are at least forty thousand properties in london whose owners the simply aren't there so there are certainly hundreds probably thousands of people this will apply to when the national crime agency or other similar rules or. see that somebody property whether it's physical property like a house or other types of property that seems to be in excess of what they could

have legitimately and quite intense that wealth the national crime agency can ask the court to freeze the assets and then the person who owns the house will be asked to prove where they got the money from the president of the moldy examine guy human has signaled his willingness to hold early elections unrest has gripped the country since the supreme court ordered the release and retrial of political prisoners the ruling also reinstates twelve m.p.'s who were expelled for siding with the opposition once they returned the ruling party would lose its majority opening a parliament was meant to happen on monday but it's been postponed indefinitely a judge in brazil has ordered the return of former president lula da silva us passport was confiscated last week just before he was about to board a flight to ethiopia for a un conference there were three years he would seek asylum abroad taken after a court upheld his conviction for corruption and increased his jail term to twelve years he's likely to be barred from running in october as election but his party

insists he will be its candidate now thousands of people have been protesting against togo's president for in a single day says he's against opposition proposals to restrict president to five year terms he's been in power since two thousand and five troops on constitutional reform are expected to be held later this month. there are ambitious plans for a railway line to connect east and west africa the route will run through ten different countries it's hoped little boost trade on the continent but the trends are going to render line could take decades to complete and the final part of last series looking at new global trade routes reports from ts in senegal in west africa . on board the five fifteen train from the car to chess most passengers are on their way home after a long day of work in the city. the fifteen minute journey home always seems a bit longer than the morning commute. after years writing this train was fun so

has learned to enjoy this moment free from distractions. remember i'm walking talking a good time for myself here if i drive to work it would take me at least four hours and i'd be stuck in traffic trains are still the quickest safest and cheapest way to travel. they call it the little blue train the locomotive was bought from pakistan the wagons from india. the ports were brought to senegal and refurbished in the one nine hundred seventy s. it's the only passenger train left in senegal all the other lines including the historic train to mali were bad and because they were too costly to run much to the frustration of commuters and railway unions alike. privatizing the railway lines was a clear mistake a country cannot grow without developing its roadway system but now we are excited with the steps in to go another states are taking the african union has an ambitious plan to connect the port of the car in the west to the port of djibouti in eastern africa linking ten countries many of them landlocked it's called the

trams african railway project just said there are seven thousand eight hundred kilometers of unfinished railway tracks alone will cost thirteen billion dollars to build. it's an enormous amount each country is tasked with finding its own financing for their part of the railway. chinese companies have signed deals to rebuild former colonial rail lines that were abandoned by the french both in the car and in djibouti it's the start of an engineering project that will take years to build and promises thousands of jobs across the continent. there are no roads or highways connecting the west of africa nor is there a direct flight between the car and in fact no one has ever tried to connect both coasts of africa neither the french nor the british the former colonial powers. construction hasn't started yet but the prospect of reopening the century old tracks has got many excited and hopeful. abound in train station may get

a new lease on life and for the many passengers like so who use this every day. it may not be the end of the line for the five fifteen train from the car nicholas hark al-jazeera sinegal well that was the last in our series on global trade routes over the past four days we've also visited kenya routes in the us to thailand and you can see all of those reports on al-jazeera was you tube channel that's dot com forward slash al-jazeera. the headlines here on al-jazeera russian jets been shot down by rebels of a serious northwestern province russia's defense ministry says the pilot managed to object but was later killed in the town of. moscow has retaliated it says it's killed thirty fighters in the area and dozens of airstrikes turkey says eight of

its soldiers have been killed on saturday in the offensive against kurdish fighters in northern syria as a region some of them died when their tank came under fire the losses make it the deadliest day the turkish troops since the olive branch operation began more than two weeks ago. italy's prime minister has condemned a drive by shooting against african immigrants warning hatred and violence will not be allowed to divide people police arrested a man into making a fascist salute after six people were shot and much of the p.l.o. has moved to cut ties with israel leaders met in ramallah in the occupied west bank on saturday they voted the palestinian government to draft a plan to cut off political economic and security contacts there's been growing tension since december when donald trump recognized jerusalem as the capital of israel the palestinians want east jerusalem to be a capital of any future state israeli forces have killed a palestinian teenager during a raid in the occupied west bank israeli police say they were searching for

a man in janine who they say killed a rabbi in a drive by shooting in january israeli security forces shot dead another palestinian man and injured several others during raids last month was they also linked to the shooting the military has raided homes and bulldozed farm properties in the area twice in the past twenty four hours the u.s. president says a de classified memo released by congress on friday totally vindicates him in the probe into links between russia and his twenty sixteen campaign the memo was written by republicans on the house intelligence committee and says the f.b.i. and the justice department have been abusing their powers by using unsubstantiated evidence to spy on a trump aide but the f.b.i. says it contains material admissions a fact and the u.s. secretary of state is in argentina on the second stop of his five nation tour of latin america rex tillerson will meet argentina's foreign minister on sunday he's

using the tool to improve u.s. relations in the region on friday he met mexico's president ease worries over donald trump's comments on immigration and trade but those are the headlines the news continues on al-jazeera after counting the cost of them sorting by foot. thank. you thank. you stan the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world. al-jazeera. alarm as i'm speaking this is counting the cost on al-jazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week some of the world's biggest technology names out with earnings but there's a faceoff.