reggae music i think. that's deeply relevant. especially for this kind of the right wing assault on our freedom to ask questions and generally all freedom of expression and people you know are being taught it's like students teachers activists filmmakers rights it's. been intimidated it's on the forest and people are on the streets and protest has reached our doorstep so in whichever way i'd like to attempt to contradict something it's. a russian fighter jets been shot down in a rebel held area of serious in the province.

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

over who exactly shut down the plane both the turks and the russians are blaming a moderate group backed by the united states saturday was also the deadliest day for turkish troops since the assault on a fleeing began last month a turkish soldiers died in fighting some of them after their tank came under fire from kurdish forces stephanie decker has more from the turkey syria border. 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 the meaning of that all between the mosques and that there but for. that offensive against the kurdish controlled district 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 ition and buses packed with syrian f.s.a. fighters this is a very visible operation but it's also a difficult one the wipe e.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 or jazeera on the turkey syria border so let's take a closer look at the two groups who could be involved in the downing of the plane.

h.t.s. is an alliance of rebel groups it's claimed responsibility for the attack it's 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 it's name translates as the army of victory and its link to the free syrian army the group's been backed by the united states well richard white says from the hudson institute he says there's no evidence that a u.s. but group shot 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 and turkey and russia are going to unite against the us sure but the evidence does not at the moment present that the turks as hard as russia turkish us 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 by machine gunfire there are a couple of reports out there saying was shot down by a missile the rebels are not known to have a surface to air missiles with this kind of range 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 the syrian government has dismissed u.s. claims that she was korean in an attack on the rebel held eastern group lies without evidence the volunteer rescue group called the white helmet says three people was killed in those days of time and many more were injured if that's true it would be the third time of the month that truly has been used by the syrian government u.s. accused president bashar al assad's forces of producing and using new kinds of weapons to deliver deadly chemical. the palestine liberation organization has moved to cut ties with israel leaders met in ramallah in the occupied west bank on saturday the vote of the palestinian government to draft a plan to cut off political economic and security contacts there's been growing tension since december and u.s. president donald trump recognized jerusalem as the capital of israel the palestinians want peace truce them to be a capital of any future state 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 art or at least about arrested a man who draped himself with an italian flag and had been making a fascist salute pizza shop as more. 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 mature after 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 attorney

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. it will start to set up but to call it meant to serve it overtook 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 march are out ahead 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 on the day of my morning who studies modern european history he says italy's right wing parties are increasingly focused on immigration ahead of elections in march. they're pushing a lot towards this and the immigrants adjourned the 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 this political force and the immigrant forces are within the context of and these are power that works 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 the distension even stronger did they've been in power already with silvio berlusconi since the in the ninety s. . they're not of the league has been one of them one of the major part in any case the implemented 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 have 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 considered them as far right arab

refugees in germany have been protesting against hate crimes in the eastern city of cutlass follows two recent knife attacks by syrian teenagers refugees and the incidents being used by far right groups to stoke tension in the area far right supporters have also held a demonstration to protest against what they say is rising crime by my gramps. at least eleven soldiers have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in northern pakistan the soldiers were playing volleyball in karbala photon in a spot bani thirteen others were injured come all hide as more from islamabad where the reports coming out of rigid made also just about ten kilometers from the main center of swat valley which it 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 while they bought it and then did

their naked and we are told that it's eleven soldiers including a captain will carry thirteen wounded now a check to remember that back in two thousand and eight that some of the pakistani military had driven out that's what the dollar bond from this area will get the deadliest attack since the end on the military and they need more help for low level what they're meeting this what they thought the barn is now the overall commander of the city gadhafi one progress on there have also taken responsibility for today the tide. now there are ambitious plans for a right of the line to connect east and west africa the route will run through ten different countries it's hope it will boost trade on the continent but the trans africa runway line could take decades to complete in the final part of our series looking at new global trade routes make a report some teams 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 parts 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 tamale were abandoned 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 roadways 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 the former colonial rail lines that were bounded by the french both in the car and in djibouti it's the start of an epic 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 to the east nor is there a direct flight between the car and djibouti 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 hawk al-jazeera senegal. lots more so to come here and al-jazeera including argentina's biodiesel industry is in decline as it feels the pinch of donald trump's america first policy ireland what's in a name decades long dispute between greece and macedonia stay with us.

hello again there's plenty of cloud pushing its way across the middle east at the moment if we take a look at the satellite picture we can see it here gradually toppling its way through parts of iraq for the main area of clouds here held back over parts of turkey and here it's going to be roll of the gray on sunday the wet weather though is really held out towards the northwest so for the south there is a better chance of a dry day just rather a gray one that cloud than topples a bit further southward still as we head through monday but again not a great deal of wet weather under that cloud for the east fine for many of us just a bit grey again for el monte and cool on maximum temperature just minus five here in doha it's quite windy at the moment and that when does that leave feeling quite fresh that wind should ease though as we head through the next few days so as we head through sunday and into monday although the temperatures stay more or less the fame i think you would feel a good deal warmer as we'll have lost that wind further south it looks like the cloud is moving away from the south coast of oman so here they should be plenty of bright weather down towards the southern parts of africa

a lot of wet weather with us at the moment it's gradually been trying to retreat its way northward over the last day or so but still more or less hovering where it is as we head into monday searching all the way across towards madagascar for the south and forcing cape town looks like it will be too right. we have you. know the products of everything that you're doing that's how the all powerful internet is both a tool for democracy and the threat believe that any of your companies have a den of fide the full scope of russian active measures on your platform in the echo chamber world of fake news in cyberspace the rules of the game left changed there are no precedents people in power investigates this information and democracy at this time.

our time for a quick check of the top stories here on al-jazeera a russian fighter jets been shot down by rebels of a serious northeastern province russia's defense ministry says the pilot managed to a jet but was later killed near the town of. italy's prime minister has condemned a drive by shooting targeting african immigrants warning hatred and violence will not be allowed to divide people police arrested a man who'd been making a fascist salute after six people shot and mustered out. all of these eleven soldiers have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in northern pakistan the soldiers were playing volleyball in karbala the town in the swat valley thirteen others were injured. 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 and probe but the russian witch hunt goes on and on there is no collusion and there was no obstruction the word used because after one year of looking in this day and finding nothing collusion is dead this is an american disgrace and it gallacher is following developments for us from washington. 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. have 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 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 is using the top to improve u.s. relations in the region on friday he met mexico's president to ease worries over 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 well robert

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 wanted 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 over 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. argentina's once booming biofuels industry is suffering offer to main market the u.s. imposed a seventy two percent tariff on imports the move is part of the trumpet ministrations

america first policy to ensure u.s. producers don't lose out to reason those been speaking to people in those aria in argentina who've been hit hard by the tariffs. six years ago this factory was producing sixteen thousand tonnes of bio diesel fuel a month now it's down to about six thousand and. 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 needs. some say factories located in the province of santa fe argentina 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 fairly 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 pull jobs at risk argentina is one of the world's top soybean producers and biodiesel here is also produced with this crop it is a crucial source of income for argentina because it provides the u.s. dollars to be 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 buyer 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 that so you have 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 story of being used for bio diesel can be checked argentina has been certified and credited for this. argentina says it will file a complaint against the united states at the world trade organization in the meantime factories here will have to find new overseas markets even there to save the industry and precious jobs. as. argentina a judge in brazil has ordered the return of former president lula da silva us passport it was confiscated last week just before he was about to board

a flight to ethiopia for a un conference with fears he would seek asylum abroad was 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. thousands of people have been protesting against togo's president far in a single says he's against opposition proposals to restrict presidents to two five year terms he's been in power since two thousand and five talks on constitutional reforms are expected to be held later this month. the 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 openness. 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 they're so 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 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 scorpio 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 accept. composite name that includes the word macedonia but as far as greeks are concerned these are legal niceties that skirt 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 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 calling themselves macedonians but what there is can they call themselves and they need an identity can we convince our macedonians public opinion that giving them a bit of identity from. 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 task jumps al-jazeera for us. a quick recap of the headlines here this hour russian fighter jets been shot down by rebels of a syria's north western in the province russia's defense ministry says the pilot

managed to objects but was later killed near the town of. moscow has retaliated it says it's killed thirty fighters in the area and dozens of air strikes turkey says eight of its soldiers have been killed on saturday in the offensive against kurdish fighters in northern syria a free region. ankara says some of them died when their tank came under fire the losses make it the deadliest day for turkish troops since the olive branch operation began more than two weeks ago. 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 their vote of the palestinian government to draft a plan to cut off political economic and security contacts there's been growing tensions since december when u.s. president donald trump recognized jerusalem as the capital of israel the palestinians want east jerusalem to be capital of any future state italy's prime minister has condemned a drive by shooting targeting african immigrants warning hatred and violence will

not be allowed to divide people police arrested a man who had been making a fascist salute after six people were shot in much about arab refugees in germany have been protesting against hate crimes in the eastern city of kut this follows two recent knife attacks by syrian teenagers refugees say the incidents being used by far right groups to stoke tension in the area far right supporters of also have a demonstration to protest against what they say is a rising crime by migrants at least eleven soldiers have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in northern pakistan the soldiers are playing volleyball in kabul that's a town in the swat valley thirteen others were injured the pakistani taliban claimed responsibility and the u.s. sector state is in argentina on a second stop of his five nation tour of latin america rex tillerson will meet argentina's foreign minister on sunday he's using the top to improve u.s. relations in the region on friday he met mexico's president to ease worries over

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 as the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after people in power station that's the watching by the. more than seven decades ago a country was split into rebated with dick cheney and now the time come. to dean off the bench all it took was a pan a map and a collapsing empire when the british had to draw a line they pulled its seventh who had never been to india before al-jazeera examines the violent birth of india and pakistan and asks what the future holds for these nuclear neighbors partition the borders of blood at this time. recent elections.