it's updates brought to you by qatar airways going places to get. a partisan issue. this is al jazeera. has a seeker this is the news hour live from dar coming up in the next sixty minutes the

corruption investigation of south africa's president leads police to the home of one of the country's most influential families. rebuilding iraq kuwait pledges two billion dollars to help the country republic from years of conflict. police recommend the israeli prime minister's indictment on corruption charges benjamin netanyahu says nothing will come of it. in sports sean white's makes snowboarding history of the winter olympics the american winning an unprecedented third gold medal in the hot spot events. police in south africa have raided the home of a prominent business family with times to president jacob zuma three people were arrested and that comes a day after the ruling african national congress ordered zuma to step down as the nation's leader police sealed off the roads around the home of the gupta family in

johannesburg with the area designated a crime scene president zuma is under investigation over a corruption links to the family. he's accused of being influenced by the group to us to make government decisions and cabinet appointments the investigations also looking at whether the governors and some of zoomers family members were involved in international money laundering is just one of a number of corruption accusations against a south african president he's been linked to a bribery scandal over a nine hundred ninety nine arms deal and is accused of spending twenty three million dollars of government money to renovate his private home for me and for me the mill is live for us now in the south african capital pretoria so for me to want more first of all do we know about that police raid of the gupta. well so far we know that three people have been arrested one of them a member of the gupta family and one other a business associate now this raid we understand has to do with investigations into

a dairy farm a government project in the freestate province of south africa where this project was meant to benefit poor farmers instead it appears as if it this was a deal struck that allowed the money to be siphoned from the staring farm from funds for the dairy farm through to buy two companies owned by the cooked up family and one of those companies do do do do sonnie. design is do my is the the son of jacob zuma. is a board member or rather a shareholder of that company and it's understood that investigations could also look at his involvement now up to fifteen to twenty million dollars was siphoned out of these companies and this is the first time that investigation showed a direct payment between the these government funds and a member of the family and in this particular instance all africans were

particularly outraged because this was money meant for poor farmers for development and once again it showed how the gupta family benefited from their relationship with. jacob zuma even believe that some of this money that they gained from the stary farm project was used for a family wedding and this isn't the first time this wedding has been in the spotlight back in twenty thirty in the gupta family was given permission to land a private aircraft at a military air base which is a key point known as a key point in south africa and highly irregular. alright for me to thank for that for me the miller live for us there in pretoria now kuwait says it will lend one billion dollars to iraq and has committed another billion as an investment and happened at the conclusion of the summit in kuwait city to raise funds for iraq's reconstruction iraqi officials have said up to one hundred billion dollars is needed after the defeat of eisel there earlier the us agreed to three billion

dollars worth of credit for baghdad secretary of state rex tillerson calling on other coalition members to help out iraq declared victory over eisel in december after a three year war were. ordered to us we recognize the magnitude of the destruction that has been inflicted on iraq as a result of the terrorist organization taking control of certain areas and the subsequent fighting until victory was achieved and iraqi territory has been liberated this is cause us to unite and join forces to bring life back to iraqis rebuild the country and reconstruct the basic installations this is cause us to call on the international community to take part and live up to its responsibilities. rocky prime minister. called on other nations to follow coates' example. but then that kid he had at had they had to pull him i didn't want to we sacrifice a lot for the sake of a goal and to protect our citizens that's why we call on others to take responsibility and participate in the reconstruction of what has been destroyed the

infrastructure and services we also have to reestablish the stability of liberated areas there has been a huge displacement of people i want to say that this is vital in order for those who were displaced to come back. sami's dan is live for us in kuwait city where that summit that conference was taking place so sami we still don't know at this point just how much. money has been played for iraq's reconstruction or do we. know we don't know the total amount we had let me tell you what's been happening or come to you about some figures in a minute but the iraqi prime minister played little graveled what he had to say there and he's been making the push this morning trying to entice investors. donors to come in to iraq saying they're doing what they can tackling corruption streamlining bureaucracy even changing investment laws despite back as if it doesn't look like they're going to get one hundred billion dollars with china badly

a few days ago was talking about the cost of rebuilding iraq or even that eighty eight billion that the ministry rocking ministry of planning is now asking this conference to produce if you read between the lines perhaps of the speech by the emir of kuwait before a lot by the spoke when he announced that one billion u.s. dollars aid to that you'll be giving to iraq and a further one billion as a loan he didn't go on to emphasize the role of the private sector that might be an indication that governments are really trying to push the focus on what the private sector can do for you and what governments can do where do we stand with the numbers now well as we mentioned there's been that. contribution the european union has said that it will also be giving a further four hundred million dollars in aid we've had yesterday the u.s. secretary of state talking about three hundred billion dollars that is a loan that's a credit line not aid for the iraqi government i think to keep in mind you know

there are still a few hours to go we'll see where the numbers how they all stack up in the end but at the same time in the backdrop we've had the u.s. president donald trump tweeting that. seven trillion dollars he says his country has spent in the middle east and it's basically been a waste stupidly spent when you have that sort of signal coming out of the preeminent world superpower the world's largest economy the country whose invasion of iraq in two thousand and three arguably led iraq into this spiral of chaos is trying to climb out of when the u.s. is sending that signal is difficult to see how any other countries or companies are going to come up with one hundred billion dollars as him and sammy out on the u.s. position we've got we've got the president. being very firm about about this issue of the money and then we've got rex tillerson in the u.s. secretary of state taking a slightly softer tone on this does it does it get into this question again about

who's really speaking for the u.s. on on the station. but that's a good question that perhaps u.s. officials could clarify something about we didn't hear for obvious reasons a lot of comments or attempt to explain those different signals when the secretary of state was speaking here just bring you a line that we're getting here saudi arabia's foreign minister saying his country will contribute one and a half billion dollars to support iraqi reconstruction we've got to get some clarity on that is that a door alone i think that the issue that you're kind of hinting at there is an issue of security as well as the u.s. president was speaking about the totality of money that he has in his opinion and there is a conversation to be had about the number of seven trillion dollars of putting that aside. he sees that money going towards the middle east is is a bit of a waste and there's a question of security how do you start

a reconstruction effort how do you start rebuilding iraq or even parts of syria without them just get out the whites we've got cars coming in here without there being some kind of consensus. about security otherwise you get throwing money at an area that's going to be in a constant cycle of violence and destruction and that's one of the key issues i mean secretary of state phyllis and did talk about the necessity for example to have boots on the ground protecting communities which have been. liberated as he put it from isis rule who provides those boots on the ground is not a lot of consensus in the post to defeat isis stage of the international coalitions efforts as the u.s. and turkey have different perspectives on whether kurdish groups should be filling the vacuum in syria the popular mobilization forces and the u.s. have a different perspective on whether the united states should play a role in securing the ground in iraq remember the basic line here is you have two

countries where i saw was strong syria and iraq the national armies of those two countries are not strong enough to take over the territories entirely on day and they have been reliant on both foreign forces as well as local militias and all of those foreign forces and local militias have a consensus and agreement on who fills the vacuum once i saw those pushed out. all right sami we'll let you get safely off the road there for now sam again life first day in kuwait city. so as we mentioned earlier iraqi officials saying they need about one hundred billion dollars for reconstruction holdout that hemy has done some number crunching to see how they came up with that figure. for fifteen years conflict has laid waste to iraq roads schools hospitals industry even entire cities are now in ruin millions of people live in poverty the government of iraq worked with the world bank to assess all this damage and count the cost of rebuilding the

country they concentrated on the areas that were most affected in recent years of conflict they came up with a staggering figure one hundred four billion dollars in total losses since the u.s. led invasion in two thousand and three damage from the war against isis alone is estimated at forty five billion now the breakdown seventeen point four billion is needed to rebuild homes this is a priority as about three million iraqis are living in tents about ten billion dollars are required to repair schools and health care facilities at least half of iraq's hospitals and health clinics are gone. and then there's the water and sanitation system about ninety percent of it is damaged beyond use that's another two point four billion dollars repairing the damage eisel calls to the country's cultural and religious sites will cost one point seven billion another nine billion

is needed to restore power for all iraqis at the moment their entire cities which don't have electricity at all and in others just a few hours a day the basic sectors of the country's economy need more than twenty billion dollars just to function properly nearly half of that is earmarked for the oil and gas industry that's a priority for iraq to be able to pump more barrels per day and kick start the economy but before reconstruction can begin the government of iraq needs to provide security and stability as well as an all inclusive government for all iraqis regardless of sect or ethnicity for iraq that is priceless. is a professor of political science a culture university joins me now to talk more about all this so. first of all this issue of. kind of international donor fatigue. is coming up

here is given as well the fact that there are wars going on in syria and yemen is is that a challenge for iraq in getting the money that it needs to be to struck country yeah it is a challenge because the so many countries in the middle east have been distracted by i think wister intervention and regional intervention and we're talking now iraq of in yemen than does syria and there's a lot of money there was so much money spent on the on the war of these countries and fighting terrorism this is an international fight i think is in the fight for everybody and when you contribute to that fight i think you have to complete that mission and i think what countries are doing now they're i think leaving iraq alone and leaving the country the region alone by not doing their by the the doing their share their shares to contribute more and i think to bring the stability and to here to listen and others lecturing how to achieve a country have to achieve stability or to include others how to achieve

a good political process this is good to hear but just doing the cheer leading. role by tillerson another is helping either to contribute to these countries that don't think this is helping iraq or others the war in iraq the war on terrorism is a war for everybody and everybody should pay their share so you're saying it's it's counterproductive to have to take this position of course have say we're very risk just making the situation worse of course i think we're going to go back to the same condition that we're the reason for having terrorism and i think the united states have contributed to the condition of a filthy sits in iraq in a field to see it's held to the rise of isis and i think the rise of isis was based on the condition and the sunni areas in the most were the government of iraq and the americans were ignoring these areas and now. if we're going to leave this area is the same without the this is syria needs without the schools without medications

without food are we inviting us to come back and to use these condition environment to rise again if we are talking about. strategy i think we have to not to talk about it we have to be douce somebody'll action that there is as well the issue of corruption whether. these donors how willing they are to to to give money knowing that the stories that have come out in the past about it money falling into the to the wrong hands and being pocketed by facials and and so on what. guarantees are there in place that this is money money is actually going to get to the people who need it the most i think there is no guarantee i think that a lot of corruption in iraq a lot of corruption in the third word iraq consider to be tarred with the top countries of it comes to corruption according to international transparency. there were billions of money where it was said over there and i think there are because they have to learn this and i think there should be a mechanism by international organization or to foresee these investments and how

it's spent. good to speak with you right now. plenty more ahead on this news hour including. what we have seen so far is cruel and barbaric to top it off they have the gall to blame the media the united nations stepping up the pressure on me and mas government over the range of crisis. desperate in gaza the effects of the financial crisis hit hospitals hard. and later in sport north korea's best medal hopes make their debut at the winter olympics. soledad still ahead but first israel's prime minister says he is staying put despite police recommending he be charged for corruption and bribery benjamin new

formal charges against him perry force it is live for us in jerusalem west jerusalem with more on this so what happens now. well one of the key focus is now is exactly how benjamin netanyahu as political allies respond how the country at large responds to the details that have been set out in these recommendations from the police for indictments his allies within his only could party have been pretty strong lining up behind the prime minister so far his opponents in the zionist union and elsewhere towards the further left of him at least in the israeli political spectrum have been pretty unified in their condemnation what's really interesting though are his coalition allies he runs the government on the basis of a right wing coalition so far there's been slightly divergent responses from the two most senior members of that the finance minister moshe carl on has said that it is now up to the attorney general of the high mantel blitz to make his decision and

that he won't be commenting further on that. aside to say that all sides should respect the legal process going forward but the education minister enough tali benefit bennett who is a right wing ahead of the jewish home party he has said that netanyahu appears not to be living up to the standards expected of israeli leaders he says that the israeli judicial system does preserve the presumption of innocence and so therefore he will wait until mr mandel it's decision but he says that he trusts the police and indeed the inspector general of police the man in charge of the israeli police force whom mr netanyahu has been trashing in the media and saying that he is obviously that there is some kind of political motivation to the police's actions in all of this so bennett at least is putting some clear water between his position and netanyahu as the two don't see eye to eye on many things they have clashed

before but for him to make this decision at this time of most political danger for the prime minister is at least interesting. harry force of life forests in west jerusalem. the trial of a palestinian teenager charged with assaulting an israeli soldier has been adjourned until next month the judge ordered the case to be heard behind closed doors seventeen year old ahead tamimi was arrested in december after a video of her slapping and hitting israeli soldiers went viral she faces twelve charges and could be sentenced to ten years in jail if found guilty. a financial crisis in gaza is forcing hospitals and clinics to close patients can't use intensive care beds and those with contagious diseases are forced to stay in overcrowded rooms cutter and the u.a.e. have provided money to install generators in hospitals but it could be another week before this gets through ernest smith reports from gaza.

mohamed el sir he has severe epilepsy this machine delivers a precise dosage of a drug every hour to control the two year old seizures for thirteen days now the electricity that powers it has come from solar panels the hospital like all in gaza has not been give money for generator fuel. was established i live in the power goes off for one minute my son loses his life he should be in the i.c.u. he needs an x. ray well he couldn't do that. much of the rest of this pediatric hospital is in darkness. it's happening because the facts are dominated palestinian authority in the west bank is refusing to release money until hamas hands over the taxes it gathers inside gaza both sides agreed in october that the p.a. would take over governing here but deadlines keep being missed. this is the intensive care unit and twelve days ago the doctors here had to take really the

incredibly difficult decision to close the unit to save electricity it's very energy and electricity intensive in here and that power can be diverted to keep the rest of the hospital open there are five beds in the three that were occupied or those patients have been transferred to another hospital. they get at most six hours of electricity a day here the rest of the time generators keep people alive the hospital director who's worked through all garza's crises and wars over the last twenty five years tells us he's never seen it so bad. if someone comes up to midnight with something critical sometimes we can save his life in five minutes when we have electricity we needed to give electric shocks for resuscitation for x. rays for everything. in the few rooms with power a crowded patients and parents some of these children have contagious diseases like

viral meningitis they should not be kept like this but the hospital director says they have no option it risks a wider outbreak of disease and that's potentially catastrophic in this densely populated sealed off unplayed of almost two million people. bernard smith al-jazeera gaza. us sad to say rex tillerson is addressing a news conference in jordan's capital with the jordanian foreign minister. also speaking that is the saudi first of. the level of assistance by two hundred seventy million million dollars that will be used and development our defense capabilities and other development plans we commend the assistance provided by the united states and we highly appreciate your support and will these solid relations between our respective countries and we look forward to continuing to work together for our shared and common interest and for the peace stability and security of

their engine before the signing of the memorandum of understanding together with the secretary of state discussed the bilateral relations and the latest development in the region namely the. palestinian israeli conflict the war in syria and war again this. talks. the united states has been. on a solid part of the kingdom the more you were just signed is a testimony to the enduring of our relations we appreciate your support we thank you for the new it package that will strongly help us carry our thought economic programs and move toward development and defense needs. we continue to work together a pursuit of peace and stability we want him in partners in the fight against terrorism until we destroy this evil it jordan will not wherever in its commitment to working with use air and with the test of our partners in the global coalition

to defeat dash and its ideology opiates we will continue our joint efforts to bring about a peaceful solution to the seed prices on the basis of u.n. security council resolution two to fight for and through the geneva process the solution that we seek is one that the syrian people will accept and one that will preserve the territorial integrity of the country. middle east peace is a strategic choice for jordan we have different views on those selim but we share the commitment to peace to jordan and the two state solution that antes the establishment of a palestinian state on june fourth one nine hundred sixty seven lines with these jewish center as its capital and that lives in peace and security without it could nies and accepted israel is the only path to comprehensive peace again rex it's a great pleasure to welcome you here and we look forward to continuing working with you on consolidating our partnership and facing the common challenges that we have been more importantly on bringing peace to ability and opportunity to our region

you are among friends thank you sarah lawrence. for thank you as well iman and will develop quite a friendship over this past year when you confront so many serious issues it's important to have trusted partners that you can consult with and and i value our discussions right like i really employees to be in jordan my first trip as secretary of state and for decades the united states and jordan have sustained a truly indispensable strategic partnership that's been critical to the security of both of our nations as well as contributing to the security of the region today we recognize the importance of that. partnership by signing this new five year memorandum of understanding under this agreement the united states commits to provide jordan no less than one point two seven five billion dollars per year

and bilateral foreign assistance this m o u is a signal to the rest of the world that the us jordan partnership has never been stronger the m o u represents a twenty seven percent increase to the united states' previous bilateral commitment to jordan we've also increased the length of the m o u from three years to five years giving jordan greater certainty of planning for the future the additional funds and the years will support jordan's important role in addressing regional conflict and instability including the impact that the crisis in syria has had on jordan and the elements of the new m.o. you will also support his majesty king a bill is political and importantly has economic reform agenda and move jordan closer to achieving the self-reliance that seeks that we thank the government in the people of jordan for receiving so many of those displaced by the conflict in syria where dedicated to finding

a way forward in syria that will allow for the safe and voluntary return of these displaced people when conditions allow also want to highlight jordan's partnership and commitment to combating terrorism and violent extremism his majesty king abdullah has long been a regional and global leader and a voice against terrorism and is critical to our counterterrorism efforts and i think this is evidence by jordan's active participation in the global coalition to defeat isis and in their efforts to convene the uk a process. also want to acknowledge and thank jordan for their recent decisions to cut ties with the d.p. r. k. the tools of pressure such as this are helping to reverse north korea's trajectory by putting pressure on them to change their course and find their way to the table for discussions to denuclearize the korean peninsula and we appreciate jordan's

actions in concert with the entire international community we take special note of his majesty's interest in the peace between israel and the palestinians and his tireless support in pursuit of such a pace jordan has a unique and positive role and is of great importance as we continue to pursue the president trumps goal of a lasting and comprehensive peace and i think it's important to note that when president trump made his decision to recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel a farce committed to respecting jordan's role as the custodian of the holy sites and secondly he made clear that the positions on the final boundaries are borders of jerusalem is a matter that's left for the parties to negotiate and discuss and we did and would be dealt with in the final status of issues all of which are subject to negotiation . on behalf of the united states i want to repeat what vice president pincer reaffirmed his majesty last month and i quote we are here's partners for security

we are here as partners in both of our nation's prosperity and most importantly we are here as friends the m.o you underscores all of those partnerships and i'm pleased to be here with is actually to foreign ministers we again formalize that commitment to the five years and beyond in our bilateral relationship and we look forward to our ongoing partnership and collaboration to address the many serious issues that the region is faced with today thank you very much. and i think we'll take your questions now if you may just on the call right ms tippett jordan. smith . when he's. ready to provide all of them in his newspaper i have a question for both the ministers the first is relating to syria. within days if not weeks and the crisis is about to hit

a diplomatic. solution and now we have witnessed an eel phase with the sit in is a sense of confidence how can we continue to push forward. for a diplomatic solution solution the resolution total faya full the second question all about the process then television is and that about it that is solution of the israeli conflict in jordan and then to race in the mother of all in conflict. and it is the route for other second it conflicts with dissipating a new plan by the united states all the united states president. do we still have an opportunity of for implementing the two state solution to bring this conflict into a final and. come up to begin

with we have discussed the syrian war during the joint meeting we both agree that at the plymouth the solution is a must and the solution must be based on the solution two to five four and the geneva accords which will be the only course for peaceful diplomatic solution this solution is what we see is acceptable to the syrian people and maintaining the territorial integrity of the country we have the same goals in syria and we are working together towards establishing peace in that country and that's why our concerted efforts on by a lateral level or with in concert with other regional partners are underway as i said the palestinian israeli conflict is the pivot and the two state solution on the basis of one thousand sixty seven border with east jerusalem

as the palestinian capital to live side by side we cannot we do not have any a tentative but to continue forward in the context the president when he came to office expressed that he wished to strike at historic deal by establishing peace and we believe that he will live up to this responsibility and he will do or what he could go towards establishing peace similarly in the. countries if you are of revisiting the man communique we have adopted piece of that was option and we are hearing that it is true that. we have different standards to words the recent dilution taken by the drum on jerusalem yet we must continue marching forward simply for the reason that the absence of any political horizon will create nothing but more tension and conflict we look forward to continuing working with

the united states and other key partners in the international community so that the desired peace stability and security of our reached. well we are quite concerned about the recent incident involving israel israel and iranian assets inside of syria and i think this again illustrates why iran's presence in syria is only destabilizing to the region we think iran needs to withdraw its military a smallish from syria and allow the hope for peace process to take hold in geneva as the foreign minister indicated we are working very closely together and collaborating to support the geneva peace process and we think there has been important milestones achieved after the sochi conference that was hosted by the russians everyone left sochi with a unified commitment to the geneva process. authorizing the special envoy stefan de

mistura giving him the authority to convene the constitutional committee so i think we are moving forward but it is going to be a lengthy process we need the engagement of all parties in good faith in geneva to try and find a way to being bring peace to syria restore syria and its territorial integrity democracy governed by people the syrian people select with respect to the middle east peace process president trump remains committed to seeing a middle east peace process go forward and as i indicated i think the decision taken on jerusalem was about the united states and our recognition of jerusalem and where we choose to place our embassy but the president was clear also in his statement as i just indicated in my statement that the final status the final borders in jerusalem are up to the parties to decide so it does not preclude

a two state solution if that is the solution the parties seek the u.s. would support that so we continue to support the middle east peace process going forward we recognize important role that jordan and king abdullah can play in facilitating that as well. rex tillerson speaking in joint news conference with the. jordanian foreign minister said both nations reiterating their commitment to a palestinian peace process as well as the efforts of diplomatic efforts right now to bring peace to. syria and jordan is of course been hosting. syrian refugees pretty much since the war began six hundred fifty thousand according to u.n. estimates. tillerson expected to move on to lebanon tomorrow as part of his middle east torso will bring much more. that's and plenty of reaction to that here on

al-jazeera right now it's time for the weather richard has that still ahead on al-jazeera. and andrew thomas in sydney where artists have responded to the incidents recorded at australia's off shore refugee presence. in sport last season's finalists up for a european champions league setback and he's here with that story. from brisk. to the. jews of southeast asia. well the south pacific island of tonga is beginning to clear up after what was possibly the strongest cyc lone in living memory tropical cyclone peter has caused extensive damage hitting the island as the

equivalent of a category four hurricane you have to go back to two thousand and one and tropical cyclone walker to find anything of any sort of compare ability and then damage run into that seventy million dollars this one could well exceed it well there we have the storm system now it's moving very slowly west southwest thirteen kilometers per hour it is still a category four system the reason it's so powerful is that this feeling of water's about twenty eight to twenty nine degrees celsius so very very warm waters and about one degree c. above average and again mostly storm systems reporting around the globe there's always a little component of the climate change component or warmer waters globally on bus what these systems feed on well that track west southwest and he continues over the next twenty four to forty hours but i do i'm so concerned it will get close enough to new caledonia to at least produce some rain as far as the outer bands are concerned so there's the forecast movement fairly slow certainly for new caledonia i think the next twenty four to forty hours that could be some significant flooding

. the weather sponsored by cat time release. in india five million children have genius level i.q. but most live in poverty and go undiscovered one when he meets two child geniuses fighting for their chance to shine at this time and how does iran. you're watching edge there are a mind of our top stories this hour kuwait has pledged two billion dollars to help rebuild iraq following the defeat of i saw its leader says one billion dollars

would be given in loans and another in direct investment shifts are. made the announcement at a summit in kuwait city to raise funds for iraq's reconstruction. israel's prime minister says he'll keep a leading the country despite recommending he be charged for corruption and bribery the attorney general will decide whether to pursue formal charges against him. south african police raided the home of a prominent business family with ties to president jacob zuma and three people have been arrested the roads around the home of the gupta family in johannesburg have been sealed off a mirror area designated a crime scene. is under investigation over alleged corruption linked to the family . treasure general haul my subtly says the party will not wait beyond today for zuma to resign. mir stuart is the visiting fellow at

the broker brookings doha center she joins us here on the set thanks for being with us so first of all. your reaction to what we've just been hearing now that the party the party is going to move ahead with with we're trying to get president zuma out yes i'm not surprised because they are under time pressure is a very clear timeframe here which is that the budget speech is happening on the twenty first of february and they've undertaken indicated that they will definitely go ahead with the budget speech and it would be very uncomfortable and awkward if the budget speech takes place and there's no clarity about who the crew. it is so time is really of the essence now and zuma has clearly been stalling this is he has a history you know he has had many years of stalling and buying time and they have good reason to believe that if they just you know give him otherwise they will go ahead with a motion of no confidence in us and how much urgency gives you an idea of just how

much urgency there is in all of us for particularly for the a.n.c. with with elections coming next year and all of the many signs that their support traditional support of dave enjoyed among so many south africans is eroding because of this right and even more so that there is right now a lot of uncertainty and tension and they've acknowledged themselves that there is anxiety in the country and with the budget speech coming up which is a major policy speech they need to be some sort of certainty and also with every week that zuma is in office you know that we run the danger of even more corruption even more an ethical behavior right. and what it was well does this do for. not just the a.n.c. book full for the many of the problems in south africa at the moment because because beyond beyond all the the political maneuvering and the stories of corruption and so on there are still deep seated problems in the country yes of

course we have a very high unemployment rate primarily i would say our economy is you know has really not performed well at all over many years now and there is also a lack of moral leadership a lack of faith in government as a result of zuma has very poor governance we really need to now and from a poser has made this very clear that he wants you know to clean up corruption and the first step is very much for you might to go we know this more than seven hundred charges hanging over his head which is another very controversial issue you know relating to him going because he. knows that when he steps down you know the national prosecuting authority can immediately prosecute him on those charges and if you look at the history post apartheid history in south africa the a.n.c. has essentially ruled. a rule but they have been elected it's it's almost as if

south africa is kind of this one party state almost without with without a real viable opposition do you do you think that that's been part of the problem there are that there isn't this kind of healthy opposition to to keep the government in check all right i think for the first post one thousand nine hundred four years you are correct there was very dominant even though we were not really a one party state the a.n.c. just had you know a very dominant position but over the last five six years this is really shifted we know that the a.n.c. has significant opposition in many of the provinces da's really the da has won a lot of the support of traditional supporters and also if they could only create him for fighters have become very very prominent they have become you know a very very vocal disrupting parliament so i would say that the eighteen c. is you know not at all secure about its continued dominance so just just to update our viewers while we're continuing to discuss this if you're just

joining us here on out zero we're getting word now that south africa's ruling party the african national congress is preparing a no confidence vote against president zuma on thursday and as of right now we are still waiting for a response from jacob zuma he has proved to be. quite a shrewd political operator because this is of course not the first time that he has faced this sort of pressure so so all eyes on this point as to when and how he's going to react to this right. the right is being saved and passed no motion no confidence motions that have failed to succeed so this will be the eighth one this one is very hard likely to succeed because i'm a poser will most likely instruct parliamentarians to vote in favor of the motion of no confidence and this as you just told us will happen very soon it will happen

on thursday and it really seems as if zuma has done everything in his ability in his power to delay things but saying and nuff today's the deadline thursday we're all tomorrow we're going to motion of the conference which is remarkable remarkably soon minister thanks very much for for being with us we're going to stay with this now because for me to miller joins us live now from pretoria with more info on just what is happening at the moment as far as jacob zuma what more do we know. well as we just heard they this is remarkably quickly the a.n.c. has now run out of patience it's said they can no longer wait for jacob zuma to resign we've not heard from the president ever since the a.n.c. decided to recall him there was some indication he may say something today that hasn't happened yet so now jacob zuma has until the end of today to give his

resignation and if he doesn't do that and and that's what it's looking like because this is the position the agencies in they they clearly don't have any faith any longer that jacob zuma is going to resign they're now decided to make the motion of no confidence that was pulled forward by opposition parties in parliament they are now amending that motion to make it their own they of course want this ownership because they've always been very adamant that they want any sort of solution to come from the a.n.c. they've never gone along with any of these other motion of no confidence had never voted against jacob zuma in the past a so they want the a.n.c. . to take ownership of this they are going to amend that motion of no confidence and have that debate on thursday and that's if the president doesn't step down today and in this case there of course are more likely to vote in some sort of partnership with the opposition to get those numbers to get jacob zuma out of office now the a.n.c. leaders ship is also see it that if they're able to get the chief justice in place

they'll also elect a new president tomorrow possibly friday depending on how quickly they can get all their ducks in a row but essentially the a.n.c. has had enough. all right for me to mail a life for us there in pretoria much more development and reaction to that breaking news story here on al-jazeera stay with us for that but other stories now the lower house of cambodia's parliament has passed a law making it a crime to insult the king anyone found guilty on the charge my face up to five years in prison rights groups fear the law could be used by prime minister hun sen to further stifle dissent neighboring thailand has the world's toughest penalties for insulting the royal family with sentences of up to fifteen years. are still ahead on our jazeera.

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her ankle. her ankle. all right time to go a sport here's andy thank you so much as well snowboarding superstar shaun white produced when it really mattered to win his third olympic title the american clinching halfpipe gold with his final run of the competition white's effort pushed the japanese teenager i you know down into second place with australia's scotty

james taking bronze white is the first snowboarder to win three olympic golds having previously won the two thousand and six and two thousand and ten cycles three time olympic gold medal as a man you know this obviously sure you can tell by my reactions at the bottom of the pipe but this meant the world to me and my family and my team and. you know you're doing it for us again and not only to be an olympian again but to be a gold medalist again it's just unreal germany continues to lead the medal table after eric frantz a one gold in the nordic combined united states up into third with that win fish shaun white to the two more goals on offer on wednesday in the men's doubles louche and the women's one thousand meter speed skating finally some good news on the ice for korea is unified at women's hockey team they lost their third straight game but did score a first olympic gold in their final group game randy griffin came up with

a further moment of history for the combined team of players from north and south korea korea did go on to lose for once japan after earlier eight nothing defeats against sweden and switzerland they are now outs of the competition well north korea's best medal hopes at these games have also made their olympic in their view we can speak to our correspondent who's in pure and shine for us tell us about the start made by the north korean figure skaters. we don't type of contingency all repairing that actually we do our very high standards we're going to dial the army north koreans that actually qualified as their armor that was specially invited here the been training kind of the for quite a while and it was always a case of would i be the only two those koreans represented here in the other twenty two including the twelve from the hockey safe you've mentioned now they finished in eleven i got all the wonderful i'm very sure and here and this is in

qualifying so i do have a chance of a medal when i come back for the free sky the crowd simply loving it of course in the arena as well was the now very familiar north korean cheerleading squad so i really put in a good performance but probably expected to finish a little bit higher than eleven but i've got that chance to now push on from here now this i see for at least tell us about the men's hockey competition which is about to get underway most of the world's best players or else landor. well yes i think this would have been a really big story on d.n.a. in another winter olympics where you didn't have the huge russian doping scandal overshadowing the start and the politics of north and south korea this is a case of the big. the united states saying look we're not releasing our prize now it's not just americans of course outcries from all over the globe the top hockey players not college of the part of this tournament so people are not really thinking well is it going to be. a little bit those worth watching is it going to

have any merit to it the answer to that quite simply is yes it is because if you guys bought before and i joe players were passes you got about thirty five points for it and it's got like a nine hundred ninety four with little hama so that was an exceptional quality of competition one hundred amazing ended with waiting being counted in the final and the fact is not just the united states affected but it's affected quite a few of the tell you i think even sit out you call weirdly because going to win the gold medal the favorites are they have the code of the olympic athletes for russia but they're the most likely winners but there were five six teams that were the five charges so be exciting but of course the quality would definitely be a bit better if the players were that late welling's as a thank you so much leave that. alone thinks thank you late for the women's slalom is being postponed until friday high winds again in pyongyang it's one of the several different alpine skiing events at these games he's paid to stem it's to

break them down. alpine skiing is one of the flagship sports at the winter olympics and the number one event is the bear on the hill where you will see the world's best skiers one by one launched themselves down the mountain in high take aerodynamic outfits the downhill is a race of roar speed it features the longest course with competitors skiing lawyerly in a straight line with the goal of posting the quickest time individuals can hit speeds of around one hundred fifty kilometers per hour now the solemne is the shortest but most technical of the disciplines skiers have to keep changing direction as they weave between tightly spaced gates everyone gets two shots at the course the individual with the quickest combine time is the way the giant slalom features fewer and wider turns than solemn allowing the skiers to pick up more speed as in slalom you get two runs at the course and the super giant slalom or super g. was added to the olympics in one nine hundred eighty eight the course is longer

meaning it is considered a speed event and endurance get just one chance to take on the mountain and win gold last season's champions league final issue event has suffered a big setback in their efforts to win the title for the first time since one thousand nine hundred ninety six you've a allowing a two no later slip in the first leg of the last sixteen so it's not and they also missed a penalty spurs will take two crucial away goals into the return leg at wembley after strikes from harry kane and christian eriksson levelled the match in italy to two the final score. very very low of that we're going to dominate the return visit and not make a mistake just before the half to give them an opportunity. he wasn't happy about. that would come out in the second half and the middle of him again deserved to be brilliant. premier league leaders manchester city are all but through to the last state after a four male win in switzerland over balls and it's the biggest away win by an

english side in the knockout stage of the competition zero four always so it is an amazing result is really almost you know of course the terms of these one hundred thirty minutes but we are almost there. including fly north so we're going to coming up later on this wednesday poolside play five time champions at liverpool while defending champions around one hundred looking to save the season the seventeen points behind barcelona in the spanish league there at home to parry sound. ok sport is looking for now more from the winter olympics throughout the day thanks very much and he will look forward to that that is it for this news hour but stay with us my colleague elizabeth is standing by she will be here with a whole half hour of news they would.

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creation and distribution utilizing cloud technology and artificial intelligence. the future that's never seemed closer than it does today. and what lies beyond the horizon. to take us to on the frontier it's the future of media leaders summit. limitless possibilities. a unique poor trait of a small gulf nation living under siege what made this different was they targeted said. that pain to be forced to leave would just be all and their gains whether it has given us the desire to carry on with our lives and be creative maybe i'll turn down as it's not a marriage barbeau business. has become more united is beyond the blockade at this time on al-jazeera.

south africa's ruling party says it'll move a lot of confidence motion against president jacob zuma if he doesn't resign by thursday.