and for us. in india five million children have genius level i.q. but most live in poverty and go undiscovered. fighting for their chance to shine at this time zero. zero. and live from studio fourteen headquarters. welcome to the news grid he's faced countless allegations of corruption numerous votes of no confidence in parliament this party wants him gone but south africa's

president he's not going anywhere and insists he's a victim of unfair treatment meanwhile police in johannesburg arrest the members of the influential family we'll examine what this all means for south africa's future . the group the family is the talk of social media in south africa with many people wondering why the raids are taking place now. all in the reaction to that story. also on the grid thirty billion dollars over ten years the amount of money pledged in donations and loans by international donors to rebuild iraq but that falls away sort of the hundred billion dollars that the prime minister says his country needs to rebuild after years of conflict including the most recent against i so we'll break down the numbers for you that's coming up painting the real picture artists tell stories of trauma faced by refugees trying to get to australia.

my. you with the news grid were live on air we're streaming online through you tube facebook life and al-jazeera dot com as well thanks for joining us tough choices for south africa as scandal hit yet defiant president jacob zuma to step down or face another no confidence motion so the governing african national congress says it will of vote against zuma if he does not agree to resign the president says the a.n.c. is decision as unfair as a forty eight hour deadline for him to step aside and so on wednesday party also says parliament could elect cyril ramaphosa as president on thursday or friday he replaced zuma as the party leader in december this comes as that elite police team raided the home of the wealthy and influential group to family who have close ties to the president three people have been arrested and roads around the affluent neighborhood in johannesburg were sealed off during that raids live now to from

either miller joining us from pretoria so zuma has spoken he says he's a victim any indication that he's planning on stepping down. well be the only thing we're able to tell from jacob zuma was interview with the state broadcaster earlier today is that he's certainly unhappy with what's happened so far as we heard you would say that he is and he says that this process has been unfair he said that top leadership of the a.n.c. has decided to recall him and it's an unusual process not one that's based on traditional a.n.c. policy and he says it came so soon after the elective conference last year jacob zuma has said when questioned if he would resign he said he would address the nation later today now the a.n.c. has given him until the end of today to give his resignation we aren't sure if that's what he will do he says he's not been defiant he says that he doesn't agree

with the decision that the a.n.c. has come to to recall him he's outlined he spent the entire interview explaining the reasons why he hasn't resigned so far we know that he's an api but he maintains of this isn't in defiance of the a.n.c. the a.n.c. has said they consider that a positive statement that he said he wanted to fire the a.n.c. but it's not certain what that actually means we are waiting to hear from president zuma later in the day ahead of that debate that motion of no confidence in parliament that's expected to take place on thursday and that's the route the a.n.c. will take if the president doesn't step down they'll go to parliament and vote him out in that way and that's when prison deputy president of the country and the president of the a.n.c. will be voted in by the national assembly as the new president once jacob zuma is removed the other shoe and pulled now the decision but tomorrow in

parliament is going to be able to from a computer. nobody has even come to me to say. we're moving if we don't move what is the rush at been asking this question all the time is the men in which it is being in a sense implemented this decision that i have a problem with i've looked defied they're taking their decisions they're taking me to parliament and of course that's how it came in i came to parliament tell us about the raid that that was made on the good home for media and the arrests as well and tell us if we expect more arrests. well there it as we know the group does are close associates of jacob zuma and they have long been accused of using that relationship to benefit from the state deals and contracts and also influence a government policy and this is been really

a bone of contention for south africans especially looking at the investigations into some of these deals have been struck between zuma and the coopers were allegedly well this one in particular these arrests are to place earlier today have to do with an investigation into a dairy farm in the free state province we have this farm was actually supposed to benefit black farmers it was supposed to be some sort of empowerment program but investigations have uncovered that a money was siphoned off to fifteen to twenty million dollars siphoned out of this project into businesses owned by the good guys and one of those businesses the son of jacob zuma serves as does have shares they believe that money was in laundered through dubai and potentially used for the private purposes of the family in this case this wedding that was held in twenty thirteen that's good to wedding has been a massive talking point in south africa for years because that's also when we heard

the beginning of these murmurs around jacob zuma and the cook does and it was in that point in twenty thirteen that the gupta family had used a military air base to land a private aircraft and they had of course gotten permission to do that question was how did they get permission to land a private aircraft at what's considered a national key point right so this either the the accusations around the zoo of course now coming to a head these arrests took place and we do expect more race arrest to happen we thank you for that update from johannesburg for me the miller let's now speak to lawson and i do in cape town he is the executive director of the council for the advancement of the south african constitution thanks for speaking to us on the newsgroup so what the arrest of several members of the group the family how is this going to affect the president any more than we've seen it affect them today. well i think what we've seen is a die of high political drama in south africa today as you say starting off this

morning with the raid on the compound in saxon world in johannesburg it's been reported that three members of the gupta family were arrested there apparently been other arrests in the free state province relating to the dairy farm issue that you've also mentioned the hopes of active this morning the a.n.c. has now come out clearly to say that president zuma must resign today as president or else they will pursue a motion of no confidence in parliament tomorrow and remove him from office in that way so it's really drawing to a close now this high political drama that we've seen over the last couple of weeks with the intense to ing and fro ing between the leadership of the a.n.c. and president zuma and then this often we have the statement from the president saying he didn't understand the basis on which he was being asked to step down but it is very clear that he has lost the political confidence of his political party that nominated the president they now want him to step aside here that they think that the ventilator is under now the nutritional obligation to resign. so what is

his strategy going to be going forward over the next twenty four hours. well you know he said this afternoon that he was didn't want to defy the a.n.c. although he disagreed with them but he's a his options are limited if he fails to resign today. call him a group as do a motion of no confidence from iraq that now frees religion like the all the are likely to find themselves out of office by this time tomorrow and what does this mean then for the relationship between president zuma and his party the a.n.c. if the party does go ahead and pursue this motion of no confidence. well i think the relationship can be described. at best as being fractious at the moment you know there's a public spots around. issues of one of the reasons that the party is now wanting him to step down what is the urgency of doing so these issues have not been raised

for the first time with president zuma now there were several calls for him a national executive committee meetings last year to step down have been intensely into internal discussions with the so he's well aware of the region reasons he's an electrolyte ability to the african national congress and we saw with. launching the mandela theme theme to your year in cape town on sunday effectively the start of the a.n.c. the election campaign for twenty nine feet and they really want to go into that campaign without the baggage of jacob zuma and that's the urgency of wanting to get rid of him right now ok lawson in ninety two we thank you for speaking to us from cape town let's bring in our social media producer and your schapelle what's the conversation online about andrew well this was certainly a big story on twitter today the name in particular was trending worldwide during and lots of people in south africa are actually watching this story for updates on the rates now and deal here thinks that this spectacle is deliberate to bolster the

narrative of corruption is good and zuma he says hands off zuma and that it's time to give ridge regime change a boost now another user here who is clearly supportive of the police action says that the group does have nothing to hide other than mass looting corruption and state capture everyone speculating about whether the president or when he will resign bill out here is wondering why the south african the south african police unit known as the hawks waited until after zuma what was recalled to take action he says good to leaks has been public knowledge for ages now one of our viewers in johannesburg shared some reasons why she's watching this so closely. and assume that i mean clever has increased the highest level in thirteen years most of the africans i mean point in this is according to statistics more south africans are living in poverty more than fifty percent their level of poverty has gone up and as you must have africa was downgraded to junk by international rating agencies and

assume a state owned enterprises has collapsed eskom is we speak is bank trap so the question is not one may i ask is why has this man hunt on to power for such a long time so whatever happens here is one person like many who says that he's glad that this group zuma issue is coming to an end so that south africans can challenge the current economic structure of the country now if you're in south africa we would love to hear from you you can connect with us as always using the hash tag good or message me directly i'm at. will take you live. to kuwait city that is where a press conference is being held right now at the end of the iraq reconstruction conference let's listen in. and development today all saw so number of. meetings with the participation of one hundred and seven local regional

and international n.g.o.s in addition to another workshop for the development funds . financial firms both. and internationally with the participation of fifty one development funds and international agencies in addition to a large number of private sector representatives on february thirteenth a private sector meeting was held with the participation one thousand eight hundred fifty agencies firms bodies today it is with pleasure that. and now it's the total pledge made by the participating states which have come to thirty billion dollars. to conclude i once again i welcome your ex a person all appreciation to all those who contributed to the success of the international conference for the eco structure of iraq now i give the floor to dr

braman jaafari the iraqi foreign minister. thank you for your excellent shape so. welcome to me and thanks to all of you for being here today. but all of your contribution have. a very significant and you know the media of representatives of the forthcoming. authority you are carrying a very important weapon that is your pen cameras leading the very kills the vehicles and vessels of media worldwide to convey the truth and they are. what iraq is living in the. moment including the plights we live in and the crises we have bred through i hope they are now

in the water under the bridge but. as you all know iraq has been suffering a great amount of destruction thousands of fallen martyrs wounded in addition to the financial losses to the war. areas we're not going to cry over the spells milk. however it is a source of pleasure that we are not alone we are being lent a helping hand by all our friend sam brothers. and this is generous initiative under the directive of his royal highness the emir of kuwait six minutes of. at this critical moment. and the very intense proceedings of the conference were

highly organized and you were given the opportunity to exchange views converse and offer whatever resources you have and i thank you for the very overwhelming sentiments and i echo and returned the same from my government and our people no doubt the amount pledged whether as grants or loans. is little however it is not also it is not much and yet it is not. however we will continue to march forward to attract direct investments as a key drive to the economy and development plans in iraq. we should also learn

from history lessons the number of. government institutions private firms n.g.o.s the rose to the solidarity and support of iraq and over a very few days you have. all right so as you heard thirty billion dollars had been pledged to rebuild iraq after the defeat of ice a let's take a closer look at the big amounts pledged at that particular conference taking place in kuwait city so turkey put up the largest amount with five billion dollars in loans another five billion it came from gulf states as you can see well the u.s. has extended a three billion dollars credit line to iraq and the e.u. pledged just under five hundred million dollars in aid while more than three hundred million was offered by international organizations so that brings the total pledge to around thirty billion dollars over

a period of ten years which falls far below the hundred billion dollars that iraqis really needs let's talk about this with douglas ollivant who's been at the conference in kuwait city is a managing partner of the consulting firm a mantid international he's also the former director for iraq at the national security council during both the bush and obama administrations thanks for speaking to us on the news read your your initial iness assessment off that amount that we've now heard thirty billion dollars of pledged for iraq. well century the iraqis just got what is mostly a thirty billion dollars line of credit some of that is grants but the bulk of it is loans but that's essentially what they need to jump start the process i think in some ways the eighty to one hundred billion dollar figure is a little deceptive the iraqi economy couldn't absorb that much money if it were dumped on it all at once but this is going to have you have right now in fact and the eighty billion dollars outlines of credits as some people might say in

particularly from countries like the united states which has arguably played a part in the downward spiral off of iraq since the occupation of the country and we understand that the u.s. wants a lot i think aid right now but in fact it's just pledged a credit line three billion dollars in credits. that's right most of this money is is credit in the iraq is going to have to rebuild itself and eventually pay back this money but again it gives it the line of credit it's going to need to jumpstart the rican brought the reconstruction which will then allow the private sector to follow up but is there something to be said about countries not pledging aid like the united states what message is that sending out there. i think this was a no known the and this is not new data the united states been very clear for some time that it was not going to be assisting in nation building but the the line of credit is not nothing i think the iraqi people knew they were going to have to

carry the bulk of this themselves though again the international community is coming together to give them the money up front we saw the president of your president in fact donald trump tweeting on monday i'll just summarize what he had to say after so stupidly spending seven trillion dollars in the middle east it is now time to start investing in our country so you have donald trump saying that and then you have to listen to announce that three billion credit line that is going to be given to baghdad so there are really two different signals coming out from the united states so who is taking the decision who's leading the decisions when it comes to iraq. i don't think there's much just unity between the two messages. tillerson was a very clear that in essence this is the same message donald trump is giving to america and his own infrastructure plan wanting most of it to come from private sources and not government funding and that's and that's the same message that's being sent to iraq you have to get the private sector engaged all right douglas all

about we thank you for speaking to us from kuwait. and i was just social media producer his back what's the conversation online what we've been tracking the discussion around the conference and how much more money is needed to rebuild the u.s. says that the quake conference as you just heard was not meant to be a donor conference but rather to encourage private sector and financial institutions to invest in and extend credit to the iraqi government of the troubled ministration recently signaled a change in policy in regards to reconstruction assistance our policy posture has changed since previous administrations remember we used to be in the whole nation building in the united states government is not doing that any longer over the past few years we have spent the united states government has one point seven billion dollars in humanitarian aid in iraq alone one hundred ninety million dollars on stabilization efforts one hundred twelve million dollars just to clear i e d's and

of course there's the blood sweat and tears that our brave men and women have put into protecting iraq and on monday president trump tweeted that the u.s. has spent seven trillion dollars in the middle east that's just and he says it's time to start investing in our country now he's used that figure of seven trillion dollars at least twenty one times which fact checkers have labeled flat wrong seven trillion dollars it's time for us to rebuild our country safe. trump is lumping together the wars in iraq which are in the middle east and afghanistan which is in south asia together they cost about one point eight trillion dollars there is also adding investments for future spending over the next three decades for things like interest on the debt and veterans' care. the president has been repeating this claim since the campaign even though it's been fact checked any way you look at it the president is exaggerating we award for pinocchio's so they gave that for pinocchio's out of four meaning in their words

it's a big one so many people are now trying to figure out if the white house knows how much it's spent in iraq and if that is influencing the decision to quote quote unquote stop nation building so you have many journalists and analysts today bringing up the u.s. legacy in iraq the journalist norton says that the u.s. destroyed the country in two thousand and three which gave rise to eisel and bombed huge parts of it now the u.s. refuses to give money for reconstruction while gena mussa calls this another example of everyone wants to join in and bomb you but no one wants to help you rebuild now it's iraq later she says it will be syria now massively tarzi is a british iraqi writer and journalist who doubts that this conference will fully satisfy the demands of the iraqi people especially those outside of mosul this three day conference in kuwait for the reconstruction of iraq suffers painfully from a lack of vision objectives and strategy this is the country's president who has

helped in the defeat of the islamic state group fully insured of the eighty eight billion price tag needed to rebuild new devastated areas. as far as the iraqi street is concerned especially sinister intentions like next to each and the agenda to privatized various industries and sectors in iraq on the need to plant investments and given the fact that iraq is sinking deeper and deeper into debt. so let us know what you think about the u.s. role in rebuilding iraq you can tweet us your views using the hash tag to news grid or message me as always i'm at andersonville so with the conference taking place in kuwait it's now in fact ended many iraqis though will be marking mourning a massacre that took place twenty seven years ago this week so in this piece on al jazeera dot com seen on untuned describe the moment to us f. hundred seventeen fired two bombs each weighing nine hundred kilograms at

a shelter in. that's a residential neighborhood and western baghdad killing more than four hundred civilians including women and children once upon a bombing in iraq is online you can find it by clicking on the opinion tab on the home page on al-jazeera dot com will join lauren taylor in london with more of the international news hi lauren history a british man who fought with kurdish fighters against eisel in syria has pleaded not guilty to terror charges forty three year old james matthews is accused of attending a place used for terrorist training a fast charge of its kind in the u.k. and even at the westminster magistrates court in london and team have been court. well lawrence james or jim matthews's he's commonly known this fall a british soldier said in court on wednesday that he would be pleading not guilty

to those charges which could be summarized as attending a place used for terrorism training in syria when he next appears in court on the first of march it's an extremely unusual case it's the first time the terrorism legislation has been used in britain for britain's returning from syria who fought against allegedly for the white p.g. the kurdish fighting force that. there have been prosecutions of people returning who fought for i so and that group can cause huge a far greater number of people there are hundreds of britons who've gone to syria to fight for i saw hundreds who come by far fewer if you like on the other sites mr matthews his supporters outside court a wednesday said that it was ridiculous that this was being brought to prosecution given that the white p.g. were a group which had been assisted by the u.k.

government now the u.k. government doesn't list the y.p. g as a terrorist group turkey says that the white b.g. is linked to the p.k. k. which is considered a terrorist group quite by britain but at the moment that's where things stand if convicted jim matthews could be looking at ten years in jail lauren and even baba thank you very much indeed a court in london has rejected an appeal by two nigerian communities who want to sue the oil company royal dutch shell oil spills in the niger delta it up hold a ruling last year that the company can't be held responsible in the court actions of its nigerian subsidiary and who has for the better and okalik communities said to having to appeal again this time to the u.k. supreme court. no house of cambodia's parliament has passed a law making it a crime to insult the king anyone found guilty of the charge could face a fine and up to five years in prison rights groups for the law could be used by prime minister who are insane to stifle dissent further in the past year the

government has cracked down on its opponents closing critical media outlets and dissolving the main opposition party out of all those former president has made a brief appearance in court after being arrested as part of a local corruption investigation a viral column and eight of his former ministers including the current chairman of oxfam international were detained by police on tuesday a special prosecutor says the men face charges of fraud and embezzlement related to the questionable purchase of public buses forgotten our city a financial crisis in gaza is forcing hospitals and clinics to close intensive care beds are not being used and patients with contagious diseases are forced to stay in overcrowded rooms qatar and the u.a.e. have provided emergency funding for the hospital generators but it could be another week before that filters through smith reports from gaza.

mohamad also 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 embodied better off as a stylish ally in the power goes off for one minute why certain looses 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 fatter 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 of almost two million people. bernard smith al-jazeera gaza that's one hundred men back now to during and more and thank you israel's prime minister says he's staying put this fight police recommending he be charged for corruption as well as bribery benjamin netanyahu is accused of accepting nearly three hundred thousand dollars in gifts from billionaire benefactors he is also suspected of backroom deals with a public servant israeli newspaper for favorable coverage the attorney general will now decide whether to pursue formal charges against him harry fawcett has more from western roussillon. well the recommendations letter from the israeli police recommending indictments in the corruption cases two of them surrounding the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu of course continues to be the dominant

story here in israel just a day after that came out on tuesday evening benjamin netanyahu myself of course insists that he will continue in his role vowing to fight the next election and asking for people to continue to have faith in him saying that he will be proven innocent in due course his only could party has largely lined up behind him the opposition parties have largely been condemnatory what's more interesting about says the behavior of his key coalition partners he runs a coalition government the finance minister moshe car alarm has been relatively neutral saying that this is now a matter for the attorney general to decide whether the prime minister should be prosecuted he's called for all sides to respect the police and the judicial process in this the education minister though another key coalition partner natale bennett a right winger he has said that the prime minister appears not to be living up to the standards of israeli leaders he said that he trusts the police and more

importantly the inspector general the boss of the police force here the man whom netanyahu has been trashing in the media essentially alleging that there is some kind of political bias involved in the police investigations into him bennett also saying that the prime minister should be given the presumption of innocence that he's jew under israeli law and that he too will wait to see what the attorney general makes of these recommendations. the trial of a palestinian teenager charged with assaulting an israeli soldier has been adjourned until next month a judge has ordered the case be heard behind closed doors seventeen year old i had to mimi 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 up to ten years in jail if found guilty rights advocates say seven hundred palestinians under the age of eighteen are prosecuted by israeli courts each year people under the age of eighteen are regarded as

children under international law so as we're saying i had not the only child detained by the israeli military amnesty international says she is one of approximately three hundred fifty palestinian children currently held in israeli prisons and detention centers and the defense for children international is concerned that is really military arrests are not only violent but that children often lack proper legal representation during the court court process so al-jazeera is imran khan spoke to photos the engine a he is the sixteen year old palestinian boy whose arrest while blindfolded by a group of israeli soldiers in occupied hebron was captured in a photo that went viral he spoke to him about he was how he was treated in israeli custody you can watch his report on our web site al-jazeera dot com. and if you have any comments or questions about this story or any other stories we're covering on the newsgroup today you can connect with us you can do so on facebook or on facebook live facebook dot com slash a.j.

newsgroup we're also on twitter our handle is. and use the hash tag news grid we're also on whatsapp plus nine seven four five zero triple one one four nine well if you're watching us on facebook live a look at how the words of president trump's former adviser steve bannon are now being taken up as a rallying cry by the women reportedly spoke against that's coming up on facebook and also ahead on the news grid. on interest in sit on to super storm did to the incidents recorded little stream of refugees from. welcome back look at the weather in the levant and western parts of asia first of all homesick quite

a bit of cloud showing up on the satellite imagery that was still some snow across eastern areas there with temperature minus one but otherwise fine conditions for terror and lot of cloud likely for baghdad from this weather system and really around the eastern side of the mediterranean clouds certainly in evidence although the flow coming up from the south across iraq the implant slips going to be relatively warm with highs of twenty in beirut and then as we head into friday we're going to see more the way of rain developing across these areas with the northern parts of iraq and into iran some rain with the snow and higher elevations and cloud extending all way down towards q.h. city so that really stand across parts of the arabian peninsula during the course of thursday working its way south as we head towards the weekend but temperatures really for this time we're still way above average twenty six in doha twenty seven and i've not really seen winter here at all and fine conditions on the other side of the peninsula thirty four somites from mecca and fine conditions all way down the red sea coast santa should see a nice sort of twenty five percent across into southern portions of africa you see

the satellite imagery some significant shower clouds across more eastern parts of south africa and still a chance i want to show is that as we head through thursday. i am doing this for the benefit of saddam people. so bad they see me important they are guys. who witness documentaries that open your eyes. at this time on al-jazeera. discover a willful would winning programming from around the world. telling the nation challenge your perceptions if you were to design a propaganda system you could not build

a better platform then facebook all full documentaries debates and discussions this country that was once that the wealthiest in the region what went wrong how did we get to this point alger israel.

under the trending tab on al-jazeera dot com you'll find these articles the most read right now on our web site the top two having to do with syria and if we just scroll down number three canada marijuana green rush and in the fourth spot the south africa story we've been covering for you right here on the newsgroup so read much more about all the developments on al-jazeera dot com. well speaking of syria the united nations security council is meeting right now to discuss the political situation in the country the u.n. special envoy to syria that's. meant to be briefing get council members and we'll show you the life pictures coming out of the u.n. security council right now that is the representative of equitorial guinea who is

speaking our diplomatic editor james bays joining us live from the united nations headquarters in new york just talk us through james what this meeting is all about what stuff on going to be saying. well it's clearly about the political process and mr diem a story as way forward that he sees in the political process and how that is proceeding seventy mm a story of the special envoy actually told us reporters as he walked into the security council this was going to be a very important meeting of the security council and i think that's because he not only looked at the political situation but the current military backdrop to with the on going on slaw the offensive by the syrian government on the scooter and live the turkish military operation that has taken place in our free in the recent u.s. airstrikes which targeted assad forces and the involvement of the israelis

targeting syrian and iranian targets in syria all of that added up to. certainly an increase of tension which mr de mistura said in his four years as a special envoy he has never seen such a volunteer dangerous and worrying time something backed up also by the french ambassador who spoke to reporters on the way and said he has real worries now about an escalation a regional or even international escalation of the situation in syria mr de mistura is still pushing for the next stage of his geneva process which is to try and get the two sides to bring members of a committee that he is going to appoint to discuss a constitution in syria but it's worth pointing out that the syrian government has already said that it doesn't like this proposal and it shouldn't be from is that de mistura to decide the members of the committee we've heard in the last few minutes

from the u.s. ambassador nikki haley again attacking russia and the syrian government and we've just heard in the last few minutes from vaseline abends here who's the russian ambassador strong words from him about that. u.s. attack on assad forces he described it as an unprovoked attack at jamestown by for a second because the first aid convoy since november has now entered the rebel enclave of eastern who are those are the reports that we are getting and u.n. and syrian red crescent interagency vehicles entered nesa b.s. that's an eastern huzzah with food and other supplies for more than seven thousand people some four hundred thousand people live in the area just outside damascus and it's been under siege since twenty thirteen they've been facing severe food and medicine sort of just what are you hearing about these u.n. convoys for eastern james was certainly that was

confirmed by stephan demas story this convoy had arrived he said it was good news but it wasn't nearly good enough because it was just one convoy and obviously the besieged areas of syria need a great deal more than that and i can tell you some diplomats are somewhat cynical about this they'll tell you that when there is this big set piece security council meeting like this the syrian government normally allows a little bit of an aide in so they don't get so much pressure from the council members so this is a pretty familiar pattern certainly not on handed eight access a little bit of aid has been allowed in an almost definitely that's because of the security council meeting that's taking place as we speak in new york james bays are reporting from the u.n. in new york thank you as always you can head to our website we have a page dedicated to all the latest news out of syria you'll find it on the home page under syria's civil war off the grid to

a story in kuwait where the death of a filipino domestic worker has led to a diplomatic crisis between the philippines and kuwait under. so the philippine labor ministry says more than two thousand two hundred filipinos are ready to leave kuwait after president to charity ordered a ban on sending workers to the gulf country on new contracts now on tuesday the president met hundreds of returning workers who had accepted his government's offer to pay for their flights home so what's this about it's happening as a response to the death of a domestic worker joanna demo demo for lease whose body was found in a freezer more than a year after she'd gone missing kuwait's government says a manhunt is under way to find her employers who apparently left the country and twenty sixteen so last week president went on national television and showed graphic photos of her body and said a review of labor records showed what he called a repugnant level of abuse in kuwait this ban that's been imposed

a similar to one that the government imposed in two thousand and four which prevented filipino workers from going to iraq after a driver was killed there now that ban lasted for nine years but around ten thousand went to work in iraq illegally anyway does he say has been very vocal on this issue going as far as threatening to ban citizens working anywhere in the middle east and a news conference he addressed gulf states saying quote the filipino is no slave to anyone anywhere and everywhere to its foreign ministry has condemned him for what they call an escalation and labor rights activists are saying a complete ban is not a solution to fight abuse. government data shows there are about a quarter million filipinos working in kuwait's many as maids and that's the third largest population in the gulf behind saudi arabia and the u.a.e. an estimated ten million filipinos work overseas making them one of the largest populations of foreign workers anywhere in the world the money they send home accounts for roughly ten percent of the country's g.d.p.

now human rights watch as the philippine government to demand stronger protections for overseas worker rights workers rather than a deployment ban saying that the philippines has been a leader and instituting protections for their domestic workers in the middle east but these work best for migrants arriving through a regulated channel a ban would force workers to take a greater risk to seek employment overseas while cutting off a critical source of income for the families in the philippines so let us know what you think about this what you think of the band you can let us know using the hash tag it is good well art curators in sydney have organized an exhibit exposing australia's treatment of refugees they asked artists to imagine and then paint scenes described in real incident reports by refugees an offshore detention centers and or thomas reports. she had been asking for a four minute shower as opposed to two minutes her request to be accepted on condition of sexual favor he had also tied the rope around his neck and attempted

to weigh down the right he then said do i have to kill myself to go to australia the words from trauma incident reports written by people working with refugees the pictures and sculptures of artists imagining or interpretive was described god stated do not sit in front of me i don't want to see you and keep the chair. at the sydney gallery artistic license is applied to a world deliberately hidden from view we want to make the invisible visible this policy has been so successful because it's been out of sight out of mind and face so we hope that by bringing him in trade with a stories people might be able to forget so easily they will have to start to pay attention the policy in question is australia's towards refugees since twenty thirty in the government has been deporting refugees who've tried to reach it shows by boat to two tiny pacific islands an hour and menace

a really big stock of black holes where it's very difficult to get information about conditions it's very hard to independently know what has gone on hundreds of refugees have been held on the roof for almost five years told they'll never leave many suffer mental health issues others have been abused by guards local school reach other in twenty sixteen a cache of documents detailing such incidents was leaked by a former worker the curators here asked artists to choose one file each to illustrate one of the case workers on a bus in the morning and noticed that one of the children had signed a hot. into his hand with a medal of thread she asked him why done that he said i don't know. i just found that it was a very simple incident but very graphic very confronting some pieces are literally a picture of exactly what's described other works are much more abstract there are thirty three worked on show at this sydney gallery but overall the so-called in the

roof files describe what went to thousand incidents what's on display here then is just the start of a much more ambitious project the curators have posted online the text of all the more than two thousand reports they're encouraging people to read them and submit their own work the ultimate aim is for every incident to be illustrated not necessarily by professionals like those who did please but by a mass autistic movement andrew thomas al jazeera sydney. if you have any questions on this and other stories we're covering on the newsgroup today you can connect with us we're on facebook live facebook dot com slash a.j. news grid we're also on twitter our handle is. and. we're also on what's up plus nine seven four five zero triple one one four nine still to come right here on the gold medals are being. joe will be here.

the. first of the world.

my i'm. let's find out what people are talking about it's for today here's joe thank you now if i asked you to name just one famous winter olympian i'm sure many of you would go straight to this man show might the american side bow to holds a string of wreck holes and even has his own video game named after him and now he's become the first border to win three olympic titles white gold with his final run in the hall fight competition he beat japan's i know the team finished second ahead of australia's scotty james white also won gold in the two thousand and six and two thousand and ten lympics but missed out on the title in sochi four years ago three time olympic gold medalist man you know this honestly i'm sure you could 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 here doing it for

usa again not only to be an olympian again but to be a gold medalist again it's just unreal well that gold medal was also the one hundredth for the usa at the winter olympics and it brought out the big guns including the most decorated olympian of all time and that is of course michael phelps he's won twenty eight medals twenty three of them were gold so he's some way ahead of shaun white and he knows a lot about comebacks redemption or ways feels great he tweeted not everyone is celebrating shaun white there he was accused of sexual harassment in two thousand and sixteen against a form of banned might allegations that have resurfaced this week and the thirty one year old was all stiff they tanishq his legacy. you know i see you here to talk about the olympics not you know gossip. but i don't think so i am who i am and i'm and i'm proud of who i am and my friends you know love me valid for me and and i think that stand stands on its own. or perhaps unsurprisingly that

response hasn't made the hash tag me to movement happy at all and that includes actress alyssa milano who started it she's questioning why n.b.c. who are the united states host olympic broadcasters all talking about the allegations of sean white's sexual harassment while usa today's journalists christine brennan who was at that press conference tweeted this shaun white just called the awful allegations against him go sit in a press press conference where no women journalist was called upon even though several including me had their hand up the entire time and then she uses that hash tag meeting where white isn't the only one facing a social media backlash at the winter olympics the canadian speed skater has locked her twitter account of being trolled by korean fans came bhutan who won the bronze medal in the five hundred meter race but only after south korea's men junk choi was

disqualified for interfering with the canadian bhutan has received online death threats and of his unfortunately or fortunately control social media and public has the right to say things but clearly we would ask everyone to respect the athletes and their performances well they five also saw the combined north and south korea hockey team exit the competition after a four loss to japan that goal was actually the only one of the tournament for them but as lee wellings tells us there was better news for the north korean skating to euro. i can tell you there was quite an evasion for the north korean pair from tie up kim ginseng home of qualifies in eleven twice the sky went down really well so abate will strike and basically the crowd here really got behind them not just because there was a now famous north korean cheerleading squad there was

a genuinely bone failing so to speak pub competitors vendor this is different from the other north korean competitive twenty two north koreans ahead twelve of them in the unified hockey is called but i were invited these two actually qualified because by all so the top skaters in the world now to get a chance try and push on and win a medal in the free sky tennis court competition or around because they did you know escape from a story a holly when i was partner managed to tell you they really were with the sky creates a bit of history but not quite well enough to make it through to the free sky they finished i think and only six think i tried it was cold there and chung chang in the women's slalom is actually into spined until friday because of high winds in the result was one of several different alpine skiing events in these games his speech estimate to help break them down. alpine skiing is one of the flagship sports at the winter olympics and the number one event is the down hill where you

will see the world's best skiers one by one launch themselves down the mountain in high take aerodynamic outfits the downhill is a race of rule speed it features the longest course with competitors skiing a lot julie 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 gaits everyone gets two shots at the course the individual with the quickest combined time is the way that 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 entrance get just one chance to take on the mountain and win gold

all right you can get in touch with. that jag as your ask i'll be back with more at eight hundred g.m.t. for now it's back to derry thank you very much and that'll do it for this newsgroup thanks for watching you can keep in touch with us on social media ways to do so are right there we will see you back here in studio fourteen on thursday. the way we communicate is what defines us. don't always has been. as innovation and technology continues to shape our lives. pioneering content

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world's rich take what they want. the world's poorest must beg to survive from the streets of manila to the roads of mon people and how to investigate the injustices of a globalized economy. and how different countries responds to those at the very bottom of society. begging for life. at this time on al-jazeera. i don't think it is fair i think it is unfair south africa's president jacob zuma says he's being victimized by his own party as the a.n.c. piles on the pressure him to step aside just hours before he spoke police raided the home of the family at the center of the corruption claims against him.