al-jazeera. every. al-jazeera. this is the news hour live from london coming up. we will consider our next steps in the coming days the fallout continues from the british russia

a nerve agent attack now u.k. police contact russian exiles following the killing of a businessman. no end to the exodus in syria as thousands flee besieged cities at opposite ends of the country at least twenty four civilians die in eastern guta. deputy chief of the f.b.i. hits back at president trump after being fired just days before he was set to retire. over thirty african leaders sign a petition aimed at saving the elephant but is it enough. and i'm far it's well have all the day's sport quoting reigning moto g.p. world champion mark mark as will race from the front row at a season opening chapter from. britain's prime minister to resign may says the u.k.

is considering its next steps off to moscow announced it would expel twenty three british diplomats and close the british council in russia russian has accused the kremlin of orchestrating a nerve agent attack on a former russian spy and his daughter in seoul twenty three russian diplomats were already been expelled by britain journal reports from moscow. after days of waiting it took barely ten minutes for british ambassador laurie bristow to be handed russia's written response we gave russia the opportunity to explain help in material soulsby and we asked russia to declare that material that's the stick in the teeth the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons russia did neither therefore we announced seven steps russia today has informed me off the steps that russia will be taking in response to that. the decision to remove twenty three british diplomats from russia mirrored u.k. prime minister to resign may's own statement on wednesday expelling twenty three

russian diplomats from london the countermeasures didn't stop with the expulsion of british diplomats from the embassy here they were as well what the russians would call asymmetrical measures to match to reason may's promise of looking more closely at the sources of russian money in the u.k. so britain's diplomatic presence in russia will be further reduced by the closure of its consulate in st petersburg russia second city and the operations of the government funded british council will cease a charity that promotes british culture abroad the russian government has long suspected it of being a cover for british intelligence it is though what in diplomatic speak might be described as a measured response or it seems their russia does not want. a fresh wanted to ask a way then the response to british. being the even more severe way with the americans they could exploit more they could cripple actually the british mission

and moscow right we russia is sending a message that's. rhetoric and then years but no more serious action number two reason may chose to double down russia's response doesn't change the facts of the matter the attempted assassination of two people on british soil. for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the russian state was culpable the british government may be emboldened by a show of support from allies like france and germany along with new sanctions aimed at russia by the united states russia meanwhile may be looking for ways to calm things down joe the whole al-jazeera moscow. joins us now from moscow so large what's the latest russian reaction on this. well certainly as joe said in the report it's a sort of a stalemate for the time being in terms of actions but the language is still extremely provocative the russian government seems to have taken the view overall

that the british were responsible for poisoning scribal not normal because of them and so the foreign ministry spokesman went on television today to offer a theory that said that the reason why the british would have done it would be to discredit the a star on a process to bring peace to syria and by poisoning scriptural with the chemical agents it would draw attention to chemical weapons use inside syria and thereby discredit russian actions inside syria which sounds a bit complicated but it sees what they say it's and and they would say well it's them what is no more complicated than than boris johnson the british foreign secretary alleging that vladimir putin was behind it with politically there's no proof about that either and so the wild language goes on and of course it's all directly on the eve of the presidential election which obviously vladimir putin is going to win again and in some ways it's very helpful for him given that he's. shtick is to say that russia is under threat and under attack and everyone's out to

get us and so obviously he'll be hoping that russian people will have been whipped up into a sense of moral outrage and therefore turn out in large numbers to vote but there is another problem for the kremlin which hasn't really come to the surface just yet is this that the constitution this is supposed to be the last time the blood amir putin can serve in office and so the question this started to be raised is this going to be his last term as president. whatever you think of him there's no denying that a lot of mir putin has made russia important again and here he was in two thousand and four winning a second time as president against a field as hopeless as the one this year but then russia's opinion on world affairs didn't count for much but as he said during this campaign people listening now his own leadership has been designed to guarantee a continued direction for russia down a very definite off making sure there is a voice in the world as loud as that of the united states at home his admirers say

his achievements the bill enormous commitment. on putin came to power it was hard for us to understand that in our government american advisers work and why were they telling us what to do nobody was talking to russia about solving global problems our country is putin's life and therefore russia's life is our president actions which in recent years made russia's presence felt have been utterly polarizing the annexation of crimea are all turning the syrian war to the advantage of the asset regime cost russia heavily putin never look comfortable at g eight meetings at the best of times now russia is alps western sanctions and the total mismanagement of russia's oil and gas wealth left most of the world's biggest country impoverished while a small clique in moscow grabbed all the money. it is striking how putin's popularity is very often at his strongest in places which is seen almost no

material benefits from his nearly twenty years in power you don't you go to show how potent identity politics and nationalism can be and they remain putin strongest cards. and so the people who run russia are coming up against a problem putin is presented as the only man to keep russia great but after this term is time supposed to be up so what who comes next yes if you had a republican you could i knew we'd already forty one option is that after twenty twenty four he changes the constitution as they did in kazakhstan and china and he stays on as long as he is capable or in the next two or three years he will pass power on to someone acceptable unless he decides to stay on forever putin will have to use this last term to cement a legacy from the look of it it will lead heavily towards militarism and even greater hostility to the west he's after all what putin does best

so clearly whatever he chooses to do in the coming years is no question that putin likes crisis and clearly to bring about the this by poisoning he's got born on his hands of the moment hasn't he and on monday which will be is that the day after the election there's a european foreign ministers meeting in which the british are going to be pushing for a but pan-european real response and reaction to to what they say the russia did and no doubt that's exactly the kind of thing that putin will enjoy tackling. me thank you very much indeed. in one u.k. police have contacted several russian exiles due to concerns over their safety following the killing of a prominent businessman because i brushed off was found dead in his home in south west london on monday police say he died from compression to the neck and a murder investigation is underway to scoff was granted political asylum in twenty ten and the u.k. and blocked attempts by russia to extradite him if barca has more rights of discourse home. the murder investigation into the death of nikolai glitched coffee

is well underway he was a body was found here at his home in south west london on monday with what police described as compression wounds to his neck he was due to appear in court earlier on monday to answer longstanding allegations of fraud that have been brought against him by his former employer russia's national airline era flight where he'd previously worked as the company's chief financial officer he'd been given political asylum here in the u.k. in two thousand and ten after previously serving a five year prison sentence in russia for financial irregularities police are also undoubtedly going to be looking at his links to the russian oligarch boris berezovsky who was a staunch critic of the kremlin and of lad he may have putin he was found dead in mysterious circumstances in two thousand and thirteen and bush coffee his friend and business partner always believed that bearers of ski had been murdered police

and the british national domestic intelligence service m i five are now said to be looking at previous cases of other russian exiles here in the u.k. that have died in mysterious circumstances they're said to be reexamining a number of cases including that of the death of boris berezovsky police here they are not linking the death here to the poisoning of assegais and uli a script and songs be just under two weeks ago on that case the british prime minister believed that it was in her eyes on equivocally the russian state that was behind the poisoning whereas shortly after the poisoning she'd insinuated that possibly a nerve agent manufactured by the state could have got out of the hands of the russian government but now she's focusing her attention directly on the russian government blaming them for that poisoning the investigation there and solsbury

continues. dozens of people have been killed by syrian government forces in eastern guta on saturday bring the death toll over the past two days to almost one hundred civilians are fleeing besieged cities at opposite ends of syria as two major battles intensify in eastern britain near the capital damascus thousands of people have left areas held by the rebels in the past few hours meanwhile in the northern city of a freend thousands are evacuating territory held by kurdish y p g fighters as turkish forces and their syrian allies try to fight their way into the city have been reports of more air and artillery bombardments in both of those areas dozens of people have been killed in the latest strikes on the town of his america in eastern guta anderson as the latest from near the turkish syrian border. anywhere else in the world they'd be running for their lives but this is syria it's a slow procession the body language of mental exhaustion and fear they may not know

what lies ahead of them they've only been able to bring what they can carry but they feel there's no other option but to leave eastern ghouta yet at the last the command of the syrian army urges all civilians to leave the areas under control of the extremist organizations through the safe corridors we affirm that we will continue to fulfill our national and constitutional duty to defend the nation until the return of security and stability throughout the country there is no united nations operation here would you be mistaken to expect a full ceasefire not far away reports of airstrikes killing more civilians one of several districts zamalka hit again on friday activists had reported in century bombing which russia had denied the head of the main syrian opposition group criticize the un the failure to protect people. from alone we hold the united

nations and the security council directly responsible for being silent around these crimes and for failing to take action to prevent these crimes but let us not forget that the syrian regime holds direct responsibility for these crimes along with the countries that continue to stand by it airstrikes are known to often coincide with such operations to evacuate civilians the opposition say it's a deliberate ploy to cause more terror and the syrian observatory for human rights says at least thirty civilians died as they attempted to fleeced and on saturday in a separate battle civilians caught between the kurdish white b.g. of the turkish backed free syrian army fighting in a fringe had been leaving in larger numbers and the turkish military denied attacking the city hospital killing sixteen people on friday it said these pictures were taken on saturday morning showing the building unscathed but the syrian observatory for human rights had shown video that the damage building it claims is

the hospital. as the f.s.a. fighters took control of a prison a turkish forces maneuvered the un grew and it was deeply along by reports of civilian deaths and it was also concerned about reports of kurdish fighters using civilians as human shields and drew simmons al-jazeera kilis of the turkish syrian border and watching out of their news from london still ahead. she was confirmed as china's leader for life and there's a major promotion for a close ally of the president. growing pains in one of india's biggest cities where surging population is running the area dry. and sport a shock defeat for the world number one at the indian wells tennis.

be identity director andrew mccabe has hit back at the us president mccabe was sacked for misconduct just days before he would have been eligible for full retirement benefits celebrated his firing on twitter saying andrew mccabe fired a great day for the hardworking men and women of the f.b.i. a great day for democracy sanctimonious james komi was his boss and made mccabe look like a choir boy he knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the f.b.i. and mccabe insists he's done nothing wrong jordan has more on the controversy andrew mccabe was an f.b.i. agent for twenty two years rising to deputy director and then acting director after his boss james kohli was fired by the trump white house in twenty seventeen but just before he planned to retire on march eighteenth mccabe too was dismissed. in a statement released late on friday night the attorney general jeff sessions said

that according to an internal agency investigation quote mr mccabe had made and an authorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor including under oath and multiple occasions i have terminated the employment of andrew mccabe effective immediately. right after this mccabe told the news media his firing was payback for doing his job investigating ties between russia and donald trump's two thousand and sixteen presidential campaign as well as overseeing the probe into hillary clinton's use of a private e-mail server while she was secretary of state now president trump has accused mccabe of partisan bias mccabe's wife a democrat received campaign donations from one of hillary clinton's allies then mccabe added this quote the attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not to just slander me personally but to taint the f.b.i.

law enforcement and intelligence professionals generally it is part of this administration's ongoing war on the f.b.i. and the efforts of the special counsel atala say robert muller who is the special counsel will want to talk to mckay but now aides now will be testifying in front of mahler and he knows a lot now what happened. during the campaign and during the investigation mr mccain can talk about the fact that when president drama fired your rector call me that was an attempt to call me when i'm actually going ahead with the investigation i'm not could be considered a structure in the justice being fired means andrew mccabe might lose his retirement and health care benefits but mccabe might also have much more to gain by telling robert muller everything he knows about any russian links to the trump

presidential campaign and that could mean the trumpet ministration might now have a much bigger problem on its hands rosalyn shorten al-jazeera washington. eric hamm is a political analyst and author of the book the g.o.p. civil war he joins us live from washington thanks so much for being with us mccabe is this is one of a long list of people who've either been fired or resigned and in this administration a nice hit back in this case and said that it's political what do you think lies behind it what do you think was the the nub of this well if you look at the number of people that were the inner circle for jennifer james komi most of them or all of them i should say have either been fired or reassigned and so we see a systematic effort by this white house to actually remove a long time long serving long. reputable law enforcement officials and now with mccabe's firing just days just hours before he was set to

resign you have even members of the republican party who find this to be vindictive and demeaning and so many are wondering what's the reason behind this and i think it's important to note that there's always been this this wall between the white house and the department of justice in the specially the f.b.i. because you never want to be seen as having the political as having their finger on the polls but simply as it relates to law enforcement or criminal justice issues and so with president trump coming into the white house we've seen that that wall that that has now just been blurred and blown apart actually and i think it's going to take a long time before we see that demarcation that's actually erected between the political and the the criminal in one just one law enforcement officials and we saw again from tom that he put the boot into the f.b.i. again even tweeting about the mccabe issue saying he knew about the lies and

corruption going on the highest level of the f.b.i. he has missed the opportunity to criticize the f.b.i. again how what you think the impact is going to be on the f.b.i. more generally but also on the moon or investigation in this. well i think what you see here when president trumps when president trump or his officials make these kinds of decisions like what we see with mckay i think what they do is they only create more problems for the president and particularly for the people who are responding on his behalf because now we know that mccabe has kept clear detailed memos of his interactions with donald trump and pretty sure that bob muller will be speaking with mckay and great detail about this and we now know that based on the subpoenas that the probe has requested on documentation from the truck trump organization we now know that he is specifically looking at president trump and so

i think this again is just another iron in the fire another layer of complexity that now i think in circles and ensnares not only this white house but this president specifically an inch in general terms i mean there was a revolving door with you know tennis and went last week and all these people going to very high level how damaging is that for the white house does it can they kind of strive in a situation of chaos like this all or ultimately is it going to bring them down to not have people in those posts. well the president is famously known for a lot of things but more importantly he's known famously for being the head of a reality style television show called the apprentice where people are fired you don't know who's going who's coming and so what's interesting is now we're seeing this reality laden television so play out at sixteen hundred pennsylvania avenue and so that's a very disconcerting because not only are you seeing people at the highest level

within his cabinet now but coming and going and the difficulty of finding people but more importantly if you look at a number of key appointments particularly within the national security realm there are more than one third of those positions mainly at the national security desk and state department and elsewhere these positions are not filled in the this administration is having a very difficult time trying to find people to fill these jobs for example if you look at the upcoming talks with north korea we are without a an envoy to north korea and an ambassador to south korea so the question becomes who will actually delete those talks more importantly iran is also looking at at those talks given the president wants to eradicate this iran nuclear deal and we see and we lack ambassadors or in places like jordan egypt and saudi arabia so i think it's going to become increasingly difficult given the chaos surrounding this

white house for the president to not only attract good people and qualified people and capable people but just people in general who he can find to work in these very demanding jobs and we can thank you very much indeed he says thank you you bet. funding cuts to health agencies are putting the world at greater risk of disease epidemics according to some in the medical industry the trump administration a republican controlled congress slashing the budget for the centers for disease control she had the chance he takes a look at what that means for preventing outbreaks. unlike many laboratories virginia's staple of oratory the hope is that nothing novel is discovered for example in its collection of frozen samples of mosquitoes or its countless test tubes of potential flu virus is this one of them actually is currently sweeping the nation. the analysis conducted here and in state labs around the u.s.

is submitted to the national census for disease control c d c were deliberations can be made about the health of the nation and disease prevention the laboratory performs laboratory testing to support the identification and factious diseases that are of public health significance but we also can identify chemicals and other toxins that could potentially cause harm in the environment to our food supply and to the animal communities but this lab is already cutting back its testing and hiring due to a proposed twelve percent funding cut for the c.d.c. and that means reduced surveillance i'm reduced reaction times to an outbreak if you cut the funding for those people who are doing this work it won't get done if we have more than one outbreak at a time if we had a food borne disease outbreak at the same time we were trying to manage the zico

response we would have been in big trouble because what you find is that the people who would respond are the same people who would be called upon to respond to a food borne disease this is a lab where they test for a boat but following west africa is above the outbreak congress awarded six hundred million. the c.d.c. to ensure such infectious diseases were kept out of the u.s. labs in africa asia and latin america were upgraded one thousand four hundred epidemiologists were trained outbreak response times have been reduced from weeks to hours but due to budget fears the c.d.c. says it's already planning to scrap its operation thirty nine countries leaving just ten the fear of an international pandemic may yet make congress renew global funding when the money runs out but it has been established while the u.s. news cycle is consumed by president trump's tweets and speculation about russia regulations and funding that affect not just the well being and security of

americans but the rest of the world are quietly being swept away. richmond virginia still ahead. faces of desperation afghanistan grapples with a rising drug problem as opium production surges. been mostly to gets more than she bargained for on the trip to australia. and it's for tiger woods it's trouble for two and a five year title drought kyra we'll have more on that thankful. hello there there's still plenty of unsettled weather across parts of the middle east at the moment here's the latest weather system as it works its way out of iraq and into iran still getting some heavy downpours as it does say and ahead of it we're seeing a few flurries of snow over the mountains in afghanistan so that system still with

us on sunday gradually retreating eastwards as we head into monday but still afghanistan looking pretty wet and actually extends all the way up into catholic stan as well then move to other weather features with this as we head through monday the next one is here that's working its way over parts of iraq not a great deal of rain on this but i think we'll see some winds and some dust being kicked up as well and then the next systems here over the western parts of turkey getting some rain and some strong winds too now as that first system worked its way across parts of q wait we saw the orange skies thanks to the dust that it was kicking up there and the whole system then gradually sunk its way towards the east brought us a few breaks of rain here in doha and across parts of the u.a.e. as well so clearing away to sea by sunday should be fine and dry the wind still feeding down the gulf so twenty eight degrees will be the maximum temperature we're expecting in doha maybe up to around twenty nine as we head through monday and the winds bringing in some slightly fresh air from madagascar we're watching our cycle as it gradually sinks southwards.

facing realities growing up when did you realize that you were living in a special place the so-called secret city getting to the heart of the matter while activists to live in jail just because he expressed himself he had their store on the tour to al-jazeera at this time. the scene for us where they're online what is american sign in yemen that peace is always possible but it never happens not because the situation is complicated but because no one cares or if you join us on sat there are people that little choosing between buying medication and eating base is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who's an

activist and has posted a story join the global conversation at this time on al-jazeera. and one of the top stories on our syria person as prime minister to resign may says the u.k. is considering its next steps after moscow announced it would expel twenty three british diplomats and close the british council in russia in a tit for tat move over the poisoning of a former double agent. u.k. producer contacted several russian exiles due to concerns over their safety following the killing of a prominent businessman. was found dead in his home in south west london on monday . and at least twenty four civilians being killed by syrian government asked trikes

and eastern on saturday thousands of people have left areas held by rebels. in the past few hours. chinese leadership paying has been reappointed unanimously by his party with no term limits effectively making him president for life a close ally of president she was voted in as his deputy by the national people's congress scott hyla has more from beijing. for the first time in history the president of china took an oath of office president xi jinping raising his fist pledging loyalty to country and constitution as he begins his second five year term and that's a constitution that was changed last week during the national people's congress here in beijing. one of the biggest differences lifting term limits on the offices of presidents and vice presidents meaning this is almost certainly not the last time we will see she take the oath. also took his oath on

saturday his first five year term as vice president only one vote was cast against him out of the nearly three thousand carefully selected delegates known as a firefighter taking on tough tasks one front at the president's anti-corruption crackdown it punished more than one and a half million officials. the election of one was no surprise he's a close ally of season ping and term limits have been lifted on the vice president's role but what will be different is that his power and influence will elevate the position that's traditionally been ceremonial get things done so see his loyalty and how he can follow he order to discipline chinese officials and he has been very successful in that and looking forward to see you would want to make sure that his power i would be stabilized to for next decade or beyond that even before the curtains close on this year's

national people's congress on tuesday wang will have his work cut out one of his responsibilities is to deal with u.s. trade friction something president trump has intensified over the past few days he's got how to al-jazeera beijing. and he's four people have died in a car bombing in the afghan capital kabul police say the bomb went off as a convoy of foreign vehicles was passing by but all those killed appeared to be local bystanders it was no immediate claim of responsibility. when afghanistan is facing a growing drug problem with around nine thousand tons of opium produced there last year heroin is an important source of revenue for the taliban and the u.s. is targeting their drug cultivation sites to anybody reports from kabul a record numbers of people are turning to drugs in desperation. in afghanistan there is a level below rock bottom it's where these lifeless expressionist drug addicts exist men who lost dignity

a long time ago they've been rounded up and herded into one of the country's biggest drug rehabilitation units in kabul. these are the other victims of this never ending war collateral damage if you like people who have lost loved ones lost jobs lost hope and their numbers are growing in afghanistan every day the forty five day program of this former military warehouse complex is basic and caters for nine hundred patients the treatment consists mainly of keeping the addicts away from drugs but it can't keep them away from the desire most relapse when they leave not that not that we need international hill we are struggling drug addiction is everywhere in the world but unfortunately it's affecting us more we have double impact one is the war and the other is that people are jobless. no rules turn to drugs eight years ago when he lost his job he abandoned all hope and his wife and six children. my from north dakota with no job or income you have no choice but to

steal and rob to get drugs addicts who have money eventually spend it all on drugs and when the money is gone they join us poor under the bridge we are no use to family society or country the bridges police doctor in kabul where the addicts live in a desolate world the afghan government estimates that three million people ten percent of the population is addicted to heroin forty percent of those are women opium cultivation is a major source of funding for the taliban and a major target for the u.s. an air campaign to destroy crops and production has been intensified. the international community's sixteen year battle against drugs in afghanistan has cost billions of dollars but poppy growing is flourishing like never before last year there was a sixty three percent growth in land use for cultivation and an eighty seven percent increase in opium production the most in afghan history farmers of turned to poppies because there's more money in them than conventional crops but the

threats from the air always there. shouldn't we are worried that foreigners are the afghan government are going to destroy our fields the farmers are the ones who face the entire hardship of cultivation but the smugglers and others are the ones who benefit the most that is beyond the concern of the addicks under the pali sakta bridge their only concern is how to get the next fix they are in direct victims of this war but their image will haunt afghanistan for many years to come tony berkeley al-jazeera kabul. and world health organization says more than seventy people have died of diphtheria in yemen the outbreak was first detected in october last year in a country already ravaged by cholera and a huckster has more. children and desperate parents from a disorganized queue at this medical clinic in santa lining up for a potential lifesaving vaccination against that their local health workers are in

force in the world health organization must vaccination program to counter the rapid spread of the disease across the country they were not created over two and a half million children aged between six weeks and fifteen years old there's been a dick theory outbreak in yemen since late last year and there are now almost thirteen hundred cases of to syria including more than seventy deaths most governorates most areas of yemen have been affected by this to syria outbreak dip there is a serious bacterial infection that affects the mucous membranes of the throat and nose once infected toxins are released and spread through the bloodstream causing the thick gray coat into the nose throat tongue and blocks away as eighty percent of the sufferers of children and young adults under twenty five years old dip there is common in many developing countries where sanitation is lacking. these facilities here a basic yemen's health system has almost collapsed after nearly three years of war

most workers have not been paid this year fairly fifty percent of all health facilities are functioning there's also a devastating cholera outbreak diphtheria outbreak and a cholera outbreak at both symptoms of a failing health system because people are not that's an aged because they do not have access to safe water because their sanitation supplies been ruined by war all of these are symptoms of a collapsed health system and this is in true due to the war and this will only improve once there is peace. peace looks a long way off yemen is engulfed in the war pitting the government forces helped by saudi led coalition against iranian backed coup theory rebels as the conflict continues so does the suffering of millions of yemenis trapped in a situ. the un has cooled the world's largest humanitarian crisis. al-jazeera. wouldn't thirty african leaders have signed

a petition aimed at protecting elephants from poaching the presidents of kenya uganda gabble and botswana a leading the call for the european union to ban the sale of ivory more than half of africa's savannah elephants live in those four countries the presence of part of a group called the giants club focused on the conservation of the world's largest land mammal african elephant is the largest animal walking the earth and is under threat from a loss of habitat as human populations grow the bigger danger those coming from poaching in one nine hundred eighty there were around one point three million african elephants now it's estimated there are only around four hundred thousand of them left the killing is mostly driven by the demand for ivory in asia at its peak the price of one kilogram of ivory exceeded two thousand dollars but after china banned the ivory trade the price went down to around seven hundred dollars and while it's easy to imagine that poverty in africa is forcing people to sell ivory most poaching is carried out by well organized groups of traffickers last year

seizures of large scale ivory shipments hit a record high during a set from washington d.c. is a president and founder of the elephant project dane waters thank you very much indeed for being with us so what do you make of this call to the e.u. to stop its ivory trade how much difference would that make or they can make a tremendous amount of difference i mean it's a it's amazing that you think about these african leaders you know twenty years ago would never have done something like this but it's amazing that they're actually calling on the european union to take action and i believe the european union who has traditionally been very supportive of animal welfare and conservation efforts i think really will heed this call at least i'm very optimistic that they will heed this call and take action and what about i mean the we just said just now that the part of the problem is the trade with asia how big a trade is there in europe give us an idea of the scale of it. well i think the you know outside of china the united states of trade and ivory of course is the largest in the european union when the problems we have in the european union is the fact that you know if you have two or three of the member states that are pushing back

it's very difficult for the european union to take action however with the china chinese ban and with the additional support the united states barring what donald trump is doing i do believe the european union will follow suit and take action if we shut down the european union market we shut down the chinese market and i think that will go a long way into ending poaching throughout the throughout africa and asia you mentioned briefly to present that is the president of thoughts want to he's criticized what he said was concurring pitching tell us a bit about what that's about and and how have sniffin does it to have a mask an edict criticizing trump on this is that you know he difference. what i think listen donald trump his behavior on this issue has been reprehensible i mean the our the department of interior. decided to allow the import of elephant trophies into the united states and we were very optimistic about three months ago and donald trump said that that behavior was wrong and he suspended that decision by the department of interior but now they have come out and donald trump once again and says ok i will now allow for the import of this elephant trophies you

know i we should applaud the president botswana what he's doing but what donald trump is doing is reprehensible he wants to make america great again he keeps talking about that but america has always been a leader in the you know the anti ivory trade in one thousand nine hundred nine one of our board members conny harriman was in there was was was key and developing the site he's treating on banning ivory but what donald trump has done is he a set back the protection of elephants more than any other leader in this in this in this world as far as i'm concerned in terms of the practicalities of protecting innocents what kind of things make the biggest difference what you're going to sation doing that can help to protect and. well there's several things that has to happen first is to diminish the markets which is happening in china and hopefully throughout the european union number one number to increase awareness and the fact that you have over thirty presidents and nations in africa that are coming out and saying listen this must stop will raise awareness which will do go a long way to helping stop stop the ivory trade the third thing is also protecting

those elephants that you know that currently have no protection you know you look at you know what it's not just africa by the way you know asia has a very you know their population is down to fifty thousand elephants and they need protection as well once again it's not just ivory and asia what you're seeing is that the skins in the hides are being used for medicinal purposes so so we have to look not just at the ivory issue we have to look at that well as well and then the third thing is a fourth thing is actually shutting down the ports for example we're doing a lot of work in nigeria lagos has become one the largest exporters of illegal ivory in the world so shutting down the export. the ability of all of these terrorist to export the ivory and the fourth thing is to find long term funding solutions which we're working on for elephant conservation protection efforts around the world day which is that from the elephant project thank you very much for joining us thank you. thank you for having me today a group of lawyers in australia has filed a private prosecution against me in money to send chichi over the country's

treatment of muslim or hinge it says she is in sydney for a meeting of southeast asia need is andrew thomas reports. it's not an image long song suchi that anyone would have created a few years ago but now refugees in australia blame her for the persecution of the hinge in myanmar they are disgusted that australia's government has welcomed at the sydney. lists and indicated the problems the other problems in her own country why long song suchi is in australia with all the latest for the association of southeast asian nations or as the end summit five lawyers are trying to get her prosecuted we have lodged a private prosecution application in the magistrates court victoria accusing unsung suchi of crimes against humanity specifically the crime of deportation and forcible

transfer of people australia is attorney general says but international convention heads the government and ministers of foreign affairs have immunity from prosecution but human rights lawyers say that immunity shouldn't apply on song suchi is not officially the head of the en masse government and lawyers say what vera accusing her of has nothing to do with her foreign affairs portfolio so isn't covered by the immunity protocol others in sydney protested the presence of viet nam's prime minister neutron folk and cambodia's leader one saying who's been accused of crushing the opposition and violating human rights there's not a strong an ambiguous message from the struggling government about crackdown in cambodia i think it's you know a big mistake for the government just so completely gloss over those issues or just deal with them quietly on the fringes they should be front and center of a summit like this police are not allowing protests right outside the convention center where the asean talks are happening but these protesters did get close as

young ladies will be out of here these protests where they're meeting but it's unlikely they'll be talking about them too much but then the focus is on trade. and security. australia's prime minister malcolm turnbull says he'll raise the range of prices with aung sang suu kyi but his main focus on saturday was combating terrorism and how to pursue free trade opportunities in the face of protectionism together we can seize those opportunities but to do so governments and businesses must remain committed to the rules based order and be be fierce advocates and persuasive advocates above all for free and open trade the as in some it runs on both saturday and sunday the protesters are expected to as well andrew thomas al jazeera sydney. one of the world's fastest growing cities could be about to run out of water bangalore is a hub of technology but urban growth neglect and unpredictable rainfall of caused it to dry out such

a look as what they are reports. bangalore is the epi center of india's high tech industry it's even nicknamed silicon valley despite all its advances in cutting edge technology it's facing a major problem water or rather the lack of it in that if you tell a big bang a little bit of what this is this is the main point of this and then if anything this that is going to make it collapse it will be because of the war that it's the city's population has doubled over the last fifteen years to more than ten million as young i.t. workers arrive to take up high tech jobs but about half of them have to rely on tankers for their water supply i would say this is because of unplanned that been a nation that's happened in the band the landscape sold a senseless irresponsible ad but as a ship bangalore's dry fields are replacing what was once fertile and profitable land farming is now on luxury and fewer crops mean higher prices at local markets.

it's also a challenge elsewhere in india thousands of farmers marched to mumbai recently demanding more access to land and financial help from the government india is not alone inadequate supplies of water have become an international problem cape town in south africa has its own crisis to deal with after a three year drought the city is predicted to reach a day zero in early july when its water supplying reservoir sink below thirteen percent of capacity in india the supreme court is now involved last month that allowed for a new river sharing arrangement for the indian state of karnataka of which bangalore is the capital and the prices on board the call as if not a. looming problem which is when a. that really that we love must force almost everyone audio video host to pick up measures naked in order harvesting and water conservation measures it's hoped the warnings are now being treated seriously enough that action can be taken

to preserve water and keep it flowing. katia lopa so the young al jazeera. still ahead on the program or sporting clearing your skiing star michela shiffrin and so season winning that he tells me just ahead. what went wrong in society that opened up the space for. race is the european problem and it's not accountable and it's impossible for people to get it is falling apart people don't want to take more of a lead that it profit a stronger man our song woman who was getting the growth projection isn't this problem because the model doesn't work europe's forbidden colony episode two at this time on al-jazeera one of the really special things about working for

al-jazeera is that even as a camera woman i get to have so much empathy and contribution to a story i feel we cover this region better than anyone else working for us as you know it's very challenging given in the particular because you have a lot of people that are divided on political issues we are we the people we live to tell the real stories are just mended is to deliver in-depth journalism we don't feel inferior to the audience across the globe. tumble sport on his far. lauren thank you so much we start with football we're taught them are for the first team through to the semifinals of the english f.a.

cup chinos side were three nil winners at swansea on saturday christian eriksen finding the back of the net twice for the visitors. was also on the scoresheet spurs are bidding for their first trophy since winning the english league cup back in two thousand and eight much as united will be hoping to put the disappointment of their midweek exit from the wafer champions league behind them as they host brighton in saturday's other quarterfinal that kicks off in about an hour while on sunday wigan host southampton and leicester take on chelsea. rugby six nations competition concluded on saturday and it was a st patrick's day to remember for champions ireland ireland had already secured the six nations crown last week but a twenty four fifteen victory over england at twickenham meant they also sealed the grand slam for winning every game in the tournament. you know hans arco of france has smashed a lap record to claim pole position for sunday's moto g.p. season opener at the counter grand prix but all eyes were on the sport superstar

valentino rossi who will race from fifth the early response to motor g.p. rider simon patterson who told us why rossi is so important to the sport's. it's massive valentino rossi is still the face that everyone associates with moto g.p. so to have him in the championship for what would be another three years is a big deal but i think he's not just there to be a face a that he still you know ultra competitive he was second fastest yesterday morning in the first session of the first round of the year and the only reason he's still there is because he thinks he can win the championship he's being hunting for is a list of ten title for the best part of a decade and he's not going to rest too easy until he gets it there's a real charisma around rossi there's a real passion for the sport which you don't always get off some of the other writers you always feel that even if he wasn't talented enough to be in then time will be need be right now by going to car park with his mates somewhere just having some fun and you know he very much money just to get that across and i think

because because motor g.p. because by chris saying is. it's a little bit more of an each sport sort of all bikers or motor g.p. fans for not all car drivers are formula one funds it's quite easy for people to relate to that passion that he brings we were doing quite a good job of developing new markets especially scythe asia and south america they've really sort of started to expand in the last few years and there's a huge clamor at the minute to get a race in indonesia in particular we've got our first malaysian writer on the grid this year the first writer from that part of the great a kid called as if say rain has already proven to be incredibly popular and is doing good things for the sport they're the team that he's signed for the monster take three team have seen like a three fold expansion in the social media in the month that he's been with them so it's you know that's already starting to feel the impact of it we were expecting a sell out crowd at the malaysian race. we're going to thailand for the first time

in october we were there last month for a test and we get a bigger crowd there for the test than we do for some races i think in terms of week by week we're going to see a lot of unpredictability there's a lot of be. very very fast writers they shear some of the fighters started given some of the smaller teams bikes that are on par with the likes of what mark has and of its sousa were all so there's a lot of very fast writers on very very good machinery and well maybe they can't win you know put their title challenge and win every week they can win on their day and that's you know that's going to throw a spanner into the works of the championship contenders. you prevailed over experience at the indian wells tennis on friday as both world number one simona halep and seven time a grand slam champion venus williams lost in the semifinals howlett was beaten by twenty year old i only osaka japan in straight sets there are many and didn't win a single game in the second set as a soccer progressed to the final of what is one of the biggest events outside of the foreground slams the world number forty four also knocked maria sharapova and

caroline and will score this tournaments. it was another twenty or so who ended williams' run in indian wells world number nineteen daria kemp sakina coming back from a set down to be her thirty seven year old points at sixteen and will now meet for the first time in their careers in sunday's final. in the men's draw succeed. set up a semi final clash with canada's milos raonic the argentine beating germany's filipe kohlschreiber and three sets to progress to the last four roger federer is taking on twenty one year old canadian croatian born to porridge in the other semifinal. just a few days ago tiger woods enjoyed his best finish at a tournament since undergoing four back operations in three years but he's hit trouble in his latest effort to win a title for the first time since two thousand and thirteen woods has won the arnold

palmer invitational a record eight times during his career but after a second round the seventy two in florida he's pushed seven shots off the lead. i think it's the fact that i've played under the gun so many times here and i've won some in terms. of experience so many different things some different ways of winning and i think that's. young and tough and with comfort and a lot of different scenarios got a. lot of wins under so many different scenarios. the penultimate day of the winter paralympics in pyongyang has been a golden one for china they won their first ever winter paralympic gold medal in the mix curling they beat norway in the final this is also just their first medal of these games it's a big boost for the nation who will host the next paralympics in beijing in four years time. well here's how the medal table is looking with just one day of

competition left in the usa who are in control with a total of twelve gold medals the neutral paralympic athletes and canada both have eight golds germany and the ukraine round out the top five. staying with winter sports where u.s. skiing scart star mckayla shifrin stormed to victory in the final slalom event of the season in sweden on saturday the twenty three year old finished a massive one point five eight seconds ahead of switzerland when wendy hold now for her forty third world cup victory and thirty seconds in slalom schifrin had secured a fifth world cups long crown a week ago making up for her fourth place finish in the display and at last month's chang olympics she also pledged the overall world cup title for the second consecutive time. for. austria as marcel her sure also ended his season on a winning note in sweden the double olympic champion from young chang getting his

fifty eight career victory in the giant slalom her sure had wrapped up the world title on the seventh consecutive overall championship two weeks ago and i'll tell you sport for now it's now back to laurin in london thank you so much indeed and that's it for me. to will be here to meet with more of the day's news thanks for watching susie. when the winning the will of the people hinges on the mass media and the state p.r. machine is going to overdrive. but just who is influencing.

we just don't know yet where the lines will be drawn between can be said and what conduct that. some journalists decided to sacrifice their integrity for access to polling the media opinion the listening post base time on al-jazeera. conservation ease helping kick is stowed to recover at snow leopard population to see the results i traveled up to the remote nature reserve of saudi chat at a touch camera traps have identified a healthy population of up to twenty slowed up it's just the technology improves we're finding all these ways in which our guesses are are getting corrected the latest evidence suggests that more cats than previously acknowledged but the slowed up a trust believes it's premature to downgrade the cats on the international list of threatened species. we are witnessing around the word this whole remind me which is

only looking at how to make the next profit devastate economies devastating ecosystems putting a price on the protection of nature green economy is sound good but it was all about privatized sation of nature should our environment be for sale what we're trying to do this destroyed people to stabilize the country giving them a financial incentive to do that pricing the planet at this time on al-jazeera. a war on two fronts in the south tens of thousands of civilians a skate gravel talcott's in ghouta as astronauts continue while in the north turkish warplanes pound the town of affray forcing one hundred fifty thousand men women and children to flee.