from one of the thousands of i.e.d. strewn through the landscape of this lawless tribal region in pakistan with only the most basic equipment a fearless bomb disposal unit are determined to counter the horrors of a relentless taliban onslaught. armed with faith but witness documentary at this time on al-jazeera. this is zero. hello there i'm julie we're done and this is the news hour live from london coming up in the next sixty minutes three billion dollars five hundred thirty three

million dollars and under usual photo of the u.s. president both it's about arm sales to saudi arabia as the host prime prince mohammed bin solved by six is facebook guilty of turning up blind eye of florentines in the u.s. and europe demand answers about what role it played in a data are protesting scandal. we pay tribute to sit down the world's last male northern white rhino died at the age of forty five. i'm joining in doha with the day's sports needs me now messi and argentina begin their preparations for this year's world cup as they arrive in manchester to face italy and frankly. a very warm welcome to the news are good to have your company saudi arabia's crown prince mohamed bin someone has met the u.s. president at the white house with don't trump using the counter for an unusual full

to opportunity trump displayed launch cards to illustrate the benefits arms sales to riyadh bring the u.s. box on capitol hill senate says have been critical of saudi arabia swore in yemen and the u.s. government's involvement in it all official reports from washington. it was a looky rival for such a high profile visit the crown prince from saudi arabia did not go in through the front door but soon found himself in the oval office and there us president donald trump addressing merely a domestic audience to put unity to a claim the financial importance of the city relationship some of the things that have been approved and are currently under construction and will be delivered. so the review very soon this is mohammed bin soundman second visit to the white house in a year and he was keen to point out this was the continuation of an old alliance the oldest ally first of america in the middle east right more than eighty years but

there was a warning from the president to saudi arabia and others in the region whether it's on arabia or other countries as we know there will be no funding it is we have a zero tolerance for the funding of terrorists among the things to be covered in the talks the iran nuclear deal security across the middle east. and the war in yemen which was also being discussed across time with some u.s. senators expressing concern about america's continued support of the saudi led operation in the country u.s. forces have been actively engaged in support of the saudi coalition in this war providing intelligence an aerial refueling of planes whose bombs have killed thousands of people and made this humanitarian crisis far worse crime prince's visit here to the white house marks the start of a three week trip to the united states he'll meet business leaders oil executives academics representatives from silicon valley's high tech companies and the movie industry all aimed at reshaping his kingdom's image here in the united states but

one analyst says there are bigger issues to deal with closer to home for saudi arabia of course saudi arabia has transformed itself as a from a status quo power to it but to an activist party in the region which has put it directly at a coalition course with iran and sets the stage for a very dangerous and unpredictable environment there was no mention of the ongoing gulf crisis in the oval office a saudi led treated bargo against qatar has no been in place for ten months and donald trump has moved away from his offer to host talks for everyone at camp david mohammed bin salman has a long list of things to be discussed debated and agreed joining this us trip and he does so believe in his relationship. but the president is deep strong and mutually beneficial alan fischer al-jazeera at the white house well earlier i spoke to al-jazeera senior political analyst marwan bashara he says the use of a car was a strange move

a few years ago it was israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu at the united nations showing the nuclear. disaster if iran you know develops nuclear weapon and that was a total flop so i'm not exactly sure why president tom decided to do and i think you know two point zero but i think americans like to admit it israelis nowadays including with those children illustrations because that's what it was it was children illustrations i mean why exactly we need the map and where the jobs are you q could have just said it but i think he needed to use that kind of educational aid if you want no i think seriously i mean it's was a bit of a fun moment but says a speaking it is. it's a tragic comedy because in the day he was showing. numbers in the billions on the hundreds of millions about the sieves of arms to saudi arabia why it's a twar in yemen and tens of thousands of people dying misplaced

and so on so forth tens of thousands of casualties complete destruction of the country and generally speaking even when it's totally hypocritical the united states and us president would be going you know we we might sell arms is good for jobs but there are legal frameworks there's international humanitarian law and so on so forth none of that at this point into so behind the scenes is it possible that. was waiting in. on the side of tying things up in yemen as you say a horrendous conflict that's cost the lives of so many people do you think that happened behind the scenes at one point. john secretary of defense mattis and mentioned that this conflict needs to be resolved diplomatically but really not much else and really it's not about a declaration here or there it's really more about a policy and putting all the assets behind the policy and we haven't seen any of

that if anything we've seen donald trump inciting saudi arabia in as much as saudi arabia incites donald trump on the question of iran and what they see as iranians clients in the middle east including in yemen they consider the healthiest to be supported or sponsored if you will by by to her and even though iranian presence in yemen is actually minuscule if it's at all there's certainly a support for the horses but not in that significant way not certainly not in the way that the united states supports saudi arabia but be that as it may i think clearly on the three important levels of the relationship on terms of transactional commercial certainly the crown prince of saudi arabia is coming in to pay up at least in part his commitments to the united states in terms of. commercial deals

and buying arms and so on so forth in terms of on the political level i think clearly the american president tried to sell the crown prince not to the american public so i think that's the second sale how to solve the united saudi arabia to the to the american people when the image is really bad and the third the last is really the strategic war and the one that has to do with the realizing so the arabia and the united states against iran. facebook will brief u.s. senate and house seats on wednesday over a computer hacking scandal involving the data of millions of facebook users cambridge and other sicko worked for donald trump's presidential bid and the brics it campaign in the u.k. the political consultancy based in london is accused of giving an authorized access to the data of fifty million facebook users its chief executive has just been suspended he's been secretly recorded all sitting about the firm's ability to sway elections news of the scandal hit facebook shares well they've fallen another five

point seven percent after dropping almost seven percent on monday which wiped nearly forty billion dollars off the firm's value sonia gave us the story. a virtual world with a very real money making data trail users of social media platforms unaware how profitable the information they have is for those who are willing to access it the scandal involving facebook may make many of us reconsider that. cambridge analytical is accused of misusing the data of millions of facebook uses a whistleblower who works for the british based data mining firm says the information was used to build a system which may have influenced voters in the u.s. presidential election and other votes to data was used to create profiling algorithms that would allow us to explore mental vulnerabilities of people and then

map out ways to inject information into different in different streams or channels of content online so that people started to see things all over the place that may or may not have been true this is a company really took fake news to the next level by pairing it with algorithms for some politicians the advantage of using information harvested from social media be used as a north try and get into the minds of potential voters but there's been little questioning of the consequences which is now why the information commissioner wants that search warrant to get into the offices of. behind me here and to get an audit of. the details of millions of facebook users were reportedly gathered by a university professor using a personality testing out he created called this is your digital life while users gave their permission for information to be used by him it's alleged the data was

then sold to a third party cambridge analytic or in violation of facebook's own policies but cambridge analytic denies doing anything wrong and says it deleted. when it discovered how the data had been attained from. book not only is britain's data protection watchdog after proof the data was wiped facebook says it wants that proof to the social media giant has since hired a digital forensics to find out how the data was leaked and assurances but it was destroyed but its response may have come too late facebook share price fell almost seven percent wiping nearly forty billion dollars of its value the company's chief of security alex thomas is reportedly to leave because of internal disagreements of how facebook should deal with its role in spreading disinformation this theft of data happened over four years ago so it's very surprising to see them be so reactors had

a proactive politicians in britain and the us are now pushing for facebook's chief executive mark zuckerberg to appear before them to answer questions over the massive data breach meanwhile the accusations against cambridge analytic are rapidly growing since. an undercover investigation by britain's channel four secretly taped a cambridge analytical executive appearing to boast about the firm's ability to sway elections by entrapping politicians in compromising situations. and conducting fake news campaigns something facebook's accused of enabling and failing to tackle effectively sunny day ago al-jazeera london well i'm now joined by cain senior fellow at the center for american progress he's in washington d.c. ken a very warm welcome to the program what do you find interesting alarming perhaps about this story assistive elop in so far. well i think the most

alarming thing to learn about this particular incident with facebook is that it's probably not unique from what we've learned for the last couple of days from whistleblowers and investigations is that facebook basically built its business model from two thousand and seven on words about allowing app developers to use its platform and its services to design that harvested data from facebook users and the manner in which this particular incident with the app that was designed by the cambridge university professor and then that information was transmitted on to cambridge analytic the political consultancy is very similar apparently to basically how hundreds if not thousands of apps were developed for facebook and on facebook's platform and so what we could be talking about here is

a systemic type of data transfer from facebook users to third party apps and then after it makes that transfer we just don't know at all what's going to happen to that data. interesting the facebook doesn't see itself in the wrong here it basically says that cambridge am going to come breached you know its terms and conditions why do you think they've been so slow to react given that you know this data breach or whatever it is we're supposed to call it happened quite a few years ago. well it's consistent with the way that facebook has handled almost all allegations coming at it since the twenty sixteen election i mean they started out just after the election basically denying that there was any problem of this information or fake news on its forms and the way it had to be forced to admit that there were problems in the way it's news feed was was pushing

sensationalized false information into people's accounts and so this type of denial this stonewalling this trying to blame it all on bad actors is consistent with the way facebook has responded to any kind of scrutiny that it is faced since the two thousand and sixteen election and frankly it's consistent with the type of attitude that it's displayed to any closer look at its activities really since its inception and so what was likely to happen now is we've seen the reaction here in washington both in the political world and on capitol hill that elected officials are taking a much much closer look at facebook in particular but social media companies in general and it seems very likely to me that not only hearings are on the horizon but more regulation is coming and can what could that regulation look like i think

especially as we're at a point today where as ironically on my own news feed and facebook a lot of it was about how to divvy up your profile it feels to me like we've reached some sort of tipping point where people are saying actually i want to control what's being done with my data do you think that that is a point that we've reached that. well i think we're getting there but i think one of the challenges that we face with social media is convenience. so many people are just lured into it because of the ease with which the companies try and get you onto their platforms and the second challenge that we face with social media companies is that some of the smartest people in the world some of the most talented computer programmers are sitting there in silicon valley trying to design a way to make you stay on their platform you specific based on the data that they are able to harvest from you they are able to design ways to get you to specifically stay on their platform and so that is

a very very difficult thing to break the break that connection so where regulation can go i think there's some low hanging fruit about not allowing the social media companies to hide behind these incredibly complex terms of use agreements that essentially. allow them to allow the user to sign away all of their rights as soon as they as they enter and let's be clear nobody really reads those and so they get a huge amount of protection from creating these very complex the terms of use agreements the second thing i think we are likely to see is the prohibition on apps that can scrape or harvest data from not just individuals who agreed to participate on the app or in a survey but their friends and their connections and that's what we have learned about the facebook programs over the course of the last several days with all of these revelations is it wasn't just people who agreed to use the the service wasn't

didn't agree to sign up to the app it was their friends and connections that that day was it was harvested so if we can find a way to take those two quick steps to to not allow the terms of service to be so complex that that they are essentially meeting. as for the user and prohibit the kind of data harvesting that gets not just to individuals who do provide consent but to their entire network of friends and connections i think those would be two pretty easy quick steps can get there from the center for american progress ken thank you there's much more to come on the news hour a former french president nicolas sarkozy is taken into custody over allegations he took millions from libya to help fund his election campaign. to russia with no it's very much love twenty three diplomats expelled by the u.k. . and then being back into the spotlight brazil's star newmar makes a rare appearance since the world cup. injury.

in syria states media says thirty five people have been killed after a rocket fired by opposition flying to landed in a marketplace in a government held area of damascus it happened at the cash school market close to rebel held parts of the some cool to that area has come under heavy bombardment from the syrian army and its allies if we've spent weeks in a honda is following the story from beirut. this is not the first time civilians in damascus in government controlled territory are killed by rocket fire rebels have fired rockets into damascus since the pro-government alliance launched the bombing campaign over a month ago in fact over thirty civilians have been killed this is the way that the rebels have been retaliate and it is also one of the reasons why according to the government they have launched this campaign to recapture eastern with or to

eliminate this threat now the bombing that targeted the busy market in damascus. coinciding with renewed escalation in. the rebel pockets the rebel pockets in eastern who are coming under heavy fire over the past twenty four hours dozens of civilians are being killed continue to be killed in this ongoing campaign. is only going to get worse. under attack the northern pockets of what is now a divided rebel and cleave is again a battleground there was a brief lull in the violence but the argument has resumed after what syrian military sources say is the collapse of. one of the three rebel factions in eastern . congo. she controls it is defending what is left of a stronghold syrian military sources say the group refused to accept demands by

a russian military delegation the pro-government alliance says it will step up military operations to force a surrender or pressure back to the negotiating table oh. definitely shelling is targeting civilians and it hasn't stopped. this is an airstrike right now as you can see the plane is bombarding residential areas from bombardments haven't stopped since yesterday until this very moment. tens of thousands of civilians are trapped in eastern looters. largest population center cynthia assault was launched more than a month ago syrian government forces and their allies have advanced deep inside the rebel controlled area outside damascus splitting it into three pockets aid managed to enter to my joining recent weeks but one of the warehouses was hit in monday's attacks humanitarian agencies said the supplies that were delivered were far from enough but they were desperately needed by

a population that has been under tight siege for months that brief ceasefire in tomorrow also allowed dozens of wounded and sick people to be evacuated to hospitals the delivery of aid the evacuation of medical cases and a ceasefire are what the rebel factions are demanding but it's not clear how much bargaining power they have they have been weakened after losing a lot of territory the pro-government alliance has the upper hand on the ground and its aim since the start of the bombing campaign is to recapture eastern and the presence of the opposition in the area. that the syrian army is now clearing and it's terrorists and is removing all the explosive devices and after that we went into all the way until we reach job or until every piece of land in eastern water is liberated. the battle has caused immense human suffering the united nations is warning of a further deepening of the crisis it says more than forty five thousand people have

been displaced seventy percent of them women and children and they along with hundreds of thousands of others trapped in the rubble pockets face what the united nations calls a catastrophic situation. beirut. a former french president nicholas sarkozy is being held by police over allegations that he received millions of dollars in illegal campaign financing from the former libyan leader moammar gadhafi investigators are looking into claims that the gadhafi regime caves are causing as much as sixty million dollars so of course he's always denied any wrongdoing at pacha but reports. nicolas sarkozy only served one term as french president he swept to power in two thousand and seven promising a new style of leadership but left office amid allegations that his presidential campaign had received illegal funds from libya in two thousand and twelve a french news website published documents suggesting former libyan leader mohamed

gadhafi had agreed to give sarkozy's campaign fifty million dollars today the editor says it's one of more than france's biggest political scandals. when the arab spring kicks off starting in tunisia and people start rising up there are real questions about this twenty eleven war where france with nicolas sarkozy overstepped the mandate of the united nations to the point where a regime was overthrown allowing for a dictator to be assassinated one can wonder if there was not a dimension of private war to destroy the evidence for thirty plus the allegations of overshadowed sarkozy's political career some people in france questioned why just months into his presidency sarkozy and find to get daffy to paris for a lavish state visit at the time gadhafi had been eager to shake off his image as a political pariah and reenter the world stage then in twenty thirteen a french lebanese businessman said it carried millions of dollars from tripoli to

paris for sarkozy's campaign although. these are the facts yes yes gaddafi pates a cozy. he paid for the complain he paid for other things it's not my problem. techie teens accusations helped end sarkozy's third presidential bid. it. was a disgrace and you know the shamed to be giving publicity to a man who's been in prison he's been convicted numerous times of slander who is a liar so cozies under formal investigation into other corruption cases but so far police haven't established a direct link between the former president and any illegal libyan money foreign campaign funding is banned in france nicolas sarkozy has always denied receiving any illegal funding from libya i know that the news he has accused his opponents or

the political smear campaign now that he has retired from politics it will be harder for him to use that line of defense convincingly that are so bottler al-jazeera paris. twenty three russian diplomats and their families have left the u.k. and allow over the poisoning of a former spy in solsbury but nicky's is moscow of using the nerve agent nova chalk in an attack on circus cripple and his daughter who still critically ill in hospital moscow denies the claims and has retaliated by forcing the same number of british embassy staff to leave russia barnaby phillips reports. an abrupt farewell to colleagues and to london some eighty people diplomats and families are believed to have left the russian embassy for those on their way and those left behind this is not been a happy day. the ambassador held a reception for those leaving a few days ago the mood appears to have been somebody else though. those being

expelled would resume their diplomatic careers elsewhere. so the diplomats and their families have left they will argue that their lives have been cruelly and unnecessarily disrupted the british government argues that the spying capacity of that embassy has been severely weakened. the british prime minister lead a national security meeting the outcome britain's borders have been tightened against those who threaten it other measures against russia being considered on the soles reattack will be discussed at this week's news some and. they arrive late at night. in the coming days both the u.k. and russia will seek to persuade global opinion two very different versions of what happened insoles pre thought to be phillips al jazeera loved. still ahead on the news hour a new twist in the u.s. gun debate as an armed guard stops a school shooting and kills the gun. and the way to spot

a fair series we look at the crippling effects of drive on south africa's agricultural sector. gender pay route in the common trade the third does mcenroe deserve more money my tina. siberian cold completely disappeared but i think we've seen the last real push of it. all the way through western europe and done to northern spain it's now tucked into this current of cloud here that is going to make some difference because as he winds up with the current active system bring a lot of rain to spain some starts as the apple nines and then quite a lot of snow again across croatia and probably hungary unplayed not stretch out towards the rumanian this is still the very story part of europe the cold bit well

still france and germany across to austria still attacking the siberian stuff that's a single for. because you're nervous but this improving in spain twelve in madrid in the sun should be out make you feel better. about nine zero to five miss this passing snow isn't really siberia now she's a bit of proper late winter stuff running through northern germany does still cause feel cold in many many places as yet now a result of what's happening the western med means we will see some pretty miserable weather on the shores of algeria into museum look at the maximum temperature dodgy as eleven degrees that we can improve on not of course as the sun comes out but not very much and if your analogy is just expect to miserable days. stories of life. and inspiration. a series of short documentaries from around the wilds. that celebrate the human

spirit against the arts kind of coming from pay for play. al-jazeera selects change may cause at this time 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 would be what it is you know is that the tendency to believe but the good because you have a lot of people that are divided on political issues we are we the people believe to tell the real stories are just mended is to deliver in-depth enemies and we don't feel inferior to the audience across the globe.

our minds out of our top stories here on al-jazeera saudi arabia's crown prince mohammed bin solomon has met donald trump at the white house the two leaders shared an unusual full opportunity with the u.s. president using large cards to illustrate the benefits arms sales to riyadh's the u.s. . syrian state media says thirty five people have been killed after a rocket fired by opposition fighters landed in a marketplace in a government held the area to mask. the c.e.o. of cambridge analytical the firm accused of misusing data from fifty million facebook users has been suspended facebook's also on the mountain pressured to explain its role in the scandal for politicians of the u.s. and here in the u.k. . donald trump has called his russian counterpart vladimir putin to congratulate

him on his reelection to also discussed arranging a meeting pascall him is following developments from washington d.c. . u.s. president donald trump took the opportunity during his meeting with the crown prince of saudi arabia in the oval office to announce that he had called russian president vladimir putin to congratulate him on his election victory he said that the two would be meeting very soon he said to discuss issues such as syria ukraine north korea and what he called an arms race as you know he made a statement that being an arms race is not a great thing that was right after the election one of the first statements you made and we are spending seven hundred billion dollars this year our military a lot of it is that we are going to remain stronger than any other nation in the world by far now this is notable because of how few western leaders have made similar phone calls to the russian president senator john mccain put out a pretty scathing statement he says this is something the american president simply still do in his words they don't congratulate dictators for sham elections he went

on to say to do so in solves all of the russians who are denied their chance to vote in a free and fair election asked about that at the white house the white house spokeswoman sara sanders said that it's important for the u.s. and russia to be able to talk about important issues she went on to say that she wouldn't characterize whether or not the elections in russia were free or fair saying that it's really not for the u.s. to tell other countries how to run their elections as for alleged russian interference in the u.s. election she said that didn't come up neither she says did the poisoning of that former russian double agent in the united kingdom along with his daughter again not a topic for discussion on this call. a student who opened fire on classmates in a u.s. high school has died it's not yet clear whether the teenager shot himself or was killed by a school officer it's the latest school shooting in the country as momentum builds to was a student march in the nation's capital this weekend i was joe castro will ports.

before the morning bell could signal the start of class the ringing of a gunshot echoed through the crowded hallway of great mills high school in maryland police say a seventeen year old boy named austin rollins hold out a hand gun and shot two students one a sixteen year old girl had a prior relationship with rawlins the other is a fourteen year old boy both remain hospitalized when this shooting took place our school resource officer who was his station inside the school was alerted to the the event and the shots being fired. he pursued the shooter engage the shooter during which that engagement he fired a round at the shooter the shooter died at a hospital police say they get to determine whether he shot himself or was killed by the school officer meanwhile terrified parents are reunited with their children sit out here at the school to get an education. and then we get calls that

there's shootings in people i believe in schools that were missed something going to be done the shooting here was the twenty first incident involving gun violence or threat of violence in u.s. schools since february fourteenth. that's the day nicholas cruz is accused of walking into a florida high school and killing seventeen students and teachers with a semiautomatic rifle he's now facing the death penalty for the murders because he was scared i won the six hundred students at great mills had joined in last week's school walkout in honor of the florida victims and to demand a tighter gun control laws let's go live to heidi jocasta in may land so where you are now the students feel about gun control. well certainly after the events of this morning julie they are feeling that they certainly have a more personal stake in this never would they have expected that this violence would come to their own campus and now many are saying they plan to participate in

a previously planned march of students upon washington d.c. that will take place saturday that rally is organized by survivors of the florida school shooting and they have said that anywhere close to half a million participants from around the country will be marching along the national mall in d.c. to deliver a message to congress and to the president and they say that message is simple which is that children's lives are more important than guns heidi how does this play what happened today into this idea of arming teachers does the fact that it was an armed officer at the school who stopped this from escalating is that changing the national conversation well it's again falling along partisan lines if you look at social media supporters of the national rifle association and of course the association itself is cheering this incident as one

time when the presence of another gun was able to quell this violence before it became worse but then the other side is pointing out the key difference here which is the fact that this was a trained police officer who was armed whose job sole purpose on this campus was to prevent this type of a tragedy and to stop it from unfolding which he did however it's a different question altogether to train teachers who have not the calling for them is not to fire a gun rather to educate students and in fact most teacher unions in the united states and most law enforcement is against this idea pushed by president donald trump to arm teachers. they're joining me live from maryland thank you. case in texas has sent a hazardous materials team to fedex step or near san antonio to investigate an explosion there a package filled with nails and shrapnel exploded at the distribution center early on tuesday he said looking into whether it was linked to

a series of bombings in austin explosion on tuesday is the fifth of texas in the past nineteen days two men of been killed and several others hurt in those attacks john hendren has more now from austin. a fifth package bomb has exploded in texas the fifth in a series of bombings and police say they have no set pattern and they don't know why this is happening this bombing occurred at a fed ex distribution center about one hundred thirty kilometers away from austin texas where the other bombings occurred but that package was apparently addressed to ostend and would have arrived at the fed ex facility behind me that is where sixty employees were evacuated tuesday morning and told to walk out carrying nothing with them the first three bombings were packages that were left on doorsteps and then this specific pattern became random a fourth bomb was set was attached to a trip wire on the side of the road and then of course this fifth bomb which

apparently went off early before arriving in austin police have asked the bomber to please communicate with them so that they can start talks in the bombings. the prolonged drought in south africa's cape town is having adverse effects on the economy particularly the agricultural sector thirty thousand seasonal farm workers have already been laid off or the threat of more redundancies to come if rain doesn't come soon agricultural output is expected to drop by twenty percent this year the latest in our first same. as the water runs out in the monday buthelezi vegetables a dying she's among seventy thousand people who grow their own food in south africa's western cape province suffering the worst drought on record it's a disaster for god knows because one of the reasons that we try and grow our own gardens well i'm employment for one we're trying to save as much money as we can so

it's going to have a huge impact we would be forced to use the little money that we have to go and buy growing vegetables in sandy soil isn't easy at the best of times but it's a key food source for the many unemployed in townships like this one out in the countryside the large commercial farms are usually much more productive but the drought means jobs are on the line. this farm grows great for wind harvest a down to the high as about a third of the people it used to. i'm standing in one of the farms reservoirs farmer says in twenty fifteen the water was almost at the top twenty sixteen it was about here in twenty seventeen came down to here and this is all that's left the farm manager told us he needs substantial rainfall in the coming winter following from all its twenty years of never seen something like maybe five start

farming up to bed differently i can save it for another year or two but i don't know i've never ever for felt what a western cape home to twenty percent of south africa's agricultural production. wine fruits and grains from here exported industry representatives say that drowns making it harder for the country to balance its books that doesn't only play against the agricultural economy in terms of the output that we get but it also plays a case on your trade balance side we're already seeing now that imports for example of wheat will be the second highest level this is on record in south africa around about one point nine million tons of which that will need to be imported or that is because of the implications of this drought two hundred thousand seasonal workers are employed in the provinces farms their families depend on the income thirty thousand already been laid off and without rain so will many more. malcolm webb al-jazeera western cape south africa well it's part of our series on water

daniel is that the world water forum in brasilia up to forty thousand people have gathered there to discuss the current crisis facing the world water supply is hi there daniel at what's the focus today. but there are several topics today this is a huge huge come front delicate something like twenty thousand visitors from one hundred sixty countries covering many many issues one of the major themes here is sharing obviously many rivers many lakes across borders countries do not always talk to each other about their will to supplies about how they're treating wotan that has changed here i'm here now on the the stand of the brazilian a geological society they have just produced a report on the river plate to base or not something like three three million square kilometers of land across south america and one of the compilers of that

report is with me now about ok chime roberta tell me why this map you have produced is so important to the middle without the map well it's very important i mean when we talk about sharing this this veto resource this water that we have in common the first step is to have at least a common map so this map was was has and together with the same methodology and procedure logical survey we all stood this several buildings to get our neighborhood technicians so we teach them the methodology so we work together this map and behind the day are just showing the map to some some some visitors and we're wanting to know where the aquifer we have to talk a lot of a map like this and to to get this map done amongst five countries that's a big issue it's not very easy and i mean we have done it and we are very proud of having done it the way with a bench in the five countries brazil argentina bolivia paraguayan europe why

neighbors but they haven't always got on in many other aspects of political life but you've managed to work together to produce this map why the importance of the five countries working together well i mean it's not about. on the demand for the together with them up we have to talk about common legal instruments the same legal framework to to deal with the water so then one country loans that the good experiences and that of the best experiences that the other country has related to water and they mean also that the institutional framework how to deal with the wall is a concession so it's it's there are many issues together with demand and also i mean at the beginning of the work everybody was afraid of sharing information and because of working together right now i mean it's just a matter of of making a false call to a call like you know you can teach in florida i believe and say hey one can you please give me that that that that often morning during their work that you just

lunch i'll take that away and so that's that's the way it works so right now it's a it's a it's a meeting of friends ok a coffee that was a rebuttal care chime from the resilient geological survey but still a lot of work to be done but that mouth has got things started in their will though they will proceed from there to know why i'm going there live from a conference in brazil they have done a funky. african leaders are set to sign a new free trade agreement which will increase trade on the continent by fifty two percent of the next few years the african continental free trade area is being discussed at a summit in the a wand and capital kigali all fifty five member states of the african union are expected to agree the deal on wednesday the spike nigeria pulling out lavender though has been following events from the rwandan capital. it's been for two years in the making but africa continental area is still a working progress of an attempt at regional integration there are countries such

as nigeria the biggest economy in africa still doubtful of the agreement been signed here however the convenience of the summit say that they're not looking for each and every african country to sign the agreement at this point in time all they're looking for is a whole twenty two members of the african union signing the agreement so that it comes into force and then we'll begin the process of the old countries domesticating agreement to fit in with their national mall's issues all negotiating with the private sector countries and the trade unions and ensuring that of rethink hopkins according to the agreement china has already waded in with billions of dollars to issue the necessary infrastructure and logistics is developed out of africa exam bank which is owned by china mainly is giving billions of dollars to local banks to ensure that this agreement happens china's annual national people's

congress has wrapped up with a warning from the president against anyone attempting to as he put it divide the country she sent a strong message to self government taiwan injuring the two weeks that condemning moves towards independence from china the congress also saw an end to the two term limit on the presidency i mean she was expected to end in twenty twenty three can stay in power for life. in the fears of the will of the people and the trend of history and actions and tricks to split china are doomed to failure and will be met with the people's condemnation and the punishment of history. i guess and sick and tired take place here the size of france is melting faster than expected as far king fears it will cause sea levels to rise scientists say a large part of the top plaisir is sitting direct on top of the sea enabling warm currents to melt from below if it melts completely well and sea levels would rise

by at least three metres. species of rhinoceros is a step closer towards extinction after the last male died in kenya that's end of the life of the northern white rhino called sudan when his health worsened there are hopes that d.n.a. samples and development in technology will help revive the species catherine sort reports. veterinarians at the old conservancy in central kenya put sudan to sleep because he was in too much pain and could not walk he had been struggling for years with complications that got worse in the last few months but he leave to reach and the last his life managing to stay clean off poachers almost wiped out the entire population of north and white trials in the one nine hundred seventy s. named after his country of now south sudan he ended up in kenya from a zoo in the czech republic with a few others to help them breed in an environment which was more like the natural

habitat but the program proved difficult as sudan got older he became weak and his sperm count was written so now researchers are working on ways to use in vitro fertilization to save the species from extinction this will be the fast of its kind a delegate expensive and risky process we want to do everything possible we even tried to keep them next to the. white trainers and see whether you know we could get down to be a little interested so we brought in your guards and we said please you know can you talk to them and quite please stand and eyes but he just didn't respond while the north and white are. i know those are the most endangered of this species the black rhino is also in grave danger all poached for their horns now why expensive then gold but measures a nine place to protect them in kenya in the last four five years you'll notice that for the case of kenya poaching on rhinos in particular has reduced by up to

eighty percent and that is the effort to try and make sure that we protect them it's a pity that we get to this point for the not on white rhino as humanity we should have done better sudan was forty five years old they lend to all of about ninety human ears he leaves behind his don't imagine and granted to them now the world's only north and white rhinos the survival of the subspecies depends on them and the technology that has never been tried before cathy zoi al-jazeera nairobi kenya. business updates.

business updates.

let's get all the day's sports news now out with joe in doha. julie thank you the countdown to this year's world cup in russia is well underway and top teams are putting the finishing touches to their preparations with international friendlies this week you know messi arrived in manchester earlier on tuesday to join up with argentina as they got ready to face italy on friday argentina failed to impress in the qualifiers needing a hat trick for messi in their final game to make the finals in russia. south american rivals brazil are getting a glimpse of what to expect at those finals there in moscow for friday's friendly with hosts russia it will be the five time world champions first game of the year of course they're still without star player neymar remains in doubt for the world

cup because of a broken foot but he's made a rare appearance that weren't exactly put his country at ease the strike a limped his way into a south polo nightclub on monday to celebrate his sister's birthday he was on crutches and wore a protective boot so as not to exacerbate the injury since his surgery two weeks ago neymar was expects to be out for three months meaning it's still hard to know if he'll make june's tournament. well as well as giving teams a chance to harden their world cup preparations this week's friendlies also mark an important return to football for iraq fifa lifted a twenty eight year ban on the country hosting internationals on friday. but. this was the welcome the syrian team got when they arrived for a training session iraq will play syria next week in pasadena but first of all face qatar on wednesday. serena williams will continue her comeback to tennis following

the birth of her first child at her home torrance the miami open on wednesday where mrs won the event a record eight times but she's been handed a tough first round draw this year against the newly crowned indian wells winner naomi a soccer ahead of that blockbuster clash williams helped to launch the construction of the new fan you for the miami open from two thousand and nineteen the joint men and women's tournament is relocating to the home of n.f.l. team the miami dolphins which williams owns a stake in the thirty six year old who grew up just outside of miami has high ambitions for the future of the and. we want this to be the best tournaments ever we want this to be the best experience ever we want to read we want the players to feel like this is the best stop we can't wait to get here we never we never want to miss it this is exactly what we're looking for and that's

what we're going for well there's a hot debate happening right now on the tennis circuit about equal pay and it's got nothing to do with the players it involves to form a grand slam champions who are now in the commentary box martina navratilova who's won forty nine may just singles and doubles titles has found out that she gets paid ten times less for her work on the b.b.c.'s coverage of wimbledon than john mcenroe who himself has sixteen grand slam titles to his name and she's pretty upset. it's shocking if really then this happens to me then you know for me it's a part time job it's two weeks of my life. but for the women that work there full time it's extremely unfair and you know it makes me angry for the other women that i think go through this the b.b.c. might say well john mcenroe does more hours or he's on hair longer sometimes as much i don't think so and i don't know the details of what's going on. and i don't

think it's appropriate i certainly feel like it's going to be appropriate real soon become a. because it's somehow making him like poor johnny america the bad guy in this and so. we'll see what happens here's some of what the b.b.c. said in response john martino perform different roles in the team and john's row is of a different scales scope and time commitment they are simply not comparable martina is one of a number of occasional contributors the b.b.c. believes her pay reflects what she is also to do her time commitment a level of broadcast experience profile and track record and expertise. defending champion a one hundred valverde has taken the overall lead in cycling's tour of catalonia after winning stage two the race on tuesday the stage took an hour longer to complete the scheduled with riders setting and usually slow pace over the one

hundred seventy five kilometer course nothing slow about the day when it came to downs sprint finish though the spanish rider who also won this event in two thousand and nine takes a full second leave into day three. american football in golf all sports he think have many transferable skills but former dallas cowboys quarterback tony romo is proving otherwise later this week romo will make his debut on the p.g.a. tour at an event in the dominican republic. i feel comfortable you know in venues with size and people around them that part of it probably. won't be that much different i do feel like. the fact that you know it's a b.j. tour event i understand you know how important this week is it's at to people earlier it's like a free agent football you're only afforded so many chances you know if you're the first pick of the draft you get a few years before they cast aside so you know when you get an opportunity in life

you want to be prepared and be ready for it and that is it was for now but only in london so thank you that's about us news hour but i'll be back in just a moment with much more of the day's eighth thanks again for watching the buy. a scandal that's rocked the nation to its core and exposed hundreds of calls official of accepting bribes just to show the most dangerous commodity one and sometimes take a spot to go in a difference to blow up

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army veterans traumatized by war. as they struggle to get their lives back shelter at this time zero. three billion dollars five hundred thirty three million dollars five hundred ton one chunk about us i'm sales to saudi arabia as the horse crime can swamp and it didn't sound like a hundred.