now this big change people have gone here that area missing up to national army sixteen tie up the oil company and i'll just do a story is about telling it from the people's perspective what they think is happening in their culture. systemic corruption in politics through business as to who is controlling what states of resources people in power investigates the misuse of south africa's state assets nobody is implicated good or name didn't the board was able to put their point of view on the financial rewards available to an accommodating business community south africa corruption inc.

a diplomatic triumph for china ping trumps trump becoming the first world leader to meet north korea's kim jong un. hello i'm barbara starr you're watching al-jazeera life from london also coming up on the program egypt extends voting by an hour on the final day of a presidential election set the hand president at the front in c.c. a landslide win. the people of kuwait although in siberia begin burying their dead after sunday's shopping center fire that killed sixty four people forty one of them children and were in indonesia where the appetite for things shark is as big as ever and it's still legal to fish them

a little cup why. north korea's leader has pledged his commitment to denuclearization and says he will go ahead and meet u.s. officials that's according to china which has just hosted the reclusive leader after days of speculation beijing revealed that kim jong un was its guest from sunday to wednesday and what it called an unofficial visit but kim jong un received almost all the trappings of a state visit including an all regard and a banquet in the capitals great hall of the people from beijing our china correspondent adrian brown reports for xi jinping this reports for xi jinping this was a diplomatic triumph he not a u.s. president donald trump now the first world leader to meet kim jong il a chinese state controlled media waited until kim was back home before confirming

what officials to try so hard to deny just today. in the great hall of the people kim and his wife were welcomed like old friends appearance is important at times like this she opted for a business suit whereas kim stuck to the look favored by his father and grandfather the wives of both men were present during most of the photo opportunities. visits like this are all about symbolism for she it served as a reminder that china still holds sway over its neighbor and intends to be at the center of diplomatic efforts to achieve a nuclear free korean peninsula. it's not clear what made him come to beijing or indeed what incentives he may have been offered to do so but china remains north korea's only real friend and ally so it's fair to assume the president xi jinping might want to know what kim's negotiating strategy will be during his upcoming

summit with president trump. and kim's visit made it possible for china to know what north korea will be talking about to south korea and the united states in his discussions on denuclearization with china has also learned what north korea's demands will be which will help china will because. it's a visit that would have seemed unimaginable just a few months ago where north korea was ignoring chinese appeals for restraint at an exhibition showcasing some of china's technological achievements the message appeared to be we can help you with all of this if you behave. china's leaders are fond of metaphors that are lavish banquet she told his guest that in the beautiful season of spring everything comes to life kim replied i believe our meeting will yield abundant fruit that could mean making good on his commitment to give up nuclear weapons the fruits of spring were apparent in the garden of the state

guesthouse where friendship also seemed to blossom she accepted an invitation to visit north korea and told him he was welcome to visit china again the visitors left happy adrian brown al-jazeera beijing. well the us president donald trump gave his reaction to the meeting on twitter he wrote received the message last night from china that is meeting with kim jong un went very well and that kim looks forward to his meeting with me earlier this month trying to surprise the world by agreeing to meet came at a place and time to be determined meanwhile south korea greeted the news of the china summit with keen interest kathy novak has this reaction from seoul. the south korean government says it welcomes the visit by kim jong un to china and says that it hopes that the meeting between kim and she jinping will help contribute to the overall goal of denuclearization and peace on the korean peninsula the spokesperson

though added that the situation is evolving beyond their expectations and that they will have to monitor things as they go forward with all possibilities in mind there is an acknowledgement there i think of the surprise that was involved with this visit by kim jong un the first that he has taken as leader out of the country indeed the surprise that many felt when donald trump accepted the invitation to hold a meeting with the leader of north korea kim jong un in fact chinese state media reported that kim said he was willing to have that summit with donald trump and it was the first time that we had a direct confirmation from the north korean side of plans to go forward with that meeting there were indications that even the north koreans were surprised that trump accepted that invitation so there are a lot of moving parts here now on the korean peninsula for the south korean side they are moving ahead with plans for an intercom summit on thursday there will be

a high level meeting at the d.m.z. at the border that separates the two koreas and we are expecting china's top diplomat to be in seoul to brief the south korean government on the meeting between xi jinping and conjunction. it's going to egypt now were voters have been given an extra hour to cast their ballots in the presidential election it's the third and final day of voting but authorities have been concerned that turnout has been low and they've been on the streets trying to get more people into polling booths. reports. and you will immediately be paid the equivalent of three dollars loudspeakers off

for bribes to egyptians to cast their ballots as government fears of a low turnout grow state media police and officials are pushing to try and prevent embarrassment. trucks distributed sugar rice and cooking oil in poor areas business plan office people free rides to go to polling stations. the government's using the carrot as well as the stick to boost turnout it just choose to stay way risk being fined. for whoever abstains from casting his vote with no justifiable reason faces a fine of twenty eight dollars it's our duty to ensure the law is implemented we are a country that respects the law president of the fatah has sisi has bit for reelection is almost unchallenged fear a low turnout will be widely seen as

a sign of growing discontent among the people senior army officers visited polling stations across the country they insist the election went smooth and the turnout is high other reporters by the media. but even if the turnout is low c.c. is expected to trounce his opponent most of the little known politician who announced his bit of a last minute sissy's sat for an easy win but is likely to face many challenges during his second term could dismiss claims by c.c. supporters who say he's the right man for egypt and his help improve the economy some analysts say the vast majority of egyptians are worse all the biggest challenge for him right now i think is the economy if you look at some of the macro

level indicators like g.d.p. and foreign reserves things seem to have improved for for egypt over the past two years particularly since they enacted tough economic reforms encouraged by the i.m.f. but on the micro level life for the average egyptian has actually gotten a lot more difficult because inflation has increased dramatically presidencies he said repeatedly that if we elected it's going to be his final four year. but he's already pushing for constitutional changes to pave the way for the general turned politician to run for a third term. well our senior political analyst model in the shadow joins us live now in the studio good to have you with us so egyptians are still voting now because it's been extended by an hour presumably to try to increase turnout is turned out really that important to c.c.

well you know it would increase the turn if you can use the time for turnout one hour later after three days. allowing people to vote and clearly this must be a desperate measures because certainly the cameras are not showing people queuing to vote people if anything people are queuing in egypt to get a job or to get food but certainly not to vote you know in a normal country like the u.k. or the united states you get one day to vote not three whole days to vote especially when there isn't much of an elections or confusions about multiple candidates there's couple of candidates one of them is a virtual candidate all the other serious candidates have been either repressed sent home or sent to prison so really this is a referendum and whoever wanted to show up and vote for sisi what i probably would on that in the first day but clearly the regime needs to keep up appearances of a true democratic process or of a coup free and open and fair process when international community has already sent

out its verdict this is neither independent nor free nor for elections and yet even though it's now in one of those things it doesn't seem like any members of the international which especially key western countries or even the i.m.f. that supports egypt would actually take any serious steps against well look i mean there are a few influentials around this globe right so the chinese already made their own elections and president xi is probably the. to be a president for life the russians have already made their elections and put in of course got seventy plus seventy three seventy four percent just like he did the time before in time before since one nine hundred ninety nine and of course egypt is another the only party that would have probably mattered would have been europe and the united states europe has been silent in fact has been a piecing the egyptian general and the united states not only has been appeasing

has been praising the the egyptian president in fact the former sec you have said tillerson said there is no gap between the egyptian regime and the united states vice president penned said president sisi is a friend of the united states and of course person from said he's a close friend of ours i guess especially the european countries would look at egypt and say well o.c.c. is the devil that we know and the last thing we need is an egypt that is like libya or iraq or syria we need stability and we are willing to sacrifice the democratic principle but how stable is egypt right now and you know this compromise it's be made by the west i mean ultimately is it going to be effective that's a very important question and i think that's the dilemma facing most of western leaders. there is this idea of this notion of the likes of sisi even the likes of assad the likes of commitment solomon and others but they'll get on ters of security and stability in the region and partners in the fight against terrorism than the alternatives. but the fact of the matter is the hit the ships

authoritarian regimes and repression in the arab world is the the root cause of terrorism instability and violence in the middle east so having taking the shortcut of supporting more repressive regimes will not allow for stability in fact i would argue not only it was going to create more chaos next time around in egypt and the likes it's going to create even worse blowback to those who supported repressive regimes in the arab world and i think the egyptian streets moving forward it's i think it's going to show signs of dissatisfaction and we've been seeing that since two thousand and thirteen when sisi basically you know ran a coup to tell him the country and with each and every passing month we're seeing more and more dissatisfaction the political repression is high and deep and why the economic austerity measures are leading to more and more dissatisfaction among the

egyptians and certainly radicalism extremism and the likes of isis in sinai is are all causes of it's that but it's not i want to share well i think we're meant to get initial results on thursday for then then final results next week but will be interesting to see at least what turnout there is will see tomorrow and india see if it thanks so much for i want to show our now funerals are being held for some of the victims of a fire at a shopping center in siberia on sunday it's a day of national mourning in russia to remember the sixty four victims forty one of whom were children for a challenge reports now from moscow. oh. on sunday. took her grandchildren ten year old maria and eight year old constantine to the cinema they didn't come back just three victims of the russian shopping mall fire that killed at least sixty four people set again natalya's house will be quiet now the children to go on there are many more shattered families like the ago because

most of those who died in the fire were kids thank you so this tragedy is made even worse by the fact that children became victims of the bloodies great grief is upon all of us and the no words that can express our shared pain the bereaved siberian city of camera began burying its dead on wednesday but as more bodies are identified many more coffins will be lowered into siberia. it's not just one city grieving though wednesday is a day of mourning across russia in moscow flags were flying at half staff and there are two memorial sites best still considerable anger being voiced in this country some people feel they haven't been told the whole truth about the fire and there's a sense that official corruption and a disregard for safety regulations are largely responsible for the horror that unfolded in kemah rivers burning shopping mall the shopping centers director is one

of five people that have appeared in court as suspects in the investigation she denies doing anything wrong even. in the i wholeheartedly bring my sincere condolences for the fact that this tragedy this disaster happened i'm a mother myself i perfectly understand what people who are now burying their children are experiencing but i do not want to blame myself for this. the search for bodies in camera is now officially over but the investigation continues locked cinemark doors blocks fire exits nonfunctioning alarms these are reasons investigators have already given for how or shopping mall fire became a national disaster or a challenge how does iran moscow. still to come on the program is donald trump setting his sights on amazon rumors that he's doing just that saying shares in the retail giant tumbling and the courtroom drama bolivia face off in

a legal dispute heated exchanges. hello and welcome back we'll stop by a look at weather conditions across europe and we've got this area of snow pushing across northern parts of europe with rain trading back and again more snow pushing into the alps we've lost the snow across of russia moscow still below freezing at least it's dry moderate conditions out across the web but some pretty windy conditions and some very heavy rain likely to and that continues through friday with snow still going of the alpine regions but the flow coming up from the south weather conditions gerri not looking too bad across central parts of europe with temperatures recovering back up to eleven degrees for berlin and also fourteen in vienna still looking too bad here now as you move into north africa we've got an

area of low pressure just pushing through the eastern side of the mediterranean could be quite a vicious little affair lot of lifted dust around but for cyprus some parts of turkey some very heavy rain syria higher elevations in turkey we could be seeing some heavy snowfall and winds in the eastern part of the mediterranean up to about one hundred ten kilometers per hour in terms of gusts but that system clears away quieter weather conditions likely through friday and that is tunis there twenty eight the winds coming from a long way south and across central parts of africa we've got some heavy showers across parts of south sudan away towards the gulf of guinea highs of thirty in the brazil. a fan. politicized. for. a kenyan.

and bill to take. action. on. a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera hours after he left china it was finally announced that north korea's leader kim jong un had in fact made his first trip abroad since taking power seven years ago he met president ping in beijing voters in egypt have been given an extra hour of the cast their ballots in the presidential election president. bid for reelection is almost unchallenged

is expected to win and funerals have started to be held for some of the sixty four victims who died in a shopping center fire in the same period city of committal of all. on line retailer amazon's stock price has been sliding on wall street after reports emerged that trump wanted to reign in the retail giant there's speculation the u.s. president wants to change amazon's tax treatment let's go to mike hanna who is in washington d.c. for us so mike tell us what's been happening on wall street. well certainly bad news for amazon shareholders the stock has slid in close to five percent in trading during the day that some thirty three billion dollars out of the pockets of shareholders now this all following a report by x.e. are saying that president trump has got amazon in his crosshairs that the report

says he's upset with taking some form of action against amazon one of these could be looking at its tax collection priorities finding some ways in which extra tax could be charged off amazon's of businesses so certainly a major situation for amazon just based on a report that the president is targeting it that my quote reasons with the president have to want to target amazon well the president has tweeted before in august last year for example he put out a tweet saying that amazon was costing us jobs he also according to the accessory port has been speaking to friends and business men who reportedly have told him that amazon is killing the local shopping mall business the bricks and mortar type companies but there's also another reason which may be a little bit more personal trump is known to vehemently dislike amazon's owner jeff

b.'s us who is also the owner of the washington post and todd trump has in the past put together both the washington post and amazon in vitriolic tweets and criticizing them so certainly it does appear to be largely personal based although we've just heard from the white house press spokesperson who says that no specific policies are being planned at the moment however she says the president has made clear that he's interested in creating a level playing field for all i can with the latest on that from washington d.c. mike thank you. a diplomatic dispute between chile and bolivia has come to a head of the international court in the hague bolivia a landlocked country is fighting for chile to granted access to the coast in a dispute that has pitted the countries against each other for more than a sentry on wednesday the court heard the final arguments from both sides. in their

reports from santiago. in chile as in bolivia the final round of the world court hearing over their territorial dispute was followed like at the horrifying match for the world cup but with a lot more at stake. bolivia a landlocked country which oddly enough has a navy says chile is obliged to negotiate a sovereign corridor to the pacific ocean that it lost in one thousand nine hundred three war. but vowing not to cede a centimeter chile's president had this message for bolivia minutes after defense team lawyers made their closing remarks bolivia. must know not to confuse its aspirations with up like a sions on a country. chile argues that ignoring the validity of a one thousand nine hundred four peace treaty would have global implications for all modern borders as what would have been between russia and what would have been been poland and germany what would have been in the balkans what would have been

why the mexicans cannot request the part of texas is the same argument. but for bolivia it's not just a matter of international law but of justice i for they can read and write children are taught to yearn for the days when believe you will again have access to the deep blue sea as these kindergarten students are singing. although bolivia has unlimited access to northern chile imports president evo morales insists his country's economic development is being unfairly stunted and. we've gone to the courts to ask them to mandate that chile and bolivia resolve their pending issues through dialogue and effective negotiations in good faith this is the canadian consulate in santiago but both countries don't have diplomatic relations in fact ties are probably at their worst in recent history chile accuses

president ever more of using their territorial dispute to exacerbate nationalist fervor at home in order to better his chances for a controversial bid for a fourth consecutive presidential term. the course will likely take months to issue a verdict in which clearly chile has the most to lose. you see in human santiago. at least ten people have been killed and several more missing in the. republic of congo after fighting broke out between the army and rebel forces the violence has sparked an angry backlash by residents who blocked roads used by the congolese army and u.n. peacekeepers around the beni area in the east of the country villagers there say that president joseph kabila has failed to protect them. only bigger houses and you can come and take them through able to protect your priorities looking after rich people and not the whole majority just do what you worked with tired of being

skilling. the french policeman killed in last friday's terror attack on a supermarket in southern france has been honored in a ceremony led by president emanuel mccollum the tenant colonel tom swapped places with a hostage during a supermarket attack in saving her life but losing his own president mike honda livered a public eulogy in the post humorously awarded bill tom the legion of honor france's highest award. poland has signed the largest arms deal in its history four and three quarter billion dollars for the patriot missile defense system from the united states it's the latest and biggest step in poland's efforts to upgrade its military which is accelerating and since russia's annexation of crimea in two thousand and fourteen two thirds of its weaponry is old soviet equipment dating back to the cold war era the patriot system which is designed to shoot down incoming missiles will be delivered in twenty twenty two. now shark fin the

soup is a lucrative trade in china but the high demand is in danger in many species scientists are calling for restrictions on shark fishing to prevent them being wiped out from indonesian waters where they are still being fished that vast and reports now from east indonesia. they are predators at sea against fishing lines shops of all sizes float the fish market in limbo nearly every day. their court for one reason they are expensive fins mostly sold to china to end up in soup we've filmed fifty five sharks being auctioned on a single day some still babies. jack fishing is legal in indonesia except for whale sharks which have become an endangered species the government has also impose an export ban on hammerhead sharks to prevent more populations coming under threat of

conservationists are keeping track on the trade. what we have found is a populations of sharks a declining and also the sars of sharks are becoming smaller. sharks are at the top of the oceans food chain scientists say they keep populations of fish stock healthy and protect the ecosystem. fat populations are easily threatened because of this low reproduction rate some female sharks can only get thirteen or even quietly and so that's why our government three perfect. shock fishing is big business in indonesia with export revenues of hundreds of millions of dollars a year traders not only sell shark fins but also disk ins and bones they say the export ban and other protection measures have hit them hard going to. since the government is banning all kinds of shocks the prices have dropped drastically we can now only sell locally and the prices we get for export

a much higher. but marine scientists say law enforcement has been weak and more needs to be done to enforce the export ban and protect vulnerable shark species something the government wants to discuss at this week's symposium in jack after what we tried to do we really worked together with minister of environment to put all sort of miseries on the business side because i think that's the easiest actually to to stop to make the fishermen understand it's going to take time. in order to protect fishing communities the government does not plan to impose a total ban on shark fishing but rather increase restrictions but with the month likely to remain high conservation is worried that it will be hard to prevent fields of protected species continuing to end up at markets stop vasant al-jazeera . in east asia. and you can find that much more on our

website the address on your screens right now al-jazeera dot com. a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera hours after he left china it was announced finally that north korea's leader kim jong un had in fact made his first trip abroad to since taking power seven years ago kim met the chinese president ping it during the secret visit to beijing officials had remained tight lipped over who was making an official trip after a motorcade was filmed driving through the capital chinese state media have been reporting that the talks were a success with kim saying he is open to giving up his nuclear weapons well south korea's ministry of unification says and kim's meeting has helped set the right tone for upcoming talks between pyongyang seoul and washington. i think

improvements in the north korea china relationship and head of the into korean summit and u.s. north korea summit full on solving the problem in the korean peninsula such as denuclearization and establishment of peace. people in egypt have been given an extra hours to cast their ballots in the presidential election in the third and final day of voting president. hu's bid for reelection is almost on challenge is expected to win another term in office polling stations will now close at twenty g.m.t. in about half an hour funerals are being held for some of the victims who died in a shopping center fire in the siberian city of kemet over on sunday flags have been flying at half mast across the country on a day of national mourning to remember the sixty four victims forty one of whom were children. online retailer amazon stock price has been sliding on wall street after reports emerged that donald trump wanted to rein in the retail giant there's

speculation the u.s. president wants to change tax treatment because he's worried it's putting smaller family owned operations out of business a french police officer killed in last week's supermarket siege has been post. a warded the legion of honor that's the country's highest accolade new talent colonel tom was hailed a hero after trading places with a female hostage at a supermarket in type in the south of france last friday those are the top stories that stay with al-jazeera the stream is next.

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