to form working groups to set out details for denuclearizing the peninsula the u.s. secretary of state mike pompei or has been holding talks with north korean officials in pyongyang a state department spokeswoman says pump air has been very firm on complete denuclearize ation. the football coach who led the group of young players into the cave complex in thailand has apologised to their parents rescuers say the twelve boys are not yet ready for the dangerous dives to safety heavy rains of forecasts that could worsen the flooding inside china's premier league is seeking closer trade ties with europe after the us imposed tariffs on chinese goods china has filed another complaint to the w t o. talked about this era now. a new series of rewind a cambray or be able back to life i'm sorry and brand new updates on the best of al-jazeera documentaries the struggle continues book from bottom to the now huge

distance rewind continues with the return of them is a change step child and went to an east upwards of two hundred species are going extinct every twenty four hours and a lot of that is attributed to wildlife trafficking rewind on al-jazeera. and. you in the world will. see. the time for change has come. that was the message from malaysia's new leader match your mohamed off to his shock victory over the ruling coalition inmate. who turns ninety three next week is the world's oldest head of states he opposed the political forces he was once a part of the united. nation or i'm know which of malaysia since its independence from britain in one nine hundred fifty seven. malaysia is

a diverse nation with millions of muslims hindus buddhists living side by side a contrasting place where the old and new come together. but many malaysians have been angry in recent years over high level government corruption and the rising cost of living prime minister mahathir has accused his predecessor najib result of steven conduits of millions of dollars on embezzling public funds. this week talked to al-jazeera travels to the malaysian capital to sit down with the man fighting against corruption and for a more united malaysia prime minister mahathir mohamad talks to al-jazeera. or minister thank you very much for talking to al-jazeera he welcomes you stepped aside as prime minister answer. thousand and three after serving for more than three decades in the top shop here in malaysia but you never really left politics you were still very much a dominant figure within the ruling united malays national organization or noise

it's known locally and it's actually been the monopoly holder of government since malaysia gained independence in two thousand and sixteen though you resigned from knowing you set up your own party announcing that you would contest the next elections which you eventually ended up winning surprisingly what is it that made you decide to run again for office at the age of ninety two. when they stepped down in two thousand and three i had no intention of being in politics still but after i stepped down and the new leader takes over. a lot of people came to see me asking me to do something because they were not satisfied with the leadership of the success is my success as. i responded to their the lead try to advise right. but even with the fifth prime

minister i had to resign from the by the and i came to have fim. sat down and give it to that. eventually that this. took over but again. people were not happy because of a lot of scandals and involving him a lot of money was lost so again people came to see me as he me please do something well the big news that interested people internationally about malaysia has unfortunately been the issue of corruption in the case of the malaysian investment fund the one of the being in the hundreds of millions of dollars that have gone missing the chief culprits in this were the most prominent corporates in the. this is a former prime minister najib razak now he appeared in court on wednesday and is now being charged what evidence is there that he stole money i mean why should people

believe that he's guilty and it's not just an attempt by you or your allies to get rid of your political opponents. should that the prosecutor the attorney general has good enough evidence to decide to go to the cause and not be involved in the investigation by generally. and one of the reasons why the people didn't one night to go on and he was defeated in the last election because of the scandals involving huge sums of money. which he was involved in and of course the law must see its costs and e.g. fines they navy does of x. . and the takes the decision so this is there's a complete separation here between your role in terms of politics on the drug issue in the way in which the legal process is taking place well when they came back one

of or promises was that we will on the separation of powers be thinned. exact defeat and the judiciary so i cannot interfere. with what he wants to do for promising that your claim that the money that was in his accounts we're talking about six hundred eighty one million dollars was a gift from saudi arabia to help in his election campaign now either he's telling the truth and saudi arabia has effectively been interfering in malaysian politics by from being somebodies campaign or he's lying on the money was stolen but he's using saudi arabia to try and cover his tracks would also mean that saudi arabia is interfering in malaysian politics or domestic affairs when last i'm so money move. there will be quotes and. calls in the bank be issued his taxes being me when they're deeply he was given to him as a gift. and that money he. said

. to be taken as the truth he must provide. documentary evidence legler letters from the bank and also we want to ne very generous man we just get the money to give so much money but my point here is that is there is aside from the corruption there is a more dangerous issue which is foreign interference in malaysian politics if we are to say that the money did come from a saudi royal who gave it to him for his election campaign then saudi arabia is funding your political parties which is something that i'm not sure malaysians would be happy about of a foreign country dictating who becomes prime minister and if he's not telling the truth then also saudi arabia is interfering because they're allowing him to use their name to cover up the tracks of investment we're disappointed in that. as

not denying that the money was given by saudi. at one time he claims but the clip listen and then he claims he's so dealer and all that but he has no proof of these so we can accuse saudi arabia unless of course there is proof yet as in fake right to interfere in politics this isn't the first major corruption case to plague our government in malaysia in fact when you were prime minister the first time around there were kids asians at the time of widespread corruption among some officials but your critics would say that instead of you purposely investigating that you decided to suck the man who claimed to be fighting gets who was at the time your right hand man deputy prime minister on or ibrahim and throwing the. bars do you still stand by what you did back then where they can be because police reported to me that he seemed foreman in something

that he's regarded it's criminal in the beyond the at least the police work i cannot do anything to put people in jail it was last seen nine months was a trial that's many human rights organizations international where it was criticized always he went to his people when they have their favorites being put before the court they will see that a court. is being manipulated they just had their right taken me in the position but in that in the law according to the laws of the country it is the court. but if you could go back in time would you have maybe investigated it ever further or done something different for you. now have a relationship which is yet to be amended and that was before there was before on

the police report it when lee told me because he is very prominent member of the government. beyond that it is a police and judiciary. action not me saw i think i am not to be blamed for that. but you were head of state i mean you had your introduce the internal security act. i didn't intend that was a inherit from the british and that was used by all the primary cisco militia before me the first the second the third and also there was amendments made to routes that made it more difficult for public protests for example of the us if you were at during my time there was the interviews the habeas corpus in which several people were released on the beach that there was not selfish in evidence for us to defeat in the person during my time before that there was

no detail was this can be checked with. the your predecessor promise and. he called you malaysia's number one. after your alliance with one or brought him and the reports more that you made with him now is that for person on that reemergence of a coalition or friendship or partnership whatever it may be called is this a genuine attempt to rectify mistakes and maybe unify malaysia once again or is it as prime minister najib or former prime minister to play games and act to reinvent yourself and maybe lead you back to power where i know was eight of one of the major parties position and if we are going to overthrow ninety all the parties and in no position must form a coalition going on their own by themselves they will never be able to defeat him

so you as he said they would form a coalition and whatever me be me have happened in the past that peace not as important as the attempt to with through an end because when one is than the east that it will for the country so i'm. and myself and many other this in the bus accused me of all kinds of. wrongdoing. and we decided that the boss he's a box now we have to come together because the overthrowing of nine hundred eighty s. far more important than our previous quarter what was the thought was so bad but not as far as you're concerned what are the main threats to malaysia. number one cause he was evolved in a lot of scandals including. accusation of he's stealing money from the government not small amount billions of ringgit and also there was evidence brought

by american department of justice we can ignore all these things and say well this did not happen no one would believe that did happen so we must make sure that if there isn't any besides what they exist then he must brutal a court of law when he was prime minister he had many plead that. at the new general it was he was sacked it was harder to believe investigator you far did not investigate here even by just before you were supposed to be for the task in a court of law against us fired and new men point then who cleared of any wrongdoing but nobody believes that he was free of wrongdoing now in the he not the prime minister and he cannot menu police. did his shitty end of

the department. nor must the east cost how how is it that he was allowed to manipulate the system. how did the system allow for the prime minister to interfere to the point where he was able to fire the lead investigator and now you are you are prime minister that same system is. there so then they can say well you could do the same thing what checks and balances are there now to provide good or bad he didn't do you see i was twenty two years as prime minister there was no accusation of stealing money against me and all the other their accusations were just political accusation with no proof as to what they see being through by indicates how ninety today we have enough evidence and the rule for all must be applied ok let's go back to your relationship with anwar and you promised as part of your campaign that you would secure a pardon for him if elected and you've done that but you've also promised to hand

him the reins within two years why two years and also what differences are there that you want change your mind for example you're suddenly really think maybe that you're better at the drop you have more experience and you decide to continue we need to form a coalition in order to defeat nancy and that coalition must include and lost by thirty and the condition for and want to join the coalition is that he will be the next prime minister after me and saw. him in the next could be after ten years or could be off the truth why why did you pick two years publicly use a cause i'm all i am one you don't three years you know where there's a ninety three years young but two years more old be ninety five years old you do mean many. but i mean it says who we select that so it's just an arbitrary it's not because of the vision twenty twenty that you had once announced when you were prime minister you just had to work towards did it indeed but after i stepped down

he's left to unknown whether he wants to continue with it or one of the criticisms that you face when you were prime minister the first time around was that you curbed freedoms as i mentioned in terms of. terms of the what happened with regard to internal security act or the that some of the opponents were jailed like honor and so forth. are you looking to use the same strong man approach this time or is your approach maybe more of a unifying healing phase that malaysia needs to go through particular when you consider and we'll talk about the economy in a second that. we can say the malaysian economy has maybe started to say the least in the past few years compared to the heights that you had brought it when you were prime minister. and well i have to go according to many fests or said by the coalition i'm not as free to do anything i like because i am bound

to carry on what the coalition has decided and the coalition has decided that we will go back to democracy reveal go back to the rule of law so that today i cannot be on my own just anybody and during my time ideally in making use of my power to arrest people at random then there must be a cost further afield let's go back to saudi arabia in the gulf malaysia announced it was withdrawing its soldiers from saudi arabia these other troops that were participating in the saudi led coalition that's been bombarding yemen for almost three years now why did you take the decision to bring back was a little hope to be friendly with all countries not to be but the speed in any war except for peacekeeping. troops had there last says he

believed for training. saudi at war with yemen we don't want to be involved in other people's war are you know worried though about the saudi reaction and the reason why i ask is because saudi arabia according to neutral observers is being led in let's say a nontraditional way. there have been several reports that the saudis who control islam's holiest sites namely mecca on the card use touch the muslim pilgrimage on visa allocation as leverage to blackmail muslim majority countries into doing what they want and obviously here it's a it's a big thing are you not worried that the saudis would use that against you or have they tried true has there been any reaction from riyadh with regard to your decision so far there has been the reaction in terms of reducing the number of build. greet them and god by the cause saudi is an independent country it has these rights if it decides to take any action that is there the right. or uniform of

them that you are withdrawing the troops what was the what was the reaction from there and nothing. only the press was actually asking the government is in the what about your relationship with the united arab emirates because central to the corruption scandal that's in gulf malaysia in the one and b. case is a man named. now according to statements made by former prime minister najib. because and here's a quote he said he had such strong links with marotta crown prince mohammed bin zayed how do you see malaysia's relationship with the united arab emirates especially if a lot of this money and we know according to a lot of independent reports that the body has been a hub for money laundering and so forth we want to be friendly with all that and in the world we do want to be involved here they are complete yes they may be scandals or whatever but that's not going to affect a world relationship country to country but out of that country's involved in funneling money that is public resources essentially helping somebody steal your

money and we had to find evidence of that. and if you do find evidence wasn't there a fairly event the rebels will listen the no seeing that this is the proper thing to do in all that i mean we don't go to war nobody was thinking about war but i mean in terms of mother normal number. in diplomatic relation is that these protests and things like that maybe we'll do that coming back to the issue of energy been the corruption case against him. could you foresee that he would be sentenced to death within some of these presented can you can you foresee that somebody like him will be put behind bars and would. what kind of message would you try and send to those who have indeed if you're proven been trying to steal or use their positions of influence to steal public funds. because what i want to what i

want to hear is is that the issue of corruption or the accusation of corruption have plagued malaysia for many years and it seems that nobody has really been punished by it so essentially the political while that's a legal issue but the political side have given a green light for anybody to do whatever they want because nobody's really been punished. mel leave this evidence is of any criminal and the rule of law will apply. that ninety be speech asked because despite he's being a former prime minister has nothing to do with the application of the rule of law who every decent hope whatever train. if you breaks a law the law will operate against he was one of your part of the juries you are essentially help build him you don't share the blame here for it no being put the does it mean that he's exempted from the law not not i mean in the sense that you

you helped him reach through those to the position well i didn't know you were going to communicate names as he was accused of late their own at the time when there was support the meal appeared to be a good candy did they become prime minister let's let's talk about the economy and you are credited with transforming religious economy making it one of asia's tiger economies as they were called. things have slowed down in the past few years because of the corruption but also other other issues what are your plans to reinject some sort of energy and revive religious economy we have a lot of plans for. economy but first of all we had to get rid of this debt that we carry huge. amount in more than one trillion. we have to reduce this debt so that that country he's not saddled with having to

pee into this and principle on this and then prevent us from having the money for development of the country finally i want to ask you you are as we mentioned the oldest head of states in the world. you have witnessed many world events. what are the highlights of your of your career that your you look back on and maybe or your proudest moments on if there is also one thing maybe your regrets most. when they lead. us skills or knowledge to the development of a country it's not always that everybody appreciates i know there are people who ran down all the things that i have done and there are people who appreciate that what i have done to me it is easy to live and i did what i was able to do and i was satisfied that i have given my best of my country

that's all and now i am in again in a position to be correct the faction and if i don't i think be very selfish indeed if i am still able i will contribute whatever i can the was recessed getting descanting which has the potential to become a developed country provided the policies of the governments are correct but what is your proudest moments what is the highlights of your career you have ninety three years to truth well you know this is a multi-racial country it's not only multi-racial is multi really just multilingual multicultural and even in terms of the economy some communities are very nice others are poor when i became prime minister in one thousand eight hundred one the fear was that i would be a guinn's the chinese as

a community but in the end when i sat down the chinese who are the people who support the me best and i didn't make two thirds majority because of their support to me that is very set. the because he means that they then as was the ginza chinese he's not through because in the end they would the ones who support the me so i think i can be that he said he's fighting. thank you very much for talking to al-jazeera. elites.

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counting the cost. the nature of news as it breaks although thousands of women have reported rape and other sexual atrocities in south sudan's war rats are going to say that figure is likely much higher with detailed coverage nearly fifty schools took part of the drive each one responsible for the whole acting a different diet of school supplies clothing from around the world several focal it's still very new here but these players are very old for the very ones to be able to leave gaza maybe one day by all means that us will study. we have your zip data we know the products of your buying everything that you're doing that's really where the power of the all powerful internet is both a tool for democracy and the threat do you believe that any of your companies have a den of fide the full scope of russian active measures on your platform in the echo chamber world of fake news and cyberspace the rules of the game of change there are no precedents people in power investigates this information and democracy

cannot just be evil. rebels in southern syria reach a cease fire agreement with government forces off to two weeks of intense fighting . i'm sam is a dam this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up china looks for closer economic ties with europe after the u.s. imposed tariffs and spawns fears of a trade war. and u.s. court orders the trumpet ministration to release the names of migrant children separated from their parents at the border. and in sports the only

european teams left in the world cup as both europe and brazil crash out of the quarterfinal.