on the environment livelihoods and express concerns about safety this dam break shows several things that shows that there are there are major risks and downs that have a. down designs that maybe i'm able to cope with extreme weather events such as very heavy rains the last few days laos is a secretive one party state and there will also be concerns about the transparency of any investigation that may be launched into this incident wayne hay al jazeera bangkok anthony nelson is the rector of the east asian pacific practice said the old bright stone bridge group an advisory and the policy for any previously managed the us as he and business council team in laos sir thank you so much for joining us here on the al-jazeera i mean loud tends to be a place that is hard to report from for example we found out of the media found out about this particular incident quite a few hours after it happened so from what you know how equipped is the country to

deal with this kind of collapse and all the people that have been caught up in it one way or another well it's hard to say we've heard calls from the provincial government for medicine for equipment for a boat so they can try to access people we know the prime minister of laos has rushed down to the area canceled some of his ministerial discussions but it's unclear exactly what the resources are that laos can bring or whether they will be willing to help except outside support let's focus on what they can do internally and then i'll also ask you about that the potential help from the outside tell us a little bit about the infrastructure of and especially the construction of that right now. sure laos. lags behind a lot of its neighbors in terms of infrastructure construction that's a big part of why they were one of the first countries to sign up for trying as belton road project that will help build railways and highways throughout the

country to help link them to to their neighbors they are the only country in southeast asia that's landlocked and laos also doesn't have the large supply of low cost labor that some other countries in the region have use to develop really strong manufacturing industries so when laos was considered pathways to development one of the things they've really latched on to is this idea of being the battery of southeast asia of using the ample hydro power potential of the country to create an opportunity for them to sell power to thailand to china even as far a fear field as malaysia but that idea has been generating more and more controversy recently because the dams that are planned along the mekong will disrupt the fish flow enormously lot of people in that part of the world depend on that for protein. and they can have environmental impact such as we we've just seen and that's meant an increasing pushback against this idea and we've even seen thailand recently pull out of one of these big projects as the thais have got more

pushback from some of their civil society groups so this kind of tragedy will will only give more ammunition to those who want to go back against these kind of absolutely i mean focusing on the people that the well you know been killed or left homeless or injured when it's very hard to get an idea even of the numbers right now but what help do you think the country can expect from its neighbors me and my china vietnam cambodia thailand the do you think they're likely to help here think there what their help will be welcomed. so austrian tries to work together to respond to natural disasters like this but it's also very respectful of each individual country's internal sovereignty and we've seen in some past major disasters that countries like laos countries like men mark are sometimes reluctant to let other people in in laos what's really important to them politically is balancing their relationship between trying on the one hand and vietnam on the other so both of these countries i'm sure may may want to offer some

help they want to bring something in but the law will will be thinking about who they want to accept what from and what do they want to allow them to do so it remains to be seen you know what really the needs are and what the law will allow as far as foreign assistance coming in and three nelson director of the east asian pacific practice at albright stonebridge group assert thank you so much for sharing your views with us here thank you now still to come on the al-jazeera news hour how an academic and is that ridged shoes have become icons of venezuela's economic crisis fleeing persecution at home the teenager asylum seekers arrested at the u.s. border as they were about their months in government the tension and pepper spraying and the peloton joe will have the latest strange twist to this year's tour de france.

but first israel has shot down a syrian jet that it says violated its airspace a claim that syria's military denies the airplane whose pilot was killed crashed on the syrian side of the golan heights the syrian air force has launched several raids in the areas fight of a government offensive against rebels stephanie decker has more now from the israeli occupied golan heights. the israeli army has confirmed that the jet went down in the southern golan heights on the syrian side which is the area behind us the army says that it penetrated israeli airspace two kilometers that it was monitored and then intercepted by two patriot missiles the syrians are saying that the jet was targeted inside its air space well it's been a very active conflict behind us we've seen russian jets in the sky we've seen syrian jets in this guy over the last couple of days the last opposition held area in southwest syria and just to tell you around here as a as a full out really from that patriot attack on the jet we've seen burning fields at

some point we bumped into some soldiers who were assessing the damage they were saying that that was probably due to the actual. outgoing so now what you can see is further airstrikes that are happening in this area it is controlled by a group affiliated with eisel which is why at the moment there are no offers to negotiate with them which is happen to other areas along this border it is the last held opposition area in southwest syria and the syrians together with the russian allies are very keen to take it back meanwhile israel says it's partially reopening its only cargo crossing with gaza after a saturday ceasefire with hamas held israel imposed restrictions on imports through the cut him up with salim crossing on thursday reducing the amount of fuel that could pass and that's the private the sole power station in gaza over a fuel supply electricity supply could become further from eight hours to just six of day to compensate and there have been protests outside the united nations

palestinian refugee agency in gaza over expect the job cuts the head of on iraq had to be a scorched it out of his offices by hamas security the agency has been struggling to maintain its level of service since the us which provides much of its financial support cut its funding. eagle member states could soon receive seven thousand dollars for each migrant they take in who's been rescued from the mediterranean sea the european commission is proposing the payment to help deal with the migrant crisis after these new government close the country supports to rescue vessels the e.u. would also offer financial support to member states who set up so-called controlled centers italy's interior minister has already rejected the idea for member states that open up their ports to allow disembarkation in on their territory operational support will be provided with disembarkation teams comprised of european border and

coast guard. agents assigned an expert security screeners and return offices and again all costs would be covered by the european union budget and then also if the member states that voluntarily excess to take a share of the people involved we would also provide financial support in the form of six thousand years per person i read ok to. so that's a new idea by the european commission but it's still unclear what will happen to forty refugees and migrants stranded on a supply vessel just off the coast they left libya on july eleventh and were rescued several days later the supply ship which picked them up has been refused permission to dock by italy france and the malta. figure is released by the campaigning organization global witness show that two hundred and seven environmental activists were murdered around the world last year its annual report said the killers often work from mining and logging companies and by big

agricultural businesses the most dangerous country as it has been for the past few years is brazil where fifty seven activists were killed there are reports now from northeastern. china lucio lived in fear constantly looking over her shoulder she says she was threatened by armed men as they ransacked the home she knows who ordered the attack and why we're going to develop on her community and by us as original we can't let them intimidate us we need to continue they can kill me i'm not afraid of being killed i need to defend my people who've been here since fifteen sixty nine without any help from the government and now they want to destroy the forest that is part of us she lives in what's known as. a community founded in the sixteenth century by escaped slaves it's brazil's oldest and his residents say they're more vulnerable than ever a drug government that's been going back environmental and human rights legislation

. since i'm a pro and you don't know where to go for help we feel like we're in a close circle the federal government doesn't help us the local authorities don't care about us a mistake of mine trying to bribe us with fifteen million dollars. is among the most concentrated on the call in the world order the intimidation the murders a really brought to justice. this road and the bridge that i'm standing on right through the middle of the king goma community there was no consultation no negotiation no compensation the authorities simply came and they built evil but it will feel was killed in by. and use a cloud i'm real to a spiritual standoff in. brazil is consistently the most dangerous country for environmental activists and these were just some of the nearly five hundred stood in the way murdered since two thousand and two trying to protect their land from

big business. it seems that those who run the country are construction companies mining companies and the are group business when you have landis beats in brazil bees economic groups defined how the government reacts to cases of murder and threats and lucy is his her people have preserved this land they don't pollute the forest but when short term profit is put before sustainable development it's the most vulnerable the already marginalized who are most at risk. and there are by a state brazil. a venezuelan university professor has sparked the wave of solidarity on social media after tweeting a photo of his damaged shoes which he says he cannot afford commend just say barrow works at the prestigious venezuelan central university veteran's one dollar and seventy cents a month at the black market rate he says since his tweet twenty viral he's received the money and twelve pairs of shoes nine nine of which he's given away venezuela's

worsening economic crisis as call severe food and medicine shortages the i.m.f. predicts inflation will reach one million percent this year. this is. obviously we're going to decided to take a pitch at the seas and say look this is the world of a university professor a person has so many qualifications but doesn't even have the way to fix the souls of the parishes. i began to get frustrated because my salary for the month which a lot of is almost three million dollars but it wasn't enough that's all. well the minimum wage in venezuela was increased last month to five million boulevards a month on the black market that's equivalent to about a dollar seventy which will barely buy you a kilo of meat opposition politicians compare this to the pay of a colonel in the army who they say earns more than two hundred forty million dollars r's that's about seventy eight dollars after military salaries were raised

by ten percent following unrest in the army that means even a mid ranking army officer can earn thirty times as much as an electrician nurse or junior doctor on the minimum wage all nurses have been on strike for the last month and they've just been joined by electrical workers who say they sometimes can't even afford to get to work. we can't even pay for a ticket there are many times when we have to come one day yes two days no because we don't have money for the right if we buy bread we no longer have enough to come to work. while meanwhile the u.s. government has asked the federal judge to allow the quick the protégé sion of immigrant parents once they are reunited with their children it has until thursday to reunite around two and a half thousand children with their parents the president's zero tolerance immigration policy is made gaining asylum more difficult it's a harsh reality for many immigrants hoping to flee is on the met one family affected by the changes. one in ana both sixteen years old crossed the border

illegally in january they were soon arrested and detained for more than a month before eventually being reunited with and his mother maria who herself has been living undocumented in the u.s. or several years none of them want us to show their faces or use their real names for fear it will affect the teenager's chances of being granted asylum when they were detained juan n n a spent the first two days in one of the border patrol's notorious holding cells they become known as ice boxes for their cold conditions. where detainees are given only four wheel blankets to keep warm i was really cold because when we crossed the river very wet so when they put me in the last box or got really cold with my wet clothes they were later moved to a facility near brownsville texas it was there they were separated the family are

indigenous mayans from guatemala where they face poverty and discrimination often they are the targets of violence when one was eight years old he was thrown from the third floor of his school by fellow students he survived but it left its mark he's since suffered from seizures but maria thinks neither won or ana are safe in guatemala anymore. in guatemala there is too much violence and there are often abductions of children over there especially if they hear they have family in the united states and gangs demand the family pay money teenagers like and one who cross into the u.s. illegally and alone without parents or guardians are called unaccompanied minors by the u.s. government they're arrested and held it was the same under the obama administration crystal fleming is an attorney with the new york legal assistance group who represents the teenagers she says there's one big difference with president trump's administration type of asylum claims have been protected for numerous here such as

women and children fleeing from domestic violence as well as fleeing from gang violence in latin america and now recently it was publicized that those type of claims are no longer going to be granted asylum if families facing uncertainty under president zero tolerance immigration policy the only thing certain is their quest for asylum in the u.s. is now more difficult than ever gabriel's john doe i'll just zero your. there's lots more still to come this hour including a huge blow for nigeria's president this forty seven more makers from his ruling party almost all of them defecting to the opposition a casting agency ad that advertises for actors to protest that downing street as the emir of qatar meets the british prime minister and it's exactly two years to go until the twenty thousand to twenty olympic games in tokyo but construction delays

and the heatwave are creating headaches for organizers joe we'll have more on that in school. hello and welcome back as we look at weather conditions across the levant and western parts of asia we've got the threat of one or two showers on the southern side of the caspian sea otherwise the whole region is looking fine big forty's again for iraq some areas busser probably up to forty eight to fifty degrees around the side of the med looking pretty warm there for beirut at thirty three degrees one of two showers on the southern side of the black sea could be quite heavy at times really not a great deal change your head on through into thursday so moving down into the arabian peninsula on the western side temperatures just in the low forty's there for medina and mecca meanwhile here in qatar we're looking at forty five degrees as a high in a similar sort of expected as we head on through into thursday clouds because of

their money coastal current there for salami spot or two of drizzle heading down into southern portions of africa it's a fine picture here eighteen degrees in cape town when i ask you said a bit of cloud on the eastern side of madagascar but fine conditions everywhere twenty three year high in winter in the maybe or into central parts of africa some pretty decent shower scuttle way across sudan so sit down and away towards the gulf of guinea again west africa looking pretty wet at the moment and shows going a long way north across chad and asia but the forecast suggests at least that bamako mali will stay dry twenty nine. where were you when this idea popped into it when they're on line it's undoubtedly chief goal of poverty and inequality in our society today or if you join the sunset criminal justice system is dysfunctional right now this is

a dialogue what does it feel like for you to go back for the first time everyone has a voice and allow refugees to be the speakers for change join michael o'boyle conversation on our. al-jazeera. every year.

welcome back here's a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera at least seventy six people have been killed and almost two hundred injured by fierce wildfires near the greek capital athens rescuers fear they may find more bodies in coastal areas devastated by the fire hundreds of people are missing in laos after a partially built down gave way a collapse and flash floods through nearby villages killing an unknown number of people and israel as shelled out a syrian jet it says entered its airspace killing the pilot the syrian military says the jet was flying over its own territory. made jiri and now we're fifteen senators and thirty two members of the house of representatives have quit the ruling party in a major blow to president mohamed who biharis bid for reelection the exodus makes the all progressives congress or a.p.c. a minority party in both houses fourteen of the fifteen senators who left have

defected to the opposition people's democratic party last week another faction of the a.p.c. said it no longer supported biharis government presidential elections are expected to take place in february two thousand and nineteen well one of those who quit the ruling party as a. whole who was a senator for them i was centrally joins me live now from a just search thank you so much for joining us here on al-jazeera just to clarify for our viewers of the fifteen senators that left and went to the p.d.p. which is the main opposition party you actually defected and went to another opposition party but at any rate you chose chose to leave the a.p.c. the all progressives congress. party tell us why you chose to defect. when we left primarily because of the congress conducted an hour. for me i come from. it is one of the sixty two nigeria and in our own state we have

a boy it is an ethnic groups we have two religions. and for us elections is very important we must be seen to be doing the right in. forum and because if you are to do that to impede or will interfere with security to believe that the. police conduct you did not conduct elections and because if you not conduct elections we believe that people confidence in the system were not people lose confidence in the system do lose confidence in their leaders when they lose confidence in their leaders. into their hands and this will have serious ramifications on our security so we consulted our people whom we will not go with we can attempt to correct it appeared to. be refused to listen to us for over

three months it became very clear that they were not ready to make amends and as such we decided to move to an apache and we moved to the african democratic congress and of course this is all happening where the elections six months or a little bit more than that away mohamad the. chances of re-election certainly taken a blow i mean you know it's a long way to every. day as anyone in mind for the president. no one in particular would be want to do is to make sure that we first our local environment we believe that sometime in august perhaps and in extreme. comments primaries the. primaries and then ultimately around. about the primaries will be constituted and there will be a group for the general elections we want to. amend want to go ahead and conduct

thirty three of primaries then it is at the period of primaries o. decide who to elect next president shot. and just obviously i mean a lot of the sections happened on the last day before parliament adjourned for recess i mean you mention the importance of stability for nigeria don't think anybody would dispute that but is leaving the ruling party with not a majority in any the house is that really the right way to go about getting civility for nigeria especially since it is now adjourned then everything will probably be a stalemate for a while. i think for me i'm very happy that democracy has advised to this never remember we were under a dictatorship. think about moving to. associate ourselves with any political group now we are free to move from. this is good for

nigeria what remains to be seen is what the government will do how will the government act when the government becomes very aggressive towards us realize that we do have the right to freedom of association to have the freedom of association or do like to become very aggressive towards us if you. obviously don't want to practice democracy they want to practice dictatorship in a democracy. well it will certainly be an interesting few months before the elections in nigeria when it comes to politics and i hope to speak to you again for later developments for the moment abdulaziz. sen adam our central region thank you so much for joining us. now thousands of people in kenya's largest informal settlement keep better has been left homeless after the demolition of their homes they were destroyed to make way for a new twenty million dollar dual carriageway in the capital nairobi catherine

sawyer reports. people here in canberra are trying to salvage whatever they can we're talking about thirty thousand people affected by this demolitions the full doses came yesterday people had been given two weeks to vacate this area the government saying that this is a government road reserve the road is going to cut across this area kibera an important road linking two parts of the city is going to ease congestion and people here are saying that yes it's important for this development but there have been asking for more time to be able to move to other areas i mean we're talking about like i said thirty thousand people seven thousand families we had schools here health centers children were just about to see to their exams so parents really lamenting and saying please give us time to be able to get other alternative living spaces give us time to have our children at least rightly exam

before they move but the government saying that this has to be done we've also seen human rights organizations like amnesty international coming out and saying that people really have to be moved humanely and we're being told that at some point there's going to be some compensation some people are going to be compensated but we don't know when that is going to happen and we're talking about people here who are really really poor this is the largest you know informal settlement in this region so a lot of people we've talked to say that really don't have money to be able to move to other places they had hoped like i said for more time but the government saying no this road has been has to be constructed now. the democratic republic of congo's health minister says the latest outbreak of the deadly ebola virus is over there were fifty four cases and thirty three deaths in the outbreak that was the claimed in may health officials say a quick international response and the vaccination of more than three thousand people helped contain the outbreak it was the country's ninth outbreak since the

virus was first identified back in one thousand nine hundred seventy six. we have learned from ebola outbreak in west africa in two thousand and fourteen how deadly this virus season how damaging do you can be for communities this time around the world health organization was that to a creep to. act quickly to provide support to national health authorities in terms of for deploying experts quickly in terms of dispatching supplies meanwhile in the u.k. five doctors of handed back medals given to them by the government three years ago for their work on the ebola crisis in west africa that doctors are unhappy at the tightening of wills in the u.k. national health service which means undocumented migrants have to pay for treatment they handed in the medals and a letter of protest the prime minister to resign may who brought in the new rules

when she was home secretary. if there's one thing that this medal represents to us it's our belief that everybody should have access to health care if we want. but that value has been undermined by political agenda. so we're very unhappy by that many of us have seen patients who have actually been discharged to die. so we be protesting. the emir of qatar is in london where he's held talks with the british prime minister to resign maine the two leaders discussed the fence and security cooperation as well as joint work for the twenty twenty two football world cup in qatar the emir is keen to strengthen relations with western allies amid a blockade on his country by neighboring arab states or has more now from central london the emir is meetings today with the british prime minister and the minister of defense are part of a qatari charm offensive that has been in full swing over the last few months of

seal the emir of qatar traveling to different couples meeting with world rally international support for his country as it continues to face a blockade imposed by its neighbors saudi arabia u.a.e. behind and egypt the meeting centered around the boosting you can or make it through cooperation between britain and qatar the british government has in the us been expressing its desire to see an immediate and to the crisis in the gulf region the highlight of the event was basically the. a ceremony at the ministry of defense where i meet of qatar percent of the colors of the squadron which is going to be a unit of qatari and british pilots were going to protect the skies above qatar what in two thousand and twenty two when the gulf nation will host the football world cup this is quite a significant message from qatar

a perspective that would like to tell the neighbors that. you're still going on with the blockade however we've managed to consolidate partnership with key political and military havey ways such as the us france and know the u.k. well ahead of the emir is meeting with to reason may yet emerge that a london casting agency had advertised for actors to gather outside downing street and pretend to protest against his visit sort of kyra has more now on that story. now on monday u.k. costing agency offered access twenty six dollars sake parts in what it called an anti cattle event outside downing street now people who all signed up to the agency then posted screenshots of the call outs email sense of them by a company called extra people now the email said its client is looking for quite a large group of people to fill space outside downing street during the visit of

the president of qatar is to very obvious areas that the use of the word president and the misspelling of cats as well then the email goes on to say this is an answer cats are event you will not have to do or say anything they just want to fill space . now am i who says she's one of the people who received by e-mail she tweeted that the costing agency later e-mails her again letting her know it cancels the job and the agency extra people has also tweeted this statement putting the air on taking the job down to a junior booker who hadn't consulted management now extra people also tweeted a screen grab of an e-mail sense of the agency from someone called lesley who works for a company called net chimpy are now that's also mesh mentioned in that statement but what is neptune p r well if you go to the website you'll find that it's actually largely blank not much information on there for you to find out but a quick search of u.k. government records reveals that neptune was registered just three months ago

however since this story emerged that chimpy are has created a twitter account saying it's never had anything to do the extra people agency but again received basic errors repute instead of refute and lead instead of lead now it still more clear who's really behind all of this fingers are pointing towards saudi arabia and the usa now both countries along with behind and egypt have imposed a blockade against cancer for more than a year and they accuse cats of funding terrorism something it humanly denies over and over again but cats are says the countries involved are building it and trying to infringe on its sovereignty now the alleged protest seems to be the latest p.r. stunt against the gulf states it's been known to use boats and trolls as part of its social media campaign to undermine cats are and spreads misinformation in the hash tag.