i view the beds like they swan five years on the syrians still feel battered for even those who managed to escape their country haven't truly been able to escape the war. this is zero. hello i'm david pollen it is good to have you here with us this is the news hour live from london coming up. hundreds killed and thousands more stranded in the southern state of carolinas hit by the worst flooding in nearly a century. turkey rejects another appeal to free the pastor of the heart of its route with the united states its currency goes into a tailspin as more sanctions that threaten. u.s.

president donald trump redirects million to fundings forced syria warning it's won't get any more money until there's a credible peace process. and i'm peter stone as we go to schools as indonesia's capital city to call to gets it to host the asian games but pollution is proving an additional problem for athletes that and more later in the program. we begin in southern india where the death toll from deadly floods in the state of carolina has now risen to three hundred twenty four thousands more people have been left stranded us troops and local fisherman work to rescue them but with communications down and more torrential rains expected the situation is not looking good for the tourism haven bernard smith has this report. hundreds of soldiers have been sent to caroline to lead the rescue effort.

thousands of people are stranded across the southern indian state at least two hundred twenty thousand people have sought refuge in relief camps. hundreds of homes have been swallowed by floodwater. north and central carola have been worst hit by the floods but the entire state is on red alert as heavy rain is predicted for several days in view of a fresh spell of floods inundating. areas. we have deployed our forces over there in seven districts. the government says ten thousand kilometers of perilous roads have been destroyed. the international airport is flooded and have been temporarily closed. monsoon rains are a fact of life in india but these are the heaviest since one hundred twenty four millions of dollars worth of crops have been washed away. india prime minister narendra modi says he's praying for the safety and well being of the people of canada bernard smith al-jazeera. provender saying it is the communications manager

for the red cross in india and he says rescue efforts are really ramped up in the past few days really purple and rescuers have really gained momentum or lost what it does in particular with army navy air force and n.p.r. of the national disaster. relief force basically stepping in and trying to warn and the figure of people being airlifted their images medians deep updates have been streaming but the nature of the blood it's this one of the worst in last hundred years it's just it's truly overwhelming that fourteen districts of careless feet are in a state of alert so i mean the magnitude of this calamity is fairly large and that is really stretching all the relief efforts and there's that are going in. in other news israeli police in jerusalem have closed the gates of the oxen mosque compound

after knife attack now the police say they is an israeli palestinian man tried to stab an officer in the old city before being shot said the closure means muslim worshippers will be unable to pray at the mosque a previous closure last year resulted in huge protests. meanwhile at least two palestinian protesters have been killed and two hundred seventy have been wounded in fresh demonstrations near the gaza israel border friends the gaza health ministry says the hospitals are preparing to take in more injured people holliston into have been staging protests every friday since march calling for the right to return to the lands in israel and their families were forced to leave and also demanding an end to the israeli blockade of the gaza strip our correspondent charles stratford has had a medical tent on the gaza israel border. the medics here tell us that this man has been injured by a live round that is going through both his legs. the medics here say that the

majority of those injured are injured in the lower limbs and they say that ninety percent of the time these bullets are live ammunition if you come over here this man is one of the countless people. suffering the effects of tear gas inhalation medics saying they're seeing people like this all the time is not the man here who so doctor tells us has been injured by what he describes as an exploding bullet obviously we can't independently confirm the don't to say that the israeli soldiers are using a type of ammunition that explodes in middle and the shrapnel obviously flies out and many people are being harmed this way now how mass says that the palestinians of gaza have every right to continue these protests and as we heard earlier today in the mosques there were calls for these protests to happen in various locations across gaza hamas says the people here have every right to

protest until israel's sea is lifted and that's despite the countless injuries we're seeing here every week. turkey's battered currency the euro has weakened on friday after turkish court rejected an american pastor's appeal for release now the case of andrew bronson has become a flashpoint of tension between washington and ancora but the u.s. imposing sanctions and threatening war until he is freed. christian missionary has lived in turkey for two decades but the government there accuses him of espionage and to the failed coup of twenty sixteen president donald trump has promised not to take his detention sitting down. well he's been a problem for a long time they have not acted as a friend we'll see what happens they have a wonderful christian pastor a wonderful pastor brunson. made up this phony charge that he is by and he's not if. you don't do it drought write down your gold or dry out they should have

given back alone time ago. turkey has in my opinion acted very very badly so we haven't seen the last of that we are not going to take it sitting down they can't take our people so you will see what happens. well turkey has warned it will retaliate of the u.s. imposes further sanctions the euro has lost nearly forty percent of its value against the dollar this year and the new u.s. tariffs on imported goods has prompted widespread selling in other emerging markets sparking fears of a global crisis so the gago has the latest from istanbul. the war of words between the u.s. and turkey has descended into a financial crisis for turkey and at the center of it is the american pastor andrew bronson who stands accused by turkish officials of having links to terrorist

organizations as well as espionage mr bronson lawyer said on friday that they would be appealing the decision and also that they would probably take the case to the country's constitutional court as well and it's a case that has been vocally supported by the president donald trump but it has had a very negative effect on the relationship between the two nato allies and of course the negative impact as well on turkey's economy and the turkish lira has already created some forty percent this year thanks in part to the sanctions that have been put on to government ministers as well as tariffs of bartz there had been some stabilization of the turkish lira this week. due to measures and also a pledge by catto to inject some fifteen billion dollars worth of investment directly into the turkish economy but so with the threat of further sanctions there seems to be still a worry that this could impact the turkish economy even further and also further

devalue the lira. the united states first it's redirecting two hundred thirty million dollars of funding away from syria until it didn't gauges in a credible peace process led by the united nations let's get more on this from our white house correspondent kimberly halakhah in washington d.c. so kimberly what other details can you tell us about this. well what this really signifies another incremental retreat of the united states at least in its visible form from presence in syria and this is also really for donald trump fulfilling a campaign pledge essentially since the start of his presidency he has been making it known that he believes that u.s. allies should step up their financial assistance with regard to the effort in syria not only for fighting eisel but also for reconstruction efforts now that the presence of eyes will has been largely reduced and significantly reduced so the

united states says is via the u.s. state department that it's amassed some three hundred million dollars in either contributions or pledges including one hundred million dollars from saudi arabia and as a result it says it can now shift money it had been holding that two hundred thirty million you were talking about it was frozen in march two other foreign policy projects but in all of this that one hundred million that came from saudi arabia is certainly making syria unhappy in fact its state new news agency saying that they consider that donation to be morally unacceptable blasting the contributions saying that it doesn't deserve the coalition that is doesn't deserve to have any contribution because in the eyes of syria the u.s. led coalition and its presence is criminal and it really at school is not rebuilding but instead to fragment the region i mean what do you make of the timing

of this if there is this something that the white house or the state department has pledged to do within this period. what in terms of the timing certainly donald trump will be happy that this is coming in advance of a very important voting in the united states in november really were kind of kicking off very soon the election season if you will for the congressional elections that kind of determine the control of the house of representatives as well as the u.s. senate in congress so the united states is keen to show american voters particularly the trumpet ministration came to show american voters who are war weary tired of putting the bill in terms of some of the not only the sort of fighting eisel although they see that as a significant concern but also some of the humanitarian efforts as well so donald trump looking to sort of highlight the fact that he called for u.s. allies to step up their contributions and now that is happening although we should

know this one hundred million from saudi arabia is a far cry from the four billion he was initially requesting having said that the u.s. also sending the message that well it is really sort of shifting around the money if you will it hasn't changed its strategic goals and anyway it also says that the humanitarian assistance that it has contributed up to this point is unchanged can really how could on the u.s. redirecting its funding to syria thank you very much now syria's also featuring on the agenda at a meeting between the russian and turkish defense ministers and one of the key key issues for the discussion is the plight of millions of civilians displaced from their home since the war began in two thousand and eleven and this includes the latest group of people who are fleeing in one of the last opposition strongholds ahead of a planned offensive by government forces many are taking refuge in camps near the turkish border. now reports from the town of. this is the

marketplace of the refugee camp in northern syria by syria through a keyboard there the camp which is one of the oldest since the uprising began in the riyadh post more than eight hundred fifty thousand syrian refugees those refugees who this place may be once maybe a couple of times since the syrian uprising and the bashar assad regime's assaults began and many people here feel stuck because as the fear is as the syrian regime president bashar assad threatens to touch it these people say have nowhere else to go because this was the ultimate point by the border that they could reach and now you see this starts you see the shops and people who are trying to make a living you know today's friday some of the shelves are always there but when you speak to the police will they are going to be close. any outsold and that by the

syrian regime. and plenty more coming up this news hour from london will tell you about high level sacking since china after hundreds of thousands of children are found to have been given to achieve vaccines. women in the hall take to the streets to protest against a new law which they say reduces the to second class citizens. and tennis controversy as the sport's most famous tournament davis cup is set for rebound plenty more of that story coming up with peter. iran as promised a new era of prosperity and justice for pakistan after being elected the new prime minister by lawmakers is tearing off party which campaigned on an anti corruption platform has also become the largest in the national assembly but he'll still need

to set up a coalition government and now faces a mammoth task in. and to get economic crisis and boosting jobs as promised during election campaigning. the first thing we will do is crack down on corruption i promise you in front of god that whoever stole from this country and burden us with . a single one of them. come out there has more details from islam about. august on the new parliament has jordan imran khan and their great if they can prime minister of pakistan they were chaotic scenes inside parliament and the opposition made a lot of noise shouting slogans against iran kron and shouting and favor of. the prime minister who was disqualified and sent to jail his younger brother shahbaz sharif for the opposition candidate for the prime minister. however the differences between the politicians and progress on has meant that the

opposition airlines had already fallen apart of august on people's party decided to abstain from the walking and of course had given him around khan a clear advantage imran khan has spoken on the floor of parliament saying there did going to be bigger and accountability and he's going to deliver on the promises he made to the people of pakistan who have voted for change in iran started his political party back in nineteen ninety six and in twenty two years has become their great if they can prime minister of pocket start theft honest on where the president has visited the embattled city of gaza any a week after the taliban launched a surprise attack which killed over two hundred fifty people there atia afghani met members of afghanistan's armed forces and congratulated them on their victory against the armed group taliban fighters managed to get deep inside the provincial capital capturing several areas over five days of fighting before eventually being

repels. a court in pakistan has issued an arrest warrant for the former president asif zardari in connection with an ongoing problem into a multi million million dollar money laundering scam now the order main zardari must be arrested and presented to a karate courts by september fourth pakistan's federal investigation agency is looking into thirty two people in relation to money laundering from fictitious accounts between two hundred twenty thirteen and two thousand and fifteen the money associated with the accounts was said to be gathered from kickbacks commissions and bribes israelis are once again questioning prime minister binyamin netanyahu over a corruption scandal is facing allegations that he made concessions to the controlling shareholder of a telecommunications giant in exchange for positive media coverage for him and his wife felice have recommended indict in the prime minister he has repeatedly denied

any wrongdoing. the united nations has invited yemen's government and iran backed the rebels to geneva next month for talks on resolving the country's civil war the september talks aimed to revive un back negotiations that broke down and twenty fifteen nearly ten thousand people have been killed since the conflict started more than three years ago and much of the population is on the verge of starvation bomb and other has more from neighboring djibouti. both the yemeni government on full three flights of looks across the willingness for our terms of talks in geneva you an official said that the initial days of the talks will dwell on breaking the ice and also drawing up a framework for talks before planning the attention to establishing some sort of a polish sharing agreement between the purtiest the difficult issue of the ports you through if they do that which is a lifeline for millions of human is expected to dominate the talks will say that

who the fighters have expressed some willingness to hump over the course of the the two years an administration that is supported by the united nations but the city itself something that you or you say this is unacceptable on but coupled with the other issue or for. a ceasefire before even the talks begin and the sudanese you you will be shown nothing invited to the conference and to say my limits more of a success the hopes my thought hard. the boss parliament is debating a bill that could make it difficult for women to pass on their citizenship to their children activists say the proposal is discriminatory and wants to start want to stop it so we're now shasta has more details from cup one do. these women are protesting in the midday heat and cut spending they say they refuse to be treated as second class citizens. because parliament is debating

a new bill that says women need an apology husband in order for their children to be in a police and activists say the constitution itself which was adopted in two thousand and fifteen is discriminatory. although it says a child of an apology mother or father can be citizen there are clauses that do not allow the poly women marry to foreigners to pass on their citizenship to their children. to groom her to go to the supreme court to get citizenship for her children her husband whose mother is also in a poly citizen has no citizenship. my husband is trying to get citizenship for his mother his father died when he was young we went to the courts and even though the courts instructed local officials to do was necessary to give my husband citizenship the local authorities refused. bureaucrats many of whom are

seen as socially conservative can now make it more difficult for people like dip these husband to obtain citizenship difficult bill is deeply problematic now nepali women have to prove that the father of their child is in a palace that isn't a requirement that is just not there for men the only other way out is to say that she doesn't know the identity of the father in an already deeply patriarchal society where women face many indignities this bill is seen by these women as yet another level of discrimination. been there is a member of parliament who has been a strong advocate for women and equality last year about the only one it was there are some parliamentarians who think men are the only ones who can save the nation's sovereignty they think women are inferior yet there are many who have come to realize they shine and they were voted in by both men and women so we are objects in this bill while the debate goes on in the parliament women's rights activists

say they will not stop protesting until they are treated as equal citizens sabinus russia al-jazeera katmandu four senior chinese officials have been dismissed over a defective vaccines program which affected over one hundred eighty eight thousand children and shandong province if you're in a brown has more from the chinese capital. of the four officials who've been dismissed one is the deputy head of the organization responsible for regulating the drug industry here in china as well as the deputy governor of jilin province these dismissals were confirmed in a report in the people's daily overnight the people's daily is the newspaper of record here in china it said that the state council which is a body headed by president xi jinping had met to discuss the case and this was the result president xi jinping it seems has been playing an active role in the fallout of the scandal which appears to be widening now this all began back in july when it

was revealed that the chunk chunk biotechnology company had been falsifying production records it produced vaccines which were then given to children these are vaccines which are not dangerous they're simply ineffective in effect useless so now you have thousands upon thousands of parents in china still not sure still not convinced they can trust the industry which provides vaccines for their children there really is a trust deficit in this area at the moment and a lot of anger in the streets when you speak to people about the scandal they say how can we trust our vaccine industry and of course foreign vaccines simply aren't available in china so people here in china have no option but to use the locally produced ones now we know also that some five hundred thousand ineffective vaccines were produced that's double the figure the government gave

a month ago and that one hundred eighty eight thousand of these vaccines were administered to children we know also that fifteen officials from the company at the center of the scandal are still under investigation including its chairwoman. relatives of victims of tuesday's bridge collapse in italy are boycotting events to commemorate their loved ones they're angry over allegations that negligence was to blame for the disaster which killed thirty eight people now this comes as the government considers revoking concessions and giving fines to the company in charge of the bridge they've achieved there has this report from genoa they've already started to bury the dead in a series of private funerals but the search for survivors still continues under the rubble of the collapsed bridge the rescuers are using heavy lifting the scenery and search dogs. but hope frustrating with the child the process here that anyone else can have survived under such

a weight of concrete. many of the families of the victims are boycotting the day of mourning called in the city this weekend they say it was a tragedy caused by government negligence and they want no part in the official ceremony for the marriage general or did little to reassure them in their grief this is a way of thinking this is a very every problem may become an opportunity and it's exactly what they see right now i mean we're going to have some investment from the from the government the collapse of the bridge which was opened in one thousand nine hundred sixty seven has fed growing concern about the state of at least aging roads and bridges and the quality of the cement used in the construction boom across the country it does seem that this was created more than fifty years ago and the sheer volume of traffic these bridges are now taking not only here but in many other parts of the italian infrastructure simply was not allowed for there was too much traffic it was well

known since years since decades ago that this infrastructure was not enough for supporting all the traffic the city traffic bortz related traffic and the regional and even international traffic prosecutors in the city say ten to twenty people are still unaccounted for no warning the death toll is expected to rise the collapse occurred just a day before italy's busiest summer holiday david chase the al jazeera genoa a woman who lost her family in last month's forest fires in greece has filed a criminal lawsuit against seven officials including greece's interior minister nearly six people ninety six people were killed when a fire spread through a seaside resort northwest of athens john psaropoulos has this report from the village of one of the worst hit area. yes this used to be by now your kitchen he only survived the fire that swept through this

neighborhood on july twenty third because he and a friend acted quickly up to smelling the smoke you find you we went to the main road and there was a tsunami of flames sixty meters high as soon as we saw this i said save your family take them to the sea we ran back and i grabbed my mother as she. this is where i was ended up along with hundreds of others some scorched by the flames just going to be extraordinary there was absolutely no warning perhaps the authorities didn't realize the size of the phenomenon it was so sudden oh my house is four hundred meters from the sea the fire took three maybe four minutes to cover that distance an inquiry is now looking into why all photos he's failed to better coordinate their response the local mayor says five faces acted heroically but everything happens to fust methods by the keepers i see as civil protection measures exist here as in every municipality but when you have twelve force winds

blowing through pine forest and it becomes extremely inflammable the city is a government is trying to restore a sense of normality trees are being cut down even though many of them appear only superficially singed the public power corporation is restoring electricity the government will pay each stricken household an emergency some of the around five thousand dollars replace basic appliances and give pension is a double payouts this month all in the hope of reducing its political liability you know yet another name of the probe is no right to talk about political responsibility we've assumed the political responsibility already the prosecutor is an independent authority they're investigating but they won't find anything in the government we have no criminal liability. city is a has already earned a reputation for slowness and civil protection at the height of the refugee crisis three years ago it took months to ask brussels for help resulting in greater suffering for refugees and last year it was unable to prevent oil from

a sunken tank from soiling kilometers of pristine coastline west of athens but this time greece seems to have suffered an unprecedented number of deaths from wildfires even in two thousand and seven when two and a half percent of greek territory went up in flames the death toll did not exceed sixty for those who have lost family members say no amount of money will bring them back jumps or openness al-jazeera. well there's much more to come on this program including. where and i read their franklin's hometown of detroit at a church where she once sang and it has been made into a shrine for the late singer. kicking the habit british m.p. saying a thinker it should be promoted as an alternative to smoking. has surfaced in athletics again the paper will have all those details on the latest offender and sports.

hello there we've had some severe weather over parts of europe recently ukraine has seen a lot of thunderstorms and this is what it looked like in the capital kiev this is central kiev an awful lot of water there flowing down into the shopping center there and causing quite a few problems that was just the rain though we also had some very gusty winds as well and they caused a fair amount of damage to now that system responsible is just making its way eastwards now and behind it we've got this system here this is a weather front is making its way eastwards and behind that it's turning a lot fresher than it has been so we'll see some pretty violent downpours here but behind it not quite as hot so around twenty four in paris and twenty three in london or chow saturday night into sunday though because we're going to see

a very severe system work its way across parts of the british isles and that will make things here very very stormy across the other side of the mediterranean generally fine and dry for many of us in the east but further west we are seeing a few areas of cloud develop and there's a chance of seeing want to showers particularly as we head through the day on sunday i think some of those around a likely to be rather heavy of course it's further south where we've got the more persistent rain for some of us in west africa it is looking particularly wet on saturday. when they're on line this isn't some abstract fish eating into their shops or if you join us on sect rather than stopping terrorism is creating it this is a dialogue and just the community is want to add to this conversation we need a president who's willing to be a villain in a short while everyone has a voice and part of civil society but i never get listened to by those in the

corridors of joining the global conversation. on out to zero. on the streets of greece anti immigrant violence is on the rise there or you have to go from all those. groups. and increasingly migrant farm workers of victims of vicious beatings. is helping the pakistani community to find a voice the stories we don't often hear told by the people who live them undocumented and under attack this is zero on al-jazeera.

again history mind our top stories and there are over three hundred people have died in flooding in the southern indian state of carola thousands more have been left stranded with troops and local fishermen staging desperate rescue attempts. israeli police in jerusalem have closed the gates of the last compound after a knife attack man attempts to stab officers before being shopped at. standard and poor's says it is cutting turkey's sovereign credit rating to be plus because of the earlier has fallen to lety the currency. and once again on friday after turkish court rejected an american pastor's appeal for release. no u.s. federal judge has extended a freeze on deporting families separate to the us mexico border the move gives a reprieve to hundreds of children and their parents to remain in the united states many of the families say they are fleeing violence in central america and the u.s.

district judge dana several says their cases should be heard. as more from a college in texas. four immigrants just released by the u.s. border patrol the first taste of freedom on american soil is this bus terminal in macallan texas here they enter in neat lines clutching plastic bags containing the first and only belongings of what they hope to be their new lives in the u.s. and the progress that is being philly's thank god i'm here i'm happy because i'm with my family i mean a lot and it's doing it with. this man and his fourteen year old daughter had timing on their side they arrived at the border just after a government policy of separating families ended rather than enduring weeks or months apart as did almost three thousand families before them the two were processed and released within days it's almost i think before that it was a terrible moment for all who went through that thank god we and during this mobile

this time that we can be together despite the trouble ministrations zero tolerance policy to deter people from crossing the number of families apprehended by border patrol remained above nine thousand in july adults who are caught crossing this border without their children are still being prosecuted for the crime of a legal entry punishable by up to six months in prison every day dozens of people are arrested and then taken to a federal courthouse where a judge here's their cases not as individuals but in mass hearings as long as the push factors that are pushing these people out of guatemalan on the earth or violence that the reds and security extreme property as long as those they push back to for their people are going to keep coming because they're fighting for their lives. blocks from the mccallum bus terminal is a shelter for newcomers run by catholic charities here children and parents receive

a brief respite before continuing their journeys they recognize their fortune of being together while hundreds of kids who came before remain alone and in shelters the government deported their parents and is still determining how to reunite them on noise as they've been on i do feel sorry for that they must be sad the parents left and the children stay behind my children have to be with me because they are my life. these families will now catch buses to take them deeper into the u.s. then they'll have to convince an immigration judge to let them stay and most will be ordered deported but for now each step forward feels like a triumph heidi joe castro al-jazeera mccallan texas. they corrado us once thriving tourism industry has completely collapsed and we sent unrest in the central american country has kept tourists away since april hundreds of people have

been killed in protest against the country's president daniel ortega john home and the reports from grenada on how business owners are struggling to make ends meet this staircase rennie and his family put everything into restoring this hotel in granada nick and i were from ruins to the splendor of its colonial past now he's worried they could lose it all and that will be my dream but probably call out you know that will be me and i will have to live the quandary of no because what will be my first tour if i don't have. my my you know my heir for my investment if i'm here you know because i was tourism industry was booming since opening four years ago really had never had an empty night until this april when protests in a subsequent crackdown from police and paramilitary groups changed everything it would have been spent to we were out in the one in the auto. tourism has plummeted

the small hotels association says occupancies it down eighty percent the number of flights is home and a third of restaurants are closed just about everyone in beautiful clothes or not has been affected the city's famous for its horse drawn carriage rides but we're only old man's fool for customers in the whole month not only he but and there is a man yet cause suffering yes here i mean oh yeah we reduced the animals food in their comfort he says. grenada is just trying to get back on its feet but it's hard when you've got reminders of the own going on rest but the town hall badly got hit by fire and when locals themselves still aren't sure if it's safe to go out night. the government's been accused of white washing the crisis this week bringing out a video called make an hour work weeks beautiful well protests continue to rumble through the streets they say they have to do something instead of staying with

their hands down message is that we're here we're working we're working with whosoever wants to work to develop this sector and to regain that bynum is in that this sector have had ordered the last eleven years that can't come soon enough for ronnie's hotel and the more than twenty staff members he's had to lay off for you know him among them daisy who's struggling to provide for his sick parents so i made my mrs see that the needs are the same but now the money is in there we have to protest food medicine and basic bills so it's not going to stop and i'm struggling with it in a couple of months i don't know what we are going to do. everyone we talked to is hanging on for the next time a season in december if things don't improve by then many say migration might be the only option. john home and i want to see it from the. more than one thousand google employees have protested against plans so we launched

our censored version of its search engine and china searches related to democracy human rights and religion would return blank pages under google's compromise to beijing according to a letter signed by fourteen hundred google employees the plan raises urgent moral and ethical questions demanding more transparency from management so they can understand the moral implications of their work. german chancellor angela merkel is downplaying expectations i guess if they're meeting with the russian president vladimir putin and berlin on saturday but although the two leaders are far from allies there are a range of issues and rich they're hoping to find common ground as dominic a north towards. when i'm going to merkel meets putin on saturday it will be for the second time in just three months on the table of the conflict in syria the situation in ukraine and the controversial north stream two gas pipeline under the

baltic sea but hanging over the meeting is this statement from donald trump the july's nato summit but germany as far as i'm concerned is captive to russia because it is getting so much of its energy from russia so we're supposed to protect germany but they're getting their energy from worship explain it here the way you know russia provides only around half of germany's annual energy consumption but most is in the form of natural gas and that is why the nord stream to gas pipeline is so contentious it's a network which when complete will transport natural gas from russia under the baltic sea to western europe bypassing the existing land based pipelines through ukraine and it might deprive the government in kiev as much as three billion dollars a year in revenue ministers in kiev say the project is purely political moscow insists it's just business but i sure wish we knew when you have the stomach stick

that lets us get them a place took these we have always treated this project as exclusively economic we have always kept outside the scope of any political process i would also like to say that to the stream to the stopping the movement of russian to get us through ukraine it is not intended. but russia's role in ukraine continues to concern the leaders notably angolan merkel specifically moscow's immoveable see over the minsk agreement which broker a cease fire between government and separatist forces the often does the all the we hope to move forward on the issues of the minsk agreement with ukraine and russia france and germany took on responsibility many years ago we are saddened that still no day goes by without a violation of the ceasefire but we don't give up hope and we know that through this the relationship with russia could be significantly improved. ukraine assigned to the two leaders do have common ground such as in keeping the iran nuclear deal and both share concerns about the trumpet ministrations tariffs and diplomacy but

their relationship has never been easy i think both sides have accumulated a lot of skepticism mistrust neutral reproaches and grievances that overshadow their relationship which is why few people in the german capital expect any breakthroughs as a result of this meeting dominic came. burning for years scientists have been going back and forth as to whether each cigarettes are that much better for your health than normal cigarettes but now british m.p.'s have definitely backed vaporing as the best way to kick the habit and live even called for it to be made available on prescription or until he has more from london. so no denying the popularity of a ping in the cigarettes nowadays in the u.k. places like this have sprung up all over the country and almost three million people nowadays in the u.k. routinely use the cigarettes as a less harmful thing to do they assume than conventional smoking of course the

science is a little sketchy and opinions are mixed the report this week suggest that the cigarettes are actually more harmful than people think they might be on the basis that they can cause lung infections but now an officially sanctioned report by a government committee here suggests that not only already cigarettes are actually much better for you than conventional ones but they could even be used to help people give up smoking completely just like patches and nicotine replacement and that sort of thing and even further the authors of this report suggests that the health service hasn't made the proper distinction between conventional cigarettes and these cigarettes and that it could even be the case that people could use these cigarettes in places like public transport and offices in a way that is currently banned that is quite controversial but here's what the chairman of the government committee had to say i don't discount the issue of the sort of nuisance value of people very paying

a lot of people complain about the smell of the sort of cloud of rape that surrounds some people who do but we mustn't confuse that with. public risk in the way that we know cigarettes cause risks secondary smoke ng we know has an enormous risk attached to it very thing is wholly different to that and we want to encourage a public debate about. treating vaporing differently to smoking in those public places certainly to a degree all of this flies in the face of the received wisdom inside the national health service which runs public hospitals like this one in central london their advice is that the cigarettes are less harmful than conventional ones but they might not get you over your nicotine addiction and help you give up smoking and so it is still a very confused picture for smokers. and still to come on this program we'll tell

you why the heavyweight world champion got into an argument with the dads that's coming up in sports with. business updates brought to you by qatar airways going places to get.

business updates brought to you by qatar airways going places together. with the sports. the rio thank you so much we're just hours away from the start of the asian games in indonesia millions of eyes will be on the capital city of jakarta for saturday's opening ceremony where musicians and four thousand dollars will greet the competitors the numbers really are staggering the asian games are

actually the world's second largest sporting event after the olympics with fourteen thousand athletes taking part from forty five asian countries those athletes will take part in four hundred sixty two middle events across forty seven sports ten of which are new to the asian games including jet skiing paragliding bridge and e-sports jakarta has undergone a big tidy up but steadfast in reports pollution is still a big problem. a country better known for its diverse culture and for its sports. asian games are the largest event ever organized what and fourteen thousand athletes are arriving in the congested capital jakarta and in the city of palembang the center of yearly forest fires are stadiums have been built and renovated and city centers have undergone a transformation this is what visitors will see when they look up the air quality index just three days before the opening of the games show unhealthy levels.

when beijing was hosting the olympics janish lower body crease you know number of cars and closing down factories and it's maintained relatively better quality intercut environmental issues are not a priority especially equality the government puts the economy first air pollution has been called the silent killer in the indonesian capital with figures in two thousand and ten showing that fifty seven percent of its people suffer from respiratory diseases but indonesian at least seem unfazed having to compete against countries like china or japan which have won the most medals at previous games they say they have other worries like eighteen year old runner. lalu mohammed story last month surprised many by becoming world champion at the under twenty hundred meter sprint in finland you know we're going to remember i need to mentally prepare myself because at the asian games i will be up against athletes that are all older

than me and very experienced. in tunisia is aiming for sixteen gold medals especially in new sports events like bridge jet skiing roller skating and martial arts while indonesia is gearing up to what is promised to be a spectacular opening of the asian games on saturday the country wants to show the world it's capable of organizing such a big event having less time to prepare after vietnam withdrew as a host not everything is quite ready at. the athletes' villages near an area where a polluted river spreads a fold smell instead of cleaning it ahead of the games it is covered by in that and it's smell unsuccessfully treated with chemicals are complaining about logistical problems making it hard to reach the venues on time. games are very important for our nation important for the energy of issues being portrayed here that's why we have a speeded up the building of venue so the people of asia who are coming will be happy

and proud. indonesia hosted the asian games for the first time in one thousand nine hundred sixty two then this still young nation built this welcome statue one of the city's landmarks fifty six years later it will once again welcome asian athletes even if it's sometimes hard to see because of the polluted air step fasten al-jazeera. well the football at the asian games is already started on hosts indonesia's start a chance of reaching the knockout stage that's after they beat the group a minnow those last three goals. and there was a shocker south korea were beaten by malaysia in group b. some questionable goalkeeping from song. for the nation who go into the. city are champions events a splash more than one hundred million dollars on cristiana rinaldo and on saturday verona will be the first club tasked with stopping him in his new black and white

kit consider not this will be his very first match playing in the talon league and this is something new and he's very curious to know they'll be better and how the teams play here it's the beginning of a brand new season and of the new challenge for us. to stand out all our lot but we only thought about christiane over now though we would lose sight of the whole year ventre squad the immense quality they have we must think of you ventas as a great teams and think of ourselves as a top teams a true team a solid group who rate their chances against ronaldo and all the rest of us tennis is one hundred eighteen year old davis cup is set for a radical revamp the international tennis federation or is changing the men's tournament from a year long one hundred thirty two team event to an eighteen team competition that will last just a week the new format is backed by an investment group led by a japanese billionaire and founded by a spanish footballer gerard piqué the partnership is said to be worth three billion

dollars over twenty five years. i'm very very proud of my team. of course much there she read in thank you very much to all emissions. that you feel. and the ones that voted to get. rule try to prove that we can deliver to reduce the reduce competition over in the news in the next five years but not everyone is happy five federations voted against the overhaul including germany whose paid six time grand slam champion boris becker tweeted loss of words about the decision today hashtag davis cup former davis cup winner pat cash called it a sad day for men's tennis and at the idea of off fooling themselves if they think top players will play an eighteen team comp over one week at the end of the year

another kenyan runner has been suspended for a doping related offense middle distance runner began betts who won bronze in the eight hundred meters at last year's world championships in london refused or failed to provide a sample to the athletics integrity unit which handles doping issues for the sport's governing body the i.w.a. if it follows doping suspensions of two kenyan marathon runners in the last month former pakistan cricket a jump shot has been banned for ten years for spot fixing the opening batsman on the right in these pictures was described by pakistan's cricket board as the linchpin in the corruption scandal that plagued pakistan's domestic t twenty two and last year. england captain joe root has confirmed that ben stokes will play the third test against india the all rounder was found not guilty of frey in a british court just four days ago but he comes straight back into the starting eleven for the game of trent bridge at the expense of sam curran who was england's

man of the match in the first test at age beston. i think that's a decision was made above our heads and he has been made available for selection use from that point on it's all about his eagerness to play for england in terms of me and in this team. he's been a fine performance for us for a long period of time and you know. we don't want to leave so much better now america's world heavyweight champion beyonce wilder says there's no question he'll fight englishman tyson fury this year but today me actually came closer to fighting fury's dad john it all happened in northern ireland where tyson was weighing in for his belt against francesco be on their third this weekend and then while the gate crashed proceeded. was was. was was the. backyard i

was. was. well that's one way to do it more sport coming up again later but now it's back to london and divya. thanks for that pete now the city of detroit has produced many music stars but none as iconic as the soul singer aretha franklin she died on thursday of pancreatic cancer at the age of seventy six our correspondent john hendren reports from detroit on her legacy and the impact on the city. detroit is still a city in mourning a day after the death of aretha franklin people are still coming here to the church where her father preached and where she got her start singing in the choir to lay flowers and balloons and to remember her and her family is coming up with more ways for people to remember her there will be a viewing of her body at the museum of african-american history here in detroit and after that in the coming days there will be a funeral and we can only guess the kind of talent that will be there her backup

singers became icons themselves people like whitney houston and chaka khan and as people remember her there's a lot of talk about her legacy aretha franklin said she didn't consider herself and icon of the civil rights movement though she sang at martin luther king's funeral and contributed to the end. she said she didn't consider herself an icon of feminism though people viewed her that way and perhaps it was because she was able to take a song like otis redding's respect a song he had sung before and imbue it with a sense of import and moment so that other people viewed it as an anthem of feminism an anthem of the civil rights movement it was that and the quality of the sheer talent of a voice that soared for sixty years to a height that led rolling stone to declare her the best singer ever the state of michigan declared her voice a natural resource and it's of those things that cause people to remember her here in the days after her death and ultimately forever in her music. and what a loss to the music while the well that's it for me for this news hour but don't go

away i'll be back in a moment have more news. desir travels to the fund this reaches of thailand to follow young local doctors who are providing knife saving care to the community that solving problems for others is very fulfilling you don't get this in any other profession. we charge the dramas and nights of their inspiring efforts to successfully deliver the people's house.

on al-jazeera. conservation is helping to recover its snow leopard population to see the results i traveled up to the remote nature reserve of saudi chat at touch camera traps have identified a healthy population of up to twenty snow leopards as the technology improves we're finding all these ways in which our guesses are are getting corrected the latest evidence suggests there are more cats than previously acknowledged but the snow leopard trust believes it's premature to downgrade the cats on the international list of threatened species. capturing a moment in time snapshots of other lives other stories. providing a glimpse into someone else's well. inspiring documentary passion and filmmakers everybody's going to. be.

on al-jazeera. hundreds killed and thousands more stranded india southern states of careless hit by the worst flooding in nearly a century. watching a live from london also coming up. turkey's credit rating faces another downgrade as the country's currency makes further losses over a dispute with the u.s. . another two deaths on the gaza israel border fence as protests show.