international species. not a single dollar war the u.s. stops all funding to the un agency providing health care and schooling to five million palestinians. and richelle carey this is al jazeera also ahead a russian separatist leader killed in a blast crane. blame each other. a less than warm welcome in peru but venezuelans say it's better than staying home. on a big increase in. the

agency that provides schooling food and health care to millions of palestinians suddenly has a huge hole in its budget the u.s. until now the biggest donor is cutting all funding that have been given more than three hundred million dollars schools hospitals camps and social services for five million people it was set up in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine to help stabilize the region after the arab israeli war at the time hundreds of thousands of arabs were homeless after being forced from their land the u.s. provided about a third of funding at the top administration says the agency is irredeemably flawed and that criticism in israel. has been seen as bolstering the idea that palestinians have a right to return to an lands very fossett is in ramallah in the occupied west bank . the united states had already drastically reduced its funding for an rov this

year handing over just sixty million of the pledged three hundred sixty five million for twenty eighteen in recent years it has been responsible for about a third of budget and so this will represent an enormous hole in operating budget and its finances and its ability to provide for millions of people who rely on it for education for medical help indeed in gaza especially for food aid the u.s. says that its operations were irredeemably flawed it says that it's the people that it served were endlessly an exponentially expanding this group of what it calls intitled beneficiaries that really indicates the u.s. position on the definition of palestine refugees the u.s. and indeed israel have long argued that it's not the not the descendants of those who came out of historic palestine in the creation of a state of israel in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight should be defined as such but only those who themselves left their homes at that time that is an

explicitly made clear in the statement that account of some of the reporting in advance of what was going to come out but it does show one of the key reasons behind this decision to cut off aid u.s. aid to under the second general the p.l.o. so eric has called this an international against international law saying that this is not a ph and c. it's a u.n. agency and should not be targeted in this way by the united states the p.a. is saying that other countries are preparing to try to help indeed we've had a statement from the german foreign minister saying that germany is preparing significant additional funding for an ra but throughout this year iran has had to be scrambling around for either additional funding or advance consignments of money that have been pledged for later dates that will have to continue now as it tries to find a permanent solution to this funding crisis afghanistan's an arrest spokesman pace amman and i asked him if he was surprised that the funding with cash. we didn't

it's great because already this year the ministrations have cut three hundred five million dollars a small budget and we've been led to believe that there was a big question mark over anything more but this is nonetheless a regrettable decision we certainly reject any allegations about us that have been made about our programs our programs are high impact and indeed it was the american minutes ration which rescinded the few months ago praise our operations we deliver to five hundred twenty six million children around a primary education to do nine million patients consultation a year we feed seven students people contribution to doing those things which is widely read by the day in the community including by the us ministration so what do you think change when you need to on that question have been accusations which i've not made directly but i think people are asking whether what we're seeing is the political instrumental isolation of a what you say is the ability and the needs of the people are simply

too great what we're seeing now in a place like that after more than a decade of blockade what we're seeing in a place like the west bank after more than half a century of the israeli occupation what we're seeing in a place like syria after more than seven years of one of the most brutal conflicts of our age is a sense of humanitarian desperation now already the political of the right of the refugees we have shrunken. marilee the death of the us the peace the cold what people are seeing around them is shrunken political horizons and this highly regrettable position is going to add further to that sense of abandonment and marginalization what areas specifically are going to suffer the most immediate impact. well education and education we educate more than half a million children in the middle east the west bank. jordan syria and lebanon

and you know this is the un protected population and for palestinian education possible to dignity we've been unable to open our bills and we only have money to run them until the end of september. running on empty that's education one hundred fifty just under one hundred fifty primary health also that's the goal now because of this the fund and our relief and social services programs to vulnerable women to children to disabled refugees in dollars that we gave and educate we gave so much again two hundred thousand children often girls all of those programs are now under threat so is it possible i realize this is a huge gap the u.s. is leaving is it possible that other countries can step in and fill some of that gap it has to be possible already this year we have raised nearly

a million dollars of new money by launching a global fundraising campaign the deficit remains at two hundred seventeen million dollars but as i say we simply have to fill the gap because the alternative is too grim to come. rebels and serious adler province have blown up two bridges that are an attempt to hender any government assault on the area or been protests against any moves to retake the rebels' last stronghold but russia's foreign minister says the syrian government has every right to chase what he called terrorists out of their lives three million people live there including as many as seventy thousand rebel fighters unicef says it lives civilians sceptically children should be spared from more fighting. we think it's critically important when we having a lease need to reiterate that we start hearing that we don't forget that there's more than a million children inside their own children who in some cases have been displaced two three four five six times from different cities in they are children who've

coping mechanism has been very much eroded by all these displacement and who are particular risks of that that's what's happening in the moment that's the risk we're facing stephanie decker has more ferment taqiyya near the turkey syria border . a lot of diplomatic maneuvering behind the scenes diplomatic efforts to try and find some kind of way forward that avoids a full scale military conflict inside it live you have the syrian foreign minister in moscow on friday you have the russians talking to the turks you have the u.s. special envoy to syria coming to the region to visit israel jordan and turkey to discuss a way forward for syria what is clear at this point in time is that the syrian government is adamant to take it how is this going to happen is going to be the challenge particularly when it comes also to the millions of civilians almost three million people inside the province there are already hundreds of thousands of tents of internally displaced along the border here with turkey turkey has no intention on opening its borders and also you have the challenge that was i don't think we

can call it a refuge because they've been ongoing air strikes on the province but this is where people were taken to rebels and their families throughout the last couple of years under the so-called reconciliation deals that saw damascus taking back swathes and swathes of territory those that didn't want to live into these areas were taken to it while now there seems to be nowhere else for these people to go so huge challenges and also that indicates how different the challenge is when it comes to that but of course the most important thing the humanitarian situation people trying to avoid a full scale conflict because they say it will cause a humanitarian catastrophe not far from the coast of syria russia getting a large military exercise or a challenge to us all in this from moscow so what's going on here henri is to say. is this a preparation for something to happen in syria what do we know. well the official narrative from the russian ministry of defense is that this is

unconnected with syria the this naval and air force grouping is going to be conducting anti-aircraft and anti submarine drills in the mediterranean but when the kremlin was asked about its earlier in the week they had a slightly different take dmitri peskov the spokesperson for the president said that the syrian situation has substantial potential for escalation therefore he put it extra precautions are quite justified and grounded now it's unlikely that this particular group of planes and naval ships is there for offensive purposes it's more likely to be defensive or focused the russians are certainly listening to reports and messaging coming out of the united states at the moment. saying that essentially the u.s. is prepared to strike targets inside syria if there is another chemical weapons

attack so you know the russians have enough hardware and from a when they have enough planes there supports an assault on it if they want to do that without this naval exercise lending a hand in that what's more likely what's more logical is that this is basically them chucking more military hardware into the area to try and dissuade the united states from any punitive strikes inside syria ok or a challenge for us in moscow thank you. uganda pop star turned opposition politician bobby wine is on his way to the u.s. he boarded a flight on friday night after the government allowed him to leave the country wind is seeking medical care overseas for injuries he says he suffered while he was in detention he's been charged with treason for his alleged role in an incident where stones were thrown at the president's motorcade brazil's former president luis

ignacio little of the silva has then walked from running in october as election a majority of judges on the electoral court banned his candidacy he's serving a twelve year prison sentence for corruption and people convicted of a crime cannot run for the presidency in brazil but party registered him anyway and says it will fight with all that it takes to make sure that he can run russia is accusing ukraine assassinating a prominent separatist leader alexander of soccer chant go it was killed and a bomb blast at a cafe he was the leader of rebels in the region of don yes the tour he gave me reports. this is the aftermath of the blast that killed alexander because a blackened body can be seen lying on a stretcher donetsk went into lockdown after the killing with moscow in the russian backed breakaway republic itself calling this an active international terrorism but with. security measures in the republic are heightened all the borders are closed

a few people have already been detained here they have already given evidence confirming that this was a ukrainian act of sabotage because the last pictures of zac a chunk of alive were from thursday laying flowers for the dumbass build saying josefa who died earlier in the day that had been the prime minister of donetsk since november twenty fourth he was shuffled into the position at a time when attempts were being made to make the war in ukraine's east less like a foreign operation run by moscow a more like a homegrown independence movement as a donetsk native and rebel military command he fit the bill. was present at both peace summit in minsk a negotiator at the first the d.n.r. is representative in signatory at the second plenty of other separatist commanders have met similar fates like the man known as giving killed last year and motorola who died in twenty sixteen but this ukraine analysts things one theory physical

death stands out as the most likely to me it looks like this was an internal operation for the past few weeks and months it's a conference call has been critical of some of his colleagues other deputies in that so-called d.n.r. armament i.e. control the t.v. station which pretty much humiliated and their colleagues so i think come kind of the writing was on the wall that perhaps his days were numbered moscow and kiev a both accusing each other of having a hand in sack a chunk of his death the most significant yet of the many murky debt. if that had been an ongoing feature of this micky ward victoria gave him be al jazeera would tell at on al-jazeera at what their currency in freefall argentinians ask whether an international bailout will be worth the cost of the venice film festival it's doing its part to try and reform the entertainment industry.

from dusky sunsets over the sprawling savannah. to summarize the top in asian metropolis how i was still got some rather lively showers into central parts of here because it's a clutch of storm system around the outside pushing across the into the eastern side of here line of cloud here just pushing up towards the baltic states to the east is that still plenty of warmth around and further west we'll see temperatures just bouncing back quite nicely across western powers over the next couple of days twenty three celsius in london that in paris not too bad for the first day of may for logical spring at least fifteen celsius there four zero but thirty five for the trade the showers well i do continue the nuts away a little further east was as we go through saturday and on into sunday fair amount of bright weather add a good deal of sunshine there into eastern parts and not too bad down towards the

southeast are getting up to thirty four celsius for athens at this stage and getting up to twenty four there in london thirty six one hundred plenty of warm sunshine here in the warm sunshine of course stretched across northern parts of africa and you might just catch one or two bits of fair weather clouds around northern parts of algeria just around the mountains pushing over towards america fine and dry those the temperatures getting up to twenty seven celsius out is warm enough here it's thirty degrees thirty one there in chinnis and hottest in cairo at thirty seven. there with it sponsored by cats on race. as we embrace new technologies rarely do we start to ask what is the price of this progress what happened was people started getting sick but there was a small group of people that began to think that maybe this was related to the to the job and investigation reveals how even the smallest of voices deadly environmental and health conscious we think ok we'll send our you ways to china but

we have to remember that air pollution travels around the globe death by design on al-jazeera. al-jazeera let's take a look at the top stories this hour the u.s. has cut all funding to the u.n. agency supporting five million palestinian refugees around thirty percent of andras funding has come from the u.s. the trumpet ministration says the agency is irredeemably flawed palestinian president mahmoud abbas calls the cuts a flagrant assault on palestinians. russians accuse ukraine a assassinating prominent separatist leader alexander hanko the russian backed

leader of the rebels and on yet don yes died in a blast in a cafe ukraine's government has denied any involvement. it got a pop star turn opposition politician bobby wine is on his way to the u.s. he boarded a flight on crutches on friday night after the government allowed him to leave the country why is seeking medical care overseas for injuries he says he suffered while he was in detention is been charged with treason. argentina's government says it will discuss a fifty billion dollar bailout with the international monetary fund on monday the currency has lost half its value against the u.s. dollar this year i'll let america newman of course i'm going to size. all eyes were on the city when the cytisus financial center. after losing another fifteen percent of its value thursday the government managed a modest recovery after infusing almost seven hundred million dollars into the

currency market to stop the hemorrhaging but that didn't diminish the long queues of people seeking refuge in the u.s. dollar. these abrupt and deep explosions in the currency such strong devaluation is concerned me because they symbolize an unstable country and unstable economy. arjen times think and save in dollars and with good reason given their economies history of boom and bust and when the dollar goes up so do prices while the value of people's wages starts tunneling down and that is exactly what is happening today a waitress for example told me that back in april she was making the equivalent of six hundred dollars a month today she is making three hundred or only half that much and that's just in the last four months. the devaluation of the pistol increases inflation already one of the world's highest the government says it will announce new economic measures on monday before going to the i.m.f.

to negotiate terms for speeding up the release of a fifty billion dollar bailout loan they include further austerity measures. but many economists warn that the cost of turning to the i.m.f. is too high the i.m.f. lends money but as we all know there are a series of very stringent conditions which end up sinking the economy explain to me how you come out of that on top. and you don't basically so we're headed for another crisis i mean we are in a crisis but we're heading for another major crisis. and if that's true not only could south america's second largest economy risk a new default but also major social unrest like the kind that brought down the government in two thousand and one. see in mulan al-jazeera when a situs. economic crisis in venezuela has sent hundreds of thousands of people into

neighboring countries and prove they're being met with racial slurs and hate speech but some of them say the anti immigrant attitude is easier to deal with and conditions back home are an essential capital lima. thirty eight year old man keeps an eye on municipal police will selling a traditional rice stream from venezuela he still doesn't have a street vendor permit trying to make a living far away from home it's hard he says but worse is here in slurs against bin swings. especially to people like me a street vendor people tell me move get out of here go back to your country. and armed assault mainly perpetrated by even islamists and con and security cameras sparked a wave of untied ministry and feeling in. this honest compatriots are paying the price. people have to understand we are not all the same the great majority is here

to work and send money to our families to get them out of the inferno that venezuela has become. businessmen need to do stop textile employee and see the number of the newest women's working here a school with a peruvian save in a sweet months are taking their jobs and some businessmen here have laid off peruvians because they say venezuelans charge them less the anti immigration sentiment among many was fueled by a. servant if candidate ill must mayoral race in october he gained popularity by same business women so threatening security and jobs. but government officials have condemned sina for the slurs produce open border policy has let more than four hundred thousand in this williams in the country nearly seventy thousand have already been granted work permits were going to fish all say the press is openness well let's just have it in fact there was health and education says that there are nearly thirty thousand minutes with children in schools but they also say the

impact is positively goody's the workforce many even as well as i do in the job through fields don't want to take. any peruvians reacted against growing seen a fabric sentiment by opening their homes to shelter migrants and refugees twenty one year old alexander torrealba is sleeping with fifteen other venezuelans in one room. i feel lucky to have been offered this shelter but it's a pity many compatriots have been mistreated you know here because we want to be but because we need to be. however the majority of us will say they feel will come in be do escaping from inflation and food and medicine shortages back home make them choose to endure almost anything for a better future and the innocent just. talks between the u.s. and canada to revamp a north american free trade agreement have ended without

a deal the discussions will resume on wednesday donald trump had initially suggested friday as his deadline for a deal canada's foreign minister is still optimistic an agreement can be reached and the meantime trump has told congress he will press ahead with a new deal with mexico. it is going to take flexibility on all sides to get in the end and what i can speak to is the canadian position and i really want to assure canadians that we're working hard to get a good deal we are confident that a win win win deal is possible and we're always going to stand up for the national interest and for canadian values toxic weed killer surveying a link to flesh eating disease among farmers in northern thailand the government is now reconsidering the use of three talks six praise one of them paraquat has already banned and more than thirty countries when he has a story. in parts of rural thailand red marks the spot it's an indicator that

farmers used to show them sprayed paraquat a toxic weed killer banned in many countries and the european union its use is blamed on a number of illnesses including a flesh eating bacteria disease which is emerged in northern thailand some farmers have died others have lost limbs in the province of. where researches say contamination from agric emma cools is severe. i really want to see people stop using the chemicals last time i went to the provincial hospital the staff told me there were a lot of patients with similar symptoms as i had thailand's become one of the world's biggest uses of paraquat partly because of its effectiveness on sugarcane plantations as the price of rice fell the government encouraged farmers to grow other crops like sugar which in turn increased demand for paraquat the health ministry recommended that it be banned along with two other chemicals but that was ignored and they continued use approved by

a government appointed committee there are now allegations that some members of that committee had conflicts of interest with companies involved in importing the chemicals. but i have to look at the members of the committee their position is not groundless but so far we have no impairing evidence to accuse any of them. thailand wants to become known as the so-called kitchen of the world but the largely unregulated use of toxic sprays is leading to concerns about food safety most of the world's paraquat is made in china which has also decided to ban its use in thailand it's important mainly by foreign companies the biggest thai company dealing in its is c.p. group jones among other things convenience stores it's also one of the world's largest food produces. al-jazeera contacted c.p. group and other companies involved but none would give an interview and none have ever been to sea to port to ask him what happened he says he can never farm again

but hopes one day the fields here will be chemical free wayne hay al jazeera. thailand the queen of soul aretha franklin has been buried at a cemetery in her hometown the u.s. city of detroit a musical legend was placed in her family's plot were she now lives alongside her father and siblings earlier she was honored at a funeral service that lasted almost eight hours it was the fourth day of remembrance predatory its most famous resident the venice film festival has fallen in the footsteps of canon signed a gender parity pledge but organizers have rejected claims of sexism and insists the real problem lies elsewhere again baba reports from venice. a gesture but some say years overdue on friday the venice film festival signed an agreement promising greater transparency over how it selects films and gender equality across the organization followed similar moves by rivals like counted. before the festival

started the european women's audiovisual network published an open letter to venice denouncing the fact only one film in the main competition here is directed by a woman and demanding changes to what they called a rigged system that favors mainly white males. now it seems change is on its way but for the festival director actual quotas are a step too far quaters is something which he says to me fair and right in politics for example. we can use the quaters in him in art the only katie to talk for hours is the quality of their work is. soccer marx's presenting her first feature film of venice previously she directed a documentary on the french prison system. how long cast is showing outside the main competition it's about a young man looking for support when he comes out of jail his mother played by sort

of being born air has severe depression and he finds himself dragged into criminality the director says her gender hasn't been a problem when it comes to getting her work see. the complicated judgment of previously to a staff but now there are more one more women directors in france there are plenty and lots of women have paved the way like kathryn bigelow at the start it was hard for her because really there were no women directors in hollywood. and some industry watchers say the debate about how many women directed a film screening first of all those masks a deeper problem what we need to be talking about is getting young school girls when they're in school to think i can be a director and when that happens we're going to get far more women directors and we're going to get better films coming from some of those women directors. less than a quarter of all film submitted to venice this year were by women there's clearly an imbalance when it comes to who makes the films audiences get to see here and in cinema but changing that could mean reforming. the industry about discussion is

just starting with. us. you shall carry a let's recap the headlines for you now that the u.s. has cut all funding to the king un agency supporting five million palestinian refugees around thirty percent of funding has come from the u.s. all the top ministrations says the agency is. flawed palestinian president mahmoud abbas says the cut is a flagrant assault on palestinians chris gunness says a spokesman he's calling for other nations to help fill in the funding gap we certainly reject any another day sions about it have been made about programs of programs to deep it was the american ministration which just recently as a few months ago praise all operations we deliver to five hundred twenty six million children around the middle east a primary education of doctors do nine million patients consultations

a year we feed well but seven good insecure people. doing those things which want to be right so i started doing the community including by the us ministration russia has accused ukraine of assassinating prominent separatist leader alexander stark on shank oh they are russian backed leader of rebels in the region died in a blast at a cafe ukraine's government has denied any involvement uganda's pop star turned opposition politician bobby wine is on his way to the you to amsterdam haye boarded a flight on crutches on friday night after the government allowed him to leave the country why is seeking medical care overseas for injuries he says he separate while he was in detention he has been charged with treason. brazil's former president loisa nasi alluded to silva has been blocked from running in october selection majority of judges on the electoral court banned his candidacy he's serving

a twelve year prison sentence for corruption people convicted of a crime cannot run for the presidency and brazil party registered have anyway and says it will fight with all means possible to ensure he remains a candidate. the queen of soul aretha franklin has been buried at a cemetery in her hometown of the u.s. city of detroit musical legend was placed in her family's plot where she now lives alongside her father and siblings earlier she was honored at a funeral service that lasted almost eight hours it was the fourth day ever membranes for detroit's most famous resident those are the headlines to keep it here on al-jazeera much more to come listening post this next. when they're on line this isn't some abstract issue we need to be attention to they're still produce or if you join a sunset 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 for a short while everyone has

a voice and part of civil society i need to go for that i never get listened to by those in the corridors of both join the conversation. on out in zero. fire damage stories about locked away that's a long time friend a friend helped catch kill our reservation not commit a crime tyrant i'm watching now i like to say what is fast becoming one of the course weeks for president trump since he took office. hello i'm richard burton you're at the listening post here are some of the stories we're covering this week inquiring minds prosecutors and the american news media all want to know what does the man in charge of the national enquirer have on donald trump out of amsterdam and into darfur the radio station that beams news and information to citizens left in the dark.