senator. the u.s. cuts off all funding to the u.n. agency that provides schooling and health care to five million palestinian refugees . alarm has this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up killed by a cafe bombing in ukraine the death of a russian rebel leader is a sharp response from moscow. and you're looking at a live shot inside the national cathedral in washington where a funeral service for the late u.s. senator john mccain is getting under way. and the tiny be told

us threatening to destroy one of the world's largest forests. after nearly seventy years the united states has halted all funding to a key u.n. agency that supports millions of palestinian refugees it says it is no longer willing to shoulder what it calls a disproportionate share of the burden the u.s. accuse the united nations relief and works agency of being irredeemably flawed palestinian leadership is calling it a flagrant assault on palestinians and in violation of a un resolution which led to the creation of the un agency in one thousand nine hundred nine u.s. president donald trump whose promise what he calls a deal of the century to resolve the israeli palestinian conflict has unilaterally declared jerusalem as israel's capital and one hour from harry for sit in ramallah

in the occupied west bank. well this is the jelas own refugee camp just outside ramallah in the occupied west bank it's in places like this where the impact of this u.s. decision will be felt most keenly already the united states this year only handed over sixty million dollars of its pledge three hundred sixty five million dollars contribution to the agency that sooner or have to look for extra money elsewhere from other donor countries or get donor countries to advance existing commitments that is something which has up until now still left it with a shortfall it says of more than two hundred million us dollars but as far as the palestinian leadership is concerned this is part of the political assault against the p.a. against the p.l.o. by the united states very much aligning itself with hardliners on the israeli side this is what the secretary general of the p.l.o. side erekat had to say to us a little earlier today i think the decisions of the american recession there have been as jerusalem as its capital and integrate the sources of support to our work

and to is consider settlements legal as friedman specified and to that of the two state solution at least seven these have been the biggest gifts thugs and murderers of fighters have received from anyone. in the u.s. may argue that it's taxpayers' money and there are free to do whatever they want to do with it yes but who give them the right. garber of the stealing of my land my future my spirit and my hopes my capital maxim was my only sibling her church. they have no right whatsoever it was just a few days since the start of a new academic year and schools have reopened the agency provides education to more than half a million palestinian children in the region but it also provides medical services social services employment and particularly in gaza where there are more than a million palestinian refugees it provides emergency food aid disrupting on roads activities has long been something that the israeli prime minister benjamin

netanyahu for example as argued in favor of but there are those who are concerned not least in the israeli security establishment about the impact of a major cut in aid on the security situation in the occupied palestinian territories the turkey's ruling ak party says the us decision would create chaos and worsen the situation in the region let's take a closer look at what is a stake in education health care and livelihoods for almost five million palestinian refugees and or is critical in providing these services to refugees who are barred from returning to palestine and are forced to live in lebanon syria jordan the occupied west bank and the gaza strip the u.s. provides more than a third of under was annual budget and has been the top downer for decades but in january it only contributed sixty million dollars and withheld sixty five million more chris gunness is a spokesman he is calling for other nations to help fill the funding gap. already this year the company ministrations

a cut three hundred five million dollars small budget and we have 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 that have been made about our programs our programs are high impact and indeed it was the american ministration which recently the few months ago praise our operations we deliver to five hundred twenty six million children around the middle east a primary education adopted to nine million patient consultations a year we feed seven students your people that contribution to doing those things which is widely read by the donor community including by the u.s. military mission there have been accusations which i've not made directly but i think people are asking whether what we're seeing is the political instrumentalists ration of aids and what we say is the two hundred entity 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 right that the refugees we have shrunken. narrowly to the death of the of the peace the cold what people are seeing around them is shrunken political horizons and this highly regrettable position is going to add to that sense of abandonment marginalization. breaking news coming from riyadh now an investigation by saudi arabia and the united arab emirates has concluded that the bombing of a school bus in yemen was unjustified forty children were killed in a coalition air strike in hooty controlled sabha earlier in august the incident

sparked widespread condemnation the coalition said those responsible would be held accountable. our newly appointed u.s. representative to syria is making his first trip to the region james jeffrey is expected to talk about the syrian conflict at stops in israel and jordan and turkey his visit comes as speculation grows the russia and the syrian government are planning a possible military offensive in italy on friday secretary of state might pompei or warned an attack on the rebel held province would be a major escalation of the conflict the state department said jeffreys visit to the region will also underscore the united states will respond to any chemical weapons attack perpetrated by the syrian regime stephanie deca has more from harley near the turkey syria border. what you're looking at is province and these are just some of the tents of the internally displaced along the border with turkey around eight

hundred thousand tents lined this border area the border with turkey is of course closed and also the other situation is that people here will tell you that they have nowhere to go they have been coming over the years from areas where fighting was inside syria now most of those areas are under government control and of course there is a feeling that this operation this offensive by the by the syrian government and the russians will take place at some point this is why you have intensive diplomatic efforts underway between turkey between russia and the syrian government trying to figure out how to limit this turkey's nightmare situation is to have these people try to cross into the border areas also how do you maintain the aid flowing to the people over a million people inside of dependent on aid so a lot of different challenges under way it's also different this province the last held rebel territory inside syria because this is the area where people have been bussed to rebels and their families will sit internally displaced who did not want

to stay in those areas now under the control of the syrian government under those reconciliation deals so this is why it's different this is why it's a huge challenge where they're going to go to the united states it's only france and the u.k. are all condemning an increase in violence in and around libya's capital tripoli at least forty people have been killed and more than one hundred injured during several days of fighting most of the casualties all civilians gun battles and shelling of course serious damage to areas around with airport near tripoli flights have been diverted to misrata the groups are officially aligned to the u.n. recognized government of national accord. russia has warned diplomatic talks to resolve the conflict in eastern europe in eastern ukraine rather is impossible after the assassination of the kremlin backed separatist leader on friday moscow's accuse ukraine of killing alexander he was killed in an explosion at a cafe in done yet to reach alan's reports from moscow this is the aftermath of the

blast that killed at xander as a car chink or a blackened body can be seen lying on a structure outside the cafe don't yet squint into lockdown after the killing with moscow and the russian backed breakaway republic itself calling this an act of international terrorism with. security measures in the republic are heightened all the borders are closed a few people have already been detained they have already given evidence confirming that this was a ukrainian act of sabotage because. the last pictures of her alive were from thursday laying flowers for the donbass born singer years of cubs on who died earlier in the day so i have been the prime minister of done yet since november two thousand and fourteen he was shuffled into the position at a time when attempts were being made to make the war in ukraine's east look less like a foreign operation run from moscow more like

a home grown independence movement as a disney esque native and rebel military commander who fit the bill. or was present both peace summits in minsk and negotiator of the first the d.n.r. representative and signatory had the second three potential theories springs to mind for who might have been behind this killing it could have been ukraine secret service the s.b.u. perhaps it was separatist infighting or maybe it was moscow doing some extreme housekeeping amongst the rebels. plenty of other separatist commanders have met similar fates like the man with the nom de guerre give the killed last year and motorola who died in two thousand and sixteen but this ukraine analyst thinks one theory of a psychotic is death stands out as the most likely to me it looks like this was an internal operation for the past few weeks and months the hunching corps has been

critical of some of its colleagues other deputies and that's all the n.r.o. meant 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 were numbered moscow and kiev are both accusing each other of having a hand in so much or because death is the most significant yet of the many murky deaths that have been ongoing feature in this murky war rory challenge is how to zero mosque or and russia one of the key backers of syrian president bashar al assad is flexing its military muscle with a week of drills in the mediterranean sea says the exercises will focus on anti air an anti submarine defense systems. are staying with russia where one person has died after a passenger plane crashed at sochi airport the aircraft ran off the runway during landing it crashed into a river bed and caught fire at one of the rescue workers died of a heart attack during the operation eighteen of the one hundred seventy people on

board were injured course of the crash is still on none. all right still ahead on as these are our live pictures you're looking at from a washington as the nation can't nation's capital honors the late u.s. senator john mccain. ally once again well it's been a pretty wet week for southeastern parts to china in places say things do look a little dry as we go on through the next couple of days still a fair amount of cloud right close to hong kong at present and over the next twenty four hours or so you might still see some lovely showers are the winds still continue to push their way in from the southwest north of that whilst of will be

getting up into the low thirty's we go on into a monday and there's the dry weather coming through once again maybe some showers there for shanghai before much of southeast of china city looking a lot better than it was sent in looking much better for taiwan maybe a few showers there into the philippines some showers too into good parts of vietnam joining up with the showers that we have across much of indo china still looking pretty wet over towards at least the side of the by of being goes to show i was never too far away from me i'm on the phone northeast of in the northern parts of india this is just to the northeast of new delhi actually we're conses seen some very very heavy rain recently and those heavy downpours have led to some mudslides and rockslides as well we will see the showers continue his or go on through the next couple of days longer spells of rain to come further south as the came dry fine and sunny.

and instantly shifting news cycle the receiver in change a number of tweet the listening post takes questions the world's media will be of the details the kind that cannot be conveyed in two hundred eighty characters or fewer exposing how the press operates is their language it's their culture it's their context of why certain stories take precedence while others are ignored we can have a better understanding of how the news is created we're going to have a better understanding of what the news is the listening post on al-jazeera. and again you're watching al-jazeera minder of our top stories this hour saudi

arabia and the united arab emirates say last month's attack on a bus carrying children was unjustified an investigation by the coalition concluded that those behind it should be held accountable forty children were killed in the airstrike in hooty controlled about three weeks ago the incident sparked widespread condemnation and calls for an independent investigation from the united nations secretary general. the us has cut all funding to the un agency the supports five million palestinian refugees trump administration says the agency is irredeemably floored palestinian president mahmoud out bass calls the cops flagrant assault on palace things. russia has warned that talks to resolve the conflict in eastern ukraine are impossible after the killing of the kremlin backed separatist leader on friday moscow has accused ukraine of killing alexander died in an explosion at a cafe internets. our former us president barack obama and george w.

bush will lead mourners at a final public sendoff for john mccain in washington a long time arizona senator will be used by the two men who defeated him in each of his bids for the presidency of the current commander in chief president donald trump has not been invited to the nationally televised these are. live pictures you're looking at right now let's talk to gabe well as rondo who is outside the cathedral in washington so what can we expect there. well you can expect that this will be a memorial service that will last several hours it's just getting underway right now just started a few minutes ago and you can expect that this will be a very patriotic memorial service dedication to john mccain and there are more than twenty five hundred invited guests inside the national cathedral there behind me

and it is really a who's who of not only washington power structures and american power but also a globally as well several defense ministers and foreign ministers and even a couple heads of states in there as well people that have known john mccain for his nearly three decades just here that he served as a senator in washington and traveled widely around the world and as well when well reported now we're expecting that there will be several speeches given but i think what a lot of people are waiting for is the two eulogies that will be given jointly by former president george w. bush as well as former president barack obama this is no mistake that these two former presidents will be giving the eulogy this was requested by mccain before he passed away and he really wanted to send a signal that he wanted his morial service to be a bipartisan affair and that's exactly why he has the two former presidents from

each of the two major parties giving his eulogy his formal burial will be taken place in a private ceremony on sunday at the naval academy and allow annapolis maryland. live for us in washington. mexico's congress is opening up its first legislative session under president elect and this man will. lopez obrador of the moreno party the new government is expected to tackle several new policies from anti corruption measures to energy reform john hellman reports. over the years it's a historic new mexican congress for the first time since democracy the left has a clear majority. for your old party morena and its allies with the board giving populist president elect and his money well lopez obrador a legislative power not seen in twenty years it's used to promise

a new austerity plan that would have the salaries of lawmakers and dramatically cut their perks bodyguard's teams of consultants and international travel. they say something that a public tired of rich out of touch politicians needed to see where there can't be such a marked inequality in society so much poverty in the countryside and a group of privileged politicians with everything. there's another big shift for the first time they'll be almost as many female lawmakers as men in part the result of the quota system where. there could be a different vision with women involved in the country's direction not just to highlight the problems we have like them aside domestic and social violence but to do things differently with sensitivity honesty dedication those values are more prevalent in women but there's a challenge ahead say female lawmakers getting more access to big policy decisions rather than just being relegated to so-called women's issues we can't yet see how

this is all going to play out but congress is definitely opening with a real change of tone in particular the cuts to pay and perks of grab the attention but analysts say what's going to really make a difference is better oversight to how lawmakers are spending public money not just blanket cuts up until now there's been a real lack of checks and balances what a media change that should make politicians more willing to play the transparency game is reelection introduced for the first time i expect and i hope that this incentive structure will really focus on politicians to go more to their grassroots result in a virtuous circle of going more to the constituency and really tried to to get good results source source turned the boat this three years for the new lawmakers to prove all know that this time around they're prepared to put the country before themselves john home of. mexico city. i uganda's opposition

politician bobby wine is on his way to the united states aboard a flight on friday night after the government allowed him to leave the country one is seeking medical care 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. johannesburg is home to one of the world's largest urban forests but it's come under threat from a tiny we talk about two hundred species of trees many of them indigenous to south africa are afflicted with the pest and the fungus it carries scientists jeff desperately look for solution many of the city's trees are dying everyday miller reports from johannesburg with ten million trees johannesburg is regarded as one of the world's greenest cities but hundreds of thousands of trees could be under through it from a tiny beetle and the fungus it carries. it's a it's

a crisis. manmade forests is under threat because of this. and you are not enough is being done from a. maybe a government or a city level at a local school trees surgeon julia is trying to stop the spread of the beatles which bore into trees a fungus that the beetle brings to the tree is actually clogging up in layman's terms of vascular system in the tree that's transporting the water the nutrients up and down the tree so it interferes with that and it's basically because the water neutrons can't pass through that affected area or that damaged area it's the tree on the top dies back. so it's basically starving the tree nearby an entire tree lined street has been infested south africa's not the first country to be affected the beetle which originates in vietnam has already decimated treason israel and the

united states now a south african company has developed what it says is the world's first effective treatment it's a combination of a pesticide and an antifungal solution that penetrates the tree the company says while the treatment will be sprayed on to trees it's safe for the environment but there's by killer still has to be approved before it can be used but that could take time and even if some trees are cut down the bug could spread if the trees are not properly disposed of after discovering that trees in his backyard had been affected little frier developed an app to monitor the spread of the brutal people across south africa and the various interest groups have all been paying attention and collaborating. and certainly people in the private space are working very aggressively to try to find solutions the institutions like the department of agriculture there were some really great people but they're under resourced and

they're also dealing with other crisis some say the infestation is reaching crisis point and up to half a million trees could be lost in the next five years if nothing's done and experts are worried that the pissed if not stopped could hit farm crops next for me to miller al-jazeera johannesburg the thai government is reconsidering the use of three toxic weed killers one of the chemicals paraquat is already banned in more than thirty countries it's been linked to flesh eating diseases in farmers in northern thailand when a with that story. in parts of rural thailand red marks the spot it's an indicator that farmers used to show that 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 agra chemicals 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 that are loaded with that but i have to look at the members of the committee their position is not groundless but so far we have no imperial evidence to accuse any of them thailand wants to become known as the so-called kitchen of

the world but that 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 it is c.p. group were johns among other things convenience stores it's also one of the world's largest food producers. al-jazeera contacted c.p. group and other companies involved but none would give an interview and none have ever been to see see to put 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. other venice film festival has followed in the footsteps of can and signed a gender parity pledge but organizers have rejected claims of sexism and say the real problem lies elsewhere the reports from venice. a gesture that some say is

over due 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 quarters. in art the only katie to talk for is the quality of their work is.

sagar marx is presenting her first feature film of venice previously she directed a documentary on the french prison system. along cass 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 there 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 judgment of previously to a staff but now there are more and 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 direct. sgrena festivals 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 are

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 the debugger al-jazeera that is. how this is going to round up other top stories saudi arabia and the united arab emirates say last month's attack on a bus carrying children was unjustified an investigation by the coalition concluded that those behind it should be held accountable and official is live for us in neighboring in djibouti and what more are we hearing. well we see that this inquiry says that we looked at the footage that came from the plane that was involved in the incident the saudis and the united arab emirates who remember at

the time said that this was a justified military operation there saying that they had received information that the leaders were in a building near where this bus was struck the of obviously interviewed those in a row in the area at the time those that were involved in the saudi led operation and they've no concluded that it was unjustified which is a remarkable about turn from the position that they took just two weeks ago this comes as there is international mounting pressure on the saudi arabian led coalition because of a number of incidents in yemen itself one of those of course was the bus attack you when it was revealed that our u.s. missile may well have been involved and there were loud calls in the u.s. to reassess its position backing the saudi led coalition in yemen and then we find out from human rights watch that they issued a report just this week saying that they believe that when this commission was

involved in investigating incidents that happened in yemen they were doing to international standards that they weren't transparent as they weren't clear on what they were doing in many times they suggested there was a whitewash of the results so obviously we expect to get some more information coming out of saudi arabia in the next few hours but this seems like a remarkable u. turn from the saudis who is a c says that when the bus was hit this was a legitimate military operation no they're saying there was something seriously wrong with the way this operation was carried out they've analyzed the evidence and of course we know wait to see what the next steps will be most of all to the families who were involved in this and had to bury their children but also those who carried out as i said time allocation live for us in djibouti yeah those are the headlines up next here on algeria who can china's democracy experiment. unless we have new generations growing up to understand better all relationship with

another. soon there will be nothing left and will suffer primatologist and conservationist dr jane goodall towards to al-jazeera. tens of thousands of demonstrations erupt across china each year driven by anger over corruption and the illegal sale of communal land most protests fail to make an impact but in two thousand and eleven one village defied the odds. you can see religious rose up demanding the return of their lead and calling for their leaders to step down after decades of corruption. and made a crackdown activist sure it's implore died in police custody. but if you can achieve pm thinkable the right to choose the.