movement which is helping to organize the protests and speaking to us from morocco he said the demonstrations so people have been fed up for a long time this is a decentralized movement that's happening and there's always different groups and they're all uniting on one cause which is like you need to go and a lot of the organization is happening through a coalition through the professional sudanese association and there's calls for protests and when the call comes out going these professional position is not the one organizing on the ground all the different groups work in the decentralized ways to get people to work with people from different cities from different neighborhoods they all come together and they organize in small cells and everybody comes together because they know the call is coming so it's definitely a movement that people will a lot of people within the national congress party the ruling party are actually turning and thinking that they need change too so there's we've been hearing more and more voices from within the party that think this is over we need to move on

and we need to reach a real democracy we need to have so those voices are coming out so i think there's a main street of consciousness in the city in the society because for years we haven't been talking about it in the mainstream and now people are talking about this and i even have my own family groups what's happened groups and social media groups that are used to always talk about. jokes and whatnot and now they're actually talking about this so there is this mainstream consciousness and people are talking about it and now with more marches with citizens and all these calls for a strike there's more and more talk about people wanting change and imagining the change so this is happening right now and i think is being we be strong and if it wasn't for the strong balance that people are faced with the protests would have been way way bigger. well the weather is next and then. i'm andrew thomas in the pacific island country of van a while see where trials on the way to deliver lifesaving vaccines. by drugs.

and frozen to death the impact of gaza's blockade is having on animals. hello time for another bell to snow i think not an immediate future well though we still got the circulation which suggests cold air comes across the water that produces that it's not really much of a breeze so you've got the increasing cloud on sunday disappointing if you look at that west and then a bit of rain on the coast of honshu and mountains in and soon i will see some snow from that of the sea but turkey is quite warm in the shelter of fifteen insofar as minus one is on surprising there's probably going to be a bit of a problem is slowing moving morning fog in north korea possibly around the beijing

area where the air is increasing not of high quality jet temperatures are rising here but there is an increasing likelihood of extensive snow in her car and northern honshu drink money and it cools down a bit into down to ten and once again we spot this what's going on in the middle of winter type rain in the middle of southern china which stretches up towards a bit of snow in that on the high ground for the last part she's think about it because ten degrees and we're not produce snow so when to raise still around might even reach hong kong come tuesday south of that and the philippines will see an increase in the likelihood of quite substantial thunderstorms in the next day or so and that's also true i think for singapore. in search of a safer neighborhood it was a huge will we make a mouse into being a man and can't put my family in the hole that they discerned that's

a problem for me struggling to secure a home really really quite of arbitron does all until we don't we could potentially lose the house and living paycheck to paycheck there's nobody to blame and live with the consequences every day of the choices that have been hard. on al-jazeera. hello again the top stories on al-jazeera a leading u.s. senator says america's relationship with saudi arabia to move forward until the murder of journalists. on a two day visit to turkey republican senator lindsey graham also said he hopes donald trump will slow the withdrawal of u.s.

troops from syria until destroyed. by the u.s. president to north korea's leader have agreed to. the white house announcement came after the north's lead nuclear negotiator met donald trump in washington. the latest in a month of growing demands for the president to villagers in the northern region. for the. thirty year rule. pictures coming in from paris where the so-called yellow vests that you can see are staging their tenth straight weekend of rallies it began in mid november over higher fuel taxes which were subsequently scrapped and have since morphed into a broader movement against president. the protests brought some of the worst violence seen in paris for decades as rioters burned cars and. businesses. yemen's warring sides have failed to reach agreement on swapping thousands of

prisoners of war. between the yemeni government and what the rebel representatives broke down and jordan's capital victoria again be reports. the exchange of fifteen thousand prisoners of war was agreed in principle in sweden last month as a confidence building measure in practice it's proving difficult to implement three days of talks in the jordanian capital amman have ended in failure with both sides accusing each other of lying. he provided lists of names that were fake we don't even know where they got them probably on the other hand we have reports and documents on those they have imprisoned they said some of the names we provided were jailed on criminal charges or even belong to a car but it's all lies sadly the law with every breath. the four year war has killed thousands of yemenis and left millions on the brink of famine yemen's government and armed forces are supported by

a coalition led by saudi arabia and the united arab emirates if the rebels are backed by iran. the yemeni government of withholding information about prison is those in prison in saudi in jails are still unknown we only know of three hundred names this means we need more time in order to identify and to better deal with the assuming the tiering crisis u.n. envoy martin griffiths had this to say on what's been achieved in a man the meetings witness positive constructive and frank discussions the tea parties took the first step in implementing the agreement by exchanging the lists of prisoners and detainees and providing responses on the exchange lists. the success of prisoner exchanges relies on me to trust between both sides that seems more difficult to achieve with each new accusation victoria gate and b al-jazeera colombia's president is calling on cuba to hand over ten rebel commanders suspected

of thursday's police academy attack twenty one people died in the car bomb blast in bogota president ok has renewed arrest orders for leaders. a rebel group has claimed responsibility for the attack that took a hold a halted peace talks with the left wing rebels in cuba capital. the mexican army is being mobilized to guard pipelines after an explosion killed and injured dozens of people at least twenty were burnt to death as they filled their containers with leaking fuel from home and has more from mexico city. it looked like a village celebration dozens gathered under a fountain of gasoline it had a right to it from what mexico's state oil company said was an illegally tapped pipeline. they took the film is so just sent to guard the pipeline look told seemingly powerless then this happened. dozens of people

were taken to hospital with birds many less food were burnt to death the tragedy comes just as the government is trying to crack down that was the most important thing now is to look after the injured to save lives that is the most important thing the fight against the illegal theft of fuel will be strengthened. gangs and corrupt officials have been siphoning off petrol from the country's pipelines few years in two thousand and eighty the army found more than six thousand illegal times vulnerable pipelines have been shut down while the secured it's left many communities with shortages. the government's trying to make up the pools by delivering petrol in heavily guarded tankers. in the capital the system is beginning to work but elsewhere it makes curry second city quite a lot harder in several states there are still queues operations costing serious money not just the tankers but the four thousand troops deployed to guard them

pipelines a few years experts say it can't go on indefinitely the president's essentially made this a game of chicken let's see who gets tied first he said though stealing the country's oil or his government with its mounting costs the pipeline security and distribution. the polls have shown the majority of mates can support the president stand. by that but if it's to fire people who are stealing the fuel it's good we just have to put up with that for a bit if it's to make the country better that's fine friday ended with another pipeline explosion in create this time with no casualties but the clock is running for the president to come up with a long term solution to few there and all that comes with it john home and out zero mexico city the indonesian cleric who is the ideological leader of the bali bombers is being granted early release from prison for humanitarian reasons eighty year old

was jailed for fifteen years for his links to counts where the bombers were trained more than two hundred people were killed in the nightclub attack seventeen years ago life saving vaccines could soon be delivered by drones tests are underway on a remote pacific island to see if they can revolutionize health care for some of the world's poorest nations andrew thomas reports or mango island. delivering vaccines to people an arrow mango audience used to take hours or even days but now a drone can reach them in minutes soaring over the sea or rugged landscapes which don't have roads or parts until recently this along rough boat ride was the only way anything got to the village of south river to get things to other places to go about and to trek of many hours for vaccines which need to be kept cool that's expensive and impractical boats need lots of fuel backpacks don't have for

generation and in remote villages there isn't reliable power needed for fridges to store vaccines long term drones mean vaccines can be delivered on demand i've been with the minister of health ten to five years and this is the most innovative and ambitious and exciting project that i've been involved in two companies commissioned by then i want to use government and backed by australia unicef and the global fund are investigating the viability of new services across from the aussies are hell ago it takes twenty minutes for a drone to reach south river from ever mangos main settlement at dillon's bay but the battery on board can fly it for well over an hour the drone reaches one hundred ten kilometers an hour and can carry two point five kilograms on board this child is one of the lucky ones being vaccinated during the trial period otherwise it looks like and a lot longer we've had many conversations with with unicef at the global level and that definitely looking at what's happening in one or two other countries are

interested to learn from what's haven't happening even want to want to able to replicate but also use drones just minutes on the ground before making their return trip one of being tested hair about the practical technicalities of delivering vaccines by drugs and economics is it financially viable to deliver primary health care by driving the company behind. this says yes largely using pots made by three d. princes them at a factory cost is less than ten thousand dollars per drug and pulling the drones routes all tonelessly so there's no need for expertise locally the only marginal operating cost is electricity about four dollars a flight and i want to but even that is removed when solar energy is used it is made to be robust and cost effective in a solution that we can we can talk to a country that can't afford one hundred thousand all of a coal but we can bring the same level of technical competence with all of us having. this trial is a world first if successful it has

a big implications the potential to fly out to primary health care on demand to remote spots worldwide and to thomas al-jazeera. island. an american police man is starting a seven year prison term for shooting a teenager the death of donald provoked an outcry against war protesters called racist policing john hendren reports from chicago this video has spawned global outrage and now a prison sentence for a chicago police officer i think my findings are an appropriate sentence would be eighty one months and the illinois department actions two years minutes or so. jason vandyke was sentenced to six years in nine months the cost of gunning down a seventeen year old black man here this man has clearly committed murder and in the murder in which he has as committed have been shown all over the world everyone up in the conscious mind knows that this is murder and the reality of it is we

have to do something legislatively to change this this sentence caps the trial of a half century in chicago where a police officer has not been convicted of murder on duty in more than fifty years van dyke's wife pleaded for mercy i would like to ask the court. to please take into consideration. that my husband is a man he's a human being he's a very was a very good dedicated officer please please he has paid the price already my heart and soul are broken they will not be mended until he comes home prosecutors on the other hand had brought in his series of african-americans who said vandyke physically abused and harassed them he was. saudi obscenities rice and slurs what have you. os

specific lead what were the defendant used when he was jailed. and snack can recall because i was quite nervous because he had his gun drawn on me this sentence was far more than the defendant had hoped for but it was also far less than the family of look on mcdonnell and wanted police and authorities in chicago hope it is enough to keep peace in the streets it took a year for the police dash cam video of the two thousand and fourteen shooting to surface when it did the images of a police officer shooting look on mcdonald sixteen times as he walked away knife in hand but apparently not a threat led black lives matter and other protesters to erupt into demonstrations across the u.s. . now perhaps setting a new precedent here it is the officer who finds himself on the wrong side of the law john hendren al-jazeera chicago israeli forces have fired bullets on tear gas

at palace then am. on the gaza border at least thirty palestinians including three medics were injured on friday it was the forty third consecutive friday of protest as part of the great march of return movements. also in gaza four lion cubs have died after bad weather damaged their cage the zoo's owner says the blockade has left them sort of supplies that could have saved the animals. has more. it's a sad day at the only zoo in the gaza strip these children should be playing with these line cubs but instead they are here to bury them the cubs were born on wednesday but they survived less than twenty four hours severe winter weather affects not only gaza's two million people but also its few remaining zoo animals the cubs didn't stand much of a chance. i'm very sad because we lost four clubs today and i had to bury them in

the same room because it's not only a financial it's emotional because they're important to children under two visitors . the zoo says it didn't have the necessary food supplements and medicines to save the cops the twelve year israeli egyptian blockade has made it difficult to get the necessary food and equipment to take care of animals these are african lions some of the few animals left in gaza zoo. most other animals in this private zoo in the southern gaza strip survived the storm including the lioness her mate and three of their older cubs but for the kids of gaza an abrupt end to their short lived excitement dorsett jabari al-jazeera. well again the headlines on al-jazeera this hour a leading u.s. senator has repeated his assertion that the saudi crown prince was responsible for

murder lindsey graham added that muhammad must be dealt with as he threatened new sanctions graham a republican who's close to donald trump is on a two day visit to turkey where he's met president. and he says that he hopes president trump will slow the withdrawal of american troops from syria and so i still is destroyed that's in contrast to trump who said american troops are going because i saw has been defeated. has more on the remarks. to a u.s. senator from both sides of the aisle as well as human rights activists and other governments that the saudi government needs to come out in the open and make itself claridge transparent about what transpired instead of hanging and. providing that sentences to people who were not involved in this particular killing the u.s. president said north korea's leader have agreed to meet for a second time next month for more denuclearization talks the white house

announcement came after the north's nuclear negotiator met donald trump in washington more protests are being held in sudan the latest in a month the growing demands for the president to go villagers in the northern region of my hoss chanted for the end of president bashir is thirty year rule activists say at least fifty people have been killed. colombia's president is calling on cuba to hand over ten commanders of rebels suspected of thursday's police academy attack twenty one people died in the bomb blast and. president has renewed arrest orders for leaders. remaining hasn't claimed responsibility for that attack. at least twenty people have been killed and dozens injured in a pipeline fire in central mexico it happened in his state north of the capital mexico city on friday the state oil company says people were illegally tapping a pipeline and filling containers with fuel when that explosion. those are the

headlines on al-jazeera inside story is coming up next they with us. in search of peace in afghanistan the united states reviews it that is to persuade the taliban to have direct talks with government leaders what hopes are they of sitting them at the same table and ending the war this is inside story.

and welcome to the program. the united states is. involvement in the war in afghanistan which has killed tens of thousands of civilian soldiers and taliban but taliban leaders are refusing to sit at the same table as the afghan government a u.s. special envoy is in pakistan hoping government leaders can convince the taliban to change its mind or bring in our guests in just a moment but first. in islamabad. rog . come back we're going to. dog. come back to the

negotiating table but they have already. and there for their dog was there were drawing of order from of one it's gone and they're not going to be used against any other country. refute the government. despite pressure from several countries they. really decide how and where dog dog. collar band of god to get a good a gun. on the other hand they're trying to go on dollar bond holder meeting with the u.s. pressure on war who are already here and they're committed by our richard. for inside story from islamabad or let's take a quick look at the war in afghanistan following the nine eleven attacks in two thousand and one u.s.

forces invaded with a coalition of more than forty countries the goal was to destroy al qaeda and the taliban government protecting them and to make sure ganesan didn't become a safe haven for groups as sesame did at least thirty thousand to sixty thousand afghan soldiers have been killed since along with two thousand four hundred american troops the united nations says the first half of last year was the deadliest in the conflict so far with almost seven thousand eight hundred civilians killed and the taliban controlling more territory than at any point during the war many previous attempts at talks between the taliban and the afghan government have had little success the first discussions in twenty twelve collapse after the taliban rejected u.s. attempts to involve government representatives in twenty fifteen afghan and taliban representatives sell their first official talks in pakistan with observers from the u.s. and china discussions in two thousand and sixteen were called after a u.s.

drone strike in pakistan killed the taliban's leader. or the taliban did attend a meeting hosted by russia last year but the afghan government only sent representatives from its high. peace council which was appointed to help the concierge in efforts to a more let's bring in our panel now from kabul specialist on regional security who worked on the afghan peace process on skype from lahore in pakistan is ahmed rashid a journalist and author of taliban militant islam oil and fundamentalism in central asia also on skype from dublin in ireland michael semple former special deputy special representative to afghanistan who negotiated with the afghan taliban thank you all for joining us thank you so much for being on inside story came in kabul the taliban hold more territory in afghanistan today than at any point during the war why would they want to negotiate now are they really committed to the peace

process. yes i got a list of the progress on the battlefield over the course of last three years the taliban have in my view has an intent to be to be part of the negotiation process and that is mainly because of the stalemate that the conflict has has been faced with we know that the taliban have been losing a lot of their foot soldiers on the battlefield including the mid-level commanders the afghan forces have been hoarding to get positions and have been defending their positions and the after the fetus back to the since two thousand and fourteen when the international forces do down from afghanistan from a strength of hundred thirty thousand to merely thirteen thousand even after that taliban have not been able to achieve those high level goals that they had set themselves that included taking over some of the provincial centers they did take a couple of province central cities but they could not maintain their hold on those

and in many of the places where they put a lot of pressure still they were not able to really achieve the battlefield object of a lot considering the battlefield losses and also there have been significant pressure on the countries that have been supporting the taliban covert plea because of that political pressure as well they are faced with a situation where they have to really consider the peaceful settlement to a political dialogue let's hear from ahmed rashid in lahore as we've said made many attempts at talks before do you see any signs of hope for the first time is it possible to get somewhere on the taliban interested in political compromise in your view i think this time it is possible to get some with this if we can because the kind of been are interested in in a peace deal and you know i've just learned they've taken enormous casualties there's always been. a lot of beat wood into taliban which is looked to would

finding a suitable. and with the government and begin americans the problem for the taliban has been that they have stubbornly kept to items on their agenda and they will not accept anything less than that before they talk seriously to the afghan government. though the first is the commitment by the americans to withdraw all their forces from afghanistan with it a certain timeframe and the second have been the return of their prisoners the freeing of their prisoners held by the americans or being held by kabul and all the various talks we've had so far we've never moved beyond these two factors that kind of a have never told us exactly what kind of government they want how would they. what kind of compromises do they want with the kabul regime what would they do with

their army and exactly. how they would run and some of these other militant groups in afghanistan like al qaida and i says who are very active there so i think we're still both down in this basic conundrum and of trying to find a breakthrough between the americans and the taliban which could get. resolved the issue of troop levels and release some prisoners but the taliban have to give something in return so a lot of unknowns about their agenda you say ahmed rashid let's bring in michael semple in dublin michael unprecedented u.s. attempts to get the peace thing in afghanistan the u.s. envoy. has said he's cautiously optimistic about a peace deal in april can he succeed in your view on bringing the taliban to the negotiating table anything does kind of achieve lasting peace in afghanistan in the past three months that the ambassador has odd has been active in the. post he

has made a palpable difference in the discourse in afghanistan and particularly amongst the taliban those taliban who for a year or two simply were not prepared even to mention ideas such as peace cease fire settlement have been forced to talk about them so that has already been achieved. i spend a lot of my time trying to make sense of what the taliban are doing and thinking i can certainly you know testify to these changes the discourse has changed but i would like to make some observations about some of the limitations to that because i think that you know we also have to try and get inside the head of the taliban both of their you know their fighters and the and the leadership it is completely true as my colleague green from kabul said to the the afghan

security forces and the the u.s. have escalated over the past two months and have been inflicting significant casualties on the taliban but is absolutely true i see no evidence from the decision making on the ideas of the leadership that they have factored that into their calculations and their stance on negotiation they know they're pretty ruthless men and as far as they're concerned there are a lot more young afghans who are prepared or obliged to go out and to die in this way the taliban leadership is fighting this war to try and win and they have a vision not of some kind of you know grand national coalition for reconciliation in the country they have a vision of reestablishing their islamic emirate and forcing other non taliban afghans to accept their terms they which is completely different from any of us who

have been supportive of peace process is that we have said yes and certainly not what. it is doing and what it comes down to this issue of are the taliban ready to negotiate i think that the taliban are very happy to be seen talking to the united states because they believe that in the sense that sort of gives them a stamp of the zero legitimacy and they say oh they're strong enough that the americans have to talk with them they have been steadfast in their opposition. to negotiating with the afghan government because it's frankly. so they do not yet want to negotiate to michael let's just remind our viewers at this point of who the taliban are the movement emerged after the end of the decade long war by which i had to fight is to defeat the soviet union the taliban ruled much of the country between one thousand nine hundred six cent two thousand and one the u.s. led coalition removed the taliban from power after the nine eleven attacks in the

u.s. the taliban has fought for insurance and the u.s. backed government forces since some analysts saying the taliban controls as much as forty percent of the afghan territory the u.s. military estimates there almost forty thousand active taliban fighters today mushtaq regime in kabul michael said just a moment ago that the taliban are happy to be talking to the u.s. to right now but i'm curious how does the afghan government feel about that as a government in kabul comfortable with the current level of u.s. involvement in this process there are reports that they have been concerned about perhaps being sidelined the afghan government has not been happy as far as the taliban stance is concerned that they're not prepared to talk to the oven government but let me remind you something that there has been fluctuation in the circumstances and context here in afghanistan over the past three months and. it has been pretty clear in his latest reserve to kabul that he will only.