or pay later the good news we're at a point where our military presence is literally ten percent of what it was ten years ago that most of the fighting is being conducted by the afghan military support from us that we now have a new partner in pakistan that the pakistan military has done things in the last eighteen months we've been hoping for for eighteen years as to time the old saying is you have the watches we have the tie to the taliban in case you're listening. time is not on your side fighters linked to al qaeda say they carried out an attack on u.n. peacekeepers in mali the group says it was in response to the chaldean president's decision to revive diplomatic ties with israel i mean ten peacekeepers from chad were killed and twenty five injured on sunday tom for a short break here al-jazeera when we come back we'll tell you why define colombians of flooded the streets and who would have anger is directed at. and how

the licensing law is sounding the death knell for taiwan's ailing traditional medicine industry and that stay with us. nice pink sky by the time my heart. or is the sun sets in the city of angels. hello there we've seen some rather heavy downpours across parts of the mediterranean for look at the satellite picture we can see the cloud here that's given us all that wet weather as it works its way out to spain works its way across the mediterranean islands and also hits us in the northern parts of africa as well so more wet weather is expected during the day today as that system gradually makes its way further towards the east over parts of italy and across the other side of the adriatic as well now towards the northwest we've also got a weather system pushing in here that's going to cross many parts of britain and ireland and into the fall western parts of france as we head through the day on

tuesday as it hits the cold air that's in place here it will turn increasingly wintery so lots of snow here behind it i think is going to be more of a wintry mix for quite a few showers of rain rather than snow here for the northeastern parts of europe the weather's far quieter here but it certainly isn't warm warsaw at best getting to a minus two on tuesday i'm forcing kiev will only be at minus six for the other side of the mediterranean well here's that system that was affecting us across the mediterranean then you can see plenty more showers during the day today so most of those along the north coast of africa that will gradually work its way eastwards as we head through tuesday so a few more broad to spells developing here drying up in oh jesus. the weather sponsored by cattle and he's. talking about ivory poachers who have decimated populations of elephants in africa they almost always ship the ivory out of a different country from where it was poached because that's where you start your search looking in the wrong place this radiocarbon dating method tell us if trade

is legal or not then we have a place we can focus law enforcement on take those out and perhaps the source of the id from entering the network take no one else is. welcome back a quick reminder the top stories here on the al-jazeera at least four syrian soldiers have been killed after israel launched air strikes on iranians august in syria video posted to social media appears to show missiles intercepted near damascus russia says during those airstrikes syrian military air defenses destroyed more than thirty cruise missiles and guided bombs. the turkish president says he's

ready to take up the control of man but as he spoke on the phone to the president from about the u.s. withdrawal from northern syria they agreed on the need for a negotiated settlement and joint steps against isis. and afghan taliban fighters have killed at least twelve members of the security forces at a military base in the border product that's close to kabul more than twenty eight people were wounded when a car bomb went off on gunmen attacked the compound. now polls have closed in the southern philippines for an historic vote on autonomy more than two million people in the mindanao region were asked if they back a plan by separatists in the government to create a self administered area known as bangsamoro the new proposal would mean greater control in this dependence on the national government when it says it passes the bangsamoro organic nor will come into effect for the new autonomous region the law is the result of a comprehensive agreement to end a decades long conflict between the moro islamic liberation front that's the chief

play in the muslim separatist rebellion movement and the philippine government rule identify the banks more people as native or their original inhabitants of mindanao . it also pave the way for the creation of the bangsamoro a government which will be led by a chief minister and a regional parliament let's go live now to jim ellis island in court about to city in mindanao jim ellis the polls are now closed how's the voting gone so far today. while the situation with pretty calm in the morning we were with the leadership of the more islamic liberation front as our chairman ragtag both for the first time basically lifting him out of the country's democratic process. however the situation became pretty tense where in one of the three think you're adding if you can see behind me but these are military trucks the marine trucks carrying the ballots trying to secure this very delicate democratic process of

a private vote that will provide a hopefully greater autonomy for the more a people what happens over the last few hours is that the military intervened in one of the free thing here because over the growing number of men so what are generals up behind and men like to do is the sift through the crowd and try to meet go through have already voted to leave the premises but it all ended up with poll closing and hard. i need to go in there were there was a lot of shouting there was a lot of threats and do you think anything big what they will only accept is there yes both to the private line meaning are the marine trucks carrying the ballots that will be taken to the regional office starting at six pm local all right apologies for that we'll try if we can to come back to jamil a bit later in the program let's move on shall we because ethiopia and somalia finding a military offensive against al shabaab the armed group a time to ethiopia and soldiers on saturday in southwest somalia announcement comes

just a day after the u.s. military said it carried out an asteroid killing fifty two fighters one of the dough has this report and a warning you may find some of the pictures disturbing. the destruction caused by u.s. warplanes targeting al shabaab fighters near the port city of kiss my you in southern somalia bodies and bundled shells of vehicles sliced through not around and remind us of the intensity of their strikes they killed what the command center for u.s. forces in africa describes as five to two militants the somali army's sais that total is higher. we managed to kill at least seventy five ship bab militants after they attacked us and many more were injured we are telling people about the victory today the estimates came hours after al shabaab fighters stormed a somali i mean base three hundred seventy kilometers southwest of the capital mogadishu. somalia commanders say six soldiers were killed in the tank and two

others died when a booby trap vehicle blew up as the army bottled for hours to pick up to the base u.s. military helicopters were sent to help the pentagon has increased the rate of strikes in somalia and recent tease partly because president donald trump has loosened restrictions on when the u.s. military can take action against what are described as terrorist targets the number of u.s. forces in somalia house to delete increased in the past two years us about fighters who are linked to al qaida retain a strong presence in parts of south and central somalia they also regularly attack targets in neighboring kenya after it's and troops to somalia as part of an african union peacekeeping force al-shabaab says' it was behind tuesday's hotel attack in nairobi where four gunmen on a suicide bomber killed twenty one people five suspects appeared in court on friday in connection with the heart attack police say all but one of the five gunmen who

carried out the taca and something that is raising costs on about the threat of homegrown terrorism mohammed on the wall does it or nairobi. well. as a horn of africa security analyst he says striking al-shabaab will not stop the group from carrying out further tuffs we. are all way out of soling the price is. right. for quite some time now on the ground by african union forces from the air the us security forces has been under cush the dot hasn't prevented the group from crying out some of these you know take high visibility and high casualty attacks not just inside somalia but also outside in places like kenya political and military force so shabaab is fairly weakened but that doesn't mean that these group doesn't have the capacity to inflict the kinds of damages that we've seen the group being capable of doing it

inside kenya. has been able to top into the you know the long ranging marginalization discourse both you know and real they have been able to recruit they have been able to equip they have been able to at tuck the group also publishes an online magazine called a guy named tani which means terrorist. terrorists in which the you know sections of the report of the magazine is dedicated to the kenyans and it's done in this way the language in some of its videos increasingly the group is also using kenyan so kenya has suddenly become an effective cog in the group's propaganda recruitment tucks funders of immigrants in detention centers across australia have begun a hunger strike of human rights issues the detainees in brisbane in melbourne joined others to make the tension center in western australia they've been protesting for eight days the refugee action coalition accuses dogs of using

unnecessary violence separating families and placing too many people in isolation. colombia's leftist rebels are claiming responsibility for a car bomb that killed twenty one people thousands took to the streets in bogota to condemn the attack president even do join the demonstrations and rule out any restart of peace negotiations with the eleven days attacking a police academy in bogota was the worst in fifteen years al assad run petty sent us this report from bogota. thousands of people both here in the capital and in cities across colombia march demanding an end to the violence after a car bomb attack on tears they killed twenty young cadets so people came out dressed in white or holding the white flags saying that life is sacred and that they are tired of what they describe this terror attacks in their country while

people are united here in this message against violence there were some tensions along the route as colombians remain at the same time deeply polarized on how to move forward especially on how to achieve complete peace in the country the president even ducat decided to shut the door to any possibility of continuing peace negotiations with year land but some people here are saying. the wrong decision that going back to a state of war will bring more death and more attacks there's no doubt that thursday's car bomb but tack has jolted many nerves here in the country colombians were just starting to bring down their guards when it came to violence after decades of internal conflict but at least for today they came out and said that all

together they want an end to the violence the african union has canceled a high level trip to the democratic republic of congo they were scheduled to travel lead to try. resolve the dispute over last month's presidential poll a you wanted the constitutional court to delay announcing final results opposition leader martin for you has reject the ruling from the top court which declared his rival felix as a caddy the winner just get it was sworn in on tuesday. senegal is constitutional court has released a list of five candidates allowed to run in next month's presidential election. running for a second term but the two main opposition leaders from taking part in the capital dhaka. the decisions taken by the constitutional court behind me are usually a formality and go unnoticed but this year missing on her list of candidates for this upcoming presidential elections are two heavyweights the opposition the son of the former president of senegal karim wadded and the popular mayor of the car

khalifa sol now they've both been sentenced to prison time for corruption charges one was freed and amnesty the other is still in prison but both were hoping to run in this election and this has paved the way for outsiders to take the limelight notably was very popular on social media and among young people he's taken to the stage criticizing mike saying that he's using the courts to clamp down on the opposition there's been a chorus of condemnation and reaction from not just politicians but also members of civil society questioning whether this can be a real free and fair election when two of the main opposition figures are not taking part in the race there is a lack of trust of opposition and even. citizens towards the electoral management what are sort of security force sees as a b. . in general in shedding peace and security is one of the most stable

democracies on the continent organizing free and fair elections for the last fifty nine years in prison michael says that this one will be no exception but with this decision from the constitutional court it certainly sets the tone for this election that will take place in just a month's time economic growth in china twenty eight yellow was the trade with the united states takes its toll. the world's second largest economy expanded by only six point six percent last year bounce a drop despite government measures to stimulate the economy investors are concerned that beijing's problems could drag down growth worldwide. visiting a traditional chinese medicine a shop and sort of going to the doctor is a popular choice of people who want feeling well in taiwan but more and more shops are shutting down and owners fear that when they die their industry will tune out and up as a dog that explains why. leave chilling dispenses traditional chinese medicine from

this herbal store in taiwan natural medicine shops like this one have been used for generations as an alternative to visiting a doctor but the industry that depends on curing illnesses is dying taiwan's government hasn't issued a new operating license for twenty years. although he says. this profession in taiwan is on the decline it's become a so-called sunset industry older people have slowly left and younger ones don't have a license it's all very uncertain the license shortage started in the one nine hundred ninety s. as the government trying to regulate traditional medicine shops government leaders feared combining western and eastern medicine could lead to unforeseen medical emergencies it was hoped train professionals would take jobs in traditional shops but that didn't happen well pay a limited benefits failed to attract young doctors and now more and more shops are

closing down. good shrink who knows her dispensary will only remain open while her ailing father in law is alive when he goes so will his operating license be done. but on the chinese medicine shops are forced to close because the second generation cannot legally carry the operating license our livelihood will be in jeopardy but more importantly it will be the end of a taiwanese tradition and cultural icon that it will be a thing of the past it will be difficult for them to emerge again an estimated two hundred taiwanese natural medicine stores shut down every year the total has been cut in half to about eight thousand in the last twenty years taiwan's approach is a stark contrast to china and hong kong where there has been a push to promote and export traditional medicine mounting concern anger has led to protests in the capital taipei now the government says it's trying to find

a solution with industry leaders but shop owners fear it may be too late and employees such as lead channeling worry that it's not only her livelihood at stake but also a tradition that's part of taiwan's culture katia locus of the young al-jazeera. now here's something we won't see for a very long time i ran into an eclipse known as a super bloodworth moon it appears to be more red and brighter when it's closer to the earth. you have to be quick to the state to spot the phenomenon because it only lasts for a few hours and it won't happen again until twenty thirty seven. our time for a quick check of the headlines here on al-jazeera at least for syrian soldiers have been killed in israeli airstrikes on iranian targets in syria video posted to social media appears to show missiles intercepted near damascus russia says during

the strikes early on monday syrian air defenses destroyed more than thirty cruise missiles and guided bombs are a force that reports from a lot in southern israel or in a highly unusual move the israeli military is confirming that strikes have been taking place against targets inside syria as the operation has been going on the israeli military is saying that it striking iranian quds forces targets inside syrian territory and it is warning the syrian armed forces against striking against israeli military targets or against israeli territory the syrian state media is saying that its forces have forty what it calls hostile targets over syrian air space as a type erdogan has told u.s. president donald trump the turkey is ready to take control of the kurdish held syrian city of man be without delay the turkish president made the proposal in a phone conversation with trump sort of until the u.s. president that an attack last week in man believed that killed four u.s.

personnel was a provocation by eisel aimed at influencing trumps decision to pull troops out of syria. polls have closed in the southern philippines for an historic vote on autonomy referendums the push to end nearly a half century of unrest people in mindanao region are deciding whether or not to back up plan to create a self administered area known as bangsamoro. afghan taliban fighters have killed at least twelve members of the security forces at a military base in wardak province close to kabul more than twenty eight people were wounded when a car bomb went off and a gunman attacks a compound. on the african union has canceled a trip to the democratic republic of congo the aim was to try and resolve the dispute over last month's presidential poll a you had asked the d r c to delay announcing the final results but the country's top court went ahead and declared felix should be the winner as rival martin the universe has rejected the ruling saying he is the leader. would be sworn in on

tuesday as the country's fifth president well those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera the tech lead station of that's awesome. talk to old is there a. new person in the one of the main beneficiaries is that the case we listen for you want to be a swedish of it indeed that's not exactly my point we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter. the latest news as it breaks the difference is that tells us and fight this that authentic in the roots with that this time both with truth is. with detailed coverage has already said that he's ready to take over as interim president and calls for you elections. from around the world volunteers are doing what they can that's not the point behind the government's decision to criminalize homelessness it hundred. whether online

i want to start here on my laptop with a tweet or if you join us on sat there was a rush of adrenaline will be felt this is the moment that we have been waiting for this is a dialogue the government has codebase i legal protest i will start to pull the students close to disperse the crowds everyone has a voice and for votes for lots of different reasons what's the difference types of bricks or join the global conversation on al-jazeera. this is techno a show about innovations that can change lives the science of fighting fire we're going to explore the intersection of hardware and humanity would do in your community where. this is a show about science no not by scientists tonight techno investigates ivory trail they've tried to seize it. bernie but

nothing has stopped the terrible trade in the legal ivory. now. new tools straight from the lab that could find a crime the trough. elephants to the brink of extinction giving a seizure is a great victory but that owns are already dead. marie to d.v. soon is an environmental biologist i am holding a tray of an elephant who should show us the high tech plan to stop the killing. then céline stranded along the california freeway yes the freeway doctor should do some more it is a mechanical engineer chill show us what's been done to find on why this is happening at this stage with a feeling distressed and i'm still taurus i'm an entomologist vamps aren't team then people. know it's do some science.

to techno on phil toys joined by maria to davison and dr should do some more because there were outlaws out there who are working in the shadows committing horrible acts against the pencil list yet majestic animals we're talking about the ivory poachers who have decimated the populations of elephants in africa and it's really because ivory guys for about a thousand dollars a pound. than an illegal drugs and you know what that means is that the damage has been devastating over one hundred thousand elephants have been killed in just the last three years and the question is what can we do about it we found a team of scientists that are using some unexpected weapons d.n.a. and radiocarbon dating check it out. april eighteenth two thousand and fifteen. customs intercepts four tonnes of ivory smuggled in being sacks from the democratic republic of congo. it is the largest

seizure in this country's history the ivory on the way to laos seized in bangkok after a tip the seizure makes headlines thai customs. displayed over three tons of confiscated african ivory worth six million dollars a historic bridge from kenya and. nine hundred elephants but the perpetrators of this horrible crime against animals are never caught for law enforcement entities like interpol stopping the killing of elephants at the source is what's critical. the question ends where exactly is all this ivory coming from they almost always shipped the ivory out of a different country from where it was poached because that's where you start your search looking in the wrong place sam wasser is the director of the center for conservation biology at the university of washington. when it comes to solving the mysteries of the illegal trade wasser has created a coalition of scientists virtual detectives using techniques in d.n.a.

extraction from ivory. genetic mapping through dung sampling and radiocarbon dating this multipronged approach attacks a criminal enterprise that's brought the majestic african elephant to the brink of extinction and there's probably only four hundred fifty thousand elephants left so the whole focus of our lab is to really try to use d.n.a. assignment of large. singapore two thousand to six and a half tons of ivory seized the largest in the country's history roughly six hundred fifty elephants were killed for this haul of ivory. but where in africa did the ivory originate from they assume this much ivory must come from multiple sources authorities to washers lab for analysis right now from anywhere in africa we can assign a seizure of ivory closer than three hundred kilometers to where it came from

wasser and his team get to work the first step is to prepare the samples of seized ivory. we cut off a piece of the. ivory and then when we do is we stick that piece inside a plastic tube with a magnet and stainless steel plugs on the end we drop it in liquid nitrogen which cools it to about minus two hundred forty degrees celsius so extremely cold within three minutes it comes out like baby powder. is the ivory and it preserves the d.n.a. at the same time that was one of the biggest breakthroughs of our. elephant d.n.a. from the ivory seized in singapore is extracted and analyzed in last year's lab the d.n.a. from the tusks is then matched against a genetic reference map of africa's elephant populations this map has been generated by d.n.a. taken from another source rich in elephant d.n.a.

i am holding a tray of elephant hoop not exactly something you'd associate as a tool for fighting international crime but these samples provide critical pieces of data for creating a genetic map of elephants across africa yup collecting dung samples may not be glamorous work but it's a task wasser and his team take seriously we make the map from the dung we take genetic markers out of the dung samples so you see here this map of africa there's about fourteen hundred total samples here and each sample is from a separate family group loesser was able to determine the origin of the six and a half tons of ivory seized in singapore and shipped out of malawi it all came from a neighboring country zambia. last years team had made a discovery that would revolutionize law enforcement's approach to poaching basically the study debunked some of the assumptions that you and interpol had about how these activities were working what were those assumptions and so as

assumptions that law enforcement in general had and one was when you get a big seizure they were cherry picked from all over africa and what we showed is that's not what's happening there poached in the same area over and over and over again. the plight of the african elephant has been well documented these heartbreaking images were shot in a sanctuary for elephant orphans in kenya from before the biggest enemy of elephants when the out in the woods on this two year old being bottle fed stood by his mother's body for three days after she was murdered for her tusks the first to kill the bowls and then you killed the matriarch so now you're destroying the leadership in your group as well as the long term knowledge that these elephants have and when elephants become vulnerable so does the rest of the ecosystem there are these keystone species where you take this one out and it has this huge ripple effect on all these other species elephants are true keystone species.

sophisticated transnational syndicates oversee every step of the trade from the illegal poaching to the smuggling of tusks to carving factories and shops around the world. this footage part of an undercover investigation captures a shipping agent explaining how ivory is smuggled out of africa very wrong that. we need an urgent method that stops the killing even getting a seizure is a great victory but the owners are already dead. last month singaporean customs seized another shipment of ivory coming out of kenya and headed for vietnam three point seven tons worth an estimated eight million dollars singaporean authorities have already contacted wasser to oversee d.n.a. analysis washers lab and now receive samples from over ninety percent of all marj ivory seizures what we are trying to really do is to figure out where are the major

poaching hotspots across africa his latest study based on d.n.a. analysis of twenty eight seizures between one thousand nine hundred six and two thousand and fourteen reveals there may be only two major hotspots. poaching in africa southern tanzania and a place known as the try them. when you're saying hotspots you mean hot spots of poaching activity hotspots of seizure activity what are you referring to a hot spot is a place where you are able to provide multiple tons of ivory repeatedly over multiple years then we have a place we can focus law enforcement on take those out and perhaps choke the source of the ivory from entering the network and unravel it so that's the big plan.

a techno crew member is on vacation in thailand when he comes across this all too common display he's told of their ivory pieces offered up for sale for a price the sale of ivory to foreigners is illegal in thailand yet as our camera reveals it goes on as this old newsreel footage shows ivory was once very popular. croft but soon to his own but all that changed in one thousand nine hundred ninety when the international trade in ivory was made illegal. d.n.a. analysis is one tool that could ultimately help government's crackdown on where ivory is coming from but it can't tell investigators when the killing took place anything postin is illegal to trade what it comes down to is this this radio carbon dating method can tell us if trade of ivory is legal or not kevin you know is a geochemist who uses a method known as radiocarbon dating to determine the age of ivory this is the part

of the tusk that was actually growing when the animal was shot because we need to know when did this elephant die and so this part of the tusk tells us that so we drove the powder on to this wave paper here. and they collect it into these vials next to ivory powder is combusted and turned into pure c o two so what is this we can bust it in this tube it there's other impurities in there other gases so we need to get rid of those so that when we measure the radio carbon content we just are measuring the c o two gas radiocarbon dating literally relies on the fallout from the events that took place from one thousand nine hundred fifty two to one thousand nine hundred sixty three. one. above ground atomic testing between the united states in the soviet union we basically doubled the radio carbon concentration in.