get a state so the day after the bank spewing millions of liters of sludge tailings is then known from the iron ore mine into the environment a rescue operation in full swing the president of brazil a job also nado jew here in belo horizonte way he has said he is going to oversee the operation he's bringing members of his cabinet into the region to try to initially to find out the extent of the damage or to try to rescue survivors and then to try to limit what will inevitably be a huge environmental disaster to try to stop the contaminated water is heading down into a nearby hydroelectric plant to try to then start a massive cleanup operation in the meantime questions are being asked about exactly how this has happened less than four years after the last catastrophe in. the in the same state of minister lies the same company valley involved in that operation as well they have expressed their concern they have said they're very

sorry but environmentalist saying that is simply not enough they should have learned lessons from that previous disaster in which nineteen people were killed three hundred seventy five families lost their homes many of those people have still not being really housed nobody was ever prosecuted for that disaster and we're now looking at another similar situation the extent the true extent of the catastrophe still not known but as i say the rescue operation in full swing. is a campaigner for greenpeace in brazil she says the government. chose to ignore all the environmental warnings. and shocked as. this new disaster with or teddy has them this time in but much seen it is said consequence of the lessons not learned by the brazilian government and the mining company is responsible for the tragedy with some michael denham idea and also controlled by find it so i'm devastated as environmental as president to see that this is happening i again just after three

years so what we have seen ready and. the lessons definitely weren't learned and somehow greenpeace as other environmental organisations has been alerting for instance the losing anything of the environmental licensing which would have worn it would mean creating a factory of my idea unfortunately seems my idea now we have and we do not have all the alzheimer's we do not have appropriate transparency and what we've been listening from the new government and even we've had a lot of lobby from finding companies he's too slick to be lies to make fast tracking of the environmental licensing this is a perfect receipt for a tried to jews. still ahead here on al-jazeera why the u.n. says it's still not safe for a single mr matthew g.'s to return to me. and searching for his brother we talk to people in sudan to some of the members have been detained.

hello there where the still quite quiet for many of us say that the southeastern parts of china those like it should be fine and settled in shanghai a top temperature of ten degrees in force in hong kong will be appearing to twenty those temperatures that might not jump a fraction as we head through the day on monday but we'll also see a bit more cloud begin to develop for some of us as well in the who bay province they could be one or two showers at times during the day so once the west of it will cloud hair that's been with us over the last day you'll say that's gradually sinking its way southward safest some of us here they could be a bit more in the way of cloud maybe one or two showers and then that will continue to just nudge it for the south as we head through monday behind it and a bit cooler for us in hyderabad so a maximum temperature just of nineteen degrees out towards the west of the clouds

beginning to pull themselves together of parts of the arabian peninsula will see some particularly heavy rains over the northwest impulse of saudi and those will gradually be pushing their way north which the whole system though is sinking southward so here it is on monday making its way across other parts of saudi arabia and across q eight as well where our military edge of that as we head through monday you'll see the clouds begin to increase and on cheese day we could even see a few outbreaks of rain to the south of all of that though it's fine you must get out temperature at around twenty five. and the next episode of techno the team travels to the part of the amazon. where we are now should be grateful to investigate illegal gold mining mercury had a very unique characteristic of finding the goal for a miner it's almost like magic and the technology being used to expose its

devastating impact and so what we end up doing is imaging the worst in a very high fidelity stream. techno on all just zero. kill watching all deserve means hell raman a reminder of our top stories taliban and u.s. negotiators are finalize the details of a draft agreement to end the seventeen year long afghan war that's according to taliban sources the u.s. envoy. is heading to kabul to brief the afghan president on this following six days of talks in doha. the u.n. security council is set to discuss the pastoral gripping venezuela the u.s.

which is called for the meeting is pushing for the security council to back opposition leader one fido who's declared himself the interim president. around three hundred people are missing after a second dam collapsed a mine in southern brazil within four years a torrent of mud and water submerged homes and farms killing at least nine people the same mining company was involved in a similar environmental catastrophe in twenty fifteen. well just days after declaring that he wouldn't cave in donald trump has agreed to end the partial government shutdown without getting the money he wants to build a border wall along mexico now the deal with rival democratic republic democratic party politicians will provide enough funding to operate the government for three weeks elevation reports from washington on what could happen after that thank you very much my fellow american it's over for no i am very proud to announce today that we have reached

a deal to end the shutdown and reopen the federal government. after the longest shutdown in american history thirty five days steps are moving taken to get it hundred thousand federal stuff back to work but the funding deal is just for three weeks in that time republicans and democrats will discuss a long term plan here's the problem the president still wants his border wall the democrats don't want to agree to that but from the white house a warning that if he doesn't get what he wants i will use the powers afforded to me under the laws and the constitution of the united states to address this emergency. pressure had been building on the president to end the stalemate his approval rating was dropping senior republicans were leaking support and workers were warning of genuine security risks in the senate republican leader called on democrats to negotiate a longer funding deal that would include a significant investment in urgently needed border security measures including

physical barriers in his rose garden address the president insisted democrats know backed the idea of a border wall that was disputed by their leader we don't agree on some of the specifics of border security democrats are against the wall but we agree on many things such as the need for new technology and the need to strengthen security in our ports of entry a funding bill was agreed by the senate in december but attacked by right wing commentators donald trump blocked it because it had no money for a border wall his decision to reopen the government has led to new attacks from his own supporters but one former trumpet ministration official says he gets to make a state of the union address to prove his case saving as we all know is a prime time address not just to congress to brief congress but also to brief the american people and i think i expect that the president will use that time to try to address the american people and discuss the significant issue that he has before them in the sport of all funding for donald trump said he was willing to keep the

government shutdown for months to get the money for a wall he promised on the campaign trail mexico would pay for thousands of federal workers will no go back to work after the president misjudge the situation the consequences. and the result is thank you very much alan fischer washington. to the united nations security council. debating the issue of venezuela in the ongoing crisis we had short speech from the russian ambassador to the u.n. the dominican republic holds a presidency at the moment and let's just listen to what the president of the mike has to say. it's america. thank you mr president the the focus of the un security council is to safeguard international peace and security the former madeira regime has oppressed its people for years forcing millions of venezuelans to flee the country merely to gain very basic access to

food and water this has overwhelmed the capacity of regional countries to adequately address your urgent humanitarian needs former president maduro bears full responsibility for this tragedy allowing venice was to languish without food and humanitarian assistance on january tenth the oil gas passed a resolution that refused to recognize the illegitimate mature regime and called for further attention to address the suffering of the venezuelan people last week we all received a letter under article fifty four from oas secretary general luis almagro which pacifically described the destabilizing impact of this crisis in the region and yet despite this tragedy despite the calls from regional bodies for more attention the united states has yet to hold a formal session on this subject now we have a new leader one in venezuela who has promised to bring elections and constitutional order back to venezuela and security back to the region we cannot

delay this critical conversation which has the world's attention for the sake of venezuela and the region we must support the venezuelan people and do so right now thank you if you don't have it in the most of my things to sex and seems to have a statement. i ruth little little bit with my pompei are there the u.s. secretary of state speaking in a very short. address to the united nations security council about the urgency of the venezuelan scenario and how. the u.s. banks one why don't listening in was mike hanna our correspondent we were expecting mike pompei or another senior dignitaries a number of students to speak take their turn there in the security council like it was short and sweet for my pompei and straight to the point well this was in response to a statement made right at the top of the meeting by the russian ambassador as

expected russia has opposed holding the security council meeting insisting that this is an infringement of the internal affairs of a member state what is happening now might pump was speaking in response to that saying that what was happening in event venezuela did prose a threat to world peace what is happening now is that the security council is taking a vote deciding whether or not to proceed with this meeting they need a total of nine votes to do so if that then the meeting will continue let's just hear what the result of that vote is. going to abstentions. going for murders would grow your number one as a result of the vote could be provisional agenda has been adopted or. were you know

as you were wrong. that the provisional agenda has been adopted. so you seem to have a conclusion that my car know exactly how resulting in us is they didn't get the necessary nine votes so proceedings will now continue in the u.n. security council but just a very clear idea of the divisions that exist within the council russia along with china insists that there should be no intervention or involvement by the u.n. whatsoever or indeed any other outside state the u.s. along with its allies the u.k. france and others insists that what is happening in venezuela does constitute a threat to international peace and security in particular it threatens the immediate region iran venezuela given the more than three million refugees who are living in countries around that nation's borders so the discussions here will go

one of prime intention from the u.s. and its allies is to get u.n. backing for the leader of the national assembly in venezuela. to recognize him as the legitimate leader of that country that is the thrust of what the u.s. is attempting to do in this particular session is going to be a lot of ongoing debate and a lot of ongoing counter argument from russia and probably china in particular while this debate continues my the argument support forward for and against murder zero for and against or in the i don't know the end of the day the security council continues it has to continue to vote or whether they would accept all or not accept these resolutions that are discussing. indeed yes so what one could have is a statement from the security council without a vote happening expressing support for and intervention or for an

adjudication or for a mediation in the particular situation were unlikely to see any formal votes in the security council on this particular day and neither side is ready for such a major step but what we are likely to see is a security council suggesting with some dissenters in particular russia and china that suggesting that the u.n. secretary general do get in does get involved in mediation and pushes forward in terms of a formal recognition of a new lead often as well or or for the moment we'll leave it there might see how this discussion goes as the day proceeds in new york thank you. now the u.n. has warned against the repaired tradition of running the refugees to me and more saying it's unsafe for them to return these special rapporteur on human rights says the crisis is now a regional problem with global consequences which russia can impose more from dhaka . these rohingya has experienced the evils of humanity in me and mark yet the

lure of home is like a magnet and they long to return as citizens with equal rights the refugees reject any repatriation plan that can't guarantee that. if they did recently came here is seek justice. and. the un special rapporteur on human rights in me and maher yankee lease says can't return home for the foreseeable future and bangladesh must begin planning for hosting them long term around three quarters of a million refugees have streamed over the border since the me and our military crackdown began in august twenty seventh teen u.n. investigators call it a genocide against this predominantly muslim minority the refugee relief and repatriation commissioner says more people are arriving at a rate of about forty thousand

a year. the camps in cox's bizarre have become the largest refugee settlement in the world there can just if they sit on an elephant migration route and the jungle is heavily forested the bangladeshi government says they can improve the situation by transferring about one hundred thousand road he does to a remote uninhabited island. this is boston shark or floating island the bangladeshi government says refugees would be able to fish and farm and have access to education and health care but lisa says she's concerned about the isolation of the flood prone island and the safety of refugees she says not one should be forced to move there at atlanta. we may die there we came here to save our lives who will not go there to die. refugees say they're still struggling to survive many people are dying here to prick loss' and other infectious diseases

are spreading were given rations but they are not adequate enough we stay mostly hangry with dem prospects of going home in the near future refugees hope the bangladeshi government will improve camp conditions and their lives will become more tolerable natasha going to al-jazeera dhaka. bolivia's main city law passes facing a waste disposal crisis after lines like closed its rubbish dump cracks in the landfill exposed a dark liquid which community leaders say is dangerous for those living nearby streets and piling up with garbage city officials have asked residents to keep waste in their homes until they find a solution. you're watching officer with me so wrong a reminder of our top stories taliban and u.s. negotiators have finalized the details of

a draft agreement to end the seventeen year long afghan war that's according to taliban sources u.s. envoys are. heading to kabul to brief the afghan president on this following six days of talks in doha. the u.n. security council is discussing the power struggle gripping venezuela the u.s. which called for the meeting is pushing for the security council to back opposition leader. whose declared himself the interim president the russian ambassador has accused the us of a coup attempt in venezuela. around three hundred people are missing after a second term collapse at a mine in southern brazil within four years told of modern water submerged homes and farms killing at least nine people the same mining company was involved in a similar environmental catastrophe in twenty fifteen donald trump has signed a bill to end the longest government shutdown in u.s. history he's agreed to reopen the federal government for three weeks but as warned democrats that if negotiation is over the funding of a border war with mexico hit another deadlock he's ready to declare

a national emergency. voters and muslim dominated parts of the southern mindanao island in the philippines have overwhelmingly approved to self rule eighty five percent of voters back to the formation of a new autonomous region called bangsamoro to monday's referendum was held after an agreement signed five years ago between rebel leaders and the government. and thousands of people including indigenous australians have protested demanding the country's national day be moved to a different date australia day on january the twenty six celebrates the anniversary of the british first fleet arriving on the east coast and seven hundred eighty eight but many denounce the event as invasion day when colonialists began massacring on marginalizing the country's first inhabitants. bolivia's main city facing a waste disposal crisis after a landslide closed its rubbish dump cracks in the landfill exposed a dark liquid which community leaders say is dangerous for those living nearby

streets and are piling up with garbage city officials have asked residents to keep waste in their homes until they find a solution and of course you can follow all of those stories of website at al-jazeera dot com the news group follows it half an hour with the rain applegate or until lead to continue to watch al-jazeera techno is next. in september twenty seventh team the people of the kurdish region of northern iraq voted in favor of independence from. the joy it was short lived as the iraqi government reacted forced me against any idea of separation. al-jazeera world travels to the kurdish regional capital of overbilling to investigate independence and the iraqi kurds on al-jazeera the latest news as it breaks the difference is that in both bottles eyes and fly this that authentic in the ritz with the this time the truth is. with detail coverage has already said that he's ready to take over as interim

president and call 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 in hundred. each year childhood ends for an estimated fifteen million girls globally omeri before the age of eighteen. young girls compelled to marry after fleeing the war in syria share their stories and talk to al-jazeera. this is techno innovations that can change lives the science of fighting fire we're going to explore the intersection of hardware in humanity and we're doing it. this is a show about science. by scientists.

techno investigates gold at any cost. we travel deep into the rain force of peru these illegal mining operations except for miles and miles away from the main highway to uncover a gold rush that's turning the lush jungle into utter devastation high pressure water hoses and blasted out and it's not just the layer people are stepping. on filled torahs just i've conducted extensive research in this rain forest so this story is personal really pains me to see this breed to davis and is a biologist specializing in ecology and evolution now she shows us the high tech tools that are exposing what even the i can't see so where it's blood red that's where the mercury pollution is most intense we will share our findings with lindsay she's an ex cia analyst that's our team everything we've been saying it's for this

no it's do some signs. hey guys welcome to techno i'm joined by lindsay moran emirates of davidson this upcoming episode is an important one to me takes place in true have done a lot of my research and it is a tale of contrasts we will see rain forest full of new species and then we will see the devastation that humans have done to extract gold and as we know with devastating stories like this where there's a lot of damage science. players are always here not just in monitoring and discovering what's going on but in trying to help process i think this is a story having looked at some of the images that one image of the devastation pretty much says it all absolutely this is an important story it's one that's very near and dear to my heart and it starts in the proving rain forest.

amazon rain forest for more than fifty million years it's been a cradle of life. this is what pristine rain forest looks like. lush. untamed. bursting with wildlife but maybe not for long because the soil underneath is laced with gold and the human desire for it can turn all of this. into a toxic waste land like this. this is love pomponne in the buffer zone of the tumble pots a national reserve it's part of more than one hundred thousand acres of rainforest improved that have been decimated by an illegal gold rush. to investigate

techno travel deep into prove to a region called bonded did the us the mother of god it's one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet and the source of seventy percent of the illicit gold produced each year in peru brought a flight into the area for the gold mines strong look out the window it actually all ready. to. be arrived at. the region's capital in a gold mine. as well. an estimated thirty thousand illegal miners work in modern day that the us chances are you might find some of them here to so much gold were by equipment i stopped into one of the shops to look around at a place called amazon gold and right we walk in and there's a sign this is going to order me to go and as i exchange my money there was

a little scale right in front of me still had some gold dust on it from past exchanges but this sign was removed as soon as our camera was spotted. for two moema who is also placed in transition while many of its roads are still dirt paths the new intrusion of highway his opened up the area to the wider world people come from all over the country to work the goal feel secure in my. luis fernando this direct to the carnegie amazon mercury ecosystem project he's been studying gold money toxic legacy in the amazon since two thousand. so now miners have better access to the remote force they can get their equipment there everything's easier because of that our everything's easier it's essentially part of the perfect storm that is mother. so not only do you have a brand new highway that makes transport easier you have record high gold prices

and the preexisting condition of extreme poverty. tell me about this illegal gold mining what is a process where really on the edge between the amazon in the andes and erosion over millions of years has worn down the rocks of the andes which are gold rich and all that sediment has washed down the river. next stop a mining area near look pumpa but that can be dangerous for an outsider. the only way into this spot is on the back of a motorbike. the going is tough. and what. make shift bridges don't always hold up. as we get closer to trees give way to something hard to grasp. impossible to put into words.

so where we are now should be rain for the rain but the forest is missing having done so much work in the areas that have prestigious rainforest it really pains me to see this the only way to get a handle on the devastation is to understand how illegal miners get to the gold. they start by clearing the trees so the process is one that's very very primitive. you use high pressure water hoses and blasted out. the water dissolves the soil removing anything in it that's organic you concentrate it using sluices which kind of looks like a slide where you run a slurry of the sediments over carpets which captures the tiny flecks of gold that

you find in the sediments the process can turn primary rain forest into this in a matter of days. some of this is president of a small community of miners who work them on one river nearby even she was disturbed by the level of destruction other miners had done to this land. and that the. better they quantify it or not but mining does more than strip of forest bare miners bring in mercury to extract those tiny flecks of gold. mercury has a very unique characteristic of binding with gold forming an amalgam. for a minor it's almost like magic if there's any question as to whether or not this area was contaminated with mercury the answer is right here.

in the film amazon gold documented miners working with mercury at a mine deep in the rain forest people are stepping into mercury people are stepping into that mix of sediment mercury and water in stomping on it like you would grapes. because you need all those little pieces of gold to touch the mercury to be able to capture it manu any miner john valdez works with mercury almost every day india's north korea it's just that. it will. stick it to a new competitor that i love. and i don't have them on it at. all to look at it whatever it will because i don't know yet that the. miners can also be exposed to mercury vapors that's because once they extract their malcolm they have to burn off the mercury to get to the gold so these miners are touching mercury and they're breathing mercury one of the health effects so the top american way that these

miners are exposed to is extremely toxic especially when you breathe. in starts to a fact that liver kidneys the digestive system and starts to affect the central nervous system. today the money miners aren't working because of the rain but john bubba's showed the equipment he used just two days ago to burn off a piece of gold. everything we've been saying it's for this is about three grams of gold which translates into one hundred dollars which the average worker here could make in about three days. that's a lot of money immoderately that the average farm worker makes less than two hundred dollars a month that lure of gold is changing the face of the amazon as jungle is replaced by mining camps like this magnets for crime underage prostitution and poverty.

symbols of gold at any cost. in two thousand and thirteen hunting images of the toll illegal mining had taken on the proving amazon went viral. the video was taken by the carnegie airborn observatory a high tech plane developed by gregg as nerve from the carnegie institution's department of global ecology. what is it about these mining activities that are so destructive from let's say from an environmental perspective first gold miners not only remove the forest to go down below the soil surface down into what would be called the mineral soil below the biologically active part of the soil so deep in the soil that there isn't a science to tell us that there's forest could ever recover. the devastation exposed from above was dramatic but it was also only part of the story the aircraft

but south fitted with all sorts of cool technology but how did you use some of that technology to zero in on what was happening in terms of gold mining yeah one of the key technologies on board the plane is a laser imaging system what it does is we fire laser beams out of the bottom of the plane the lasers can penetrate all the way down to the forest floor and so what we end up doing is we end up imaging the forest in very high fidelity three d. most of the work that have been done on this gold mining problem was using satellites that see some of the larger mines we started finding that there was a much larger contribution from thousands of small mining operations that weren't known and suddenly we had a problem to report the rate of gold mining expansion tripled after the two thousand and eight local recession if you are on a typical amazon river before seems like it's intact all around you but this is

that same river that we just were on in the boat. when we peel the forest back we reveal the ground which is shown on the right here and what we see here are gold mining operations there so by and large they're said back from the. river's edge so that they are being executed clandestinely the observatory also has a one of a kind spectrometer which can detect chemicals in the forest below including mercury our system is unique that it can measure four hundred twenty channels of light all at the same time from the ultraviolet to the visible part of the spectrum that we see in to the infrared into the short wave infrared its ability to do that gives us access to a key scientific breakthrough which is the ability to measure chemicals in the environment because chemicals shine in different wavelengths of the spectrum.

this video from the observatory shows one of the large mining areas in the tumble part a buffer zone here's how the spectrometer sees that same mining area so where it's blood red that's where the mercury pollution is most intense so it's basically like a signature of contamination of severe contamination and then these blue areas are porous that have no mercury in them and these are also illegal mining activities these large cleared areas all of this is illegal while the spectrometer can see mercury contamination from the sky luis ferdinand is studying where mercury goes on the ground. where else is mercury and up because the mercury is dumped into the rivers and lakes then gets into the food chain bacteria in the water convert the mercury into something even more talks in order gannett compound called methylmercury which is easily absorbed in the digestive system mercury. unlike

many other pollutants magnifies every time it goes from one link in that food chain to the next so a fish at the top of the food chain in a contaminated region can have mercury levels millions or tens of millions of times higher than the water in which they swim where does that fish end up in many cases it ends up on the dinner plate of people that live hundreds of miles downstream of . the east for members and his team attested hair samples of more than a thousand people throughout the model of the the u.s. more than seventy five percent had levels above the limit is considered safe by the environmental protection agency some as high speed thirty three times the limit. to talk of. the flu. one only has a legal case pending. is going to pay for those.

two billion dollars this time if you can vary. over time mercury impacts the central nervous system it could cause problems with vision hearing and memory at high levels it can cause brain damage to unborn babies if you talk to minors you say hey this is a problem how do they usually respond usually they don't believe us they don't see the immediate effects because the type of exposure that you see here is a chronic one. by twenty twelve the price of gold was over fifteen hundred dollars amounts in illegal mining had eaten away more than one hundred thousand acres of proven rain forest in moderate videos alone. the proven government decided to get tough. troops went into mining areas and camps and equipment the strikes were part of

a multi-pronged strategy according to her and that's still as luna a former advisor to proof ministry of the environment the study g m involved police operations and the prosecution of the orse offenders and it involved. financial intelligence to connect the dots in follow the money and see who are the big bosses the crackdown led to violent clashes between miners and police but it didn't stop illegal mining they sent in the military thousands of police what impact of that it's been a very temporary fleeting impact it's so profitable that you can loose cover a million dollars in machinery and two weeks later join back in business it is that profitable the strategy also includes a process of legalizing some mining operations outside of protected areas but only

if miners can prove they have proper permits in a plan to deal with the environmental impact it is impossible for many of them and that's the other part if people are never going to be able to be formal to what the telephone and start dealing with the. tecno also visited proved ministry of the environment in lima so there is this formalization process how are the miners responded to this in some way well in some way or the not so good because sure it is more easy to work outside of the world for because it was cheap that is why we need to have very clear ways for describe to me this interdiction to crack down on some of these areas how it was that hours ago in some way good but on the other hand which is very difficult to maintain that kind of interdiction because we cannot do it every day so sometime we pull out these people from the four b. and so on in two or three week coming back to the same place why can't you do it

every day why can't you come back every three weeks because they are also do see some ways to avoid danger addiction mishal for example in some places in the buffer zone they were there working by night is inside the tumble part of buffer zone it has been the target of more than one military interdiction yet our cameras caught this current mining operation at the pampa in broad daylight many of the real notable remains are allies of illegal mining in the rugged the corruption in the north bonnie tory want to grow by seeing the fulfillment of the law in the service we need to show to good people but there with it is not see if miserably fail to put enough even small parts of the start the the government approved at the moment of a total abandonment of the need should leave i left the ministry over six months

ago why did you leave the ministry i love the ministry because of a but. from government in terms of environmental standards they approved a new law that weakens the ability to meet of the ministry of environment to both create protests. areas in go after a moment of transformations i was there to help not to be part of the reason so i left techno also traveled into the heart of the tumble part to national reserve it's a place so protected that we had to register at two control stations on the way. yet even the park guards seemed overwhelmed. no i said no athanase him but i asked about what. we saw miners working the river just a short distance away from the second control station yuri torres was our guide on this journey into the reserves he now makes his living by helping people

experienced a breathtaking beauty of the rainforest as he knows the rain forest so well he spots a saddleback tamarind monkey with a baby on its back during our interview but torres used to make his living off the jungle as a gold mine or one of the my there you don't really care about the forest of the three torres his father and his brothers still make their living as illegal gold miners and you talk to them about the dangers about the environment yes they do it's a big big deal do you worry about your father and your brothers as miners yes yes they do or level ones where family if they don't mind what any did. was very sad it's such beyond words we're talking some of the most biological of diverse forests there are places where you could spin to for our worse but she just

what's taking place in one branch of one tree in the way the light of the sun shines from different. buses but in the school way. become bitter because of that but i'm absolutely convinced the human beings of a right to nature it makes a stronger. so feel you've traveled a lot and done a lot of research in that region but this was the first time that you had seen this and been to these areas how did it affect you emotionally i've seen it from the plane any time i fly into this area and i've always heard about it but to actually see it firsthand was unbelievable really made me want to do something and make sure that people know how big of an issue this is i have to tell you to feel i mean just learning about this strikes a very emotional cord for me too because this is my part of the world not peru but

bolivia and bolivia is part of this equation here i mean there is a lot of mining activity gold mining in bolivia as well but the issues that are going on with the magnitude of the illegal activity in peru has been spilling over into bolivia so there's a lot of gold contraband that's going through people to get water and we're getting export it kind of under the radar which is really really crazy it's a huge issue about cars about three billion dollars an ounce of gold going through believe you huge amount is this similar to or more complicated than say blood diamonds like as a consumer what can i do to make sure i'm not contributing to the problem if i wear gold jewelry you know the advantage of the diamond problem it is just this dress to go on the ground but you can actually track it down and you can figure out based on its chemistry where it came from with gold it's a lot more difficult to do because a lot of the gold gets exported it gets all melted together so you could have gold

from prove mixed with gold from croatia and all of that could make a necklace found that story really opened my eyes so thank you for that really sobering but important be sure to check it so next time during techno is we bring you more. stories from the field of science diet deep into these stories and go behind the scenes with al-jazeera don't comb slash techno follow our expert contributors on twitter facebook instagram and google plus and more. and we're heading to the place so deep in the proven amazon it's taken us two days on this boat just to get there from the search current dangerous macaws techno look at what is being done to protect one of the region's most iconic creatures of cars are disappearing because a legal pad trained with booming research just wanted to see if reintroduction of mccahill is a viable option to save some of these population pretty good young techno on

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power in venezuela center stage at the united nations the country the global community are at odds over from. president nicolas maduro or the self-proclaimed leader one. another major disaster plays out in brazil hundreds of people are missing and at least nine were killed when the dam collapsed while rescuers search for survivors many are asking how this could happen again and facebook makes a move that could impact millions of users the social media giant wants to merge with its other messaging platforms instagram what's up so what does it mean for you and what are the privacy concerns we'll speak to an expert. and it's australia day or is some practice something calling it invasion day they're demanding a change of state as they commiserate while others celebrates the full story from down and. get in touch with your thoughts and story.

the newspaper live on air we're streaming online through you tube facebook live. well an emergency meeting to discuss the power struggle in venezuela underway right now at the u.n. security council the u.s. is pushing the council to back the opposition leader. who's the cleric himself interim president but russia and china have thrown their support behind president nicolas maduro. the united states stands with the venezuelan people so far many other nations have chosen to do the same and they too have recognized the legitimate gover of him and president way though the united states stands proudly with you as we stand together in support of venezuela you knew the bet is beyond people venezuela people did not have a moment to spare and now it's time now it's time for every other nation to pick

a side no more delays no more games either you stand with the forces of freedom or you're in league with material and has made him what russia's accuse the u.s. of attempting a coup in venezuela listen. to the russian federation cannot support it temps by our american colleagues to conduct a discussion of the situation in venezuela and in fact in introducing in our agenda issues formulated in this way this is a gross abuse of the prerogative that the members of the security council in particular the permanent members the internal situation in this latin american country is not an item on the agenda of our council we don't see any external threats coming from what is taking place in venezuela venezuela does not represent a threat to peace and security will certainly will get the latest from venezuela

with our lot in america editor on the sea a new man the c.e.o. there see a seasoned cool ta that's on the border with colombia but first we'll cross to the united nations and bring in mike hanna so that security council meeting underway right now where divisions like are clearly on this play. well indeed very deep divisions and in fact russia before the meeting formally started actually proposed a procedural vote which would not allow the meeting to go ahead this vote was defeated and so the meeting goes on but russia making very clear its opposition to what it sees as intervention in a state's sovereignty it is backed by china but the procedural vote showed very clearly that the weight of opinion in the u.n. security council does lie behind the united states at this particular point we heard from the the u.s. secretary of state making very clear his position that the president of the national assembly should be recognized as the leader often as well as nicolas

maduro should step down that is the u.s. position we also heard from the united kingdom special representative for the americas who argued very strongly that the should man juror not step down formally within eight days then the u.k. as well will join in recognizing one cargo as the legitimate president of venezuela so deep divisions within the security council little likely the point of agreement to emerge we heard the u.s. secretary of state saying in his address to the council that he had hoped that the council would speak with unified voice attempts were made this morning to persuade russia and china to back a presidential statement of intent that is a statement of intent recommended to the u.n. secretary general however that is not going to happen once again you've got a security council deeply divided so at the end of this meeting mike what are we

likely to see in i guess is it anything other than symbolic. well it is symbolic it is a way by the u.s. and its allies to forge some form of political pressure to make very clear the opinions of the international community as a whole leaving aside russia and china on the situation but there's not going to be a unified voice coming out of the security council the says the u.s. secretary of state said a matter for some regret we heard very strong words from the russian ambassador insisting that it's not been as well that imposed as a threat but it is in fact the u.s. that imposes a threat by infringing the sovereign rights of the member nation so this is all about public relations in effect it's about getting international attention on the situation in venezuela and in also organizing international resistance to what is happening there and pressing for the demand as we heard from the u.k.

ambassador either for new elections or for recognition. as the legitimate leader of an as well or ok my counter for the time being thank you so that is that the update from the security council let's not take it to kuta that's in colombia near the border with venezuelan see a new man is there let's say you see what's going on at the security council right now but let's talk about what's going on behind you and what venezuelans there have told you about the invents unfolding in their country. during this is a very dramatic situation i am excited a soup kitchen run in a catholic parish this is being subsidized by the united nations high commission for refugees and since six o'clock in the morning people lined up three thousand one hundred people lined up for breakfast there were more though that what make it and right now they're waiting to me so lunch it's only ten ten in the morning here so pretty soon they will be served and then they will have nothing else to eat

until monday because this soup kitchen is closed on sunday the bar here a lot of them. just arrived some say they arrived just last night others and a couple of days ago a month ago pregnant women just about to give birth were women with children that are only a few days old old people very young people children all of them saying the same thing we have nothing to eat we cannot survive in our country and that's why we're here and many of them have no idea what's happening in these towns or even in their own country because they've lost their cell phones they have no money for credit even if they have cell phones they have no access to television but those who haven't heard the story and it's going from word by mouth say that they are so desperate that they're praying that something will change in their country they don't know they should believe that what is transpiring right now the pressure on the government of president. or the proclamation of the president of the national

assembly whether that's the solution or not they don't know they just know that something has to change and that they can go home and speaking of the self-proclaimed interim president that's why do we know that he called for protests next week what are you hearing about what's happening inside the country right now and whether the situation's going to escalate on the grounds exactly well. exactly what just across the border in fact she does we are in cook with that we're just on the border with venezuela i'm speaking to people i know there is they're saying that just today they're organizing kind of city halls outdoors to tell being able. to log on why doest says will be passed by the by the assembly and will be distributed on twitter and also on the paper and in the families of the military in venezuela in an attempt to get them to turn the hunt president to side with what he calls the interim government so they're discussing that amnesty law as i speak

here on the on the on the colombian side and over the weekend they are. to get instructions if not on sunday at least on monday and still the next large general mobilization as they call it in other words a national protest so they sit there waiting the people i know are saying that they are waiting to take part but that they need instructions they need to get some kind of leadership from the opposition to know what to do next ok alysia newman thank you for that update from cuckoo saw let's make a coral wider kristi's an economist an associate professor at georgetown university joining us here on set and good to have you with us again the secretary of state the u.s. sectors that michael just saying this at the u.n. that he's calling on the security council and countries there to pick a side on venezuela of course we know that washington did recognize the opposition leader as the interim president what is the u.s. and game here they want to they want to friendlier government i don't think i.