as in turkey's ruling ak party have met the un human rights investigators looking into the murder of saudi journalist jamal khashoggi they say agnus kalimat shares their frustrations and fears that there won't be full justice for everyone suspected of involvement the saudi leadership insists it had no knowledge of the killing which took place inside its consulate in istanbul last october. the united nations delegation has shown that their objective is to convey the facts and deliver true evidence in this case to the whole world they have listened to my testimony as a friend of jamal khashoggi we have no hope of reaching justice as long as the first suspect saudi crown prince mohammed bin sole man is in full control of all aspects of governance including the judiciary the united nations investigation team has the same suspicions and are trying to reach the truth objectively and therefore they are seeking help from turkey abu dhabi investment capital has confirmed it is three tons of gold from venezuela central bank nicolas maduro his government

started selling gold about a year ago off the falling oil production economic collapse and mounting u.s. sanctions all this affected public income and made it hard for the country to access credit to stay solvent the u.s. which backs venezuela's opposition has warned bankers and traders not to deal in venezuelan gold nor capital insists it didn't do anything wrong it says it will refrain from further transactions until the situation in venezuela stabilizes when all this comes as president donald trump is again warned that all options are on the table to deal with the political crisis in venezuela the u.s. as well as several latin american and european nations a publicly backing self appointed interim president won quite zero but nicolas maduro is standing for. u.s. vice president my pencils have been missing venezuelans who are living in miami. let me assure you we are with you. people are with you. these leaders gathered here in this prison and ministration are going to continue

to stand with you until the suffering is over and freedom is restored. for you including remembering the revolution thousands of iranians gathered to commemorate for. the public and the man who founded it. in romania which has just taken over the presidency of the european union and whose government stands accused of complicity in the mass illegal logging of its own forests. hello again a welcome back well here across parts of australia we're still looking it's a very heavy rain and we're talking in queensland where over the last four days we have seen very heavy rain across the region flooding has been

a big problem in townsville they have declared the city in a state of emergency because of the very heavy rain and the flooding unfortunately as we go through the weekend we're going to see more rain across much of that area actually we're going to be seeing probably at least another four hundred millimeters in the next seventy two hours because of the system down towards the south the heat is back on across much of the area melbourne it's going to be thirty five degrees here on saturday adelaide at thirty seven and it is going to continue to be quite hot across much of the region where across north and south island of new zealand well things are getting better we are watching one system make its way up here towards the north these nets can mean when we see some cooler conditions particular here in christ church as we go through the weekend so for christchurch eighteen degrees is going to be a high here on saturday auckland at twenty five degrees there and then as we go towards sunday a little bit warmer here across much of the region for fiji though it is going to be a rainy day if you are the temperature of twenty eight degrees and then very quickly across parts of japan we are going to be seeing some cooler weather few of the next

few days tokyo is going to be mostly cloudy with a ten to twelve six. on counting the cost this week we're focusing on venezuela where people are scavenging for food as a political crisis unfolds how the game of oil is influencing events overgrown plus how creditors are playing a role and why the reports of the run for the long. term zuma cost.

welcome back you're with al-jazeera live from london out top stories the united states is withdrawing from one of its main nuclear weapons agreements with russia saying in one thousand nine hundred seventy its immediate range nuclear forces treaty has been consistently violated. the former president of the ivory coast gone by but has been released by the international criminal court two weeks after being acquitted of crimes against humanity and six months on from the latest a bone a virus outbreak in the democratic republic of congo while health organization says four hundred sixty people have now been killed. well the stories we're covering the indian government has released its final budget ahead of this year's general election prime minister narendra modi is hoping to win the backing of urban and rural is promising more than ten billion dollars to support poor farmers and reduce taxes for the middle class but many say the government scheme doesn't go far enough

i'm a champion has long. these farmers protesting outside the indian parliament want the government to help them they're demanding loan waivers and better prices for their produce the government has pledged almost eleven billion dollars to help them india's interim finance minister is optimistic the economy will improve they are poised to become my hero was to become a five trillion dollars economy in the next five years. and i suppliers. will be inspired to become a ten trillion dollars economy and that makes it here. but the farmers feel they are not sharing in india's economic growth these are no good farming has become a loss making proposition for the farmers because seeds in fertilizers have become very expensive it is also expensive to hire farm labor for irrigation sowing and harvesting the fields. prime minister narendra modi has been facing widespread discontent from farmers about six hundred million indians depend on agriculture for

their livelihoods and many have huge debt debt they say that won't be lowered by what the government is now offering them this is was then a lot. six thousand five hundred a month it comes to fifty rupees for a cup of tea cost that much today in india i think that this is a total sellout. reload the farmers by the government budget. among the crowd on friday many simply didn't believe the government's latest promises would come to pass especially with elections expected in the coming months a shotgun more of these governments will end soon and be in their graves by the month of may so whatever they are now it's now who will implement their schemes if a new government is elected later why should they agree to these budget proposals. and what analysts say the direct cash support being offered to farmers in this interim budget is

a clear attempt by modi to shore up crucial political support in the countryside protesters say the plan doesn't go nearly far enough. to thailand now where the government has deployed tryon's trucks and small planes to spray water in the capital as it chokes under a count of smaug schools across bangkok and closed because of the dangerously bad air quality and environmental activists is saying the government is not doing enough about it algis there is why hey reports. face masks have become a necessary fashion accessory in bangkok the thai capital and its people a choking and a heavy air pollution no no i mean this makes me gravely concerned about my health every time i'm outside i feel i shouldn't breathe air at all i heart the situation won't last long. i think the government should have better measures like car free days that would help reduce pollution closing the schools helps and offering discounts on public transport would also schools were ordered to close for two days

but some here say the government's response has been slow and at times bizarre it spied water into the air and launched drones to spray water from the air i think your finger on to combat being polluted and if it were straying. from many respect the. fact is a p.r. stunt the government has defended its actions but doesn't seem to have a long term plan to fix the problem. the bangkok administration has called for help from experts but there are many causes of the pollution which is made worse at this time of year because of the still dry weather conditions farmers burn off their fields their respect tree pollution and of course bangkok's notorious traffic the city has a fleet of old diesel buses that emit smoke and fumes more rigorous testing of emissions has begun and the prime minister has even floated the idea of ordering diesel vehicles off the roads it's become a sensitive issue

a thirty seven year old blogger was arrested and charged with violating the computer crimes act for writing that a woman had died because of the pollution the police say it was false and he could be jailed for up to five years wayne hay al jazeera bangkok. in iran thousands of people have been visiting the mausoleum of ayatollah ruhollah khomeini the founder of the islamic republic they've gathered to mark the fortieth anniversary of the one nine hundred seventy nine revolution saying the strongly reports now from tat ron. when the man who led iranian revolution toppled the king and ended centuries of empire was buried his final resting place was a humble empty plot next to a graveyard now the muzzle iyam of ayatollah ruhollah khomeini iran's first supreme leader serves as a symbol of the islamic republic its grand halls a reminder to visitors perhaps of the reverence he is owed as men and women young and old civilians and soldiers packed into khomeini shrine to commemorate forty

years since his return from exile iran is going through one of its most challenging economic decline the government remains clear about who is to blame. and that he had got even america be damned it does whatever it can to break the power of islam like the many sanctions they've been hosed they're waging psychological war they want to make people pessimistic about islam they haven't achieved it so far and they never will. iranian leaders often speak of the one nine hundred seventy nine revolution as a living thing its mission and islamic ideals as perpetual usually for a political purpose forty years later the revolution that khomeini brought to iran continues to be a source of strength for iranian leaders who are the focus ideals to rally support for things like the foreign wars in which iran is currently engaged but leaders here also speak of it simultaneously by something fragile and precious that needs

to be protected against external threats which years of economic struggle has led many iranians to have more practical perspectives not any evidence of good education to the revolution has been beneficial i would try to change those of shows that don't think about the people and not one of the people those who live in luxury houses and off expensive cars the officials don't understand the difficulties of liverwurst and it came down awful nice the economic situation is not good today we are under sanctions if the sanctions did not exist. it could have been better iranian leaders who came to power at the time of revolution still wield enormous power but what is happening inside the country stands to change the status quo more than any outside influence but as the old guard continues to promote decades old ideas as part of modern day politics iran's economy chips away at government popularity. old a zero to her own. remaining air is entering its second month of the european union

presidency this is romania's first presidency which is awarded on a six month rotation between the nations but the increase profile is also causing a spotlight on corruption and environmental issues algis there is a large reports now from a semantic national forests. these high hills have proved rich pickings for people who show scant regard for the importance of ancient forests supposedly immune from exploitation they don't even try to hide their business it's all piled up on the roadside despite commercial logging in the national park being illegal. nor did it take long to find the law because we'd been warned they might be armed so we kept our camera at a distance they insisted they had won a government auction which allowed them to do this fairly. the environmental activists trying to stop it's say none of this could happen without the government knowing if you slogging conservations are most of the times approved by the state but when we write letters and make complaints the minister herself is answering to

our said there should be no logging in national parks so there is a little contradiction here they approve it and they say it's not legal at the same time but you can see it i mean we just drove up the track and it's here you can't you can't miss it all over in any nation are in the town which sits below the national park a huge steel works used to provide employment for nearly everyone but not anymore nothing was found to replace the jobs so it's easy to see why logging became such a large industry remains forests are vast which is partly why the lot was get away with it some of this woodland is among the oldest in europe but large areas have been cut out of it the government keeps secrets and the records of what's legal and what isn't so global companies which by romanian timber furniture cannot know the origin of the wood. alina worked for the forestry agency for fourteen years when she complained about all of this she says she was intimidated and isolated

ultimately forced to resign and first came out the large lot of the bad luck i was questioned by my directors as a biologist i was prevented from doing field work that didn't from going to logging areas in the park they kept me on minimum wage they did everything they could to stop me from being able to speak out they cut me off remain your currently enjoys the privilege of holding the presidency of the council of the european union which means it has the opportunity to set policy objectives for the whole of the e.u. including on the environment and yet despite all the evidence to the contrary the remaining government still insists that nothing illegal has been happening inside its own protected forests. i mean their own ministers have been saying as much to the european parliament even though it has been presented with evidence suggesting the very opposite we are talking about illegal logging in private forests where there were no proper services for guarding these forests thirty years ago the

remaining people rose up against their dictatorial leader nicholai ceausescu and embarked on a journey to democracy which for the first time has put their country into a leadership position across europe for all of that remaining maintains a reputation as having a thick covering of corruption it seems unable to shake off largely al-jazeera in western rumania. brazilians have paid homage to the hundred ten victims of a deadly down collapse a week after the disaster rescuers paused their search as ten helicopters hovered above the accident site releasing flower petals over the iron ore mining complex at least two hundred thirty eight people remain missing but nobody has been found alive since saturday the wave of mud is currently moving towards the much your river where it could contaminate water supplies. now in our knees today while couples cast on a stunning footballing well i winning asian cup a first major trophy for time champions japan three one and final in abu dhabi

david steps reports. was this is as big as football gets in asia qatar were going for their first major trophy but standing in their way with a four time champions japan forty three places above them in the world rankings they may have been underdogs but qatar struck the first blow and a spectacular one to us was i was. had eight goals in the tournament already but number nine was his best yet the twenty two year old with an overhead kick breaking the competition's goal scoring record set back in one thousand nine hundred ninety six when a simple tony kushner's a fantastic start for qatar and soon it got even better i another stunning goal this time from abdel-aziz had term they were two no up at

half time who would you see. things started to go against them after the break though first they lost to eleven hookey to a nasty looking head injury and then for the first time in the competition they finally conceded a goal to meet mina mino giving japan hope and it promised to be a nervous finish because. that was until an intervention from the referee and v.a.r. japan were judged to have one pulled in the area which gave qatar a penalty and akram a faith a chance to win it for his country if you think you know i. was. they held on through five minutes about a time and then the championship was theirs nineteen goals and just one conceded their improbable run to glory was complete the mission to look you know was its perfect preparation as qatar prepares to. host the world cup in three years' time david stops al jazeera.

just a quick look at the stories making news here on al-jazeera before we the united states is suspending one of its main nuclear weapons agreements with russia in one nine hundred eighty seven intermediate range nuclear forces treaty the us says russia has consistently violated the terms of the treaty which restricts short and medium range nuclear missiles i hope that we're able to get everybody in a very big and beautiful room and do a new treaty that would be much better but certainly i would like to see that but you have to have everybody at here to it and you have a certain side that almost pretends it doesn't exist pretty much pretends it doesn't exist so all of us will get to have something that we all agree to we can't be put at the disadvantage of go in by a treaty live with a what we do when somebody else doesn't go by that treaty ok in our all the

headlines this hour the former ivory coast president on bag has been released by the international criminal court backbone and his former right hand man shells be a good day but acquitted of crimes against humanity last month judges ordered their release on the condition that they live in a neutral country and in an appeal by the prosecution six months on from the latest ebola virus outbreak in the democratic republic of congo the world health organization says four hundred sixty people have been killed they have also confirmed seven hundred forty three cases since the virus returned last august making it the worst outbreak in the nation's history. and u.s. president donald trump has again warned that all options are on the table to deal with the mounting crisis in venezuela the u.s. as well as several latin american and european nations a publicly backing self appointed interim president. but nicolas maduro is standing

firm it up say with the top stories counting the cost now examines the impacts of that political crisis in venezuela say without his air. of fame this can tell a story without uttering a single. the unconventionality of life. witnessed through the lens of the human eye. on out his era. hello i'm a very unforgiving this is counting the cost on al-jazeera a weekly look at the world of business and economics this week we're focusing on venezuela hungry but without access to medicine venezuelans are suffering as a political crisis unfolds we'll look at what it's like to live inside the world's

worst economy where hyperinflation is a reality of one tenth of the population has left. ninety nine billion dollars in debt and much of it in default that as well is a country with many creditors but where did all the money go. plus confusion reigns in energy markets as the u.s. slap sanctions on venezuela where it hurts how the game of oil is playing out. in venezuela people don't have enough to eat at least one tenth of the population are economic refugees according to one official data is available infant mortality is soaring at a faster rate than in syria this economic crisis is a humanitarian crisis and we're in a new chapter on january twenty third the leader of the legislature. began a push to remove current president nicolas maduro the united states has imposed an embargo on venezuela's state oil company p d v s a the sanctions aimed to transfer

control of venezuela's oil wealth to those that oppose but douro at oil is a good place to start how did a country with the world's biggest oil reserves end up so impoverished and bankrupt the orinoco belt holds one of the world's largest reserves of heavy crude oil the problem is though oil accounts for ninety eight percent of venezuela's foreign earnings there's a lack of other sectors but worst of all no sovereign wealth fund to invest all the money the government controls everything and it's been spending more than it's been earning venezuela's issued billions in sovereign bonds and borrowed heavily using the country's natural resources as collateral now though it's in the fold strict control of foreign currency exchanges restricted people's ability to access foreign produced goods this imbalance has led to hyper inflation that means inflation running at a million percent and it's rendered the ball of our worthless latin america editor

lucien newman is on the ground in paternity correctness talking to people about what it's like to fight for survival in venezuela right now i'm standing in a line in pit that a that is one of the largest slums in. all of venezuela and these people have been waiting so that they can buy a treat it's called sardines one of the very few things that they can actually afford these days well they must sell to too expensive we can't afford anything they raise the minimum wage to eighteen thousand last month but you can't buy anything at all a kilo of cheese costs fifteen thousand voters and there goes practically you entire salary i mean everybody here is holding loads of bills in their hands but they're actually they're almost worth nothing which you see here are fifteen thousand believe that it's this is an august well worth two hundred fifty dollars a dollar was sixty body about is now they're worth less than five this is almost a full month's salary but you can hardly buy much more than these soundings with it

yet though and i love mine they don't. keep this is one of the ways we have all surviving because that is what we're doing barely surviving we see the saliva saber and people here telling me they actually don't like sardines but it's the only thing they can afford at this point what can you buy with the minimum wage get with it compare that going to how demeaning. mayo got on their way to. your local just a carton of eggs he says that's all he can buy a new yorker going there where one half a car you know i mean. i'm going to show you how long this line is and it formed in just a few minutes word of mouth as people heard that something was being sold in fact they usually line up without even knowing which at the other end because whatever it is they say they're going to need it and in this country where hyper inflation has surpassed one million percent and expected to go up even further this year people are telling me that prices in the last two weeks alone have more than

quadrupled especially since the political crisis got worse want to get out and back and listen there's nothing left in this country everyone here knows it there's no money no food here we're all stuck. moving to death the problem is people don't want to say it either because they're embarrassed or because they may be beaten up but you can't be afraid to tell the truth in front of them in theda. so these sardines are being sold at a discount by the government but directly in front of me you can see a whole row of shops they're all closed one of them was a butcher shop the other used to sell cheese ham salami things like that but now they've all gone out of business. so people here are beginning to get rather agitated and upset the queue is still extremely long but they can see up there that the sardine to are going to be running out pretty soon and if they don't make it to the top of the queue before that happens many people are telling me they'll have

nothing to feed their families tonight for counting the cost to see in human al-jazeera got access. joining us now in doha is logo cando is the director of executive education and graduate studies at northwestern university here in canada but is originally from venezuela welcome counting the cost what are you hearing from friends and family in venezuela about what life is like right now well it's very difficult of the moment my own sister is living with a salary of ten dollars a month as a teacher they struggle i was there last year when through the border had to go out through the border with colombia and i could see you know fountains of people crossing the border you can see that they were moving because you could see the type of thing there were cars carrying out people on a basic salary cannot buy the basics of food they depend on the staples provided by their own which are though not reach the majority of the population so there is a dramatic situation in hospitals are collapse over twenty two thousand doctors

have left the country since two thousand and fifteen. there's a cancer mortality rate which is up fifteen percent because there's no treatment for chemotherapy and radiotherapy available and a lot of the situation goes down to basically the mismanagement of corn and me and and the political turmoil so how do people feel about the dura and about his is previous as a shove is now yeah i think chavez was very popular party because he represented. a hope for the whole process of of confronting corruption in decline in the economy of the previous years and for a while that popularity went up with also with the rise of the oil prices but also because the present form of present job it was very you know charismatic and i had a very strong connection with people that's not the case of my mother oh my god or not only doesn't have that connection with people doesn't have that charisma that

united you because our connection with the people but he doesn't have the money the oil. the price has gone down from one hundred twelve dollars per barrel to just over sixty for the venezuelan t one which is the average type of oil there and its values are and that represents a huge dramatic drop in the coffers of the government on top of that the government in that itself massively doing the chinese period we went from the international debt of thirty four billion dollars which was our international there by nine hundred ninety eight to one that is over two hundred billion at the moment so the government is basically servants in the debt now it's painted that and that's the origins of the current collapse i want to clarify the last been said about us sanctions well the collapse of the economy started way before any sanctions were even announced for the first time the government the mother had decided that they had to honor the debt that they will not go to the international monetary fund and because of that they give preference to the payment of that that meant

a reduction of eighty percent of the money that it was dedicated to imports of food this is in a country in which ninety eight percent of the income of the country depends on oil basically we produce oil and nothing else and once you do that reduction in imports you create this situation of massive hunger and mass exodus from the people is there is there anyone in venezuela society who is weathering the storm here or is it affecting everyone it is affecting every single one of them i know people in the in the you know in the middle class poor poor people obviously the poor people are the most affected by this crisis because they are the ones who cannot reach the basics the parents the middle class normally would have in some cases or in many cases have people who send money back home but even that has been. limited for example if you want to send medicines to venezuela or to a family member of the government just conflict in the airport they alledge that because they have to do that to prevent you know conflict confit medicine to any

but the truth is that the patients have. there have any access to local medicines how to it's really good to talk to many thanks indeed thank you now both china and russia standing by nicolas maduro he's regarded as beijing's store just ally in latin america a friendship underpinned by huge loans investments and weapons sales his own china correspondent adrian brown they were jumping for joy when president nicolas maduro was lost in china four months ago but today the leadership here is not excited about the prospect of venezuela without him at the helm. china is venezuela's biggest creditor has invested heavily in its oil industry and regards president maduro as its strongest ally in south america china has lent more money to venezuela's upwards of sixty billion dollars than it has to any other country in

the world it's probably been repaid up to two thirds of that but that leaves anywhere in the neighborhood of twenty to thirty billion dollars venezuela china. analysts say china's leaders are concerned about whether the deals will be honored if the opposition party takes power but for now china continues to voice support from the duros coupled with veiled warnings to the united states. china opposes for interference in the internal affair of minutes well especially when it's well in government to uphold national sovereignty independence and threatening military interference and continued to support efforts made by the stability. the growing political economic and humanitarian crisis in venezuela has attracted global headlines and concern the main evening news on state controlled television has shown pictures of the protests but so far made no mention of the violence or suffering of the people. as in africa chinese influence in south america is

expanding fast especially in venezuela besides money china has also been helping the mature regime in another important way it's now venezuela's biggest provider of arms including weapons for crowd control which have been proving so effective joining the current unrest still to come on counting the cost of a wake up call for the mining industry in brazil one of the worst disasters in the nation's history puts the spotlight on the world's biggest producer of iron ore. but first more of our top story venezuela there things like rice cooking oil and other basics are in short supply people have to scavenge for food according to reports parts of the coastline have become havens for ex fisherman turned pirates venezuelan smugglers in twenty nine thousand are exchanging drugs and guns for things like nappies and on the other side of the equation the rich in power.