americans and the simply just walking away from this whole situation now the russians can afford to look like they're being diplomatic and magnanimous and leaving the door open for further discussion so i sure think it's possible they'd be happy to talk because one of the core skill sets of russian diplomacy is long dilatory diplomatic engagements that don't go anywhere and we just push that horizon further out by dumping the treaty instead of trying to rescue one that's still in fact we need to stay in contact with the russians and the russians for their own safety may need to stay in contact with us i mean this is an essential role of communication that we kept even during the worst periods of the cold war we stayed in touch with each other we tried to be relatively transparent to each other and i think if we lose the new start treaty we're going to lose that it would be a terrible blow but the americans this this particular ministration just doesn't like treaties the president doesn't like anything associated with barack obama john

bolton doesn't like anything that restrains american power this is you know this is an american administration that's doing things for its own logic and not in any way that makes in my view strategic or diplomatic sense the actual lifetime of intermediate nuclear forces that were banned in one nine hundred eighty seven was not very well and they were a temporary measure of a decade or so that were put there to counter a very specific russian threat the other problem is i think it shows you just how incoherent the american policy is on this say well we're going to exit this treaty because of russian cheating so that we can start arms racing the chinese. this is the americans are all over the place on this one and you know if the americans i'm in a sense i disagree with them but it would be at least greater clarity if the americans had said this treaty no longer serves our purposes because we have issues to deal with in china and without any reference to the russians we're just exiting it because of secure. thirty issues i think the better approach would have been to

renegotiate it and i don't think we're going to end up in an arms race with the chinese because i think that's a bigger step and more costly than anybody realizes but it again it shows you that this administration just didn't want this treaty for a variety of reasons and the russians were more than happy to give them an excuse to look bad and to walk out of a peace deal has been reached between the central african republic government and fourteen armed groups the agreement was struck in sudan's capital khartoum has been fighting between muslim seleka rebels and christian anti baloch of fighters since two thousand and thirteen thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in the conflict. a suicide car bomb has exploded outside an ethiopian military base in somalia killing at least four soldiers as the attack happened in the town of beit here in the south of the country claimed responsibility mohammad dome has more now from nairobi. the talk happened in the

town of bottom there in the region solved and somalia al-shabaab already claimed responsibility for the up talk saying they were targeting an ethiopian peacekeeper base but the attack actually hoppin at the checkpoint not far away from the ethiopian peacekeepers base eyewitnesses spoke of a dusty minibus full of vegetables speeding towards the checkpoint forcing the european soldiers manning it to fire the minibus which did not stop until it exploded al-shabaab fighters in the past couple of months stepped up their a tox inside somalia and also outside they've cut it out attacks against somali national army bases they're also cut out on a toc last month in kenya in which they killed twenty one people but they've also been on the receiving end of u.s. forces who have been cutting out asterix against them inside somalia on thighs the

u.s. forces said that killed twenty two fighters in hit on a region of southern somalia as well just two weeks ago they killed in a master like fifty two fighters who would just cut it out on a hike on a somali national army base which they had also overrun and had looted weapons from all these the talks. being cut out by al-shabaab to prove that despite losing so much of the up on strongholds there still a force that can be able to carry out attacks that can cause damage. belgium has agreed to take in the former ivory coast president on following his acquittal by the international criminal court by both spent seven years in custody at the hague and was the first former head of state to go on trial at the i.c.c. he was charged with crimes against humanity after violence erupted after the disputed election of two thousand and ten three thousand people died more than five

hundred thousand were displaced under his conditional release back but will not be allowed to leave belgium pending an appeal. out the battle for one of the last eisel controlled pockets of northern syria has displaced tens of thousands of people u.s. backed kurdish forces have been fighting the armed group in their eyes or the un refugee agency is calling for a transit site for civilians fleeing to a whole camp the camps population has tripled in the past two months some a binge of aid reports now from gaza on turkey's border with syria and. for the last eight weeks kurdish fighters have been battling mostly from one of the groups last pockets in northeast syria you're confident that most areas are now under the control individual problems activists say more than two hundred people have been killed in the fighting shelling and airstrikes by u.s. led coalition forces.

all. right to tourists big. international humanitarian. so really in. many families had to leave on foot the syrian red crescent says more than twenty four thousand people have been displaced in a matter of weeks it's a lot riskier at night but more people arriving to nearby camps but we were besieged because we're so hungry and tired for two days we had no sleep and no food for fifteen days all that was available was grass leaves and bark from trees. there was a humanitarian crisis brewing in the remote desert areas under rice and a lack of food made worse by a shortage of medicines and doctors in the last few days dozens of isis fighters have surrendered some civilian say they had stopped them from leaving and the mostly kurdish forces are concerned that i still fighters and their families may have fled among the civilians. seventy five percent of them

were working with seventy five percent iraqis twenty percent syrians and five percent foreign those from central asia europe america germany and other parts of the world in addition to isis atrocities in the area coalition attacks have also reportedly killed civilians the u.s. led coalition always said that there are strike targeted eisel positions yes in some cases the surely but these positions were in heavily populated residential areas this is why dozens of innocent civilians were being killed. unicef says that these thirty two children have been killed because of violence displacement and harsh conditions in northern and eastern syria the world health organization says it's extremely concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian situation as more families arrive in already crowded camps aid agencies are demanding unhindered access to people in need it's clear that ice is no longer controlled territory but

what comes next is also a cause for concern for rights groups and aid workers tens of thousands of people in their rehabilitation and they say lasting peace will only come if the marginalized people are given hope and opportunity. taliban says president donald trump appears to be serious about pulling troops out of afghanistan a spokesman for the armed groups says such a withdrawal is the first goal of ending seventeen years of war the taliban initially formed in the early one nine hundred ninety s. after soviet troops withdrew from afghanistan its fighters seized control of the country in one thousand nine hundred six and posing a harsh interpretation of islamic law they were toppled during the two thousand and one us invasion of afghanistan but soon launched a fierce campaign against foreign troops and the us backed government taliban has since regained strength some analysts believe it controls as much as forty percent of the country and the u.s. military says it has about forty thousand active fighters talks between taliban

leaders and u.s. special envoy zalmay khalilzad started in cattle last summer and a judicial resume at the end of this month al-jazeera. reports. it's been described by the u.s. and the taliban as a draft agreement but for many it's a significant step forward. the u.s. is ready to pull out from afghanistan in exchange for the taliban joining a unity government and ensuring the country won't be used by groups like al qaida and icily us all voice for of. it says the deal isn't finalized yet but seems confident the taliban is willing to make concessions the armed group that was pushed from power in two thousand and one has yet to commit to a nationwide ceasefire or agree to hold direct talks with the afghan government

it's the best chance for peace in the almost twenty years that this war's been going on and actually be over forty years that afghanistan has been at war with various forces but this is not going to be a quick and easy process. the taliban has repeatedly. refused to talk to the afghan government which it considers an american puppet officials in kabul dismiss any suggestion for a bigger taliban role in the country if the deal happens the parliament has to come to the negotiating table with the afghan government if you want to see a peace deal because previous experiences in afghanistan unfortunately have shown that excluding the afghan government from the process has had bad repercussions and consequences a taliban spokesman says it wants a different type of government operating under islamic principles and not the current democratic system that was imposed in two thousand and one. but peace in

afghanistan goes beyond internal politics pakistan has an important role and will because she'll in shaping any future peace deal but afghan president a softening who has not been involved in the u.s. taliban talks question pakistan's commitment to and the war carney has repeatedly accused islamabad of providing sanctuaries to taliban fighters. the key to peace in kabul requires that we have a practical principled and inclusive plan for it but the keys to war are in islamabad role pindi and quiet or. a peace deal could change everything in a understand if possible ceasefire will be followed by a power sharing settlement a new constitution and then elections a process of that might create a new political reality in

a country that's been at war for decades. well tribal chiefs and clerics in afghanistan have sought to assure the government that any polio vaccination campaign will not be targeted by the taliban the one month campaign to inoculate children under five started in january five million children in high risk areas need to be vaccinated but as al-jazeera discovered some parents are still suspicious about the vaccine as tony berkeley reports from kabul. this is all it takes just a couple of drops of vaccine and this baby has protection from polio the highly contagious virus attacks the nervous system and can lead to paralysis mainly in children under the age of five. the daughter or vaccination program in the capital kabul is relatively straightforward but in rural afghanistan threats against medical staff and deep rooted suspicions about vaccines have led to outbreaks of the virus more than i mean one formula often the men are not willing to have their

kids vaccinated but a lot of effort to be usually convince them to allow it thirty years ago polio was rife in one hundred twenty five countries affecting three hundred fifty thousand youngsters annually today only three countries still suffer from the virus but i was twenty seven cases last year twenty one of them were in afghanistan a lack of access for vaccine teams because of the continuing conflict is a major reason of course we are worried about the. security. your phrase because during the companies didn't. they have to move from security to . yours to immunize our children. tribal leaders in clerics have told the government taliban fighters won't target medical teams and the families will allow their children to be immunised unless it's controlled and eradicated the world health organization estimates that up to two hundred thousand children

a year could be affected by the polio virus but despite this people here especially in rural areas are still deeply suspicious manner but no we are not vaccinating our kids because these vaccines are coming from the infidels and west to us that has bad effects on our kids and most of our people are against it. so we are not happy with these vaccinations because we heard stories of the polio vaccination is not good and it's used for spying and then the ingredients used are also not allow this . these use started spreading eight years ago after a fake polio vaccination program was used as cover in neighboring pakistan to find some of bin laden now as a consequence of that in parts of south and east afghanistan medical teams are not allowed to go door to door only mosque to mosque and that's another reason why afghanistan's battle against polio may take some time to win tony berkeley

al-jazeera kabul. and with the news hour live from london last an ad for you on the program we'll tell you about the controversial new road in the occupied west bank that separates palestinians and israeli drive as as romania takes over the presidency of the country's human rights record and press freedoms are in the spotlight and find out why the f.b.i. a worried ahead of sunday's big super bowl game in atlanta these will be his picks playing in sports. going to welcome back to international weather forecasts were here across europe we are looking at some very stormy conditions here across much of the central part of europe this is all due to one air of low pressure that really has developed over the last twenty four hours a lot of rain is moving in from the south and over the next twenty four hours we do expect to see italy getting the brunt of that rain even localized flooding could be

a problem across the region across the alps though it is going to be the snow and as we go from sunday to monday notice they snow start to dissipate but the rain does not dissipate at all and that is where the flooding is going to be a problem out here towards the west we do have another weather system coming in across the northwest and that is going to bring our mix of rain as well as snow but london your temperatures are going up we do think about nine degrees is going to be high as we begin the week across the northern part of africa we are going to be since a very heavy rain showers for algeria now the showers are going to be. staying in the same location as we end the weekend and also go into monday so we are going to be seeing a problem on the roads there tunisia you'll see some heavy rain as well in tripoli you'll start to get the rain in your forecast over here towards cairo it is going to be a partly cloudy day few ghazi is going to be seeing some winds in your forecast with a temperature there of seventeen in partly cloudy conditions for you your forecast .

rewind returns or care bring your people back to life i'm sorry with brand new updates on the best of al-jazeera documentaries in libya i was looking for looks. like and the other student rewind continues with. my neighborhood i was like screaming give us the clues we want leave. my ultimate goal would be to do something very big for the prettiest you know your creation rewind on al-jazeera the latest news as it breaks the difference is about to blast bottles awesome floyd just about to stick in the ritz with the this time both with truth is. with detailed coverage why though 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 eight hundred. welcome back a recap of the top stories this hour venezuela's president nicolas maduro has proposed holding early congressional elections and has been battling a challenge from the opposition leader. who declared himself the country's interim leader just last month. thousands of people have been protesting in venezuela both for and against in caracas anti-government demonstrators as. a show of force demanding that the president step down. and hung by doa has been speaking to

al-jazeera he said that he will reject any offer of new elections. the duo is still in power why does as the president was first step down and allow a transitional government to take charge before any vote can be held he's also declined offers from mexico you're acquiring and the e.u. to mediate between himself and the dura the opposition leader says he won't rule out the possibility of a u.s. military intervention and insists his main goal is to steer venezuela to democracy well let's now speak to gregory we'll put to you is the author of changing venezuela by taking power he joins me now from washington thank you very much for speaking to us we saw today a large scale mobilization against president nicolas maduro reports of tens of thousands of people in the capital caracas our own correspondent was on the ground in describe the protest as massive does it look as though nicolas maduro will be able to survive this sort of demonstration if it continues well it's

very difficult to thing i mean it clearly if you look at the numbers for the demonstrations in favor of madieu it out today they were more or less an equal number actually are so you have equal but opposing forces which has been the history for the last couple of years back basically for the entire presidency so it's very unlikely that my daughter will step down of his own accord just to give up fact u.s. pressure makes the situation all the worse because the make for majority of most likely are given the anti-capitalist for our current our imperialist orientation of them into a government that they would simply give in so that's very unlikely so the prospects are not good or right now are things like two trains heading for on collision course it's not just the united states though is that you have more than twenty countries which of course of course include the u.s. now we have the european parliament as well speaking out against the government of nicholas madeira everyone it seems a large portion at least of the international community is very concerned about the

economic and humanitarian crisis that is brewing in venezuela. yes absolutely and it's a large grouping of conservative governments throughout latin america plus the european union or some countries of the european union i should say because there are couple countries that have already declared the support actually but the point is though that the united states is taking the lead on all of this and is the one that is are blocking venezuelan oil exports now and this is that's the real issue it's trying to make the economic crisis in venezuela even worse than it already is and it is precisely those measures that the united states is taking that are leading the these two forces in venezuela on a collision course this wouldn't be happening if the u.s. wouldn't be as involved as it is at the moment but can you say that with such certainty it is also about internal mismanagement mismanagement as you well know nicolas maduro has been in power since two thousand and thirteen in that time we

have seen g.d.p. full we have seen inflation source surely his own policies and arguably that of his predecessor have also contributed to this. well you know it's the majority government carries a large part of the blame for the hyperinflation that has been going on in venezuela but my point is really that the u.s. sanctions have made a bad situation even worse of course the fact that women or government carries a large part of the blame has opened the opportunity really for the opposition and for the u.s. government to take this hardline position against the door in the hope that he will finally argue firm but like i said before if you look at the dormers of demonstrators with numbers of voters and venezuelans that still support to do this is simply not going to happen so the only way out at the moment is really a negotiated situation solution as countries throughout the world including the vatican are mexico who are going to have been calling for and hopefully others will

join that call because that's the only solution for for a peaceful resolution to the crisis thank you very much gregory we'll put sharing your thoughts on this for this author of changing minister thank you for pleasure when i was stories we're following at least under twenty one people have been confirmed dead after a dam collapsed in southeastern brazil last week new footage has been released of the moment a dam burst it contained a mining waste and was captured sweeping waves of mud through burma dina two hundred twenty six people remain missing and fire officials in minnes jet iowa state say some bodies might never be found mud is now moving towards a major river and might contaminate water supplies the city of townsville in eastern australia is bracing for more heavy rain after being inundated with floods this week dozens of homes in the city have been destroyed and families forced to evacuate thors he say queensland is entering unprecedented territory residents are

being told to avoid using roads and consider moving to higher ground if conditions wesson. a new road in the occupied west bank has controlled the city designed to ease traffic between jerusalem and nearby settlements israeli officials call it route four three seventy but its opponents have called it the apartheid road road is separated by eight needs a concrete wall on one side the drive is israeli on the other palestinian are false or boards. the israeli occupied west bank is hardly devoid of barriers but few tell the story of division here in quite such a dramatic way this is road for three seventy northeast of jerusalem the left side is for those with palestinian papers the right for those bearing israeli documents side by side but each part of an entirely different road network some of labeled it the apartheid road last month palestinian and israeli activists blocked the highway

calling it discriminatory part of plans to annex the west bank opening the road in january the israeli public security minister said it would help create mutual life for palestinians and israelis ensure security and strengthen israeli sovereignty. for israeli settlers it allows for fast direct access to jerusalem without having to queue at checkpoints and while the palestinians half of the road is cut off from jerusalem it has sped up traffic going north and south mohamad has brought his vegetables here from hebron in the southern west bank. job it was then hard yes we palestinians are restricted and limited israelis can use any entrance and any road they like but this road does make it easier for us provided there are no other obstacle and. palestinian leaders say any such benefits will be overwhelmed by the future cost as stark and as concrete an expression this is in the current situation in the occupied west bank in terms of separation between israelis and palestinians

in terms of continued israeli control here there is for many palestinians also a fear that this is a precursor to a wider separation further down the road. this stretch of highway is part of a plan to connect the palestinian cities of ramallah and bethlehem but the other part of that plan involves extending illegal settlement building east of jerusalem in a way that palestinians say will encircled the city and split the west bank into it heads the kinetic north and south but of course they made it in the world. twenty eight. the connection between east and west for the israeli people to without saying that we are a block in the middle of the future of funds that. for the road for three seventy is two things the timesaving link for israelis and palestinians both as they travel between separated zones and a monument to the unresolved conflict between them are a force that al-jazeera in the occupied west bank. european parliament elections

are due to take place in may and leaders are increasingly concerned about shadowy groups peddling misinformation to influence voters so-called fake news is an especially big problem in romania which healthy u.s. presidency its government is also in the spotlight now for attacks on journalists aren't seeing reports from bequests the manipulation of public opinion is one of the battles of our times and it is spreading through the european union remain here is one of the new front lines at this independent media monitoring organization the troll through hours of t.v. footage from privately run news that works owned by oligarchy with links to major political parties fake news they say is spreading like a virus. very very poor. and the sometimes i got the feeling there are acting. personal communicators for the politicians

really and media has been trying fake news through the oil mass protests against new laws protecting corrupt politicians are met with media claims that the demonstrators have been paid to turn up by the billionaire george soros already a hate figure in a liberal countries european elections are fast approaching national elections in romania later in the year a perfect opportunity it is feared the media owning all of guards and politicians to come together to try to silence independent critical voices. this radio presenter is one of remain year's most respected broadcasters with half a million twitter followers and three hundred thousand on facebook yet he admits to a sort of self-censorship on social media in fear that hidden forces might have his account suspended more than that he predicts a far bigger clampdown on critical media after this year's elections just as happened in hungary i think in the very next day after mr orbán win the election

the last opposition radio station simply says they exist so. i look to hungary and see guys want to do the same to us and what of the real investigative journalists like paul who helped expose global corruption to the so-called panama papers the day after his website run an exposé on a high ranking politician he received a visit from the tax police based on a fake complaint from a nonexistent accountant his view is that the european union should be doing a whole lot more than it is to support people like him that this goes across borders countries themselves cannot deal with these type of problems you know so there is a need for. the law enforcement agency in order to deal with very high level cases you know. absolutely absolutely yes while the european commission

certainly knows about all this it spends most of its time and efforts on fake news originating from russia but decent journalists in bucharest who remain is current high profile much focus minds on the democratic deficit much closer to home largely al-jazeera in bucharest. well now a european commission has warned cyprus avery scheme of selling passports and visas to wealthy businesspeople it says the practice leaves what it calls golden gate open into europe which could increase money laundering tax evasion and corruption and as david chaytor reports from lim a cell it's far from welcome among the city's growing russian community the hills above limits all are filled not with the sound of music. but the sound of construction the building boom is being fueled by russians and the sea front of cyprus is second biggest city is being transformed with luxury high rise flats it's

not just the sunshine that strong them here the government has earned more than five billion dollars from selling cypriot passports so far and with them comes entry into the european union. the russian community is now estimated as eighty thousand strong and even has its own radio station the russian wave it was formed by a businessman from the urals but he's not impressed with the new wave of the guards young scope you mo you know about seventy percent of these people who get the golden passports the live in cyprus have no commitment to a community here a single day can change everything another russian businessman set up this computer wargaming company it has millions of users worldwide. the russians already have their own super markets here now he's about to lead their own political party so most people just buy. real estate for. your assumption

loosens hoop dreams of possible. i do not support. the marina in limit so is filling fast with the luxury yachts of the oligarchs but there will always be room for more definitely yes i would say that russian oligarchs are always welcome to cyprus. for some time what is that activity diction for our passports but its attention i believe will help until we can see the cyprus once again the e.u. commission is warning that such golden passports will allow organized crime gangs to infiltrate the block and that could cause problems with tax evasion money laundering and corruption and russian businessman already well established in cyprus see it as a threat to their own interests you know mostly people living in these floats it's going to be a week ago stone awards the sun may be coming down though on the days of the golden

passport because of pressure from both the e.u. commission and the united states that threatened catastrophic sanctions on any bank involved in money laundering david chaytor al-jazeera the missile. more still ahead for you on the program we meet a female historian in washington he's breathing new life into old defunct telephone boxes. and in sport the celebrations continue as cattles football heroes return home after winning the asian cup. in recent years the sawhill of north africa has witnessed the so-called war on terror. but is this official narrative. masking a larger battle. a battle for the earth's natural resources. shadow

war in the sahara out yourself.