scattered about the middle east but of course this is we believe there are several thousand left scattered around iraq and syria and many of them are foreign fighters . but humanitarian challenges will continue long after the fighting ends around twenty thousand people have been forced from their homes ahead of the sold on booze including the families of eisel fighters they'll join thousands more in refugee camps where conditions are dire due to chronic shortages of food and medicines much of the country's infrastructure is in ruins and these people won't know when they'll be allowed to return home it's likely the eisel fighters will fight until the bitter end in any reading of ice and propaganda suggests that they are all going to fight until the last moment however this battle is far from over and the next coming days will be decisive among card i'll deserve doesn't it israel's prime minister says he intends to introduce a controversial new law within a week it's known as pay for

a slave and this is how it will work the palestinian government now pays compensation to the families of people israel convicts of carrying out attacks under the proposed law israel would deduct an amount equal to that compensation from tax funds it raises on behalf of the palestinian authority if that law is passed it would cut revenue to the authority by about three hundred thirty million dollars a year how the faucet has more from western muslims. benjamin netanyahu has long argued against and attacked the palestinian leadership over what it says is a system of welfare payments to palestinian prisoners and what the israeli government characterizes as a form of incitement to carry out attacks against israelis this is the week that he says that this law will come into effect and that next sunday in the next israeli security cabinet meeting is when the first calculation will be made in terms of withholding some of the money that israel raises in taxes for the palestinian authority and pays to the palace in authority every month there has been some

controversy over this even within israeli circles wide reports that israeli security establishment is worried about the withholding of the money about the effects on potential effects on security cooperation between israeli security services and the palestinian authority in the occupied west bank of course there's also been a reaction from the p.a. as well they say that this is nothing short of israeli piracy and is being done in concert with the americans to inflict further pressure on the palestinians ahead of the rollout of the trump peace plan nonetheless we are in election season at a time when benjamin netanyahu is trying to portray himself as the man of the right with a tough line against the palestinians in opposition to the way he's trying to characterize his main rival benny gantz the former israeli army chief who means trying to say is of the weak left and as well is that there have been a series of attacks carried out in recent weeks and even over this weekend there's

been an attack in which a palestinian or other an israeli nineteen year old woman was killed by a palestinian man in a forest southwest of jerusalem the suspect was after apprehended in ramallah in the occupied west bank on saturday according to israeli media he has reenacted the crime has admitted to a sexual assault and murder this is a crime which is really outraged a huge number of israelis the police are saying they are so. really examining a political motive no direct calling of this as a terror attack by the israeli prime minister just yet no call it either from hamas in gaza or from the palestinian authority in the west bank either nonetheless there has been a huge reaction to this and for you know to delay the imposition of this law at this time will be politically very difficult for. plenty more ahead on this al-jazeera news hour including signs that the u.s. may be moving towards another government shutdown we'll have the latest from washington plus preserving the memory of

a syrian boy whose death moved the world and stealing his son's thunder oklahoma city come back to beat the rockets in the n.b.a. the air will have all the action in sports. first a british newspaper says a politically connected lobbying firm pitched a plan to have b. twenty twenty two football world cup in qatar canceled the guardian reports that lynton crosby an australian political strategist who has long works for the u.k.'s conservative party offered to get the tournament awarded to another country in return for seven million dollars projects paul as it's known focused on efforts to deal the qatari government and put pressure on fee for to restart the world cup bidding process crosby's lawyers deny any contracts was signed or action or let speaks more about this to david miller who's the founder of spin watch which is

a u.k. based group that carries out investigations is via skype from bristol thank you so much for being with us on al-jazeera you've seen these documents i understand can i ask first how they came before you and why you think they were shown to you. well he's a documents came from inside the offices of challenged al hale who was the prospective clients for this. one of the qatari prince who has engaged in some rather embarrassing stunts over the last few months and years but nevertheless seems to be involved in this attempt to have the world cup council. so how then do you view this proposed spates which would have sought as you say to delay to my scotus rights to host the world cup what was the plan well they were what they wanted to do what. deal edition my qatari states continue with the kind of propaganda which you seem emanating from for example the united arab emirates

which suggests that tar supports terrorism and indeed the christian lines which are . in fact it was not a whole but the idea of targeting qatar as being some kind of international outlaw and this is a similar sort of strategy that we've seen in recent years we've republished of course separately in this last year on the kind of come pains which is a myth meant that the qatari. government people have been targeted by the. deeds in concert with the israel lobby to try and suggest. that it was an outlaw and this client tell us more a bit about him if he sponsored a co-op to regional rivals and i can wait. well now the lawyers for crosby deny that the contracts. signed or entered into

lea dude seem to admit that they had worked for hail to some extent the what's interesting about this i mean how hill is a sort of joke but what's interesting about this is the sheer amount of money seven million dollars on the table here. it's not credible from what we know that this was his personal fortune which is funding this this is a state which is behind this and it looks like just one part of a much larger strategy which is being adopted by a state in the middle east david can ask you is such a lobbying efforts legal and if it is does it work. the the effort to do this kind of lobbying in you chain is legal it's corrupting certainly and in but sometimes breach ethics regulations and listen to parliament and the like. doesn't work well as

a blockade and cut more and there's been a you know an attempt to undermine zero itself as a station so yes there is a sense in which that some of it works but is about trying to coalesce different forces the me in this case of trying to target qatar as working with others with the saudis and indeed with the israelis to try and pursue a particular line that means attacking essentially. muslims who are in public life i mean essentially pursuing a lot of public agenda which is really very much in line with the kind of activities that crosby himself has done in the past he's known very widely for his islamophobia and his targeting reasons in previous political campaigns so that this is something which whether it works in order to cancel the the world cup or not it is helping to encourage islamophobia in this country one that she ways in which you helped in the past the way he was that they managed to get the camera government

just choose an inquiry in the into the muslim brotherhood it was only me who wanted and they threatened the government that they would withdraw oh an arms contract if it wasn't with their demands one to accept it so no it may be legal in strict sense this is not the kind of. international diplomatic relations they interested to talk to about this thank you so much for speaking to david miller from spain wants joining us there from vessel thank you for your time. egypt's president abdel fattah el-sisi is taking the reins of the african union as regional bodies summit in ethiopia and capital gets underway it marks the end of london president paul kagame is reformist tenure at the helm of the organization the ceremonial role of chairperson of the african union rotates annually between the five regions of the continent malcolm webb has more on the summit from ethiopia.

the outgoing african union chair president paul kagame we have one that addressed the opening ceremony he spent the last year trying to push through reforms to make the african union who reflect is a leader with limited success with a plan to try and make the african union self funding but it's not there yet it's been more successful trying to create a free trade area nineteen countries are already on board and it needs three more to take effect. the continent of free trade area was assigned and now this one. it just stands on a weeks away from entry into force thanks to the xor it in. over a. president abdel fattah el-sisi of egypt has taken over as chair in his opening speech he referred to many ideals for a few specific goals when buffy

a little what. we're still doing our best to cement the pillars of peace security and stability to achieve economic cooperation and continental integration among our states and peoples all in an endeavor towards building the human spirit of africa. egypt is africa's largest economy traditionally when it is more powerful countries take over the chair of the african union they are less interested it being powerful because they've got more influence themselves so in the year ahead it's expected that the african union will focus less on reforms and more on security. in the u.s. talks to avert another government shutdown have reportedly stoltz president donald trump agreed last month to end a partial government shutdown with a three week spending deal but disputes between democrats and republicans over immigration detentions have led to an impasse let's speak to her in washington so heidi the talks are sold what does this mean are we looking at another shutdown. we

may be folly on feb fifteenth is the deadline for a new funding measure to be passed and not only is this current heard all about detention space getting in the way of negotiations but still the bigger question about funding for president trumps border wall is still an open one trump wants more than five billion dollars for that wall and democrats have offered less than five billion for a border barrier listen to what the white house acting chief of staff mick mulvaney said earlier today. let's say for sake of this discussion that the democrats prevail and the hardcore left wing democrats prevail it was a democrat congresswoman who put out a tweet yesterday about zero dollars for the d.h.s.s. so let's say that the hardcore left wing of the democrat party prevails in this negotiation and they put a bill on the president's desk with c.z. real money for the wall or eight hundred million some certainly low number how does he sign that he cannot in good faith sign that it takes

a presidential signature i'm sure the spending bill that can you imagine senate republicans would go along with a proposal like that are you that skeptical of senate republican i don't think so but you asked me a question if the shutdown entirely off the table the answer is no side even if the democrats and republicans agree on a plan are we sure that president trump will sign off on it that's the big question we at this point don't know trump is planning to be at a campaign style rally on the border tomorrow in the city of el paso in which he's expected to make yet another plea to the greater american public to back his border wall plan that strategy fizzle the last time around during the thirty five day long government shutdown and trying to quite a political hit his approval rating declined and most americans blame the president for that shutdown and so everyone in d.c. is looking at the moment that it's in no one's best interest to have yet another shutdown i believe thank you for that heidi as your costs are live for us in

washington. a rescue ship operating in the mediterranean has been renamed alan kuti after the syrian toddler who died trying to reach europe in two thousand and fifteen the image of the three year old boy's body washed up on a turkish beach fox global outrage and came to symbolize upright of those war david chase it was at the ship's naming ceremony on the spanish island of majorca in the early morning light to the dockside in hama a ship very in the name of his son. but this wasn't a moment of pride for a syrian refugee abdullah curdie he was lost and alone the pain in his heart almost too great for words to look into and i was remembering the moment when the ship was sinking drowning all those horrifying images were flooding into my mind the moment my children and i were drowning we went on board the boat i saw my children dying in front of me one after the other each was crying out for me saying or my father

or my father my wife was saying. across the world tribute was paid to his suffering . but more than three years have now passed the ship carrying alan curry's name will not leave doc soon because so many governments are mounting legal challenges to their rescue operations the ports of europe are closing the hearts may have been opened by the iconic picture of alan but those hearts are now hardening that every family and every boy like alan cruelly who lost his life is one too much and it's not even about how many it's if there's even one person having to do this journey and johnny not getting help then that's already two months abdullah had a message for the people of europe i call on them he said to open their doors to these desperate people they are in dire need of help they're not coming here of their own free will they are running for their lives out of war of killing and

destruction. david chaytor al jazeera. still ahead on this al-jazeera news hour forty is the hostility as iran marks the anniversary of its islamic revolution we'll look at what's behind the sour state of relations with the united states plus. i'm going hey in bangkok where the countdown is on to the first election since a coup in two thousand and fourteen we look at whether the new government will be able to reverse a military crackdown on free speech. and ski legend lindsey vonn race for the last time at the world championships in sweden before retiring leo will have more on her epic career later in sports history.

hello well it looks like a return to the right to middle east we got more right in our forecast over the next couple days lots of cloud that cloud sweeping across iraq into iran over towards afghanistan we've seen some rather large ish i was recently underneath this massive cloud which is a spilling out of turkey and in armenia well here we've had ninety nine millimeters of light in twenty four hours that will sink its way further south which in these was as we go through monday snow on the northern flank of that just around to run for example heavy rain there into q eight that will produce some flooding wet weather extending its way right across into that western side of iraq broad skies do come back in behind but all the chilly side for beirut fifteen sixteen degrees over the next couple of days should be largely dry that the west the weather look at that rate he gathers it makes his way across iraq pushes over towards afghanistan bright skies to come back in behind kuwait city and back that eighteen degree celsius that killed us weather will make its way across northern sections of

the gulf they wind down how we could see some rain over the next couple days so that's something to. watch out for freshens up as we go through choose day watch us guys come back you know mckean shamali in system with dust and wet weather too across southern parts of africa particular around the eastern cape. take the worst possible material you arabia grounded into dust comparable to flour and make a reliable and put it into place where people live think these are cars on the ground. as well and so many people are thinking this is the silent heat. but does it make you feel nice you feel like a movie we have created an enormous and little mental disaster. and investigation south africa toxic city on al-jazeera. everything we do is being animal it's being leaked and it's being measured to support intelligence

agencies all the time to do things in secret that are a little small or politically embarrassing all of the colleagues that i knew chose to retire from the n.s.a. we could not stand by and see all the work that they had done being used for mass surveillance digital dissidents on al-jazeera. watching al-jazeera a reminder of our top stories this hour the u.s. is seeking to force the issue of aid delivery to venezuela using a un security council resolution president nicholas muslim has accused washington

of using aid as a political tool to destabilize his government is arounds prime minister says he intends to introduce a new law within a week that could cut the palestinian authority's revenue by millions of dollars a year that pays compensation to the families of those arrested by israel under the new not israel would deduct an amount equal to that compensation from tax funds it raises for. it's an african leaders are meeting in ethiopia's capital for they on your summit this is seen in addis ababa is refugees and internally displaced people the egyptian president abdel fattah taken over the presidency of the organization from one does support and got me. in sudan government prosecutors have admitted for the first time that a protester died in custody after being tortured the schoolteacher was detained during demonstrations against the government of the share his death has caused widespread anger and condemnation mom advice for some cotton.

people in the town of hushmail good but it is time sudan came out like one family for the funeral of their school teacher but the fear he died while being tortured by members of the state security after he took part in our take government demonstrations. he died in custody members of security killed it wasn't a really good health when he left home. cook. ahmed's friend who was arrested with him said he saw him while being beaten. he lay on me like this off today knocked him down you continue to move sideways from pain and say are are after a while he was completely still the security guy tried to wake him up by tapping his jeans i told him this man is dead he said let all of you die for your revolution but then i uncovered his body and started inspecting his neck because it

was swollen i couldn't tell if it was broken but the marks of torture were very clear on that. for several days so then his security forces continued to hide the truth claiming that had died of an illness. zoe he his family were invited to see his body that they were sure that no violations were committed and that he had not been tortured. but that the count turned out to be a lie officials conducted an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death the prosecution has found the death of this person to be the result of several wounds inflicted on him those responsible should face trial according to the law. but taking the perpetrators to justice may prove difficult so the un security forces usually refused to let their members be tried in civilian courts and the belated confession has not satisfied it's family or the protestors is the cost to

a public cause and the rallying cry for more protest and anger against the government of president omar bashir. in his hometown ahmed's family is still trying to make sense of the loss silence dominates the school where he was teaching his students are unable to get over the shock. a video was made to remember his life he talks about the value of the schoolteacher to humanity and denounces ahmed's the as equivalent to the killing of the future of an entire nation. and dizzee a call to. iran's foreign minister has offered support to lebanon at the start of a two day visit mama jazz every fiza first foreign minister davis it since lebanese politicians ended months of deadlock to form a unity government he says his country is ready to operate in all sectors the

iranian backed hezbollah which has three ministers in the new lebanese government wants lebanon to accept anti-aircraft weapons from tehran in. this visit has to be the first to express our support to our brotherly lebanese people the second is to declare that iran is ready to cooperate with the government as we said before we're always ready to support lebanon militarily iran has the will but we're waiting for it to come from the lebanese side. meanwhile iraq and says it's going to expand its missile program despite warnings from the united states the announcement was time to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the islamic revolution that toppled the shah and i shit in decades of hostility between the two powers zanuck order has our report from tehran. it has been forty years since the revolution that changed the face of this nation iran's pro here us policy was reversed little has changed since opposition to the us and israel are still very

much part of iran's foreign policy. we shouldn't have a relationship with the us and israel we have a problem with these two countries we are independent and that's why they are putting pressure on us relations between washington and to her on are at an all time low since president donald trump took office and reimposed sanctions after were drawing from the two thousand and fifteen nuclear deal signed by world powers western sanctions have been a fact of life for decades ever since the storming of the u.s. embassy in tehran in one nine hundred seventy nine and the ensuing hostage crisis but iranians are hurting. that we need relations with other countries so that people are not unemployed when rouhani came to power he visited many countries if some allowed him to continue everything would be better the iranian leadership did back president hassan rouhani is engagement with the west that led to the nuclear deal it was supposed to usher in a new era in relations until the u.s. withdrew. for years all i told our officials in closed meetings and

people publicly that we shouldn't trust american officials promises smiles and signatures now about the europeans i'm not saying we should not have relations with them but we shouldn't trust them he has been open. to resolving difficulties. with the united states for many years that. that's why towards the end of. a speech talking about resolving issues if the first step worked out the problem is that the first. there seems to be little optimism about the future especially because of what iran's supreme leader considers a hostile us administration and its hostile policies towards this country the revolution is about ending western influence in its offers then wanted to explore those ideals to the world by doing that iran earned the enemies it has been he was

meddling in the internal affairs of neighboring states and the united states uses iraq having the greatest threats in the middle east. iran is involved in wars across the region where it backs mainly proxies to her own says it is about countering u.s. and israeli dominance some arab governments see it differently iran's regional ambitions transform the middle east in fact some iranian officials don't shy away from boasting about arab capitals now being part of the islamic revolution. in hungary thousands of people have been protesting in. prime minister viktor orban held his annual state of the nation address from the far right to the left opposition parties and civil society groups have been showing unity against the so-called slave law the law that was approved in parliament in december increases the amount of extra hours employees. and demand while delaying overtime payments

the reforms are big to oban solution to a labor shortage hungary's population is aging and many of its citizens have gone to work abroad protesters say they're not only protesting the labor law but also hungry slide from democracy the government increasing control of the media the judiciary and universities natalia loose each has this update from pewter best this bridge is a meeting point and the people are all are already gathering in some places in budapest and they will march towards this bridge later the four o'clock or oppositional parties will organize another protests after the prime minister's speech people are unsatisfied with the new labor law they're very angry day or call it a slavery law because an employer by the law can ask from employees to work for one hundred extra hours without being paid immediately or they can be paid but in

a three year delay there are also people here are unsatisfied with the freedom house report from a few days ago in there to report hungary is not a free country anymore is now it to dropped on the least and it's partially a free country and it's a part of partially a free country because they say democracy is in threat to human rights are in threat and the media is not free as it was a few years ago and thousands of people have demonstrated in spain's capital against prime minister petro sanchez they were calling for tougher measures on catalonia as campaign just bits from spain the protests follow sanchez saying he will appoint a rapper toure to join talks the east political tensions with catalonia demonstrate demonstrators say he is surrendering to pressure from separatists. now north

macedonia has not only changed its name it's undergoing a historical overhaul within six months it must rename state institutions rewrite school textbooks and relabel public monuments critics say this will tamper with identity the government says it will help discover it johnson operates for foursomes copy. these students at large at the post ski state school are learning about and a star she was kind of a hero of the greek war of independence against the ottoman empire at least that's how he is taught in greek schools one hundred fifty kilometers south of here but here in scope here he is taught as a broken freedom fighter from the south macedonian region what is today greek macedonia that is one of many educational issues a joint commission of historians from greece and north macedonia are to resolve before this country's new school textbooks are printed in september the most controversial issue is how schools here will teach about alexander the great need

them the disparities i believe that when we teach the era of alexander the great we must draw out cosmopolitanism rather than teach in a way that provokes nationalism the main point is not city chung says to hate each other but to communicate when politicians talk about history i'm not sure anything good will come of it the last time politicians here talked about history they claimed alexander as a macedonian but not a greek hero and spent a billion dollars on statues and public buildings befitting the pedigree they used the name macedonia which is the same as greece's northern region and raised fears of claims on its territory and its history two years ago that government led by the right wing via morrow party fell from power the social democrats who stepped in made a deal with neighboring greece to rename the country north macedonia and drop the claim to enchant culture finally tang's got we are out we are free of the cage that the previous. arment tried to install in our people's mind that we were some

kind of muscle on us but we speak slavic language you know. the most important with disagreement with a flower and improve our identity our language and we should be proud of that the opposition via morrow still disagrees for me this is republicans are going here maybe officially i will have some something in the in the in the my papers official papers most people know who who they are in macedonia. know where they belong and from where from when they belong north macedonia is a country in search of its past it is surrounded by the strong national identities of the greeks albanians boag ariens and serbs they have already claimed every balkan hero and woven their national narratives what is more important those narratives interlock the north macedonian narrative is still being written some raw

material for that's narrative is to be found in the national museum here of koreans with the head of alexander minted in greece but excavated in north macedonia roman byzantine and also men are also here testifying that empires held sway over this land for twenty three centuries until nationalism was violently thrust upon it jumps at all plus al-jazeera scorpio thousands of people have had to leave their homes as strong winds fan wildfires in new zealand soph island the fires started near the city of nelson a week ago and have destroyed more than two thousand hectares a forest at least three thousand people have left their homes and more are likely to get out in the coming hours locals say it's one of the worst fires in half a century. south korea's government has signed a short term agreement to increase the amount it pays to keep u.s. troops on the peninsula it's all those demands by president.