volved mint the foreign ministry in bangkok said it didn't notify bahrain about the footballers' plans but as the case dragged on the pressure on the thai government grew after a trip to bahrain by the thai foreign minister hakim was freed bringing to an ordeal that shouldn't have been allowed to happen wayne hay al jazeera bangkok. the number of people who've died after drinking contaminated alcohol in northern india last week has risen to ninety nine three separate cases of poisoning have led to a crackdown on so-called bootleggers who make and sell the toxic drink they suspect was made with methanol deaths from illegally made alcohol are common in india because the poor can't afford licensed bottles the us acting defense secretary has met afghanistan's president on a surprise visit to kabul patrick shanahan's trip is the latest step in washington's efforts to end the seventeen year war there he held discussions with the afghani on national security issues and restasis america's insistence that the

afghan government be included in any peace talks with the taliban that group has so far resisted the government's involvement regarding it as a us puppets shanahan also met u.s. troops stationed there tony but he has more from kabul. mr shanahan spent monday meeting u.s. and nato military leaders and members of the afghan government including president ashraf ghani it was a two fold mission for sess what is happening on the ground although the peace talks are being going on with the taliban they are still fighting and still carrying out missions and also to reassure the government i think that they have not been sidelined from these peace negotiations will number that the u.s. taliban talks are excluded the afghan government this is something that the taliban have always insisted that they would never talk directly to the afghan government in fact they don't call them a government they call them and administration that is a stumbling block so mr shanahan was at pains to say that the afghan government should be part of the negotiations he also said that the overall peace solution

lies in the hands of the afghan people but he also said there were no instructions to withdraw any of the american forces this fourteen thousand on the ground at the moment the taliban was releasing information that seven thousand were going to be released by april the u.s. says that's not the case they will not be revealed but the afghan government is still concerned about the speed at which things are moving when you consider the eighteen years of conflict all the complications that has ensued because of that they're worried that the speed is going too fast and that they will not get a just peace mr the special envoy for the u.s. who's been leading the u.s. negotiating team with the taliban has been optimistic in his forecast he says he hopes there's going to be a peace deal by july at the time of the afghan presidential election so there is some concern about what's happening and also who is representing the taliban do they speak for everybody there's concern that they may not represent all the

factions that all the factions may not sign up to this peace deal and that includes people like i still i still are in place in eastern afghanistan they're growing in strength and there are fears that if the eisel fighters are pushed out of syria they may end up in afghanistan. there's been intense fighting in eastern syria where u.s. forces are trying to recapture the last remaining foothold the kurdish led syrian democratic forces are facing fierce resistance from the armed group which is use suicide car bomb snipers and baby traps to repel the offensive civilians living near the village of have been fleeing to avoid being caught in the fighting the s.t.'s captured forty one i suppose on sunday. the united nations special envoy to yemen says they need urgent access to grain stores in the port city of her data where he says food is at risk of rossing most in griffith says the world food program stalls in the city have enough supplies to feed free point seven million

people for a month but the building has been inaccessible for more than five months because of fighting still ahead on the program massive crowds on the streets of tehran as iran marks the fortieth anniversary of its islamic revolution. hello this cloud gathering again maybe along the winter front a line that's more or less stretching to shanghai back towards the high ground of your non is produces rain in the south and snow in the north where the cold is met and there's a little green patch inland from shanghai back towards will hand and stretch a little bit beyond but if you're in the south and hong kong is a case in point it's enjoyed glee warm and sunny is not particularly humid and the breeze in the specially strong just right really there we have seen some and

usually went weather in iran recently and equally in northern india northern pakistan across tibet because it turned into snows in a fairly active area over the next day or so not so much in india but certainly if you look up towards afghanistan that is the case we've seen occasional road thunderstorms a long way south recently and still that breeze might bring a few showers destroy lanka but this is obviously the area of concentration and is still quite cold for example in srinagar that same system links through iran so it will swing through most of the gulf states in the next twenty four hours and the following breeze it's a shame august and northwest elisa's been recalled it will be dusty and you'll feel it in their heart twenty two and riyadh at a mere ninety is a maximum. on counting the cost of digital divisions why half the world's population risks

missing out on the next evolution of the internet from russia with interest ramblin back investments in venezuela are all about plus a report from santa dolls currency controversy counting the cost on al-jazeera. hello again undermines at the top stories on al-jazeera venezuela's president nicolas maduro has reportedly appealed to fellow oil producing nations to help the jury wrote a call skin for its support against u.s.

sanctions shortly after they were imposed two weeks ago. a refugee footballer will arrive home in australia later off to rain drop his request to extradite him from thailand talking about a raby he fled to australia and twenty from scene was arrested on honeymoon. in the us the acting defense secretary has met afghanistan's president all a surprise visit to kabul patrick shanahan underlined the importance of the government being involved in peace talks with the top. president has done rouhani has addressed tens of thousands of people in terror on the final day of celebrations to mark forty years since the one nine hundred seventy nine islamic revolution he told the crowds in tahrir all the country will continue to expand its ballistic missile program said huldah reports the

it's an honor will rally held since one nine hundred seventy nine iranians converge on or freedom square in central to run to celebrate independence from us dominance islamic republic is marking this year's anniversary engaged in the latest standoff with the united states and the message remains the same one of defiance. it was made by the man who had pushed for engagement with the west iranian president hassan rouhani sealed the two thousand and fifty nuclear deal with world powers which the us withdrew from a few months ago and really imposed sanctions him up the united states and israel they impose sanctions on us putting pressure on our nation a massive turnout means the enemy won't attain their goals so we will continue treading the path we chose forty years ago today in order to make different types of missiles we are not getting permission from anyone and we will not ask anyone for permission to build them our military power will continue. the revolutionary

guards have made it clear that iran is not ready to bow or compromise they have been showing off their military might displaying what are said to be to reinforce iran's defenses the west sees it differently pressuring iran to curb its missile development program the iranian leadership says that is not negotiable the forty years of sanctions and hardships we were able to handle it able to pass this crisis the event is a chance for those in power to show that they can mobilize supporters to show that the revolution's ideals remain and able to project strength but there is no doubt iran's leaders are facing both external and internal pressures the trumpet ministration is squeezing iran to change its behavior in the region and stop supporting proxies in syria yemen lebanon and iraq iranian leaders say the current us administration is the most hostile that the islamic republic has faced in four

decades iran's supreme leader says this is barack obama part of the official discourse until the united states changes what he calls its evil ways. any time soon. says it's the pressure what trouble calls the radical regime in iran. some american official. predicted that the islamic republic would collapse before its fortieth birthday they were wrong but many iranians are facing what we're harney has described as the worst economic situation since one nine hundred seventy nine on the anniversary at least their voices are drowned out by those of the ruling elites core supporters and we are here to prove to divorce that even support our leave their common name no matter how hard the situation the backers of the clerical establishment are promising loyalty to the system and resilience in the face of their enemies jennifer there. on. the african union summit in ethiopia's

capital is drawing to a close the summit saw egypt's president el-sisi take over as chairman of the group from rwanda's president paul kagame makes it marks the end of reformist tenure at the helm of the organization this is focus has been on refugees and internally displaced people let's go to. the al-jazeera is malcolm web so welcome does it look like they will actually be any concrete action on how to help africa's refugees. concrete actions not really expected that the state is still a closed session talking about this right now but regarding the theme of refugees and displaced people what we're expecting is something like a declaration of intent so that won't make much of a difference to the more than twenty million people in africa who are displaced by one of the things that limits the effectiveness of the african union is the fact they don't really have any power over the member states because member states to

actually take action past domestic laws themselves if anything's to actually get done so to me it comes down to the political will of the member state and given the number of twenty million displaced people in africa is growing every year certainly the people living in those camps he would say that that political will is now. some of the leaders here somewhat lacking or at will given that are we expecting anything else to come out from this summit what are its key messages. there have been some steps forward taking the african union's plan to finance itself for ever since it existed it depended on foreign funding several european countries funded it is head headquarters was built for and paid for by china and it's trying to move towards a self-sufficient model that's proved difficult there are some more steps have been taken forward but ultimately the success of that in the years ahead will depend on member states actually contributing that the money that they say that they will be

also expecting to find out some more details on a plan for the african union with the u.n. to try and promote what they called reconciliation talks in libya that's something that the peace and security commission has said earlier today that member states have committed to but we're waiting to find out the details of that that's something that's meant to assist libya in leading towards elections which are planned for later this year. the us secretary of state has again addressed his country's response to the killing of the saudi journalist jamal saying america is not covering up for a murder. of european countries says the united states continues to take more action and continue its investigation he was murdered in saudi consulate in istanbul. last year. joins us live now from washington d.c.

incomplete just how much pressure is the trumpet ministration under from congress to take more action concerning the. there's a considerable amount of pressure and perhaps is why we see my pump continuing to be asked about this and to defend the trumpet ministrations response particularly given the fact that an important deadline passed on friday that was the one hundred twenty dead day deadline put in place by bipartisan members of congress under the global magnitsky act to try and force the administration to go further than it has with regard to the death of the murderer in fact and determining that it was the saudi crown prince that ordered that killing that is a determination that congress has made itself after the briefing by the cia director gina haskell but the target ministration has stopped short well it has sanctioned seventeen saudi nationals it has not held the highest levels of the

saudi government responsible including the crown prince and that is something that members of congress have been pressing for the trumpet ministration to do so congress has been fuming and that's why you see the secretary of state defending its response on friday it handed over a letter to congress saying only that it would continue to engage closely with congress over human rights and a partnership in carrying out the global magnitsky sanctions but not adding any new ones so there's a lot of pressure not just from members of congress like top democrats who say that they will continue to press to see what is motivating donald trump's foreign policy why there is this sort of effort to try and what some members of congress who called sweep this case under the rug expect that there could be hearings moving forward but also we're seeing groups like the committee to protect journalists continuing to keep this in the spotlight not just having protests outside the white house as we saw last week but today there will be a panel discussion at the national press club in order to try and keep this in the

spotlight committee thank you. u.s. president donald trump will address a rally in the texan border city of el paso later on monday where he will no doubt speak about his proposed war with mexico which would run down the southern edge of the city well it comes as california's governor is reported to be ready to withdraw all three hundred sixty of his state troops from the southern border with mexico governor gavin newsome he represents the opposition democratic party is supported as saying he does not want the national guard to take pass in what he calls political theater. seventeen australian residents are believed to have been detained in china as part of a crackdown on the muslim minority activists say the individuals were visiting relatives when they were arrested about a million weakness of believed to be held in camps against their will china's government though says the camps are voluntary and designed to stamp out what it calls extremist tendencies straining government says it's not aware of any

residence being held in china now a new global scientific review has revealed that the world's increase x. are disappearing ass an alarming rate and could soon vanish altogether that would trigger the collapse of natural ecosystems and threaten all very survival mariana holmes reports. they're beautiful sometimes bothersome but withouten six scientists say life on earth is under three a global review of studies and to unstick the population shows they're declining eight times faster than mammals birds and reptiles at that rate the wilts in six could disappear completely within one hundred years as. maize. is built in six and nine six these appear in the hole. if the insects disappear we're going to disappear to the whole agricultural system the pens among other things on the

insects that are most vulnerable to extinction to control the other insects which compete with us for our crops so this is a a brilliant paper but at the same time one that scares the pants off of any biologist who understands how the world works it's not just the place of in six in the food chain that has scientists worried that poland make plants purify the soil and waterways recycle waste and have an important role in paste control and then numbers are declining by two and a half the same every year while climate change and urbanization are affected as scientists point to the intensification of agriculture as the main culprit the report's authors say in sick decide to have little real bearing on food production part of the solution is the art of all of how the will grows its food to be more environmentally friendly it's an overly optimistic paper because it mentions the things that we should be doing in order to

avoid the extinction of the insects the point is we're not doing any of them. this isn't the first time scientists from around the world have issued a warning about three to humanity the first was back in one thousand nine hundred three the second was just last year the problem is they say too few a paying attention made in the home and al-jazeera. and a state of emergency has been declared on a remote group of islands in northern russia off to an invasion by polar bests in a voyage pell ago which is home to around three thousand people is located within the arctic ocean dozens of polar bears have been roaming the area as you can see even going into residential buildings and offices polar bears are increasingly coming into contact with humans as the melting ice is reducing their house has on

food stocks. reminder the headlines here all my al jazeera venezuela's president nicolas maduro has reportedly turned to fellow oil producing nations for help it's emerged that madeira wrote to opec asking for its support against u.s. sanctions shortly after they were imposed two weeks ago opec has yet to comment the u.s. is one of more than forty nations recognized mature as rival or one. interim president to raise a boat has more from caracas there's going to be an enormous demonstration expected to take place in venezuela this coming tuesday and demanded by one weibo and members of the opposition to allow the aid that piling up at the border between venezuela and colombia to be allowed into the country the government would only thing that they won't let that aid into the country they say that when it will have

enough in order to supply that event but in spite of that what we have been able to pin on him now that there is many many people in this country and that's pretty neat a refugee footballer will arrive home in australia. dropped its request to extradite him from thailand hakimullah raby who lives in australia was arrested while on honeymoon in bangkok in november bahrain wanted him extradited from baikal to serve a ten year prison sentence for vandalism the u.s. itin defense secretary has met afghanistan's president on a surprise visit to kabul patrick shanahan's trip is the latest step in washington's drive to end the seventeen year war there he held discussions with us rough gone on national security issues and reiterated americans insistence that the afghan government be included in any peace talks with the taliban. there's been intense fighting in syria where u.s. forces are trying to recapture isis last remaining pockets of territory the kurdish

led syrian democratic forces are facing fierce resistance from the armed group civilians living near the village of buckaroos have been fleeing to avoid the bottle. president has done rouhani has addressed tens of thousands of people in tehran on the final day of celebrations to mark forty years since the nine hundred seventy nine islamic revolution he told the crowds in tahrir all the country will continue to expand its ballistic missile program and those are his headlines here on al-jazeera county the cost is coming next stay with us but by.

hello i'm sam is a than this is counting the cost on al-jazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week digital divisions world wide web foundation president and c.e.o. adrian lovett explains why the internet in danger of splitting also this week venezuela's health system remains starved of money as an international tug of war gets underway for control of a key asset. class senegal's money matters a west african country famous for a pink lake and a strong musical heritage by its currency is now become an election issue. in a bid to control the internet of the future some say a kind of digital iron curtain is falling on the one side there's the u.s. on the other there's china other countries are lining up to this is also

a battle about five g. or fifth generation wireless technology that increases the amount of data that can be transmitted wirelessly the so-called internet of things could also combine things like artificial intelligence and virtual reality the problem is politicians don't understand it and haven't got a clue how to regulate it all control it is even no clear consensus about its very definition it's also worth remembering that the internet wasn't built by a government or a large company the founding fathers were interested in things like providing a force for good. and joining me from london now is a degree in love it adrian is the chief executive officer of the web foundation the worldwide web foundation was established in two thousand and nine by the inventor of the web so tim berners lee good to have you with us are we seeing now a sort of global divide emerge around chinese technology and whether you accept its

mission and comes things like five g. or whether you oppose it. i think there is a there is a divide there's and it's not a simple kind of black and white tool sort of left and right split there's a there are arguably a number of internets emerging now wendy hall from universities and absence does and great work on this talking about how there is a sort of the original internet if you like that is based on openness and permission list space which is you know associated with the pioneers of the internet there's if you like a european internet emerging which has some of those features but also elevates a focus on privacy and protection of individual citizens perhaps at the cost of innovation and there is as you imply a chinese model which is not only restricted to china where the emphasis on the surveillance and arguably social cohesion within that now this is going to remain a complex picture but i think that in the first two of those at least there are the

seeds of of a future internet that we can defend that we can be proud of that we can say is consistent with the founding vision of the web but there's certainly work to do to achieve that and what does that divide ultimately mean for uses i guess you your user experience will be very different depending where you're logging in from right yes certainly does and then of course let's not forget that although we're reaching this point in fact just last month that for the first time more than half the world is online the first problem is the other half are not there is there's a real problem for the three and a half billion people who don't have access to the internet at all we have to work on that but for those who do you're absolutely right there's a there's a. a whole range of different experiences and research that we did in sixty five countries recently found that more than half those countries don't have pretty basic data protection for their citizens what progress has been made in the sort of pushback against some of these tech giants having too much influence well i think

you know the example in europe of the general data protection register the g.d.p. ours it's called that came in last year is an example where actually there's a what is largely seen now as a pretty sensible and moderate piece of legislation very expensive but it's but it's moderate. and which you know initially companies were saying well we can work with that and i think most of them are found that actually they can and they should and indeed are applying the kind of standards that are now required in europe to in many cases to to their users in other parts of the world so i think there has been a shift in the direction of travel in the last year or so i think this is further to go on that but we are seeing progress and you know i think actually the other aspect to consider is people who work in these big companies you know whether they're at senior levels or the rank and file programmers engineers and so on and many of those people actually are very concerned that their own companies do better

and they're calling on their own companies to do better so that's a very powerful voice from within the industry as well talking about a shift how crucial is the issue of five g. darter going to be and the question of who controls it. well it's hugely important in one respect control of it is key and we going to need the same kind of. approach that was applied in the founding years of the web to ensure that there is . an approach that is open that is distributed and decentralized to ensure that those safeguards are there but i think it's also important to remember that you know as i said earlier for for half the world five g. is a it is a pipe dream for half the world you know while some people are worrying about. getting into their driverless cars in the next few years half the world has yet to send its first e-mail so i think it's important that we keep this in proportion the

web and the internet were intended to be for everyone and if you're in a. decreasing minority of your fellow citizens who are not connected when most of them are then you're missing out on some pretty fundamental things like being able to access health care. services and to vote and to participate in in public life in various ways so you know those kind of challenges are not you know five g. is not the solution to those five g. will happen it needs to happen in the right way but we also need just as much energy behind ensuring that everybody gets connected including the hardest to reach including women who are less likely to be connected than men and less likely to be active online and including rural areas as well as urban in different parts of the world so there's a there's a real job to do there especially focusing on you know getting everybody connected to the web my thanks for your thoughts on that adrian love it thank you still to come on counting the cost the pacific island nation that's looking at legal action

against big polluters thousands of kilometers away. but first the head of presidential elections in senegal later this month the country's seventy four year old currency has become a focus of debate it's called the west african c.f.a. frank a problem for some is viewed as a legacy of colonialism because huck has more from dakar in senegal just enough until next month. i would john is calling her younger brother and jack to thank him for the money he sent he's down in france having left his life in the car for a better one in europe he tells her it's not what he expected but he's still able to send a few hundred years every month to his sister to look after the family. it's not easy but without him we couldn't make ends meet there's no work for him here we need him there he's doing this for the money. in january italy's deputy prime

minister luigi accused rounds of fueling the migrant crisis by controlling the economies of former african colonies through the local currency the c.f.a. france is one of those countries that by printing money for fourteen african states prevents the economic development and contributes to the fact that the refugees leave and then die in the sea or arrive on the coasts i didn't like the comment from thailand foreign minister i found it very patronizing africa to the need any foreign minister want to speak on our behalf i the comment came days before the start of the presidential campaign in senegal and the c.f.a. is now part of the debate with each candidate taking positions on the matter some arguing for it others against it like it who asks why should white people in paris take decisions on their currency. the central african franc or the c.f.a.

has a fixed exchange rate with the euro so europeans can bring euro's to africa and easily swap them for the c.f.a. but state regulators make it difficult for africans to take out of their country and swap them into europe was under an arrangement dating back more than seventy years france's central bank controlled the treasury of all fourteen countries leaving these nations with a limited supply of liquidity. this here and he's a certain level of stability. and see allowing our joint to shop at her favorite friends supermarket because french companies profit from this arrangement it allows them easy access to a growing market of over one hundred million people but there's also growing resentment towards this currency not just here in senegal but throughout francophone west africa france get out the graffiti found in various avenues of the capital sana'a is behind the messaging. move and want

a common currency but for wisht african countries only with out france's involvement why couldn't we have our own currency like morocco and algeria they are doing much better than us. france is so far yet so close well money travels more freely than people europe continues to attract young african men for john's family the journey is worth the risk. one area which desperately needs a venezuela's crumbling public health system in the coastal city of barcelona fourteen children have died this week alone from contaminated food or water hospital workers say there's a dire need for medicine to raise a bow has this exclusive report. this is the pediatric emergency room at the lehigh city hospital in the venezuelan city of dallas alone now about three hundred.