they 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 year rose under a new arrangement dating back more than seventy years france's central bank controls 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 to the currency allowing i went jogging to shop at her favorite friend's 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 is behind the messaging. many thought rules and want to

common currency but for wisht african countries only with out fraunces involvement we have our own currency like morocco and algeria they are doing much better than us. france is so far yet so close while 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 dying need for medicine throws a bo has this exclusive report was. this is a pretty bad tricks emergency room at the hospital in the venezuelan city of. about three hundred kilometers east of us here dozens of children are in desperate need

of proper treatment most of them have been diagnosed with a more b.s. is a form of dysentery transmitted by contaminated food or water lady check on starter is three months old she suffers while her mother says she has been abandoned the air my daughter has diarrhea she almost had a heart attack we have nothing you arrive here and there is nothing i was in a crisis because i thought i was losing her children here have diarrhea with blood in it and they are vomiting but nobody is helping us i want this government out now it has destroyed us. we were allowed to film because staff here say they want the world to see that they are unequipped to save children's lives just this week fourteen children have died the figures could climb you can see how desperate the situation is here there's several children on each one of those where people are

telling us that there's no medicine there are not enough there and just among other things many of the children that are arriving here are dying from one day to another madalena my teen years baby boy was one of them he was two months old on tuesday night he died he's forty remains in the hospital because she hasn't been able to get together the money needed to buy a coffin in the didn't but i don't i don't live there is nothing here they have no medicines they don't have food and now my son as did the. people who believe the outbreak was cost when a switch by broke and contaminated the local water supply there was no chlorine or other chemicals in supplied to treat the water parents with their children continue to line up for treatment staff at the hospital say they don't have the resources to help. with any of them here three years ago we stopped receiving goals and alcohol thrown out of syringes all serums to hydrate children. the government of president

. denies there is a humanitarian crisis in venezuela however he recently announced he is reforming the country's health care system. this is a public company recovered by the revolution because while it is going to produce all the medicines made for its public health care system and social security we can reach everyone like it should be and socialism. the situation in the us at the hospital is one of the reasons why the self declared entering president of venezuela one way though says humanitarian aid is urgently needed but some aid officials advice if it does a rival it needs to be carefully managed let humanitarian work on the market humanitarian aid is a mechanism that every country has it's a mistake to make politics out of this there are great needs in venezuela and it has to be controlled managed by the united nations and other agencies so it reaches

those who need it. a crisis that has people at this hospital watching and hoping that their children will survive to raise about reporting there and those are the harrowing scenes across the country health service deprived of resources over the last five years now one of the main sources of money for venezuela currently is an asset that lies outside of the country and is itself the center of an international tug of war but as well as cash cow which generates most of its foreign currency earnings is a refinery called citgo it's based in the u.s. and it's a big fight brewing over who controls it in the future russia's rosneft owns forty nine point nine percent of citgo through a one point five billion dollars collateralized loan the rest is owned by venezuela's state oil company say the cash it generates is crucial to maduro and the opposition leader one guy though who wants to replace the board. well the u.s.

decision to sanction venezuelans oil assets two weeks ago was a move designed to keep citgo revenues out of president nicolas maduro as hands this was his response of the time. i see the transatlantic of united states today decided to take the party to steal citgo from venezuela and that's an illegal path i gave instructions to the president of. a owner of citgo to start with political and legal actions in the american courts and around the world to defend the property and the riches of said god well joining me now from london is dara mcdowell is the head of europe research and principal analyst on russia at the risk analysis company various maple crafts good to have you with us let's talk a little bit about citgo because that's a major earner of course for the country if the u.s. is successful in supporting those attempt to try and take over the management board

of citgo what happens to the money does that mean that wedo will have the power to distribute the oil revenues to the people because he's in a bit of a bind isn't he him selfe one of the issues surrounding that is that we have had quite a bit of russian investment within venezuela. jury english. literary presidencies and so there will be a question as to what claims russia is making what role it's going to play and how receptive all the other players in venezuela are to to moscow claims in that sense i'm glad you mention russia's investments in venezuela more broadly of course russia has an interest in p.d. vs a and in citgo through collateralized debt. how much of a card then does russia have to play in the struggle over the management board of sit naturally of course that you know if the there is

a change of leadership in venezuela and wider takes over what there will be potentially some sort of claim to dismiss a lot of the obligations made under chavez image of madeira as illegitimate or are this sort of thing russia will naturally fight that legally. again the question of which claim will actually add in the end is something that will take a long time to resolve through international institutions but this shows the kind of spoiler role that russia can play in the country at the moment it's only doesn't really have the hath or the resources to save major at the moment or two to really stabilize the situation in venezuela but it has enough of an interest that it can make any sort of transition difficult and that's the card that moscow is probably looking to play over the coming weeks and i guess who plays the spoiler role is a matter of perspective on depending on whose side you're on and seeing which should ministration right now is the gist of it but could the ownership of citgo

ultimately turn into a legal tussle specially if russia feels hey our debts are not being paid back properly of course and you know that something about what why or why we see the limited russian presence in caracas at the moment where we've seen things like wagner's private military contractors on the ground why we're seeing this rhetoric from the kremlin about the sovereignty of venezuela and not wanting to back any sort of regime change and part of that is you do traditional russian foreign policy goals anyway they don't necessarily like to see autocratic countries coming under threat from below but secondly it's a signal to the u.s. into the e.u. and to to other powers that you know that russia does have interests. in venezuela they should be respected or at least compensated for somehow or otherwise moscow can look at these legal options these are their mechanisms for ensuring that even

if there is a transition that it's an extremely difficult one and that they begin presenting obstacles to caracas rather then you know while coming any sort of new administration why does russia loan money to what some regard as risky banks well there's two factors to this part of this is due to the internal politics of the kremlin and the various players within there some of whom might believe that there is some sort of genuine advantage to this but generally speaking it's a way for for russia to present itself as a superpower on the cheap. you know while these loans aren't insignificant in the grand scheme of things they aren't going to buy bankrupt russia if there is some sort of default however by making them and by you know positioning itself as an ally to this country on the other side of the world they can you know keep on some of the superpower trappings of the old soviet days pretend you know it's still

a global power rather than a regional one. and to do so without without risking too much do you read into some of the recent statements by some russian officials about how the two sides in venezuela really have to talk to each other and the signal to all the perhaps rusher is kind of reviewing its stance to make sure it's not putting all of its weight behind one side that might ultimately lose and this goes back to you know there are investments there russia does have interests in venezuela. you know after an initial you know strong backing of madeira or at least. making the rhetorical noises that the russian foreign ministry felt that it had to make now there's a point of like well you know there's no point in sending additional good money at . bad there is no way that we can really save this regime at a cost acceptable to ourselves so it's time to to start getting ourselves. to start

making ourselves a part of the dialogue to make sure that if we see some sort of transition in venezuela that russia has a seat at the table and that's what these investments are about at the present using that leverage to make sure that the kremlin has if not a decisive say then at least some input into what happens next in caracas all right thanks for your analysis darren mcdowell there thank you and finally for the people of ghana want to rising sea temperatures intensify clones and erratic weather patterns are becoming a part of daily life where they're being forced to spend more money not only on protecting themselves but also on keeping their businesses afloat and now the new ones who is considering legal action against big polluters thousands of kilometers away as andrew thomas reports. warming see these mean fewer fish in the waters around than a water so people are building fish farms in la instead it is very frustrating cost

to build one fish farm is around fifteen thousand u.s. dollars there are other costs of climate change here more frequent cyclamens mean big repair bills mitigation in preparation for disasters and rising sea levels also have big costs and while these own contribution to global climate change is small even so it's doing all it can to reduce it further there are a solar farms and coconut plantations oil squeezed from coconuts can fuel generators as a clean way to make electricity one coconut will give you one liter of oil and with what we've got you know it's often now where a for t.v. program for a few coconut powered televisions will make little difference to the global climate vanuatu's government believes the world's big polluters should compensate it for the damage that climate change does here and that if they won't voluntarily through

treaties and agreements and they'll try to force them to through the threats of legal action the government is considering suing big polluting countries and fossil fuel companies we're working with a number of lawyers in different parts of the world who are also looking at our evidence base that we're going to need to prove in court that would be hard suing a company nice to happen in that company's national court giving them the home advantage taking legal action against the country means going to the international court of justice it only considers cases where the country being sued agrees to the case being heard but there is another avenue here that can take and that is to ask for an advisory opinion. and that isn't legally binding but it does set the direction and it gives the world a sense of exactly how the i.c.j. sees the legal issues than

a walters' leaders hope the possibility that country's oil companies might have to pay compensation one day will increase their potential financial liabilities now scaring off investors unless they take action to minimize those risks so those legal action is the threats. would rather settle out of court and that's our show for this week but remember you can get in touch with us via twitter and use the hash tag a j c d c when you do or drop us an e-mail counting the cost of al-jazeera dot net is our address there's more for you online at al-jazeera dot com slash see to see that and take you straight to our page which has individual reports links and entire episodes for you to catch up on. that's it for this edition of counting the cost i'm sammy's a than from the whole team here thanks for joining us news and al-jazeera is next.

in the fur thailand's of home in mesopotamia where the first settlements formed the cradle of civilization iraqi people have depended on the tigris and euphrates for centuries can no longer make a living on rivers blighted by and pollution al-jazeera world reveals how the man made decline of one of history's most famed ancient environments is leaving its people struggling to survive iraq's dying rivers. an army of volunteers has come together to help with the influx of tens of thousands of evacuees. but their retreat to a church shelter has brought new challenges an outbreak of norovirus and other

gastrointestinal problems. smoke from the massive wildfires now blankets much of northern california leading to some of the worst air quality in the world but with more than twelve thousand structures lost in the wildfires concerns remain about long term accommodations jobs and medical care. local officials say there isn't enough housing stock available. on the streets of greece anti immigrant violence is on the rise there or you have to go for a moment dungy and this and this is a plus to some and increasingly migrant farm workers of victims a vicious beatings. is helping the pakistani community to find a voice the stories we don't often hear told by the people who live them undocumented and under attack this is zero on al-jazeera.

venezuela's president valleys the troops as the opposition gets backing from brazil and calls for more protests to demand change. the royal watching al-jazeera live for i had courses in doha also ahead going home to australia thailand frees a refugee footballer who fought extradition to rain the acting u.s. defense secretary visits afghanistan trying to get the taliban and government leaders to talk to each other about ending the war. no backing down. down on iran's missile development defiance on display in tehran for the fortieth anniversary of the islamic revolution.

we begin in venezuela the way it's being revealed that embattled president nicolas maduro has turned to fellow oil producing nations for help the reuters news agency is reporting that maduro to opec asking for 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 recognizing maduro's rival one guy joe as interim president while trade unions have been protesting in support of quiet go ahead of a big rally planned for tuesday the head of the national assembly unilaterally declared himself interim president of venezuela three weeks ago sparking a political crisis brazil is one of his main backers and gliders representative maria teresa had been andria has just been received in brasilia as venezuela's official ambassador today said ball has more now from caracas. and continues to be

one of the strategic and most important asset that the president continues to have until now most families would say that it is what continues to keep him in power and made a deteriorating economic situation where thousands and thousands of people have continue to take to the streets and what's interesting about a military said legion to mother would always not so much to muddle but the former president or chavez who gave the military after a role in venezuela socialist revolution it gave it an ideology the bolivarian ideology is from someone more leave out of that independence hero here in venezuela he also gave them key positions within the government but also of those who are denouncing the caring military it has also benefited from kickbacks corruption among other things so until now we have seen some units rebelling against the government but the forest the leadership of the military continues to remain loyal to the president why they all members of the opposition are getting ready for

massive demonstrations this week they're expected to begin this monday here in cairo ak i said in other parts of the of the country but the big demonstrations are expected to take place on tuesday where the opposition is calling gone to the military to allow aid into the country this is how they're calling it they say that it's in order to help the people that are desperately in need in venezuela with shortages of medicines mostly but also shortages of food so one way though has in a way changed the strategy of the opposition and this is what has changed in the past few months. in other world news america's top diplomat has denied the u.s. is covering up for the murder of saudi journalist. secretary of state my phone palest speaking at the start of a european tour he also said the u.s. would take more action to ensure those responsible for the journalist's killing are held accountable this comes just days after president donald trump miss a deadline to report to the senate on whether the white house believes saudi crown prince mohammed bin solomon ordered the killing meanwhile saudi arabia says it

doesn't know where jamal khashoggi its body is in an interview on u.s. salivation the minister of state for foreign affairs says the kingdom is still investigating there also accuse turkey of not sharing intelligence where is jamal khashoggi body we don't know what do you mean you don't know we don't know they said that the prosecutor is working to try to establish this fact we have asked for evidence from turkey and he asked them several times formally through formal legal channels to provide evidence we are still waiting to receive any evidence they may have football or. be is expected to get a hero's welcome when he lands in his adopted home australia after bahrain dropped its extradition request the twenty five year old was freed from jail in thailand following an international outcry wayne hay has a report from bangkok. after arriving in thailand for his honeymoon eleven weeks

ago hakim al-arabiya is finally able to return to australia his adopted home the longer he spent in prison in bangkok the more concern grew that he could be sent back to bahrain instead the footballer said he'd be tortured or killed if that happens after an international outcry bahrain dropped its extradition request hakim fled bahrain for australia in two thousand and fourteen avoiding a ten year jail sentence for vandalism which he says is politically motivated use of his release was welcomed in australia where he has asylum status as prime minister or employees claim is coming home. or be pleased to see him at home when that or koos despite having travel documents and a thai visa he was arrested when he and his wife landed in bangkok in november there are several unanswered questions about this case particularly surrounding the issuing of that interpol red notice against his name which was requested by bahrain but given that hakim allowed

a beachhead asylum status in australia that notice should never have been granted the red notice was granted on the same day that he received a thai visa raising suspicions about the thai government's involvement the foreign ministry in bangkok said it didn't notify bahrain about the footballer's 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 united nations special envoy to yemen says there is an urgent need to try to access grain stores in the port for data where he says food is at risk of rotting martin griffith says the world food program stores in the city have enough supplies to feed three point seven million people for a month but the food has been inaccessible for more than five months because of the store's front line position. the acting u.s. defense secretary and afghanistan's president have met in kabul patrick shanahan

says it's crucial that afghan government leaders are included in peace talks with the taliban fighters resist that idea because there we got the government as an illegitimate u.s. puppet tony but he has more from of. 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 to assess 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 or number that the u.s. taliban talks 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 that 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 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 they will not get a just peace mystical 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 elections so there is some concern about what's happening and also who is representing the taliban do they speak for everybody. 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. in the wild and rugged areas of eastern afghanistan life is difficult at the best of times now it has become the main battleground against i saw a fight that i saw is not losing these militia know the capability of the men their fighting commander zeitoun knows better than most he was and i saw fighter this is video of him when he was with the armed group he joined for idealistic reasons he says he left when he witnessed the brutality that's middle of the hubble mission um and then i saw was very cruel to everyone they killed people slaughtered them they used bombs they did whatever they could i had to leave his advice three assassination attempts the last a few days ago when the magnet bomb was attached to his car in

a crowded marketplace killing one of his men and badly injuring him the people here are scarred and scared by ice all the group launches regular attacks from mountain hideouts and bloodshed is a constant fear to mohit goals nine sons were killed by eisel one was hacked to death with an axe. i don't have power to take my revenge otherwise i would have hammered him all over his body from head to toe i would keep him for a week and then let him die slowly because that is what he deserves. with the afghan army overstretched in the fight against the taliban militias are the first line of defense in one go home province where some got theirs and i learned that they are tough and not far from here if we leave this area they will come back to destroy this place again but we will fight again until we die then they are back use these militias have only basic arms and equipment they say is insufficient to really fight i still they need more and us air power alone is not enough to destroy

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