former f.b.i. director james comey in any way shape or form get closer to the investigation into michael flynn and also as you. know. next question battlefield washington on al-jazeera. a pilot captured by pakistan is handed over to india after days of escalating tensions between the two nuclear armed countries. hello i'm maryam namazie in london you know with al-jazeera also coming up on the program. a rare show of defiance in algeria as protesters gather outside the presidential headquarters and parliament. north korea promises further negotiations with the u.s.

despite the failure to strike a nuclear deal in vietnam. and russia shows venezuela's vice president of full support hours after vetoing a u.s. led bid at the u.n. calling for fresh elections. an indian pilot captured by pakistan is now being handed back to india and what pakistani prime minister in iran call described as a gesture of peace the crowds have gathered at the atari border between the two countries where. i've been and then tom and was handed back as ahmed said that to release the pilots in order to deescalate tensions after both india and pakistan claim to have downed each other's fighter jets over the disputed kashmir. well let's now speak to sal rahman because he is following

developments for us will certainly get reaction heidi in the pakistani capital islamabad in a moment first though so what are you hearing about the the process of how do we understand that this has this process has now been completed. yes it all intents and purposes it is the pictures that you're seeing on your screen now we think of when command ravi kapoor who's making just one military press conference for the assembled press corps there taking no questions we're waiting to hear exactly what he says but yes the process of handing back when command. has been completed within the last fifteen minutes she would have seen those pictures in the previous news billeted of being slowly march towards the gate of wagga that's the pakistan side of the border to be handed over to indian military personnel of the atari side of the border not process and certainly the

walk only took a few moments and then he single handedly and by himself walked across the border which is approximately ten meters in terms of no man's land towards his countrymen then he was whisked away we assume now he's in the care of the military he will not be in front of the cameras but we do expect him to be transferred directly by plane to the capital new delhi where he'll go on further medical tests which will raise those sales side there's a good side of jonathan as now that you mention a press conference that's taking place at the moment let's just listen in to some of the. corner pakistan a part of this american accord is not what got it out or you got the horn or you're going to. be a political having another. grammar or otherwise marginal one. and being. and he will have a medical checkup and then he will be taken to court. and he was

in fact. little there's a lot of distance between islamabad and the horse saw hence the delay in. order. and this order this only in the little pond the border he has. never. heard you haven't heard right. here. i got one of the communication from pakistan side. by side. right so we're just listening in there to some just getting a flavor of a press conference that's taking place at the moment as we learn more details about i suppose the procedure and the logistics of the pilot being handed back this of

course described as a gesture of good will by pakistani prime minister imran khan and so hell he was we heard just something there about the delay because there was a bit of a delay in the pilot being handed over and this is gesture and there seems to be that it was purely logistical because a the distance in getting the pilot from islamabad to to the one border. yes certainly we were expecting his hand over about six hours ago now the logistics of what that spokesman just punjabi which is the regional language of that area it's interesting that they use that language because it's one that is understood on both sides of the border pajamas a province is split between india and pakistan is an easy language to actually get your message across and yes a logistic. of how or how it could have been that the delay process could have been

a scenario is such that g.c.d. h.q. in islamabad this is right in the center of a very small capital city on the motorway itself is very close to g c h q so they would have cordoned off the motorway let's let's make no bones about this but quite sure why they would be a delay it's a round about one hundred fifty to two hundred kilometer drive from islamabad to lahore and if you have such a high profile v.o.p. dare i say it or prisoner of war you can make sure the motorway is clear certainly on a friday friday to a certain extent the motorways are clear it's a day of rest in pakistan as it's a religious holiday and therefore shouldn't be that difficult to get to the hall whatever the reason there is that delay there has been that delay of nearly six hours in that transfer as we heard that military representative say just a few moments ago in punjabi that is exactly what i said a few moments ago he has been taken into the care of the military he'll now be

taken to a medical facility we assume in new delhi where he will be looked after and then d. briefed there will be no press conference with the commander. in his presence and therefore we only have to go on what the air vice marshal said a few moments ago in his press conference which is you know what we knew you could say was the fact that the pilot that was blown out of the sky. is now safely back on indian territory and in the care of the indian air force thank you very much with all the reaction there from new delhi hell raman let's now speak to kemal hyder who has more on this from islamabad and come on as we're hearing from sal there certainly a sense of both jubilation and relief that the pilot has now been returned to india but really to put this into context it threatened to become the worst security crisis in the region for decades is that risk still there.

well first of all you have to understand the pakistani prime minister imran khan announced that for a joint session of parliament that the indian buyers would be released. but all of even from the openers and members and ron said this was the gesture of peace by the third song. be construed as a weakness now progress on has lived up to its promise by releasing him as a gesture of goodwill for promoting peace and progress on is now waiting to see for a similar gesture from india are. very dangerous right they are to focus on the military and on red alert the air force is on red alert and of course the prime minister and the military also saying today that the fall any eventuality to focus on the military speaker has been speaking to the u.s. you sent gone come on there today also saying that focused on really responded full

force if there is another ideation against progress on so that grace is that your goal was august on had made a move towards. you by releasing the parlor he was brought there was also your dog because of the. fact that he was wearing a blue blazer in a white uniform in which he was shot down many very doubting to focus on each other did he so the message from progress on it's very clear that it wants to deescalate the crisis. nationally move the intense diplomacy had died who tried to deescalate a very dangerous crisis which is still all wall despite focused on older child as you say come all this does to a certain extent put the pressure on india to reciprocate with a similar gesture to try and dampen down those tensions but i suppose the issue the heart of this the main bone of contention is india's

a session that pakistan has allowed on groups to freely and openly continue to operate on its soil what more is pockets on prepared to do to tackle that. well you see that's the perception on the indian side the perception around of pakistan you cited that india is committing atrocities in indian administered kashmir did their reaction an indigenous reaction because of the use of lethal force against civilians generally door india quickly blamed august on for whatever happened then progress on and why save the important thing to understand a deadline of rowlett one of the most militarized zones that there is never to defend mines there are basically a major they have. any movement so what progress on one saying is they're just always going after the four wal-mart owners of responsibility was

put on progress on and getting progress on redoubt in an investigation and also going to india and conducted that surgical strike and richard there's going to undergo before the center goes on yesterday the prime minister are getting as to why the indians didn't send it earlier and so although progress on has had problems with groups that have been working as non-state actors buggiest on stage there isn't really an alternate clampdown on those groups the buggers on the military had launched an offensive against the tribal areas and raised a very militant group so it's an ongoing campaign and you have to understand i go with seventy thousand five hundred so i need to be in jail and get a tax dollars so this country is awake to make bread so that now the dems on both sides raid different thank you very much come on hi dad with all the latest from islamic.

large demonstrations are underway in algeria against president abdelaziz bouteflika plans to run for a fifth term protests have been held in several cities across the country including in the capital algiers demonstrators are demanding the eighty one year old leader who's been in power for twenty years withdraw from elections scheduled for later this month eve baka reports i know they are the biggest demonstrations in algeria in decades this is the country's capital is that demanded the country's ailing president abilities beautifully with drawers of the country's forthcoming presidential election. the student led protests have been growing in recent days ever since the eighty one year old leader issued a statement announcing his intention to run for a fifth term algerian journalists have also joined the growing demonstrations calling for greater press freedom and political reform. buttafuoco was elected

president in one thousand nine hundred ninety nine. but after suffering a debilitating stroke six years ago he's rarely seen in public and hasn't given a speech in years here he is in twenty seventy two frail to cast his ballot without help. demonstrators say it's too late to the. it's widely believed the country is really run by a group of military and civilian elites who fail to find a successor to ensure the continuity of the country's leading party the national liberation front the parties repeatedly said the elections would be free and transparent beautifully kept presided over the end of the bloody algerian war in two thousand and two and a return to international affairs following decades of isolation. but demonstrators say it's time for longest serving head of state to retire from politics leave barca al-jazeera.

north korea's leader kim jong un has received an official welcome in vietnam's capital hanoi a day after nuclear talks with the u.s. president broke down says the u.s. had to walk away over demands it lifts all sanctions on pyongyang but north korea is saying it only asked for partial sanctions relief our diplomatic editor james bays has more now from the summit in hanoi. kim jong un has stayed on in vietnam meeting with the country's president has his isolated nation needs all the friends it can get with the global sanctions now likely to stay in place following the failure of the summit what's happened has been a textbook example of the benefits and the drawbacks of top down face to face diplomacy bringing trump and came together last year in singapore worked they built

a report and moved the world back from the brink of nuclear war. but in hanoi relying on the two leaders to conduct complex negotiations on the issues of north korea's nuclear program and the wide ranging global sanctions wasn't a success the north korean leader took a tough position calling for all the most recent sanctions to be lifted it was a step too far for the u.s. we actually had papers ready to be sad but it just wasn't appropriate i want to do it right i'd much rather do it right and do it fast an expert on the korean peninsula told me why he believes kim pushed hard to get so many sanctions lifted so early in the process for the north koreans they see an opportunity to in the trump presidency to achieve some goals that they really wouldn't expect to achieve with a quote unquote normal president in the white house so for them there is a little bit of urgency and of course sanctions relief is

a relatively urgent matter for north korea as a purely as a matter of economic expediency there have actually been two similar ten years diplomatic process is south korea's diplomacy with the north led the way of the winter olympics almost exactly one year ago and when u.s. diplomacy with north korea faltered at the end of last year it was president moon j. in of south korea who rescued things. minutes off to boarding air force one i'm leaving vietnam the first person president trump phoned was president moon it's clear south korea is now being given the job of cleaning up this mess james. the new york times is reporting u.s. president donald trump ordered his former chief of staff to grant his son in law jarrod cushion a top security clearance back in may a newspaper says john kerry wrote an internal memo confirming the facts are to senior officials in the white house were troubled

by this decision question as clearance was suspended and twenty eighteen former property developer has been tasked with bringing peace to the middle east as part of the trumpet ministration times he has more for us now in washington and i suppose here another example of the president dismissing or overruling the concerns of senior intelligence officials and others around him. right live and concerns since george bush was appointed senior advisor to don't trump about his role in the why does this is a bit of a long running saga he was because he was initially given an interim security clearance because it was taking such a long time to sort out his background checks and question himself didn't help matters by somehow failing to report on his initial security application that he'd met with a bunch of foreign officials including the russian ambassador to the u.s. . someone to get to put that on his initial security clearance application which made this process even longer so he was on this interim security clearance and then

in february of last year the security rules were being tightened up by john kelly the then chief of staff and people were being reviewed given we've been given security clearance on a case by case basis around that time gone from said look this is all up to john kelly he's the man in charge it will be up to him as to whether jarred gets the security clearance and krishna did get top secret security clearance eventually and now we understand that john kerry felt he was altered by donald trump to give her that security clearance and he wrote his concerns in a memo saying that he was he wasn't terribly happy about that that he was being ordered in fact don mcgowan the white house counsel also wrote a memo at the time an internal memo citing all the different concerns that security agencies like the cia had about gerard question of security clearance about giving him security clearance were there all these memos going on behind the scenes and now we have this new york times report that says he was ordered i mean they had concerns despite what donald trump was saying even

a few months ago he doesn't or you're recording them telling new york times journalists had nothing to do with it according to john kelly he was leaned on to give caution about security clearance right and just to be clear about this in terms of how protocol what state she had the president himself has the legal authority to grant this type of plant study. yeah i mean it is whether there's authority it is very rare that it's used but we're told i mean packed out how often do we get an insight into how the security clearances work anyway so we're not entirely sure whether this is happened before how often it's happened but we know in this case certainly there were concerns raised about coercion or this isn't going to terribly good then for question whose authority i mean he's in the middle east right now is touting his his deal of the century but his authority was already weakened because we've had all sorts of reports about how various intercepts of taking place from the intelligence agencies they've heard governments from the u.a.e. china israel mexico or talk about how they would rather looking forward to krishna

becoming a senior advisor in the white house because of all of his business debts his you know his business fund his business dealings were terribly successful and experience in diplomacy how they were looking for to maybe exploiting that there's that famous quote from crown prince mohammed bin sultan of saudi arabia that he has questioned in his court back pocket so this was added to the problems question has been standing his authority as he deals with some of the most intractable issues of foreign policy on behalf of the white house thank you very much from washington all the latest on that story with a tent see thank you she happy now to another story we've been covering closely police say a deadly siege in the somali capital mogadishu has now ended and all the attackers at been killed up to twenty nine people and now feared dead following a suicide bomb attack on a hotel the group al-shabaab says it was responsible for this attack so that speech catherine sawyer who is in nairobi force and this was a drawn out battle which took place in the area catherine how did it reach its

conclusion. it was drawn out and this ended about an hour ago this week and about an hour ago i did speak to journalists who are at the scene all day and they say was two gunmen who were in a building at just sent to the hotel there was targeted last night and they engage in this battle this battles with special forces as they have both been killed now but it was a twenty hour siege as i said. police are now we're being told a sanitising this building's going from room to room to make sure that there are no traps to make sure that people who are trapped in this buildings and also to see whether there anybody has any people who were killed it's very difficult right now to say exactly what the death toll is police have been saying all day that this could rise let me just change your picture marian of where this place is it's on

and it's one of the main roads in mogadishu this is a place with a towels and and offices and at that time of the night and attack happened you'll find a lot of people in the hotels on the terraces as socializing having coffee eating so you can imagine the panic and the chaos when this attack happened also it has been very difficult for rescue operators because it happened at night thoughtlessly and the electricity went off they didn't have enough light or equipment to quickly and effectively get people out but they have been doing the best they can and a very difficult that constance's more than forty people the area who have been a rescue have been injured have been taken to different hospitals in the city all right thank you very much for now catherine sawyer bring us the latest on that story. russia's government says it stands behind venezuelan president nicolas

maduro despite growing international pressure for him to resign as follows talks between russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov and madeira as vice president del c. rodriguez in moscow lavrov said president vladimir putin had expressed support and solidarity from the duo who he referred to as a colleague and friend step vasant has more from moscow. the timing of the visit of doubts he wrote driggers the vice president of venezuela is interesting because it comes only one day after russia lost a resolution of vote basically asking for support of nicolas maduro and his control over international aid this resolution got only four votes in the security council which is quite a dramatic loss but still the foreign minister laffer here in moscow has sat that he stands firm behind nicolas maduro and he says he is against any cynical attempt as he describes it to topple a legally elected government he also says that he knows that the united states is trying to militias really intervene in venezuela and they are basically buy in arms

in the eastern european country to say to be sent there and plant some kind of syria skin area for venezuela as well he says there's not a single country in latin america who's supporting this kind of military action and that russia is basically supporting a peaceful solution for venezuela of course russia has a lot at stake in venezuela not only militarily politically but also economically billions of dollars have been put in the country in recent years especially also in the oil industry who most concrete results for the meat of the meeting today is that the office of european head office of the state oil company of venezuela will be moved to moscow from lisbon because venezuela said we can't get any guarantees in europe anymore to defend or state assets also russia has said that they have sent seven a half tons of medicine and also agricultural products like wheat to venezuela to

support the population there but nothing else concrete has been announced so far the spokesman of president putin basque off has sat there has not been any agreement between google and put into land more money to venezuela and also they have planned a high commission meeting in april to do scarse more agreements between the two countries which basically gets gives russia a few male more weeks to decide and look at the situation in venezuela which is happening very rapidly. the reuters news agency is reporting that european union states have blocked a proposal to blacklist saudi arabia for lax controls on money laundering and financing terrorism for u.s. territories were also on the blacklist prompting lobbying by washington and riyadh to veto the idea the rejection of the proposal won't be formally adopted until at least next week a spokesman for the european commission says e.u. member states were consulted on the list before it was published with regards to

their methodology i think that we explained that at length that it was done in close cooperation with the member states and that member states were consulted for the methodology and on the countries last year the u.s. is offering a one million dollar reward for information about osama bin laden son state department says hundreds of bin laden is emerging as a leader of al qaida it says he could be on the afghan pakistan border in recent years hamza bin laden has released audio and video messages calling for attacks on western targets now saudi arabia has stripped him of his citizenship. news from sudan president tomorrow bashir has stepped down as leader of his ruling party but is staying on as president despite months of demonstrations against his rule but she reportedly made the decision to bow out of party party matter so that he could essentially concentrate on running the country.

thirteen protesters are to go to jail for between six months and five years they've been sentenced under the country's recently imposed state of emergency law earlier this week bashir outlawed public gatherings in a bid to stop the demonstrations. one thousand seven hundred workers at a factory in the state of pennsylvania that makes railway locomotives have gone on strike they're not happy it changes to pay and conditions it's the first major strike in the manufacturing industry since president all truck came to power gabriel is all know has been to meet the striking workers in the city of airy. david plato works the factory floor assembling train locomotives he said third generation from his family who has worked at the plant but today he's out in front of the factory on strike one of more than one thousand seven hundred welders and

machine operators who are fighting to keep their jobs report for america no longer a race to the bottom we're tired of it so we're making a stand right here the general electric plant is now under new ownership web tech a conglomerate that generates eight billion in revenue is the new owner protesting workers picketing and all the entrances to the plant say the new company wants to cut pay for new workers and force overtime something web tech says is standard practice for the industry and that's exactly the problem according to the union boss workers' wages and rights are being stripped every day from country to country location location state to state here in the united states and at some point you know american workers are going to have to take a stand and say we've had enough the last time union members here at this plant in erie one strike was fifty years ago right now this is the biggest strike in the

manufacturing industry anywhere in america in the last three years so for the strike has not gotten the attention of president donald trump this election victory was largely thanks to his popularity in places like erie fueled by campaign promises to protect good paying manufacturing jobs according to a local economist the number of manufacturing jobs in erie have been cut in half in the last decade reflecting the trend in the industry across the united states the trends from technology that affect the labor market with the competitive pressures due to cope with zation that affect the labor market and fortunately those or what . the major reasons why we see lots of disruptions but for david poitier and his factory floor coworkers this is a stand that they won't back down from those they are here for as long as it takes . years whatever it takes for workers determined to protect their jobs

no matter what. erie pennsylvania. or there is more in everything we're covering right here the address is al jazeera dot com you'll find a comment and analysis that takes you behind the headlines as well. a recap of the top stories now in india a pilot captured by pakistan has been handed back to india in what the pakistani prime minister iran described as a gesture of peace when commander thomas plane was downed on the pakistani health side of kashmir on wednesday crowds gathered at the border for hours waiting for this release he will now undergo medical tests almost got a little. while. we are happy to have. in our other headlines large demonstrations are underway in algeria against

president abdelaziz beautifully because plans to run for a fifth term protests have been held in several cities across the country including in the capital algiers demonstrators a demanding the eighty one year old leader who's been in power for twenty years withdraw from elections scheduled for later this month. north korea's leader kim jong un has received an official welcome in vietnam's capital hanoi a day off to nuclear talks with the u.s. president broke down from says the u.s. have to walk away if it demands it lifts all sanctions on pyongyang but north korea is saying it only partial sanctions relief. police say a deadly siege in the somali capital mogadishu has now ended and all the attackers have been killed up to twenty nine people are feared dead following a suicide bomb attack on a hotel the armed group al-shabaab says it was behind the attack. the new york times is reporting u.s. president donald trump ordered his former chief of staff to grant his son in law jack cushion

a top security clearance back in may the newspaper says john kerry rhodes an internal memo confirming fact off to senior officials in the white house were troubled by the decision question as clarence was suspended in two thousand and eighteen the former property developer has been tossed with bringing peace to the middle east as part of the trumpet ministration and russia's government says it stands behind venezuelan president nicolas maduro despite growing international pressure for him to resign follows talks between russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov and the vice president dell c. rodriguez in moscow and president putin had expressed support and solidarity from the duo who he referred to as a colleague and friend. you're up to date with all of our top stories this hour coming up next on al-jazeera but there will be more news after that from doha in about twenty five minutes time stay with us.

since the industrial revolution human sources of polluting gases have been growing . because machines food production construction these and more all contribute to the high concentrations of pollutants in the atmosphere including carbon and other greenhouse gases which are the biggest .