right approach to resolving the korean peninsula issue through political dialogue and by meeting each other halfway trump's national security adviser john bolton has a really wants north korea it must be willing to completely give up its nuclear weapons program or it could even tougher sanctions al-jazeera and this us north korea is facing severe food shortages after apparently suffering its worst harvest in more than a decade u.n. figures show production of crops like soybeans and potatoes are down by more than a third last month north korea's government warned it's facing a shortfall of one point four million tons of food this year a country as long struggled to feed its people with nearly half the population needing humanitarian aid. campbell is the executive director of the arms control association and he joins us live from washington d.c. good to have you on with us there are indications that the rebuilding of the site

could have started before the hanoi summit what kind of a message is north korea sending. well it's unclear exactly what kind of message they're trying to send i think most of the people who are commenting on this today are just speculating but i think one thing is clear and that is that the diplomatic process that began a little more than a year ago between donald trump and kim jong un is a fragile diplomatic process we have not seen a great deal of progress since the singapore summit the north korean ballistic missile testing halt and nuclear testing called is temporary and these satellite images on disk or the fact that north korea can reverse those confidence building measures they could resume ballistic missile testing even nuclear testing they are continuing to produce nuclear bomb grade material at their young young facility and so you know we need to make sure that the diplomatic process that did not produce

any results in hanoi gets back on track and what worries me is that there is not yet a schedule or a plan for the next round of talks about how to bridge the differences that were definitely still there in hanoi. that we construction work mean that another launch could be on the cards. well i don't think so because i mean as your report said the so high facility was used in the past for. satellites launching they haven't done that in quite some time this facility most recently has been used for fixed rocket motor tests testing the performance of rocket motors at that site so north korea has already conducted. many flight tests of its long range ballistic missiles i think they know the

engines work the risk is that they conduct additional flight tests and they can do that from other sites other than the site so this may be a signal that the north koreans are sending to remind the united states that they can reverse the steps that they've taken over the last year it may just be that but i think we need to hear directly from the north korean government about what they mean by this and i would i would like to see is i'd like to see the united states not making threats about what will happen if north korea does not behave but i'd like to see the united states and north korea. making plans to meet again to resolve the differences that they had in hanoi and apparently they were actually pretty close to an interim agreement but for some reason we don't know for sure one side or the other. push that aside they may have asked for more than the other was clearly willing to do but it does appear there's a basis for an interim deal that freezes north korea's nuclear program in exchange

for limited sanctions relief which the north koreans desperately want because of their economic situation and this is all happening as north korea is going through a chronic food shortage what do you make of the timing of this and will this be able to sway negotiations any anyway the fact that north korea relies heavily on ain't. well you know north korea has put its people through a great deal of suffering in order to pursue. a nuclear weapons program in defiance of the international community i think kim jong un will be willing to do that again if he needs to but clearly. the leader of north korea wants to open up his country to foreign investment and trade in order to do that he needs sanctions relief and so at hanoi it was very clear that kim jong un was pressing

hard for the removal of sanctions in exchange for steps not complete steps on denuclearization so this food shortage is i think another sign of the economic challenges that face north korea but if necessary i think kim jong un is going to press ahead with his nuclear missile program even if his his country does continue to suffer. executive director of the arms control association it was good to have you on thank you thank you. america's trade deficit has reached a record high it's a blow for president donald trump who has been trying to reduce the gap between the u.s. imports and exports by imposing tariffs on chinese goods let's get more from our white house correspondent kimberly hawken. the report by the u.s. commerce department stands in stark contrast to what president donald trump said just days ago and you saw trade deficits were down last month there was trying to

find out why we're taking a lot of tariff money and it's going right to the bottom line and it has reduced the trade deficit so in reality new data shows the trade gap between the united states and china in particular has widened last year by forty three billion to four hundred and nineteen billion it's a result of an increase in exports from china to the united states well exports of u.s. goods dropped. and the u.s. trade gap overall well it's swelled to a ten year six hundred twenty one billion dollar high their numbers not seen since the global financial crisis of two thousand and eight that means quite simply that the united states imports far more goods and services worldwide that it sells this despite promises made by the u.s. president on the campaign trail in two thousand and sixteen that his policies would

put america first in the global marketplace the u.s. is currently embroiled in a tit for tat trade war with china posing tariffs on more than two hundred fifty billion of chinese goods china hit back with tariffs on a hundred ten billion of us products as the two sides continue to negotiate trump has delayed his threat to impose tariffs on two hundred billion more of chinese imports in the u.s. and in september the white house released this video arguing the tariffs have already had a positive impact we're changing things and we're changing them fast but the commerce department numbers suggest a very different trade reality one the u.s. president seems unwilling to acknowledge kimberly helped at al jazeera washington. and we have plenty more ahead this hour including we'll tell you how weapons supplied by the u.k. and u.s. are killing civilians in yemen. and the comeback kings manchester united are into

the fourth or finals of the champions league after beating p.s.g. joe will have the details. strikes at one of kenya's main airports grounded flights for hours disrupting hundreds of journeys riot police were deployed to protesting workers outside nairobi's jomo kenyatta airport the aviation workers' union is locked in a dispute with kenyan air race over contracts and job security catherine so it has to details. it's meet morning at one of africa's busiest airports one thousand workers at the rupee's job working at international airport are on strike impacting operations they're protesting against a planned to the national airline kenya airways and kenya airports authority

a state agency which manages the airport they say the deal is shrouded in secrecy they're afraid they might lose their jobs and want clarity police used tear gas to disperse them and arrested some of their leaders. then came to this hotel to regroup and strategize they told us they will not retreat until they get the answers for a strike. action. hundreds of passengers are stranded kenya air force personnel have been deployed to help with security issues the airport handles roughly two hundred flights a day and thousands of people transit through daily several flights have been canceled passengers have been taken to different hotels but many are still waiting for any word about their flights some of being told to go and check in but it's likely going to be

a very long wait for them as well many are frustrated not sure when they'll get to their destinations. exhausted as. it is not. so much really due to the two pm so if you're not. going to be delays up of all three. so long as i would take it that i get no connections in. kenya airways has been losing money for years and aviation analysts say taking over an airport that brings in our revenue of more than one hundred million dollars a year will keep the airline afloat some people believe politics is at play with accusations powerful individuals with a huge stake in kenya. always wanted to control the airport a parliamentary committee is investigating this the minister in charge of transport says the protestants have no valid reason to stay away from walk you do not interfere with the city. especially when you have no basis for complains

when your job is no. nobody has given you a for it that your job you'll be at risk and. the government is under pressure to resolve the crisis a long strike and uncertainty means millions of dollars in losses the wakas says they're ready to talk but listen to the truth about the controversial marja catchy song al-jazeera nairobi. the u.s. congress has held a confirmation hearing for donald trump's pick for his new ambassador to saudi arabia general john abizaid faced tough questions about her how he sees the saudi u.s. alliance is domination comes at a time when the reactors under global scrutiny for journalist jamal khashoggi murder and its involvement in the war in yemen sheer brutality as this report from washington. sectarian violence the u.s. hasn't had a saudi ambassador since donald trump took office and retired general john abizaid

acknowledged that if congress confirms him for the position he was soon to drop out a difficult time this is not to say that i am unaware of the challenges facing the u.s. saudi partnership today war in yemen the senseless killing of jamal to show wrists and the gulf alliance alleged abuses of innocent people to include an american citizen and female activists all present immediate challenges that american citizen is one lead fatah he who was arrested in november of twenty seventeen in a roundup of influential figures in the kingdom the late washington post columnist jamal khashoggi drew attention to his disappearance as part of his wider critique of developments in saudi arabia and in october of last year was murdered at the saudi consulate in istanbul the resolution is agreed to since then congress has questioned the us saudi relationship as never before passing several resolutions condemning the crown prince mohammed bin salman and calling for the end of u.s. support for the saudi led bombardment of yemen some of gone from his main political

allies have been at the forefront of the criticism and they were unsparing in their attacks against the crown prince of wednesday's hearing this guy's making it harder he's gone for gangster and it's difficult to work with a guy like that no matter how important the relationship is abizaid said the u.s. needed to look beyond the crown prince in order to safeguard the lines but undercuts what he called sunni extremism and iran our relationship with saudi arabia is bigger than a relationship just with the crown prince it's all about a nation it's about a government it's about a king it's about the oil then asserts about many many nodes of people that are interested in moving the kingdom forward in a better way in the twenty first century is that is expected to be easily confirmed as the next u.s. ambassador to saudi arabia she ever towns the al-jazeera washington much like as far as prime minister says his naval forces could. take action against iran suspected oil smuggling he called on the international community to hold to any efforts by iran to evade u.s.

sanctions and he's accused iran of shipping fuel in secret u.s. president donald trump last year pulled out of the iran nuclear deal and we imposed some sanctions there was no immediate response from tehran it religious school run by the arm group mohammad in northeastern pakistan appears to be intact and days off to india said it destroyed the compound in an air raid that's according to satellite pictures from a private u.s. company reviewed by reuters news agency the indian government said its air strikes hit all intended targets and killed a large number of fighters pakistan has maintained the bombs hit a forested area and did not cost any casualties. is a former indian army colonel and a columnist and strategic affairs and he says the strikes may have achieved their purpose even if they didn't hit their targets. there is there are really two dimensions to what we are talking about here one was india's demonstration of

intent to abandon strategic restraint and strike back whenever there's a terrorist attack on on its soil on and on the security forces where a large number of people have been killed now that aspect which was the demonstration of intent that has been demonstrated whether or not the targets were hit or whether the bombs missed by on hundred meters two hundred or two hundred fifty the second thing other than intent to skip ability can you actually strike your targets and that's where a question mark has now come in as a result of these these particular satellite photographs so intent is their capability still a question mark in the final balance when you take a step back and look at it from the strategic point of view it really doesn't matter where you hit the targets are not because there is no clarity yet on whether the government was actually trying to hit that madrassa over as merely demonstrating intent by placing the bombs one hundred or two hundred meters away

from that these are questions that will keep getting discussed both in pakistan and in india and that's how the government of india wants it when you're making a strategic statement it doesn't always have to be absolutely clear what you're doing you know as long as you can create the doubt in the minds of the adversary you're achieving your strategic intent. living in fear of. women traffic area struggle to return. accused of a cover up a catholic cardinal and france faces a verdict in a major abuse scandal. and you remember this crash. the eighteen year old driver who. is back on track we'll get more from her.

hello there for some of us in the u.s. it's been pretty wet to recently for take a look at the satellite picture we can see this huge area of cloud his covering many of us along that western coast and working its way up towards canada as well not only is it brought us some rain but also lots of rather lively lightning as well pretty impressive to look at but it is causing a few problems and the whole system is just rumbling its way eastwards as we head through the next couple of days elsewhere in the temperatures have been well below average recently but they're not quite as low now we all see more in the way of cloud and wintry weather just make its way eastwards and to the south of that is generally turning far milder now to the south we're seeing a few showers here particularly over parts of cuba jamaica through haiti and into the dominican republic and this area again he's looking fairly calm settled on

friday expects more showers here and talking of showers there's plenty of them over parts of south america at the moment they stretch from the northeastern parts of brazil around four to laser all the way down towards rio now rio has been pretty wet recently but those showers are just edging a little bit further towards the south so they could be more breaks developing in those showers as we head through thursday and friday but as we had three thursday and friday for argentina things are going to get worse we're looking at very heavy thundery downpours on friday. the ultranationalist marks connected with one of the world's poorest humanitarian crises we doe as have any migrants joining with the military to impose a deadly political agenda you have to protect our nation what has happened to the region that's one of the biggest stains on the country as a whole. this is not religion this is

a politics me and my an unholy alliance coming soon on al jazeera. a hundred and sixty is the. station stuff to the band in and treat. the brass band was so popular it gave to an entire music genre. a century and a hall the sound still resonates with many egyptians today house of the people's music on al-jazeera.

watching al-jazeera and here are a mind of our top stories when israel has expelled the german ambassador after he welcomed opposition leader. on monday. has been accused of meddling in a bit as well as internal affairs and he's been given forty eight hours to germany says europe support on the wavering. the u.s. president has responded to reports that north korea's restoring a rocket launch site. last year says he'll be disappointed if the reports prove to be true. and america's trade deficit a record high it's increased despite the trumpet ministrations attempts to reduce the gap by imposing tariffs on chinese goods. so a court will deliver its verdict on thursday in a major child sex abuse scandal and francis catholic church they archbishop of the

southern city of leon cardinal philly barbera is accused of covering up for a paedophile priest tasha butler has the story from early on. his trial in january french cardinal philip told the court in leon that he had never covered up the sexual abuse of boys by a catholic priest the cardinals accused of failing to report bernard pray now to authorities over allegations he abused boys from the one nine hundred seventy s. to the one nine hundred ninety s. as a child falls for divorce was one of the priests victims now he campaigns for justice he said aloud pray not to work with children until his retirement in twenty fifteen . or against children. was on a massive scale that cardinal barbour let him continue to work in a position of moral and spiritual authority unacceptable. the case was shaken from

his catholic church and inspired a film that won the top prize of the berlin film festival by the grace of god follows the alleged victim's story. until. just a tree an act of somebody. it was in this parish in leo that at least seventy men say the painter abused them as children some reason young a seven years old burn a brain at is now awaiting trial his alleged victims say that many people in the catholic church community knew about the abuse from some of the parishioners here to parents to the highest clerics in france like cardle but they say that the urge to protect the church is reputation was stronger than the urge to protect young children. this writer grew up in pain as parish and isn't fist against his his case she says baba has trial reflects the way the catholic church around the world has failed to deal with abuse reporting only problem with the church into recently was

there was a fear of public scandal cardinals would say it was best to sort out problems internally but that's not right you sort out problems with the justice system and in full transparency the cardinal faces up to three years in prison if found guilty the public prosecutors recommended no conviction because many of the accusations is so old the statute of limitations has run out false or devil says that whatever the verdict the troll has sent a powerful message to the church hierarchy in france that the culture of silence on child abuse can no longer be tolerated natasha butler al-jazeera frauds. now weapons and bombs created by the u.k. and us are responsible for the deaths of nearly one thousand civilian casualties in yemen that's according to a joint report by a yemen and us human rights group report as part calls for both countries to halt arms sales the u.s. and u.k.

have provided a military assistance to saudi arabia and the u.a.e. both using their weapons during a four year conflict in yemen run it is a spokeswoman with the university network for human rights that's the group that's released this report today and she joins us now from middleton and connecticut. good to speak to thank you very much for coming on the program firstly can you outline how you made that connection or the link between the u.s. u.k. weapons and those civilian deaths in your report. yes so mark watts enough for human rights is a yemeni human rights organization with a staff of about seventy field researchers who go on site to the sites of apparently unlawful saudi u.a.e. led coalition air strikes and or interview scores of witnesses in the aftermath of these attacks and collect any weapons from that i think find what wants and then

commissioned a weapons an arms expert to analyze the weapons residents collect as in all the cases where and weapons from that identification could be made with sufficient accuracy those reports with those incidents were all collected and compiled into this report that we've now released. yesterday. which documents twenty seven apparently a lawful saudi u.a.e. led coalition air strikes since the beginning of the conflict four years ago in which u.k. or u.s. weapons were identified and twenty five of the twenty seven cases u.s. weapons were identified and cry that the cases u.k. weapons were identified that adds up to thirty there's an overlap of three cases in which. what ins remnants with components that were made both in the u.s. and that you get were identified that why are the u.k. and the u.s.

continuing to provide weapons or supply weapons in this war and what are your report's recommendations. so our recommendations are you know first of all it's to be honest beyond us as to why this arms trade relationship with these with saudi arabia the u.a.e. and other coalition countries is continuing when both when both countries the u.s. and the u.k. are certainly been on notice there have been multiple before that apparently unlawful air strikes since two thousand and fifteen both countries are on notice that weapons transfers to these countries. for specific types of weapons are likely to be used unlawfully in violation of international humanitarian law so it's beyond us why this is continuing and we're now four years and tens of thousands of civilians dead civilians later and these are relationships are and arms transfers

are continuing now what we what we are calling for is for the u.s. for the u.k. and all remaining european states that continue to transfer arms eurabia the u.a.e. and other coalition countries to hold arms sales as well as all other forms of assistance military or otherwise to the south the u.a.e. the coalition said likely use of yemen and does it look like the u.s. congress is taking some steps toward rectifying this doesn't look like there is going to be any kind of resolution with regard to providing weapons. there is reason for optimism. the that the house of representatives historically voted to resend the u.s. military support for the coalition's activities in yemen a couple of weeks ago now the senate is poised to do the same today the chairperson of more watts in africa human rights right. i testified before the house committee

on foreign relations and sort of broke down for the committee why it's it is of the utmost importance that the senate not follow suit and withdraw. u.s. military support for the for the ongoing activities in yemen at the coalition and why that is an absolutely necessary condition for any kind of believe the action of the humanitarian catastrophe that we see on the ground there's a lot of purported concern on the u.s. side about the humanitarian catastrophe in yemen however that is not something that can be solved through a band-aid solution instead of throwing humanitarian aid or money much of which is obstructed by the parties to the conflict anyway. a solution to the root cause is needed and that is the ongoing conflict that has devastated. the country of yemen and the first step to doing that for the u.s. is withdrawing support military and otherwise for the saudi arabia the u.a.e.

and other coalition countries bruhaha got thank you for your and flights thanks for having me. that ledge areas attempting to bring home thousands of girls trafficked into the sex trade in mali these girls are being held in appalling conditions and officials say collusion between law enforcement agents out of the traffickers this hampering rescue efforts indra's has this report from a call you in a western mali. here in cocoa the visual until he is lord. despite the presence of mali in soldiers the armed men arrived in huge numbers. they made it clear the nigerians trying to rescue their citizens trapped in the sex trade on to welcome here eventually the delegation had to leave activists have been walking with the girls say they face such threats every time they get their guesses are working in a situation where there are

a lot of beneficiaries in the crime is very very difficult to eradicate it the people who think that you cannot have to rescue these guys they are benefiting every week from them on the outskirts of town the team is able to meet some of the course only one of them agreed to go back all the rest are too afraid of the traffickers and too ashamed to face their peers and relations we can't force them to go back but those who are ready willing to go back to major remembers the we're working with them closely we're working with i.o.m. closely they're going to come together and to go back home while some of the girls have paid of the traffickers many are still trapped teenage girls are less likely to be left off even after paying an agreed of two thousand dollars. thousands of the victims here in mali are kept in makeshift structures like this they say be forced to sleep with as many as ten men in a day some of them as young as fourteen were practically yanked off the streets of

nigeria in their school uniforms those who got away i don't the very you know for those lucky enough to escape at this safe house in the capital bamako a group of thirty women and goes wait for their reply creation who would use filters through that some of them will be leaving in a matter of hours there was jubilation. but eighteen year old faith isn't among the ones leaving she's eight months pregnant and she has a lot of regrets she's left home without telling anyone she's now drawn between her newly found freedom and how she will be received on arrival in nigeria. even they're well quadrillion i remember that from my. uncle. this sixteen year old teenager and thousands of others like her came to bali through but new republic traffic a promised a new life with

a well paid job the place where. they were safe if i'm out on bond he said i will give and. let you know to whom. i shall wish nothing that's. also national to any board so armchair of. the goals of the mining areas another brothels of mali say they were registered by law enforcement on arrival they also appear weekly do store for jews was only problem with prostitution is when it involves bias at least under-age badly and. as an argentine delegation found out reproach creating an estimated twenty thousand trafficked minus and young adults is complex and the girls and young women trapped in the sex trade here may have a long wait before they are reunited with their families i bet you greece al-jazeera. western mali there as president donald trump's

controversial border policies were in the firing line for the house of democrats on wednesday they did question trump's top immigration office official about the president's decision to declare an national emergency at the mexican border. has more on this yet we're all to the american people your oath to the president of the united states there was little love lost between donald trump's homeland security secretary kiersten nielson and the house democrats now controlling the committee that oversees her agency let me tell you ma'am secretary either you're lying to this committee or you don't know what's happening at the border nielson defended trumps national emergency declaration to build a border wall citing a surge in unauthorized crossings more than seventy six thousand people mostly families from central america were apprehended at the southern border in february.