an issue too sensitive for this company official to discuss i guess the pension i'll raise a company so sorry. but he's confident while way will still thrive in other markets so now laid her we'll get the fire level. we hope we can cooperate each other based other countries while away officials had anticipated this move and on thursday the firm issued a statement saying the transactions wouldn't improve safety or security in the united states and would only harm consumers and companies it doesn't bode well for the full 3 trade talks between the 2 countries u.s. firms are present here the mood among one technology representative surprisingly upbeat levy is a very hard to sell us technology in china today because of the trade rules i don't think so in some way it's your sunnies is open for the on the difference of you know the products here and our attorney is the customers who is what i think the.

american. pronounce is one of. the theme of this exhibition is artificial intelligence in china the technology is widely used in surveillance and facial recognition cameras. especially in the far western province of shinji where they monitor track and rate members of a largely muslim group known as the week goes this company manufactures many of those cameras and has been promoting its expertise here but officials didn't want to tell any reason you can't even use the u.s. government has once more targeted one of china's most successful companies leading executives at other technology firms wondering who will be next. now the easter sunday attacks on churches in sri lanka has led to reprisals against . yes the muslim minority community the government introduced

a curfew and now to use maximum force to end the violence burnet smith reforms oh yeah we're going to get out of it an appeal for calm from one of the 9 mosques attacked in a wave of violence across northwestern sri lanka this week. and from these catholic priests a show of solidarity with they told us their 1st visit to a mosque 3 weeks ago on easter sunday suicide bombers targeted churches and hotels in sri lanka killing 253 people. the source said that things like this had happened you know for the church had been digging. ourselves in order to the previous working in these areas become that people don't you can never know. there was certainly groups you know we don't be the more dudes you know and but the gunman months put a stop to these sri lanka's minority muslim population is now living in fear they

break the ramadan fast behind drawn curtains there's no visiting friends and neighbors a curfew empties the streets the mosques usually busy in this muslim holy month a closed. we're not sure what will happen we're hearing reports of attacks in different places and we don't know what to do we don't really trust any government in the marina witnesses described what they called mobs of sinhalese young men smashing up shops in and around 30 towns and villages the businesses in this town are owned by sinhalese people who are mainly buddhist as well as muslims and hama jessamy watched helplessly as bricks rained down on this mosque land there and these people how it blames the government the might but it turned out a military one really we knew this was coming and the government warned there would be atrocities but they wanted this to happen to us the government thought we'd leave these areas so those goons could unleash mayhem. true lanka's prime minister

says the country will be destabilized if sectarianism escalates more than 70 people have been arrested and are in custody facing charges related to this week's violence nightly curfews have been keeping a lid on the violence here and they'll be another want tonight it's wednesday but they're only a short term measure the much greater challenge is repairing the enter community relationships which have been so badly fractured by the easter sunday bomb burn it's an al-jazeera northwest intra lanka where any continued violence could make matters worse for the tourist industry in sri lanka tourist numbers have slammed by 30 percent that could mean one and a half $1000000000.00 less for the country and foreign currency coming in to the indian ocean island nation tourism accounts for 5 percent or $4400000000.00 of the country's gross domestic product it supports about $500000.00 jobs. well joining me

now from hong kong is rich here decided fund manager asia fronting a cattle good to have you with us so we've had mosques and muslim owned shops vandalized or set or set on fire in sri lanka a curfew has been imposed in the north western province could these tensions threaten the country's economy if they persisted and if the government is unable to to quell them. this i think that you know given the scale of the tax are very unexpected very surprising it wasn't the water in 2009 you're not seeing any kind of attacks on the on the scale of the last decade or so the country has been largely peaceful or the past 10 years after the war ended so i think people questions that have that have happened off with attacks i think a one off and i don't know can be sustained going forward in the garment district nor the steps again in order to stabilize the situation the ground and attract the foreign investment back he still owes or you know you know before i must ask our men you know been there before in western going forward as well and these attacks

happened at a time when sri lanka has been reemerging in recent years from a 3 decade long civil war and it's reinvented itself as a top tourist destination is all of that now under threat i mean how bad has this sector been hit by the easter sunday attacks. but i think you know given the scale of the attacks and you know the intensity of the attacks i think the image impact will be quite negative for the tourism sector already i think the authorities are talking about a 30 percent drop in arrivals photo in 2019 and over the past couple of weeks we've already seen some numbers spoken about saying that in order to sort of of the 450 to 60 percent year over year so the near term impact is negative on the sector no doubt but i think if the government going to take steps to stabilize the country and you know bring by the tortoise and the proprietor image of the country safe and stable then i think it isn't going to cover over the longer term for the government has announced a relief package which includes. more more money available and tax incentives.

to to help the tourist industry all these measures enough do you think yeah there are going to bring all that can to an orthopod the industry they've given tax incentive the given low cost loans there's also a moratorium announced on loans for the tourism sector just a couple of days ago so i think they can they're doing what what steps they've taken to stabilize the these tourism sector but i think it's under is it to say there's no room you know to him back in the sector there could be there would be a near them back in the sector but these steps obviously would help stabilize the sector and you know get back on its feet and return to normalcy going forward as well and what about jobs i mean tourism employs around 10 percent. of the country both directly and indirectly how are they going to be affected right i think you know given that there's going to be 20 percent drop in arrivals this year which is expected you're already seeing up quite a bit quite a lot of cancellations over flights as well as what else the last couple of weeks

so there will be a note of impact on the employment for the industry but given some of the steps of the car going to stick in the last couple of weeks the last couple of days i think that you at least provide some cushion the to the industry or to the you know people who are employed in the industry and the last month extended a $1.00 loan for sri lanka. by next year into 2020 but if grows continues to slow are they going to need more money from the i.m.f. right so i think what's already slowed over the last or the last year i think 2018 was the slowest stupid what the country's recorded in the last in quite some time now and so given their tourism sector going to 5 percent of g.d.p. which is about $400000000000.00 of foreign intro's every year and if you note on what 20 percent hit to these $400000000000.00 that's about a one have been dollar hit just on foreign currency so there could be pressure on the foreign currency reserves in the next couple of quarters which graphic balance of payments and because of this i think the government would need to maybe talk to

the i.m.f. or the much directly seize or today as more funds to balance balance the deficit just briefly we're heading into the down season for tourism in sri lanka and then it's back up to the high season in october or november do you think that they can recover by that time yeah i think it's a bit early to say or comment where they're going to go by by you know in the next couple of months given the severity of the attacks and the initial impact being so negative on to survivors but and if you look at historical historically incidents similar to these for example in bali in 2002 as well as egypt in 2015 and 2 survivors a drop quite significantly after these incidents and it took at least 2 you know between 2 to 3 years to recover fully back to you know pretty attack levels. yes i mean the it would recover but i think it'll take some time to go back to you know we. back levels but the government is looking to stay with attrition and bring back to loosen attract them back so awfully not take so long but you know near term

impact is negative and medium term or pretty the students are should recover all right rick you decided to speak to you thank you. now the 1st of all electric jet powered 5 c. to air taxi has taken to the sky a munich based startup has beaten and google's larry page to build and test a commercially viable vehicle lilium hopes to be ferrying people in and around our cities and beyond by 2025 and joining me now from london is daniel we got he is the chief executive of lilian thanks very much for being with us dan you are now there's been many 4 storms when it comes to this form of transport is electric power going to be the spark as it were that makes this a reality absolutely when we set out and built our company really you work on the create a new transportation system for the 21st century and we knew that anything else

that is not electric would not be responsible in this age. well you have some way though from from starting service as we mentioned there 2025 is the is the target year one needs to happen before the general public gets into this so today we have revealed the product prototype and it's taken into the air a few days ago for the 1st time and in the next 3 years we're going to. probably to prepare the production of the aircraft and certify the airplanes so we can actually have a service in place in the year 25 where we can operate in multiple regions of the globe and we can serve our customers but this technology though could probably work better in developing nations countries with poor infrastructure because there could be lots of regulator problems in urban areas of say london and new york actually the technology is equally well suited both for cities like london and new york but

also for developing countries because we're very proud that we were able to design a which we can certify an existing regulation and also operate with pilots like any other airplane or helicopter and that enables us to launch the service basically in any developed city as much as in the developing countries and as 19 other companies that are working to build this type of transform who do you see as your biggest threat. i can't tell you at the moment which of these companies is the strongest one because we don't know exactly of course what they are doing but what we know is that the unique selling proposition of the leader in jet is that because it's a chet act it enables us to fly further and faster than any other concept which we have seen publicly so far how would you see this developing then if this were if this were to become a thing in the future are we going to see sort of flying lanes in the same way that

we see roads and that sort of thing i mean how is all this going to be policed well initially you're going to start like airplanes are flying today with this them small number of am planes and they're going to be controlled by a tower and then later in the future this is going to be a digital aspace management system that gives us a much higher capacity in the space but it's still difference to transportation on the ground in a sense that airplanes would probably not follow a kind of predefined road where you have a chain of poles of app planes sitting behind each other but you will direct fly from one point to the other and reserve these corydoras only in an kind of on demand basis and what about the cost of all this is this something that most people are going to be able to afford yes the biggest thing when we set out and built our company for us was to create a new transportation system that is affordable for everybody and we think we have

achieved this with the technology and the knowledge we have now that we can actually offer these services at a comparable cost to a taxi when we launch and to a comparable cost like you own car when you drive it to work for example once the system is flying autonomous later in the future all right to be fascinating to see how this does develop then you legal thanks very much for being with us thank you and that is our show for this week remember you can get in touch with us by. me and as in c. k. here's the hash tag a j c t c when you do or drops an e-mail counting the cost of al-jazeera thought net is our address is more for you on line as always at edges in a dot com slash c t c taking you straight to a page which has individual chords links and entire episodes for you to catch up on . so that is it for this edition of counting the cost and has a secret for now team here thanks for joining us the news on al-jazeera is next.

in a 2 part series. observes the lives of 2 children. over 20 years. where insights into circumstances that shape lives. in a rapidly changing world. 20 years of me continues with good morning. on al-jazeera. maria driven by poverty into prostitution and drugs as an early age now as a mother she's turning her life around with the help of a theater troupe a group of colombia's women fighting the challenges they face. it was compelling series which showcases fresh filmmaking talent probably around the globe we'll find a lot in america presents acting lessons on al-jazeera.

i mean this was different but there's that one thing for someone that's very red it's better we think it's how you approach a visual and that's what it is a certain way of doing it you can't just inject a story and fly out. it was a. saudi arabia says it wants to avert war in the region it sounds ready to respond after last week's attacks on its own oil assets. hello welcome to al-jazeera live from doha i'm marty that is also coming up a hidden camera saying exposes corruption at the top of austria's government

forcing the chancellor to pull the plug on his coalition. india's marathon election goes into its final days 6 weeks after voting began. cathedral showdown activists claim victory in their battle against russia's powerful also the church. the saudi arabia's minister of state for foreign affairs. says the kingdom does not want a war in the region but will respond if a wrong chooses to engage in conflict the saudi king solomon has called for 2 emergency summits involving goals and arab leaders in mecca or may the 30th to discuss escalating tensions in the gulf the u.s. has deployed an aircraft carrier and bowman's to the region over alleged threats

from iran for commercial ships or sabotage off the coast of the u.a.e. last week and an oil installation west of the saudi capital was attacked by yemen's who the rebels. have moved to saudi arabia does not want war in the region. and is not seeking it and will do its best to have beat it but at the same time if the other party chooses war then we will respond with all strength and determination and will defend itself and its interests the kingdom hopes others to be wise and the iranian regime and its each in such a stay away from recklessness and stupid acts and spirit the region instability in saudi arabia asks the international community to take responsibility to stop that regime from destabilizing the world more now from our correspondent in washington patsy culhane there are reports out of saudi arabia that the saudi crown prince mohammed bin solomon had a phone call with the u.s.

secretary of state mike pompei o from this side the state department will not confirm that a call happened much less what was discussed but we do know we do know the pompei has been making the rounds trying to gauge support for increased tensions on iran and getting pretty much tepid response from everybody so we don't know what they discussed but we do know in the past the discussions that have really proven pivotal in the relationship are those not between the secretary of state and saudi officials but between the president's son in law and senior adviser jared kushner and mohamed bin sol none so waiting to see if there are any reports about what they're discussing this is a president who has said he doesn't want to go to war courting the reports at the same time we're seeing an escalation not only the military moves the unprecedented move to get u.s. personnel out of the baghdad embassy or oil workers are being removed and now we're hearing the federal aviation administration is warning commercial airliners to avoid the gulf for fear of being targeted on accident so obviously the u.s. is sending conflicting messages

a big point is going to come in the coming days because members of congress both republicans from the president's own party and democrats are saying we want to see the intelligence we want to know why we're seeing these increased tensions so they are expecting a briefing and then coming week how they respond it could set the tone for how this moves forward. the austrian chancellor. has called a snap election after his deputy was filmed apparently doing deals with a russian woman the hidden camera saying has brought down the right wing government just days before european parliamentary elections in which the far right hopes to gain ground has more. than a political downfall and a humiliating and political office austria's vice chancellor heinz christian strong have faced the cameras after handing in his resignation but he was adamant that he was the victim in this scandal. the only criminal offense that is present here is

this a huge secret service trap with illegal were caught doing this for some years and then set it off and yes that was a targeted political assassination. i think it's a scandal that's proved to turbulent for the survival of austria's coalition government just hours after accepting stratas resignation the chancellor sebastian cuts announced snap elections. i believe that the new coalition is currently not possible with anyone the freedom party cannot the social democrats do not share the substance of my approach and the small parties are too small to really be able to support us and. this is the video that led to his demise recorded secretly at a villa on the spanish island of a beef just months before the 2017 actions in it another senior member of the freedom party and a woman posing as a russian oligarchs nice wanting to make

a $280000000.00 investment that led to talk of funneling funds from the russian national to the freedom party turned an offer of lucrative austrian government contracts. for the election now 40 elect. paine yes yes. tell me. then you have to translate these are some very wealthy people they paid between 500008 1000000 and a half to 2000000. for the current election. yes however they do not pay to the passy but when nonprofit association you have to explain not to an association. that this is not going to the court of order to. the freedom party issued a statement denying it had accepted any funds but a straw has stood down anger erupted outside chancellor kurtz's office many head

claiming going into coalition with the far right freedom party in the past sunday diagonal al-jazeera. well the german chancellor angela merkel she's referred to the austrian scandal whilst campaigning for the european elections seeking encourage mrs merkel to stand up to what she described as politicians for sale facing a challenge from the right at home in german the mrs merkel also warned of the threat posed by hardline nationalists also the. highest in the us our common values mean we are all proud of our native countries but at the same time we want to build up europe patriotism and the european union are not in opposition to each other nationalism is the enemy of the european project and this is what we have to make clear in these final days before the european election rightwing leaders from across europe meanwhile have been rallying in milan led by israeli's deputy prime

minister. they hope to win enough a 6 week to become the said biggest block in the european parliament. reports you go over the code build up to the. far right groups together in the shadow of milan cathedral square. led by deputy prime minister the populist movements from across europe promoted their shared political vision. he has teamed up with all the nationalist leaders to form the european nations and freedom clean after next week's election it hopes to become the 3rd biggest party in parliament if you vote early the same of those who will vote for the lead on the 26th of may if you help us bring the league from 1st italian party to 1st european party we will get not only the italian orders but the european borders no one enters without permission this is what we ask you to do since up out of. aquarius

look at the. beneath they show of unity lies the divide over the vision of the future i'm on me god. far right groups are split when it comes to managing government budgets and how to redistribute migrants across the regions another is to you is russia's influence on e.u. policy while some nationalists hope to strengthen ties with russia others are suspicious of moscow's intent. despite this opinion polls predicts nationalist parties will win more seats in parliament which could see them play a greater role shaping e.u. policy yes i on the campaign trail in croatia the leader for the european people's party warns that populace are not the solution for europe real papua it's those who believe in their country who are proud about the nation but who are ready to work

together as the rest means strong your opinion i forget oh i mean while another rally this time in poland showing support for the e.u. sorry for his line of it was led by e.u. council president donald tusk poland's former prime minister backing for a year membership is high in poland as 85 percent is among the union's highest but even here the right wing ruling law and justice party is highly critical of the e.u. and the country is deeply divided i. wonder where al-jazeera. the indians of aging in the final phase of national elections ending a 6 week long process more than 100000000 people across 7 states are eligible to vote in sunday's poll that's the scene live for an chandru girl in punjab province

now many of the people voting today include those living in prime minister narendra modi's constituency he is seeking a 2nd 5 year term in that consider c. as our correspondent my colleague said hell rahman who is in better nazi which is in uttar pradesh which of course is india's most populous state and what happens there really has a big impact in terms of the election results. yes it does martine it has a huge impact otoh pradesh sends 80 members of parliament to the lok sabha the indian parliament and over this phased election obviously it's had to go through several stages over the 6 weeks and of course on sunday of the 80 seats that are eligible or available 13 of those constituencies are up for grabs and along with west bengal further to the east which has 42 seats available in general and

today 9 of those constituencies are voting these 2 states together. a large proportion of m.p.'s the very very important are often described as sort of the florida of india in the sense that they're so. politically important when it comes to the makeup of any government and of course while we're seeing many people here environ i see in the incumbent prime minister's constituency coming to vote they've been coming in streams through the morning when the polls open to the polls won't close to 1230 g.m.t. over in west bengal all the campaigning itself ended on thursday evening 24 hours before it should have because there were. as sporadic violence between rival supporters it was suggested that b j p supporters and the trinamool congress led by a month to join the banner g her supporters were at odds with each other the election commission quite concerned about song going violence and they decided to end officially the campaigning on thursday evening so between these 2 states you might say.