of it live and further west in the aleppo countryside nowhere is safe out there. people are living in fear children who were playing in the street when they were martyred there is no rebel position or headquarters here on the top you can see the civil defense workers are trying to move to a woman under the rubble and hospitals are being destroyed and humanitarian services have been suspended the united nations has denounced powers for doing nothing to stop the attacks it is warning of a catastrophe i don't. want. no life. i want. everybody. to know. it is under the control of these sham which many in the international community

believe is still linked to al qaida the syrian government and its allies say they are fighting terrorists but the province is home to more than 3000000000 syrians hundreds of thousands have been forced to leave their homes and this rebel held territory on the southern edges of its lip but if this becomes a full scale battle for the entire opposition told me to divorce west that crisis will get a lot worse sen beirut. and algeria human rights activists has died in detention while on hunger strike as he awaited trial camilla dine for cars a lawyer is describing his death as premeditated murder at the hands of the judiciary for her was jailed in march accused of causing ethnic tensions between arabs and berber communities despite the resignation of longtime president abdel aziz beautifully again algerians are continuing to demand the resignation of everyone associated with his regime. saudi arabia is being accused of targeting a prominent critic and britain using israeli spy ware donald a sorry as

a popular satirist who regularly criticizes the saudi royal family chela palace reports. i ask them why they call my eyes jobless our outspoken and into taining don imelda saudi broadcasts assess i own you tube his videos have been viewed hundreds of millions of times it's sad that. the saudi satirist often targets his country's royal family but his comedy has pushed him and it's cross he is bad. he's lived in the u.k. for 16 years in self-imposed exile and has been under police protection since the murder of journalist jim. now his lawyers have told the saudi embassy in london they're bringing legal action for hacking his phone this is not an isolated case i think and recent weeks we have heard some new.

phones and spying on our this is. the united states canada. europe. most recently in norway and it seems to be a pattern the spyware was developed by israeli side any sort of group whose products have been linked to the targeting of activists and journalists around the world i missed the international filed a lawsuit earlier this month asking israel's ministry of defense to ban the export of any sos pegasus software which can convert lead take control of a mobile phone copy its das or turn on its microphone for surveillance amnesty says one of its staff was spied on that way it knows of $24.00 other human rights activists including the shock g. who also targeted what sepp says it was hacked by the spy ware in may. any sort of stock in an israel and is supported by european private equity firm no philippine

capital it is revenues of $250000000.00 and he says we have supports the national security priorities of israel the united states and europe adding we probably take a pioneering approach that suits an industry standard for the cool business not much so that is denied that it spyware has been used against civilians out of saudi suv he's not to tos to continue his public bashing for freedom of speech shelob ellis 0. israeli government has reduced causes fishing area 3 days after allowing palestinian boats to venture further out to sea and selling military says it's responding to incendiary balloons flown towards israel by palestinians the fishing area was extended as part of an egyptian and country brokered cease fire between palestinian factions and israel following the recent cross border bombardment. i'd also buys or question or as headed to jordan to gain support for the u.s.

plan on the future of palestine and israel son in law that the king of morocco in robot on tuesday and is due in israel later this week easter to present the economic part of the plan at a conference and bahrain next month the palestinians are urging an arab boycott of that conference which they view as a platform to sell out their rights and manned mars soldiers employed catered in atrocities against her henschel muslims 2 years ago are being accused of committing more war crimes recently amnesty international says rebel groups and rakhine state are under attack by the b.m.r. army's western command soldiers from the same units or suspected of genocide as 3 quarters of a 1000000 mainly minority fled to bangladesh in 2017 fighting has forced another 30000 people to leave this year. 737 max aircraft may not return to service until august the international air transport association says the final decision will be made by regulators the 737 max was grounded and march after 2

crashes that involve the plane's software. teachers in new zealand have stage what they called a mega strike to demand pay rises and better working conditions around 50000 walked out of one of the country's largest ever industrial action and they say large class sizes low wages and staff burnout are to blame for critical shortages in classrooms talks with the government has stalled over what teachers say is chronic underfunding. and kenya patients needing hospital treatment often do not get there by ambulance but on 2 wheels and the latest in our series on 1st responders kathryn saw reports from were wrong go where motorbikes are often the quickest way to get help and rural areas. in the town of moore on this lands has got to call the service is run by a local nonprofit organization that operates in remote villages across the country

today the team starts off i join you know why removes home she's 6 months pregnant with her 2nd child and she's getting an ultrasound scan for the fust time. i'm happy to see my baby it's alive healthy and so playful next door several mothers have brought their children to get tested for pneumonia it's easy to treat but about 10000 kenyan children die every year mainly because they're taken to hospital late. the rainy season is approaching and how fleck is here taking no chances. the closest hospitals are private and too expensive for many here when we find sick children would take them to the main government hospital in good time so it can help save lives. kenya has more than 600 ambulances that's a big improvement from a decade ago when there were only 70. still they fall short of the 1000 that the

world health organization recommends for country like this with a population of about 50000000. mainly in auburn areas like the capital nairobi have a poorly coordinated imagines response and most dot com chip what we why intending to do was to ensure that visit created a fund for all my d.s. in medical care as we speak they student know what you measure and somebody has to save more than 50 maybe less contacts of ambulances to be sure that he has enough which could be minimized by just having a single number in my d.n.c. . in morong there are only 3 government ambulances and a few private ones for close to a 1000000 people. and for many like thomas guba who needs argent medical help this service is a lifeline. i know. you hate you more. than you and you.

are so thomas stealth is that he's not feeling too well and now he's being taken to a government hospital that he's not too far away from here but he says that he is not strong enough to go to hospital by himself. he gets to the health center in good time and is now recovering well he is lucky many other patients in more remote villages don't have a service like they still help them catherine saw al-jazeera central kenya. this is al jazeera let's take a look at the headlines right now sudan is into its 2nd day of a nationwide strike or translators call for the walkout to pressure the transitional military council to hand over power to a civilian run administration transport hospital what tricity and banking staff all stopped work on tuesday. pro serbian demonstrators have taken to the streets to

campaign against arrests and more than kosovo or testers are angry about police raids on the semi autonomous region largely populated by ethnic serbs thousands of people were arrested in an anti smuggling operation serbia says the move was designed to intimidate and has put its troops on high alert and jarius president mohammed to the hari is being inaugurated for a 2nd term in office the 75 year old former army general won a closely fought election in february he campaigned on promises to revive the economy and corruption and defeat boko haram fighters in the north east its national security advisor says he is quote almost certain that iranian naval mines damaged oil tankers off the coast of united arab emirates earlier this month john bolton also says there's been a failed attack against a saudi oil shipping port and the city of jambu be his current visit right now he said it comes amid escalating tensions between washington and tehran more from same bus robbi now what we're seeing in terms of this attack on the u.a.e.

port the allegations of an attack that the united states says was carried out by iran iran has said that that was possibly a false flag operation carried out by the united states or israel also providing no evidence for this so certainly they are on opposite sides of a story that both countries leaders are trying to control and to that end in the last few weeks what iran has been doing is pushing the diplomacy narrative they've been trying to reach out to go forward neighbors they've said that their arms are wide open and they're willing to sign a non-aggression pact there's a government has reduced gaza's fishing area 3 days after allowing palestinian boats to venture further out to sea a similar military says it's responding to incendiary balloons flown towards israel by palestinians the fishing area was extended as part of an egyptian and cotchery brokered cease fire between palestinian factions and israel so the headlines keep

it on al-jazeera more news to come inside stories that next. what's the price of peace keeping united nations is running out of money to pay for the blue helmets who operate in more than a dozen of the world's conflict zones so who should foot the bill to protect the world's vulnerable this is inside story. hello everyone i'm come all santamaria welcome to inside story they keep the pace

but what cost as the united nations marks the international day of un peacekeepers we're looking at the dow so the vital role peacekeepers play but also perhaps the flaws in their mandate and the shortfalls in funding that make their jobs that much harder it's what started with the basics of exactly what a u.n. peacekeeper is you might know them as the blue helmets for obvious reasons but it's not some sort of u.n. army as such peacekeepers are actually provided by member states with most coming from africa it has to be said and they are deployed on missions authorized by the security council and they follow 3 basic principles that they are deployed with the consent of the main parties in the conflict that they are impartial and that they only use force as a last resort and this is where they are around the world as of april last year in fact 14 active operations 7 in african countries the rest in the middle east india pakistan plus cyprus cost of 0 and 80 those operations served by around 88000

peacekeepers and nearly 13000 severe. it's from $122.00 different countries but the un's budget for peacekeeping it's just $6700000000.00 which is less than half of one percent of global military spending the us pays almost 30 percent of the bill china and japan in the next biggest contributors with 20 percent between them and there is the problem the un is now short on cash to fund its peacekeeping and some missions are now threatened so what can be done is that simply just a need for more money and fast discussion in a moment after this report from al-jazeera is diplomatic editor james bass. the un is holding its annual events honoring the work of its peacekeepers around the world they serving some of the most volatile places on earth last year 98 were killed while on chichi increasingly they also operate in a very difficult financial environment funds

a tight with some budgets being cut or peacekeepers need better training and better equipment and their men to be realistic and adequately support these with both resources and political will for many years un peacekeeping has been based on a grand bargain western countries the e.u. and the u.s. providing specialized equipment and troops and the vast bulk of the money while most of the troops come from asia and africa. but the system is breaking down many countries but most notably the us are not paying their share un peacekeeping is owed a staggering sum over $1900000000.00 the countries providing the peacekeepers countries like pakistan which has over $5000.00 men and women serving around the world are the ones currently having to pay most of the costs so here we are $2.00

contribution countries making sacrifices losing lives in order to maintain international peace and security and facing budgetary challenges so i think we need to fix this it needs to be fixed because this removes the most successful enterprise of the united nations and it should be adequately resourced the u.s. owes way more than any other country to un peacekeeping that's been the case for many years but under president trump the size of the arrears has swelled to over $1100000000.00 a former obama administration official says it would make real sense to pay up now it's a little confusing. the united states side the u.s. cares about peacekeeping we see it in our interest u.s. is a larger training training country for peacekeeping missions and our diplomats work worldwide to help them succeed because we see the value of these missions so some of this can and should be sorted out with congress so they fully fund the amount

that the u.s. owes and we can resolve this shortfall the u.n. secretary general knows he must tread carefully president trump doesn't take kindly to demands for huge sums from international organizations even though in this case it's money that everyone agrees the u.s. is james al-jazeera of the united nations. all right let's bring in our panel today to discuss u.n. peacekeepers we are starting in denver in the united states with mark goldberg he's the editor of un dispatch a u.n. and global affairs news website on skype from florence. the former african union commission official now a specialist on peace and security in africa and running up the panel from kiel in the u.k. it is our will arlo senior lecturer in law at kiel university and a specialist on human rights international law gentleman lovely to have all 3 of you with us as we look at marking international peacekeepers day mark goldberg i'll

start with you and i feel we should really before we get into any of the controversies look at the importance of peacekeepers there are 14 missions in place all over the world if they were not in place tell us about the sort of vacuum that that might leave. sure so as you noted there are 14 peacekeeping missions around the world deploying about $100000.00 peacekeepers by and large these peacekeepers are deployed to places that if they weren't there there would be a security vacuum and conflict that they are there to keep a damper on would fester and would result in all sorts of human rights abuses around the world you know in different places peacekeepers serve different functions in south sudan for example as that country descended into a really brutal civil war a few years ago people from surrounding peacekeeping bases flocked to un peacekeeping compounds to seek protection so that was a very direct civilian protection mandate that those peacekeepers were acting

against and there are several different examples like that around the world in which if those peacekeepers weren't there a vacuum a security vacuum is what international relations scholar call it would form and conflict would just metastasized perhaps spread to other countries so there there really as a lid to keep. the conflict in check i'm interested in some of the specifics as i did some research on those individual 14. missions now for example the one in india pakistan kashmir which was established way back in $199117.00 personnel dead now so i would be interested to know what you think about sort of the importance of that but then something like kosovo you've still got 5000 people there 20 years after the war how important is it to keep 5000 largely troops there i should add uniformed peacekeepers there in a place like kosovo sure so there are several legacy u.n.

peacekeeping missions which i call them which were set up you know decades and decades and decades ago that are there for 2 main reasons 1st the presence of international troops still decades later acts as a deterrent for for. foreign governments for the parties to overrun and capture the territory and you see that also in that to a certain extent in the golan and in the sinai where there are still a small number of international peacekeepers kosovo is a little bit of a different story it's still. it's a middle aged peacekeeping mission let's say but it exists there much like the missions in kashmir exist because there are still lacks a political will to bring the conflict to a resolve and these peacekeepers their main function is to give international diplomats and politicians the breathing room they need to bring that political will to the table to finally resolve a conflict unfortunately in

a case like india pakistan and that political will you know decades and decades and decades later is still not there but you've seen other examples for example liberia is a good good one in which you know 15000 peacekeepers were deployed there 15 years ago this year they left because they were able to give that country and the political factions in that country the breathing space they needed to come together and let the conditions for peace take hold. to that a motor in florence let's bring you in as i pointed out out of the 14 missions that there are active around the world 7 of them are in african countries i'll ask a similar question to you specifically on africa just how important are the peacekeeping to overall peace and security in many parts of africa thank you come on i think. mark was on the spot when he say. we have to use counterfactual. assessments usefulness of peacekeeping

mission to syngenta. to meet lee. the fundamental question is why do we need peacekeeping and. the the answer is because. look and national political systems that are broken and they have to be fixed and the fixing is done by the national and regional and all tossed them time local political locked up peacekeeping in general provide this the environment for these activists to bring some balance of systems to be restored. unfortunately many of the peacekeeping that kind offer a sort of normalcy is not possible because not enough money latika legitimacy and will spend on bringing scholarship so the

counterfactual is actually peacekeeping. missions have contributed significantly in reducing does and all saw fight as a. scholarship of conflicts and devise stations in national systems to local areas and so on and so on or between countries a sim time this is at this juncture we have to look at that they are fulfilling the kind of function they are supposed to to perform and here. the kids of kashmir are kosovo. the congo or les bierria the main issue that comes to mind is the idea that peacekeeping backup generator that's like. they don't have to stay a long time because you cannot try and see stems on backup generator that they are

supposed to be for short time to kick in the main source of. legitimacy and political process in some cases unfortunately that's not the case ok so let's bring in our low and get his thoughts as well as has made a very good point there we shouldn't well ultimately you don't want peacekeepers there you don't want to have to keep the peace but by the same token it's hard to imagine a place like let's say darfur or south sudan or central african republic without these peacekeeping forces at the moment what in your opinion might be going wrong but they have to keep them there for so long so in most cases peacekeepers are deployed in one of the most stable. or in some cases failed states where government institutions state structures are simply not there to provide the kind of peace and safety that vulnerable populations need and also.