now that clearly is not going to happen australia's prime minister says the country has been targeted by a sophisticated cyber attack that scott morrison stopped short of saying who is behind it it is hitting all levels of government essential services and critical infrastructure u.s. secretary of state michael impale has accused former national security adviser john bolton of being a traitor is reacting to bolton's new book says charm try to enlist foreign leaders to win reelection and the u.s. president has suffered a setback after the supreme court blocked his plans to end a program that protects immigrant children known as dream is from deportation the move gives young people in the country illegally a temporary way in and the nigerian military says it's killed several high ranking book coram leaders in a series of airstrikes on a village in the northeast of the country the settlement was reportedly being used as a training ground for fighters. those are the headlines on al-jazeera coming out next year it's 101 east say at this. tree of tensions could

cause global economic growth point $700000000000.00 we bring you the stories and developments that are rapidly changing the world live in united nations world food program is warning of multiple families of biblical proportions counting the coast on al-jazeera. record breaking amounts of methamphetamines are being seeds to cross asia. massive calls of pillows and crystal meth are flooding the region. some of it reaching as far north as japan and as far south as a stray leader in new zealand. where does it all come from me and maher the biggest meth producer in the world. little. old world has lost before it can struggle. one the one east travels to the borderlands

of me in my arms to investigate what's driving asians method and why authorities are powerless to stop. this so-called golden trying a border region known for its beauty and the tories for drugs. behind these mountains is myanmar we're standing in thailand and over there is a highway making it really easy for traffickers to bring drugs over the border and straight to the cities of thailand it's a perfect combination of geography infrastructure supply and demand.

were on the frontline of the drug war. joining a thai military patrol trying to stop the massive flow. coming across the border. colonel. is the leader. he's overseen some of thailand's biggest violent busts. there. covers more than 30 kilometers of the border. many encounters and gun fights.

this team killed 5 traffickers doing the bust but there are always more willing to take their chances. traffickers with backpacks full of meth can run across the border just a few minutes. depends on the size of. backpacks or just one way to traffic mess and the staggering amount is coming in authorities estimate that they're only catching about 20 percent of it. another way they try and stop the flow of drugs at checkpoints along these border provinces. time military and police search buses and trucks where large stashes

could be hidden. the checkpoints are designed to catch traffickers by surprise and today the authorities have had a big win. this is what 300 kilograms of the crystal meth looks like. soldiers carry out of their bundle for the camera. ringback known on the streets as this high purity form of the drug is the most expensive kind if you'd reached australia these drugs would be worth $100000000.00. but i. look at you know isn't. going to. buy. that out of a new i. phone. number i want.

to wind. up. with the. money it's with thailand's narcotics control board he tracks the patterns of trafficking he says in more than 30 years on the job he's never seen a time when so much crystal meth is being seized on average there has been a bust every week if. the 1000. and for the producers seizing this amount is that a big hit for them. the money. to push. the 20. the drugs the do make it across the border get

distributed among dealers. the trade is so lucrative it outweighs the threat of life sentences. this former dealer agreed to meet with us if we disguised his voice and appearance. over crap of. i would buy the pills at $2.50 and then i sell it for nearly $4.00. for 5 years he sold thousands of these red pills a day they're known locally as you. just. leave all my him my he delivered the drugs to me and backpack. at 1st to give me small bags of 200 pills. and it was $2.00 pills a bag. and then $4000.00 and then up to 10 balls. with carmen how long does it take you so. it doesn't take long. just

a day. his profit 110000 pills could be as much as 13000 dollars did you ever think back what you were doing was hurting other people and if you did why did you continue. the legacy of their 1st i thought this was wrong. but after a while i was making money so i didn't think too hard about it going to meet. the demand for meth across asia has never been higher. growing economies are being fueled by workers grinding away at menial jobs. many laborers used which means crazy medicine to help them work long hours while those who can afford it use the pricier crystal meth or ice to party hard. stories about meth addiction are regularly in the. new guys. don't call.

at all. times and what happens. and it's. what weapon in my wow yeah. oh yeah by a wide angle bro i babson it. but i thought that by. but the majority of users are everyday people. is a single mother who works several jobs to support her 2 children who live with her parents. she says she regularly uses you stimulating combination of methamphetamine and caffeine to help you concentrate at work. it's like i've become super focused on what's in front of me i stay on task. and i just sit there and do it but i'm not. easy

to get body bags for and have to go to the dealer twice 1st to place my order and then have to wait hours if not days to go pick it up and now i can pick it up right away. you know each pill costs $3.00 tip says many people she knows have become users. in some cases users can work an exchange for their pills they have one here some people just work it off by doing manual labor they don't have to pay for a. tip uses almost every day but denies she's the nat act. even though i use i never let my kids never let them have it they have never even seen it. meth production is cheap and large scale estimates vary between 216000000000 pills

a year that's more than the number of coffee starbucks or. most of it is made in state which has ready access to precursor chemicals from china. it also has roads leading into thailand where the finished product is then trafficked to other countries. has become an ideal hiding place for meth labs thanks to decades of civil wars. vast areas of the state are still controlled by armed groups both rebels and government forces. the drug trade is a huge money maker for all sides. the most powerful of the rebel groups is the united states army they used to be famous for their heroin smuggling authorities in myanmar and thailand think they're

now in the meth business notoriously secretive journalists are rarely given access . but they have recently appointed a spokesperson. by phone. from. time to answer questions. he's surprisingly upfront about drugs being produced in wa territory but insists that it's all in the past. i don't. get a lot. do you think there are any labs and your territory right now. market or.

drug with sporadic rains and televised drug burnings their true involvement in the meth training is difficult to prove. the only one allowing us to see for ourselves is the shan state army south. it is shot on state day. a celebration of resistance against the myanmar military. all you know and i don't know no one. is the defacto leader of this territory. once it was in the business of the club tomorrow and then. as this army shows off its fighting skills shine people from across the state

parade in their best outfit. is an expensive affair for an army still fighting a civil war. yachts are going to soldiers are considered rebels by many in myanmar but here he is loved. and what he says is obeyed no stranger to the drug trade he once fought alongside the infamous drug kingpin couldn't stop who was known for trafficking heroin worldwide. but these days he says the territory he controls is drug free like i am no government global. you know yarmulke manami. about one get involved one car another one.

this policy might sound harsh but it has popular support. that. we the people children and adults don't want addicts or. if the state army so we know all the drugs we young and old men and women all agreed this holds. is a former addict who joined the army to get clean. i would take 10 pills a day and $3.00 to $4.00 pills at a time. when i went to work i secretly took the pills without my family knowing the me and were done with but when they found out we fought along the way. they were disgusted with me that. he used to live in an area

ruled by a patchwork of militias their dealers were easy to find. when i bought it i bought it from a policeman. people told me it was both a dealer in police. work. he was part of a militia group not afraid of anything. going on and. says drugs are so enmeshed with authority only tough policies like death threats can stop it. yeah the world says drugs are a huge problem. and the rebels get all their money from the road. but that's not true and we're radek eating drugs we're not getting money from drugs at all. but reports suggest some armed groups in myanmar earn money by providing safe

passage for the traffickers i ask him if it's true. that no if they pass through here we arrest them what is your source of income if not drugs we do tax everything not related to drugs. my timber. cattle. we could plenty of money from that. if we're mixed up with drugs our nation progress. the international community wouldn't accept us because it's immoral that's why i've decided to fight drugs. if we see a meth lab we shoot it up no conversation when we get rid of them. but those who have worked in. here are more skeptical. john whalen is a retired united states drug enforcement agent he worked with the da inside myanmar for 25 years the chance to hurt me sounds to me that they're serious about

eradicating drugs in their territory how seriously i mean i personally i wouldn't take them very seriously if said they're for years put on shows for the benefit of the west more or less to say that they're serious about it. but they still benefit from the trade they have to fund their army they have to pay them somehow feed them somehow so there's too much financial benefit for them to be out of the trade. denies any involvement and orders his right hand man to take us on a patrol to prove it. major hong kong leads us to an area where he says they've destroyed methamphetamine labs. we've made sure that this no truck traffic this mako their drugs into our area that hispania pepto if. he brings me to a based on their border.

and me what to read ny ny met let's. what about the other 11. more than 11 have been as you say this is the but it's come to. this not in our control. yes you did you deny everyone knows who is producing the drugs it's in the news the d e a knows the narcotics police some thailand man mars on government. money. why isn't anyone destroying those labs and that's what i'd like to know. points the finger firmly at groups aligned with the military i think the biggest drug producers are the pro-government militias which are allied with. me they

make the most drugs because they can operate in areas. for decades the military struck ceasefire deals with rebels and turned them into pro-government militias by giving them more autonomy and turning a blind. pro-government militia. uncovered to. among the $7000000.00 of lab equipment they found. i. was selling. back in thailand i tracked down japan. from the law who ethnic group he led a militia aligned with the government. 'd 'd know he lives in exile. japan says ringback fighting alongside the myanmar military cost him his leg. he says he was

never involved in making drugs but admits tax from drug trafficking was a source of income for his people 'd in his day the drug being trafficked was heroin. and. there are rules about how much and where you have to pay whenever they cross into our territory they need to pay. more than 20 years later he says the meth business operates the same way. for you. at great risk he offers to take us to meet a current militia leader in pro-government militia territory. we agreed to meet at a border town called touchy like. already scalloped the hub of meth trafficking. now. it's a dangerous to our journey for japan he's made

a lot of enemies here are we now in paramilitary areas that. is what is. 10000 militia and the law who militia. will he says many of the militias here are involved in trafficking. so where we just passed we paid. was to the drug court. we passed through more than 4 pro-government militia territories. it's not safe for us to make too many stops. to pat says the new roads have accelerated the mess train only if you'll. look at the. last of the local. goodwill. they use the main routes not just the meth labs

have been discovered just a few kilometers off the highway but this is as close as we can get without risking our safety. will. go a slightly. good look at the. law which. we arrive at a village run by the pro-government militia to pat warns us not to ask too many questions. like to pet this leader says his village would not survive without allying with the government to look. at the level of money. which will do all up with the i want to. use the harassment may have stopped but the village still has to find a way to earn money. to put love

a. lot of people going on as if most. people and. i broach the sensitive topic of methamphetamine how are they getting their guys. to do the job. for all the world so it's all just goes for what you want also what was little i thought of the us a couple of which have. to pet makes light of a tense situation. and it's time to leave. back in the van japan insists that providing safe passage for drug traffickers is one way for these poor ethnic groups to survive but. the. but the. got much more. but for japan the real culprit is the myanmar military. in short as long as the myanmar

military exists the drugs will continue to exist. from generation to generation for a fugitive drug kingpins myanmar has been the only place where they have found safe haven. the only place they can hire go. one on one east made multiple attempts to contact me in mars' drug enforcement division but received no. reply certain that in the capital yangon john will increase it's likely military officers turn a blind eye to the meth trade but doubts they are manufacturers is the military directly involved in the meth trade unlikely are they allowing it to occur in their areas of operation yet they are it's a deadly cycle drugs fund the wars and the wars provide the perfect camouflage to

keep the drugs flowing the narcotics trade meth trade certainly fuels the conflict proceeds from the narcotics trade are used to fund militia groups providing weapons providing food pay the soldiers so that's certainly not helpful to the peace process. mean more civil wars along the smooth corruption of the created biggest meth problem. from the little red. turns of crystal meth. there are profits to be made because of the lynching demand. and where there is demand there will always be supply. in. a global pandemic mass protests demanding change economic recession

and geopolitical tensions not to mention the small matter of a looming election join me steve clemons in conversation with leading voices on the bottom line your weekly take on u.s. politics and society on al-jazeera. if you are in beijing looking out the pacific ocean you'd see american warships when miss somehow time is aiming to replace america and around the world well the chinese are not that stupid these guys want to dominate a huge chunk of the planet this sounds like a preparation for our 1st president george washington said if you want peace prepare for war the coming war on china talked one on a just. this country's begin easy coronavirus restrictions scientists warned of a 2nd wave of infections in the last few days. of the neighborhood and

many feel the economy is be prioritised about for human life until fall can pull your claim the focus is on doubt here because i can pull that 1000 places we bring you the latest developments from across the globe coronavirus fund demick special coverage on al-jazeera. this is al-jazeera. there on the clock this is the news hour live from doha coming up the next 60 minutes china charges a canadian businessman in the form of diplomat was spying is it retaliation for the case against a wall wakes. targeting boko haram nigeria's military says it's killed several

leaders of the armed group. a struggle just to put food on the table we meet asylum seekers.