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tv   Inside Story  Al Jazeera  March 31, 2021 8:30pm-9:01pm +03

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scientists say like a canary in a coal mine the early arrival of cherry blossoms could signal something's not right and at this rate they'll become more vulnerable to spring freezes and changes in pollination cycles. al-jazeera. have us take you through some of the headlines here on al-jazeera now it's day 3 or 4 minneapolis police and derek show vince trial for the murder of unarmed black man george floyd we've been hearing from witness christopher martin who was working cut food store on the day of the incident spoke with floyd and sold him a pack of cigarettes they believe floyd paid with a counterfeit note that prompted the police to be called. you so you stand in here with your hands on your head for a while or. i was going through your mind. just leave. and go.
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why don't. we loose not in the school the board. we also saw another individual get pushed by an officer right. and what did you do after that happened i was just trying to come to terms. now a breakthrough in covert 19 vaccine development pharmaceutical companies fines run by on tax a vaccine is proven safe and effective in 12 to 15 year olds they say trials involving more than 2000 adolescents demonstrate minor side effects and the dose is 100 percent effective at preventing the disease they hope to get emergency approval in the u.s. and begin inoculating young people before the next school year 112 year old participant says he's happy to do is art. yemen has received its 1st supplies of coded 19 vaccines got 360000 doses of the indian administers astra
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zeneca jab through the international kovacs program it's set to receive 1900000 doses this year in the coming hours the u.n. security council is going to hold a closed door meeting on the political crisis in myanmar thousands of people are fleeing into thailand to escape the military's air and ground attacks against the armed group karen national liberation army. as government says the situation is under control after what it says was an attempted coup by soldiers at the presidential palace. gunfire can be heard on this video from witnesses in the capital now may the attack comes just 2 days ahead of president elect 100 bazooms swearing in a number of people have been arrested an investigation is underway. it's inside story now stay with us.
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no one can take a drop of water from president of the. g.o.p.'s own failing a controversial life. it was the consequences will be felt across the region does that mean he would go to war and has diplomacy right now this is inside story. hello welcome to the program. shadow of the nile river water is
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untouchable and if supplies affected by the ground run. there will be severe consequences that's the warning by the egyptian president has country is in a year's long dispute with the opiah over the hydro power project. it is building the $5000000000.00 mega dam on the blue nile river downstream countries egypt answered a concern that could affect their access to water there want a legally binding agreement over the dams operations but talks to resolve the standoff have stalled over the past decade if the o.p.'s started to fill the dams reservoir last year with no deal in place it insists its neighbors won't be harmed and the dam is important to its economic development. no one can take a single drop of water from egypt and whoever wants to try it let them try i'm not
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threatening anyone here our dialogue is always reasonable and rational no one can take a drop from egypt's water and if it happens there will be inconceivable instability in the region there's been a push for talks on the dam dispute to move forward the us have shown they're ready to mediate their own voice matt sudan's sovereign council chief general abdul fatah had one hand on monday that came after saddam proposed mediation by a quartet of the african union the e.u. the u.n. and the u.s. the suggestion was supported by egypt but rejected by if the opiah the u.s. on voice senator chris coons and if the o.p.'s foreign minister helle talks over the regional tensions earlier this month and the foreign ministers of edge of sudan and if the opiah are expected to meet in a will of the next week that this period may list centers on the speed at
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which the reservoir behind the dam is filled among other differences are over how much water if your people were released downstream if drought lasting years occur. egypt and sudan demand a binding agreement on the downs operation while if the opiah insist on guidelines alone it just depends on the nile river for almost all of its water it fears a rapid filling of the reservoir would severely restrict the flow of the nile so dan wants if the o.p.'s to share data of the downs operation to avoid flooding protect its own dams if the o.p.'s says the hydroelectric power producers is important to be the energy needs of millions of ethiopia and lacks stable electricity supplies when fully operational or down will become the largest hydroelectric plant in africa.
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let's bring in our guests in nairobi william davison a senior if you appear analyst at international crisis group in london and that is president of the world association for sustainable development in oslo guy term gabrielle is a political analyst focusing on the horn of africa what into the program well this is not the 1st time that egypt has warned of repercussions if there's no political progress on the issue of the day are they serious this time sure that if european take into consideration the latest statement by president of the c.c. . it's not clear exactly what is new about be egyptian positioning certainly there's some alarming rhetoric there but of course the president also said that this is not a threat i mean i think ultimately this looks very much like a repeat of the situation last year when he did the 1st years filling of the
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reservoir of them in a sense that we have this 2nd failing shuttled to occur probably in july according to these here can shed your and again we are seeing tensions rise in advance of that and yes there is. threatening rhetoric here i think most people would judge but it isn't really that clear you know what has changed substantially in terms of the situation so i don't really expect ethiopia to change its position which is to proceed with the construction and the filling of the dam along with. along with construction as it and gauges in these continued negotiations i learned the egyptian cab at the facts the other issues all the table could that be an indication that we might see any confrontation in the near future as there is no tangible result as far as the political process is concerned. thank you very much
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just to follow up on my colleague i think what's new with a you should have used this sort of thing language before donald trump almost before he left office he if he said that i don't buy i was commenting he said eve could use force that i'm in issue here is that this is more of that style of that you should negotiation has always be like this do you expect confrontation i don't expect confrontation because of the general situation in a very you and even within egypt itself sudan and as you'll be a is not favoring that confrontation but we will continue to listen and to hear such sit ending tone and i expect i hope the sudanese government also relieved him but he did bit too much the stand before they did she is so that we can have a level of of voices so they can take it more seriously that their neighbors not sitting there silent accepting what they're doing yes finally i think this is
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the issues reason even though she isn't even i know there are going to be maybe you know end of negotiations in the next few weeks but 3 he has a book online he still remain the same people should go back to their own region and questions their land is a disputed not and. still claiming this no one is listening to them that amount of force there is going to be bumped into the still at all almost ok technical experts have refused going saying it would kill people we're talking about isn't this of people both supporting the sudan because that capacities being argued is quite high many scientists have so far said it should only be you know been. 1000000000 cubic meters and we need if you'll be at to listen seriously at these time don't beat up their technical farm so people can go forward and we can save lives. this particular point what do you think is the main sticking point is it the thinning of
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the reservoir and how much time should that take we have this whole argument between 12 to 21 years as the egyptians are saying or 6 years as the if the o.p.'s are insisting. i think the main sticking point is to for egypt to reach a binding agreement before. the feeling continues once it's filled it will be able have the upper hand and can negotiate from from a position of strength. but i think we have to consider the recent political dynamics japan's currently conducting what looks like a genocidal war on its own people so given that it has been behaving this year responsibly. it is understandable that both khartoum and cairo are worried and that they want. they don't want to give up the lifeline of their people
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to such an irresponsible regime and that they want binding legal mechanism that can regulate how this down is is is operationalized so we need to consider political damages as well all right so the reservoir can reach something like 74000000000 cubic meters that's going to be used leverage for the if european government in the near future in the meantime the sudanese of the egyptians are saying wait a 2nd we need the issiah which is the environment or social impact assessment to be implemented and it has to be binding before we move forward in-between this to a key aspect how do you see things unfolding. well with regards to the impact assessment that's certainly been a focus of controversy throughout the lifespan of construction which began in 2010
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what we're really looking at now is an agreement about the feeling and operating rules or guidelines of the renaissance. yes it is a large them but if it's managed cooperatively. then there is no reason for necessarily to cause significant harm downstream which is a key phrase here ethiopia has set out the filling shed you will and if there is average or above average rain in the blue nile basin over the next 5 years it will fill the dam with something like a 5th of the average flow of the blue nile being impounded every year if the rush or to tj's in any given year the length of time it will take to fill the dam will be extended by a couple of years so there is a plan and there of course what this is really about is getting the political agreement and building trust so that is give give building this dam and backing up
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all that water as you mentioned is not seen as a threat and of course this comes down to the nitty gritty of what's being argued here people talk about a binding agreement on not i think if you're to is willing to sign up to it willing to make a commitment on the filling szechuan here what ethiopia is not willing to do is get into any sort of agreement which it considered to be a water sharing agreement and it is also not willing to get into an agreement on its own dam where international arbitration is the final phase in any dispute resolution alright princess island ethiopia one of those water sharing issues to be discussed by all nile basin countries and that gets to some of the sort of underlying disagreements about this this is one that this is way of getting law complicated. with time i let me spoke about the concerns voiced by sudan and it's a particular comes to the flooding and the water downstream but when you talk to
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the europeans they will tell you that. there highlands particularly the blue nile and the atbara both of which are major tributaries the contribute something like 80 percent of the water there go the flows downstream and therefore it's a legitimate white from an ethiopian perspective to have a final say over how to move forward. i think that's a point but in color in response to that point out as a more critical boys need to be considered the land itself or the dam has been built it has been this beauty it it's a not so far we hear it strongly is wrong to be an issue in court this is a big sudanese these are sudanese bieber this is their learnt how he's being given and how is it down was being built is all 6 to do with them the former again which was 100 percent documented by the whole waited as a corrupt regime so we can't take that into uk we have to take that into account secondly all scientists they said earlier said the way it's being discussed or the
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technical fighters or the technical and make up of this make a project look up and for anyone to check it know it could stand there or indeed been very few cation of how he's going to operate so far what we hear any more than 11000000 cubic meters who would be dangerous to kill people down is to be in particular in sudan no one is listening to all these facts so we have to deal with these facts for at least before we can talk about it viral mental issues to do with aid is highlander holloway this coming from the city but these are serious questions and i have said this from last year if we do not to go back to basic and b.n. government is willing to open up 0 fines for technical exhibition in order to see how can we save the lives of the sudan if that gives you and i'm already bored of this europeans and self there's lots of conflict decided to be about the way the
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government is behaving here and finally i think this is a fact we cannot ignore it we have talking about the project already sent built we all understand that but that's where come find a solution to such massive investment we've got to sit down see look at what can we do it's a huge amount be. in it to be some pretty complete what can we do but all right only sick about. once the government of this you will be is willing and accepting international in the bindon to be this is why they are concerned about issues of the related to national sovereignty as they are being saying go ahead now you've been talking about the internal issues that if europe is facing but if your peers will tell you that the 1929 and the 959 agreements were. a legacy of a colonial we era where the whites of the earth your peers were never taken into consideration and the damn itself is
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a reality of of the sudanese and the egyptians have to deal with the sudanese in particular are in favor of the involvement of the african union the the united nations and the us could that be pro productive. yes overall i think we need to consider the 2 principles of international law that apply so the colonial agreements are nolen void in my view and so one principle is that if you have to have the right to develop its own resources within its territories it's a matter of sovereignty now sudan and egypt have come a long way from initially not recognizing that to now accepting that if you're bad the right to build a dam. the other principle is of course that if you have or cannot cause any significant harm to dallas your country now since the 2 countries have come a long way to recognize it your best right to develop its resources it is now
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incumbent upon you to europe to also recognize its responsibility not to cause significant harm and that is a legal issue and it's not so much about what's happening today. seen from cairo in khartoum as perspective you know 20 years from now they must have some sort of reassurances that whoever is in charge in ethiopia is not going to utilize those resources to negatively impact khartoum in cairo so they must have a say in how this is operationalizing the future. this is not merely a sovereignty issue i mean we have to balance those 2 considerations. and i believe a quartet mediation is the right approach for that but but william this is the problem with what we have all those key players step in the different political
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agendas playing out of bed they are concerned that if you have all those parties coming together the potential for any solution to the problem by tick ages because the simple issue here is you have a dam which has been blocked out of the blue not widely seen as an existential threat by the egyptian government if you have the 3 key players sudan and if the o.p.'s working out the details of a permanent agreement that could help without having to go to all those potties. yes of course negotiations have been going on for some time and the increased international concern focus on this issue is a result of the failure to agree and you know that said last year of course the u.s. the trumpet ministration got heavily involved and the ethiopians backed out of that deal and they said there was too much international pressure being applied here i mean at the moment the fire is with the african union there is huge amounts of concern about the failure to agree on the renaissance than also about the tensions
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between sudan and ethiopia on the border also very much ethiopia is internal situation particularly the take rate conflict i think increasingly you know these big international actors particularly the new u.s. administration is looking at the horn of africa and as as i've said are very concerned but i don't think taking over or trying to reformulate the mediation or the negotiations at this point is going to be successful because i don't think that ethiopia is going to agree to that instead what i think we might see is an expanded role for the african union for technical experts and perhaps for observers from the e.u. and the us in these african union led negotiations but i don't think at this stage we're going to see a significant reformulation of of how this is mediated you spoke about some of the concerns boys by the sudanese government about the facility to words to the project about concerns of flooding but others would tell you that the city is. ultimately may be the ones to benefit from that they will get less flooding cheaper
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electricity and easier irrigation which is going to be pretty much better well planned ahead. yes that's the point being san facing for the last time for many for a long time but that to tell you the truth i am following the sudanese government data scientists professors people who are in the forefront of this irrigation sun top project money and you need and so on all of them seems to agree despite all of these assumptions without knowing the real technical makeup of the bra jex we cannot guarantee we will get these benefit because instead of getting good at a guess and level of law although i can see your mission we might get flooding and then we end up having or be able to be in dying on a long that on the river but the 2nd important thing. we don't know exactly what is happening in sudan this is another major issue we cannot ignore it the government
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are fortunate these 2 down and that transitional government has been shut there they haven't taken control of really any of this far and we have been doing many expensive the same we don't know exactly how they are tackling this every time them a different viewpoint technically are fortunately the sudanese own minister of education they are not listening to be many many groups within the same country professor whatever she said is a well known academics professor he's an mit grad we have thoughts like this when we bought i have got to hardly see the government listening to him i myself have argued for the minister to listen to sudanese exits off like we have brought that money just like dr michael might just that some people that look this in it does and therefore we can look very fine with this is that we're really going to benefit our board be able to sue donald not lead and that's gone only be vilified if our own in guinea it's gotta be listened to by the current so that is government and
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zen we have more transparency and follow this up but in front of our expense then we can say is it going to benefit our people that i have to go that route by i have to look. if you don't think. that's the life of the sudan you people should be also treated like a red line unless you're like that you share a brian minister and the president yes that is it ok this is going to let you slide yes i see your point is that it a lot you got i misspoke earlier about the problems that if the opiah faces were talking about the issue and also the border confrontations with sudan over the facade border area those 2 issues do you think they will stand as a major obstacle for a b. ahmed if he decides to take an aggressive stance in the near future. absolutely i mean the way we got here in the 1st place the way ethiopia was able to challenge egypt's monopoly on the night before or all these years was 1st of all that
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ethiopia consolidated its power internally and secondly it developed good relations with its neighbors notably sudan and sudan support for this dam was essential and there was no way for egypt to sort of destabilize ethiopia or to actually do anything to reverse this process obviously it has changed both those factors significantly over the last 3 years internally kunda country's internal you know significant chunks of the country are either in. are either rebel held territories or under occupation or foreign armies or military command post their insurgencies in different parts of the country. by his own admission if you have as military capacities significantly depleted integral i why he needs to use a chance or as mercenaries to to fight his wars into gray. and secondly
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of course the key factor in this in this process was relations with sudan which have also broken down which means if europe has very little leverage left in this in this i see your point situation what. ultimately the down would have to go ahead of the if the appeals are insisting this is an issue of national sovereignty no one is expecting to see any minister confront issues the addition we have to cross the . space of sudan to bomb that if that happens that could because a strike force itself in the meantime no one is talking about water management schemes about the recycling of the waste water about the need for egyptians themselves to set up discipline nation plans and understand. this is a new chart uncharted territory and they have to cope with the new realities i think those things are being talked about whether it's in egypt whether it's sort of water better your water efficiency throughout an hour base and more water
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storage more efficient irrigation and that type of thing it just so happens that the bet that the debate is very much focused on on this dam at the moment and of course you know this dam yes it could cause harm downstream in sadar and if it's managed in a certain way but it could reduce flooding in sadar and boost irrigation electricity potential and it doesn't have to cause. any chipped at all the issue is that this type of project this type of trend project project with a transparent impact it has to be cooperatively managed. and this failure to end this preoccupation. with the renaissance than looking only at the potential harm you can chords and the worst thing political tensions is of course your to the detriment of focusing on water saving or a more overall a wider ranging cooperative arrangement the germans would have to live with the thanks to all guests william davison. and go to them go.
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and thank you too for what you can see the program again any time by visiting our website dot com for further discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story clause or join the conversation on twitter and that is a jane side story from the hash about the entire team here in doha by phone or. april i will just see you from a 3rd wave to the vaccine roll out we'll bring you the latest developments from
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around the world a year into the coronavirus pandemic $100.00 skeins rare behind the scenes access into the secrets of world of japanese sumo. good president introduced they be secure a 6th time in power join us on april 11th for the chat election. the award winning our choice returns stories of those striving to reduce or negative impact on the planets as president joe biden kept his campaign promises we'll have special coverage and in-depth analysis of his 1st $100.00 days in the oval office april on outages in iraq. it's a very bleak picture for a lot of americans out there a white supremacist. if you're putting your money into the hands of someone taking money out of the hands of other workers goes to their king and he becomes us versus them this is the deal about constraining your nuclear program the bottom line the big questions on out is the talk to. me what
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