al jazeera will bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you. out is there an app that sees for the blind and a robotic arm for the disabled. a young australian engineer is inventing tools to help people gain independence or side of that will put the ability to recognize objects on the firm so that people with limited vision will be able to recognize everyday object. women make science robo girls episode for on al jazeera . ah, mm mm you are says a russian fighter. jess has collided with one of its drones over the black sea,

but moscow denies causing the crush. ah, hello one money inside. this is out. is there a life unto also coming up? because sony police clash with him wrong can support is in law, was they try to arrest him? was executive order helps keep firearms out of danger. sans u. s. president joe biden announces a tightening of background checks for people buying guns and struggling farmers. argentina's hottest summer on record, and lack of rainfall damages agriculture. ah, the u. s. military has condemned what it calls a reckless maneuver by of russian war played that brought down one of its surveillance drones over the black sea. the russian foreign ministry denies the

claim insisting there was no russian interference before the aircraft crashed on approach to the crimean coast. mike hannah reports now from washington dc. the us confirms the n q 9 reaper drone has been regularly deployed over the black sea, which has become an increasingly crowded air space. but a pentagon spokesperson says, this is the 1st direct air confrontation since the russian invasion of ukraine. question you, what we shall, again, we're, we're fighter aircraft dumping fuel in front of this, you avi. and then getting so close to the aircraft that it actually damaged the propeller. on the m q 9. we, we assess that it like we cause some damage to the russian aircraft as well. the russian defense ministry has a different version of events insisting the drone crashed often maneuvering sharply while approaching the crimean coast. the russian ambassador was summoned to the us

state department, and afterwards he gave what seemed to be more a justification for you then at the nile. this ah wrong can carry 1700. you loss of explosives. these drone can carry, if you booms, you see that what will be the issue of united states if you see such russian drawn very close, for example, to san francisco or new york. what blue will be reaction of united states. the national security liaison officer at the white house echoed the pentagon in describing the russian action as reckless and unprofessional confirming the president was informed straight off to the incident. the key issue, say, u. s. intelligent sources, whether the russian pilots were acting unilaterally or under command. mike hannah,

out is era washington. a russian president vladimir pierson has dismiss reports that a pro ukraine group sabotaged the node stream pipelines. last year, he pointed at washington over the attacks in the pipelines that carried russian gas to europe or close to soon to the dish to whose interested theoretically the united states is interested in stopping the supply of russian energy carries to the european energy market and supplying volumes of its own, including liquefied natural gas, even if it is much more 25 to 30 percent more than russian. though. police and pakistan are locked in a 10 standoff with supporters of the former prime minister. him rotten con. protest is outside his home in the hall and trying to prevent his arrest. earlier, there were confrontations between offices and demonstrations. con, was ousted his leader last year, and his facing charges including corruption, which he says are politically motivated than to monahan reports. ah,

police in the horse around at the residence of former prime minister m ron com. they promised arrest him by the end of the day. speaking to supporters construct a defiant tone. murder up the saudis and get done. let your lord thought own. i'm fighting your fight, which i have struggled all my life and will continue to fight. but if they put me behind bars or kill me, but then you have to prove that without me this nation will struggle for freedom enjoy. okay. there were confrontations between con supporters and the police car was ousted from power last year, but he remains a popular figure. police wanted attain him for failing to comply with order to peer in court to face dozens of charges. speaking exclusively to al jazeera, he denied any wrong doing. this is absolutely a fabricated, jo, a legation, it's naughty, warner does nothing. it's not even contested by us. is just a judge and an allegation made by the police by this government. now,

the 80 cases against me a lesson just to let you know in the last few months, every other day, there's a fresh case. so it is a case of murder. there's a case of sedition. there's a case of blasphemy. there is a case of terrorism. so the every other did as a case, but some legal experts say calls refusal to appear in court is a serious matter. then the lawyers appeared on monday and under the polite the law, the lawyer implants on you just said that in grant han cannot because it can come to the court due to some security reasons, bend on it. will i court give directions to the police, to the id that to be want you brand? if dean talk marked in this court, because it's a non billable warrant, and a judge has to be framed while charging up prim that you should be in the court. the elections are set to take place later this year. cons rallies have been banned

in recent days, to support or say, this is just another attempt to prevent him campaigning. to help his party than to monahan al jazeera. you as president joe biden has issued an executive order, tightening background checks on firearms. he announced the order as an event in monterey park, california where 11 people was shot dead by lone gunman during a luna new year's celebration back in january. now the decree directs that the attorney general to clamp down on vendors who fail to carry out proper checks and clarify who qualifies as a dealer. more than a 1000 people have been killed in gun violence in the u. s. this year. today i'm announcing another executive board. no accelerate, intensify. this work to shave, more lives more quickly. first was executive order helps keep firearm out of dangerous hands. as i continue to call on congress to require background checks for all firearms sale,

i need to direct my attorney general k. every law for action possible, possible to move us as close as we can to universal background checks without legislation. john hendern has more now from california. the president seeks to enhance background checks by cracking down on or by requiring the department of justice to crack down on those people who are selling guns, but not performing the background checks either because they're doing it for mistakenly thinking. they don't need to do the checks or vice golf laws who are not carrying out those checks. it also asks the government to do a study on how gun makers are marketing to minors. and it encourages red flag laws . those are the laws that temporarily remove guns from people who are deemed dangerous and gun storage rule. so the president's executive actions

are really designed to do what he can on his own without enacting new legislation. but he also asked for new legislation from congress, something he's not likely to get under the current convert the death toll from tropical psychos. freddy and malawi, mozambique and madagascar has risen to 220 the storm hit southern africa for a 2nd time in a month last weekend. least a 190 of the dead were in malawi. now it's declared his state of emergency following devastating floods and landslides. the storm is one of the longest lasting tropical cyclades ever recorded. it started $37.00 days ago in the western pacific and then traveled more than 8000 kilometers, gathering strength over the indian ocean. it may landfall in madagascar as a tropical cycling from that and moved on to basset, mozambique for several days, regained strength in the most ib channel than hit the country. again,

catching the southern parts of neighboring malawi, always governments, as nearly 60000 people have been affected, including 19000, forced to flee, that the number of debt is expected to rise. a search and rescue operations continue. grief stricken families are still trying to identify loved ones. we hear your voice a challenge. can you please give me, please give me. then after opening the door, then we have discovered that we have a loan that we've mod alone, our house. the mud over there is a month. you see, it was a fight by how you get home. and people are holding people on the horn. everything is port brought up from pop, pulling down. now for meadow miller has more from malawi, capital,

the long way more than 12 districts in milan, we have been affected by a tropical cyclone friday, including the main city of bland tire, where thousands of people have been affected. the mill, our government has said at least 190 people have been killed due to the storm due to mud flights flooding, as well as very strong wind. 60000 people have been affected, at least 20000 of them had been displaced. the government has said that it fitting up camps to accommodate these people to ensure that they have some way to go now in neighboring mozambique. the picture isn't as clear because telecommunications have been brought down as well as electricity and internet services. so it's been difficult getting a peer, a picture from mozambique where tropical cyclone freely has now hid for a 2nd time in a month. this is one of the longest lasting tropical storms on record,

and that has become very concerning for people in the region. just given the extent of the damage, which in a country like mozambique has been difficult to determine. they have been measures put in place including age agencies, trying to reach some of the worst affected areas in cleaners and be the region where at least 19000 people in was a big have been affected. but governments in both countries saying they're closely watching what's going on and trying to put in place emergency services to assist as many people as possible agents stopped margaret's have opened higher off. did she say step as worries about a potential us banking crisis continue to ease the collapse of us? land is silicon valley bank and signature bank triggered a sharp drop in stocks across the region. despite washington's efforts to shore up confidence. richard kimber has moved from hong kong, things of stabilizing here, hong kong, stuck his chinese, behind me, back to regular operations ready after dramatic couple of days when most asian

benchmark stock index is lost. all of the money that that effectively generated for their investors just in the space of a couple of days, all the money from this year gains wipes out as a result of investors panicking because of that banking, perhaps in the us things stabilizing. now, economists and trade as i speak to say that pretty sanguine about the impact of this us banking crisis. they think things will level out over the coming weeks and months without any major financial implications. here, there are those interesting asian angles to this story. one big chinese state owned bank, the shanghai put on bank has revealed that it has a, a joint venture with the silicon valley bank is trying to reassure its own investors on the mainland that this is not going to cause them big financial losses . it says the situation is under control and stable. another interesting case study here in hong kong, one of the biggest. 2 financial companies listed on the stock exchange behind me at hsbc. it bought the u. k. of silicon valley bank just around one us dollar earlier

this week. so lots of scrutiny about how that may affect investors perceptions of the bank here on the market. and the last thing to mentioned that's interesting is hong kong is trying to promote itself as a major hub for fintech and crypto development as part of its effort to become more modernized, financial system. now this is all of course recording more regulation and the impact to seeing what's happening in the u. s. with silicon valley bank is again calling into question just how quickly and have aggressively a financial center like hong kong can do that without necessarily finding itself in the same situation with the risks. but the collapse of silicon valley bank happening here in asia. china is reopening its borders to international tourists for the 1st time since the coven pandemic broke out 3 years ago. last month paging declared victory over recent surgeon. the vars. by easing the restrictions, china is retreating from a 0 strategy that has heard the country's economy. katrina,

you has moved from basing. china has essentially really been isolated from the world, certainly from travelers. now it started to dismantle its strict 0 carpet policy starting at the end of 2022. and in many cities, her life has returned to normal except for the lack of foreign visitors. and china was arguably quite a popular place to visit before the pandemic used to welcome tens of millions of international problems every year in 2019 those 65000000 visitors to china. so at the end of these border controls really do seem to spend a spell the end of trying as ice relation from the world. so from today on wednesday, china will top resuming processing tourist visas waiting, also says it will honor the visas that were granted previous to the border controls being important in march 2020. now these pandemic regulations really did hit china's economy overall hard, but particularly it was the tourism and events, sectors that was very much crippled. so there is working in those industries are

very much excited and looking forward to some sort of recovery. but they're also aware that this is something that will take some time. of course, it will take time to process the tourist visas. and i think main obstacle now is lights international flights during the almost 3 years that we had covered policies, many airlines canceled their routes to and from china and they get to resume. those are at the moment flight to and from china, remain quite limited and very pricey. south korea scrapping the last of its pandemic measures for monday, people will no longer be required to wear a face mask on public transport. the government had announced a rule would be lifted in january mosse is still compulsory in medical facilities. still ahead on al jazeera. i'm heidi joe castro in how to california a farming town already half way under water embracing were another round flooding. ah,

with here's your headlines for the america is good to see you. so we've got our 11th atmospheric river slamming into the u. s. states of california and you know, for the southern sierra nevada, our average snow pack is about to just 300 percent above normal. so that gives you an indication of just how much precipitation we've seen. here's our nor'easter from maine to nasa to sits. i think for places like boston, it's going to dump about 20 to 40 centimeters of snow blizzard conditions here. and consider this wins about a 100 kilometers per hour. so that's just going to toss that snow around and give white out conditions for the u. s. south, clear conditions, white wind. so that means during the overnight, the early hours, we've got flash, fries, alerts in plate. now had take you back to the west coast of canada through the northern plains. actually this swath of snow here,

likely to generate about 5 to 10 centimeters of snow. remember that norie sir we were talking about is dropping down rain to the bahamas cuba right through the yucatan peninsula, but from mexico city to panama city. so can like a wet pitcher, and we've had a landslide emma now's in brazil's amazonian state, and there is still more rain falling over top of this area in time for the river plate. some storms are cooling, the atmosphere here, so montevideo, 30 degrees on wednesday. awe inspiring stories from around the world. i mean, the human life capture. and it's a fost one. this feel like that presentation of what i want people to remember me by. groundbreaking food from award winning filmmakers.

witness on a jetta. lou ah. ok baggy watching the al jazeera mind, if all top stories this hour, the u. s. has condemned what it calls a reckless maneuver by a russian will play and then brought down one of its surveillance drones over the black sea. the pentagon insists that the drone was over international moses russia denies that its jets came into contact with the police in pakistan. a locked in a 10 standoff was suppose is a former prime minister in ron con, protest is outside his home in the hall, are trying to prevent his arrest. con is facing charges, which he says,

all politically motivated. you as president joe biden has issued an executive order, tightening background checks on firearms. he made the announcement in monterey park, california where 11 people was shot dead during a new year. celebration in january and argentina is enduring, its hottest summer on record with searing temperatures and a lack of rainfall. damaging agriculture, theresa by reports on the impact this will have own argentina's struggling economy . roman gutierrez, he says he steer is that the sky every day in search of signs of rain, he has lost nearly all of he saw you having crops his ear due to crippling drought conditions affecting the south american nation. so she normally milofa luciano this year. we needed 600 millimeters more. that's why we lost all the crops. most of us would the land which makes it difficult to pay rent, but inputs and other items we need to city and through the extreme weather

conditions have also cost shortages of grass, grain and water severely impacting the cattle of many of the farmers in the area these are the argentine pam, pass the heart of argentina's. agricultural production and drought is everywhere to be seen. the drought is having an impact fall across argentina. this is a field of corner. as you can see, it's dry and it's already been lost. producers are telling us that because of the lack of water, they have started to notice different types of insect insects. but they tell us they had never seen before. in this part of the country. the lack of rain is linked to the landing yet climate phenomenon. at cooling of the quote royal pacific that cuts rainfall in parts of argentina. but this time farmer say the situation is worse than ever. a body is in my old insect of italian, their insects to we didn't see before, but also people stopped controlling because it wasn't worth humor guessing as the

crops were lost, we see more insects here because they have nowhere else to eat. i ah argentina struggling with a 100 percent inflation rate in the past year. and a shortage of us dollars. agriculture is a crucial supply of re venue, adding billions of dollars of foreign currency to the central bank and economy say, the severe drought will likely complicate the economic outlook of the country even further. $20000000000.00 of exports, which in turn implied a reduced her in taking their export boxes. so those are some fiscal side. we're in the middle of a dollar shortage on this. can only the jury for the laura shortage, fully more pressure on the exchange rate. so these are going to stress both bailey targets with the m f. so yeah, i mean, difficult, earlier version, the experts also believe that the political uncertainty of the upcoming presidential elections later this year could increase economic instability in the

country. but right now, farmers like roman gutierrez, are just hoping for a little government assistance and for rain to help him save what is left of his produce. that is, i will, i'll just eat at one aside. his forecasts as a warning of more rain and catastrophic floods and parts of california hit by a series of storms war than 30 countries are under a state of emergency crews near the flooded town of baja to in the central coast region are trying to repair damage flood defenses on a swollen river. honey doug hauser reports the levy breech on the powder river is widening growing to more than 120 meters since friday. that's ominous for the town of pyro downstream. as more storms bear down on the farming community this week, pedros 1700 residents were told to evacuate. during a brief moment of sunshine on tuesday,

families looked across the river toward their empty homes, blocked by a bridge now only accessible to emergency workers. how's your house pass off or we don't know we're not allowed to go in or anything like that. but it's, it's actually pretty frustrating. not knowing the county of monterey has performed more than 170 high water rescues as a result of this flood, using utility vehicles, army vehicles, to rescue people who are stranded within their homes or their vehicles. but not every one has agreed to leave. the struggle is like them finding food and not being able to cross the bridge to go get their food. that's what worries i'm the most on . some people don't even have where to go too many also have nowhere to work. this region calls itself the salad bowl of the world, producing fruits and vegetables by immigrant farm workers. now they face much of the suffering if no one on or with block austin. there's no work,

i can't pay the rent. i have a family of 4 to support them underneath the storms are the result of atmospheric rivers, long currents of moisture in the air that cause rain and snow fall. california has experienced no less than 10 such once rare phenomena since january an impact of climate change and a probable trend into the future. heidi joe castro al jazeera puddle california. the u. s. tech john met her, has announced another huge round of redundancies, cutting 10000 jobs. messer, which is facebook, instagram, and whatsapp previously laid off 11000 employees back in november, ceo mazacco bugs as a company is facing a new economic reality off to profit slowed significantly. last year, jim anderson is a tech analyst at glass wing ventures. he says metas relying on advertising income makes a vulnerable the 1st thing to remember is that facebook's generate 95 percent of

its revenue from advertising. they very much want to branch out and diversify their revenues, but it's a tough time to be an advertising. whether you want to talk about regulatory headwinds or the changes made by apple to preserve privacy. it's just a very difficult market. you add to that the slowing economy, it's clearly a tough time for facebook and other ad supported businesses. i think it is good, old fashioned, targeted advertising, right? as you get more specific about what you're trying to reach or who you're trying to reach more accurately, the price goes up. and so facebook was a master of being able to know that, ok, somebody is a 46 year old male, they live in the northeastern united states. they're interested in puppies and race cars, and they can charge a premium for that kind of thing. now apple comes along and make some significant changes to the iphone, which effects a significant portion of facebook usage. now, all of a sudden they can't target those as nearly as precisely the prices go down, the effectiveness goes down. and sure enough, you've got what amounts to a massive economic headwind on their advertising business. but pretty much anything facebook does is going to get massive regulatory scrutiny. you see significant

privacy focuses, especially in the european union. us maybe not as much, at least outside of apple from a regulatory perspective. the u. s. lags in terms of privacy, but those kinds of things. again, when you start talking privacy, the amount of information or data you have with which to target narrows and the price of the advertising goes down and therefore their revenue goes down, or at least the growth rate. it started and they have fewer pass to growing their revenue. the you guys finance minister will unveil his spring budget on wednesday. the economic output output is less blake than it was a year ago, but many across the country is still struggling. but the soaring cost of living and his journal reports from coventry communities will be looking closely at where the jeremy hans budget will do enough to improve their likelihoods. among the world's most advanced economies, it may be, but the u. k. faces the worst economic outlook in a generation. people like jasmine almond and her husband, chris,

have found that to full time salaries no longer sustain a family of 4. have a great say that play the high cost of living, especially child care means that jasmine wasn't earning enough to pay the nursery fees. it worked out less expensive to give up her job as a teacher and careful daughter, carina herself is. i am a wife and a mother and i have to do the right thing for our household. i am just going week to week. we survive like that and it's just life now. taste on wednesday, britton's finance minister jeremy hunt will deliver his 1st spring budget since taking the job last autumn. child care will feature but must take its place in a long queue. public sector workers on strike, again,

even as the budget he's announced in an economy left, really bright covey breaks it and the war in ukraine. i think $11.00 area where there will be kind of a lot of focus particular has the sessions is around public sector pay and you know, it's kind of lock pressure and that with a strike sitting rising vacancies in the public sector. that scenario we will secret of, of quite a lot pressure. and it's not just families looking for help, but whole communities in towns of cities across the come with political promises to level up in the qualities of not be met. and slow growth is led to calls by business leaders for a clear strategy to attract investment. take coventry, for instance, here in the west midlands once a center of manufacturing so important britons economy, that hitler's air force took great care to bomb it into oblivion. coventry's damaged cathedral is testament to those bleak times. but at the heart of the d

industrialized midlands, it's a hollowed out place. even now, jeremy hunt will announce funding for new low tax investment zones, to try and spur business and growth in areas like this. such is the scale of the task that his budget will offer. no quick fix. joe, to whole al jazeera, coventry finance record sales have outperformed cds in the u. s. for the 1st time in decades, more than $41000000.00 vin, our records were sold in 2022 to the chain of $1200000000.00. that's in comparison to 33000000 cd sold. last year marks the 16 consecutive years. the growth for record sales can be less than a sport now. unmatched. the city heading to the quarter finals of you a for champions league, largely thanks to 5 goals from elling holland the english cy thrashed our b leap thing, 7 nil. 8.