the stories focus on hate speech prevention and sustainable local production. all of us are available online and of course you can share and discuss on africa's facebook page and other social media platforms. crime fighters now. this is. coming up school's out. more than $30000.00 schools nationwide about the spread of the kernel minus the measure. the u.s. makes a big. project a key component $5000.00 taliban prisoners will it be a stumbling block to peace. and who controls the mekong river we look at how china . is threatening to leave don't think communities.

welcome. it's good to have you with us schools in japan have shut down to contain the spread of the coronavirus it's a precautionary measure announced by prime minister. last week the decision affects some 12800000 students across nearly 35000 schools around the country the schools are meant to remain shut until spring holidays that begin in late march japan has so far reported a little more than 200 cases of 19 the disease caused by the new strain of virus. school's out for millions of japanese children but while the youngsters get an extended holiday many parents are faced with

a logistical nightmare they need to make alternative childcare arrangements while the schools are shows the 5. companies need to be flexible in dealing with the situation. i didn't really want that i really didn't think that the virus would in fact so many people. it's going to close the schools. but a lot of parents work today i know. they have to take some time off the nocturne for sorry for them but i certainly feel their prime minister shinzo said that drastic measure was necessary after a meeting with the country's coronavirus taskforce on thursday how do you know if there are many efforts being made to stop the spread of infection among children in various regions and the next one or 2 weeks are crucial to. the announcement took local government and health officials by surprise they've been scrambling to

come up with guidelines to implement the closures and some politicians have warned that the risks posed by shutting schools also need to be considered the mayor of chiba tashi he tokamak i tweeted was about parents and occupations that support society how will they manage society could collapse. but with opinion polls showing public dissatisfaction with handling of the corona virus outbreak is appears the prime minister is betting on school closures as an effective strategy to bring new infections under control. 4 more joining me from tokyo is journalist michael pan michael thanks for being with us the 1st day of the school. hours have been. it's been a little chaotic. lots of companies and lots of their children are are scrambling

to to try to deal with a situation that was unforeseen until just a couple of days ago obviously you know for the kids you know they may or may not be happy to be out of school but the parents who are many of them who depended on their kids being at school so that they could go to work many of them are in considerable trouble because they have to take time off from work or to figure out how to do teleworking and this is not just you know one or 2 people in the office it's essentially everybody who has kids so at all at the same time so it's been a major adjustment and you know there's still going to be time to figure out how it's going to work has it basically just been left to the parents and the other relatives all to trim the fine cigarette i'll do shut down is the government assisting in any way. essentially prime minister abbay

just requested that all of the schools closed down and not every school not every prefecture actually obeyed his request there is for example she mani prefecture in western japan which completely ignored the prime minister's requests but there are other schools as well but yes essentially it's been left to all the various school boards and all the various local governments and all the various companies and all the various individual parents to figure out how to adapt to this this issue and the government did not do any particular preparation and the decision was made even without the input of the education ministry so yeah everybody was kept flat footed and they're just trying to figure out figure out as they go along and that has been a fair bit of criticism has in the michael about the government's decision especially considering that this is a government and the prime minister that is facing thought this isn't over the

response to the coronavirus outbreak was this a political move. in fact the prime minister himself has pretty much admitted that in parliamentary debate today he was cornered by opposition parties who said who are trying to find out how he made this decision and the prime minister was forced to admit that in fact that he made the decision without consulting any experts and so it was basically prime minister aves own political decision to do this personal without even many of his own staff members on board with it and so you know the government was being criticised for being too lax in its handling of for example the the diamond princess issue and other parts of the infection and now they kind of swung from going from what might have been too lax to to possibly too harsh and the government is in particular crisis right now kind

of political crisis which the abio distraction has not seen in its 7 years in power michael ben joining us from both the thank you very much for that. thank you. overdraw agreement signed over the weekend between the united states and the taliban pave the way for u.s. troop withdrawal from the country the phased drawdown would mark the beginning of the end of nearly 20 years of american military involvement in afghanistan but the deal also aims to be the beginning of an interim dialogue to restore peace to the country however with afghan president or jerked into a proposed taliban prisoner swap and the taliban digging its heels in the stability of the deal is already being called to the test. with taliban fighters no more such weapon handovers are nothing new in afghanistan but there's

a buzz in the air this week that afghans may finally see the day when the talk is no longer guns and bombs but of peace. after the peace deal with the u.s. afghans should make peace too but that possibility has already hit its 1st snag prisoners the u.s. taliban deal calls on the afghan government to exchange $5000.00 captives for $1000.00 held by the taliban it's seen as a precondition for enter afghan talks meant to begin in oslo next week but the afghan president has a different view. now where there is no commitment to release $5000.00 prisoners easy it could be included in the agenda of the intra afghan talks but cannot be a prerequisite for talks it's. a sign of the bumpy road ahead despite what many

see as a breakthrough in doha. administration was not party to these negotiations. u.s. hopes to end its longest war still hinge on the taliban and the afghan government agreeing to sit down for talks. but distrust dies hard couple harbors deep suspicions of the taliban and regional players like pakistan it sees as backers of the militant group. is a political settlement we would be. facilitators who would want to encourage the process to move forward. many afghans welcome the possibility of peace but remain skeptical it will happen any time soon people still think and even i still think that the taliban are the same people who. in 1990 s.

but i think that might have changed and if that has changed it will be a big relief. the relative quiet during the past week ceasefire could be a sign of what's to come. or just another brief break from the. nation still fractured. on the genetics of the u.s. . prospects for peace in the country. it's one of the world's largest river systems and supports the livelihoods of some 60000000 people but in recent years the mighty mekong river has been facing do all threats from extreme climate and. the river flows through 6 countries in southeast asia but dams and upstream countries particularly china and laws are talking the flow of water and nutrients downstream for countries like thailand which is already

facing one of its worst droughts on record that is cause for concern. catching fish in the mekong river isn't used to be these waters were once plentiful with large fish but falling water levels here have caused the fish to reducing both size and number. of this year's the worst water is too low and i have to fish and fish again to catch anything. thailand is currently in the midst of a severe drought which is not helping water levels here but the fishermen blame something else chinese dams like the one inch in hong restrict the water flow that can cause levels to drop by as much as 3 metres sometimes without warning.

that's about it. for china the mekong river presents a valuable economic opportunity it wants to dredge the river bed in thailand and blast away rocks to make room for larger ships conservation groups are leading the campaign against the blasting. a bunch of people who want to blast the rapids might call them filthy rocks but we the villages see them as an important ecosystems that makes the river abundant these are my men and coleman who are more. lives and livelihoods depend on this river but faced by an economic superpower local traditions and practices are under threat. time telescoped the bangkok 2 is facing up to the threat posed by climate change but the move off the backs of designed one of a just largest farms as a universe to near the capital. and soil. with.

more of. what secrets lie behind. discover new adventures in 360 degree. and explore fascinating world heritage sites. w world heritage 360 get maps now. passion drama competition private marketing is here to help fight and childish 8.

1000000 fans friends find us and. play. golf on youtube. if you're an investor and held your breath all weekend and it was for nothing european shares keep tumbling some asian a stage a comeback the financial shock of the coronavirus is far from over the o.e.c.d. downgrades global growth. suitable firms report drunk shortages due to the spread of the virus some of the key ingredients are produced in china. and labor unions in africa warn of a brain drain to europe as germany and next a new law to attract more skilled workers from abroad. i mean physical and let's do

business it's no wonder that equities continue to fall today the organization for economic cooperation and development warns the coronavirus could be real the global economy the group of industrialized countries wants growth could fall to just one and a half percent that's about hof the growth predicted before the outbreak this will hit all economies but the o.e.c.d. warns japan and the euro zone a most at risk of sliding into recession central banks are scrambling the bank of england says it's working to ensure all necessary steps are taken to protect financial and monetary stability asian central banks say they're also taking measures to stabilize their economies well let's bring in law chief economist at the o.e.c.d. to talk about this there are still so many unknowns as to how this buyers. acts and spreads and so many different.