Transcripts For ALJAZ Newsgrid 20180203

The u. N. Says north koreas not only violating International Sanctions but profiting from and is supplying weapons to both syria and me and mom while at the same time the United States announces its beefing up its stocks of Nuclear Weapons we will have details on both stories and how they might intersect also on the grid munching for nationalist on the french on and of course taking their dogs for more freedom to the streets just days before a visit by the french president emanuel much wrong but after a failed bid for secession in spain we wonder are these protesters setting themselves up for disappointment and the bigger they are the steeper the down on the cryptocurrency rollercoaster bitcoin is sinking in value as governments try to tighten controls on digital money but were looking past the headlines because there is almost no doubt that these crypto currency will be a part of our everyday lives event. And im only a hardened southern cameroon joins a long list of regions pushing for independence were following the conversation driven by hashtags demanding the government recognize. Southern kemah has its own country amazonian if youre in cameroon connected with a hash tag. You with the news grid live on air and streaming online through huge of Facebook Live and aljazeera dot com and while the prevailing theory on north korea has been to pile on the sanctions in response to its Nuclear Program we may have the proof this saturday that sanctions dont work the United Nations says north korea is violating International Sanctions with in its words rampant illicit activities to the point where its apparently made two hundred Million Dollars from illegal trading with other countries the u. N. Group investigating the breaches says pyongyang made that money last year by exporting banned commodities around the world and not just that investigators say they have evidence pyongyang helped syria develop its chemical weapons and provided me an mar with Ballistic Missiles the report also shows the north used fake documents to continue shipping banned commodities like iron and steel and also shipped coal to russia china south korea malaysia and vietnam those countries are part of north koreas limited trading circle as youll see in this info graphic from aljazeera com it is basically china thats the eighty three in the eighty five percent you see there and a few others India Pakistan rusher as well and the bulk of those exports that happen as you see from this one minerals mostly cull but also some refined petroleum. And textiles is the other major export apparently coats and suits make up the bulk of those exports so thats whats going out of north korea so lets start with robert kelly who is was a professor of Political Science and diplomacy at Prison National university in south korea hes actually not surprised that north korea has found ways to get around the sanctions. Theres been a lot of discussion about the tightening of sanctions in the last couple years every time we have a round of sanctions at the u. N. We hear about how these are the tightest sanctions ever and north korea is on the ropes. So but its not actually surprising the north korean gauges and sanctions busting china has allowed poor sanctions to sort of go on they tolerated port sanctions now for several decades the North Koreans have also engaged in gangsterism and stuff like that since the one nine hundred seventy s. We know they sort of smuggle gold and people engage in sex trafficking and things like that so all of that is kind of a piece of the larger story of north korean gangsterism and Everything Else its just only kind of surprising there still that successful at this late i think the proper counterfactual on sanctions is to think where north korea be if we didnt have sanctions ok so yes theyre porous and they dont work terribly well in the North Koreans go to cheating right but if they didnt if we didnt have them at the North Koreans sort of running around doing all of this above board then you know instead of having maybe fifty Nuclear Weapons that have two hundred or Something Like that right so i dont think that we should look at sanctions as some kind of cure all or Silver Bullet its not going to be that whale never be that way there too many incentives the sanctions bust i think instead we need to do is just to keep tightening keep having reports like this this kind of stuff in the media right it continues to bring attention so rather than completely shutting north korea off we should narrow the pipeline and i think thats what were really looking for right but sanctions are not going to bring about the collapse the American Ambassador are supposed to be an American Ambassador to south koreas an academic a think tank intellectual named victor cha and dr charles pretty well known in the community of people who do what i do sort of the Analyst Community on korea i know myself and hes got a reputation as a hawks of smart and personable and Everything Else and sir i think a lot of people were looking for to him coming in the Top Administration pulled him back at the very last minute cha is known as a hawk but apparently hes not hawkish enough for the trump ministration and a lot of people are read that as sort of a big red flag that the trump people looking to strike north korea i myself im a little bit concerned i would have thought that victor would have been a shoo in is sort of like a conservative broadly speaking youve got a history in republican politics the United States but they pulled him anyway because i guess he didnt he didnt support a strike which tells me that the trump people are really seriously considering military action in two thousand and eighteen. But north korea is not washingtons only concern when it comes to Nuclear Threats the u. S. Is concerned about russia are expanding its capability so now the trumpet ministration wants to modernize its own arsenal moscows reactor though denouncing the policy as bellicose and is on the way to be a terribly often these guys just last month the defense secretary James Madison said the military was switching the main focus of its National Security to places like china and russia this from a defense correspondent patty telling. Us President Donald Trump never criticizes russian president Vladimir Putin but the pentagon is doing just that moscow retains a large stockpile of nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons and continues to modernize those as well as its Strategic Systems this report says aggression from russia concerns about china and north korea and potentially iran are the reasons the u. S. Needs to modernize its Nuclear Weapons and its changing the wording on when it could use them saying the u. S. Could use Nuclear Weapons in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the u. S. Whats new is they added this line extreme circumstances could include significant non nuclear strategic attacks the military was asked to clarify what that means it would that also involve the employment of biological weapons against the Us Population or allies would involve the use of chemical weapons against our people would involve a conventional tack in other parts of the world the context in which an attack occurred on the United States or allies would be how we would evaluate the appropriate response the plan also calls for modernizing the Nuclear Arsenal thats something the last administration wanted to do and at the time they said it was going to cost more than a trillion dollars over thirty years this plan would undoubtedly be even more expensive and that has not been something that congress has been really willing to fund at this point. U. S. Also wants to build a new kind of weapon a Nuclear Warhead with less impact but critics say that could make nuclear war more likely they are literally having weapons that give the president more options to start a nuclear war and that is becoming dangerous piggly we have this president who we all know is impetuous irrational and not always unsound mind recently three high ranking former diplomats went to capitol hill with the warning that the Massive Destructive force of a Nuclear Weapon was no longer appreciated or even feared by some in those days people seem to have an appreciation of what would what would be the result of a Nuclear Weapon it ever used i fear people have lost that sense of dread the u. S. Under President Trump is trying to improve its Nuclear Arsenal and the potential reasons to use it they say in order to improve the odds it wont have to particle hane aljazeera washington. Just before we speak to i guess i want to put all this and sort of perspective of got a Global Nuclear map here actually a advent diagram remember those from metz classes in school list of thing which basically shows the countries in the left hand circle are the ones which have Nuclear Power the ones on the right are the ones with Nuclear Weapons and the ones in the middle have both so its the usual suspects United States france russia india the u. K. China but also notice theres actually belgium and the netherlands there not necessarily with their own weapons but under agreements with the United States or nato they will house and facilitate Nuclear Weapons in their territories so its those countries in the middle that were talking about and were talking about it with china white is an assistant professor of Political Science at the university of nebraska joining us via skype now from lincoln nebraska and it is good to have you with us i guess we need to be fair hair and look at it on both sides the Current Us Administration its argument is that we need to be prepared for the world that exists now not the world that we would like to have hence lets before power austin ill and make sure that where ready for all of this its an argument. Yet thanks again for having me on so its an argument that we weve always sort of heard being me and let me look at the Nuclear Posture review that just came out and its actually being its coming out in writing now when obama stood in prague and basically gave the speech about getting to zero or at least his his ideal goal of getting to zero you know the world. So one could argue that this is kind of a natural progression where the Nuclear Posture review is going in terms of wanting to increase Nuclear Production modernize the arsenal and do all those different kinds of things but the reality is that you know while the United States may want may want to at least under obama want to scale back its reliance on Nuclear Weapons the rest of the world sort of went the other direction particularly with russia and russia faces an extension threat from United States but the United States and its nato allies have a much bigger military and then the russians do and so they are going to rely more on Nuclear Weapons as a way of deterring what they would see as u. S. Or nato aggression and what does that do to us if its us into a corner so as to interrupt or when where or about when we talk about the modernization in the sense of russia and china particularly what does that mean does that mean bigger Nuclear Weapons does that mean different ways of of delivering them what do you think. Absolutely so theres two different kinds of proliferation weve got vertical proliferation and horizontal proliferation horizontal as is new people getting Nuclear Weapons but what we really like to focus on with respect to china and russia is this vertical proliferation meaning are they building new types of Nuclear Weapons. In this case russia has placed a big emphasis on tactical Nuclear Weapons right so those are smaller yields that can be used on the battlefield they came out a few years ago with a policy statement called escalate to deescalate which basically meant that if they were losing a conventional war they would try to use a Nuclear Weapon to try to get the other side to back off which really lowers the threshold for nuclear use if you look at the Nuclear Posture review that just came out the United States is now trying to addressed escalate to deescalate by basically also making the argument that they might use lower yield Nuclear Weapons at a much lower threshold than previously we would do tom have had a question from one of our viewers on facebook and this is also related to im not sure if you heard it before but our Previous Story about north korea apparently violating sanctions and selling. Nuclear and chemical weapons themselves people saying here if the u. S. And israel and their allies can sell arms then why cant north korea and other nations sell arms or indeed have them why is this such a concern now not that might be a sort of simplified look at it bought there is some truth to that as well if one side can have oms then this is sort of what the United States is saying well if they have got them well have them as well. Yes i mean certainly the the accusation of hypocrisy at United States and other large arms producers is it you know theres some truth to it why cant the North Koreans be doing you know the same thing because what else do they really have to sell other than arms and a couple of other things that we may find to be illicit. But i mean when it comes down to it the United States and russia is still i think were trying to exert some kind of sphere of influence that they thought would be stabilizing fundamentally stabilizing to the International Order and i think when you look at what north korea does and some of these others you know the large powers the big powers see that is fundamentally destabilizing so you know theres theres certainly the claim of hypocrisy there and im not claim to defend either side but i think thats the argument they would be very balanced augmented as to tunnel white thank you so much for your time to appreciate that. At the end of last year i can the International Committee to abolish Nuclear Weapons was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and al jazeera got the exclusive interview on that one it was conducted as you see there by james bays and fall about to bow out with questions from the audience in real time as well it was a special live event which you can watch for yourself in our special series section if you just search for the nobel interview i can i see a. Thank you for your questions that have already come in if you want to send a man heres how you do it hashtags a. J. News grid on which have a platform youre choosing to watch or interact it might be twitter where were monitoring the hash tag a j news grid and the account of at a. J. English which you can reply to tweets there facebook dot com slash aljazeera is where the live stream is up and running every day and you can comment as you watch the watch that number is passant seven four five zero one triple one four nine for comments questions and contributions we will move on. Corsica are actually nationalists on the French Island of corsica want more autonomy and they have hit the streets to make their demands known the protests come just three days before president emanuel mccrum is to visit since nationalist parties one Regional Elections of december they have become shall we say a bit more confident they include officially recognizing their language and freeing Political Prisoners so far politicians have not followed the example of for example spains catalan nationalists and made a full bid for independence so here is David Chaytor he is in the capital of course i just see oh and well the numbers look to be increasing there behind you from what ive seen earlier david talk us through it. Yes this demonstration this march to this city the capital is meant to demonstrate one thing according to the nationalists its meant to show to press the macro who will be here in a few days of course it is not just a Regional Administration a part of france corsica is a country a nation and the people and now that they have a coalition of nationalists with an absolute majority in the course going to assembly they are saying that their demands must be met paris must start listening to what the the National Coalition is demanding because always in the background there is the fear of course that now there is an ultra nationalist coalition that theres a responsibility amongst those politicians to start getting the amendments to the constitution and the autonomy that these people gathered here today in the capital actually want so there is real pressure both on the corsican nationalists and on president macron to start listening to the demands to start a dialogue to start something new because the forty years of Armed Struggle more than ten thousand attacks bombings shootings an arson attacks it produced Something Like four hundred People Killed and many prisoners across france but the ballot box has been the most effective weapon there they have an absolute majority they have got to take this theyve got to go forward with the present macro and find some way of acceding to the demands of of course a good on top of that as you said of course is the course that is of course going language should be the official language here now that sounds very straightforward it sounds a simple enough thing to do but on the shasta goals the constitution of the fifth republic article two says theres only one language in the republic and that is french and if youre going to. Ainge that youre going to need a three fifths majority in the National Assembly as could be possible by the senate that is going to be much more difficult than it would appear at the moment but nevertheless they want to start negotiations on that very important point they also want that Political Prisoners as they call them back here on corsica no longer in the jails across france where its very difficult for the families here to visit them it costs them so much that they can hardly ever see them for any length of time now they want them in the state and they want them back on the island again a very difficult problem for president michel how is he going to manage that will he open the dialogue on that and what pressures will be on the from other parts of france as a result of opening those negotiations and thirdly perhaps very importantly for the people here they want to change in the property laws here because there are so many rich boys who are french and paris and the rest of the country who buy their holiday homes here and. Driving prices up for the locals and its not helping the economy in any way and its the economy that the people here and course go want france to try and fix and all of this before president microns even got there thank you David Schaper and corsica here is peter going who is a writer and journalist joining us now from grants go to talk a little bit more about this is it you know i mentioned a little bit earlier in the show the idea of what we saw in catalonia in spain even in scotland to a degree with the independence referendum there is it can you can you draw a comparison with course carol there or are they. Similar but different. I think all of these what i call substate National Movements and in europe are already similar but at the same time differences so theres differences between course of care cuts known as skull and flounders parts of the leaf so theres differences but i think theres also similarities as well also compete with particularly striking about corsica casone into an extent sculpt as well is that this idea of nationalism this idea of oh more and evolution of power of having more power even of independence has been longstanding and wane in two thousand and eight the financial crisis happened then dips the poor fortys parties who are advocating a kind of change i think asian more per definition are to increased and were seeing across europe this kind what we call anti politics this mood of disenchantment with the status quo and i think in places like corsica cuts only a skull them theres already a kind of language to talk about this that isnt necessarily a kind of extreme but its to do with nationalism so in these places where theres already discounted long running conversation around nationalism fulcher start to switch to these nationalist parties because they already exist theres already a sense for the people in these kind of regions that theres something weve not tried before and its independence are its more do you believe and i think whats not me of course it plays into this wider thing wider kind of phenomenon that were seeing across europe around some say nationalism and to that end it doesnt it creates a major headache for the European Union and the whole european project if you want to call it this way and i would include breaks it into this as well all these movements which are threatening what the e. U. Is supposed to be about. I think it does to some extent you know if you talk to a counselor nationals you talk to scottish ops this made them say we want to be part of your but we want to be independent and in europe but the problem for your opinion is its made up of existing states its made up one wants presently that look twenty seven existing states these existing states dont want to be broken up so spain for example is very much against this final stage is very much against Catalan Independence and likewise the British State if it was the european the french stations were hearing there in your news package is very very much against any kind of dilution of Central Power in france so the difficulty for the substate nationalisms is that even they might say that they want you part of the European Union European Union project is very much like keep its by increasing your making your poker he said but also keeping to get into states already exists in europe so this does cause a relax essential threat for your because of the one hundred European Unions conversations all around democracy is all around a kind of freedom of choice of selfdetermination but for these these substate nationalist sort of Hearing Council only or course when youre out there saying well are are kind of our set determination is not being listened to and i think this is a huge issue right across only which is unlikely to go away anytime soon moving slightly off from corsica is that it causes a huge headache from brussels because you have these cuts are not just large numbers of people in catalonia who want to vote on independence i understand of states going to give a thumbs up theres a huge change in pretty orkney in this and their process is going to be very worried about this kind of spread this word from embrace there when the reasons why your community is based in brussels is because belgium itself is this is a state which huge substate National Problems and brussels and his whole play base in your opinion are what keep belgium itself together so this substate national actually runs to the very heart of what the or king is about is trying to some respects suppress really interesting stuff isnt it and well keep going on here thank you so much for your time to appreciate that. Ive had a message on Facebook Live from weatherston who says please can you help tell the world about whats going on in southern cameroon thats what were going to give it to you then yeah this is one of the original conversations we followed in on news grid so in cameroon theres an english and french speaking part of the country the division started when the English Speaking southern cameroonian said they were not represented in or respected by the french speaking majority government southern cameroonians have been calling for independence so they can create their own country a place they call embers onya the government responded with a crackdown on the internet travel and continued raids on northwest and southwest parts of the country its unclear just how many people have died so far in the last year though the situation has gotten worse now just last week nigeria extradited forty seven cameroonian angle phone separatists theyve now been sent back to cameroon where the government has described them as terrorists among them was the president of the interim southern cameroons government ioke southern cameroonians are demanding his release and they want to know if the other separatists are still alive now the refugee wing of the un said that they condemn the forced return of the Asylum Seekers and we also urge the government of cameroon to ensure that the group is treated in accordance with human rights laws and standards president paul bia he has condemned all violence in the region in cameroon a few hours ago on his Facebook Page he resharing this post from a speech that he made last year now in it he said the government had to take measures to maintain order protect civilians and hand over to the judicial authorities those who committed or were suspected of committing these criminal acts hashtags have driven the conversation for southern cameroonians online they have a very unified voice all calling for amazonia to become its own state free of oppression by the current government chris here he is saying that we cannot afford to be second class citizens anymore now one of the most prominent voices online is jude runs a hes a political activists. Many thought the number now as we see it ten twenty independence other number because they have over the course of the last fifty plus yes we did as a systematic marginalization at the hands of the french german into going to arizona resilience asserting itself over one year now and they seem to be muscling them creating a sudden communions steer really just the boycotts course and fully respect goes down for income as was an independent country anyway so returning to the status quo is a matter of life and death for many. Other groups are saying cameron and southern cameroon need to work out their differences and stay as one country benjamin i keep calm day he is cameroonian and as an assistant professor at Syracuse University most English Speaking governments who support unity blame the government for bombing this crisis to Security Forces some of them are overworked and that make mistakes compounding the situation the solution to the crisis is not separation now the separatist group raconteurs themselves there are so many of them and their public raising money for the actions the way forward is to fault the government to think that we take auctions on to block the separatist. The spokesman for the u. N. Secretary secretary general said he supports upholding the unity and territorial integrity of cameroon and urges all parties to refrain from acts that could lead to an escalation of tension and violence the secretary general believes that genuine and inclusive dialogue between the government and the communities in the southwest and northwest regions is the best way to preserve the unity and stability of the country now if youre in cameroon please continue to write us we received hundreds of messages from you a day and we very much appreciate hearing from you keep saying a story ideas and sharing your story with us you can write me directly at leo hardy and a. J. Either you can continue to his or hash tag a. J. News grid which is exactly what i thank you lou its just what hilton has done using our Facebook Live at the moment who is there and this isnt just a reminder that back in. April twenty first of nine hundred sixty one there was actually a u. N. General assembly not Security Council General Assembly resolution sixty now its an hilton says older sixty four countries who voted that day for the independence of southern cameroon must rise to defend their votes and that thats why back to nine hundred sixty one so this is a story with a lot of history and developing more and more as lisa said with a hash tag a. J. Newsgroup this is the newsgroup if youre watching us on facebook by. Now weve got a story for you coming up right now about the dead level pilots of colombia risking it all to connect remote reaches of the amazon and then later Cryptocurrency Bitcoins up and down like a yo yo these past months creating nervous times for investors but theres also much more to digital money than just volatility were looking at that in just a moment. Hello there weve got a fair amount of cloud thats making its way across the middle east at the moment you can see it hit making its way across turkey edging its way eastwards. Toppling its way through parts of iraq there so loss of cloud them with us as we head through sunday not a great deal of rain though the rain really just in the far North Western parts of turkey elsewhere just quite grey not too cold either were looking at a top temperature in beirut of around twenty or twenty one degrees the cloud gradually sinks a little bit further southwards as we head through the day on monday twenty one there in baghdad further east its cooler for us here six degrees is a maximum on monday in kabul and from r. T. Will get to minus six before the south and here in doha it certainly feels cold if you are out in the wind but that when should ease as we head through the next few days so well go from twenty two to about twenty three on monday but monday will feel warmer and theyll be less of a breeze this area of cloud is making its way away from oh man so it should be a bit brighter for some of us here as we head through the next couple of days even further towards the south and for many of us in the southern parts of africa theres plenty of wet weather stretching down from angola all the way down into the eastern parts of south africa heavy downpours are likely here its gradually pushing its way northward but unfortunately for cape town theres no rain on the horizon. Theyre the children of jailed chinese criminals with nowhere else to go one beijing shelter is giving them a home when he speaks the children growing up with their parents behind bars at this time on aljazeera. I sometimes feel that we are really looking into the hearts and the so of those directly involved in events taking place very good at telling all sides of the story from the political elites to those people whove been affected you really get to know whats happening on the ground thats very important for me as a Third Generation past like and often feel that my continent is misrepresented and weve changed that your story is important to us it doesnt matter where you come from. On counting the cost some of the biggest names in tech out with record earnings but theyre also under scrutiny by regulators in whats being told at the sec clash a look at business relations between the u. K. And china plus another scandal in the german Auto Industry counting the cost at this time on aljazeera. The headlines are at aljazeera dot com and whats trending as well apparently cryptocurrency here to. Thats what weve been talking about and i going to be talking about in more detail later on the newsgroup not a big mix of stories including that one of number two just to do with the good g. C. C. Diplomatic crisis a belief that carter or that Saudi Arabian the u. A. E. Wants to invade qatar rather than just put the blockade in place that sort of just come out today you want the latest on that very thing else to head to aljazeera dot com. For whats trending. Cryptocurrency coming up on the news good we will be talking a lot more about that going beyond the headlines of all the ups and downs with the returns on it and actually looking at what it means for the future of the currency thats still to come right now in london with more International News for us i ask all six african migrants have been injured with one in a life threatening condition in what appears to have been a racially motivated attack in italy the group of five men and one woman were targeted in the drive by shooting in the essentially talian town of natural at a place of arrested a man who was wrapped in an italian flag during a nazi salute is a former merrill candidate for the far right northern the county. Russian warplanes have renewed asterix on rebel held areas of a province in syria at least seven people were killed when a car was hit in aleppo the opposition in italy had been bombarded for weeks by Syrian Government forces and their russian yes also targeted the rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta near the capital damascus Government Forces have besieged the area for five years at least two people have been killed nineteen others injured in attacks on turkish towns near the border with syria. Turkey says the rockets were fired from a kurdish enclave of africa where theres been two weeks of intense fighting to be launched operation only brunch to clear the region of syrian turkish Kurdish Forces known as the white p. G. Turkish forces are fighting alongside the Free Syrian Army stephanie jacka has more from the turkey syria border. Turkey has been focusing on pushing the white p. G. Away from its border areas with footy and theres been heavy outgoing artillery not just now as you can hear but really throughout the two week period that this offensive is now carrying on its not an easy flight the f. S. A. Those are the Free Syrian Army fighters theyve been pushing along these borders as well along with turkish soldiers theyve taken some areas but there are still certainly pockets of wife. Along these border areas and just briefly also particular when it comes to the civilians inside these areas we understand that from those villages most of them have fled further inside to syria to seek safety but very very difficult for them because no aid can get in to are freed and as you can hear along these villages along the border it is a very Ongoing Campaign and the Free Syrian Army says it will investigate allegations its funny to do to later the corpse of a female member of the wife p. G. Pitches paying tribute to a very income bombing are being circulated on social media a video seen by aljazeera appears to show Free Syrian Army family says standing over her body in a village near the turkish border. The cattery defense minister says saudi arabia and the United Arab Emirates had intended to invade his country last june and the beginning of the gulf diplomatic crisis howlett been mohamed atta here told the Washington Post that capitals gulf neighbors have in his words tried everything to destabilize the country saudi arabia the u. A. E. Egypt cut ties with qatar and imposed a blockade after accusing it of supporting terrorism capital has strongly denied the allegations the u. N. Human rights body is calling for the Immediate Release of an al jazeera journalist from an egypt jail saying his imprisonment violates International Laws my quote hussein was jailed almost fourteen months ago for broadcasting false news to spread chaos both he and aljazeera deny the accusations assange has repeatedly complained of mistreatment while in prison Elizabeth Witchell is the Impunity Campaign consultant at the committee to protect journalists she says the working conditions for journalists around the world are getting much worse when it comes to imprisonment were seeing those numbers rise over the last few years and two thousand and seventeen was a historical high in terms of the president s that weve documented worldwide so so in that sense were seeing. It its an extremely precarious time to be a journalist particularly if youre a local journalist. Near you youre covering you know your own communities your you are. From the countries where we see repressive tactics. And terms of violence were still seeing journalists attacked routinely and were seeing still seeing high numbers of journalists killed you know last year we did record a small drop in in numbers of journalists killed and journalists murdered. This is a Welcome Development but this is also a drop following years of historical highs in that area as well thats it for me if they ask right now about to come all in doha thank you so we are as promised going to talk cryptocurrency is now where the headline once again is the volatility of their unofficial fly bera bit coin only as recently as november you know it was trading as high as nineteen thousand dollars but by friday it had slumped as you see below eight thousand dollars in fact in these past week bitcoin lost over a third of its Value Investors nerves were rattled when japanese financial regulators stepped in to correct computer floors at a critter current sea exchange but not before hackers that actually stolen five hundred thirty Million Dollars worth of digital money and into the dramas facebook is banning all crypto currency advertisement on its platform and also governments are moving in to try to regulate the trade youve got china and south korea banning any new cyber currencies india says its stopping the use of them all together the u. K. Has warned investors they could lose money if they were to invest in socalled i see these initial offerings that may or may not have made a lot of sense to you but were going to talk to Garrick Harman about it made some sense he is a researcher at Cambridge University and we thank you for your time today jared just to deal with the headline briefly and that is the volatility in the price falls and all of that thing i wonder is that actually a distraction is really bitcoin about the technology the roll out of something new a change in the way we deal with money and the investment side of things in the returns have got everyone sort of a bit startled. Well i think you know the technology is absolutely probably the big story but the price is what does get the headlines and deservedly so i mean we havent seen an instrument quite as volatile as bitcoin in recent times and in contrast to the popular view that somehow this volatility is a negative i actually see it as a positive because it does actually raise awareness around it quite it does attract speculators which increases liquidity it certainly is a scary ride for those who are buying into big coin but its actually been i think one of the big strengths of the coin right so lets strip that away from alvin the volatility because thats ive said in the sense of my views before i really want to get into this a bit more about where its taking us the idea of these Digital Transactions the fact that this technology will become a part of our everyday lives eventually but not right now am i correct in saying that you know the mechanisms the transaction fees and things like that are a bit restrictive at the moment thats absolutely right big point has become pretty much impractical to use for everyday transactions like purchasing a cup of coffee fees have climbed as high in recent weeks as forty dollars per transaction regardless of the amount of money youre actually spending so it only makes sense to use big koans for payments if youre looking at say buying an expensive piece of art or house. Not a cup of coffee so its not like pay pal basically its not like a more fancy direction of paper well its original. You know that the intent behind originally was to create a an alternative payment rail or Payment System that didnt have a centralized party like pay pal at the center of it but more recently big point is being described as digital gold as an asset rather than a means of payment it seems to be serving that function a store of value or an instrument for speculation more than as a medium of exchange and. What do you have used on the safety of it all because again the headlines jump out about hacks of five hundred thirty Million Dollars with a bit going governments are getting a bit spooked and trying to regulate and you and i have talked about the regulation side of things before is there an inherent safety risk with bitcoin and with crypto currency there absolutely is and its important that people who are thinking about owning crypto currencies understand the various ways that they are. You know unsafe or challenging to hold securely the hack you mentioned where half a billion dollars worth of crypto currency was stolen from a Japanese Exchange is just the latest in a long line of subsite such cyber half sacks more recently as well just not too far from where i am here in england a family was held up at gunpoint in their home until they agreed to transfer cryptocurrency to four assailants who tied up the wife and put the baby in a pram outside and forced. The husband to transfer currency so there is a lot of risk especially scripta currency becomes more valuable for various attacks thank you for explaining all of that together i do appreciate it Derek Cummings joining us from time bridge fam. So people who think we need to educate themselves on crypto currency that were going to bring lear in to talk about this because i know there was so much chatter about it online and i wonder if that sort of distorts the whole conversation it doesnt as the the flow of bitcoins worth goes up and down so too does the conversation but when it drops when the value of it drops the conversation online definitely goes up were seeing hundreds of thousands of tweets using the hash tags bitcoin crypto crash and crypto currency many are calling this a rough week for the Crypto Market which it was and are sharing advice about how to move forward if they have invested but in the us seventy six percent of folks do not even know what bitcoin is so as you could expect theres a lot of speculation online on one hand were seeing headlines saying that bitcoin is doomed altogether where others are saying that a drop in the market is pretty normal for us here he thinks that its difficult to maintain trust in bitcoin he says that were stuck in trading range until theres some major consensus on the key issues on the big question and its future then you have jeremy here hes a bit more positive saying that by buying bitcoin you could have traded for a revolutionary form of money rome wasnt built in a day he said and neither will be this powerful new medium for the exchange of value and then we have matthews reaction he tweeted saying that if you believe in crypto currency for the long term and you made sure you actually researched what you were putting into your money this crypto crash should just be viewed as a black friday we want to know how you see but coins future panning up do you use social media as a means of researching kryptos you can message me directly at least hard a. J. He sent us a Whatsapp Message or use our trusty hash tag jane is great thank you back on inside story back in december i tried to get back to basics with crypto currencies when it was up at those astronomical highs if you still news or the whole idea of this is not a bad addition to watch it. Just to deal with the whats in the house in the wise also the inside story tamed with john doesnt i think it is looking at this again tonight saturday first airing of that is at seventeen thirty g. M. T. It is ninety minutes after the news grid and you should watch that episode with that fellow on screen right now hell explain it all i promise you now china is the one belt of one road project to link beijing with the rest of asia and europe is now weaving its way through now project includes a multibillion dollar high speed rail line being built by china critics though say its too expensive this is another in our global trade routes series wind hey reports from long. These normally quiet previously untouched hills of northern laos and they are filled with the sights and sounds of heavy construction around the turn of the one problem rapid progress is being made on a chinese built high speed train line it will cut through here and cross the mekong river on its way from Southern China to the lao capital vienna. The communist government of laos says it wants the landlocked country to become land linking beijing sees this project as a key part of its belt and road infrastructure plan linking china with the rest of asia europe and beyond when this line is completed it will run for more than four hundred kilometers more than sixty percent of which will consist of bridges and tunnels that makes it a very expensive project one that some say laos cant afford experts worry it will add to the governments already heavy debt loads the cost of the project is six billion dollars with most of the money coming from chinese grants and loans this is significant because. It is only. For been very young so close to fifty percent of g. D. P. In this project would be in five years time so that in an experiment. Of Public Investment just for those process. One of the stops will be just outside the one providing which is a unesco listed town for its unique lao and french architecture there is concern the new project will attract too many tourists putting a strain on the towns facilities and infrastructure. That many people in Small Businesses here survive off the Tourism Industry so the prospect of more visitors spending money is welcomed. You know about three years ago there were two reasons but now there arent as many so we are earning less money so were looking forward to the train happening but i. Some studies have found that china will receive most of the economic benefits from the large projects its involved in around the region laos is one of asias poorest countries so when the railway is finished by late two thousand and twenty one it will be hoping its begin this mint will start paying off straight away wayne hay al jazeera long providing laos so its all part of the silk road revival which chinas ever seen they call it one belt one row theres a good edition of counting the cost actually which really explains very well this mission to connect up actually three billion people across asia africa and europe counting the cost it is in the shows section of down to zero dot com just search for china silk road now tension is rising over who controls the worlds longest river the nile youve got egypt sudan ethiopia and eritrea all with different views about the building of what would be the largest them in Africa Charlotte bellus as that story. Oh. Sudanese troops massed on the border with eritrea theyre responding to reports that eritrean any gyptian soldiers are on the other side. Sudan believes egypt sent troops to earth try a month ago a move sparked by a lent dispute over whats called the highlight triangle and warming relations between sudan and turkey you know. We are now confirming that we are ready here in this place and that our forces are ready to do what is asked of them at any time the border closed last month sudans ambassador in cairo was recalled and now this sudanese troops same to the border. But the tensions between egypt and sudan didnt stop here. Into ethiopia what is planned to be africas biggest hydroelectric dam is sixty Percent Complete and designed to revolutionize ethiopias economy turning it into the continents largest Power Generator an exporter. The five billion dollar dam is being built on the blue nile river fifteen kilometers from sudans border sudan supports the dam because it will regulate floods provide electricity and irrigation but egypts president. Who seeks reelection next month says the dam would disrupt the flow of the nile to almost one hundred million egyptians and potentially cripple the farming industry ethiopia accuses the egyptian ally eritrea of sending rebels to sabotage the dam eritrea denies it. Sisi says he doesnt want to work with his neighbors the three president s made on monday an address abba and a show of unity. We can all be completely assured in ethiopia in sudan in a new egypt as responsible leaders we met we spoke and we agreed and there will be no damages on anyone and whats in the interest of ethiopia is in the interest of egypt in the interest of saddam is in the interest of egypt and what an egypt interest is also in that of ethiopia we are speaking as one nation not three nations with one voice. That image however contradicted by these latest pictures from the Sudanese Border the question of who controls the nile the worlds longest river and the regions most valuable resource is threatening military confrontation bellus al jazeera. If youre watching us on Facebook Live keep it here during the break our friends from major plus have a tale of two cities in california right old spin you look at why in sports first im looking a look at some international weather. From Satellite Technology to three d. Printing and recycled waste to solar powered classrooms africa is transforming young innovators are propelling change Building Communities creating employment and solving problems theyre challenging systems and shaping new ones its about creative thinkers shaping their continents future innovate africa at this time on aljazeera. Winning news breaks when people need to be heard. Lucky too good to me is. Already there in. My brain and this story needs to be tuned just largest catholic country is witnessing a dramatic rise in teenage pregnancy aljazeera has teams on the ground to bring the mood winning documentaries. And live news on on and. Its hard to talk sports i dont know a lot about possible but i know anything to do the brangelina crunching its a big deal or a big deal. Hes the biggest name in the n. B. A. Right now Le Bron James is in the spotlight once again the four time m. V. P. Has come out and denied reports of these going to ditch the Cleveland Cavaliers to join arch rivals and current n. B. A. Champions the Golden State Warriors the cavs forward who can opt out of his current contract this summer spoke following reports on e. S. P. N. The us network claiming he would meet with golden state in the offseason if they opened up a sufficient salary space to land them a bronze cleveland side lost to the warriors in last seasons finals and have been under par this season they do have the third best record in the in the east but have lost twenty out of fifty games. Were going to stay. Conversation nonstory on the other conversation nonstory my focus right now is to try to figure out how we can get bread or a farm for chimps or Everything Else. Is not about this team when i ask you about this thing are you sure the better. Place for us is a city known as the bone the no no no the ok now these reports have sent thousands of n. B. A. Fans into a tizzy heres just a bit of what theyve been saying on social media poll tweeted how the United States went to bed in a world in which Le Bron James would never play for the Golden State Warriors sleep a well my friends heres one from twelve up sport who says Le Bron James denied his rumored interest in joining golden state worries because even in the braun knows that he would literally become the most hated man in sports if he did that possibly for the second time now heres something from sam waking up hearing kim james might go to the warriors and this video he added pretty much sums it up. Killing themselves a lot. It was sad and they were gone and not joy down. Well joining us now from toronto is victorian eugene shes a n. B. A. News editor at the score now there are transfer rumors all the time why has this one in particular got people so wound up. I think people are really wound up just because of the names involved were talking about the best player in the game and lebron james joining the best team in the league in the Golden State Warriors so everyone knows or people think that thats not really fair and you know that would just create one huge powerhouse that nobody can defeat so theres that its a names and also the history between these two sides obviously le bron has met the warriors in three consecutive n. B. A. Finals winning in twenty sixteen but losing in the other two so i think the rivalries there and you know nobody. Like it just the optics of joining a rival i think are also another reason why people are like no dont do that. Well he left cleveland to go to miami to win trophies its not the first time he would be ditching his team to go for glory can we really begrudge him for that. It wouldnt be the first time and a lot of people were actually really upset the first time when he said im taking my talents to south beach this time would be different and i think in the eyes of many people would be worse just because its not like. Miami and cleveland are really rivals i mean theyre comping you know theyre in the same conference but just the fact that lebron has lost to the warriors in the last three years. Its just the circumstances are really different from when he joined the heat and you know the warriors are already the overwhelming favorite to win the championship so for him you know the best player again in the game to leave and just join a team thats already so stacked like its you know like people are ready think no ones going to topple the warriors but imagine the warriors with Le Bron James like its just not fair and so i think it would upset a lot of people in the league who care about parity or who would like to see other teams have a chance to get considering he cut off date of his contract this summer is there any truth to these rumors or could he go somewhere else. Yes absolutely its definitely on the table because he can opt out and and everyone like its pretty Common Knowledge that i would say that he is most likely going to opt out of his deal just so he because he can make more money he has a thirty five point six Million Dollars player option that doesnt necessarily mean hes going to leave cleveland he doesnt have to he can obviously opt out and then resign there but you know depending on how this season oh sorry yet no sorry were going to have to leave it there for now but thank you so much for your time victoria nugent and thanks for joining our pleasure. Now as always wed like to hear your thoughts on any of the sports stories we talk about here on aging you screen you can tweet me directly add after underscore small ill be back with more at eight hundred g. M. T. But for now back to call tara thank you so much for that thatll do it for this news grid as far as is the ways to get in touch with the hashtag a. J. Used of course dont forget to look out for our contributions on twitter and facebook dot com slash aljazeera content goes up there as well as the live stream every day and we will see you right back here in studio fourteen zero down to zero fifteen hundred hours g. M. T. Again for the newsgroup tomorrow something. Architecture. Was just ten years old when a devastating earthquake struck mexico city in one thousand nine hundred five the quake damaged her familys apartment and the government moved them to distant shack around seventy families who lost their homes in that earthquake still live in this camp set up at the gallop the government raised our hopes and then abandoned us politicians have promised that they wont allow a repeat of what happened after the earthquake in one thousand eight hundred five but the cost and complexity of housing hundreds of People Living in camps is a major task and one that many people here think the government fail. To benefit those people. See being polled in all these. Documentaries that open your eyes. At this time on aljazeera. Thinks african migrants are injured in the shooting and its silly in what Police Believe is a racially motivated