Transcripts For ALJAZ NEWSHOUR 20240714

Knows well the chemistry of the dreamliner battery. Boeing chose the most powerful there is but also the most volatile they went to lithium. Which is why here is our danger look so stepped down to secure a plane president just before the fire he started a new company to make lithium ion batteries for business jets. Bugs i was a true believer in the technology. Then he began testing 23. 3 m. Series. Battery that. Went beyond even the latest industry guidelines going so far as to fire bullets into batteries to see if they could be made safe military applications. You know you could run the test that you feel that you need to meet the requirements to be safe but. You also need to have a conscience thats going to tell you i want to do the extreme. In the end testing with a conscience couldnt make the batteries meet the requirements is new company failed. We became professional and destroying batteries and and in the more we learned about it the worse it got i mean with home i got him to give in to him and we were saying i wonder what the rest of the guys are doing well i guess we knew why. By the rest of the guys he means boeing. And they were testing too weak a standard one written by the f. A. A. Specifically for the dreamliner. Its the f. A. A. Is job to regulate safety but when it comes to building airplanes the f. A. A. Delegate service side almost completely to the aircraft manufacturers. When it comes to the battery and beyond boeing largely polices itself the batteries passed boeings tests in line with the f. A. A. Rules boeing said the 787 batteries would virtually never catch fire on board an aircraft then they failed twice in just 9 days. Boeing has not uncovered the root cause of the failures. It found a work around. A strong steel case morning too late. And in exhaust the no interest fuels any fire will be a hospital because theres not enough oxygen to support combustion but several leading scientists have their doubts i dont think its a sufficient fix even inside that steel box with all of its fortifications all the elements are still there for fire. Despite not knowing the root. Americas safety regulator the f. A. A. Was satisfied. And in april 2013 the dreamliner was back. But this story goes far beyond a burning battery it begins at boeing itself. Is it the 1st american commercial jet capable of economical Transatlantic Service the boeing 707 jet. Since its creation in seattle nearly a century ago boeing had developed a reputation as a world class engineering company. But in 1970 boeing changed. In merged with competitor mcdonnell douglas. 2 companies with 2 very different Business Models. The merger was all about transforming our successful culture and Business Model into the same business while the doll dogs had used unsuccessfully you basically insure g. G. Miriam is stop doing aggressive new product go into your other business for cash. The new boeing moved its headquarters from seattle the only home the company had ever known to chicago. It began slashing investment in research in order to cut costs. And maximize wall street returns. I felt was wrong i felt the company was going to come in the wrong direction and. I thought that quality would suffer and the integrity of the product would suffer. The feel that that legacy and now history in a clump of time. Has been hijacked. By a bunch of course. By 2003 it was time to launch a new plane. But boeings new board was reluctant to invest the billions needed. The board made it clear that. They wanted this plan made for less money they wanted it made for 5000000000. 00. They wanted parkers the command to pay the rest. Its expensive so how do you make that happen well you promised them that you can do it for words and then worry about the consequences later. Boeing came up with a plan to save itself money. It would push the costs on to its major suppliers. Boeing would call them pumice. And they would design and pay for the parts they built. Boeings job would be to assemble the plane. It was almost as if at times you thought boeing executives believed well maybe they could sit in chicago and have other companies do things they would just rake in the money somehow by putting it all together putting a boeing sticker on it at the end. Right on show jewel boeing rolled out the dreamliner on sunday july the 8th 2007. 787. Their alliance with us today have made a big commitment to boeing out of this airplane so far they have ordered 600 and 77th birthday. To you a lot of ways enjoy 2007 it was one of the more magical moments seen in the industry watching us live around the World Broadcasting im told in 45 countries in mind languages for the fear of this very exciting new boeing 787 dreamliner. We were all inside the factory with artificial lighting big stage tom brokaw huge screens. I. Then open the doors of this giant assembly bay a new roles this beautiful beautiful. There it is sitting in the sun and we all stream outside and well touch it. And none of us know that. And im reassured by all the executives involved that its going to fly within 2 months. What i realized Walking Around it is that you could you know. Look up in the wheel well and you can see daylight. We learn that the whole thing was shot. Beautiful isnt absolutely beautiful. They roll like this fish airplane. I realize the doors are made of plywood this plan that we were admiring was completely a shell inside none of this would be possible of course without Exceptional Leadership theres only 2 conclusions you can draw you have executives there who are either in which case theyre clueless because theyre going to get caught in 2 months or you have a complete disconnect between the people who are working on the play and the engineers and the executives who are saying this and so to each and every member of the sudden a sudden global team i say thank you. Congratulations and keep up the great work more than any other single event. It was a good line and it was a statement that the boeing company is now poem about the big lie. The day off to the roll out wall street pushed boeing stock to a 10 year high. But it was all about one rival as revealed in boeings investor calls. Car. Around. September 2007 boeing announces its 1st delay. The all your audi airplane goes to gather. Really complicated. Oct 2007 the 3 month delay becomes 6 months we wish we didnt have to do this. Kind of Innovation Challenges there were doing our best to meet. The target 20096 months becomes 2 years of delays. We know we can and must do better and im confident that despite our setbacks we will get 787 through the Flight Test Program and into the hands of our cause. It just kept getting worse and worse and it seems unbelievable you have to understand this is all the president there never been a boeing to land a boeing program the sequence of events which is awful on like a catastrophe rather then just a manageable series and away as. The dreamliner a Business Strategy was backfiring. Designed to save so much money it was costing boeing billions. The outsourcing plan failed very badly all these different suppliers who were going to build these major sections couldnt actually do it. To fix the dreamliner boeing dispatched hundreds of Quality Inspectors to struggling supply is around the globe including to its partner and linea in southern italy ringback. We are just looking through a day on a part of the full office. Ready would take on the topic of constructing the body of the plane not without a minion panels but with composite plastic barrels. The Main Objective to lose weight. Saving fuel and making the 707. 00 cheaper to run. But no one had ever made anything like this before not boeing and especially not in linea that is not the home of all of that on the market and nothing else like that. Boeings Quality Inspectors have one overriding priority to make sure the job is done correctly. In 2009 when inspectors found fools in parts made in this a lenny a plant. They would work to stop. A year later in a linear as other factory they again found Serious Problems and again they wanted work to stop. But this time manages overruled the Quality Inspectors. This internal boeing document from 2010 reveals executives ordered a linea to continue with fabrication without delay we follow all of the time the proceeded to stall but with the help of a boring specialist at the time there was a word in this prove it condition they took responsibility for approving the quality and we would continue to warfare engine and the product. In a separate memo obtained by aljazeera boeing states that she may required deviations to the preferred quality process. We received the memos from an engineer who like many we spoke with was afraid to appear on camera so he answered my questions by email. The quality engineer told us deviating. In the process compromised safety. A lineage boeing said it did not. So i brought the memo to the former president of boeings Engineers Union so my name is cynthia kohl c y n t h a last name c o l e since your cold spent 32 years at the company but never on the Dreamliner Program ringback. So she had never seen this memo before ready. The Program Schedule may require deviation to the preferred process see that was says right there that one fragment of the sounds you know you dont you dont change your quality process for schedule you make quality happen in the schedule. Theyre short changing the engineering process to meet a schedule and theyre not even allowing Quality Control to do their job and theyre telling them this is how its going to be i dont see how these people who write these things and agree to these things honestly if you hear how they how they sleep at night i just dont get it how can you do that. As an engineer i find that reprehensible. How does it make you feel as a fly. Oh yeah i know fire so is though and. It just makes you know because ive been kind of avoiding finalists only and seeing this i would definitely avoid fire. On counting the cost this week were on patrol off the coast of west africa as nations deployed naval forces to counter the scourge of piracy. Off the 6 years of treading water gold prices are on the rise plus how iraq plans to cut its. Counting the cost on aljazeera the latest news as it breaks. With details coverage no one is willing to return home to me on my own without. Papers and security guarantees from around the world the talent is facing the new Prime Minister and negotiate a new bricks that day a deal the e. U. Says cannot be renegotiated. America is divided like never before each side is so convinced that they are absolutely correct that the other side is dangerous people in power investigates how partisan politics are writing the civil norms vital to american democracy every indicator shows america to be the least well functioning democracy of any established democracy. One of the strange death of american civility on aljazeera. I was raised in france. These are my grandparents. These are my parents and this is mean. By them both isis and us on. The 1st of a 2 part epic tale of a remarkable family. The father the son and the jihad part one on aljazeera. Oh i Maryam Namazie in london just a quick look at the headlines now months of deadly bombardment have come to a pause in northwest syria after the government announced a conditional cease fire as strikes have halted in italy province which is syrias last rebel stronghold the truce was announced during peace talks in kazakhstan the opposition says they will abide by the deal as long as the government doesnt violate it there are fears the latest Ebola Outbreak in the democratic republic of congo could last for 2 to 3 years countries about a Response Team says the government there is only identifying about 50 percent of all the cases authorities are trying to trace anyone who came into contact with the latest victim of the virus in the congolese city of goma they say the man who died on wednesday had a large family and infected several people. U. S. President donald trump has announced a deal to sell more american beef to europe his government says its a modest win as washingtons trade war with china escalates exports to the bloc will increase by more than 40 percent in the 1st year but the deal still needs to be approved by the e. U. Parliament. The agreement today will lower trade barriers in europe and expand access for American Farmers and ranchers in year one duty free american beef exports to the e. U. Will increase by 46 percent over 7 years there will increase by another 90 percent the e. U. Has chosen book areas christina caregiver as its candidate to lead the International Monetary fund a 65 year old is the current chief executive at the world bank the i. M. F. Twin organization for my i. M. F. Chief Francis Christine legarde resigned in july after e. U. Leaders chose at her place mario draghi as the European Central Bank President under a convention with the u. S. A european usually leads the i. M. F. And an American National head to the well bank. And u. S. Rapper asap rocky has been released from custody pending a verdict in his assault trial in sweden prosecutors have asked judges to impose a 6 month prison sentence the lawyers say asap israel name is ricky myers should be sentenced harshly because they believe he threw a bottle at the alleged victim during a street fight on june 30th why is denies using the bottle in the scuffle but admits he acted in self defense judges will hand down the verdict on aug 14th rewind now continues but i will be back with the news hour 2100. 00 g. M. T. In about half an hour from now do join me then. If the dreamliner represents boeings future. And ive come to the place where that future will be built. In this Assembly Plant in charleston South Carolina. Ive been called to a meeting with a man who works inside the plant. Hes taking a huge risk even talking to me. Its been eating me alive to know what i know and i have no appetite no venue to say anything. At his request we used a different voice. 300 souls on the plane their lives its bigger than me. We had seen reports of bad workmanship in the plot. But the man claimed the problems of falling deeper. With all the problems reported on the 787 theres 90 percent its get swept away hushed up. Its an iceberg. The people that actually work on it are the biggest problem there isnt an educated under skilled and uncaring staff that are building these planes and im not the only one that feels that way and he was prepared to prove it wearing a camera inside the plant to record what some workers said about the dreamliner. So. You cant have somebody from mcdonalds do heart surgery thats trusting someone with your life thats what were doing here. Ive seen a lot of things that should not go on at an airplane plant people talking about doing drugs looking for drugs. Like in a plane. Like this someone right now i could just walk up to this. You know put your. When boeing 1st announced a 787 back in 2003 nobody ever dreamt it would have been assembled anyway but washington state. The one place boeing to always made its commercial aircraft. But new boeing was playing by new rules so it did something into never done before. Final assembly to the highest bidder. They were going to hold a competition for a steer against a nationwide competition were to build this plant. Iran to my editor after i put the phone down i think it was 5 oclock and i said youre going to believe this theyre going theyre not necessarily going to go here. Washington state one but only by giving boeing what was then a record 3000000000. 00 in tax breaks. 5 years later owns machinists would go off the job after contract because you should install. The strike cost boeing billions and added to the dreamliner has delays. Boeing stock was in freefall a major Global Economic crisis. That strike really enraged the top executives at boeing. So early in 2 sides in the night they made it very clear that they wanted a 2nd assembly made somewhere else. That turned out to be South Carolina the state offered cheap land and labor. Close to 1000000000. 00 in support found no unions. The decision to build the 2nd 77 Assembly Line in charleston South Carolina was made because of the strike in 2000 it they want to do it there because they wanted to weaken the union and they did. But for boeing leaving behind a world class Union Workforce for the Greener Pastures of a nonunion charleston would come at a price. Work in the plant is significantly behind and plagued by production areas. I know of one customer no longer except planes from charleston due to quality issues. They will only accept final Assembly Done in everett washington. Every day when you go to work not only are you doing your job but youre looking at the previous job to see if someone has messed Something Else up on that and chose not to tell me. To be sure everything is done correctly and the plane is safe boeing has Quality Assurance inspectors painstakingly check every step of the work but in South Carolina this inspector says he only saw ends off on finished. You think everything better. My name is john woods. Space engineer. To know their true. Going. Join the woods spent a career in the highly specialized field of everest base compass its. Boeing hired woods knowing he had qualified psychiatric conditions. Attention Deficit Disorder obsessive compulsive disorder and mild depression his job was to write instructions on how to repair parts damaged during the manufacturing process. Its my job. To make sure. That their craft is safe. Which says when you try to enforce quality standards in the South Carolina plant he was berate by his bosses. In a couple of meetings there is several group of managers. Screaming at me to dumb down the work instruction. Saying you have to take remove requirements from your instructions just to be there its its going to take so much time. Would says he witnessed damaged parts being ignored papered over and hidden from view. Theres no doubt the bad repairs going out the door on the 77. 00 aircraft i am worried that. Sooner or later theres going to be a structural failure. Woods appealed to boeings Human Resources department claiming he was being harassed for doing his job instead of coming to his defense boeing manages put boards under review. Weeks later they fired him. On their field this the day before it was terminated. I was telling my brother. It was to be working and. He still had not lost faith in the system. He turned to the f. A. A. Filing a whistleblower complaint. The documentary ledged 7 serious violations in the South Carolina plant. So ive gone to the page where they reached their conclusions in their discussion and what they found is that all the allegations all but one of them they could not substantiate and the one that they could substantiate they asked boeing to fix it boeing said ok we fixed it and then they closed the investigation and thats pretty much how they all go i mean ive seen this so many times i. Think you would think that would. Help it when they commonly call me up with information and they say i have all this information about this dangerous situation should i blow the whistle and i said well no not unless you have a private trust fund or another job to go to because you have a problem earning a living. When we looked at would f. A. A. Complaint we noticed a familiar name. From me. He was in the f. A. A. Is man in charge of the dreamliner. In 201130 years behind should boeing celebrated final approval for the 787 to fly. And it was bob romney who signed the order. Also writing. For her. Thanks it was bought from me who signed off on the dreamliner batteries. And offered 2 failed and the f. A. A. Grounded the dreamliner it was bought from me who signed it back into the. Shortly after that he retired from the f. A. A. 2 weeks later he was hired as Vice President of the Aerospace Industries association which lobbies on behalf of boeing. One of the 1st things he did was to appear before congress to call for greatest selfregulation for Companies Like boeing for years the f. A. A. To allow greater use of delegation not only to take full advantage of industry expertise but to increase the collaboration that improves aviation safety mr buffer ami declined our interview request one day or regulating the airline in the next day youre working for it cant possibly be tough on the industry that youre regulating because youll never get that plum job after you leave the regulators that the f. A. A. Will rarely cross boeing is simply walked. To washington influence game and boeing is a monster last year the company had over 100. 00 registered lobbyists. Even president obama boasts that he works for boeing you so i add to his jail time i see him i said you know ads over go watch because im selling your stuff all the time. Jay is jim mcnerney. Its clear what boeing jets from the u. S. Government whats not so clear is what it gives back. Pay no taxes in 2013 no federal income taxes thats not a unique year over the last 12 years they claim to over 1600000000. 00 in federal tax refunds even though they reported 40 3000000000. 00 in u. S. Profits. 43000000000. 00 in profit but none of that comes from the dreamliner which has cost billions and hes years away from making money. All of boeings commercial profit comes from older and from. Those created prior to the dreamliner prior to jim mcnerney and prior to the manager. It has been the top executives and largest stockholders who have benefited most. Boring c. E. O. Jim mcnerney made 27. 00 and a half 1000000. 00 in 2012 that was enough to pay the salaries of the president states the Vice President 15. 00 cabinet secretaries the 9 Supreme Court justices 7 joint chiefs of staff and all 100 u. S. Senators. Mcnerney is set to retire with a pension of close to 250000. 00. Just before christmas 2013 going to mounted pension cuts from its union machinists for jim mcnerney to be earning a pension at proximately a quarter 1000000. 00 per month and think that its ok for him to take my 2200. 00 pension is outrageous absolutely outrageous. Back in South Carolina and with the rise tool with boeings new workforce is coming to a close theres only one question left to ask. I also asked 15 of his coworkers if theyd fly on the dreamliner. 10 said no. You wouldnt. Why would. You. Find this stuff as well doing so well will join the workers who fear to fly the plane they build quality process apparently loosened to speed up shed work is fired after making safety allegations we. Added on says from boeing right now were at a very exciting point in time we. Brought our production rates up to 10 airplanes a month faster than any airplane in the aviation history into the highest level of any wide body airplane in the decent history theres a couple of documents i want to show you here i showed him the documents suggesting boeing had changed quality procedures into overruled inspectors to speed up production mr loftus was not manager of the 707 program in 2010 when the memos were written not through with the talking. For boeing engineers have told us that these represent boeing essentially putting shed jewel ahead of quality shortchanging the engineering process to me to shed 2 is not something you recognize the number one focus that we have that boeing is ensuring the continued safe there were this of an airplane the integrity of the airplane in the quality of the airplane going out. Weve also heard directly from from work inside a South Carolina plant. They painted a grim picture really of things that they say the workforce isnt up to the job im extremely confident in the quality of the workforce and im going South Carolina the boeing workers at South Carolina to share that confidence is what some of them said here. Why would we need to turn the camera whats the problem and then boeings Communications Director stopped the interview. Loris speed i want to make some of the say i cant tell you who the employees are but they are boeing work is it was some of the planes that you build. Sure its very. Close you mean the buck stops with the Boeing Commercial Airplanes management and so the most senior managers of the wall. To answer this above were here with the head of the 707 program and we have these things that you know you need to hear and you need to provide a response to we have never. Put the us already into. This and you are ok. But of this i do i have the highest degree of confidence in the Production System we have with the employees we have the boeing company in our supply chain. But. Boeing on saddam questions in writing denying it compromises safety or quality it said our interview was hostile unprofessional and in the worst traditions of tabloid Style Television news the company said it was confident that its battery fix prevents failure as boeing says it uses one common f. A. A. Approved quality system for the 787 in everett and charleston boeing noted its memory stated it did not signify authorization to ship parts that dont meet quality requirements boeing said it drug tests in line with Company Policy and a political law the Company Denies any customer has said they will only take planes from everett. As for john woods boeing says his safety claims have no merit the. May 18th 24 team. Canada celebrates the delivery of its 787. This is the modern marketing reality of the dreamliner but is there another reality one revealed by a burning badgering by the words of the workers who built the plane. As a parent changes to its quality protocols. Boeing says the 77 has no more problems than previous models the f. A. A. Says theres never been a safer time to fly. The dreamliner is the phones to selling plane in the world. One day we may need find ourselves on board. When we do we will trust boeing has put quality 1st we will trust the regulators have been rigorous the ultimate link we will trust the plane is safe. Broken dreams from 2014 a disturbing insight into the Corporate Culture of the worlds biggest manufacturer and im pleased to say that im joined from london by the reporter on the film will jordan so well whats happened since that film ed lets starts with the release of the film and what action boeing took at the time which was externally very little internally. Really what they did was try and weed out the whistleblower the person who it filmed within the plugs at chelles. In South Carolina they also let go all the temporary workers in the areas of the plant they they suspected were the areas where workers had filmed and then issued a statement attacking our journalism describing it as tabloid style and complaining about ambush tactics they blamed the allegations on disgruntled employees who they set out an axe to grind and they talked about sources who they felt had their own agendas and said they didnt have an interest in safety but in their own personal priorities they complained that the program was inaccurate and and unbalanced but 5 years have passed now we have seen. A new crisis now at boeing with the 737 max which has sparked reportedly a federal investigation a criminal investigation into the certification of that plane and that has also reportedly expanded to that plant in South Carolina where prosecutors have issued subpoenas for information about activities there theres also been a renewed media scrutiny on that plant reporting broadly the same things that we found back in 2014 which suggests that in fact very little has changed within that plant and within the boeing culture more broadly well statistically flying is the safest form of transport and i guess youre more likely to fly a bomb the most of the aircrafts of 5 years on from your investigation how worried should we be all. Well its true that hundreds of thousands millions of people fly every day and they do so unharmed flying is extremely safe it is deemed to be much safer than driving in a car almost other forms of transport and there is also a huge level of scrutiny on the plane construction but that is because it is such an extremely complicated business and you can talk to be journalists who have worked in the aviation sector for years and years and years and engineers in fact who say you know they simply cannot understand the true complexity of the machines that we fly and that is the reason why there has to be so much scrutiny but that is also why there are times issues that arise and any issues like that of the 737 max and will do you fly in a 787 dreamliner especially after what people working on that plane told you about it at some point most regular flyers will fly on the 707 i am a regular flyer and there are some routes you do fly on the 787 i have. And here i am but there is a plenty to look at and to scrutinize on boeing and all we can do as the flying public is trust that the system works trust but verify and i think. A decent amount of scrutiny on boeing and airbus and all plane manufacturers is absolutely what should and is going on well thank you for talking to as. Well thats it from rewind you can find more updated stories from the al jazeera archive on the rewind page at aljazeera dot com elizabeth problem for me and all the rewind thank you for watching. Hello there still roll the wintry picture across southern regions of a straight in on us a wintry eyed it means name but i just mean that patten of rain showers gusty winds and there is more on the way particular you continue to really feel the brunt of these storm systems the last couple of days had quite windy. On sunday but for some degree the cloudy skies 14 in melbourne there is a chance of some showers and we could even see some showers into perth to suffer a high there of 20 bit cooler on sunday but it should actually be a drier day a little bit cooler to it hope up but sunday such a windy day although there will be some cloud in your for 22 definitely feeling very windy and quite unpleasant to both islands of new zealand. Indicating those showers plenty of them today working the way tools north island as we head on into sunday and. Back in Christ Church on sunday 8 degrees celsius the chance of some rain showers along with some pretty strong gusty winds but not bad in all came with a high of 13 fairly quiet picture up into japan for both days of the weekend some rain showers pushing into northern sections of the Korean Peninsula not working away too far the south warm few days in seoul the high there on sunday of 34. Zira. Hello im Maryam Namazie this is the news hour live from london coming up as strikes halt in syrias last rebel stronghold after rival forces reach a cease fire deal. The democratic republic of congo braces to contain and it after demick warning it could last for 3 years also. Protesters in puerto rico celebrate the departure of the embattled governor although no one knows who will take his place. And Sport England put themselves in a strong position in the 1st ashes test against australia rory burns was their star performer on day 2 the opener recording his maiden task century. Welcome to the program our top story months of deadly bombardment have come to a pause in northwest syria after the government announced a conditional cease fire as strikes have halted in a province which is syrias last rebel stronghold the truce was announced during peace talks in kazakhstan the opposition says they will abide by the deal as long as the government doesnt violate it hundreds of civilians have died since the government launched its operation to retake it in april Andrew Symonds was at the peace talks in our seoul time and has our report. Pollution in accordance with a communique that didnt use the word ceasefire syrian state media had already announced a conditional truce demanding the withdrawal of weaponry from a buffer zone or it loop. The Syrian Government blames the turkish for not fulfilling their role in the so she agreement last year. This has not materialized on the contrary the number of terrorists in and lead has increased namely foreign fighter terrorists in and leave. The opposition despite reservations agreed to a truce but accused the regime of violating the sushi agreement taking advantage of a withdrawal of fighters so they could launch what it called their cunning criminal attacks and their spokesman gave this war. Right now there is no trust and there will be no trust in the future when it comes with glory the heavy weapons no heavy weapons will be withdrawn unless there are a written guarantee. That russia says the biggest fighting group brands as terrorists. H. T. S. Must be eliminated turkey has an obligation according to such a memorandum to do it if they cannot do it alone we can render them some help from us. Thats why we talked also today with the opposition that if they are interested and if they need some help also from the Russian Federation to fight a sham and other rebels and they made up zone then they can count we can do it no one could measure the depth of distrust between the warring sides after more than 8 years of war hundreds of thousands dead moment 10000000 people displaced then theres the differences between the guarantors of these talks iran and russia on one side turkey on the other each with their differing interests. Nevertheless for so many traumatized civilians theres hope of some response from the bombing but no one needs reminding that deals done by leaders in high places have let the people of syria down so many times under symons an assault. Well the United Nations has welcome news of the cease fire but there are already concerns as you are hearing that about how long it will last say in a harder has more on this now from gaza on the techie syria or dead. The guns have fallen silent but what happens next is not clear this is a very ambiguous ceasefire according to the Syrian Government is that it is conditional on the implementation of the sochi deal now the opposition saying that we wont withdraw our heavy weapons unless we have guarantees from turkey and russia and you have High Authority to share which is the main Opposition Group but the Strongest Group in saying that we reserve the right to retaliate if the truce is violated without without even mentioning whether or not it plans to implement that sochi memorandum h. T. S. Was the group that refused to withdraw from a Demilitarized Zone making it very very difficult for turkey to create this so and in fact this is why russia kept on criticizing turkey saying youre not fulfilling your commitments under the such a deal will turkey be able to do that this time around so there is a lot of concern that this is just a short Term Agreement or an arrangement at the end of the day we keep talking about the opposition and the government but it is russia and turkey that brokered this deal the 2 powers who support their warring sides on the ground and both of them really have to reach some sort of a compromise because turkey had political leverage if the rebels were Holding Ground the government was not able to make any significant advances the russians and the Syrian Government were targeting civilian areas killing civilians pressuring the rebels to try to surrender so there was a need to reach some sort of an agreement this specially since turkey and russia dont want to rupture their relationship but whether or not it will be short term or long term well we have to wait and see. Well rym talk money is the director of the Syria Conflict Research Program at the London School of economics and Political Science she joins us live now via skype from france. As were hearing there is the last main stronghold of the opposition in syria its home to nearly 3000000 people many of them of course civilians how long do you think this ceasefire and light to last. I think its best to last 2 or months previous similar cease fires last for 10 months never absolutely quiet there so there is never a perfect ceasefire and there are always violations but as a result of the cease fires that were given a stand that you know civilians were able to enjoy a route of calm and peace on the loose again falls apart and the violence is critical and i have to say you really have to look at this move the episodes of violence and peace as part of a larger negotiations of critical talks that not only involves you know actors book also international ones i suppose right now this is much more about russia and turkey than it is about the Syrian Government and the opposition and whether they can reach a lasting agreement what must they do now respectively to build on this trade perhaps to give it a chance of breaking out of that cycle you mention. Absolutely i mean youre report actually say that this is it an agreement between syrian actors and the russians and the turks are going towards its not the case this if the syrians were going to agree they would have agreed on their own this is mainly Regional International track and those those countries including your arms are part of the conflict and the 1st part of the system you want in order to see any progress is to mean russia and turkey and iran and other countries involved in this conflict to give the soon as a space to which there are a certain amounts and i have to loose through this year at merion that these episodes of violence and peace they happen in parallel to political talks so they are actually ways of pushing the parties for concessions on the talks i mean there are talks now but the Constitutional Committee is going to be see thump whos going to be there or the mechanism of the Decision Making in the Constitutional Committee which will be very influential eventually and we seem this all the time every time. They want concessions from the other side we see escalation of violence so that they expect the other side will come to the negotiation table ready to make a concert so just so just to be can mean obviously what we have seen an adlib is a terrible humanitarian catastrophe but they are saying that well perhaps the the one a small positive thing it is the fact that it shows serious political process to some extent is being sustained for all this. I would say its positive i mean what is sad is that theyre using the civilians and. Targeting civilians directly as a wave of forcing the other side to make concessions on the negotiation table you know political talk should be pretty good talks about trade now while this is used as part of the political talks thats whats happening and the difference between this zone as opposed to the other designs which were part of the discrimination agreement which initially included the hutaree and live in other parts of syria and the other parts eventually all these ceasefires ended up with moving you know everyone who does not agree with the final deal outside of the area and sending them to eclipse everyone was just moved to england look at that live and none of that there is not also some people thats so it has to be solved through political solution there has to be political horizon without a political horizon there is no end to the violence and sadly and both the russian regime graners the terms and we dont will continue to use the civilians and target insulins as a means to reach that political settlement thank you very much for joining us this evening appreciate it into money syria from the syria Research Program at the London School of economics. Thank. You don as well where there is a political crisis perhaps signs of progress with a constitutional declaration expected to be announced in the capital khartoum shortly and the agreement was a Main Opposition Party name the Prime Minister and ministers while the Transitional Military Council chairs who heads the interior and defense ministries democratic elections will then be held after afterwards around every 3 years. Authorities in the democratic republic of congo racing to contain a deadly epidemic warning it could last for 2 to 3 years checks have been tightened on the de osses border with rwanda says the virus could spread across the region more on this we can speak to stephanie deck and the capital kigali so then stephanie how concerned are the authorities there in rwanda about the spread of this disease. Well its certainly very concerned leading them to close that border for a couple of hours on thursday they quickly opened it again issuing a statement saying that this was to put in texan balances increase the amount of medical check on that border because credibly deployed busy border this is an area people will say its pretty much the same city when it comes to how people cross the same city with a dividing line if you will and this is also why there is such concern here but of course the abode of buyers its not new been going on for about a year since it broke out in the d. R. 3 but why is there so much more concern now is because it is it. You know the capital of poor people state over 2000000 people so close to rwanda because of the nature of the virus how can take