say that this investigation is carrying on meanwhile the british ministry of defense has decided that it is going to fast track the deployment of another war ship the h.m.s. duncan which has been on drills in the black sea it is now heading straight to the gulf where you may remember there was an incident over the last few days where a british warship there the h.m.s. montrose had to intervene so the british say between 3 iranian vessels that they thought were threatening a british oil tanker now this boosts the british military presence or will do when the action is duncan gets there and is a direct response of what's happened in the rising tensions in the gulf the british feel that there is a direct threats to their shipping in the gulf and they have raised security levels to level 3 for merchant shipping there which is the highest possible level. still have foiled the program syrian government forces are on the defensive off to rebel fighters launched a furious onslaught in hama also. hundreds of undocumented migrants still in the pantheon in paris demanding the right to stay in france. hello there well the main area of weather in australia continues to be the southeast and also across into tasmania and speckled shower clouds showing up on the satellite and then also you as that is where the bulk of the rains will be so not a bad day in adelaide on a saturday 12 degrees celsius the rain and cold in hobart 8 degrees 18 in pathan actually about the same there on sunday so honest consistent weekend and i'm afraid it is consistent here and hope all but for different reasons it will rain staying in the 4 calls for you meanwhile in britain cooler on sunday but not bad with a high of 18 degrees a new zealand suffered a the best day in the north in the cloud is actually still not quite in the picture but the rain pushes into the south island 15 degrees in christchurch and then as a sales sunday it has you away in the north highlands which is the little bit lower and it could be some pretty heavy rain at times as well so just be aware of the ass nichols pretty pretty cold in those overnight hours that schools a korean peninsula not a bad weekend in prospect and also good in japan we've got more heavy rain pushing into western regions asako 26 on saturday should be dry there for most of the day and then you've got 28 degrees in seoul but under quite cloudy skies and then you'll see on sunday it does really cleared away from there but generally most of japan seeing the cloud and he could see some rain with a high that of 24 degrees. on counting the cost $3.00 decades after the collapse of the soviet union russia is engaging with africa to raise its political clout and we look at the economics behind so he's decision to buy the s 400 and after $35.00 stealth bombers counting the cost on i just see them. welcome back just a quick look at the headlines now turkey is saying his defense minister has broken to his u.s. counterpart on the phone to discuss his nation's controversial purchase of the russian s. 400 missile defense system. reportedly told mark the deal does not mean turkey is changing its strategic orientation after the u.s. threatened to impose sanctions. a twice the african countries have agreed to roll out a new single currency the echo will replace the c.f.a. franc which is controlled by france and. donald trump's labor secretary has resigned becoming the latest advisor to neve the us president's cabinet alexander acosta has faced fierce criticism over a secret deal in negotiating a decade ago with jeffrey epstein the billionaire accused of sexually abusing under-age girls. when all the stories were following fierce battles in northwest syria have killed more than 120 people in the past few days government troops were forced on the defensive after a coordinated attack by rebel fighters in hama province say a honda reports. syrian government forces and their allies are struggling to take ground from the opposition their offensive in northwest syria has been costly and difficult instead of advancing they have been defending their territory in the face of a coordinated and fierce counter offensive launched by rebel factions but both sides have suffered heavy casualties in the battle for one town house of the village in northern hama more than 100 soldiers and rebels are believed to have been killed according to the syrian observatory for human rights it says that in more than 2 months of fighting nearly 900 soldiers have died on the government's side while nearly 1000 were killed on the rebel side and yet the russian backed campaign has yielded little for president bashar assad's. it has brought a lot of destruction rebel controlled towns in and around it live province are being targeted in russian and syrian air strikes more than 500 civilians have been killed more than 100 of them children. health facilities ambulances civil defense headquarters all destroyed. just in the last few days ago clinics for schools that have received. this are civilian targets it is really unacceptable we have a total of more than 300000 people the displaced in the last 2 months and our top concern is really protection of civilians the basic rule of. i words of condemnation have been repeated in recent weeks but little accountability or pressure from the international community to stop the offensive russia and turkey will decide what happens next that has become a proxy war between them even though they should be working together on syria through the so-called asked in a process they were sponsors of a cease fire an adlib last year instead they are using it live as a bargaining chip and another member of the asked in a team iran is involved as well unlike previous offensives iranian backed troops are not on the front lines it's believed to be one of the reasons why the government hasn't made gains it needs those foot soldiers it seems there is no understanding between iran and russia on tech arms rules imposed conflict syria and it seems russia and turkey do not agree on how to split northern syria civilians are paying the price for their. beirut. some news from somalia now where at least 10 people have been killed in an attack on a hotel in the port city of his mayor the victims include 2 journalists but he's of when the death toll rises fighting is continuing inside the s.s. a hotel between gunmen and security forces and officers said most of the victims were patrons of the hotel which is often frequented by lawmakers and local officials al-shabaab rubbles of time responsibility for the attack. members of the u.s. house of representatives of called the trumpet ministrations treatment of migrants a policy of dehumanization is part of the testimony given at a congressional hearing looking into the state of migrants of federal detention centers they describe deplorable conditions after visiting the facilities of president donald trump has said the reports of mistreatment phony and exaggerated well u.s. president trump has also declared a state of emergency in louisiana off to a structural storm barry nears landfall now it's expected to hit coastal areas in the state on saturday and wind speeds could reach over 80 kilometers per hour residents have been warned that around the lower mississippi river could be inundated with over 50 centimeters of rain and evacuation order of nearby areas has already been issued to. prepare for heavy rain slow moving still this is what we're being told so this means staying over us for a while with consistent rainfall so we're looking at the heaviest rains happening tomorrow this again could have high impact in the city of new orleans we are continuing to monitor of course the levels of the mississippi river. pharmaceutical giant johnson and johnson says it's preparing to test an experimental hiv vaccine in a bid to develop the world's 1st immunization against the virus the drug maker plans to conduct a large scale study of the vaccine across the u.s. and europe some time this year hiv causes aids which kills about a 1000000 people around the world each am door to call in different back is from the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases which is working with johnson and johnson on the trial and is hopeful that the vaccine will prove successful the purpose of this vaccination is to create a method of preventing people from becoming infected with hiv we're testing it in the americas to test it specifically in game and transgender women importantly there's a parallel study that is already fully enrolled with this vaccine that is in sub-saharan africa are being tested in women so we're testing this vaccine simultaneously in the highest risk most important populations that need a vaccine the fundamental obstacles have always been does the vaccine induce a strong enough immune response and then does the vaccine response stick around long enough to protect. the studies that we've been following with this vaccine it looks like we're in pretty good shape on the. the tunisian red crescent says the number of people who died in last weekend's migrant ship disaster has risen to 80 only 4 of the 86 passengers on board know to have survived when the boat capsized off the coast of tunisia they were taken to a migrant center in tsar's is for treatment the aid agency says the final death toll could rise even making it one of the worst like disasters to date meanwhile an italian court is acquitted in eritrea man of being a notorious human traffic as saying he was a victim of mistaken identity madani test from our ambassador i was extradited to italy 3 years ago and accused of being a kingpin named the general that allegation is now being dismissed although he was convicted of the lesser charge of aiding illegal immigration by helping his cousin reach libya and he's already served 3 years so what judges ordered his release from prison the group verbeek states that my client is not the general and this is the the think that we always use thing 3 the 1st time although they are restored my glory. to god. well police in paris over moved hundreds of undocumented migrants from the city's famed pantheon walsall am. building which contains the remains of distinguished french citizens of a stormed by protesters demanding the right to remain in france the protesters barricaded themselves inside for a number of hours before their removal by police the migrants shared videos on facebook demanding their residency papers a normalised and a meeting with prime minister and watchfully. reports from paris where hundreds of asylum seekers occupied the ponzi on central paris just after lunch time a local time here in paris is an historic building in the heart of the french capital it is where famous of french women and men are buried it's a simple all of the french republican not symbolism has not been lost on those who have chosen this venue for their protests now the asylum seekers the saying that many of them have been here for years they have the right to ask for asylum they have papers showing that the french state approves that the sign of request but what they are saying is that they haven't had those papers changed into the sort of papers and permits to the allow them to work legally in this country therefore many of them are working illegally many of them do not have access to housing and they're saying that simply unfair what they are demanding is to see the prime minister it was believed they want to have the legal right to stay in frogs they say it is a right that was a promised to them but some of them have been here for a decade without the white papers. freedom is to have our papers to work we are here for violent trouble we here for our right to lose working illegally you slavery. see we did it work so it shameful to see this in front of the country of human rights. that's why we're demanding papers for everyone 2018 different government passed a new immigration law perfect president came out on the back or said it was all about cracking down on illegal immigration problems. i think the situation for people applying for asylum because here disagree. u.s. regulators have voted to approve a roughly $5000000000.00 settlement with facebook over its handling of user data this according to the reuters news agency the federal trade commission has been investigating allegations that facebook and appropriately shared the information of $87000000.00 users with a bush political consulting firm cambridge analytic or facebook shares rose after the news was reported a settlement would be the largest civil penalty ever paid to the agency its dispute that threatens to hurt the global tech industry and production of devices many of us depend on japan is restricting exports of materials to south korea which used to make things like smartphones and t.v.'s both countries held hours of talks on friday but have so far failed to resolve the dispute as priyanka gupta explains. a year ago japan and south korea came together their tween goal stopping north korea from getting nuclear weapons and boosting regional trade a year later the 2 sides meet again this time to the 3 dispute over north korea japan says south korea cannot be trusted to implement u.n. sanctions against pyongyang its imposed restrictions on some exports south korea says japan's claims are untrue and wants an international investigation. to the cold war if the investigation finds fault with our government then we will make an apology for that and make corrections immediately however if the investigation draws a conclusion that our government is not at fault when the japanese government should not only apologize to us but also retract the retaliatory export restrictions immediately. there is anger in seoul calls for a boycott of japanese goods are growing. the japanese restrictions are seen as a retaliation of the recent south korean hope feelings relating to the 2nd world war japanese companies were ordered to compensate for most south korean forced laborers japan insists it's not mixing politics with trade. it wasn't that you were going to get out from japan's perspective this measure is a necessary review of operations to appropriately execute japanese export control for national security concerns and not a motoring measure. south korea is the world's biggest supplier of computer chips that small from displays with plants like apple and while way and there are fears japan's restrictions could hit companies like samsung south korea's drooling party says the government will set aside more than $250000000.00 to protect its companies from japanese action. this move made by the japanese government could be interpreted as the 1st shot in a trade war if it is a prolonged embargo and if. if the japanese inforce it very strictly in a tough manner and if south korea cannot get these materials elsewhere then it could it could have a serious impact on. south korea's technology production to treat dispute may be sudden but the timing is critical in just over a week japan will elect members to the upper house and election prime minister shinzo doesn't want to use this as south korea's leader seen as an important force in denuclearization talks on the korean peninsula is looking to maintain support for his party in parliamentary elections next year with neither side backing down the rift could widen even father priyanka gupta. just a brief look at the top stories before we go turkey is saying that his defense minister has spoken to his u.s. counterpart on the telephone to discuss his nation's controversial purchase of the russian s 400 missile defense system lucio car reportedly told mark s. but the deal does not need turkey is changing its strategic orientation after the u.s. threatened to impose sanctions age west african countries have agreed to roll out a new currency called the echo it will replace the c.f.a. franc which is controlled by france and pegged to the euro. donald trump's labor secretary has resigned becoming the latest adviser to leave the us president's cabinet alexander acosta has faced fierce criticism over a secret plea deal he negotiated a decade ago with jeffrey epstein the billionaire accused of sexually abusing under-age girls trump insists it was a cost his idea to step down. i do not think it is right here regis admitted straight to the labor department that f.e.m.a. has the safety rather than you read about it we don't have today. all the president ordering i told him that i thought the right thing was that but i know that it was this are temporary but. it would be healthy for me to tell you this we did it in you talking about it it's a small group a rather than a big part of it you have right now police in gibraltar have released 4 officers from an iranian oil tanker that was seized more than a week ago the officers are out on bail but have not been challenged the ship was detained off the coast of the british territory at the entrance of the mediterranean on suspicion of taking or oil to syria in breach of e.u. sanctions and police in paris have removed hundreds of undocumented migrants from the city's famed pantheon mausoleum. the building which contains the remains of distinguished french citizens was stormed by protesters demanding the right to remain in france the protesters barricaded themselves inside for a number of hours before their removal by riot police. well those are the headlines this hour coming up next can the middle east recreate one of its most famous multibillion dollar success stories we'll have that coming up in counting the cost it will be more news after that in about half an hour's time from doha say without is there. we understand the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world so no matter how you take it al-jazeera will bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you al-jazeera. a lot has this is counting the cost on al-jazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week 3 decades after the collapse of the soviet union putin's russia is in gauging with africa to increase more than its political clout miss are systems that could still up and turkey's economy we look at the economics behind the s 400 and the f. 35 stealth bomber. and as google prepares to launch its challenger in the games industry we find out if it could be game over for the likes of sony and microsoft. so as the soviet union imploded it turned its back on the african continent in the 1990 s. but now under president putin russia is making a push to engage the reason is simple western sanctions the pivot to china hasn't been a huge success and hopes of billions of dollars in investment from the middle east haven't arrived in the quantities expected plus african votes count in the united nations. russia's trade with africa rose 26 percent to $17400000000.00 in 2017 moscow doesn't have the financial power of beijing just in 2017 trade with africa amounted to 170000000000 dollars the u.s. is of course worried its trade with subsaharan africa was $39000000000.00 in 2017 and this is what russia is doing in africa it has oil and gas deals with algeria egypt ghana nigeria and mozambique it has nuclear deals in place with rwanda zambia and south africa although that is in limbo while it is a big supplier of arms to egypt algeria sudan and angola moscow is increasing support across the continent that's not a comprehensive list by any means but let's get more on russia's interest in africa now joining me from london is charles robinson chief global economist and head of macro strachey at russian investment bank run a science capital thanks very much for being with us so let me ask you 1st of all then how is russia's relationship with africa changing under putin and what's the most important aspect of it is a political economic or military influence. well i think there's a little bit of all 3 but you take the 1st 510 years and of putin's rule in russia very little focus on africa very little interest what seems to have shifted is with the sanctions getting imposed by the u.s. and the e.u. in 201415 we've then seen russia decide that it needs to build links around the world to china to india the gulf and we're seeing that with the saudis and i'm now to africa to. and does russia doesn't have the financial firepower china doesn't care can it really compete i mean is this is this a competition or does he just need friends for votes in the united nations i think it's about finding any export opportunity that they can they're not 100 percent sure how relations are going to pan out with the u.s. or with the e.u. over the next 5 to 10 years and so what we say is a concerted effort by putin to bring in the indian prime minister the japanese prime minister the chinese leadership and now african leaders to to to diversify the russian trade export routes and africa's boom in the last few years for russia and its exports to africa which just one percent a few years ago they're now running a 4 percent and i think that's caught the russians attention and how do you think china europe and united states are seeing this russian comeback. i was in congo last week and the russians are heavily involved in central african republic which is the country just to the north just over the border and i think that's it to agree of suspicion about that but so far you know puff of these isolated incidents in just one or 2 countries most of russia's in gauge with africa's being north africa so nearly 80 percent of all trade the russia does all exports go to egypt tunisia algeria this is so so the russians are trying to to spread south. i think the west is much more concerned by china at the moment and their engagement and that they're only beginning to pay attention to what russia might be doing and putin is hosting this russian african summit in sochi next october what can we expect there. i think a lot of a lot of leaders will turn up. they are also conscious the russia might have something that they need so one in 7 of russian exports to africa arms and weapons and just getting security continues to be a big issue and you see that in the central african republic you see that in somalia and other countries south sudan security remains an issue for for some countries in the continent and russia's got the experience in dealing with difficult climates of running railway lines around the world infrastructure electricity education a lot of africans used to get educated in russia in soviet times and they're coming back now in the last 5 to 10 years because because russian population is shrinking the number of young people is down by about 40 percent in russia so the universities are empty how do you fill those spaces get african students to come in and that's exactly what's happened the numbers have doubled in the last 10 years and what about african markets what can they offer russian investors mining oil gas that's one thing you've already got rosneft the oil giant which is a gas john which is which is operating in north just off the egyptian shore in the off shore gas fields there you've got gas from are afraid to go to resell which is building mines in guinea and a neural cam that fertilizer company is is seeing great opportunities in places like zambia and zimbabwe and thinks that it can can help the agricultural revolution africa is going to need to to develop so there's this opportunity for a whole host of russian businesses in the continent but russia's economy isn't doing too well the moment is it i mean 0.5 percent growth in the 1st quarter what can we expect going forward do you think that the thing that the program russia's got which many people don't focus on enough is the population shrinking there were . king age population shrinking so it's been dropping by about one percent a year so when russia's be getting about 2 percent growth a year that's 3 percent per person that's actually better than most countries and russia's could compare it to oil exporters like canada or norway in developed markets or colombia all cats or saudi in emerging markets russia's done better in the last 3 years. than its peers but it does get kept you not going to get growth much above 2 to 3 percent when your population shrinking and this year they've also done tax hikes and that's why we've seen the slowdown early this year they're determined to keep the budget balanced to try and keep themselves secure against potential sanctions risk from the west and just finally i want to ask you about the opec meetings this week why is russia signed up to extending all production cuts i mean remarkably it doesn't it doesn't need higher oil prices and it's built up this $100000000000.00 rainy day fund yet they they turn need it but obviously they benefit when when the oil prices higher and i think they're trying to play the long game so to putin's point a month ago was very much that based on the way they are calculated in russia russia can get oil out more cheaply than saudi arabia or assess not quite right the budget balances at a low or oil price in russia that it doesn't saudi so the russians are playing a long game and they're happy to cooperate with the saudis. to try and ensure that oil prices don't do that terrible plunge down to the thirty's that would require big shifts in russian policymaking again good to speak you charles robertson thank you thank you. now the prospect of further u.s. sanctions on turkey over its decision to buy russia's s. $100.00 missile technology had been delayed for now president trump blamed the obama in ministration for the impossible in turkey had been treated unfairly by not being allowed to buy patriot missiles. the president was not allowed to buy the video this is so when it was the other one is the s. 202-4011 of them. wanted to do this but he wasn't allowed by the obama administration devised for delivery made a deal to buy the missiles. so goes the other miss a little of the solicitor when you could now by i mean you know to get to this is a. turkey is a friend of us and. we doing great things together would be very important we're going to be much bigger i think the $75000000000.00 a small i think it's going to be well over $100000000000.00 well turkey stood to be tipped back into recession just months after escaping the last one if sanctions were imposed turkey agreed to by the s $400.00 missile batteries for $2500000000.00 from russia washington isn't happy that at least 13 nations are interested or are buying the missile defense system including india vietnam and egypt but delivery of its 1st 4 f. 35 warplanes has been delayed over concerns its security may be compromised by the s. 400 missile each plane is worth about $85000000.00 and turkey has ordered $100.00 f. $35.00 ankara has invested more than $1250000000.00 in the f. $35.00 program since 2002 will the $900.00 turkish companies stood to lose participation in the building of the f. $35.00 over the lifetime of the plane they stood to make $12000000000.00 we're joining me now via skype from istanbul to talk more about this is c.n.n. and he is the chairman of the istanbul based center for economic some foreign policy studies and a visiting scholar at carnegie europe in brussels thanks very much for being with us now despite president trump's comments at the g. 20 word from the pentagon and washington is that nothing has changed and that these sanctions will go ahead if turkey takes delivery of the s 400 what do you make of that. well after the meeting between the turkish president are gone and it was president trump in all sucka there was an air of optimism erkki an expectation that the u.s. president could use his presidential prerogatives to either block or suspend potential sanctions against turkey but obviously we also know that the different pillars of the universe administration and also congress is very much in intent on imposing those sanctions but to be seen to what extent trump can actually deliver on this promise made to the turkish president at the margin of the g 20 summit to actually prevent or block these potential sanctions and is it true that trumps pretty president obama denied access to patriot missiles well what's behind that decision well it's let's say it's a half truth in the sense that yes those patriots were not delivered to turkey but that we did because there was a disagreement about the conditions of their didn't agree so it was not a categorical rejection but turkey wanted that purchase to be accompanied by a degree of technology transfer and.