And no fly zone to stamp out a separate a struggle here in flags of concerns of war crimes in the goal of care about or for armenia and azerbaijan are accused of committing atrocities. There its been 4 days since election day but americans are still waiting to find out who will be their next president s race to the white house is headed for a 4 to finish with every hour narrowing the gap between donald trump and joe biden heres the overall picture as it stands this hour there are just 4 battleground states left to count and any one of them could give joe biden the win that he pulled ahead in georgia in the last hour or so and he also has a lead over in nevada donald trump however is ahead in the others. She states but the margins are razor thin no those states being counties are the ones that you see here in yellow nevada georgia North Carolina and of course pennsylvania by the nih has 264 Electoral College votes trump meanwhile has 214 that still puts both in range of the magic number 207 see a likely result is now hanging on to states that the 1st of those is georgia where as weve been saying biden is ahead a 1000 votes there the bulk of the remaining mail in ballots for the city of lancer that is a democratic stronghold were also hearing that a decision in pennsylvania the state where joe biden was born is just hours away now trumps leads has been consistently shrinking it stands around 18000. 00 or so votes but there are still tens of thousands of remaining and those ballots are mostly coming from the democratic leaning cities of philadelphia and pittsburgh and theyre suburbs that gives joe biden a good chance to catch up and as the vote count drags on supporters on both sides are becoming an agitated cancer protestors have faced off in michigan nevada philadelphia and georgia Trump Supporters have backed the president s cleans condemning what they see as ballots manipulation by the democrats mean for bides involved cers are demanding that every single ballots be counted so we have correspondents covering the story across the United States in a moment well head to jim ill show you whos standing by for us in joe bidens home state of delaware but 1st lets go to alan fischer in washington d. C. Our weve had some encouraging news for the biden camp coming out of georgia with those margins narrowing joe biden is ahead but as dawn breaks in washington were yet to hear from President Trump has there been any indication of how theyre taking this new. Well we know hes not happy with twitter because that was his last tweet about 4 hours ago when he said that twitter was out of control thats because they have been flagging up a lot of the president s tweets when he claims that illegal votes are being counted when hes talking about electoral fraud that has been the issue of course for republicans over the last 182436 hours theyve been claiming fraud in various states but the of yet to put up any evidence of that in fact when they were in one court case or in the 3rd state the judge essentially said look what youre bringing me as someone told you youre not bringing me any evidence youve got to do that we know there are going to be legal challenges is almost certainly going to happen and certainly what were looking at with the figures in georgia that there can be a recount there if one party is just half a percent behind the other so almost certainly georgia will go to a recount as well and then we will see more and more legal challenges across the country what is interesting is that there has been a mixed reaction among republicans to Donald TrumpsNews Conference we call a News Conference it was really just a statement just over 12 hours ago when he came out and said that if you count legal votes he wins if you count illegal votes he loses again he didnt explain what he meant by illegal votes i think hes mixing up the idea of late ballots coming in and being counted which is perfectly legal and states have that and the law is that they can do that for a number of days after the election but some of the republicans were saying it was dangerous what the president said it was not the time to be doing that he struck their own court and theres a couple of other republicans who have gone the other way saying every vote has to be counted maybe the president was right what is interesting is that his sons have said they are going to remember republicans who were supporting their father at this point particularly when it comes to 2024. Essentially Donald Trump Jr and. Trump saying that theyre taking names of republicans who are not looking in to help the president but its not looking good for donald trump the biden camp they would like to in georgia they would like to get more than 27270. 00 ones the presidency thats what theyre focused on they would like to get to that point but they would like there to be a little bit more than that they would like to win one or 2 or 3 more states so its not all a boat a recount in wisconsin its not a vote a recount in georgia they want to push it around 3 or 6 because they see an irony in that that 4 years ago donald trump won with 306 Electoral College votes were talking about how it was a landslide how he was given up big mandate by the country how that meant he could go in essentially do it wanted a no theyre saying that they would like to get to that number as well theyre saying that privately and they think they might they think theyre going to squeeze pennsylvania they think that georgia is looking good theres been a huge getto the vote effort there because they thought they could flip this state and it no looks as if thats what king but in the next couple of hours were going to get some decisions from states but just remember these wont be final because inevitably were going to be heading to the courts which is exactly what donald trump has been seeing for weeks that he was going to do so here is trying to get in the courtroom what he couldnt get at the ballot box which is a victory in the president ial election ok alan fischer there in washington d. C. Thank you very much indeed lets cross over night to jim. Hes live for us in wilmington delaware this of course is where joe biden is holed up there he hasnt declared victory yet to be very diplomatic has seen nor has there been anything coming out of the biden camp so far especially given the way the polls on the cancer tightening in these crucial battleground states. Well you know the saying how actions speak louder than words and i think thats what the biden camp is trying to demonstrate here acting a lot more president ial than they are speaking about becoming the president or at least claiming victory and what i mean by that is that obviously whenever biden has spoken over the past few days hes been centering his message to his supporters that actually each of the wider nation. Main message is one that every single vote needs to be counted democracy must be respected and the process of the election needs to run its course and true a call for calm across the country in order to maybe have some sort of hope through the Huge Division that currently exists in us society. He met yesterday with his. Force as well as an Economic Force as well in that there is an admission that one of the main issues with this election among voters was covert the fact that he views this as a main challenge if and when he is announced as president s and therefore he is essentially getting down to business without necessarily claiming that victory in fact there is a transition websites that the democrats were getting ready for the eventuality of if they were to win this election that is now a life by the way you can go online and check it out it doesnt announce him as the next president of the u. S. It does on its own page have a message again centered on the same ideas which i just spoke about there but the fact that that is live the fact that hes meeting with these people is something to it so essentially what were seeing from him is a huge contrast so thats which is whats coming out from the white house its a lot more respectful to the process there isnt any doubts being called over the legitimacy of the millions of americans who voted. Its a call for calm like i say essentially a confidence message from somebody who believes alternately that you will be declared the winner of this hugely contested president ial election ok jim there d lie for us in wilmington delaware thank you very much in deeds well as alan was saying earlier some republicans have come out strongly against some of trumps claims of Election Fraud while not naming trying to wreck plame one of them is kid singer and he has to say that of course every fall its the its to be counted but if someone has legitimate concerns about frauds then evidence must be presenting it is also calling for a stop to the spread of what he describes as bunk misinformation. Lets get more now from joseph euro hes a professor of Political Science at texas a and m. University and joins us now by skype from doha good to have you with us here on aljazeera once again i was seeing 2 competing narratives here donald trump is attacking the legitimacy of the election joe biden is urging caution what do you think realistically will happen next because normally at this point in a president ial campaign one comes that will realize that the odds are slim theyll concedes do you think that is likely to happen or. How are the next few hours and days like this. I think its a very likely. Both campaigns will wait until there are much more final counts if we go back a couple of decades there was a candidate we tend to call the candidate inconceivable that this was the run on but the outcome was clear i think your given the history of the last 4 years particularly President Trump but also President Biden wait until there is of course a final count so there are people who are making any public decorate declarations about certainty and even then i doubt president from will concede the election you may lose and leave but i dont think youre better at mitt publicly that you are there right well thats that thats a problem is it not by if one candidate does not concede where does that leave the electorate because certainly the the angry messages that weve had from donald trump and from his family surrogate says being that this election is being stolen from him illegal votes are being considered which is why hes losing what are ordinary voters in the United States to make of this because this is the president of the United States alleging something very very seriously here and that will have an impact. Yeah i expect the way the President Trump leaves office will reflect his conduct over the last quarter years and he has not shown much concern for the kind of norms and traditions of government in the United States and i expect that hell continue to get as he leaves and then as you suggest in the question i think that will ask a long shadow over the country there will be a lot of this. You know by and ministration eventually wins the election there will be a lot of work to be done to secure the country. To try to bring the country back together and its going to be a project both for the Democratic Party were going to try to read from the white house and also for republicans to try to balance the kind of moderate part of their party whos going to be willing to move on and try to govern as best they can and then the more extreme part of the party are committed to this idea of the illegitimate election. Its i mean we can you say this goes back 4 years he could almost argue its been more than 4 years because when donald trump was elected Many Democrats were saying hes not my president thats what you hear the chants of protest as sore night you can argue republicans will say the same thing even if joe biden does when hes not my president so how do you think the u. S. Will overcome this do you think there is any type of candidate in the next 4812 years who will be able to bring the country back together because america looks more divided now than at any point over the past sadly over the past few years. You know its hard to to imagine what will change the trend of Political Division in the United States the last great period of polarization in the United States with the mere earlier part of the 20th century and it was sort of beat down by the combination of the Great Depression and world war 2 and then you know we have sort of a period of a greater part of an overlap that lasted through the 1950 s. And big these and then the beginning of the 19th that in the. Wig i mean in some of the we dont want to go through the kind of great externally imposed crises to bring it together but at the same time the the cost of not having anything to say you know by have it seemed to be quite huge i might have thought that the pandemic would be the kind of thing that would rally the country together and create opportunities for bipartisanship and maybe President Biden if he pursues that that in a good basic way i could begin to bring the country together and reverse those trends you know im hopeful as a citizen but as a man with them as a mythic because the divisions really do seem quite big and part of the solution might be the republican as and their leaders here except the olive branch when its offered and you know pursue the vehicle together we can only wait and see how this well unfolds thats nigels if youre out there in texas a and m. University thank you very much indeed. Still to come here on aljazeera ivory coasts Constitutional Court weighs in see the election crisis there as Government Forces surround the homes opposition leaders plots. Scenes of devastation across Central America the storm he says left dozen states in size and so lets. Cut. The story of love family and freedom calling them i was 8 years old at school we heard the sound of large explosions. And the hardships faced in captivity they came for me at midnight they told me to leave my son i said how can i contact him i saw so much pain in the eyes of the other female prisoners and the our pricing. On aljazeera. One half go fish and half lebanese so diversity is really important for me and aljazeera is the most diverse place i have ever worked we have so many different nationalities and this is a nice book together in this one News Organization and this diversity of perspective is reflected in our coverage giving a more accurate representation of the world we report on and thats a key strength of aljazeera. Afghanistan is on the cusp of a new chapter in its history. Thats in the u. S. In the telephone signed an agreement to pave the way for the withdrawal of the national troops. The high cost was paid to get to this point. Over the past few years the u. S. Has increasingly conducted its part of the war from the sky with more bombs dropped last year than any other year in the past decade. But with that came a rise in civilian casualties. This is all accidents to happen at mistakes do happen and that this is about owning our mistakes this is about saying sorry in this about accountability in a in a largely unaccountable war for families we interviewed not receiving adult humans from the us left them without closure. They told us that they so like what happened to their loved ones was a crime. And they want justice and answers something war too often denied. My. This is al jazeera our mind over top stories this hour the u. S. President ial race remains too coarse to call for battleground states are still counting votes democratic nominee joe biden has pulled ahead in the state of georgia with just over 104. 00 its the trump is making false claims that are fully legal votes were counted he would win the election he says legal challenges may end up in the Supreme Courts joe biden is urging people to be patient he says his confidence of becoming the next president of the United States is 264 Electoral College votes 270 needed for victory. If youre ok as Prime Minister says a military operation in the Northern Region has clear and limited goals as after calls for immediate steel escalation from the International Community. Sent in soldiers on wednesday after accusing the regions ruling t. P. O. Left party of attacking federal troops and accusation it in the eyes of the government has declared a state of emergency in the region and named its a no fly zone where tensions grow in september after the c. P. L. Left held Regional Elections despite a government that spawned the nz coronavirus disagrees with those say that was a paragraph by the ethiopian Prime Minister. But William Davison is a Senior Analyst for ethiopia at International Crisis group he says if you are a sense of a conflict situation that can only be resolved through dialogue. Unfortunately that clash of the election really was a very serious constitutional dispute over the rights of take rate to autonomous lee hold an election and that was as it happened against federal rulings so this is a very serious constitutional disputes ends with the federal government saying that to grace government was unlawful and to grace government saying that the federal government out of a state its constitutional mandate so you can see what a serious of a legal position that is within a federation that is built upon a very toxic political disputes emanating from a power struggle within the Ruling Coalition with the tea party losing a lot of power so unfortunately theres been also its not produced for dialogue these people in power were previously part of the same Ruling Coalition they have gradually become opponents and now they have entered conflicts of course we need dialogue and its imperative that both sides and embrace dialogue and that the International Community pushes for that we also have to be realistic that we have now reached a conflict situation. The Constitutional Courts in the ivory coast has extended the deadline for official objections to the president ial election result rival factions have been fighting since weekend elections that the turned president of the sun letter to power the candidates boycotted the elections saying a 3rd term for the president is unconstitutional extension that gives the opposition parties until monday to file an official objection. Gigis says in that with more on how ivorians are reacting to the political uncertainty. The streets of the economic capital are much calmer than they used to be in the early days of the election now there is less security presence on the streets however there is significant presence of the Security Forces around the homes of opposition leaders in abidjan here and apart from that there is because of the calm situation you cannot make activities are picking up here is one of the markets in the city and here traders are opening their shops and ill go there are many traders and businessmen who are still skeptical of the situation they would prefer to wait until after the pronouncement of the Constitutional Court and see how things go from there apart from the economic sector the Education Sector is also being closely watched our schools are due to resume next monday and there are concerns from families and people in the capital here about whether or not to send their children back to school there are people with spoken to whove moved their families out of the country ahead of the election fearing that violence will break out what calling it was whether its safe to bring the children back to school now people are watching closely to see on monday whether these schools were open also schools will be hard to see how things go after the pronouncements of the Constitutional Court and see whether or not there would be a reaction from opposition supporters. The United Nations says that armenia and azerbaijan may have committed possible war crimes in their conflict with a disputed region or. Both sides have pledged not to target civilians but strikes against homes and cities continue and as rory chalons reports theres evidence of other human rights abuses. In the living room in armenia these people are anxious were not identifying the parents just in case it leads to their son being mistreated hes a prisoner of war held by azerbaijans military his mother and father had no idea hed even gone to the front lines now theyre waiting and hoping trying to keep their spirits up. I had no information on how he is where he is whats condition hes in when we call the answer is the same it is the same from the human rights defenders and the red cross they tell us everything will be fine it will be good i have no idea whats going to happen its no wonder they are worried 3 weeks ago as a by johnny social media platforms shared video of 2 armenians being captured in a corner karabakh ball footage shows what looks like the same 2 men bound and draped in armenian and new going to karabakh flags then they are shot dead. Azerbaijans government says the video is fake. Armenias human rights on both men says hes aware of other videos showing mutilation. Of food in jail or trades how germany soldier is cutting the later years of the body of army a soldier and you can see the hate speech and and glorification and praise from from other soldiers. But armenia is accused of carrying out possible war crimes to. On october 28th 21 people were reported killed in a rocket attack on the azerbaijani town of barga the biggest civilian loss of life in this war so far both armenia and azerbaijan are hitting civilian areas. And theres evidence they using cluster bombs banned by more than 100. 00 countries not least to the International Committee of the red cross says its engage in talks with both sides to remind them of their obligations under International Humanitarian law and to allow access to prisoners of war and we call on the sides to give us more names of those people because were of course all of the information that is now on the internet and we have a lot of families coming to our offices here in azerbaijan and i want to quote about asking. For support and help as they put a freeze up when they recognize their relatives much of the modern identities of armenia and azerbaijan to rest on their animosity towards each other and their fight over not going to care about strong voices in each country argue that they are the historical victim and that they have the monopoly on truth and this is a dangerous situation for human rights in this conflict. Aljazeera. Armenia. The us is seen another record jump in corona virus infections 2 days after the president ial election with 120000 cases were confirmed on thursday exceeding the record sets the day before according to its tally Johns Hopkins university and average of 850 people have died from the virus every day in the last 2 weeks thats up from 700 a month ago. The u. K. Government Statistical Agency estimates that around 50000. 00 people in englands are infected by the corona virus every day thats double the official figure as part of efforts to fight the virus the entire population of the city of liverpool has been asked to test for covert 90 its part of a trial for mass testing aimed at helping hospitals within destructions when 2000 military personnel have been deployed to help. Dozens of people have been killed after a Tropical Storm struck Central America flooding and mudslides forced thousands of people from their homes across nicaragua honduras and guatemala regular mahomet reports. Tropical storm into has left a trail of destruction burying villages and submerging streets in guatemala many impaired or barrios have abandoned their homes major rivers are in danger of overflowing their banks forcing people to flee for Higher Ground any way they can also my gosh everything got where everything was lost we just managed to move 2 beds upwards the fridge turned over everything got way we love that about her and the water was already up to our chests. Many people have been killed in landslides authorities are attending to survivors in the banking and at the ministry of Public Health has come to check on the people take the temperature be vital signs and if any person requires any special care they will be immediately transferred to a health center. Itar struck the nicaraguan coast as a powerful category 4 hurricane but despite being downgraded to a Tropical Storm the slow moving system has continued to drop torrential rains across Central America in the west of panama power lines and trees were brought down and roads damaged many are hoping and waiting for help emergency crews are combing through wreckage to find them. Go about the out of the bottle were back you aged around 400 people a mine of approximately 8 years old diet we have evacuated people rescued them from the highest evacuation points to the shelter points. But some areas are hard to reach in honduras age groups are warning the crisis could trigger a humanitarian disaster i did this. There are dozens of families in some c. D. s of the solo body that are on their roofs and are asking to be evacuated yet there is so little time for these and we know that the National System in this not have the capacity and it has been asking for support but its quite worrying situation and. Some of those who have reached safety say they have nowhere to go that. We havent been told of their shelters or not we have to move on fruit because what else are we going to do its been described as the worst Natural Disaster to hit this region in more than 20 years millions are facing hardship with limited access to food water and shelter forecasters are expecting the storm to regain strength and head toward cuba and the gulf of mexico really mohammed al jazeera. This is al jazeera these are the headlines democratic nominee joe biden has pulled ahead of President Trump in the state of georgia but the u. S. President ial race remains too close to call for battleground states are still counting. Donald trump is making unproven claims that if only legal votes were counted he would win the election he says legal challenges manda in the Supreme Courts joe biden is urging people to be patient he says hes confident of becoming the next u. S. President he has seen a 164 Electoral College votes 270 are needed for victory and fisher has more from washington d. C. On biden taking the lead in georgia that could be what joe biden needs to push him over the edge if he wins a georgia its all over there is no other path to 270 for donald trump that doesnt include georgia so you see why its important big given that the lead is less than a 1000 its almost certainly going to mean a recount its almost certainly going to mean legal action as well so he could well end up in the next couple of hours being declared the winner in georgia but that doesnt mean to say that that will make him the president elect if hell be as Prime Minister says a military operation in the Northern Tier a region has clear and limited goals thats after calls for immediate deescalation from the International Community a sense in soldiers on wednesday after accusing the regions rather than t. P. R. Last party of attacking federal troops and accusation its a nice the government has declared a state of emergency in the area designated it as a no fly zone. The Constitutional Court in the ivory coast has extended the deadline for objections to the president ial Election Results by evil factions of new fighting since the weekend polls that returned president alyson whats era to par and 8 prodemocracy politicians in hong kong have appeared in court over a fight says a Legislative Council meeting 5 months ago they were granted bail and sober next appearance in february accused of contents and obstruction that states all hail the algorithm is up next. We understand the differences and similarities of cultures across the world. So no matter what you see aljazeera will bring you the news and Current Affairs that matter to you. Aljazeera. Think of some of the Biggest Companies in the world today is google on his own microsoft facebook we chat all of them big tech with algorithms that. One more than just uses or customers will these businesses see what generations of data they need us to like them for them to be indispensable because the more that we use them the more data we produce where in the midst of a great race the dot and Big Tech Companies are on the chase. For the past 3 years academics nichol dri analysts have been investigating a phenomenon they call data colonialism. While the modes scales and context may have changed they say colonialism same underlying functions of empire building extraction and appropriation remain the new lang grab going on theres not land thats being grabbed its us its human life the acquisition of the construction of data valuable data to corporate use out of the flow of our lives thats the lag right going on and thats why the work is the only way does justice to that lets think for instance of all the and use her license agreements or the terms of use that we read whenever we sign up for a new social media platform and if we think about the process of being asked to agree to something that we cannot even understand and signing away certain rights signing away our property in this act i think its a very interesting were not for one moment saying. Colonialism today with data in both the same horrific level of violence that was involved in the beginnings of columbia this. Week saying that the core of historic colonus and was in the force to involve people in a massive new system a new order a new organization of the World Economy in the history of kuoni listen weve had different empires terms of course we can think of this kranish empire the British Empire i think we would say this point in history in terms of data colonialism we have 2 centers of power and we have the United States on one side and china in the other and of course we know the american corporations very well in terms of Google Facebook amazon maybe we dont know the trainees corporations very well because their reach is just beginning to expand. Beyond china so far trying that has been kind of like an internal colony but we are starting to see how these corporations how the infrastructure developed in trying out is starting to expand into different parts of the world including asia and africa. The chinas biggest private company well way technologys africa has been a goldmine of so its countries like south Africa Nigeria kenya which is where now have delivered some of the biggest most rapidly growing telecom its. Has studied the way effect here in kenya theyre Building Products for example that are suited to the African Market the cheapest mobile phone that you can get in various African Markets its a chinese phone so you will not for a moment but if you look to join one to both people to start and they are building relationships with governments they are providing infrastructure so while we has provided a lot of infrastructure for. Surveillance in kenya and i see team kenya to work in every country with its developed by the people somewhere in the middle and thats really useful for governments here so we advise you know on that Government Data centers on the economy and services or anything else we can share those expenses from around the world the nice thing is of course of life benefits of people connected to our business so the generating revenue for us as well but the other piece of the chinese influence is that the surreptitious war theres a lot of questions about Data Collection with technology thats coming in from china and in some ways its the other side of the coin right there is a whole lot of data thats being taken out from african countries and from African Citizens to be kept handled used by people who are not this is certainly responsible for answerable to African People so while it is not. Access peoples data or cell data so i dont think that we are the kind of company. That are benefitting off peoples data of the only data that we are using it just to improve our product themselves such as using Artificial Intelligence our smartphones in our Network Equipment so that it can then improve be faster there are skeptics who would question adams assertion after all most Big Tech Companies do exploit use a darter in some way however even if while way doesnt do it there are other chinese operations in africa that collect and make extensive use of peoples data. Here in nairobi the dominance of chinese tech is undeniable from telecommunication lines to Satellite Networks right down to the planes in peoples hands and the apps on those fights Chinese Companies have this market and much of the data it produces in its cross train scene holdings for instance sells to over 40 percent of the mobile market in Subsaharan Africa its fun someone to the brand names techno i tell and in phoenix but its strategy doesnt end with the hardware data driven apps like the Music Streaming Service being play and Digital Payment platform pompei add to a growing repository of data run african uses and can help boost money making opportunities for transients when you think about Digital Partners and i think any i think the thing that gets lost is that the primary objective it was about money was fundamentally about using power using culture using all these kinds of tools to impose one society in another society is still at the 1st society could make money off of that where you define corner as a map that then you really start to see the residences in china has been investing in africa many parts of asia for 2030 years very systematically is never pretended that it is doing anything other than expanding its economic interests it does not use. Civilizing rhetoric because it doesnt need to lets contrast that for the moment with a company like microsoft which talks about democratizing ai. Or facebook to those concerned to give as it were connection cometary can just be a privilege for some of the rich and powerful and needs to be something that everyone shares. Facebook has made a big push to present itself as a benevolent force to get people online since 2013 the company has been leading a giant project called internet dot all sort of gateway to the World Wide Web for those with poor connectivity. d the app that serves as the portal to facebooks version of the internet is called free basics and its been launched in at least 60 countries more than half of them in africa the idea is to provide access to select sites without data charges in effect its a stripped down version of the internet that has one very important component guaranteed connection with facebook and guaranteed possibilities of data extraction which is why despite the companys slick marketing not everyone is convinced that this is an entirely selfless exercise nonjury cimbali is a leading to general rights advocate i think whats most interesting in the it what ill call technical quality x. Is the rush to connect the unconnected and the rush to retain the connected in very specific platforms a lot of these actors will do anything and everything to make sure at some point or other these users go through their platforms because its all about the data its all about how much data can i get about peoples of arkansas ads so that you know concrete predictive things to keep them hooked into what im able to offer and therefore the world will keep churning theres no way that a lot of these Tech Companies will be able to behave in their home countries the way they behave in the developing world there is no way that you would be able to roll out a project as big as free basic. Without some kind of check or balance would some without some kind of ethical. There was no effort to even say this is what this means this is how this will work for you and that is really telling right of what they think that African People want and or need from the internet projects that are largely in this case emerging from a Silicon Valley or western america centric approach to connecting the unconnected i really did deeply steeped in the same condescending ways of doing development so this notion that give them something that is better than nothing i mean why would anyone not want that vehicle in us some is framed in terms of a civilized nation or mission when people are connected we can accomplish some Pretty Amazing things just like historical colonialism was framed as well in terms of bringing progress bringing something that is good and beneficial for humanity we can get closer to the people that we care about we can get access to jobs and opportunities and our participation is expected and our petition pretty soon we are told its for our own good meanwhile all of this extraction and capturing of the you know is kind of happening in the background we dont realizing the consequences d the Facebook Free basics model which is basically about expanding for facebook the demean of data extraction across the world at a time when demand for facebook is beginning to fall amongst younger people in particular in the socalled west. Is very interesting just as in historic colonialism the apparent weakness of the colonized populations that lack of weapons their lack of certain resources the lack of an economic structure suggested to the colonizers that they needed to be colonized they needed to have whatever the colonial system would offer them to bind them in. Free basics is just one of facebooks many initiatives across africa. Facebooks latest push here in kenya is called express why 5 companies teamed up with local Internet Service providers to instore why 5 hotspots like here in the mass i town of if you get out on the outskirts of nairobi. Jerry in basia is a hairdresser who signed up as of into facebooks express why. He gets a commission on every dot a bundle he sells his customers say they love it they do his 1st book because even myself i use it im a friend of their brand of keep the cheaper. Compared to other networks you get the 1st round of 1100 in business for free yeah. You run. Yes they do they find it cheaper to fund it when the book and then the doctors dont express why fly has been an undeniable success here it is made web access cheaper for the People Living in underserved locations then there are so many People Living our own water connected to. However for those studying the activities of facebook and other Big Tech Companies in kenya its impossible to ignore the huge potential for data mining last year facebook was pushed to admit that it had added its own software to the wife i Access Points that enabled non facebook data such as customer names and phone numbers to directly flow to the corporation while Facebook Says the purpose of the software eastern sure that hotspots of functioning well theres no clarity on just how much additional daughter is being collected and how thats being used a lot of these companies arent african theyre not even based in kenya in africa forget kenya longa so what is a kenyan citizens of birth to do an American Company uses their day to sell their day to markets it you know as a product and without their consent without their ability to intervene to appeal to a court system thats kind of the gray area that were falling into the lot of these big you know that. Tech company. Facebook isnt the only Big Tech Company playing the connectivity card here in cannes last year alphabet the Parent Company whose most famous brand is google signed a deal with Telecom Kenya to quote connect the unconnected using billings. Loon is a path breaking project thats been 8 years in the making and the idea is deceptively simple use High Altitude balloons to provide Internet Connectivity in remote and hard to reach parts of the world kenya is where luna is making its commercial debut i spoke with Charles Merida d he doesnt represent loon but its more well known Sister CompanyGoogle Googles mission from the get go was to really get a lot of the africans who are offline on my end to make sure they get online in a more affordable and have better conduct content as well as relevance and the mission around noon is to ensure that we are able to deliver connectivity to the most remote part of the continent and around the world so i am proud to say that here in kenya is the 1st commercial agreement between noon our Sister Company and telco to kenya were amazed to be seen is what standards of. Accountability there will be will that mean that people are restricted to only using google esque sites for instance that remains to be question what data will become active in the process of connecting people i put some of these questions to charles he made it clear he couldnt say much more about luke after all he doesnt work for that company he did tell me this though about googles approach to Data Collection. So what we do at google is we ensure that we have employed a user trust that is something thats really important and that users understand exactly what were doing with the data that we have on them we also ensure that theyre able to manage and control so transparency ability to. Manage and control the data that we have on our users is really critical and when its so transparent people get joy the magic of Google Charles uses a lot of positive p. R. Speak especially when it comes to discussing matters relating to data that doesnt come as a big surprise because data ownership access privacy is an incredibly sensitive legal and political issue across the World Governments and regulators have been looking at their data laws more and more seriously but perhaps the most widely publicized is the European Unions general Data Protection regulation otherwise known as g. D. P. Which set a Global Benchmark for strengthening individual rights of the personal data thats really the discrepancy that were seeing here is that western governments western societies have more space to keep these companies in check and to force them to abide by their local social standards and countries in other parts of the world and thats where the cornal is a label really starts to become evident there is not enough space for ordinary African Citizens to push their governments on these issues there is not enough space for us to actually demand a different standard of treatment in july has a point just take a look at the state of data regulation around the world and youll see how stock the imbalances according to a study by the law firm deal a pipe north america or australia much of europe and china have what they would classify as heavy will robust regulation for many countries across africa regulation ranges from moderate to 0 the kenyan government says theyre working on it but the speed at which they are developing policies is being outstripped by the speed at which private plays are revolutionizing telecoms and Internet Connectivity i dont think theres anything particularly wrong with private sector actors taking the lead role if especially again they have the resources. And the wherewithal to be able to do this the question is where are states in this game to keep them in check because of the narrative around how any and all Digital Development is a positive or a net positive asking critical questions is almost seen as being an enemy of progress and therefore the risk is your people in the community. So because of that nuanced and problematic notion being created very few politicians and by extension government actors want to step up to the plate to play this game proactively. Which come to think about as being with us ready to be extracted like oil can be extracted from the earth i certainly used to think of my daughter that way before i began doing research and interviews for this episode. But ive since come to realize that our lives locations family members our preferences our dislikes all of this isnt really done until you create algorithms that can convert every single human being into a collection of bits that money can be made off so this myth that somehow the oil or they call that the day to exhaust naturally within a switch is naturally there to be used by corporations it happens for their profit its an incredibly important myth to say theres nothing we can do about this this is the way things are but go back 203040 years this was not the way things were we need to hold on to that past to remembering to pass on the memory of that past in order to show that this remains the myth the digital core the colonial project so were not just talking about the big players Facebook Google amazon in china baidu ali baba pants and cetera the social quantifications sector is a larger industry sector composed of the big players and swell alternative hardwired Manufacturers Software developers all of this platform and to produce more as well as Data Analytics firms and data brokers. So altogether they. Constitute this. Sector that provides the infrastructure for making this extraction possible traction of data from our human social lives we are the bodies producing the data but were not necessarily the ones who benefit from that so at stake here is peoples ideas peoples dreams for peoples hopes peoples frustrations being used to sell things back to them where do we actually get our money back were not saying no tac in africa were not saying you know just jump over africa as youre thinking about and i internet the its and has done a lot of really good things in africa its made a lot of connections possible that were not possible even 510 years ago the question is how do you mitigate the harm how do you make sure that you protect the good and you corral the bad model that we have now isnt doing that i think we should be bored enough and brave enough to go back to the drawing board and challenge ourselves to think differently about this model is there a better way of doing this thing is there a more humane way of doing this connectivity thing that were trying to do through all of these corporations. Technology is neither positive and negative or neutral it will always intrinsic motivation that exists in a community where its being deployed one practical tip that ive found very useful is to keep myself informed and bring in as much critical for it and questioning of when we are told you know technology x. Is the solution and is the disrupt. You know to question how we were out at that conclusion supporting actors what make it that day to day lives to ask these things is one way to also keep making sure your views your concerns are represented and its you know not to give in to their fear we can still figure out how to heal the Society Technology could help with that but its dead teaching us that we and we need to go back to the basics of how we form societies how we find consensus and how we quite exist in this world children who are now 5 years or younger growing up with toys which are infractions robots algorithmically programmed which operate by tracking everything they do and playing back to them in forms that help the child grow everything they say we dont know what happens to that data but it will be probably impossible in about 10 years time to say to the child who is now by that stage that grown up adult you can live in a World Without being tracked algorithmically at every moment of your life its therefore very important we start in a sense speaking the truth to a very new type of power that is walking the place india i think its easy to forget you know a time even before all of our lives were ruled in a certain sense might all of these for equality and yet when i talk to young people are encouraged by the sense that they really dont think all of this habitable and they are actually less deterministic that i am when i think about technology. And when i hear them. Talk about their changing perceptions towards facebook toward social media how theyre becoming critical of that and how theyre becoming more. Literate consumers in terms of reading the terms of service in terms of trying to make sense of these technical legal mystically which i think that gives me hope. That people can become more active consumers and participants think that its really fortunate for us as were thinking about the issues that theyre pushing teas and the challenges the Technology Presents to remember about human beings this and human nature is very its very true and its very repetitive weve actually been here before with other forms of Communications Technology when you think about radio and the role that radio played for example in the 2nd world war when you think about the launch of television and you know the fears around advertising in the fields around how television would change society but these are all conversations that have actually happened in the past and so for me the big lesson is lets learn from what has already happened in the past lets not be afraid to look back theres nothing radical you so radically different about Internet Technology that human beings havent really grappled with before. In the 2nd part of identity exile Matthew Castle travels to the middle east to retrace his steps and in refugee rise. And see the conflict through the eyes of those who live it it breaks my heart to see that he was going like a father to yearn for a place that he may never see i dont need israel and i go out of my down to. 0 correspondent. Alan oster this spring wont the showing itself throughout most argentine it we have to exclude patagonia words from his door stormy these were the active storms further north and south of brazil a couple days ago mostly theyre offshore now the slope potential just north of rio because in that part of brazil the selective weather so 2 days of sunshine here then go north catch up with that cold front and its fairly active between rio and salvatore on that the wettest is going to be the northwest of brazil and beyond that the remains of the hurrican are no longer defined as anything at all this is massive some storms in here now its course pretty extensive flooding throughout Central America in believes guatemala honduras of course this is the picture of across the mahlers sort of filing flooding fairly widespread mostly in the north of the country and these arent represents the areas where its likely to be wet in the next day or so says a defined center yeah but i think by the time we get to the end the weekend will be a proper spinning storm possibly a Tropical Storm again yes it will be easy to spreading rain through the Cayman Islands up into wards western parts of cuba where as for the u. S. Most of the action is on the Pacific Coast cold and wet. Im counting the cost the end of austerity the ideology decimating the weakest in society for the economic going to stand in front of the rich and powerful and they be consigned to history and the russian german gas pipeline opposed by washington and european capitals. Counting the cost on aljazeera. November on aljazeera. Following huge protests and the introduction of the beijing back National Security law kerry lamb sets out have vision for hong kong. All hail the lockdown explores the complexities of our Global Response to the coronavirus pandemic. In a series of special reports we can summon the Global Gaming boom as other entertainment businesses struggle to survive up front returns with Emmy Award Winning journalist Richelle Carey shell cut through the headlines and be rigorous debate and former french president Nicolas Sarkozy will face trial on corruption charges well bring you the latest november on all jersey. Their. Marriage. This is al jazeera. Hello there i am how he did and this is the aljazeera news are coming to you live from doha coming up of these in georgia parents joe biden corso to the 270 electoral votes needed to become the 46 president s of the United States donald trump is not pushing for the Supreme Court to intervene in the vote count and process over unproven from its claims. After deployed