and for you. the palestine national locust was first founded in the one nine hundred thirty s. but has had to be revived in twenty ten always very important thing in palestine now musicians from all over the world come together to perform in the occupied territories. it's like every palestinian living in the us felt it was the first time the performer using their identity al-jazeera world hears music as a force for unity the diaspora orchestra at this time. i think that i think it's terrible you want to know the truth i think it's a disgrace. a republican memo accuses the f.b.i. of abusing its powers and questions raised about the investigation into the front campaign's relationship with russia.

and sam is a down this is al jazeera live from also coming up facing a new reality the u.s. pushes the case to modernize its nuclear weapons but there are fears it could trigger a weapons race. free fall for digital currencies popular cryptocurrency bitcoin loses a third of its value in the past week plus. i'm in the town of la where we'll tell you about a chinese mega project that's cutting through here that the lao government hopes will help open this landlocked country of. the u.s. congress is released a republican memo criticizing the f.b.i.'s investigation into alleged russian meddling in the two thousand and sixteen election it was the. classified by

president donald trump the documents says the f.b.i. and department of justice abuse their power showed anti trump bias while examining a legit ties between trump's campaign team and the kremlin the f.b.i. it argued against its release saying it had grave concerns the document contained what it called material admissions of fact democrats say the memo is a special counsel robert muller's investigation our white house correspondent kimberly helka reports. republicans promised a bombshell that would destroy any idea the trump campaign colluded with the russian government during the twenty sixteen presidential election but in the end it did not meet expectations president trump declassified the memo written by top republicans allowing for its public release even against the advice of his own f.b.i. director and the u.s. justice department the four page report which is part of

a larger intelligence document argues f.b.i. investigators looking into alleged truck ties to russia hit the fact some of their research was funded by democratic party sources it also claims the entire investigation was biased against donald trump from the beginning and that some agents expressed views privately and i think it's a disgrace what's happening in our country and when you look at that and you see that and so many other things what's going on. lot of people should be ashamed of themselves but democrats argue the memo is simply a summary of republican talking points based on an accuracies house democratic leader nancy pelosi says it's all part of a plan to distract americans from the russia investigation led by special counsel robert muller and alleged campaign ties to president vladimir putin's government in a statement she said president trump has surrendered his constitutional responsibility as commander in chief. if by releasing highly classified and

distorted intelligence by not protecting intelligence sources and methods he just sent his friend putin a book a trunk himself made the argument on twitter prior to the memos release that leadership at the f.b.i. and justice department are out to get him some analysts believe that's more evidence trump is actively obstructing the investigation if you look at the words out of mr trump's own mouth the very incriminating he said repeatedly i need somebody in the justice department who will protect me it's doubtful the memos released will change public opinion about the russia investigation still there is now an effort by some democrats and republicans to legally protect the rusher probe from what many believe is a white house effort to derail the justice process kimberly held at al-jazeera washington aaron callers from the university of michigan he says the focus will

shift now to death of the attorney general rod rodenstein who was involved in securing the warrants that were used to monitor a trump campaign aide brought rosenstein is you know his. grip on the administration on the investigation you know is certainly hurt by this because he's an appointee in theory president trump could get rid of him at any time and you know the memo was put out to show that when he had to extend the the plaza warrant on her page it kind of undermines the rationale in so you know i don't think that president trump is going after other more directly but rather those nine is the boss. robert muller and so i think he's probably most vulnerable in that if president from tries to insult somebody new ahead of the investigation so many more favorable for him that could eventually play well or in the crosshairs and so i think directly rosen saying would be most because he had to

approve all those kinds of warrants. the u.s. military is modernizing its nuclear weapons arsenal in response it's has to concerns russia or is expanding its capability the new pentagon strategy and the obama era push to reduce america's stockpile defense secretary james mattis says the u.s. needs to see the world as it is not as it wishes it to be defense correspondent patika hain reports from washington. u.s. president donald trump never criticizes russian president vladimir putin but the pentagon is doing just that moscow retains a large stockpile of non-strategic nuclear weapons and continues to modernize those as well as its strategic systems this report says aggression from russia concerns about china and north korea and potentially iran are the reasons the u.s. needs to modernize its nuclear weapons and it's changing the wording on when it could use them saying the u.s.

could use nuclear weapons in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the u.s. what's new is they added this line extreme circumstances could include significant non nuclear strategic attacks the military was asked to clarify what that means it would that also involve the employment of biological weapons against the us population or allies would involve the use of chemical weapons against our people would involve a conventional tack in other parts of the world the context in which an attack occurred on the united states or allies would be how we would evaluate the appropriate response the plan also calls for modernizing the nuclear arsenal that's something the last administration wanted to do and at the time they said it was going to cost more than a trillion dollars over thirty years this plan would undoubtedly be even more expensive and that has not been something that congress has been really willing to fund at this point. the u.s. also wants to build a new kind of weapon a nuclear warhead with less impact but critics say that could make nuclear war more

likely they are literally having weapons that give the president more options to start a nuclear war and that is becoming dangerous quickly we have this president who we all know is impetuous irrational and not always unsound mind recently three high ranking former diplomats went to capitol hill with the warning that the massive destructive force of a nuclear weapon was no longer appreciated or even feared by some in those days people seem to have an appreciation of what would what would be the result of a nuclear weapon or ever used i fear people have lost that sense of dread the u.s. under president trump is trying to improve its nuclear arsenal and the potential reasons to use it they say in order to improve the odds it won't have to political gain al-jazeera washington a former u.s. state department official simon limit by the renewed emphasis on these weapons.

i have no doubt that the professionals at the department of energy department of defense in the state department who analyzed those threats in developing the nuclear posture review had very good and important information where i differ with the final product that was rolled out the south after noon isn't. the case that low yield nuclear weapons have any stabilizing or valuable role to play in today's today's threat context in fact i would make the opposite case that there is no real such thing as a surgical nuclear strike on a potential enemy i also have observed that over the last ten to twenty years there is some very strong and compelling can conventional alternatives to a potential nuclear strike so this renewed emphasis on these types of weapons is troubling and does not leave our allies i think in

a very strong position and i don't see how it compels china whose threat i think is somewhat overstated and certainly russia to alter their calculus a confidential united nations report says north korea most two hundred million dollars last year by violating u.n. sanctions the report to a security council committee says north korea supplied weapons to syria and me and mom and shipped coal to countries including russia and china the u.n. sanctions banning such exports are designed to limit funding for north korea's nuclear program at least two people have been killed and nineteen others injured in attacks on turkish towns near the border with syria and. turkey says rockets were fired from a kurdish enclave inside syria it's been more than two weeks of intense fighting in the area turkey launched an offensive to clear the region of syrian kurdish forces known as the wife e.g. which it says is a terrorist group. the y.p.

g.'s accusing turkish backed fighters of mutilating and filming the corpse of a female kurdish fighter bomber in combat is understood to be a female member of the kurdish women's protection unit video seen by al jazeera appears to show free syrian army fighters standing over her body in a village near the turkish border border meanwhile local media say air and artillery strikes in eastern of all to have killed five people including a child further north an airstrike hits a car carrying a family trying to escape the fighting in aleppo southeastern countryside it's believed seven people were killed some of them children it's estimated at least nineteen migrants have drowned off the coast of libya a boat carrying mostly pakistanis capsized early on friday only three people are known to have survived they told aid workers they were trying to cross the mediterranean and reach italy ten bodies have washed up so far leonard doyle

from the international organization for migration believes the boat was overloaded we know that the weather was calm so that's indicating that indicating that the smugglers who are cavalier to say the least have hugely overloaded this for us so this is just really what happened and we need to get the word out to people desperate people around the world who think they're coming to a better life and they're reading about it on social media that it's not the case now palestinian leaders are sent to discuss ending the oslo accords and suspending recognition of israel palestinian president mahmoud abbas is due to meet the executive committee of the palestinian liberation organization a bass vowed to reject u.s. mediation efforts after dawn trump's decision to recognize jerusalem as israel's capital in december last month he declared the oslo accords were dead. still ahead on al-jazeera a father attacks former u.s.

gymnastics team doctor larry nasir for abusing his daughters. how low the temperatures afford to go i really quite shoppy across western parts of here and now this big every class thinking its way further south was that of every cloud just falling behind where we have got some rather lively showers with some snow in this snow i was actually in the northern parts of spain a good covering here that you can see it has caused some travel disruption tricky conditions to the set to continue for the next couple of days actually there's that northerly brace them in place there for sas to even cross the pennants high ground in northern england could see a little bit of snow but more the way of rain for many into wales down across southern parts of england western areas of france seeing some lobby sas and that

pushes all the way down towards appear anywhere again you will see some snow sunny a chance of some a good covering a snow white over the out save for the next day heavy rain there into northern italy into the balkans not rain really setting in for a good pot of sas day should clear through by sunday clear a total weather coming back in behind and just will struggle to get around five celsius for london in paris by sunday night is the snow continuing in parts across by madrid will be struggling to get to around nine degrees celsius a disturbed weather actually makes its way across northern parts of africa over the next few days with more rain for a chilly rocket. you're

watching the zero time to recap headlines now the u.s. congress has released a republican memo criticizing the f.b.i.'s investigation into alleged russian meddling in the two thousand and sixteen election it says the f.b.i. and department of justice abuse their power and showed and. examining alleged ties between campaign team and the kremlin. the u.s.

military is modernizing its nuclear weapons arsenal in response to concerns russia is expanding its capability the new strategy the obama era push to reduce america's stockpile. dozens of studies of have drowned off the coast of libya they were among more than ninety people on the boat which capsized off the city of the water only three people of known to have survived they were trying to cross the mediterranean to italy. now mexico's foreign minister says his country's relationship with the u.s. is closer on the president donald trump then with previous administrations luis with a guy says despite well known disagreements between the countries they're working relationship had improved he also called them venezuelans to find a peaceful solution to the ongoing political crisis a day after the u.s. secretary of state raised the prospect of a military are prizing well as wayland president nicolas maduro it's been

officially named his party's candidate in april's election but i do know could extend his role for another six years if he wins the vote was called by the pro-government national constituent assembly was originally scheduled for december but due to as overseen months of protests against his government many leading opposition figures have been jailed or banned from running for election the father of three girls who were sexually abused by the doctor of the usa gymnastics team has tried to attack him during his latest court hearing rand margrave's lunged at larry now so has been already sentenced to one hundred seventy five years in prison john hendren reports. a father's fury his target the man who sexually abused his three daughters over the years you to as far as a certain thing. to me five minutes away this is the moment you know that i can't do that that's now.

me. the man he wanted to get his hands on his leeriness or former olympic gymnastics doctor in a convicted serial child molester and possibly the last child he will ever assault . nassar was accused of assaulting more than two hundred fifty girls and women while he's face justice the organizations he's worked for have largely escaped any punishment we need to hold these organizations accountable usa gymnastics united front back in may and ask you they need an independent investigation new allegations less than a week before the start of the twenty eight thousand winter games describe how usa gymnastics e-mailed us olympic committee security chief larry detailing sexual misconduct accusations against nasser a year before they were made public they've engaged in a cut a cover up of the worst child molester perhaps in american history brianna randall

gay reported nassar to police in two thousand and four eleven years before he was fired from usa gymnastics and everybody right used to return or. no charges filed and all that might. help but i don't know where this week she received a long awaited apology i want to start first of all the most important reason we're here and that's to apologise. on behalf of the community or police department. we feel we let you down. back at the court randall hargreaves the father who lunged at nasser apologized for his behavior he said he came to court not to up stages three daughters but to help them heal john hendren al-jazeera. apologized and said he just lost control. thank you very much for the my daughter i

knew they were going to read a statement i didn't know would hold and would not let me see that i. don't want daughters to the boy very delicately realizing they're going to trust the me. later that we were married for sure you can have said no. like you didn't have good workers so you. lost control of one hundred five. house officials in the u.s. of trying to manage the country's worst flu outbreak in a decade fifty three children have died this when turn flu related hospital admissions are at an all time high medical professionals are urging people to get the flu vaccine despite questions over its effectiveness kristen salumi reports. hospital emergency rooms across the country are inundated with sneezing coughing sniffling patients in atlanta georgia grady memorial hospital opened

a temporary mobile emergency room and closed in plastic tents to handle a twenty five percent increase in visits in the month of january the flu this year has been dangerous our volume in the emergency department has reached such a critical number and not only us but our inpatient colleagues we really need to bring in an additional resource the very old in the very young are the group that tend to be in the most danger from kitchen willfully is a cesspool of flu a cesspool of funky flu at the e.r. right now in florida one tired nurse posted this now viral video after working a twelve hour shift as watch this i'm going to teach elementary trick it's. her advice is simple cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough wash your hands and avoid bringing healthy people to the emergency room the u.s. centers for disease control says the hospitalization rate for flu is at an all time

high this year with forty nine of the fifty us states reporting widespread flu activity still the scale of this outbreak is dwarfed by one which occurred one hundred years ago this month one of the deadliest in history in one thousand nine hundred spanish influenza spread around the globe in the aftermath of world war one over a period of two years it killed tens of millions of people globally including six hundred seventy five thousand in the united states alone this flu strain may not be as deadly but the national institute of health is still advising americans to get a vaccine even though a canadian study found it was less than twenty percent effective we should point out that even though the vaccine is less than optimal it's efficacy that the small to moderate amounts of protection you get against influenza by getting vaccinated is always better than no protection at all by not getting vaccinated that's very clear with as many as ten more weeks left to this flu season u.s.

health care workers are looking for all the help they can get kristen salumi al-jazeera police in the u.s. have charged a man for selling i mean listen to the gunman who carried out oct mass shooting in last vegas douglas haig is accused of conspiring to manufacture and sell the armor piercing bullets without a license fifty eight people died when stephen paddick opened fire in a country music concert the massacre was the deadliest mass shooting in modern u.s. history. france's president emmanuel mccall heads to the french island of corsica next week when nationalists are calling for more autonomy it follows their victory in regional elections in december planning a large demonstration ahead of the president's visit david chaytor reports from jack c.e.o. . the full independence may still be a distant dream but nationalism has found

a renewed force on this island the. yeah. not so long ago just singing the corsican national anthem was enough to get beaten up by the french police here now the islanders are demanding official status for their language. expression of course you can roots was rapidly merge with the expression of political demands so the singing became hard for the political authorities to accept and not only the french but also some corsicans were supporters of greater france the confrontation then became violent extremely violence very external. the brutal struggle for course going independence lasted for decades before weapons were finally surrendered three years ago the political fight to the ballot box is proving much more successful. a coalition of nationalists now commands forty one

out of the sixty three seats in the corsican assembly one of their key demands is for the return an amnesty of what they call their political prisoners held in jails across france sixty percent of the some say. what happened in the election last december was an earthquake it wasn't just the usual renewal of the acidly the corsican people voted today an absolute in my yard for corsica nationality that's the fact there are thirty some parties have to think about. but the nationalists have already served notice on president macron warning him that unless he starts listening to them then hard and conflicting times lie ahead for paris and corsica corsica was the birthplace of napoleon the man macro is most often measured against in terms of his youth and grand visions the french president is due on the island next week will he choose a compromise will he defend the integrity of france and its language if you change

to al-jazeera course. cryptocurrency is are in free fall with investors worried over a possible global clampdown the value of leading currency bitcoin plunged thirty percent this week sliding below eight thousand dollars for the first time since november of the virtual currencies have also posted big falls as regulators question their reliability india's applying to ban all crypto currency trading and facebook says it will no longer allow adverts for digital currencies just over a year ago but point because rather was valued at nine hundred two dollars and twenty six cents at its peak on the sixteenth of december just over nineteen thousand two hundred dollars by the end of january and had fallen below ten thousand dollars martin back a drag says a financial analyst the london bureau chief of financial media company the street

he says bitcoins real value depends on investors' confidence in it as a currency for my money the bottom could be zero and the upward limit of the price could be anything in the trillions if you believe in this as a currency as a real alternative to dollars or two yen or to anything else in the world then you could theoretically say that the price could be infinite because everybody would pile into it they would use that as a principle form of exchange and its value would never stop increasing if you don't believe that it doesn't have any worth it or the proprietary technology behind because it isn't any different than what we know in payment systems around the world in fact it's slower it's more cumbersome it eats up tons of energy there are all sorts of issues with this transparency that people have a problem with so from a functional point of view it doesn't have a great amount of value but function doesn't always translate into what people will pay for. laos is investing billions of dollars in a high speed rail line being built by

a chinese company it will run from you now on in southern china to the laotian capital the n.t. and before eventually connecting with another line being built in thailand in the third installment of our series global trade routes when hey reports from. in laos . these normally quiet previously untouched hills of northern laos and they are filled with the sights and sounds of heavy construction around the turn of the one providing rapid progress is being made on a chinese built high speed train line it will cut through here and cross the mekong river on its way from southern china to the lao capital vienna. the communist government of law says it wants the landlocked country to become land linking beijing sees this project as a key part of its belt and road infrastructure plan linking china with the rest of asia europe and beyond when this line is completed it will run for more than four hundred kilometers more than sixty percent of which will consist of bridges and

tunnels that makes it a very expensive project one that some say laos can't afford experts worry it will add to the government's already heavy debt loads the cost of the project is six billion dollars with most of the money coming from chinese grants and loans this is significant because. it is only. for been periods of close to fifty percent of g.d.p. in this project we would be in five years' time so that in we can expect. of public investment just for this process. one of the stops will be just outside the one providing which is a unesco listed talent for its unique lao and french architecture there is concern the new project will attract too many tourists putting a strain on the town's facilities and infrastructure. that many people and small businesses here survive off the tourism industry so the prospect of more visitors

spending money is welcomed. by. about three years ago there were more tourists but now there aren't as many so we are earning less money so we're looking forward to the trade. happening. some studies have found that china will receive most of the economic benefits from the large project it's involved in around the region laos is one of asia's poorest countries so when the railway is finished by late two thousand and twenty one it will be hoping its begin this mint will start paying off straight away wayne hay al jazeera long laos and in the final part of our global trade routes series will be looking at the planned trans african railway line that will connect west africa with the east.

and let's take you through some of the headlines here on al-jazeera now the u.s. congress has released a republican memo criticizing the f.b.i.'s investigation into alleged russian meddling in the two thousand and sixteen election it says the f.b.i. and department of justice abused their power and showed anti trump bias while examining alleged ties between trump's campaign team and the kremlin it was declassified by president donald trump the u.s. military is modernizing its nuclear weapons arsenal in response it says to concerns russia is expanding its capability the new strategy ends the obama era push to reduce america's stockpile the report also says concerns about china north korea and potentially iran are reasons to improve the nuclear arsenal it's estimated at least ninety migrants have drowned off the coast of libya a boat carrying mostly pakistanis capsized early on friday only three people are

known to have survived they told aid workers they were trying to cross the mediterranean to reach italy ten bodies have so far washed up onshore leonard doyle from the international organization for migration believes the boat was overloaded . we know that the weather was calm so that's indicating that indicating that the smugglers who are here to say the least hugely overloaded this first so this is just really what happens and we need to get the word out to people desperate people around the world who think they're coming to a better life and they're reading about it on social media that it's not the case a confidential united nations report says north korea and almost two hundred million dollars last year by violating u.n. sanctions report to a security council committee says north korea supplied weapons to syria. it also says it ships call to countries including russia and china the u.n.

sanctions banning such exports are designed to limit funding for north korea's nuclear program. there's a headline news continues here on al-jazeera after inside story. on counting the car some of the biggest names in with record earnings but they're also under scrutiny by regulators in what's being called. a look at business relations between the u.k. and china plus another scandal in the german auto industry counting the cost at this time. they say knowledge is power but education funding is declining worldwide and nowhere is that more parents then in sub-saharan africa in the region strained by poverty security issues and child marriages can international organizations come together to close the chapter on the literacy.