Im sam is a dan this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up facing a new reality the u. S. Pushes the case to modernize its Nuclear Weapons triggering fears of a new arms race. Volatile week for Digital Currencies bitcoin loses a third of its value plus. Im wayne hay in the town of la one providing we will tell you about a chinese mega project thats causing through here that the lao government hopes will help open this landlocked country up. 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 was the classified by President Donald Trump the documents says the f. B. I. And department of justice abuse their power and showed anti trump bias while examining alleged ties between the campaign and the kremlin the f. B. I. Had argued against its release saying it had grave concerns the document contained what it called material admissions of fact democrats say the memo is saying that the railings special counsel Robert Mullers investigation a White House Correspondent kimberly reports. Republicans promised a bombshell that would destroy any idea the Trump Campaign colluded with the russian government during the twenty sixteen president ial election but in the end he did not meet expectations president trying to declassify 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 its a disgrace whats happening in our country and when you look at that and you see that and so many other things whats going on a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves but democrats argue the memo is simply a summary of republican talking points based on in accuracies House Democratic leader nancy pelosi says its all part of a plan to distract americans from the russia investigation led by special Counsel Robert Mueller and alleged Truck Campaign ties to present a lot of your putins government in a statement she said president trying to surrender his constitutional responsibility as commander in chief by releasing highly classified and distorted intelligence by not protecting intelligence sources and methods he just sent his friend putin a book a trump 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 thats more evidence trump is actively obstructing the investigation if you look at the words out of mr trumps own mouth the very incriminating he said repeatedly i need somebody in the Justice Department who will protect me its doubtful the memos released will change Public Opinion about the russia investigation still there is now an effort by some democrats and republicans to literally protect the russia probe from what many believe is a white house effort to derail the justice process kimberly held at aljazeera washington. Omalleys sloan is a former federal prosecutor who specializes in government ethics she says the white house appears to be trying to destroying the public with the release of the memo i think theyre getting increasingly frightened about what Robert Muller is up to there have been other stories this week about bob mueller honing in on the pattern of the administration in trying to engage in a cover up we saw stories about the president s spokesperson hope picks saying that emails would never come out and we saw that in a previous spokesperson mark carollo had resigned because of his concern about obstruction of justice so i think that the white house is has thats all going on a one sided so theyd much rather distract all of us with discussions about this memo which people who hadnt seen it said it would be one hundred times worse than watergate but yet as jim comey pointed out really theres nothing in it theres nothing new or particularly in lightning in it and so by the same token i think people will now say the people who support trump well see weve got this memo and this memo shows us how corrupt it is and i think a lot of people will never have looked at the memo or have no understanding about whats in it the democrats are going to vote to push a vote again on monday about releasing their own memo and late this afternoon the white house said if it goes through attempted appropriate process there could be a way to release it but i think that that may be stalling for time to avoid actually having to release the memo so well see what happens with the democrats vote on monday a confidential United Nations report says north korea under almost two hundred Million Dollars last year by violating u. N. Sanctions the report to a Security CouncilCommittee Says north korea supplied weapons to syria and me involved and ships coal to countries including russia and china the u. N. Sanctions banning such exports are designed to limit funding from north Koreas Nuclear program. Now the u. S. Military is modernizing its Nuclear Weapons also in response it says to concerns russia is expanding its capability the new strategy and the obama era push to reduce americas stockpile defense secretary james mathis says the u. S. Needs to see the world as it is not as it wishes it to be a defense correspondent by the call higher folds 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 its changing the wording on when it could use them saying the u. S. Could use Nuclear Weapons in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the u. S. Whats new is they added this line extreme circumstances could include significant non nuclear strategic attacks the military was asked to clarify what that means it would that also involve the employment of biological weapons against the Us Population or allies would involve the use of chemical weapons against our people would involve a conventional tack in other parts of the world the context in which an attack occurred on the United States or allies would be how we would evaluate the appropriate response the plan also calls for modernizing the Nuclear Arsenal thats something the last administration wanted to do and at the time they said it was going to cost more than a trillion dollars over thirty years this plan would undoubtedly be even more expensive and that has not been something that congress has been really willing to fund at this point. 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 particularly when you 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 your name 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 wont have to political gain aljazeera washington or graham on the web is a Research Fellow at the institute for defense and strategic studies that the ass Rajaratnam School of International Studies he joins us on skype now from singapore good to have you with us first of all is the u. S. At risk of being a clip spy of a palace like russia and china which according to the report are expanding their Nuclear Arsenal is that the situation. I dont my really it is i think you have all four corners of expansion are coming from a greater than a set of assumptions that comes with weaponry your assumption is that. If you go back to the fundamentals of Nuclear Weapons and hollow words more it isnt necessarily that you need have sufficient warning letters to create credible deterrence against i was in my assessment in a lot of other observers the ones that criticize the recent publications is that the tell you what us has a sufficient mass of though tools establish a relatively robust occurence against a range of other hours including russia and china source see the concerns about expansion creating wrists miscalculation of actually increasing belligerence if you like and incentivizing us initiation to think about the use of their weapons when actually the fundamental of the words aligning Death Threats rather than actual deployment i guess the report argues that the threat of use is diminishing on the u. S. Side and its time it says to modernize what does modernize mean though we talking about replacing upgrading maintaining or are we talking about developing new kinds of Nuclear Weapons. It seems to suggest the shift towards you weaponry so you know no one still in deficit right now or where side amongst the proponents for this new initiative is that the us in relative terms lacks parity or balance if you like russias deployment of nonstrategic on knowing you a little bit of weapons which some call east across the you are going to go to the russians are those are two thousand on our nonstrategic not to what is useless of us. On the american side you have the relatively small number of you all of the little hundreds its all that is to have more of these but you have to remember us existence of war as i suppose after the ones and ones in storage to bring them back into the factory into the mines and the was long in tactical use use so that modernization of the other one of our cruise missiles cruise missiles are given changer when it comes to strategy fundamentally most of the weapons are on Ballistic Missiles which one would assume a lead on the Ballistic Missile defenses or range of other combinations ruthless all are a lot more difficult to take down in every n. And f. Or more and more threatening if you like so i think one last question seems to suggest. You will technologies rather than. Ramping up all the existing technology and you know. A lot about what it right once they were going to be transgressed the only thing stuck to right if you got if i could jump in that had more than one of my or if you look at the sort of direction that the report is heading in it talks about perhaps lower impact Nuclear Warheads with smaller. Impacts and also talks about deploying Nuclear Weapons in response to non nuclear strategic attacks take all of that into account is the threshold for nuclear war now lowering is it becoming more likely. Absolutely absolutely i mean it in the previous paradigm you know prior to the first and talking about what it was really about like for like to protect. The Nuclear Threat under threat one of the. But to did. Perish it considerably i can just imagine the deposit of of generating the Nuclear Response against a cyber attack which is which was inconceivable. In the previous. Era where you know only the kinetic response physical response of your google brutal devastation require requiring people to get to the globe to attack a Critical Infrastructure seems to marry if physical response and a lot of peoples extremely dangerous because the really lines are out. You know blood an hour and a transport has been reduced considerably increasing the prospects of any escalated into what would be a war or i swear leave it there for now good to get your analysis on that still ahead on aljazeera jets target opposition controlled areas of syrias in the provinces the government offensive intensifies. Hard. And minding their language how corsicans are finding their voice in another nationalist battle. Hello there theres plenty of sunshine across the southeast in parts of asia at the moment but also want to rob the pokie showers were seeing quite a few over the southern parts of the philippines and also more showers across parts of borneo and further south of course jobber the showers have been with us for a while now where they are giving us a very heavy downpours more still to come as we head through sunday and into monday in fact we see a little area of low pressure thats developing here so the rains here likely discomforts likely more intense as we head into monday we head down towards australia its certainly not been that warm force in brisbane weve had a lot of cloud with this and its not been very warm temperature wise either now that system is moving away those are the temperatures will recover as we head into sunday were more likely to see a temperature of around twenty seven degrees and this should be more sunshine around as well further north though in queensland still lose showers over this and some of them again are going to be very heavy with plenty of from the rain lightning to further south well here you can see the circulation here thats dragging in some rather warm air down to the coast of South Australia so the temperatures for us in adelaide will be rising it will get to around thirty four degrees meanwhile if we head across towards new zealand here the temperatures are on the up again so twenty three in oakland but i think well see more showers as we head into monday. On counting the cost some of the biggest names in with record earnings but theyre also under scrutiny by regulators in whats being told at. A look at business relations between the u. K. And china plus another scandal in the german or Auto Industry counting the cost at this time. New yorkers are very receptive. Because it is such an International City they are very interested in that global perspective that aljazeera provides. Welcome back youre watching aljazeera time to recap the 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 abused their power and showed trump bias the u. S. Military is modernizing its Nuclear Weapons arsenal in response to concerns is says russia is expanding its capability the new strategy ends the obama era push to reduce americas stockpile of confidential u. N. Report says north korea earned almost two hundred Million Dollars last year by violating u. N. Sanctions the report says north korea supplied weapons to syria and me and maher and shipped coal to countries including russia and china. Russian warplanes of renewed airstrikes on rebel held areas of province and syria least seven people were killed when a car was hit in aleppo the opposition and it lives have been bombarded for weeks by Syrian Government forces and their russian allies jets also targeted the rebel long klaver of eastern alter near the capital damascus one couple is the director of policy Analysis Institute he says the Syrian Government is looking to recapture a number of areas. Last year there was a big there was a big battle about about either but this is the second largest city of syria and the government by having been stalled or going to. Almost all. There is along the east coast of the country except possibly of india which is still in the hands of so youre sitting in a position to that should be a very important target for the government most people actually are questioning what that i mean these discussions ones are actually the but today i mean there are some people who are in fact wondering if there is a tacit agreement between the russians and the turks whereas the russians would actually give the green light for the turks. Act against the kurds in exchange for. Their. Allies actually to capture parts of this of this. The government of that that means between damascus and that no maps are talking about maps that are daily need think. Of this of this of this region as the regime and its allies might be acting east of of the way between the mosque and whereas the wisdom bought of the real way would be still actually at the hands of the Syrian Opposition so here actually there are so many did. We have to watch on the ground. The father of three girls who were sexually abused by the doctor of the usa Gymnastics Team is trying to attack him during his latest cold hearing randall ma graves lunged at lowry naso being already sentenced to one hundred seventy five years in prison john hendren reports to me. A fathers fury his target the man who sexually abused his three daughters over the years you too as far as a certain thing. To grant me five minutes and a lot of theres a demon you know that i cant do that thats not how i will go what americas going. To meet. The man he wanted to get his hands on his larry nasser former olympic gymnastics doctor in a convicted serial child molester im possibly the last child he will ever assault. Nassar was accused of assaulting more than two hundred fifty girls and women while hes face justice the organizations hes worked for have largely escaped any punishment we need to hold these organizations accountable usa gymnastics united front that committee and you need an independent investigation new allegations less than a week before the start of the twenty eight thousand winter games describe how usa gymnastics emailed Us Olympic Committee security chief larry detailing Sexual Misconduct accusations against nasser a year before they were made public theyve engaged in a cover up of the worst child molester perhaps in American HistoryBrianna Randall gay reported nassar to police in two thousand and four eleven years before he was fired from usa gymnastics and everybody right you hear it or. No charges filed and all that right. Now were this week she received a long awaited apology i want to start first of all with the most important reason were here and thats to apologise. On behalf of the community for her police department. We felt you. 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 aljazeera police have charged an ammunition dealer who sold bullets to the gunman who carried out the deadliest mass shooting in modern u. S. History Stephen Paddick opened fire from a hotel room in las vegas killing fifty eight Country Music fans and wounding five hundred last october the supply of douglas haig is accused of conspiring to manufacture and sell piercing bullets without a license. Trade in crypto currency is remains volatile with investors worried about a possible global clampdown the value of leading Currency Bitcoin plunged thirty percent this week slightly below eight thousand dollars for the First Time Since november other Virtual Currencies of posted big falls as regulators question their reliability india is planning to ban all crypto currency trading Facebook Says it will no longer allow advertisement for Digital Currencies just over a year ago bitcoin was valued at nine hundred two dollars and twenty six cents at its peak on the sixteenth of december it stood at just over nineteen thousand two hundred dollars but by the end of january it has fallen below ten thousand dollars martin bacharachs is a financial analyst 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 two 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 dont believe that it doesnt have any worth it all the proprietary Technology Behind because it isnt any different than what we know in Payment Systems around the world in fact its slower its 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 doesnt have a great amount of value but function doesnt always translate into what people will pay for. Frances president Emanuel Nakhon heads to the French Island of corsica next week when nationalists are calling for more autonomy in follows their victory in Regional Elections in december planning a large demonstration ahead of the president s visit there it chaytor explained 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. 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. Of course you can roots was rapidly was 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 violent very external. The brutal struggle for corsican independence lasted for four 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 wasnt just the usual renewal of they are simply the corsican people voted very an absolute in my youre ready for corsica nationality thats the fact there are thirty seem to think about you but the nationalists have already served notice on president macron warning him that unless he starts listening to them then the hard and conflicting times lie ahead for paris and corsica corsica was the birthplace of napoleon the man macrorie 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 we change to aljazeera course. Laos is investing billions of dollars in a high speed rail line being built by Chinese Company it will run from you now in Southern China to the laotian capital of the n. T. And before eventually connecting with another line being built in thailand then the third installment of our series global trade routes wayne hale reports from lying providing 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 town 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 cant afford experts worry it will add to the governments already heavy debt loads the cost of the project is six billion dollars with most of the money coming from chinese grants and loans this is significant because. Ours. Is only. For been billion so close to fifty percent. And this project would be in five years time so that. We can expect around ten percent of Public Investment just for this process. One of the stops will be just outside the one providing which is a unesco listed town for its unique lao and french architecture there is concern the new project will attract too many tourists putting a strain on the towns facilities and infrastructure. That many people and Small Businesses here survive off the Tourism Industry so the prospect of more visitors spending money is welcomed. About three years ago there were more tourists but now there arent as many so we are earning less money so were looking forward to the train her. Some studies have found that china will receive most of the economic benefits from the large project its involved in around the region laos is one of asias poorest countries so when the railway is finished by late two thousand and twenty one it will be hoping its begin this mint will start paying off straight away wayne hay al jazeera long laos and in the final part of our Global Trade Group sirius will be looking at the planned trans African Railway line that will connect west africa with the u. S. Take you through some of the headlines here in aljazeera 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 the document was declassified by President Donald Trump a confidential United Nations report says north korea earned almost two hundred Million Dollars last year by violating u. N. Sanctions the report says pyongyang supplied weapons to syria and meehan ma and shipped coal to countries including russia and china the us 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 americas stockpile the report also says concerns about china north korea and potentially iran are reasons to improve the arsenal Defense Research ogram on web questions the motivation for new weapons. You know something as. You go back to the fundamentals look at. How old they were more isnt necessarily that he is sufficiently wants to credible evidence against us in my assessment in a lot of other observers the ones that criticize. Is that they do work as a sufficient mass of or to establish relatively robust. Russian warplanes of renewed air strikes on rebel held areas of it lib province in syria at least seven people were killed when a car was hit in aleppo the opposition in a deliberate been bombarded for weeks by Syrian Government forces and their russian allies jets also targeted the rebel long clove of eastern quarter near the capital Damascus Police have charged an ammunition dealer who sold bullets to the gunman who carried out the deadliest mass shooting in modern u. S. History Stephen Paddock opened fire from a hotel room in last vegas killing fifty eight Country Music fans last october its counting the cost next. I am doing this for the benefit of sudan people so they see the importance of the outcry. Witness documentaries that open your eyes at this time on aljazeera. Alarms as im sick of this is counting the cost on aljazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week some of the worlds Biggest Technology names out with earnings but theres a faceoff with regulators in whats being called a tech lach