on al jazeera america >> this is the true definition of tough love >> from peaceful protests to all-out war. the conflict in syria enters a fifth year. hello, i'm martine denise, with the world news from doha. also to come: i.s.i.l. is accused of using chlorine gas during attacks in iraq. entire communities have been

descrid butdestroyed but the first aid is on the way to vanuatu and: >> apparently this is what the future will look like. more in the program. >> a group of children were arrested anti-graffiti protests on a wall in syria no one could have predicted what had happened. 7.5 million have been displaced another 4.5 million are hard to

reach or displaced. registered as refugees in another country. rurula amin looks back at how this began. >> reporter: these are the images that helped spark the war in syria. >> when we took to the streets each one of us felt as if we had a revolution simmering inside of us waiting for the right moment to come out and we could feel free. the fear barrier just collapsed. we all went out my mother, my brother, my entire family, the chanting came from our hearts. >> gardenia is not her right name. but she says she cries when she

looks at pictures of the beginning of the duration. >> it's hard, to see pictures of people looking at -- looking for something to eat. >> we are also in for this rare moments four years ago when people's hopes were high. most fest they would be able to overthrow syria's government within weeks that the international community would come to their rescue and bomb his palace. but that's not what happened. syria turned into pooh battle up grobd for regional and international forces to fight. more than 200,000 syrians

killed. more than 3.5 million became refugees and cities and villages are in ruins. >> exhausted, so much daily suffering and too much blood has been spilled. the price has been high and the bloodshed must stop. don't know where things are heading and things have gone out of our hands. >> al qaeda came to help the opposition. while the government has been helped by al qaeda and others, activists who first rose up against assad found themselves

targeted by assad. assemble this is what changed the course of the revolution,. >> during the early days of the revolution the country whereas split between members of the syrian opposition or the regime. but the country has many players no winners on either side. including those who have been left to watch from the sideline. >> joining me is an associate analyst at the doha institute. what were your initial thoughts whether people took to the streets in what appeared to be

an gang protest in a time called the arab spring? >> if you go back to the part of the syrian revolution you remember the aish arab spring. removing gems fairly easy. people were told if the egyptians could do it the teun yahns could do it or the syrian could do it. nobody believed we would region the stage where we would be having the national disaster in syria. >> how did that protest how did that revolution if you like turn into this civil war that we're now witnessing today? >> there are many reasons for that. the heavy handed approach used by the regime against the

protesters were the main reason this fairly peaceful resolution turned into to the kind of conflict we have now. the regional powers, actually saw the opportunity of hosing the regime or world by proxy in which the regime on one hand and the opposition on one handled having support from the local players -- >> how far was the calculation to include the support of the international community? by that i mean maybe not so much the reernlg players but those outside, the west? >> both sides the regime would actually support the claim that this is a foreign conspiracy aimed pat removing the gem regime

because of its policies, to destabilize syria because of its policies antiwestern policies in the region. the opposition on the other hand they knew they could not remove this regime because of their own forces. they came to help just like flaight did in libya. both sides tend to be wrong about the situation. >> suddenly the united states seemed to hesitate over the issue of regime change and were shadowed by the war in 2003, and that is one of the reasons that stayed the hand of western countries getting more involved in syria.

>> inthe deed. for most syrians the for obama administration here, not only in only indifferent, but we could see the shia extremists, and sunni extremists, why should we intervene and for a certain amount of time the obama administration didn't do enough to prevent this conflict from going to this very bloodsy and violence stage. >> we have to life it there, if

you don't mind, thank you very much indeed. >> thank you. >> kurds say toxic contaminated soil was collected from bomb blasblasts. >> the proof thee plumes of orange smoke exploding which they say is chlorine. iraqi fighters filmed this video near tikrit a bomber driving a truck filled with chlorine. says he is not surprised the tactic is being deployed by the

i.s.i.l. >> i think it was only a matter of time before they used it themselves. >> reporter: in january, an attack on peshmerga forces contained levels of the agent. a legislatory exploded on a highway between the iraqi are area the toxic chemical is banned underthe wrar convention. now it seems they're facing a similar threat from i.s.i.l.

selena downs, al jazeera. if inhaled in large amounts fluid is introduced a into the lungs which can induce drowning. jane ah rafer what arraf away what about these accounts? >> european union union has no various e-verification that this actually is theverification that this is the case. slightest implication that there could be any sort of chemical weapons in use. the chemical weapons we are

talking about would be color chlorine. there is no indication that they are leading to the deaths of those they intend to harm, but even the obligation that this is true is causing much discretion. martine p. >> use of closh of chlorine gas is that deed the case is i.s.i.l. on the back foot? >> well, according to the u.s. military i.s.i.l. has lost perhaps maybe 25% of the trair tri that it took over last year and across the country. but in fact it still holds large areas. the kurdish peshmerga forces have perhaps been the most effective in pushing back i.s.i.l. they have the assistance of several coalition fighters. but thil still they are force frsing a strong fight.

in an area that had thought to be cleared a british was blown up. the tactics we've seen, are all meant to terrorize populations and that seems to be that form of tactic. >> jane arraf, thank you. we've got a lot more to come. china's government faims in attacking pollution. annual pure of leaders residence.

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>> hello again top stories at al jazeera. started as a simple protest and quickly escalated to all out war. i.s.i.l. fighters attacked with chlorine gas. contaminated soil and clothing samples collected from a suicides bomb blast in january. authorities are warning the death toll in vanuatu is likely to rise. category 5 the most severe on scale, ripped through the island

on saturday. kim vanel ahas the story. >> the last cyclone pam this family is homeless. it's a scene reported over and over across vanuatu's capital. from this hill position, the scale of the devastation becomes clear. jalene's family owned what was a waterfront shop. everything is destroyed. >> the windows smashed to the floor. >> one aid agency believes up to 90% of homes in portville la port villa have been destroyed.

>> absolutely essential to get the amount of devastation what weigh have seen in port villa gives us a good benchmark and we can only assume complete devastation. >> now that the winds have slowed down, the task of aid and assistance will begin. >> we'll have a quick reconnaissance to look at how badly that small island has been felt and then on to port victim villa. >> typhoony island nation is coming to grips of wass been called one of the worst disasters in the pacific. kim vanel, al jazeera. >> okay, we can now talk to tom

skiro. director of save the children, in van wa tuz. vanuatu. can you give us your assessment of how widespread the devastation can? >> i can tell you what we can see here in port villa which is significant destruction of the entire city. i mean so many communities are going to be homeless for some time, ripped through houses and blown away. i know for sure that the rest of vanuatu is significantly affected it's a struggle to get communications to them. if the rest of vanuatu suffered more than we are seeing here. >> why are talking about at least 65% small islands where people live sometimes in very flimsy accommodation.

>> that's right. as i say port villa has some of the stronger housing and a lot of those have been destroyed. in rural communities, something don't have that, they have thatched reeves and not the type of destruction that we saw 48 hours ago. >> we understand australian aid has started to arrive, what are the things you are hoping to arrive first? >> we already launched our own appeal and have receivedment dangerous donations from the public. we haven't received any government aid yet we are in communication, but these things, providing people with basic shelter, equipment water, food and hygiene kids but the work is

going to go along much longer than that. the work we need to do here is involving setting up temporary school, schools have been destroyed, and make sure the children are protected whatever they are saying right now. >> we have already heard from representative from the care ngo, you're with save the children. it's vitally important isn't there that there be stripped coordination from the countries when it comes to mitigating disasters like this. >> yes, port villa it's a small community and making sure we're not duplicating work and sharing the information we have across the country. >> tom skerrit from save the children organization, in

vanuatu. thank you. lee ka chang promised to track down and punish the companies, lee spoke to a meeting of the international peoples congress. more from beijing. >> presidential xi jinping doesn't do news conferences. he tends to assign that to his deputy. the focus of the speech the economy. when the premier opened the national people's conference often march the 3rd he last year china's growth was 7.4%, lowest it had been in a century.

but, meeting that lower rate of growth in the year ahead in his words there was going to be execute pain as the government attempted to rebalance the economy. up until now china's growth had been export led. now they want to shift to consumer-led. they call this the new normal but it appears not at all normal the at the moment. >> bombing chinese officials were put on notice yesterday. meanwhile mar's government has recently stepped up its fight of rebels in the kakang region.

>> fighters backed by the tripoli government fought troops loyal to i.s.i.l. >> the white house is asking the u.s. corng to stay outs of negotiations with iran. republican senators have proposed legislation that would require congress to approve any agreement. the white house says the pending law could have a profoundly negative impact on talks. the u.s. and other countries is resuming its talks with iran. >> cancelling services on sunday and monday bought of security

concerns. a bus has plunged into a ravine in brazil cig killing at least 42 passengers. police in santa catalina state that it appears the bus lost control in a mountain road. hong kong's government is holding its annual day police are on stand by to stop further protest from the chinese government. sarah clark reports. >> thousands of people line up to get a chance to tour the home of hong kong's chief executive c.y. yeung. some were wearing yellow clothing or carrying yellow umbrellas. they were removed from the line

and denied are access. i have this kind of chinese newier poafer. it's talking about we need a true democracy. nowadays the government sell their political proposal, if their proposal is true address universal demonstration? don't they let me put this inside,. >> threat praims large numbers of antigovernment groups might try to access their site. there are more than 700 own displace in areas around hong kong to mirror action. sarah clark, al jazeera acknowledge hong kong. >> first of all in london,

future fest. phil lavelle many has a look at what's to come. >> welcome to the future. >> will we actually be stramed into chairs like this? vifn reality masks on our faces. -- virtual reality masks on our faces. >> safely down and back in the year 2015, what about this model. >> this is the future fest in london, a look at highway lives will are in the decades to come. where robots take on their owner's faces. a world of color. >> this is not just a look at how bright the world will be but

the problems the world will face global food shortages global water shortages. imagine there cost of co-psychowilling have lost so much. what's inside these is powdered affiliation which are mostly vegetable. your saliva mixes with that and it creating the filling. >> the chance to point out that the future is people-powered. >> we can shape the fume and have a deciding role, we leave i.t. up to our government people to teach us, hang on there's a lot more than that, you can have

more power and month say over that future. >> what kind of future do they want, something to focus on, phil lavelle, al jazeera london. >> find out more about the news on the website aljazeera.com. a show about innovations that can change lives. >> this is fighting a humanity and we are doing it in a unique way. this is a show about science by scientists. let's check out the team of . >> i've got a headset on, finger clicker, a heart break satellites through space to bionic eyes.