truth about his country. is ready to be. the new african photography mario. at this time on al-jazeera. a diplomatic breakthrough between north and south korea but being young signals it's not willing to discuss the burning issue its nuclear program. well i'm certain this is al-jazeera from london also coming off the syrian

bombardment of intensive fallen civilians inside the rebel held enclave say the warplanes just won't stop chin if he is main opposition of rounds to step up and to austerity protests unless the government drops its new budget and our poll investigated french prosecutors crack down on u.s. tech giant after a time it's deliberately slowed down older models. much anticipated talks between north and south korea have wrapped up being described as a major diplomatic breakthrough officials from the signs met for eleven hours and eventually agreed so would lift sanctions temporarily so north korean athletes could visit the south for next month's winter olympics it represents the biggest thaw in relations for years but pyongyang's nuclear ambitions were off the table from a slower reports from seoul. until recently north koreans refused to even pick up

the phone when south koreans called the border hotline so it was significant to see resawing gorn who's in charge of into korean relations for the north korean government stepping over the border into the south he led a five member team of high ranking diplomats into a meeting with his south korean counterpart in what's known as the truce village at panmunjom. our talks resume after north and south korean ties have been severed for a long time but i believe the first step is have the journey with a number believe we came to this meeting with a serious and sincere attitude and with the thought of giving our brethren who have high hopes for this dialogue and valuable results as the first gift of the year on the meeting did produce results north korea says it will send a delegation of athletes and team members to next month's winter olympics in south korea the south says it will consider suspending sanctions if it helps north

korea's participation in the games in. both sides have also agreed to hold military talks to prevent accidental clashes and ease tensions as well as conduct other high level exchanges to improve into korea ties but attempts to discuss north korea's nuclear bomb and missiles program got nowhere with the head of the delegation from pyongyang warning that such discussions could damage relations the north has long maintained that its nuclear is necessary to deter an invasion by u.s. troops and south korea's proposal for talks on reunions for family members who've been separated for decades met with little response from the north. despite that many in the south see any talks happening at all as a positive step. for us. i believe these formal diplomatic discussions can result in peace for an a c. the korean peninsula is a dangerous place that's under the constant threat of war and i hope those concerns

too become reality and after a year of high tensions on the korean peninsula and in japan and across the pacific including the threat of military action by the u.s. these talks are already being heralded as a breakthrough florence li al jazeera so it. is not junk to professor cook university of foreign studies it says pam young is appealing directly to the south korean people and this offer of closer ties with. this is their time for peace offense they are finalizing their nuclear weapons and right now they want to buy time perhaps. at the opening statement by the head of the delegation from the north this morning he said we have to find ways out of overall situation because people want it and i thought that statement was quite interesting because he's talking about people in north in the north korea they don't have democracy so they don't care about people's will and what they mean is they want to play the south

korean public opinion here and they said people want it so we need the results here and this and the head of delegation even offered to make the talk open to the public so that they will mean they want to say things to the korean public you know the things that they want to have korean people in public heard from them communicating with the korean public directly so it's a propaganda strategy clearly. syrian rebels under siege in a damascus suburb have resorted to holding last talks with the government's ally russia the meetings on eastern ghouta have been taking place in no man's land as the rebels tried desperately to keep their last bastion around the capital as the fighting continues there are some four hundred thousand civilians are struggling to

survive the winter with medical and food supplies running low and cull temperatures setting in. the fog of dust from buildings reduced to rubble was still thick as people began transporting the injured and pulling out the dead. twenty three people were killed in ears strikes in eastern guta on monday night. no you made there to be the warplanes didn't stop day and night they show only civilians and tall good residential neighborhoods and markets eastern ghouta is a short drive to the capital damascus which is remained relatively calm throughout the war but the lives of the four hundred thousand people here are very different the never ending stream of bombs has created shortages of everything from food to fuel. the last two weeks have been especially intense one hundred twenty six people are estimated to have been killed since december twenty ninth. the new i

five a man on the video of him on the international community stops the shelling of innocent civilians we don't have any food or mates in here and use kuta we under siege for a long time and we hope god will help us. syrians contemplating leaving their homes are faced with a dilemma for example the displaced who sought refuge in opposition held it lib are in danger again it is the largest rebel stronghold and government forces are in the midst of an offensive to regain control tens of thousands of civilians already in dire circumstances have been recorded as displaced since the first of december due to the fighting with the onset of winter save shelters among the biggest concerns is many families are fleeing into areas that are already at full capacity into communities with depleted resources people in eastern guta fear if they leave their homes they'll never be allowed to return the un is accusing the syrian government

of implementing a policy of force displacement to radically alter the demographic makeup of areas previously controlled by the opposition natasha going to aim al-jazeera. now to egypt where more than three hundred seventy people have or seem to jail sentences for taking politan a deadly sits in protest and gains a four years ago they were charged with causing the deaths of two pacemen and other counts of attempted murder for taking part in the protests in support of ousted president mohammed morsi and twenty thirteen on just were killed and security forces stormed the square. genesee is main opposition party is calling for protests against what it's calling the unjust twenty eight hundred budgets a day after a demonstrator was killed in clashes protests erupted in more than ten towns on monday against the price and tax hikes imposed by the government measures designed to reduce its ballooning deficit and satisfying international lenders interior

ministry is denying the protester who died in the town of tebow was killed by the police. that's not all of the look but the taxes do not affect consumers shopping baskets regarding food stuffs some of the things because they are not under. among the achievements of democracy is the ability to organize and protest that one must also work to make the two museum economy healthy an economy in which the growth that began in two thousand and seventeen is consolidated. french president. is hailing his visit to china as the beginning of a historic problem the ship he's been overseeing the signing of several trade deals with china's president xi jinping has been pushing for from french companies to have greater access to the world's biggest population especially in nuclear power era space and fruit cup mcbride has more from beijing. china and france are

hailing this visit as a new era for strategic partners. she didn't ping and emanuel mccraw signing multi-billion dollar trade deals from aerospace to nuclear energy projects and reaching what they say is common consensus on a range of issues from climate change to international security. we have made an agreement to improve global issues we are faced with climate change and terrorism china will be working together with france so we can have a win win situation and develop a new strategy that helps everyone in the world we have both agreed to have open and deep communications macross says his visit is a recognition of china's role on the world stage and she's preeminent position as chinese leader this is mark rance first state visit to china as president and he wants the trip to become an annual event to highlight the deepening relationship

between china and europe are growing stronger as their respective relations with the united states become more unpredictable and strained and i think. it is time for european leaders including the french president jacques rogge to really balance off their leashes against the united states with their relations with china macron began his visit in the ancient city of scheana one of the starting points of the ancient silk road his full support for what president xi calls his belton road initiative of new road and rail links seen as the modern day equivalent of connecting east with west is popular here. mccrone will also take away from beijing a recommitment to the paris climate agreement seen as crucial to the united states walked away from it in doing so france and china are positioning themselves as

global environmental leaders setting an example for the world to follow robin bryant al-jazeera beijing political analyst and economist aina tangan says china from some of the fall and in the placing the us as the wells prime are a superpower i think you can sum it up in what macro and said let's make our world great again obviously a dig at donald trump but it reflects reflects the reality that things are changing saying that the as the u.s. retracts there is an opening there and i think macron intends to take that opening not only for france but e.u. and that means cooperating with china what's happening is that the vacuum that's being created obviously is being filled and china is aggressively pushing out it wanted on its side france to recognize and be of very vocal proponents of the belt and road initiative its master plan one trillion dollar effort but that effort needs more money it cannot be done by china alone so they're looking for partners

europe is obviously the one on the belt and road initiative most of it goes towards europe it's the biggest market for china so therefore it makes a lot of sense macron is doing the right thing by getting their first extracting very good concessions for his economy and also putting himself as a leader macro is looking he has to have a partner if in in his book revolution he made it very clear that he's pro globalization he's very concerned about climate warm climate change these types of things are drawing him closer to china because the u.s. simply is not playing ball. as much more to come on the program including where in mexico city same way you don't need to say it's a driving test to get a license but not for much longer and pharmaceutical giant pfizer is having to criticize by alzheimer's groups over its decision to end a life changing research. hello

there we're so got an area of cloud is drifting its way southwards across the caspian sea it's here on the satellite picture drifting its way south towards breaking up a little bit as it does say so it's just really in its eastern age where we're going to see any significant snow as we head through the next day i'll say wednesday that's drifting its way eastwards across to our untouched and as we had three thursday and the temperatures there for struggling minus two is the maximum you know marty towards the west there be a good deal of cloud stretching through many parts of iraq and up still towards turkey turkey where the heavier rain is a most of that we stay around the coast a bit further towards the south and here in doha it's getting quite cool now during the day in the sunshine it's pretty good twenty three degrees is the maximum but at night we're dropping down to around forty or fifty so it is feeling quite cool

there a little bit of cloud around the south eastern coast of oman there there were more clouds around the red sea and some of those showers a lot lead to be rather heavy as they drift their way northwards as we head into thursday as we head down towards the southern parts of africa we've been watching all storm alva but it is now drifting away from madagascar so things there definitely coming down only a handful of showers really as we head through the next couple of days is that there's wetter weather out towards the west and for many of us in the northern parts of allah.

right. welcome back reminder of the top story. north korea says it's not willing to discuss its nuclear weapons program with seoul because it's also no is only in the united states officials from the have met for the first time more than two years the syrian government is intensifying its bombardment of. damascus meanwhile turkey has summoned the ambassadors of iran and russia to object to the violation of the deescalation zone in. busy is main opposition party is calling for protests against

what he's calling the unjust twenty eighteen budget protests erupted in more than ten towns on monday against the price and tax hike one person has been killed. iran says. by its foreign enemies to turn the just some protests into a plot to overthrow the islamic republic supreme leader ayatollah khomeini wrote on his twitter feed that there is evidence have a plan made by the u.s. and israel funded by rich country in the gulf protests in more than eighty cities since last december with at least twenty two people killed at least a fountain people have been arrested the same bus ravi has more from to her. he's basing what he's saying are no doubt. the country's intelligence apparatus and information he's gleaning from state. officials but it has to be said that a lot of this has to iran's experience in context of foreign intervention in the

country this is very reminiscent of the nine hundred fifty s. when demonstrations against democratic elected leader was overthrown those were found to be instigated by foreign agents from the states really. that thinking that experience in historical context plays into. every facet of iran's leadership certainly always the strong and there's always tie their current experiences guard to what they've experienced in terms of foreign intervention in the country in the past and that colors a lot of what they see on the streets. hundreds of thousands of displaced yemenis are trying to survive without basic health and sanitation provisions well than ten million have been displaced began three and a half years ago but. this family will get just a few minutes warm from the fire here in america province yemenis who've lost their

homes in the civil war are beyond the reach of even the most basic relief that a groups can provide people here are scaping other fighters who control the capital sana'a all the rest gaping at strikes and attacks by a coalition of countries like by saudi arabia two million yemenis have been displaced since fighting began in september twenty fourth seen as. we left our homes because of the war we found ourselves here without anything we have nothing here but allow. food and the weather is very cold. four hundred sixty thousand displaced people are in camps like these in mara province they don't get any humanitarian assistance part of the halibut we leave here in despair we have kidney problems my kids are also sick i have nothing and i can do nothing we urge all countries and international organizations to pay attention to us. disease is rife

as well as the world's worst cholera epidemic to piri is on the increase and following the killing of ten thousand people in the fighting the u.n. says eight million yemenis are on the verge of famine bernard smith al-jazeera bad weather and toxic gases are complicating the search for thirty one missing sailors off the coast of china they were on board on a rainy an all time coach collided with a cargo ship on saturday a fire has been burning on board for three days and is preventing crews from getting too close to the tanker the ship was carrying more than a million barrels of oil sparking fears of an environmental disaster in the east china sea adrian brown has more from near shanghai. the drama is happening some one hundred sixty nautical miles out in the east china sea it's happening in international waters which is why the response has been international south korea has sent a number of postcard vessels u.s.

military sense and aircraft to help in the search for the thirty two missing crew members from that iranian oil tank but now at the moment there are two operations taking place one to put out the fire broke out on the tanker the other of course to find those missing crew members now the tanker was comparing poor than a million barrels of ultra light crude oil closed spondon say it's very toxic it also colorless odorless which means it's very very hard to detect the priority now is to prevent the ship exploding and then sinking of course that would threaten a real environmental catastrophe in the meantime officials in shanghai say there is no evidence that this act it is affecting traffic going into or out of the port shanghai of course is one of the world's busiest port officials also say that an exclusion zone is now in force which means that no vessel can sail to within ten

kilometers of the accident site if possible business rescue operation continues that exclusion zone will be wiped. thailand's foreign minister has confirmed that former prime minister yingluck shinawatra had been in london since september photos purporting to show young look were posted on social media she seemed posing with a woman wearing a red cow town signed london's harrods department store the former prime minister left thailand to avoid being jailed for a rice subsidy scheme lost billions of dollars. thailand's current prime minister appears to be a little more camera shy finding a novel way to dodge or quick questions from the media after making his statement for thailand's children's day. asked his aides to bring out one of several life sized cobbled cutouts prepared for photos with children invited reporters to direct any follow up questions to his to dimensional replacement piece in germany and

italy have a no say major maffia vast arresting one hundred sixty nine members of a notorious organized crime clan around sixty million dollars worth of assets were also seized in the joint multinational operation for american cola clan based in southern italy had infiltrated businesses in south and central germany including wine food refuse collection and funeral services. mexico city is taking steps to change its reckless driving culture which leads to thousands of accidents and an average of three deaths per day despite being one of the world's biggest and busiest cities drive us country don't have to take any test to get their license david messer explains from mexico city. it's a typical tuesday morning in mexico city and parents drop their children off at school it's a chaotic scene in the prize make up in her rearview mirror another leaves her car in the middle of the street an argument breaks out after a man backs into

a vehicle that's being double parked. in mexico city is one of the world's most populated metropolises every day more than five million vehicles clogged streets in the road accidents are common more than a thousand people die in crashes every year traffic accidents are now the leading cause of death for children between five and fourteen years old the government says this must stop. traffic related that's unacceptable because they can be prevented we can do this in steps through new regulations infrastructure that knowledge is some trainings. officials have already reduced speed limits and installed traffic cameras now efforts to change driving culture are focused here this is one of the government offices in mexico city where people come to get their driver's licenses or maybe i should say where people come to buy their licenses because all you need to bring here is a piece of government id

a utility bill and pay the equivalent of forty dollars and within five minutes you're walking out with a license to drive it's just that easy. but this is changing starting in two thousand and eighteen and drivers will have to take driving courses run by internationally accredited schools before applying for a license it's a big change but one that many residents say is necessary but. they still feel a little bit nervous even though i try to control it but i feel a lot safer to can this course will help me avoid getting into accidents that changing the habits of millions of drivers will take generations but in one of the world's biggest cities the cost of doing nothing is simply too high david mercer mexico city. prosecutors in france are investigating the u.s. tech giant apple after its had met its a slowing down older models of its i phone last month the inquiry focuses on

accusations that they've broken french consumer law by attempting to force existing customers to buy new phones that has more from paris. in france one in five smartphone users only as an i phone each new model causes much excitement but not everyone is happy with the u.s. manufacturer a french consumer watchdog has filed a legal complaint saying apple deliberately slows down old i phone models to encourage customers to buy new ones where they know they're there doing what we call planned obsolescence two or two in the purpose for people to buy a new one if it's a marketing strategy. didn't care about we have enough proof to make this. hope says apple uses software updates to slow down its phones the watchdog says recent updates coming sided with the release of the i phone eight in france such

a practice is illegal under french law it is a crime to deliberately shorten the lifespan of a product in order to try and force consumers to buy new ones those found guilty can be punished with a prison sentence a large fines and companies can be forced to pay up to five percent of their annual earnings in paris some apple customers welcomed the investigation to see. if will work it's important to know what's going on because we are all hostages of multinational marriage and looking once i bought a new find that i have to charge all the time and the updates make it slower i think it's done on purpose even though it's illegal here after a flurry of similar lawsuits in the u.s. last year apple admitted to intentionally slowing down its old phones saying it was done to help prolong battery life analysts some. say the company should have been more transparent so everyone knows that their phone starts to lose power after a certain time and this is actually quite

a clever way of dealing with it was interesting is how it's being presented in rather a negative light i think that's apple's fault for not communicating better that they were doing this to help their uses al-jazeera contacted apple in france for comment but has not received a reply faced with a criminal investigation though the stakes here for the take giant are high natasha i'll just paris. say they're disappointed by drug giant pfizer decision to end research into the disease the pharmaceutical company has also stopped funding parkinson's research between them affects more than fifty million people john hendren has. the decision by drug maker finds or to end its expensive high risk research into all timers and parkinson's disease marks a devastating blow for tens of millions of people around the world in a statement pfizer says this was an exercise to reallocate spending across our portfolio to focus on those areas where our pipeline and our scientific expertise

is strongest the oldtimers association says it's disappointed that pfizer is ending its investment in neuroscience research. pharmaceutical companies have long argued that the more money they have available for research the more patients would benefit it was a sales pitch pfizer c.e.o. made in washington last march our responsibility is to produce the best and greatest medicines we can they make the biggest impact on human life this industry needs to have a return that allows it to continue to do its research although president trump answered that call in part with the largest corporate tax cut in u.s. history pfizer like many other companies is not plowing the benefits back into research it's just announced a plan to use the tax break to benefit its investors by buying back ten billion dollars of its own stock pfizer which makes the lucrative pill does say it plans to detail its plans to create

a neuro science fund later this year but that's likely to come as cold comfort to the more than seven million people across the globe living with parkinson's and the forty four million living with old timers john hendren zero the freezing weather that's gripped the us has been playing for the deaths of at least eighteen people and this creates an unusual dangerous for wildlife is alligators in the southeast the state of north carolina have been forced to poke holes through a lair of ice to stay alive reptiles are able to lower their body temperature us and slow their breathing to withstand cold weather. the headlines on al-jazeera north korea says its nuclear weapons program and weapons arsenal is solely aimed at the united states not south korea young young has held formal talks with so the first in more than two years and its pledge to

send a large delegation to next month's winter olympics in south korea but rejected souls desire to hold talks on two new khurana saying the korean peninsula. regarding the nuclear issues strategic weapons including its home of bombs a hydrogen bombs and intercontinental ballistic missiles are aimed only at the united states north bridge room turkey has summoned the ambassadors of iran and russia to object to violations of a deescalation zone in syria's rebel held it live province it comes as a syrian rebels have been holding talks with the government's ally russia over the future of a single to russian astronauts back in government forces in the rebel held enclave mean the rebels are close to losing the area four hundred thousand civilians there are also struggling to survive the winter with medical and food supplies running low and cold temperatures setting in in egypt more than three hundred seventy

people have received jail sentences for taking part in the deadly sit in protest in games of four years ago they were charged with causing the deaths of two policeman and other counts of attempted murder after the city in which was in support of ousted president mohamed morsi and twenty thirteen cinesias main opposition party is calling for protests against what it's calling the unjust twenty eight hundred budget protests erupted in more than ten towns on monday against the price on tax hikes imposed by the government measures designed to reduce its ballooning deficit interior ministry denies claims a protester who died in town was killed by a police. iran says it has failed attempts by its foreign enemies to tend the gypsum of protests into a plot to overthrow the islamic republic supreme leader ali how many wrote on his twitter feed that there is evidence of a plan made by the u.s. and israel funded by a rich country in the gulf have been protests in more than eighty cities since late december with at least twenty two people killed. today with the headline with us on

al-jazeera inside story is coming up next. anger over the pricing price of bread in sudan the government's warning protesters that they'll be confronted with force if they don't stop with sudan suffering from all the problems how much of a stretch is the public anger to president obama al bashir this is inside story.