what makes this moment this era we're living for so unique this is really an attack on its truth itself is a lot of misunderstanding a distortion even of what free speech is supposed to be about the context it's hugely important to have a right to publish if you have a duty to be offensive or provoke it's all about the nice people. setting the stage for serious debate. up front at this time on al-jazeera. on the sidelines of the olympics an unprecedented sight north and south korean leaders shaking hands in so. low and welcome you're watching al-jazeera live from doha today with me also coming

up the u.s. president donald trump refuses to declassify a democratic memo on the rusher investigation citing national security concerns. colombia's former rebel group the fox suspends political campaigning amid security worries after angry protests. also this hour breaking barriers in sri lanka as a record number of women candidates campaign for seats in the forthcoming election . the first full day of competition at the winter olympics is now well underway in south korea later today the first medals will be awarded winners are set to be crowned and biathlon cross country skiing speed skating and ski jumping meanwhile away from the slopes on the ice rinks diplomacy is drawing almost as much attention as the games themselves live now to my colleague natasha can and so natasha i mean the choreography of this they're getting down to the nitty gritty everything

they're looking after everything even right down to the symbolism of what's on the different menus today. yes oddly enough that has actually been a topic of coverage in the south korean menu one of the items served was a fish dish that swims between the two koreas and its preparation requires a freezing and thawing another thing that was fixated on by the south korean media is a document that was placed on the desk in front of kim jong un sister kim yo jiang as she was meeting with south korean president moon j. in it has only fueled speculation that perhaps there's a letter from the north korean leader to president moon and that perhaps it's also an invite for president moon to visit north korea now this is an opportunity that president moon is seizing upon he's hoping to utilize the pyongyang winter olympics

as a launching pad to reboot intercourse and relations after a very tense twenty seventeen this is an issue near and dear to his heart as the son of north korean refugee parents and he does have reason for optimism twenty seventeen it was a tense year but since the beginning of twenty eight seen there have been developments with north korea unfolding at a breakneck pace analysts however say though we're seeing a lot of symbolic symbolism and a major charm offensive on the part of the north koreans they really doubt that this will provide a seismic shift in the relationship between the two countries some are saying that what we're seeing is north korea in the driving seat attempting to drive a wedge between the united states and south korea an alliance and to advance its own agenda clearly natasha the u.s. particularly is not prepared to walk away from sanctions those big barriers on

knots about to come down but i guess the key thing here is this is the step change it's a step in the right direction. well the south korean government certainly feels that way we heard from the former say u.n. secretary general ban ki moon who feels that this is a positive thawing between the two koreas but when we talk about the relationship between the united states and north korea it does not look like things have shifted keep in mind that the u.s. vice president mike pence was in a v.i.p. area very cramped quarters at the opening ceremony on friday he did not exchange not even pleasantries with the north korean delegation he says it wasn't a snub he says that he did not exchange pleasantries with the ceremonial head of state in particular because they were close enough but pence and north korea did rebuff president moon's attempt to facilitate a dialogue between them pence's team says that he feels that the lack of

interaction was a mutual feeling among both countries bear in mind that there has been more tough talk from the united states on north korea this week pence said that the toughest economic sanctions ever are coming to north korea and japan said that if he had exchanged comments with the north korean delegation he would have conveyed a very strong message one in appropriate for an olympic venue the north koreans say that they have never begged for dialogue with the united states and they're not about to start the tasha thank you. now the u.s. president donald trump has blocked the release of a classified memo written by democrats on the house intelligence committee citing national security concerns the memo rebuts a document prepared by the committee's republicans which was made public last week the republican memo allege the f.b.i. was biased against trump during its investigation into his presidential campaigns links to russia the memo was released despite public opposition as expressed by the

f.b.i. now trump claimed that document quotes totally vindicated him but democrats and some republicans well they dispute that now the white house states this although the president is inclined to declassify the february the fifth memorandum because the memorandum contains numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages he's unable to do so at this time however given the public interest and transparency in these unprecedented circumstances the president has directed the justice department personnel be available to give technical assistance to the committee should the committee wish to revise the february the fifth memorandum to mitigate the risks as identified by the department kristen salumi has the latest now from washington. president trump started his weekend surrounded by controversies first his refusal to release the democratic memo on the russian investigation citing national security concerns the white house released

a letter from the deputy attorney general and the director of the f.b.i. citing their concerns that the memo could jeopardize ongoing investigations and sources but democrats point out the f.b.i. made the zach same objections to releasing the republican memo and president trump went ahead and released it anyway they are of course outraged by this they wanted to tell their side of the story they say that a lot of facts were left out of the republican memo and fact democrats in congress are accusing the president of a double standard another controversy yet another white house staffer resigning because of allegations of domestic abuse the man is david sorensen a speechwriter for one of trump's senior policy adviser steve miller sorenson for his parts denies it vehemently he says in fact that she was the one abusing him

this on the heels of rob porter the staff secretary someone very close to president trump having to step down because of his two ex-wives accusing him of domestic abuse in that case. they told the f.b.i. during a background check porter was given access to top secret information in his role at the white house despite these concerns so all of this for the president to deal with over the weekend. colombia's former rebel group the fog has temporarily suspended its campaign for forthcoming elections because of demonstrations and threats to its candidates the group became a political party last year after a made a peace deal with the colombian government ending more than fifty two years of conflicts however many colombians are still angry at the fark and they believe its members should be in prison. or. we have decided to suspend campaign activities until we have sufficient guarantee we call on all parties and political movements

without exception to biggest statements rejecting this type of aggression we invite all to meet us to the forum to agree of a game of clean rules george restrepo is the director of the conflict analysis research center and a professor of economics at the university he says the fox concerns about the safety of the activists well they are justified. it's a very risky situation it's a difficult transition from conflict to political participation for. now partly. because there is this strong need for vindication for revenge even in the general population colombia specially in urban areas then he's a wise decision by far to go campaign open in politics where it's a different cities of the country they need to consider does he do a share this is very risky to merge the general feeling in the population is that

they have no want. so get themselves to use new system of justice. p.c.'s with the help of a special justice for peace transmission system and that is what makes people really. against the far inferior is a very fair situation of course what they fire me to. recognize and address these very strong sense that sentiment in the population against political participation with justice egyptian state media is saying the security alert has been raised to its highest level nationwide after the army launched what it's calling a comprehensive operation against terrorist and criminal groups in the sinai peninsula president sisi had sets a separate deadline to crush faces there after the attack on a mosque in the event of that killed more than three hundred people all schools in

north sinai a closed until further notice. to sri lanka where more women than ever before are hoping to get elected into government choosing representatives in more than three hundred local government elections a change in the war now requires women to. reports from. entering the latest political race with a bang rosie sennight form of this is world diplomat and parliamentarian is aiming to become to be out of colombo she's the first woman to even try i strongly believe that you cannot have democracy if you do not interest the needs of the made the population the majority of the population. she's one of more than seventy thousand women. with elections a record number of women for positions in three hundred forty institutions a recent change of the law has made it mandatory to have twenty five percent of

women in local government more than twelve times the number now. the marxist people's liberation front says the changes will give more deserving women a chance in our country it was a minister's daughter or siblings or those from. but we think honest. she come into politics the laws are made this election can do that. it's a view that this vote in colombo endorsed you this high time that you learn comes the politicians at least. there's a list of the beam in. it's the first time in decades that elections to all local bodies around the country are being held on a single day the stakes are high for all political parties going into this local government election with the president by policy recently and prime minister become a singer whose parties are contesting separately it's

a battle to keep and be the man they defeated three years ago which is the reason why local issues such as roads street lights and garbage disposal are taking on the intensity of a national fight the coalition government of the president and prime minister is struggling to maintain its popularity following a series of scandals and failure to deliver on its campaign promise to root out corruption both leaders have travelled around the country to support their candidates their main threat is former president rajapaksa despite being voted out of his bid for a third presidential rajapaksa still commands the loyalty of a larger voter base a base he's trying to mobilize for a new political front despite the fact that he's not a member of it and remains a member of his successors party the power or the way forward for the upcoming national elections will be starting from this but the boy saw it

is for the president for the prime minister was coming from the poor people and political parties and in the other hand the former president's campaign will have a. whatever the larger political stakes local election voters will be hoping for a competent candidates both male and female to ensure the smooth running of. finance al-jazeera colombo. still to come here on al-jazeera we look at the how the public in turkey viewing the military offensive targeting kurdish fighters in syria . and does she in fame get ready to elect a new leader here in dublin i'll be looking at the political journey of gerry adams who's headed the party for decades.

how i think northern parts of the middle east may will see a little more cloud over the next couple of days it should be largely dry the levant saying that class just spilling in from the mediterranean times it may be thick enough for a few spots of fine but nothing much to speak of the temperatures in beirut spiked added around twenty three degrees or so for much of iran it should be settled it should be sunny or tehran getting up to around eleven the south has little bit of wintry weather just around the the high ground there for afghanistan maybe a little bit of rain sleet and snow a couple it around four or five celsius over the next couple of days temps just getting up into the low twenty's at this stage as we go on through our sunday night is the cloud is pushing its way further southward so it will cloud over a little across the arabian peninsula over the next day or two twenty six celsius and twenty seven in riyadh riyadh picking up to around thirty one degrees as we go on through sunday and even here in qatar we may see the temperatures getting well

up into the high twenty's as we go on into the early part of next week we have temperatures into the high twenty's across a good part of southern africa at present will see thirty four and dry weather coming into cape town temps is edging up here was to go on through sunday very heavy rain for zimbabwe and also mozambique. for the nomadic jackass tribe survival is about reaching their destination if we don't hurry will never be able to give the tramp up in the storm we follow the mongolian herdsmen on a treacherous migration. dangerous the ice is a thing as they strive to preserve their traditional way of life. or sometimes lose a battle there was called for because of the storm risking it all mongolia and this time on al jazeera.

welcome back instead recapping our top stories the city right up to speed with a breaking story for you this hour coming to us via the reuters news agency out of jerusalem israel apparently shot down an iranian drone launched from syria and in response it also has struck iranian targets there that's according to the israeli military there are consequential elements of the story as well now during that operation an israeli f. sixteen that took part in the israeli army strike inside syria for some reason was quote abandoned over galilee whether that means the aircraft was shot down on not at this moment we simply don't know it remains unclear whether the jet was hit by syrian regime anti aircraft fire more on that for you just as soon as we can.

the un's refugee agency is raising concerns about growing violence in yemen which it blames for an increase the number of people forced from their homes since december the u.n.h.c.r. is estimating more than eighty five thousand people have been displaced across the country more than sixty thousand have fled regions near the west coast in the have died governments yemen is the world's biggest humanitarian crisis twenty two million people are in need of aid the civil war intensified early in twenty fifteen when the saudi led military coalition intervened in support of the governments which is fighting against the three rebels shall be a man too is a us yemen spokeswoman she says displaced people often have no other choice other than to move into other conflict zones. well this is the big dilemma because in yemen there's ongoing conflict and every single governor at them has been affected by so a finding is that from holding our instance people being trapped with my governor

s. so they make me think i'm just trip to districts trying to make the journey through the east we also see a large amount of people saying to be on which is the east of those governorates but it's a very time situation when you have people who are remaining with my governor and moving from other multiple times because. we are really puzzled as to why the situation in yemen is allowed to continue the way it is now the population of yemen is twenty nine million and yet we're seeing a situation in two thousand and eighteen when twenty two million people in the country and now fixed a complex and in need of monetary systems and this is absolutely poland and the situation is absolutely dire here on the ground and we're finding out of us is really not supported enough i mean we're trying to respond to the needs of people who've been displaced across the country there are two million people displaced all across yemen and now you have eighty five thousand the biggest waste in a small and yet what's not in the air is you're not actually out there were egyptians he was just three percent of ongoing search there's

a huge mismatch between the humanitarian needs on the ground and support for the military response and so the yemenis. the turkish military is establishing a new position in syria's it live province as part of efforts to expand the so-called deescalation zone and the have deployed in tal to cannes that's according to turkey's state news agency russian forces are expected to position themselves six kilometers outside the town the objective is to create a line dividing syrian government forces and opposition fighters to prevent contact it live has been the site of intense bombardment and ground fighting in recent weeks. and turkey is facing what could be difficult talks on syria with the u.s. secretary of state next week the ankara offensive in northern syria against u.s. backed kurdish fighters strain ties with washington in turkey though the operation still has strong public support as sin and cos sort of reports now from istanbul. these are whole it's the shells and production they're used by the turkish army in

operational of branch in northern syria. an offensive jointly conducted with the free syrian army in syria's kurdish enclave afrin province employees of this arms supplier well into your to work an extra hour every day they say it is the least they can do to support the army. yes a twenty one year old student is one of them. he wants to join the army as soon as possible. by submitting this application letter i wanted to show a positive and concrete support for our soldiers and set an example for others if the operation hadn't been launched and the white b.g. would have attacked us with the weapons the u.s. provided to them. turkey vs the us spec kurdish group in syria the i p g as a branch of the p.k. . the kurdistan workers' party which is listed as a terrorist group by turkey and the us. the fourth are you flick between the

picking and turkey has caused around thirty thousand lives from both sides as the result of this operation should have been launched much earlier our border should have been cleared up terror as the weather gets colder women launched different campaigns to support the army some are knitting schools and socks for the soldiers . others are sending jars of jam or will pray for the safety of the armed forces. i made a presentation protestant support today after an operation something that is quite rare in turkey but it is parliament member state the military intervention in africa is actually an invasion in the african area. and there is nor ever tried. for the turkish. turkish state some of those who oppose operation all of rens play what they call turkey is misguided

policies in syria for escalating the situation others say this is a move by the government to preserve the nationalist votes in next year's election none of them however it wanted to speak to us on camera saying they were scared to be framed now this is a concern considering how frayed gyal and polarized turkey is political and why mint has become so you know al-jazeera stumbled the european union's chief breaks it and warned that plans for a period of transition to ease britain's withdrawal could be at risk michel barnier says quote substantial disagreements with britain are jeopardizing london's plans for a transitional period of around two years after it formally leaves the e.u. in twenty nineteen. it was a shoulder your bend the positions of the european union is very logical from my point of view by asking to enjoy the advantages of the single market the united kingdom that has to accept all the rules and the obligations until the end of the

transition that's only logical it also has to accept the consequences of its decision to leave. considering this agreement to be quite frank transition today's not a given or if these disagreements persist the transition is not a given. the controversial irish republican leader gerry adams is stepping down as head of the shin fein party after thirty four years he was considered a spokesman for the ira joining its three decades of bombing campaign aimed at ending british rule in northern ireland in more recent years he's been seen as a pivotal figure in the peace process he'll be replaced by mary lou mcdonald who has no links to the conflicts from dublin not in bob and the reports over the years gerry adams has been praised as a brave political leader and condemned as a secret terrorist commander the boy from belfast became active in northern ireland civil rights movement in the one nine hundred sixty s.

. following the arrival of british troops the province descended into decades of sectarian conflict the troubles. in the one nine hundred seventy s. as events like the bloody sunday shooting of catholic protesters by the british army hit the headlines adams was variously interned and arrested he always denied being a member of the provisional ira or irish republican army but many people on both sides of the border believe that's a nonsense in one thousand nine hundred three out of his became president of the ira's political wing shin fein that same year osting stack's father a chief prison officer was shot dead by the ira he later met adams trying to find out who ordered the killing all the evidence points to the fact that he had a leadership role i mean there's a new autobiography out on him and it's quite obvious from that even that the way when he was in terror that the other prisoners there had a parade past him every day and saluted them and you don't do that to someone who's just in the political arm of the organizations of this week soon though gerry adams

was arguing that shin fein had more to gain by contesting elections he want to seat in the u.k. parliament in westminster but never took it up all the while the ira's bombing campaign continued to kill people not just in northern ireland but on the mainland to those whose tools are bombs and bullets. your way is not the right way in one thousand nine hundred eight protracted talks led to what's known as the good friday agreement setting up a power sharing executive at stormont as well as the decommissioning of weapons and the early release of paramilitary prisoners while shin fein's martin mcguinness went on to become deputy first minister of northern ireland adams took a back seat briefly in twenty eleven he contested and won a seat in the republic of ireland part of a deliberate shift in the focus for shin fein strategy as became becoming involved in decision making on both sides of the border in the north they quickly establish themselves as the dominant political party and have been the dominant nationalist

party effort generation now but in the south they needed to build up from a very low base under gerry adams his leadership shin fein has become not only the largest nationalist party in northern ireland but the third largest group here in the irish doyle parliament and they're hoping to be in government here in the not so distant future when martin mcguinness was buried gerry adams carried his coffin so too did mary lou mcdonald who officially becomes shin feigns new leader on saturday her challenge now is to broaden the party's appeal to a younger generation that never knew the troubles. al-jazeera dublin and you saw the union put the first satellite the first man and the first woman into space the russian os seven rockets that launched the first satellite still servicing the international space station but with this week's space x. launch russia fears losing its commercial edge in the modern space race or a challenge now from moscow. the pitches and the achievement amazed millions of

people who are around the world but space x.'s falcon heavy rocket launch with its gracefully landing boosters didn't seem to impress russia's state space agency roscoe's most they dismissed it as little more than a p.r. stunt for either on musk's tesla electric cars if you have noticed ross cosmo said on a russian radio station this launch went up not with some empty dummy or a load which he wouldn't regret losing in a failure but with one specific car. there's some truth in what ross cosmo says ilan musk is among other things a master of promoting his various products but thrust kos-mos also seems to be covering its eyes to the main point space x. is a space technology game changer and it's a game some russians fear they're likely to lose the. reveal his success is in fact that he made the process less expensive he's workers are to be

used multiple times therefore he doesn't have to build a new rocket every time and the price is lot he can take a satellite into orbit cheaper and we'll lose it in this competition because our rockets can be used only once igor corage and go is one of a number of deeply concerned russian defense and space analysts he's concerned for russia's share of the space market and concerned space x. will benefit the u.s. military the workhorses of russia's state space program like this so you see i suddenly feel like aging remnants from a different era which they are really so used first launched in one thousand nine hundred sixty six a new cosmodrome called rostock germany and russia's far east has brought some modernization but millions of dollars have gone missing from the accounts because my dreams corruption scandals highlight the country's problem with self sabotage even on projects of national priority with russia's illustrious history of space

exploration is still a few thoughts of national prize but as the dawn breaks on a new era one of commercial space travel russia will have to match innovative nimble relatively cheap operators like space x. if it's to stay competitive. that's a huge political and technological challenge and one the country is only just waking up to rory chalons jazeera moscow. this is al-jazeera these are the top stories breaking news first israel's military says has targeted what is calling iranian sites within syrian territory after intercepting an iranian made drone israel says the drone was operating from israeli occupied the golan heights area and targeting syrian rebels the israeli military says one of its f. sixteen fighter jets was shot down during the syrian operation and says the pilot

ejected and landed safely the south korean president in has been holding talks with the north korean leader kim jong il and sister in seoul kim jong flew in to attend the opening ceremony of the winter olympics she is the first member of the ruling kim family to cross the border since the start of the korean war in one nine hundred fifty earlier leads from north and south korea marched under a unified korea's flag for the opening of the winter olympics in pyongyang the u.s. president donald trump has blocked the release of a classified memo written by democrats on the house intelligence committee citing national security concerns the memo rebuts a document prepared by the committee's republicans which was made public last week the republican memo allege the f.b.i. was biased against mr trump during its investigation into his presidential campaigns links with russia the memo was released despite public opposition from

the f.b.i. trump claimed that documents totally vindicates him but democrats and some republicans dispute that. colombia's former rebel group the fark has temporarily suspended its campaign for upcoming elections because of demonstrations and threats to its candidates the group became a political party last year after it made a peace deal with the government ending more than fifty two years of conflict but many colombians are still angry at the fog and believe its members should be in prison. the chief negotiator has warned the plans for a period of transition to ease the u.k.'s withdrawal could be at risk michel barnier says quote substantial disagreements with britain are jeopardizing london's plans for a transitional period around two years after it formally leaves the e.u. in twenty nineteen he also rejected condemnation from the u.k.'s brics it minister david davis who described proposals to sanction britain if it breached the rules

during that transition as quotes discourteous up next it's risking it all i'm back with a summary top of the hour see that. israel on the shores of. progress for some. challenging his government and big business risks his life to save the community he cherishes. the opposition this documentary this time on al-jazeera.