somebody who controls ten thousand people and controlling one hundred thousand voices they distort the debate in the echo chamber world of fake and use in cyberspace the rules of the game have changed there are no precedents people and out investigate dissin from ation and democracy part two at this time on al-jazeera . that is right if i touch it comes down during an operation striking iranian targets inside syria. hello this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up the north korean leader's sister. invite to meet the south korean president. president trump blocks the

release of a democratic party memo on the russian probe citing security concerns plus. we're in brazil for the country's most traditional carnival and it's not in rio. but still some breaking news here on israeli war planes crashed after an iranian drone was shot down near the border with syria syria says it was responding to an israeli act of aggression both f. sixteen pilots ejected and parachuted into northern israel the israeli army says they were shot at by massive anti-aircraft fire they were targeting a military base inside syria suspected of launching an iranian drone which flew towards the. let's talk to him in qana joins me live now from west jerusalem what's been the reaction so far inside israel to reports of the f.

sixteen coming down. well the israelis a very squarely blamed the run ins for all of the aggression taking place over that area what they've said on this social media account by the israeli army is that the i.d.f. has targeted the iranian control systems in syria sent the u.a.b. into israeli s. place massive syrian and fire one f. sixteen crashed in israel pilots are safe iran is responsible for this their violation of israel use of serenity event more to follow the reason they're blaming iran for all of this is because they feel squarely that iran is behind all of the aggression when it comes to. president bashar al assad's actions within syria they say that iran is the power behind the throne particular when it comes to the support of the lebanese group hezbollah so there is that side of this the happening right now this is very easy for the israelis to do that very well equipped to blame

iran for anything that happens in syria what's of more concern to the israelis right now is how this f. sixteen was shot down by israeli story by syrian air defenses hasn't been a f. sixteen or a fighter jet that's been full and as a result of any census terms for a very long times as likely to be a big inquiry the syrians were likely to be celebrating this as a chink in the israeli air force all of these worries present pride themselves on the fact that they can patrol the air space over the arab world without much competition from anybody else so this is going to be a big inquiry as to how this was all shot down but it's now about the politics and the optics of all of this these raids are now going to go off to iran blame them squarely for this but they'll be looking to see how an incident like this could take place and not just to remind our viewers the golan heights is a very important terrorist to teach a plea for both the syrians and the israelis. well it was all key part in one

hundred eighty one by the israelis the syrians and the israelis have no peace talks no negotiations on like the egypt and israel side of the sinai it's still occupied territory these really say that it's very squarely there is because of the war in syria it's become tactically very important for the israelis israelis are very worried that any kind of war may have spill over into the territories they backed it up completely the syrians of also put in their own defense systems there's been strong fighting going on this fighting going on in fact for a number of years along that border so yes it's incredibly important for both countries and both countries claim sovereignty over it already one calm there live for us from west jerusalem let's talk now to say no to she joins us live on the phone from beirut say no israeli air strikes inside syria arms on usual but how could this latest incident escalate tensions in the area between the syrians on the one side and israelis on the other. and utterly barren this is

a dramatic development like you mentioned israel has carried airstrikes carried out their strike syria doesn't really have air strikes over the past year a good time to mention the fact that the syrian air defenses have for the first time brought down an israeli plane in past incidents when israel carries out air strikes in syria the syrian government controlled media would say that the air defenses opened fire on what they call. an aggression against their country but this is the first time a plane has been hit and israeli military also confirming that it crashed in that syrian anti-aircraft fire now it is also the first time that israel is saying that its planes carried out an attack inside syria after a rally in drone has infiltrated in to syria and that they brought down this drone and then their planes responded by targeting what they clearly said was an iranian

parget in syria in the past the israelis would carry out an air strike they would really not mention anything about the target or even acknowledge that the strike has actually happened so now clearly stating that they are targeting iranian iraqi and car gets very regular basis in syria which we know that they have done in the past and then in terms of the broader picture israel has said it has red lines it won't allow iran to cross so how is this likely to play out then. yes israel has made this very clear time and time again first of all at the beginning a few years ago they said that they will not allow weapons to reach hezbollah hezbollah the lebanese armed shiite group an ally of iran and as a race they've been saying that they won't allow iran to set up permanent bases inside syria they won't allow iran to entrench itself militarily in syria or make syria who were operating the base. with the israeli prime minister has made that

clear he has been to moscow a number of times discussions with the russians and clearly the russians have given them agreed might use syrian airspace there is close coordination and we also can't forget that in the summer of last year when the united states and russia announced a cease fire in syria with south of syria that ceasefire was to appease israel because part of that field was to keep troops in iranian backed troops away from its border so clearly this is a dramatic escalation already there were tensions already israel worried about the iranian princes in syria as an ally for some better would say no thank you not the leader of north korea kim jong il who now has extended a rare invitation to the south korean president moon julian to visit pyongyang it happened on an historic high level meeting between the two sides at the presidential palace in seoul the north korean delegation which includes kim sr is

in south korea for the winter olympics potential months a cooling in tensions on the korean peninsula more now from the top of the name she joins us live from cancun on the toughness i understand the north korean leader has invited the south korean president to meet what more do we know. daryn if this meeting transpires it would be historic kim jong. korea has not met with the south korean president since he took office in twenty eleven in the last couple of days there and the south korean media had been buzzing was back elation that kim jong un sister kim jong a trusted advisor and high ranking party official was coming to the south with an invite in hand she had a letter and requested that president moon come to the north to meet with the north korean leader soon at a quote convenient time president moon says let's arrange that and let's prepare the conditions going forward the last time leaders from the north and south met was

in two thousand and seven that was during an interview and summit it was hosted by kim jong un's father overall the discussion in the high ranking north korean delegation had with president moon of south korea was described as friendly and wide ranging president moon again signaling that he is keen to reboot the relationship between the north and the south but he says that the north must have dialogue with the united states and he is asking the north to engage in that dialogue with the united states however improbable it may be at the moment here and there seems to be a lot of optimism in south korea that this perhaps is a turning point in korean relations is that realistic. it's very difficult to say but i will tell you that there is a sense of elation among the government of president moon bear in mind he came to

office last year he is the son of north korean refugee parents and this is a topic near and dear to him he's always pushed for engagement so he's clearly using the pyung chang winter olympics as a launching pad to reboot the relationship between the two koreas skeptics are doubtful despite all the historic firsts and the symbolism that we've seen with the handshakes and the meetings over the last couple of days skeptics are doubtful that there will be a seismic shift in her career in relations they say that north korea is added again with the propaganda that this charm offensive has one goal and one goal only and that is to advance the north korean agenda which is to maintain its nuclear program expand its economy and get some sort of easing of sanctions this week the united states through vice president mike pence said that a tougher round the toughest yet of sanctions is coming to north korea and that it

is the united states intends to exert maximum pressure north korea responding in kind by saying it's never begged for dialogue with the united states and it's not going to start now natasha thank you. donald trump's brought the release of a classified democratic party memo about the investigation into russian meddling in the election the blogs memo rebuts a republican member released last week which accuse the f.b.i. and justice department of bias against the president says the democratic document shouldn't be made public because of national security concerns question something that has the latest from washington d.c. . the letter from the white house citing significant law enforcement and national security concerns was supported by another document another letter from the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and the head of the f.b.i. christopher ray which goes on to explain that they're worried about revealing sources and ongoing investigations but it should be noted that the f.b.i.

had the same objections to releasing the republican memo and president trump went ahead and released it anyway and then after it was released said that the report had quote totally vindicated him of course democrats saw things much differently they wanted to have a chance to respond they said the republican version of events left out significant facts and they wanted a chance to put that forward even trey gowdy republican on the house intelligence committee said that the memo had not in any way discredited the mueller investigation so democrats now are crying foul they say this is a double standard and for a president who was talking about transparency when he released the original memo this just didn't make sense the question asked by both the democratic leader of the house and the senate is what is the president hiding of course the white house says that the justice department would be happy to work with democrats to revise their

memo so that it is able to be released without compromising security and democrats say they will take them up on that offer well the white house says although the president is inclined to declassify the february 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 that justice department personnel be available to give technical assistance to the committee should the committee wish to revise the for both of them around them to mitigate the risks identified by the thought. well to finkelstein is from the university of pennsylvania law school she says the democrats won't go down without a fight. it's very unlikely that the democratic memo can paine's intelligence that is sensitive over and above the intelligence that was in the republican memo so the marginal amount of intelligence that's released by releasing the democratic memo if

they were to do so is probably as a minimal impact on national security and therefore it's very hard to believe that the president has refused to release the memo on grounds of protecting intelligence . the democrats have a number of different options here i doubt they're going to take this lying down they know in that in all likelihood president pump is just trying to shield himself from the effects of the muller investigation time for a short break here not just here i want to come back we'll look at how the public in turkey is doing the military offensive targeting kurdish fighters in syria. breaking barriers in sri lanka a record number of women campaign for seats in upcoming elections more in that state.

however got some really wet weather moving across the mediterranean at the moment that the area cloud which has been developing bring up and bring you some big downpours towards the fossil fatally integration it'll just not just weather will further east with the north as we go through the next few days some of the wet weather to up towards the northwest a sense of snow on the leading edge of this weather system here that's now making its way through for saturday should be dry across much of france the low countries western parts of germany but the really heavy rain that's going to make its way in across holland pushing into wells west a possibility and also discover some nice celsius in london temperatures started to pick up by degrees to form a trick play well with that wet weather down into the southeastern corner which will make its way. the northeast was pushing up towards the black sea sebold area remaining yeah using up to was crying seeing some disturbed weather right sleep and some snow the way some snow say in scandinavia sliding down into gemini for sunday

night celsius in london by sunday afternoon not just some wintry weather still in the mix as we go on through the last apostle of the weekend some heavy rain that a moderate pushing up into the northwest of spain by the state said fourteen celsius the snow will be gone so malta are making as much of the north west of africa to rip out the sixteen.

welcome back time for a quick reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera an israeli warplane has crashed after an iranian drone was shot down near the border with syria syria says it was responding to an israeli act of aggression syrian state television says there are reports of what it calls new israeli aggression explosions near damascus . north korea's leader kim jong un has extended a rare invitation to the south korean president moon jay and to visit pyongyang the two countries have been holding talks on the sidelines of the winter olympics in china. and u.s. president donald trump has blocked the release of a classified democratic party memo on the probe into alleged russian meddling in the twenty sixth election it rebuts a republican memo that accused the f.b.i.

and justice department of bias. is making the first visit by an indian prime minister to the occupied palestinian territories the one day trip to the west bank is part of a three nation tour to strengthen ties with the middle east earlier he discussed the israeli palestinian conflict with jordan's king abdullah modi is expected to meet the palestinian president mahmoud abbas later on saturday let's get more now from bernard smith who joins us live from ramallah bernard so let's talk first about the palestinians what are they hoping to get out of this trip do you think. well it's the shortest of trips although the first visit by an indian prime minister to the occupied palestinian territories but now now under modi will be here for three hours but in those short in that three hour window the palestinians diplomatically well they're looking for a new partners to make to create some sort of multilateral forum to progress talks

with the israelis this is because the palestinians no longer consider the americans as sort of independent arbiters since donald trump's recognition as jerusalem is the capital of israel so since then they've been looking for a new way to move these to move any sort of talks forward so they've been looking to the e.u. to russia to china to support the palestinians to be to be a part of this multilateral forum and they're also looking as well hoping that the indians might help along with that is significant because india and the palestinians have a long relationship going back decades india was one of the first countries to recognize the palestinian state back in one nine hundred eighty eight so they're hoping to tap into that long history of friendship to hope that the indian leadership the prime minister will leverage his growing friendship with the israeli prime minister to perhaps help the palestinians move forward in those talks whatever talks there might be with the israelis down what's your assessment about india's priorities here i mean as you say they used to be vocal supporters still

are of the palestinians but it also seems that israel has become important to. well i think once upon a time in decades past india viewed its relationship with the palestinians from sort of a colonial perspective perspective india colonized by the british they were sympathetic to the palestinians and saw that this territory was being colonized by zionists and that is how the relationship evolved all those decades ago but things have changed india is a rapidly developing country and israel is a very important strategic partner for the indians forty one percent of israel's defense exports go to india there are building strong ties on technology as well as defense so for the indians the relationship with israel is extremely important coming to the palestinian territories separately from israel the indian prime minister was in israel last year he didn't come over to the occupied west bank as

is the tradition when leaders visit israel he left it he's coming separately now on the as part of this tour of the middle eastern gulf countries in the indian say the purpose of this visit is to build up palestinian capacity in the health technology and education areas and in that vein the indians a building with the palestinians a technology park here in ramallah they're also planning a diplomatic school mall is expected to open a school here in ramallah as well so the difference is really that israel is a very strategic partner now for the for the indians whereas the palestinian relationship is more of a reaffirming of a friendship that's been going back decades down bernard thank you. turkey's military is establishing a new position in syria's province as part of efforts to expand a so-called deescalation zone the state news agency says troops have been deployed to tile to canton russian forces are expected to position themselves six kilometers

outside the town they want to create a line dividing syrian government forces and opposition fighters to prevent contact rebel held as been the site of intense bombardment and ground fighting in recent weeks. now turkey is facing what could be difficult talks on syria with the u.s. secretary of state next week its offensive in northern syria against kurdish fighters is straining ties with washington but the operation has strong public support in turkey as an empty reports from istanbul. these are whole it's the shells in production they're used by the turkish army in operational of ranch 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 to work an extra hour every day they say it is the least they can do to support the army. he also yaman 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 y. p.g. would have attacked us with the weapons the u.s. provided to them. turkey vs the us spec kurdish on group in syria the i p g as a branch of the p.k. k. . the kurdistan workers party which is listed as a terrorist group by turkey and the us. the fourth are you pull flick between the picking and turkey has cost 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 of 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 protestants approach to the after an operation something that is quite rare in turkey but it is parliament members say the military intervention in africa is actually an invasion in the area. and there is nor ever sure tread. for the turkish borders and the turkish state some of those who oppose oppression all of brent's 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 vote in next year's election none of them however wanted to speak to us on camera saying they were scared to be free now this is a concern considering how frayed gyal and polarized turkey is political and why mint has become so you know al-jazeera stumble egyptian state media says the

country's security readiness has been raised to its highest level after the military launched an operation against armed groups in the sinai peninsula president who told the army to use brute force to restore security after the attack on a mosque in the ember that killed more than three hundred people local shops and schools in north sinai closed until further notice. more women than ever are hoping to get elected into government in sri lanka voters are choosing representatives in more than three hundred local elections when else and as reports from colombo. and during the latest political race with a bang rosy sennight form of this is world diplomats and probably daily it is evening to become good there to colombo she's the first woman to even try i strongly believe that here we cannot have democracy do not interest the needs of the made mentality of the population they don't get the population sri lanka. she's one of more than seventy thousand women contesting local government elections

a record number of women are standing 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 but now some only good i know of the marxist people's liberation front says the changes will give more deserving women a chance in our country in some minister's daughter or siblings or those from families and politics. but we think that honest women should come into politics where laws are made this election can do that. it's a view that this voter in colombo endorsed you just hype time that you learn comes the politicians because at least there are so many women they should give a list of the beam and 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 but if you go by going into this local

government election where you have a president by policy decision and prime minister become a singer whose policies are contesting separately it's a battle to keep it. 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 large 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 the successors party saw the power struggle or are the way forward for the upcoming national elections will be starting from this particular point it is for the president for the prime minister was coming from that would be put in political parties and in the other hand the former president's campaign will have a place and they hope to shore they are power whatever the larger political stakes local election voters will be hoping for competent candidates male and female to ensure the smooth running of. finance al-jazeera colombo. time of the year again carnival is underway in brazil and for most that means the some the parades of rio but the most traditional economy of all is in the northeastern states opponent bucco a latin america editor missy newman is there. i'm in a sea for the capital of penumbra states where carnival is a multicultural multi music affair that lasts for five days behind me on the ball

nickels these are the giant dolls for which this state is famous they began in the early one nine hundred step pay homage to different personalities past and as you can see present more than eighty will be parading next week and the long time coordinator of the event was kind enough to give us a sneak preview. here to see for the festivities got underway over night. this is called monica to approve caution based music with strong african roots brought here to the seafront by slade's eighteenth century. and there was also the foot able and nineteenth century rhythm that big number is famous for its a fusion of martial music a kind of brazilian tango and some african rhythms. carnival is a time for celebration but also for excesses especially of alcohol which is

increasingly leading to sex abuses out here on the streets for the second year in a row activist who are karaoke is taking part in a campaign for women to speak out and to monitor places where abuses are most likely to happen. during carnival there's a culture of permissiveness people think it's normal to grope you to force you to kiss them to have sex with women specially. but even with that millions of brazilians and foreigners have come here to celebrate the preparations are underway for what will be the main event on saturday called the rooster of the dog and that's when this gigantic rooster will lead the world's largest street parade more than a million people taking part and it begins at the early hours of the morning when it ends you know no when.

talk a quick recap of the top stories here breaking news an israeli warplane has crashed after an iranian drone was shot down near the border with syria syria says it was responding to an israeli act of aggression both f. sixteen pilots ejected and parachuted safely into northern israel syrian state television says there are ports of what it calls new israeli aggression and explosions near damascus imran khan has more from western samoa the reason they're blaming iran for all of this is because they feel squarely that iran is behind all of the aggression when it comes to. president bashar al assad's actions within syria they say that iran is the power behind the throne basically when it comes to the support of the lebanese group hezbollah so there is that side of this happening right now this is very easy for the israelis to do that very well equipped to blame iran for anything that happens in syria north korea's leader kim jong il has extended a rare invitation to the south korean president mungy and to visit people young the

two countries have been holding talks on the sidelines of the winter olympics in china u.s. president donald trump is blocked the release of a classified democratic party memo on the investigation into alleged russian meddling in the twenty sixteen election it rebuts a republican memo that accuse the f.b.i. and the justice department of bias the president says the document should be made public because of national security concerns there in ramadi is making the first visit by an indian prime minister to the occupied palestinian territories the one day trip to the west bank as part of a three nation tour to strengthen ties with the middle east earlier he discussed the israeli palestinian conflict with jordan's king abdullah nobody's expected to meet the palestinian president mahmoud abbas later on saturday. egyptian state media says the country's security readiness has been raised to its highest level after the military launched an operation against groups in the sama. schools and shops in north sinai closed until further notice well those were the headlines the

news continues here on al-jazeera the inside story of watching. the nature news as it breaks the u.s. cut the funding has cemented the feeling here that the u.s. is now part of the problem and has picked the israeli side with detailed coverage the nigerian government insists negotiations are ongoing to secure the release of the girls and hundreds of others. from around the world three decades on chileans are still thinking about abuses but this time those committed by the church. the forgotten conflict. the suffering. during the war against both the rebels millions are facing disease and. what will it take for the international community to stop the barrage of bullets and bombs inside story.