it's part of genocide the listening post provides a critical counterpoint challenging mainstream media narrative at this time on al-jazeera facing the realities of growing up when did you realize that you were living in a special place the so-called secret city getting to the heart of the matter why is activists to live in jail just because he expressed himself he had a story on the talk to al-jazeera at this time and. calls for mercy are ignored by the massacre says the syrian government pummels rebel held east and go to a number of people killed there has risen to almost three hundred since sunday.

well again i have a dream figure in this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up hope for south africa's future as the finance minister offers free college education in the country's new budget but the cost will be steep. so i think on the prime minister israeli media report that one of benjamin netanyahu is closest confidantes will testify him against him. and billy graham one of the most influential christian evangelical preachers of the twentieth century has died. the rebel held on klav of eastern syria is on the war heavy bombardment by russian and syrian forces the kremlin though denies any involvement almost three hundred people have been killed over the past four days including four c. on witness day it's the highest casualty count in the area since a chemical attack there in twenty thirteen al-jazeera sent a hot air. on the story just

a warning you may find some of the images inside this report to stop i. there is no frontline in eastern. oh residential neighborhoods have become battlegrounds the syrian government and its allies are bombing the besieged rebel enclave into submission i look at the suburb of damascus is under attack was. we heard a plane overhead the myside landed people were torn into pieces i was with my nephew and we were both injured what i heard was the sound of an ambulance and i found myself here hundreds killed hundreds more injured the united nations says makeshift hospitals are being hit some are now out of service there is a humanitarian crisis and there is nowhere to hide. there is no safe place i tried to convince my parents to stay in the first floor of our building

thinking it would be safer but they told me there's no difference because buildings are being flattened in the strikes. the government said military reinforcements to the frontlines around the besieged enclave the pro-government newspaper says the bombing campaign comes ahead of what it said will be a vast operation which may start on the ground at any time. the thousands of rebels there are promising to repel any advance a ground offensive will not be easy the government and its allies have repeatedly tried to storm eastern in the past the rebels have struck defenses and an underground tunnel network that they use to their advantage. at times. even.

to the present. and what it calls provocations. many including the u.n. are warning the battle for eastern could turn into a repeat of the battle for aleppo. the battle for aleppo lasted for months there was so much suffering among the civilian population before a ceasefire deal was reached that involved a mass evacuation of the people who fear they could face the same fate. a spokesman with the civil defense rescue group also known as the white helmets he's described as a catastrophe. now i'm getting beat up on that that. the residential areas in the b.c.g. eastern ghouta are being targeted homes markets schools and vital centers are all

being hit by regime forces with all kinds of weapons that's in addition to the russian warplanes which are hitting and shelling the people of eastern. iowa not sought not this situation is a catastrophe it is a real misery more than two hundred people have been killed in the last forty eight hours and most of them are women and children districts have been completely destroyed because of barrel bombs and rockets used by the regime rocket launchers are also going to go either to be found with the civil defense is trying to rescue the people under the rubble but they are also trying to fight fires everywhere nuestro we have a shortage of petrol that is used by the ambulances we are working with all available tools but we also face attacks against the civil defense staff in our medical centers chemicals have been used by the regime and people have been killed we're trying to do our best in helping the wounded and taking them to medical

centers and the operation in eastern resulting in a catastrophe residential areas are being hit all the time even families that we managed to rescue from under the rubble we don't know where to take them because we don't have enough centers and we don't have enough supplies because the regime won't allow supplies into the besieged area or you know and you know we need the international community to know that we have hundreds of patients that need help and a huge number of women and children. in northern syria turkey is warning of serious consequences if pro syrian government militia try to enter the african region again . backed rebels say that they're now close to inserting the place which is mainly on the kurdish control. thank you regards the kurdish y p g as a terrorist group president rich of top of the one is about to capture the area close within days now from

a serious assault weapon java to. free syrian army fighters backed by the turkish government into this military say they have effectively separated the city of offering from the turkish border and sounded from the front they say they have been in control about ninety sites around the city of offering pushing them closer to inserting the whole city this comes off the back of the latest developments in the last twenty four hours there through a syrian government fighters have made it inside the city of a free and for the first time after that kurdish fighters asked for the help a number of these five just try to enter the city of offering but after heavy shelling by the tech as government did turn back but some of these fighters have made it inside the city this would be this would make it defers to force winds that has arrived in the city of off enough of the asked for help there are saying that they have been facing heavy bombardment and shelling by the texas government and called on the syrian government to provide help the syrian government said that it

will not send its regular forces but their forces are militias loyal to president bashar al assad been entering the city and some of these fighters have finally made it to texas president says that they are also moving ahead in trying to capture the city of offering and they are pushing closer and closer to the words the city center and in his words it is only a matter of days the u.s. preacher who carried his christine evangelist message around the world for more than six decades has died but he graham was ninety nine through broadcasts and mass rallies he was credited with delivering his summons to more individuals than anyone else in history tameka one looks back at his life. the largest and ever erected for a revival meeting billy graham came to national prominence as a thirty year old when he attracted thousands of people to a three month long prayer rally in a tent pitched in downtown los angeles i do not believe in any man. that any man

can solve the problems of life without jesus christ. or are you or whatever it was a message that the charismatic southern baptist minister continued to spread by harnessing the power of radio and then television i'm praying that this hour will be really on our decision for you and i mean to constitute a committee graham by the mid one nine hundred fifty s. graham had expanded his range to europe where he conducted mass rallies in sports stadiums even if they want to leave any good advice you have come short and are often or are you need graham's appeal was to some measure due to his focus on more moderate religious doctrines and never seeking to convert people to a sectarian christian faith but he spoke out strongly against communism bringing his ministry to the soviet union a decade before its fall we were certain that it would open future dollars for claiming the gospel not only in the soviet union but throughout the eastern world

at home graham broke with his own church's tradition and held racially mixed rallies in the legally segregated south carolina no i am alive down to as well as in apartheid south africa billy graham welcomes president johnson to his crusade for christ a confidant of ten u.s. presidents and graham only endorsed one in the campaign richard nixon he later called it a mistake and in two thousand and two his reputation for tolerance was marred with the release of secret white house audiotapes recording graham agreeing with nixon's critical comments about jews early on. and on and by the. way. i don't know that all the really good out. here. graham apologized for those remarks saying he was never an anti semite in his old age graham was asked what about those like. the jews the muslims who don't

believe in. you don't judge them you know the whole point is i'm not jesus a country preacher whose mastery of modern communication set an example for other men and women of religion to follow. tom ackerman al-jazeera. south africa's first budget under a new president pose a has been delivered finance minister. has told part of that south africa will increase in value added tax from opposes government wants to cut the budget deficit and stabilize debt after years of slow economic growth we're looking at the details v eighteen years being increased to fifteen percent it's south africa's first tax tax rise in more than twenty years but students are set to benefit from the extra money four point nine billion dollars is being put into free higher education a billion of that for poor students in keeping with a promise from former president jacob zuma al-jazeera is funny to militarize us now

live from johannesburg see a lot of promises being made in this budget is that tax rise going to pay for it all. well that's what the government is expecting a trend that taxes back to v.a. to rise going up by about one percent and so the government says that it will look for this money that it needs to fund all these programs that it's putting in place including free education through that v.a. t. increase as well as adjusting income tax it says though before below inflation one of the other areas it says it will find this money is by decreasing its spending by about eight billion dollars over the next three years or so much of this will be used to fund this free if you cage occasion program that the government has really committed itself to since last gen and over the last two years where we've seen a students take to the streets a demonstrate against the cost of university fees and this would cost at least

about five billion over the next few years five billion dollars in that the government has said it wants to fund education not just for a first just you didn't but for the entire course this is what the minister of finance malusi gigaba had to say all new first year students with the income hundred fifty thousand a number it universities and colleges in the academic you will be funding food if. this is all well and good but how will the public takes to take to these tax hikes the first for the first time in twenty years. well the ruling party the african national congress has called the spuds a tough one but wonder that the public is going to have to accept it really i suppose is a mixed bag for south africans we do see the poor being impacted but the government

has also promised a number of other things new schools and equipment that would benefit about nine million school go is as well as a zero rating food which has been the case so far so while we see the eighty going up in some areas the government has said that there are basic food stuffs that don't get taxed and so the every day cost of living of the poor shouldn't be impacted one other area is an increase in social grants and this should benefit the poor but only to some extent because then we also see the fuel of the rising so transport it will cost more the government really isn't a difficult position and that is trying to balance trying to save money trying to create more revenue but it would appear that this would impact the poor significantly we've had opposition parties talking about an assault on the poor and the working class so we don't see south africans reacting very well to these. value added tax increases these tax increases but it seems is this will have to be

a principle or a principle to swallow for me to many thanks indeed we're going to weather a tape next year on al-jazeera they're determined to get their point across about gun control the students taking action on the floor of the school shooting class. possibilities for it going wrong absolutely they could be actually a tragic a dark warning about artificial intelligence from the world's smartest people want to merging technology. hello again across central southern parts of china it's looking fairly wet during the course of thursday temperatures nothing special but hong kong just eighteen degrees hanoi should be mainly try with a mix of twenty two but i think the risk of showers will continue across parts of

vietnam through into laos as we head into friday but the rain across much of china will be on its way out of the stage hot and humid across much of me and my yang on there it's thirty four degrees into south asia looking largely fine but we have got an area of cloud developing pushing some rain indeed a higher elevation snow across parts of afghanistan into pakistan over they said they are so but for much of the region plenty of sunshine thirty is a high in delhi or in the way of clover shrank zero but it should stay largely dry in colombo and then heading into friday you see that khloe pushing across pakistan with some patchy rain across more northern areas so less of the cross into the arabian peninsula and we've got a weather system just moving south was across the region so cloud is going to be somewhat variable over the next couple of days so certain sure in the course of friday here in qatar it should be fairly bright highs of twenty seven in doha but i think we'll find more the way of cloud spilling down as we head on through into the latter part of the weekend and across the levant we've still got some rain effect in northern parts of iraq.

the scene for us where on line what is american sign in yemen that peace is always possible but it never happens not because the situation is complicated but because no one cares or if you join us on sat there people that there are choosing between buying medication and eating they say is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who's an activist and just posted a story join the global conversation at this time on al jazeera.

again the top stories this hour on al-jazeera the international red cross is calling for humanitarian access to syria's rebel held all place of eastern guta nearly three hundred people have been killed since sunday and hundreds more wounded the i.c.r.c. says the people are in critical need of treatment was the situation will get worse the u.s. christian evangelist billy graham has died at the age of ninety nine he carried his message around the world for more than six decades. at south africa's first budget of the new president saurav opposer has just been delivered that includes an increase in value added tax for the first time in more than twenty years of free higher education for poor students. israeli media is reporting that one of the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is closest confidantes will testify against him over allegations of corruption show both obama has been arrested and questioned by police israeli police say that there is sufficient evidence to indict

netanyahu for bribery fraud and breach of trust in two separate cases netanyahu denies all the allegations let's go live to the west to rue slim was there as bernard smith can tell us more about this could this latest twist bernard in the corruption saga facing netanyahu threaten his position well adrian so far netanyahu is in a circle of advisors and confidants and friends as remained really tight around him if shlomo film is going to give evidence against netanyahu then that is the first fish or the first crack in this tight circle filled or netanyahu going back twenty years or so. was the former head of the communications ministry he's been arrested along with executives from the telecom the largest telecommunications company in israel and the police suspect that bezerk telecom was given regulatory favors

regulatory benefits by netanyahu government and in return netanyahu got favorable coverage of one of the most popular news websites in israel which was controlled by a former chairman of basic so it slow mo filbert is prepared to say this in evidence against netanyahu the netanyahu really is in serious trouble of course now denies all the various corruption allegations against an eighteen hours this affecting his support among the public. well i mean there's been speculation in israeli media that comes along with this story that now and then you know who might try and cause some sort of snap election to rally the right wing base behind him and to sort of delay the judicial proceedings and before today's latest string of allegations came out well there was still just a majority a suggestion that netanyahu would still win an election despite the corruption

allegations against him most of his supporters believe it's all made up although majority of israel's population does believe the allegations against netanyahu dating but a very thinks the serious but it's myth in west jerusalem student survivors of the shooting in the u.s. state of florida are taking action to push for tougher gun control they're set to hold talks with legislators in the state capital tallahassee seeking a ban on assault style rifles off the florida house of representatives rejected a proposal to make them illegal seventeen students and staff were killed in the attack in auckland last week let's go live to tallahassee. to gallacher is that what's the mood among the students what is it they're hoping to achieve here. well ideally they want to start a conversation and over the past week they certainly have done that they've spoken with eloquence exposure spoken with passion and anger and really grabbed the

attention of the entire world and remember today marks exactly a week since that shooting in part one florida so many of these students have been going to funerals and being going through the grieving process but today they're here in florida's state capital of tallahassee to meet with lawmakers and what they calling for what they want are really things that are backed overwhelmingly by the american public they would like to see the minimum age for buying an assault rifle raised to twenty one at the moment it's easier to buy an assault rifle in this to buy a handgun in the state of florida they would like to see more stringent mental health checks all of these things get the backing of the american public but as you said yesterday here in the state legislature they voted down a bill that would have banned assault rifles in less than three minutes which gives you some idea of just what challenges they face going forward and whether they can in fact keep the momentum they have so far going into the weeks and months ahead of the tide of public opinion and he seems to be on their side but politically is it

realistic that they can actually achieve anything. it depends what they want to achieve i mean if they can achieve something like raising the minimum age to buy an assault rifle remember nicholas cruz had ten weapons and was nineteen years old that would be a huge victory because moving the gun laws in this country even incrementally even very slightly is extremely difficult remember five years ago at the sandy hook school shooting where six year old children were gunned down by a person with an assault rifle nothing happened nothing ever happens in this country when we go through these tragedies so if these children can do what adults cannot seem to do even if it means raising the minimum age of buying an assault rifle or making background checks more stringent that will be a huge victory ultimately their students and i'll be speaking to them a lot over the past few days would like to see an assault rifle ban something that would ban people from getting hold of these warlike weapons that is a goal that may be unachievable but they're certainly not going to give up they've

got the energy and they've got the momentum and they've certainly got the world listening to them right now and the many thanks and you got to go to live in tallahassee florida. it while the us president has agreed that more needs to be done to protect children in the wake of last week's shooting in florida donald trump has called for a battle of so-called bump stocks those are devices that allow a semiautomatic rifle to fire at the speed of a machine gun he's expected to speak to survivors of several mass shootings in the coming hours in what's being called a listing session heidi joe castro reports from washington. the bomb stocks a deadly threat was witnessed in october when a gunman used them to rain down bullets on a crowd in las vegas killing fifty eight people the call to ban bomb stocks was swift. but it took until now four months later for president donald trump to take action. after the deadly shooting in las vegas i directed the attorney general

to clarify whether certain bob stock devices like the one used in las vegas are illegal under current law that process began in december and just a few moments ago i saied a memorandum directing the attorney general to propose regulations to ban all devices that turn illegal weapons into machine guns drums announcement came six days after yet another mass shooting dominated the headlines seventeen people mostly students were killed in a florida high school there's no indication the shooter also used a bomb stock in the attack but trams move to ban the devices now appears to be the president bending to growing pressure. polling shows the majority of americans think trump in congress haven't done enough to stop mass shootings while gun safety advocates say banning bomb stops is good they say there's still much more that

needs to be done and the motion. to say. thank. you the young survivors of the florida shooting are expected to meet with trump on wednesday for what the white house calls a listening session expected to join them are survivors of past school shootings sandy hook elementary columbine high school and many others. heidi joe castro al-jazeera washington a prominent rights activist has been jailed in bahrain for five years now bill roggio was a leading figure in the two thousand and eleven pro-democracy protests he's been sentenced for tweets criticizing bahrain's intervention in the yemen civil war and the prison authorities use of torture raja was already serving

a two year sentence for accusing the government of torturing political prisoners. the state of kassa and chad to restore diplomatic ties chad's government ordered the closure of cattle as embassy in august that was two months after the start of the gulf crisis in which saudi arabia bahrain the u.a.e. and egypt imposed a blockade on cata they accused of supporting terrorism a charge which the government has strongly denied. canada's prime minister has reiterated that he supports a one united india during his first visit to the country just intrude on his family or on an eight day tour some in india have accused members of his cabinet of supporting sikh separatists for canadian cabinet members seek to do is meeting the chief minister of punjab and visiting the sikh golden temple which is today. the us as the vice president mike pence was shuttled to meet north korean officials at the winter olympics but the pyongyang canceled at the last minute the state department

says the pence seen here sitting in front of north korean leader kim jong un's sister was willing to see her and other officials from pyongyang they were in south korea for the opening ceremony of the junk chain games warning now on the threat posed by artificial intelligence twenty six world experts in emerging technologies say that cyber crime will grow and the drones will be misused over the next decade and the heywood reports from cambridge in the u.k. . it is the stuff of science fiction or at least it used to be a computer able to master and a chinese boardgame without human help to win every time and a truck drives to sell computers in big holes powered by artificial intelligence now leading academics are warning not to put the brakes on ai but that the technology is increasingly being used for malicious purposes for political or

financial gain to extort and to gain influence cyber attacks on infrastructure as we've seen in ukraine attacks on computers in hospitals manipulation people for example we've seen some. attempts to manipulate political elections in the us and in europe recently now those have been varying degrees of effectiveness with the techniques we have today but artificial intelligence will allow new types of cyber attacks that might be more capable than we had before very safe. from health care to walk their machine based thinking is revolutionizing the way we live exposing us to the benefits and the risks the robot here has been designed to pick up these little bricks and put them back on the green mass now this is just a laboratory setting but in five or ten years time it could be developed to work in a construction site or support in the design or wouldn't want the technology

hijacked the report's authors a calling on governments and the industry itself to do more to protect us from all the pitfalls experts warned of the serious consequences it's absolutely right that we issue warnings with ai because the capabilities of the possibilities for it going wrong are absolutely they could be actually tragic we need to be able to get to grips with this now ai is clearly here to stay and staying one step ahead of those who were. abused it will be a constant challenge and he would. cambridge. it is good terry whether saverin for good here in doha with the top stories now is the era the international red cross is calling for humanitarian access to syria's rebel held on clay the eastern ghouta nearly three hundred people have been killed there

and hundreds more wounded since sunday the i.c.r.c. says the people are in critical need of treatment and warns the situation will get fall in the us. the us christine evangelist billy graham has died at the age of ninety nine he carried his message around the globe for more than six decades through broadcasts and mass rallies he was credited with delivering his sermons to more individuals than anyone else in history. south africa's first budget on the new president saw a poser has just been unveiled from opposers government wants to cut the budget deficit and stabilize debt after years of slow economic growth that includes an increase in value added tax for the first time in more than twenty years and help for poor students. all new face students with a familiar income below the end it in fifty thousand lent the imam at universities then. in the twenty eighth i did meet him will be finding food in.

israeli media is reporting that one of prime minister benjamin netanyahu is closest confidantes will testify against him on corruption accusations shlomo silva has been arrested and questioned by police israeli police say that there is now sufficient evidence to indict netanyahu for bribery fraud and breach of trust in two separate cases netanyahu denies the allegations a prominent rights activist has been jailed in bahrain for five years an appeal rajab was a leading figure in the two thousand and eleven pro-democracy protests he's been sentenced for tweets criticizing bahrain's intervention in the yemen war and the prison authorities use of torture rajab was already serving a two year sentence for accusing the government of torturing political prisoners and students survivors of the shooting in the u.s. state of florida taking action to push for tougher gun control they're set to hold talks with legislators in the state capital tallahassee seventeen students and staff were killed in the attack last week in parkland cabals here where the news

grid and a little over twenty five minutes on al-jazeera right after today's edition of the stream next. the benefit of saddam people so bad they see. witness documentaries that open your eyes at this time on al-jazeera. high as having ok and you're in the stream today we're looking at the situation in ciudad is the country facing economic collapse so we have a new austerity budget political tensions and many citizens are unhappy right now we are live on you tube you can send us your questions or comments and be part of the show too and i really could be a lot of street protests in sudan have mostly been quelled and there's been a virtual media blackout but the conversation is extensive online here's a look at.