witness documentaries that open your eyes. at this time on al-jazeera. syrian government forces try to push their way into a rebel held east and good just hours after the un approves a cease fire. it demands policies cease hostilities without delay that means right now immediately.

and welcome to all of us here on live from my headquarters in doha with me and of iran i'm also ahead donald trump's that's pictured next to a high ranking north korean general who suggested direct talks between his country and the u.s. . china's one communist party sets the stage for president xi jinping to stay in power and definitely and. the battle between conservation and traditional medicine in south africa. syrian government troops have launched a new ground and air offensive in the rebel held on claim of east and guta just hours after the u.n. security council agreed to demand a cease fire a pro-government video shows syrian forces moving towards the area. on the

outskirts of damascus it's been on the heavy bombardment by the government and its allies including russia at least five hundred people have been killed just in the past week let's get a better idea of the area we're talking about encompasses the eastern suburbs of damascus revolution. that can reach the center of damascus a victory there as a big government priority to rebel groups hostile to each other control different sections of the enclave along with several smaller groups government forces have tried to enter by using the homs to damascus highway and also at. now he's joining us live from the turkish city of near the border with syria so what's the latest that you're hearing about the offensive and the resistance to it . what is the most intense fighting that we've seen

on the ground in eastern. in the last seven days we've heard reports of clashes on the outskirts of but this is the first time that the syrian government and its troops made a move to words taking. on multiple fronts we've been hearing reports on the ground where fighters belonging to. one of the other which is one of the biggest groups that is fighting on the ground there are other groups smaller groups which are also fortifying their positions and trying to hold back the syrian government from coming in on the syrian government number of troops including the fourth brigade the tenth brigade special forces and the forces taking part in this operation to try and take as much. force as before this implementation phase of the united nations security council resolution but the resolution also. that the fighting against isis and other groups that the united nations recognizes as terrorists will continue one of the groups. that it has been able it is open to.

do allow the aid to come in but it will fight off any advances by the government if it tries to enter the. welcome to the security council's decision regarding a ceasefire because of the burden on our families and he said this suffering must be lifted to the decision to stop the bloodshed caused by the regime in eastern guta as usual we didn't find any commitment by the syrian regime in its russian allies. northwest and go to southern wist and almost every front and go to has been stalled by the regime on sunday in order to achieve some advance but they haven't succeeded. so fighting words there. despite them all coming to ceasefire a cease fire that has yet to be implemented when and how is that going to happen.

that is the big question on everybody's mind we've heard a lot of reaction since the united nations security council passed that resolution last night unanimously heard from the syrian government and its allies we've heard from the iranian chief of the military chief of iran saying that the fight. is against terrorist groups and it will continue because it is not covered under this agreement reached at the united nations security council which means that the fighting in eastern does not seem to be coming to an end anytime soon also in the last few. efforts to try and pressure russia to call the assad government and make sure that it stops these violations but to be calling a complete violation of all the rights of civilians we've heard from the french president. the german chancellor trying to put the pressure to call the syrian government to urge the syrian government to stop these hostilities because the

fight against terrorism has been rejected by the people on the ground who say that the former group are in their hundreds but this is home to more than four hundred thousand people in desperate need of humanitarian aid and medical help thank you very much for that as a psalm of the joining us live from gaza thank you. well the u.n. security council votes for the days of tough negotiations to get russia on board as a diplomatic editor james space. diplomats worked frantically to get a resolution for a cease fire on syria you've got an agreement with the russians now. today we're going to see if russia has a concert the russian ambassador conferred with his syrian counterpart whose government has continued without rest by the bombardment of eastern even as the negotiations dragged on diplomats have been working around the clock exhausted frustrated and in some cases angry most of the discussions focusing on the exact

wording of one paragraph in the end they agreed to a place an immediate cease fire with one that comes into force without delay it meant they could vote. it was unanimous but there didn't seem to be much unity in the chamber. every minute the council waited on russia the human suffering group getting to a vote became a moral responsibility for everyone but not for russia not for syria not for iran i have to ask why as they dragged out the negotiation the bombs from assad's fighter jets continued to fall in the three days it took us to adopt this resolution how many mothers lost their kids to the bombing and the shelling why we negotiated this so long and that is illusion that they wanted to make sure that it

is not used as a pretext for military action because we had some trouble so what is worrying. governments on that in the recent days any good in today some of the variability cause these negotiations were extremely hard getting a ceasefire across syria will be even harder can they get a stop to the bombardment in eastern guta there is an exemption in the resolution allowing continued military action against al qaida. and i saw and some diplomats fear that the syrian government will assert that those fighting in eastern guta have links with those groups james pays out his era of the united nations and on diplomacy the kremlin says russian president vladimir putin has discussed the syrian crisis with the french and german leaders in a phone call that all of them according to the kremlin highlighted the importance of working together to implement the cease fire that spoke up on all of these points with bashar al jazeera senior political analyst he's joining us live from

london to so much talk about the things five might want even after it's been agreed to at the security council while the fighting if anything is intensifying while the russians do you think use the leverage they have to rein in the syrian government now. well now i mean that was the whole point of the disagreement over the draft resolution is they do do not want an immediate cease fire they want and eventually cease fire when the. bashar assad's forces finish the onslaught on guta and be able to clean out all the opposition from there take full control of it as they did in previous areas within syria and with an area of influence because now for the russians and the syrians the main idea is how to take form control over all the contiguous territory is around damascus aleppo homs and so on so forth so if

anything. the russians now are giving cover to the syrian regime and those russian forces to finish the operation in the meanwhile they get everyone busy with the united nations discussions and with discussions with the european counterparts because remember after all the russians or put them specifically president putin has demanded that the europeans join in in the reconstruction of syria so all in all i think the russians will continue to need you know certain european partners for the future of syria in the meanwhile they're wasting a lot of time because they simply need to finish their invasion of cuba and once at finish line and if what we see is what we've seen in the past with entire populations being transferred out of here the government moving and having that contiguous control of territory i mean where does that leave the civil war. but you see this is the thing i'm not sure in this very particular case there's any

moving of population anywhere i mean if anything we would have thought they want to could have been moved to that in the south but i think there is a jordanian israeli slash american veto on that so i think we are stuck this time around and i think the massacre continues that's why hundreds of people die within a week and more will continue to die and the destruction is so severe and that's why and really we must we must address that is this hypocrisy at the united nations this hypocrisy in europe in north america and in russia this hypocrisy by u.n. security council members that they talk the whole they pressure they project and so on so forth but it's really unprecedented hypocrisy of the chatty american ambassador one day defense israeli repression and all pression occupation of palestine and the second day it attacks the syrian regime and its russian backers

and vice versa the russian ambassador vasili will go on and attack the americans for their hypocrisy when we here as in media we have to call both parties resolutely and nicky for their hypocrisy on the question of syria because they are really proved along with their partners in france and the u.k. and germany to be totally and utterly hypocrite hypocritical when it comes to human life in syria it is a hypocrisy that as you say is costing you know five hundred civilian deaths at least just in the past week not to mention the hundreds of thousands that have been killed over the past seven years what can the other members of the security council do though when russia continues to hold that veto power and stop any real action here. well certainly we have a total silence on the part of china that it said in the past that. so willing to

you know to come in and help with this basically sightless on the part of the french and here is this of course surprise since president mccord took over he basically said and i'm quoting bush is not france's enemy suddenly the french position changed completely france of bashar assad then his. crimean the regime if you will was no longer the only real france but he added recently that france will interfere only if there will be a chemical attack in syria but as we all know ninety nine percent of syrians have died not by chemical attacks but by conventional attacks and because of the complicity in moscow and the silence in paris london and washington. thank you very much for that for now that is our senior political analyst madman bashar joining us live from london thank you. we're going to move on to other news now and a north korean general has suggested that his country is willing to open talks with

the u.s. kim yong choi who is n.p.r. for the winter and impacts closing ceremony made the remarks during a meeting with south korean president in came late sat in the v.i.p. box at the olympic stadium to watch the ceremony dismisses away from u.s. president don't want trump's daughter ivanka with south korea's leader is yet to accept pyongyang's invitation of a summit natasha good name has more known. i think that a lot of analysts believe that what we've seen in the last several weeks and really since the beginning of the year when the north korean press our leader rather agreed to participate in the olympics is that north korea is feeling the heat of the sanctions and is looking for a way to dial down tensions after a pretty hostile twenty seventeen that's the sort of pessimistic side of things a lot of people think that north korea has waged this charm offensive during the

olympics in a tent to somehow ease up on the same chins continue to build its nuclear program and its economy president of south korea on the other hand has been very bullish about the process saying that he believes this is part of a reboot of into a korean relations but he does stress that dialogue between north korea and the united states is key for that kind of improvement in relations it'll be interesting to see elizabeth if president moon will take advantage of kim jong invite to visit young yang at the earliest possible time it's a very tricky geo political situation for him domestically there is obviously a lot of south koreans who aren't happy about that but if president does go to north korea for intercourse talks it would be the first time that kim jong un has met with a president of south korea since he took office seven years ago. where the check is

next then they fled violence and myanmar and now six months all these for hundred refugees tell us there's still no end to their suffering. one of the cloud is about to build again in the middle of china we are a fine looking day for monday with average temperatures in hong kong at twenty one it will be above in shanghai the humidity will rise along with the breeze possibly the temperatures at least the feeling by the time we get to choose day with the cattle actually build in east to sichuan it'll build enough to produce a certain amount of rain once again not snow but rain we've had some significant rain falling recently in the middle east and iran is cloudy is creeping across to pakistan but i think more especially afghanistan will get most of the rain but if

you get an occasional shot just a few spots anywhere from karachi northwards well i think you sort of lucky not much for this time the normally typically looks like a dry day on tuesday thirty three in karachi new delhi might see the air stood a little bit by this passing cloud of rain but not a lot to be honest and the amount of rain that fell of the desert countries of the middle east wasn't a great deal but it's not over yet now this isn't a very wet time the year but it is like to be as wet as any time since november it's winter after all so to get more showers in the forecastle bahrain qatar the society maybe isn't a big surprise that is the picture then for tuesday that rain eventually if pushed sastry usa as well but it leaves western society warm and sunny. winning the will of the people hinges on the mass media. machine go into overdrive . influencing.

we just don't know yet where the lines will be drawn between what can be said and what conduct. some journalists decided to sacrifice their integrity for outside. their listening post base time on al-jazeera. it's good to have you with us on al-jazeera these are all top stories syrian government troops have launched a new ground and air offensive in the rebel held on claiborne eastern good just hours after the u.n. security council agreed to demand a cease fire and a controversial north korean general has met south korean president and the head of

the chad and the pics closing ceremony kim young troll is leading the north korean delegation and has suggested that his country is open to talks with the u.s. . now they houses are often made of plastic sheets much of their food comes from aid agencies jobs a few and there's barely anything to fill their days this is the reality facing one hundred refugees sheldrick bought and bonded there six months after they escaped from a military crackdown and myanma nearly seven hundred thousand of them have crossed the border and to bond there since august we revisited some of the people we first met when the crisis began charlotte dallas tells this story. as you said big old was one of six hundred eighty eight thousand. injury few g.'s who have streamed across the me and marburg border playing what they call a targeted campaign to wipe the males we first met her in december the nine year

old had been shot three times in the leg arm in arm pit by a soldier at close range. six months she's still in pain and has decided she won't go back there. again they kill my father killed my mother i feel scared i don't want to go back to me in ma they were bombing houses sitting them on fire pulling people out from their homes and shooting them torturing me and i'm scared to see all their all at the moment and i still feel like dying a fire remember those days. when they raped our women and you can see what they did to this child. there are thousands of is here recovering from different weapons of war these two sisters say myanmar soldiers tied them to trees and raped them their mother father and three siblings were locked inside their home which was then sister lives not much has changed since we first met the teenage

girls in january they care and crucible long camp got them you know cabs although bright and colorful the girls say they remain cloaked in darkness. of the day is an image and we can't go back to burma if we are asked to we don't have parents brothers and sisters no house to live there where should we live. the bangladesh in myanmar government's made a deal to repatriate the revenger but six months on they refused to return in november abdul fi showed us his house right across the border he says ranger want a guarantee of safety compensation for the destroyed villages and citizenship something they have been denied for thirty five years rubble this idea of money we want to tell the world of we want to live like human beings we want to educate our children and we want to live a peaceful life with our family we ask the world to provide justice for us. myanmar's government continues to deflect accusations of ethnic cleansing and even

genocide justice for the revenger is hard to come by. i have no father no mother and so much pain if i have to go out to collect firewood it's so painful. those who survived the crackdown in the camps with scars on their bodies and in their minds charlotte ballasts al-jazeera. to china now where the ruling party is considering removing term limits for the president and vice president the communist party wants to change the constitution so that leaders can serve more than two consecutive terms the amendment would allow president xi jinping to be selected as leader again in two thousand and twenty three the party elected him as its head for a second term last october they go palin has more from hong kong. well there was much speculation he would be angling to stay beyond the next five years back in october when he was addressing the time his people's congress he laid out

a vision of thirty years and a very ambitious vision of china's development both socially infrastructure advice and financially now this has still has to go through a parliament but it's inconceivable that this will be blocked in any way as parliament this tactic politicians that are loyal to the ruling establishment paying well now if this goes ahead be china's most powerful modern day leader as he is also the leader of the military he will become a cult of personality many fear much like mao tse-tung was during his thirty tenure thirty year tenure which ended in one thousand nine hundred seventy six now there's also concern that under his rule china will see many of their human rights or many of their rights squeezed even more under his tenure so far we have seen china turn into more of a surveillance state dissent very quickly crushed it's also of great concern to the

people of hong kong as unders easing things through all we've seen the biggest blows to hong kong's democracy movement people here are now concerned about how he will or whether he will continue to treat hong kong as a special administrative region separate from the rest of china. to yemen now with three days of air strikes have pounded a rebel held port of the west displacing thousands of people who were already in need of aid many who have reportedly been killed and they sell the lead coalition attacks on hold data m.p.'s time reports. one of the saudi led air strikes spared little here but data is the strategically important port city in western yemen saudi warplanes have repeatedly targeted surrounding neighborhood since thursday reportedly killing dozens of who the fighters and civilians before the start of the civil war nearly three years ago today the port handled around seventy percent of yemen's imports including critically needed food and humanitarian supplies since

then it's become one of the most complex front lines controlled by who the rebels it is either being bombed or blockaded by the saudi coalition but it recent months the u.s. government which backs the saudi led bombing campaign against the iranian backed who these has sent cranes to the data to replace those destroyed in airstrikes all part of efforts to increase the amount of aid into yemen but help is only trickling in while yemenis suffer what the united nations described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis at this camp for the internally displaced on the outskirts of who data few have received any kind of help. and i have four kids and i don't know what to do to feed them i have nothing and can do nothing we don't have furniture we don't have beds we don't have blankets we have nothing the u.n. says nearly all of yemen's twenty five million people need some form of humanitarian assistance with close to half of the population in acute need of

support. the numbers of displaced people are increasing day by day here and who dated there are more than twenty one thousand displaced we urge the government and politicians and aid organizations to do more to help displaced people who are living in misery their numbers are increasing and the aid doesn't reach them quickly enough there is a severe shortage of food and the prices of goods here are very high since the war began more than ten thousand people have been killed and yemen's economy crippled with the fighting showing little sign of slowing. crisis is only getting worse if you. took a says it will discuss the possibility of extraditing a syrian kurdish leader with the czech republic sonne a muslim the former co-leader of the democratic union party or p y d has been arrested and prague muslim was added to turkey's most wanted terrorist list earlier

this month considers the p y d and its armed wing the wide p.g. terrorist groups what's taught is to turkey's banned kurdistan workers party or turkish forces began a campaign against the wife e.g. in syria it's an organ a fitting region last month. as early as disgraced former prime minister silvio berlusconi has been speaking at a rally for his fourth. in milan a week from parliamentary elections discone can't hold office. because of a tax fraud conviction he's still kicking to make yet another political comeback possibly as a kingmaker in a future government. christian leaders in israel have closed the church built of the size where jesus is burial is said to have taken place to protest against a new tax the church of the occupied east jerusalem as a significant site for christians they believe jesus was crucified and buried there before resurrecting the church leaders in jerusalem say a proposed tax on church property as part of

a systematic campaign against them by the israeli government. now traditional medicine plays an important role in many african cultures but in south africa conservationists are getting increasingly worried about that and dangerous species used to make it despite structure rules dead animals used by haters assault openly and markets tanya page reports from johannesburg. these traders are suspicious of strangers but not so afraid that they'll stop what they're doing any day of the week they were threatened and endangered species on display that's gross we showed our video to conservationists here. and we don't that looks like i wish that was the. supposed to be highly regulated the convention on the international trade in endangered species have a near the top of their list trade in big parts is permitted but only in

exceptional circumstances it's because it's a cultural issue that they want to. the traders sell to healers who use it for muti or traditional medicine which plays an important role in many african cultures and is widely practiced conservationists have been warning for years about the illegal trade in animal parts yet at two of johannesburg's big muti markets we found evidence of threatened species at both and there are several other markets like that around the country the government says it's trying to strike a balance between education and enforcement the challenge is what we saw. in the department itself we have plus minus. i would say fifty inspectors. to so many. in total we have for the country we have two thousand eight hundred and

something inspect us traditional healers communicate with and sisters to diagnose and treat patients many africans use it in conjunction with western medicine. for an example and if you hit it in order for me to hear that hated of quarter kids. the nose of her reason it's very powerful in the money and it has a very very. traditional healers say it and says does demand a certain animal endangered or not they must obey but in helping their patients some species are being hurt but now it seems that in a country with so many challenges stopping the illegal trade is not a priority for the south african government tinier page al-jazeera johannesburg.

hello again on the there's a problem and are the headlines on al-jazeera syrian government troops have launched a new ground and air offensive in the rebel held on flavor of eastern ghouta just hours after the u.n. security council agreed to demand a cease fire pro-government video shows syrian forces moving towards the area on the outskirts of damascus it's been on the heavy bombardment by the government and its allies including russia at least five hundred people have been killed in the past week. a north korean general has suggested that has country is willing to open talks with the u.s. . chang for the winter olympics closing ceremony made the remarks during a meeting with south korean president. came later sat in the box at the ceremony just meters away from u.s. president donald trump's daughter ivanka with the south korean leader is yet to accept pyongyang's invitation to a summit. china's ruling party is considering removing term limits for the

president and vice president the amendment would allow president xi jinping to be selected as leader again in two thousand and twenty three the party elected him as its head for a second term last october. turkey says it will discuss the possibility of extraditing a syrian kurdish leader with the czech republic sana muslim the former colleague of the democratic union party or p y d has been arrested and prague muslim was added to turkey's most wanted terrorist list earlier this month on credit such as the p. y. d. and its armed when the y. p.g. terrorist groups and turkish forces began a campaign against the wife and syria's more than a fleeing region last month. christian leaders in israel have closed the church bill to the side where jesus was burial said to have taken place in protest against a new tax the church of the holy sepultura and occupied east jerusalem as a hugely significant site for questions they believe jesus was crucified and buried

there before resurrecting jerusalem church leaders say a proposed tax on church property is part of a systematic campaign against them by the israeli government. the listing post is coming up next once held in one of australia's toughest detention centers now a world renowned surgeon when he. returns to his hometown baghdad to give you the hope of walking again at this time on al-jazeera. elections are coming from president sisi to leave to our product. and of the. lamb about the return of security i say and actually it's telling. us. a lot richard gaisford in europe the listening post who are some of the media stories we've been tracking this week elections are coming up in egypt and hungary given what president el-sisi and.