i'm afraid. i'm afraid of. a conflict my family needs the men who go to the extreme just to make a living. but you have to be a strong swimmer otherwise it's safer risking it all vietnam at this time on al-jazeera. this is the news hour live from london thank you for joining us coming up in the next sixty minutes. tax reports of syrian troops trying to push their way into

eastern huta during the second humanitarian palls. an olive branch for the taliban the afghan president recognizes them as a legitimate political party. the florida school where a gunman killed seventeen a major u.s. retailers selling assault rifles. campaigners celebrated the supermarket in amsterdam opened the world's first plastic free. news including. russia are officially. movement the. syrian government troops are reported to have launched a ground assault on the edge of eastern who despite

a russian ordered pause in hostilities footage from inside the damascus suburb appears to show renewed airstrikes on the rebel held on leave eleven people were killed when russia and syria were supposed to stop their offensive between nine am and two pm local time. allow for civilians to leave the syrian observatory for human rights says government shelling and limited clashes were reported on three fronts during the five hour with falls well there are around four hundred thousand civilians trapped in that the mosque a suburb empty buses vans and i'm going says waited at the crossing point near duma to go in and try and get people out of the enclave moscow and the mosque is have accused rebels of shelling the corridor to prevent people leaving rebels the night this sense a people will not leave because they fear the government sources say no civilians left and the no humanitarian aid went in president vladimir putin insists that

russia did evacuate quite a big group of civilians. quite a big group of those who wanted to leave but the second group couldn't leave because the militants just did not give them an opportunity to do so. well some of enjoyed by joins us live now from turkey's southern border with syria in the last few hours putin has claimed of people leaving is being contradicted by both his own ambassador and then the un's humanitarian chief so is anyone actually left eastern coup that we know. well not that we know of we've been speaking to people on the ground and they've been telling us that people have not left there are there is as i'm sure that some people might believe if there is a safeguard all but that is an assumption in the last four days since the united nations security council announced this cease fire and in the last two days since

russia and a pause for five hours in the morning there has been nothing that has happened on the ground which is different from the modeling that was happening about for eleven days now what we've heard on the ground is that the pause that it does come into effect for five hours with does reduce the number of shows that are being dropped on residential areas with reduces the number of airstrikes in rebel held eastern but the fighting has not stopped there have been attempts by government soldiers to try an end to the rebel held from the site. which is on the eastern front where they have taken some areas but it goes to show that this is an ongoing conflict where the fight continues where the suffering of the people continues and we've been hearing really distressing calls from the people on the ground many of the whom have been confined to basements because they're too afraid to come out and therefore running out of food and essential supplies absolutely i mean the

humanitarian situation has been dying for a long time because it was under siege has been terrible for the past eleven days since the attack started i mean you mentioned some things there but how are people coping because many are hiding in basements with no medicine and increasingly no food. but it is very difficult for people who've been telling their children to see making them sleep on empty stomachs basically there's people who've been living on. vegetables that they've been able to procure from the beds of nearby rivers because this is on the outskirts of eastern who is an agricultural area so it is very difficult for people it is very difficult for aid workers inside who don't who had some supplies because some aid convoys had gone in after the first week of february but it is very difficult for them to provide this aid to people because they're scattered in many places the roads have been taken out by the relentless bombardment as you remember in the first few days of the eleven day

on started began on february nineteenth there were about one hundred people being killed every single day so it is very tough for people to live inside the aid workers have been saying that they're in contact with aid organizations outside of they've been talking to them about how and who to evacuate because the first priority is going to be women and children among those who are more than a thousand of them are their names are with the united nations eighty five of them have been sent by aid workers inside to the u.n. this morning saying that these are eighty five people mostly women and children take them out we don't have enough medical supplies and we don't have medical facilities to keep them or provide. for their various diseases that they're suffering from they need specialized care which is only available in the syrian capital damascus which is only a few kilometers away that's why it's important to have medical evacuations of some adventure vied with the latest from thank you. well meanwhile there's been

a heated discussion on the suppose that cease fire at the u.n. security council so let's go live to our diplomatic editor james bases at the u.n. in new york and so we've heard recently in the past hour from both the russian ambassador and then the syrian ambassador how did they reply to the accusations by the u.s. and other members of the u.n. . pretty much the same consistent position that we've heard from the syrians and the russians that all the focus is on eastern good turbot there are other parts of syria that you need to focus on you need to look at the casualties in damascus they want to focus on that as well as the situation in eastern guta where they say that they are fighting terrorists that has been the consistent position the russian about the not repeating the earlier claims from vladimir putin that a large group of people have been evacuated that seems to have been the russian president misspeaking because only years ambassador i'm sure would've used that information

if he had it confirmed it was correct and certainly the u.n. not telling us that there have been any medical evacuations in fact they say they have not managed to get any aid in either since the u.n. security council passed that resolution that's being ignored on saturday the humanitarian chief of the united nations marlo cox started his briefing by saying that he'd had a number of questions since that resolution was passed on saturday and he thought he would answer them in public have you got any interagency cross-line convoys through to hard to reach all besieged areas. have you been given permission to access any of those locations now. have you received the necessary facilitation letters for convoys now. have there been any medical evacuations now. have any civilians left eastern ghouta now. is there any actual improvement in the

humanitarian situation in eastern guta since the passage of the resolution demanding as it did unimpeded access. with a series of questions with the answer he gave a full briefing of the situation in eastern guta and across syria and then he ended his his speech with another question he turned to the fifteen ambassadors of the security council and simply asked when will your resolution that you passed on saturday be implemented james vai's of the latest from the un james thank you at least fifteen people have been killed in a train crash in northern egypt forty others were injured when a cargo train and a passenger train collided in behavior province egypt's railway system has a poor safety record due to badly maintained the quitman to end quarter management president that the fact is c.c.

recently said the railway system needs upgrading to avoid more deadly. the afghan president has offered to recognize the taliban as a legitimate political party ashraf ghani made the offer during the kabul peace process peace conference where twenty five countries were meeting to initiate a meaningful process and that ending the sixty four tony berkeley reports from kabul it was a warm and far reaching speech in which the afghan president offered the taliban a peace deal without precondition he also promised official political recognition and an office in kabul if the group joins the peace process. taliban a machine. i call on the taliban and their leadership today the decision is in your hands accept peace a dignified peace will come together to safeguard this country which has been the results of our sacrifices and struggles that they were his most conciliatory words

as president ghani has previously described the taliban as terrorists and rebels but now he says he'll not prejudge any group he even went as far as to say taliban fighters and officials could be removed from international blacklists delegates representing twenty five regional and international countries have come together in the afghan capital to try and devise a peace strategy aimed at ending sixteen years of conflict it comes at a time when all sides are showing they are willing to talk the door is still open and they have shown softness in their stand. not just the taliban but the afghan government and its international counterparts as well and i think it's the perfect time maybe in maybe not for the peace deal to be struck at this date but probably for a temporary ceasefire which could then pave the path for is sustainable peace in the long term. the taliban previously insisted on changes to the afghan constitution

and the removal of the us military from the country as a precondition to peace talks but it has always refused to talk directly to the afghan government which he describes as american puppets the group no longer mentions withdrawal all the constitutional changes on top of this the americans have said the door to peace is still open to the taliban and they have put much pressure on pakistan to help in this regard the u.s. military has been increasing its bombing missions from the air while the taliban has been stepping up its suicide attacks on the ground but everyone agrees that this war cannot be won militarily. even as president ghani was delivering his speech news came through about how thirty people were abducted by the taliban near kandahar nineteen of them policemen their fate is uncertain and it shows that the violence in afghanistan is continuing as normal no one is suggesting that peace is about to break out in afghanistan but the encouraging signs and language which are

coming from all parties are raising hopes here that may be the first tentative steps of ending this brutal war of being taken tony berkely al jazeera kabul. alarm at wiley masood is a former ambassador of afghanistan to the united kingdom he's also the younger brother of ahmed shah masood a powerful military commander who was killed two days before the nine eleven attacks he joins us now live via skype from kabul sir thank you so much for joining us here on al-jazeera we just heard on that report that basically there is going to be just the military solution to the war in afghanistan to the continuing violence there needs to be a political solution as well so in light of that do you think that a shiny is right to hold this all of branch towards the taliban and effectively say that he would with some provisions recognize them as a political party. no he is not right and he does not have the right to say

this and to gives the general brunt because that did call upon the peace as a national issue of course where you want to lead to peace and as a national you had to really come into it with the consensus there commission with the people of afghanistan who are suffering in the hands of terrorism in front of one for decades so therefore he is not right to say such things. the second thing is that yes we have heard for the past two dick is the peace deal but that has always been sort of project on time to time it has been well ashura very safe that is ready to make peace with the taliban who does it if they are to who is the leader try to advance with the leadership council or the what's their address who did and who didn't want to talk to so in a fact let me say that the other one is becoming a sort of body for every. country centrist so everyone has interpreted peace in this marriage so therefore i don't believe that we are really built in some sort of

result and bring peace to afghanistan because if you talk about the problem you have to work it legal was behind this pakistan if you want to make peace with the pakistani descent of the matter then even if you want to be peace with pakistan you really have to take into consideration the consist of the people of afghanistan we have got different this and this is not on the national ready who is supposed to be the president of the country while bringing in countries like pakistan and other neighboring countries is obviously one of the points of this push for peace that ashraf ghani is making i mean another thing he said that he would want the taliban to recognize the afghan government that he would want them to respect the rule of law to respect the law for women which of course the western alliance is very keen on they had also the u.s. has been putting military pressure on the taliban and other groups do you think that the taliban might come towards ashraf ghani do you think that because now they have been under military attack more intensely in the past few months that maybe

they would be cat keen to negotiate. well let me put it this way. again i have to mention the who the trial of and probably the end of the day some of these groupings will come this that well eventually we have agreed with this sort of deal and we are ready to talk with the afghan government but that's not the kind of world with that kind of on what is the leadership we should trust who should really start this dialogue so therefore some something at the ear so that is why i'm saying that these sort of talks will not yield any result i mean i hope that everybody enough wants on expects the peace to credit and afghanistan but this is not the taliban the other one is just as it is a force of bargain chips is a spent force it's not real so therefore was was pakistan and so we want to talk with pakistan then fine because don't forget that in afghanistan either you have really helped her and sort of national consensus inside the country to print peace

or a sort of international regional agreement so if there is not only of these two will not only produce a result i mean you call the taliban a spent force old there abouts but we have seen a huge increase in attacks some very blatant in kabul hundreds of people dead in the past weeks and months i mean it may be a disparate group right now but if not giving them the status of a political party then what do you think that ashraf ghani and whoever wins the next election could do to try to control the taliban more. well i get as you said right there that if somebody comes and blow up a bomb if somebody is been given a mission to go and blow up a bomb whether he's aware or not he will kill hundreds and thousands of people that's happening in afghanistan but then when you talk about a force to be reckoned which is an a bomb i hope that they have got something an

address and leadership so you can talk to them so that is why i'm saying that that will not work that does not believe the government thought up once and had gone down there for the past all of the seventy needed and limes the even brought it took somebody who to one of the european country at this at what we have brought the date of thought up want to talk peace and eventually it came out that he was not a shopkeeper so therefore even if it were not because most who deleted it was the shopkeeper the kind that differentiated so that is what he did not have the knowledge about who is who that is one thing that at the moment the other just kind of misleading then to mention it could lead to world will be not about who is who what i'm trying to say is this when if if a deposit and then mr ashraf ghani has a prison drop on assault yf osthoff to really kind of considered it his own force in afghanistan who got from the position of a strained relationship peace and peace have who would come out to look to like

a sun itself not the taliban because pakistan is dead without pakistan dead it's not caught up on there's no other forces so they have put a diode between the two countries should a start but before that the truck when you have to really kind of legitimizes government to bring all the forces together these are consistent with the people of have once and then have to talk from the pollution of then would loose. opposite parties and all of this of course when elections are due to take place sometime in two thousand and eighteen in afghanistan that led wiley masood former ambassador of afghanistan to the united kingdom surf you for sharing your views about us your work. now coming up. our starting a new life as more and more venezuelans cross the border in search of work brazil declares a state of emergency plus. i'm catherine sawyer in central african republic a town that is controlled by one of the largest rebel movements in the country i'll

be telling you why they are here despite the presence of u.n. peacekeepers. and in sports europe's big big freeze decimates formula one testing with just three drivers braving the icy. returned to marjorie stoneman douglas high school in florida two weeks after a gunman stormed the school killing seventeen people students will attend half days of the school until further notice the three story building where the shooting took place has been closed indefinitely and will likely be torn down pressure continues to mount on republican lawmakers to tighten. a large sporting and hunting chain announced they would immediately stop selling assault style rifles and would

not sell guns to anyone under the age of twenty one when the gallagher is that marjorie stoneman douglas high school in parkland florida for us. well this has been a traumatic but important day for the students here in parklane florida when they got off the buses in the early hours of this morning the police officers were here by the hundreds they were wearing school colors there were lots of hugs and high fives but let's just hear from some of the students that made that brave walk through the gates of the marjorie stoneman douglas high school i want. to come out of this i have no doubt in my mind that my peers and my friends who started the never again will advocate for that this sadly this was the push that was needed now despite the trauma these students have gone through over the past two weeks there is still a determination to keep political pressure up the students here are pretty adamant about the demands for gun reform they want to see assault rifles banned altogether but more than anything else they never want to see anything like this happen again

next month they will march in washington d.c. but they're afraid of never again is really beginning to echo through this entire country they want to be the last students to ever go through anything like this and certainly the parents never want to see anyone lose any of their children ever again. well the economic crisis and worsening security situation in venezuela is forcing more and more people to leave for neighboring countries hundreds of thousands of people have gone to colombia and many others are heading south to brazil where a state of social emergency has been the cleared from the northern brazilian. reports. in a makeshift encampment to the center of town hundreds of venezuelans who have crossed brazil in search of what they can't find it food jobs and maybe a better life. this is a city of both of the east of brazil on the border within a swale and that's where we find one thousand year old thomas prieto and his wife

sees that it for them and their newborn baby said go home is now a tent in spite of the conditions they're hopeful. it's better here than in venezuela at least here we can eat here we have possibilities you can find food and people try to help us she is only twenty one years old and having to make decisions based on survival for her family but at this we came here to try and find a better future for our child and find. in the last few weeks about a thousand venezuelans have been arriving here every day after a tough journey across the border many are hungry. when a truck carrying food arrives in the park the desperation is evident i don't watch it unfold on the other side of town the gymnasium has been turned into a rudimentary shelter for six hundred people the conditions are prison like with a leak to wash rumors the first thing many venezuelans do when they reach brazil is

try to get a job it's the first step in trying to earn money to support their families but to work in brazil you need a permit and that process of getting one used to take weeks but now it's taking months because there are so many people in the work. they come to the police headquarters to begin the process easily in the plaza was forced to come here by herself to try to find work to support her three kids back home you know while there are no options and then as well an option is only to leave. the mayor of ball of these to says the city is doing all it can but is one of brazil's smallest and poorest state capitals struggling. vista is offering all services we have to venezuelans because the city of only three hundred fifty thousand residents we don't have the capability either fine. all three infrastructure to deal with a situation like this. as more people arrive the strain on resources is likely to

build but brazil at least for the time being does not plan to close its border with menace whaler if it does it would extinguish something else these people say is also in short supply back home and that's hope. al-jazeera peace to brazil. in countries torn apart by war it's not just the bombs and bullets that threaten lives yemen's health system is buckling after three years of conflict with many medical centers the steroid and as mohamed reports that's put cancer patients at risk than ever before. there's nothing more important than providing whatever comfort he can. i'm scared for my children that my life they're the seeds of my soul every day i do my best to help them. the worried father holds their hands while taking the pretreatment to the national on college the center in

yemen's capital sanaa his eight year old son a crime suffers from lymphoma while his seven year old daughter as john has a brain tumor they wait in a room in which bright colors fail to mask the kind of darkness the young should never have to contend with. other children are clearly paned. life was extremely difficult for cancer patients in yemen even before the three year old war which has devastated hospitals and the health care system the center's director says government payments have stopped it used to provide twelve million dollars a year we need to have no conservation dying to limited or. even limited or. difficult to what they can or. the world health organization is in the process of providing the center with two point five million dollars an amount that would be sufficient for approximately thirty thousand patients but that money is a fraction of what's needed what is happening is also because of the lack of

resources the people are not paid the professionals are not paid as professionals on the state and that the qualified of colleges what required to take as a facial is they leave the country or they seek for other opportunities doctors examined as john and a crumb a routine they become accustomed to but despite the care but that he is still concerned. they're not able to get proper health care they're not able to get supplies into yemen because of the siege and prices going up there's a shortage of medicines in the chiba medical centers now you have to buy the medicine to treat to most and few are available and a father anguished but determined no matter the war no matter the shortages clinging to hope for himself and his children. in this news hour. no u.k.

prime minister could ever agree to. anger in the u.k. as the e.u. proposes a common area across the northern island border post breaks it arctic weather disrupts transport across europe and forces some people to find new ways to get about and then sport hanging out his whites into the world champion surfer who once told with a shocking. hello the weather looks a little quieter across much of the middle east at the moment there's still a fair amount of cloud in play still some of the showers for some exceed the the cloud making its way in which was the levant with a bit of wet weather just coming into northern areas of syria just spilling out of

here of course it's bitterly cold across parts of europe just to celsius in ankara then on thursday off to some wintry weather too over towards afghanistan took my this is because stand on it will linger there as we go on through friday should be a little drier across northern parts of syria pushing across into northern areas of iraq a little bit of cloud coming through it's somewhat of weather some wintry weather up towards the caspian sea further south we'll see eighteen celsius in beirut with some good spells of sunshine still some decent spells of sunshine into the right information we've had some showers on and off the coast just around the gulf recently here in the harbor the past couple of days a few spots of right twenty five celsius on thursday come friday twenty six celsius here in doha a little more cloud just not in its way to some possibility arabia through the u.a.e. with a possibility of running said a good chance of rain across mozambique pushing into zambia over the next day or so much of south africa will stay for.

violence and discrimination are all too familiar to many women in india a reality too often reinforced by bollywood. but its leading star is throwing his weight behind the cause. of a teacher dr judy and using his celebrity to advocate for gender equality. the snake charmers ahmed khan witness at this time on a zebra. but they also get in less than one generation a developing countries and one of the most developed countries in the world we have to be grateful for is the need for new bridge and fear to prevent ralph and off men singapore's founding father created a nation of political dynasty but a family disputes undermining that legacy what's happened to the family and what's happened in singapore's institutions i just don't know what would have caused them

all great people in power investigates the house that lee built at this time on al-jazeera. a reminder now the top stories from al jazeera syrian government troops have reportedly launched a ground assault as well as their attacks on the rebel held enclave. despite a russian ordered pause in. afghanistan's president has offered to recognize the taliban as a legitimate political group as part of negotiations aimed at ending more than sixteen years of war and dozens of armed police were on hand. returned to marjorie still in high school in florida two weeks after

a former student killed seventeen people their. high level discussions on the global stage of human rights have wrapped up in geneva representatives from countries around the world spoke at the un human rights council and the mission painted a dire picture of the situation that millions of people are facing. more now from. it was meant to be a celebration of the seventieth anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights but the shadow of conflict was casting a mood of pessimism across the powers of nations as the un human rights council began its opening session this week in geneva today. oppression is fashionable again this security state is back. and fundamental freedoms are in retreat in every region of the world. and nowhere

more so than in syria still no ceasefire the bombing the killing and the baby have not stopped in eastern guta although the government says it's responding to revel shelling on the capital of damascus and it is important for the united nations to step up to the plate. and it is outside the chamber men who know all about challenges syrian members of the white helmet rescue teams talking to a colleague inside eastern goto. we do not need assistance we need a ceasefire and a stop to the bloodshed and massacres being committed against civilians women and children against guta. no average to stays off emotional milk but the only think that continues to give us the strength is a smile that we see on the sides they are words seen from a father or mother. the resident a crisis for me and maher has been described by the un as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing and the fastest growing refugee crisis in

the world seven hundred thousand mostly muslim or hinge or have fled into neighboring bangladesh the country's army launched a campaign of murder and rape to drive them from their villages but that's not how the minister from me in marjah scribed it in geneva and the fight against terrorist who you civilian recruits there will always be violence illiterate damage and civilian casualties britain's minister of state of the foreign office beg to differ and as i put to the minister just now i said what is the first duty of any responsible government it is the security of all your citizens and from my mind maher perspective that means irrespective of who they are what community they belong to and yes that means protests. thing the rights and the civil rights at the human rights of the written or muslim community many political observers might also taken issue with both the tone and content of the speech by egypt's foreign

minister to the human rights council some a shockley boasted egypt created in record time a modern constitution in line with international standards to preserve human rights and fundamental freedoms but when it gyptian as go to vote in presidential elections in march they won't have much of a choice on the ballot or any real challenger to president abdel fattah el-sisi has either been arrested or forced to drop out human rights watch says the crackdown is a violation of the same constitution their foreign minister was so eager to highlight and of course al jazeera has journalists more to say it has now been held in the egyptian prison for fourteen months and has still not been formally charged egypt's me an ma in syria three prime examples of how the government side of the story often stands in stark contrast to what is actually happening on the ground david chaytor al-jazeera geneva for united nations peacekeepers have been killed in

mali after the vehicle they were traveling in hit a mine for other troops were seriously injured in the incident on a road in the mopti region where six miley and soldiers were killed in a similar incident on tuesday. wolf fighting. fighting in central african republic between muslim and christian armed groups has forced more than a million people from their homes and more than two million that's half the population need humanitarian aid well the violence began when the muslim majority seleka rebel coalition overran many parts of the country in two thousand and thirteen eventually forcing the president francois busies who's christian from power that prompted a group of mostly christian militias called the. to rise up against the celica triggering

a surge of violence in two thousand and fourteen the united nations began a key peacekeeping mission to protect civilians but the more than ten thousand soldiers have struggled to restore order and the conflict is now spreading to areas that were once considered peaceful in the first of a three part series catherine sawyer reports now from bria diamond rich region in the northeast that's controlled by one of the largest at rebel movements here is her exclusive report. yes rebel gunmen make sure that everyone entering bria is unarmed and don't belong to rival groups the checkpoint is controlled by the popular front for their innocence of the central african republic the f. p.r.c.'s one of the largest factions of what was a mostly muslim armed group called seleka the town is an important supply routes and has the largest diamond mines in the country. so we are all abundant we are not

bundy it's all militia we organize you need we have structures we're not so just get out of line we deal with them when a civilian commits a crime we have a judicial system to deal with that. business is a town center which is only now coming back to life after armed groups which had previously craigslist it began fighting just over a year ago this is the main markets. they keep people here. and support. and arrangement that seems to be working well now. at one end of town and right on the doorstep of a u.n. peacekeepers base is accomplished placed people all a christian more than seventy thousand people in brianna have been forced to flee their homes the u.n. says this kompas been infiltrated by gunmen from. a largely christian group in the

competition i that. during the fighting and to block a woman sure that a good year safely. out of the ones who protected us whether or not the comp him or what you see in bria plays out in many other towns and villages across the country people who are living together have now created their own religious and ethnic boundaries. binoy leaves on the christian side of town he says he can go to the muslim dominated market during the day but has to return before nightfall. even at night i don't sleep. afraid that people might come and kill me i always have to be prepared to run. most of the countries controlled by armed groups often fighting over men drawls cattle and trade routes forging an easy alliances and then violently breaking up un peacekeepers in the central african republic are overwhelmed and caught up in all this central african such as you and me who are

just trying to stay alive catherine saw al-jazeera bria central african republic. three nobel peace prize winners have branded me and laura's military campaign against the genocide and say their fellow laureate and san suu kyi should have the courage to speak out against it right require from northern ireland shirin ebadi from iran and to walk all carmen from yemen were speaking at a news conference in bangladesh after visiting refugee camps in cox's bazaar. mom. i'm really sorry to see someone like on song suchi turn a blind eye to the crimes that may have been perpetrated in her country and the act of genocide that is taking place rights and democracy belongs to everyone in the room the people have them bring great to have their say this is. going to finish here and we have the right to do human rights democracy because of the other one

hundred thirty five in the. newsroom we look forward to our sister laura and we hope that she will have. supported by the people of the word courage to speak like gans the genocide that has been found in burma. also freely as government has ordered the recall of more than two million cars with airbags made by the japanese for a bit back up that it says it's not satisfied with the results of voluntary recalls carried out by vehicle manufacturers last year forty thought that the airbags have been linked to at least twenty three deaths around the world. the british prime minister of tourism a has criticised the e.u. proposal that would see northern ireland remain within the e.u. customs unit union after the u.k.

exits the block the proposal which would resolve the need for a hard border between arlin the northern ireland was revealed in one hundred twenty page document that was published on wednesday may said remaining inside the customs union it would be a betrayal of the bricks of the chief negotiator michel barnier warned that the transition is not a given as significant issues like the status of citizens have not been resolved that the report's. just over a year before brits it's due to happen brussels and britain still seem far apart european union chief negotiator michel bunny says one of the main points in the new draft withdrawal treaty is how to avoid a hard border on the island of islands and controversially it contains as a solution of last resort a common regulates three area in effect keeping northern ireland in a customs union with the use separate to the rest of the u.k. . i simply say to be put to specs and we'll discuss it with our british

counterparts out of precaution so that there is a solution to preserve the good friday agreement to future relationship brings a better solution we would replace it but will suppress this political it's as simple as that. if the whole of britain is no longer in a customs union with the e.u. after breaks it many experts warned that means border checks between northern ireland and the republic of ireland as an e.u. member and back could endanger the good friday agreement which brought peace and power sharing to the north. on wednesday to resume a told parliament no prime minister could accept what the u. draft text was proposing but she remained committed to avoiding a hard border the foreign secretary and i and i'm absolutely committed to ensuring that we deliver on no hard border between northern ireland and i that's the position of the u.k. government it's the position of the parties in northern ireland it's the position of the irish government and it was what we agreed in the december agreement at that

joint report it comes as a letter to the british media suggests foreign secretary boris johnson downplayed the dangers of a hard border something he's rubbished if i may respectfully say so i think the the particular problems around the irish border are being used politically to draw even the whole brics it argument and effectively to try to frustrate bricks it is the opposition labor party has just committed itself to keeping britain in some sort of customs union avoiding the problem of the irish border and on wednesday they went on the attack remember when we had bricks it means bricks it. and then we had red white and blue bricks it which presumably appealed to the members of the search then we had liberal break states and now we have ambitious managed divergence the government is so divided the prime minister is incapable of delivering a coherent and decisive plan for rex it next week michelle will be meeting the

leaders of the parties in northern ireland's power sharing government including arlene foster's d u p was staunchly probe rex it the new text could still be changed significantly but it's acted as a reminder of how much progress needs to be achieved between now and march next year the al-jazeera. a supermarket in amsterdam is taking action to stop plastic polluting the world's oceans the eco plaza store has opened the world's first plastic free aisle more than seven hundred products including meat there e fruit and vegetables are available in packaging made from compostable biomaterials eco plaza will roll out plastic free aisles to all seventy four of its stores across the netherlands by the end of this year well the plastic free i was the brainchild of international environmental campaign group a plastic planet the group's co-founder sean sutherland joins us now live via skype

from amsterdam thank you so much for joining us here on the program and congratulations for getting your plastic free considering it's your brainchild how difficult was it to make this a reality. well to be honest when we started troubles ago and really our idea was simply thinking isn't it crazy that we are now as the general public made so much more aware of the fact that our addiction to plastic is causing so many problems to the oceans of the land and perhaps even her own own hands and would be great if we have the shocking public does have a choice that we could actually maybe have a plastic reality in our supermarkets so we launched this campaign took months ago obviously we've been working with industry and talking to governments and work with a lot of different package manufacturers and yes talking to the u.k. supermarkets go where we are london based and then wonderfully we met eric those

who is the c.e.o. of the eco plant who said i'm on a personal mission that i want to bring the best produce but all my customers and i now want to be able to do plastic free so it's a wonderful day for amsterdam to show the rest of the world that we can in fact shock for a crude and great plastic free of the several being a turn in the way that people see plastic i mean certainly in europe when you ask a lot of consumers a lot of them would say that they don't want all this plastic packaging but they simply don't have the choice i mean now you know you're celebrating the fact that there is one island one supermarket in fairness it's going to be rolled out to other supermarkets in the netherlands but how close do you think we are to seeing this in supermarkets all over europe and all over the world. i think that what he kept doing here today is a catalyst to change change that is absolutely essential we can no longer think that it is ok for us to package up perishable food with this indestructible material or plastic because we've now seen the damage that we're doing and we know

very early and we've learned very clearly now that recycling is not the answer we've since the fifty's we have produced six point three billion tons of plastic only nine percent of that has ever been recycled so for us to hide behind that oh it's recyclable it's totally fine for us to keep using it in this way it doesn't wash anymore so what we what we're using in eco plans the plastic free aisle is some materials that you know things like glass and metal and card but also a whole range of bio materials and the great thing with these biomaterials is that sometimes they even look and feel like plastic they give us all the convenience that we that we love about plastic but they don't destroy the planet instead you actually come past them so that you are then put in something some goodness back into the soil that we can then grow future crops in. well we are watching pictures now of plastic pollution in the oceans and on the coastlines it looks horrific so i

hope to be speaking to you again soon about this rolling out to other supermarkets around the world in a moment. from a plastic planet thank you. thank you. we're staying in amsterdam some of the city's iconic canals are frozen over as bitterly cold temperatures grip much of europe authorities have banned both some the canals so locals can skate on the frozen waterways persistent snow and freezing conditions from a siberian cold snap are causing delays in many parts of britain and mainland europe with roads and train services hit particularly hard and barker has more now from london's heathrow airport. there be many more disruptions up and down the country is the so-called peace from the east rules seem much more on a much more smooth don't get up and down the u.k. and across the continent at large here at heathrow airport dozens of flights had to

be counted. mainly to other parts of the u.k. or to the republic of ireland a small airport struggled with a deluge of snow there. is a fact for you it takes roughly four thousand lorry loads to shift only ten centimeters of snow from this entire strip and given the amount of snow that we've seen here recently is pretty much a twenty four hour endeavor cold weather in winter hardly a surprise you may be asking but what's worrying the climatologists is that for the past few days it's been consistently colder here in europe than it has been in the arctic and they are blaming manmade global warming for causing all of this they say the woman there is being drawn up north over the arctic displacing cold around and pushing it down south over siberia and here first into eastern europe and then it's a western europe here in the u.k. and over in ireland they know what to do. much more research to find out whether. this freak one of the. things to come. was the.

farm over. solidarity protests.

ok here is lee with all the spoiler starting with a story that isn't exactly surprising is it mean are not at all barbara russia is officially back as part of the olympic movement reinstated with immediate effect the international olympic committee had banned russia from competing as

a team for the winter olympics in south korea following state sponsored doping in the previous winter olympics which they hosted in such a russians are to watch their after its competitors neutrals in the kyung chang games which finished on sunday one hundred sixty eight of them competed as a limb pick up plates from russia winning seventeen medals amazing criticism that this was effectively russia only the flag and anthem was missing there were two more failed drug tests by russian athletes at the games for the i.o.c. said all their other tests came back negative. and you're still she wouldn't be reassuring yeah today's decision from the i.o.c. is incredibly important for us because the version of olympic committee has once again completely reinstated its rights and is now completely full fledged member of the olympic family it you remove those three months from december the fifth or last year with some of the most difficult in the history of russian sports on the olympic movement in russia so ruin your pocket it might not but unfortunately our

relationship with the world anti-doping agency and i mean the complete reinstatement of the bush an anti-doping agency is not complete some serious work needs to be done on the smarter it will be difficult but it has to be done and it has to be done as soon as possible. well russia hosts the football world cup in june and july and delegates from all thirty two nations involved are currently in a familiar house city such as what was described as a team workshop one of the hottest topics for coaches or managers is the video assistant referee all vol which is on demonstration it's expected to be come from saying that it will be used for the first time in the world cup vonn has proven controversial so far but one of the tournament most experienced coaches believes it will stand the test of time. it's just the children just born it's a baby born five years ago football of more than one hundred years. five years ago. in ten years fifteen years everything will be much better to look at than is

another sports day nobody's argue about a couple of the things and decisions the game. or formula one drivers they used to dealing with dry conditions of wet conditions but not usually snog the third day of pre-season testing in boston was ruined by the bad weather that's sweeping across europe the track was eventually cleared of snow but only a few drivers made it on to that shark only mclaren's fernando alonso managed to complete a timed lop with red bulls danny ricardo and sol because marcus are except the only others to brave the conditions besides voting has been surprisingly quick before the start. but even he admits his team's domination in recent seasons hasn't necessarily been cured for the schools. i think we're big would be nice to have competition close competition but of course we in the other hand we would prefer to be miles away from everyone that's because well all we want to do is win but it is

true that to win this challenge when there's hard battles it makes you appreciate the good results of how it goes with with everything so. for for us to keep us developing for everyone and for me one i think it will be better to have close competition one of them from that part of the world much of the city manager pep guardiola says he will continue to wear a yellow ribbon in support of imprisoned politicians in his native catalonia despite being charged by the english football association for doing so he is allowed to wear it out of sight they want to jump onto a card for the league cup farmer gets asked on sunday so he doesn't want to be in dispute with the f i. know but of course we're going to i'm going to write the letter i'm going to explain our position but the thing i am available for. if. absolutely so

it's no problem and not a spaniard tennis world number so rough on a dollars pulled out of the mexico open just the day before his opening match in acapulco the sixteen time grand slam champion is suffering with a hip injury that also forced him to withdraw from the australian open in january but i want to hide what i do recall as soon as possible now for me is in is impossible today now to to say something realistic about it i want to be an indian wells are not them my goal is to be there and i want to work to try to be there but of course i can't say yes' or no and. i hope that this will be as positive as possible and then let's. finally the professional suffer infamously attacked by a shark has announced his retirement from the sport three time world champion mc finally says next month's rip will be his last on the circuit in the twenty five years since its debut in twenty fifteen family had an encounter with a great white shark juergen event in south africa he punched the shark as it tried

to bite for his leash yes dr ian survived to return to competition but is well titled by his rival and now he's top level south side is up. they want to toughest men in the war about punch-out are all that's got something to say i mean thank you that is it for me maryam namazie going to have more news in just a few minutes by. the scene for us where there are 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 are people that are

choosing between buying medication and eating this is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who's an activist and has posted a story join the global conversation at this time on al-jazeera. is quiet the signal is given. out so it's safe to walk to school last year there are more than thirty murders in this community in one month the police say this area is a red zone one of several in some townships in cape town children sometimes a court in the crossfire when rival gangs fight so parents and grandparents have started what they call a walking past to try to protect them from gang violence i lost my. story years ago i also lost my there are more than one hundred fifty volunteers working for several walking busses teachers say it is working class attendance has improved the volunteers also act as security guards who take office so be it in less than one

generation a developing country is one of the developed countries in the world we have to be grateful for just a need for new revered and feared her pretty rough and tough men. singapore's founding father created a nation of political dynasty but the family disputes undermining that legacy what's happened to the family and what's happened in singapore's institutions i just don't know what would have caused the whole grief people in power investigates the house that leave at this time on al-jazeera. sporadic attacks on reports of syrian troops trying to push their way into eastern jaring the second humanitarian pause. hello i'm in london you're watching al-jazeera also come.