less than one generation of developing countries one of the developed countries in the world we have reached one point you. were pretty rough in. singapore as 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 of course the more grief people in power investigates the house that leave at this time on al-jazeera. sporadic attacks and reports of syrian troops trying to push their way into eastern jaring the second humanitarian cause. a low i'm maryam namazie in london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up. an

olive branch for the taliban the afghan president offers to recognize them as a legitimate political party. as students return to the florida school where a gunman killed seventeen two weeks ago a major u.s. retailers stop selling assault style rifles. and campaign is celebrate as a supermarket in amsterdam opens the world's first plastic free i'll. welcome to the program our top story syrian government troops are reported to have launched a ground assault on the edge of east and despite a russian ordered pause in hostilities footage from inside the damascus suburb appears to show renewed as strikes on the rebel held enclave russia and syria was supposed to stop their offensive between nine am and two pm local time to allow civilians to leave the syrian. tree for human rights says government shelling and

limited clashes were reported on three fronts during the five hour pause and eleven people have been killed so far on wednesday there were some four hundred thousand civilians trapped in the damascus suburb empty buses vans and ambulances waited at the wife the dean crossing to go in and evacuate people. in damascus have accused rebels of shelling the corridor to prevent people leaving the rebels deny this and say people will not leave because they fear the government sources say no civilians left and no humanitarian aid went in bought the russian president liked him a person has been speaking out insisting that some civilian evacuations did take place. managed to get 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. a solomon jolliness following the story from gaza and. sources on the ground have not confirmed this large number as reported by the russian president who has crossed

over from the buffeting crossing into government held parts of damascus many people are still stranded in besieged easton who the home to nearly four hundred thousand people that the second day of this so-called truce and pause went away without any major developments on the ground no aid convoys went inside because the united nations and other aid workers have been saying that this is too short of a window without any guarantees of if they're allowed in whether they'll be able to make it back and also medics on the ground have been saying that they have sent an additional eighty five people to the united nations this is this list is from the more than one thousand people who are already but the united nations and the names are with the united nations as aid workers have been saying these are people mostly women and children who need urgent medical evacuation because you have to remember that beseeched eastern huta has been under siege since two thousand and thirteen there is very limited capacity and capability of medical facilities who are

operating in this area they're also running out of medical supplies because in the last eleven days of the onslaught no medical supplies have been allowed in and the tunnels that were operating in the last year around eastern with which some supplies were able to be smuggled in have also been shut down so it is at this hour a more airstrikes and more shelling is being reported on besieged eastern and rebels are saying that the united nations security council resolution is just words . in the last few hours pigeon's claim had been contradicted by the u.n. ambassador and the u.s. humanitarian affairs chief during a heated discussion at the u.n. security council have you got any interagency cross-line convoys through to hard to reach your besieged areas. have you been given permission to access any of those locations. have you received the necessary facilitation letters for convoys. have there been any medical evacuations. have any civilians left eastern ghouta.

is there any actual improvement in the humanitarian situation in eastern guta since the passage of the resolution demanding as it did unimpeded access. the afghan president has offered to recognize the taliban as a legitimate political party ashraf ghani made the offer during the kabul price at peace process peace conference where twenty five countries were meeting to initiate a meaningful dialogue aimed at ending the sixteen year long war tiny but the 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 armed group joins the peace process of the taliban

a mission. 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 result of our sacrifices and struggles of 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 a distant 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 it describes as american puppets the group no longer mentions withdrawal all the constitutional changes on top of this the americans are 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. in countries torn apart by war it's not just the bombs and bullets that threaten lives conflict has a catastrophic effect on civilian infrastructure yemen's health system is buckling after three years of war with many medical centers destroyed and doctors being forced to work without pay and as mohammed jam jim reports that's put cancer patients more risk than ever before. there's nothing

more important than providing whatever comfort he can i know to have out of i'm scared for my children they were 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 consideration dying.

or. even women to do so or. difficult to earn 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 local resources the people are not paid the professionals are not paid as professionals on the state and that the qualified of coaches was required to be the case of patients they leave the country or they seek for four 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 ms and few were available and a father anguished but determined no matter the war no matter the shortages clinging to hope for himself and his children. 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 pool safety record due to badly maintained equipment and poor management president abdel fatah sisi recently said the country's railway system needs upgrading to avoid no deadly accidents. teachers and students have returned to marjorie stoneman douglas high school in florida two weeks after a gunman stormed the school killing seventeen people students will attend a half days at 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 continuing is continuing to mount on republican lawmakers to tighten u.s. gun rules in the wake of the attack meanwhile on wednesday a large sporting and hunting chain announced it would immediately stop selling assault style rifles and would not sell guns to anyone under the age of twenty one and he gallica has been at the school in part in florida and sent this update. well this is big but important day for the students here in parkland 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 marjory 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 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 that 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 he went. on catherine sawyer in central africa to populate a town that is controlled by one of the movements in the country. here despite the presence of u.n. peacekeepers. and. some people to find new ways to get.

hello and welcome back well europe's weather what can you say about it remains incredibly unsettled massive amount of cold air driving across many areas plus low pressure systems coming in as well this one coming in from the southwest he's going to result in snow on its leading edge across the u.k. we've got snow pushing up across parts of france through into switzerland northern parts of italy and more snow across more eastern areas though through thursday that she was slightly improving situation ahead further towards the east still some snow on friday across parts for mania and bulk area and then towards the west or is the temperatures are coming up but the price of paying a lot for the edge of that frontal system is some really heavy snowfall across parts of the u.k. and down through france more wet weather coming in through iberian peninsula as you

move down into north africa weather conditions here thankfully are nowhere near as unsettled we saw some fairly brisk winds in the showers for the coastal parts of morocco and algeria come further towards the east where the conditions generate a few much quite in fact fine weather expected in cairo with highs of twenty six into central parts of africa looking pretty large across parts of ether east africa at the moment some showers for bon otherwise across west africa femina sunshine it should be bright and i cry and ghana with heis here of thirty two. violence and discrimination are all too familiar to many women in india a reality too often reinforced by molly wood. but it's leading star is throwing his weight behind the cause. to the jury and using his celebrity to advocate for gender equality. the snake charmers on the con witness

at this time on and does either. welcome back you with al-jazeera a recap of the top stories this hour syrian government troops have reportedly carried out air and ground attacks around the rebel held enclave of eastern ghouta despite a russian ordered pause in hostilities. 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 police

were on hand to make students feel more secure as they return to marjorie stoneman douglas high school in florida for the first time since a former student shot and killed seventeen people in sight the grounds. fighting in central african republic between muslim and christian armed groups has forced more than a million people from their homes and more than half of the population is desperately in need of humanitarian aid in the first of a three part series catherine sawyer reports from bria a diamond rich region in the northeast of the country that's controlled by one of the largest 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. organized 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 craig's list it began fighting just over a year ago this is the main markets in which. they keep people here. and support them and the arrangement that seems to be. at one end of town and right on the doorstep of the un peacekeepers base is a complex placed people. more than seventy thousand people in brianna have been

forced to flee their homes the un says this complex been infiltrated by gunmen from . a largely christian group in the competent high that. during the fighting and to block a woman sure that a good year safely. out of the ones who protected us in the company more. 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 need 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 well i'm always 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 drooled 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 who are just trying to stay alive catherine so we are all jazeera bria central african republic. to reuters journalists imprisoned in myanmar have called for press freedom and protested their innocence chores and while loan with denied bail after appearing in court on wednesday charged with illegal possession of state secrets journalists have been covering the violence against random muslims in iraq and state and were arrested in december over allegations they violated the country's official secrets act they face up to fourteen years in prison. oh if we were arrested while covering the news we covered the mass graves story as you know. it's new that the military has admitted to what had happened nobody recognizes that we were the first

ones to shed light on that fact you know if you go to the government needs to get the right information the media has to be able to travel to cover and to write news freely much only about the rock current situation but in all issues. responsible for editorial operations at reuters and joins me live now from new york thanks for taking the time to speak to us we were just airing a passionate appeal by the to detain journalists there have you been in touch with them what can you tell us about their conditions right now. well we see them every time there's a hearing the families get to see them and their lawyers do get to visit them from time to time and they seem in relatively good spirits all things considered obviously you know they are in one of the most infamous jails but they seem to be you know reasonably well treated and as you can see from their responses you know the very very good spirits about the fact that they they certainly feel they've

done nothing wrong and you know and they keep coming out and stating that every time they're brought out in public. obviously these are two journalists covering what is one of the biggest stories in the world right now the plight of the the. how do you see these legal proceedings playing out well quite honestly the pace of the hearings is relatively slow and remember they're not being tried right now the hearings are to decide whether to charge them and what crime to charge them with if that's the finding and so we're having a hearing about once a week at the pace that the the witnesses are being called this could be months before they actually get charged so we're very concerned about the fact that they're being held in jail with no bail during this long period and then should there be a trial you know that will continue even further we're confident frankly that the

evidence will show that they did nothing wrong but it's the pace at which this is all moving where they're not allowed to you know be free that they can't spend time with their families that's really heartbreaking well thank you very much for giving us a sense of what is happening there a red head of editorial operations at reuters joining us from new york. now donald trump has invited the emir of cattle to visit the united states in april to mean been a felony is said to have received the off the jury a phone call with the u.s. . president on wednesday both nations are keen to strengthen ties or let's get more on this now from jordan in washington d.c. this seems to be the latest in a series of phone calls that president trump has been having with gulf leaders what do we know about these conversations. well on tuesday the u.s. president donald trump spoke with the crown prince and mohamed been solomon of

saudi arabia as well as with the mir of the united arab emirates talking about the need for resolving regional problems and crises notably that of dealing with the threat from isolated dyess wednesday the president according to officials called the emir of qatar. been hunted dhani to talk again about the security issues in the white house statement the stress is on trying to deal with the rants influence across the greater middle east and of course as our viewers know the u.s. does not trust irani and efforts to expand its influence or be involved particularly in regional affairs across the middle east namely inside syria and inside yemen the statement also goes on to talk about the need to try to shore up the integrity and i'm paraphrasing here the integrity of the gulf cooperation

council which of course has been at longer heads with got daughter since june fifth twenty seventeen that's when it basically was. put under a blockade financial as well as travel blockade by some other members of the g.c.c. because of what these members called qatar's a destabilizing influence in the region of course these are allegations which the qatari government has rejected and as you noted mario the qatari notice says that not only did both sides talk about the need to deal with cutting down on terrorist activity across the region cutting down on financing and other support for these groups that would try to undermine the stability of the region but the statement also notes that the emir has been invited to visit the president here in. washington at some point in april and the emir has accepted that invitation so it seems as if there is more movement it does appear that other leaders from the

region are going to be coming to washington as well but the vaulted effort to try to have some kind of summit to try to resolve the g.c.c. crisis in particular that is still very much up in the air all right for now thank you very much roslyn jordan with the latest on that story from washington some of amsterdam's iconic canals have frozen over as basically cold temperatures great much of europe authorities have banned boats on the canals so that locals can skate on the frozen waterways assistant snow and freezing conditions from a siberian cold snap a causing delays in many parts of britain as well in mainland europe with roads and train services hit very hard. hundreds of flights will have been affected as barker reports from london's heathrow airport. there be many more disruptions up and down the country is the so-called peace from the east crossing much more arctic and a much more snow to get up and down the u.k.

and across the continent at large here at heathrow airport dozens of flights had to be counsel reshaped 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 airstrip and given the amount of so 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 warm air is being drawn up north over the arctic displacing colder air and pushing it down south over siberia and here first into eastern europe and then into western europe here in the u.k. and over in ireland they know we have to do much more research to find out whether

or not all of this freak weather is the shape of things to come. australia's government has ordered the recall of more than two million cars with ad bags made by the japanese found to cut it says it's not satisfied with the results of a voluntary recall scared out by the vehicle manufacturers last year faulty to car to add bags have been linked to at least twenty three deaths around the world there's no doubt that this is one of the largest and most significant recalls in the nation's history with a total of four million cars the fictive defective airbags this equates to around two incision cars on the road. tragically there's been one death and one case of serious injury in its row as a result of the deployment of these evokes and the government just doesn't want to see anymore employees at general motors in south korea demanding the government

protect their jobs they've already voted to go on strike if the u.s. can make a decides to pull out of the country the company suspended pay talks earlier this month and revealed it would shut one of its factories still deciding the fate of the three remaining plants general motors employs around sixteen thousand people in south korea. a supermarket now sam is taking action to stop plastic polluting the world's oceans the eco plaza stores open the world's first plastic free aisle more than seven hundred products including meat dairy fruit and vegetables are available in packaging made from composite materials eco possible roll out plastic free aisles to all seventy four of its stores across the netherlands by the end of the year or the plastic free aisle is the brainchild of a group called a plastic planet earlier co-founder sean sutherland holdout as they are this was a landmark moment i think that what he could not through 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 our perishable food with this indestructible material of plastic because we've now seen the damage that we're doing and we know very little we've learned very clearly now that recycling is not the answer we've since the fifty's we have reduced sixty three billion tons of plastic only nine percent of that has ever been recycled so for us to hide behind that that it's recyclable it's totally fine for us to keep using it in this way it doesn't wash anymore as more and everything we're covering right here at al-jazeera dot com. a quick look at the top stories this hour syrian government troops have reportedly launched an air and ground assault on the edge of eastern goodhead despite a russian ordered pause in hostilities footage from inside the damascus suburb

appears to show a new desk trikes on the rebel held enclave russia and syria was supposed to stop their offensive between nine am and two pm local time to allow for civilians to leave. the u.n. has been discussing the progress of the evacuation efforts with the undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs saying not enough has been achieved have you got any interagency cross-line convoys through to hard to reach your besieged areas. have you been given permission to access any of those locations. have you received the necessary facilitation letters for convoys. have there been any medical evacuations. have any civilians left eastern. is there any actual improvement in the humanitarian situation in eastern guta since the passage of the resolution demanding is it deeds unimpeded access in the.

building to our other top stories students have returned to marjorie's steinman douglas high school in florida for the first time since a former student shot and killed seventeen people inside the grounds dozens of police in grief counselors one campus to help ease students back into classes the shooting has galvanized a nationwide debate over gun laws with students promising to keep the pressure on the leaders. 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 ashraf ghani made the proposal at the start of an international conference aimed at creating a platform for peace talks. and donald trump has invited the emir of qatar to visit the united states in april chef to mean ben hamad a funny is said to have received the office cheering a phone call with the u.s. president on wednesday both nations are keen to strengthen cooperation and are said to have discussed regional ties as well as crucial economic issues and bring you

more on that story on everything else in about twenty five minutes time more news coming up them i'll see you after the stream which starts now. tired from the ok and i'm really could be in today we are crisscrossing the globe to discuss a few stories that have a lot of people talking online so join the conversation tweet us using the hash tag eighty three ad if you happen to be watching us live on you tube you can leave your thoughts in the comments section we have the stream team in the comment section they will talk back at you as well and that's another way.