well of countries in the world we have to be grateful for just a need for new bridge and fear to prevent drop 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 the more grief people in power investigates the house that leave at this time on al-jazeera. have any civilians left. a third day.

and welcome to. the. also ahead a call from south korea's president to push for peace with. stoking the fire. lines following. the third day of a partial ceasefire in syria's begins in the next few hours so far the daily pause in fighting has provided some relief for people in the rebel held on klav. meant to allow the sick and injured to leave and aid to get in but now syrian government troops are reportedly planning a ground assault and sporadic continue. turkey near

the border with syria digging more graves spend the five dollars in the daily bombardment of eastern with many deaths every day the. burial. on the syrian government side of the buffer been crossing buses and ambulances waited for civilians to cross but people deny a claim by the russian president that some civilians crossed over on the second day of the pause in fighting. we have managed to get out quite a big group of those who wanted to leave but the second group could not leave because the militants just did not give them an opportunity to do so people in eastern called the five hour daily pause in hostilities a joke they ask how can anyone expect them to want to cross to the same people who bomb them for the other nineteen hours of the day not much has changed for the nearly four hundred thousand in besieged east and many have been stranded in basements like this one that is this woman says her family has survived on pieces

of radish for the last three days. there is human flesh everywhere says this man who also tells how he has been disabled by his injuries there are similar tales of despair in other shelters have the situation here is just hunger and sickness no showers the children sleep hungry here. activists say the price of bread is one hundred times more than just a few kilometers away in the syrian capital damascus and very expensive rice is rarely available this woman says she found some spinach near the river and that's going to be their meal medical supplies are limited and many hospitals have been destroyed doctors in eastern hold to have recent a list of eighty five people to the united nations who are mostly women and children among the more than one thousand people who need medical evacuation but in the east of water no aid has come in and then on the people who are sick or wounded have been able to go out. on the turkey syria border. where

russia's ambassador to the u.n. has contradicted persians claim that large numbers of people have been moved out of eastern diplomatic editor james bays reports from the united nations. just days after these ambassadors unanimously demanded a ceasefire their resolution continues to be ignored and repeatedly violated the un under-secretary general mark local crystal world's most senior humanitarian official told them he would answer some of the question is why he's received in recent days have there been any medical evacuations. have any civilians left eastern ghouta and. is there any actual improvement in the humanitarian situation in eastern guta since the passage of the resolution demanding as it did unimpeded access. he ended his briefing with one last question for the ambassadors when will your resolution be implemented. the u.s.

and u.k. put the blame squarely on russia since we adopted resolution twenty four zero one russia has announced a daily five hour humanitarian pause in the it's in the aerial bombing at civilians in eastern. this is senekal callous and in flagrant defiance of the demands of twenty four a one. the russian ambassador didn't repeat earlier claims by his boss president putin that a large number of people had been evacuated but he said some medical help had been provided to eastern ghouta underscores the need for the parties to agree on human ukrainian pauses these of binocular he read part of the resolution passed on saturday before giving his explanation why it was not yet halting the violence because there's a new stooge attorney. did you read the resolution the whole resolution we stated

that any enduring pause must be preceded by agreement by the parties for deescalation demanding an overnight and immediate halt toss deliveries suggests either a failure to understand realities on the ground or a deliberate exploitation of human tragedy. the three main opposition fighting groups in eastern cooter of written a letter to the president of the security council they pledged to kick out the group the council still refers to by its form and i'm sure they also say they will give the un resolution their full support the syrian government's representative ambassador bashar al jeffrey was in the council chamber he gave a typically rambling nineteen minutes speech but he made no such commitment james plays out at the united nations. let's move on to other news now in the late united nations report is highlighting violations of the arms embargo in libya by countries trying to influence the conflict the united arab emirates and egypt named in the

report the u.n. has banned the sale of weapons and military support of groups and libya since two thousand and eleven when james dorsey is a senior fellow at the s. rajaratnam school of international studies and he says the problem is the lack of international governance. i think we're dealing with two issues one is you have countries in the gulf as well as egypt who see their foreign policy not only as directed towards intergovernmental relations but as putting governments or in place in various countries or imposing policies that are in line with their definition of national security and their geopolitical designs and on the other hand you have countries that see a business opportunity here and a group willing to exploit that we've got the dysfunctional if you wish international governance the security council is not capable of taking decisions because of various veto rights individual states realize that they can do things

without being called called to account and as long as you don't address those very fundamental problems i don't see how you're going to change things on the ground to south korea now a president who says japan has not resolved the issue of so-called comfort women only speaking at an event to mark ninety nine years since coming of rose up against japanese several thousands of korean women were forced into sexual slavery for japanese sandwiches german world war two has raised the issue of recently despite japan apologizing and offer to compensate victims and separately he also south koreans to work towards peace with the north let's get more on the correspondent rob mcbride he's live for us and seoul and the japanese government not happy about president clinton's comments from. that's right elizabeth these comments were bound to japan japan as far as it is concerned has resolved the issue of the so-called

comfort women with the agreement in twenty fifteen which was meant to resolve the issue once and for all when compensation was paid but many people here in south korea moon among them believes that japan has never really come to terms as never really apologize or tone for its previous crimes especially to do with the comfort women. and lead to his attack today japan not surprisingly has given a terse response there has just been a reaction from the chief cabinet secretary. who has said that the agreement which was signed back in twenty fifteen is final and the president moon's attack is totally unacceptable it's worth bearing in mind elizabeth this comes at a very a time of increased tensions on the korean peninsula and the japanese have also reminded the south koreans that they along with the united states should be concentrating on what they see as the common goal of containing north korea's

nuclear and missile programs and reminding south korea that this tiff certainly does very little to improve that alliance elizabeth all right rob thank you very much for that for now that several macbride with the latest from seoul thank you. to the u.s. now with the white house communications director stepping down the third today at the palace said the u.s. president came to office says one of donald trump's longest serving it was us and previously worked for the trump organization she also served as a press as his press secretary during the two thousand and sixteen election campaign it comes a day after hex testified before a congressional panel investigating alleged russian and to fear and in that campaign alan fisher has more from washington d.c. . topics twenty one year old former fashion p.r. who joined the trunk campaign very early on right on day one and followed donald

trump around the country during that campaign was the main point person for a great deal of the media was recently appointed to be communications director after several people either left or resigned and so is very close to the president regarded as one of the people who would be a trump whisperer someone who is able to understand them who's able to parse what he's thinking to the media and someone who is able to calm them down when some of the media coverage doesn't exactly meet what he wants now she gave evidence to the house intelligence committee on choose the joining that evidence we are told she refused to answer questions about the transition and also about her time in the white house and that could well lead to her being subpoenaed to appear in front of the committee at some future date but we did find out that she said that she also tells little white lies for the president she was talking about going into meetings and saying or he's been delayed or perhaps he's caught up in traffic when the president simply didn't want to take the meeting the difficulty is the very next

day as the white house communications director the media asking you for courts asking you questions and for responses and hoping that you're telling them the truth but you yourself have just put this in their head no the white house says it has nothing to do with her her testimony on tuesday that this had been planned for a while and she goes with the president's very best wishes but there's also another difficulty for her it involves the the russia investigation no it has been reported that when the white house counsel was talking to donald trump about e-mails that donald jr had sent about communications with the russians she had replied i don't want to those e-mails will never see the light of day and that police are very much in the crosshairs of someone who is investigating obstruction of justice but she will leave in the next few weeks she will help perhaps groom her success. but it's going to be very important for donald trump to get someone he can trust because many of the people that were with him during the campaign of no left and also

someone who can do such an important job which is the communications director that is a big job in any white house and the u.s. president's former campaign chairman has pleaded not guilty to charges from later to the investigation into alleged russian meddling the charges against poor man of fortune clued to allegations of money laundering and conspiracy and making false statements about lobbying work he did on behalf of a pro russia party in ukraine his trial is set to begin and september and on top of all of this you may remember the president's america first promises throughout the election campaign well now he's looking at rejoining a multinational trade deal u.s. treasury secretary steven says high level discussions are taking place on what's known as the transpacific partnership trunks repeatedly attacked the deal while campaigning one of his first acts as president was to pull out of the pact japan has led efforts to keep the deal to live among the remaining eleven members and

says it's no longer for renegotiation still ahead on the bulletin the leading human rights group says egypt's army is using banned cluster bombs in a military operation in the northern sinai and separate and unequal a new report warns of a deepening racial divide in the united states. from brisk. to the. of southeast. hello and welcome back well look at the weather across the levant and western parts of asia we've got some snow across these eastern areas from afghanistan up through becky stan towards kazakhstan funny conditions around the caspian sea but we also got an area of low pressure bringing some heavy snowfall across eastern parts of turkey standing into georgia armenia and then that will push through across through

towards northern parts of the caspian sea as we head into friday at that stage fine conditions for beirut there nineteen by that pleasant enough twenty four and sixteen is the high in tehran here in the arabian peninsula we've had some pretty nasty showers around the gulf states over last twenty four hours or so still the risk of the old shower on thursday but i think generally much drier brighter picture for many they get in temperatures still well up twenty five as a high in doha and then as we move into friday still a fair amount of cloud around but i think it should stay a largely dry on the other side of the potential of warm for mecca there high of thirty four but further south certainly for the mountains the chance of wanted to heavy showers give the risk of flash flooding for southern portions of africa we've got some really heavy showers across east africa standing into parts is and about by and some beer further south should be largely fine highs of twenty two in capetown. there with sponsored by qatar release. the

scene for us where they're 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 can use or if you join a sunset there are people there there are choosing between buying their exchanging eating this is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who is an activist his personal story joined the global conversation at this time on al-jazeera. good to have you with us on al jazeera these are our top stories there's been no letup in attacks on syria's despite russia's pools and. activists reported

government shelling and fighting on three fronts during the five hour truce on wednesday south korean president says japan has not resolved the issue of so-called comfort women who were forced into sexual slavery germ world war two men were speaking at an event to mark minor nine years since korea rose up against japanese from japan has called the comments regrettable and launched a formal complaint with the south korean government and white house communications director is stepping down the third to the post since he came to power thirteen months ago says one of the u.s. president's longest serving advisers. party leaders to discuss reforming gun laws and he told politicians to seriously consider raising the age limit for buying assault style rifles like the a r fifteen used in the florida school shooting two weeks ago trump accused senators of being afraid to take on the national rifle association we have to keep the goes out of the hands of those

opposed to throw. and this really includes background checks and i know senator that you're working on things joe i know you're working on and. i mean i'm looking at a number of the folks around the table you're working in different bills we have to get them we have to get them done we have to get them done. and they have to be strong the background check say look. i'm the biggest fan of the second amendment many of you are i'm a big fan of the n.r.a. but i bet i had lunch with them with wayne and chris and david on sunday and said it's time. going to stop this nonsense and start. as a board member at texas gun sense and she says even the smallest regulations can make a difference. there's always been a black market for it in the us for guns as long as guns have been sold and

regulated by any means but but over the last twenty years the regulations of guns have been decreasing because of the n.r.a. and the n.r.a. has influence over our government and our elected officials and so what we know with tighter gun control laws on the books were safer we know when we had an assault weapons ban that. mass killing shootings were were down in the united states we know if you point out any other country in the world that has sensible gun laws on the books they have significantly less gun violence than we do here in the united states and you can address straw purchasers you can limit the number of weapons that any one person can buy it at any one time. so there are a number of things that you can put in place universal background checks. anyone that poses a threat to the community because of a man health crisis or has a serious dangerous criminal background they should have access to

a weapon it's that simple. now one of the largest retailers in the u.s. is now raising the age limit for gun sales wal-mart will no longer sell firearms to people under twenty one it says it will remove assault style rifles replica and toy guns from its website and it follows a similar announcement by a major sporting goods chain on wednesday. police the u.s. state of georgia have a rested a teacher for barricading himself in a classroom with a handgun they say the man fired a shot when the principal tried to force to door open no one was injured. and the city international says egypt's army is using banned cluster bombs and its military operation in north sinai the rights group made the accusation after analyzing this egypt's military video it says the munition serial number it circled here proves beyond doubt that it a u.s. made cost a bomb which could only have been dropped by the egyptian air force the military says the weapons were improvised explosive devices planted by so-called terrorist

elements. well jeffrey mark is the age of specialist at anastasia national usa and he says it's not the first time in egypt has used the banned bombs they've done it before just earlier in the months. indeed ships in military officer posted to his twitter account what we indicated another u.s. type cluster munition being used by loaded onto any gyptian plane and in plane that had gyptian air force swags on it so they seem to be quite proud of this these custom bombs are so dangerous and so deadly because they're indiscriminate the it cannot be used with precision they excel in harming maiming and killing civilians it is this danger that his or an international

treaty to banned their sale in use egypt is not a party to that but hundreds of countries are we need the u.s. to step up on this they. we have we will laws here that prevent the use of us munitions in what is in war crimes or human rights violations we think the quest for bombs are de facto human rights violations we've made the connection between the us and the use of these foster bombs it's time for the u.s. government to step up. to the list on now with the president is offering to recognize the taliban as a legitimate political party a shift on he made the announcement just a couple peace conference where twenty five countries met for talks aimed at ending the sixteen year war tony but leave a points 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 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 result of our sacrifices and struggle and 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 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 third of century since the release of a landmark u.s. report on race and poverty and now a new study has examined how far the nation has come since the findings and nine hundred sixty eight it says the issue of racial inequality still remains and child poverty has worsened john hendren reports. it was an era that rattled american

complacency in one thousand nine hundred sixty eight assassins it violently cut off calming voices of peace martin luther king robert kennedy the vietnam war was growing more intense and for americans worse an african-american uprising had left detroit in flames so president lyndon johnson appointed a group headed by illinois governor auto kerner to study what caused the detroit riots the landmark report found the crisis in america was based on poverty and race a nation profoundly split between black and white rich and poor it was a shock to people in the nation. it was describing what many had seen two nations divided one black one white this week fifty years later an update to the kerner commission report says by many standards the rifts in american society have grown worse child poverty is up fourteen percent then twenty two percent now school

segregation has returned in one nine hundred sixty eight levels a yawning education gap between the number of blacks whites and hispanics who go to college has widened i would oversimplify to say it's a governmental i think it's a societal far right i think each of us have a responsibility on that if our government is in a reflective of what we need to make sure that we be them and that we explain to them that the important urgency in doing the work so i think it may be a part and parcel of the issue is absolutely the government in the way they are in an inability to really provide us with this in sports the report blames budget cuts since the one nine hundred eighty s. to poverty programs desegregation mental health housing in schools we haven't gotten there yet but the goal of us to push as the heir to center this event to really talk about racism and classism in this in this space is we have a number forty five in office it is it is our obligation to make sure we do that we have a we can no longer say that that's something we'll talk about five years from now i don't want to be here fifty years from now talking about this again that is

a wake up call to. reports authors conclude that has largely gone unanswered for half a century john hendry al-jazeera. they head of the u.s. olympic committee has resigned the sports body has faced months of criticism for its handling of a series of sex abuse scandals. has more really no different the fall out continues the head of the u.s. olympic committee scott blackmun says he's stepping down citing health concerns related to prostate cancer the announcement comes amid pressure for him to leave for reportedly mishandling the sex abuse scandal involving the u.s. gymnastics team black men lead the u.s. o.c. for eight years he drew praise for helping off angeles when the twenty twenty eight olympic bid but these accomplishments were overshadowed you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth under penalty of perjury according to reports he may have known about allegations against former gymnastics doctor larry

messer as early as september two thousand and fifteen despite complaints critics say he did not properly intervene. before he was sentenced to one hundred seventy five years in prison nasser's victims addressed him in court the accounts echoed the me too movement reflecting widespread abuse of power as if you say. if you know this even standing in front of. the former usa domestic steam doctor was convicted for sexually abusing more than two hundred sixty female athletes you were the abuse spanned decades and included his employment at michigan state university parents and athletes say they complained to top officials yet the abuse continued and now as are remain employed. as details of abuse were made public the entire board of u.s.c. domestics resigned in january mr blackman is the latest official in broyles in the

scandal to step down but he may not be the last bipartisan group of u.s. senators has called for a further investigation. of the young al-jazeera. now professional surfer attacked by a shark is quoting the sport three time world champion mcfadden says a competition in australia later this month will be his last nearly twenty years after his debut in two thousand and fifteen fanning encountered a great watch during an event in south africa hunching the shot as it tried to bite through his leash the australian survived to return to competition but says his time at the top as now up. again ahmed is a problem in the headlines on al-jazeera the third day of a partial ceasefire and syria's east and go to begins in the next few months but there's been no letup in attacks on the rebel held on klav despite russia's poles

and hostilities activists have reported government shelling and fighting on three in the five hour truce on wednesday. and all the new south korean president. has not resolved the issue of so-called comfort women who were forced into sexual slavery jura world war two was speaking at an event marking ninety nine years since korea rose up against a japanese rule japan has denounced the comments. well president citizen against japan and south korea agreement it is totally unacceptable and extremely regrettable we immediately lodged a complaint of the south korean government the greenman is an irreversible solution to the issue when japan has conducted all of the obligations based on the agreement and now which is south korea to do. donald trump white house communications director is stepping down the third to leave the posts and see came to power thirteen months ago opec says one of the president's longest serving advisers.

meanwhile donald trump has been meeting party leaders to discuss reform and gun laws he told politicians to seriously consider raising the age limit for buying assault style rifles like the one used in the florida school shooting two weeks ago and here are clear senators of being afraid to take on the national rifle association. amnesty international says egypt's army is using banned cluster bombs and its military operation in north sinai the rights group made the accusation after analyzing video released by the egyptian military but the army says the weapons were improvised explosive devices planted by so-called terrorist elements. the chief executive of the us a lympics committee has resigned citing health problems got black and had been under fire following the committee's response to a series of sex abuse scandals in january former u.s. gymnastics team doctor larry nasser was jailed for life for molesting hundreds of

girls are the headlines on al-jazeera but do stay with us the stream is coming up next. more than forty thousand africans are facing deportation from israel is awarded more than ninety percent of. the if it is the way europeans point one percent of the two of those in danger of being thrown out of the country and which they sold refuge talks al-jazeera at this time. and i'm really could be 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 a.j. stream and if you happen to be watching us live on you tube you can reveal thoughts in the comments section we have the stream team in the comments section they will talk back at you as well and that's another way that you can be in.