this era we're living for so unique this is really an attack on itself is a lot of misunderstanding a distortion of what free speech is supposed to be about the context it's hugely important we have a right to publish if you choose to be offensive or provokes it's all about the nice people do. setting the stage for a serious debate. up front at this time on al-jazeera. we don't regard that as the behavior of a responsible international player. the animation of a nuclear attack on america that's triggering a new war of words with russia. and

the robber the sanctions are life my headquarters here in doha also coming up the number of wounded and dead keeps rising in syria's eastern whether it's meant to be a partial ceasefire. also despite scandals and legal problems silvio berlusconi looks poised to make another return to italy in politics. are all those it's been a tug of love something to celebrate the restoration of one of russia's many run down the states. welcome to the program two of the world's superpowers off flexing their military muscles russia's president showcased its plans for the development of its nuclear weapons arsenal a lot of it putin says it will make russia invincible the u.s. has reacted to the threats by approving plans to sell more than two hundred

antitank missiles to ukraine and is accusing russia of violating global arms treaties. certainly did not enjoy watching we don't regard that as the behavior of a responsible international player president putin has confirmed what the united states government has known for a long time that russia has denied prior to this that russia has developed been developing destabilizing weapon systems for more than a decade in direct violation of its treaty obligations president trump understands the threats facing america and our allies in this in this century and is determined to protect our homeland and preserve peace through strength u.s. defense capabilities are and will remain second to none. other may putin unveiled of us all cheering his annual state of the nation speech raising concerns of a new all this race with the west to hold the poles not from moscow. an hour in and a speech that had seemed relentlessly domestic suddenly took an explosive turn.

no one expected flooding at putin's annual address to parliament to involve advanced missile systems and strategic weapons and media talk of job creation and better roads in the years ahead it was a response he said to years of unchecked advances by the united states in missile defense. russia has always been a big nuclear state no one wanted to speak constructively with us in the past and no one wanted to listen well listen to us now one missile in development putin explained could travel the globe with unlimited range and entirely undetected by radar defense systems but those three weeks before the presidential election it was all greeted with ecstatic applause by russia's political elite president putin made a strong message to. russian audience which can be spelled out as the fall of

any of this occasion in the world this prevents surrounded by a dressers but you have to be rest assured that till the country is run by a person whose name is of light given to putin. you will have nothing to worry about as well as showcasing these extraordinary new defense capabilities let me a putin speech was full of inspiring promises of investment lifting people out of poverty improving their lives in what was expected to be his last major speech before the election this was putin presented to the russian people as a pillar of political stability economic stability and perhaps above all security its full impact may have been intended for a domestic audience but there was more than a hint of menace in putin's warning that any outside threat would be met with annihilation russia's current defense spending its only. about one tenth of that of the united states obviously combined defense spending is even much larger

than that of the u.s. the trumpet mr asian announced plans to increase defense spending. and russia with its economic conditions is unlikely to be able to spend much more than it currently does. i don't think there will be a real arms race after eighteen years in power this was a mere putin reminding russians that their country is a world power once again the strength of its conventional military on full display in syria he said its nuclear capabilities now soon to be more than a match for us might join a home al jazeera moscow lawrence korb is a former u.s. assistant secretary of defense he says the announcements a tactical move by putin ahead of the election and it's unlikely the new weapons exist. no indication that all of these things he's talking about are coming to

for wishin or anywhere close to being ready to be deployed because he'd have to be doing testing which we would be able to monitor i think he was basically say don't worry everything's under control nobody's going to push us around and here are some of the new things that we're talking about and i think it was also a response to president trump talking about rebuilding the american nuclear arsenal and talking about building two new types of nuclear weapons the new start interesting enough that it's puts a limit on the long range missiles went into effect on february fifth and that limits the amount the ploy nuclear weapons to fifteen hundred fifty on both sides there is a concern about the i and therefore intermediate nuclear forces treaty but none of these weapons he was talking about today had any. pope is also obsessed with our

missile defenses which he thinks are against him no we're putting more missile defenses in cause we're worried about north korea that's why we're you know beefing up our missile defense systems but he thinks it might negate his nuclear weapons and then we could take advantage of them well wishes expansion of its nuclear arsenal goes against evidence to prohibit the weapons well one of the countries most supportive of the ban is the zealand but its naval straightly is opposed the two countries reaffirmed the conflicting positions at a meeting in sydney and thomas was the. in wellington on tuesday to center i don't get her first big speech on foreign policy and central to that speech was committed in her government to the ratification of the probation on nuclear weapons treaty my government will be looking at the early ratification of the tree she on the preservation ethnically weakens which new zealand signed last year so that we could contribute to its early in tree and force treaty has got the support of well over

one hundred countries but none of the nuclear armed countries nor australia that sees protection by us missiles as very important to this country's defense of the press conference here i asked both leaders about their conflicting positions can you promise to persuade malcolm turnbull to take that treaty more seriously and promise to turnbull can you ever see a time when you could support a prohibition treaty on nuclear weapons we will continue to be advocates around. nuclear. program. we are seeking to expedite the ratification of their it agreement but that's obviously a domestic matter for us and one that we advocate internationally not in any one particular territory with one particular leader the treaty that you referred to the probably treaty. the weakness of it from our perspective is that the nuclear powers are not a party to we clearly all of us everyone would like to aspire to i world which is

free of nuclear weapons but we have to focus in the here and now is our perspective in a very clear and pragmatic way on preventing proliferation whether it's in the korean peninsula or elsewhere and in doing so we obviously have to work very closely with the existing nuclear powers including outright ally the united states those like malcolm turnbull oppose the prohibition treaty say that it's a distraction from more pressing issues like north korea but those who are in favor of the prohibition treaty say their game is a long term one. now there's been more bloodshed in syria's eastern ghouta despite a russian and forced partial ceasefire at least nineteen civilians were killed in the rebel held on russian and syrian government. aid groups say more than six hundred people have died in nearly three weeks and then a quarter reports from beirut in neighboring lebanon eastern hooter's the last

major rebel stronghold around the capital damascus un satellite assessment of sixty two point five square kilometers of the enclave shows major damage in most areas the offensive is the latest in a series of attempts by the government to recapture eastern huta but it has been described as the deadliest the opposition controlled area has been under siege since two thousand and thirteen. this is a checkpoint through which civilians have been told to leave eastern it's day three of the five hours humanitarian pause no aid has entered no medical cases evacuated and no civilians have left the besieged enclave apart from an elderly pakistani couple and the residents say they don't trust the truce. we will never leave our homes i hope god will take revenge against them we will die under obama. they open the crossings but you cannot trust them they open them and then they bomb them they want to displace us now russia is calling its daily

humanitarian pause a failure president vladimir putin is blaming the rebels for preventing civilians from leaving and the russian officer is warning the truce may not last if there are no results the russian government could be sending a message that the relentless bombardment on eastern during the first week of the military campaign could resume civilians are dying even with the pause in the fighting but before the temporary truce took effect dozens were killed on a daily basis. doctors say the medical situation is desperate even before the latest bombing campaign began the un repeatedly requested permission from the government to evacuate hundreds of patients who needed medical care now the list includes one thousand names people who were wounded in the assault that was at the i loved it in the past ten days there was a lot of pressure on medical care and we have large numbers of were injured and now seem to as there are thousands of wounded and more than five hundred martyrs there

is a shortage of medical supplies eastern hooter's three main rebel factions are proposing taking out fighters linked to the former al qaida affiliate affront as a way to stop the government assault the pro-government alliance wants all that both to leave. we will be ready to discuss our repeat any options which will neutralize the terrorists stop their activity if they can be taken out somewhere we will not bad but this all must be discussed we will be ready to discuss any options which first of all help to save people's lives. there has been limited advances in ground fighting but the front lines are not just on the edges of the enclave residential neighborhoods are also under fire the syrian government and its allies don't seem willing to compromise for them this is the final battle for eastern. senator their leader beirut. or further north a convoy of aid has just been allowed to free not trucks are carrying supplies for

fifty thousand people it's the first since a turkish offensive against kurdish one p.g. fighters began in january turkey considers the kurdish forces to be terrorists and moves to push them out of the region. north korea has denied it since applies to syria to produce a chemical weapons state television quoted a foreign ministry spokesman dismissing the accusations which were made in a confidential un report. the u.s. incited the un security council sanctions committee to fabricate the theory of cooperation between us and syria this is only a mean trick to create an atmosphere of sanctions against our republic and enforce a full scale sea blockade by railing at us as a state of possession and political ration of chemical weapons and to justify its military invasion into syria. still ahead here on al-jazeera venezuela's president nicolas maduro is french also told on power why delay the vote could help the

president's chances of reelection. also warnings of a potential trade war with china as the u.s. sharpens its stamp sold steel imports. hello there we've got plenty of wet weather across parts of the middle east at the moment lots of cloud here in the east making its way across parts of afghanistan and further up through tashkent and in south marty and behind it there's a bit of a break before the next system here is making its way across turkey that will make its way across that caspian sea there for friday still giving a few outbreaks of snow behind it it's a little bit quieter than it has been so many of us seeing some drier weather on saturday twenty one in beirut but do expect the winds to be picking up in the western parts of turkey again with a few outbreaks of rain particularly around the coast now for the south and for us

across the arabian peninsula there's a good deal of cloud around for some friday with a chance of one or two showers most likely over parts of the u.a.e. but all of that moves away as we head into saturday and then things will return to normal buddy of sunshine around we're looking at a top temperature in doha of around twenty six degrees as we head down towards the southern parts of africa here there's a fair amount of rain it's been very very wet for some of us recently and we've got to watch out for this a little circulation here because it's a developing feature and it could turn out to be rather sinister giving us some very heavy rain and some pretty strong winds further south just a handful of showers in the southern parts of madagascar and force across cape town looks like it should be dry twenty five degrees temperature. the biggest ever in the monkey. decades activists in seats of government we didn't want to be piled on this information and all we really didn't want technologically

challenging politics and implementing democracy itself open source code to use the free hand for one to look we are innovators we are activists we are rebel geeks madrid at this time and i'm just you know. welcome back you're watching al-jazeera the whole robin these are our top news stories russia's president vladimir putin has unveiled plans for the development of its nuclear weapons arsenal now the u.s. is accusing russia of violating global arms treaties hundred spawn did by approving plans to sell antitank missiles to ukraine. also australian prime minister malcolm

turnbull has rejected you zealand support of a nuclear prohibition treaty he says the talks with his counterpart just harder in sydney the two leaders say that they have conflicting views on the nuclear ban. russian and syrian government air strikes have killed at least nineteen people in the rebel held enclave of eastern puter this un footage shows some of the damage that's been caused since december. news just coming in now that three people have died in a suicide bombing in afghanistan's capital police say an explosion was heard in an area close to foreign embassies in the capital kabul it's unclear who is behind the attack of the blast happened two days after president assad garley offered to start peace talks with the taliban for you more on that as we get it. as well as presidential election has been postponed by want to may after an agreement between the government and opposition parties present at us with plans to run for second

a six year term against a background of severe economic problems as to resupply reports venezuela is expected to elect a new president this year but the date of when the elections are expected to take place has been changed once again a year this year the government announced they would happen on april twenty second but now they're expected to happen in may. it is establishing the agreement for the election to be in the second half of the next month may of two thousand and eighteen there is no other alternative the only option is an election critics accuse the authorities of shifting the vote forward to wrong foot the opposition in a bid to improve precedent real action chances the leading opposition coalition is boycotting the poll describing it as a farce to legitimize a dictatorship however one presidential hopeful and gone has already launched his candidacy and. that's the government that we want for venice who are

a government of national unity that includes and doesn't exclude a government that can save us from this misery from this tragedy this debacle that the government has turned us into i repeat this incapable inept government. that's what we want for venezuela and that's why we're here at the national it world council and we demand all these conditions filed gone at fifty six year old former state governor believes he can win by taking advantage of widespread dissatisfaction with the ruling socialist over venice way less dire economic crisis that have millions struggling for food and medicines. two strongest opposition rivals among them former presidential candidate and they kick up any less are barred from standing the united states it's also considering imposing sanctions against modest government due to what it says are unfair conditions for the presidential vote for venezuela it is another attempt from the u.s.

to interfere in the country and its avowing to hold the presidential vote in spite of the criticism from abroad. u.s. president. plans to impose tariffs on imported steel another william the decision makes good all the major campaign promise but members of the president's own party are worried about a possible trade war as kristen salumi reports. president donald trump announced steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports after this white house meeting much to the delight of visiting industry representatives who say they've been hurt by a flood of cheap imports they've been very unfairly treated by bad policy by bad trade deals by other countries they've been horribly treated by other countries. they have not been properly represented more importantly because of that our workers in our country have not been properly represented the president promised to

impose a twenty five percent tariff on steel and ten percent on aluminum is going to bring steel back he was making good on a campaign promise to revive u.s. manufacturing and address a trade imbalance with china a position that saw him win big in so-called rust belt states like pennsylvania where he promised to bring back jobs but it's unclear if the tariffs will apply to other trade partners like canada from whom the u.s. imports the most steel some of trump's cabinet are said to have fought against the tariffs the announcement catching a staff off guard but we're not going to get into any more details until those fight those details are finalized and it angered canada's foreign minister who said any increase would be unacceptable any restrictions would harm workers the industry and manufacturers on both sides of the border she said the steel and aluminum industry is highly integrated and supports critical north american manufacturing supply chains and while steel and aluminum makers saw their stocks soar on the

announcement the market overall sunk on fears of a trade war and harm to companies who would be hit by higher prices the president promised a formal announcement of his plans and presumably more details next week kristen salumi al-jazeera. well china has expressed grave concerns about u.s. policy report that pledges to pressure beijing over its trade practices the white house reporter accuses china of disrupting global trade and moving away from market principles china's commerce ministry urged washington to settle disputes through mediation. and the u.s. ambassador to mexico has announced her resignation of its strained relations between the two countries reported jacobsen told embassy staff chile's the post in may ties between the two neighbors have been tense with president trump pledging to build a border wall said to europe now where italians are heading to the polls on

sunday to vote in a hotly contested general election many analysts predict that former prime minister silvio berlusconi will make a comeback polls show his party is likely to be part of any potential coalition but in the second of his reports from italy lawrence lee considers the impact of a right wing coalition cashin a central italy very old very pretty and people are very angry stuck in the fields outside the town the government has housed one hundred asylum seekers they're about as popular as a moldy listen here. this started wanted on this floor i mean. in the summer so many women have complained that they urinated in the street should we wait until something bad happens fair enough we have to protect the immigrants but who will protect italians. the town has forty five thousand people living in it so it isn't as though it's being overrun but cashin which had

a left wing local government for seventy years since world war two recently voted in the right swing northern league it wants to deport four hundred thousand undocumented migrants from italy and on to the immediate arctic care is one thing to get out and of course we don't want to deport all of them it's only the right immigrants who work here who are integrated there the right criminals coming here to take houses from italians and we pay tax for them to do nothing. immigration of course is always fertile ground for the right wing in european politics as indeed is a general this in charged with the state of the european union and longstanding concerns about the economy and it's all particularly good news for one man who dominates italian politics for so long and is increasingly being seen as europe's on to donald trump. at the age of eighty one silvio berlusconi is back his

plastic skin and rictus grin all over this election despite his criminal record he still has his own political party and media empire there is every chance he could get to choose the next prime minister it's like he never went away. thoughts as we are united force pushing back against all the bad things the left wing has done to our country we're going back into power because the left has put three million people into poverty and three million unemployed the third party in this potential coalition is called brothers of italy one of several groups with fascist roots that have a chance of seats in parliament even given italy's history it appears immigration has made the electorate ready to consider what the european union dreads the most the far right in government. was we are committed to stopping. migration flows in paying more attention to italian families other governments already do this the

italian state won't spend more on asylum seekers than italian thinks it is. if you ask the fire rights how they would actually deport nearly half a million people they talk about putting them in boats and dumping them in libya is being discussed and tells you much about the state of the european union with berlusconi right back in the mix lawrence lee al-jazeera. has abandoned his bid to return as leader of the spanish region of catalonia the process british politician will step aside to allow another candidate to take his place beautiful has been in self-imposed exile in belgium since the spanish government charged him with rebellion and sedition following last year's independence referendum vote. now france's foreign leader marine le pen has been charged for posting online images of atrocities carried out by eisel a judge has ordered a criminal investigation into three images the national front president posted on

her twitter account it comes after the national assembly voted to strip ben of her parliamentary immunity if found guilty she could face a heavy fine or possible imprisonment. rushes that iris to kratos states are disintegrating many were nationalized during soviet times that are still in state hands private investors are put off by the high costs of bureaucracy that comes with restoration row challenged reports now or whether anything can be done to save them. silence and snowflakes inhabit a grave and over now but before its current desolation this grand estates thirty kilometers northeast of moscow was home to royalty and rich merchants tuberculosis patients and finally soviet science students such a history should make this place special but across russia eight to ten thousand estates a quietly crumbling to dust says this conservationist. most of these things are in

the horrible condition where someone could put money in for many years with an unclear idea how they take it back and you'd have to work hard on it at the movies i felt like great never most estates are formally owned by the state the communist seeds them off to the one nine hundred seventeen revolution and in the years following the u.s.s.r. as collapse very few have passed back into private hands. one of the handful of success stories is so redneck over when we visited it was hosting boisterous maslin it's a festivities the slavic celebration of winter's imminent demise. is her i'm going to do her. homework from like a state where the life you can read into one in the right circumstances oh like my tug of war efforts restoring set of nick over wasn't easy but it's new custody in

this did at least when now they host weddings film crews charge admission to the grounds and the profits help restore other bits of the estates mikala lemons off the namesake and relative of one of russia's most famous nineteenth century poets calls himself a romantic but he believes this and well on necessary attributes for taking on such a project. and a state is how russian person understands what heaven on earth should look like and it represents the philosophy in the soul of a russian man today is his biggest. reuter that's why it's important to restore not just one or two states but the entire culture of all the greatest poets writers and philosophers were raised among this beauty of. quantum. mechanical is now working with other owners and the governments to nurture and estates tourist industry and simplify many tax and regulate three complexities that person vest is off for grabs me of or perhaps it's already too late it's been more than

a hundred winters since this place was lost a family home perhaps thirty or so since it was last used to tall and if someone can be found to show the love and warmth that it deserves then who knows how many more winters it has before it finally vary by the snow. al-jazeera moscow region well a scenic hiking trail in brazil has suddenly become an underwater playground it happened when heavy rain flooded parts of an ecological reserve close to the southern city of bonny tow bridges and forest routes for hikers and bird watchers were transformed into a paradise for marine life but this only lasted a day before water levels return to normal. your charges there are times the whole robin these are all top news stories russia's president vladimir putin has unveiled plans for the development of its

nuclear and weapons arsenal the announcement has raised concerns of a new arms race with the west the us is accusing russia of violating global arms treaties and responded by approving plans to sell antitank missiles to ukraine. president putin has confirmed with the united states government has known for a long time that russia has denied prior to this that russia has developed then developing destabilizing weapon systems for more than a decade in direct violation of its treaty obligations australian prime minister malcolm turnbull has rejected new zealand support of a nuclear prohibition treaty he's hosted talks with his counterpart just in sydney the two leaders say they have conflicting views on the nuclear bans. russian and syrian government air strikes have killed at least nineteen people in the rebel held a glave of eastern ghouta this un footage shows some of the damage that's been called

since december the deaths are happening despite a daily five hour ceasefire to let civilians leave the area and further north in a free in a truck convoy carrying aid for fifty thousand people being allowed into the area is the first since a turkish offensive against kurdish y p g fighters began january. three people have died in a suicide bombing in afghanistan's capital police say an explosion was heard in the area close to foreign embassies in kabul the blast happened two days after president garvey offered to start peace talks with the taliban. also venezuela's presidential election has been proposed by one month to bay the decision follows an agreement between the government and opposition parties to give candidates more time to campaign for president to do is voting for a second or third u.s. president trouble phillipos steep uterus on steel and other believe imports he announced a twenty five percent levy for steel imports and ten percent tariff on alibi the

imports those are these headlines back in half an hour to stay with us rebel geeks is next. forcibly displaced by their governments in one nine hundred twenty three it was very bug the greek and turkish villagers returned to their roots almost a century later. and reconnect with the past they thought they'd lost forever. people shouldn't be forced to move from dilemma where they were born which are. the great population exchange at this time on al-jazeera. digital technology offers that imus intern is an easement and even a longer life in the ability to billions of calculations in our pockets it seems we've discovered a need and mention. in which everything in our lives can be increased and tracked and.