just. some journalists decided to sacrifice their integrity for out of the hole in the media the listening post at this time on al-jazeera. claims of a powerful new career also rattles washington. this year with al-jazeera live from doha also coming out. of a trade war as the u.s. imposes heavy terrorists on seal and elam in new. rising death toll in syria as.

the fighting continues despite a partial ceasefire. at least one person is killed in an explosion in the afghan capital we'll be live in kabul. but first the united states and russia are squaring off over their military capabilities the trumpet ministrations says it plans to sell ukraine hundreds of anti-tank missiles to help it defend its territory from russia this vladimir putin unveiled plans to develop his country's nuclear weapons also which included a video depicting an attack on the u.s. . 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. well president his speech came in the run up to this month's presidential elections russia's fire that some of this is says there are no plans to increase defense spending jonah howell reports from. when you burn our isn't and a speech that had seemed relentlessly domestic and 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 many 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 want 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 there's 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 the world is pretty tense surrounded by aggressors but you have to be rest assured that deal the country is run by a person whose name is of like 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 is only about one tenth of that of the united states and obviously combined defense spending is even much larger than that of the u.s. the trumpet mistress 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 whole al-jazeera moscow. well asian stocks a full enough to president trump announced plans to impose steep terrace on steel and impulse the plans as spent to invest as a members of the u.s. presence in republican policy with fears of a global trade will christen salumi reports. president donald trump announced the 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 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 let's talk a little bit more about this there with our china correspondent adrian brown he's joining us live now from beijing and adrian china is one of the biggest producers of steel in the world how might this announcement how might these terrorists affect the chinese economy well as you rightly point out china in fact produces more than half the world's steel so it's very significant but the response we're getting here in beijing on friday has actually been quite muted the

commerce ministry has said that they regret president trump's announcement they're concerned by his announcement but i think it's fair to assume martine that the chinese had been anticipating this because president trump after all had been warning repeatedly that he was going to impose tariffs on steel and other million so i think this is something that china anticipated expected but the timing is interesting because right now a senior chinese economic advisor is in washington for talks with the trump administration and these talks we're told have been very frank very direct the language has been very blunt indeed and the question i guess is we have trade friction between the world's second largest economy china and the world's largest economy the united states but is that trade friction now going to turn into a fully fledged or full trade war that of course would be bad not just for china and the united states but it would also be bad for countries in the asia pacific

region who is a con and these are very dependent not just on china but also on the united states all right so china produces this vast amount of steel and how much of that do we know how much of that is directly imported by the united states. well it's actually a very interesting question because china says actually very little of its steel is now going to the united states as a result of and see dumping judi's which were slapped on china a number of years ago but u.s. officials argue in fact steel is still reaching the united states via third countries now china is about the lead i think the eleventh largest steel exporter to the united states so this china at least says is not going to have a significant or profound impact on its economy what china is much more concerned about martine is this much wider investigation that's currently going on into chinese trade practices and the outcome of that inquiry is jew fairly soon and this

has been looking at things like intellectual property rights copyright piracy and companies like ten cent the big tech companies which want a greater share of the united states market are very worried about what the impact and the recommendations of that inquiry are going to be alright adrian thank you very much adrian brown live in beijing it's the fourth day of a partial ceasefire in syria. but the fighting has continued with at least nineteen civilians killed by syrian government airstrikes on thursday and that brings the civilian death toll there to over six hundred just in the last twelve days then the harder it has this report 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. no aide 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 . 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 the unloved it in the past ten days there was a lot of pressure on medical care and we had large numbers of were injured and now seem to is 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 or front as a way to stop the government assault the pro-government alliance wants us to leave . we will be ready to discuss our repeat any options which will neutralize the

terrorists stop their activities 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 burst 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 as his leader. and further north in syria turkish military has announced that eight of its soldiers were killed another thirteen were injured on thursday this is in the northern region of africa making it one of the deadliest days for turkish forces since they began a cross border offensive against kurdish wife. that started in january a humanitarian convoy carrying aid supplies for the up to fifty thousand displaced

people has been allowed into our free for the first time since the fighting began. we've got a lot more to come here at out just here including the news training mission which is helping the central african republic rebuild its national army plus the down a gold has been a tug of love but now there's something to celebrate the restoration of one of russia's and many rundown estates. the at. the above hello there there's so much snow every year about the moment there's plenty of snow in the east where you might expect this time of year but even in ukraine we're struggling after a week of heavy snow here we're seeing quite a few blackouts which is an idea with the maximum temperature so any around minus ten and then we're also seeing plenty of snow further west as well as healy's cloud

marching its way in as that hits that cold air it is turning to snow and for some of us in spain even the beaches have turned white thanks to the snow settling there that's the first time in thirty years now system that's currently over parts of spain is just noting its way eastwards there on friday so some of us are going to see some more heavy snow plenty of heavy snow again over parts of britain and ireland as well and then the next system is working its way in from the atlantic bringing yet more heavy rain to portugal and it looks very wet there even as we head through saturday so still rather wet for us in the west turning a little bit milder for some of us here and in the east or more snow here as well and cold minus five as the maximum temperature in warsaw for the other side of the mediterranean generally it's a lot quieter weather wise here we're looking at twenty two in benghazi but we do have the cloud of rain over portugal this just trying to creep a bit further towards the south and for morocco is looking pretty wet on saturday

the big.

let's have a look at the top stories here russia's president vladimir putin has unveiled plans for the development of its new clear and weapons arsenal including a video depicting and then the united states the trump administration says it plans to sell ukraine hundreds of anti-tank missiles to help it defend its territory from russia. asian stocks of fall enough to donald trump announced plans to impose steep tyrus on steel and all the plans of spin to investors the members of the u.s. president's own republican party the fears of a global trade war. it's now day four of a partial cease fire in syria at least nineteen civilians have been killed by the syrian government and russian bad air strikes on thursday. now at least one person is being killed another suicide blast in the afghan capital kabul let's go live there now our correspondent there is tony berkeley tony what more do we know.

very sketchy details martine but the interior ministry has put out a statement saying there was a car suicide bomb attack on what he described as foreign forces we understand that to be nato employees who were traveling in convoy they gave no details of casualties but local media is reporting one killed and that was supposed to be an eight year old child and nine wounded that's all we're getting at the moment no claim of responsibility at this stage but you will be aware that the cause for concern here because this comes two days after the. amazing sort of response from president danny to the taliban offering them unconditional peace talks which is quite significant raise a lot of hopes here we had no official response from the taliban to that this may be an unofficial response from one fraction or another within the taliban the problem has always been for the americans and the afghan government is who is speaking for the taliban and if you ever get to the situation whereby there are

peace talks now a range people want to know who are they dealing with there something like twenty factions plus it within the taliban not everyone agrees so who will speak for them and what will it mean discovering what is happening in afghanistan discovering who's speaking the truth discovering whether or not the information you'll be giving is correct is not always easy in this country. in the conflict in afghanistan like in most wars it's sometimes difficult if not impossible to see clearly what is happening and why the first casualty of war they say is the truth. away from the bombs and the bullets there is another war being fought here that of propaganda the winning of hearts and minds each side bombards the people with their message of success. we're having many successes against the terrorists we're killing many the afghan forces with their allies are getting stronger. people are skeptical that they're being given the true casualty figures and whether the

successes are as successful as both sides claim war zones are breeding grounds for fake news. if you really look at it from the neutral perspective. i think both of them are are trying to hype whatever they're doing and reality. quite far from from reality it's always been hard for many afghans especially those who are educated to believe everything they're being told in this murky world of warlords corrupts military officials and politicians and shady profiteering businessmen people here long ago lost trust but it's not just distrust of their own for sixteen years the u.s. has given afghanistan support and promises visiting troops in december american vice president mike pence made a declaration i believe victory is closer than ever before. gen john nicholson head of u.s.

and nato forces in afghanistan sais they are on course to win he is the eighth u.s. commander to claim victory was in sight so far the afghan campaign has cost america a trillion dollars and two thousand four hundred lives in the propaganda war the taliban is not an amateur the group has professional websites in multiple languages uses twitter and other social media pumping out its message twenty four hours a day suicide attacks are choreographed with media in mind the tone of communication and the penetration written i want to run as is getting higher and higher day by day not just an hour when i want to stand but also in rural understand. so it sort of help them in integrating new officers in recruiting recruitment of new. predators and conveying the message to their audiences i think it's quite effective absolutely media in afghanistan a said to be flourishing and independent but then now on the frontline of the

propaganda war last year twenty one journalist were killed doing their job afghan media certainly one of the six us stories of the past seventeen years is paying a very high price for telling the food for giving the afghan people the voice they deserve. sadat is a camera man who suffered i damaged when a taliban suicide bomber targeted their vehicle seven colleagues died in the blast but all i can be doing every time i go out i'm scared my family want me to stop but i need the job many times where i have no choice but it's a risk. the true story of this war could be seen in the hospital wards in graveyards across the country to date hundreds of thousands of people most of them civilians have been killed and wounded in forty years of conflict that in itself is almost unbelievable tony berkeley al-jazeera kabul. there are reports of more than twenty six people having died after a fire broke out at

a drug rehabilitation center in the azerbaijani capital back according to local media the blaze has now been put out and an investigation is under way. the u.s. ambassador to mexico has announced her resignation amid strained relations between the two countries roberta jacobson didn't give an explanation as to why she's decided to leave but she told embassy staff that she will leave her post in may ties between the two neighbors have been tense with president trump pledging to build a border wall. forces from the european union have been training soldiers in the central african republic in an effort to rebuild the national army is all part of an international attempt to stabilize the country after years of conflict but skepticism remains about just how much progress

can actually be achieved with most of the country still under rebel control as a lot of al-jazeera special series catherine soy reports from a training camp in the capital bangui. it's an intense six month program by the european union training mission in central african republic this men and women will eventually be deployed across the country much of it controlled by armed groups after the training they'll be given new weapons from russia following an exemption to an arms embargo by the u.n. security council when you have a civil war or a crisis in a country. the rules become. less and less even to file so when they are in a situation of stress and when the military in situations of stress of combat. you have to be real trained and well trained to remember the rules in the same camp

more training but for ex competence they've recently laid down their weapons as part of a disarmament and going to gratian program there are about a hundred and sixty foremost fighters in this phase here lining a stage they get basic training and also important about human rights. but implementing the program has been slow it's strapped for cash and some groups are opposed to it not mean. it is gone because we want to consider people. ibrahim allow what is one of the leaders of the popular front for the renaissance of the central african republic a group that controls most of the north he said the government has fields too on a previous agreements. right now ten thousand un peacekeepers are holding the fort without them the security situation would probably be much worse but the forces of a stretched thin accusations of human rights abuses and peacekeepers are working in

perilous conditions fourteen were killed in fighting last year. the road conditions are very about the forest. will roads. into. the truck the government wants to take control of the country and having better trained and equipped soldiers will help. but with more than eighty percent of. regaining control is clearly a difficult hoddle catherine. bond central african republic. has abandoned his bid to return as leader of the spanish region of catalonia the very separatist politician announced he'll step aside to allow another candidate to take his place has been a self-imposed exile in belgium ever since the spanish government charged him with

rebellion and sedition after last year's independence referendum. seven men have been arrested in slovakia in connection with the death of an investigative journalist police raided houses linked to suspected members of the italian mafia in two towns twenty seven year old young. sunday he'd been investigating high level corruption allegations and mafia links in the country. the rushes are socratic estates a disintegrating many of them were nationalized during soviet times and a still in state thailand's private investors a push off by the high costs and the bureaucracy that comes with restoration each other's reports now almost 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 the states 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 have or oh yeah

i've heard i'm going to move her. over from like a state where the life me koreans are 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 mccollum and solve 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 a 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's 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 amongst disputed by strong. mcconnell is now working with other owners and the governments to nurture and estates tourist industry and simplify many tax and regulate re 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 or each other and al-jazeera moscow region. covers it take a look at the top stories here at al-jazeera russia's president vladimir putin has unveiled plans for the development of its nuclear weapons arsenal including a video depicting an attack on the united states the trumpet ministrations says it

plans to sell ukraine hundreds of antitank missiles to help it defend its territory from russia asian stocks of fall and after president announced plans to impose steep terrorists on seal and imports the plans of course concern among investors and members of the u.s. president republican party with fears of a global trade war is now day four of a partial cease fire in syria's. it follows another day of bloodshed in the rebel held district with at least nineteen civilians killed by the syrian government and russian backed air strikes on first say more than six hundred people have now been killed there since february the eighteenth. north korea has denied that it sent supplies to syria that could be used to produce chemical weapons state t.v. quoted a foreign ministry spokesman dismissing the accusations which were made in a confidential u.n. report going to the u.s.

and cited 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 of chemical weapons and to justify its military invasion into syria turkey is realty says eight of its soldiers were killed and another thirteen were injured in the northern region of our freend making it one of the deadliest days for turkish forces as they began across a border offensive against kurdish y p g fighters in january. at least one person has died after a suicide blast in the afghan capital kabul police say a couple this detonated in an area close to foreign embassies there's been no immediate claim of responsibility or a judge today those are the latest headlines from us here at al-jazeera coming up

next inside story. the. public has forced more than a million people to move. a song the grounds to bring a report on how to trying to carry on without lights a means and ongoing cost. a leaked un report blames regional powers for much of the violence in libya the u.a.e. and egypt are singled out for supplying weapons to rival armed groups in violation of u.n. sanctions so what can be done to stop this this is inside story.