we have a newsgathering team here that is second to their all over the world and they do a fantastic job the information is coming in very quickly all at once you've got to be able to react to all of the changes and al-jazeera we adapt to that. my job is is to break it all down and we help give you understand and make sense of it. also coming up.

united arab emirates. north korea after two days of talks. russia. say it carried out twenty bombings a day late last month as the white house. state of russia's role in a government offensive on the rebel held more than six hundred forty people have been killed over the past two weeks. to continue with the airstrikes but the same time he says troops will open the way for civilians to leave. using chemical weapons about four hundred thousand people are trapped inside. with little food and

basic supplies. such scripts a ridiculous lie by the west he says his army is making progress against what he calls terrorists. there is no contradiction between the combat operations. yesterday the day before. the arab syrian army took place in the midst of this truce that's why when we speak about the resolution there are some positives that are. at the same time as allowing the terrorists this is why we have to continue with our operation. while at the same time allowing civilians to leave them rebels say they've made some gains against assad's forces. today we regained control of some territory after fierce battles the regime used scorched earth policy after failing for four months to achieve any progress through

ground fighting russian and syrian airliners bombs the area intensively using helicopters so we count attacked with rates and. the un is sounding the alarm saying the collective punishment of civilians is simply unacceptable and i heard a report from beirut in neighboring lebanon. pro-government forces are advancing inside eastern holter since friday they've seized at least ten percent of the one hundred ten square kilometer enclave they are moving in from the eastern side forcing people to pack whatever they can and move to other areas away from the front lines people are seeking shelter in towns closer to the center displacement is adding to their suffering the ground offensive began just over a week ago the territory taken is not heavily populated it's mainly farmlands which are hard to defend pro-government forces want to control the do mushy phony out road which would cut rebel supply lines cut off the main town of duma and split the

opposition held pocket in half. the assault is not just from the ground airstrikes and shelling are targeting towns throughout the besieged rebel stronghold the bombing may have lessened since the five hour daily pass in the fighting ordered by the russian government came into effect on tuesday but civilians continue to be killed. it's one of the deadliest offensives in the almost eight year conflict the death toll is now more than six hundred fifty. rebels have been retaliated by firing mortars into the syrian capital killing almost thirty people in the past two weeks the ability of the opposition to threaten damascus is one of the reasons why the pro-government alliance wants to recapture eastern huta it is the last major opposition controlled area close to the government seat of power if pro-government forces take it then there will be only one small pocket of

territory south of the capital out of the government's control and the pro-government alliance is making it clear not only in its words but in its actions that it is not ready to compromise and is pushing for a military victory despite pleas from humanitarian organizations aid hasn't reached the almost four hundred thousand people believed to be in eastern huta the united nations was hoping to deliver food and medical supplies on sunday now it says that won't happen this isn't the first time restricting humanitarian access to a besieged population has been used as a weapon of war. senator beirut and it's really the anti establishment five star movement is claiming a triumph in the general election the vote still being counted if the numbers are confirmed by solving the largest party social order the threshold needs to form a government that's take a look at how the vote works and what's at stake this is the first general election since a new electoral law came into force which encourages parties to form coalitions

before the vote six hundred thirty seats in the lower house and three hundred fifteen in the senate are up for grabs one third of them will be decided by a winner takes all basis in individual constituencies arrests or depend on the number of votes each party gets the main parties include the anti establishment five star movement with thirty one year old luigi de mayo as its leader former prime minister silvio berlusconi's center right forza italia party and the anti immigration league of party led by. being me. again barbara and following the story for us and joins us now from rome where five star movement is gathered ten a day in the place the still being counted but five star already calling this election a triumph. they are indeed laura we're expecting luigi to my oh the thirty one year old party leader to appear here. in the next couple of hours we're not exactly sure when there was a big cheer

a while ago when exit polls were put on two screens from italian television stations they are not very reliable but they were suggesting that the five star has become the largest single party will be the largest single party in parliament now we're getting a projection based on a partial or very partial count across the country. that suggests that the five star on around thirty two or thirty three percent now one of the party's main officials alexandra de batista around half an hour ago also spoke to the media saying that it was an extraordinary result he said that . it means that all the other groupings in italy will now have to deal with five star they've always positioned themselves as the anti-politics party not part of

the same system which sure governments come and go and over a period of many decades if in stable government it's far from clear whether they will be in a position to be in government because they've said they won't for many alliances and the mathematics as you were explaining under the new electoral system means that. anybody really who doesn't get the forty percent threshold in parliament will have to operate with partners so many people speculating now that maybe five star if they do well enough might actually start talking to the other party that seen as anti establishment if you like the far right northern league sorry league the formal northern league party led by matteo silvino this is all speculation at the moment but given that the league have also said that they've done extremely well it's not impossible and it would be interesting indeed if we

met a lot of these predations tallis about what they actually want from their government . well those two parties as i say the five star movement and the labor party. offering a sharp alternative to the center right and the center left although. are part of the center right coalition led by silvio berlusconi they are very strongly anti immigration and very euro skeptic. the five star movement have promised to do things like guarantee a universal basic income of one thousand. dollars per month suggested as well that they will raise taxes on energy companies they have spoken about immigration suggesting that numbers should be council vote in the last week of campaigning they didn't shy away from the topic they've also become less euro skeptic in the historically were they previously promised

a referendum on the euro and lots of people still wonder exactly what they stand for but certainly very are saying they are the main headline of the night could be done better than anybody expected we were waiting to hear what he. says in the next hour or so hopefully indeed we will i'm hoping that here is when he comes out ok nothing for a moment thanks very much. now jeremy social democrats have voted to approve their party going into another coalition giving the conservative chancellor angela merkel a fourth term in office and brings an end to months of political uncertainty but many in the party aren't happy to be propping up another merkel government and berlin dominic came up or pts. for much of the past six months since the federal election failed to find a clear winner the social democrats have appeared divided stuck between the ideological desire to oppose angle america and the pragmatic need for germany to have

a stable government on sunday the party's grass roots had their say it. will not annoying on the eyes it's thousand two hundred thirty nine thousand six hundred four is speedy ma'am it's worth it yes one hundred twenty three thousand three hundred twenty nine is speedy members voted no this represents a two thirds vote and one third all know that. this was a decision of the head not the heart many members agonized over their choice some feared how the electorate will perceive another grand coalition in the weeks leading up to the vote the party youth movement was vociferously opposed saying election losers should lick their wounds and not work with angle america but the politician who is likely to be the next finance minister welcome to sunday's result . we now have clarity s.p.d. will join the next government our party did not make this decision lightly this will now give us the strength we need to move forward as

a party in government and to put our country on the right path it's good yes but some analysts believe it's questionable whether that path will benefit the social democrats long term brand is social justice but it has to be more in order to actually be over twenty over thirty percent because what they're claiming for they still want to be a fights and what does that label mean it actually means or how is it defined thirty percent and more of the vote and they're far away from that in the end the party's members have decided to put the interests of the country above the interests of their party but the point to make here as they contemplate another coalition with anglo-american christian democrats is it's now many many years since their party has been in a position to win an election and to provide the chancellor as a social democrat dominic a al-jazeera. yes media is reporting the investigation into russian interference in the twenty six election has widened to include the influence of the united arab

emirates you know times of the f.b.i. has been questioning george natan american lebanese businessman is that vies it's the crown prince of the u.a.e. social council of muslim which no focus was on context from donald trump's come pain and russia time after protests more on the story so it appears that robert muller's investigation is not just now focused on russia and whether or not it influenced the campaign in the election of two thousand and sixteen and potentially the white house but whether other countries might be trying to buy access to the trumpet ministration as well and that brings us to this lebanese american businessman george nader and gerard cushion or nader is this advisor to the u.a.e. he's been a frequent visitor to the white house and has in fact met with jared cushion or which is raising some eyebrows this past week it's cushion or was stripped of his top secret security clearance as an investigation into his background continues and

one of the things that's raising a red flag is question or spam lee's extensive business ties around the globe and whether or not he is susceptible to influence by outsiders like a george nader and in fact on one of the sunday talk shows a senator mentioned that he's very concerned about a general question or now there were media reports last week that president trump was looking to have his chief of staff john kelly oust gerald cushion or and his wife volga the president's daughter from the oval office so if these reports are true this could potentially pave the way for that senate i mentioned by diane joins a chorus of democrats calling for christians removal if allegations of him into firing in u.s. foreign policy are true. if it's true it's damning if it's true or has to go for many of us the fall of the middle east closely we could not understand why the trumpet ministration was so firmly taking the saudis side in this dispute between

the saudis the m roddy's and the qataris because the united states has very important interests in qatar at the top of the list are thousands of u.s. troops that are stationed in a base there and so to so firmly take the side of the saudis against the countries potentially resulting in the downward spiral of the qatari economy put thousands of americans at risk. their investigation has revealed new evidence of saudi arabia the u.a.e. egypt and bahrain's attempt to overthrow the castro government in one thousand nine hundred six that includes interviews with coup leaders who conspired to remove the movie end there of cattles father shake him out tunney who was then the country's leader an investigation comes eight months into a blockade against cast by a saudi the bahrain and egypt the countries have accused of supporting terrorism a claim cattle vehemently denies that it was crown prince is for

a three day visit in silence first foreign trip since becoming crown prince last year so then fly on to meet with leaders in the u.s. and the u.k. russia is following developments from doha. this is one hundred percent man's first foreign trip as crown prince of saudi arabia and people might wonder why did he choose egypt as the first leg of the trip well from a sandy perspective there are two serious challenges in the region first of all iran which the saudis consider almost like an existential threat and the war in yemen which continues with no indication that it might come to an end anytime soon so for the saudis the only way to contain iran's growing influence and to win the war in saudi arabia they need to rely on a strong ally in the region and this explains why they have been pouring billions of dollars into the gypsum economy and providing strong political assistance to the president of the c.c.

if you look at the events shuttle during that three day visit crown prince mohammed bin so many is going to meet with pope who was the second leader of the coptic christians in egypt and this is quite significant because crown prince will have a bias and i would like to show that he's young more to break into from a long tradition of strict interpretation of islam that has been prevailing in saudi arabia for decades he's going also to attend a performance of the opera in cairo along with the president at the has c.c. . only recently saudi arabia decided to invest sixty one billion dollars into into taim and industry in the kingdom and this is quite important for the leader because he says who wants to introduce major changes in the society and diversify the economy he basically wants to be seen as

a young leader who is going to change sanity arabia. still ahead on al-jazeera u.s. president and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu are set to meet at the white house on monday we'll tell you what's on the agenda. and i think the big names are arriving for hollywood's biggest night of the year. from brisk news and fuel. to the warmth. of south. welcome back we begin in southern and eastern parts of china and taiwan where we still get a flow from the southwest bringing some pretty warm humid air there so fuzhou looking at thirty degrees but with a growing risk of some rain developing the same goes for shanghai rain is likely

here but so the warm air is in across a good part of indochina with annoying in northern vietnam seeing a high of thirty four degrees but as we head on through into choosing see that dropping away quite consider indeed cooler weather conditions generally at that stage losing the southerly flow and so fuzhou is quite a drop in temperatures in the space of twenty four hours with some rain further north towards yangtze river valley so let's head down is southeastern parts of asia where for the philippines where the conditions not looking too bad across a new song plenty of sunshine there from manila and highs of thirty four the risk of a few showers further towards the south across borneo is looking quite shower at the moment but for java yes a few showers are likely but it should be some dry intervals mixed in between up through them and a pinch of showers are certainly possible for singapore and kuala lumpur but northwards into thailand across cambodia and southern parts of vietnam where the conditions gerry not looking too bad but the two showers around the gulf of thailand into south asia some snow up on the hill stations otherwise looking fine twenty eight the high in delhi. the weather sponsored by cateye peace.

force to be displaced by their governments in one nine hundred twenty three it was very bad greek and turkish villagers returned to their roots only a century later. and reconnect with the past they thought they'd lost forever. people shouldn't be forced to move from the land we're born which are. the great population exchange at this time. reminder of our top stories this hour. syria's.

carried out twenty bombings a day last month as the white house. today russia's role in the government offensive on the rebel held. movement from the general election vote still being counted none of that is expected to reach the threshold needed to form a majority government. competition is between five star movement and the center right coalition which is led by former prime minister silvio berlusconi. and reporting special prosecutor robert. russian interference in the twenty six thousand election has widened to include the united arab emirates the new york times as the f.b.i. is being questioned george an american lebanese businessman to the crown prince of . israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu is meeting u.s. president donald trump and washington on monday to discuss

a middle east peace deal and iran's nuclear program netanyahu departed israel sunday leaving behind swirling accusations of corruption u.s. israel ties of war came to power. recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel as the u.s. embassy that. is a palestinian american political analyst he says the white house motivation for negotiating a middle east peace deal. self interest. it land with peace between who and who i mean tramps and the people who work for trump in basically jason green blatt david friedman. and nikki haley all of them are more settlers and more more zionists than the israelis themselves and they have not spoken to the palestinians since they took office they have not spoken to any meaningful country except the countries who are in what i call trumps arabs

they are talking to people who are plotting with donald trump in order to give israel what israel wants and not peace the issue here is nobody is negotiating with the party to the issue which is the palestinians that palestinians are being marginalized they talk about the deal of the century but they're not talking to anybody who counts so what i see both people i'm talking about netanyahu and both of them are sinking and i don't think they have time to do anything except to talk about projects and their projects that they are not going to be able to fulfill and get to continue in their offices as long as they can it is not for the palace and yes it's not for peace for the sake of and then you are only sasco have a fantasy did i question to north korea after two days of talks on monday and some

response an invitation from me to kim jong and sister and she attended the winter olympics and south korea last month of a pride has more from sell. the delegation is being led by two ministry level intelligence officials one of them an expert in u.s. korean relations the other an expert in into korean relations so it seems this delegation has a jewel purpose first of all of exploring the possibility of dialogue between pyongyang and washington but also looking at what is the next step in into korean relations with the anticipated visit perhaps by a south korean president moon j.n. to north korea following on from the invitation there was extended by kim jong un sr attending the opening of the winter olympics the team will be in pyongyang for two days of talks will then return to seoul to brief officials here and then go straight on to washington to brief american officials the process does point up the

differences in approach between south korea and the united states to north korea the u.s. position is still that north korea should commit itself to denuclearize ation before negotiations or dialogue starts increasingly it seems the south korean position is one of pragmatism that dialogue itself should be entered into and see where it goes there are concerns among more hawkish conservative elements here and also in the united states that north korea might be using this whole process of trying to get around the sanctions which many people believe are beginning to bite and trying to undermine the whole process of maximum pressure. china's leaders are defending their plans to scrap term limits on the presidency which allows sheehan paying to roll indefinitely and there is overshadowing this year's gathering of

parliament. according to the constitution of the chinese communist party there's no such provision as to nor more than two successive terms for the general secretary and the chairman of the central military commission of the party also there is no such cause of no more that two terms for the chairman of the central military commission for the country and the constitution of china so if we post the similar clause in the constitution for the terms of the presidency it's can juicer to upholding the authority of the central committee of the party with comrade xi jinping at the core and also to unify leadership also will help strengthen and improve the country's governance are trying to correspondent reports from beijing. in the ceremonial heart of beijing china's political season is about to start but it will be different this year delegates to the national people's congress are being asked to do something they've never had to before approve

a change to the constitution that restricts presidents to two terms dissenting voices are rare in today's china yet in the run up to this n.p.c. there's been token criticism over the proposed amendment. most of the modern countries in the world adopt this two term presidency that's why people find it unbelievable that if she is going to stay in power more than two terms president she is likely to get his way the n.p.c. is viewed as a largely rubber stamp body controlled by the ruling communist party and has never voted down a proposal from party leaders. the change will further consolidate she's power as he's also party chief and head of the military and in october his name was in shrines in the constitution elevating him to the status of chairman mao like president xi jinping wants to make his country great again and he often talks about

the rejuvenation of the chinese nation he now believes he's the only leader that can make that happen there are no opinion polls in china so it's not possible to gauge what the public thinks about all of this a few people in beijing though were willing to share their views and surprisingly they weren't all positive. when they were out of miami or janice. this hasn't happened in china or other countries before if you change the constitution itis that it's back to the old days you know living back when. he should be president for more than two terms even he serves seeks i would support him. china today is a one party state dominated now by one man adrian brown al jazeera beijing. the red carpet has been rolled out for hollywood's biggest night of the year and nine tear through our new york cademy awards are due to begin shortly in

los angeles this year's awards have been overshadowed by claims of sexual harassment and call see more women represented in the industry meanwhile the shape of water leaves the oscars race with thirteen nominations and all eyes will be on best director regret a go and it's the only female nominee for her film. o'connell's has more on the red carpet. well there's a lot of excitement here on the red carpet of hollywood boulevard outside the building theater look so look around the room could see the road and hear the cheers of the audience here you can see the. band in their tuxedo see the ladies of course in their uniform dresses and if you look closely you might see some familiar faces of course this the oscar ceremony is not the usual festival filled industry itself to graduation it has been in the past that's because there's a cloud over this oscars the cloud over the sex harassment scandal others began

about five months ago with revelations about the producer harvey weinstein it has ballooned since then also people here are very aware of the a lack of parity in the film industry with the dearth of women directors and other professionals as well as lack of clarity in terms of racial minorities so all of these things are waiting on the crowd here at the oscars and it does make it a little bit less of a festive celebration and asian that it is and has been in years past. these are the top stories the u.s. has accused russia of killing civilians and syria's besieged east and saying it carried out twenty bombings that day last month as the white house the strongest

accusation to date of russia's role in the government offensive on the rebel held. on six hundred forty people have been killed in the past two weeks. and the anti establishment five star movement is claiming a triumph in the general election with still being counted none of the party is expected to reach the threshold needed to form a majority government the main competition is pin five star movement in the center right coalition that by former prime minister tony. yes media is reporting special prosecutor robert well as the investigation into russian interference in the twenty six thousand election has widened to include the united arab emirates the new york times as the f.b.i. has been questioning george neda an american lebanese businessman who has been fined that's the crown prince of the usa. well the democratic senate has a calling for a senior white house adviser and son in law to be removed if allegations against him interfering in u.s. foreign policy are true if it's true it's damning if it's true there has to go for

many of us to follow the middle east closely we could not understand why the trumpet administration was so firmly taking the saudis side in this dispute between the saudis the m. roddy's and the qataris because the united states has very important interests in qatar at the top of the list are thousands of u.s. troops that are stationed in a base there and so it does so firmly take the side of the saudis against the qataris potentially resulting in the downward spiral of the qatari economy put thousands of americans at risk. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu is meeting us president donald trump in washington on monday middle east peace dalan iran's nuclear program that's now he departed israel on sunday leaving behind sweating accusations of corruption u.s. israel ties a warm since trump came to power. saudi arabia's crown prince is in egypt for three day visit as one who had been solomon's first foreign trip since becoming crown prince last year he will then travel on words to meet leaders in the u.s. and u.k.

. as i had lines to say with us and. conflicts of interest in the white house donald trump's son in law is reported to have used his influence with the president to boost the family business and cushion or has had his top secret security clearance downgraded is that a sign of more chaos in the president's inner circle this is inside story.