al-jazeera. you and your. president bashar al asad says the syrian pomp eastham who will continue. a line has a seeker this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up china's people's congress

meets to make changes that could see president xi jinping stay in power for life. a bloc of right wing parties leads the way in italy's election but projections say no one will win enough seats to govern the loan. and the investigation into interference in the u.s. presidential election now includes the united arab emirates. hello the united states has accused russia of killing civilians in syria's eastern hooter saying it carried out twenty bombings a day late last month. it is america's strongest accusation yet into russia's role in a syrian government offensive in the rebel held area more than six hundred forty people have been killed over the past two weeks syrian president bashar al assad has vowed to continue with the airstrikes but at same time he says troops will open the way for civilians to leave as said has also denied using chemical weapons about four

hundred thousand people are trapped inside eastern huta with little food and basic supplies that are said has dismissed those reports as a ridiculous lie by the west he says the syrian army is making progress against what he calls terrorists closure to you for there is no contradiction between a truce and the combat operations the advancement of jeev yesterday and the day before by 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 allow for the achievement of humanitarian gold at the same time as allowing us to get the terrorists this is where we have to continue with our operation while at the same time allowance of billions to leave you in the throat of the rebels say they have made some gains against assets 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 united nations says the collective punishment of civilians in syria is in their words simply unacceptable then a lot of reports now from beirut in neighboring lebanon. pro-government forces are advancing inside eastern 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 pause 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 it 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. beirut china's parliament is expected to approve changes to the country's constitution which would allow president xi jinping to remain in power indefinitely the national people's congress is holding its annual gathering in beijing the ruling communist party needs its

support to remove the current two term presidential limit xi jinping was elected to his second five year term last october way jim brown is covering this story for us live from beijing so what have been the main themes so far in that congress. well the chinese premier spoke for just over one hour and forty minutes and really it wasn't so much the facts the statistics the percentages the third out it was one name that kept coming up again and again and that was paying and the message that really came through in the annual work report that was delivered here was that china is great but it will be even greater under the leadership of xi jinping and of course in a few days' time the three thousand or so delegates to the national people's congress will be asked to amend the constitution so that she could in theory remain

president for life and that's something that the n.p.c. has never done before so this is i think the one issue that is really overshadowing this national people's congress but there were also some important announcements given by the premier he set a target of six point five percent for economic growth in two thousand and eighteen that's about what it was in two thousand and seventeen in fact it was up to about six point nine percent he also announced a big increase in military spending the budget for the military is going to increase by eight point one percent that's a sizable rise and of course this comes at a time as china is developing a second aircraft carrier it also has plans for a third and it's also developing its stealth fighter technology but all that aside really the one dominant issue is she jinping he really is the figure who looms large over this national people's congress it's going to be the congress where his

powers are well and truly cemented. and adrian. many people have said this is this is kind of harking back to the mouth say don't era and the irony is that this this two term limit was put in place precisely to stop someone like him emerging again. that's right it was done sharping who really pushed this idea of limiting presidents to know more than two terms that was back in one thousand nine hundred two and as you rightly pointed out he wanted to avoid is the sort of cultish devotion that surrounded the tone which in part really flourished during the cultural revolution which led to sort of ten years of chaos then what a lot of people here feel greatly a feel great unease about is really that the sense that perhaps china is now going backwards under xi jinping all this power is going to be in the hands of one man remember she jinping is not just president he's chairman of the military commission

party trick as well those who are leader now what happens if something goes wrong with the economy who are people going to blame you know what happens if she were to fall ill or no longer to be on the scene was to die for instance this is the the concern that people have because what she has done is he's basically rewritten the rulebook already in a dream brown life or stare in beijing. now and it's a lady n.t.'s stablish mint five star movement is projected to win the most votes in the general election their ballots are still being counted there with projections suggesting a bloc of right wing parties will emerge with the most seats without any single group winning enough to form a government reports from rome. just five years after they first got into parliament the firestorm movement the anti-politics poncy say that the clear winners in italy's general elections after

a campaign that sort of promise to guarantee universal basic income of a thousand dollars a month while cutting taxes they insist nobody can afford to ignore them also exceeding expectations leggo formally the northern league led by mateo so vini firmly anti migration and euro skeptic they're vying to be the biggest player in the center right coalition led by silvio berlusconi for selvi the results prove that italians are fed up of the status quo and one of the clearest outcomes after five years in power the center left democratic party have taken a peak hit and then there's this mild the peter pan of italian politics silvio berlusconi couldn't stand as a candidate because of a tax fraud conviction but he's hoping his force a tally of party and their allies on the far right can get first pick at trying to form a ruling coalition if they selection has proved anything it's that many italians wanted a clean break from the traditional ruling parties but what kind of government emerges

is hard to say that could take many days if not weeks that involve al-jazeera wrote . a germany finally has a government after months of political uncertainty chancellor angela merkel will secure a fourth term in office after clinching a coalition deal with the social democrats the espy's membership approving that deal by a two thirds majority on sunday it was clinched more than five months after an inconclusive election. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu is meeting u.s. president donald trump in washington on monday to talk middle east peace and iran's nuclear program netanyahu left israel on sunday leaving behind as well accusations of corruption u.s. israel ties of warm since trump came to power though last year trump recognized jerusalem as the capital of israel and said he would relocate the u.s. embassy there this year mohamad ways is a palestinian american political analyst he says the u.s.

motivation for negotiating a middle east peace deal serves trumps self interest. it land with peace between who and who i mean tramps and the people who work for trump in basically jason 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 as a 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 another piece the issue here is nobody is negotiating with their party to the issue which is the palestinians the 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 palestinians it's not for peace for the sake of time and then yahoo only us media is reporting the investigation into russian interference in the twenty sixteen election has widened think clearly the united arab emirates the new york times says the f.b.i. has been questioning george neder and american lebanese businessman who is an advisor to the crown prince of the u.a.e. special counsel robert muller's original focus was on contacts between donald trump's campaign and russia diane estabrook has 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 and 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 all right we're going to take a quick break now but still ahead on the edges it will tell you about the court case that's testing freedom of speech in the polls. welcome back and look at the weather across the americas now we've got some really heavy snowfall to contend with across some of the northern plains the united states into the canary and prairie's frontal system extends further south and as a move the forecast certain to choose to see the snow pushing further towards the east the cold air beginning to feed its way in and this frontal system heavy across

parts of the south still droit during choose day for new york meanwhile out across the west it should be improving seattle looking at highs of eleven and fine across the southwest with los angeles coming in at twenty five degrees into central parts of america has been looking pretty quiet over recent days some very fine weather conditions here and that's how it continues the risk of showers is pretty low all way through central america and indeed for the islands of the caribbean the weather conditions continue to look fine with temperatures in the high twenty's and more or less unbroken sunshine for many areas so let's not dwell on that region that's moved down into south america where we've got some heavy showers still affecting parts approved and down through bolivia and into northern parts of argentina paraguayan still seeing a little bit of rain and some showers still expected for rio de janeiro further south is looking generally draw around the river plate region but the flow karratha south is turning to what a series with a high here with twenty three. from

satellite technology to three d. printing and recycled waste to form a powered classrooms africa is transforming young innovators are propelling change building communities creating employment and solving problems they're challenging systems and shaping new ones it's about creative thinkers shaping their continent future innovate africa at this time on al-jazeera.

you know again you're watching edge the a reminder of our top stories this hour the u.s. has accused russia of killing civilians in syria's eastern huta saying carried out twenty bombings a day last month it is the strongest u.s. action zation to date of russia's role in the government offensive on the rebel held enclave. china's parliament is expected to approve changes to the country's constitution which will see president xi jinping able to rule indefinitely national people's congress is holding its annual gathering in beijing it's also announced an eight percent increase in defense spending. in italy the anti establishment five star movement is claiming a trial on child in the general election with votes still being counted none of the parties though are expected to get enough to form a majority government the main winners though seem to be five star and the center right coalition which is led by former prime minister silvio berlusconi. allison

janney has won best supporting actress for her role in the film i tanya she joins. sam rockwell who took best supporting actor for three billboards at the ninetieth annual academy awards just a couple of the awards that have been announced so far the stories of sexual harassment and course to see more women represented in the industry have dominated the past year in hollywood and heading into this evening's awards the shape of water was leading the oscars race with thirteen nominations but all eyes will be on best director where great to go in is the only female nominee for her film ladybird rob reynolds is in los angeles covering this for so rob what are the main winners so far than. well as you mentioned both the best supporting male actor and best supporting female actor oscars have been handed out interesting you mentioned get credit girl win if she were to win tonight for her direction of. of lady bird she would be only the second woman to ever win an

oscar for direction other firsts that could happen tonight would be jordan peele the director of get out if you were to win he'd be the first african-american to win and rachel more since she is a camera person and if she were to win she'd be the first ever female cinematographer to win but in terms of best picture now as you mentioned a lot of people are betting on the shape of water but it does seem a little odd to some people that the academy which is kind of conservative would go for a film that is after all a kind of hybrid creature feature love story not exactly the kind of thing that they usually go for and then there's get out as i mentioned that was by far the biggest film that's been nominated for best picture at the box office so a crowd pleaser there but again it's a horror movie even though it deals with some very serious themes of of white supremacy and racism and then there's three billboards

a lot of people are saying the frances mcdormand is going to win for her portrayal of a grief stricken and furiously angry mother very strong female role in a movie that has underlying themes of violence against women so there is still a potential for some firsts tonight and the show is going on and on and on but we'll have an update for you when we get more oh right great rob we'll look forward to that thanks very much for the moment rob reynolds live in los angeles. now south korea will send a senior delegation to north korea for two days of talks on monday that's in response to an invitation delivered by kim jong un's sister jury in her visit to the winter olympics in pyongyang delegation includes the chief of south korea's national intelligence service were on the pride is live for us in solve so rob what are we expecting to happen today then. that's right the chief of this

delegation young has just given a brief statement here in seoul stating what we know that this is a reciprocal visit in return for the high level delegation that came down from the north to attend the winter olympics here and stressing that their main message will be to convey from one j.n. the president of south korea his resolve that this whole dialogue process will ultimately lead to the denuclearization of the korean peninsula now north korea has gone into this thought process this process of dialogue without giving any such commitments chang also stress though that they will be looking at ways of furthering this dialogue between the two koreas which has now begun looking at ways of trying to kickstart dialogue between north korea and the united states delegation leaves in a couple of hours on a special flight from seoul to pyongyang to begin two days of talks it's hoped as

in the joining this time they will get to meet with kim jong un although that is by no means certain and we might not hear much more about their deliberations until they return here to seoul it is it gives you a sense of the isolation of north korea that this delegation goes without any media from south korea we are relying upon the coverage given by north korean media and what communiques come from the presidential office here in seoul possibly until they come back to give us a sense of what progress has or has not been made hasn't and how is all of this received being received then in south korea. it really depends on your politics many people here do regard this as a positive step forward it builds upon all of this goodwill and smiles that we've seen during the olympics and many people here believe just dialogue for dialogue

sake is surely better than the kind of hostility that we had even as recently as a couple of months ago if they do get to meet kim jong un that really would be something of a milestone kim jong un since he took power has not met a south korean official so that would be a step forward what could be bad with that according to many conservatives and more hawkish elements here in south korea this is bad they're very critical of this they see this as a reward for north korea for all of its belligerence and its nuclear program that they are getting this delegation they believe that north should have given some sort of commitment before hand that they see these delegates as being cheerleaders of north korea's nuclear program so while it's been covered in different ways here in south korean media it is obviously being closely followed and has to be mentioned it's also being covered in north korean media although there's only one official opinion being carried and that is that this is a very positive step forward as i'm all right robin wright for us in

a song rob thanks. journalists from the polls largest newspaper have been charged with contempt of court that's after they published stories that were critical of the chief justice the case against the county poor daly is being seen as an attack on press freedom there being a shrestha as more from the capital katmandu. riot police were deployed outside the supreme court as representatives of the party largest newspaper the county daily arrived for the hearing security was tight and court authorities strict about who else would be allowed in so the sharma's the newspaper's editor program. and this is not only a case of counter poor but of the larger case of press freedom in nepal this will set a precedent on how widely ordinarily the constitutional guarantee of free speech will be understood because people who daily publish a series of reports alleging that the past chief justice but actually use fake

documents and falsified his date of birth the mandatory age retirement is sixty five the chief justice says that these stories are a tad on the judiciary system with imaginary facts and objectionable language the supreme court however already has an ongoing investigation that you justice on the less charges all fake documents. chief justice perjury had issued an order for the newspaper to appear on charges of contempt of court he also ordered the press council a press watchdog body with government appointed members to presents a news against him constitutional experts say this sets a dangerous trend. is very important part of this is even if they cross the limitation of self-restraint there may be some sort of the decision arc is a. limited role of the sauces and.

the respect of those views of the sky. with regard to the to distil pronouncement with regard to this of the behavior although previously sat on his own case despite being implicated in it to other judges presided on sunday the hearing was adjourned until monday it's been stressed out in syria that men do. hundreds of myanmar soldiers are refusing to leave bangladesh border area where they've been since last week government says they're staying because of intelligence reports of an imminent attack by revenger refugees and critics say the troop presence is for intimidation and proof that repatriation to myanmar is not an option charlotte bellus reports. this sprawling koos prolong camp near the bangladesh meum our border home to nearly six hundred thousand ranger refugees the majority have arrived since august.

one refugee who witnessed the influx is kemal hussein has lived here since he was two his parents also fled violence some e.m.r. in the ninety's for president of iran in vast the concern was people are coming to bangladesh who'd never been here before they don't know the place they don't know anyone they don't know the roads where to go what to eat where to sleep i'll have something i want all the while we have first mc in october after he saved up a missing persons birth in the scramble for survival into bangladesh many refugees became separated and disoriented as he reminded some seven hundred families in the first two months. the commercial has closed the bush it's no longer needed no longer stream over the border is settling into cooper long camp as hard just like he did some twenty years ago. my concern is i've been living here since one thousand nine hundred ninety eight i came from burma when i was only

a child now i'm twenty eight i'm still here what will happen to those who are coming now i believe they'll suffer more. and bangladesh governments have been negotiating over a petrie ation deal that would return more than seven hundred thousand russian jets but critics say me n ma is not an honest broker the government has deflected accusations of ethnic cleansing and even genocide and cannot be trusted to re home the very people it pushed out they say the latest troop build up on the border is a hostile miss it for the revenge or the whole purpose of forcibly even doing and destroying the communities overrunning jews across the northern arc on is to make sure that like you know burma. no longer has ranger as a group and so why would. take the you know nearly one million rangers back. then just say they wouldn't return anyway not until they have

a guarantee of safety compensation for their destroyed villages and citizenship something that been denied for thirty five years. bangladesh remained settled and one million revenger entirely dependent on handouts from low income making crucial long kemp their home charlotte dallas and his ear. and nearly one hundred fifty thousand people are still in urgent need of emergency supplies that's our week after an earthquake struck the highlands of papua new guinea damaged roads and landslides have stopped the delivery of aid to the country's isolated communities the quite destroyed or damaged the homes of around seven thousand people. this is al jazeera let's get a round up of the top stories now the u.s. has accused russia of killing civilians in syria's eastern huta they say it carried

out twenty bombings a day late last month it is the strongest u.s. accusations so far russia's role in the syrian government offensive on the rebel held area more than six hundred forty people have been killed in the past two weeks syrian of president bashar al assad says the airstrikes will continue but his troops will allow civilians to leave. there is no contradiction between our troops and the combat operations the advancement of yesterday and the day before by the arab syrian army took place in the midst of this truce that's why when we speak about the resolutions there are some positives that allow for the achievement of humanitarian calls at the same time as allowing us to get the terrorists this is why we have to continue with our operation while at the same time allowing civilians to leave much in italy the anti establishment five star movement is claiming a triumph in the general election where the votes are still being counted none of

the parties look like getting enough seats to form a government though the center right coalition led by former prime minister silvio berlusconi has also performed well. china's parliament is expected to approve changes to the country's constitution which will see president xi jinping able to rule indefinitely the national people's congress is holding its annual gathering in beijing it's also announced an eight percent increase in defense spending. the us media is reporting special prosecutor robert muller's investigation into russian interference in the twenty sixteen election has widened to include the united arab emirates the new york times says the f.b.i. has been questioning george ned an american lebanese businessman who is an advisor to the crown prince of the u.a.e. . israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu is meeting a u.s. president donald trump in washington on monday to talk about middle east peace and iran's nuclear program netanyahu departed israel leaving behind swirling

accusations of corruption those are the headlines innovate africa's next. more than forty thousand africans are facing deportation from israel is awarded more than ninety percent of. the way in europe almost zero point one percent of the two of those in danger of being thrown out of the country in which the sought refuge talks al-jazeera at this time this is africa a series highlighting innovation and creativity across a call to bet is on the rise. today on the. african scientists using satellite technology to the future. is. the one who has information. as south african physicist invents the world's first digital laser so what we want to do is come up with that mystic tools for.