capital the capital which makes a creative. when nature is transformed into a commodity big business takes a new interest. protecting landscapes it's a phenomenal opportunity to be able to use a business model to achieve sustainability of nature but at what risk banks of course don't do that because they have at the heart protection they do that because to see a business crossing the planet at this time on al-jazeera. south korea's president echoes the cautious sentiments of world leaders summit with the north. i'm sammy's a dan this is al jazeera live from also coming up lucky to live another day bombs

continue to fall in syria's eastern altar as the u.n. repeats calls for an urgent cease fire plus. homes destroyed lives shattered in egypt's sinai our exclusive report on the military operation against armed groups plus. i'm adrian brown in northwest china where president xi jinping recently vowed to eliminate poverty it's going to be a big challenge find out why here on al-jazeera. south korea's president says it's too early to be optimistic about progress in relations with the north. says he has no plans to ease sanctions against pyongyang ahead of a historic summit with leader kim jong il next month and don't trump says he believes north korea stance is genuine but mcbrien has more from seoul. there is

widespread optimism in south korea at what many believe is a landmark agreement but conservative opposition parties still suspect north korea of playing a game of deception to buy time for its nuclear and missile development there's been similar caution from japan which has accused north korea of reneging on previous agreements made in here or past discussions with north korea have not resulted in the nuclear a creation so our response should be based on lessons learned from their talks for the sake of talks are meaningless in china one of north korea's few allies and a possible partner in brokering future negotiations has been more welcoming and a cautious welcome from u.s. president donald trump hopefully will go in the very very peaceful beautiful pair we're prepared to go whichever path is necessary i think we're having very good

dialogue south korea's envoys now travel to the u.s. to sell the merits of the deal the question for officials there is whether there is sufficient substance to get them involved this is a huge opportunity lost if we can't get some talks going with north korea to prolong this reduction in tension because what's the alternative to talks is what winston churchill said if you don't jar jar you're going to be in war war south korea's desire to avoid conflict at all costs may have started this push for dialogue it is now for others it seems to take it up for it to work if americans decide that it's a time to start talking to the north koreans and it's like if they're making this here right now they will do it again there's not any inference of north south communication all sides no previous talks on the north korean crisis have been plagued by mistrust and failure. supporters of the initiative say the difference

this time is a sincerity too weak to deal but unlike previous attempts the northeast so close to achieving its nuclear ambitions the united states is so determined to stop it one way or another the price of failure could be far higher robert bride al jazeera so . michael paine is president of get so news agency joins us via skype from tokyo good to have you with us so much the world seems very cautious at this point do you think that cautiousness is well founded. certainly it's well founded there's a lots of factors that could pull this situation either towards a better track or much worse track so and also you know not all of the hopes which are being floated out there are likely to be very realistic but on the other hand i do think that you know things could go in a good or bad direction at this point one of draw the north koreans to this stage

where they seem very eager to start talks at least with the south. well of course it's speculation because there are a regime which is very secretive for obvious reasons but one factor i think is that they reached a certain level of their missile and nuclear weapons development that they that they felt that they could move forward to talks now obviously they would also like to head off very serious economic sanctions which could you know certainly damage the economy of the country and hurt the lifestyle of ordinary people and also you know they may be actually concerned that that the trump administration isn't entirely rational and that they do need to make some moves to head off an actual invasion i'm glad you mentioned the trump administration right now have a situation where expecting a summit between the north and the south u.s.

is less keen on talks are the two allies the u.s. and south korea on the same page or is this good cop bad cop i really don't think there's any strategy at all within the trump administration on this policy or many others i think it's a zigzag one day to the next depending on you know the president's pick your earlier. views on things and one part of the administration isn't doing what the other part of the administration is doing so i wouldn't read into it any grip grand strategy south korea on the other hand has a new president who's very committed to trying to make a more peaceful relationship with his northern neighbor and this is goes back for many years in his case it's not a new position so i think that the united states and south korea are on very different pages now and japan is one of those countries it's a calling for concrete steps the north must take concrete steps towards denuclearization what sort of measures do you think the world will be looking for

in that summit. well again i think the world isn't on the same page if you're speaking about japan i'm not certain that japan is even looking for a serious resolution of the tensions at this point because in a way they're so their their interests are best served by by continuing the crisis in the tensions in terms of their domestic politics so i think that the world obviously would like to see movement towards a more peaceful track but different players are on different have different stances and there's lots of room for things to go wrong all right great to get your thoughts on that thanks for joining us thank you the u.n. secretary general is urging all polities in syria to implement a cease fire demanded by the security council the rebel held district of eastern the whole time as come on the heavy bombardment in recent weeks despite the resolution activists say at least twenty seven people were killed in russian and

syrian air strikes on tuesday more than eight hundred people have died since the offensive began on february eighteenth the un security council is set to hold an urgent meeting on the escalating violence later on wednesday the u.s. has put the blame squarely on russia the strikes on eastern good in recent days have demonstrated the farcical nature of russia's proposed humanitarian corridor russia is clearly attempting to feign implementation of unscarred twenty four a one while showing complete disregard for the ongoing humanitarian disaster that still unfolds there have been no meaningful pause there has been no meaningful pause in the slaughter in eastern guta bombs and artillery are still falling on civilians and medical facilities in the damascus suburbs the long delayed and insufficient aid finally allowed in yesterday was reported to have been looted by regime forces and stripped of emergency medical supplies that are so desperately needed there. so in a holder has the latest from beirut in neighboring lebanon. the bombing campaign entering

its third week airstrikes continuing targeting multiple towns the civilian death toll is only climbing more than eight hundred people dead among them women and children a very desperate situation on the ground and now one of the main rebel factions in eastern huta saying that there are no negotiations over a withdrawal with the russian military and that the rebel factions and the people will defend their land it is the first direct response from one of the main rebel groups to the offer by the russian military for an amnesty the russian military telling the rebels we will ensure safe passage leave the area with your family so the russians making it clear how this bombing campaign will come to an end and the rebels saying no we will not surrender so this. military operation is expected to continue also on the ground the pro-government alliance have been

taking more territory particularly in the east what they're trying to do is cut in half so a so as to sever the rebel supply lines and put more pressure because what the pro-government alliance wants is for the rebels to surrender and for this to happen they're going to have to put more and more pressure on on the rebel factions on the ground the civil defense is just overwhelmed saying that the united nations should stop what they are calling this a bloodbath the u.n. security council is going to meet later today in an emergency session france and britain insisting that the cease fire that was agreed upon over a week ago should be implemented but of course russia insisting that the way out of this crisis is for rebels to leave eastern huzzah. syria has obtained exclusive footage from the silent peninsula showing the aftermath of an egyptian military operation armed forces moved in one month ago to root out eisel another armed

groups residents in the area say they're on the sea and their homes have been destroyed shallop ballasts reports. buildings pulverized by egyptian explosives. this exclusive video shows the carnage inside sinai one month after the egyptian ministry of defense began a major operation against eisel and other armed groups. witnesses told al-jazeera the military has demolished schools and dozens of homes displaced residents say they have nothing to return to their own lives the moment you and i am god will punish those who forced us to leave our homes in our lands we've been here since our great grandfather and we're very sad but we can't do anything we will always hope to come back again to our houses and land. the military hasn't talked about the destruction of homes but in its latest statement it says one hundred forty five hideouts outposts and store houses have been destroyed along

with the workshop used for making explosives and twenty one plantations of marijuana and poppies used for r.p.m. they say they've made two hundred forty five arrests. the most recent defense video uploaded on saturday is unapologetic egypt's had five years of failed military campaigns in the sinai president abdul fattah el-sisi is doing everything in his power to change that using abrams battle tanks how woodson's if sixteen fighter jets and apache attack helicopters has very strong symbolic meaning by sending a message to that educators and also the egyptian people maybe you will feel that some stick is being done seriously messages are important for president sisi who's up for reelection in less than three weeks and is reeling from a run of attacks in twenty seventeen in april forty six people were killed in twin

suicide bombings at coptic churches and tend to an alexandria during easter a month later i saw a gunman shot days thirty christians south of cairo as they traveled to a monastery. in november the worst attack in egypt's modern history up to thirty islamic say gunmen stormed a soofi mosque and killed more than three hundred people. this is payback but in these rare images the first from a source other than the government egyptians living in sinai say these surrounded under siege by their own military shelob eles al-jazeera. people in sierra leone of voting to choose a new president the leaders of sixteen political parties are vying to succeed despite koroma he's stepping down after two five year terms in the third election since the end of the civil war more than three point one million voters are registered and its research is at one of the polling stations in the capital

freetown. there is so much enthusiasm in this election several unions are eager to select a successor to president anas by koroma so many of them hundreds and thousands of them have queued up at polling stations like this some have been here even before five o'clock local time that's five g.m.t. and they are all eager to cast their ballots in this election basically the president would be elected members of parliament chairmen of local councils as well as councillors so when they queue up on lines like this they get accredited and then they come to this particular station there are in fact twelve of them in this location then they'll be casting ballots this particular councillors. the next one is for mayor or chairman and then over there there is a box for presidential candidates and members of parliament now as you can see over there that is an election official issuing voters or other

a voting card. for this particular voter who will go and stamp and market then drop it inside now he's here marking his buy a lot after this he will drop it in each of the boxes slated for president member of parliament chairman of council or a mayor so basically that shows how enthusiastic these voters are but of course there are at the back of their mind there is fear this is a country emerging from a brutal war a civil war it ended fifteen years ago but of course there are few years lingering for years of outbreak of violence. i still had an al-jazeera the saudi crown prince heads to the u.k. supported by a massive p.r. campaign plus. i'm andrew thomas in the rural heartland of australia i'll be explaining why for bomb us here the new c p t p p trade deal one without the united

states is beyond even that while the strings. from the waves of the south. to the contours of the east. how the big wedge of cold weather sitting around europe for so long has been pushed back to the borders it's still there it's sitting of russia in particular but coming up against it is massive numbers or large number of kills of plaid or a little frontal system's broken down into their component parts for they're all coming from the atlantic which means they are bringing in mild weather sometimes wet weather but look at the temps to full cost up to about the middle of ukraine we are talking double figures almost still cold retaining cold in poland in germany in scandinavia and that's where with these frontal system has come up against in the you'll see snow or so the high ground of austria on the outs for the most part

we're talking rain where it falls atoll a federal breeze in the west and a good deal of cloud in the flight to watch out for heavy rain i think is where things drawing to a halt so for thursday it looks like albania more particularly tookey could be the particularly wet places now given what's happening in the atlantic you'd expect something to be felt on the shores of morocco mass true that cloud is bringing with it certain amount of rain and a good old breeze and that's true inland as well now jiri and probably tunisia but sandwiches now are more spring like eighteen to twenty one. the weather sponsored by qatar he's. paid the scene for us where they're on line what is american sign in yemen that peace is always possible but it never happens not because the situation is complicated but because no one cares or if you join us on sat there are people there are choosing between buying medication and eating this

is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who's an activist and she's close to the story join the global conversation at this time on al-jazeera. you're watching al-jazeera time to recap our headlines now south korea's president says it's too early to be optimistic about progress with the north korean j. and says he has no plans to be used with sanctions against pyongyang ahead of a storage summit with the leader kim jong un next month. the syrian government sending reinforcements to east and also according to the syrian observatory for human rights the rebel held on clay has come under heavy bombardment in recent

weeks the u.n. security council is due to hold an urgent meeting on the escalating violence in syria later on wednesday. people in sierra leone are voting to choose a new president the leaders of sixteen political parties are vying to succeed koroma stepping down after two five year terms in the third elections since the end of the civil war. saudi crown prince mohammed bin arrives in the u.k. on wednesday where he's expected to meet the queen and prime minister to resume a saudi arabia is a major trade partner as britain prepares to leave the e.u. there is opposition though to closer ties between the two countries demolishing alex. why. mohamed bin son man is visiting london and he wants everyone to know about its adverts like these have been placed across the capital portraying the crown prince as a friend of britain a reformist who's changing his kingdom for the bats are the british government is rolling out the red carpet for m.b.a.'s as he's known in what's the thirty two year

old's first official visit to the u.k. since being appointed heir apparent. britain is saudi second most important partner for arms sales and security with british companies selling billions of dollars worth of military equipment to the saudis the u.k. government which is preparing for post breaks its economy means to boost the amount of trade in other centers to. its why prime minister to raise a may and foreign secretary boris johnson have both visited the saudi capital recently mays government sees it's in the u.k. has interests to do more business with the saudis and to have an even closer relationship with riyadh critics are opposed to that and there's major opposition chipped in some months visits as well as how britain has posy dup to the saudis opponents accuse the saudis of killing thousands of civilians in yemen as well as committing widespread human rights abuses at home the leader of the opposition labor party germy corbin has called for a halt to all weapon sales with several other members of parliament also against

m.b.'s his visit i think most people in this country and many follow in terry's probably majority parliamentarians do not welcome this this desk in this country and in a good mistake this really is to give an audience with our head of state i think sent all the wrong signals it's legitimizing an illegitimate regime a despotic regime and we need to do better britain needs to do better. at a media conference by the stop the war coalition organizers announced a protest outside the prime minister's home in downing street they want to send the message to been samantha and his hosts that the spy the p.r. campaign patrolling came as a reformist they believe the saudi regime is an oppressive one the argument about reform management being sound and he's a reformer is a spin in the most superficial spin at that i mean it is one of the most backward one of the most undemocratic one of the most brutal regimes in the whole world and at that level there's a very strong argument for saying that he shouldn't leak he shouldn't be coming

anywhere near britain aside from meeting britain's queen elizabeth and political leaders the crown prince and his delegation which includes several government ministers is due to meet the head of the bank of england and business leaders as well current saudi trade with the u.k.'s estimated that's around eight billion dollars a year the british government is expecting the saudis to increase that took ten billion dollars annually mohamed bin so man will receive a warm welcome at downing street by a british prime minister in need of money as she struggles with briggs it negotiations but across the road protesters will gather among them several members of parliament to the mts the visit they believe ideals and principles of freedom and human rights should not be forsaken no matter how much the saudis are willing to invest in the u.k.'s economy. and i just you know london. advisor to the united arab emirates with ties to several of president donald trump's aides reportedly

given evidence to the f.b.i. in the probe of alleged foreign meddling in the two thousand and sixteen election the new york times reports george nadar is cooperating with special counsel robert muller's investigation he gave testimony last week to a grand jury it says nadar attended secret meetings between m.r. r.t. officials and trump associates during the presidential transition. police in colombia have seized more than four and a half tons of cocaine in what they say is their biggest anti drug operation this year four hundred thirty million dollars worth of the drugs were found in a shipment of banal is headed for belgium police believe they belong to the gulf clan the country's largest criminal gang colombia is one of the world's largest cocaine producers despite government efforts to stop the trade. china's parliament is focusing on a promise by president xi jinping to tackle extreme poverty by twenty twenty fishel figures show that more than thirty million people survive on less than two dollars

a day a grim brown reports from the shanshu province for the authorities are working hard to meet that deadline. erland has one hundred and sixty goats so in this impoverished part of china that makes her wealthy but a few months ago she was told to leave her farm by local government officials along with the rest of her village they left she stayed taking people out of the countryside sometimes against their will is one of the ways the government's trying to end rural poverty but this is the only livelihood chung has ever known. there were no i don't know why the government wants us to move to the town most people already left but i have the scouts i can't leave where will that put them the demolition of the village has begun the rubble will soon be cleared away but other reminders of the primitive way people lived will be harder to raise some

created a home by burrowing into the clay hillsides china is now a world superpower but until a few months ago people here were living in caves with little protection from the heat or cold. the only source of water was half a kilometer away in winter little grows in the dry fields the hut where junk chunk hsien lived has gone it was wedged into this hillside he's been resettled in a government provided apartment and doesn't miss this place for that. this village is very poor most people barely had enough to eat potato used to be a main vegetable he couldn't get at the vegetables to eat eighty years ago china's nascent communist party was literally battling for its survival in this area today it's in the midst of another battle against poverty but local officials insist they are making some headway last year the local government said four thousand nine

hundred people were lifted out of poverty in this county one hundred fifteen of them in this village last july china's president xi jinping came to visit villages which showed heaping praise on him later they were told they'd be moving now the president has set a lofty target in his campaign to eliminate poverty cheer we must ensure that by twenty twenty all rural residents living below the current poverty line how be lifted out of poverty we wanted to talk to other villages who'd made the move to hear what they thought about apartment living instead we were detained by police for more than two hours and then scored it out of town they said foreigners were not allowed here adrian brown al jazeera in chancey province northern china. now at least eighteen people have died in the largest aftershock after last week's earthquake in papua new guinea the magnitude six point seven trauma struck early on

wednesday the strongest since last monday's magnitude seven point five quake aid workers fear the death toll could rise to more than one hundred the national disaster center says the center the current rather number of dead is between fifty five and seventy five aftershocks and rugged terrain have made it difficult for us to reach nearly one hundred fifty thousand people who need aid the revised trans-pacific partnership trade deal be signed in chile this week the united states pulled out of the original deal and some see that as a problem but for farmers in australia the absence of the u.s. provides an opportunity under thomas reports from. these cows are pregnant when they have their calves most of the male ones will be fat and then slaughtered for beef this week signing of the comprehensive and progressive agreement the trans-pacific partnership or c p t p p trade deal means import tariffs on australian beef will fall that will impact where different cuts of those

cobs go the kidneys and livers and the hearts and things like that could end up going. into a pen for sure all the hard not end up somewhere else there's a possibility for their animal feed and after him. it could be world travel could turn into a pretty good thing simpsons wife lobbies for the agriculture industry years of work seem to have paid off in twenty sixteen after twelve countries agreed in principle to an initial t p p agreement then the huge emotional rollercoaster happened donald trump comes in suddenly you know expectations squashed but then c.p.t. p.p. between all the initial signatories except the united states rose out of the t.p. he's ashes and for australian agriculture it may be better than the initial deal for australian farmers the new trans-pacific partnership without the united states is the best of both worlds increased demand for their exports through tariff

reduction without a big competitor on the supply side representatives of agricultural industries can hardly hide that lights are you feeling sorry for your american counterparts relying on them now we're never laugh when we face a number of common challenges. that harmonize ation of trade into other markets so we're more closely aligned and people might think however in the case of tape a lever and we certainly were disappointed not to have them at the table from a grand perspective for australia's economy as a whole it's more complicated the new deal is projected to raise australia's g.d.p. by no point five percent by twenty thirty the initial one including the united states would have risen it by no point six percent and having the us in the deal might have led to other big benefits the whole point of the team was always to attract more members within the asia pacific region into their grouping and as your track more members the market access benefits of course start to grow us again

still the largest the world's largest economy having it in the t.v. if they would make a. free trade agreement a much more attractive proposition in other words these cows female cars cabs could have ended up in countries not yet part of any deal that now looks less likely andrew thomas al-jazeera prima. on first day wayne hay reports from viet nam a country expected to be one of the big winners from the new trade deal a lot so i have full coverage of the signing ceremony chill a bad first day right here on al-jazeera. let's take you through some of the headlines now south korea's president says it's too early to be optimistic about progress with the north moon jane says he has no plans to ease sanctions against pyongyang ahead of a historic summit with the leader kim jong un next month japan says it's important

for north korea to show its commitment towards denuclearization in a concrete way you mean old i mean you are past discussions with north korea have not resulted in do nuclear ization so our response should be based on the lessons learned from that talks for the sake of talks is meaningless if we are to have a meaningful discussion north korea needs to commit to a denuclearization plan that is verifiable and irreversible they need to take specific action this is of the most important is. the syrian government sending reinforcements to eastern of all to according to the syrian observatory for human rights the rebel held enclave has come under heavy bombardment in recent weeks the u.n. security council is due to hold an urgent meeting on the escalating violence in syria later on wednesday it's calling on all parties to implement a cease fire agreed last month people in sierra leone are voting to choose a new president the leaders of sixteen political parties are vying to succeed an aspiring koroma he's stepping down after two five year terms in the third election

since the end of the civil war. exclusive al-jazeera footage from the sinai peninsula shows the aftermath of an egyptian military role of president donald trump reportedly giving evidence to the f.b.i. and the probe of alleged foreign meddling in the two thousand and sixteen election the new york times reports georgian adar is cooperating with special counsel robert muller's investigation and gave testimony last week to a grand jury it's a secret meetings between the morality officials and trump associates during the presidential transition at least eighteen people have died in the largest off the shock after last week's earthquake in papua new guinea the magnitude six point seven tremor struck early on wednesday as the strongest since the last seven point five quake ten days ago. the stream stay with us just. from

journalists decided to sacrifice their integrity for. the listening this time on al-jazeera. and here in the stream today a check in on three stories around them that caught our eye attention when for public school teachers in the u.s. state of west virginia after a nine day strike that kept students out of the classroom and educators gathered at the state capitol then to south africa what impact will a controversial proposal for land expropriation have but first to the border between ireland and northern ireland an issue that.