up front at this time on al-jazeera. when the winning the will of the people hinges on the mass media state p.r. machine it's going to overdrive. just he's been feeling saying. we just don't know yet where the lines will be drawn between what can be said and what can just that. some journalists decided to sacrifice their integrity for outside polling the media opinion the listening post base time on al-jazeera. when you are prepared to kill your own people mining is easy to. the u.n. rejects syria's justification for the offensive on east and as more troops are sent to the reveling claims.

hello and welcome you're watching al-jazeera live from our headquarters here in doha also coming up. the link that we have with saudi arabia is historic it is an important one. britain's prime minister praises ties with saudi arabia but says she will raise human rights abuses with the crown prince who's now meeting the queen. it's too early to be optimistic south korea's president says sanctions against the north will be eased for the sake of next month's summit. and sierra leone chooses a new president with sixteen candidates vying for the top job. the u.n. human rights chief says the syrian government's offensive in rebel held eastern can't be justified zaid bin rugs hussein says civilians are facing

a catastrophe as government force. targets a few hundred fighters moments as a reporting the government sent in reinforcements reports from neighboring lebanon . civil defense volunteers are appealing to the un security council to make this stop they are calling what is happening in eastern a bloodbath. the rescuers are responding to cries from underneath the rubble in this case from a child. your mother something that you get me out of here this boy says. he survived. oh. well. it was but at least eight hundred syrians many of them women and children have already been killed in almost three weeks of relentless airstrikes and men throughout the besieged enclave. but any of the free people of eastern little we want to freedom

and the downfall of this murderous regimes which has committed crimes against the people there are extremists and terrorists here they are the ones who are killing children and god willing we will remain steadfast. the pro-government alliance is pushing ahead with its air and ground assault they have reportedly sent reinforcements hundreds of soldiers to join the battle rebels have lost territory but remain defiant. one of the main factions. says the people and the fighters in eastern will defend their land. the faction is also denying negotiating a withdrawal proposed by the russian military the russian defense ministry says some groups in eastern are ready to accept the amnesty offer and leave with their families the ministry did not name those groups and so far none have expressed readiness to leave even eastern civilians have not taken up the russian offer to

evacuate many of them are afraid to cross into government can. territory and many are afraid of permanent displacement western nations have criticized the attacks on the densely populated opposition held territory but they have done little to stop them the united nations yet again using strong words against the syrian government and its backer russia this month it is used which is in the words of the sector general hell on earth next month or the month after it will be somewhere else where people face an apocalypse an apocalypse intended planned and executed by individuals within the government apparently with the for backing of some of the foreign supporters it is urgent to reverse this catastrophic course and to refer syria to the international criminal court hundreds of thousands of syrians are trapped in a war zone many are on the move as pro-government units advance further into the

enclave the central town of misrata is the next target government forces are approaching the town from the east and the west just a few kilometers of territory is separating those forces capturing mr obama will cut the enclave in half making it more difficult for rebels to defend their territory. beirut. is calling on the u.s. to stop fighters from the kurdish y.p. gene militia travelling to the northern syrian region of three members of the u.s. banks syrian democratic forces then moving their people to a friend to assist fellow kurds against the turkish offensive turkey says it launched the operation to tackle terrorism on its border with syria alan fischer is in the turkish city of gas and on the turkey syria border. what we've been hearing from our friends in the last few hours is the forces have been targeting communication installations that means the city has largely lost its telephone and internet connections there's also been reports of renewed fighting in towns to the

south and west of afrin city but this gives you an idea of how complicated things are in the syrian civil war you have the wipe e.g. the kurdish militia saying it is killing seven hundred troops away from the battle against iceland other parts of syria and moving them to a friend to support their fighters there know the talks the talk of government have said that the united states which backs the white p.g. has to intervene and stop that happening the americans essentially saying this is nothing to do with them the battle for our friends is out of their hands and they would rather that the y. p.g. concentrated its efforts in the fight against isis meanwhile the turkish government says it is going to continue operation all of brunt with the renewed fighting that we've heard about to the south and west that means that they're moving into the towns closer friend which suggests according to the people in africa itself that the battle for that city is no just days away. the u.k.'s prime minister's series

amazes she will be raising her concerns about human rights in saudi arabia when she meets the crown prince mohammed bin selma on has arrived at buckingham palace to meet the queen at the start of a three day trip to the u.k. he's due to meet mrs may and cabinet ministers later there we see him with her majesty inside the world palace saudi arabia is a major trading partner for the u.k. especially as britain prepares to leave the e.u. post brics it however activists say business should not be put ahead of human rights. joins us live now from outside the official residence of the british prime minister number ten downing street so jamal i mean investors it's a big bouncy castle of potential here i guess but but investors are worried particularly they're slightly nervous after the events of last november and december. of course those are the anti corruption arrests that took place that you're referring to peter did that send shock waves not just within the region but internationally speaking because many of the people

who were rounded up were renowned businessmen millionaires in fact members of the royal family themselves but there is this drive by the young saudi prince mohammed bin sort of man to not only try and portray himself as a reformist an upcoming leader but also as a stable set of hands his opponents obviously don't buy into that they point to the fact that he has dragged saudi arabia into a war that seems unwinnable in yemen that's now coming up to three years with thousands of civilians being killed many of them by weapons purchased from the united kingdom and that's why it's not just activists who are against this visit but also many politicians and members of parliament including the main opposition party here peter the labor party germy corben its leader said that stories are made should be announcing a whole tamil weapons sales to saudi arabia and when he was addressing parliament earlier today he asked the prime minister whether she would be critical in light of

all the human rights abuses that saudi is accused of and whether she would do that even if it meant maybe risking the economic benefits that come with such a close relationship this was made response. the link that we have with saudi arabia is historic it is an important one and it's saved it has saved the lives of potentially hundreds of people. and i will be raising concerns about human rights with the crown prince when i meet him can i just say is the right honorable gentleman started on the issue of international women's day i welcome the fact that the crown prince will be sitting down with as the guest of a female prime minister. and mrs minos of course jamal the post breaks at the u.k. needs what money markets and and the crown prince is kind of waving the temptation of a remco oil might float on the open market. well

you are talking about one of the biggest oil companies in the world and the floating off around core in the stock exchange has been used by the saudis to try and lure maybe recognition and support from their western allies but up until now they haven't made clear whether they're going to truce the london stock exchange or the new york stock exchange to do that so obviously whichever the truth is it will bring about a much financial reward for the said stock exchange we're not expecting an announcement of that in this visit however we are expecting the saudis or they have already actually said that they would be increasing the amount of bilateral trade between london and riyadh for roughly eight billion dollars a year to ten billion dollars a year that is one hundred billion over the next decade but the big question is what point does economic benefits be put on hold in terms of protecting the ideals and principles that our country aspires to adhere to and many people in the united

kingdom say well if the u.k. is going to hold on tight to the ideals of democracy freedom and human rights then really it shouldn't be selling that out no matter how dire the economic situation may be or how unstable the future may seem in light of brigs it's and that's why we are expecting a protest to take place on the other side of downing street later on tonight and there will be some loud voices that are critical of the way in which tourism is government has called the closed up rather to the crown prince over the past few months one last broad assault jamal if i may i mean people criticize m.b.'s for being a young man in a hurry he's thirty two he's there in effect looking and acting like the head of state if he manages to kind of reign himself in and put himself across is look you can work with me i can work with you will that work perhaps. of course but really as they say the the the truth is in the pudding so to speak and so far when you're looking at the one year ban that has killed so many people

when you're looking at the g.c.c. crisis and blockading another u.k. ally like qatar by land air and sea for over seven months now and when you're looking at the rounding gap of honan's within the country and everything else seems cosmetic so to speak so the idea of promise of an island woman to drive for some is far too little far too late and it still hasn't happened as well and therefore they're what they're saying it's ok it's great that there is a young person here in power but what they're looking for is the maybe progressive liberal elements that youth that is usually associated with youth and not the rash irrational. elements that is also associated with young politicians and as far as his critics are concerned so far all they've seen is a younger irrational man who's in a hurry to make a name for himself regardless of the collateral damage it's cause and jamal as ever many thanks. to the u.s. president donald trump says north korea seems quote sincere in its apparent

willingness to negotiate with the u.s. on abandoning nuclear weapons but south korea's president says is is too early to be optimistic when jean says he has no plans to ease sanctions before next month's summit of kim jong il and his rodman brought from so 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 rene going on previous agreements made in hero past discussions with north korea have not resulted in the nuclear a cation 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 of

course this 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 stop talking to the north koreans and it's like if they're making visits

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 to reach a deal but unlike previous attempts the northeast so close to achieving its nuclear ambitions and the united states is so determined to stop it one way or another the price of failure could be far higher. so. those in sierra leone are choosing a new president is stepping down after ten years and leaders of sixteen political parties are flying to succeed him three million voters are registered for the first election since the end of the civil war when addresses one of the polling stations in the capital city pretty tough. voting has started in almost all parts of southern york on time except for

a few places where voting was delayed recently and in terms of enthusiasm thousands of people have been on queue since the early hours of the day some as early as five o'clock two hours ahead of the opening of course i'm here at one of the polling stations in freetown it's called goodrich at this particular area in this particular area that out more than twelve of voting centers and a lot of people have cute out queued up early to vote to cast their votes and they come you know with all their aspirations and right now i'm here with one voter. who's been here early enough to try to access the ballot papers and cast their ballot talk to us lead in why is this election important for you this election is a false sense of relief because we need our rights as a citizen of this and we need our conceits in general. are you happy with the way things are be arrangements and what you're hearing from other parts of the country

somehow. what do you expect the new government and what do you expect from the new government. wants to. focus on fullest like educational facilities food. you know. the best sicknesses cities are for life. now that's a sentiment shared by three three million other center leoni and are lining up to cast their ballots in this election now as soon as a voter is on the line and given the clearance he goes for a crew detention and then a ballot box oh a ballot paper will be issued to him after the issuance of that ballot paper his name will be marked in the register and then they come and cast their ballots in these boxes the blue one is actually for a president for presidential can. and there are sixteen of them the next will be for parliamentary seats and then local council elections for chairman and mayor and

then finally councillors they'll be doing this until five o'clock in the evening local time which is five o'clock g.m.t. one poll was expected to close unless of course there recently need to extend cooling because of such an emergency is in sierra leone after that the coalition of results will start still to come here on al-jazeera sri lanka declares a state of emergency after violence between buddhists and muslims. hello spring wants to come in and it's been raining just to prove the point in china but given the wind direction you think well that's probably going to be chased out of there when you be right so left agrees in shanghai seventeen and not very warm seventeen consequences then a sun will come out the temperature will rise but i think humidity is dropping in

hong kong so it still won't feel as warm as you're like twelve degrees in shanghai in the sunshine in fact the sunshine through most of central and southern china has showers and come across to the coast of vietnam. little is changing society and even the clouds in the fall all and in northern pakistan afghanistan is tenuous at the moment so apart from occasional passing shots in sri lanka it's like a fairly dry picture the temperatures starting to rise thirty three in new delhi seventy five in hard about thirty one in columbus or most places are above the thirty rock and they will continue to rise as you are well aware the next month or so the same story is true actually in arabia temps as high as they should be even thirty one in doha well above the average by about six degrees but not a record and that's like to be sustained i think over the next day or so but as for what's in the sky the she nothing to is blue sky there's not much of a breeze all asserts occasionally dusty of the most part this is settled just woman it should be.

the scene for us where on line what is american sign in yemen that peace is always possible 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 or eating this is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who's an activist just posted a story join the global conversation at this time on al-jazeera.

recapping your headlining stories for you so far today the un human rights chief says the syrian government's offensive in rebel held east and daughter cannot be justified zain been rods in and sane civilians are facing catastrophe as government forces target a few hundred fighters monitors are reporting the government has sent in reinforcements. britain's prime minister syriza may says she will be raising her concerns about human rights in saudi arabia when she meets the crown prince mohammed bin salma has been meeting the queen at buckingham palace for lunch the start of a three day trip to the u.k. . south korea's president says it's too early to be optimistic about progress with the north in jail and says he has no plans to ease sanctions against pyongyang had about historic summit with the leader kim jong il for next month. another aide to donald trump has quit chief economic advisor gary coleman a critic of the president's controversial tariffs on steel imports he's the latest in a series of high profile resignations from the white house his departure is another

sign that donald trump's plans to increase tariffs on steel and aluminum has angered many even within his own republican party white house correspondent kimberly helka tracking that story for us this guy was seen as being very business friendly kimberly so where does this leave the administration. well it's interesting that where does this leave the administration but let's broaden that out a little bit peter let's talk about perhaps the stock market and what the stock market thinks about this we're expecting the resignation of gary cohen who as you point out top economic adviser to the president certainly he was a major architect of those tax cuts which the business community in the united states like very much see that corporate tax rate dropping substantially to make the united states more competitive in the global market these were all of the things that he helped to orchestrate but you're right gary cohen not happy about

the president's plan to put tariffs on steel as well as aluminum and as a result that is what triggered this resignation so the stock market work spectating is going to be rattled by all of this peter but also we as you point out have to note that members of the president's own party don't like this in fact paul ryan the top republican in the house of representatives the speaker of the house saying that he wished the president would have taken a more surgical approach essentially what the concern is of a lot of republicans is that the president is taking on more of a left leaning protectionist position when it comes to trying to protect the industrial sectors of the united states with these tariffs the he's planning to make official as opposed to what the business community likes and this is more free and open trade as far as free and open trade is concerned in the tenor of simming there are claims this morning you were talking local time that is even going to make the cost of orange juice and peanut butter go up in america and america for

those of us that consume imported american products like that i mean is this going to be a tough sell the trumpet ministries. yes because where does florida orange juice come from the state that helps donald trump win the election florida was a pivotal state for the president so so that's really important glad you brought that up because we have some news dropping the smarting exactly speaking to that and that comes from the the european union the commissioner sent a message with sweden's prime minister when he met with donald trump on tuesday and essentially what he said is look at if you go through with these planned tariffs on aluminum and steel we're going to retaliate so we see the e.u. already making a list of what they say could be tariffs in the european union on american products not just florida orange juice but also we can see it on things like motorcycles on kentucky bourbon these could all be a big problem for the president is what happens if american products are faced with

the similar taxes as aluminum and steel brought to the united states will those ticket items are going to rise here in the united states and that's not going to sit well with a lot of president trump's base so not only are we seeing the e.u. saying look at don't do this we don't like it but we're also hearing this from the world trade organization as well as it meets american allies they're also expressing grave concern about the president's plan kimberly good to talk to as ever many thanks. american has pleaded guilty to the racially motivated murder of an indian prosecutors in kansas the deciding with. should face the death penalty he yelled get out of my country before fatally shooting sort of a. and wounding another man in a ball the fifty two year old will be sentenced in may also faces federal hate crime charges. these are lankan military is imposing a twenty four hour curfew in the district of candy that is told people to stay

indoors the government's declared a nationwide state of emergency and ordered social media sites to be blocked to stop the spread of religious tensions muslim owned homes and businesses have been set on fire and damaged in riots in the open and has more from the city of candy. the main city of candy is like a ghost town as you can see behind me as everyone has shouted down and bunkered down for a twenty four hour curfew that came into effect this afternoon now the police spokesman has said that any of the tri forces or the police can make any arrests of anyone causing violence or communal disharmony and these crimes will carry twenty years rigorous imprisonment under the emergency rules have been tightened and any of the security arms can crack down hard on those creating such incidents now we've been traveling around some of the cities and towns around candy and seen the number of flashpoints we've seen basically timber mill was still burning we've seen shops

being burned many of them belonging to those in the muslim community but we've also visited the temple that was basically leave vandalized by muslim youth according to what we're hearing and the tensions seem to be spilling over which is the reason the government has come down strong with extending this curfew for a period of twenty four hours in a bid to get a handle on it but one must say that even with a heavy military presence we're seeing the violence continuing. for the second of two special reports we're talking about poverty in china it's a major problem in that country government statistics say more than thirty million chinese people survive on less than two dollars per day and the leadership is promising to tackle extreme poverty within three years the local governments are working hard to meet that deadline particularly in provinces like. from there here's our china correspondent brian. irlen has one hundred

sixty goats so in this impoverished part of china that makes her wealthy but a few months ago she was told to leave her found 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. 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 i 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 june chung 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. this is al-jazeera these are the top stories the un human rights chief says the syrian government's offensive in rebel held eastern cooter can't be justified zaid

bin rods sane says civilians are facing a catastrophe as government forces target a few hundred fighters monitors are reporting the government has sent in reinforcements. this month it is eastern water which is in the words of the sector general hell on earth next month or the month after it will be somewhere else where people face an apocalypse an apocalypse intended planned and executed by individuals within the government apparently with the for the backing of some of the foreign supporters turkey is calling on the us to stop faces from the kurdish y p g militia travelling to the northern syrian region of three in members of the us backed syrian democratic forces are moving their forces to a free to assist fellow kurds against the recent turkish offensive turkey says it's launched the operation to tackle terrorism on its borders with syria. the u.k.'s

prime minister terrorism a says she will be raising her worries about human rights in saudi arabia when she meets the crown prince mohammed bin cell man has been meeting the queen at buckingham palace at the start of the u.k. tour south korea's president says it's too early to be optimistic about progress with the north and jean says he has no plans to ease sanctions against pyongyang ahead of the historic summit with leader kim jong il and planned for next month. voters in sierra leone are choosing a new president and his bike obama stepping down after ten years stop violence between buddhists and the muslim minority. donald trump has quit chief economic advisor gary cohen was a critic of the president's controversial tariffs on steel imports he is the latest in a series of high profile resignations from the white house. up next it's the stream . is here with the newsgroup also you tomorrow but by.

the benefit of saddam people so see. documentaries that open your eyes at this time on al-jazeera. and you're in the stream today i check in on three tabs on the stories around them that caught our eye of 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 capital 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.