so i have to have to go by this position. when i walk down the street. i think the. crowd will be. walking the streets and. all can be all that me. that's what keeps me cool. after months of bitter exchanges the u.s. president except son offered to meet the north korean leader for talks. on sammy's a dan this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up global condemnation as don't

trump places deep tariffs on steel and alum in europe in paul. joined the league signatories to a major asia pacific trade deal countries to sign and fight protectionism. and saving the coastline of the host of world oceans summit steps up its own environmental efforts. the u.s. president says he'll meet kim jong un signaling a potential breakthrough in relations between washington and north korea a south korean delegation delivered invitation to donald trump at the white house the north korean leaders also agreed to stop nuclear and missile testing for now. he turned this lucas. person from as soon as possible. so john thought appreciate it. and said he would meet kim jong un buy me

a torch cheap. to produce and. rub my pride has more from tung chang the office of the south korean president moon j.n. has hailed this as an historic accomplishment that potentially moves the korean peninsula towards the ultimate goal of denuclearization moon's office has heaped praise on both kim jong un of north korea and also donald trump of the united states saying it was their wisdom and bravery that has helped push this forward and agree to this historic meeting in reality many people here in south korea will credit moon j.n. for the his achievement in this diplomatic breakthrough for sending its delegation north and getting this agreement it's still not clear exactly what this meeting will look like what preconditions have been agreed or will be agreed before hand

but the hope here is that given the acrimony of relations in the past any kind of meeting any kind of handshake or smile must be good in trying to move things forward if this meeting does take place this will be the fulfillment of a long held north korean and bishan to meet with the united states on equal terms and it will be a personal achievement of kim jong un his father didn't achieve it his grandfather didn't either if he has a meeting with donald trump in the coming weeks he will have fulfilled that long held goal of donald trump has heralded the meeting is great progress but says sanctions will remain until now agreement is reached javert hansie has more on the reaction from the u.s. . here in the u.s. this development is being presented through the prism of donald trump himself there is little discussion about all the efforts of south korea or china behind the scenes for example the white house presenting this as a victory for donald trump's policy of maximum pressure on north korea his

opponents in the media are already worrying he will be played by north korea's already giving north korea a propaganda coup you just don't say yes to a meeting with north korea in a matter of weeks however it seems perfectly reasonable for the white house to turn around and say to many of these people in the commentary who themselves are former government officials well we tried it your way and it simply hasn't worked let's try it but way having said that though there are real problems there are so many positions within the trumpet ministration dealing with east asia that haven't been filled a point person at the state department for north korea retired last week there's no ambassador for the u.s. to south korea and there's not even someone at the state department coordinating east asian policy well let's look at how we got here than one young chang is carried out from young rather has carried out six nuclear tests since kim jong un took power some seven years ago the first was in two thousand and thirteen in

january two thousand and sixteen the north announced the successful test of the first time bridge and bomb in november last year north korea announced it had tested a long range missile armed with a nuclear warhead one that would be capable of reaching the u.s. mainland the growing nuclear threat led to tough sanctions tension eased during last month's winter olympics in south korea rare into korean talks were held to facilitate young and participation and last week a south korean delegation held talks with kim and hinted he was willing to denuclearize. i mean the tangan is a political and economic affairs commentator joins me now from beijing we had some reaction there from the u.s. how do you think beijing is viewing this announcement of talks between the u.s. and north korean leaders well you heard it from the foreign minister himself he said he was barry optimistic it was encouraging both

sides to hold these meetings as soon as possible but he also sent out a fairly. clear warning that this would not be smooth sailing i mean this is an instance where you have the six party talks scenario you have the d.p. r. k. on one side you have the u.s. on the other side in terms of the spectrum the people the other parties in are somewhere in between and now you have them the two polar opposites meeting face to face. is this something particularly volatile degree with those some of those commentators in asia say you know having the personality of donald trump and the personality of command in a room negotiating on such a high stakes issue is quite a volatile combination. well it's not only volatile i mean donald trump has a history of whoever is in the room he agrees with and then he comes out with some

policy only to walk it back later i think. has already indicated he will be visiting washington prior to that meeting to quote get an understanding of what is going to be on the table as pointed out in your newscast the state department is woefully unprepared for this type of meeting in fact their top korean negotiator resigned just a few days ago so it's it's a very very difficult time there are questions about chief of staff batas what's going on there you've already seen the trade team kind of switch over it's seems like chaos not necessarily a time but on terms of trump this is a very good event in terms of changing the dialogue which is currently going on in the u.s. stormy weather is has receded a little bit although it will be back on the table and of course the russia date situation still goes on what do you think pull the two sides from little rocket man

talk to a big talks. well actually i think as you alluded to earlier china's pressure i mean this year alone the amount of imports from north korea were cut by a third cutting into the small to the relatively small foreign currency hard reserves that north korea could use in addition to that the amount of exports was reduced by over ten percent this is really eating in to the know the lifestyle of the people who are at the very top of the spectrum people out in the countryside who don't have electricity or cell phones and live kind of hand to mouth are not really feeling anything in particular they don't even necessarily always have cars and things they use horse drawn i mean oxen drawn carts but within the cities this is starting to bite and the question is was this a sense of north korea saying that they want to send

a message to beijing that they're willing to deal in the pendent lee all right thanks so much good to get your thoughts on that and on tangan a trumpet ministration is impose tariffs on steel an aluminum imports despite warnings of a global trade war mexico encountered there will be temporarily exempt from the new levies while negotiations continue on a regional trade agreement john hendren reports from washington. a defiant donald trump fulfilled a promise that helped make him president the american steel aluminum industry has been ravaged by aggressive foreign trade practices it's really an assault on our country. the qs ing china and other countries of dumping cheap steel in the us market in an attack on american industry he said punitive tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum many of the countries that treat us the worst on trade and

doing military are our allies as they like to call them. so we just want fairness the controversy old plan would take effect in fifteen days exempting canada and mexico as they renegotiate the north american free trade deal with the u.s. and reserving the right to change the terms for other countries which aging thing some of the steelworkers that helped put trump in the white house over his promises of protectionism is going to bring steel back. at his own protectors that's been over a hundred million dollars and alone in kentucky in granite city illinois hundreds of workers laid off when the u.s. steel plant closed two years ago will be going back to work but on capitol hill the plan was criticized as the first shot in a certain trade war i'm disappointed as well i should say because we just passed the tax bill and this kind of flies in the face of the democratic senator dick durbin compared it to dropping a bomb on a fleet

a fellow republican senator jeff flake vowed a bill to reverse the tariffs in canada the foreign minister faced questions about whether the deck was being stacked against her free trade negotiation team her answer was diplomatic we think a win win win outcome for all three countries is absolutely possible and not going to go shooting table we are absolutely defending and standing out for the national interest at the european union talk was much tougher to hang and that's sort of we are now imposing tariffs on motorcycles harley davidson on blue jeans the visor on bourbon we can also do stupid. newly planned easy tariffs on those in other u.s. products are designed to hit swing states in american elections florida ohio pennsylvania that trump's republican party will need to hold congress in midterm elections later this year despite days of opposition trumped remained steel tariffs

yes even if you needed a reminder to sign john hendren zero washington south korea and japan are condemning the terrorists south korea is one of the biggest exports is of steel to the us. we would actively consider filing a complaint to the world trade organization with agreement between major countries the trade minister kim already discussed this with the european union trade commissioner. could do with her it is extremely regrettable that the measures were decided i believe there is a concern that a broad trade restriction mechanism on the grounds of national security could disturb not only the u.s. but also the global steel and aluminum markets including those in the asian region and it could also cause a grave impact on economic relations between allies japan and the us as well as the multilateral trade system overall and the global economy. now it's the trade deal

trump didn't want to be a part of the trans-pacific partnership has been signed in chile and what's being healthy is a powerful move against protectionism the revised deal will reduce tariffs for eleven countries and connect economies worth ten trillion dollars our latin america to see newman has more from santiago. i believe there's an agreement that's much more than a deal to reduce tariffs in the most dynamic region of the world economy. the comprehensive and progressive transpacific partnership or t p p eleven for short is in fact being hailed as an antidote to the increasingly protectionist policies of the united states despite the rising trend when you have. to say. that we stand behind. every station. many thought the t p p was finished after president donald trump pulled out of the deal that his predecessor barack obama believed would offset china's growing economic and geopolitical power

but spurred by japan the remaining countries forged ahead regardless leaving the u.s. on the sidelines the new revised agreement includes eleven countries that together account for more than five hundred million people and word and thirteen percent of global g.d.p. with the us it would have been forty percent but other countries like taiwan south korea the philippines and even the u.k. post brecht's it could also join the pact now. but there are critics demonstrators gathered in front of the treaty venue saying that the deal was to go shaded in secret and that it will favor corporations at the expense of workers and small businesses a charge canada's commerce minister refutes it is the first trade agreement in the world where you have a dedicated chapter on small and medium sized businesses the timing of the signing ceremony is significant just one day after the european union and the i.m.f.

want president trump against unleashing a trade war if he slaps duties on steel and aluminum imports it is even seen as a turning point the low building or lack of it was present secretary is now saying he's sticking to the sun. joining the team. but the person of the deal is likely to be even less to donald trump's like. stiff controls of intellectual property rights to protect the u.s. pharmaceutical industry for example have been suspended along with one thousand other completed measures the treaty will go into effect sixty days after six of the eleven signatories complete domestic legal procedures turning the tepee p. plus eleven into one of the world's three top trading blocks you see in human just sita santiago all japan's economic minister hopes other countries will join the agreements in the future. keep. is

a historic achievement which create koreans where ruth i was a twenty first century in the asia pacific region. over the many sous i read today to make the most effort to expand these experiences and dream to force and implementation of this agreement if. it was sexist we could attract a number of countries and economies to this high standard and we're monster agreement in our head so i had on al-jazeera things are looking out for france's economy but skill shortage could put the brakes on growth.

hello and welcome to our international weather forecast as we take a look at conditions across europe you see we got some snow across some of the baltic states on friday with some fairly brisk winds it's generally milder air though further towards the west indeed across these western there are some very heavy rain pushing we will see some snow on the northern edge one system pushing through the u.k. busy moving on through into the weekend heavy rain milder conditions pushing up from the south so stormy picture really without rain extending down through into iberian peninsula more snow across the alps southeastern parts who have been joining quite a weather fine and nothing's there at one thousand degrees but still the cold air hanging on across parts of russia minus seven has a high in moscow now on the other side of the mediterranean for the most part is looking dry and far we have got some showers like to push in across coastal parts of morocco june the course of friday and on into saturday but the southwest the flow it should be warm for algiers there at twenty five and pretty warm for tonight at twenty nine fine for cairo also for central parts of africa we have still some

heavy showers across parts of kenya tanzania uganda see wanted to showers kabban also liberal scenes and downpours but across much of west africa weather conditions are looking fine okrent gallopin seen sunshine highs are thirty two for southern areas it's fine across much of south africa twenty in capetown.

you're watching out the zero time to recap our headlines this hour u.s. president dan trump has agreed to meet north korea's leader in the coming weeks south korean delegation delivered the invitation from kim jong un to the white house south korea's national security adviser says kim expressed a commitment to denuclearize ation the trumpet ministration has imposed tariffs on steel an alum indian imports despite warnings of a global trade war south korea says it will file complaints with the world trade organization. eleven countries have signed the revised trans-pacific partnership trade deal in chile they're hailing it as a move against protectionism after the u.s. pulled out of the agreement last year. u.s.

secretary of state rex tillerson has arrived in djibouti as he continues his first official tour of africa djibouti is a vital part of the u.s. house an american military base that's used for counterterrorism operations in somalia and yemen and anti piracy surveillance in the red sea well last year china opened its first military base abroad as beijing and washington vying for influence in the african continent than transform a campaign chairman paul man of forces denied charges of bank fraud and tax crimes he's due to go on trial in july in virginia manifold also faces other charges in washington d.c. u.s. special counsel robert muller charged him as part of a world road or wide ranging rather probe into alleged russian meddling in the two thousand and sixteen election. turkish soldiers working with

parts of the free syrian army have captured the strategically important town in northern syria is a free in the region there are reports of fighting in the town of genderless says the kurdish militia group the y p.g. tries to hold its position and fisher reports from the turkish syrian border. the final assault began just before nightfall on wednesday. less than twelve hours later the free syrian army backed by the turks entered the city of jenin that its. doctors treated those caught up in the fighting some too young to fully understand why they were in pain. some too late to help the taking of a strategically important for the free syrian army and also the targets it gives them control of the higher ground and also give them control of one of the main roads towards afrin city itself the final target speaking in vienna turkey's

foreign minister said the operation against the kudus militia the y p g called all of branch should end by me the question whether now that we have passed the critical stage use mountainous areas or captured the border control is sustained we are moving towards africa of course when we get to a friend we have to be even more careful to avoid civilian casualties our aim our target is the terrorists we are more sensitive compared to anyone else when it comes to humanitarian aid and civilians genderless is the biggest turn that has fallen to the f.s.a. backed by the turks since this operation was launched in january but before they can even consider moving on from here they have to take complete control of genderless first home today first we targeted the town a generous by artillery shells and took full control of the town from y p g fighters we've captured and killed a few of their members and one of their fighters blew himself up despite the bravado they may not have complete control yet sporadic. fighting is reported to be

continuing in the tyrant the battle for free in may not be as quick or the street forward the kurds are moving seven hundred fighters across the country away from the battle against i saw on to the front lines for the coming assault alan fischer al jazeera on the turkey syria border syrian forces have continued their relentless air and ground offensive against the east in the water close to the capital damascus more than one hundred people have been killed since the offensive on the rebel stronghold began almost three weeks ago syrian activists have posted video showing what looks like a chlorine gas attack many of the victims are children france is enjoying it's stronger economic growth in six years many companies are struggling to find qualified staff some economists are worried the shortage could slow down growth and trash bottom reports in the french city of konar blitz another busy day at this building material supplier business is booming for the sam c.

group that has outlets across france to keep growing the company needs more staff but it's struggling to find skilled workers. this fall says we have five thousand three hundred staff but two hundred and sixteen job vacancies we may need sales people forklift drivers and tireless it's really hard to find people who are specialized in areas such as woodwork so it's difficult for us to recruit staff with the skills we need. the boss says that twenty years ago people joined trained on the job and worked their way out but today that's rare because fewer people are attracted to industry. we can't fill vacancies internally anymore so we must recruit externally but this kid's we need are not always taught in training schools so there's a lot of available talent we train in the house but it's not enough. france is experiencing its biggest economic growth in six years but nearly half of its

manufacturing companies find it hard to recruit staff even though unemployment is high experts say the labor shortage could slow growth there is no clear implement for growth in the next few months but as a liberal they g.'s can be a drag for. the next few. months the french government wants to fix the country's labor shortage and get more now people into world it's already reformed the labor allow the workplace to be more flexible and it works to bruce the number of training apprenticeship schemes like this one teaches at this school near paris hope the government's focus on training will improve the image of apprenticeships and create more opportunities please look where you are also working think of when a young person arrives at a company with two years of training like this they are much more attractive and it's what companies want for them of it of users and what i want to learn as much as possible here then one day i open my own company to what extent the government's

reforms will ease the labor shortage will be clear for a few years but investing in this generation can only help the economy in the future natasha al-jazeera. france ireland's government has agreed to hold a referendum on whether to overturn a constitutional ban on abortion the vote is set to take place in may currently terminations are only allowed if the mother's life is at risk the maximum penalty for accessing an illegal abortion is fourteen years in prison ireland has steadily changed laws rooted in catholic doctrine including a two thousand and fifteen referendum legalizing same sex marriage. of course in the u.k. he's been shown security video of the moment a huge fireball exploded in a packed train people can be seen running from the blaze at parson's green tube station in west london last year it was shown in this is trial of suspected bomber ahmed hasn't the eighteen year old denies charges of attempted murder on the video

he's seen buying matches and batteries allegedly used to make the device which failed to fully detonate almost one million people are without power after heavy snow in the northwest northeast rather of the u.s. it's the second storm to hit the east coast in less than a week more than eight hundred thousand people are enduring widespread electricity cuts some of been without power for almost a week now heavy snow and icy roads are for state officials to close schools and council or delay thousands of flights across the region political business and environmental leaders from around the globe are in mexico for the world ocean summit they're trying to find ways to improve the state of the oceans including pollution and overfishing but as john heilemann reports the location of the meeting itself is a cautionary tale of financial gains trumping environmental concerns. for the delegates gathering to discuss how best to save the seas in the world ocean summit

is a textbook example of what not to do in the very town that they flew into. it attracted seven million international visitors just last year but financial success has meant abandoning the principles of sustainability that the summit is trying hard to promote. also changing the way the territory west conformed into a touristic area really brought lots of problems because for example we started to lose these natural barriers for the natural disasters not only the coral reefs but also the mangroves and what do you do this transformation you cannot go back easily . mangroves have been ripped out to make way for development it reflects a global trend more than thirty percent of the unique trees crucial for storing carbon dioxide have been destroyed worldwide cancun's lagoon and seas have been polluted that together with global warming has damaged the mess where american reefs the largest in the western hemisphere worldwide over three quarters of reefs

are under threat cancun is like holding up a mirror to the world or what happens when urban development and tourism explode largely unrestricted by authorities it might look good for now but environmentalist say that here and elsewhere time is running out. but just as globally here there's a local fight back going on this project is one of several farming coral to replenish the damaged reef one piece at a time it's the key to the ocean ecosystem that's had a sea face recent corals generates so many habitats for fish mollusks. it's as if they were an all races in the desert warfare or fishing corporate is working with authorities and n.g.o.s are enforcing no catch sones the fishermen themselves monitor the protected areas and have seen biomass go up by more than four hundred percent you know this if you work or if we didn't do this now we'd only be thinking

a short term little we have now would disappear are fairly wealthy but the state government long lacks in holding hotel years and developers to account says it's also now on board you know you can put on these so there is a serious commitment from the government to focus on the environment because. he recognizes that tourism depends on the natural resources if we exhaust them tourism it's been used to. just words for now but it's a local vision in line with the yangs of this global summit united effort of business leaders conservationists and government before it's too late john home now does it a coup. and let's take a look at some of the headlines here in algeria now the u.s. president donald trump has agreed to meet north korea's leader in the coming weeks the south korean delegation delivered the invitation from kim jong un to the white house south korea's national security adviser says kim expressed

a commitment to denuclearize trump and instruction has imposed tariffs on steel and imports despite warnings of a global trade war mexico and canada are temporarily exempt while negotiations continue on a regional trade agreement south korea says it may file a complaint with the world trade organization. we would actively consider filing a complaint to the world trade organization with agreement between major countries the trade minister kim chung already discussed this with the european union trade commissioner. eleven countries have signed a revised trans-pacific partnership trade deal in chile they're hailing it is a move against protectionism after the us pulled out of the agreement last year to reduce tariffs for eleven countries and connect economies around the pacific worth ten trillion dollars. dollar transformer campaign chairman paul manifold has denied

charges of bank fraud and tax crimes is due to go on trial in july u.s. special counsel robert muller charged him as part of a wide ranging probe into alleged russian meddling in the two thousand and sixteen election. syrian forces are continuing their relentless air and ground offensive against eastern the also close to the capital damascus more than nine hundred people have been killed since the offensive on the rebel stronghold began almost three weeks ago syrian activists have posted video showing what looks like a chlorine gas attack island's government has agreed to hold a referendum in may on whether to overturn a constitutional ban on abortion currently terminations are only allowed if the mother's life is at risk almost one million people are without power after heavy snow in the northeast of the u.s. it's the second storm to hit the east coast in less than a week more than eight hundred thousand people are enjoying widespread electricity cuts some have been without power for almost a week as

a headline sits inside story next so stay with us here on al-jazeera as poverty and desperation sweep across ruhi just settlements women and girls are being sold and given away in refugee camps one on one east investigates yet another dark side of the crisis at this time on al-jazeera. a very rare nerve agent that's what the u.k.'s interior minister says was used to poison a former russian spy and his daughter it follows a number of mysterious deaths in the u.k. of recent years of people linked to russia which flatly denies any involvement so what are the implications of this latest attack this is inside story.