would come on a team big business takes a new interest buying landscape 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 of nature they do that because they see a business crossing the planet at this time on al-jazeera. this is al-jazeera. hello again i'm peter double you're watching the news hour live from our headquarters here in doha coming up in the next sixty minutes after months of bitter exchanges the u.s.

president has accepted an offer to meet the north korean leader for talks. air strikes hit syria's beast and just as desperately required aid trucks enter the besieged area. global condemnation as donald trump places big tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in sports arena williams is back in competitive singles action six months after giving birth williams makes a winning return in the. u.s. president donald trump has accepted an invitation from north korea's leader kim jong un for a face to face meeting the development is being hailed as a major diplomatic achievement after months of aggressive posturing between the two men the summit would be unprecedented in nearly seventy years of animosity but. in

the u.s. and north korea rob mcbride joins us live now from cold long rob how much of a risk is this for the south koreans they've been so front and center orchestrating this apparent breakthrough. that's right and also so much opportunity at stake the south koreans are describing this peter as nothing less than a historic accomplishment and probably with good reason they have to bear in mind that u.s. presidents have embarked on discussions with north korea with its nuclear weapons missiles on the table before only to end in abject failure there is a manton of mistrust to overcome and very real concerns given the seemingly impetuous nature of the two leaders involved what happens should things go badly wrong nevertheless given where things have come from with the open hostility the open insults of recent times everybody seems agreed that this is an opportunity

that has to be grasped at all costs. this fast moving diplomatic saga has seen many extraordinary twists and turns then the announcement to beat them all south korea's special envoy emerged from a meeting with the u.s. president to reveal trump says yes to kim president trump appreciated the briefing and said he would meet kim jong un by made towards prominent the new priority. seizing the moment south korea's president in has been quick to credit both north korean and u.s. leaders john young johnny president from leadership will be highly praised by the residents of both class korea and north korea by people around the world who are hoping for. moon's liberal government says the way is now open to achieving denuclearization of the korean peninsula through peaceful means something almost

inconceivable until recently but many conservatives say it's only been made possible by the u.s. threat of force so i think the south koreans and the north koreans kind of put their heads together and said well we need to come up with something otherwise we might all wind up having u.s. rockets landing and coming in where they're acting out of fear or seeing an opportunity much credit will go to south korea special envoys went to pyongyang on a mission of hope bringing back a landmark agreement and seoul exploited its good fortune in hosting the winter olympics just when the world needed a path to peace it's still early days but this is being seen as a major diplomatic achievement for south korean president moon j.n. building on the goodwill of the winter olympics two remarkable effect as the paralympics get underway south korea will be hoping these games continue to work their magic. as it did in the winter olympics north korea is sending

a team of paralympians sport and politics mixing it seems with the beneficial outcome at least they are dialing their stock into each other then in all i think sport play their part in nor put in the door from then on it's up to the politicians until now south korea's politicians and diplomats only have to plan for the agreed into korean summit at the panmunjom truce village at the end of april first in eleven years now they face the prospect of a first ever summit between north korean and u.s. leaders. there is so much at stake personally for both trump and kim trump has often complained that he has inherited this problem from his predecessors imagine if he is the one to solve this problem where his predecessors failed kim jong un there is the knowledge that this has always been the long held

ambition of north korea to hold talks on equal terms with the united states it is something that his father and his grandfather never managed to achieve kim jong un peter could be just a matter of weeks away from fulfilling that dream peter and i guess we'll know in a situation where there are more questions than answers i mean stopping your nuclear aspirations and scrapping your nuclear abilities those are two different things and also sanctions we need to find will sanctions be reduced or will sanctions be got rid of completely so that there's a lot of t.'s to be crossed and i's to be dotted here. absolutely and according to many of the more hawkish figures both here in south korea and also in the united states their view is that north korea is only at this point because there was this resolve there were these sanctions in place china was on board and it really was hurting north korea and now is not the time to let up

but there are so many unanswered questions just the terms by which these two people will meet we have heard for months now that there would be so much a tangle of preconditions that it would be months before the two sides would ever agree to the summit although this seems to have been turned on its head the usual diplomatic rulebook seems to have been tossed to one side and kim seem to be saying well let's meet let's talk let's see where it goes and let's see if we can unravel that from there so we are if you like it is a real gamble we are in diplomatic uncharted territory peter rob talk later thanks very much the japanese prime minister shinzo obvious says his government will continue to pressure north korea until it gives up its nuclear weapons mr obvious hopes to meet mr trump next month. is like your daughter or i'm hoping to visit the u.s. as early as april to hold a u.s. japan summit i agreed with the u.s.

president that we would continue the close cooperation between our two countries to resolve north korea's nuclear and missile issues china has welcomed the talks as a quote step in the right direction adrian brown joins us live from beijing adrian there looking or they're thinking about neutral territory for these discussions some people are saying they might happen in china presumably beijing would green light that and be ok with that as a venue. beijing would love it if those talks were to be held here in the chinese capital because what china really wants to avoid at all costs peter is being marginalized china wants the credit for what is now taking place it doesn't want you know donald trump to get all the glory because china's argument is a sense leave this you know we have done the hard job of enforcing u.n. sanctions against an old ally we haven't necessarily believe that sanctions were the best course of action we've always believed that dialogue was the only way to bring a lasting resolution to this crisis well now that we are going to have talks between

kim jong un and president trump china is saying you know if it's really going to happen it could happen here in beijing but i think the chances of that really are actually pretty remote i think it's more likely that it will happen at permanent june that the truce for the edge between north and south korea now earlier today china's foreign ministry spokesman was talking about this latest development he said china saw this as a very positive single and as his words they wanted that momentum to continue let's hear what he had to say on the major hole phone of aren't we welcomed these positive signals by the u.s. and north korea on having direct their logs on the korean nuclear peninsula issue is the moving towards the right direction to the settlement we fall acknowledge and support the role of the parties efforts to resolve this issue through dialogue for

the chinese leadership i mean i'm not sure what is in cantonese or chinese but once they get beyond that is there a sense of relief perhaps for the chinese leadership because for them it was a slightly different story they were caught in the middle they were a conduit for the sanctions they were the conduit for communications at one point very very strongly yet they knew we knew they knew they did not want regime collapse because that would have had a huge impact on china. that's right i think it's both good and bad news for beijing because of course this crisis that's gone on now for almost two years has meant a real souring in relations between beijing and pyongyang because china's had to inforce the sanctions against north korea it didn't want to but now it's happy to accept after arguing against sanctions that in fact it does seem that sanctions may well have bored kim jong un to the table china won't want to acknowledge that too loudly but what it wants more than anything else as i said is some credit for what

has taken place he doesn't want the americans to get all the credit for this china believes that way it's handled this has been responsible but at the same time you know it wants to lift sanctions i think as soon as possible it didn't want to be the country that was seen as hurting north korea the most not certainly the way it has felt one broader final point adrian if you can i mean people are saying making the point rather that yes there have been presidential level meetings before between former u.s. presidents and north korean leaders but people are saying this is too sitting in office leaders who in theory will be getting together in the month of may it's as significant their saying as when richard nixon met chairman mao is that significance perceived in a similar way in your region. i think it is that there is a feeling of course that this event when it happens will be laden with the sort of

history that surrounded that of that moment when president richard nixon came to china in one thousand nine hundred seventy two paving the way for the you know establishment of diplomatic relations between china and the united states i think it's a long way from that happening between the united states and pyongyang it's still early days for that but certainly china doesn't want to be sidelined at a big historical event it wants some of the spotlight to fall on it adrian thanks very much. syrian opposition activists strikes and hitting a rebel held enclave near damascus just as aid trucks are going in these thirteen red cross trucks cross the front lines into duma to bring in food and supplies the delivery was postponed on thursday because of fighting with them earlier the u.k. based syrian observatory for human rights reporting. for the first time in ten days the nine hundred people have been killed since the government offensive. three

weeks ago joins us live from beirut in neighboring lebanon so it looks like it was all going according to the plan that was supposed to kick off days or weeks ago. and get us right up to speed. well like you mentioned peter just before that convoy crossed into the besieged enclave there were reports of airstrikes in the town. but since then there have been no reports of or bombardment or air strikes that convoy making its way to do the main town in the north of the enclave where they're going to unload the supplies supplies that should have been uploaded on monday but they weren't able to do that because of the shelling thirteen trucks food for up to twelve thousand people definitely far enough because this is a densely populated enclave which is really under siege the red cross as well as the united nations saying that they have positive indications that further aid convoys bigger convoys will be allowed in in the coming days definitely this will

be welcome by the people but what we understand is that there are no medical supplies on these convoy and this is what medics have been appealing for surgical kits that is what they need at least a few thousand people have been injured in this ongoing bombing campaign so those airstrikes reported before the convoy made its way into eastern and since then we have had no reports of violence or no medical supplies on the convoys in the because the the people running the convoys into decided that's too risky those the medical supplies that was stripped out of the convoys in damascus by the regime. well yes they were stripped off by the government authorities because they do not allow medical supplies in any. systematic that has happened in the past every time an aid convoy goes into a besieged area they believe that these supplies will be used for the rebels who

are wounded in the attack so definitely this is what the people need now there has there is a lull in the fighting overnight the syrian observatory for human rights saying that there were no shelling no airstrikes clearly a very positive sign almost a goodwill gesture some are calling it because what we understand is that there are behind the scenes negotiations between the russian government and rebel factions inside eastern over a possible would draw well so those negotiations could end this a bombing campaign but this is going to be a very difficult choice for the people of eastern they do not want to leave but many of them will not want to live under a government rule. thank you. the turkish military says its troops have captured an important northern serious region of. the soldiers and allied syrian rebels are trying to push through the structures from that area as one of the biggest towns enough for its capturable help the turkish advance however sporadic violence is still being reported. on still to come on the

news hour including these stories a trip by the u.s. secretary of state shines a light on the strategic importance of the small horn of africa nation. and sri lanka has reimpose the curfew there to stop violence as we just want the effects of tourism. and the schools tiger woods gets among the trees and sights of. his comeback continue. developing story out of afghanistan seven people have. been killed in a suicide bombing attack in the capital kabul seven others were wounded in the blast at a police checkpoint near a gathering of a shia minority there was no immediate claim of responsibility but the has been a series of attacks in the city by both the taliban and i saw fighters in recent months more now on that from our correspondent tony berkley join us live here on

the news from kabul tony no claim of responsibility so far been. not not at the moment but i think the finger of suspicion is pointing very much at i saw here they were responsible for a big attack on a shia community cultural center at the end of december forty people were killed there they claimed responsibility for that so the finger of suspicion is definitely pointing at them the suicide bomber struck at just before one o'clock local time he's target was a gathering of shia community who were commemorating the death of a very famous shia mujahideen leader who was killed by the taliban in two thousand and one he was stopped and apprehended about three hundred a meek meters away from the main gathering and that's when he exploded the bomb we understand that one of the casualties included police a police officer one was killed and the rest were worshippers but no further details at the moment tony for the moment thank you to europe germany condemning

donald trump's new tariffs on steel and the minium imports as protectionism and an affront to america's allies mr trump imposed the levies despite warnings of a global trade war saying he needed to preserve american jobs john hendren now from washington or a defiant donald trump fulfilled a promise that helped make him president the american steel moment image astri has been ravaged by aggressive foreign trade practices. it's really an assault on a country. accusing china and other countries of dumping cheap steel on the u.s. 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 on 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 changing things something the steelworkers that helped put trump in the white house over his promises of protectionism is going to bring steel back. had 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 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 up 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 the e.u. 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 trump remained a man of steel tariffs yes i'm going to give even if you needed a reminder to sign them john hendren zero washington. well the european union says

the terrorists did break rules as laid down by the world trade organization and that while it would prefer to negotiate it's not afraid to retaliate but it's not that we are looking for a battle we didn't secure prepared for one thing your opinion is this project we have dialogue and compromise as our got. that is the whole idea with the union we didn't ask for this what we are asking is to our american friends and others work with us work with us to strengthen the international organization the global playbook as the video set said here they want to me to change yes let's work to do that together to shape the future globalization give all of us work together we should do this now as well now if the your united states decided to do this this is deeply unfortunate and we would do everything we can to convince that that is wrong if it does happen we will have to take some measures to protect our jobs and workers as well live now to brussels and our correspondent paul brown and so paul what's our reading of the e.u. reaction to this. oh very strong i mean let's not forget that

president trump's intention to levy tariffs on steel in our union were telegraphed weeks ago and you could say months ago during the campaign trail before he even became president so the european union the politicians and the diplomats have had plenty of time to formulate a kind of plan b. a response plan and effectively what they have is a three pronged intention they're going to go to the world trade organization and argue very strongly that president trumps tariffs go contrary to the american commitments to the world trade organization but in that's a pretty long process so in the interim what they're going to do is look at safeguarding measures to prevent the european steel industry suffering as a result of the terrace and then thirdly the headline grabbing intention is to levy retaliate free tariffs on american products being imported here to the u.s. to europe such as as you heard from your clothes young jeans harley davidsons peanut butter florida orange juice that sort of thing now i think junk or junk i

was getting ahead of himself those retaliate with tariffs have not been imposed yet but that silly amount strong she she's loaded the gun and jesus waiting to pull the trigger on those measures some of those european steel and coal industries as well but still specifically i mean they've had a they've had a tough fifteen or twenty years as the remodeled the do from a business point of view so what kind of impact will it have on them. i think is going to have a huge impact but let's put it in a bigger context i mean the steel industry here in europe has been clawing its way out of a slump i mean three years ago the steel price long by forty percent in the space of just a few weeks and it was starting to recover and now this but what you have to remember is that here in the in the european union they produce around one hundred seventy hundred seventy million tons of steel every year all of which only about five million tons is exported to the united states so although it will have an impact

proportionately it's not huge the real concern here in the european union is of a thing called deflection that's where those global countries who would have export it into america find that their steel comical to america anymore they start looking around for other markets to sell that steel in the european union is the obvious target and that's what's a senior moment strong means when she's talking about safeguarding measures she's very very keen to prevent cheap steel being dumped into europe because it can't go to america collapsing the price of steel here in europe and really causing a major crisis for european steel produces that e.u. representative millstream saying if this happens are they still hopeful that it might not actually take place there. there was an interesting cabbie at that you put there was an if not let's not forget president trump or said that these tariffs will come into place two weeks from now they're not they didn't come into effect last night and he also left the door open to countries to apply for exemptions yes canada mexico

a temporary exemption one after talks continue but other countries can apply for exemptions as well if there is a strong. public security or security relationship between america and these other countries and the e.u. is certainly going to apply for one of those exemptions see amount strong here in brussels on saturday will meet with her u.s. counterpart the u.s. trade secretary and she will press very strongly for the european union to be granted one of those exemptions there's a lot of negotiations negotiations still to take place before this is a done deal and these tariffs are imposed on europe ok paul many thanks. ok let's stay with masses of trade the trade deal mr trump didn't want to be part of we're talking now about the revised t p p that's the transpacific partnership it's been signed in chile in what's being hailed as a powerful move against protectionism is future was in doubt for more than a year after mr trump pulled the u.s. out of the accord the new deal will reduce tariffs for eleven countries and connect

economies worth ten trillion dollars. the u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson has now arrived in djibouti as he continues his first official tour of africa djibouti is a vital partner for the u.s. it hosts an american military base that's used for operations in somalia and yemen and anti piracy surveillance in the red sea last year china also opened its first military base abroad in djibouti as beijing and washington vie for influence across the region let's get more on that for you joining us here on the news dr robert carr geary he is a strategy and policy analyst with the department of the plum a c. and international studies at the university of nairobi joins us now from the kenyan capital how significant is djibouti for the united states. i think it's very. very clearly articulated on underscore the importance of what the military believes that they have there in maintaining stability within that

very volatile region as you correctly mentioned earlier we have got the middle east on one side in the whole of africa. have been pretty volatile for malia yemen and. will not to forget that in. principle money to import what then. after korea pulled out of your. country and actually this is only. part of it it would be for whole. american posturing within that region military made in that region you put it looks really important so it's geographically strategically important i get that bit but is there another significant thing here particularly for a u.s. secretary of state it's politically stable at a time when some african countries are not stable or if they are stable we have some african countries in which the u.s.

has an interest and you get presidents a prime minister saying actually i'd like to change the constitution to stay on for another four or five years and the state department maybe doesn't feel comfortable with that. are you absolutely correct or not. there's a growing influence by by cheney within africa even beyond the political military course during because. cheney has been using a soft power approach to india to africa and saying that the western democracy never works and what they need now is not what they're calling socialism with chinese characteristics which is worked up within the xi jinping is that one thing and part of. his attention or grouping of the two term limits is that he wants to extend these a lot of your thinking you know me to the rest of africa because it's an important strategically very important for them so what we have going on currently in china

what we call the two sessions which is an indorsement of the dropping of that new term limits is particular concern to the secretary. because they're seeing a group back from what they consider to be. the right way to govern through democratic principle then universal suffrage they are seeing that we are clawing back once we. have encountered a superpower and what they're now endorsing apparently saw even beyond the political and the military and politics they are concerned that our democracy is taking a back step in china early actions of the very very briefly dr giri just offered one very quick final point does that mean that the u.s. is still getting it wrong because tillerson is leaving behind half a billion dollars cash in aid you're saying that some african countries would prefer african solutions for african problems and that's exactly what sergei lavrov

he's in africa this week as well that's precisely what he's been saying so they might war more to the russians than they do simply to the mighty dollar. absolutely they want to be left to come up with on solutions and the approach that i've been taken by russia and mostly chain are you that they're not. how we govern ourselves they're interested in what they call a win win cooperation in terms of building infrastructure and helping africans fight poverty we can never happened. under the influence there that is a critical concern that their influence within the region is winning and china is winning this war and russia as well is making inroads ok dr gary great to have you here on the news are we appreciate your time and your insight ok in a few moments we'll have your weather for you with richard but also still ahead here on the news hour. we'll meet the vietnamese fishermen on the front lines of a territorial tussle in disputed waters in the sports news we're just minutes away

from the start of the biggest ever winter paralympics do stay with us. through tranquil radio. and if. well the monsoon season of northern parts for stray has been particularly active over the last few weeks in fact some places seeing three month's worth of rain in the space of three days and seen in the north of townsville bring us probably what they've seen here so flooded streets a real problem and of course if you've got the dog who are in doing need to take it out well certainly what you do is you put it in a boat and take it to somewhere where there's some safer ground for it to do what it has to do well look so there's going to be continued rain here because we've got

the whole area dominated by this low pressure you see these great close systems these convective systems sort of spying around doing nothing very much also in the vicinity got our tropical cycle and hola but in the shorter term this area of low pressure across the northern parts of australia looks as though it's going to rain very much in place so expect more heavy rain across these areas meanwhile talking hala it is moving down between the islands of new caledonia and finally were to actually go right across the loyalty islands not heavily populated at twenty thousand people but never less going to see the couldn't catch everyone hurrican working its way through here certainly for parts of new caledonia and vanuatu we've seen some very large amounts of rainfall and lakes twenty four hours that system moves away it was further south of a cooler waters but will eventually result in some heavy rain and unsettled weather across northern new zealand. the weather sponsored by cat time release.

bigger and potentially more dangerous that's the best way to describe what's happening with a smoking alternative known as favorite i enjoy the taste of it and not get the harmful effects of what smoking does between two thousand and thirteen and two thousand and fourteen a lone star tripling in use among us high school students and head to head comparison a safe place this conventional cigarette which one do you think is healthy my opinion i think they're both dangerous take no at this time on al-jazeera. al-jazeera. and for your.

recapping our top stories for you so far today here on the news hour donald trump has agreed to meet the north korean leader kim jong un in the coming weeks it should happen in may a south korean delegation to look at the invitation from kim jong il and the white house south korea's national security adviser says mr kim expressed a commitment to deep nuclearize ation. syrian opposition activists say airstrikes are hitting a rebel held enclave near damascus just as an aid convoy is entering their thirteen red cross trucks of crossed into duma in eastern kentucky to bring in food and supplies the convoy was pursuing on thursday because of the fighting. germany has

condemned donald trump's new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports as an affront to the e.u. and south korea say they may file a complaint to the world trade organization trump imposed the levies despite warnings of a global trade war saying he needed to preserve american jobs. well in the u.s. industrial heartland there is jubilation over those tariffs steel workers have been pushing mr trump to fulfill one of his key electoral promises and she had her tansey. when we when we bring in steel back that message hope to donald trump become the first republican presidential candidate since one thousand nine hundred eighty eight to take pennsylvania but just a few weeks ago at this union hall in the states more than valley steelworkers told us trump's lack of action suggested he was no different to all the other politicians who promised them protection were still flatline like not to mean since

the election i'm not sure that he believes in another day and you know money but money for. now for the top. that's what i see and now trump has delivered and there's widespread opposition to the tariffs in washington on wall street and among the us as trading partners there is relief elsewhere unions and progressives have long said the u.s. needs to decide whether to fight unfair international trading practices and save the u.s. industrial base and the service industries that supply it from extinction you've got to start someplace if we allow our manufacturing industries to be just told by other countries we're going to it at the end of the beach day be left with an economy of hamburger flippers. when george w. bush imposed steel tariffs in two thousand and two the economic cost was negligible according to u.s. government study a loss of some thirty million dollars a year and thousands of steel jobs did return but there were also job losses in

other industries those calling for a rebalancing of international trade now accept this but argue tyrus a just a starting point in the goshi ations which will have wider benefits over time these trade balances or are threatening to destabilize not just steal momentum but in fact broad sectors of the economy not just in the us but in our countries as well areas like the mom valley risk becoming yet another us industrial waste land without support and no one really knows why don't trump decided to ignore his corporate backers who up until now have been very satisfied with their huge tax windfalls and the scaling back of regulation whether he's truly committed to fighting for manufacturing workers and has a comprehensive plan to do so but for now the president has kept a key campaign promise that helped him secure the white house she habitants the al-jazeera. the kenyan president kenyatta and the main opposition leader raul

a dingo are promising to work out their differences in a meeting in nairobi for the first time since the disputed election last august the opposition went on to boycott a poll that was followed by widespread violence across the country. we have come to a common understanding and understanding that this country of kenya is greater than any one individual and that for this country to come together leaders must come together he does must be able to discuss their differences he does must be able to discuss freely and openly what is our country what. is the reason and the cause for ethnic divisions and fictions that we see across the country the time has come for us to confront his all our differences these differences are becoming too entrenched not to cling

on said greed on the origins of the differences and what they put. millions of our children continue to be born on mounted into these differences people are dying out of these differences my brother. and myself. this will come to good that do you see this is still here. the u.n. human rights chief is urging the international criminal court at the hague to prosecute those committing atrocities against me in mass range in minority zene rodell hussein mean last government to allow monitors into northern rakhine state to investigate what he called acts of genocide he's accuse me and mom of bulldozing mass graves to cover up evidence of crimes against humanity and say drug hussein is advising the philippines president to seek psychiatric help it's in response to the

philippines government filing a petition to declare a un special rapporteur and six hundred alleged communist guerrillas as terrorists hussein criticized the agree go to turkey's use of foul language when he warned u.n. investigators against looking into extra additional killings of drug offenders this is of course unacceptable for a special rocketeer are. acting on behalf of the international community whose expertise is sort by the human rights council to be treated in this room and hooper my expect the human rights council to respond accordingly and really makes one believe that the president of the philippines needs to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric evaluation this sort of this this sort of common reed is unacceptable the u.s. aircraft carrier has finished an historic visit to vietnam and is now traveling

through disputed areas of the south china sea washington says it wants freedom of navigation through areas that are claimed by china when a reports on those who are on the front lines of this dispute. when the repairs to finish these vietnamese fishing boats are put straight back to work in the south china sea boat yards in the city of deming have been particularly busy in recent years on top of the regular maintenance and building work they've been patching up holes they say were caused by collisions with the chinese coast guard but. china is expanding its presence in the south china sea we see the boats every day they come closer and closer to our territory sometimes there are conflicts between vietnamese and chinese ships so we have to do our job and repair them there are hundreds of boats in this port at the center of a community whose livelihood depends on the ocean they head out for weeks at a time into waters that are claimed by vietnam china and other countries. many of

the fishermen have accounts of being chased all the vessels being damaged by chinese boats among the claimants in southeast asia vietnam really stands as the strongest opponent now to chinese development in the south china sea or the e.c. as it's known in vietnam but at the same time the vietnamese are trying to balance that opposition with economic reality. china is vietnam's largest trading partner but the vietnamese also want a counter to the rising regional influence of their fellow communist neighbor this week's visit to dunning by the aircraft carrier calvin sin was seen as a sign that vietnam thinks the united states could help provide that in a clear reference to the us the chinese government says countries outside the region are trying to stir up trouble along with welcoming the united states navy vietnam recently bolstered its own defense is launching two new high speed border guard boats the fishermen say more security on the water is welcomed. i have been

fishing here for thirty eight years and there seems to have been more patrol boats in recent years we feel more secure and happy when we see the coast guard and i think the appearance of the u.s. ships also helps constrain chinese boats to even without that security they say they would continue to work in seas that they believe have always belonged to vietnam wayne hay al jazeera. there has been a relatively calm nights in sri lanka central sri lanka where the government has imposed a curfew and deployed hundreds of soldiers at least two people were killed and two muslim attacks the police say they've arrested ten people including the suspected leader from candy here's al jazeera is bernard smith. the muslim business owners here don't need to take tips to tell them who's destroying their shops and homes. nationalist groups have again been exploiting long simmering resentment among some

ethnic sinhalese who think muslims dominate the economy i am three lanka and this is my country i want here today here. i am three long time after that. incident but i am. proud of my three month. using social media rumors of alleged muslim wrongdoing spread fast and angry groups quickly for an hour before the mob came through the military and the police told the muslims living here to get out so they did when they came home and it was all over i came back to this a many of the people living here have told us that they have been left with the impression however right or wrong the security forces weren't interested in looking after their property the local police chief tells us they did everything they could . the government to send troops imposed a curfew and cut access to social media with the coalition administration led by

prime minister ronald wickramasinghe is politically weak and some have accused it of not doing enough to tackle rising nationalism it's going to be these are going to be a question to answer because of the emotions involved it's very easy to for somebody to give me that. that idea and something in me and then and get my emotions to run riot in me maybe in the future there may be things that we can do better so. it's a topic that we have to discuss in the future. three quarters of shoreline because population is sinhalese and overwhelmingly but nationalist have promoted long held fears that the character of the island is under threat first from british colonialism then there was a twenty six year civil war with tamils now it's muslims and they are destroying up with the sights and we definitely cannot stand by sinhalese as buddhist and watch as that is happening. one or two temples have been targeted but most victims of the

violence are muslim the region of candy is vital to sri lanka's multi billion dollar tourist industry burnitz many al-jazeera candy. of course in the u.k. has been shown security video of the moment a huge fireball exploded on board a packed train the police can be seen people can be seen running from the parson's green sheep station in west london last year it was shown in the trial of a suspected bomber hassan the eighteen year old denies charges of attempted murder a video also shows him buying matches and batteries allegedly used to make the device which fail to fully detonate. the irish government has agreed to hold a referendum on whether to overturn a constitutional ban on abortion the vote is set to take place and made now 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 change laws rooted in catholic doctrine including a twenty fifteen referendum legalizing same sex marriage. almost

a million people are without power after heavy snow in the northeast of the us it's the second storm to hit the region in less than a week more than eight hundred thousand people are facing widespread electricity cuts some have been without power for almost a week heavy snow and icy roads are forced state officials to close schools and cancel or delay thousands of flights international leaders from the worlds of business politics and the environment are in mexico for the world ocean summit they're trying to come up with a solution to some of the oceans biggest problems including pollution and overfishing however as john holeman now reports from cancun the location of the meeting itself is a cautionary tale of financial gain 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 once 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 reefs and corals generates so many habitats for fish from all of our stations it's as if they were and all races in the desert are 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 is the work or if we didn't do this now we'd only be thinking a short term little we hear of now would disappear are fairly wealthy but the state government long lacks in holding hotel isn't developers to account says it's also

now on board you know you can put on this or there's a serious commitment from the government to focus on the environment because. woods but it's a local vision in line with the yangs of this global summit united business leaders conservationists and government. about story about.

so if this was news we're going to thank you so much pizza while serena williams has returned su competitive singles action with a win the twenty three time grand slam champion is back after the birth of her first child six months ago the thirty six year old hadn't played in a top level torrent since winning the australian open at the start of last year. williams had beaten kazakhstan's serenity yes in straight sets in the first round of the indian wells tournament in california. the win sets up a second round match with dutch player katie person's assistant venus is a possible third round of hundreds. i was almost going to cry because i missed my daughter and i was just like you know but i pulled myself together and i got to do the but it was good i was really in it when i was really happy to be out there you

know just to be able to play tennis again. and victoria azarenka was also back on course after a prolonged absence the former world number one beating britain's heather watson in straight sets the belorussian is involved in a custody battle which means she can't leave the state of california so this is a rare chance for her to compete at a top level soar event prior to this match the two time grand slam champion hadn't played competitively since wimbledon in of last year. roger federer begins his bid for a record sixth indian wells title on saturday the thirty six year old is back at the top of the world rankings with world number two rafa nadal missing from this event due to injury. as little pressure as they seem to be there is always on the top guys you know because to see you always at the center of attention and expectations are there and. yeah but i'm def in a good place i also feel like i have less to prove today than in the past but that

doesn't mean that i don't want it badly. encouraging signs for tiger woods as he continues his efforts he would censor something like his best for woods was occasionally in amongst the trees here during his first round of you have asked for a championship in florida. the hall seen sign made you want to manage to escape from that situation and finish the day on one under par three shots behind leader corey connors a forty two year old is playing in just his fourth sorenson's how long injury layoff he hasn't won a tournament since twenty thirteen. my form hit the tree a little bit. i tried to warn all the people there and i moved out of the way because i didn't know if i was if i pulled back on that at all and you know try to really use my hands in flight that ball down and that club catches and breaks you know it's going to go right over there and that's you know i worry about that but

once they're got cleared out i figured i could put some speed into this thing and. it was going to i was going to feel it. but i pulled it off. do you think. we're just minutes away from the start of the largest ever winter paralympics the opening ceremony in pyongyang get some to wear the top of the hour north korea will be making its games debut but north and south korean athletes will march separately at this ceremony the two countries united for a joint procession at last month's a lympics this time the north that wanted the disputed islands to be put on a unified flag of the south disagree. or a record five hundred sixty seven athletes from forty eight countries will be

competing along with north korea and georgia. athletes at the games for the first time eighteen medals up for grabs in six sports alpine skiing snowboarding power ice hockey will check on the nordic skiing events of cross-country and biathlon and as with the winter olympics russian athletes deemed drug free by organizers will be allowed to compete as neutrals around thirty russians will be in play on chang all must have had at least two anti doping tests in the past six months also means the pressure on their under fire boss austin van or his team beating ac milan away in the first leg of their last sixteen europa league tie goals from henrik make it sorry in an hour and ramsey sitting at suno when the run a full straight losses winning the competition guarantees champions league qualification their sixth in the premier league right now their worst domestic campaign of fang is twenty two year reign look we're born again we have not we are not qualified so what the result would mean it relief to gain the day to be

. relieved to be deferring in the team again because when you lose three games in six days it's all rouge very difficult but. and do we want to keep our focus and job next recruits were what does it get the mommy hates have moved a step closer to the playoffs in basketball's top pro league with a win against the philadelphia seventy six ers heading into the final six weeks of the n.b.a. regular season pass and was silent the hate with twenty six points supported by sixteen from twine white to hate all seventh in the eastern conference the soft white same's in each conference qualify for the playoffs. on the final day of pre-season testing is underway in barcelona with ferrari rapidly gaining momentum in the world of formula one force on the world champion sebastian vettel set a track record of pass line a sick of the catalunya on thursday title holder lewis hamilton was only eight

fastest in his in the sadie's the new season begins with the australian grand prix in melbourne coming up later on it's. ok sport is looking for the now eight and a thanks very much we'll talk to you a little later a lot more news on the website dot com sammy sera couple minutes i will see you very soon.

right. the sam's in archaeology graduate from iraq he's also a part time going to pergamon museum which includes a reconstruction of the famous ishtar gate in bubble most of the people he's showing around came to germany as refugees this is just one of several billion museums taking part in the project called a meeting point and as well as bringing people together one of its aims is to emphasise the contribution of migrants right up to the present day to western culture. because i've been here for some time i can help them with lots of things but news is forward to me the great thing is it's not just about museums about forming a new life here and part of life is culture. i

am doing this for the benefit of people. so mad they see the importance of guys. who witness documentaries that open your eyes. at this time on al-jazeera. after months of bitter exchanges the u.s. president accepts an offer to talk with a north korean leader. i'm sami's a than this is al jazeera live from the hall so coming up.