on the benefit of. so many see the importance of these. documentaries that open your eyes. at this time on al-jazeera. after months of bitter exchanges the u.s. president except son offer to talk with a north korean leader. i'm sammy's a than this is al jazeera live from the hall so coming up airstrikes had

syria's eastern voters just as desperately needed a dentist besieged area. global condemnation as dawn trump places big tariffs on steel and alum in the imports. the price of protection japan's huge new seawalls which some people say could damage tourism. now the u.s. president donald trump has excepted an invitation from north korea's leader kim jong un for a face to face talks the development is being hailed as a major diplomatic achievement after months of aggressive posturing between the two men from a bride has more. 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 may torchy haunt the new priority. seizing the moment south korea's president moon jay in has been quick to credit both north korean and u.s. leaders can 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 were 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 in pyongyang 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 a beneficial outcome at least they are dialing less talking to each other then you know i think sport played their part in nor putting 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 rob mcbride al-jazeera south korea japan's prime minister shinzo abi says his government will continue to pressure north korea and today it gives up its nuclear weapons hopes to meet trump next month if i killed off 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 are a step in the right direction adrian brown has more from beijing. i think china is very much sticking to the script the foreign ministry spokesman said on friday the

china welcome these positive signals of course on thursday the country's foreign minister wang he said that he wanted washington and pyongyang to hold talks as soon as possible the fact those talks could now happen within the next two months is a time line the beijing will be very comfortable with i think but the foreign ministry spokesman said that while china she welcomes these developments it still believes that all relevant parties have to do more to ensure that the korean peninsula becomes free of nuclear weapons or made whole from of are we welcome these positive signals by the u.s. and north korea on having direct their log on the korean nuclear peninsula issue is a moving towards the right direction to eat a settlement we fully acknowledge and support the role of the parties efforts to resolve this issue through dialogue elsewhere in asia the japanese prime minister has said that japan welcomes the news but at the same time says pressure must be

kept on north korea to get rid of its nuclear weapons japan of course is one of the few countries that has had north korean missile to pass over its territory i think for china it is both good and bad bad because china doesn't want to be marginalized it doesn't want the united states to get all the glory and it also feels the china deserves credit for what it has done because it is china that has been enforcing sanctions against north korea china didn't want to do this it's always believed that the only way to bring about a lasting peace on the korean peninsula is true dialogue but now it's almost having to accept that in fact sanctions have worked here we have of course two of the world's most unpredictable leaders president trump and kim jong un and of course in today's politics two months is a very long time but if this event happens it's going to be an event laden with history the sort of history that accompanied president nixon's visit to china in

one thousand nine hundred two that led to the united states stablish ing diplomatic relations with china. the united nations coordinator in syria says government shelling on a rebel held on klav is putting an aid convoy risk strikes hit eastern of all the justice thirteen red cross trucks were entering the area the delivery of food and supplies was s'posed and on thursday because of the fighting the u.n. says the shelling happened despite safety assurances from those in the conflict including russia earlier the u.k. based syrian observatory for human rights reported no overnight there strikes or shelling on the east in the water for the first time in ten days more than nine hundred people have been killed since the government offensive began there almost three weeks ago. so in the hole that joins us live from beirut in neighboring lebanon so those airstrikes just starting as the trucks well entering this means the a delivery operation is over. but yes the united nations really appealing for

a cease fire saying that the shelling and the airstrikes are putting the aid convoy the trucks in danger like you mentioned that convoy has now entered the besieged enclave thirteen trucks carrying much needed supplies food supplies is what we understand those supplies were supposed to have been delivered on monday but because of the shelling all the trucks were not off loaded so the united nations hoping that it can carry out this mission we understand that there are no medical supplies on this aid convoy and that is what medics have been appealing for because there are thousands of civilians who were injured in this ongoing bombing campaign and the government systematically prevents trauma kit surgical supplies from entering besieged areas because it fears they will be used on rebel fighters who are wounded in the fighting so much needed aid supplies united nations you know appealing for calm so that this delivery can be made. is this also a sign that perhaps those talks have broken down. not

yet sammi what we understand is that there are negotiations behind the scenes negotiations between the russian government and the rebel factions in eastern overnight there were no airstrikes no shelling some are describing this is a goodwill gesture a positive step to try to make progress in those negotiations but the pro-government alliance is making it very very clear it wants all rebel factions to surrender they all have to leave they have to leave with their families and the biggest problem is what about the hundreds of thousands of people who live in eastern they do not want to leave they do not want to be displaced but many of them are too scared to remain in area under the control of the government and many are just don't want to live under the control of the government so you know the situation is still not clear right now the focus is on trying to get supplies to the people who really need food and help all right zain a holdover from beirut. the turkish military says its troops have captured an

important town in northern syria as are three in the region where. the soldiers and allied syrian rebels are trying to push kurdish fighters from the area in the race is one of the largest towns in africa and its capture would help the turks should dance the sporadic violence is still being reported. fisher has more from inside syria and south west of gentry's. we came here with the turkish military escort we're in the tone of the balut this is one of the first successes as far as the turkish and the free syrian army is concerned an operation all of branch one of the first places that was taken over here you can see the aid that is being brought in for the people in the tone is essentially all the essentials that people need such as water biscuits flour oil things that they can cook with if you come with me past the truck the aid workers are all ready to start handing in the people are certainly in the position that they want to see it one of the buildings

that are standing in the courtyard here this is being used for medical checks by the turkish army will go up the stairs. i mean here the been treating people of all ages from very old with things like that and injuries to very young children trying to establish exactly what is wrong when the parents just know that they're not well for the entire time you can hear the sound of going artillery shells and you can see in the faces of the children when that happens just how scared they are a reminder of what they've been through particularly over the last few months. to go but clearly the clinic is doing something that they want to previously for but i don't here into the courtyard. and here you can see the children there gathered with appearance now they're doing the best they can to give them some sort of schooling you can see school books are scattered around here

they're trying to give the children education that teaching them some very basic things but clearly they don't have the facilities that normal schools would have speaking to people here they say it has been a very very rough six seven weeks particularly in this part of the town in this part of the country and they say that they would like their life to get back to normal as soon as possible they just don't know when that is going to be. germany has condemned donald trump's new tariffs on steel and alan many men paul says protectionism and an affront to allies trump impose the levies despite warnings of a global trade war saying he needed to preserve american jobs john hendren reports from washington d.c. . see a defiant donald trump fulfilled a promise that helped make him president the american still an 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 been over a hundred million dollars. 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 in what i can say because we just passed a 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 out for the national interest at the european union talk was much tougher to hang and it's sort of we are now imposing tariffs on motorcycles harley davidson on blue jeans the visor on bourbon we can also do stupid. those and 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 of that even if you needed to sign them john hendren washington. still ahead on al-jazeera joined the league signatories to a major asian pacific trade deal other countries to fight protectionism. kenya's president and his main rival raila odinga promised to work out their differences.

hello again look at the weather across asia and in northeastern parts of asia we've had a really active frontal system pushing through japan bring you some very warm very moist air up from the south but on the northern side pulling in some cold air which is resulted in snowfall but certainly tokyo seen a fairly wet twenty four hours eighty one millimeters of rain that system now clearing right through so we've got brighter conditions through saturday so we could have conditions temperatures dropping quite a bit and a pretty chilly up in sapporo there but mata cross the korean peninsula beijing's temperatures not looking too bad there at fifteen degrees celsius moving the forecast on twenty four hours we get of the weather system moving across the sea of japan prospering in some snow into northern parts of the country but otherwise not a great deal of change moving southward forgot seventeen degrees in shanghai let's look at the rest of central and southern parts of china taiwan weather wise cherry looking fine the flows being from the north last few days to temperatures nothing special just twenty one in hong kong but fine conditions for many northern parts of vietnam hanoi that twenty four degrees and should remain dry as we head through

sunday but again temperatures just falling away a little bit elsewhere we're looking fine conditions for hong kong and taipei southeastern parts of asia a few showers in the philippines but not too bad probably some the heaviest rain will be down across parts of java. capital the capital which makes you creative. when nature is transformed into a commodity big business takes a new interest. 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. do that because your business is pressing the planet this time on al-jazeera.

you know watching al-jazeera reminded out of our top stories this hour the u.s. president has agreed to meet north korea's leader in the coming weeks as 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. the united nations core the nater in syria says government shelling on the rebel held enclave is putting an aid convoy. just as thirteen red cross trucks entering the area. germany has condemned donald trump's new tariffs on steel and. from. the european union south

korea say they may file a complaint to the world trade organization trying to impose the levies despite warnings sparking global trade war he said he needs to preserve american jobs. now to the trade deal trump didn't want to be part of the transpacific partnership has been signed in chile in what's being hailed as a powerful move against protectionism our latin america the lucy and human has moved 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. today. 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 praxis 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 is even seen as a turning point was slow building or lack of it was present secretary is now saying that he's sticking to the seven. joining the team. but the reversal 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 has 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 santiago. only callandar she is an economist not

a community who joins us now from beijing via skype good to have you with us so first of all how do you think beijing is going to respond and the minister of commerce made an announcement saying that china of course opposes this tirade of sirte and it will respond in a way which is commensurate to the damage inflicted by these tare fur and beyond these the rhetoric when we look at the numbers that the damage to china will suffer is not very large or we estimate the wrong one hundred million dollars the u.s. or it's about thirty billion dollars of steel or china exports to the u.s. is about one b. a young twenty five percent these two hundred fifty meal and of course it's not going to all go through as a damage and so we're talking about very small amounts for an assortment of course does respond in words or and they may just impose

a type on something else about the impact when we talk about numbers is very very good for a number of countries nevertheless were impacted by the u.s. measures not just china do you think might see a situation which they gang up on the on the u.s. . that may be but of course as we know the knife will you know those in the hands of the united states or just before you mention a report about germany complaining the fourth you will export of steel into the united states it is about five times that of china's about five and a half a billion dollars so it's a little bit more but germany of course. want it is complaining most about it to let's not forget to germany is the perceived also by other european countries to do i the kind of dumping such as morning three damn things because of the strength or did the weakness of the europe and saw it is a very difficult situation because a country do take advantage of various forms of dumping a one week to ease

a selling at below cost of the other one is a lower interest rate the other one is their currency and that you know way you're up there has a somewhat in germany particularly benefited from being part of the euro zone and now suddenly germany itself finds itself on the other side of the trade and of course complains when other countries do something that may damage it to so it's a bit of a tricky situation no let me say. we are going in maybe towards more protectionism however there's a little bit of a philosophical difference between a protection is and liberalism you know a liberal markets those who support the liberal market they support it for long term or for ever any country to any other country so it's more of a for ever kind of approach however protectionism is are only directed at specific industrial sectors or specific goods or and to specific countries like in these examples or do you waste is not turning into art or is just putting a twenty five percentile fur on one product to get only represents

a very small proportion of its economy and looking back at numbers of china and this is the zero point one percent of china's overall production of. steel which is a hundred million tons per year so again it's a very limited amount or this time it will fade down it's not forever twenty five percent now it will go down to zero in five years time if things improve so it's only temporary measures and many more questions for you on whether this is the last sort of measure the u.s. might introduce by they we're going to leave it for another time thanks so much. u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson has visited djibouti as he continues his first official tour of africa djibouti is a vital partner for the united states house 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 in the region thurston's next stop is the kenyan capital nairobi where its president and the main opposition leader are promising to work out their differences or kenyatta. met for the first time since the disputed election last august the opposition went on to boycott a poll that sparked widespread violence across the country. and understanding this. is. any one individual and that this country to come together leaders must come together you just must be able to discuss their differences you guys must be able to be really be what is. what. is really in the. division. and we see.

the time has come for us to confront differences. these differences are becoming too. new to pinions agree on the origins of the differences and. millions of our children continue to be born into these differences. out of these differences my bro. come to good that we do see this stuff here seven people have been killed in a suicide bombing in afghanistan's capital seven others were wounded in the blast at a police checkpoint near a gathering of a shia minority there's no immediate claim of responsibility but there have been a series of attacks in the city by both the taliban and i saw in recent months

ireland's government is agreed to hold a referendum on whether to overturn a constitutional ban on abortion is set to take place and i 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. huge concrete walls of being built along parts of japan's coast to protect it from tsunamis seven years ago massive waves crashed into coastal cities over twenty thousand people are thought to have been killed but some say the new barriers are too high could impact tourism matheson reports. for fisherman atsushi fujita the open waters of the to hokkaido coast swelling beneath a hazy blue sky where he earns his living pulling oysters from the sea there. but when he returns to the shore the rolling hills of his home have been obscured by

high concrete walls. i feel like i'm working inside a fence it feels like we're in jail even though we haven't done anything bad. in the two thousand and eleven earthquake and tsunami wave slammed into coastal cities two thousand people were killed in that sushi is home time the focus shima nuclear reactor was swamped leaking radiation into the surrounding land and sea their original tsunami barrier was just four meters high but the waves just swept right over it now japan is building sea walls fifteen meters high they offer more protection but not everyone thinks they're worth it just and all the more today at the local i think about fifty years ago we used to bring our kids here and enjoy the beautiful ocean and bay area while driving but there's not even a trace of that left or to it that knocked the world i don't think we need a sea wall if we could see the wave coming we could shout run but because of the

wall we can't see anything. many local authorities refused to give planning permission for new homes until the walls were built to the beginning built after the construction of the seawall was confirmed i was able to get permission to rebuild my bed and breakfast that is why i can't say things like the wall should be lower or we don't need it it's thanks to the wall that i could rebuild and now i have a job. and the oyster fishing has improved because the tsunami stirred up the sea birds some complain to reason will be affected because the walls obscured the views but others say they're willing to pay that price for protection from mother nature rob matheson al-jazeera. and let's take you through some of the headlines here in al-jazeera now the u.s. president donald trump has agreed to meet north korea's leader in the coming weeks a 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 united nations coordinator in syria says government shelling on a rebel held on klav is putting in a convoy risk airstrikes hit east in the water just as thirteen red cross trucks were entering the area the delivery of food and supplies was postponed on thursday because of fighting with turkish military says its troops have captured an important town in northern syria as are free in the region the soldiers and allied syrian rebels are trying to push kurdish fighters from the area jindo this is one of the largest towns that are free to capture will help the turkish advance sporadic violence is still being reported germany is condemned donald trump's new tariffs on steel imports is in the front two allies trump impose the levies despite warnings of a global trade war he said he needed to preserve american jobs the european union and south korea say they 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. the revised trans-pacific partnership spin signed in chile what's being hailed as a powerful move against protectionism its future was in doubt for more than a year after the us president pulled this country out of the agreement for the new deal reduced tariffs for eleven countries and connect economies worth ten trillion dollars seven people have been killed in a suicide bombing in afghanistan's capital kabul seven others were wounded in the blast as a police checkpoint near a gathering of a shia minority there's no immediate claim of responsibility however there have been a series of attacks in the city by both the taliban and i saw in recent months.

the headlines it's inside story now. 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.