moderate speed of thirty kilometers an hour a tree branch can cut like a machete. facing realities growing up when did you realize that you were living in a special place the so-called secret city getting to the heart of the matter why is activists to live in jail just because she expressed herself hear their story on talk to al-jazeera at this time. once a rebel stronghold now weakened and splintered syrian forces make their biggest gains yet in a battle to take eastern ghouta. and our intake of his al jazeera live from london also coming up donald trump takes to

twitter to sell his upcoming meeting with north korea's kim jong un and suggest pyongyang has agreed to halt missile tests. former trump advisor steve bannon predicts a bright future for france's far right. and we'll report on a plan to turn the rich waters of the weather l c n n talk ticker into the largest protected area on earth. below syrian government forces have made significant gains in their battle to take the last remaining rebel stronghold near damascus almost three weeks they've been pounding eastern ghouta from above killing almost a thousand people in the process now ground forces have advanced into areas between the main towns of duma and harassed or that cuts off the main rebel supply line the government also says it has full control of misrata that cuts of another key road to duma and splits the enclave into three and fisher has more from the turkey syria

border. all syrian government forces have made big gains in the last twenty four hours they are still facing resistance and. this video from josh al islam claims to show regime forces being pushed back but they have surrounded two large towns in eastern guta duma and harasta and circling times it's something syrian government forces have done consistently especially since enlisting the help of the russians militarily tactically by cutting off roads and important supply lines they've essentially left the fighters with no place left to go he's isolating the two cities. now the two big cities in the in the east he's weakening them and he's. supporting its military approach by having this political strategy submitting them both on the ground and politically by trying to have a deal this deal with useless law. across the country the free syrian army supported by the turks are closing in on the city of afrin. the positions held by

the kurdish militia the wife p.g. . is strikes have been ongoing water has been cut one doctor in the local hospital says he fears a massacre the chair of the local council has called on the un to intervene was the u.n. official claims that self administration and the y. p.g. prevent the population from escaping we invite those who sit somewhere and say something like this to send a delegation to a free and to talk to people here the people of our free prefer to voluntarily stay in their country and defend against the occupation of the turkish state. turkey's president says he expects turkish troops to be in the city. if we placed on a shelf put on solid our conscience ethics and sensitivities just like other countries and terrorists do when they act in syria then capturing affray will be a job that would take is just three days. back in eastern guta syrian t.v.

says government forces now control fifty one percent of the area they're still considering humanitarian corridors for people and fighters who are ready to leave but they still continue to push for fuel control alan fischer al jazeera on the turkish syrian border. president on trying percent a series of tweets about his possible meeting with kim jong un a day after surprising the world he would meet the north korean leader for talks trump also fought off tweets about phone calls he's had with the leaders of china and japan mike hanna is following events for us in washington d.c. so mike all these tweets from trump but still no more real detail how do you think things are progressing well president trump obviously things they are progressing very well among those series of tweets that he issued in the course of the day was

one that to north korea has not conducted a missile test since november twenty eighth saying that he believes that they will continue to spend their nuclear missile testing program so he appears confident that north korea will keep its word the assurances that it was given not directly to president trump but via a south korean mediator as you said president trump also talking to various world leaders the president of china the prime minister of japan as well as the president of france in the course of the morning attempting to get full international support for what is an absolutely unprecedented step by u.s. president to meet the north korean lay their leader in face to face talks and how prepared is the trumpet ministration for this type of negotiation. well some would argue that it is totally unprepared to let's just take a look at a few things there is no ambassador to south korea at present the white house withdrew its nomination for that post when the individual rejected the idea of any

armed intervention in north korea the top official on north korean policy within the state department joseph you well he resigned last week along with a number of other state department officials who'd been focusing on the region so there is no team in place president trump appears convinced that he can do all of this on his own on the other hand the north koreans have for decades had in the go see a team in place they've been negotiating with various parties for a long long period of time so from the very start if these negotiations should ever begin if there is this face to face meeting between president trump of the north korean leader the u.s. is going to be at a complete disadvantage on that basis of planning on that basis of organizing a negotiating team mike hanna thank you planned meeting between trump and kim has been making headline news all over the world but not in north korea where it poses

a major problem for the nation's propaganda machine broke mcbride explains. if you are in north korea right now and you do not have access to an outside source of information then you will not know about the historic summit in all six pages of the road long since this is the state controlled main party newspaper there's not one mention of it the only related item is an article attacking the latest u.s. sanctions which it says are a further provocation possibly leading to war the problem in north korea is a propaganda machine that turns out a daily diet of common trees all the tacking the imperialist united states as the great war monger how do you now turn around and tell your people your leader is about to sit down and have a friendly chat with the leader of your arch enemy even harder it seems will be explaining that in preparation for this is sturrock summit you have put on hold

work on your intercontinental ballistic missile this has been heralded as a great achievement of the socialist north korea the thing that will offer salvation from the very same imperialist americans it seems the north koreans need time to work out this complicated narrative in order to be able to explain it to its people looking even further ahead becomes the prospect perhaps of normalized relationship if this talks continue between north korea and the united states maybe even relations veering towards possibly the friendly or at least less hostile should that happen north korea it seems will have to perform some kind of propaganda contortionists act in order to explain it all luckily for the people in the propaganda department that prospect does seem a long way off. nine months after losing the french presidential election to emmanuel mccall far right leader marion le pen is rebranding her party the national

front will announce a new name this weekend former white house chief strategist steve bannon brought his support to the party on day one of the national congress they try to reports from legal arena le pen is still bruised by the scale of their defeat to emanuel macron nine months ago but as quoted britain's wartime leader winston churchill failure is not fatal it is the courage to continue that counts a change of brandon a change of name a coming in lille this weekend but not it seems a change in policies the ballot of eighty question said to national front members just return of majority of my three percent in favor of a predicted referendum on the european union and ninety eight percent want a drastic limit to immigration which delegates here described as a tsunami. it's not often that the spotlight moves away from the marine le pen but president trump's former chief strategist stephen bannon managed it when invited on

to the party platform we had the single greatest candidate in american history. all we had to do was let trump be trump number one stop mass illegal immigration and limit illegal immigration to get our sovereignty back and to help our workers told the national front they were part of a world wide movement that history was on their side and it was the tide that would bring them victory after victory after victory. but it didn't happen for marine le pen twenty seventeen that many blamed her poor showing in the campaign's final debate with a manual macro but eyes are now turning on her twenty eight year old niece marion maddox charlotte penn although now retired from politics she has been identified as a rising star by bannon and was spreading her message in in one thousand states last month i am not offended when i hear president on the trail and say america

first. in prague. i want america first for the american people i will rethink first for the british people and i want france first of all the french people was the reason the pen hopes exercise in rebranding will help bring support back and allow us to form alliances with other parties big change or i'll just era. rajan griffin professor not in history it talks in bricks university believes le pen may already have been politically outflanked by him when you're in michel. a lot of people who were voting for her a year ago were voting not because they are actually xenophobic. hard right wing voters but because they live in rustbelt in leland various places where she's holding the. the congress and they say that what they want is hope and a sense of some sort of change now that's exactly what might cause the liver than

actually the most the greatest threats to her party apart from all the internal wrangles and the factionalism within of that sector is the fact that a lot of people who were voting as a sort of protest vote against what was perceived to be a fossilised ruling elite have been attracted back into the mainstream politics by my calling the presidential election in sierra leone upset to get a second round with fifty percent of the results released there are less than two thousand votes separating the top two candidates from the ruling a.p.c. and the opposition s l people i mean it just has more from freetown. many civil unions believe that this election is headed for around with fifty percent of the vote counted that is little difference between the two leading candidates candidate of the ruling. party and the biggest opposition party in the country the s. and p. p. all of them have scored more than five hundred sixty thousand votes the third candidate

is hundreds of thousands of votes behind them now there are reported cases of. stuffing which the election officials say they are investigating now the election commission is expected to announce twenty five percent more of the votes by to morrow probably by the end of. sunday the results will be finally end and now civil unions are bracing themselves for a second round of voting on the streets of seventy on there are celebrations in certain places the celebrations were actually wild people commending the election commission for conducting what looks like a very very. vote instead of leon still ahead on here the u.s. state of florida passes modest restrictions on gun ownership aspiring columbia to find out about life on the campaign trail for fox political candidates and it's not

pretty. hello there we're seeing quite a bit of flooding over parts of australia at the moment it's in the northern parts of queensland where we've got the worst of the weather and that system is continuing to edge of way towards the north now so hopefully we've seen the worst there will be a few more outbreaks of rather heavy rain in the region there for sunday not quite as much as there has been for townsville should be more or less dry twenty nine degrees will be our maximum temperature for the south is turning hot for us in adelaide up to thirty two degrees and also rather hot in perth over the next couple of days as well we're looking at a top temperature of around thirty three degrees if we had out towards the east here we've got also i claim with this it's gradually been sinking its way towards the south it is easing a little bit as it does so but it's still capable of bringing some rather

destructive weather as the edges its way towards new zealand so for sunday then not too bad but increasing cloud increasing wind and the rain will start as well and then we'll see the worst of that whether on sunday night and into monday the north island there will see some very hazardous weather as we head up towards japan here things are clearing and it looks like it should be fine for many of us over the next few days we got this little weather feature that's drifting across us over sunday night by monday it's well clear tokyo with a maximum of thirteen. bigger and potentially more dangerous than some of us will describe what's happening with the smoking alternative known as i enjoy the taste of it and 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 east bay first is conventional six which one do you think it's helped my opinion i think

they're both dangerous take no at this time on else is there. are going to the top stories on the syrian government troops have made further advances into eastern ghouta cutting off the rebel held town of duma and harasta that effectively splinters the enclave into three parts. u.s. president don't trump says he secured an agreement from pyongyang to suspend missile testing ahead of a planned face to face meeting between him a north korean leader kim jong il and. the former chief strategist to u.s. president donald trump has been speaking at the party conference of france's

national front state plan and says the election results in italy showed people were rejecting the establishment political parties. the u.k. home secretary says the russian expiry. and his daughter remain in a critical but stable condition after they were poisoned with a nerve agent british ministers have been holding an emergency security meeting to discuss the latest police and intelligence reports two hundred fifty counterterrorism police are involved in the investigation and more than two hundred witnesses have been identified. this is a serious substantial investigation there are over two hundred fifty counterterrorism police from eight out of all eleven counterterrorism units involved there's over two hundred witnesses involved and there's over two hundred forty pieces of evidence so we need to give the police and all the investigative parts around them the space to get on with that but your state of florida has

passed a law just gun law reform since the parkland high school shooting that killed seventeen people last month but in washington there appears to be little appetite for change john hendren has a story. where the outcry for stricter gun laws in america has perhaps never been louder or more emotional. this makes me sick millions of children are rationally preparing for student slaughter and this is normalized we cannot allow our nation to go along with this any longer how many more times how many more children are going to be slaughtered the names have become an international shorthand for mass shootings in america littleton colorado virginia tech orlando's plus my class sandy hook and now parklane florida but little has changed since last month's school massacre there thank you so this hearing by senate democrats is unofficial the republicans who control both houses of congress are holding no hearings on guns

president obama hugged me and wouldn't let go until i could catch my breath and stop crying it's different this time because people are taking it personally he said. but it wasn't a free. it weekend gun shows across the us guns are easily bought with or without background checks and the appetite for weapons seems insatiable just try to find a parking spot at this one in virginia one reason background checks are such a point of contention is what's called the gun show loophole while licensed firearm dealers need to do background checks on buyers any individual can sell to any other individual as long as they don't have reason to believe that person is prohibited from owning a firearm and gun shows are where they meet. even many gun aficionados are willing to support some changes like mandatory background checks for all gun buyers should there be background checks absolutely absolutely the state of florida has passed modest changes banning the bump stocks that turned semiautomatic weapons into

automatics raising the minimum age to buy a gun to twenty one setting a three day waiting period in arming school employees but on capitol hill the senate has moved on to banking reform leaving all proposals for new gun restrictions on the shelf john hendren al-jazeera dale city virginia israeli soldiers have shot dead a palestinian man following a confrontation involving jewish settlers near the west bank city of nablus both sides are blaming the other for the violence israeli military says soldiers at the scene used quote rot dispersal means and live rounds one other person has been injured but it's unclear whether they were shot by soldiers or. it's. libya's coast guard says several hundred migrants are being rescued as smugglers took advantage of cum seas to launch a flurry of boats towards italy two hundred fifty two people were picked up in two separate rescue operations and taken back to tripoli a third boat was spotted and taken to italy by an ngo mission who has six hundred

thousand migrants have crossed from libya to italy in the past four years. japan's trade minister has sought an exemption from u.s. import tariffs on steel and aluminum and called for calm headed behavior the e.u. japan and the u.s. have been holding trade talks in brussels japan's trade minister told a news conference his u.s. counterpart had only explained the shadow and procedure for the terrorists the use trade chief said the block is also seeking to be exempt for brennan has more from brussels. this is a meeting that had been put in the diary several weeks ago to talk about the root cause of the industries the steel industries where as and that is overcapacity but president trumps announcements on tariffs have put new impetus into that part of the discussions that have been taking place here in brussels and the opportunity for the european union trade commission and the japanese trade minister to have

face to face time with robert light hisor the u. s. trade envoy is very valuable at the start of this two week period before president trump's tariffs actually start to be imposed there are going to be intense negotiations over this next two weeks to decide whether or not the european union can be exempted from those tariffs and the big implications if they're not are an escalating tit for tat kind of trade war involving all kinds of other products such as peanut butter orange juice harley davidson motorcycles blue denim jeans all of these kind of things that the european union are threatening they will that slap tariffs on in retaliation essentially for what's happening to the steel industry now it's not a foregone conclusion by any means that the european union will find that it's a deal has tariffs imposed upon it overnight president trump appears to be coming close to a deal with the australian prime minister on security arrangements there which will mean president trump won't impose tariffs on australia so there is

a glimmer of hope that european union still produces will escape the worst effects of it but with this president it's not there's no guarantee at all and that is why the european union is seeking clarity from robert light housing here in brussels. thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of florence in an anti-racism protest demonstration included african migrants calling for justice after the shooting of a senegalese street vendor earlier this week he was killed by a sixty five year old italian man but police don't believe the shooting was racially motivated russian president vladimir putin has rejected accusations by u.s. intelligence services that he ordered his citizens to interfere in the twenty six thousand presidential election in an interview with n.b.c. news putin said he couldn't care less if anyone meddled in the campaign as they were not connected to the carman he also said he would never allow the extradition of thirteen russian citizens accused by the u.s.

investigation of communicating with a trunk campaign against. colombians will vote on sunday in the first parliamentary elections to include candidates from a former rebel group fark the peace deal which ended the fifty year war was signed in twenty sixteen but as others hundred reports from gerald up the switch from fighting the government to fighting elections has not been an easy one. to last the complaining for former for command there big daddy isn't the no and it's a symbolic one she's back in her hometown during norden colombia the town she left thirty one years ago to become a giver your fighter was to see the work. you have resisted you have had the ability and the courage to endure the systematic violence that has been waged against our people when you fight party has been running on a platform of political and social welfare reform but it has had a hard time attracting people outside of its traditional base and in all attendance

here are poor farmers mostly cocoa growers hoping peace will bring about change. the hope is that this party will help us move forward and that one day we can experience the peace we've been tonights for so long by the war we can reach at this time. but the far campaign has largely attracted a different kind of attention. last month it suspended campaigning after. it stopped commander running for president was pelted with rocks he later ended his run because of health reasons too x. fighters campaigning for a candidate have been killed and most suffered attacks or traits and social media. says columbia's private institutions systematically hampered their efforts. but we've been trying but it has been very hard the goal was to reach as many people as possible but we weren't able to finance the campaign banks would not open us accounts we couldn't reach out on radio and t.v.

like the other parties we suffered considerable stigmatise station and much slanging. as one of the facts stop him with a sound you know will likely fail one of ten congressional seats at the pace they will set aside for the new farts party regardless of their showing but it will be difficult for them to leave my those seats if they don't get enough votes there is a tremendous degree of. negative feelings towards this group the have not. adequately processed and taken measures to address. for extern zisha into a legal electoral for. force was never going to be simple but this tentative steps or already any story could she have meant in a country still struggling to find a way to turn the page on its long and bloody conflict alison.

bolivia has unfurled what's claimed to be the world's longest flag to draw attention to its demand for the return of its access to the sea the flag stretches almost two hundred kilometers from the capital la paz because if you were and if you lost it's only coastline to chile in the war of the pacific between the two nations one hundred thirty five years ago the latest legal claim for its return begins at the international court of justice in the hague this week. so what else see in antarctica is the coldest on the planet that is home to an extraordinary ecosystem boasting an estimated fourteen thousand species from killer whales to starfish now there's a proposal to turn the rich waters into the largest wildlife sanctuary on earth in part one of our their series on the what else see our environment editor nick clark joined a greenpeace expedition to the century. it's a city near the end of the maritime history. in the main

square in punta arenas but none miguel and looked out towards way go across the strait that bears his dame from scott shackleton this is where famous antarctic expeditions came and sometimes returned and today it's home to the chilean and it's to choose a signatory to a very important treaty preserving the integrity of the antarctic continent works as a kind of international co-operative and as you walk into the chilean and talk to institute you're presented with a map of the concept incredibly rich in resources from copper to oil to gold and a lot of nations would like to get their hands on that but they called because of the antarctic treaty which was signed back in one nine hundred fifty nine to ensure in the interest of all mankind and shall continue for ever to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes and shall not become the scene object of international discord and so far it has worked to the principle the spirit is

a combination. really if you don't compare it maybe you can be or can do anything because this is an extreme. with extreme conditions. from point a right as to king george island on the fringes of antarctica it's well below zero and the tourists off the cruise ships are on their way home. so here with no king george island and tells him he made it seem like landing on. this is where the world's geography is turned upside down where russia neighbors chile along side it does not the nation's research stations it is the antarctic treaty in action. survival suits are on for the trip from shore to ship. right up to the. top when the men. on board we quickly on our way south bound for the site of the proposed ocean sanctuary an isolated

wilderness of sea and ice home to an astonishing erev life they are campaign sort of is for the wealthy marine protected area proposal by the german government backed by the e.u. and that sort of starts about sixty four degrees described by everyone who goes or is pretty in the hospital so i think that's the feeling we're going to have as we round this corner the greenpeace expedition is taking in scientific studies of the ocean floor as well as an exploration of this remote outpost how far we get will depend on whether ice conditions and a good deal of luck nicklen al-jazeera antarctica. and one of our main headlines here around syria syrian government troops have made further advances into eastern go to a suburb of damascus the surrounding the rebel held town of duma and harasta and

have cut off a major supply line government shelling and strikes killed more than fifty people in the rebel enclave in the last twenty four hours and fishel reports from near the turkey syria border what we've seen in eastern go to is a tactic that has been replayed throughout this war by the syrian government forces particularly since the enlisted the help of the russians both tactically and militarily the idea is to drive a wedge between the two areas take control of them isolate them and then negotiate some would say impose a peace deal which involves the removal of the part of fighters in that area and it seems that that's exactly what is happen here. the former chief strategist to u.s. president donald trump has been speaking at the party conference of france's national front steve benen says the election results in italy showed people were rejecting establishment political parties where his president donald trump says he's secured an agreement from pyongyang to suspend missile testing ahead of

a planned face to face meeting between him and the north korean leader kim jong. il also thanks china for its help in trying to find a diplomatic solution with north korea british police have identified more than two hundred witnesses in their investigation into the poisoning of a russian former spy with a nerve agent u.k. home secretary said more than two hundred forty pieces of evidence are also being considered true speaking after a second meeting of the country's national emergency committee the fourth by scriptural and his daughter yulia remain in a critical but stable condition russia's foreign minister says his country may be willing to help with this investigation but he's expressed resentment at suggestions that moscow was behind the attack libya's coast guard says several hundred migrants have been picked up the smugglers took advantage of calm seas to launch a flurry of boats towards italy two hundred fifty two people rescued. and separate

operations and taken back to tripoli the third boat was picked up and taken to italy but it had lines. on counting the cost in what's been the big trade we'll look at how the u.s. is bending the rules of commerce and free trade is really worth fighting for. mind bending from the geneva. counting the cost at this time. the news as it breaks it's. still roaming the streets of baghdad with details coverage. number of serious problems. with stream poverty from around the world. you have. spent more than twenty billion dollars in legal fees.

this is techno innovations that can change lives the science of fighting the fire we're going to explore the intersection of hardware and humanity. to be unique way . this is a show about science slowly. scientists tonight techno investigates. yes they did it's everywhere in clubs street corners in cars they say it's safe and can help break the cigarette happen if i had to say. honestly what's really inside those six you never know what you're getting dr crystal dilworth is a neuroscientist who specializes in nicotine studies she'll bring us the latest research what happens when those metal particles go and.