this is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who's. joined the global conversation at this time on now to zero. three weeks into the assault on the syrian rebel east and the death toll has passed one thousand. and welcome to al-jazeera headquarters in doha. also ahead. i mean honestly when you're not going to. get. back on the campaign trail.

north korea's leader. voting is underway in hong kong from byelection is that test the strength of the democracy movement plus. our reporting from. all three. of. those. syrian government forces have made significant gains in their battle to take the last remaining rebel strongholds near the capital damascus the green lines here show how much territory the rebels held in the east and on the eighteenth of february that's when the government stepped up its offensive three weeks of heavy bombardment later and you can see the rebel stronghold has dramatically shrunk and more than a thousand people have died as a result of president bashar. have advanced into areas between the main towns of

the and and that's cut off the main rebel supply line the government also says it has full control of cutting off another key vote splitting the enclave into three alan fisher has more now from the turkish syrian border. or syrian government forces have made big gains in the last twenty four hours they are still facing resistance. thanks this video from josh al islam claims to show regime forces being pushed back but they have surrounded two large turns in eastern guta duma and harassed and circling tones something syrian government forces have done consistently especially since enlisting the help of the russians militarily and 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 does the with just. across the country the free syrian army supported by the talks are closing in on the city of afrin. positions held by the kurdish militia the why 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 u.n. to intervene. if 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 in the city.

if we placed on a shelf put on solid our conscience ethics and sensitivities just like other countries and terrorists do to syria. after it will be a job that would take is just three days. back in eastern syrian t.v. says government forces now control fifty one percent of the area they're still considering you know money to the 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 talk to the syrian border now the turkish president of the land has criticized the nato alliance for not supporting has military operation in syria as a fleeing region we're talking no wants the operation to clear the area of kurdish wife beating fighters in january turkey considers the wife a terrorist its nato ally the u.s. has backed the fighters to combat i so. i'm calling on them now he nato where are you we are putting up a fight isn't turkey

a nato country where are you invited nato member states to afghanistan immediately so how about in syria if the nato countries who are in syria really have power they would openly clearly stand against us but they don't dare because they can see that turkey is standing tall but what we wanted was this you called us to afghanistan we came you called us to somalia we came you called us to the balkans we came now calling on them so come to syria turkey with its nine hundred eleven kilometers of border with syria is under threat right now so why aren't you coming. to them on to other news now and us president donald trump has been speaking at a campaign rally in pennsylvania about has proposed north korean leader kim jong un come praise china and south korea for help and work to was building a dialogue with the north michaela has more from washington d.c. . throughout the day president trump was upbeat about the proposed face to face meeting with the north korean leader he tweeted about phone calls he made with

various world leaders including the prime minister of japan the president of china the president of france getting international support for this unprecedented meeting also in the course of the day he tweeted that north korea had not carried out any missile test since the twenty eighth of november indicating that he believed the assurances that were passed on to him by south korean mediators this is a theme you return to during a campaign speech in support of republican candidates in the course of the evening they're not going to send missiles or think of it they're not sending missiles out and i believe that i believe that i really do i think they want to do something i think they want to make peace i think it's time and i think we've shown great strength i think that's also important but many in washington expressing concern about the lack of preparation by the trumpet ministration should any such face to face talks take place there is no ambassador in south korea also the

experts in the state department under oath korea resigned last week so should be go see asians take place in a face to face basis the u.s. would be at a disadvantage it would appear right from the start to hong kong our police have detained a number of protesters as voting is underway in the legislative council violations the vote is expected to be this really contested as the pro-democracy camp looks to came from one third victor bloc and the legislature the election a thing that's a test gauging reaction to beijing's increased interference in the city's governance there you go hollande has more. edward do you knows too well that victory doesn't guarantee his place on the legislative council. the former professor won in the twenty sixteen elections and while being sworn in he added to fray saying he would fight for universal suffrage after a year in office the beijing government reinterpreted hong kong's constitution to

deem him ineligible because of that this time he promises his supporters he has a plan ranging if you are going to you know didn't they. in the end of this year we will discuss about the political rights of all calling people i usually use the twenty fourteen pro-democracy demonstrations known as the umbrella movement beijing has tightened its grip on the city as on says that he would like to have a gathering meet his new hair his new cap our. bosses god the legal system and although he's been calculating these elections to a place for ousted legislative councillors are divided along very clear lines the candidates are either probate are pro democracy. this is the other camp rallying supporters in front of the government headquarters the poll beijing parties the main office used to stabilize home called government so i suppose that

these are the government's preferred candidates if they win the opposition will not have the numbers in parliament to block bills or question beijing sections but many here believe these candidates will help the city run smoothly i hope it is a problem i know i keep trying to write something so and then i think all it takes is a kind of hard on a fellow came out analysts say this vote is mostly symbolic a victory for the pro-democracy candidates would be an expression of frustration at beijing's increasing interference in hong kong's affairs former colonies macau and hong kong are the only territories in china where the public can directly vote for their government but many here say with beijing becoming more intrusive and pushing for more integration with their. that china voting is increasingly regarded as something that matters less and less pollen are just there are hong kong. to sierra leone now a second round of voting looks likely with results from wednesday's presidential

election too close to call both the ruling all people's congress and office. peoples party on around forty three percent with half the votes counted candidates require fifty five percent to win outright the election itself was largely peaceful but rival supporters clashed on saturday as results came in a runoff poll must take place two weeks after the final results alone that interest has more many civil unions believe that this election is headed for a run up with fifty percent of the vote counted that is little difference between the two leading candidates candidate of the ruling a.p.c. 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 result 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 are commending the election commission for conducting what looks like a very very fair vote in syria leon. still ahead on the books in the u.s. and europe to the trade war gets but a meeting in brussels on saturday laid the groundwork plan to. stop masco legal immigration and limit illegal immigration to get our sovereignty back and to help our workers don't transform a chief strategist lend support to marine the pans far right party and from.

hello there we've got lots of mobile weather across the middle east at the moment and by mobile i really mean wet has lots of cloud and it's all drifting its way towards the east it's giving us some rain and over the mountains we are seeing some of that turn wintery so more wet weather then from afghanistan all the way north into kazakstan as we head through the day on sunday and eventually as we head into monday well it stays with us really there's not a great deal of change the next system though that is gradually edging its way eastwards and that'll be bring you get some more wintery weather stretching down towards the back further west just looking mostly settled force here and career there and eighteen degrees in from beirut will be at a round nineteen is a low cost of not for the south certainly has got hot in doha quickly thirty three degrees will be our maximum on sunday it's not quite as hot as we head through into

monday as thanks to more cloud is edging its way towards us and a change of the winds as well the winds will be picking up so it will feel a bit fresher over the next few days even if that sun is still rather strong for this towards the south and for the southern part of africa plenty of blue an arch are indicating plenty of what weather here stretches all the way across into the eastern parts of mozambique very heavy showers here for the south also a couple of showers are likely around joburg and stretching down to durban. natural capital is capital which makes a creative. when nature is transformed into a commodity big business takes a new interest by protecting wild schemes 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 from crossing the planet at this time on al-jazeera. to have you with. these are our top stories. have made significant gains in rebel held. areas between the cutting off a major highway more than one thousand people have been killed and. stepped up its campaign three weeks ago. to suspend the head of a planned face to face meeting with north korean leader kim jong il speaking at

a campaign rally in pennsylvania china for its help trying to find a diplomatic solution and says he. wants peace. and hong kong police have detained a number of protesters as. the legislative council elections the election is seen as a test gauging reaction. increased interference in the city's governance. refugees have fled to djibouti to escape the fighting in yemen or three years after the coalition first launched airstrikes against the rebels. and most of the country. reach safety in djibouti the struggle for survival continues with food and food in short supply has more from the port town of. its food distribution. in the. the

law mohammed of the law has just picked his family's food a location for the month he came here two years ago when a missile hit and destroyed his house in whole south and yemen now a mother who had a hand look at the shooting the massive given us there won't be enough for my family or even five days a situation is really bad. apart from the legal regimes people here also complain of conditions of the come. the sweltering heat and ferocious sun hardly been many away this is a place where many don't want to stay for long at one point this camp was home to more than six thousand refugees today one thousand eight hundred one lived here most of them have either gone to all the towns or to the capital djibouti have others harbor tonty yemen preflighting the un something terrible was known to life in this can. also have chosen to stay see the option of a shared choice we have nowhere else to go where can we go we are forced to stay

here yet the massive insecurity and shortage of some basic supplies in yemen is forcing many more refugees to cause the sea are some primal but are cut robbed of the come just three days ago from the city of thais which is under the control of both the fighters and again the human we fled from yemen because of war and hunger the hutu militias are also making life unbearable destroying homes of bullying and arresting people who will it's a disaster back in yemen. nearly thirty five thousand people admit the jenna's southwards across the bubble mandeb straight to djibouti since march two thousand and fifteen from the beginning to put you open its doors to yemenis fleeing from the war the country has been uprooted from massive quite an investment in recent years due to it started you can look. but the extreme poverty is still widespread. officials here say there's little else they can do for the refugees beyond giving them safety and asylum one hundred at all just era of duty at an international

conference is being held in london examining the consequences of the war in yemen jamal shall has more. there is more more interest in the saudi led war in yemen particularly in the capital cities like london in countries like the united kingdom which are or have a direct link true that conflict which has gone on for several years now in so much as that it is u.k. weapons that are being used by the saudis and there are allies in bombing yemen the fact united kingdom just announced a memorandum of understanding to sell even more fighter jets through the saudis during the visit of the crown prince mohammed bin saddam on a conference like this which involves not only yemeni experts but also very small reserve different think tanks and analysts is trying to set about maybe an alternative to this or a way out of this war some sort of peaceful solution earlier we spoke to yemeni

diplomats and asked him whether the ukase approach in terms of selling more weapons to solder a beer was the correct one or in his view what you need what needed to be done in order to find an end to this war the solution in yemen which is all on all parties knows it should be a peaceful dissolution t.m. and selling more weapons t.m. and it would not help their many people to to reach a peaceful settlement for their public problems. i would hope that united kingdom and other countries will abstain and weapons to saudi arabia to exact more pressure than selling weapons on the saudis and the land forces and the horses for them to come down to a to a table and reach a peaceful settlement to yemen although not so high profile in that there aren't any government ministers attending there are an increased number of these events that are taking place in the narrative around the war on yemen and the u.k.'s

involvement in it and the need for the international community to intervene to put an end to what the un has described as the worst humanitarian crisis today that nerds. and that activity in countries like united kingdom like i say is increasing so a conference like this is testament to the fact that there is greater public dismay or maybe opposition to the policies that are taken by specific governments and an increased demand that there must be and put through the saudi led war on yemen after has filed a complaint with the united nations security council denouncing violations of its airspace by a military plane from the u.a.e. and in the qatari government to outline the intrusions in the letter to the u.n. secretary general the u.a.e. and i get to respond. u.s. president all in transform chief strategist has addressed the fall ice national front party and its congress and france steve benen praise departing to marine le

pen they've changed the ports from neil marine le pen is still bruised by the scale of the defeat to emmanuel macro 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 a ballot of eighty questions sent to national front members just return of majority of ninety percent in favor of a bridge that 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 the president trumps former chief strategist stephen bannon managed it when invited on to the party platform we had the single greatest candidate in american history thanks 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 will bring them victory after victory after victory. but it didn't happen for marine le pen and twenty seventeen many blamed her poor showing in the campaign's final debate with a manual macro. eyes are now turning on her twenty eight year old niece marion barry charlotte penn although now retired from politics she has been identified as a rising star by bannon and was spreading her message united states last month i'm not offended when i see your president on the trail and say america first. in prague. i want america first for the american people i want britain first for

the british people and i want friends first of all the friends people. arena pen hopes exercise in rebranding will help bring support back and allow us to form alliances with other parties to change or i'll just era. jason certainly is a professor of philosophy at yale university and author of the upcoming book health fascism works and he says that and speech will help give the french far right the boost it needs. what's the balance macit is is he saying let's not try to win over the unconverted let's be unabashed about our sentiments here and that's a message that's proven very popular in the united states of course and in europe as well big there are beyond this show and and lawn just this party in poland are both showing that these strategies work in europe we have they constantly attack

the liberal mainstream media in the lawn justice party in poland ran against the media for not covering its crazy conspiracy theories about this once disaster orbán is constantly attacking the media and european elites so it's very dark very similar strategies here and there are ports connections between the russians the far right in europe and the far right in the united states and obviously the kinds of bar right tactics that were successful in the united states have for millionaire and long history in the european countries that issued china's comments that says any trade will spot by white house tabs on stolen at a minium would be disastrous for his country the u.s. and the rest of the world where speaking on the sidelines of the angle session of parliament the minister said china does not want to trade will and will not initiate one meanwhile trade officials are also calling for exemptions all u.s.

importing schools cane u.s. trading partners have warned that tom's tev of what's coming to force in two weeks could be less of a backfire tums plan will see a twenty five percent levy on staying at than ten percent on alimony and ports paul 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 woes and that is overcapacity but president trumps the now instruments 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 on 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 lighthouse and here in brussels

now line around two thousand kilometers off the southern tip of chile antarctica has been described as one of the most remote and treacherous places on earth barge much of as a rich biodiversity has yet to be fully documented and the second part of my antarctic series we look at the european union campaign to protect the region and the clan joined agreeing the scientific expedition through the web and seen. the captain's eye view of all voyage south as the icebreaker optic sunrise pushes through into the remote waters of the weddell sea vost unknown territory few ships venture this fall. has already made an attempt this antarctic summer but was foiled by ice because right now we have a way through. to get it down into the wealthy and try and reach the think before the beginning of what would be protected looks like opening at least for.

yes let me just make sure somebody. finally we break through into the isolated area of the proposed site tree at the moment i checked on the. satellite charts this morning and there's someone of the ship in this entire space as us that another ship about that and that's it and the whole whole area that's a slightly scary terrifying. exciting exciting kind of just makes the case that this is pristine this area is not developed his not call industry it's never had industry. we take a chance in this rare window of weather to take to the air and look down on the mesmerizing scene below. the western edge of the would be protected zone breathtaking the rule power of land and sea and ice constantly reshaping on the

move this is nature on a planetary scale so what we're looking at here is melting yes sea ice and great icebergs to be the classiest sweeping up james ross island that the weddell sea extends way to a distance over that proposed area pretty much on talks by human activity almost no scientific research is taking place the back to base the arctic sunrise standing by for a return alongside have a giant type below i suspect perhaps a kilometer long the next helicopter sortie is to the very top of it. the expedition to dramatic landing to spread the century message around the world this iceberg thousands of years in the making now adrift in a process that has been going on for hundreds of thousands of years appraises it seems may be changing because of global warming did a day have seen it one. day with a spectacular. apparently

a reverse sunset phenomenon while simultaneously the clouds shape in color it's a fantastic unworldly painting across the evening sky at the ends of the. al-jazeera and taught to kill and the third part of. the multiple threats in antarctica face climate change to tourism and you can find much more often next reports and on the environment on our website. dot com. headlines on al-jazeera syrian government forces have made significant gains in rebel held. areas between there and had. a major highway more than a thousand people have been killed since the government stepped up its campaign

there three weeks ago. and other news u.s. president says he expects great success at a planned meeting with. he made the comments at a campaign rally for the republican candidate of pennsylvania trump also says he has an agreement from pyongyang to suspend testing ahead of the meeting he also promised china and south korea. building dialogue. look a lot of people thought were going to war. but all of a sudden they come in this is going to be a meeting and there's no more missiles going off and they want nuclear. nobody heard that nobody thought but they said they want to they are thinking about that who knows what's going to take who knows that doesn't happen i may leave faster we may sit down and make the greatest deal for the world and for all of these countries including frankly north korea that's what i hope happens and all tom's

former chief strategist has addressed the far right national front party at its congress in the french city of little steve benen praised party leader marine le pen for what he called a vision that puts nationalists against globalists. let them call you racist let's listen it was up there let them call you xenophobes menace it is it was a prison of let them call you nativist let's see who is up in the t.v. where it as a badge of honor china's commerce minister says any trade war sparked by white house tariffs on steel and alimony and would be disastrous for his country the us and the rest of the world speaking on the sidelines of the annual session of parliament the minister said china does not want a trade war and won't initiate one meanwhile the e.u. trade officials are calling for exemptions on u.s. import tariffs plan includes a twenty five percent tax on steel and ten percent on alimony and imports writes those are the headlines on al-jazeera but do stay with us people in power is coming

up next thank you for watching. facing realities growing up when did you realize that you were living in a special place a 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. provoking one of the largest corruption investigations in south american history the car wash scandal has left its mark on countries from brazil. business leaders multinational corporations and politicians have been caught up in allocations ranging from bribery and money laundering to distort.