strong omani people are al-jazeera world meets the first female same crew in the gulf a man's sailing stars at this time on al-jazeera it's impossible to underestimate the size and scale of the economic crisis it's not just about the billion trillion dollar debt it's not just about the banks it's not just about the government to really be. paving the way for a new era of voting in china's national congress could keep season playing and power indefinitely. of them or a colossal this is our life from also coming out. all the all

the death toll goes out and syria's eastern gator is the government continues to pound the rebel held and play. there not sending missiles up and i believe that donald trump says north korea has promised to halt its missile tests ahead of this meeting with kim jong un plus on record reporters from an dog or a journey probably through the web all three were broken from the remotest wharton's although. they began in syria where government and russian as strikes have killed forty people on saturday and injured dozens and rebel held eastern cusa women and children are among the latest victims in the offensive to take the last remaining rebel stronghold as syria's capital of government forces a main significant gains in their battle to seize east and the orange stripes here . so how much territory the rebels had on february eighteenth that's when the

government stepped up its offensive three weeks of heavy bombardment later on you can see the rebel stronghold has dramatically shrunk more than one thousand people have also died as a result president bashar assad's troops have advanced into areas between the main towns of and harassed or that has cut off the main rebel supply line government also says it has full control of misrata cutting off another key road to do this in the enclave into three alan pressure has more from the turkey syria 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 homes 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 and what 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 deal with useless law. across the country the free syrian army supported by the turks are closing in on the city of afrin. positions held by the kurdish militia the white 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. 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 freend 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 well in 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 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. china's national people's congress is voting on removing term limits for the president and vice president to change the constitution potentially pave the way for a seat in paying to remain in office beyond twenty eight twenty three leaders are

currently restricted to serving a maximum of two five yet. joins us live from outside the national people's congress and they say to me say this is going to be a vote but it's essentially a rubber stamp is that with the outcome assured. absolutely china's national people's congress doesn't do surprises so the outcome of this vote is almost certainly assured it would be a major opposite of president xi jinping were not to get his way today essentially what is happening laura right now is that the almost three thousand delegates to the national people's congress are voting on twenty one amendments one of those amendments is to abolish the term limits for the president and the vice president the last time that china's constitution was amended was fourteen years ago so in a sense what is happening here today is not just historic it is also controversial

now the critics of the president say that he's now building a personality cult that he simply encouraging people to study his political philosophy and it's all very reminiscent of the mao era but supporters of the president say that the changes to this constitution are needed because of the challenges china faces right now and china for that reason needs a united party and a strong leader and this congress is all about president xi jinping stamping his authority on the party shooting thing in many ways is a paradox on the one hand he's holding high the banner of free trade but on the other he's pushing back at any form of sort of political reform is going in the opposite direction of his predecessors and any mention critics that there are plenty of them this move to remove limits but have been silent. yes and

a lot of them have been silenced because of this ongoing and corruption campaign the president xi jinping began after he came into office five years but that campaign by the way has rounded up some one point five million officials and many of those were of course opponents of the president so if there are any opposition figures out there they are keeping their heads below the parapet at the moment but almost certainly there is some resistance but you can be very difficult for these people to push back the the president's control at the moment over the party in this ongoing overhaul of the communist party really is absolute right now jim brown the brain is the latest there from beijing thanks very much asian. all that vote in china is taking place on the same day as a byelection and hong kong where the pro-democracy camp is aiming to win back veto power in the legislature police have detained a number of protesters gathered outside the polling station where the city's leader cast her ballot as a vehicle parlor of course the election is seen as

a test to gauge reaction to beijing's increased interference in the city's governance. edward you know is 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 i'll call them people i usually get you since the twenty fourteen pro-democracy demonstrations known as the umbrella movement beijing has tightened its grip on the city as on cities that you would like to have the government meet you still can we still can have our you know

our bosses god only on his fellow man although he be calculating these elections to a place for ousted legislative councillors are divided along very clear lines the candidates are either probate are pro democracy. and this is the other camp rallying supporters in front of the government headquarters the poll beijing parties the main office used to stabilize hong kong. so i suppose that these are the governments 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 so insulting but i think all it takes is a kind of hard to overstate the 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. china voting is increasingly regarded as something that matters less and less palin arjun's there are hong kong. north korea has promised to hold missile tests ahead of the meeting between its leader kim jong un and the us president that's according to donald trump who is speaking at a rally in pennsylvania he praised china and south korea for helping filter's dialogue with the north has been no official comment from kenya on the proposed meeting no protests mike hanna 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 have

been 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. so ahead here on al-jazeera. stop mass illegal immigration and limit illegal immigration to get our sovereignty back and to help our workers donald trump's former chief strategist masses to a far right party in france. and what colombians say is their biggest concern as bay had to the polls for local elections. hello there it is a lot milder across europe now and it's going to stay that way for some of us over the next few days you can see the latest swirl of cloud we've got this pushing in from the atlantic that's bringing in some more mild weather but also plenty of

cloud and of fair few outbreaks of rain as well so we're looking at the top temperature of around fourteen in london sixteen in paris but a good deal of moisture around and a good deal of wet weather to all that mall there is also spreading its way into the southeast corner of europe so perfect weather wise here but unfortunately with all the snow melting it is causing a bit of a concern with flooding there will be a few more showers for the southeast corner as well as we head through monday so a few more outbreaks of right definitely what what we need on top of all of that snow melt that mild air will also be making its way up towards the northeastern parts of europe it seemed very cold here over the last few weeks temperatures have been well below freezing but we'll get to the dizzy heights of minus two there in moscow i mean further towards the south a mess plenty of fine dry weather to be found across the northern parts of africa the northwest it's been a little bit more unsettled recently a few showers here over parts of morocco and algeria were expecting a couple more perhaps all sunday but it should draw up and brighten up for monday

for about the twenty.

again you're watching out there as a reminder of our top stories syrian government and russian as strikes killed forty people on saturday and ended dozens in rebel held eastern cusa women and children are among the latest victims in the offensive to take the last remaining rebel stronghold as syria's capital. trying is that congress is voting on removing time limits for the president and vice president to change the constitution paves the way for c. didn't ping to remain in office beyond twenty twenty three it is apparently restricted serving a maximum of two five yet. the u.s. president says north korea has promised to hold missile tests ahead of his meeting with leader kim jong un donald trump is speaking at a rally in pennsylvania has been no official comment from the on on his meeting nor the missile tests. yes present transformer chief strategist has told the french national front party it said accept accusations of racism with pride see brand ban

and praise party leader marina paddle what he called her face in the pits nationalists versus globalists have a taster reports from the. arena 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 returned of a georgia 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 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 would 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 then i'll try 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 for her for the french people. the reason the pen hopes exercise in rebranding will help bring support back and allow us to form alliances with other parties change or out you sirrah. a second round of voting that's likely in sierra leone with results from wednesday's presidential election too close to call both ruling all people's congress an opposition sierra leone people's party have around forty three percent with half of the votes counted kansas require fifty five percent to win outright election itself was largely peaceful but rival supporters clashed on saturday as the results came in a runoff poll must take place two weeks after the final results a known i will address has more from the capital freetown. many civil unions

believe that this election is headed for a runoff with fifty percent of the vote counted there 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 ballot 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 commending the election

commission for conducting what looks like very very. vote in sierra leone libya is a year that has got an international charity ships have picked up hundreds of refugees and migrants from base headed by italy smugglers sent several days towards their talent days take advantage of the calm seas most of the vessels and steps by the libyan coast guard adults that border ship rescued more than one hundred people they see from sub-saharan africa. on verge of sinking. so there was pretty scary rescue actually we had a critical rescue which means that there's a high risk of many people dying in that and the boat was in very bad condition all but one of the five balloons holding the boat up was either completely deflated or deflating and we saw about one hundred twenty people inside the boat. that allianz have taken boss and he racism rally in florence that 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 say the shooting was not racially motivated. first in colombia heading to the polls for the first election since the signing of a peace deal with rebels a payment has brought down political violence but. of course many of the incumbents have not changed. as colombians gear up to renovate their congress on sunday there's one issue on everybody's mind. are corruption is the biggest worry of voters rich or poor on the right or left of the political spectrum. as long overshadowed the legal political practices which are only now coming under bigger scrutiny scandals in past months have involved most parties and even tainted president santos last campaign. yet the new study by the peace and reconciliation

foundation says the public outcry will not bring political renovation. more than eighty candidates for the senate and the house of representatives that have links with criminal organizations or are involved in corruption scandals such as older brecht or our children are wives of currently jailed representatives all with excellent chances of being elected they represent rural family clans that have for decades run their districts like. most are expected to remain in power doling out jobs public work contracts or just a little food and money to maintain the loyalty of their impoverished voters. many politicians and thirties corruption circuits to finance their campaigns they buy out local community leaders and pay around one thousand dollars per vote the culprits in the end are to citizens they vote for the same corrupt parties then they complain about corruption it's a vicious cycle you can't vote for bandits and then expect to be well governed.

according to this study only three of the main political parties have presented candidates viewed with suspicion for their relations with illicit activities or criminal organizations which have many here worrying that the new congress will have a hard time changing longstanding corruption practices when you tell your own director of political website unless e.m.i. c.e.o. says the system is per base of i have done like an informal survey with professional politicians asking them how what is the percentage of. verses open your vote for congress and they all agree that seventy percent patronize seventy thirty percent opinion votes. and like other major latin american countries jailed many claim chieftain to cleanse remain tough to this large as long as votes can be bought for pennies a listener and. bush police have identified more than two hundred witnesses and

their investigation into the poisoning of a former russian spy u.k. home secretary said more than two hundred forty pieces of evidence were also being considered. scriptural and his dogs a year earlier remain in a critical condition in hospital after being poisoned with a nerve agent so that a report from london. this is a fast moving investigation which is coordinating intelligence officials see a cabinet ministers as well as security officials as well now while the investigation continues in seoul spree and all the locations there which have presumably been visited by the victims said basically pile on his door to yes there is also a plan being formulated as to what will be happening beyond this and from this point onwards and as the home secretary amber rudd said this is an investigation which is going to require some fine combing of the evidence before being pointed

out who's behind it. this is a serious substantial investigation for over two hundred fifty counterterrorism police from eight out of far left and 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 with that in mind there have been tensions also rising between britain and russia with certain politicians and officials tentatively pointing the finger that perhaps this bears the hallmarks of if not a state sponsored attack on mr sleepover and his daughter then perhaps it could be that of a criminal organization this has been something which the russian government has been strenuously denying from its part saying that has nothing to do with such a thing bartz at the same time the british officials this does raise parallels with

the death of mr alexander litvinenko a russian dissident who was living in the u.k. and was killed by radiation poisoning twelve years ago however there will there will be the matter of how do you. tightly define exactly who was behind this once the end. it's yields that officials are saying that they will be raising this issue at a nato meeting in july together with nato partners as to how to proceed with the perpetrators of such attacks on british soil and that of course is adding to a difficult time tense time diplomatically between london and moscow indian prime minister narendra modi and french president emmanuel macro or hosting the official launch of the international side alliance in new delhi assam as aims to reduce the world's dependence on fossil fuels by exploring solar energy available in a to support countries idea was first proposed on the sidelines of the twenty

fifteen paris agreement on climate change representatives from forty five nations are attending events. then toxic has been described as one of the most remote and treacherous places on earth much of its rich biodiversity has yet to be fully documented and the second part of our antarctic series we look at the european union's campaign to protect the desolate region that clock joined a greenpeace scientific expedition to the wetzel see. the captain's eye view of our voyage south as the icebreaker optic sunrise pushes through into the remote waters of the weddell sea vost unknown territory few ships venture this far altie 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 wealthiest try and reach before

the beginning of what would be protected looks like opening at least for. yes probably just making sure somebody a long war and. 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 there 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 has 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 raw 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. sweeping off. the weddell sea way to a distance over that proposed area pretty much all touched by human activity almost no scientific research is taking place back to base the arctic sunrise standing by for a return alongside have a giant tabula ice pack perhaps a kilometer along the next helicopter sortie it to the very top of it the expedition team and making a dramatic landing to spread the sanctuary 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 appraise says it seems may be changing because of global warming and did

a day of scenic wonder the end talked to day with a spectacular show about this apparently a reverse sunset phenomenon while simultaneously the clouds more in shape and color into fantastic on worldly painting across the evening sky at the ends of the. al-jazeera until ticket. well in their third part of our series our correspondent nick clock will be looking at the multiple threats wildlife in antarctica face easy from climate change the trolls. are without is there these are our top stories syrian government and russian air strikes killed forty people on sas and injured dozens more in rebel held eastern women and children are among the latest victims in the offensive to the last remaining rebel stronghold syria's capital. china's national congress is voting on

removing term limits for the president and vice president the change to the constitution paves the way for she didn't paying to remain in office beyond two thousand and twenty three leaders a county restricted to serving a maximum of two five year terms agent brown has moved from beijing the critics of the president say that he's now building a personality cold that he simply encouraging people to study his political philosophy and it's all very reminiscent of the mao era but supporters of the president say that the changes to this constitution on needed because of the challenges china faces right now in china for that reason needs a united party and a strong leader and this congress is all about president xi jinping stamping his authority on the party the vote in china is taking place on the same day as a buyer lection in hong kong by the pro-democracy campaign is aiming to win back

the power in the legislature police have detained a number of protesters gathered outside the polling station where the city's leader cast her ballot election is seen as a test to gauge reaction to beijing's increased interference in the city's governance. u.s. president says north korea has promised to halt missile tests ahead of his beating with leader kim jong un donald trump was speaking at a rally in pennsylvania has been no official comment from pyongyang on the proposed meeting nor on missile tests a second round of voting looks likely in sierra leone with results from wednesday's presidential election to coast close to call both the ruling old people's congress and the opposition people's party of around forty three percent with half of the votes counted hands it's required fifty five percent to win outright a run of poll must take place two weeks after the final results. those are your headlines we're back with more news had on al-jazeera that's after and side story.

this is really an attack on the news itself is a lot of misunderstanding of what free speech is supposed to be about the context of a hugely important setting the stage for a serious debate up front at this time on al-jazeera. they have traded insults of what's now the u.s. president of north korea leaders say they'll meet can donald trump get kim jong un to give up his duty ambitions and what does young want from the talks this is inside story. allow and welcome to the program.