as. in a war torn city in iraq a magic documents the stories of the survivors recording bare hopes and dreams for a peaceful future after american troops withdrawal. but the conflict is far from over. he turns the camera on himself when i saw him take control and his family are forced to flee no way to hide a witness documentary at this time on al-jazeera. china's allaman a polish his presidential term limits clearing the way for a siege in paying to a bull. and i'm more kyle this is alastair live from doha also coming up. kurdish forces in

syria say they'll form a human shield around a frayne as the turkish military closes in on the town. of rebranded far right in france marina ban is leader again was her controversial father's last remaining position as taken away. on record reporting from our god with a group during the fall toward the web all three were broken from the remotest wharton's although. china's national people's congress has voted to remove term limits for the president and vice president to change the constitution paves the way for paying to remain in office beyond twenty twenty three they just were previously restricted to a maximum of two five year. we made the decision to implement the policy of the lending the constitution the members of the

standing committee totally agreed to protect the communist party's policy to amend the constitution specially to incorporate the xi jinping thought of the new era of socialism chinese characteristics into the long. brown has more from the aging or trying as national people's congress doesn't do surprises so the outcome of this vote was never really in doubt two thousand nine hundred fifty eight delegates voted to amend the constitution there were three abstentions and two opposed to these changes now that is probably token opposition that's often orchestrated at times like this to give a veneer of transparency but certainly president xi jinping has got his way back in october of course president she's known was in shrines in the constitution making him the most powerful leader since chairman mao president xi jinping has one priority right now and that is to overhaul china's communist party to make it fit for purpose but what we are also seeing is not so much

a one party state as one man rule president xi jinping is not just president he's also head of the military as well as party chief but a lot of people are asking why the president is doing this now because he's only just into the second term of his presidency he perhaps wants to send a warning to his rivals that isn't to be around for a long time critics argue that president xi jinping is now building a personality called indoctrinating the people with his political philosophy just as chairman mao did but his supporters argue the china faces many challenges right now and to confront those challenges china needs a strong leader and a united party. syrian government and russian air strikes have killed at least forty people on sas and injured dozens in rebel held eastern ghouta women and children are among the latest victims of the offensive to take the last remaining rebel stronghold mysterious capital. in the volunteer group syrian civil defense is

reporting that several people have been killed in a barrel bomb attack on a rebel a residential area of the rebel held town of been all syrian government forces have made significant gains in their battle to take the last remaining rebel stronghold near the capital damascus the orange stripes shown here show how much territory the rebels had in eastern goose and for bray the eighteenth when the government stepped up its offensive three weeks of heavy bombardment and russianness support and the rebel stronghold has dramatically shrunk more than one thousand people have been killed many of them children president bashar assad's troops have advanced into areas between the main towns of duma and harassed and are in full control of misrata fighter because in off their main supply routes their strategy has been to cut the enclave into three areas isolating the rebel groups and blocking the supply of weapons and fighters. because his forces in syria have announced they're

mobilizing a human shield resistance around the affray as the turkish military approaches the town as live for us from gaza he's border with syria is there under explain to us what is a human shield resistance in this case. for centuries why p.g. the country's militia are seeing that they have a number of people who want to help in the fight for our friend and they're willing to offer themselves as human shields so they say that people who voluntarily come to the city will be used as human shields and we have no way of confirming that everyone who is involved in this is there voluntarily but certainly there are a lot of people who are sympathetic to what is happening in affluent and they believe that the kurdish resistance must make a stand in the city you know you remember that just last week at the y. p.g. said that it was pulling seven hundred fighters from other parts of syria to make a stand in freedom away from the battle against eisold because they were concerned the advance of free syrian army backed up by the turkish military not just in the

last forty eight seventy two hours we've seen them make an number of gains moving towards our freedom at a fairly rapid peace in fact just in the last few hours they say they've taken two more tones in villages in the north and two more tones in villages in the south add that to the six that the two guest of the you can see that this advance is moving quite rapidly why is that happening of course the free syrian army backed by the turkish military of greater numbers they also have more advanced weaponry the turkish military mean that they control the skies but the free syrian army are saying that there's also an additional problem in that the why p.g. is losing leadership there not just making a stand that billions points they don't quite know what's happening because the situation is changing quite so rapidly but the fact that they're calling for human shields can sound some but on others they will see this as their duty to help the people of our free will as this attack is that offensive advances was is the

situation nothing for the civilians have a loving that. well certainly the turkish army who are backing up the free syrian army are very close to our friend and we heard from president just on saturday at a campaign rally who said look if we treated the situation like everyone else treat syria then we would have troops in the center of our friend in just three days but we are going to approach it with humanitarian concerns and making sure that the people of our friends are protected as much as we can but in our friend itself there is no water the internet has been cut off and we're hearing that so many people have moved into the city because of the violence that there's no three to four families in each and every house so people will be watching closely to make sure the president of the one delivers on what he said on saturday that there is going to be a humanitarian approach as they move towards a frame which we have seen as a key goal since operation all of bryant as it's called began back on january

twentieth anniversary and places from gaziantep thanks so much alan here is president says north korea's government is halting its missile tests ahead of donald trump's meeting with kim jong un humper speaking at a rally in pennsylvania where he praised china and south korea for helping build a dialogue with north korea has been no official comment from canyon on the proposed meeting nor on the test 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

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 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 there's also of course 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 expert in the state department under oath career resigned last week so should a big go see asians take place on a face to face basis the u.s. would be at a disadvantage it would appear right from the start. a south korean foreign minister says she's planning to meet us secretary of state rex tillerson to discuss

the proposed talks between the u.s. and north korean leaders can quote why trip next week will help to form an agenda for the historic meeting she was speaking on a visit to vietnam purges in colombia headed to the polls for the first election since the signing of a peace deal with far gravels agreement has reduced political violence but as as armed iran p.s.e. reports many of the issues affecting colombian society have not changed. that's colombians gear up to renovate their congress and sunday there's one issue on everybody's mind. groups are corruption is the biggest worry of voters rich and 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 the most parties and even tainted president santos last campaign. 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 our wives are 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 there 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 political parties have not presented candidates viewed with suspicion for their relations with. these are criminal or. 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.-a says the system is per base of i have done like an informal survey with professional politicians asking them ok how what is the percentage of. vs open your votes for congress and they all agree that seventy percent seventy thirty percent opinion votes colombia and like other major latin american countries jailed many claim chieftan their clients remain tough to this large as long as votes can be bought for pennies a listener and. eight million cubans are very sing for

a new national assembly in the coming hours the new members of the assembly will decide on a successor to eighty six year old raul castro who spec steps down next month on be the first time cuba will have a president from outside the castro family since the communist revolution nearly sixty years ago still had hair on alistair but he's detained pro-democracy protesters in hong kong during a crucial vote list of council. i think he'll be background checks absolutely absolutely and the outcry for tougher gun control laws goes unanswered and the u.s. congress. hollo weather doesn't look too bad for japan over the next day or two largely clear skies as you can see spring sunshine busting through for many

a little bit of cloud just over towards northern parts of honshu could see a little bit of wet weather coming through here that will push out into the open waters for monday thirteen celsius for tokyo not too bad similar temperatures across the korean peninsula and a tad warmer as we go on into tuesday but choose day still a possibility of a little bit of snow over the higher ground of caught up in many it doesn't that bad getting up into the made two hundred sixty southeast sixty one in found higher not too bad too of course and for the southern areas of china twenty one celsius now in shanghai twenty three degrees there for hong kong a few spaces spots of right a little further west but for many it is looking settled and sunny over the coming days southerly breeze bringing temperatures up to twenty four celsius there in hong kong but this enough to across a good part of the philippines a chance of want to shower was into central areas but the wetter weather for southeast asia as per usual course a good part of malaysia so the areas of borneo seeing some very heavy showers very lively downpours coming through and that's also the case too into java jakarta

looking very wet on monday wetter still as we go wanted to choose the the showers here lisette intensify top temperature at thirty one degrees. full a man has decided to break with tradition and train to sail competitively maybe not but we want to present a positive image and change the steering typical expectation of women for them it's about more than just racing yachts you can still be a good on lonely woman and also a very talented sailor going off around the world showing everybody how strong omani people are al-jazeera world meets the first female sailing crew in the gulf oman's sailing stars at this time on al-jazeera.

and again you're watching al-jazeera is a reminder of our top stories china's polman says votes to remove term limits for the president and vice president to change the constitution paves the way for seats in the paying tremaine and office beyond twenty twenty three it is until now restricted to a maximum of two five yet its. kurdish forces in syria have announced they're mobilizing a human shield resistance around a frame as tuchis and three syrian army troops approached the town bus loads of people of believed to be on the way to a free. and saying syrian government on russian gas trucks have killed forty people on sas then injured dozens more in rebel held eastern groups are women and children are amongst the latest victims of the offensive to take the last remaining rebel stronghold that syria's capital. how the founder of france's far right

national front has lost his last remaining position losses daughter marine le pen has been re-elected as lead up the move comes at a crucial time for le pen she had to broaden the party's appeal joe marie le pen was expelled into thought to that. fifteen of anti semitic remarks but he had kept the honorary position of president until now david chaytor has joins us now from the city of little in france so david why is the posse severed all ties now with the founder. well laura you join me at a time when a page is turning in french political history in about four hours' time the national front will no longer exist and that is because in the rain le pen is intending to rename it it's part of her effort to rebranding the whole of the party she wants to detox defy its image and part of that problem has of course been her

eighty nine year old father john the reader pen and he at the moment is the top of the bestseller list with his first volume of his autobiography and which he shows his support for the vichy regime and the nazi collaborators that's not the sort of brand that she wants anything to do with and that's why he's been removed with the new constitution the party accepted a remove from his post as on the repressive and marine le pen that will be giving a speech here in which he wants to relaunch the whole brand she wants to again show that she is capable of the sort of leadership the party needs to gain even more votes than she did at the last election are many people criticized for not being able to articulate the party's policies well in front of the manual macro and the last one to one debate in the campaign last year but she'd more than double the vote in the previous election she got some ten point six million voters that's

nearly thirty four percent of the electorate to vote for that was a high point and those sentiments are not going away because of the moment something like ten million unemployed here in france that's a large pool of unskilled labor that has not been moved yet by president mackerels policies that pool of unemployed that resentment those people who have been left out of society they will have an impact when it comes to the next election and they're in the pen wants to target herself target her supporters to reaching out with. less toxic at the party a lawsuit to move in and get some support for those people who feel left out to friends and that is still very much a danger for both the macro because he's not moving fast enough to try and solve the problems that still with from. thanks very much for joining us from little. british police have identified more than two hundred witnesses in their

investigation into the poisoning of a former russian spy u.k. home secretary said he said more than two hundred forty pieces of evidence are also being considered so yes cripple and his daughter yulia remain in a critical condition in hospital after being poisoned with a nerve agent. twenty five thousand indian farmers have set out on a one hundred eighty kilometer march to demand financial support and better crop prices the process began in west maharashtra state nashik city and has already reached the outskirts of mumbai they say tight conditions on a government loan waiver program have excluded the vast majority of farmers many of them have fallen into destitution drought and increasingly a classic whether passons indian prime minister under modi and french president hosting the official launch of the international solar alliance in new delhi summit aims to reduce the world's dependence on fossil fuels by expanding the availability

of solar energy the idea was first proposed on the sidelines of the twenty fifteen paris agreement on climate change representatives from forty five nations are attending events. voting is underway in a by election in hong kong where pro-democracy activists to win back veto power in the legislature police detained a number of protesters outside the polling station where the city's leader cast her ballot election is seen as an indicator of public sentiment about beijing's increased role in the city's governance and you learn as hong kong's former chief representative to the u.k. he says the byelection exposes the contradiction in the so-called one country two systems principle imposed in hong kong since the. so-called democrats are pushing the envelope to do such a big stay in to. for independence and self-determination but that is not a law under the basic law which of course almost the softened he or the one country

and of course the separation is a really a red line in the eyes in the eyes of beijing so the two forces are coming all ahead and what is a stake is there where the people. would be able to recapture these four seats sufficient for them to hold a blocking vote in the legislature blocking vote again is oppositions in the minds of the public because a lot of the potomac rats were holding big government and a lot of much needed policies to ransom that is the aftermath of the umbrella movement which of course in the end because it was dropped at the economy and did not have public support it's been seven years since an earthquake and tsunami killed thousands of people and caused a major nuclear disaster in japan from in session there are they told a remembrance service in tokyo reconstruct that reconstruction is making steady

progress tens of thousands of people have still not returned to their homes cleaning up the still radioactive fukushima nuclear plant site may take up to forty years. a second round of voting looks likely in sierra leone with results from wednesday's presidential election too close to call by through in all people's congress and opposition sierra leone people's party have around forty three percent but half the votes counted kansas required fifty five percent to win outright the election itself was largely peaceful but rival supporters fought on saturday as the results came in a runoff poll must take place two weeks after the final results. but it just has more from the capital freetown. many civil unions believe that this election is headed for a run off 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 they 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 seven young they are new to celebrations in certain places the celebrations were actually wild people commending the election commission for conducting what looks like very very. vote instead of leon . the u.s. state of florida passed modest gun restrictions off the park and the high school shooting that killed seventeen people last month bus and washington appears to be

little appetite and you know as john hendren has the story. 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 such 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 post nightclub sandy hook and now parklane florida but little has changed since last month's school massacre there thank you so much this hearing by senate democrats is unofficial the republicans you 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 sent but it wasn't

different. at 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 change 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 stock that turns 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. antarctic has been described as one of the most remote and treacherous places on earth much of its rich by diversity 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 plant joined and greenpeace scientific expedition to the what i'll see . the captain's eye view of all voyage as the icebreaker arctic 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 cap to try to we were way through. to get it down into the wealthiest try and reach before the beginning of what would be

protected very looks like opening in here least for. yes probably just. a long war that. 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 some one of the ship in this entire space as us and another ship about there and that's it and the whole whole area that's a slightly scary terrifying. exciting but 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 our charts and it's rare window of weather to take to the air and look down on the ms brize ng see below. the western edge of the would be protected zone breath taking the role 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 glass is sweeping up james ross island at the weddell sea extends way to a distance over that proposed area pretty much on touched by human activity almost no scientific research is taking place back to base the arctic sunrise standing by for a return alongside a giant type ila ice pack perhaps a kilometer long the next helicopter sortie is to the very top of it the expedition team in 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 appraises it seems may be changing because of global warming and

a day of scenic wonder the antarctic day ends with a spectacular show above this apparently a reverse sunset phenomenon while simultaneously the clouds more in shape and color into fantastic unworldly painting across the evening sky at the ends of the. nick log al-jazeera and thought to go. over to him the multiple threats wildlife and talk to face when you can from climate change to tourism. and you can find much more on our website address al jazeera dot com. without zero these are our top stories china's national people's congress has voted to remove term limits for the president and vice president to change the constitution paves the way for xi jinping to remain in office twenty twenty three

leaders were previously restricted to a maximum of two five years. we made the decision to implement the key policy of amending the constitution the members of the totally agreed to protect the communist party's policy to amend the constitution to specially to incorporate the xi jinping thought of the new era of socialism chinese characteristics into the law. syrian government and russian astronauts have killed at least forty people on saturday and into dozens of rebel held eastern gusa women and children are amongst the latest victims in the offensive to take the last remaining rebel stronghold in a serious capital. a volunteer group syrian civil defense is reporting that several people have been killed in a barrel bomb attack on a residential area of the rebel held town of. i'm kurdish forces in syria have announced they are mobilizing a human shield resistance around

a free man turkish and free syrian army troops approach the town. people are believed to be on their way to a frame. eighteen million cubans are voting for a new national assembly in the coming hours the new members of the assembly will decide on a successor to eighty six year old around castro who steps down next month for the first time in almost sixty is the new president will be chosen from outside the castro family. the founder of france's far right national front has lost his last remaining position lost his daughter marine le pen has been reelected as leader the move comes at a crucial time for le pen as she hopes to broaden the party's appeal show marina pan was expelled in twenty fifteen over anti semitic remarks but he had kept the honorary position of president until now. and very thing is underway in a by election in hong kong where pro-democracy activists are hoping to win back these higher power in the legislature police detained a number of protesters outside the polling station where the city's leader cost.

those are your headlines more news here on al-jazeera after a inside story. they have traded insults of what's now the u.s. president of north korea live just say tell me can donald trump get kim jong un to give up his duty. and what does young ones from the talks this is inside story.

allow and welcome to the program.