al-jazeera. where ever you are. 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 ease activists to live in jail just because she expressed herself he had a story on the talk to al-jazeera at this time. this is al-jazeera and watch the studio fourteen here at zero headquarters in doha i'm kemal santa maria welcome to the news seven years seven years of year of killing of suffering of political paralysis which has reduced so much of syria to

rubble we will see in this newsgroup what the chances are for an end to this conflict and how it got to this stage perhaps how was it allowed. we're also talking medics and rescue workers and politicians about how they continue to try to get their voices heard especially online i'm leah harding connected us with the hash tag a.j. news but. also on the grid a denial from moscow is u.k. russia relations break down even further russia says the very idea it was behind the poison attack on a russian double agent in england is insight in while the british prime minister to resign is visiting salzburg for the first time since the attack and toys are no longer us the retailer synonymous with child spy all over the world is to close its remaining u.s. stores we look at why toys r us seemingly any longer in a fast changing tell. you'll win. the news read my on air and streaming online through to facebook live and

al-jazeera dot com and today thursday the fifteenth the day we'd rather not be mocking it is seven years since the syrian uprising began that is of course the uprising that led to the syrian war in that time fighting has killed nearly half a million people and more than half the entire syrian population has been displaced in some way and while the conflict has recently shifted gears you could say it is still deadly free of the so-called eisel caliphate but divided and paralyzed by an international power struggle the syrian government has control over all of those areas in red they've taken so much back the rebel opposition has been limited to those few green zones and up in the north the large areas are under kurdish control several rounds of u.n. backed talks have failed to stop the bloodshed the imbalance in military might between the two sides there is no real chance of an outcome from either the geneva or a stand in negotiations and all the while people are still suffering syrian government

bombs continue to target the last rebel held district of these them guta near the capital damascus let's start with an official reporting from down the untap on the turkey syria border as we say and in seven years since it began and nothing has changed in fact in these things getting worse. well what we have in the last few hours is an odd bizarre but strangely up procession which marked the seventh anniversary and that was thousands and thousands of people leaving part of eastern go to the southern part now that the area has been cut off by syrian government forces backed of course by the russians and we thought that the russians and the syrians would use their military pressure to put pressure on people to leave it started with just a few hundred trying the humanitarian corridor that had been established when it realized they were safe then throws and started to flood through and continued to

flood through the latest figures we have are somewhere in the region of twelve thousand people have left this tone just in the last few hours essentially clearing it out now what happens when they get beyond the government lines is that identity is checked the process they're given some aid and then what happens after that we're still not entirely sure they may well be bussed to other parts of the country but meanwhile in the northern part of ghouta we are hearing that strikes is still continuing also if you will bombardment still continuing that means people there are being left either terrified or dead or wounded but it is getting through to to do much to one time we had a number of trucks arriving there enough to provide food for twenty six thousand people for a month those lorries have unloaded so in one part of this besieged on cleve we're seeing people getting some aid in and in another part we're seeing thousands

of people taking the opportunity to get out nothing to suggest that alan that things will get any better in the near future tell us about other parts of the country as well closer to where you are developments in our frame. exactly that is an operation by the free syrian army backed by the turkish military and leave those surrounded the city of free and they swept through the region the cantorian of freedon in the last few days and have surrounded the city know what we've heard from the turkish presidency over the last twenty four hours is that they expect their soldiers to be inside the city in the coming days and also just in the last few hours we heard from the turkish presidency saying that if they take over african which they expect to do then they won't necessarily hand that back to syria that's a big leap from where they were before this was all about an operation to move the wipe e.g. the kurdish militia away from the border east of the euphrates to move what the

turkish government saw as a terrorist threat in their words away from their border but no they're saying and they said that this was syrian sovereign territory but no they've changed their tune on that seeing they will stay in africa which they still haven't feel control over for as long as they need to and they won't necessarily give the property back to syria no normally the syrians the mask this would be upset by this to be talking about breaches of international law which it clearly is they'll be talking perhaps about going to the united nations but at the moment the city government is much more focused on what's going on in ghouta because remember is right next to damascus the city capital and so it goes on alan fischer and alan fischer on twitter and yet we've also got senator who is reporting from kazakstan capital stan about his where another round of talks brokered by russia is due to begin on friday

. the turkish russian and iranian foreign ministers will be meeting in the capital on friday these three countries really have been closely cooperating concerning syria over over a year or so but clearly there are differences between them there are disagreements between them they do not see eye to eye and those differences emerged in re and it became very very obvious now russia of course giving turkey the green light to launch the offensive because it had the aim of trying to damage the relationship between turkey and and the united states and russia also trying to put pressure on the y.p. d. the kurdish militia to hand over territory to the syrian government now the iranians also are unhappy with turkey's increasing role not only in african but in northern syria now these three countries coming together to discuss syria even the russian president vladimir putin himself actually saying that. look we understand each of these countries we have our different interests and we have different

concerns but we are working together so there are common interests really are more important than their differences but the meeting really comes at a critical time because asked and i was about reducing the violence in syria and on the contrary what has happened is that the violence the level of violence has only height and the conflict is is worsening on the ground and these three players are what brings them together really is their animosity towards the united states and now we're seeing us towards turkey and now whether or not this will continue in light of the fact that the u.s. secretary of state has been replaced this is another question but the u.s. trying to pull turkey away from russia and iran so these different players which have influence in syria have decision making powers really in syria coming together to try to pave the way for you know the next phase in this ongoing conflict so as we mark this anniversary is maybe not the word you would use but there is an excellent al jazeera documentary on syria it is called the boy who started the

syrian war the store you may have forgotten about after seven years or actually may not have even known about of course you can view it for yourself at al-jazeera dot com but today seemed like a good opportunity to actually show you a bit of it here on the grid. last bit. of bone. dog was on my server. i was just fourteen when he sprayed antigovernment slogans on this school wall in that. it was february two thousand and eleven and he could never have imagined the consequences of going to top it was all muscle force. in the us the man. who did not apply if i was. going to death in that i thought. of them with us. about who i managed to shove at the door in the midst of a heart of the most of all that. she was.

with a lot of toys. for two alone. in the month of the following them into. his father's fears were well founded. malawi has three accomplices were rounded up by the police together with a dozen other suspects. by the full. dragged out of bed in a dawn raid he was driven away in handcuffs his family had no idea where he was being taken but knew of the syrian authorities reputation for brutality. and so it's interesting then they have that the opposition in seven years has gone from rushing graffiti on a wall to. social media and i don't see a huge movement really right going online and we're not just talking about just

social activists we're also talking about medics aid workers and different social influencers we call them trying to get their voices heard here's what some of them had to say. serving her people or nation. challenge that we have from the very beginning of this you. are mostly the same but the level rises a little bit still motivated actually because. we have sacrificed a lot throughout those seventy years and we don't have the other choice so going back is more. than that and going ahead we need to be true to those respect if i was dead a life for democracy freedom and dignity for syrians. we want to give up actually even if it takes off seven more years another big issue for us here is that it's

difficult for us to get our voice heard around the word and maybe because the and the media has become tired of this problem sometimes we suffer the lack of electricity or internet access in the middle of the military situation here you come to say anything that you like about the problem in syria because you might have you might face problems actually from. the. group. this is going. to be big. so we were asking how has social media helped or hurt the people trapped by the violence in syria who said she's a syrian journalist and graduate student at columbia university she wrote an article on al-jazeera and she said quote the use of social media also made

activists and regular protesters highly vulnerable when the regime allowed direct access to facebook which had been only accessible through v.p.n. until then in february two thousand and eleven it was clear that it was doing so to facilitate surveillance and the targeting of the protest movement many were arrested for just sharing a photo commenting or even uploading a video facebook organize protests also allowed the regime to know in advance the location and to prepare its crackdown accordingly thank you as i mentioned before the full documentary it has just showed you a snippet of before it's online for you to view an al-jazeera special series the page includes not only the film but additional information on the war and also the views of the film a cat the boy who started the syrian war you just have to search for that down to zero don't call him there is also this comprehensive retrospective of the last seven years syria's civil war explained from the beginning it does exactly that bullet points links video graphics any questions that you might have on syria's war

i am pretty sure will be there and as leah says you can get in touch with us here come your contact details now with the hashtag news could have already heard from benedict who's watching at facebook dot com slash al-jazeera the live stream who said i think in reference to that map we showed you where the whole of syria basically been carved up he says western powers of all sit on the same thing for years in asia and africa and ultimately it is the local people who suffer that's at facebook dot com slash on to zero the whatsapp number and telegram is a plus on seven four five one triple one four nine also looking for your tweets as well with the hash tag a.j. news grid. now some developments out of washington this hour with the trumpet ministration to slap sanctions on russia for alleged interference in the twenty sixteen election we have got kimberly how kids in our washington bureau to talk us through this one kimberly go ahead yeah breaking in the last hour canal essentially you'll remember back in august that the u.s.

congress almost unanimously passed the act and the president signed reluctantly into law to take action against not only russia but also iran and north korea but now we for the first time have this response to russian meddling in the twenty sixteen presidential election the trumpet ministration announcing in just the last hour of the day the sanctioning through the u.s. treasury department five entities nine thousand individuals for that involvement in election meddling that began the treasury says back in march of twenty sixteen not only is the u.s. taking this action for election meddling but also for attacks against the ukraine including destabilizing activities in crimea targeting the u.s. central and critical infrastructure including things like the power grid and also for that cyber attack you remember called not pecha which way data from banks it wiped out data at an airport and globally has cost. in terms of lost revenue more

than one point two billion dollars so the question we have to ask is why after dragging its heels for so long is the trumpet ministration finally acting now will this announcement came really on the heels of that joint statement that came not just from the united states but also the u.k. france germany with regard to the use of that military grade nerve agent attack in the united kingdom so this action finally coming on the heels of that joint statement to be very clear kimberly this is separate from what we know is the mother investigation right all the controversy which goes with that just to make sure our viewers know what which will be about. well there was there wasn't fact action back in february by the. by robert muller the special counsel where he did in fact. lay down charges to some of these same individuals that the treasury department is now acting upon and to be clear the u.s. just justice department is the one that was behind those so there is some overlap

but you're right this is something that is coming directly from the white house and that's what makes this distinct and for the first time because what we're seeing is the president utilizing the tools that were made available vailable to him in august but were not acted upon in terms of taking action against what the united states calls russian aggression and so this is being done through the treasury department as well as through executive order so that's what makes this notable that's what makes the significant ok makes sense now thank you kimberly how could i what house correspondent at the latest on those sanctions from the white house now kimberly mentioned this the statement from germany in the u.s. issuing that joint statement with the u.k. holding moscow responsible for last week's nerve agent attack in england earlier a spokeswoman for the russian foreign ministry those said moscow was working on retaliatory measures for britain's expulsion of twenty three russian diplomats

united nations security council also discussed the incident at an emergency meeting on wed and states britain's allies pledge their support for russia there is demanding material heard. what does it mean we see an attempt to use the mechanisms of the security council to once again fuel the anti russian hysteria we call once again in the u.k. to provide all materials at their disposal regarding this incident as they call it has been to be philip's now in london to talk us through and where does this actually leave us money because twenty four hours i was talking to you and it was what we heard to resume a saying and i guess we were sort of waiting to see how strong or otherwise the russian response would be well that response hasn't come yet it's come verbal obviously the reactions from russian spokespeople and russian ministers has been contemptuous throughout the week but the actions have not come yet but i think it's fair to say that in the short officials in britain are bracing

themselves for retaliatory expulsions of british diplomats from moscow they'll be coming home here to london and in the long term everyone here in the british government expects flatter me a putin to be reelected over the weekend that seen as a formality and there is no realistic hope that anglo russian relations are going to get remotely better anytime soon and tourism own herself is going to reserve is this is important for her to be seen there learning what's happening on the ground in the place where it happened. yeah i mean i suppose in imagery terms in television terms you know she's showing support and she's keeping the issue up in the agenda and meanwhile ministers have been keeping the rhetorical heat up on russia boris johnson the foreign secretary saying that as far as he was concerned the smug and sarcastic responses from russia showed that whilst you know on the one

hand they were denying the nerve agent attack him on the other hand they were almost glorifying in it and that was as far as he was concerned indicative of russia's guilt from the defense secretary gavin williamson some pretty proud nation and perhaps ill judged remarks he said that russia should put up and shut up so there's no sign of british and british rhetoric toning down either and i think you were you referred to that joint statement from the united states from germany and france saying this is very important for britain they know that a. the image of unity and joint action that involves nato allies and the west as a whole is that much more effective and yes there have been one or two hesitations but broadly speaking they are satisfied with the response they are getting and they

would welcome that news that you were talking to wit with kimberly those new sanctions coming out of the united states yes they are in relation to a different issue but any suggestion that other countries and of course particularly the united states are getting tough on russian meddling in its various forms these interpreted here in the west will be welcome in london at this particular point in time to be philip's tying all of that together for us in london thank you been a b. leo what bond being can be talk about is effectively spilled out online as well but it has it's quite interesting you your way isn't it is yes so essentially the russian embassy in the u.k. and the u.k. foreign office are battling all of this out on twitter to go after the u.k. said that it will expel twenty three russian diplomats over the poisoning of a former double agent and his daughters and we started seeing this all happening and they're battling with really simple graphics and captions to it's quite quite interesting like with this one this is it was tweeted by the russian embassy with

a caption that said the temperature of russia u.k. relations drops to twenty three but we're not afraid of the cold weather they say and then they say posted another picture here if i can bring it up for you this one warning of fake news with a quote that said yet another crooked attempt by the u.k. authorities to discredit russia and this one as well warning of retaliation in physics as well it says every action has an equal and opposite reaction the u.k. though they're firing back as well not so much for the graphics but more with videos the at foreign office account posted to videos like this explaining why it is expelling russian diplomats it goes down a thai. line talking about other poisonings u.k. links to russia and russia's role in other countries around the world this video has been viewed more than one hundred fifty five thousand times if you're following this or have comments about the story you can let us know what you think with the

hash tag a genius get. ok thank you for that leah we brought sports and flora in the early again on today's grid as we did yesterday because far this is world cup russia three months away and something like that and so the timing all gets rather significant as a and fifa getting a little bit nervous now and once again in fact the world cup was talking about is just ninety one days away now england's football team will be there but politicians and members of the royal family will be staying away the diplomatic dispute has raised concerns about the possibility of renewed fighting between fans from the two countries english and russian supporters were involved in violent clashes ahead of their game at the european championships in france two years ago around fifteen thousand world cup tickets have been bought by english found so far much of the talk on social media is about what sort of welcome they can expect in russia u.k. political journalist jacques maidment tweeted foreign office as updated it's advice

for for england fans heading to russia for the world cup in short don't talk about politics says fans should be aware of potential for and british sentiment or harris meant and avoid commenting publicly on political developments quite a different take from jake ski a journalist based in moscow so much for u.k. steve a world cup boycott the vice president of the russian football union has said it's not important that officials when come that it's their problem it's important that the team comes and it wants to come and he and a healthy dose of sporting reality from the british writer john affair all the england football team will be going to the world cup in russia but as a protest they will underperform in the group stage and then be knocked out by the first decent team they encounter and john is probably right who knows we'll see well with more than two million twitter followers russian t.v.

host tina kenda lackey is an influential social media voice in her home country she told al-jazeera that visiting fans shouldn't be worried about their safety at the world cup. when i was on the stadium but i was enjoying some games it's the huge atmosphere and then i agree with you are there always a minority of the people who are behaving badly everywhere email every countries i think that that wouldn't be a problem since their fee for world cup because i know that the government works with these people and i know that you know there are a lot of security seeings on the stadiums and i know that. it will be new face recognition system under study arms but that makes studying as much more secure than before that's why i think that in russia all tipple who are going to join games they would be secure and they can come with the families they can cause little kids and they'd all be warry

a broadly secure when it was olympic games we turned into games it was on the one tower that's what i think about people mostly came to sochi and maybe maybe there how one trip in moscow or south retyping and of course it's a small part of our card for you to make her all i mean all explanation which kind of country russia east how different is russia how different are different regions and now world cup is the chance to show different russian because i think that the steadier and their people and the attitude there you know whether the a lot of things are different in different parts of russia moscow. and you know how good are these towns and other towns should give too wrists much more opportunities to feel at differences of the drash hess and it's a big chance to us to promote to show all warm new face of russia new fresh of

different russia not all of the moscow because moscow's of the huge tarmoh school it's the capital and most well known town in the world like london is like new york east this times are the same password to read my. nice word of would have become vicious but other tell us much for smaller towns of course of a completely different attitude over russia and i think that people tourists there like because somewhere it should be a real russia i mean real the real reality people russian as always we'd like to get your thoughts here on aging news grade you can tweet me directly at f. underscore is small i'll be back with more at eight hundred g.m.t. but for now i'll hand you back to kmov thanks for that far we've got sport and politics covered for this one of al-jazeera dot com first a reporter's notebook from our sports correspondent lee wellings who back in december gave his group by group analysis on who has the best chance of glory at the world cup and also part of our twenty eighteen look ahead series which went out

at the start of this year this video report from chalons on how russia is trying to use the world cup to paint itself in a more positive light for both of those just search for russia world cup at al-jazeera dot com now saudi arabia's crown prince says his country will develop a nuclear bomb if iran builds nuclear weapons of its own mohammed bin someone made those comments in the first u.s. television interview with the saudi leaders in two thousand and five here he is speaking to norah o'donnell from c.b.s. . you've been rivals for centuries at its heart what is this rift about is it a battle for islam they have and they said iran is not a rival to saudi arabia its army is not among the top five armies in the muslim world the saudi economy is larger than the iranian economy and iran is far from being equal to saudi arabia but i've seen that you call the ayatollah khomeini the new hitler of the middle east we know shit absolutely why. you did it because he

wants to expand it he wants to create his own project in the middle east very much like hitler who wanted to expand it at a time many countries around the world and in europe did not realize how dangerous hitler was until what happened happened i don't want to see the same events happening in the middle east does saudi arabia need nuclear weapons to counter iran assert directing them to saudi arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb but without a doubt if iran developed a nuclear bomb we will follow suit as soon as possible in teheran for us now most of them who is a political commentator we thank you for your time sir it sounds like a provocation from saudi arabia here how seriously would you take that. hello and thanks for having me you know there is never been any shred of evidence all throughout the history to accuse iran of the relishing of military nuclear program the nuclear deal itself prove that you ron's intentions of

a peaceful and the i.a.e.a. has the shoot ten reports in car to confirm the same fact but now the us after the nuclear deal if you lose all the propaganda made about iran's true intentions in its nuclear program the us intends to drop the deal in may the us public opinion they are critical of the white house policy for killing that the zero because they know that would mean higher gas prices are rising in tensions in the middle east why their military presence more americans lives will be lost in battle more tax money will be spent in this region they are critical of that but now that the republicans the conservative republicans like mr tillotson mcmaster and others . have always been wary of this such a move and warning mr trump against this move they are being replaced by a people from a right parties lake bell palm pale like bolton people are seeing that this is the

destiny this is the future the nuclear deal will be killed by the white house if they are offered. that if they are offered some preventive measures to prevent iran from becoming a threat because they intend to misrepresent iran in future after killing that deal if they they are offer some preventive measures like intensifying security in the middle east around iran in the persian gulf also balancing actions like nuclearization of sol the arabia that has been opposed by the public opinion the polish some politicians in the us and even israel they have been opposing the nuclear ization of sol the arabian if they see this as an option to prevent the threat and to prevent right. tensions there would really wreck their support and they would render more support to the white house policy so in. a hurry are you know another question to you the the fact is the timing is good for saudi arabia for mohammed bin salman to be saying something like this because of as you say the

change that's happening in the actual administration. in the united states. yes you know this whole these have admitted libyan looking for developing a nuclear program and the u.s. president has been very much eager and greedy for winning those nuclear projects and now this this could facilitate you know of this deal for the white house and for to sell these of the mr trump you know he would win these projects in seoul the arabia and he would justify it in economic terms and also he would say that there would be in control if they develop such a nuclear capability for saudi arabia but when everyone is just watching iran's nuclear case the so would these have been very you know silently and covertly developing a military nuclear program there have been reports in the media outlets in the

middle east sir facing since last year that this all these have been budgeting over a billion dollar in the military nuclear program of pakistan and in return for a number of nuclear warheads and a following in pursuing reports have been stating that the sell of these have been importing these nuclear warheads already so they are going nuclear and nobody is paying attention to this fact despite the fact that the saudis are the real cause of tensions in the region eisel has been trained you know provided with backup and financial backup and arms. from seoul the arabia and they are to be blamed for rising tensions in the region and now they want to go no nuclear ok let's not focus attention we thank you for joining us from tehran to talk through that story. looking at the live woman actually not a huge amount going on where when things my vents to come through from the u.s. at sixteen hundred g.m.t. for now though we will get some more international news from person in

a london new center. thank you kamil slovakia's president has accepted prime minister robert ficos resignation and asked his deputy to form a new government political leaders are trying to end a crisis provoked by the murder of a journalist who was investigating ford involving a businessman with political time is his death fueled public anger over corruption and has led to the biggest protests in the central european nation since the fall of communism nearly three decades ago well with yellow and blue sharkey's in bratislava for the just tell us why has the prime minister resigned over this. because it's a resigned hearing the presidential palace just an hour ago and in his first statement after that he was standing. who will be the new prime minister but on that the president conference bitter police really didn't say

a word both of them are coming from the same party samantha which is the ruling party here and peter said i'm leading the prime minister position but i'm not leaving politics i will do stay active in my party and i'll be holding back to political a greenie and it's a big question will the people of brought this lever and slovakia will react after this is this just the provocation or maybe a step further to. some solution because they want a new government they are going to come true without corruption and maybe to kill lines for from today is coming from the president keyscore who said i accept this resignation but i'm not sure is it going to be enough for the public

indeed and is it going to be enough to resolve the political crisis. yes and us before why the cool of this approach. became after the murder of. two journalists the young his fiance they were shot dead in his home and this young journalist discovered some huge and deep connection between italian mafia and the politicians here. we were today in the news room with were young worked. his desk is just the way he left it when he. when he was there the last time even his coffee cup on the table with a coffee stains on the is still there and much of paper of bottled.

mafia total could go with the editor of syracuse said he is concerned about the security police is in front of the building police and security is in front of the door of many of the journalists in that news room now have a personal security. as it is he said to me all the notes are crypted. all of the stories are crypted and he thinks there is some leak of information in the public organisation and there's the question he want to see was sold and that's the that's why this resignation maybe will not be enough for them and for the people of. forth to moral new approaches are allows the people of brought this level will be on the

streets again. with the very latest coming out of the. now exactly a month after seventeen people died in a florida school shooting the u.s. house of representatives has approved legislation to improve school security the bill provides at least fifty million dollars a year for training and coordination between schools and police that takes new steps to tighten gun control also in jordan has more from washington d.c. . the bill would set aside fifty million dollars for a training program in order to teach students faculty and staff how to spot someone who might pose a security threat to the campus and that would include setting up a tip line civil libertarians however worried that this tip line could be used either as retaliation between youth squabbles or perhaps to racially profile some students the bill also passed on wednesday would also set of side twenty five

million dollars for things such as improved locks panic buttons and metal detectors basically to prevent people from bringing firearms onto campus without prior authorization the big holdup is in the u.s. senate there's no comparable bill being considered right now by the one hundred senators there are a couple of other bills that take a look at perhaps trying to restrict the types of firearms that are made available as well as improving federal background checks and congressional democrats would like to see a universal background check and extensive gun control something which the congressional republicans are not going to sign on finally this is senate majority leader mitch mcconnell doesn't know when any legislation could be brought up for consideration in order to make good what the u.s. house of representatives wants which is a much saver public school environment for u.s. students so this could be resolved quickly in the face of growing political

pressure or it could simply be put aside while senators decide to work on other more pressing matters. south africa says missed on this australian minister's claims that white farmers are persecuted and help from what he called a civilised country home affairs minister peter dutton says he's exploring giving them access to fast track visas on humanitarian grounds present president sir ram opposed to has vowed to speed up thing illegal registration of land from wealthy wants to poor blacks and south africa's government says no one is in danger. the united nations says a donor conference in rome has helped raise an extra one hundred million dollars for the u.n. relief agency for palestinian refugees the agency which is the oldest and largest u.n. relief program in the middle east is facing a funding crisis after the u.s. government slashed its and the u.n. says it's still running about three hundred forty six million dollars shortfall

twenty eighteen and officials are warning that critical services could be scrapped if the money doesn't come through him. that's it from me for the news going down the back later i'll find you now back to come on and thank you for that so this is the news good if you want to us on facebook live welcome you're about to see how wheelchair basketball is allowing afghanistan's women seem to have just a bit of heart and then exiting before breads i think a massive trans national producer of household products unilever is moving its headquarters from london to brought to them that story and the headlines in a. welcome back as we look at weather conditions across the levant and western parts of asia we've had an area of snow across the east which is clearing away so bright to conditions for our marty in kazakhstan and tashkent is becky stan elsewhere we've

got a fair amount of cloud around the caspian sea region it should be dry for back you maybe a chance of a shower for tehran we've got some snow across eastern parts of turkey with rain extended to northern parts of syria otherwise we're looking at relatively bright conditions for beirut in general cross this region it should become fine as we head into saturday further towards the south fine conditions prevail across the arabian peninsula with thirty one the expected high here in doha little bit of cloud around you in the course of friday that tends to clear away so remaining fine highs of thirty six degrees in mecca let's head down into southern portions of africa where we've got a developing tropical cyclone which is going to be impacting madagascar over the next a few days is going to trundle very very slowly down the east coast so a lot of rain likely to develop here with some flooding certainly an issue we've got some showers around the eastern cape so durban will pick up one or two during the course of friday should be fine for cape town for the north much of botswana and the maybe a dry and fine but again we're seeing some heavy rain affecting zambia with highs

of twenty six degrees expected in new saka. something wrong temperatures extreme altitudes the deadline was. this is where the hard part because of the extraordinary journey from coach to touchy keystone braved quite ordinary joy to the world of what we do high out of though there's no oxygen . just to experience life simple pleasures. of risking it all kurdistan at this time on al-jazeera. the most memorable moments with al-jazeera was when i was on air as hosni mubarak fell with the crowds in tahrir square talking. if something happens anywhere in the world al-jazeera is in place we're able to cover music like no other news

organizations. were able to do it properly. and that is our strength.

have nothing to go on and what's trending as well you feel that story number one. new section from london a little while ago and serious more explain from the beginning is well i showed you that before that reading is a great resource which very to compile the best of our coverage of syria you can find it today in the what's trending section. now kids know the name even if the store isn't in their country it's just one of those names toys r us and it's essentially normal the retailers announced a leave the sale will close all of its u.s. stores putting thirty thousand jobs at risk and it's also shutting down its remaining seventy five outlets in the u.k. the company found for bankruptcy last year after wrecking up five billion dollars in debt toys r us dominated the toy business in the eighty's in the ninety's but it's been struggling to compete with online retailers since them we have got run

patel with us now a global business executive who specializes in business and retail brand strategy joining us from los angeles early in the morning as well as i thank you for your time did toys r us basically get amazon here you know it couldn't compete with the convenience of the speed of the online world yes i would agree so but i think one of the things that we're missing from the fact there are already in trouble before the amazon actually came through you think about target and wal-mart getting into the toy space and you know they were competing on price and the second piece behind those toys r us was lacking behind customer experience they were more like a warehouse box feel they were less employees they were they were really behind like you said on the e-commerce side and so with all of that to the demise with the amazon effect you start to see this trail if this didn't happen overnight you start to see why they ended up where they did so badly in debt as well. well the private equity deal that they when they took it over in two thousand and

five a soon they obviously amassed almost five billion dollars in debt and the more they grew the more bigger stores that they were putting in the member their footprint are very large and so that cost a lot of money to be able to do that and with that big footprint you got high inventory and you know they went bankrupt in september last year the right move was the c.e.o. mentioned we wanted to reinvest into the stores back that way that provided this experience maybe a new way to increase footfall but they never got that chance because they feel really poorly in the last quarter in their sales is the brand completely dead now i mean they said that they would close all sil some of those stores. first of all what does that mean and also why don't reinvent itself as an online retailer if it's got the products and it's got the incredible brand name go online well the the s. the last question right away is because they didn't their relate to the party in every step of the phases when it came to online so i don't think that they know how

to really make that work and be competitive in a space that as you know we mentioned walmart amazon are taking it and as for the brand itself you know in the u.s. i believe it's it's never going to i think it's kind of pretty much dead internationally is interesting because i think it still has that name you know that that motto of i want to be a toys r us kid that they could probably follow the hamleys the toy store and maybe have a few stories and then use that as a ship online commerce but i don't really see them having one market to have a hundred stores in one city i think that model is dead for them just quickly run not to get overly sentimental here but it's a shame isn't it when iconic brands like this disappear. listen it is i mean you think about how the next generation of kids will never even know what toys r us is and i think everyone can resonate that the fact that you hear that jingle and you hear you know when you walk into the toys or a store you really feel like you're at home where you able to grab something but

you know like anything if you don't innovate and you don't keep up with the times and daily transform your business you will be left behind no matter who you are run for so great talking to you thank you so much for your time today thanks for having me now also one of the largest companies in britain is closing down its london offices and moving its corporate headquarters entirely to the netherlands unilever says the decision is not because of braids that expect it would be quite a blow to british government negotiations to leave the european union when big names leave the anglo dutch company already has its headquarters in rotterdam it makes a huge range of popular supermarket brands so who's soup ice cream man is all these different sorts of things so you've got to go has the story from them. after months of reviews unilever has said that it is finally leaving london it is a jewel headed company both with h q's legally cues corporate headquarters both in

the u.k. and in the netherlands the corporate headquarters in the u.k. will no longer be present as the company goes forward but it still will maintain a manufacturing and research presence in the u.k. it employs some seven thousand three hundred people in the u.k. most of those said to be safe for now but with this the c.e.o. of the company has said that it is really about streamlining the company to also be making it more focused and to have about one legal headquarters in the netherlands as well as a lot of also insight into that saying that if the company was unhappy when it faced off a hostile takeover from the u.s. food giant kraft heinz and the worries that the u.k. legal system would not have prevented another. opportunity for other companies to try that as well the netherlands has tougher laws regarding hostile takeovers in

that sense but also of course the all the issue on the table is bracks it that complex juggernaut course are still so many unanswered questions about what that means for corporations certainly for now with unilever certainly want they have batted off any issues that it might have anything to do with bracks it is how it really comes at a time when the u.k. is not looking in a particularly strong position with this so and certainly for any corporations who are having to deal with the unknown complexities of brics it the safer option looks like to be to be based within the e.u. . off the grid now with. what is the happiest country in the world well spoiler alert it is finland and so despite its harsh climate and dark corners finland has been voted the world's happiest country that is of course according to the un so finland which came fifth last year they toppled norway from the top spot the world happiness report ranks one hundred fifty six countries on social support life

expectancy social freedom generosity and the absence of corruption nordic countries took five of the top ten places this year we've seen a country in africa at the bottom of the list now the report relies on simply asking one question how happy are you here's what some people living in finland had to say. i joked with the other americans that we are living the american dream here in finland i think everything in the society is set up for people to be successful starting with a university and transportation that works really well for them to be able to afford to buy we have all the services here that we need the daycare is nearby and paul says well we can play and slide down he was if you want to thought of it still appears that on. during the winter we put on a coat during summer we put on swimming trunks during autumn we put rain coats on so everything is a question of attitude so. there you have it now others took to twitter to share

their excitement this picture has been shared on reddit with people saying that happiness started long ago when finland was the first year period country to allow women the right to vote and to run for office and then to modern times you have people like jessica here sharing this picture of herself with a quote that says my fellow fans have an awesome day and then alisa she tweeted this picture saying how exciting iceland is also on the lists and as in my home family's home country rather of denmark also made the list as well now when it comes to immigration the study also found that the ten happiest countries also have happy emigrants this is linked to the quality of life in their new home of course with about five and a half million people finland has some three hundred thousand foreigners in two thousand and sixteen and all of them are happy ones at that of course into study but if you're in finland we'd love to know what makes you happy there and if you're not in finland tell us where you live why it makes you happy or if it doesn't make

us you happy let us know you can get in touch with us directly with our hash tag script i'll be happy if you have finally you will remember from last night's read and i know you were watching it was another of mitt clunks reports from an antarctic expedition to the weather the c.n.n. time today he sent us about five reports actually all of which you can see if you were dot com but here just a quick reminder of where he has been started at the tip of south america put out a mess in chile and then went out to zoom in a little bit here this island which is called king george island and also penguin island is there he went further out into the way to see here and is now on the return journey all the way back to chile so as you say on his way back and just for us here on the newsgroup he has sent in a little special extra report actually about what life has been like on the ship have a look. said let's have a little shit to talk right it's going to bite your head because it always

everywhere. we're actually entering the home very soon just about sea level here. and there a living course is almost what waits you decide to call it tries and then there you go so i will see since we use when we take to have landings to show their hard hats here life jackets all sorts of paraphernalia and there's even a workshop over here where we'll find crockpot it well. packing up something or other would be going to be just samples taken right and then going off or not it's correct and you can get well ok and let's take up since. the stance on the stay is going to hold on tight. it's good hearing about as you say so few of the ships cabins are hit this is one that i've been in the caravan. and myself and this is my butt down here bend sleeves up and so we read each other

better stories at night and there's a view. to gale howling outside. and this is the mess kids where everybody gathers to eat lots of meal smooth choppy out at sea and his big ali and they're just making the final preparations as narrow as the chef as. a partner in crime. or something that you'd like. to have so you can sneak in a load of you know your. fun. you know that you're right that you see that this right now let's face guys yeah. here it is. you know. we very well board will trace

this over and over the way to. give the a.b.c.'s myself the. fare for the bottom of the world as it may clog with a series of reports from onboard the great basin there in antarctica battled it for this newsgroup thank you for joining us get in touch with us once you hash tag a joint news grid. be it on twitter facebook or on whatsapp telegram and we will see what's happening telegram and we'll see you back here in studio fourteen a down to zero at fifty one hundred hours g.m.t. tomorrow i find.

it. hard to measure. the sam's in archaeology graduate from iraq he's also a part time going to billings pergamon museum which includes a reconstruction of the famous ishtar gate in babylon most of the people he's showing around came to germany as refugees this is just one of several billion museums taking part in the project called meeting point and as well as bringing people together one of its aims is to emphasise the contribution of migrants right

up to the present day to western culture. because i've been here for some time i can help them with lots of things that mrs ford to me the great thing is it's not just about museums about forming a new life here and part of life it's culture to train and equip the opposition in syria so they can help push back these terrorists people in power investigate how the us supplies soviet style weapons to its allies through private companies and the us government could wash their hands and say well we didn't know where it was so weapon that was supplied by the us government may well end up being pointed at us soldiers yes absolutely we pick it up less than two months after the fact until america's gun secret pipeline to syria and this time on al jazeera. after weeks of intense and strikes and years on the government seeing thousands of

people stream out to syria's rebel held every single time. i don't see tyson this is al jazeera life from.