we are witnessing around the word this hungry money which is only looking at how to make the next profit devastate economies devastating ecosystems putting a price on the protection of nature green economy is sound good but it was all about privatized sation of nature should our environment be for sale what we're trying to do this destroyed people to stabilize the country giving them a financial incentive to do that pricing the planet at this time on al-jazeera. a war on two fronts in the south tens of thousands of civilians a skate rebel held pockets in ghouta as astronauts continue while in the north turkish warplanes pound the town of affray and forcing one hundred fifty thousand men women and children to flee.

hello i'm citizen this is al jazeera live from london also coming up reports emerge that fired f.b.i. deputy director andrew a cave kept personal memos on his interactions with president on trump. we will consider our next steps in the coming days british prime minister to resign may promises more action that's russia expels twenty three british diplomats. and another blow to yemen as the world health organization once diptheria is spreading across the country affecting more than thirteen hundred people. we begin in syria where violent fighting and asked strikes have displaced tens of thousands of civilians on two fronts in the south the government troops have captured two major rebel strongholds within

a single taking their total territory to around eighty percent this as men women and children stream out of the area in the thousands and desperate search of safety meanwhile in the north takesh warplanes are continuing to pound the town of a free also taking a heavy civilian toll from the turkey syria border symons reports. anywhere else in the world they'd be running for their lives but this is syria it's a slow procession the body language of mental exhaustion and fear they may not know what lies ahead of them they've only been able to bring what they can carry but they feel there's no other option but the eastern ghouta. the command of the syrian army urges all civilians to leave the areas under control of the extremist organizations through the safe corridors we affirm that we will continue to fulfill our national and constitutional duty to defend the nation until the return of

security and stability throughout the country there is no united nations operation here would be mistaken to expect a full ceasefire not far away reports of airstrikes killing more civilians one of several districts zamalka hit again on friday activists had reported incendiary bombing which russia had denied the head of the main syrian opposition group criticize the un for failing to protect. the minority we hold the united nations and the security council directly responsible for being silent around these crimes and for failing to take action to prevent these crimes but let us not forget as the syrian regime holds direct responsibility for these crimes along with the countries that continue to stand by it airstrikes are known to often coincide with such operations to evacuate civilians the opposition say it's a deliberate ploy to cause more terror and the syrian observatory for human rights

says at least thirty civilians died as they attempted to fleeced and on saturday in a separate battle civilians caught between the kurdish why b.g. of the turkish backed free syrian army fighting in a friend had been leaving in larger numbers and the turkish military denied attacking the city hospital killing sixteen people on friday. it said these pictures were taken on saturday morning showing the building unscathed but the syrian observatory for human rights had shown video of a damaged building it claims is the hospital. as the f.s.a. fighters took control of a prison and turkish forces maneuvered the u.n. was deeply alone by reports of civilian deaths and it was also concerned about reports of kurdish fighters using civilians as human shields and drew simmons al jazeera kilis of the turkish syrian border reports are emerging that fired

f.b.i. deputy director and you make a detailed notes on his interactions with president of truong mccabe was sacked for misconduct just days before he would have been eligible for full retirement benefits celebrated his firing on twitter saying andrew mccabe fired a great day for the hardworking men and women of the f.b.i. a great day for democracy fact ammonia james komi was his boss and made mckay look like a choir boy he knew all about the lions and corruption going on at the highest levels of the f.b.i. also in jordan. andrew mccabe was an f.b.i. agent for twenty two years rising to deputy director and then acting director after his boss james komi was fired by the trump white house in twenty seven teens but just before he planned to retire on march eighteenth mccabe too was dismissed. in

a statement released late on friday night the attorney general jeff sessions said that according to an internal agency investigation quote mr mccabe had made an and authorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor including under oath a multiple occasions i have terminated the employment of andrew mccabe effective immediately right after this mckay told the news media his firing was payback for doing his job investigating ties between russia and donald trump's two thousand and sixteen presidential campaign as well as overseeing the probe into hillary clinton's use of a private e-mail server while she was secretary of state now president trump has accused mccabe of partisan bias mccabe's wife a democrat received campaign donations from one of hillary clinton's allies then mccabe added this quote the attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not to just slander me personally but to taint the f.b.i.

law enforcement and intelligence professionals generally it is part of this administration's ongoing war on the f.b.i. and the efforts of the special counsel analysts say robert muller who is the special counsel will want to talk to mckay but now aides now will be testifying in front of mahler and he knows a lot now what happened. during the campaign and during the investigation mr mckay going to talk about the fact when president drama fired your rector call me that was an attempt you were going to call me we're actually going ahead with the investigation i'm not could be considered a struction of justice being fired means andrew mccabe might lose his retirement and health care benefits but mccabe might also have much more to gain by telling

robert muller. everything he knows about any russian links to the trump presidential campaign and that could mean the trumpet ministration might now have a much bigger problem on its hands rosalyn jordan al-jazeera washington. russia's prime minister tourism a says the u.k. is considering its next steps after moscow announced it would expel twenty three british diplomats and close the british council in russia mission has accused the kremlin of orchestrating a nerve agent attack on a former russian spy and his daughter in salzburg gena home reports from moscow. after days of waiting it took barely ten minutes for british ambassador laurie bristow to be handed russia's written response we gave russia the opportunity to explain the healthy material soulsby we are structured to declare that material that's the stick in the key to the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons russia did neither therefore we announced certain steps russia today has

informed me of the steps that russia will be taking in response to that. the decision to remove twenty three british diplomats from russia mirrored u.k. prime minister to resign may's own statement on wednesday expelling twenty three russian diplomats from london the countermeasures didn't stop with the expulsion of british diplomats from the embassy here they were as well what the russians would call asymmetrical measures to match the reason mase promise of looking more closely at the sources of russian money in the u.k. so britain's diplomatic presence in russia will be further reduced by the closure of its consulate in st petersburg russia second city and the operations of the government funded british council will cease a charity that promotes british culture abroad the russian government has long suspected it of being a cover for british intelligence it is though what in diplomatic speak might be described as a measured response what seems their russia does not want to. fresh wanted to go

then the response to british expulsions could be even more severe work with the americans they could exploit more they could cripple actually the british mission and moscow. russia is sending a message of its core the rhetoric continues but no more serious action number two reason chose to double. russia's response doesn't change the facts of the matter the attempted assassination of two people on british soil for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the russian state was culpable the british government may be emboldened by a show of support from allies like france and germany along with new sanctions aimed at russia by the united states russia meanwhile may be looking for ways to calm things down jonah hill al-jazeera moscow well let's go live to moscow now

allowance latest standing by for us oh yes we've got twenty odd run russians expelled from the u.k. now the opposite the tit for tat from russia back to the u.k. is this the end of it all we looking at it's good to keep going there will be another move by treason by another move by russia. yeah it is it is really an interesting question sue and i think i think the analysts in general report that probably got about right of the time being that the russians would quite like this sort of stalemate is this is the moment to be the end of it but you know it is a bit difficult to know what else britain wants to do because they do seem to want to keep going the time being though the rhetoric is still extraordinary in the russian position of the moments of ours we can sell seems to be the most likely guilty party over this cripple poisoning is britain itself and this theory was expounded by the woman from the foreign ministry on television here today in which she said that britain had spoilers in the script all to try to discredit russia's

attempts to end the war in syria through the stalin a talks and to try to suggest that by by by russia poisoning scriptural consoles pretty it was similar to syrian chemical weapons attacks against people there it's a bit complicated i'm sorry for them explain that quite quite right but that seems to be a bit about what she said and frankly from the british points of view that's it doesn't sound like isolation it's all equally boris johnson the british foreign secretary you say in the vladimir putin orders the poisoning what would the russian mind be could be completely outrageous and so that they are totally at a logger heads and of course that there is already about the whole thing is that it's all on the eve of the election in and vladimir putin who's going to win a lot wants nothing more than the russian people to be stirred into a sense of moral outrage and come out in large numbers to vote for him as the only person who can defend russia's dignity when it's under attack from its so-called poem is but there's another problem for the kremlin at this moment in time which is

the one of the constitution this is the last term that putin supposed to stand as president so the question is is this putin's last time last lost. whatever you think of him there's no denying that a lot of near putin has made russia important again and here he was in two thousand and four winning a second time as president against a field as hopeless as the one this year but then russia's opinion on world affairs didn't count for much but as he said during this campaign people listening now i will need a ship has been designed to guarantee it here to new direction for russia down a very definite making sure there is a voice in the world as loud as that of the united states at home his admirers say his achievements and the bill enormously. coalesced in one putin came to power it was hard for us to understand that in our government american advisers were working why were they telling us what to do nobody was talking to russia about solving

global problems our country is putin's life and therefore russia's life is our president. actions which in recent years made russia's presence felt have been utterly polarizing the annexation of crimea through telling the syrian war to the advantage of the asset regime cost russia heavily putin never look comfortable at g eight meetings at the best of times now russia is alps western sanctions and the total mismanagement of russia's oil and gas wealth left most of the world's biggest country impoverished while a small clique in moscow grabbed the money. it is striking how putin's popularity is very often at his strongest in places which is seen almost no material benefits from his nearly twenty years in power you don't you go to show how potent identity politics and nationalism can be and they remain putin strongest cards. and so the people who run russia are coming up against

a problem putin is presented as the only man to keep russia great but after this term is time supposed to be up so what who comes next you've got to be a reporter and you could i knew we'd already forty one option is that after twenty twenty four he changes the constitution as they did in kazakhstan and china and he stays on as long as he is capable or in the next two or three years he will pass power on to someone acceptable unless he decides to stay on forever putin will have to use this last term to cement a legacy from the look of it it will lead heavily towards militarism and even greater hostility to the west it is after all what putin does best. and of course the other thing we know about putin is that he's a street fighter it's where he came from the streets of st petersburg he loves nothing more than a fights with his his friends and enemies and play he's got on his hands now because on monday the day after he's going to be reelected there's

a european foreign ministers meeting at which the u.k. will try to suppress its european allies for a joint response over the spy poisoning so it looks like this is going to go on and on and on many thanks largely that bring us the latest out of moscow. still to come on the program the faces of the desperate times callisto grapples with a winding drug problem as opium production surgeons. thing is confound us china's leader for life ambassador major promotion for a close ally of the president. hello there it is cold now in some parts of europe and elsewhere it's pretty wet we

look at the satellite picture we can see all the cloud fading out from the south that's bringing in all the rain and then it's hitting that cold air over the new parts of europe where has the cold air is turning to snow so we're expecting quite a bit of wintery weather across parts of russia and ukraine during the day on sunday in fact that wintry weather also extends a long way towards the west with some pulse the u.k. seeing a lot of snow at the moment and sunday we'll see some more brashly does clear there as we head through monday still for monday plenty of cold but dry weather for the northern parts of europe for the south plenty of wet weather and at times we're seeing more wintry weather for the southeast corner as well for the other side of the mediterranean while it's been fairly unsettled here recently as well more showers are making their way through parts of geria and morocco there on sunday and that system is slowly edging its way towards the east behind it to some rather brisk winds bringing in a fair amount of cloud and perhaps one or two more showers during the day on monday for the east though largely fine and dry for most of us here around thirty three in

cairo for the central belt of africa lots of what weather here over parts of uganda that stretches out towards the west gabble is also looking particularly wet during the day. in the past seven years over three million homes destroyed. and eleven million people displaced. syrians made homeless by war share their stories. in the ruins of a dream at this time on al-jazeera. welcome

back remind all of the top stories here on al-jazeera tens of thousands of civilians on escaping rebel held pockets in ghouta as as strikes continue further north turkish warplanes are continuing to pound the town of a freend there are reports that five f.b.i. deputy director andrew mcafee catch detailed notes on his interactions with president on trump the cave was sacked for misconduct just days before he would have been eligible for full retirement benefits and britain's prime minister to resign may says the u.k. is considering its next steps after moscow announced it would expel twenty three british diplomats and close the british council and russia. a british data firm is under investigation in the u.s. over possible interference in the twenty sixteen presidential election cambridge

analytic is alleged to have used the dates of more than fifty million facebook profiles to support president election campaign the company reportedly harvested the date set without authorization in twenty fourteen to build a software program to influence choices in the twenty six thousand poll. the rebels say they're willing to hold talks with saudi arabia to end the war in yemen has made the admission after reports emerged the group spokesman have been in direct contact with saudi officials and i'm on both sides deny secret talks are taking place but have said they would support un peace efforts aimed at reaching a political solution it comes as the humanitarian situation in yemen continues to worsen with twenty two point two million people in desperate need of assistance. there was no direct meeting between us and saudi arabia. but when there was

a chance for honorable peace there is no problem in having a direct dialogue between us and the saudi government that we are in a war with saudi arabia and the u.a.e. and they are using all their military capabilities on yemen so we need such a dialogue between parties to stop the war. the world health organization is warning diptheria is spreading across yemen affecting more than thirteen hundred people the outbreak was first detected in october last year in a country already ravaged by cholera and with the health system close to collapse and a huckster has more. children and desperate parents from a disorganized queue at this medical clinic and some are lining up for potential lifesaving vaccination against that area local health workers are in force in the world health organization must vaccination program to counter the rapid spread of the disease across the country they were not created over two and a half million children aged between six weeks and fifteen years old there's been a diff the outbreak in yemen since late last year and there are now almost thirteen

hundred cases of the exterior including more than seventy deaths most governorates most areas of the amman have been affected by this to syria outbreak diptheria is a serious bacterial infection that affects the mucous membranes of the throat and nose once infected toxins are released and spread through the bloodstream causing the thick gray coated to the nose throat tongue and blocks ways eighty percent of the sufferers of children and young adults under twenty five years old dip there is common in many developing countries where sanitation is lacking. these facilities here a basic yemen's health system has almost collapsed after nearly three years of war most workers have not been paid this year fairly fifty percent of all health facilities are functioning there's also a devastating cholera outbreak diphtheria outbreak and a cholera outbreak at both symptoms of a failing health system because people are not that's in asia because they do not

have access to safe water because their sanitation supplies been ruined by war all of these are symptoms of a collapsed hell system and this is in true due to the war and this will only improve once there is peace. peace looks a long way off yemen is engulfed in the war pits and government forces helped by saudi led coalition against iranian backed rebels as the conflict continues so does the suffering of millions of yemenis trapped in a situation the u.n. has cooled the world's largest humanitarian crisis. out of there. at least four people have died in a car bombing in the afghan capital kabul police say the bomb went off as a convoy of foreign vehicles was passing by but all those killed appeared to be local bystanders there was no immediate claim of responsibility it's the latest in a series of attacks to hit the afghan capital and afghanistan is facing

a growing drugs problem with around nine thousand tons of opium produced that last year heroin is an important source of revenue for the taliban and the u.s. is targeting their drug cultivation sites tell you better reports from kabul by record numbers of people are turning to drugs in desperation. in afghanistan there is a level below rock bottom it's where these lifeless expressionist drug addicts exist men who lost dignity a long time ago they've been rounded up and herded into one of the country's biggest drug rehabilitation units in kabul these are the other victims of this never ending war collateral damage if you like people who've lost loved ones lost jobs lost hope and their numbers are growing in afghanistan every day the forty five day program of this former military warehouse complex is basic and caters to nine hundred patients the treatment consists mainly of keeping the addicts away from drugs but it can't keep them away from the desire most relapse when they leave

. not there not that we need international hill we are struggling drug addiction is everywhere in the world but unfortunately it's affecting us more we have double impact one is the war and the other is that people are jobless. no ruse turn to drugs eight years ago when he lost his job he abandoned all hope and his wife and six children. my from a lot of water with no job or income you have no choice but to steal and rob to get drugs addicts who have money eventually spend it all on drugs and when the money is gone they join us poor under the bridge we are no use to family society or country the bridges police doctor in kabul where the addicts live in a desolate world the afghan government estimates that three million people ten percent of the population is addicted to heroin forty percent of those are women opium cultivation is a major source of funding for the taliban and

a major target for the u.s. an air campaign to destroy crops and production has been intensified the international community's sixteen year battle against drugs in afghanistan has cost billions of dollars but poppy growing is flourishing like never before last year there was a sixty three percent growth in land use for cultivation and an eighty seven percent increase in opium production the most in afghan history varmus of turn to poppies because there's more money in them the conventional crops but the threats from the air always there. we are worried that foreigners are the afghan government are going to destroy our fields the farmers are the ones who face the entire hardship of cultivation but the smugglers and others are the ones who benefit the most. that is beyond the concern of the addicks under the poly sakta bridge their only concern is how to get the next fix they are in direct victims of this war but their image will haunt afghanistan for many years to come tony berkeley al-jazeera

kabul. chinese leadership paying has been unanimously reappointed by his policy with no term limits effectively making him president for life a close ally of president she was voted in as his deputy national people's congress scott heigl has lost from beijing. for the first time in history the president of china took an oath of office president xi jinping raising his fist pledging loyalty to country and constitution as he begins his second five year term and that's a constitution that was changed last week during the national people's congress here in beijing. one of the biggest differences lifting term limits on the offices of presidents and vice president meaning this is almost certainly not the last time we will see she take the oath. also took his oath on saturday his first five year term as vice president only one vote was cast against him out

of the nearly three thousand carefully selected delegates known as a firefighter taking on tough tasks one front at the president's anti-corruption crackdown it punished more than one and a half million officials. the election of won't was no surprise he's a close ally of susan ping term limits have been lifted on the vice president's role but what will be different is that his power and influence will elevate the position that's traditionally been ceremonial get things done so see his loyalty and how he can follow he order to discipline chinese officials and he has been very successful in that and looking forward to see you would want to make sure that his power will be stabilized for next decade or beyond that even before the curtains close on this year's national people's congress on tuesday wang will have his work cut out whatever his

responsibilities is to deal with u.s. trade friction something president trump has intensified over the past few days it's got harder al-jazeera beijing a small passenger plane has crashed into a house in the philippines killing ten people it happened shortly after takeoff north of manila all five people on board died as well as five people on the ground rescuers are said to be looking for at least one missing in the rubble of the house well and thirty african leaders have signed a petition aimed at protecting elephants from poaching the presidents of kenya uganda gabble and botswana leading the call for the european union to ban the sale of ivory more than half of africa africa's seven or elephants live in those three countries the presidents are part of a group called the giants club focused on the conservation of the world's largest mammal. the price of sweet street has reached record breaking levels this

is the world's most expensive chocolates on display in portugal it's worth almost ten thousand dollars and covered in at the bogo inside is a feeling of suffering threats white truffle vanilla from mother and gold flakes and to add to the weighty price tag it's crown in shape to boxes decorated with five and a half thousand swarovski crystals. we found to much more on our website news and features just go to al-jazeera dot com. let's get a reminder of the top stories here announces they're fighting a nasty ikes have displaced thousands of civilians in syria government troops have captured two major rebel strongholds with an eastern ghouta taking their total

territory around eighty percent is forced men women and children to stream out of the area in the thousands in desperate search of safety hamdi simmons has more from killis near the turkey syria border but almost can't be verified this isn't a united nations operation the russians of the syrian regime are organizing these two corridors one to the north of us and go to war to the south it's the last a warm the southern warm that's being used right now files of people with a very sullen states moving away trying to hoping that they're going to get safety . and in the northern city of refereeing the thousands are evacuating territory held by kurdish y p g fighters as turkish forces and the syrian allies trying to fight their way into the city have been reports of more autonomy bombardments. there are reports that fired f.b.i. deputy director andrew mccabe kept detailed notes on these interactions with

president on trump mckay was sacked for misconduct just before he would have been eligible for full retirement benefits on twitter donald trump described his firing as a great day mccabe denies any wrongdoing he believes he's being singled out for events he witnessed after trump by the f.b.i. director james comey britain's prime minister to resign may's says the u.k. is considering its next steps after moscow announced it would expel twenty three british diplomats and close a british council in russia mission has accused the kremlin of being behind the nerve agent attack on a former russian spy in the u.k. twenty three russian diplomats have already been expelled by britain chinese leader xi jinping has been unanimously reappointed with no term limits effectively making him president for life a close ally of president xi was zero today as he's deputy by the national people's congress is known as the fire fighter for his central role in tackling issues corruption and domestic financial problems those are your headlines that stay with

us there on al-jazeera the listening post is coming up next. unexpected l. as a former russian domination sex crime how to change the stream media whether i'm going to sit back late that russia where i have discovered a thank you choice on the phone for a few of us call it was extra cost progression of that lowest point since the cold comics just stopped thanks to tom it's got half. hello i'm barbara sarah and you're at the listening post here are some of the stories that we're tracking this week the poisoning of a russian spy in.