a key figure of the early twentieth century arab literary scene. and a feminist writer had time. so why did the story and in such tragedy. al-jazeera world expose the life and work of maisie arda at this time on al-jazeera. he says that when the military operation against kurdish fighters in the syrian town of bandage raising fears of a faceoff with the us. i

don't welcome to al-jazeera why for my headquarters in doha the be on this but also ahead a breakthrough there in the u.k. reach a deal on a transition face are still about solutions for ireland that it may pertinent op's a softer tone after winning another presidential term and pressure grows on facebook to explain just how political consultants got access to data on fifteen million of its uses. the syrian government has heavily criticized what it calls turkey's occupation of the town of green and is demanding turkish forces withdraw turkey's has it now plans to expand its military operation to other kurdish held towns and syria the torah gate and the reports. in the center of a free free syrian army fighters are still celebrating. after seizing the town from

syrian kodesh forces at the weekend the rebel fighters were backed and directed by the turkish military the syrian government has criticized what it calls turkey's occupation of the town and blames the united states for allowing it to happen if turkey is part of the nato and the nato is involved into the bloodshed in the area in iraq as well as in syria so the nato is protecting turkey don't believe in this hollywood show you are seeing in and elsewhere turkey is doing what it is doing with the blessing of the americans. techie says it will expand its military operation to other kurdish held towns in syria president says his forces could also intervene in iraq do an obvious she'd marriages you know after controlling the city center of afrin yesterday we completed the most important phase of operation olive branch now we will continue this process with

members. and ras al-ain and chemist until we remove all of this corridor. this is how northern syria was divided before turkey launched its so-called operation olive branch in january the yellow was in kurdish control green represents territory held by turkish troops and the syrian rebels they support almost two months later they've taken a free the next major target is ma'am bitch part of a two hundred kilometer stretch of kurdish controlled territory along the turkey syria border his forces are directly supported by u.s. troops they work together to recapture much of this territory from eisel including raca the armed groups self declared capital in syria. the units are in a frame some much needed aid is starting to flow in the turks say they will cavil to leave the infrastructure intact and have told civilians they can return but the

united nations is warning that the situation in surrounding areas is tense the massive influx of internally displaced people is putting a strain on a host communities which are already overwhelmed all sixteen schools entire effect are being used as internally displaced shelters resulting in the interruption of education. the turkish backed operation in african adds another layer of complexity to syria's seven year long war and with turkish plans to push for the east the situation on the ground is likely to become even more complicated victoria is there are. now robert ford is a fellow at yale university and a former ambassador to syria and turkey while want a military stand off what the u.s. . top number one american general or american forces in the middle east general l. was invented just five weeks ago and his message there which was widely

reported to the media was that any force that attacks men ditch the americans right now i that message was clearly a death the turkish government and i think it is unlikely that turkey is going to test directly american military result i would expect the americans to avoid a full scale crisis with turkey and that they will look to o's alternative scenarios perhaps a different force to be a bitch to be created over a period of well it's something like that the americans generally do not want any bitch to fall back into the hands of militants and so the two governments find a way to work that out now for the south and what's left of the rebel held on klav

of east and go to local media and that give us a report on that an asteroid has had a school where people sheltering in the town of five being killing two women and fifteen children the syrian government backed by russia launched an offensive to retake the area near damascus a month for them and sons then more than a false and people have been killed. while the un's on what to syria has warned that increasing division is tightening the country's future stephon dismissed to a says i still could return of this law and close of peace settlement the truth is that. i thought ft long term petition on feed which they won we are witnessing at the moment in different areas of control would be a catastrophe not only for the city of buffalo duhoux region. the truth is that without an inclusive political process including those stories glued it but the killer lead the majority this release. will come back.

now russia has blocked a proposed meeting of the un security council on the human rights situation and seventy or so instead most member nations took part in an informal briefing mike hanna has more from the u.n. headquarters and new york. but it was a very rare occurrence within the security council when a procedural motion to dismiss a session was actually up held what happened the un human rights chief was due to brief the security council on the human rights situation in syria it was expected that russia would object having argued that the forum for such a briefing should be the human rights council in geneva not the security council chamber as expected it was backed in its photon a procedural issue by its normal allies including china but what was not expected what's this. the result of the voting is this follows eight votes in favor

four votes against three abstentions the provisional agenda has not been adopted it having failed to obtain the required number of votes and abstention by the three african members of the council equitorial guinea ethiopia and cote d'ivoire this is only the fourth time in some four decades that a procedural vote has actually been carried in the security council what happened next well the meeting went ahead the briefing went ahead but in an informal aria form and that means that it did not carry the weight politically or diplomatically off of formal security council session the human rights chief went ahead and brief security council members and as expected deep criticisms of the syrian government the see georgia eastern war time by the syrian government forces half

a decade long has involved pervasive war crimes the use of chemical weaponry in forced starvation and serve weapon of war for and the denial of essential life saving. in the current relentless month long bombardment of of hundreds. thousands of terrified trapped civilians at the end of the day perhaps a tactical miscalculation by those who want to the briefing to take place in the security council chamber in a formal session because now with the abstention by the african members the security council is divided as never before. and what's being hailed as a major step forward and breaks that negotiations the u.k. has been one for the twenty one month transition period out of the e.u. super juice any sudden shocks when the u.k. leaves the bloc next march and means that would effectively remain as a non-voting member until the end of twenty twenty u.k.

will be able to negotiate trade deals with the rest of the world during the transition but there's still no agreement on the question of the irish border song your guy you go has more from london. much goodwill between the u.k. briggs's secretary david davis and the chief breaks of negotiator michel barnier a lot being made about the fact the progress that has been made that means coming to the agreement on those two main issues there one which would include the rights for european union citizens to be able to have enjoy the same rights as e.u. citizens already living in the u.k. if they are to enter the country during the transition period this was something that had been resisted initially by the prime minister to reason may she had thought about saying that they should perhaps have different residency rights considering that they would enter the country knowing that the u.k. would eventually be leaving the european union but certainly on the on that point that this is

a point that michel barnier was eager to play up in terms of the progress that is being made after all hard work that both sides have put in their mutual reader house really this makes it possible today to reassure the four and a half million people british and european who are affected and concerned by break that those are the people who have been our priority from day one the priority of european parliament and the priority of the member state the other issue of course the u.k. is also able to pursue and negotiate third country deals but it will not be able to implement any of them until the end of the transition period which is the end of december twenty twenty the first day breaks that obviously being the first journey twenty twenty one but the other issue which is a sticking point here is still regarding the situation of northern ireland. is being put into place a backstop deal which would mean that if in the event that the u.k. would crash out without a deal then northern island would be protected and it would still be included as in

the single market and the customs union to prevent any fracture or any issue between the border with the republic of ireland lot of work having. been put in there of course not forgetting the good friday deal which has been made so much of everything is trying to be placed into a position where tension along that border will be preserved as little as possible during the brics negotiations russian president vladimir putin appears to have softened his tone towards the west a day after he secured another six years in office has victory received a muted reception abroad with many international leaders slow to congratulate him but at a meeting with the candidates he beat and said russia doesn't want an arms race and will seek to resolve its differences with other countries lansley has more from moscow. the russian president spent monday basking in the warm glow of his record breaking success he had said he wanted to reach out to his opponents and build

bridges abroad meeting with all the decent candidates his language could hardly have been more conciliatory. we must vote and we will give necessary attention to further strengthening the country's national defense capability but i want to tell you now that no one is going to accelerate any kind of arms race issues if we plan to build relations with all the countries in the world in a way that is constructive we will aim for and of course encourage our partners towards constructive dialogue. fears that his vote share might go down have proved groundless after all even if there was the minor inconvenience of people being filmed stuffing huge reams of ballot papers into boxes still the margin of victory was such that even independent monitors accepted the cheating didn't make much difference it was a one horse race most candidates publicly expressed their certainty that the incumbent president would prevail in the election with many of the candidates

themselves stating that they did not expect to win the election lect generally in competition thus efforts to increase the turnout predominated over the comp aim of consistence after his victory on sunday putin thanked his supporters we're one big team he said but the same cannot be said of his relationship with the european union whose foreign ministers met in brussels on monday in recent days russia had accused several countries including sweden and slovakia of holding supplies of the nerve agent used to poison the spice the script the european backing of the u.k. position on the poisoning also led germany to question its entire partnership with russia to give mr vireo. result of the russian election a surprise or surpass much as the circumstances of the election obviously. impossible to speak a fair political contest as we know it a fact that this result was also achieved a speck of niceness crimean territory some other aspect which we found unacceptable

we continue in the knowledge that russia remained a very difficult power no say that when it comes to finding international solutions that russia is indispensable for germany to question the strength of its relationship with russia is a far far bigger problem for the kremlin than the collapse of its relations with the u.k. at so that's hugely condemnatory language from countries like sweden and slovakia in recent days and it starts to look like a much bigger structural problem for russia with its so-called european partners only adding to the sense of isolation for vladimir putin the real worry for russia is that germany is on the point of signing a big new deal to import russian gas poland with long term hostility to russia is now urging the germans to scrap the deal many russians idolize the president because they regard him as impervious to pressure the strong man who can take on everyone single handed he might say he wants to get along with other nations but as

he starts his fourth term more and more countries are lining up against him lawrence lee al jazeera moscow. still ahead on the bulletin saudi arabia's crown prince head for the u.s. and the trumpet ministration prepares a welcome fit for a future king and zimbabwe's new president says he's changing a culture of corruption but critics say still has a lot to prove. from a fresh coast to breeze. to watching the sunset on the australian outback. the weather is generally set farakka southern parts of china nab a little further north and we've got some or all the heavy rain making its way across the southeast and colder pushing towards taiwan we'll see a clearer skies coming into hong kong just the winds coming in from the northerly

direction so it will just have a little bit of a unaids to that way then certainly killing off in shanghai noble with around nine degrees celsius homewards day off today not to bad in hong kong twenty three degrees lossie dry by this stage still a few showers possibly some of them wintry over towards china but essentially a lot of dry weather dry weather as we go on through the next few days try to into much of the philippines a scattering of showers across malaysia down into indonesia was just around southern parts of borneo pushing over towards the mater as we go on through tuesday and on into wettest i don't think a little further south with by that stage much of the my potential generate dry but not just up into the gulf of thailand we could well see some lovely showers from time to time and still a chance to some lively showers creep in the whites was frank it was a fossil of india much of india dust looks awful and sunny the pre monsoon hate continuing to build not perking up to thirty six celsius and a little bit of cloud for them all. the way the sponsored by cattle and nice.

when thrown in society that opened up the space for m p to me get a break sheesh is the european problem and it's not accountable and it's impossible for the people to bear there is for link up our people on trying to take him on the phone and then leave and if profundity stronger man or song woman you're getting the growth of rejectionism of this world all right because the model doesn't work europe's forbidden colony episode two at this time an alj. good to have you with us on al jazeera these are our top stories the syrian

government has heavily criticized turkey's occupation of the town of the and as demanding turkish forces withdraw the turkey says it now plans to expand its military operation to other kurdish towns in syria where u.s. forces are supporting. and what's being held as a major step forward and bricks and negotiations the u.k. has been granted a twenty one month transition period after that you. reduce any sudden shock when it leaves the bloc next block which will see the u.k. effectively remain as an e.u. member until the end of twenty twenty and russian president vladimir putin has been outlining his priorities for his next six years in office he says russia doesn't want an international arms race and will seek to resolve differences with other countries as reelection received a muted reception abroad with many foreign leaders slow to congratulate him. facebook's chief information security officer is stepping down the new york times

reports that alex state models disagreed with the company's had legal revelations that russia used facebook to spread false information that comes as a u.s. democratic senator sent a letter to c.e.o. mark zuckerberg demanding a response to allegations that the dot fifteen million users it was harvested by political consultancy for a whistleblower who worked at cambridge at a letter says the doctor was used to build a system which may have influenced abortions in the u.s. presidential election. cambridge analytic. was birthed out of a company called a c l group which is a military contractor based in london. this data was used to create profiling algorithms that would allow us to explore mental vulnerabilities of people and then map out ways to inject information into different in different streams or channels of content online so that people started to see things all over the place that may or may not have been true this is

a company that really took fake news to the next level by pairing it with algorithms wide hailing company says it's working with the u.s. police after the death of a woman struck by one of the firm's self driving there calls the accident and temping in the state of arizona marks the first faint ality of a pedestrian from a self driving car police say the vehicle isn't autonomous mode bought a person was behind the wheel the has now suspended itself driving their program across the u.s. and canada. saudi arabia's crown prince will. make his first trip to the white house on tuesday he's the first of several visits washington in the coming weeks and reports behind the scenes the only thing is generating a lot of business for one of washington's biggest industries lobbying. u.s. president donald trump was clearly impressed with the reception he received in saudi arabia and it's likely the saudi crown prince mohammed bin solomon can expect

a similar greeting perhaps just a bit more understated when the two speak their words will be closely watched trump initially sided with the blockading countries against cutter but then reportedly pushed by then secretary of state rex tillerson he later called for the crisis to be resolved but tillerson is gone fired by tweet millions have been spent trying to influence this debate alexei if there's any winner in the blockade k. street is a euphemism for lobbyists ben freeman studies the influence of foreign money he says millions have been spent since the start in june according to public records since the blockade saudi arabia spent more than two million dollars a new contract with lobbyists but many of the amounts are recorded so it's likely much more the u.a.e. has also increased its lobbying and qatar did as well according to the center for responsive politics spending at least five million as of last october and they

continue to sign contracts after that worth hundreds of thousands of dollars a month but freeman points out saudi arabia has a big head start they started lobbying after nine eleven it was working before they just didn't have anywhere near the scale of the saudi lobby before and to be fair cutter so as one of the largest lobby is that there is a it's a very powerful effective lobby too it's just simply not of the scale of the saudi lobby right now you might be asking why people pour millions of dollars into the lobbying firms that lined the streets of washington d.c. well they are trying to buy. access to policymakers and they're also trying to shape public opinion the firms have to detail their work public records show several sending talking points to reporters posting twitter ads and putting competing commercials on cable news they want to limit the tar and north korea partners in terror saudi arabia has benefited from some positive press some of the most influential columnists have praised the crown prince as

a reformer but there have also been some negative stories as well one alleging been some man has been secretly keeping his mother away from his father for years and she was under house arrest and they believe that he did this because. i felt that she was not on board with his plans for a paragraph and several organizations have printed detailed accounts of the alleged torture of prominent saudis at the ritz carlton in riyadh still been on has spent millions to make sure he will find a friendly reception at the white house and on wall street while millions more have been spent in hopes he won't. washington. the palestinian president has blamed hamas for a bomb attack on a convoy transporting the prime minister last week. tuesday's attack in gaza. as despicable and sinful speaking at a base in the occupied west bank. the u.s. ambassador to israel and dismissed a u.s.

plan for reconciliation talks. i love the but. this plan began being implemented when trumps administration declared jerusalem as israel's capital decided to move its embassy to it could donations to a un relief agency and regarded settlements as illegal and that was said by more than one american official the first of them was their own bussard to tel aviv david friedman who said that the israelis are building on their land the son of a dog says they build in their land. and he is a settler and his family are settlers and he is the u.s. ambassador in tel aviv what should we expect from him. u.s. president donald trump has called for the death penalty for criminal smuggling in large amounts amounts of opium or drugs that's the most controversial of a range of measures he is proposing to tackle the opioid crisis an epidemic of drug dependency that's affecting more than two million americans but opioids a powerful painkillers designed to replicate the effects of opium they include

legal drugs like nothing an oxy code on as well as they include legal drugs like nothing an oxy code on as well as illegal ones like heroin by two thousand and twelve doctors in the u.s. were handing out two hundred eighty two million prescriptions a year in two thousand and sixteen and there were nearly sixty five thousand overdose deaths two thirds of those involved that's an average of one hundred fifteen every day for the president as valid a crackdown on drug traffickers some of these drug dealers will kill thousands of people during their life to thousands of people and destroy many more lives than that but they will kill thousands of people during their lives. and they'll get caught and they'll get thirty days in jail or they'll go away for a year or they'll be fined and yet if you kill one person you get the death penalty or you go to jail for life. well donald trump has issued an executive

order banning american citizens from using venezuela's new crypto currency the venezuelan leader nicholas another to hail the launch of the petro last month as a way to address the country's economic crisis but trauma says the new digital currency is an attempt to circumvent u.s. sanctions against venezuela. the u.n. is calling for urgent funding for the democratic republic of congo where it says humanitarian needs have doubled over the past year the un's humanitarian chief has just returned from the d r c and says thirteen million people there are in need of aid says the long delayed election to replace president joseph kabila has led to an escalation in violence one two million people have become internally displaced just in the past year. humanitarian needs caused by internal conflicts have doubled over the last year thirty million people need humanitarian assistance more than four point six million children are acutely malnourished including two point two million

suffering severe acute malnutrition we're seeing mushroom in epidemics including the worst outbreak of cholera in fifteen years. there is also an epidemic of sexual violence most of it on reported and unaddressed and much of it against children. zimbabwe and president. has publicly blamed more than eight hundred companies and individuals accused of illegally stashing millions of dollars over sayings as government has set up a mine today and the stigma to return stolen assets all face prosecution critics say mornings to be done to make sure that the recovered body benefits ordinary people. in the capital harare. zimbabwe interface sticks to cash withdrawal limits from banks in an effort to end crippling foreign currency shortages. announced a three month amnesty for the return of funds illegally stashed abroad when he was sworn in last year the president says so far five hundred ninety one

a million dollars has been returned the money has come back. if you're lucky. and true market the money is from export earnings payment of imports that never made it into the country and finds it stashed in foreign banks but five hundred ninety one million dollars is still less than half of the one point four billion dollars expected almost two thousand individuals and companies who allegedly illegally funds overseas were named the majority are in mining and agriculture the amounts vary from thousands to millions of dollars. several chinese companies and nationals have also been named but then god was his people who broke the country's exchange control laws will be prosecuted but some zimbabweans doubt many senior government officials will be investigated there are other individuals that are out

there that are clearly. or of big political elites in zimbabwe so the list is useful for showing those that something's not right in the state of rome and that the doors to the regulators must actually be up their game because a lot is happening. when god was the biggest challenge is fixing zimbabwe's economy ruined by decades of corruption and mismanagement and a robert mugabe's rule his government says is change the empowerment law to limit my george ownership by state entities to only diamond and platinum mines not the entire mining sector that could boost investors' confidence create jobs and bring more money into the country. al-jazeera how to. get out of the problem and the headlines on al-jazeera the syrian government has

heavily criticized but of course turkey's occupation of the town of a female and turkish forces withdraw the turkey says it now plans to expand its military operation to other kurdish towns and syria where u.s. forces are supporting the kurds. after controlling the city center of afrin yesterday we completed the most important phase of operation olive branch now we will continue this process with members. and ras al-ain and chemists leave until we remove all of this corridor or. the u.k. has been granted a twenty one month transition period out of the e.u. and what's being hailed as a major step forward in brecht's in negotiations as to reduce any sudden shocks when it leaves the bloc next march will see the u.k. effectively remain as a member until the end of twenty twenty russian president vladimir putin has been outlining his priorities for his next six years in office he says russia doesn't

want an international arms race and will seek to resolve differences with other countries as reelection received a muted reception abroad with many foreign leaders slow to congratulate him. facebook's chief information security officer is stepping down the new york times says that alex thomas disagreed with the company's handling of revelations that russia used facebook to spread false information and that comes as a u.s. democratic senator sent a letter to see mark zuckerberg demanding a response to allegations that the dot of fifteen million users was harvested by a political consultancy firm a whistle blower who worked at cambridge at a little her says the data was used to build a system which may have influenced voters in the u.s. presidential election ride hailing company says it's working with us police after the death of a woman struck by one of the firm self driving vehicles the accident in tempe in the state of arizona marks the first fatality of a pedestrian from

a south driving car that has now suspended its self driving vehicle program and the u.s. and canada as the headlines on al-jazeera but do stay with us inside story is coming up next. the u.s. attorney general fired the f.b.i.'s deputy director on friday there and now there's president donald trump might try to sack special counsel robert muller so what does all this mean for the russia investigation this is inside story.