moved them to distant shack around seventy families who lost their homes in that earthquake still live in this camp say. the government raised our hopes and then abandoned politicians have promised that they won't allow a repeat of what happened after the earthquake in one thousand eight hundred five but the cost and complexity of housing hundreds of people living in camps is a major task and one that many people here think the government the fail. he says it will launch a military operation against kurdish fighters in the syrian town of mom bache raising fears of a faceoff with the u.s. . no i'm fully back to watching al jazeera live from doha also ahead chinese

president xi jinping outlines his vision for the future as he addresses the closing session of the national people's congress glass breaks it breaks through the e.u. and the u.k. reach a deal on a transition phase but still no solutions for ireland and pressure grows on facebook to explain how a political consultant he got access to data on fifty million of its uses. thank you for joining us the syrian government has heavily criticized what it calls turkey's occupation of the town of affray in and is demanding turkish forces withdraw turkey says it now plans to expand its military operation to other kurdish held towns in syria victoria gate and be a report released images in a free food so much needed aid is starting to flow in the to say they were cathal

to leave the town's infrastructure intact and have told civilians they can return to those who've already made it home there's a huge sense of relief not only job but i'm talking to the people of my village she lived i hope they can hear me returned joe village we're comfortable here there's nothing to worry about it's quiet now. the syrian government has criticized what it cools 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 swim turkey is doing what it is doing with the blessing of the americans turkey started pushing into kurdish held territory marked in yellow in january the green is held by turkish troops in the syrian rebels they support almost two months later they've

taken affray in their next major target is members where kurdish forces are directly supported by u.s. troops then off initiate a medic is 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 i know and ras al-ain and chemists leave until we remove all of this corridor. with turkey's plan to push further east and directly into the path of u.s. forces the situation on the ground is likely to become even more difficult i would expect the americans to avoid a full scale crisis with turkey and they will. alternative scenarios perhaps a different force to be. created over here it wants.

turkey's operation has been criticized by all sides in the syrian conflict a monday the u.s. state department said while it respected turkey security concerns the operation against kurdish forces has distracted from the campaign against the remnants of i saw in the area it calls that a serious and growing concern. victoria gave him the al-jazeera. further south in what's left of the rebel hands held enclave of eastern ghouta local media and activists are reporting that an as strike has hit a school where people were sheltering in the town of out of been killing two women and fifteen children the syrian government backed by russia launch an offensive to retake the area near damascus a month ago since then more than a thousand people have been killed the u.s. envoy to syria has warned that increasing division is threatening the country's future defined mr a says i so could return if there is no inclusive peace settlement the truth is that. a soft long term

partition of syria which they won we are witnessing at the moment in different areas of control will be a catastrophe not only for syria but for the whole region the truth is that without an inclusive political process including those stories colluded but particularly the majority the through nice guy will come back in other world news the chinese president has outlined his vision for the nation in a closing speech delivered to the people's congress members have backed a series of proposed new laws in recent days including the abolishment of presidential term limits the decision paves the way for xi jinping to remain in power indefinitely when irish issues. there have been profound changes in the international situation the development of our country is at the strategic opportunity stage and we are enjoying very good opportunities for

development but also facing unprecedented challenges and difficulties the congress of the communist party of china has depicted the decisive stages of the overall victory realizing for the people a rejuvenation and building a society a modern and prosperous future the path is long and time waits for no man but we must not be content with the status quo and forget about the difficulties we should hold dear to our original heart and work hard to build a future that belongs to the new era as correspondent. scott this was a historic congress talk us through some of the highlights of the changes and what the president's closing message was. well the presence causing messages in itself is a change that's not been customary in the closing day of the people's congress here in beijing so that was something that hasn't really happened in that in that message what he said really was this is something that she's been paying has said

over the last several years and something that's kind of his his touchstone and that is he looks that china needs to go through a renaissance he looks back at history in the great days of china and he's trying to contemporize the nation make currents in the world markets if you will but looking back at the history of those those good times and this is kind of what that speech focused on and how he wants to do to make china really kind of a global leader over the next couple years and now it's expected by mid century that china will become the world's largest economy so he's trying to get the country ready for those broader themes were in that speech today but we look at the last seventeen days of this national people's congress some of the big changes that came through one relating to she's in pain himself term limits for the presidency in the vice presidency were lifted that change the constitution so that could happen there's been really deep reforms restructuring that we haven't seen in years over these last seventeen days streamlining ministries departments and bureaus very

convoluted very complex but bottom line the government here is saying that they've done these changes to streamline it to make it more efficient but also what we have seen is she's been paying and the communist party further entrenched themselves into almost every aspect of life for the chinese people and they'll have much more control so some say that she's implying now is the most powerful chinese president in decades and the premier league is holding its annual press conference right now . live pictures i think we have found what can we expect from that i mean will it be the same message as president. he's holding his annual press conference now the premier here in santa know what this is you know get this once a year and what happens in this it's much more current issues than say what she's implying discussed said in his speech earlier today that would be more dealing with the contemporary issues that china is facing in the world you know so we'll

probably hear about north korea will hear here about trade with the united states but what needs to be said about this press conference is that it's choreographed all the questions being asked and there will be some foreign media asking questions during this they've all been vetted these questions so when we hear what he was how he responds these questions it's been rehearsed he knows what those questions are going to be but again it is going to at least deal with them we'll hear the official statement from the government on some of these more contemporary issues and it's right up to you know what happened over the weekend in the united states when it comes to taiwan act being passed and how that relates to trade friction that already exists between china and the united states thank you very much for that live for us in beijing independent experts have arrived in the u.k. to assess the nerve agent used to poison a former russian spy and his daughter the team from the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons is only expected to identify the substance british prime minister theresa may continues to point the finger at moscow but russian

president vladimir putin has demanded the u.k. provide evidence or apologize and what's being hailed as a major step forward in breaks in negotiations the u.k. has been granted a twenty one month transition period out of the european union it's designed to reduce any sudden shocks when the u.k. leaves the block next march and means it will effectively remain as a non-voting e.u. member until the end of two thousand and twenty the u.k. will be able to negotiate trade deals with the rest of the world during the transition but there's so no agreement on the question of the irish border sonia gago has more from london. much goodwill between the u.k. breakfast secretary david davis and the chief brecht's at negotiator michelle bond yeah 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 enjoyed 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 a move to redo history 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 ireland would be protected and that 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. 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 breaks legacy ations the united nations 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.n.n. says thirteen million people there are in need of aid marco kark says the long delayed election to replace president joseph kabila has led to an escalation in violence more than two million people have become internally displaced in the last in the last year alone humanitarian needs caused by internal conflicts have doubled over the last year thirteen 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 unreported and on addressed and much of it against children still ahead on al-jazeera venezuela says its new cryptocurrency will solve the country's financial crisis washington has different ideas and saudi arabia's

crown prince heads for the u.s. and the trump administration for pay as our welcome fit for a future king. we've got more stormy weather gathering across the southeastern corner of the u.s. you can see this little area cloud making its way across the deep south heading towards alabama towards the carolinas that looks set to wind itself up over the next few days some nasty wet and at times when she weather sliding through it will push up the eastern seaboard has some snow there easing out of new jersey into new york rising making its way up into new england and that eastern side of canada behind the system to watch out for just coming in from the pacific heading towards central and southern parts of california there could be some significant rain maybe

some snow too as we go on through the next couple of days that could cause some flooding it could also cause some mudslides a certainly wants to keep an eye on that same time we're looking at more wintry weather that is this more east look set to make its way in across the northeastern quarter as we go on through what is a central pass generally try and find twenty three cells is there in dallas with plenty of sunshine but a sun side across the caribbean over the next few days but some places a fair weather cloud but not looking too bad its whole astley little bit of clout there into jamaica think is just a lousy dry having said that possibility of wanted to temperatures in kingston thirty degrees. only benefit those people. b.c.b. important all these.

witnesses documentaries that open your eyes. at this time on al-jazeera. they're watching al-jazeera a reminder of our top stories the syrian government has heavily criticised what it calls turkey's occupation of the town of afraid and is demanding the withdrawal of turkish forces by turkey says it now plans to expand its military operation to aba kurdish out towns in syria where us forces us supporting the y.p. . the chinese president has struck

a nationalistic tone in his closing speech to the people's congress she says the country must stay united and take available opportunities a suite the congress agree to abolish presidential term limits paving the way for she to remain in office indefinitely and the u.k. has been granted a twenty one month transition period out of the e.u. and was being hailed as a major step forward in bracks in negotiations it's designed to reduce any sudden shocks when it leaves a bloc next year this will see the u.k. fecche to be remain as in non-voting e.u. member until the end of two thousand and twenty. yes present donald trump has issued an executive order banning american citizens from using venezuela's new crypto currency the venezuelan leader and you can ask my dural hailed the launch of the petro last month as a way to address the country's economic crisis but trump says the new digital currency is an attempt to second vent u.s. sanctions against venezuela when i speak to eric fans what about this he's the vice

president of the council of the americas he's live from washington d.c. very good to have you on al-jazeera again this u.s. executive order to ban the petro doesn't really come as a surprise as it i mean given the current sanctions on venezuela but how can the u.s. and force disband can the petro really help venezuela escape sanctions well it's not a surprise at all if the white house has previewed this and has said repeatedly that it is willing to take additional steps to show displeasure with the direction of the vote as well regime and frankly to try to restrict access to foreign currency and hard currency in venezuela this is certainly consistent with that you know the united states can enforce its own laws against its own citizens but because of the reach of the u.s. financial system globally this would presumably have knock on effect for citizens of other countries too so it's a bit of an experiment certainly from the venezuelan perspective and the u.s. response is a way to try to eliminate that aspect of it as well as economy before it ever

actually gets going if the ban is effective what will it mean for venezuela. well it won't really mean that ma because it just means that it's the status quo in other words the petro is not going to get going if the ban is effective if the ban is ineffective that means that the petro will become viable and venezuela will then be able to attract investors and that means hard currency and presumably what the venezuelan and so the united states efforts is to try to make sure that that in fact is not occur venezuela you say it will is trying to attract investors but many experts have expressed doubt over this digital currency nicolas maduro says it's a means for venezuela to overcome the financial blockade can this really help stabilize venezuela is economy well i don't think so i think it's more of a desperation move i mean the only people that are really going to be interested in a crypto currency like this issued by venezuela which already has

a currency that is virtually worthless at this point anyway are those people who are either trying to evade sanctions or are engaged in corruption or maybe trying to use it as a form of money laundering and none of those are particularly attractive to law enforcement authorities in the united states or anywhere else so right off the bat there isn't a whole lot of positive use for this particular currency for investors so you're exactly right i mean what is the upside of being engaged in this in the first place and then to have u.s. sanctions layered on top of that making it much more complicated indeed illegal at least for u.s. citizens to engage in this currency i think is a particularly strong disincentive eric found very good to get your thoughts on this thank you very much for joining us now from washington. facebook's chief information security officer is stepping down the new york times reports that alex thomas disagreed with the company's handling of revelations that russia use facebook to spread false information a u.s. democratic senators sent a letter to c.e.o. mark zuckerberg demanding

a response to allegations that the data fifty million uses was harvested by a political consultancy firm a whistleblower who worked at cambridge analytic says that data was used to build a system which may have influence alters in the u.s. presidential election the firm worked on both donald trump's campaign and the u.k. bret's it referenda republican and democratic senators are calling for to testify before congress cambridge analytic. was birthed out of a company called a c.e.o. 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 the 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 of facebook's shares have fallen almost seven percent wiping nearly forty billion dollars off its market value michael simon is the c.e.o. of tech company in lucid which ran the in-house analytics department for barack obama's presidential campaign he says facebook's response could have been better. facebook's reaction to a series of embarrassing sort of egg on their face moments including this one revolving the recent us elections have been. surprisingly slow for a company whose motto is move fast and break things. they've been very reactive very behind the ball this particularly of this particular event. this theft of data happened over four years ago so it's very surprising to see them be so reactors had a proactive i think you're going to starting to see members of congress of both parties really wake up and start to see

a problem and start to sort of shake the cage and demand that back in january a number of sort of mid-level executives from facebook and google and twitter were called before congress testify about a unrelated matter regarding the u.s. election and foreign meddling but they said middle of executives that in the send the c.e.o. i think when your company loses almost forty billion dollars in market value in one day that probably is deserving of sending the c.e.o. to to account for it. u.s. president donald trump has called for the death penalty for criminals smuggling in large amounts of opioid drugs as the most controversial of a range of measures his proposing to tackle the opiate crisis and epidemic of drug dependency that's affecting more than two million americans opioids are powerful painkillers designed to replicate the effects of opium they include legal drugs like morphine and oxycodone as well as illegal ones like heroin by twenty twelve

doctors in the u.s. were handing out two hundred eighty two million opioid prescriptions a year and twenty sixteen there were nearly sixty five thousand overdose deaths two thirds of those involved opioids that's an average of one hundred fifteen a day the president is vowing 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 lifetime. 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. the palestinian president has blamed hamas for a bomb attack on a convoy transporting the prime minister last week mahmoud abbas described chooses attack in gaza on running him die lois gave to an injured as despicable and sinful

speaking at a meeting in the occupied west bank abbas also hit out the u.s. ambassador to israel and dismissed the u.s. plan for reconstitution talks. the american president donald trump has released an unusual statement to mock the rainy a new year now rules he says the islamic revolutionary guard corps is a hostile army that brutalizes instance on the iranian people to fund terrorism abroad and that since two thousand and twelve the i r c i r g c has spent more than sixteen billion dollars of iran's wealth to prop up the assad regime in syria and support terrorists in syria as well as iraq and yemen he goes on to say it employs propaganda and censorship to hide the fact that the iranian regime plunders iran's wealth and abuses its people and to hide the truth iran's rulers suppress their own citizens rights to free assembly access to information and equal opportunity. has cities from washington. in years past the u.s.

president has used the normal message as a time to deliver warm holiday greetings to the people of iran but on this occasion president donald trump has issued a scathing criticism of a branch of iran's armed forces the i.r.g.c. though mired currently in corruption does hold a dear place in iranian history for many of that country's people it was formed nearly forty years ago to be the so-called guardians of the nation currently many of its officers are allegedly engaging in illicit financial activities and perhaps to the us is greatest opposition of the ira g.c. does provide military support to hezbollah and hamas the u.s. reportedly is on the is poised to designate the i.r.g.c. as a terrorist group which would mark a first in the international community by designating a country's military officers as terrorists iranian leaders have said they would

not accept such a designation in fact it would push both countries toward open war with u.s. military bases in the region as possible targets. saudi arabia's crown prince mohammed bin solomon is scheduled to make his first visit to the white house on to state that trump white house i should say is the first of several gulf leaders who will visit washington in the coming weeks and as political hay reports behind the scenes all the supremacy is generating a lot of business for one of washington's biggest industries lobbying. u.s. president donald trump was clearly improved with the reception he received in saudi arabia and it's likely the saudi crown prince mohammed bin samon can expect a similar greedy perhaps just a bit more understated when the two speak their words will be closely watched initially sided with the blockading countries against carter but then reportedly pushed by then secretary of state rex tillerson he later called for the crisis to

be resign. 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 lobbyist 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 was working before they just didn't have anywhere near the scale of the saudi lobby before him to be fair cutter so as one of the largest lobby is that that there is it's it's

a very powerful effective lobby too it's just simply not in 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 are also trying to shape public opinion the firms have to detail their work public records show several sunday in talking points to reporters posting twitter ads and putting competing commercials on cable news they want to limit all seventeen could 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 on 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 power grab and several organiser. have printed detailed accounts of the alleged

torture of prominent saudis at the ritz carlton in riyadh still been so long 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 political here in washington. fully back to bill with the headlines on al-jazeera the syrian government has heavily criticized what it calls turkey's occupation of the town of a friend and is demanding turkish forces withdraw by turkey says it now plans to expand its military operation to other kurdish out towns in 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 all of branch now we will continue this process with members i know

a lot of and wrestling and chemists leave until we remove all of this corridor will the chinese president has struck a nationalistic tone in his closing speech to the people's congress she says the country must stay united and take available opportunities last week the congress agreed to abolish presidential term limits paving the way for she to remain in office indefinitely. the u.k. has been granted a twenty one month transition period out of the european union in what's being hailed as a major step forward in the exit negotiations is to reduce any sudden shocks when it leaves the block in march of next year independent experts have arrived in the u.k. to assess the nerve agent used to poison a former russian spy and his daughter the team from the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons is only expected to identify the substance british prime minister to resign may continue to point the finger at moscow but russian president vladimir putin has demanded the u.k. provide evidence or apologize. facebook's chief information security officer is

stepping down the new york times says alex famous disagrees with the company's handling of revelations that russia use facebook to spread false information early a u.s. democratic senator sent a letter to c.e.o. mark zuckerberg demanding a response to allegations that data from fifty million users was harvested by a political consultancy firm a whistleblower who worked at cambridge analytic and says it was used to build a system which may have influenced voters in the u.s. presidential election u.s. present donald trump has issued an executive order banning american citizens from using venezuela's new crypto currency the venezuelan leader nicolas maduro hailed the launch of the petro last month as a way to address the country's economic crisis but says it's an attempt to circumvent u.s. sanctions those are the headlines on al-jazeera what this is up next to stay with us.

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