stories of life. and inspiration. a series of short documentaries from around the wilds. that celebrate the human spirit against the odds the. al-jazeera selects change makers at this time. it is the largest deficit of any country in the history of our world it's out of control president trump fires

a new shot in his trade war with china but exempts the e.u. and other allies from his steel and aluminum tariffs. this is al jazeera live from london also coming up syrian rebels leave eastern ghouta after surrendering the town of harasta to the government. jericho's is only boarding schools in a hot spot over fears of more mass kidnapping. and destruction in france as teachers rail workers and add traffic controllers walk off the job in anger at president michael's reforms. and our u.s. president donald trump has just announced massive new tariffs for chinese imports a direct shot in a brewing trade war between the world's two largest economies it comes on top of

his tariffs on steel and aluminum imports which are due to kick in on friday and it's also been revealed that the european union and other u.s. allies will be exempt from those measures against china could affect up to sixty billion dollars in beijing's exports trump wants to make good on his campaign promise to crack down on his country's staggering trade deficit with china chinese exports to the u.s. currently exceed american exports to china by three hundred seventy five billion dollars trump hopes the new stars will reduce that by a hundred billion dollars and is also restricting chinese investment in the u.s. the u.s. president has accused china of engaging in trade law violations including theft of intellectual property and american technology. some people call it a mirror tariff or a mere attacks just use the word reciprocal if they charge us we

charge them the same thing that's so it's got to be that's not the way it is for many many years for many decades it has not been that way. and i will say the people we're negotiating with smilingly they really agree with us i really believe they cannot believe they've gotten away with this for so long let's get more on this time from a white house correspondent kimberly hellcat so this has been trailed in advance of how much support does he have for this terror strategy. well here in the u.s. congress there is sort of a mixture of you because of the president's approach which seems to be all over the map in terms of executing this because you talked at the start of the show about those steel and aluminum tariffs which many you have been fearful is going to ignite a global trade war this is just adding to that but given the fact that we heard from the u.s. trade representative who is speaking not just moments ago with donald trump is eve now he's terrified also on capitol hill of the senate finance committee hearing

that there are going to be a lot of as they call them carve outs meaning a lot of exemptions for countries in terms of these tariffs when it comes to steel and aluminum so essentially what this comes down to is these tariffs are targeting just really one country and that is china whether it's aluminum and steel whether it's the potentially one hundred long list of different consumer products that are being targeted this time and that makes things confusing given the fact when donald trump was announcing this latest round of terrorists he said that when it comes to china specifically president xi that in fact he feels that there are a friend of the united states but when you look at these actions you have to say with friends like this who needs enemies and he was at pains was need to start to describe these terrorists or as reciprocal he was still talking about this kind of mirrored tariffs is that. in order to try to appease the critics and say actually these have been unfair. well to put this into context donald trump

made this a campaign issue but certainly this is been a concern for democrats and republicans were all the way back to to president clinton i can't tell you how many hearings i've watched on capitol hill with the discussion about the theft of intellectual property about trade imbalances and how this is hurting the american worker but there was always a value in putting the importance of the sort of diplomatic relationship whether it be not just with china but the european union canada and mexico and weighing the cost benefit analysis of that it seems that donald trump was selected to put all of these relationships on the line when he was announcing this latest round of tariffs when it comes to china he also brought up the european union saying that there are negotiations taking place there when it comes to the north american free trade agreement that's been in place for some twenty years with canada or mexico he may just if the do good note though she ations don't go well he may just get rid of the agreement altogether these would have enormous economic impact but it seems that donald trump is willing to use this economic leverage in order to try and keep that

campaign promise to really support the base of his support and that is the american worker in terms of trying to bring back jobs improve the loss of factories that have really been a prolific throughout the last few decades here in the united states can really help thank you very much. which one is repeatedly vowed to retaliate if the u.s. puts up trade barriers scored higher than it has more from shanghai. china on thursday reiterated that they will defend their interests at all costs and they have said in the past that it's unrealistic that the trade between the two nations being a requirement that it's even that's something that donald trump is trying to do now in the past they have said if there is any tariffs coming from the united states they will retaliate it's been reported that the retaliation is probably going to be kind of slow and steady and overarching but we really won't know exactly what that kind of retaliation is based on what was announced in washington until friday at

the very earliest own trams tariffs is one of the issues topping the agenda in brussels where european union leaders have gathered for a summit leaders are also due to discuss trade jobs competitiveness breaks it and they never agent attack on a russian former spy in britain u.k. prime minister two reason may have urged us to unite and condemn russia trick using the kremlin of targeting. and his daughter yulia earlier this month. andre phillips is in brussels for us on a b there is the suggestion that the e.u. will be exempt from some of these tariffs how's that going to work and what's reaction been. it goes down quite well lauren in so far as we know exactly what is going to happen and tonio to johnny the head the president of the european parliament spoke of about an hour ago he said that the e.u.

welcomed the positive message but remained cautious in till they knew what was going to happen in the long term the e.u. trade commissioner cecilia milestone was over in washington all of that the first half of this week negotiating very hard she's been filling in e.u. heads of states about what has happened yes it seems that a major trade confrontation between the e.u. and the united states has been averted at least for now but there's still going to be lingering concern that we came close to one in the first place the e.u. and the united states obviously historically have extremely close economic and political ties did you look at donald to the european council presents opening remarks he said that this for us the e.u. was concerned the united states was a great friend that trade brings peace it brings friendship and reading between the lines there is a disquiet that the trump administration and perhaps the president himself really

has a tendency to see trade too much as a zero sum game in which one country inevitably comes out as the winner the other the loser and he doesn't quite appreciate the degree to which it can be mutually beneficial i think that's what european leaders who will be saying money to another issue now the nerve agent poisoning issue in the u.k. how much unity is there within europe. had to deal with russia on this. i think there's been a fair degree of unity over the past two weeks and that's pleased the british but they've come here with a very tough message about what they see as the threat that russia poses to the e.u. and indeed beyond the british are aware that there are potential problems problems for them as they try to rally the e.u. today because this is the rather delicious irony of course that the country

appealing to e.u. solidarity is in the process of negotiating a painful divorce from the remaining twenty seven members who have made it clear that they don't want britain to go there's also the problem that the brits of often faced in the past in relation to russia which is that they've always been at the fork in the other countries like greece like italy like hungry perhaps they have closer commercial ties with russia religious ties even cultural ties have tended to be less suspicious of moscow but let's just hear what the british prime minister said on her way into the european council building. but i will also be talking about today is not just what happened on the streets of seoul street but the fact that we do see this as part of a pattern of russian aggression against europe and its neighbors as i said from the western balkans to the middle east this is

a subject we have to stress for for and i look forward to further discussions with my european colleagues and i'm grateful for that for the solidarity is for but they've shown the united kingdom. and as for bret's itself or on that will be on the agenda here in brussels tomorrow to raise to reason they won't take part in those in those specific talks she's representing the party which is trying to leave the e.u. and for once it doesn't look too problematic they'll be talking about the. an agreement about the transitional arrangement that will govern britain's relationship with the e.u. in the twenty one months between x. the day that's at the end of march twenty ninth to the end of twenty twenty when frankly not very much is going to change in terms of how britain and the e.u. interact except the very i suppose big technical formality that britain will no longer be an e.u. member to be phillips thank you very much indeed. a key personal lawyer to donald

trump has resigned john dowd has reportedly clashed with trump over his handling a special counsel investigation into russian election interference last week he called on the justice department to shut down the miller probe for carrying clarify that he was speaking for himself not the president has repeatedly called the investigation a witch hunt and politically biased. syrian opposition fighters have surrendered to one of the last rebel enclaves near the capital damascus in an evacuation deal with the government thousands of fighters and civilians and are leaving the town of harasta in eastern guta government forces have been bombing the area heavily for more than a month but other rebel factions are still holding on to two separate pockets of territory including duma the largest town in eastern go to. leaving her fleeing north to province where syrian and russian airstrikes a field dozens of people in the last two days so i know how to report.

defeat and displacement that is what these buses have come to symbolize up to one thousand five hundred fighters from the one hundred rebel faction and at least six thousand of their family members are leaving their homes in her they have agreed to lay down their arms and go to the opposition controlled province of idlib in syria's north west the russian guaranteed evacuation deal is being seen as amounting to a surrender the first to leave was anyone needed medical assistance harassed or like the rest of the rebel and. claims of the eastern has been relentlessly bombarded for more than a month the suffering of the people is immense some civilians also left media activists even civil defense volunteers syrians who are considered to be terrorists by the government had no other choice the deal also involves a prisoner exchange and is reported to include guarantees by the syrian government and the russian military that no harm will come to the civilians who chose to stay harassed is just one town in eastern with which is now divided into three pockets

because of the government offensive the other two rebel factions which controls duma and fire which controls the southern pockets have been engaged in separate negotiations with the russian military so far there has been no progress. so pro-government forces continue to target what is left of the rebel held area they are seizing more territory in the southern pocket and airstrikes continue to kill the united nations says people are trapped by fierce fighting and are in dire need of aid the choice they have been given is to starve die or leave. when we are fighting to stay in our land and prevent displacement the international community is silent and powerless or perhaps it's conspiring against us all they do is lie to us the un security council was not able to save the. guild and displays a whole commentary of. years of siege and bombardment have been

a strategy the pro-government alliance used previously to force the surrender of rebels the united nations and human rights groups condemned the strategy as forced displacement this is the first deal of its kind in eastern huta and pressure is only increasing the other rebel groups to also agree to the only offer on the table so that. beirut. and he's fourteen people have been killed in a car bomb attack in somalia's capital mogadishu the blast took place near a hotel on a busy road which has been the target of similar attacks in the past ten others thought have been injured in the blast schoolchildren in nigeria's northeastern borno state are being kept at home due to fears of more mass kidnappings by. the government closed all boarding schools in rural areas indefinitely last week follows a series of attacks by the group and the kidnapping of one hundred ten girls from death in neighboring year bay state last month hundred five of them were freed on

wednesday and been taken to bridger for medical checks a father whose daughter is still missing told us there is a common interest that the kidnappers are trying to force her to become a muslim. she refused. and what what are they saying i think going to release or. do you think she's going to do that and i don't think she will do that. many just has more from catching in northeast nigeria this is the rule boko haram fighters drove through with one hundred and four girls initially they dropped one of them in a village on their way here and then they dropped them of the one hundred and four right over there some two hundred meters away from this place and we were told by

residents that one of their vehicle developed a puncture or other they have had a flat tire they changed the tires here and then they drove back they spent nearly thirty minutes in depth this particular road they came through it's the same road they used to go back to where they came from but on incidentally right over there is the home of the only girl still in captivity the home of leah sherry boone natan the family still grieving and still expecting the child now the other girls one hundred and five of them and now in abuja meeting the nigerian president and also going through psychological counseling and other medical checkups now what we are hearing from the people abducted they said they are keeping because of her faith they want her to renounce the faith and embrace a new one now we were told by a residence but this is yet to be confirmed by the nigerian government which is also yet to say what about the five remaining girls that were taken one month ago

the residents said the fighters when they drove to town and dropped the one hundred and four in this town and one before they start on they told them that five of them or four or five of them actually died because of exhaustion on the day they were taken from their school induction. still ahead on the program yemen's central bank runs out of money after a deposit promised by saudi arabia by its coalition partners. as well tell you why a south korean police have detained former president lee myung bak. welcome back we'll start by looking at weather conditions across the levant and western parts of asia you see some clouds moving up across the area but jerry weather conditions not looking too bad we got

a little bit of snow up across the through up into the himalayas but otherwise for our marty there in kazakhstan temperatures of thirteen degrees tashkent inspectors stan twenty from a cloud around the caspian sea region a bit should stay dry and back you find on the southern side there to run it twenty four one in baghdad thirty two so looking at the eastern side of the mediterranean here we've got jerry fine conditions through friday on saturday more in the way of cloud but generally the winds still coming in from a southerly direction so beirut up to twenty five degrees celsius as you move down into the arabian peninsula where the conditions here also looking fine and certainly very warm day thirty nine degrees in mecca on friday as we head into saturday i think we're going to hit the magic forty degree mark we won never saw the potential bit of wind blowing on friday will be replaced by marginally less warm conditions on saturday twenty nine is the high in doha abu dabi so up to thirty one degrees so across into southern portions of africa then and here we've got some some pretty heavy showers shown across parts of namibia through botswana

and dionysus africa and those are expected to continue.

among other top stories. u.s. president donald trump has called on china to reduce immediately its trade surplus by one hundred billion dollars while stressing the need for reciprocal trade he also signed a measure imposing about sixty billion dollars worth of tariffs on china. from steel and aluminum tariffs are on the agenda summit in brussels has been revealed the e.u. and other u.s. allies will be exempt from them. and syrian opposition fighters have surrendered one of the last rebel enclaves near the capital damascus in an evacuation deal with the government. u.s. defense secretary james mattis is saudi arabia's crown prince to help find a political solution to the war in yemen. has been hosting been solomon at the pentagon and saudi arabia has led a bombing campaign against iranian backed rebels in yemen since twenty fifteen aid groups described yemen as the world's worst humanitarian crisis with more than five

thousand civilians killed and a third of the population on the brink of famine. meanwhile yemen central bank has closed its doors because it's run out of money saudi arabia had promised to deposit two billion dollars but more than a quarter that was seized by u.a.e. forces the saudis allies to yemeni ministers have resigned and accused saudi arabia of holding their president under house arrest and a huckster has more. with the u.n. cause the world's worst humanitarian disaster has become even worse yemen has officially run out of money the shortage of funds has forced the central bike to close saudi arabia had agreed to transfer money to help alleviate the effects his three year war and yemen yemeni bank chief say six hundred eighty million dollars was seized in the port of aden by u.s. forces the u.a.e. is part of the saudi coalition fighting in yemen the latest repercussions of the

hoofy missile aimed at saudi arabia that provoked a blockade on ports and airports injuring vital aid and imports getting them the shipment of cash was meant to pay the salaries a public could perrie's yemen has been ravaged by the civil war between the internationally recognized government based in the south which is backed by the saudis and their allies and the the movement which controls the north and is backed by iran as well as the cash crisis to government ministers have resigned after calling for the president's return from saudi arabia the minister of the state and saeed he tweeted that the saudis are preventing abu rebel man so had he and his sons returning from their self-imposed exile in riyadh the deputy prime minister also stepped down he is hoping the new century yemen bank in aden last year some i'm not here to mete out my hope they will deal with yemen is a country that has a great seven thousand year civilization yemen is not on the margin yemen is not a banana republic yemen is

a big brotherly country the coalition came to support the country's legitimacy and its institutions it is a must to deal with yemen with all respect. he's angrily accusing the kingdom of going back on their promises yemeni's more respect but their focus is on survival schools and hospitals are the latest targets of this conflict famine in addition to a corner and diptheria epidemic with this latest cash crisis the suffering of yemenis looks no closer to ending. their. police in france a fired tear gas and water cannon at protesters taking part in a public sector walkout there are scuffles with demonstrators in the western city of not as well as in the capital paris trains and flights have been canceled across france and many schools are closed unions are angry at plans by president emanuel to cut hundred twenty thousand public sector jobs by the year twenty twenty two. has more from powers. well french trade union leaders say about four hundred

thousand people have taken part in protests across from the police because so far that number. all the way what has been interesting is to see. the public sector come out and you know you see. teachers transport workers air traffic control see specially. and they have collectively come out to express their anger and frustration with a government that is bent on reforming the public services the government says a public service the public sector has to be reformed thousands of jobs need to be caught in order to try and bring down unemployment dead public spending has to go but that's of course a very difficult message for those here the people who say that you do some of the most difficult jobs very low pay. to strike over the next three months they are saying for thirty six days they will destroy public transport in

france between april and june it'll be interesting to see how the french president marco handles that because he swept to power promising to transform faults he is determined that he will be able to reform the public sector and do what previous presidents have failed to do. prosecutors in peru have reportedly asked a judge to stop president federal power of which could be from leaving the country after he announced his resignation is guaranteed presidential immunity from prosecution until congress formally debates and accepts his resignation vice president not to miss carr is expected to be sworn in as the country's new leader. his resignation a wednesday ahead of an impeachment vote on a sanchez has the latest from. well very negative reaction from the country same. president putin speech downfalls been very shameful for the country's president that's a promise a lot and did very little but at the same time. a lot of people saying that it's

a very shameful way this congress ousted cuttin speech by framing ministers and the political allies with recordings of polls rigging now the incoming president might think he's got to use fifty five year old engineer see is the first vice president he did not will not resign instead he has been negotiating with the popular force party the leading party in congress to take over as president to finish his term of three more years ago he is living in canada he is on his way to prove he will be arriving later on today and will be sworn in by congress on friday. police in south korea have detained former president lee myung bak after a court issued an arrest warrant for him he's facing charges of corruption it's the

latest in a series of scandals involving former leaders kathy novak reports from seoul. he's yet another former south korean president accused of abusing power lee myung bak denies that but did apologize as he arrived to face prosecutors last week. i stand before you with a tragic i offer my deepest apology to the people who are causing worry amid times when the economy is in hardship and the security situation on the korean peninsula is serious the charges against him include among other things bribery embezzle meant and tax evasion please accused of improperly receiving about ten million dollars from people and institutions including the country's spy agency as well as send sung south korea's largest conglomerate corruption allegations were first made during the two thousand and seven election campaign despite that the popular former mayor of soul one and became president the following year he faced challenges

almost immediately with protests over american beef imports and later the killing of south koreans which was blamed on north korea after least served his five year term as president fellow conservative puck in hay was elected she was impeached and jailed last year a verdict in her corruption trial is expected next month all of the seven former presidents who led south korea since one thousand nine hundred eighty have faced some form of corruption scandal either directly or because of allegations against their family members five including lea and park have had to personally face prosecutors. mass protests that led to parks impeachment seem to demonstrate support for powerful politicians to be held to account and a recent public opinion poll taken before least chance trial found almost eighty percent of south koreans want to stern punishment to. a shared understanding is

being creative among the public and politicians the mechanisms should be built to check the curses absolute power reasonably and after i think it will improve one by one lee myung bak says he hopes to be the last south korean president to face this kind of prosecution kathy novak al-jazeera saw. u.s. lawmakers say they will formally ask facebook c.e.o. mark zuckerberg to testify before congress irrelevant revelations that a u.k. political consultancy firm misused information from fifty million users in a television interview took about promised stronger privacy measures for face but uses he admits his site made mistakes after accusations that cambridge analytic improperly accessed data attempt to influence the twenty sixteen u.s. presidential election. the top stories on our desire us president donald trump has taken the first step to

imposing tariffs on chinese imports saying the penalties will make america a much stronger much richer nation speaking at the white house trump called on china to reduce its trade surplus immediately by a hundred billion dollars or stressing the need for reciprocal trade he also signed a trade action imposing about sixty billion dollars worth of tariffs on china chinese exports to the u.s. currently exceed american exports to china by three hundred seventy five billion dollars some people call it a mirror tariff or a mere attacks. just use the word reciprocal if they charge us we charge them the same thing that's true it's got to be that's not the way it is for many many years for many decades it has not been that way. and i will say the people we're negotiating with smilingly they really agree with us i really believe

they cannot believe they've gotten away with this for so long. the european union has joined canada mexico australia brazil and south korea in winning exemptions to u.s. tariffs on steel and aluminum it comes as a unit does gather in brussels for a two day summit expected to focus on trade and competitiveness don't trump says he's open to testifying before special counsel robert mueller who's investigating russian interference in the twenty sixteen presidential election the us president spoke just hours after his key personal lawyer announced he was resigning john dowd had reportedly clashed with trump over his handling of ms investigation last week he called on the justice department to shut down the miller probe before clarifying that he was speaking for himself not the president in the past trump has repeatedly called the investigation a witch hunt. syrian opposition fighters have surrendered one of the last rebel enclaves near the capital damascus in an evacuation deal with the government

thousands of fighters and civilians and now leaving the town of harassed in eastern guta but to other areas there remain under rebel control there's the headlines today with us inside story is next on of the news after you straight after that thanks for watching. saudi arabia and the united arab emirates buying influence in the white house the saudi crown prince is reported to have boasted that he has donald trump's son in no way he's pockets and leaked documents allege a major fundraiser for the president was off of business deals from the gulf to influence us.