the scene for us whether online what is a very nice time in yemen that peace is always possible but it never happens not because the situation is complicated but because no one cares or if you join us on set there are people bit that are choosing between buying medication and eating base is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who's an activist and has posted a story joining the global conversation at this time on al jazeera. al jazeera where ever you.

china says north korea is prepared to abandon its nuclear program after an historic meeting between xi jinping and kim jong. il raman you're watching al-jazeera live from our headquarters here in doha coming up in the next thirty minutes u.n. security council members trade blame and vent frustrations over there and heated demand for a syrian cease fire. there could have been a difference in the referendum. you know had there not being in my view cheap. the man who blew the whistle on the facebook data scandal testifies that dirty tricks were used in the case of brecht's it campaign plus. fishing is still big business here in indonesia a population i declined and the government eighty three. and we parted from an

option. on. welcome to the program north korean leader kim jong un has met chinese president xi jinping for the first time during a secretive visit to beijing it's kim's first trip abroad since taking power in two thousand and eleven details of the meeting were only revealed after it had taken place relations between china and north korea of cooled in recent times yet the visit comes ahead of planned summits between the north and the south as well as between pyongyang and washington d.c. so we have two correspondents following this story we'll get to kathy novak in seoul in a moment but let's speak to adrian brown first in the chinese capital in adrian i mean what does this say about chinese influence the fact that these two leaders have that and china certainly putting

a stamp of. the matter ahead of the north koreans future meetings with both south korea and the u.s. . absolutely right so this is a real diplomatic triumph for president xi jinping he has pulled off a coup on the world stage just weeks after he was cemented his position as china's most powerful leader in more than four decades because it is he and not president donald trump who has become the first world leader to meet kim jong un and remember this was not just kim jong un's first visit to china it was his first visit outside of the country since becoming that country's leader more than six years ago the two leaders talked and that talking is going to continue china is hopeful now that the momentum from this visit will continue. so he was here after all chinese state controlled media waited until kim jong un was back home before

confirming what officials had tried so hard to deny just a day earlier in the great hall of the people kim jong un and his wife were welcomed like old friends by president xi jinping a brief greeting in korean was the only time kim's voice was heard. appearance is important at times like this kim looked like an old style communist leader where is she opted for a business suit. the wives of both men were present during most of the photo opportunities. this visit was powerful symbolism for both men but especially for president xi now the first world leader to meet kim and a reminder the china still holds sway over its neighbor and allies. it's not clear what motivated kim jong un to come to beijing now and whether he was offered any incentive to do so but china remains north korea's only ally so it's fair to assume

the president she might have wanted to know what kim's negotiating strategy will be during the summit is expected to hold with president trump before may it's a visit the would have seemed unimaginable just a few months ago when a chill in relations deepened over kim's refusal to halt the development of his nuclear weapons and long range missiles. at an exhibition showcasing some of china's technological achievements the message appeared to be we can help you with all of this if you behave china's leaders are fond of metaphors at a lavish banquet she told his guest that in the beautiful season of spring everything comes to life kim replied with another metaphor i believe our meeting will yield abundant fruit that could mean making good on his commitment to give up nuclear weapons while the fruits of spring were apparent in the garden of the state

guesthouse where friendship also seemed to blossom she accepted an invitation to visit north korea and told kim he was welcome to visit china now and then the visitors left happy. so all this physics really had the feel of almost like a father welcoming home a long lost son of course kim jong un is more than thirty years younger than she jingping is not much older than his daughter the men appeared to be sort of quite relaxed in each other's company it really was a display of friendship the most men were trying to project and i don't think kim seen particularly intimidated by the chinese leader or indeed was overawed by him i think what shooting ping will be hoping now is this you've come to china why not hold your summit with president trump here in china since you now know what to expect and perhaps you can feel secure if you were to come to china if that were to

happen so it would help to maintain chinese face because of course at the moment china as it stands would be excluded from those talks between kim jong un and president trump indeed to try to see what does happen when that summit does happen adrian for the moment thank you and let's cross over to kathy novak now in seoul of course kathy on choose to a great deal of speculation really as to who was on that train and when the train was leaving and where the south koreans going to say anything at all have they said anything now. now they are saying that the government is welcoming this visit from kim jong un to china saying that the government hopes that it will help foster the denuclearization and peace here on the korean peninsula that is the ultimate goal of the south korean government but a spokesman for the presidential blue house also said that the situation is evolving beyond the government's expectations and that they'll have to monitor the

situation keeping in mind all possible outcomes as it moves forward i think there's an acknowledgment there of the level of surprise surrounding a number of events that have been unfolding here in the region over the past few days weeks and months this trip took many people by surprise the first time that kim jong un left the country as leader indeed donald trump's acceptance of kim jong un's invitation to hold a summit took many by surprise including we understand the north koreans and we hear the chinese state news agency shinhwa that kim jong un was quoted as saying that he is willing to have a summit with donald trump that's the first time really that we had confirmation of plans of this summit from the north korean side because it was the south korean envoys who met with kim jong un who then traveled to washington d.c. to brief president donald trump on their discussions with kim who conveyed that

invitation which was ultimately accepted by donald trump so a number of surprises as i say and in the meantime the south koreans are moving forward with their plans to hold an interest and summit in fact there's a high level meeting at the border between the two koreas tomorrow and we're expecting the chinese top diplomat to be in the country to brief the south korean officials as well so preparations continuing ahead of the summit between mungy and kim jong il and indeed a great deal of the korean peninsula will come back to. with more reaction to that things develop thanks kathy i will have more analysis on this subject later in the program here on al-jazeera now the white house has released a statement about this is story meeting saying that the u.s. sees this development as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with north korea

the u.s. ambassador to the united nations says the security council should be ashamed that the bombing of eastern ghouta continues despite a cease fire agreement syrian government forces with russian support intensified its offensive to retake the rebel held enclave more than a month ago u.s. ambassador nikki haley blamed the two countries for what she called a slaughter but her syrian counterpart struck back russia will stop at nothing to use its permanent seat on this council to shield its our i wish our our side from even the faintest criticism and we cannot take these actions because instead of calling out how assad russia and iran made a mockery of our calls for a cease fire too many members of this council wanted to wait this is a travesty. this should be a day of shame for every member of this council and it should be a lesson about what happens when we focus on fleeting displays of unity instead of

on what's right. now in response russia's u.n. ambassador accused fellow members of wasting time instead of taking action against armed groups in eastern guta the city's cue is to meet you need a new room a group some members of the security council prefer to squander time on letters and rhetoric with us now to claims against our country probably this is to conceal their own willingness to do something constructive in implementing the cease fire resolution and mind with the groups they sponsor. meanwhile russia's defense ministry says the thirteen thousand fighters and their families have left eastern over the past three days now they're heading to in the northwest of the country the last rebel held province in the country is in a hot one has more from neighboring beirut. ahmed says he never carried arms against the syrian government but some of his family members belong to the five man faction that's one of the reasons why he left his home in eastern huta as part of the surrender deal reached with the pro-government alliance the other reason is his

opposition to reconciling with a government that has killed so many people. every family lost a family member i lost a lot of friends i lost a colleague who was among the twenty six who died in the famous airstrike i lost two children that i was teaching at school we decided to move away from this brutal regime. now lives in a mosque he is among some eight hundred thousand people who have been displaced from what was once the rebel controlled enclave in the suburbs of damascus many of those deported to adlib opposition controlled province in the northwest are fighters. is one of them the rebels controlled since late two thousand and twelve but months later it was besieged by government forces. and it's sad that we lost this battle after seven years of remaining steadfast after so many sacrifices

we had to surrender because of the civilians they killed many children the hospitals were out of service anyone injured would die slowly. camps are being set up for syria's newly displaced the refugee camps are overstretched this is a province with a population of one million displaced people and local communities are struggling to cope when rebels are defeated they go to those who don't want to live under the rule of president bashar assad also but there is nowhere safe in that province airstrikes continue to hit nonmilitary targets such as schools and health facilities. the rebels arrived with their light weapons it's not clear if they will join the ranks of the armed factions an adlib where there has been rebel fighting. before the acid regime for seven years but no food no water no medicine until the regime of the russians launched a barbaric campaign we promised the opposite regime that we will return we will liberate the area there are those who refused to admit defeat but the loss of

easter is the worst setback for the opposition says it was forced to surrender the eastern part of aleppo city in two thousand and sixteen after a similar military campaign. beirut. russian president vladimir putin has declared wednesday a national day of mourning for the sixty four people killed in a shopping center fire on sunday at least forty one children were among those that were killed in the shopping center in the siberian city of care over the victims' relatives held a huge rally on choose day demanding those responsible for what people described as criminal negligence to be held accountable flags will fly at half mast on wednesday and television and radio stations have been told to cancel any entertainment programs. still ahead here on al-jazeera why victims of last year's mudslides in sierra leone say the government has failed them.

hello there we've had some very quiet weather across parts of europe recently mostly in the central parts this is what it looks like in germany a fair amount of folk and from that you can deduce that the winds were very light and there wasn't any loud either but all of that's about to change thanks to this weather system that's piling in from the atlantic it's giving us some pretty heavy downpours at the moment and it's working its way steadily eastwards so more wet weather across parts of france and up into norway there during the day on wednesday they don't thursday it works its way towards the east and as it does so it hits some cold as it will see more of that turn to snow and then further south we'll see rain and a bit more of the snow over the mountains behind that system there's yet another one that's going to be rolling its way into the northwest there on thursday so plenty of what weather about over the next few days now it further towards the south of us some of us in the northern parts of africa there's also been some

rather unsettled weather over the past few days as well this latest system is really putting itself together as it makes its way across the north coast of libya and egypt that storm plenty of what weather ahead of it as well and it's working its way up towards turkey so that's where we're going to see some of the wettest of the weather during the day on thursday behind it coming down for the northwestern parts of africa not too bad with nineteen here about. the be. the big.

welcome back to harvest their own cell rob a reminder of our top stories the north korean leader kim jong un has much chinese president xi jinping for the first time during a secretive visit to beijing it's kim's first trip abroad to taking power in two thousand and eleven details of the meeting were only revealed after it had taken place now the visit comes ahead of planned summits between the north and the south as well as between pyongyang and washington d.c. . also the u.s. ambassador to the u.n.

says the security council should be ashamed that the bombing of eastern ghouta continues despite a cease fire the syrian government or an ally russia stepped up its offensive on the rebel held enclave about the game. let's go back to our top story that meeting between the north korean leader kim jong un and the chinese president xi jinping robert kelly is an associate professor at the department of political science and diplomacy at peace and national university joins me now from in south korea good to have you with us played by having to do need denuclearize the peninsula there fine words and encouraging ones certainly before a summit with president trump but how skeptical should the international community be at this statement. pretty to be honest north korea has spent forty years developing this weapon these weapons it's g.d.p. is very tightly constrained and it's very poor country right on the north koreans were enormous resources into this including and during a famine in the late one nine hundred ninety s. which killed ten percent of the population it didn't stop them from working on

these weapons it would be amazing if they were to give them up for anything other than a massive concession from the american and south korean side probably something really extreme like the end of the american south korean alliance more likely is that they'll allow reply caps on nuclear weapons or on missile count or something like that but i would be amazed if they would just agree to go to zero they would ask for something enormous let's talk about all of the fact is that this being a dog in north korea about sanctions have they been a factor perhaps in changing the tone of north korea and why they perhaps reached out reached out to by china yeah i think the sanctions have played a role i think the certain set right we don't know right because the north koreans don't tell us a great deal in the north koreans don't give us proper trade statistics but there's a fair amount of anecdotal evidence flowing out of northeastern china and north korea to suggest that the sanctions begin to bite and we have heard the north korean media talking about sanctions and sanctions relief more and more if only to say you know that we don't need it and stuff like that but the fact we're talking

about it is suggested. i think from here the issue is that north koreans now have these weapons and they feel like they can negotiate right they've probably got the ability to strike the united states so why not now that you have it one and see what you can get in indeed i mean how important is this meeting or has this meeting been between china and north korea in terms of trying to reassert its position as a major influence over pyongyang and the full senate in direct message to the u.s. . yeah i think that's right i think that the chinese are the day you know in the last three or four months of all this diplomacy in the olympics and the rest the chinese have been sort of on the side but you know it's kind of has pretty obvious strategic interests in north korea it doesn't want to see a unified korea that's opposed to china doesn't want u.s. forces moving up to the chinese border or unification stuff like that on the other hand and the chinese do want denuclearization they don't want a war here so the chinese are interested right and now it actually looks like things are moving right it looks like trump and kim may actually meet right i mean that's really sort of up in the air but the south koreans are talking about really big stuff now denuclearization a peace deal recognition but it looks like the major issues in the region are

really in play and so the chinese want to have a say i'm not surprised this happened how do you see the conversations progressing between pyongyang and seoul and then in turn between yang and d.c. in the coming weeks sure i think the first meeting the one between going on and seoul in april that's the most important one right i mean that really i mean ultimately this is a korean issue right the chinese the americans the russians japanese you know we're all kind of involved in how the shakes out but it's really ultimately this is a korean issue the two koreas really need to work out their own fate as well and should be right that one will set a lot of constraints on what trump has a lot to offer the north koreans if the south koreans come back with some really good deal some kind of due nuclearization in exchange for something or other you know constraints on the u.s. alliances south korea or something like that if the president of the group bring someone back like that back and he can sell it to the south korean public that will put a lot of constraints on what donald trump can do right so the first one is more important but the trump one is getting more i think attention because it's trump well for the

moment so we'll leave it that's always a fascinating scenario all dependents here and thanks very much for clarifying that some of the issues we think we need to discuss robert kelly that can be said thank you. parliament has elected a new president when it is a loyalist to members de facto leader who retains her executive order over the government comes after quasi to shore sorry stood down a week ago citing health problems his resignation coincides with me and more facing increased international criticism over its handling of their hunger crisis. now for generations fishermen in indonesia have relied on catching sharks as their main source of income and that's partly to blame for a rapid decrease in shark populations now scientists warn that many species risk being wiped out altogether if fishing restrictions are not enforced so fast and reports from east indonesia. they are predators at sea but powerless against fishing lines sharks of all sizes flood the fish market in lombok nearly every day

they are caught for one reason the expensive fins mostly sold to china to end up in soup we've filmed fifty five sharks being auctioned on a single day some still babies. jack fishing is legal in indonesia except for whale sharks which have become an endangered species the government has also impose an export ban on hammerhead sharks to prevent more populations coming under threat conservationists are keeping track on the train. what we've found is that populations of sharks are declining and also that the size of sharks are becoming smaller. sharks are at the top of the ocean food chain scientists say they keep populations of fish stock healthy and protect the ecosystem. five populations are easily threatened because of the slow reproduction rate some female sharks can only give birth in or even twice a year so that's why five government employees were fact. shock

fishing is big business in indonesia with export revenues of hundreds of millions of dollars a year traders not only sell shark fins but also disc ins and bones they say the export ban and other protection measures have hit them hard going to hammer out. since the government is banning all kinds of shocks the prices have dropped drastically we can now only sell locally and the prices we get for export a much higher. but marine scientists say law enforcement has been weak and more needs to be done to enforce the export ban and protect vulnerable shark species something the government wants to discuss at this week's symposium in jack after what they tried to do we will work together with minister of environment to. business side because i think that's the easiest actually to start to make the fishermen understand it's going to take time. in order to protect fishing

communities the government does not plan to impose a total ban on shark fishing but rather increase restrictions but with the month likely to remain high conservation is worried that it will be hard to prevent fins of protected species continuing to end up at markets steadfast in al-jazeera and in east. thousands of soldiers and police of a day some complex in rio de janeiro it's the largest operation since the military took control of security in the brazilian city last month and their security forces arrested twenty four people and seize large quantities of drugs cracking down a wave of violence of all driven by fighting between rival drug gangs and critics say the military intervention is curbing the civil liberties of rio's poorest residents. hundreds of mudslides survivors in sierra leone all struggling to revolve seven months after a disaster term pretty sheltered as for the homeless have closed but only

a fraction of them are being cared for by relatives and neighbors over there to support freetown. for the first time since the disaster in august two thousand and seventeen percy for fun are musters enough courage to take me to where her mother and sister still lie and the rocks and debris. it's an emotional first step she couldn't complete and i feel bad i feel bad right now because i remember my mom my sister and people are not under that pile of rubble coming here is hard for me. healing is taking a long time for the twenty three year old she lives with neighbors along with her son just three hundred meters from her mother and sisters muddy tomb more than five hundred people were killed and hundreds more remain missing after part of the sugarloaf mountain collapsed following torrential rain the tide of rubble swept or

homes and anything else in its path just as people are waking up emergency workers have given up digging here the same a sheer size of the area is overwhelming however residents say many bodies still lie under the rubble and some i will say not enough has come their way most of them are broke and homeless. who lost his wife and three children as well as a house they will get into just before the disaster the house i've been. up to now i cannot get to where i built my house everyone living there including neighbors died we thought the end of the world had come. the civil union government took possession of fifty two rooms donated by some construction companies to help the victims but survivors say the government is demanding their pay for them government itself intro on you to do something for us up to now the fifty two hours that we're talking about that. we didn't get access to the

central unit government said each family affected was given about six hundred dollars money the victims say is inadequate some of the victims of this disaster are buried alongside thousands of victims of another which recently shipped solely on their border crisis they have a resting place but survivors are struggling to build their lives. i'll just freetown sierra leone the three australian cricketers are the center of a cheating scandal are being sent home from south africa they're facing lengthy bans after one was caught on camera tampering with the ball to give his team an unfair advantage. reports from sydney. the three players at the center of the controversy captain steve smith vice captain david warner and batsman cameron bancroft are being sent back to a stray in disgrace in regard to the three players on report want to stress that we

are contemplating significant sanctions in a choice of. three sanctions will reflect the gravity with which we view what has occurred and the damage it is done to the standing of australian cricket. a cricket australia investigation into the ball tampering incident in cape town concluded that only three players knew about it it involved scouting up the ball with a small piece of tape that was improvised into send paper one of the players hit the tape in his trousers the cricket australia chief was at pains not to use the word t.t. and confined the incident to just the three players but cricketing greats like former astray captain michael clarke and former england captain mark or warne took to social media to question how nobody else could have known there were also doubts on the streets of sydney calls for tough sanctions are convinced of the culture

that we know about of i can't imagine the senior players doing that without their own demons approval i'm sure most aussies with think the side i think there should be stood down on. and probably both suspended for a long period of time on i think what most people expect is like pretty harsh punishments the foreign minister julie bishop says it's damaged australia's reputation a stranger is seen as a country that plays fair that plays by the rules that abides by the rules and any attempt to gain an unfair advantage by carrying out an unlawful act since the cheating is a surprise sanctions against the three players are expected within the next twenty four hours but it may take more than that to. paired the image of a sport very much intertwined with the nation's identity. al-jazeera sydney.

your geologist their own homes the whole rom and these are all top news stories north korean leader kim jong un has met chinese president xi jinping for the first time during a secretive visit to beijing now it's kim's first trip abroad since taking power in two thousand and eleven and details of the meeting were only revealed after it had taken place relations between china and north korea of called in recent times the visit comes ahead of planned summits between the north and the south as well as between pyongyang and washington south korea's ministry of unification says she and kim's meeting has helped set the right tone for upcoming talks between pyongyang seoul and washington. i think improvement in the north korea china relationship ahead of the enter korean summit and u.s. north korea summit will we helpful in solving the problem in the korean peninsula such as denuclearization and establishment of peace and we are just getting news from the chinese foreign ministry that the president xi jinping will visit south

korea on thursday and friday will bring you more on that in our next full news bulletins moving on now and the u.s. ambassador to the united nations says the security council should be ashamed that the bombing of eastern ghouta continues despite a cease fire agreement syrian government forces with the russian air support intensified its offensive to retake the rebel held on place more than a month ago u.s. ambassador nikki haley blamed the two countries for what she called a slaughter but her syrian counterpart struck back. russian president vladimir putin has declared wednesday a national day of mourning for the sixty four people killed in a shopping center fire on sunday at least forty one children were among those who died in the shopping center in the siberian city of kember over the victims' families held a huge rally on choose day demanding those responsible for what putin called criminal negligence be held to account the fire alarm wasn't system wasn't working and the exit doors were blocked the parliament has elected a new president with

a loyalist to me a leader and saying suchi his predecessor tin chore blamed health problems when he resigned a week ago protesters in spain gathered at barcelona's main railway station to demand former captain and leader. be released from jail in germany riot police but the entrance to stop them staging sit ins in the tracks is currently being held in germany wealth ortiz will decide whether to extradite him to spain those are the headlines about with more news in half an hour next its inside story to stay with us. u.s. president donald trump has said he will slap new charis on imports of steel in alum in your brand by g.m. will mean the data transfer time starts in fourteen we bring you the stories that are shaping the economic world we live in counting the cost this time on al-jazeera . the u.s. and many european nations have expelled more than one hundred thirty russian

diplomats over the poisoning of a former spy in the u.k. rushed.