over into southern portions of africa no such problems but a scattering of showers he might if he wanted to share his effect when talk in the media. the scene for us where there are online what is american sign in yemen that peace is possible but it never happens not because the situation is complicated but because no one cares or if you join us on sat there are people that 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 join the global conversation at this time on al-jazeera.

pressure applies to the u.s. expulsion of sixty of its diplomats as the diplomatic rift between washington and moscow deepens. i'm richelle carey this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up an unexpected announcement about syria from donald trump raises broader questions about u.s. involvement there. as thousands of palestinians prepare to mark land a look at their struggle to hold on to their property. and a mountain to climb we'll look at how cyprus is trying to hike up tourist numbers. expelling sixty u.s. diplomats and dozens more from other countries in response to the expulsion of its

own diplomats it is the latest development in a worsening dispute over who is behind the poisoning of a former russian double agent and britain mike hanna reports from washington d.c. . the u.s. consulate in st petersburg shut down some sixty diplomats ordered to leave the country by the middle of next week sweeping russian retaliation. there will be mirrored measures but not only stopping events the u.s. ambassador is invited to our ministry where my deputy would deliver him the content of these retaliation re measures against the united states they include the exposion of a similar number of diplomats and they include our decision to withdraw our consent to the operation of the united states consulate general in some petersburg as for the rest of the countries everything that concerns the number of people who leave the russian federation from diplomatic missions is also mirrored signal at the root of the dispute the alleged poisoning of

a former russian double agent on british soil with a russian designed nerve agent russia vehemently denied any involvement but in a coordinated move more than one hundred fifty russian diplomats have been expelled from some twenty seven western nations a sanction including sixty from the united states and twenty three from the united kingdom. and the u.s. state department has reacted angrily to the russian action insisting that russia does not have the right to play the victim there is no justification for the russian response our actions were motivated purely by the attack on the united kingdom the attack on a british citizen and his daughter remember this is the first time that a weapons grade nerve agent no overt shock has been used outside of war on allied soil the russian consulate in seattle now stands empty but importantly the u.s. has made clear it reserves the right to further response the diplomatic dispute is

far from over mike hanna al-jazeera washington. the daughter of that former russian spy was also poisoned in the attack she's getting better according to british doctors despite julius cripples recovery doctors say she might not be well enough to speak to investigators her father said he remains in critical condition both were poisoned with a nerve agent that was left on the front door of their home in england earlier this month russia has demanded access to her. and a surprise move u.s. president all trump has told his supporters that american troops will be leaving syria very soon he was speaking at an event in ohio when he began complaining about how much the u.s. spends on rebuilding other countries the u.s. has more than two thousand military personnel in syria helping local groups defeat eisel and by the way we're knocking the hell out of isis will become another syria like very soon let the other people take care of it now very soon very soon we're

coming now we're going to have a hundred percent of the caliphate as they call it sometimes you for it to his land take it all back quickly quickly as with some previous trump announcement this one caught many in washington off guard including the state department. i can't comment on what the president supposedly said i haven't seen and i have to refer you back to the white house and suppose that i have not seen it myself and said it i have not seen that myself ok but you know you don't you don't necessarily comment or report on things that have been heard secondhand and i'm not going to do that that's ok that's fine so you're not aware of any policy determination to poor old to pull the us out of so i am not no ok so that's so the president is just speaking off the cuff i don't know i don't know what is it we're already back in the white house i'm not and i'm not aware it's not just the. the u.s. joined the syria conflict during a proc obama's presidency and one mission was to support groups fighting i saw the

pentagon says about two thousand u.s. troops are still there to prevent a resurgence by the armed groups and maintain stability and december defense secretary james mattis said he expected to send more diplomats and civilian personnel to syria more than eight billion dollars of u.s. money has been directed towards syria related humanitarian assistance congress has set aside billions more to help with security operation here at resolve which aims to eliminate eisel from syria iraq and other areas has cost more than eighteen billion dollars. it was a senior syria advisor to samantha power who was washington to an ambassador during the obama administration doesn't believe trump's comments on the troop withdrawal represent an actual policy change. i was literally just speaking with some colleagues of mine former colleagues of mine at the state department who were getting ready to deploy to syria to to do their work out there in the northern part of the syria where the u.s. military station so i really think this caught everyone off guard and i don't think

it's particularly connected to any real policy the united states continues to pursue in the region the policy in the past has been to intervene in as little a way as possible to try to. address the humanitarian situation without getting in broiled in a broader conflict in the middle east that's kind of been the policy but really clearly has not worked with this administration there's clearly a disconnect between what the president is saying what his military and political advisors are telling him which is the united states should remain in the areas it is in to use it as leverage against the syrian regime the iranians and russians and to keep an eye on potentially eisel returning that's really kind of the consensus on what the policy should be but again just like previous statements the president shooting from the hip and and now everybody is getting all worked up about saying but i really would pay attention to what the united states actually does in the

coming days and weeks which i think will be more likely to remain in the areas it's in. the kurdish armed group the y.p. jima says france is planning to send troops to support them in northern syria and mediate with turkey on thursday france's president manuel mccrum met representatives from northern syria and paris the delegation included kurdish an air of members of the syrian democratic forces turkey has been battling kurdish fighters near its border the palestinian health ministry says israeli tank fires killed a palestinian farmer and gaza and happened in the city of khan newness another man is in critical condition that death comes as thousands of palestinians prepare for an annual protest along israel's border it's an act of collective resistance to israeli occupation and seizure of their land the biggest rallies are planned in gaza where israeli forces warn the open fire at anyone trying to breach the border fence made reports in the occupied west bank it's

a day that's been marked since one thousand nine hundred ninety six then like now palestinians are protesting to confiscation of their land it's also they waited their attachment to that land. the bit ahead and if we want to impose a presence of planes it lends a hard to take over israel always says that it's only talking about our only a promise that's why we need to play it everywhere. uses streams so his property shrink by four hector's and has received notice that the lives of fourteen could be taken away soon. much of the land goes to was building illegal jewish settlements and the exploitation of natural resources or in the case of africa meant for the construction of a bypass road that now goes over part of his land he can only reach it via this underpass but axes isn't always guaranteed. if the gate is closed we're stuck for hours everyone wants freedom of movement i want to be able to come home here and

build a shack to store my equipment but the israelis won't allow me i can't even install a light to sit here in the summer was integrated by israel's prime minister binyamin netanyahu also pledged two hundred twenty eight million dollars from this year's budget the building of more roads across the occupied west bank another project underway is that up the road there to the left that's extension of the eastern ring road and it has its own separation wall in the middle now trafficked on one side will be reserved only to israel on the other side traffic will be reserved to palestinians but they can only travel between towns and villages without bypasses are designed to circumvent palestinian population centers settlers say it's for their own safety but the plan was initially put in place in one nine hundred eighty three and was only implemented after the oslo accords were signed years later when i because the road could through the west bank in circling

palestinian communities and dividing the west bank into account ons they connect to jewish settlements to each other and directly to israel in case of an exaggeration there's already a system in place. israel sees the bypass roads as vital for the valid bent of settlements they expanded by seventeen percent last year or as many palestinians say ever since donald trump became you as president with every dig of the shovel palestinians see more land lost and the dream of a future state crumble furder who doubt that hamid al-jazeera in the occupied west bank. britain's prime minister has been touring the country to sell the benefits of bracks a year before the u.k. is due to leave the european union theresa may says she's committed to making it a success but many people are on convinced and some are campaigning for britain to change its mind correspondent arnie phillips reports. she didn't vote for breck's

it to put on a rapid tour of britain starting in a scottish textile factory the prime minister urged the country to embrace the idea of leaving the e.u. i believe that we can negotiate a good agreement which is tare free in this friction is trade as possible so we maintain those markets in the e.u. but also that we open up markets around the rest of the world breaks it provides us with opportunities. but who's this campaigning against bricks it outside downing street boris johnson or maybe don't but his impersonator and these protesters believe bret's it can be stopped with a second referendum on the final deal because she ations between britain and the e.u. says will a student just speaking for a generation that voted overwhelmingly to stay in your russian business one direction but i feel so again fighting to mobilize and try to persuade our parents

and grandparents many of whom are like minded back to back to back just not sure anymore and it's not the right deal i'm not sure i'd direction from here but all the older generation persuadable i travelled from london to the english market town of spaulding west seventy percent voted to leave the e.u. the challenge for those trying to stop bricks it is to change people's minds in towns like spalding and that still feels like an uphill struggle to this image of ensuring. that i don't think you can lay said what we want to discuss only but back in london not much sign of rallying round. another and group sets off on a battle bus tour around brick supported by some big names in british politics i accept that whatever happens in terms of any effort. to stop it would take it to a different course in the one the peoples in the voice roy said so it's very difficult but i think millions of people believe the country's made

a terrible mistake. this is just come on. this isn't sustainable meanwhile the prime minister travelling all through northern ireland wales and england in one hectic day says there's no turning back but if the bricks that referendum of twenty sixth seed was meant to settle the issue of britain and europe for want some for all while it doesn't yet feel that it has to be phillips al-jazeera london. so ahead on al-jazeera the surprises as the first results come in from egypt's election. and advertisers and politicians have always competed for your attention but the way they do that has changed dramatically over the last few years.

hello and welcome to international weather forecast now across europe we've got a big area of low pressure moving in across western arizona's one big spiral low pressure all across the region so we're pulling in zero to fifteen degrees london and a lot of cloud in that race of rain just nine certainly cool conditions in the iberian peninsula the my sort of twelve in madrid moving through into the start of the weekend that low pressure moves little bit further towards the east give you some heavy snowfall across the alps the southerly flow on the eastern flank the low brings warm air in across australia but we're up towards walsall the twelve degrees celsius and conditions remain quite across parts of russia temperatures around the freezing mark in moscow southeastern parts he of actually fairing quite well with some sunshine there in ankara on the other side of the mediterranean we've got showers along the coast of all cheery and fairly strong winds coming in from the desert giving temperature of twenty eight degrees in china's further towards the east we've got

a lot of sun blowing around parts of egypt sudan chad nissho and that's going to continue through into the weekend very high levels of dust blowing here becomes a bit quiet as you head through into saturday as we moved into central parts of africa plenty of showers and evidence here well you see some downpours affecting labor fill in japan.

you're watching al jazeera let's recap the top stories for you right now the white house is calling russia's expulsion of sixty u.s. diplomats a further deterioration of its relationship with moscow it is the latest movement into what had a diplomatic rally over the poisoning of a former russian double agent in the u.k. . and a surprise move u.s. president on a trial has told us supporters that american troops will be leaving syria very soon and the u.s. has more than two thousand military personnel in syria helping local groups defeat eisel. palestinian health ministry says israeli tank fire is killed a palestinian farmer and gaza another man is in critical condition that comes as

thousands of palestinians there were and will rally to protest against israeli occupation. facebook is promising to end partnerships with several data brokers that help advertisers target people on the social network the company is trying to limit the fallout from allegations that british firm cambridge analytical and properly accessed user data to influence the two thousand and sixteen u.s. elections china hall takes a look at micro targeting and the ethical questions around the practice. we don't feel that every single time the man who murdered joshua is an illegal alien they were asked to pave the way. to brussels political attack ads are nothing new nor is aiming there but a carefully selected audience of so-called micro targeting what is relatively news the use of personalized data by political campaigns to find out almost as much about you as you know about yourself in terms of the whole ethos of influence and persuasion you know every every every post everything that you like these are all

bits of data that are going towards building a profile of arguments against people about the same knowledge is power so it's really surgically and been able to predict and influence people's behavior at the heart of the scandal involving the political consultancy cambridge analytical and its alleged use of data from fifty million facebook profiles is the charge that personal data has been used to distort and undermine the democratic process but the easiest way that you can influence someone's behavior is by kent continually showing them something time and time again and they become unconsciously influenced and therefore take comp attention on the new belief system the point of most political campaigns is to change beliefs and attitudes so is there anything wrong with targeting voters in this way cambridge analytical has boasted that its cutting edge micro targeting campaign won the u.s. election for donald trump that sparked outrage and indignation of course especially

among trump's political opponents but it's worth remembering that a previous president is also believed to have won the white house thanks to online micro-targeting none other than barack obama and with considerably less outrage and indignation as a result well i think the segmentation that they are doing now which came around let's go doing now is very much the same thing that barack obama did in two thousand. and it's well it's trying to make the advertisements as relevant and personal to people and voters as possible benedict pringle is an ad executive who also runs a blog on the sometimes dirty business of political advertising he's day job and his sideline have much in common while campaign techniques become ever more precise winning elections is after all a sales job i think that the margins in the trunk collection and in the press broke that referendum were so small and the number of people that were in play the

persuadable votes were so few that the number of ads that were run the amount of money that was spent in targeting them would have undoubtedly had an impact on the result would it change the result impossible to say well it impacted at least you know a decent chunk of the persuadable voters absolutely so micro-targeting is a winning strategy that's here to stay and the more data we put into the system about ourselves the more data is available to influence to persuade and to change the way we think jonah hill al-jazeera london. preliminary results from egypt selection have delivered what everyone expected a landslide victory for president abdel fatah but it appears most voters either stayed at home or spoiled their ballot our senior political analyst says amos to

create the appearance of a democratic election the fact that we and the rest of the world could laugh at this while the egyptian media tries to prop it up as if it's a legitimate elections it just tells you about the state of. politics some policies in egypt today this is a far away nightmare from the promise from the dream of the arab spring democracy justice accountability freedom and so on so forth so really the situation today is a president that is in fact a dictator of sort recognize a such but needs to keep up some sort of an appearance of democracy because his western backers because of his i.m.f. backers and egypt just got twelve billion dollars in loans from the i.m.f.

requires that he and his regime continue to play the game that this is a legitimate you know post arab spring type of overrule it is not as millions of christians around the world celebrate easter signs are marching up and proving relations between the vatican and the chinese government the catholic church in china cut ties almost seventy years ago following the communist revolution christian organizations if a shares of state repression including the removal of rooftop crosses church demolitions and president of priests of china sixty seven million christians more than ten million are catholic they're split between underground churches the recognize the pope and state approved churches that do not but as a train brown reports changes in the air. in china catholics have a choice pray in a state sanctioned church like this one in secret but this easter many worshippers

will be considering a new scenario a deal between the vatican and the chinese government that may be imminent the agreement could decide the future of the estimated ten million catholics in china who've long hope for a normalization in vatican china relations what i always hoped the pope and the vet again stablish diplomatic relations with china i'm so excited. the pope is the symbol of catholics if you're catholic you would definitely want to see him that's why i'd be so happy if he came to china surprising views because those worshippers belong to the official catholic church which is not recognize the authority of the pope since the vatican and china sever diplomatic ties in one nine hundred fifty one but that could be about to change according to francisco c.c. an attorney an academic invited to interview the pope two years ago he says there

are even discussions about the vatican establishing a representative office in beijing this could happen. within the zia i would say that sue. i think it is a possibility we don't know there are of course many things to up in the air but. there is lobbed in the air as the song would say. before that happens though another deal is expected on the thorny issue of who gets to appoint bishops for the first time that would give the vatican a say in the selection process but some of the underground churches that operate without government approval are fearful about this growing reproach mo and they have a senior catholic official on their side who's accused the pope of betrayal cardinal

joseph zen is the former bishop of hong kong where religious freedoms are still protected many people in that union lesser church may get to scandalize in may who is their faith in the pope and the poor pope has so many critics so. we decide when i am a very sorry such criticism of the pope even by a retired cardinal is rare neither the vatican or china's religious affairs bureau responded to our requests for comment but a report in the state controlled newspaper on thursday citing several official sources said the announcement could be made as soon as saturday a day before easter. china represents the last frontier for the catholic church it's been that way for centuries never more so than now adrian brown

al-jazeera beijing. the former president of france nicolas sarkozy is to face trial for corruption and influence peddling he's accused of making phone calls to influence judges who are investigating alleged illegal financing during his two thousand and seven presidential campaign sarkozy's lawyers say he will appeal the decision separately he's accused of receiving campaign funding from the lately the leader moammar gadhafi. coffee outlets in california may soon have to warn customers about a potential cancer risk from their products court in the u.s. state their rule that a starbucks and other companies have failed to show the cancer risk from a chemical that is produced during the roasting process industry says levels in the drink a harmless to human health. the united nations says it's it appalled by the deaths of sixty eight people in one of venezuela's worst prison fires burial services have been held in valencia for some of the victims rights groups are blaming president nicolas maduro for not dealing with overcrowding and rising violence in prisons but

so far there's been no official response from the government mean mars their leader has a new president that as has been sworn in yet was the lower house speaker and is an ally of on sun sochi she maintains executive order as the head of the government while the president's role is largely ceremonial as predecessor to resign last week after health problems. cyprus is a favorite destination for tourists from all over europe who want a mediterranean sunshine holiday most watching coastal resorts bittorrent towns in the mountains are missing out and government leaders want that to change to the island's economy reports. it's hard to fit into a postcard just how nice it is to be away from the subzero temperatures back home we come to cyprus because in the ukraine is snow and cold and we wanted to go to spring to see flowers. and maybe to see. it's

a familiar story the abundance of beaches and sunshine has attracted steadily increasing numbers of tourists to cyprus. that has seen the economies of coastal towns boosted as the number of visitors reach three point six million last year officials expect the number of tourists to reach a record level in two thousand and eighteen many head for seaside towns of course leaving places in the mountains like up at the rear here not as frequent as they could be a fact the government says it now wants to change. is ready for change has souvenir shop in got about three a gets its first visitors of the afternoon. the town is one of several in the trudeau's mountains facing declining numbers of tourists. government talk of reviving tourist towns like hers is raising her hopes i think it's a very good idea because high living in the mountains and will be very happy to have more tourists because we're living you know all of us we need some jobs here.

the government is unveiling a plan to increase visits to tourist spots left out of the boom sixteen million euros are being set aside to upgrade infrastructure and another million to improve hotels. i was to give a new brand in the local areas the bounty for example to find out the way of life will boost but it's not only on the beaches but on the montaigne's as well. that way of life is struggling in those mountains as visit is doing will so does business and people end up migrating to cities a newspaper can pass the time when you hardly have a customer in your restaurant but it won't reveal a new chapter for your town for that many are hoping the government's initiative will rescue them from a sticky situation sami's a than al-jazeera cup at the cyprus.

to take out the headlines on al-jazeera the white house is calling russia's expulsion of sixteen u.s. diplomats a further deterioration of its relationship with moscow it is the latest move and it did look at a diplomatic route over the poisoning of a former russian travel agent in the u.k. and a surprise move u.s. president has told us supporters that american troops will be leaving syria very soon the u.s. has more than two thousand military personnel in syria helping local groups defeat eisele he then suggested it wouldn't be long before syria was no longer america's problem. and by the way we're not going the hell out of isis will become another syria like very soon let the other people take care of it now very soon very soon we're coming now we're going to have a hundred percent of the caliphate as they call it sometimes referred to as the land take it all back quickly quickly. the kurdish armed group i.p.g.

says france is planning to send troops to support them in the northern syria and mediate with turkey one thursday france's president met representatives from northern syria and paris the delegation included kurdish and arab members of the syrian a democratic forces turkey has been battling kurdish fighters near its border. the palestinian health ministry says israeli tank fire has killed a palestinian farmer and gaza happened in the city of khan yunis another man is in critical condition this comes as thousands of palestinians prepare for an annual rally to protest against israeli occupation. the former president of france nicolas sarkozy is to face trial for corruption influence peddling is accused of making phone calls to influence judges who were investigating alleged illegal financing during his two thousand and seven presidential campaign sarkozy's lawyers say he will appeal against that decision separately he's accused of receiving campaign

funding from the late libyan leader moammar gadhafi. the united nations says it's appalled by the deaths of sixty eight people and one of its whale is worst person fires burial services have been held in valencia for some of the victims rights groups are blaming the president nicolas maduro for not dealing with overcrowding and also rising violence in those prisons but so far there's been no official comment on the government and those are the headlines and news continues here on al-jazeera inside story is next. al-jazeera it's it's it's it's swear every so it's. a young performer or an entrenched military man ethiopia has

a new leader follows from the overall no ethnic group that's been with the.