two reflections of the riches that are there the front thread the front and on top of the fence broad falls and one dream dashed by sectarian politics and stop being about supporters of the game pure politics al-jazeera world looks back at the rise and fall of lebanon's golden age of basketball time out on al-jazeera. stories of life. and sparring session. a series of short documentaries from around the wilds. that celebrate the human spirit. against the arts. al-jazeera selects hunted.

the u.s. and russia trade threats and the u.n. never suspected chemical attack in syria as donald trump puts military action on the table. blowing down jordan this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up the f.b.i. raids the home and office of the u.s. president's longtime lawyer the man in the center of a large payment to a pawn stop. shipping promise is an easier business climate for foreign oil to firms as a trade war looms with the u.s. . a peace accord in peril outrage than colombia's form of one rebel group of this leaders arrested for alleged drug trafficking. the u.s. president says he'll make a decision shortly on how to respond to

a suspected chemical weapons attack in syria donald trump says all options are on the table including military action a syrian aid organization says dozens died in saturday's attack in the rebel held town of duma that's near the capital damascus the syrian government's main ally russia denies that. we're making a decision as to what we do with respect to the horrible attack that was made near damascus and it will be met and it will be met forcefully and when i will not say because i don't like talking about timing so we're going to make a decision tonight or very shortly thereafter and you'll be hearing the decision but we can't let atrocities like we all witnessed and you can see that it's horrible we can't let that happen. well the attack on duma was the focus of an emergency meeting of the u.n. security council there was a fiery exchange between the u.s.

and russia moscow's warning of grave consequences in the event of a u.s. strike on syria michaela reports from the united nations despite a plea for unity in the council there was little in evidence the emergency session originally called by nine security council members and the new british ambassador summed up the majority position options are on the table we will want to evaluate days in the light of what we know we prefer to start with a proper investigation but we will keep in touch with. us in front from the russian ambassador though an alternative narrative his argument that any chemical attack would have been carried out by opposition groups under the direction of american advisers the intend t. claimed to justify military action against the syrian government and scathing words directed at the us ambassador across the chamber who was a. you misguided if you think you have friends the so-called friends of yours are

only those who cannot say no to you and this is the sole criterion for friendship in your understanding the us has proposed the establishment of a un investigative mechanism with an initial one year mandate to identify perpetrators of chemical attacks and while calling for security council action the ambassador made a not so veiled threat history will record this as the moment when the security council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter and complete failure to protect the people of syria either way the united states will respond. as the western allies gathered in intense conversation the possibility that in the face of ongoing security council division some members could contemplate unilateral and forceful action mike hanna al-jazeera united nations the u.s.

president's described the latest federal probe into his personal attorney as disgraceful and a neverending witch hunt michael cullen's at the center of a controversy surrounding donald trump and a porn star done estabrook reports. before a meeting with military advisors over syria and angry president donald trump blasted a new federal investigation into personal attorney michael cohen it's into screams full situation it's a total witch hunt i've been saying it for a long time i've wanted to keep it down we've given. i believe over a million pages worth of documents to the special counsel the investigation into cohen stems from special prosecutor robert miller's probe into russia's meddling in the twenty six thousand presidential election moeller apparently found information about cohen that he turned over to federal prosecutors cohen has been under scrutiny for admitting that he paid adult film star stormy daniels one hundred thirty thousand dollars less than two weeks before the election daniels claims the

payment was hush money over an affair with the president trump denies the affair and any knowledge of the payment but a former federal prosecutor says the documents confiscated in monday's raid could show a connection between the president and the porn star it is very unusual for a lawyer to have his office served a search warrant by the f.b.i. and that means there it happens when there's something called the crime fraud exception so there is obviously a belief by somebody who has looked at the evidence that mr cohen and his client mr trump may have been involved in some kind of criminal activity cohen's attorney says his client is cooperating with investigators but said the decision by the u.s. attorney's office in new york to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary it resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between

a lawyer and his clients the new investigation could put president trump on a collision course again with special prosecutor robert mueller who he threatened to fire last summer and who he now says has stepped over a line die in us to broke al-jazeera washington. construction has started on president trump's long promised wall on the border with mexico it's along a thirty two kilometer stretch in southern new mexico where thousands of migrants have attempted to enter the u.s. in the last year and last week the president accused mexico of doing nothing to stop illegal migrants china's president says he'll cut tariffs on auto imports are the latest move in a trade route with the u.s. she shipping is also promising to offer an easier business climate for foreign firms in a speech at a conference on hainan island he pledged to open china's markets even further let's cross live now to agent brown he's in shanghai agency how significant is this speech against the backdrop of this looming trade war. well i think it is pretty

significant down because president xi jinping doesn't really give many speeches to international audiences he doesn't do twitter he doesn't do facebook he doesn't do one on one interviews or indeed news conferences but he chose the. economic forum the bow economic forum on the island of high and and to deliver what is in a sense a keenly anticipated speech because what are you affected he said deron is that he wants to improve the business environment for foreign companies here in china significantly he said he was going to open the service sector which has been closed to foreign banks and insurance companies for a number of years he says that's now going to change he says that china's going to cut import tariffs on imported cars but he didn't say by how much you also spoke about wanting to balance trade between china and its trading partners he didn't mention the united states or president from by name but he did say that the cold war mentality was now out of fashion this was

a speech i think which probably is deepening reform but was very low on specifics i think the president wanted to in a sense demonstrate that china is a rules abiding member of the global trading system and he wants the countries who are present in the audience today there are a number of asian heads of state prime ministers as well as a u.n. secretary general and the head of the i.m.f. in a sense to sign up to china's position in the current trade friction with the united states yeah i mean did he sound conciliatory actual age when i mean donald trump says he thinks he can still do deals with china despite the talk of this trade war . yes i think his words were considered three i don't know you can say it was an olive branch but i think it's fair to assume that the president from trade officials will be studying the text of shooting things beach in great detail this was a speech that had been expected to contain promises of deepening reform but it was

as i say very low on specifics there wasn't you know details about the timeline of when all these sort of policies would kick in but certainly this is not a speech that will displease president donald trump on a day when he has certainly bigger issues on his mind thank you. more than forty eight groups and charities are calling on south korea's president to press for human rights to be on the agenda during a summit with the north and a joint letter to moon j. and they say he has a duty to not let the issue be sidelined by the new combinations of north korea's leader kim jong un the divided countries will hold their first official talks for more than a decade on april twenty seventh colombia's peace process is looking more fragile after the arrest of a former negotiator for the fog rebel group is wanted in the u.s. on charges of drug trafficking has so centric was about to take up one of the ten seats in parliament guaranteed to the group which became a political party after

a peace deal signed in twenty sixteen he's accused of conspiring to smuggle several tons of cocaine into the u.s. president one manual santa says he's willing to approve soundtrack's extradition. seek. process or equal process is fulfilled and with irrefutable evidence there is a place for extradition for crimes committed after the signing of. my hand won't shake in authorizing it subject to the supreme court. well eric farnsworth his vice president of the council of the americas he says the latest development is a blow to colombia's efforts to move on from fifty years of conflict. well it's clearly a shock and a bit of a surprise that somebody so senior would be caught up so directly in drug trafficking in direct violation of the peace accords that were signed so this is clearly a setback but i think president one will found out from colombia has that right if

the charges are can be proven and are clearly shown to be not political in nature the fark doesn't have much of a leg to stand on this as i said is clearly a violation of the peace accords and so will have to be prosecuted accordingly there is still a deep mistrust of the fark and in some corners really dismissal of the fact that they should be part of the political process and also this will give ammunition to a large segment of the population who said from the beginning you can't trust the far to uphold the peace accords that they've signed and i think president santos is really trying to maintain a very difficult road here he's trying to maintain the momentum of the peace accords from both sides of both implementation by the fark and also the political support of the colombian government in the colombian people meanwhile you have an election for president of colombia will be occurring in may and this issue is

clearly going to be part of that because the candidates for president are from both the left and the right and the implementation of the peace accords and how much. political space should be given to the former. violent revolutionaries is clearly going to be part of the political discussion so that's something that i think we have to watch very closely. lots more so to come here and al-jazeera including the boss of facebook admits he could have done more to protect user data as he prepares to testify before the u.s. congress. on the changing face of northern ireland twenty years almost of the peace deal in the shot of politics more in the states. and i that is pretty cold for some of us in north america at the moment the satellite picture is showing this area of cloud that's marching its way towards the

east that is not bringing us a great deal of wintery weather it's just hiding the sunshine a little bit so staying disappointingly cool and as we had three choose a winnipeg one degree is the maximum for us we normally at around ten and for toronto we've got six is on maximum a normally we'd be around eleven so the temperatures are a long way below what they should be and then not really showing a great sign of recovery even as we head through wednesday meanwhile towards the west more wet and windy weather is piling in here so for seattle expect it to be an of a soggy one if we head further south we can see the rains eva some parts of mexico we're going to get going over the next few days just a few showers here and there at the moment but look at the cloud build as we had three choose day for the eastern parts we are expecting quite a bit of wet weather and that does look pretty heavy it sink this way southwards as we head through the day on wednesday we could also see some outbreaks of rain there in mexico city and the showers then get going for the south stretching all the way down towards colombia that's pretty wet for some of us here for south america

plenty of showers in the northern parts of i'm up you would expect but we're also seeing some rain in the south now to edging its way towards buenos aires for wednesday. i am doing this for the benefit of people. so they see the importance of there are guys. who witness documentaries that open your eyes. at this time on al-jazeera.

welcome back a quick reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera u.s. president donald trump says he will make a decision shortly on how to respond to a suspected chemical weapons attack in syria trump says all options are on the table including military action dozens of such a died in the alleged attack on saturday. donald trump has described an f.b.i. raided the home and office of his personal noir michael cohen as a disgrace and a total witch hunt cohen's been at the center of a controversy involving the president and a porn star stormy daniels claims she was paid to keep quiet about a sexual encounter she had with trump twelve years ago. and colombia's peace process is looking more fragile after the arrest of a former negotiator for the fox rebel group who is wanted in the u.s. on charges of drug trafficking and so some trip was about to take up a seat in parliament for the group which became a political party after

a peace deal signed in twenty sixteen. well more now on our top story that suspected chemical weapons attack in syria as the international fallout continues tens of thousands of rebel fighters and their families are moving out of duma it's all part of a russian sponsored exchange which requires that josh and his damn rebel group to surrender all prisoners before leaving the anahata reports. they are leaving from the last rebel pocket in eastern who. has surrendered up to eight thousand fighters from the rebel group and more than forty thousand of their family members and anyone else who wants to leave are being bussed out of the city the russian military has given them safe passage to rebel held areas in northern syria as part of a deal that also involved. releasing all of its prisoners many of them held for years and among them women and children they arrived at a government controlled crossing late on sunday. the deal came after

a suspected chemical attack in the city that killed dozens of people doctors and rescue workers saying many of the victims suffocated informed at the mouse symptoms indicative of exposure to some kind of chemical agent damascus and its backer moscow dismissed the claims as fabrication it isn't the first time chemical weapons are believed to have been used by the syrian government against civilians hours after the attack agreed to return to the negotiating table it wasn't clear why the initial collapse on friday but when it did the pro-government alliance launched an all out military offensive to pile pressure on the rebel group the evacuation or what amounts to a surrender is similar to the agreement with two other rebel factions and. gave up after a fierce bombing campaign. was hoping for a different deal that would allow it to remain in control of duma but under the overall jurisdiction of the government that didn't happen what they did manage to

get is a guarantee that russia's military police will enter the city and those who chose to stay won't be harassed or detained by state security forces much of duma is now rubble the largest urban center in the eastern suburbs of damascus has been a target since opposition fighters captured the area in two thousand and thirteen. it was the main hub of anti-government protests close to the capital and from there rebels were able to threaten the government seat of power by frequently launching rockets into neighborhoods. seven years later the pro-government alliance is declaring victory but the seven week offensive killed nearly two thousand civilians this is the worst defeat suffered by the opposition since the fall of aleppo in late two thousand and sixteen senator al jazeera beirut. the gulf crisis and syria's war expected to feature in talks between qatar's amir and the u.s.

president but in the run up to that meeting on tuesday the focus has been on the importance of america's big military base in doha reports from washington d.c. . it's shaped i mean been authorities first official visit to the us since president donald trump took office his first formal meeting in the u.s. capitol was with the u.s. defense secretary james mattis expanding military corporation was near the top of their agenda were you very close to each other especially because there is and we've moved to more than a week but you are many. side by side in. qatar hosts the americans for what military headquarters in the middle east centcom there are date military base is give a toll for u.s. operations in the region we're going to continue working together with debility in the caribbean the caribbean or italy and that can work all that are affected by

many bright and occasionally encounters i mean there is a big night that. was coming the spread of iran malign influence in the region this is a crucial visit for qatar. for the last ten bones his country has had to deal with a blockade imposed by saudi arabia the u.a.e. behind and egypt. remains open to dialogue as long as it's. there is nothing confined to the sovereignty of the states but that as long as they are respecting the international law as long as they offer spec think our people and their whites this is what's up until we know what that region entire region is suffering from a lot of crises and cannot afford more costs two weeks ago sound principle had been said and met the u.s. president sandy arabia and its allies say the embargo imposed. won't be lifted

alas doha changes is foreign policy what we have seen so far is that the crisis has brought in external actors such as russia to. turkey and iran into a region which makes it even more dangerous because the instability there. would increase if the u.s. is perceived to lose influence and able to solve the crisis which. itself a meeting between gulf leaders was shuttled in the u.s. for next month but it's now expected to take place later this year the u.s. is trying to narrow differences among its rival biggest concerns that a failure to find a political solution to the quizes could further erode its standing in the region and undermine its push to defeat i still have. washington d.c. . talk of a chinese military base in the south pacific is raising concern in australia as

government says it's having discussions with the chinese under thomas has more now from sydney china has had a significant presence across the small island states of the pacific for years after able to many of those countries and seen chinese workers building roads chinese money and loans place for infrastructure development and for development projects but if this were confirmed this would be the first time china has set up a military base in the pacific then we actually have one outside china anywhere in the world in djibouti so this would be a significant step there is concern in australia about the potential here because australia like to think that it has to teach it control over that part of the pacific france too has a military base in nearby new caledonia but this is a very early in the process it is some sources within the vanuatu government have spoken to this in the morning herald newspaper but it's a long way from this being a formal decision to set up a base in the pacific ocean and all that that could lead to. at least fifteen

people including children have been killed in an air strike in yemen local officials say saudi led coalition planes target a house in the southwestern city of tal the area seen heavy fighting between saudi backed government forces and who the rebels they backed by iran. thirty one palestinians are now confirmed dead in gaza after the israeli army opened fire on demonstrators that began ten days ago gaza's health ministry says a forty five year old man died on monday from wounds he sustained during protests on friday tens of thousands of people have traveled to the border with israel demanding a right of return palestinian refugees more than twenty four hundred have been injured most of them by live ammunition and from israeli army gunfire. facebook chief executive mark zuckerberg has apologized to u.s. politicians for a privacy breach affecting millions of users he will appear before two congressional committees on tuesday and wednesday in washington d.c.

and the lots of questions about the misuse of data from up to eighty seven million users article again as a story mark zuckerberg up until now known for his laid back style his stunning college invention that made him a very young billionaire but perception of the facebook founder seems to be changing just listen to the chief economic advisor to the president as you know as to. why sure if you're going to get it right is my final question you know do you think this is going to behave like an adult this is a major corporate leader forgive me this phony baloney what is it. really was that kind of signal you know wearing a suit instead of that trademark gray t. shirt and mobbed by reporters zuckerberg met privately with key senators monday his message he's sorry he made a mistake it will happen again. after their meeting senator bill nelson explained zuckerberg has reason to take that tone my sense is that he takes it seriously

because he knows that there is going to be a hard look at regulation if it's not his site someone else can be misuse for people who are trying to do us harm and i believe he understands that regulation could be right around the corner so could big fines millions of dollars ephemeral investigators conclude that facebook wasn't living up to a past agreement to protect privacy so now facebook is promising changes restricting who can see user data expanding new stricter privacy protections demanded by the european union to all of its users worldwide allowing research into the effects of social media on elections and increasing security staff privacy advocates say that won't be enough i think it's frankly absurd that people are assuming that the company that cause these problems is going to fix these problems

this is precisely why we need democratic how to believe we need public oversight for these companies zuckerberg performance on the hill could have a big impact on whether there is new oversight and accountability and whether a growing number of people continue to unfriend the site pedicle hain al-jazeera washington. at least twenty seven children were killed when their school bus skidded off a mountain road in india the crash happened in the northern state of emotional pradesh initial reports suggest the driver was speeding when he lost control and the bus plunged about sixty metres the children were on their way home. french police have used tear gas and stun grenades in a dorm raid to clear out environmental activists from the site of an abandoned airport project about two and a half thousand police battled with the protesters who fought back with stones plans for the airport are not a done deal long in western france were abandoned in january after years of protests but many of the anti-capitalist activists refused to leave. northern

ireland appears to be a rejuvenated province tourism and the economy has picked up in the twenty years since the good friday agreement brought car to a region divided mainly between catholic irish nationalists and pro british protestants but all the two communities closer together bodily phillips reports from the capital belfast. it's the new northern island where tourists come from across the world to take selfies in an avenue of beech trees because it features in the hit t.v. series game of thrones. once upon a time in the city of dallas north an island scenery talent affordability and yes even its divisive history make for a booming film industry. but none of this could have happened without peace says this busy location manager i've had discussions about for jobs in the last week in northern ireland significant jobs. there are huge companies coming here that you would never have dreamed twenty years ago companies though otherwise would

never ever have dreamed of what was considered to be a war zone so it's named chance in the last twenty years as night and. the troubles the pictures look great days but in northern ireland of places in the past ever be a foreign country central belfast is transformed nobody comes into the city fearing that they'll get caught up in a bomb attack and yet you don't have to go very far from here to see how divided this is side he still is. the first residential streets we come to a protestant enclave surrounded by catholic streets yes people still define neighborhoods in those terms still live behind what they call peace walls are still so fiercely tribal my guide from a party connected to protestant paramilitaries and we could go back to the bad old days it would be naive to think that that could never happen so there is

a certain resilience there's a real i think substantial bit of work has been done here in northern ireland real progress that but there still is a fragility to it belfast has regenerated doc lands the titanic museum and yet northern ireland has not had a government for over a year because the feuding between the pro british do you and the irish nationalists shin fein this politician are from a moderate nationalist party worries where all this will lead us the situation we're in the big parties are of the at arm's length and if you like were diagnosed . it means that the political support that we need to build the prosperity justice. and then there's bracks it some fear with the potential to inflame those issues of identity which the good friday agreement has helped contain twenty years is a long time and yet not long enough to take progress for granted to be phillips

al-jazeera belfast. watch out for a quick check of the headlines here on al-jazeera u.s. president donald trump says he'll make a decision shortly on how to respond to a suspected chemical weapons attack in syria trump says all options are on the table including military action dozens of died in the alleged attack on saturday. we're making a decision as to what we do with respect to the horrible attack. that was made near damascus and it will be met and it will be met forcefully. and when i remark say because i don't like talking about timing so we're going to make a decision tonight or very shortly thereafter. and you'll be hearing the decision but we can't lead atrocities like we all witnessed and you can see that it's

horrible we can't let that happen well the attack was the focus of an emergency meeting of the u.n. security council there was a fiery exchange between the u.s. and russia which denies the attack happened in moscow warned of grave consequences in the event of a u.s. strike on syria and donald trump has described an f.b.i. raided the home and office of his personal lawyer michael cohen as a disgrace and a total witch hunt cohen's at the center of a controversy involving the president in a porn star stormy daniels says she was paid to keep quiet about a sexual encounter with trump twelve years ago china's president says he'll cut tariffs on auto imports in the latest move in a trade with the u.s. she shipping is also promising to offer an easy business climate for foreign firms . colombia's peace process is looking more fragile after the arrest of a former negotiator for the fog rebel group who is wanted in the u.s. on charges of drug trafficking has so centric was about to take up

a seat in parliament for the group which became a political party after a peace accord signed in twenty sixteen and more than forty eight groups and charities are calling on south korea's president to press for human rights to be on the agenda during a summit with the north leader kim jong un the divided countries will hold their first official talks for more than a decade on april twenty seventh well those were the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after witness statements are watching. counting the costs why the gender pay gap the u.k. names that companies web and the paid more than women the new blood diamonds found that electric cars and small phones while facebook c.e.o. gets ready once as some big question. counting the cost.