to be forced to leave the group just. when people need to be heard girls are being bought and given away in refugee camps al-jazeera has teams on the ground to bring you the winning documentaries and live news on al-jazeera i got to commend you all i'm hearing is good journalism on air and online. what makes this moment this era we're living through so unique this is really an attack on its truth itself is a lot of misunderstanding a distortion of what free speech is supposed to be about the context it's hugely important. to publish it. to be offensive or provokes it's all about what is' people do setting the stage for a serious debate. up front at this time on al-jazeera.

the u.s. and russia trade threats at the un never a suspected chemical attack in duma donald trump puts military options on the table . hello i'm down in jordan this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up china's president promises a more even playing field for foreign firms as a trade war looms with the u.s. . a peace accord in perilous a former colombian rebel leader is arrested for alleged drug trafficking. malaysia's prime minister faces the strongest challenge yet to his grip on power as an election date is set. the u.s. president says he'll make a decision shortly on how to respond to a suspected chemical attack in syria donald trump says all options are on the table

including military action a white house correspondent kimberly hellcat has more. u.s. president donald trump says he wants someone to pay for the suspected chemical attack in duma on monday he convened his cabinet to discuss it it was an atrocious attack it was horrible when you are studying that situation extremely closely we are meeting with our military and everybody else. and will be making some major decisions over the next twenty four to forty eight hours to help make those decisions seated directly behind the president and marking his first days trumps national security advisor john bolton and chief architect of the u.s. led invasion of iraq fifteen years ago and known for his hawkish views on north korea and iran trump is pointing a finger at iran among others for supporting the syrian government and potentially being complicit in the duma attack if it's russia if it's syria

if it's a red if it's all of them together we'll figure it out. no the answer is quite certain trump has even taken the rare step of directly naming russian president vladimir putin in proportioning the blame. trying to threat of retaliation comes one year after launching airstrikes in a syrian air field following a chemical attack on civilians in the town of could she cooed and nearly a week after he said he wanted the us to get out of syria i want to bring our troops back home i want to start rebuilding our nation it's time it's time. there was no hint of that on monday as the defense secretary said the pentagon is now considering its options also questioning the rules the russians played in the latest attack. if you. would run through the framework.

of the forward country for weapons u.s. president is promising a decision within the next day on any u.s. action in syria kimberly help that al-jazeera at the white house well the attack onto my was the focus of an emergency meeting at 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 now from the u.n. . 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 start with the 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 us president has described the latest federal president his personal attorney as describe as full and a never ending witch hunt michael cohen's at the center of a controversy surrounding donald trump and a porn star don 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 a disgraceful 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 the state of new mexico where thousands of migrants have attempted to enter the u.s. in the past year last week the president accused mexico of doing nothing to stop illegal migrants. china's president says he'll cut tariffs on auto imports in the

latest move in a trade route with the u.s. chimping is also promising to offer an easier business climate for foreign firms in a speech at a conference in highland island he pledged to open china's markets even further asian brown has more from shanghai. well this city shanghai is of course emblematic of china's economic achievements during the past forty years but it was in another part of china hina and island in the south of the country where president xi jinping on tuesday announced that he wanted to deepen economic reform in china he said he wanted to improve the investment environment for foreign companies doing business here but of course these were his first comments since the start of the current trade friction with the united states president xi jinping said china didn't want to seek a trade surplus generally few months without we have a genuine desire to increase imports and achieve a greater balance of international payments under the current atmosphere this year

we will significantly lower the import tariff for vehicles and also reduce tariffs for some other products we will work hard to import more products that are competitive and are needed by our people these could be regarded as conciliatory words by president xi jinping but while there were plenty of promises it was very little in the way of details especially when these new policies will be inforced president xi jinping wants those in the audience to sign up to china's position in its current trade standoff with the united states he wants to demonstrate that china is a rule abiding member of the international trading community and it stands for free trade and always will. talk of a chinese military base in the south pacific is raising concerns in australia vanuatu's government says it's having discussions with the chinese thomas has more 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 source is within the vanuatu government that i've spoken to this is 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 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 in a joint letter to moon j. and they say he has a duty to not let the issue be sidelined by the new transitions of north korea's

leader kim jong il the divided countries will hold their first official talks for more than a decade of april twenty seventh 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 and 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 accord signed in twenty sixteen he's accused of conspiring to smuggle several tons of cocaine into the u.s. president one man or santos says he's willing to approve sanford sex addition. real deal. equal if g. process is fulfilled and with irrefutable evidence there is a place for extradition for crimes committed after the signing of the accord my hand won't shake in authorizing it subject to the supreme court well eric fans worked as a vice president of the council of the americas he says the arrest 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 still to come here not just here including a lawsuit against the syrian president but will it bring closure to the family of a u.s. journalist killed covering the civil war. and the facebook boss says sorry but that may not help him story tough privacy laws planned by us normally going to stick

this. hello there we still got a good deal of unsettled weather across the middle east at the moment most of the heaviest rain is in the far east in parts of i'm up through parts of afghanistan and then up towards tajikistan plenty of cloud plenty of rain and snow out of this then there's a bit of a break before you can see the next system plenty of cloud here working its way through parts of iran through iraq and down through parts of turkey as well so heavy downpours here plenty of cloud as well and that's really not moving anywhere in a great hurry even as we head through the day on wednesday that system of cloud and rain has also been affecting us across parts of the arabian peninsula recently too we've seen quite a few showers parts of saudi and we've got plenty of cloud a sticking around as we head through tuesday and wednesday in fact if anything it

looks like it's thickening up again so on wednesday there's a chance we could see the old shower here in bahrain or perhaps in saudi arabia and on thursday they could be a few thunderstorms for us as well down towards the southern parts of africa and hey we've got plenty of showers a very lively ones over the eastern parts of south africa at the moment all of that pushing its way towards the north more even mozambique there as we head through wednesday but we could see one or two showers over parts of zimbabwe as well to the north of that plenty of showers as usual but for the south lottery dry. being selfish you know there are terms you know nine hundred two teams two reflections which is the front thread of the qur'an another from a fancy growth process and one dream dashed by sectarian attacks a third stopped being about sports team pure politics zero world looks back at the

rise and fall of last. basketball timeout on. welcome back a quick reminder of the top stories here at al-jazeera u.s. president donald trump says he'll make a decision shortly on how to respond to a suspected chemical attack in syria trump says all options are on the table including military action dozens are said to have died in the alleged attack on saturday. china's president says he'll qatar of some also imports in the latest move in a trade route with the u.s. is also promising to offer an easy a business climate for foreign firms in

a speech at a conference on the hainan island pledged to open china's markets even further. and 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. trick was about to take up a seat in parliament for the group which became a political party after a peace accord was signed in twenty six. now malaysia will go to the polls in a month's time in a vote seen as a big test for prime minister najib razak his ruling coalition has been in power now for more than sixty years but the genes been dogged by a financial scandal and faces an opposition alliance led by a former prime minister falsely reports now from who are in southern malaysia. norrish ambon are my used to be very certain about which political party he supports not anymore the businessman who lives in the southern georgia state says it's getting harder to make a decent living the price of making goods the price of making it so he says it's no

longer that that labor is up and then the cost of making money is higher but the cost of living becomes higher. malaysia's economy grew by five point nine percent last year but rising living costs has become a concern for many people here have returned to the ruling party in every single election but in the past couple of years the opposition coalition has been gaining steady support the ruling bars a national coalition has been in power since independence more than sixty years ago but lost the popular vote for the first time in two thousand and thirteen since then the prime minister has been caught up in a corruption scandal surrounding malaysia's state investment fund known as one m d b more than four and a half billion dollars has allegedly been misappropriated from the fund set up by not malaysian police and the attorney general have so far not found any evidence of wrongdoing but not job and his allies are said to be facing strongest challenge

former prime minister mahathir mohamad is leading the opposition coalition's bid the ninety two year old veteran politician fell out with over one. and has returned to politics to try to oust him but political analysts say unseating the incumbent will be tough ruling party have been in power for so long and this kind of managing the call but also working with the rules so that it helps. in the last few weeks the government redrew the electro boundaries in a way opponents say gives it an unfair advantage there's also a new law to ban so-called fake news which critics say is an attempt to stifle dissent more recently there is opposition party has been ordered to do for thirty days because of missing paperwork florence. state malaysia.

independent monitors are questioning the famous of hungary's elections which will viktor orban win a third straight term as prime minister you know when i was asian for security and cooperation in europe says other candidates weren't able to compete equally with all buns running financial party voters had a wide range of political options but intimidating and zina phobic rhetoric media bias and opaque campaign financing constricted the space for genuine political debate hindering voters' ability to make a fully informed choice the ability of contestants to compete on an equal basis was significantly compromised by the government's excessive spending on public information advertisements that amplified the ruling coalition's campaign message. the gulf crisis and syria's war expected to feature in talks between capitalism and the us 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. . is shaped i mean been hammered authorities first official visit to the u.s. since president donald trump took office his first formal meeting in the u.s. capital was with the u.s. defense secretary james mattis expanding military cooperation was near the top of their agenda or were you very close to going to a specially called big terrorism we've moved more than ten feet of your many. cut side by side and. qatar hosts the americans forward military headquarters in the middle east centcom their date military base is give a toll for u.s. operations in the region we can get if you work in together with debility in the caribbean the caribbean italy and met in were all the doorstep of the many bright

and occasionally encounters coming terrorism that. was counting the spread of iran malign influence in the region this is a crucial visit for qatar's emir 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 are perspectives our people and their rights 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 sounded a crown prince mohammed bin send than met. the u.s. president saudi arabia and its allies say the embargo imposed on qatar won't be lifted alas though changes its foreign policy what we have seen so far is that the

crisis has brought in external actors such as russia turkey and iran into the 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 rivals are lies these 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. at least fifteen people including children have been killed in a mass trike in yemen officials say saudi led coalition planes hit a house in the south western city of tire ease the area seen heavy fighting between

saudi backed government forces and who the rebels they are backed by iran the family of a u.s. journalist killed in syria is suing the government of president bashar al assad over her death marie colvin was working for the london based sunday times when she was killed in homs and twenty twelve fishes more from washington d.c. . recall there was a well known and hugely respected foreign correspondent who spent time in conflict zones she wore a distinctive eye patch the result of an injury when a grenade exploded while reporting in sri lanka she was killed in homes in twenty twelve the early days of the syrian civil war know a new lawsuit lodged in court in washington d.c. alleges she was deliberately targeted by senior syrian government figures the documents they were submitting into evidence illustrate that the regime really at the highest level had adopted a policy of launching joint military and intelligence operations against media workers and their sources and this included both foreign journalist syrian

journalist media activist even everyday syrians that were you know recording a demonstration on their cell phone. colvin was an american citizen she was buried near where she grew up in new york state her family are behind the lawsuit foreign governments normally can be sued in u.s. civil court but there are exceptions for countries designated by the state department sponsor of terrorism syria is coming on that list her sister says she thinks of marie every day we filed the lawsuit as soon as we could collect enough evidence to prove that ray had been targeted and i really did that one of the motivations was personal like i just talked about but i also wanted to bring attention to the suffering of the syrian people for all the pain that my family has gone through there are thousands and thousands of syrians who have suffered in the same way one of the key pieces of the lawsuit is the testimony from a former syrian intelligence agent could named ulysses who confirmed the idea of

targeting colvin was discussed and agreed at the highest level among those also lodging testimony with the court former u.s. ambassador to syria robert ford it is important. to record their own judicial manner. for press of x. the kinds of war crimes that the syrian government committed the family is hoping there will be no hearing and the judge will simply make a recommendation for damages against the city and state the only reaction from damascus syrian president bashar al assad once said marie colvin was she deserved alan fischer washington facebook chief mark zuckerberg has apologized to u.s. politicians for privacy breach affecting millions of users zuckerberg will appear before two congressional committees on tuesday and wednesday in washington and answer questions about the misuse of data if not to eighty seven million users

particle. 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 so you know we're still talking please why sure because you know that is going to get you right is my thought is our last year you know do you think this is you going to behave like an adult as a major corporate leader or give me this phony baloney look what is it but he's a sound reasonable was a 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 won't 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 misused 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 ephedra 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 soon ing that the company that cause these problems is going to fix these problems this is precisely why we need democratic how to belittle 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. al-jazeera washington thirty one palestinians are now confirmed dead in gaza after the israeli army opened fire on demonstrations 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 to travel to the border with israel demanding a right of return for palestinian refugees more than two thousand four hundred have been injured most of them by live on a mission from israeli army gunfire. now so cold controlled demolition in southern denmark has gone totally out of control and leaving a trail of destruction this fifty three meter silo in the city of voting bull was brought down by expenses but fell the wrong way nobody was injured but a nearby building was badly damaged an investigation is now underway.

my turn for a quick recap of the top stories here u.s. president donald trump says he'll make a decision shortly on how to respond to a suspected chemical attack in syria trump says all options are on the table including military action dozens are said to have died in the duma attack on saturday. when he was the focus of an emergency meeting at the u.n. security council there was a fiery exchange between the u.s. and russia which denies it happened. warned of grave consequences in the event of a u.s. strike on syria. 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 cummins at the center of a controversy involving the president and 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 also imports in the latest move in a trade route with the u.s. also promising to offer a more level playing field for foreign firms president xi jinping on tuesday announced that he wanted to deepen economic reform in china he said he wanted to improve the investment environment for foreign companies doing business here well of course these were his first comments since the start of the current trade friction with the united states president xi jinping said china didn't want to seek a trade surplus these could be regarded as conciliatory words by president xi jinping but while there were plenty of promises there was very little in the way of details especially when these new policies will be inforced malaysia will go to the polls in a month's time in a vote seen as a big test for prime minister najib razak his ruling coalition has been in power for more than sixty years but the jeep's been dogged by a financial scandal and faces opposition alliance led by the former prime minister

mahathir mohamad. colombia's peace process is looking more fragile after the arrest of a former negotiator for the thought rebel group who is wanted in the u.s. on charges of drug trafficking case of some trick was about to take up a seat in parliament for the group which became a political party after a peace deal was signed in twenty sixteen he's accused of conspiring with three others to smuggle several tons of cocaine into the u.s. those were the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after counting the costs of that so what about just. some journalists decided to sacrifice their integrity for our. time on al-jazeera.