it's. where every. story fourteen hundred years in the make. the story of succession and leadership. is the story the foundation and the emergence of an empire. the caliph episode one. we understand the differences and the similarities of cultures across the world. so no matter where you call home al-jazeera international bringing the news and current affairs that matter to. al-jazeera.

u.s. president donald trump warns of action over the latest suspected chemical weapons attack in syria which russia says it never happened. richelle carey this is al jazeera life and also coming up a surprise arrest of a former fark rebel leader on drug smuggling charges in columbia river nice sharp divisions over the country's peace process. facing the music a rare public grilling for facebook's chief over the failure to protect almost nineteen million users personal data. and two decades on from the deal which sealed peace in northern ireland serious political divisions remain. u.s. president says he'll make a decision soon 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 and tonight here the capital damascus the syrian government's main ally russia denies it even happened more now from our white house correspondent kimberly helka. 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. 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 syria if it's a red if it's all of them together we'll figure it out. no the answer is quite sure 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 courage she cooed and nearly a week after he said he wanted the u.s. 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 role the russians played in the latest attack. to the russian framework during. the movie over the country for weapons us president is promising a decision within the next day on any u.s. action in syria kimberly help at al-jazeera at the white house. was the focus of an emergency meeting at the u.n. security council there were sharp exchanges between the u.s. and russia moscow is warning of grave repercussions if there is a u.s. strike on syria and mike hanna 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 be

evaluate what we know we start with the investigation but we will keep in touch with. us from 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 advises ten t. claimed to justify military action against the syrian government and scathing words directed at the us ambassador across the chamber. well she 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 u.s. 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. people are protesting in colombia after the president said he wouldn't hesitate to extradite a former fargo shater is facing drug smuggling charges. was due to take up a paramilitary parliamentary seat pardon me which fark had been promised as part of this arrangement has arrested cause problems for the colombian peace deal signed back in two thousand and sixteen matheson reports. drumbeats in bogota

marking what these protesters believe could be the end of colombia's fragile peace deal supporters of the former fark negotiator known as hi sue son to say his arrest brings the shaky agreement to a halt. to the colombian people but today shows is that it's a failed peace process and with this peace process all of the fark should prepare themselves for what is coming from today on his two centuries enters a hunger strike. these cell phone pictures are said to show the arrest of places son treece whose real name is say also homeland is accused of trying to smuggle several tons of cocaine into the u.s. and colombia's president says he won't hesitate to extradite sentries because he's been told there's conclusive proof of his guilt see. if g. process is fulfilled and if there is irrefutable evidence there are grounds for extradition for crimes committed since the signing of the accord and i will not

stay my hand in authorizing that the man known as hi sue son treece who is blind has played a key role in the talks which led to the signing of the twenty sixth peace deal when fark wearables put down their weapons reformed as a political party and agreed to stop dealing in drugs park members now can't be prosecuted for drugs offenses committed before the agreement was signed but sun treece is accused of importing the drugs to the us after the deal was done he had been expected to take up one of ten parliamentary seats which the fark party had been. this is extremely serious because it sends a very disastrous demoralizing message that creates a lot of uncertainty it's a very bad message for the colombian people for the former combatants and for the peace that our country so badly needs so the demonstrations have been small but there is no real concern for the future of the peace deal which ended over fifty

years of violence in colombia rob matheson al jazeera china's president has promised to open the doors even wider for foreign investment in the latest move in a trade route with the u.s. to hold a conference and on that he would cut tariffs on car imports and open up the banking sector to foreign ownership but president xi didn't mention so that's counterpart in his speech or china correspondent adrian crown 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 an 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 changing this young without we have a genuine desire to increase imports and achieve greater balance of international payments under the current atmosphere this year we will see how difficult it lowers the import tariff for vehicles and also reduce tariffs for some other products we 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 there was very little in the way of details especially when these new policies will be enforced 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 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 the joint letter to president bush and says he has

a duty to not allow the issue to be sidelined discussions concentrating on the nuclear ambitions of north korea's leader kim jong un the north and south korea will hold their first full scale talks and more than a decade on april twenty seventh. still ahead on al-jazeera the mental work force is the protege malaysia's prime minister faces an unprecedented challenge in next month's election plus. they're not going to convince the israeli public of anything peaceful coming out of hamas look at the media war in israel over the protests by palestinians in gaza. and i bet it's cloudy amway for many of us in the west in parts of europe at the moment we look at the satellite picture we can see this huge area of cloud the

stretching through parts of italy through parts of france and up towards the british isles but it's actually to the west of that where we really keeping an eye on the weather because here is where the main story is it is cold here for madrid where only a ten degrees of the maximum we should be eighteen at this time of year and you see as well as being cool it's also wet and windy so feeling even cooler than the temperatures might suggest this system works its way eastwards as we head through wednesday and then the temperatures get a little bit better thirteen degrees for us but there's still some snow over some of the higher ground as that system produces way eastwards and all this cold weather over the western parts of europe is very different to what's going on in the northeastern parts here it's still very warm vienna up at twenty one belin of it twenty three things have cooled off a little bit force in stockholm as this weather system has some kits way towards the south bringing in some slightly fresh air now for the northern parts of africa of course we also seeing some of that unsettled weather over a year there's just spilling into northern parts of his that cloud over parts of

our area and she needs that's a march its way eastwards and for similar bats it'll be pretty windy day as we head through wednesday.

watching al-jazeera and let's recap the top stories for you u.s. president donald trump says all options are on the table including military action in response to a suspected chemical attack in syria on saturday russia's ambassador to the u.n. told the security council the attack was staged and warned of grave repercussions if the u.s. strikes syria the common governments peace agreement with far crackles is looking more fragile after the arrest of one of the group's leaders on drug trafficking charges a cease entres was arrested following a request from the u.s. . and china's president has promised to open the doors for foreign investment xi jinping said he would cut tariffs song car imports and opening open the banking sector to foreign ownership it's the latest move in a trade around with the us. us presidents described a raid by federal investigators on his personal attorneys home and office as

disgraceful and part of a never ending which as lawyer mark will cohen is at the center of a controversy surrounding donald trump and a porn film actress and esterbrook 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 up and save 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. facebook chief executive mark zuckerberg has apologized to us politicians for a privacy breach affecting millions of users will appear before two congressional committees over the next two days and washington d.c. lancer questions about the misuse of data from up to eighty seven million users pedicle has more. 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 where it's time for a clean white shirt if you know that i'm going to get you right as my funds are last year you know do you think this is you going to behave like an adult this is

a major corporate leader forgive me this phony baloney like what is it but he's a sound reason it was a kind of single cell you know wearing a suit instead of the 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 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 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 to call hane al-jazeera washington construction has started on president trump's wall on the border with mexico that'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 of his mexico and doing nothing to stop

undocumented migrants the wall that we're replacing this fencing with is going to be durable it's going to be here for a long time it's going to be harder to get over harder to get through harder to get underneath it's going to have a five foot anti scaling plate at the top which is going to make it very hard for entrance even if you can get to the top to get over the top. today marks twenty years since the signing of the good friday agreement which ended more than three decades of violent conflict and northern ireland as part of the united kingdom has seen growth in the sector such as tourism and production but serious political divisions have been sharpened since the decision to leave the european union. 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 about northern ireland 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. we are so so busy there are huge companies coming here and that you would never have dreamed twenty years ago companies the otherwise would never ever have dreamed of common to what was considered to be a war zone so it's night and the change in the last twenty years is night and. the troubles the pitches grady these 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 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 northern ireland real progress will be it 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 where the big parties are of the of the arm's length and if you like with diagnosed

draw. it means that the political support that we need to build the prosperity justice developed 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 is is a long time and yet not long enough to take progress for granted to be phillip's al-jazeera belfast independent monitors or questioning the fairness of hungary's elections which saw viktor orban win a third straight term as prime minister organization for security and cooperation in europe says other candidates were unable to compete equally with or bonds ruling 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 malaysia will go to the polls in a month's time in a vote seen as a big test for the prime minister najib razak he's been under severe political pressure because of corruption allegations which he rejects but now faces a challenge from his former mentor james ruling national front coalition has been in power for more than sixty years but support has a road in the past two elections the former prime minister mohammad was criticised for authoritarian rule and his twenty two years in power has returned to politics and started a new party after being angered by the corruption scandal opposition alliance is already claiming unfairness holding the vote on

a weekday is likely to see lower turnout electoral boundaries have been redrawn in the ruling party's favor and on thursday the opposition was banned from campaigning for thirty days only fifteen million people are expected to cast their votes on may ninth on flutie has more from law in southern malaysia. norrish ambon amaya 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 brize of making the resource is no longer that it never was. and then because of making money this is how you are but because of becomes how you. malaysia's economy grew by five point nine percent last year but rising living costs has become a concern for many people who 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. 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

of 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 mahathir is opposition party has been ordered to thirty days because of missing paperwork florence. state malaysia. the brim protests in tel aviv over an alleged agreement between israel and the gonda to forcibly deport emigrants at polish prime minister benjamin netanyahu cancelling a deal with the united nations that plan to send half of israel's thirty five thousand african migrants to western nations the demonstration comes weeks after twenty thousand people protested against plans to deport asylum seekers from eritrea and sudan the death toll of palestinians killed by the israeli military

a protest in gaza over the past ten days has risen to thirty one gaza's health ministry says support a five year old man died on monday from wounds he sustained during protests on friday tens of thousands of people who travel to the border with israel demanding a right of return for palestinian refugees more than twenty for one hundred have been injured most of them by live ammunition from the israeli army bernard smith reports now from west jerusalem and how the israeli media are reporting on the protests. from us most israelis get their news from television and newspapers and this is how they've seen garza's march of return a lot of focus has been on how much here there's no mention that those taking part of a cross section of gaza society. so the big fish on the sleeve face up securely well at least you know no mention in this report the most of the demonstrators were peaceful or what has prompted this apparently you approach to

protest in gaza. i think the media is reflecting that they're calling them peaceful protests the problem is you're not going to convince the israeli public of anything peaceful coming out of hamas maybe it's peaceful out of friday but saturday sunday monday tuesday wednesday and thursday it's going to be back to the hamas violence israel's must circulation newspapers in print and online of largely maintain the government's narrative israel today uses an army quote in its headlines it says we will not allow. protests to become the norm of a popular newspaper yet not terror disguised the friends against photographs of protesters costumes only all of the newspapers only the left leaning haaretz quotes directly officials in the headline referring to last friday it says nine people killed three hundred injured by live fire. and editorial by

a contribution with the headline closed heart referring to israel's close hearts it says the killing of gaza journalist. was covered by one of the main channels. in a report that carried a lot of input from the palestinian journalists. with the daily constant the short and i'm sure glad you noticed the short you know. there's less coverage on the palestinian perspective on the renault israeli journalists in gaza a couple of hours after this report and israel's military said it will investigate the deaths of people it considers civilians including photographer. burdett smith al-jazeera west jerusalem. a so-called controlled demolition and denmark has gone totally out of control explosives brought down this fifty three meter silo in the town of bor back it fell the wrong way there you go nobody was injured but

a nearby building was damaged and investigation is under way. these are the headlines right now on al-jazeera at the u.s. president says all options are on the table including military action and response to a suspected chemical attack in syria on saturday russia's ambassador to the u.n. told the security council the attack was staged and warned of repercussions if the u.s. strikes syria. given. government's peace agreement with park rebels is looking more fragile after the arrest of one of the group's leaders on drug trafficking charges . was arrested following a request from the us is accused of conspiring to smuggle ten tons of cocaine into the u.s. president says he is willing to approve extradition. we would be. equal if jew process is fulfilled and with irrefutable evidence there is

a place for extradition for crimes committed after the signing to you cool my hand one show you can authorizing it subject to the supreme court china's president has promised to open the doors for foreign investment xi jinping said he would cut tariffs on car imports and open the banking sector to foreign ownership it's the latest move in a trade with the u.s. more than forty aid groups and charities are urging south korea's president to pick human rights on the agenda of a summit with the north they've issued a joint letter to president. they say the issue issue that is should not be sidelined by discussions on north korea's nuclear program two nations will hold their first major talks and a decade later this month. construction to start on president trumps wall on the border with mexico that's along a thirty two kilometer stretch in the state of new mexico work 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

undocumented migrants. there been protests and tell of even over an alleged agreement between israel and uganda to forcibly deported immigrants it was prime minister benjamin netanyahu cancelling a deal with the united nations that planned to send half of israel's thirty five thousand african migrants to western nations twenty thousand people protested last week against plans to deport asylum seekers from eritrea and sudan. those are the headlines to keep it here on al-jazeera inside story that's next. a very important source of information for many people around the world. have gone i'm still here to go into areas that nobody else is going to talk to people that nobody else is talking to and bringing that story to the forefront. of the news of another suspected chemical attack and.