the conversation starts with do you have a boyfriend you're very pretty and young you feel unsafe threatened i think about how to react what do i do if this gets worse know mahdi army uses a new service it's called learn droit it's for women passages only and drawn by women drivers pull for some extra features like a panic button and twenty fourth's of above the training of dr as. he ruled for nearly half a century a controversial political figure in the cold in the middle east and one who was never far from crisis at home or abroad. in a two part series al-jazeera war and tells the story of convincing overjoyed to. episode one so boy on.

president donald trump promises a forceful response to a suspected chemical weapons attack in syria which russia says never happened. i'm richelle carey this is out of their life and also coming up the daughter of a russian former double agent who was poisoned in the u.k. along with her father has been released from the hospital. china's president sends a veiled message to the u.s. in the latest move to prevent a possible trade war. a former fark rebel leader as arrested on drug smuggling charges in colombia raising concerns about the country's peace process. as president says all options are on the table including military. reaction and

response to a suspected chemical attack in syria on saturday british prime minister theresa may in france as men will mock on have echoed similar sentiments saying assad's government and its backers including russia must be held to account for now from our white house correspondent kimberly halkett. 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'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 trunk has even taken the rare step of directly naming russian president vladimir putin in proportioning the blame. trans 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 he did 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. if you. would rather the framework. of the. 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. was the focus of an emergency meeting at the u.n. security council and there were sharp exchanges between the u.s. and russia warning of crayford for kushan said there is a u.s. strike on syria 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.

start with the investigation but we will keep. us 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 advisors 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 zero united nations united nations is sounding the alarm about the number of people who fled syria's eastern more than one hundred thirty thousand people have left their area in the last four weeks the u.n. describes the situation is spiraling about forty five thousand people are now living in eight shelters in the damascus countryside and others are at overcrowded camps nearby zaina hauteur has more from they were. the united nations expressing concern about the fate of tens of thousands of people people who used to live in

the once rebel controlled enclave of eastern huta tens of thousands have moved into government controlled territories during the conflict while frontlines were changing they they fled to government controlled territories and they are now in government run centers with little aid and fifty thousand people already bussed out of the enclave and taken to the north of the country which areas under the control of the rebels and fifty thousand more will be bussed out from the town of duma in the coming days so one hundred thousand people made newly displaced adding to the millions already of syrians who have been displaced by this ongoing conflict they arrive in the rebel held north with really nothing and many of them do not have any money to rent apartments so they are living in tents with little aid and it live for example is not a safe place that constantly is targeted so people are not safe as well in the united nations is worried about the security of some of these people because when

they move into those who moved into government rolled territories some are taken in for questioning and young men are forced to destroy the army so the united nations expressing concern one official has said that it is live for example in the north is the biggest displacement camp in the world so one hundred more than one hundred thousand people love will most likely never returned to their homes tehran says seven iranians were killed in airstrikes on the thai us military base in syria on monday it lends israel for the attack at homes and warns it will not go without a response israel has not commented on the strikes netanyahu government has repeatedly said the base was being used by iran to supply arms to has fallen and lebanon. the daughter of a former russian double agent who was poisoned in the u.k. has been released from the hospital they thought is in britain so you'll script what her father sergei were exposed to a military grade nerve agent at the thomas ellsbury and early march has denied any

involvement or same blanchard as the medical director at the salisbury district hospital and she says julia and her father sergei responded well to treatment but they're at different stages in their recovery we have now discharged from salisbury district hospital yuliya has asked for privacy from the media and i want to reiterate her request i also want to take this opportunity to wish her well this is not the end of her treatment but marks a significant milestone her father has also made good progress on friday and i'm steve if he was no longer in a critical condition although he's recovering more slowly than you we hope that he too will be able to leave hospital in due course lawrence lee has more from london . well if anybody had said just over a month ago when union sagesse tripple were poisoned they'd be getting better i daresay nobody would have believed it at all because it's supposed to be extremely

powerful nerve agents and yet here we are now sufficiently well vastly improved if not completely better to have been discharging her father surrogate who it is guests or assume was the actual targets of the nerve agent attack by whoever was behind it is going to follow as well and so it does raise the question which is still completely unanswered how come if it was not aren't they both dead and was it as powerful as people say or what actually happened and we don't really have any answers those questions at all and of course because there's a there's a bit of a gap in what the british authorities are telling us that's trying to still be exploited by the russian side so where is yulia now well the metropolitan police say we will not comment on protective security arrangements for personal safety reasons which means that the british gotter is assume that they'll be asking what she knows and who might have wanted to do this which of course is infuriating to

the russian side since they would very much like to have her as well for their own purposes and a half and it seems at the moment and so they put on twitter a short time ago we congratulate you liz cripple on her recovery yet we need urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will and implicit in that very provocative statement of course is the idea that the british are doing things to her but initially against her wishes which is an implication of something very sinister and so you still have this unanswered situation how did the british know with the with the russians when they won't provide imperishable proof and the russians still saying well if you can provide that proof then why do you still say it was us in this bitter bitter war of words between the two sides carrying on just as you earlier is seemingly much better. china's president is offering possible concessions to the u.s. in hopes of a trade dispute with washington after president. tariffs on imported steel and aluminum or china correspondent has more from shanghai. shanghai's dramatic

skyline is a symbol of the economic reforms that began in china forty years ago but president xi jinping chose another part of the country to announce a deepening of those reforms the setting for his speech was the forum on the island of hina a key diplomatic event and so the perfect setting for an important policy announcement . an announcement that sought to sooth foreign investors now worried about a trade war between china and the united states. this year we will significantly lower the import tariffs 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 she wouldn't say how big the cuts would be over when they would happen but reducing such tyrus are one of president trumps main demands and the chinese leader may have had trump in mind when he warned against

a cold war mentality and protectionist policies the disadvantage china almost five out what we hope that the developed countries will stop imposing the limits of normal and reasonable trade of high tech products and lift the export control of high tech products to china. cue the applause from an audience it included world leaders appreciating perhaps the irony that china's communist party now sees itself as a pillar for free trade the president's speech was big on promises but vague on detail but his words seemed to be conciliatory and there appeared to be a message to the united states and others concerned about chinese trade practices president xi promised to protect intellectual property rights another major area of concern in washington a further attempt to present china as a responsible rules abiding member of the global trading system adrian brown al jazeera shanghai. still ahead on al-jazeera and the mentor versus the protege

hellacious prime minister faces an unprecedented challenge and next month's election. where public grilling for facebook's chief over the failure to protect the personal to nearly ninety million users. hello we've got a good westerly flow in our weather across north asr at the moment areas of cloud and rain sweeping through spring sunshine in between the damp weather this next weather system will introduce some rather lively showers across the korean peninsula into the sea of japan eventually and will push into japan itself safer way to stay west and positive pan clouding over turning increasingly wet in the process twenty two celsius there for tokyo they know it will place very quickly as we go on into thursday temp just bouncing back to around twenty six degrees with

some lovely warm spring sunshine even sapporo getting up to thirteen celsius into the upper teens there across the korean peninsula twenty one celsius there for beijing but you follow that cloud and rain a little further south you can see what makes its way across the east china sea some damn weather in store for central parts of china then over the next day or so as well bits and pieces of damp weather as you go through wednesday but it does gather together somewhat as we go on into thursday heavy downpours then for shanghai as we make our way into the last part of the week warm southerly winds in hong kong fine and dry lots of sunshine here twenty nine celsius and plenty a warm sunshine into southeast asia but of course the usual showers coming down some wet weather there for borneo and also for a good part of some aka. a story fourteen hundred years in the make. the

story of succession. tells the story of foundation and the emergence of an empire. episode one. watching al-jazeera these are the top stories this hour u.s. president says all options are on the table including military action and response to a suspected chemical attack in syria on saturday british prime minister theresa may

and france's been real mccrone have echoed similar sentiments saying all sides government and its backers including russia must be held to account the daughter of a former russian double agent who was poisoned in the u.k. has been released from the hospital scrip and her father sergei were exposed to a nerve agent and march and that incident sparked a diplomatic crisis between the u.k. and russia. 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 a latest move in a trade dispute with the us. people are protesting in colombia after the president said he wouldn't hesitate to extradite a former narco fark negotiator that is he's facing drug smuggling charges. was due to take up a parliamentary seat which park had been promised as part of this arrangement. as a rescue cause problems for the. back in two thousand and sixteen at the center of

parts. 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 hernandez is accused of trying to smuggle several tons of cocaine into the u.s. and colombia's president says he won't hesitate to rexford son trees because he's been told there is 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 high so son treece who is blind has played a key role in the talks which led to the signing of the twenty six peace deal when fark wearables put down their weapons reforms as a political party and agreed to stop dealing in drugs park members now can be prosecuted for drugs offenses committed before the agreement was signed but sentries 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 guaranteed. you know 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 far the demonstrations have been small but there is now real concern for the future of the peace deal which ended over fifty

years of violence in colombia rob matheson al-jazeera. talks are being held across libya as part of efforts to resolve the country's war going to fishel hope dialogue will help us around presidential and parliamentary elections by the end of the year and wait until he has more from tripoli these meetings are supposed to be held in civil libyan cities and will gather all categories of the libyan society especially those who have not got a chance to take part in the libyan current political landscape an amateur who had been more tomorrow i'm optimistic about this conference hopefully we will have a reconciliation in place and then we can return to the good old days we are one nation after all libyans have been occupied with and with and we hope these talks will achieve reconciliation between tribes and cities so that we can be one hand in one state and one government and one people as

a thing of the all the stakeholders should be one woman they should speak openly to each other that's the way it should always have been also the meetings will gather former rebels those who are supposed to really gauge in the city for hefted minorities and this ability heads even those who support the former regime of death and the aim of all these meetings is to come up with a solution to the libyan crisis after gathering as many opinions as possible voters in malaysia will head to the polls on may ninth that's an election seen as a big test for the prime minister najib razak he's been under severe political pressure because of corruption allegations which denies now he faces a challenge from his former mentor lawrence lowy has more from walker and the southern malaysia. norrish ambon omma 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 recess is no longer that that labor is is up and then the cost of making money is 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 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 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 best wrongest challenge former prime minister mahathir mohamad is leading the opposition coalition's bid the ninety two year old veteran politician fell out with not over one. and has returned to politics to try to oust him but political analysts say on seating the incumbent will be tough ruling party have been in power for so long and this kind of managing the goal but they 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 opposition party has been ordered to do for thirty days

because of missing paperwork florence. state malaysia facebook's chief executive has apologized to politicians for a privacy breach affecting millions of users. will appear before two congressional committees over the next two days in washington d.c. . pedicle hayne 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 adviser to the president as you know as to time to clean white shirt because you know that is never 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 reasoning was that kind of save yourself 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 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 expanded 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 out ability 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. a new report by the nonprofit web browser mazola has revealed the biggest dangers posed by the internet today it warns that privacy and competition are being undermined by the consolidation of big technology companies like facebook google amazon and that fake news has reached epidemic proportions around the world mostly because of online advertising that particular type of economy the economy that is for awards abuse fraud and misinformation is also calling for people's

privacy to be more protected with approximately thirty billion connected devices going online over the next two years it says they must not be used to harvest there's at a salon a larson as editor of the internet health report by the missoula foundation joins us from london. pardon me thank you thank you very much so so want to it seems almost every other day there is some news that comes out about some sort of data breach almost constantly and then now obviously what's happening with facebook do you think that these types of things were entirely predictable because of how wild and free the internet is or has been well i'm not sure if it's because it's been wild and free but yet to some extent it's predictable i think we tend to jump from scandal to scandal or breach to breach without stepping back and taking a long term view of the structures of the internet and whether they're really

designed to serve the best interests of people or the best interests of companies so how who decides that who drives that. well i think that's the point who who decides that and who do we want to decide that i think a lot of times we end up in this reactionary mode where we're trying to decide what should happen to facebook or where should regulators do in this country or the other but we don't really define you know as users of the internet don't really define what we would like the internet to be and who we would like to be in charge what combination of of lever should be pulled in the internet health report that we publish today it's a compilation of research that looks at this topic from many different angles looks at what do you really need for the internet to be healthy healthy for people not just healthy for businesses or healthy for machines or cables or wires or or whatever people usually associate with the internet it's really important that we

ask tough questions of the internet but that we also work together and think of answers before catastrophes are big problems happen but if money is the motivator for this is it is it is for most things our realistic is it to have that type of healthy dialogue about the internet. well i'm not sure that money is always something that can't co-exist with the best interests of people but i do think that it's important to rein in the the consolidation of power and wealth of just a few very powerful companies that we're not actually seeing the best outcomes for users of the internet around the world by allowing so much power. to be concentrated in such few hands. it creates a negative effects for competition negative effects for innovation i think what

we're seeing in the current scandal of facebook is the result of many years of of inaction on this topic of of not thinking about what would serve the best interests of people do you have any confidence that the lawmakers that are going to be posing these questions to mark zuckerberg today know the right questions to ask to actually move this this conversation forward. i guess we'll see i mean in the public debate i think a lot of the questions are surfacing now how how the answers will be defined i think is is a different question i mean we see facebook apologizing we see them taking steps to do things that privacy advocates have been asking for for years whether it's enough or whether it would just be like a patch on a larger problem. that's my fear that we don't use these opportunities to really

rethink the structure of online digital advertising to rethink whether you should be able to track people all over the internet and target advertising to them on such very personal and maybe even invasive characteristics ok so on the larson thank you very much joining us from berlin with mozilla appreciate it. these are the headlines on al-jazeera u.s. president says all options are on the table including military action in response to a suspected chemical attack in syria on saturday british prime minister theresa may and france's mineral knock on have echoed similar sentiments saying also the government and its backers including russia must be held to account united nations is sounding the alarm about the number of people who have fled syria's eastern gouda more than one hundred thirty thousand people have left the area and just the last four weeks the u.n.

describes the situation as spiraling about forty five thousand people are now living in eight shelters in the damascus countryside and others are an overcrowded camps nearby tehran says seven iranians were killed in airstrikes on the thai as a military base in syria on monday it blames israel for the attack and homes and warns that it will not go without a response israel has not commented on the strikes and netanyahu government has repeatedly said the base is being used by iran to supply arms to hezbollah and london. the daughter of a former russian double agent who was poisoned in the u.k. has been released from the hospital your description her father sergei were exposed to a nerve agent in march the incident sparked a diplomatic crisis between the u.k. and russia. malaysia's general election has been set for may ninth and the prime minister and ruling coalition has been in power for more than sixty years but has been accused of corruption which he denies he faces an opposition alliance led by

his former mentor the prime minister mahathir mohamad. governments peace agreement with dark rebels is looking far more fragile after the arrest of one of the group's leaders on drug trafficking charges. was arrested following a request from the united states is accused of conspiring to smuggle ten tons of cocaine into the united states. those are the headlines to keep it here on al-jazeera news throughout the day and inside story is next. just hours off the news of another suspected chemical attack in.