i will bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you al jazeera. when the winning the will of the people hinges on the mass media state p.r. machine it's going to overdrive. but just who is going to win saying. we just don't know yet where the lines will be drawn between what can be said and what conduct that. some journalists decided to sacrifice their integrity for access to polling the media opinion the listening post base time on al-jazeera al-jazeera is a very important source of information for many people around the world when all the cameras are gone i'm still here 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.

president trump taunts russia telling it in a tweet to get ready because missiles are coming to syria. this is the world health organization says five hundred people treated in duma have symptoms which point to the use of toxic chemicals. hello i'm barbara starr you're watching i'll just say we're live from london also coming up on the program algeria announces three days of mourning after a military plane crashes into a field killing all two hundred fifty seven people on board. and celebrations on the streets of baku is azerbaijan's ilam ali embraces towards a landslide win in the presidential election.

we begin with the war in syria russia has hit back at the united states saying its smart missiles should be aimed at terrorists and not of the syrian government that comes after u.s. president donald trump warned of a missile strike on syria following a suspect that chemical attack in dubai or white house correspondent kimberly how could has more. this is how the united states responded to last year's nerve agent gas attack in qana by attacking a syrian air base with tomahawk missiles and it's how the u.s. may act again. to the truck display of the syrian government for a recent suspected chemical attack outside damascus with their troops on the ground in syria he's also accusing russia of complicity for supporting president bashar al assad in a series of tweets of wednesday morning president donald trump warned missiles will be coming and taunted get ready russia because they will be coming nice and new and

smart russia has proven themselves to be responsible in part for this they guaranteed that the use of chemical weapons by syria would not have. and again they failed at that russia shot back in the war of words with trump it says there's no proof a chemical attack occurred on facebook the russian foreign ministry spokeswoman posted a smart missile should fly towards terrorists and not towards the lawful government which has been fighting international terrorism for years it will be met and it will be met forcefully for days trump has been meeting with top military leaders and advisors. clued in on wednesday with defense secretary general james mattis we're still assessing the the intelligence ourselves and our allies we're still working on this. there are also reports of a u.s. navy carrier task force led by the u.s.s.

harry truman is sailing towards the region trumps also been conferring with world leaders like french president bakr all and british prime minister theresa may. it's an astonishing and confusing wrapping up of rhetoric for a president who said just a week ago that he wants to get out of syria what is clear is it appears the united states is determined to hold those responsible for the suspected attack accountable can really help get al-jazeera at the white house. well the world health organization says more than five hundred people treated in duma have symptoms which suggests the use of toxic chemicals they include difficulty breathing and destruction to the central nervous system the u.n. health agency says this is based on reports from its partners in do it's the man the immediate unhindered access to provide care for the victims allowing fisher has been following all developments in washington and he joins us live now so i've been

various developments there's the trump tweets there's what's been said in the news conference or at the white house do we have do you think a clear idea of what exactly the u.s. administration plans to do in syria and when. no that's the very simple answer we do and we know that there have been meetings we know that the being phone calls between president mccrone and prime minister theresa may with the white house that's been going on over the last forty eight hours or so we will get another readout from the white house in the next couple of hours to say that there have been more meetings of that came particularly as we know that theresa me has called this emergency cabinet meeting in london and some of the more senior security advisors that the president has or they have been meeting in the white house in the last few hours that meeting was chaired by vice president mike pence also there general dunford who is the joint chiefs of staff senior military officer in the united states and also james mattis who is the defense secretary so we know

that these meetings are taking place we've had what the president has got to say we've also had from the podium of the white house press room where they say that all options remain on the table. saunders was asked is there the possibility that there's some diplomatic moves going on that we don't know about and she said all options are on the table so apart from what the president has said in the tweet and we know that that has been contradictory we simply don't know what the united states is going to do next although you will remember the don't trump promised about forty eight hours ago that the missiles will be heading to syria within forty eight hours that's one of the strange things about the sort of twitter diplomacy that we've seen is that we heard donald trump say in the past that he was against effectively saying what your intentions are going to be and warning the potential enemy whereas in effect what the tweet sees kind of giving events warning but then it doesn't seem to follow through. impressive that you think there's just one

inconsistency in twitter diplomacy donald trump when he was a candidate said that the united states shouldn't be attacking syria warn president barack obama against it saying look nothing good will come out of this for the united states just a week ago is can really help it reported he was saying we want to get out of syria completely in fact is a boat two weeks ago yesterday that he said that in ohio he then could have backtrack on that a week later then he also said that you doored telegraph what you're going to do to your enemy that's really bad tactics keep them with an element of surprise and so it's no surprise that no one really knows exactly where donald trump is on this but then it's no surprise that donald trump would conduct diplomacy like this this is a presidency like no other alan fischer with the latest from washington alan thank you for the two main players seem to be the u.s.

and russia in this beyond syria of course now let's hear from or a challenge has got more reaction from moscow. well the russian response to escalating tensions around syria is to say don't do anything that would destabilize the country any further dollar trumps tweets seems to be a direct response to something that the russian ambassador to lebanon said recently in an interview to a hezbollah controlled t.v. channel which was essentially vats if there was a u.s. military strike against syria in any form then russian air defense systems would shoot us missiles out of the sky and hit back against the launch sites of those missiles now he seems to be slightly misquoting something that the russian chief of general staff general gerasim off said about a month ago which was that if russian personnel russian infrastructure was

threatened by u.s. strikes in syria then there would be such a response so we don't quite know whether this misquoting was intentional or not but the russian general response to all this has been not really to take donald trump's bait the foreign ministry says that any u.s. missile should be targeted at the terrorists in syria not as the foreign ministry puts it the legitimate governments as sides governments and the kremlin has said rather dismissively that russia does not deal in twitter diplomacy that they are more serious their approaches. well samir poorly is a lecturer in terrorism and security studies at kings college in london i spoke to him a little earlier and he told me the u.s. cannot back down on its response to russia and syria. trump of course put the u.s. on a path from which it cannot step away from now there has to be u.s. military action strangely the delay between his utterance of this on twitter and

the actuality if whenever this does happen next twenty four forty eight hours that may give the russian armed forces enough time to separate themselves from the likely targets in syria the syrian armed forces are about to see hits by the americans but what makes this particular moment far more precarious is the success and success of declining of relations with russia the skipper attempted murder the nerve gas attack insoles berry has of course ignite seeds criticism against russia principally from the u.k. but of course also the americans providing rhetorical support there as well all of this means that everybody is poison a little bit of the end of edge of a razor blades and of course with putin and trump we've got highly nationalistic leaders both in charge of these countries that are trying to call each other's bluff and they have been over syria for some time this really is the moment when we see whether there is a possibility of limiting escalation given how fragile the situation is it's going

to algeria now with three days of mourning have been announced after a military plane crashed near algiers killing everyone on board most were military personnel other the dead also include members of an independence group and dozens of refugees there and a honda has more. two hundred fifty seven people were on board the military aircraft it went down shortly after takeoff crashing near a military airport south of l.g. is the defense ministry says that many of the passengers was soldiers some of them accompanied by their families a number of people survived this family was among those being treated hurt when the plane crashed into a field close to where he was working going to pull over i could see that as soon as the plane took off it started falling the plane flew over my head and came really close the wing clipped me as i was jumping to get out of the way and then it burst into flames i've survived by the grace of god. the military aircraft was on

its way to the algerian region of bash it stopping often to do it's a region on the border with the disputed territory of waste in sahara thousands of whiston sahara and have sought refuge there the policy area front a group that's been fighting for the independence of western sahara sit in a statement that thirty of the passengers will whiston so hiren's heading back after getting medical treatment and now g. is the aircraft was a soviet designed to military transport plane the crash is likely the worst in algeria is aviation history made in the hond al-jazeera. saudi arabia has intercepted a who the ballistic missile fired from yemen over the capital riyadh there who these say that were targeting the defense ministry in riyadh there are no reports of any damage meanwhile saudi air defenses also say they've shot down two on man the yemeni drones in southern saudi arabia one of the drones was targeting the

international airport the second was in g.'s on province who the rebels said they were targeting saudi arabia's oil facilities well just in broke is a research fellow of air power and technology here in london he said such a such activity from the who these is meant to reinforce their strong presence and manpower in the region. i think the timing is potentially more about keeping up a steady drumbeat of missile attacks to show you send a message to saudi arabia but also to other actors who are watching in the region and beyond that the threat isn't going away that they are not being militarily defeated. and probably hoping to send the sort of message start a wait and starve them out approach isn't working so perhaps the time history you know time has come for something else i believe from the perspective maybe dialogue . i'm not sure that's going to work but it's certainly an interesting factor that the movies have kept up this regular drumbeat of strikes rather than trying to

concentrate all their available assets for one kind of big action well still ahead on al-jazeera serbian the nationalist bushie slap shows shane says he's proud of his war crimes as he sentenced to ten years in jail a journey from conflict but for some two more uncertainty in you get that we're tracking the roussel families who have fled fighting in the. hello the post summer heat wave that's existed in this part of australia is being slowly squeezed or fronts coming across the bite and they've making some progress through adelaide for example it's already disappeared further west of the temperatures in western australia about where that should be twenty one ish likely in perth we down to twenty three natalie but there's a thin ribbon of red that might still affect canberra but probably is not require

to reach melbourne so temperature wise we're on the way down again to where we should be weather wise is still largely fine shop potential is increasing on the queensland coast and certainly rain seems likely in tasmania as a spin of that you'll see and possibly in melbourne looks dr most of the places still twenty one in perth much the same come friday so far i know as well as it was would be it in short there's an improvement in the weather in northern new zealand all clint was really quite stormy you see the cloud is still there but he's on its way out slowly but a mass coming to south island so across church very limited to twelve right on the west coast but the sun's out in oakland seventeen degrees here it's a little bit more light to be bright rolls and sunny i think come friday but this is an improvement in things the tension tells half the story half the story if the sun is out doesn't offer you good doesn't it.

it was simple years for every gang member you will find in a climate of fear rhetoric is easily abused the poor food lines investigative new initiatives to combat gangs simply being used to target the undocumented and vulnerable we started hearing kids report that had been picked up and his parents didn't even know kids were just literally being disappeared trumps war on gangs on al-jazeera. a reminder now to top stories on al-jazeera u.s. president donald trump has warned russia that smart missiles will be fired at its

ally syria trump is threatening a military response to a suspected chemical attack and today russia denies it took place at least two hundred fifty seven people have been killed when a military plane crashed in algeria it went down shortly after taking off from here port south of the capital. and saudi arabia. missile fired from yemen over the capital riyadh it also shut down to who the drones over the south of the country. as a autocratic president. is said to win a fourth consecutive term in office by a landslide with two thirds of the ballots counted he said to have received eighty six percent of the vote while the election was boycotted by opposition parties who are angry the election was moved forward from october the reports.

since two thousand and three and now in trying to be president. there were multiple candidates in the race but only from politics and. lives wife first vice president last year. succeeded his father haider president in the early ninety's the former k.g.b. general clamped down hard on opponent while at the same time opening up the country's huge energy reserves to international companies. this one's crumbling post soviet republic is now one of the world's fastest growing economies balancing relations with azerbaijan's former soviet moscow russia and the west this country is one of the main partner of the repeal in union from the point of fuel energy security but at the same time this country is located between russia and iran these

folks in the smart foreign policy helps as a bridge on to have good relations with only ber's i but the economic boom hasn't benefited all many people struggle on low incomes have made growing inequality. and this is what happens to antigovernment protesters. leading opposition parties boycotted the election accusing him of vote rigging and nobody can speak out in the ways that challenges the government and not face consequences and that means freeways are either in prison or outside that was there by john where they keep quiet to many azerbaijan is a post soviet poster child an international player the host of major cultural and sporting events but it is to this day the only former soviet republic to witness the rise of a ruling in a city as the nation gets richer one family the only arabs remain firmly controlled

. al-jazeera. so been nationalist politician voice. has been sentenced in absentia to ten years in jail for committing crimes against known serbs during the balkan wars in the one nine hundred ninety s. shell was initially acquitted by a un quarter after he was diagnosed with cancer but that's now being partially overturned in the hague on appeal as more he had spent more than eleven years at the hague taking a belligerent stand at the tribunals investigating war crimes in the former yugoslavia it was is a man without remorse. the serbian ultranationalist was acquitted two years ago of committing crimes against humanity but on wednesday a un court reversed that decision. find the assertions criminally responsible and imposed a sentence of ten years in prison in absentia. despite the court's verdict he

remains unrepentant speaking from belgrade after the ruling told al-jazeera that he would do it all over again. appearing to be even more active in political life preparing to repeat all my war crimes and crimes against humanity. amid the bloodshed of the war shah shells extremist politics played a role in inflaming the persecution and violence against non serbs in the former yugoslavia an attempt to fulfill his vision of a greater serbia is original trial was beset with histrionics and delays and he was eventually granted a provisional release but being diagnosed with cancer. the show returned to his home in belgrade his popularity boosted teamed up with political allies that shared his pro russian extreme nationalist use. the supporters turned out to druce his rallies. russia has described the latest ruling as illegal

maybe little appetite to indulge his continued presence on serbia's political stage serbia is seeking membership of the e.u. a move he is bitterly opposed to sony vaio al-jazeera. the daughter of a russian double agent who was poisoned by a nerve agent in the english city of salzburg the last month has the client help from the russian embassy in her first statement since leaving hospital u.t.s. crippled said she is recovering but her father sergei remains seriously ill the british government has accused russia of being behind the attack on the screw palace which moscow denies. angry demonstrators in central african republic have laid the bodies of at least sixteen people killed in recent clashes in bangui outside the u.n. mission headquarters un peacekeepers and local security forces have been fighting armed groups and a large will muslim neighborhood of people five of them in straight areas are

blaming un soldiers for firing on residents protesting against the operations of. nearly sixty thousand people have fled fighting in eastern the pratik republic of congo since january to seek refuge in neighboring uganda that's according to the medical. charity doctors without borders most of the new arrivals have fled fighting in the jury problems. this report from the king wali refugee camp in uganda. all these people ran for their lives. and now patients run thin they're waiting for buses to take them to a place to make new homes in this refugee camp in uganda. rita elisa's stories typical a few days ago a militia attacked her village in congo killed her neighbors with machetes she fled with her five children she's pregnant with her six see if you go out and we saw the

fighting had started then they started burning houses with people inside so we went into the forest and hid for three days then we decided to run we came to uganda. militias from the lendu ethnic group been attacking villages in breeches province called it since january the u.n. says droughts cost more than seventy thousand to flee here you can and many more are displaced back at home people have lost their family members and the women are subjected to. the gender based violence therefore in doing. so they came very traumatised very tired in some needed very raw and they needed medical attention so. some people described the violence as ethnic rita so it's not she says the attack has killed anyone and everyone she said i think lendu has the same as them some people here say they don't know why they've been forced from their

homes now other suspect congo's government is behind it trying to stay in power by further postponing the long overdue presidential election the government denies it . regardless people keep arriving here in uganda. the u.n. says more resources donors threatened to cut funds for refugees in uganda government officials were implicated in a corruption scandal this year but new arrivals still need help at the moment a lot of the refugees some of the voth expanse of bush people are given plots wreaths is being given her here. she's got some plastic sheets a few simple for. now she asked to build a shelter that's what she'll be living in for the weeks ahead and use the tools to start filling the land and growing some food and now it's starting to rain rita lost her husband when she fled she and her children now have to wait for

somebody to help them put up a shelter it might be safer here for their struggle over malcolm webb al-jazeera chiang wali refugee camp you can buy. police in indonesia are cracking down on the illegal alcohol trade after more than one hundred people died in one week alone from drinking bootleg liquor alcohol is legal in the muslim majority country but rising prices and restrictions have caused the surge in black market production often involving dangerous substances. the rate flights between russia and egypt have resumed after a whole to of more than two years russia suspended the right flights the egypt after a passenger jet was blown up over the sinai peninsula in two thousand and fifteen a group affiliated with i saw claimed responsibility for the bomb attack which killed all two hundred twenty four passengers on board was this flight was bound

for the capital cairo. a facebook c.e.o. mark zuckerberg has testified in the u.s. congress for a second day about the massive breach of user's private data the thirty three year old billionaire apologized several times and promised to make meaningful reforms to protect data privacy facebook has been in the spotlight after the personal information of eighty seven million users was harvested by the political consultancy firm cambridge analytical. the emir of qatar has spent the day in washington meeting politicians and business leaders is trying to secure trade deals in the u.s. this fight an economic blockade against catherine by some of its gulf neighbors. reports qatar has been on a diplomatic offensive in the u.s. chased i mean bin comment. has matched senior business and political figures. his country is one of the wealthiest in the world and is planning to further expand

its investment. in the u.s. our economy partnership is more than one hundred twenty five billion we have plans to double this number in the near future a qatari business delegation is touring the u.s. to promote investment opportunities in the gulf state last june. u.a.e. bahrain and egypt imposed an economic blockade on qatar accusing it of supporting terrorism. joe has strongly denied the qatari officials say their economy remains solid other beginning of the g.c.c. crisis us president donald trump made statements critical of qatar but in recent weeks the president along with top military and financial leaders have praised qatar's role in the region the u.s.

has approved the sale of advanced walk it systems to worth three hundred million dollars i wish we had many more partners like you we have a trade surplus you invest in our country we have a military base and you work on terrorist financing where thoughts so thank you for all that you do the u.s. has invited gulf leaders to discuss the future of the region sandy arabia's crown prince mohammed bin sandman met president trump three weeks ago the u.a.e. as crown prince mohammed bin and house bush to be the last gulf to me try his visit is shadowed for the coming weeks qatari save the erotic crown prince is the architect of the blockade and the white house has more. urgent priorities at this point what this visits are doing is to reinforce with the school that we're not going. new television in the language of the action the u.s.

is disputed might lead to further instability and increase iran's influence in the region finding a solution to the growing differences among gulf rivals is going to be a challenge for the u.s. administration the located in countries insist on maintaining the embargo a less changes his foreign and domestic policies of the qatari government is unlikely to backtrack on what it considers to be an issue of sovereignty how. washington d.c. . a memorial service has been held in south africa for the woman that many called the mother of the nation thousands went to a ceremony for when he made the element in so wet oh where she lived and fought against apartheid the activist and former wife of south africa's first black president nelson mandela died last week she was eighty one years old.

more on all those stories on our website. and now a reminder of the top stories on al jazeera the u.s. says all options remain on the table as it ponders a military strike inside syria president donald trump has vowed to respond to a suspected chemical attack in the former rebel stronghold of duma on saturday the world health organization says more than five hundred people treated showed symptoms of toxic chemical poisoning from tweeted that russia should get ready because missiles will be coming but moscow denies the attack took place. that you put your feet. but you have there peter i want to stress on the ninth of april the day after the alleged chemical attack in duma russian military specialists in the area of radiation chemical and defense and also medics arrived in the place of this alleged chemical weapons incident they took samples of the soil and collected the

remnants of the so-called use of chemical weapons their expertise was conducted in it showed the absence of chlorine or poisonous substances. algeria has announced three days of mourning after a plane crash killed two hundred fifty seven people the military plane went down shortly after taking off from a military airport near the capital the government says most of the dead were soldiers and their families witnesses describe seeing the russian built plane on fire before it crashed in saudi arabia is intercepted a who the ballistic missile fired from yemen over the capital riyadh there who these say they were targeting that the fence ministry in riyadh supporters of azerbaijan's autocratic leader president. are celebrating what appears to be a crushing election when with most of the ballots counted president is said to have won eighty six percent of the vote putting him on course for

a fourth term opposition parties have boycotted the vote saying it was rigged. a surge in violence in the eastern democratic republic of congo has led to an exodus of refugees to neighboring uganda medical charity doctors without borders says nearly sixty thousand people have crossed the border since january that refugees accuse armed groups of carrying out murders and forced displacements well that's it from me and the rest of the team here in london stay with al-jazeera coming up next it's fault lines. this is a really fabulous news for one of the best i've ever worked in there is a unique sense of bonding where everybody teams in but something i feel every time i get on the chair every time i interview someone we're often working around the clock to make sure that we bring events as i currently as possible to the viewer that's why.