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 world tells the story of king hussein of jordan. episode one so vital on al-jazeera. we understand the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world so no matter how you take it al-jazeera will bring in the news and current affairs that matter to al-jazeera.

very soon or not at all the us president donald trump changes his tune on attacking syria's government. run when your child is there a life more headquarters here in there are also coming up a former high flyer one step for china's presidency becomes the latest casualty of featuring ping's anti corruption campaign also new figures show a drop in the number of people being put to death globally but there's no data from the country said to be the world's biggest executioner. also take you inside africa's first industrial plant that's turning garbage into energy. welcome to the program u.s. president donald trump has

a road back on his suggestion that an american attack on syria's government is imminent trump made the assertion in a tweet on wednesday when he warned the regime's ally russia to get ready for a missile strike his latest tweet on syria is very different never said when an attack on syria would take place could be very soon or not so soon at all in any event the united states and the my administration has done a great job of ridding the region of isis where is our thank you america where we have full cover. rory chalons standing by in moscow once in a harder is monitoring developments from beirut in lebanon let's begin with our white house correspondent kimberly how and kimberly. what can we take really from change of heart he's had time to reflect perhaps and speak to advisors and international allies. i think it is some sobering second thoughts coming

from the u.s. president donald trump might have a lot to do with the meeting that was held at the white house just in the last twenty four hours with not only general mattis the defense secretary general james mattis but also the joint chiefs of staff general dunford who were both at the white house for more than an hour certainly probably giving the president a bit of caution in terms of advice if you remember the rhetoric just twenty four hours ago from the president was rather bold and brash when he essentially threatened russia firing u.s. missiles. essentially accusing them of defending in his words i gassed killing animal well certainly this latest tweet from the president seems to dial that rhetoric back significantly and this follows as well some dialing back of language by russian leaders so whether or not this is mutually assured destruction that sort of looms in the back of their minds we certainly don't know but those who have made

careers out of advising presidents like these generals have certainly weighed in and it seems to have taken some effect in terms of what we see in the social media from the president also got some reminders in terms of short term practicalities the rising price of crude oil now at levels we haven't seen since two thousand and fourteen that makes investors nervous and we know that the president listens to wall street and the words from wall street very carefully so all of this well it is certainly hanging in the air we also though see the ramping up to the u.s. allies in terms of a cabinet meeting that will be held by the british prime minister theresa may and also the french president. who's in fact saying that he believes there is proof of that suspected chemical weapons attack so while the u.s. president may be dabbling back in terms of his latest words certainly his allies still seem to be moving forward with this big morning where you on of course we expect through the day for the moment to be. also ahead to russia where its foreign

ministry says that moscow will not escalate the situation and suggests that the u.s. should face consequences for its behavior because a chicago washington continues to voice explosive war mongering my statements that was that our fourth with of the dangerous escalation. they're not only against drugs because they see that russia is protecting a law should say regime and that is. to bear a responsibility for his crimes we call all the responsibles members of the international community to seriously consider the consequences of such accusations of the such threads and the planned actions our position is are totally foreign to them and we are not to seek an escalation what has cause over to our moscow correspondent roy challenge of course the russians there certainly perhaps putting on a strong front in that they're not afraid of what the americans have to say and

certainly not worried about what trump is tweeting or that they're ready for anything that he throws out the. well yeah i mean we got the usual list of targets i think in or is a quarter of a weekly press briefing earlier in fact it might still be going on it was when i left to come here and talk to you. we got some interesting new ones as well these are often quite angry and sarcastic affairs for a marias a quarter of a she accused the united states of basically using fake pretext to position itself. where it's about to launch airstrikes or some kind of punitive hits against the syrian government syrian forces she was accusing the west in general of kind of marching towards war and she also accused the world health organization of using iran yes information made up

facts about what happened in duma. in the report that the world health organization put out the other day which was saying that five hundred plus people being exposed to chemical weapons or chemical agents in syria that has angered the russians and they feel that this is a gross misrepresentation of what happened of course the russian narrative is that this was a false flag operation. orchestrated by the united states together with rebels on the ground so that they could hit syrian targets the legitimate government of syria as they put it so yeah what's been going on recently is essentially the russians are trying to portray themselves as the kind of measured. party here not escalating things further and watching as donald trump fires out in consistent tweets offering consistent tweets and their stamp standing back for the moment to

wait and see what happens next will of course come back to you when they have more to say for the military thank you. no take he's president is also weighed in he's speaking to both president trump and putin hoping to calm things down. we have no intention of giving up on our alliance with the u.s. nor the wide ranging strategic relationship we've established with russia from energy to security nor working with iran to solve the region's problems the relationships we've established with countries like russia iran and china are not an alternative to our relationship with the west on the contrary there complimentary but this isn't an obstacle to point out the mistakes both sides are making in other areas those supporting the murderous assad regime are making a mistake those supporting the p.y.t. terrorist organizations are making a mistake we will fight until the end against both mistakes we are deeply disturbed by some countries who rely on their military might turning syria into

a virtual wrestling ground well meanwhile the town where the alleged chemical attack happened duma in eastern has been abandoned by the rebel group the once controlled it is slow under the evacuation agreement only russian military police are allowed to enter the town or to the rebels leave not to syrian government forces not crossing points will be open to commercial movement as soon as those military police and to the city the agreement also guarantees that those who wish to stay in the city will not be prosecuted or forced to serve in the syrian military and it ensures the release of all pro-government prisoners held in duma let's cross over it is that how to who's in neighboring lebanon reports in the capital beirut to me how significant is a takeover of the duma for the government and what's of a body blow is this for the rebels. so definitely the syrian government declaring victory and no doubt it is a victory because eastern duma has long been

a sore in the side of the government its location right next to damascus at the doorsteps of the capital the seat of the government's power there were thousands and thousands of rebel fighters who are based there and they were able to threaten the capital they were able to launch rockets into damascus neighborhoods and throughout the years there were attempts to try to advance into damascus so the pro-government alliance declaring victory really it is in a very comfortable position because of the help it has received from its allies both the russian military as well as the iranians and in fact amid all these tensions the top adviser to the iranian supreme leader. is in damascus he's been holding talks with officials there and he's expressing iranian support saying iran will stand by syria during these critical times and it's not just that he issued a warning to the united states telling them that your troops the two thousand or so troops which are based in the northeast of the country that is in the kurdish region are at risk because according to iran they want to launch an operation to

liberate in his words liberate this area so a warning from the iranians from damascus. senator. with all of this going on the man who will be the new face of u.s. diplomacy is having his confirmation hearing in the senate doldrums nominated might compel you to be his next secretary of state farming rex tillerson last month let's go straight over to rosslyn jordan in washington d.c. i mean is this nomination a shoo in for pump a or will he really be grilled about his suitability roles for the job not exactly a shoo in so and that's because there are people who are very concerned that he might want to perhaps reinstituted torture or support those efforts in an effort to protect the united states there are activists who have raised. it's questions about whether he is islamophobia whether he has an innate bias against arabs and

muslims and there are others who suggest that he is too hawkish for the room which might be surprising considering the president for whom he would serve as secretary of state however in excerpts of his upper paired statement maicon pale has insisted that he as a former soldier is very very reluctant to use military force as the first option in resolving global crises that he would be very much committed to exhausting all diplomatic avenues in order to resolve those crises but he also took the time to say that the era of being soft on russia is over and this is something that could put him at odds with president trump who has been reluctant to was say until very recently that russia might be at the base of a number of global problems so he's trying to put forward a more conciliatory tone in order to get the nomination approved in this committee

as well as by the full senate well if he does roles the grass is not going to grow under his feet have to set to work straight away he's got a minefield of global problems which you've suggested being russia maybe even north korea but really syria seems to be top of the agenda at the moment that's. that's right all of these issues seem to be jockeying for first position but obviously the very top issue is at this moment syria he is already suggesting that he would be for here to hit the ground running and is citing his experience as the director of the cia as giving him a lot of actual insight into the dynamics of the ongoing civil war there as well as the allegations that the syrian government may have gassed people. in the town of dumas so this is a situation where if the senate can move its processes along quickly enough he

could be on hand to help the president as the nation's chief diplomat but realistically given the calendar here he might not be on the job until at the end of april at the very earliest but we'll leave it there for the moment rolls and catch up with you with more updates as the day progresses thank you and we'll have more on syria shortly in the program as the u.k. prime minister to resign many gathers her cabinet to consider her country's position on the military action and also in the u.k. the chemical weapons watchdog kids its take home the spy poisoning case we'll tell you what they find out on the other side of the break. we're looking at some rather lively downpours across central parts of china adam i miss a very heavy rain in place here some areas looking at thirty celsius for hong kong

over the next couple days the rain will actually slide further south was eventually pushing through that southeastern corner but expect to see some heavy downpours all the way up towards shanghai over the next couple of days twenty celsius the top temperature in shanghai meanwhile a few lively showers to. bangladesh recently little clutch of storms here they've been rumbling away sixty three millimeters of rain in twenty four hours further south still a fair amount of rain into southern india and more so in to sri lanka flooding rights for some and with the risk of landslides here whether never really too far away as we go on through the next few days the showers in the rain will clear away from bangladesh eastern parts of the poultice but to see some rather wet weather but for much of india it's dry his warm sunny those warm as it has been we are still getting up to around thirty nine celsius in that. the cloud continues to the south a little bit what weather in place there for sri lanka colombo thirty one degrees celsius meanwhile is largely dry across the robin peninsula as to what charts of

one of two showers around the gulf of aden so a little bit of wet weather into western yemen. paint the scene for us where on line what is american sign in yemen that peace is always possible but it never happens not because the situation is complicated but because no one cares or if you join a sunset there are people there are choosing between buying medication and eating this is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who is an activist and has posted a story join the global conversation at this time on al-jazeera.

back you're watching al-jazeera i'm so robin a reminder of our top stories u.s. president donald trump earth tweeted that he never said whether an attack on syria would take place could be very soon or not so soon at all earlier on monday he said that he'll be making some major decisions on syria over the next twenty four to forty eight hours before warning russia that missiles are coming. and this comes only hours after syrian government forces say they pushed the last rebel fighters out of the town of duma near the capital damascus russian military police reportedly moved into the town after the last rebel fighters left. the british prime minister treats the mayor has called an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss whether to back any u.s. military action against president bashar al assad's regime let's cross over to the barker who's at downing street and london neve complicated and divisive issue for

britain of the member but will the prime minister actually get the support of her ministers. or from parliament. you know the big question really needs to be tested legally we know that at least a reason may appears willing to join a u.s. led intervention force to strike syria we know that she's had key conversations with emanuel mccrone of france and with donald trump both independently of each other but the question is countries remain the british government really square there we assume somewhat measured response with the thoughts of donald trump who over the course of the weekend seemed to unilaterally wage war against syria and threatened russia via social media most certainly the british prime minister is going to be under growing scrutiny to make sure that there is a long game to all of this that any kind of intervention is justified and that of

course any continued diplomatic pressure on assad continues in sympathy with any decision to launch strikes there have been some reports at least in one british newspaper the british submarines were being relocated within striking distance of syria but really we have to wait for the outcome of this emergency cabinet meeting that's just just beginning of behind me at number ten to know exactly where to resume is going with all of this the sense the sensibilities of the british public a large need for they're always weary when the prime minister or the cabinet or when the government suggests you know getting involved in a conflict zone. yeah well the public are very very skeptical about governments that decides to wage war off the back of intelligence of course the the memory of the two thousand and three iraq invasion that was of course spearheaded by the then tony blair labor government still cast

a long shadow over westminster to resume a really has to get this right she believes that there is clear evidence of the assad regime poisoning his own people. over the weekend and now has to really stand that up but to resume a has made it clear that she may not run this past parliament there is no legal basis for her having to need to do that but in the last fifteen years or so there has been a precedent of previous governments running major military decisions through parliament notably though back in two thousand and thirteen david cameron her predecessor put his proposal for intervention in syria in front of parliament it was defeated a major blow to his government can to reason may really afford to potentially lose votes in parliament that could well see her own defense and foreign policy is being undermined lou half an hour and even come back to you obviously this is get more word out of downing street thank you. now the international chemical weapons

watchdog has confirmed that a soviet era nerve agent known as novacek was used to poison a russian former spy and his daughter in the u.k. last month now the o.p.c. w.'s report echoes british allegations made in the aftermath of the incident in the city of souls free the poisoning of cigarettes cripple and his daughter yulia sparked a global diplomatic crisis with the u.k. and its allies accusing moscow of being behind the attack. at least fourteen people are being killed by taliban attackers in afghanistan gunmen stormed a district government compound in the south eastern province of gardening the local governor policemen and intelligence officers are among the dead in the pre-dawn raid afghan police say forty five firefighters have fighters sorry have been killed and security forces are back in control of the district. a former senior official in china who was once a contender for a leadership position a speed of guilty to charges of corruption sunshine cinching chai is one of the

most prominent figures charged as part of president xi jinping as anti corruption crackdown china correspondent adrian brown reports from beijing like his trial the political downfall of syndrome time was swift state television showed a remorseful son confessing his guilt just a year ago he was talked of as a future chinese leader on thursday the former politburo member pleaded guilty to a range of bribery charges amounting to more than twenty seven million dollars he told the court he seriously violated the law but it received a fair trial. i deserve the punishment i am guilty i'll accept whatever sentence i receive. soon was dismissed from public office and expelled from the communist party in september that was just a month before the party congress where president xi jinping was reappointed leader

for a second term without indicating a successor soon had been party chief of chongqing one of china's fastest growing cities replacing an even more flamboyant figure bocce ly also once tipped as a future chinese leader. sung's demise comes as president xi jinping intensifies his anti corruption campaign since it began more than five years ago more than a million party officials have been disciplined but soon is one of the most senior figures to have so far been brought down analysts say she's campaign is really about eliminating political rivals since soon had also been accused of plotting against the leadership a conspiracy said to involve the country's former security chief joe young kang who was jailed for life three years ago now soon is facing a lengthy imprisonment adrian brown al jazeera beijing. israel says it fired at

several hamas positions in gaza in response to an explosion which damage one of its army vehicles now the military says a bomb was planted under a digger during protests along the gaza israel border no one was hurt it's not clear what type of weapons israel used in the attack thirty one palestinians have been killed by israeli forces since protests began at the border fence two weeks ago. tensions are high in gaza as protests against israel enter the third week now thousands of people are trying to get to egypt after the rafa crossing was opened following talks with hamas last year and only open for forty days leaving tens of thousands on a waiting list how the force that has been. thousands of people here in iraq in the south of the gaza strip for what is a very rare opportunity you can see the desperation to get on to one of these buses they are processed here inside the hall the people who are on the list and whose documents are stanton and ready to go across and then put on these buses there bussed to the crossing itself and taken across to egypt this is

a rare thing the last such crossing took place than two weeks ago in twenty sixteen there were only forty two days of crossings twenty seventeen there were thirty six days so when these things happen yeah a real desperation to it to make the most of it the last time there was a crossing again it was meant to be a three day period such as this one which was announced this week in the end only one day of crossings took place so when people get an opportunity to get out of gaza something so difficult to do given the israeli i said blockade and the allegations that have been in place here on the southern rougher crossing they try to make the most of that opportunity. if you didn't get one and i'd applied for two years but only now i'm on the newest i was supposed to go last time i hope this time i can get to jordan. there is no future in gaza if i don't travel my future will be destroyed completely. ron says officials should take care of the people we

are the officials to give us chances there are seven in my family and we each supposed to pay four thousand dollars bribe egypt cites the security situation on its sinai peninsula as a reason for the heavy restrictions which continue to be imposed on this border with gaza egypt is also understood to be trying to calm the situation inside gaza and this particular opening should be seen in that context as the humanitarian situation here continues to worsen and the reconsideration that egypt is backing between the carter led palestinian authority and hamas which continues to control gaza continues to fall to. national says last year saw a drop in the number of people being sentenced to death around the world but its figures don't include china said to be the world's biggest user of death penalties and the report highlights how for middle eastern countries resumed capital punishment as the reports. amnesty international says the global picture is

continuing to improve last year they counted at least nine hundred ninety three executions that's four percent fewer than in twenty sixteen and thirty nine percent fewer than in twenty fifteen and there's been a marked drop in death sentences passed at least two thousand five hundred ninety one were recorded in twenty seventeen a yearly fall of seventeen percent but there's a major caveat to these figures don't include china amnesty says it's by far the world's biggest executioner carrying out thousands of death sentences last year but statistics are considered a state secret now eighty four percent of all recorded executions took place in just four countries iran saudi arabia iraq and pakistan iran executed at least five hundred seven people last year more than half the recorded global figure amnesty says courts very often rely on confessions made on the torture when passing death sentences and several countries in the middle east resumed executions in twenty seventeen after years of not doing so one continuing practice that amnesty calls

disturbing is executions for drug related defenses something that's against international law we have not been used by a lot of countries malaysia and iran in primary in indonesia singapore known as other countries and this is contrary to some of the obligations that this country of late a national human right along standards and the fact that some of these countries are actually even now taking steps to reform their own national laws to align it with international laws and regulation is a is a is a testimony to the fact that they agree with us in the usa the only country in the americas executing people the number of states carrying out executions rose from five to eight and while there was progress in sub-saharan africa nigeria sentenced six hundred twenty one people to death last year more than any other country in the region so a mixed picture and amnesty international says its public campaign to get the. death penalty abolished will go on new zealand's prime minister says the government

won't grant any new permits for offshore oil and gas exploration the move is part of a pledge to help reduce the country's next greenhouse gas emissions to zero by twenty fifty just. as the policy won't affect twenty two existing exploration permits that means oil and gas operations could continue for several decades africa's first industrial plant that converts waste to energy is close to coming online in ethiopia and it's being built next to a landfill site in the capital that is stephanie decker went to have a look this is only waste dumping site it is on an extraordinary scale we're being told it's been here for around fifty years it also goes around thirty meters underground it is untreated it is not dealt with it keeps growing waste is of course not just an ethiopian problem it's not just an african problem it is a global problem now there is an exciting new project underway here it is africa's

very first waste to energy plant. currently we are inside of the waste to energy plant and i did have a this what you see is the tipping hole. that will receive the waste so basically what the facility this one received is one thousand four hundred times a day this is equal to almost eighty percent of ideas how our waste what currently goes to the land the fields and polluting the environment once this facility is start operating and incinerate in this waste we can i want to produce a hundred and eighty five hour electricity which is equivalent to light taps thirty percent of i decide my household we're told that the plug will be fully operational in a couple of months from now and once it gets underway it's going to make a massive difference to the capital's waste management now this is technology that's already being used on every single other continent and this is why authorities here are king to showcase it as a success story as africa's for us and of course it remains just a small step in dealing with the bast quantities of waste that we as humans produce

. your children their arms the whole raman these are all top news stories u.s. president donald trump had a sudden change of heart it seems about what he plans to do in syria he's tweeted that he never said whether an attack on syria would take place could be very soon not soon at all now that's in stark contrast to what he tweeted on wednesday when he warned of imminent missile attack meanwhile syrian government forces of pushed the last rebel fighters out of the southern town of duma that's according to russia's military whose police have been deployed to take over security. the international chemical weapons watchdog has confirmed british findings about the poison used against a russian former double agent and his daughter last month the u.k. government earlier found that a soviet era nerve agent known as novacek was used the poisoning of cripple and his

daughter yulia sparked a global diplomatic crisis with the u.k. and its allies accusing moscow of being behind the attack a former senior official in china who was once a contender for a leadership position has pleaded guilty to charges of corruption. is one of the most prominent figures charged as part of president xi jinping and the corruption crackdown he's pleaded guilty to taking bribes worth twenty seven million dollars and abuse of power between two thousand and two and two thousand and seventeen analysts say she's anticorruption campaign is more about eliminating political rivals at least fourteen people are being killed by the taliban attacks in afghanistan gunman stormed a district government compound in the southeastern province of ghastly the local governor policeman and intelligence officers are among the dead in the pre-dawn raid and afghan police say forty five five five five forty five fighters pardon me have been killed and security forces are back in control of the district israel

says it's fired at several hamas positions in gaza in response to an explosion which damaged one of its army vehicles the military says a bomb was planted under a digger during protests on the israel gaza border no one was hurt it's not clear what type of weapons israel used in the attack thirty one palestinians are being killed by israeli forces since protests began at the border fence two weeks ago. those were the main headlines to stay with us here on al-jazeera the stream is next . this is really an attack on the truth itself is a lot of this of the standard of what free speech is supposed to be about the context it's hugely important setting the stage for a serious debate up front at this time on al-jazeera. you know everyone my name so many of my again i'm not so sure director for the gun violence prevention team at the center for american progress and your interest.