cause no one cares or if you join us on set there are people that there are choosing between buying medication eating this is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who's an activist who's close to the story joining a global conversation at this time on al-jazeera. what makes this movement this era we're living from so unique this is really an attack on itself is a lot of misunderstanding but a distortion is that what free speech is supposed to be about that context is hugely important level wise to publish if you have a cue to be offensive or provocative whatever that is people do setting the stage for a serious debate. up front at this time on al-jazeera. president

trump rolls back on his thread imminent missile strikes on syria over the alleged chemical attack but says a decision will be made soon. oh. this is as forces take full control of duma after the last rebels who. some of them do it was all of this is al jazeera live from london also coming up tom's pick for secretary of state faces antiwar protest as at his confirmation hearing was to find a peaceful solution over north korea. about ones to the future chinese president becomes the latest casualty of president cheesed corruption crackdown. and we'll take you inside africa as first power plant that will turn waste into energy.

their very warm welcome to the program u.s. president donald trump says he'll be meeting his top advisors on thursday and promised a decision on military action against syria fairly soon a day after warning russia to get ready trump tweeted that he had never said what an attack on syria would take place adding it could be very soon or not soon as tall well u.s. allies are considering their positions the british prime minister to resign may has held an emergency cabinet meeting to decide whether they're in governments guilt experts from the global chemical weapons will stall or p.c. w. are on their way to damascus to investigate the alleged chemical attack on duma and they say they'll start work on saturday where white house correspondent can be how could has been following the twists and turns in washington so kimberly i think the thing that's been on everybody's mind today is this issue about timing if it's

going to happen when. right and the president not giving a very clear indication just to see hasn't really for the last week in terms of his overall serious strategy we're still left in the dark the president tweeting as you mentioned on thursday morning that attack on syria could happen sooner or not at all well he went further not really elaborating on those comments but doubling down on them as he spoke from the cabinet room of the white house take a listen. very very closely to. you what happened smoke you see what happens in. the world puts those in a position where. they said this morning we're going to great job we have just absolutely decimated eyes. we have to. go there we made sure we should so the president dialing back the rhetoric we saw one day earlier when he was

pointing the finger at syria russia threatening to launch missiles now it seems that he has had some sobering second thoughts perhaps because of the input of his secretary of defense general james mattis who was here at the white house yesterday again at the white house today for another meeting of the national security council as he says they are still assessing evidence and will provide options to the president if appropriate so certainly there is some careful consideration going on the president still keeping as the white house press secretary has said for days all options on the table but for now in terms of that timeline initially the president said he would have a decision early in the week within forty eight hours that window has no clothes still no answers except to say that it could happen soon committee how could their life from the white house committee thanks. so we're in flux and are flying into as the government we assert control following the departure of last rebel fighters but

russian military police have been deployed to the time rather than regime forces under a deal between russia and the armed josh all islam cast a lopez reports. a deal to surrender and leave over the last week thousands of opposition fighters and civilians have fled duma to rebel held areas in northern syria about twenty thousand people have gone to the northern province of it live for many the pain of defeat is overwhelming. those on the opposite side of the war celebrated the evacuation the last rebel stronghold in eastern guta now under government control is covered and probabl and i'm up. all the entrances are closed there's mind inside i can't go in i can will not to go anywhere you can see the wires and other troubling things they told me to wait a couple of days until the street is cleared. the evacuations out of duma are

a major victory for syrian president bashar al assad and his ally russia many of the city buildings and roads have been destroyed there have been weeks of intense bombings. the takeover may have been driven by an apparent chemical attack in duma about forty people were killed hundreds were treated in hospitals the syrian government says it had nothing to do with it while the russians deny such an attack even happened under the inoculation deal russian military police are now patrolling the streets. a city in transition as the syrian government keeps gaining ground. on al-jazeera president bashar al assad's government has already made military resources away from possible sites for missile strikes in a hold of reports from neighboring. syria's military is preparing for possible

airstrikes by the united states and its allies it has been hiding aircraft moving its assets and evacuating potential targets including the ministry of defense an army headquarters in damascus western nations are promising a response following the suspected chemical weapons attack in the city of duma syrians living in rebel areas welcome any attempt to punish and weaken the syrian government but many in the opposition believe nothing will change. they already emptied all the military airports before an attack this shows that all sides are conspiring against the syrian people. we're hearing about a possible u.s. strike we don't believe anything the last time they hit nothing happened even gave the regime advance notice to remove the planes if they hit again it will be limited . it's been several days since u.s. president donald trump promised a swift response for what he called an atrocious attack last year his

administration carried out a one off strike against syria over the use of chemical weapons now the possibilities involve something more forceful but the presence of iranian and russian troops complicates the choice of targets there is a real risk of direct confrontation with the russian military. negotiations on the issue of continuum between your ideas and the russian federation i've seen all levels military political and governmental. i. have a conclusion that russia and america fall in themselves in the real deadlock they're facing a dangerous period. begin we are. the so-called de confliction hotline that the u.s. and russian militaries use in syria to prevent a direct clash is being used the kremlin however is not saying what is being discussed we understand that turkey a nato member is acting as

a communication channel between the western alliance and russia there are behind the scenes efforts to try to deescalate what is being described as a dangerous crisis a crisis that can lead to a confrontation between the united states and russia as well as a showdown between iran and israel. just days after syria russia and iran accused israel of attacking an airbase in the syrian province of homs iran's top advisor to the supreme leader ali akbar will a.f.p. travel to damascus where they are to threatened to expel what he said were occupying u.s. troops in northeast syria saying the area east of the euphrates will be liberated iran lost seven of its military personnel in monday's strike not only did it promise a response its leadership promised to stand by syria if it attacked and would be a limited strike it will be against. military installations air fields

and all of those. things that can be repaired fairly quickly. will insist and the european partners or others will insist that deterrence has to be reestablished. that means that the syrian regime has to pay a price for that price is unlikely to lead to the collapse of the syrian government which is further consolidating its control after its victory in the damascus suburb of eastern huta france has said if a decision is taken to launch a strike the government's chemical capabilities will be targeted and not russian and iranian assets the situation is unpredictable but one thing seems clear significant u.s. led military intervention to tip the balance of the conflict in favor of the opposition is not on the table sen al jazeera beirut russia's foreign ministry says moscow will not escalate the situation and suggest the u.s.

should face consequences for its behavior or showers as the latest moscow. well the russians been saying for weeks now before the chemical incidents in ghouta in duma over the weekend that it was expecting some sort of as they put it provocation a false flag operation launched by the united states in collaboration with rebels on the ground using chemical weapons to justify punitive strikes against the syrian government and its assets and it's no surprise that that message is being continued by the russian government is now in the aftermath of what happened in duma the foreign ministry said today our position is perfectly clear and precise we are not seeking escalation and we expect our partners to be wise enough to return to the legal framework and solve the emerging problems together well again security

council has been holding yet another meeting on syria this time called by russia's ally bolivia mike hanna is live at the united nations am mike what can i add to that meeting well it was a closed meeting and the point of it according to the bolivian ambassador was to discuss the rising rhetoric in the ongoing dispute over syria no real details emerge from that meeting however the russian ambassador came out of the meeting and address the media he said that the immediate priority as he put it was to avert the danger of war when asked with the he meant by that he meant averting war between the u.s. and russia this is what he had to say. we can look exclude any possibilities unfortunately because we saw with messages that the government for washington they were very big because. they know where the hope. i wish there was

a look at the through proper channels in these. any dangerous individuals develop them well yet another meeting on syria is shuttled for the security council friday this has been called by russia and it will be briefed to the russia hopes or has asked for by the un secretary-general michaela there live for the latest new un mike thank you still to come this half hour. corpses laid out in protests why the u.n. says this action in central african republic is an act of the gap the. international chemical weapons express a russian former spy and his daughter were poisoned in the u.k. with a very short type of nerve agent. however

we've got the spring warmth setting in ny city now across much of here were season very warm air filtering into central powers easing across those eastern areas to and pushing right up across ukraine into the southwestern corner of russia or in the process that has led to some flooding this is no melt that is cause the flooding here is the temperatures rise very quickly not so long ago as temperatures well down close to freezing but now we've seen the temperatures lifting some when there are the high teens the fall of back a little bit but we are going to see some good warm weather just coming back through as we go on through the next few days to moscow it around eleven celsius for thursday afternoon a seventeen there in kiev new see this plume of warm arad wish to become more expansive as we go on through the next couple of days say for friday twenty five celsius there for warsaw glorious sunshine twenty degrees there in kiev further west we have got some wet weather just around germany that'll make its way out of the way in the coming days fourteen celsius in london seventeen there for paris and

for zero eight but only thirteen there in madrid it warms up nicely across western europe as we go on into saturday london gets up to around eighteen degrees and what weather though just around the western side of the med elsewhere that warmth spreading in. a story fourteen hundred years in the make. a story of succession and the leadership. as josie that tells the story of dispute and division of the hall. the caliph episode to josie. burke.

well in mind of our top stories here on al-jazeera president trump says he'll decide short deal with this launch attacks against syria after tweeting that they could take place in an office in. french president a man called says france has proof that us us forces used chemical weapons into my last week but he still needs more information before deciding whether to join any u.s. action syrian government reasserting control with him up to the departure of the last rebel fighters russian military police have been deployed to the time to deal with the i'm pretty josh on the slide. the president trumps nominee for secretary of state mike pale has faced tough questions from senators at a confirmation hearing. a. current cia

director was greeted by protesters accusing him of being a war monger if confirmed by the senate pompei will replace rex tillerson who was fired last month after repeatedly clashing with the president from pale denied ever advocating for regime change in north korea rose jordan has the latest from capitol hill. the syria director mike pompei o has been trying to sound a conciliatory note during his daylong confirmation hearing on capitol hill this problem pale would replace threats to wilson who never got on the right side of the us president donald trump and in fact trump when making the nomination said that mike pompei zero shared most of his news about how to conduct foreign policy paul pale however has been selling some cautious notes he did say that he wouldn't tear of the iran nuclear deal short of scale but rather he would propose that if the state department concluded that the deal was not being complied with that the us

told with its now lies about drafting and the goon ceding a new deal to keep careful. and from developing nuclear weapons as for north korea which has already been testing if we warheads pompei or said that caution needs to be used as the president gets ready to meet with kim jong il the north korean leader but he did indicate that at the end of the day he believes that if he is confirmed he's going to be looking for every diplomatic fashion possible to avoid using military weapons as a way of resolving global crises the global chemical weapons watchdog says a military grade nerve agent was used to poison a former russian spy and his daughter in the british town of souls for a last month the u.k. government and its allies claim russia for the attack of moscow denies involvement catherine standstill reports it was the first nerve agent deployed in europe since the second world war the o.p.c.

w was ordered to carry out an independent investigation into the poisoning of u.t. young sergei screwball last month when they were found slumped in a park in salisbury yulia was released from hospital this week her father is still receiving treatment while the o p c w isn't responsible for finding out the source of the chemical it didn't stop the british foreign secretary boris johnson from pointing the finger only russia has the means motive and record the kremlin has to give answers. the chemical identified is said to be of high purity suggesting that only a sophisticated laboratory could make it very hard purity is very important is very difficult to make a highly toxic chemicals to this level of purity without a lot of effort don't worry about purities because they don't get in the way is the nature tossed that you're using the chemical for which is to poison something so

you only release the impurities if you tried to make it difficult for people to point the finger back at you russia has consistently denied its involvement and the incident such off a diplomatic tit for tat with britain it refuses to accept the findings of the o.p.c. w. unless moscow has access to the test samples itself but there today i'm not sure if it's saying no we confirm our official position that russia will not blindly accept any conclusions in this case until russian experts are given access to the material of the. investigation and to the full range of real information on this incident which london is in possession of. the foreign secretary has said there is no other alternative about who is responsible for the nerve agent except moscow the british government has requested a special meeting with the ok c w to discuss its findings and the un security council where russia is a permanent member will also hold a meeting next week stansell al-jazeera london. the united nations has described

a civilian protest using dead bodies in the central african republic as propaganda demonstrators they seventeen dead bodies outside the u.n. building in the capital bunky on what his state say they were innocent civilians who were killed during clashes between the un and armed groups the u.n. insists the dead were criminals that opened fire on un peacekeepers killing one of them well the u.n. is currently on a mission to restore state authority in the mainly whose than p.k. five area of punky. chua is the u.n. undersecretary general for peacekeeping operations he spoke to us from bungie and said the un's accidents were justified and its presence in the p.k. five neighborhood is welcomed by the people there. the population ask us to do something about this criminal groups that are oppressing the population there may be needed legal taxes there. you see black mail sometime oh there are some

great and this has been going on for months and months and months. and the un has been trying to get it to solve this problem in the recent me but many month prine. we have. intervened then the and as we did it and we were wrong. it is arms. who are. harm and. this confrontation and the result that. on that we have won. your. very high number and. to the best of our knowledge and of course we will investigate for the what happened there has been no women and children has been unfortunate for the many armed civilians were killed you know i think it's important not to be manipulated

by those who really want to undermine the action of all those want to mail the central african republic. no we are here to protect the population we did this at the request of the population. the palestinians being killed at a protest camp site close to the israeli gaza border health officials say the man was shot dead by israeli forces thirty two palestinians have now been killed since protests began at the border fence just two weeks ago well earlier israel fired at hamas positions in gaza killing one home us fighter leaving another person injured the trail said the strikes were in retaliation for a bomb attack on a military vehicle or weapon say which didn't cause any casualties but with tensions high in gaza thousands are trying to get to egypt after the rafa crossing was open following talks with hamas last year it only opened for thirty six days leaving tens of thousands on a waiting list arafat's it has more. thousands of people here in iraq in the south

of the gaza strip for what is it a rare opportunity you can see the desperation to get on to one of these buses they are processed here inside the hole the people who are on the list and whose documents are stamped 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 near 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 a real desperation to it to make the most of it the last time there was a crushing 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 into the shopping so difficult to do given the israeli blockade and that the allegations that have been in place here on the southern rafa crossing they try to make the

most of that opportunity. and then i'm good nor am i the pride for two years but only now i'm on the list i was supposed to go last time i hope this time i can get to jordan this year my those others feel there is no future in gaza if i don't travel my future will be destroyed. clearly. the koran 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 fatah led palestinian authority and hamas which continues to control gaza continues to fall to egypt also understood to be edging calm along the fence

between israel and gaza where we've seen protests over the last couple of weeks tens of thousands of people gathering hundreds of the being shot by israeli live fire when you talk to some of the young people involved in those protests they talk about the lack of any real hope for the future here inside gaza and the new year in possibility of getting out through this barely functioning route in the southern tip of the gaza strip a former senior official in china who was once considered a contender for the presidency has pleaded guilty to corruption charges so. as one of the most prominent figures to be chaunged and president xi jinping has anticorruption cracks in our china correspondent saging brand 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'd 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 certain 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. africa's first plan that converts waste to energy is about to open it's a project that aims to bring electricity to thirty percent of homes in the capital it's been built next to a massive landfill site in addis ababa where people sift through them and my mountains of garbage trying to make a living step to has more 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 you know waste is of course not just a myth european 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 have the waste to energy plant and i discovered this what you see is the tipping hole. will receive the waste so basically what the facility this one receives one thousand four hundred tons a day this is equal to almost eighty percent of our waste what's currently goes to the land the fields and polluting the environment once this facility you start to operate in an incinerator and this waste we can i would to produce a hundred and eighty five hour electricity which is because light taps are city percent of i decided households were 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 keen to showcase it as a success story as africa's first and of course it remains just a small step in dealing with the vast quantities of waste that we as humans produce . well offense and tourists have been splashing out in thailand as they are sure in the new year the annual festival or song graham has begun our one of the most famous aspects of the celebration is basically a massive wall to fight elephants are painted from head to toe in bright colors for the event it's based on a traditional belief that water washes away bad luck and blesses people for the year ahead. you can find out much more about the stories we're following head to our web site lots of input video on demand at al-jazeera dot com .

remind our top stories here on al-jazeera u.s. president donald trump says he'll make a decision on a military strike in syria very soon just a day ago trump warned russia to get ready for a mistrial attack america's allies are weighing up their support french president manuel michael says he doesn't doubt the syrian military was behind saturday's suspected gas attack in duma british prime ministers to resume a says the u.k. will coordinate with the u.s. while germany will die providing military support president trump won't set a time frame for action that we're looking very very good looking at the whole situation and. we'll see what happens folks you see what happens in. the world would see those in a position where it. was they said this morning we got a good job with those as we have just absolutely decimated eyes is what we have to make them for the decision so they'll be made for we should. russia's ambassador to

the u.n. has criticized what he says are overly aggressive messages coming out of washington . we could not exclude any possibilities unfortunately because we saw with messages that the governing for washington they were very big because. they know where the whole pool i always thought that was that through proper channels in the story that maybe it is the individuals developed that the international chemical weapons inspectors are on their way to syria and will start investigating the duma attack on saturday syrian government flights were waved in the streets as its troops for we took over the former rebel stronghold but under a deal between russia and the armed group josh l. islam russian military police have been deployed to the time rather government forces that i was ans of rebels and their families have been bused to northern syria as part of an evacuation agreement president trumps pick for the

new set us secretary of state was confronted by empty war protest as a confirmation hearing in washington might compare told senators he'll seek a peaceful solution to the north koreans them off on bail is currently the head of the cia if confirmed here were place rick to listen who was fired last month after repeatedly clashing with donald trump those i headlined stay with us the stream is coming up next.