the police say this area is a one of several in some townships and cape town children sometimes it caught in the crossfire when rival gangs fight so parents and grandparents have started what they call a walking past to try to take them from gang violence i lost my. go i also lost my there are more than one hundred fifty volunteers working for several walking busses teachers say it is working class attendance has improved the volunteers also act as security guards one day arrived with two concrete m b decide to play god. and some of them if you can castro said to show you are you sure we could. all move for cubans so far in this magnificent. a chronicle of the revolution and its aspirations through the prism of its architecture. unfinished spaces on al-jazeera.

present from fact trucks on his threat of imminent missile strikes on syria over the alleged chemical attack but says a decision will be made soon. the old. this is assets forces take full control of the last rebels. some of them do you want to hold this is sounds easy for life from long but also coming up international chemical weapons experts say a russian former spy on his door so we're poisoned in the u.k. with a very pure type of nerve agent. a man once tipped as a future chinese president becomes the latest casualty of president cheese corruption cracks.

u.s. president dilma 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 to cede that he'd never said when an attack on syria would take place adding it could be very soon or not at all where u.s. allies are considering their positions the british prime minister to resign may's help in the barge and see cabinet meeting and vowed to help coordinate an international response french president manuel mccomb said france needs more information before deciding whether to strike but he's no has no doubt about the syrian government's killed experts from the global chemical weapons war stokely o.p.c. w are on their way to damascus to investigate the alleged chemical attack on duma and they'll start work on saturday well alan fisher has been following developments from washington emma hi there alan so i guess the big question is if trump does decide to strike when. all the national security council have been meeting the that

meeting broke up just over an hour ago donald trump said afterwards that no decision had been made that there is some uncertainty on the american position because we have james mattis who was up on capitol hill on thursday he was due to meet with lawmakers anyway to talk about the defense department budget what he ended up talking about was possible military action on syria and he talked about the need to take action because of what they believe was a gas attack on the syrian people by the syrian leader but they said they also had to weigh that with the consideration of what might happen afterwards whether this would lead to greater conflict was also might prompt you who was on the hill as well he is of course the head of the cia and he was asked does the president want to go ahead with action without going to congress for approval first of all and he pointed to the fact that when he carried out the strikes almost exactly a year ago he didn't seek approval then he didn't need to seek approval no but we

also know from the national security council meeting that donald trump is going to be speaking to present my core of france and also prime minister to resign me in london probably in the next hour or so because of the time difference but donald trump also said that he had never decided to attack syria which is true but he did say more than forty eight hours ago that decision was going to come within forty eight hours so we're still waiting on that decision the problem is they don't know what's going to happen after the thing that happens next so they decided to strike but they don't know how that will impact things further down the line and that may be the key to the delay here allan what's the atmosphere more generally in washington around this is if they were fearing that donald trump should have cause for pause before acting. well i don't think there's anyone walking the streets of washington going about their ordinary lives what he and what donald trump is

going to do about syria that is why there is so much uncertainty his position hasn't been clear for some time you remember it's just over two weeks ago he said he wanted to get out of syria and said we're going to do that really quickly that a week later he said yeah we're going to go when we've defeated eisel he's then said we're going to be sending our missiles in a new smart lovely missiles i think was how he described them and that raised everyone's attention and made people think that a new strike was coming sometime soon and now he's saying no decision has been made no one is waiting to see what donald trump is doing they would like to know what he's going to do but then i suspect everyone well i will only know what he's going to do after he's gone and done it elevation there live from washington d.c. alan thank you. president bashar al assad's government so many military resources away from possible sites for strikes then harder reports now 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 iraq and the russian federation i've seen all levels military political government although. i. have a conclusion that russia and america fall in themselves in the real deadlock they're facing a dangerous period. begin who 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 and 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 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 senator al jazeera beirut that russia is accusing us

of escalating the situation in syria through its aggressive language but moscow says it won't take the bait like hell has more from un headquarters in new york. the security council held a closed door session on syria this called by bolivia to discuss what it called the rising rhetoric however the russian ambassador vasoline the bends here came and spoke to the media after the meeting he said the immediate priority was to avert war when asked whether he meant war between russia and the us this is what he had to say we cannot exclude any possibilities unfortunately because we saw with messages that they're coming from washington they were very bitter because. they know where. i wish there was a look at the through proper channels of this to vote they be in a dangerous individual development. and yet another security council meeting on

syria will be taking place friday this has been called by russia which is also asked the secretary general to brief the council syrian facts and their flying and demands the government reassert its control following the departure of the last rebel fighters the russian military police have been deployed to the town rather than forces under a deal which in russia the armed group josh alissa kathy lopez ports. a deal to surrender and leave over the last week thousands of opposition fighters and civilians have left duma to rebel tell'd 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 of the last rebel stronghold in eastern guta now under government control is covered and rubble and i'm up

a little i'm not in the filthy lovesick at all the entrances are closed this mind inside i can't go in i can will not to go anywhere you can see the wires and other troubling things. told me to wait a couple of days until the street is cleared. for. evacuations out of duma or 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.

al jazeera still to come on al-jazeera chums pick for secretary of state finances and faces antiwar protesters at his confirmation hearing. to find a peaceful solution over north korea. we'll take you inside africa's first power plant that all time waste into energy all that and more when we come back. we've had some and usually warm weather across the eastern side of australia recently that will break over the next couple of days down to the southeast where we have got to watch the clear skies at present but this little system moving through the bike that's been spinning away that's going to introduce some cool wetter weather as we go on through the next day or two the guy that's making its way towards adelaide twenty three celsius fragile eight twenty five degrees for

melbourne it moves in the cloud and the rain comes in it's temp to struggle to get around seventy or eighty and then as we make our way into the weekend twenty celsius twenty two celsius there for perth as we go on into saturday some fine and dry weather as is the case across much of australia could see a few showers just run that eastern side of queensland having said that a few showers in the process of making their way across new zealand at present had some very lively winds here recently things have quieted down over the next couple of days attempt is just getting up to around twelve in crisis a little bit of what weather just coming into central possible not its way further north as we go through saturday but prices guys do come back in behind twenty two degrees or twelve celsius there for christ bright skies for japan on friday make the most of it is clouding over the term pretty wet across the korean peninsula and southern parts of japan for the weekend.

in australia more indigenous children are being taken from their families than ever before. when east investigates where their history is repeating itself. and how does iraq. all jews iraq with every. mind of our top stories here on al-jazeera president trump says he'll decide shortly on whether to launch attacks against syria after tweeting that they could

take place soon or not since all trump was formed as u.k. counterpart to discuss the situation for prime minister to resign may is promising a coordinated response from the u.s. from puzzles that used to call french president the man well back. syrian government has reassert control over to match up to the departure of the last rebel fighters russian militia police have been deployed to the town under a deal with the armed group josh islam. and yes president trumps nominee to be the next secretary of state faced tough questions from a skeptical congressional panel on thursday at his confirmation hearing mike pale was quizzed on everything from iran and north korea to his views on islamophobia and the russian investigation well jordan explains. the antiwar demonstrators were there when mike bomb pale a ripe for his confirmation hearing. so too was a cascade of tough questions from congressional democrats about the secretary of

state nominees views on north korea we have a responsibility to achieve a condition where kim jong il is unable to threaten the united states of america with a nuclear weapon the iran nuclear deal which pompei o has opposed in the past and if there is no chance that we can fix it i will recommend to the president that we do our level best to work with our allies to achieve a better outcome and a better deal and his willingness to be a truth teller not a yes man to us president donald trump republican rand paul who has already promised to oppose upon pales nomination some here worry that you're going to be too much in agreement president actually were you going to be too much in disagreement with the president but pump ale also faced tough questions about what some call his anti muslim views do you have any views that the muslim faith or people believe in worshipping other gods is that just something negative in our country they can look at my record you don't have to take my word for today my

record is exquisite with respect to treating people of each and every faith with the dignity they deserve and pompei o even faced questions about the president's alleged efforts to undermine the special counsel's investigation into russian meddling in the two thousand and sixteen u.s. elections if the president were to fire the special counsel or to interfere with his investigation that it would put the rule of law genuinely at risk if that were the case and if that happened would you resign your post as secretary of state in order to demonstrate that we are a nation of laws not of men my instincts tell me no. my instincts tell me that my obligation to continue to serve as america's senior diplomat will be more important at increased times of political domestic turmoil for nearly five hours on thursday mike pompeo tried to be as diplomatic as possible about his views before skeptical senators his future now rests in their hands as they debate whether to forward his

nomination to be secretary of state to the entire senate rosalyn jordan al-jazeera capitol hill sometimes considering whether to rejoin and renegotiated trans-pacific trade partnership possesses trade and economic advisors to look into whether a bests a deal could be negotiated it would be a major policy new term for chump who frequently criticized the pact and withdrew from it on his first day in office the t p p includes eleven other pacific rim come trace european officials believe they're making progress on the agreement that would address president tom's concerns about the iran nuclear deal earlier this year chantal britain france and germany he would refuse to extend u.s. sanctions relief on iran and that's what he called the terrible flaws of the deal were fixed john hendren reports from washington. after months of tough talk on the iranian nuclear agreement donald trump appears headed for a showdown the current status of relations between the u.s.

and iran is. very acrimonious president trump has railed against the nuclear agreement since his campaign the iran deal was one of the worst and most one sided transactions the united states has ever entered into in january he doubled down declining to impose sanctions on iran only for one last time he says iran is not living up to the spirit of the deal unless iran renegotiate the deal to give the u.s. and its allies greater access to tehran's facilities and to extend the agreement trump says he will decline to waive sanctions that could effectively put an end to the nuclear agreement they've made very clear that if the united states walks away they would not see themselves as continued to be required to get here with their own obligations and so i think we would very likely see iran begin to reconstitute elements of its nuclear program so i think it's almost inconceivable that we won't

see an escalation of tensions between the two countries one possible reason for trump's newly hardline domestic u.s. politics. the president is pivoting to a hard line in large part because he's heading into the midterm elections and the poll numbers don't look good and publicans in general in the white house in particular are sweating bullets and trumps going back to his game plan as a candidate and that is to go to the hard right and to rally the base personnel changes at the white house could make all the difference trump recently replaced advisers who want to keep the deal intact with hardliners who want to scrap and secretary of state rex tillerson in national security adviser age or mcmaster or out might pump a zero in john bolton or in bolton has gone so far as to call for regime change in iran in military strikes on its nuclear program leaving trump in something of an

echo chamber with few dissenting voices remaining john hendren washington these five people have died in a bomb blast in a packed football stadium in somalia several of us were injured in the explosion in the coastal town of the armed group al-shabaab has now claimed responsibility it's carried out several previous attacks in the time. the united nations has described a civilian protest using dead bodies in the central african republic as propaganda demonstrates as they seventeen dead bodies that save the u.n. building in the capital bungay on wednesday they say they were innocent civilians killed during crashes between the un and armed groups but the u.n. insists the dead were criminals that opened fire on un peacekeepers killing one un's on a mission to restore state authority to the p.k. five neighborhood of. the global chemical weapons will shock says a military grade nerve agent was used to poison a former russian spy and his daughter in a british town of soulsby last month u.k.

government and its allies blame russia for the attack but moscow denies any involvement catherine stansell 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. and 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. 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 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's them not sure if it's we can officially 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 o.p.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 international monitors say the presidential election in azerbaijan was unfair and lacked genuine competition supporters of president. dismiss the monitors finding a biased and have won a fourth term away he said by a landslide with more than eighty six percent of the vote the election was boycotted by opposition parties who accuse him of thora tarion will and suppressing political dissent is found they have ruled as have i john since the breakup of the soviet union in one thousand nine hundred one. at least fourteen people have been killed in the carried out by the taliban in afghanistan gunman stormed a district government compound of the southeastern province of a local governor seven placement of five intelligence officers are amongst the victims the district is now under control of afghan security. trying to slater has

suspended the country's parliament until may president may throw apollo series since a spokesman gave no explanation for thursday's shock announcement president series sends a back to long successful no confidence motion against its own prime minister last week a former senior official in china who was once considered a contender for the presidency has pleaded guilty to corruption charges cinching side is one of the most prominent figures to be charged in president xi jinping 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. singh'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. had also been accused of plotting against city to ship a conspiracy said to involve the country's former security chief joe young caring who was jailed for life three years ago now soon is facing a lengthy imprisonment adrian brown al jazeera beijing africa's first plant that converts waste to energy is about to open a few opiah it's a project that aims to bring electricity to thirty percent of homes in the capital and has been built next to a massive landfill site in addis ababa where people sift through maintenance of garbage trying to make a living step back and as the story this is addus ababa 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 now waste is of course not just an if you can 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 inside of 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 so that 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 operating an incinerator in this waste we can i will to produce a hundred and eighty five hour electricity which is equivalent to light hops or thirty percent of our decide what 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 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 a photograph of the venezuelan protests on fire has been voted the world press photo of the year we're now though schmidt snapped the photograph as protesters fought with riot police during anti-government demonstrations judges of the prestigious competition said the image was symbolic of a country burning around children the folks who were standing near a burning motorbike when it exploded but he survived the blast elephants interest have been splashing out thailand as they are sure in the new year the annual water festival or songkran as it's known is on the way one of the most famous aspects of the celebration is a massive water fight elephants are painted from head to toe in bright colors for the annual water fight now is based on this edition of believe the water washes away bad luck and blesses people for the year ahead. you can head to our

website find out more about our stories right there at al-jazeera dot com. our mind of our top stories here on out is iraq yes president donald trump says he'll make a decision on a military strike in syria very soon just a day ago chum warned russia to get ready for a missile attack america's allies are weighing up their support to french president manuel mccall says he doesn't doubt the syrian military was behind sounds of a suspected gas attack in duma british prime minister series amazes the u.k. will ordinator with the u.s. all germany ruled out providing military support president drum spoke to may late on thursday and his june to speak to back home they were looking very very seriously very closely at that whole situation and. we'll see what happens folks see what happens too bad that the world puts us in

a position like that was they said this morning we've got a great job with isis we have just absolutely decimated isis but now we have to make them for the decision so they'll be majorly says. some bassam to the u.n. this criticize what he says are overly aggressive messages coming from washington we cannot exclude any possibilities unfortunately because we saw with messages that the governing for washington they were very big because. they know where to i wish there was that through proper channels in this theory that they beat any dangerous individuals develop international chemical weapons inspectors are on their way to syria and will start investigating the do much back on saturday syrian government flags were waved in the streets as its troops for they took over the former rebel stronghold thousands of rebels and their families have been bused in northern syria as part of an evacuation agreement. president picks the new u.s.

secretary of state was confronted by antiwar protest as a confirmation hearing in washington pale told senate says he'll seek a peaceful solution to the north koreans than will and that he does not support regime change there on peo is currently the head of the cia if confirmed to replace rex tillerson who was fired last month after repeatedly trashing donald trump. those are the headlines stay with us one on one east is next and as always thanks for your company but by. us president donald trump has said he will slap new charis on imports of steel an alum in your brand by g.m. will be boss today to try to spot ten times faster than forty we bring you the stories that the shaping the economic world we live in counting the cost at this time on al-jazeera.