i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who's an activist and she's close to the story joined the global conversation at this time on al-jazeera . al-jazeera. where ever you. as we embrace new technologies rarely do we stop to ask what is the price of this progress what happened was people started getting sick but there was a small group of people that began to think that maybe this was related to become the first closure on the job and investigation reveals how even the smallest devices have deadly environmental and health costs we think ok we'll send you waste to china but we have to remember that air pollution travels around the globe death by design on al-jazeera.

mexico's from washington of a military action against syria. and welcome to al-jazeera life of a headquarters and in a soprano also ahead. supreme court battles former promise to from politics for life. a show of force says beijing status naval exercises in the disputed south china sea plus. one laying out is the beginning of this year tens of thousands of people of the democratic republic of congo but. there is again the way it. will be retracing their journey.

the u.s. defense secretary has played down expectations of an imminent missile strike on syria james mattis said any strike would have to be balanced with the threat of creating a wider conflict but early on for the state president trump said a missile strike could happen soon or not at all alan fischer reports now from washington d.c. . james mattis was already to meet lawmakers to talk about the budget but with the growing threat of military action against syria this gave the house armed services committee the chance to drill for more information but what is the policy of the department of defense regarding in strategy regarding the assad regime its future in the syrian civil war is there a strategy. with the president warning russia in a tweet that nice new and smart missiles were heading to syria is defense secretary insisted there was concern any strike could lead to

a bigger battle we're trying to stop the murder of innocent people but on a strategic level how do we keep this from escalating out of control the idea of deescalating the tension is also a theme coming out of moscow with all citizens on the ground so our people ologist soldiers there they're not for conquering i don't know conquering syrian people they are for protecting syrian people across capitol hill cia director mike pompei or was meeting senators seeking confirmation is the new secretary of state. when president trump launched his last attack in syria almost exactly a year ago he didn't seek authorization for the use of military force from congress . says he won't need at this time either i believe that he has the authority he needs to do that i don't believe we need and that a new way for the president to engage in the activity you describe but uncertainty of what's to come still lingers not least because the president says

a decision still hasn't been made and we're looking in very very seriously very closely at that whole situation and. we'll see what happens folks will see what happens what makes we have final decision is washington's uncertainty has allowed syria and the russian allies to move men and machinery and protect important weapon systems and whether any military action would put american troops in syria even greater risk alan fischer al jazeera washington well syria was also on the agenda at the u.n. security council on thursday mike hanna has more from the u.n. . 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 benz 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 can look exclude any possibilities unfortunately because we saw with messages that they're coming from washington they were very big because. they know where the hope. wish there was that through proper channels these. any dangerous individual developments 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. if they want to other news now and breaking news from pakistan where the supreme court has banned former prime minister now washington from politics for life a five judge bench announced the decision in the capital islamabad the three time former prime minister was removed from office last year on corruption allegations well let's get more on this now we're joined by our pakistan correspondent come on high there he is. on the phone i believe and islamabad he's live in islamabad

what's this expected and what does it mean for sharif split a call career. i do apologize do we have a connection but we don't have a connection with our correspondent in islamabad but we will go to him as soon as we establish that but will move on to other news for now china's navy is to hold live fire drills in the taiwan strait next week the exercises come at a time of heightened tension with the u.s. over washington support for the island republic or china regards taiwan as a breakaway province the announcement came as china's navy concluded its biggest ever fleet for a view in the contested waters of the south china sea china correspondent adrian brown reports in the sea where so many countries now have territorial claims an unprecedented display of chinese military power image is likely to unsettle some of

china's neighbors it was the top story on chinese state television running for more than twenty two minutes the fleet review involved forty eight warships a nuclear powered submarine and china's sole operating aircraft carrier looming the display also included seventy six aircraft including bombers as well as ten thousand servicemen and women remain single all dressed for battle issuing orders their commander in chief president xi jinping armed with words for a military he's determined to strengthen. building a strong navy has never become so urgent as today will carry out the thought of beauty a strong military a new era. just forty eight hours earlier before an audience that

included world leaders president xi had sought to present china as the guarantor of free trade now in the south china sea that contains some of the world's busiest shipping lanes he had another message these are our waters and we have the strength to defend them. the display happened history u.s. navy aircraft carrier battle groups pass through these same contested waters china claims almost ninety percent of the south china sea and for the past few years has been reinforcing its claim by building artificial islands it denies they have a military purpose some of these warships and now sailing towards the narrow strait that separates china from taiwan to take part in a live fire drill next wednesday the first such exercise there in more than twenty years adrian brown al jazeera beijing. let's go back to that breaking news out of pakistan now the supreme court has disqualified former prime minister now wash from

politics for life our correspondent c'mon hi there as joining us live from islamabad so what does this mean come on for sure and for his ruling pakistan muslim league now a lot of party. well that's an excellent question and one thing is pretty clear that now why should he have political future no more here of course was gunning to become the country's prime minister despite the fact that he was disqualified last year after the ruling party came out with legislation in parliament which would allow for mr sharif to be the head of his party that was struck down by the courts saying that anyone who while laid the constitutional clause sixty six to one which pertained to honesty and right there will be disqualified now there were questions as to for what period of lent or dead

disqualification vord and therefore the supreme court coming out clearly saying that anyone disqualified under article sixty two one would stand disqualified for lives or died of cause would come as a big disappointment for now watch and leave but the opposition and people across really hail days as are week three because they say that anyone who is guilty and who ignored worthy of leading the government should not do so and so of god the government not happy but indeed a landmark day you mention the opposition come out how is this going to play into that pending general election in pakistan. no why should he have disqualification shi'a talk on a bus she was made the prime minister. younger brother shahbaz sharif guarded the younger brother of no why should leave was made. his body of course really didn't

you take part in the elections the government only has two months it will be completing its ten year old by the end of may so different in order fake be elections porcher but no why should you disqualification. for the ruling party richard in power right now thank you very much for that for now that's come on hot up with the latest thank you. to sri lanka now the president has suspended polman for a moment but a growing rift between him and the prime minister supporters of president city cena supported a no confidence motion against prime minister that a look at a singer last week bought they were defeated when no make his loyal to the prime minister have since threatened to quit the coalition and pressuring the president to resign while the lives of city say the shock announcement to reconvene after the eighth of may a correspondent for them this is joining us live from columbus and more on this a suspended of and why now and what does it mean.

basically when there's a but the suspension or the progress of parliament which happened at midnight yesterday has taken everybody by surprise now parliament was due to have just one sitting on the nineteenth of april given that this is very much a holiday month the month of the single and get into lanka but the fact that many people point towards is even that sitting everyone expected a lot of developments in problem and now following the no confidence motion against the prime minister on the fourth of april we found out that several government ministers actually broker. these are government ministers within the president's particular the freedom party they opted to vote against the prime minister vote for the no confidence motion and basically that's true of the government in the crisis because the government cannot have ministers who was against the prime minister so

some of those observers say that this probing of parliament is a bid to prevent a full the crisis the possibility that these ministers that broke ranks might cross over to the opposition now the ministers themselves have said they will sit in opposition but support the president the prime minister's supporters though in parliament have urged that these ministers be removed they say to untenable that they can stain government while voting against the prime minister so essentially a crisis of sorts it's the first time that the president has used his powers to suspend parliament the opposition the joint opposition leader then is going to world to know who i spoke to a short while ago said this is very much within the president's authority how ever one of the things that they do think that this might have been a way of preventing you know these sixteen ministers crossing over to the opposition and is a bit of an l thank you very much for that has been alpha and for the latest from

colombo thank you still ahead on the bulletin and the line of fire to the injured in this coming fall out of gaza and they're being targeted by israeli forces and will have the story behind this for sure which has just won the prize for world quest of the year. how i we've got the spring warmth setting in nice to now across much of here were season very warm air filtering into central pa seizing across as eastern areas to and pushing right up across ukraine into the southwest and kona all over russia or in the process that has led to some flooding this is snow melt that is calls the flooding here is the temperatures rise very quickly not so long ago as temperatures

were well down close to freezing but now we've seen the temperatures lifting someone there at the high teens the fall and 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 a moscow at around eleven celsius full day off nina seventeen there in kiev and you see this pool loom of warm arad which will become more expansive as we go on through the next couple of days say for friday twenty five celsius there for walsall glorious sunshine twenty degrees there in kiev further west we have got some wet weather just around jamey that'll make its way out of the way in the coming days fourteen celsius in london seventeen there for paris and to zero eight but only thirteen there in madrid it warms up nicely across western europe as we go on into saturday and on the guess up to rad eighteen degrees and what weather the just around the western side of the med elsewhere that warmth spreading in.

oregon. good to have you with us on al jazeera these are our top stories the u.s. defense secretary has played down expectations of an imminent assault on syria

following president comments that missile strikes could happen soon all. this comes as the syrian government takes over the rebel held town of a suspected chemical attack took place on saturday breaking news from the supreme court has bad form a promise to now washy from politics to life a five judge bench announced the decision in the capital islamabad a three time former prime minister was removed from office last year of a corruption allegations china's military has announced plans for life on naval drills in the taiwan strait next week the exercises come at a time of heightened tension of increased u.s. support for the island republic china regards taiwan as a breakaway province. now the democratic republic of congo will not attend its own donor conference in geneva on friday but the government says the u.n. has exaggeration of the number of people who need aid well the violence has subsided and fields is still barren and many people haven't received food aid lack

of funding and escalating violence has displaced more than four million people within the d.l.c. since december seventy thousand people have fled fighting in the east to camps in neighboring uganda well malcolm webb has retraced the refugees journey he's traveled from uganda's capital kampala to the most of the refugees. he then headed to. the shore of lake albert in the d. . see this is where many refugees take boats to escape to uganda and finally his visit bernie and a camp for people who fled the fighting and malcolm is joining us live from there now to tell us malcolm about where you are and the situation there. we're in a camp built on a on a muddy slope within the town of bunia very simple structures made of plastic sheets pulled over sticks it's raining now so you can only imagine what that means

for the conditions of the people living here they've been here for about two months and they fled their villages a few kilometers up the road from here when militia came in fact people many people were killed many of them with machetes as a whole population fled so several thousand to living here in this camp but as you're just saying tens of thousands fled across lake albert over the border to neighboring uganda we retraced the journey of the refugees starting in the camp in china while in uganda let's take a look at that story now. it's taken days for cooma corinne and her children to get from her village in the democratic republic of congo to the safety of this refugee camp in uganda with two year old patricia. and she septic sprays just too much. life in the camp begins with vaccines and a medical check. fled her village after her brother in law was killed by a militia with machetes. her husband tricia's father was left behind.

when the fighting started we were very skinny it other people ran away but my husband wasn't around so i waited after everyone i was alone i decided to run. to ms among thousands who fled to uganda since the beginning of this year most of them arrive here by boat on the shores of lake albert that borders the two countries the un registers them before taking them to the camps. to retrace their journey across the lake. in a wooden boat. carrying injured already. alone in the early in the boat think it was a. long way. round going to. the u.n.

says the people who took this journey are among millions of congolese in need of help displaced by multiple conflicts across the country he says the crisis is neglected and he wants governments meeting at a conference in geneva to donate around one and a half billion dollars when we reach the congolese side of the lake we found more people who fled their homes many here couldn't afford the boat unlike those in uganda they receive almost no assistance that the government says the u.n. has greatly exaggerated the number of people affected by the crisis and so is not attending the conference. back. we are not trying to deny that there is a humanitarian problem but we don't consider it's at that level we have to avoid making a business and of the humanitarian situation which discourages investors you can bring economic development. it's clear that many congolese desperately need help

chronic poverty makes the crisis much worse so as we mentioned malcolm donors are meeting in geneva today on friday what kind of assistance of people getting where you are. we've just been speaking to some of the community leaders in this county maybe getting very little assistance the plastic sheets that you can see that make the shelters were given out when they first came here two months ago by one charity i mean they're just stretched over six and nothing's been done to improve the accommodations since then it said a little to no formal system to sue distribution here to make sure that people are getting enough to eat and other charities cooking food once a day in a kitchen there is not enough of it apparently but the best that means people here are getting one meal a day if they happen to have any money or any possessions they can sell within the town means they can raise a bit of extra cash so the conditions really aren't very good so they say they desperately need more food healthcare is also

a major problem only many of the children suffering from diarrhea and vomiting if they do go to the local hospital they'll go in the morning wait all day possibly leave at the end of the day without treatment because of course the public health care here in congo isn't very good at the best of times and with an extra couple of thousand people living in these conditions the strain very great but as we saw in the story there the u.n. is trying to get a lot more money to help people in situations like this in congo the government of congo is not happy with how they're going about it they're disputing the figures as we heard from the information minister there it is clear you can see from the people here whether the numbers are more well they're less yes these people do desperately need help now come thank you very much for that that's malcolm webb joining us live from money i thank you. now thousands of palestinians are preparing for a third five day of protest along the gaza israel border fence gaza's health ministry says more than sixteen hundred demonstrators have been shot by israeli forces so far thirty if that have been killed

a local journalists are prepared to cover the latest demonstrations say they fear being deliberately targeted harry for such reports. jamil the man and sighed almost alawi get ready to film. at one of the protest camps along garza's eastern edge it's a quiet midweek day featuring families with young children and they're well back from the area where israeli troops have used live fire on the past two fridays but they wear their protective equipment nonetheless yes that is the feeling here after the journalists were shot last friday the family told us don't go we as journalists we send a message no matter what my wife or mother says we love our work because of that will keep coming here. last friday freelance photographer yasser taj who was shot in the upper body as he covered the protests the bullet entered his armpit where his flak jacket clearly labelled press could provide no protection he died in

hospital but it's not just the death of yasser more times or that has his colleagues worried the palestinian journalist syndicate says there's a deliberate policy by the israeli army of targeting journalists in order to intimidate them certainly nine other journalists were injured by gunfire during last week's protests. israel has denied targeting members of the media at the same time it's accused of being on the hamas payroll without providing evidence. in gaza's sheaffer hospital we meet. a freelance photographer he was shot in the left leg and needed three surgeries the latest transferring muscle from one leg to the other. upstairs is beginning what could be a twelve month recovery like a freelancer he's worried about the impact of being without work for so long minutes after capturing these images of injured protesters being rushed away for treatment he found himself making the same journey. i was wearing a flak jacket and helmet suddenly while i was working about four hundred meters

from the fence the israelis shot me with a live bullet in the leg it broke the bind because it was an explosive bullet. but he says the job of documenting these protests and the israeli response to them was worth the risk. a sentiment shared by a t.v. cameraman. who despite his family's concerns will be back on shift at the border on friday ari forsett al-jazeera gaza if the government is blaming egypt for the failure to reach an agreement with saddam of a controversial dam project will talks on the ground renaissance project and. and it with no agreement between the three countries that will be the largest in africa costing five billion dollars egypt fears it will significantly reduce the amount of water flowing downstream plan what does it do. you have to have seen the lack of seriousness and cooperation from the egyptian side and that's the reason for the failure of the khartoum negotiations egypt proposed the one nine hundred fifty nine

agreement in the negotiations we renew our position by rejecting this agreement because ethiopia was not part of it and therefore this proposal is a red line and rejected by all means we do not recognize any agreement that we were not a part of the collapse of negotiations is the result of egypt introducing this old convention as an option. to india now where the have been mass protests of allegations that the ruling b j p party is trying to protect men accused of raping and murdering a child in jammu and kashmir demonstrators say the crime is being used as a political and religious tool she had before has more. protesters angry over the rape and murder of us of. gaza where the eight year old girl was kidnapped and attacked in january police say it was part of a plan to force her muslim the magic community to leave the area. us a phone was abducted and held hostage in the temple for days her attackers were

hindu. slogan city is in the name of the hindu god j she'd amen in the name of the country india being the least for the accused i'm not the victim then i don't know what kind of country be a growing up in and what kind of country we are in this country in which direction . on social media people also call for justice saying the horrendous crime should not be about religion but about the mud and rape of a young girl. hindu nationalists rushed to the defense of the queues including lawyers and government ministers from prime minister nuri party the same to. the us to be the support. and the supports to anything the reaction to the prosecutor says threats have been made on her life how to sing people can sing lead to games is not be free i believe i personally

feel that this is something which is really unfortunate. gandhi leader of the indian national congress held a candlelight vigil for us of her saying the government is not doing enough for victims like her there is an attempt to use politics and use communalisation to protect those who have committed such crimes and a force that is infuriating and while the religious and political bickering continues to divide the country this still no justice for the innocent little girl whose life was so brutally taken. before. the teachers' strike of the u.s. state of oklahoma is ended after nearly two weeks the state's largest take as you hear says it's a historic gains after a decade of cuts to school education budgets to pay for the new funding oklahoma's legislature passed its first major tax increase and twenty five years old weighs about four hundred fifty million dollars for the state schools. u.s.

vice president mike pence plans to meet venezuelan opposition leaders in peru during friday's summit of the americas meeting as part of regional efforts to increase pressure on venezuelan president nicolas maduro and since leaving the u.s. delegation after president trump canceled his visit due to a suspected chemical attack in syria. now a venezuelan photographer has won the world press photo of the year award for his image of a burning man during last year's anti-government protests or naldo shares of the a johns france pressed news agency captured the moment a man was set ablaze during a violent protest in caracas seamus says a motorcycle exploded in front of him as police and opposition supporters clashed setting a nearby protester on fire. just a reminder that you can keep up to date with all the news on our website c.n.n. dot com.

and again i want is a problem and the headlines on al-jazeera the u.s. defense secretary has played down expectations of an imminent syria following president thomas comments that missile strikes could happen sued. the syrian government has now taken over the previously rebel held town of suspected chemical attack took place on saturday. with the supreme court has promised in politics for life a five judge bench decision in the capital islamabad the three time former prime minister was removed from office last year after corruption allegations come on high that has more. one thing is pretty clear. there's no more here gunning to become the country's prime minister despite the

fact that. the ruling party came out. for mr sharif to be the head of each party struck down by that called saying that any one. clause. which pertain to. thousands of palestinians are preparing for the third day of protests along the gaza israel border fence gaza's health ministry says more than sixteen hundred demonstrators have been shot by israeli forces so far thirty of them killed when local journalists covering the demonstrations say they fear that they're being deliberately targeted china's military has announced plans for a lot of fun naval drills in the taiwan strait next week the exercises come at a time of heightened tension over increased u.s. support for the island republic of china regards taiwan as

a breakaway province. sri lankan president saying it has abruptly suspended parliament until the eighth of may the move comes amid growing tension between city santa and prime ministers on and because of a sudden a lawmaker has loyal to the prime minister have since threatened to quit the coalition and a pressuring the president to resign right those are the headlines on al jazeera produced stay with us inside story is coming up next thank you very much for watching. with and for your.