getting to the heart of the matter if most of the turkish cypriot leader calls you today and says let's have talks would you accept facing realities what do you think reunification would look like there are two people think the peaceful unification is the only option for prosperity of south korea hear their story on talk to al-jazeera the most memorable moments with al-jazeera was when i was on air as hosni mubarak fell with the crowds in tahrir square two or three. times if something happens anywhere in the world al jazeera is in place we're able to cover news like no other news organizations. were able to do it properly. and that is our strength.

vote rejected the united nations security council fails to pass a russian proposal to condemn the u.s. airstrikes in syria. and i'm jane death and this is al jazeera live from. the u.s. warns of more strikes if bashar al assad's regime uses chemical weapons again. a call for venezuela's president to restore democracy ahead of upcoming elections which many cornish plus. lawrence lee in manchester where scientists are using the one the material known as graphene to help find a solution to the world's water crisis.

the u.s. says it's. locked and loaded for another military strike if the syrian government uses chemical weapons again that warning follows the launch of more than one hundred missiles by u.k. french and american forces at sites they say were linked to syria's chemical weapons program a russian draft resolution condemning the operation was voted down at the u.n. security council mike hanna has more from the u.n. this is the first time the council has met on syria this week a series of meetings that have served only to illustrate the massive divide on the issue the secretary general's repeated calls for unity ignored they are all members to show restraint in these dangerous circumstances and to avoid any acts that could escalate matters and worsening the suffering of the syrian people the meeting was called by russia and its close ally in the council but libya and outrage was expressed at the strikes took place even as international experts arrived in

damascus to investigate whether or not a chemical attack actually took place for example a gruesome news learned that the organizers of the aggression didn't even wait for the elementary establishment of facts by an international organization which is authorized to do that they supposedly determine everything for themselves and you turman who was guilty u.k. ambassador argued the strikes were justified in terms of international law and the representative from france was adamant that in the absence of diplomatic agreement the strikes were the only form of sanction against syria that remained and the u.s. ambassador threatened further action i spoke to the president this morning and he said if the syrian regime uses this poisonous gas again the united states is a lot and loaded when our president draws a red line our president enforces the red line. like every resolution on

syria introduced in the past week this one failed only russia bolivia and china voting in favor this well short of the nine votes that would have necessitated a veto from one of the permanent members despite a hopelessly split security council france says it will introduce yet another resolution this one addressing the dismantling of a chemical weapons program in syria also aimed at forging a cease fire and a durable political solution for those seeking some straw to clutch in the diplomatic breakdown away from the implacable confrontation informal session members of the council continue to informally even affectionately engage mike hanna al-jazeera united nations let's bring in c.n.n. she is live in beirut the o.p.c. w. the chemical weapons inspectors are there now on the ground tell us more about

what's happening. well yes that team of weapons inspectors arrived in damascus late on saturday according to the organization they will now commence their work there providing little operational details but what we understand is that this team will be heading to the town of duma the site of that alleged chemical weapons attack they're going to investigate and inspect the site now there are questions being raised on whether or not they'll be able to operate independently because there is a new a sortie on the ground in duma which was russian military police who were inside this town but this fact finding mission its mandate is only to determine whether or not a chemical weapons attack actually happened it doesn't have the mandate to apportion blame now the western allies who were involved in those airstrikes that targeted those chemical weapons facilities they say that they have proof they didn't show that evidence but they say that they have proof that a chemical weapons attack actually happened so it's not clear really the effect of

this fact finding mission this open c.w. mission after it releases its findings and say that away from the chemical weapons attack and its chemical weapons attack i'm going to go to now i'm hearing that the rebels have all been cleared out. yes the last remaining fighters and their families people who were supposed to leave us part of this evacuation deal they left yesterday with the syrian army declaring victory officially declaring victory actually the victory last sunday when. that addressed the rebel group agreed to surrender and evacuate the area undoubtedly this is a victory for the syrian government eastern just at the doorsteps of the capital damascus and already in the pro-government media they're talking about the future of offensives that the army is gearing up for future offensives to clear yet more territory and among those areas will be in the southern countryside to damascus some pockets of territory they are controlled by i still like the district of.

because well as to dom one so we understand that the army is gearing up for an offensive there we also understand that the army as well as the russian military they're giving an ultimatum to rebels in the western area which is very close to the lebanon border they control a pocket of territory there and the syrian government telling the rebels either lay down your arms or agree to reconcile with the government or face an onslaught so the military really emboldened feeling strengthened that after eastern they're going to continue these military campaigns it is still not clear for example whether or not they're going to focus in the southern countryside or southern province of excuse me so the government clearly emboldened showing that it wasn't really affected by those strikes thank you for that and whether antiwar protest is outside the white house to condemn the air strikes in syria they chanted hands off syria and called for peace the demonstrators say they want the world to know not everyone in the united states backs military action some senators are

accusing president don trump of overstepping his authority with the strikes on syria helen fisher has the details from washington. the question of legality still hangs over donald trump's the session to launch an assault in syria is certainly when james mattis who is the defense secretary was giving evidence of capitol hill and thursday he was asked several times under what authorization and the president possibly plan an attack on syria under the u.s. constitution it is for congress to declare war and they were suggesting that the president needed to seek their authorization or james mattis when he gave his news conference at the pentagon late on friday night here in the u.s. he said that the president was acting under article two of the constitution which gives him the right to take action to protect america's national interest well a number of senators will be asking the question on monday exactly what authorization did he think he was acting under and seven we we nor

a number of pressure groups also raise the question of legality with one seeing how can you talk about president assad breaking international law and then trying to force him to follow international law by essentially breaking international law this is a question that is going to continue here in washington d.c. in the days and the weeks to come their gender this is summit of the americas were supposed to focus on tackling corruption but the u.s. led strikes in syria diverted the discussions as john holdren reports from many in . the photo point as planned but then the u.s. led missile strike on syria overshadowed the agenda at the summit of the americas i call upon every nation in this hemisphere freedom. to support this military action taken by the united states and our allies and to support it publicly. several countries hinted that they did justin trudeau went further canada stands with our

friends in this necessary response and we condemn in the strongest possible terms the use of chemical weapons and last week's attack in eastern goat. the humanitarian and political problems in venezuela also took center stage more than a dozen countries signed a statement calling for among other things free and fair elections. can it also of course where we will win this one and we will continue to be generous with the venezuelan people there are brothers but will be implacable with the oppressive regime and sort of. what's it been as well and president nicolas maduro himself was uninvited to the summit he was defended in his absence by the foreign minister unlike cuba who traded blows with parents. yes know them all get out that it's not at all democratic to outtalk venezuela and mention president

maduro when he's been excluded and isn't he has to despond id ject the insulting and evidence seized to cuba and venezuela the castro regime is systematically cept the wealth of a great nation and stolen the lives of people. it's a far cry from the last summit when barack obama's handshake with raul castro symbolized storing relations of relative regional home in a way that's been replaced by division and high profile absences including the us president donald trump some of questioned if the event itself is still relevant as evidence to the contrary post peru pointed to a written commitment from countries to fight corruption that was the summit's official theme and a relevant one that's in america's been shaken by region wide bribery scandal. but the document has no influence from measures and the sum ended with little evidence it's done much to clean up that reputation don't homan now does it

a lima. that's more still to come no appetite for a trade war we look at our china's middle class as reacting to threats of war tiresome famine the us. cantonese opera for a new generation children in hong kong given all the art form a new lease of life. it rained a lot over the last week in spain particularly more recently in the northeast this is the result of the overtopping of the banks of the river in the north east of spain's more cloud come in the same direction still feeding much moisture into that area now elsewhere in europe with pressure has been nice and warm and despite the amount of cloud that has run through and the fact we've got fronts and system is

still relatively warm we're talking about the low to middle twenty's in most places will be up in moscow seventeen and that mass a cloud over spain is disappeared by the time we get to sunday it's circulating a bit further eastward dissipate altogether in fact most of europe is now experiencing warmish weather but a nuisance cat and rain is no longer of tequila threat to anybody but it will bring some rain to western parts of austria and i think through italy as well at the moment though it is still circulating in the western med has to giving rain to algeria and it still will be during sunday that northerly breeze is done as strong as it was listed on the seventeen now he is twenty two ahead of it as a lot spins out of the way obviously tensions are rising the sun will come out a long way ahead of that it's really quite warm once again egypt were approaching the forty mark and that's cooler than a couple of days ago. largest

area. which is the mind of top stories this hour the u.n. security council has voted down a russian draft resolution condemning missile strikes on syria by the us france and

the u.k. on friday the three countries five more than one hundred rockets in response to a suspected chemical attack. syrian government forces say they have retaken eastern goods of the last rebel stronghold near the capital damascus the opposition fighters have left the city of duma russia's defense ministry says twenty one thousand people including rebels and their families have left. leaders at the summit of the americas in peru all calling them venezuela to hold a free and fair presidential election next month is a the vote would be illegitimate if the country didn't restore democratic standards the. leaders of arab league nations are taking part in the annual summit in saudi arabia president bashar al assad is not attending the meeting following syria's suspension from the group in twenty eleven the summit is likely to focus on the conflicts in syria and yemen as well as the status of jerusalem our correspondent

joins me in the studio and also obviously focusing on iran and what are they going to say about that. well john as you said the deliberations from two into one out of the twenty two member states of the arab league will be attending the summit being held in the city of daraa in saudi arabia iran top on the agenda so that india ease very keen to get a very tough stance against iran it's archival within the arab world it's a position supported by the united arab emirates egypt behind the usual. buckers of anything. they also would discuss interestingly turkey and what they're calling interference by turkey in the affairs of other states and they would particularly talk about what they're calling violations of iraq's sovereignty by turkish forces there are many other issues i read on the on

the on the on the on the agenda the conflict in syria the war in yemen the war in libya general help for sudan and somalia also on the agenda what about the status of jerusalem that is also top on the agenda is one of the key issues to be discussed arab nations as you're aware been struggling to find a common position on the fate of genesis says trump acknowledged it as the capital of israel and said he will move the embassy there. they will talk about it at length will also talk about presenting events in the occupied territories and jerusalem the killings of dozens of protesters by israeli forces and. basically they will talk about all this and how they can all stop israel from gaining a rotation of membership on the un security council so a lot of talk but likely to achieve anything considering its history.

has been full of this tough talking communique as you know on issues we condemn these we will combat and all kinds of things. and when you talk to would tell you that it's mostly empty talk. sort of saying thank you mohammed. gunmen disguised as united nations peacekeepers have detonated two suicide car bombs at french and u.n. bases in mali one peacekeeper was killed at least ten french soldiers were wounded in timbuktu no one has claimed responsibility for the attack. the funeral of anti-apartheid activists when a medic is that a monday has been held in south africa thousands of people gathered in her hometown of soweto to pay tribute to the woman many know as the mother of the nation she

died two weeks ago in johannesburg at the age of eighty one after a long illness catherine sawyer reports. we need denis casket is brought into the orlando stadium. welcomed by the. tens of thousands of south africans came to be had by the best way they know through song and dance. members of different political parties sat side by side with donating collars and cleaning yelling for the african national congress was part of and read for economic freedom fighters whose ideology she said president cyril ramaphosa described as a b.s. revolutionary still lives on in that nation that's called have ma-ma as it strives each day to fulfill its destiny as a united peaceful and prosperous and just society. to

many south africans just most holy a fetal fighter doing apartheid she also stood with the poor after all it's most people we relate to. even after apartheid ended she wanted to fight for their rights she often said that south africa may have. a maniac next to know what it really mean to have economic and social freedom people have talked of her desire to see fair distribution of life and a passion for young people and how frustrations she was about the wealth disparity between the minority white and elite black south africans on one hand and majority poor on the other we also have to go back and decide for ourselves what natural justice means as a country so i think that people feel a. grieved the african majority in this country many of them feel incredibly still aggrieved. by the idea that people who had brutalized traumatized that.

dispossessed them live among us. we mandela was also embroiled in controversy she's been accused of human rights abuses during apartheid but yet the leadership of the a.n.c. was criticized or vilifying and abandoning her after apartheid some of their. breadwinners it's even after a night out you know turned over that are presented to me don't you know turning that are present day ready to relate to the end of their third rate after all was said and done we mandela's potential slowly made its way through so we're told the township she called home to a memorial cemetery where she was buried. people say she never wavered from fighting for a better life for black south africans and for that they say she's a hero catching so al-jazeera johannesburg the first rangar family to be repatriated from bangladesh has arrived in man mas rakhine state the family of five

has been given identification documents but not citizenship the united nations is warning the community still faces discrimination and persecution in may and more than seven hundred thousand ring of muslims have fled to bangladesh following a military crackdown in rakhine last year. consumers in china are being encouraged to boycott american goods in response to u.s. threats to impose more tariffs on chinese products american beef is popular with a middle class and could be hard hit by a boycott i tell because one is more from saying. it's freezing inside this storage room it has to be the boxes contain prime u.s. beef fresh from the nebraska prairies a seventeen ton shipment recently arrived at this shanghai meat importer that was before the escalation in trade tensions between china and the united states and the threat of new tariffs on u.s. beef the firm's boss initially feared the worst being left with

a lot of expensive meat on which he'd make little or no profit. when we heard there might be a twenty five percent tariff we thought oh no he can't do business anymore. his concerns have subsided but he still faces another problem uncertainty so. we can only make plans when trade relations between china and the united states are stable that's why we're not totally sure how often and how much we should buy so far we've bought seventeen tons and sold two tons and if it really does come to a trade war it's going to be several more weeks before the new tariff on beef is applied and more young says he feels uneasy he will continue to import u.s. beef because he says they'll always be demand for what he regards as a quality product he just won't import so much of it instead he'll buy more from australia new zealand and canada young says that after president xi jinping speech

on tuesday he's less worried about a trade war happening now she promised to deepen economic reform and to improve the business environment for foreign investors the appetite for beef in china is being driven. by the country's growing middle class consumption has risen more than ten percent in the past five years so when china lifted a thirteen year ban on u.s. imports a year ago it was welcome news here for many chinese consumers though u.s. beef remains an unavoidable luxury to follow the american beef really doesn't have that much to do with people how many chinese people eat american beef not even ten percent of what you see the point that it's imported american beef suddenly becomes much more expensive i probably will go for something else after all we also have good beef in china and from other countries the american people is not

irreplaceable not words the u.s. beef industry wants to hear amid declining beef consumption at home it's relying on global demand a demand that is increasingly being led by china adrian brown al jazeera shanghai. water scarcity is one of the biggest problems facing humanity in the next few decades the u.n. estimates in thirty years a quarter of the world's population will lack access to clean water some countries are already dealing with severe shortages scientists in britain say they may have come up with a solution lawrence lee has more from manchester. it may only be one and some fake and invisible to the eye but the graphene layer wrapped inside these cheap can help provide clean water to the planet. the mesh around its tiny holes act as a filter bacteria and other nasty bits in the dirty water are trapped in the graphene layer and drinking water comes through the other side and you get blocked

by the christian you know and trust your water can come you so effectively to see it. turn graphene into a shield like this and run so much more through it the source molecule stick and h two o. passes through graphene can desalinate sea water as well recently shouldered stephanie possible to remove io. which was a very important step but now we need to reproduce stalls results on a very large scale this is probably going to take at least five years i think. in many ways it appears to be the breakthrough the world's been waiting for cities like cape town face potentially catastrophic water shortages deserted vacations through climate change water borne diseases the problems are so well known yet solutions remain elusive that's partly because desalination and other filtration process is a currently slow and expensive once the graphene solution is scaled up to industrial levels it may hold the prospects of revolutionizing the availability of clean water

they're going to this one for example have a big role to play they can reduce the cost of water distribution water treatment a lot. and it can really help the companies governments to provide water for cheaper to the citizens it won't be enough but it can be. the role. as ever though much of the potential success of graphene will be wrapped up in politics people living in gaza for example rely on desalinated water and lay their hopes on israel and the united nations for solutions technological advances and political will on the same thing people ready had queries from people in cities like cape town wondering how quickly they can get hold of their own personal water filtration system so there's no doubting the urgency of the need but it is as good an example as you can find of the way in which technology is now on the point of being able to overcome some of the planet's most difficult public health problems florence we al jazeera in manchester it's a centuries old art form that was once one of hong kong's most popular forms of

entertainment but cantonese opera is struggling to engage the next generation the tradition is considered a unique part of hong kong's identity and industry diehards are determined to keep it alive so talk reports. after sixty years designing and creating traditional head dresses chan caulk yarn is considered a grandmaster in cantonese opera these days he spends less time creating and more time teaching to educate the next generation to appreciate this traditional us. the audience is mostly in their fifty's or sixty's i hope that we have more younger audiences over time that's the crucial point it's a concern shared by some in the industry who say younger people are now more engaged with other types of digital and time and. see so they've come up with a plan as well as subjects like math and science primary and secondary students can

now study cantonese opera the hong kong government hopes that by making it part of the curriculum it will preserve this unique part of hong kong's cultural heritage the money through this kind of activity we hope to spark kids interest in this culture and they can experience the value of it the performance showcases stories of chinese history gestures and singing styles haven't changed nor have the demanding retains but the storyline has been given a modern make over everything to be like cantonese opera the only difference is the story itself we try to write stories on the daily lives of the children that's me stop or it's considered a unique part of hong kong's identity as being recognized by unesco as an intangible part of the city's cultural heritage and this year the government is opening this new theater dedicated to the arts but with a fan base of many adults and the elderly it industry knows the key to its survival is reinventing its tradition the decadent costumes are drawcard as well as the mike

up but students are learning to appreciate the before mince celebrating it on stage the whole journey i love that he can't sneeze opera because i now know more chinese words and culture for it. i like it because my grandpa sings cantonese opportunist so i'm used to listening to him a lot with more than twenty schools now signed up to the program industry groups hope this new landscape of cantonese opera will stand the test of time sarah clarke al-jazeera hong kong. the film world is paying tribute to the oscar winning director mueller's foreman who's died at the age of eighty six the czech born filmmaker was part of the one nine hundred sixty s. wave of directors who criticize the communist regime in czechoslovakia but it was in hollywood that foreman made his name in nine hundred seventy five he picked up his first directing oscar for one flew over the cuckoo's nest nine years later he repeated that success with emma day's about the imagined rivalry between mozart and

entirely in composing. top stories again on al-jazeera the u.n. security council has voted down a russian draft resolution condemning missile strikes in syria by the us france and u.k. on friday the three countries fired more than one hundred rockets in response to a suspected chemical attack international chemical weapons inspectors have now arrived in syria's in a hot as more from beirut in lebanon chemical weapons inspectors arriving in damascus late on saturday the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons issuing a statement saying that the team will now commence their work there providing little operational details but this team will visit dumas the town of duma at the time the town or the site of the alleged chemical weapons attack and they will be inspecting the area investigating determine whether or not

a chemical weapons attack actually occurred the syrian government forces say they have retaken the eastern goods of the remaining rebel stronghold near the capital damascus the last opposition fighters have left the city of duma russia's defense ministry says twenty one thousand people including rebels and their families have left. leaders of arab league nations are taking part in the annual summit in saudi arabia president bashar al assad is not attending the meeting following syria's suspension from the group in twenty eleven the summit is likely to focus on the conflicts in syria and yemen as well as the status of jerusalem leaders at the summit of the americas in peru a court in venezuela to hold a free and fair presidential election next month they say the votes will be illegitimate if the country doesn't restore democratic standards gunman disguised as united nations peacekeepers of detonated two suicide car bombs at french and

u.n. bases in mali one peacekeeper was killed and at least ten french soldiers wounded in timbuktu no one has claimed responsibility for the attack the first rank of family to be repatriated from bangladesh has arrived in myanmar as rakhine state the family of five has been given identification documents but not citizenship sedations warning the community still faces discrimination and persecution in manama inside stories up next. we're in for you.