we're going to places where nobody else is going. stories of life. and inspiration. a series of short documentaries from around the world that celebrate the human spirit against the arts. al-jazeera selects. fifty three member states. one night comic figurehead as leaders of the commonwealth descend on london brits by anyone meeting al-jazeera asks how much does the commonwealth matter in today's world and where does it go up to queen elizabeth all of the commonwealth heads of government meeting on al-jazeera.

chemical weapons inspectors are in syria to investigate the suspected attack now the u.s. says new sanctions against russia are to be announced. this is al jazeera live from london also coming up mass protests in barcelona in scotland nationalists take to the streets over the jailing of nine of their leaders . outrage in india as a politician is finally charged over the ledge rape of a teenage girl. or a centuries old art form that was once hong kong's most popular entertainment is now struggling. and if you don't it states is preparing new sanctions against russia over its

support of the syrian government the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley made the announcement during a television interview on u.s. media. so you will think that russian sanctions will be coming down secretary mineta will be announcing those on monday if he hasn't already and they will go directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with equipment related to assad and chemical weapons use and so i think everyone is going to feel that at this point i think everyone knows that we send a strong message and our hope is that they listen to it. comes as inspectors from the international chemical weapons watchdog are in damascus to investigate a suspected attack near the capital within forty people died in duma in eastern guta eight days ago syrian government forces say they've now retaken the area as the last rebel fighters leave and how to report. it's being described as the biggest victory for syrian president bashar assad since the start of the conflict

eastern huta has returned to state control after almost six years for weeks the enclave on the doorsteps of the capital damascus came under heavy fire hundreds of civilians were killed the pro-government alliance was also accused of using chemical weapons in the main town of duma before the last rebel group surrendered the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons is sending a team to the site to investigate those claims the u.s. and its allies didn't wait for the organizations findings they said they had their own evidence and launched air strikes targeting syria's chemical weapons facilities the strikes were not about threatening bashar assad's hold on power but since the bombings the message from the government has been one of defiance its army says it is preparing for more offensives the priority seems to be clearing the remaining territories outside government control near the capital in southern damascus a number of districts are under government siege centered on yarmuk some

neighborhoods there are controlled by others by opposition fighters. the rebels also control areas of countryside in the central province of homs territory in the western region close to the damascus holmes highway parts of the southern province of daraa the northwestern province of idlib desert territory close to the iraqi jordan border elsewhere under the control of u.s. backed syrian democratic force rebels is the kurdish area while the region west of the euphrates river is under the control of turkey back to rebels the government's priority now is to clear areas around damascus or what it calls useful syria because the location is strategically so important russian and syrian military officers have been reaching out to some rebel factions who are already under siege giving them the choice to accept state rule or surrender if they don't want to face

an offensive in it live however there has been no offer of reconciliation there are warnings of a humanitarian disaster if there is an offensive there it's the most densely populated rebel held area some two million syrians live there almost house displaced from towns recaptured by the government iran a backer of the syrian government says it could be the next target but so kandahar which is the border with jordan the government has been trying to penetrate rebel defenses for some time now. the u.s. led strikes have not changed anything and threats of further actions by western powers are confined to the use of chemical weapons the syrian government still has the upper hand and it's pushing ahead with its military solution to the conflict. beirut. dekker who's in only turkey syria border so inspectors on the ground now may have the strikes really change the picture at all. well i

think in a word no they haven't it's pretty much business as usual in syria today with the government continuing its offensive against various rebel held areas a zain i mentioned there in her report it was a message large i don't think it was a change in major strategy it's not going to change the course of this war i think you mentioned the weapons inspectors yes they're on the ground there in damascus at the moment we haven't understood whether they've actually entered do my yet that will be under the auspices of the syrian government and just to sort of let you know the o.p.c. w. has experience when it comes to syria's chemical weapons program it led to the dismantling of that in two thousand and fourteen that followed that chemical weapons attack in two thousand and thirteen in eastern with a similar area east of damascus that obama called a red line but the americans never really pushed any further than that in two thousand and fifteen they found evidence of what they called sol for mustard gas

and then in two thousand and seventeen. you may remember that in the province that's when the americans a top administration for the first time launch tomahawk missiles at a site that they say was the the source of that they said that sour and or a siren like substance was used i think it will take a couple of months before we hear of their findings but again they will not be appointing blame and that of course in this conflict which is a media war which has so many different narratives many of them different to difficult to confirm will be used by all sides again to accuse the other of having been behind it whatever it is will have to wait and see what the report finds and in the meantime the military is president effectively back in control of most of the country now. well i think i think this is the interesting point we're eight years into this war loren you have millions of people displaced you have millions of people outside their country inside their country the death toll is impossible to know people stopped counting agencies stopped counting around the hoff million.

mark you have a country whose infrastructure is largely destroyed and if you look at the bigger picture you now have the government in damascus back in control of most of the country what you're seeing now is they're pretty much cleaning house you have the certain pockets still south of damascus you have it around homs you have got out which is along the jordanian border and you have the main rebel held province of idlib which is in the northwest of the country how is it going to play out i think what we're seeing now is you have foreign powers that have always been involved in this war lord just for their influence for cutting out their spheres the americans are not happy with the iranian presence there the turks don't want the kurds to have their own state the kurds are holding the second most territory off to president bashar al assad you have the russians involved you have hezbollah you have israel you have all these elements all these foreign powers playing in the you know a reader of war that is syrian i think certainly we have to remind our viewers that it seems that the syrians really who have the least say. let me take

a thank you very much indeed. meanwhile leaders of arab league nations are taking part in an annual summit in saudi arabia president bashar assad is not attending the meeting or in syria's suspension from the group in twenty eleven a spokesman said the leaders would discuss the conflict in syria but not western airstrikes in response to reporters' chemical attacks other topics on the agenda including iran's influence on the region and a u.s. decision to move its israeli embassy to jerusalem. doris's gus this is theirs senior political analyst moment to share thanks for coming in does it is it odd that they're not talking about the as strikes in syria. it's an odd summit. or it is going to get more odd is what you call a bottomless summit. to figure that it is a very. it's we've never seen of course the arab world. in such bad shape right and never seen it in such bad shape with leadership not able to cope

with the challenges facing the arab world so much so that most of the points of contention that the arab countries or the arab leaders don't agree to were not put in the engine and the ones they agreed to were put on the agenda so whatever creates any contention among the leaders for them to sit down and discuss because i mean seriously it's a very it's a very bizarre summit and it's not the first time they hang out for half a half of the afternoon and that's that's a summit i mean they don't really discuss things and certainly they were not going to sit down and discuss and debate and disagree about important issues facing the arab world such as for example the attack on syria such as the gulf crisis and so on so forth so if it is just a kind of hang out where they will put it when you put things on the list they want to agree on it is there anything on there that actually they could achieve in that

could it could make a difference what certainly one point that seems to be you know changing the position back to where they were a few months ago which is the question of jerusalem because at one point there was ambiguity as to how various arab countries notably america's close allies in the region respond to the american recognition of jerusalem as israel's capital well now the ambiguity is more or less be. set aside and the so would the monarch or the host of the summit call the summit the summit of codes of jerusalem of arab jerusalem. making sure underlining the fact that is jerusalem is. a palestinian land and the capital a future palestinian state and that they the arab leaders will not agree to do not accept the american new position on jerusalem i think for example that one point or

that's important just briefly to go back to the whole syria issue some people are suggesting and we're now after these strikes as possibly as possible even endgame that. the russians are going to face more sanctions me us for assisting assad according to nikki haley do you see this is a kind of any kind of kind of turning point in syria would you think that's of the wrong assessment of it look at think it's a turning point certainly for the united states because if anyone listened to the speech by trump. before the actual bombardment he said the middle east. is a troubled place and it's going to have to be left to its people to settle we are not going to resolve their problems for them so i know as far as you know it's good not since concerned they might intervene militarily here and there for america's own calculus and interest but not for the syrians so i think in syria what you see now the front lines between the various. the one that we showed the map with the various the turks an area of influence america's area of influence and then the

russian city and regime of influence and to the south a bit of opposition under some sort of a jordanian israeli umbrella those those lines are going to be difficult to change because if the assad regime is going to attempt to change them he's going to come into direct confrontation with either the turks the israelis or the americans and i'm not sure that is in you know coming so if anything i think the syrian regime now is going to be stuck with the most of the population of the country under its own control but intuited it destroyed areas just very briefly to talk about people being moved out of the areas when when that government we take the name isn't it is there a danger that actually then go and hit all these people in it i guess i mean at libya would be the last place to hit but then but then what you going to do with the two million people in it where are they going to go because every time you hit somewhere people want the oppositions and their families they want to fight theirs and so on now if you hit it live and to want to displace people where they were

what would you displace and there's nowhere else would they go if i may used fascistic a ten min ology on this program i would say if anything is left for the regime to do is to clean up the areas under its control which means it tries to basically take on whatever left from the opposition areas or the opposition fighters or the opposition groups including the but that's going to mean more killings not less killings but that also will not mean expanding the areas of influence for the regime beyond what it is today thank you very much neal. around three hundred fifty thousand protesters have flooded the streets of boston lonna demonstrating against the jailing of nine separatist leaders for their role in last year's secession referendum several of the main streets in the city was shut down for a house jailed leaders include former president carter's freedom on a special forces intend to try them on charges of rebellion which only has been in political limbo since spain took over its regional government following its

independence declaration last year so we're going to go has more from one of the protests in boston or this is a cold shot just full of those interests not just by really trying to support us but also i think probably the trade unions as well they say they get the word press tactics used by the scruff of the state so that you still want to direct will probably drink it but there is increasingly this i think about they have this it's priceless really has not moved on much since that in fact there have been i.q. say shows that spain has directly into feed with trying to provide some form some legal way for the cats of my leadership to be able to aid me because prices for example one of the political leaders such an m.p. is still in prison he has not been allowed out to be able to have an investigation

he's to be made formally the president of catalonia if this crisis continues until the end of may then there will be no other option but to hold elections is something which the catalog. leaders are trying to hold off on again but feelings are not playing away there is an impasse here at this moment on the spanish government is really doing its best to strong arm what it can do using all its tactics to be able to double down all the catalogs of course she's. still ahead on. program protests break out across southern yemen after the appointment of a controversial a minute she commanded. us tensions flare in the horn of africa and somalia thought she sees military equipment but owing to the united arab emirates.

hello the rain in the last four five days has moved south through china and the big white tops which is discrete areas of thunderstorms that they've been moving through as well so near hong kong some some memories in twenty four hours days and damp of that of course some local flooding that you expect in spring if it is in the showers or the rain is going to develop it further down the coast from hong kong possibly even in northern vietnam where as the winds converge they have a hint there are significant rain for a while in northern vietnam showers in india by contrast are more of a rarity we might see some pretty bushes ones in bangladesh or in the northeast of india even some clouds showing in afghanistan come into northern pakistan otherwise the regularities showers in the sox sri lanka southern india everywhere in between as you well know hot stifling in increasing the houses before the monsoon finally bursts forty two in the pool by tuesday an area of she's rather bereft of water at

the moment that we see some decent sandstorms thunderstorms hail showers in the last two weeks throughout the region but instead whenever you see cloud in the forecast track you've got to think something's going on it's quite possible that all monday will see once again if you thunderstorms develop and the increasing breeze in the science suggests it will be rather dusty around the southern gulf states. in australia more indigenous children are being taken from their families than ever before. one on one east investigates whether history is repeating itself. on al-jazeera. it's impossible to underestimate the size and scale of the economic crisis it's not just about the police trillion dollars of debt it's not just about the banks it's not just about the government's real.

top stories. united states is preparing new sanctions against russia over its support of the syrian government buses inspectors from the international chemical weapons watchdog are in damascus to investigate last saturday's suspected chemical attack near the capital. a dozen arab league nations are taking part in an annual summit in saudi arabia a spokesman said the leaders would discuss the conflict in syria but not western ass trikes in response to reported chemical attacks. around three hundred fifty thousand protesters have flooded the streets of boston demonstrating against the jailing of nine catalan separatist leaders for their role in last year's secession

referendum. police in india have arrested a second person in connection with the alleged rape of a teenage girl last year for as the rest on friday of politician singh saying they are from the ruling party religious old happened nine months ago but he was only charged after the victim tried to stop herself on fire a case along with the rape and murder of an eight year old muslim girl in kashmir that sparked mass protests across india many of the demonstrators accuse india's ruling party of siding with those accused in the kashmir case. michael data but etihad suited but he was a very beautiful and a clever girl she was pretty why was she killed for what reason she was just doing her work in the day and would return home in the evening and they killed her and dumped her body for six days she was raped and then killed we just want justice. thousands of people have been protesting the yemeni city of ties and the surrounding provinces the demonstrators are unhappy with the appointment of

a former president's nephew terek salary as a military commander i think his him of being a murderer and say that he should be tried for violations committed while in alliance with the hoofy rebels he's been appointed to lead fighting on yemen's west coast with the backing of the saudi led coalition the governor of thais has criticized the protests saying the country's future lies with the coalition not on hamas the call for protest and the false propaganda are equal to those made by the who theses them there any is to prolong the sea gentiles resulting in starvation and killing us. yes president don't trump has unleashed another torrent of abuse on twitter against the former f.b.i. director james coates in a series of tweets trunk challenge accusations coming makes in a new tell all book due to be published next week he says the big questions and comb is badly reviewed book aren't on certain like how come he gave up classified

information and why did he lie to congress. trump also denied accusations that he asked me for loyalty saying i hardly knew this guy just another of his many lies is memos are self-serving and fake and all the tweets trump called comi slippery out of whack and the worst f.b.i. director in history trumps sex came in last year his handling of the f.b.i. investigation into clinton female practices want second of two she had the chance he's in washington so even by chance standards he seems pretty cross about tony at this stage is. right and there is no discipline that has developed analyzing correlations between trump's early morning tweet storms and what has just been on fox news and there is some evidence that some of these tweets may have been in relation to water just as on the fox morning news show here and here in the united states he has two main concerns in these tweets one is actually not combing

it's the rating of his personal lawyers office michael cohen we understand that documents and recordings made by cohen have been seized now by authorities and it has been reported that lawyers and advisers around trump and i'm more concerned actually about what's happening to cohen than they are about what's happening with the special counsel looking into allegations of collusion with russia that's one one preoccupation of these tweets in the second is comin komi is beginning his p.r. tour of the united states with a big interview tonight till sunday night here in the u.s. on network television he's paid a couple of million dollars for his tell all biography he has delivered to his publishers comparing trump to a mob boss amongst other things and the white house and trump now on a mission to discredit me as much as possible ahead of this p.r. tour and we saw sarah saunders the white house press secretary develop the theme of untrustworthiness on the sunday morning political shows this morning. i mean give me a break the guy knew exactly what he was doing he thought hillary clinton would win

and he thought that this would give him some cover he thought that he made these decisions based on the political landscape and not on the facts of the case and when the person that is supposed to leave the highest law enforcement agency in our country starts making decisions based on political environments and stead of on what is right and what is wrong that's a really dangerous position and i think that's one of the reasons there is such a huge bipartisan consensus that james comey doesn't have credibility and shouldn't have been leading the f.b.i. any longer there was one of the top pick their own saturday morning donald trump tweeted that the the syrian attack that the u.s. launched along with its allies was mission accomplished mission the mission had been accomplished now the whole trip was widely ridiculed for that tweet because there was the suggestion was he did not realize that the term mission accomplished is now a by word in popular culture for military failure ever since george w. bush used the term what he said it was in the book on the backdrop behind george w.

bush when he made his speech in two thousand and three about iraq the mission something not accomplished in iraq in two thousand and three donald trump tweeting that he knew about that when he was a simply trying to reclaim the term he said the syrian raid was supposedly carried out with such precision but the only way the fake news media could demean it was by my use of the term mission accomplished i knew they would seize on this but felt it's such a great military term it should be brought back use often learn shavar times i thank you very much indeed tensions between somalia and the united arab emirates are rising so many officials are refusing to let the military equipment out of the country last week somalia seized millions of dollars of cash from a private flight to the us a doctor has more on how to discriminate started. tension on the runway in port in somalia as north east security stuff stopped this united arab emirates from living in the country after military instructors on board

refused to have their luggage charged airport officials insisted all heavy bags be checked resulting in a tunnel it was both clear what their baggage contained but. in a lot of my bills this is a clear indications that relations between the two countries are going from bad to worse politically speaking the situation is headed for further escalation the somali government has filed complaints against the u.a.e. regionally and internationally. last week the somali government seized almost ten million dollars in sealed bags from the u.a.e. royal jets at mogadishu international airport. the government was was made to. confiscate cash reserves and for the u.s. embassy in a move to sure. they meant a truce the u.a.e. has been training and sustaining. relations between mogadishu and up with that we

have been frosty since june last year when we're going to should resist the pressure from the u.a.e. as so that it took ties with qatar and joined the blockade the impost on qatar the disagreement between somalia and the u.a.e. sent us around two deals abu dhabi is building a must have military base in the strategic paul tunnel but it better in some of them which wants to break away for the u.a.e. better but it is conveniently close to yemen where it's part of the saudi led coalition fighting iranian backed rebels the divide based company d.p. world is also taking over the port in better better some relatively small pool to exports livestock to the middle east and imports food and other items all that set to change now as d.p. world says it's prepared to spend up to four hundred forty two million dollars to develop the port for somaliland the dubai ports deal is not only a financial windfall but also a vote of confidence that is

a major problem for somalia which view somaliland as its sovereign territory one hundred zero zero zero zero thing is underway in montenegro this presidential election time need a manager kind of which has never lost an election and his favorite to win it is rooting democratic party of socialists have dominated politics more than twenty five years if a vis closer ties with europe rather than traditional ally russia last year the country prevent anger in moscow by joining nato. a centuries old art form that was once one of hong kong's most popular forms of entertainment is struggling to engage the next generation cantonese opera is considered a huge part of hong kong's identity and industry diehards determined to keep it alive sara thank you pardonable history now to saudi arabia and just into the closing statement from the arab league has this new. stand to the regional

influence in the arab domestic affairs so called the regional countries to. the principles of good neighborhood and to respect the sovereignty of respective countries and to exert maximum effort to maintain the national. total integrity's sovereignty of all respective countries and took revenge any attempt to undermine its of ranty by any other foreign forces. during knew the cold to the regional players to refrain from providing arms to the militia or any military hardware or finance which aim at undermining the national security of these countries to pay special attention to reinforcing the absolute at eighty the right of any servant country to defend itself and to provide all

possible support to this country according to article fifty one of the new and thoughtful and in line with the international letter to mr solutions and to the friend from any act that may undermine the supreme interest of the arab nations to speak to make an ism of the joint action and the economic societal and development domains and to have the strategy and political entered in these domains so that the sustainable development at all france is achieved to instruct the secretary general of the league of arab states to put into implementation and follow up was damp an imitation of this communique and coordination with the member countries. and through. make an ism and procedures including the arab peace initiative committee the economic integration committee and the i have

a strategy to combat terrorism and. its committee. combating the foreign interference and the arab domestic affairs may god almighty guide our steps all this communique is issued and tossed in there ma'am and one or to general with counter copies handed to all the members thank you for listening and may god's peace be with you. now i give the floor. to. brother the president of tunisia. who will take the presidency of the damning. sheriff and then i will follow

the almighty the merciful your highness king so many. majesties your royal highness he is excellent ladies and gentlemen it is with. this with pleasure as we are to conclude that twenty ninth summit that i renew my gratitude to my brother. ben abdulaziz for the warm reception and generous hospitality and i would like to commend the wise organization. of this summit i also highly commended of the fruitful conclusions we have arrived. here the common cause however. challenges facing our respective countries and the hopes our respective peoples look up to the work we require to double

our efforts to cement further toward the nation where they and of the arab league summit there in saudi arabia the gathering of the arab league nations without a person bashar assad he was serious suspended in twenty eleven they've been discussing some issues like syria but not the western air strikes there will have more details and plenty of analysis that an expert in seventeen g.m.t. see that.