on al-jazeera. we understand the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world so no matter how you take it al-jazeera will bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you al-jazeera. stories of life. and inspiration. a series of short documentaries from around the world that celebrate the human spirit against the arts. al-jazeera cinema gangs.

days after they arrived in syria international inspectors are finally allowed into duma to investigate a suspected chemical attack. hello i'm barbara sarah this is al jazeera live from london also coming up on the program we'll go deep into the deal our sea where ethnic violence as displaced hundreds of thousands of people but the government insists the situation is under control president mccraw gorges europeans not to retreat into selfish nationalism as he warns of an atmosphere of civil war within the e.u. and the former cambridge analytical employee testifies to the u.k. government over how the company harvested personal data and used it for political gain.

thank you for joining us international chemical weapons inspectors have arrived in the former syrian rebel enclave of duma to investigate a suspected chemical attack ten days ago inspectors had been due to enter the russian controlled area twenty four hours ago the u.s. accused russia of tampering with the site while moscow blamed the delays on security concerns the team from the organization for the prohibit of chemical weapons will investigate what happened on april the seventh but it will not assign blame western powers accuse syrian forces of using nerve gas to kill dozens of people but the mask is and its ally russia is saying the holder has more now from. the o.p.c. chemical weapons team has been given access to they are investigating the alleged chemical weapons attack both the russian and syrian governments have been

accused of delaying the work of the o.p.c. w. their team arrived in the syrian capital on top today they are now carrying out their work western nations accuse the russian government of the possibility of tampering with the evidence on the ground because you know this chemical weapons attack happened over a week ago and russian military police were had access to this site now it is accusations that the russian government categorically categorically rejected now as this is happening the syrian government is stepping up its military operations it is declaring an offensive to target controlled territories in the southern and southern to mask controls a number of districts in this area and the syrian army gearing up for what it's calling a major battle to clear this area but it's not just southern damascus the syrian army is also turned its attention to other rebel controlled territories among them

the northern countryside of homs where there has. heavy bombardment and heavy shelling over the past forty eight hours and the syrian military also applying pressure on rebels in the western and place. this could be the start of a new offensive against rebel territory and hopes. the syrian government appears to be turning its attention to the strategic region following its victory in eastern huta much of the central province has been recaptured in recent years but the opposition has long held an enclave in the northern countryside that the area is strategic for damascus if it wants to secure the roads linking government controlled cities in the west of the country the opposition is promising a fight. they were able to hurt us with the are two there is shining and they did try to advance on the ground they failed we warned them that if they want to fight they will lose a lot of. every so often the army drops leaflets on these besieged neighborhoods

demanding rebels to reconcile with the government surrender and leave or face attack that's the way the government takes areas by imposing sieges and then bombing the rebels and the population into submission. we fear they might displace us just like they did to others in other places people are petrified because they don't want to be left without homes or shelter. hundreds of thousands of syrians have been forced from their homes because of these so-called reconciliation or evacuation deals and they know returning is only a distant possibility you have. to be displaced i want to stay with my family and friends i don't want to go anywhere else to be humiliated. holmes is not the government only target there is a rebel enclave forty kilometers northeast of the capital damascus rebels in the western region have been given an ultimatum to accept

a state to rule or leave the faction in the town of the mayor has agreed to surrender to stave off a military offensive the opposition has little chance of winning the battles in the northern countryside of homs and in the western column one and clave those areas are under siege they have been for years but it's only recently that the army has been able to apply military pressure throughout the conflict the pro-government alliance suffered from a manpower shortage and has had to prioritize battles. now the army is mobilizing on the front lines in southern damascus both and the opposition controls a number of districts there it seems the priority will be the battle with eisel before a deal is offered to the rebels that would end all opposition presence in and around the capital where thousands gather to celebrate syria's independence day and this year the government is marking the anniversary from a position of strength has never been this comfortable since the start of the conflict more than seven years ago. beirut. well meanwhile the saudi

foreign minister says his country is willing to send troops into syria as part of a wider coalition. says saudi arabia has been discussing the point with the u.s. since the beginning of the syrian crisis he also added that riyadh had previously proposed this idea to former u.s. president barack obama has more on this from washington d.c. . president donald trump really surprised all of his staff and a lot of people the department of defense when he said he wanted all of the u.s. troops out of syria right away now the department of defense was able to convince him that perhaps he should wait he has said fine just a couple of months basically what he said on the campaign trail is what he's doing in office let somebody else deal with that we know he's held back millions of dollars that was designed to be spent on syrian reconstruction so what his message is is pulling out the fighters somebody else go in you make sure that isis doesn't come back well the department of defense is going to be very wary of this plan from

saudi arabia although they won't common comment on it right now wall street journal is reporting that mr bolton the new national security advisor. the saudis and the united arab emirates to send troops and to also give funding for syria now why would they possibly be against this well there is great concern among leadership inside the military about the ability of saudi forces i mean let's just look at the war in yemen that the u.s. has been helping them fight with intelligence and refueling there's been humanitarian catastrophes numbers of schools and hospitals and funerals that have been hit raising big concern among human rights advocates so there's a concern about the level of the ability of the saudi forces the other big concern is would u.s. forces stay there that's what reportedly are hearing that they want to have happen as part of this coalition not at all clear the president is going to be ok with that it's not a huge force about two thousand u.s. special forces in syria but obviously critical to sort of staging an organizing the

fight. meanwhile a false alarm calls the triggering of syrian air defense systems overnight that's according to state media earlier pro-government reports suggest that two missiles bound for two syrian military bases have been intercepted but the sound us state news agency now says there was quote no external aggression. the un's new special envoy for yemen says he's working on a plan for talks to end the three year civil war which is led to the world's worst humanitarian crisis watching griffiths will present the plan to the security council within two months and insists all sides are prepared to negotiate an end to the fighting but he is worried by unconfirmed reports of increasing troop movements inside yemen which he says could ruin any prospects for peace. i'm concerned about

the increased number of ballistic missiles launched towards saudi arabia and i note that this council has already pronounced on this in addition i'm concerned about intensified military operations in governor military confrontations and the strikes have continued in numerous other areas of yemen including sunnah tice job my read of who data. by and large governorates the clashes continue without major changes in the front lines but with disturbing reports of civilian casualties armenians parliament has voted to appoint the country's former president as prime minister and that's the spy pressure from tens of thousands of protesters who were accused the leader of a power grab said it is set a g.c.m. of appointment has sparked another day of anti-government rallies in the capital yet yvonne and several other cities said he seann was president for

a decade and stepped down earlier this year because of a term limit but armenia's new constitution has made the presidency largely ceremonial and strengthen that the office of prime minister allowing sort of to maintain his influence. the u.n. says more than one hundred thousand people have fled their homes in an eastern region of the macwrite it republic of congo since the start of the year attacks on civilians by ethnic militia have driven people to leave it to re province the government though says only about a tenth of that number are displaced and insists it is now in control of the crisis al-jazeera is mark webber accompany the provincial governor on a visit to the affected areas. homes made of plastic sheet don't help much in the rain. it's all people have in this camp for displaced people in the town and in the democratic republic of congo they were attacked by militia

who cut and killed people with machetes and burned houses the government says the situation is now under control. we joined the provincial governor on a visit to the conflict area. it's remote it barely broke. we found small towns full of people who fled the countryside and came to hear what the governor had to say. the government is saying there must be peace encouraging people to go home and saying the government will do all it can provide security people here are skeptical about his message. each time we visit more displaced people who say it's not safe to go home. because they're all from the lendu ethnic group the victims are ethnic hammers and some lenders to the two groups have been rivals in the past could most people here say there is no ethnic conflict right now. with many lendu friends. but

they're telling us the government is responsible for what's going on that this is a war of the government they're saying this to us every day. many people here told us they share the same suspicion of the government's role. the u.n. doesn't it has the world's second largest peacekeeping force here we met the mission's chief visiting one of the camps. insisting that it's a. conflict that nobody no. mind i did not heard at all that the government is behind it i did not that. the government in kinshasa denies involvement as did the provincial governor. i want to assure everyone that the government has done nothing even the provincial government has done nothing we don't have any interest in destabilizing our own territories or killing our own population whoever is behind the violence convincing the population to return won't be easy and most homes remain deserted. behind them two fresh graves of those

killed hacked to death others burned in their homes it will take a lot to convince people here. al-jazeera in the democratic republic of congo. on al-jazeera. thousand venezuelans that they crossed into brazil seeking a new life but find their struggle for survival goes on and the major social media site reverses its ban on gay content rights activists say. we've still got one or two shallows effect in the middle east but nothing too much to speak of still a little bit of cloud there pulling out of iraq into iran moving across iran i

would say was a kind of stance of going to stand that well in place hippa have some wintry flowers as well over the high ground temperature is getting up to around fifteen celsius in kabul maybe one or two showers into the fall north of iran unitas but by logic must drive than it has been recently as is the case into iraq at that thirty two degrees twenty six celsius in by right fine and dry across that eastern side of the mediterranean they for the next couple of days but the demonstration go on into thursday still as wintry flurries across the eastern side of the region elsewhere it looks fine and right behind us is the crisis the writing potential a little class to the possibility just around the emon maybe into the gulf of aden shall was and how is it we do have will become fewer and further between santa could still catch the gold rush hour as we go on through this day still want to see showers into central parts of south africa at the moment they are easing over towards the eastern cape the most it stand to be dry and sunny but

a bit of cloud welcome right possibly just knocking its way into cape town on wednesday temperatures eighty degrees that makes its way further east for the weekend.

time now for a reminder of the top stories on our international chemical weapons inspectors have arrived in the former syrian rebel stronghold of duma to investigate a suspected chemical attack ten days ago the u.n. says a new envoy for yemen says he's working on a plan to bring the country's warring parties back to the negotiating table after three years of conflict and the surge an ethnic violence in eastern of a classic republic of congo has forced more than one hundred thousand people to flee their homes just this year. that police and they geria have fired tear gas at hundreds of shia muslim protesters in a buddha it's the second day of rallies in the capital demonstrators are calling for the release of their religious leader ybor him. he's been jailed without charges since the september two thousand and fifty it's going to france now where

the president has warned that the european union could the send into what he calls civil war because of increasing divisions between liberal democracies and the euro skeptic nationalists in a speech to the european parliament. urged the e.u. members not to sleepwalk towards nationalism at the expense of their unity david to change her has more. so some fine a rhetorical flourish is the eloquent phrases we're used to from the manual macro at his first address to the parliament in strasburg but essentially it was policy light but he did use some very strong phrases against what he called a cul de sac of nationalism he was very keen to try and keep the vision of the storm q of europe together he was obviously referring to you rising populism in italy and in hungary and also of course the events in poland but he was saying

essentially that europe had to keep its act together that it had to make sure that it kept this vision let's hear what he said context. inform the guests if you don't look there in a context where a form of european civil war reappears where our differences sometimes our national selfishness seem more important what unites us with the rest of the world a concept with a fascination with the liberal grows every day gandhi sexual should repetitiveness felicity usual i do not want to allow this deadly illusion which is precipitated our continent towards the abyss the illusion of strong power nationalism the abandonment of freedoms faced with your thoughts here it is and surrounds us everywhere the answer is not authoritarian democracy but the or thirty of democracy . so fine phrases of us as i've said but essentially policy lite no what he did mention was anything about the

reforms that he wants to the euro zone he doesn't say anything at all about those very important reforms the european stabilisation mechanism and also the idea of a european monetary fund and that's because he's about to meet angela merkel on thursday do for four hours of talks with her and some people in her conservative wing of the grand coalition a very much afraid that these reforms that are being pushed by a manual macro will mean that it's the german taxpayer that's going to have to pay the budget and that's why he remains silent on that topic until he meets agro merkel another two catalan politicians have appeared before a judge in madrid to be formally charged with sedition and rebellion the former interior chief of the catalan regional government formed and the ex foreign minister rove i'm ever seen here on the left or the latest process session leader is that to appear in the supreme court trial proceedings have begun against

a number of other politicians and police chiefs for their roles in the un sanctions or a friend of once a session in catalonia last year. me and lars president has granted an amnesty to more than eight thousand prisoners when it me and signed a presidential pardon which includes the release of foreigners and dozens of political prisoners drug offenders along with the sick of the elderly will also be freed from prisons nationwide the last part only covers those who have been convicted so the two jailed reuters journalists facing trial for investigating myanmar's or hinge of crisis have not been released. i'm happy for getting this amnesty but i'm sorry for the other prisoners who were left behind i hope they'll be released soon because some of those left behind in prison are innocent when the facing charges. brazil is struggling to cope with the influx of venezuelan migrants entering the country it's estimated as many as

a thousand people cross into brazil each day to escape economic and social unrest at home many of them are children i'll just say as gabrielle is on the reports now from boy in brazil. a school in brazil where the classrooms are increasingly filled with children from been a swale an elder from the family first comes the language and learning portuguese the school in both beast of brazil in the far north of the country received more than one hundred kids from venice with this year alone forced to adapt and they appear happy but most are too young to fully comprehend the difficult reality of why they are here. at the nearby border crossing about one thousand venezuelan migrants a day line up to cross into brazil their desperate plea nick country they say lacks food and medicine most are like now year aguilar who bring their children when

a better man wants to do it over but i'm here for a better future for my two kids i hope they can grow up here they can study a better future for them but it will be a difficult road ahead especially for the youngest. with little money many of the families and up living like homeless at a local park they are in need of the basics for survival at this encampment everybody is hungry someone finally brought some food so they're lining up including the children for many of whom this will be the only meal baby whole day. across town at a gymnasium turned into a rudimentary shelter kids who are not in school do whatever they can to keep busy monica kuranda a former model in venezuela said she fled her country as a last resort closing the window i hope to start working the job good. and have enough money to raise my children a united nations official here estimates half of all the migrants in shelters are

children they think this kind of situation when you start having child to as many people living on the street and so on children it's all five use up any kind of violence abuse exploitation. it's a growing migration crisis with an entire generation of venezuelan children whose future is across the border in a new land gabriel's on dough al-jazeera full of eastern brazil. a former employee of the firm that's at the center of the facebook data breach scandal has been testifying in the u.k. brittany kaiser told a parliamentary committee that she would not stand by as companies like cambridge analytical exploitive people's data she also accused a major backer of the brakes of referendums leave campaign of misusing personal data for political purposes or insley has the story. as well pretty kaiser was asked to testify as someone who'd worked on the political campaigns of both barack

obama and donald trump in the united states working for cambridge analytical on the trump campaign she made it clear her role was to target small groups of people harvest their personal information and attempt to change their political opinions a practice she did without compunction then but has now decided it was disgraceful spent too many years using technology to take advantage of people's openness and get well and i won't stand by any longer to observe this privileged abuse of power intentionally or unintentionally i want to help shed light in these dark places and to help people be more responsible in their actions cambridge analytical then moved in on the leave dot edu campaign during the breaks referendum the company she said told our own banks the millionaire backer of leave so that they could do for the bricks and camp what they had done for donald trump in the end she said believe

campaign haven't taken their services but in a major allegation she claimed that mr banks had taken their idea and harvested lists of his own commercial customers and targeted them for political messaging a practice is illegal in britain mr banks denies the claim when i did visit the elgin insurance and leave you had quarters which was the same building with the same staff that when a senior scientist and myself spent time. with their phone bank i was told by the people using the individuals that they were calling out of the insurance database it will clearly be wrong for people's personal data maybe help on insurance company to be used on a political campaign without their consent and so on the question is was consent sort of given and if not then it's not quite as potentially quite a serious data breach. that should be investigated fully by the information commissioner like a former colleague christopher wiley she painted

a picture of cambridge analytic as an organization which was a moral and which was happy to destabilise any political campaign on behalf of any wealthy backers it all adds to a body of evidence being gathered by the u.k. government which is increasingly worried about how the use of data is potentially undermining basic democratic principles lawrence li al jazeera london. the philippine government is the man doing justice for a filipino maid who says she was abused by her saudi employer agnes and c.l.'s says she was forced to drink bleach because she didn't make tea properly she's in a serious but stable condition after emergency surgery the philippine government has been angered by reports of regular mistreatment of maids by their bosses in the middle east. chinese president president paying says he doesn't want to remain in office in definitely his comments come after the ruling communist party removed the

presidential term limits from the country's constitution giving me the chance to stay in power the president said the new measures had been misinterpreted and that changes were necessary to align government and the party posts well meanwhile china's. community has welcomed that the situation by a social media giant to revoke a bad on gay content sino weibo that's china's equivalent of twitter received the public backlash when it blocked videos and comics related to homosexuality activists so welcomed the reversal but many say the fight for equal rights is far from over adrian brown reports. shit from last october president xi jinping set out his long term vision for china that included total control of the internet ridding it of content deemed inappropriate. on friday the country's equivalent of twitter began deleting posts relating to pornography violence in gay

culture but on monday following a furious online reaction the company reversed its decision. if it was remarkable says one prominent l.g. bt activist. i think it's a significant for sure as a media platform sina sending such a notice to all these users is very important. but there was no apology gay rights came late to china homosexuality only ceased to be a crime twenty one years ago and was finally declassified as a mental illness four years later but the l g b t community says its still faces discrimination and persecution in two thousand and fifteen five lesbian activists were detained for campaigning against the sexual harassment of women on public transport yet on monday the gay community here pulled off what few pressure groups

in china have achieved a climb down by a corporation with close links to the government which. i really feel encouraged i see a lot of support for leaving and outside our community now we are going to stick with their original mission anding discrimination against homosexuality well on tuesday sign no way bows reprieve appeared to be holding in general the tone of the posts were positive but also qualified for instance one here says the wearer of the candy we need to keep fighting. it is not known if the government ordered scene away bow to withdraw its decision although a company statement says they are no longer deleting material for the time being. members of the l.g. bt can. say they are not dissidents because they don't advocate political change but they are on the margins of what china's government is prepared to tolerate

adrian brown al jazeera. and the reminder of the main stories on al-jazeera international chemical weapons inspectors have arrived in the former syrian rebel enclave of duma to investigate a suspected chemical attack ten days ago inspectors had been due to arrive in the russian controlled area twenty four hours ago the u.s. accused russia of tampering with the site meanwhile moscow blamed the delays on security concerns the team from the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons will investigate what happened on april the seventh but it will not assign blame. now the o.p.c. w it's still not clear when they're going to release the findings but we have to make clear that western nations are not waiting for the results because they already carried out retaliation they carried out attacks on saturday targeting

syria's chemical weapons facilities so the o.p.c. w.'s findings are not going to trigger another response but definitely if the o.p.c. w. finds that indeed a chemical weapons attack actually happened it will be damning for the russian and syrian government the u.n. special envoy to yemen says he's drawing up a framework for talks to end the three year civil war which has led to the world's worst humanitarian crisis watching griffiths insists all sides are prepared to negotiate an end to the fighting tens of thousands of people have joined protests in arm against the parliament's choice of former president. as the prime minister says step down as president earlier this year at the end of his term limit protesters though see his appointment as prime minister a post which was strengthened under the new constitution. as a way for him to retain power. a surge in ethnic violence in eastern them across

the republic of congo has forced more than one hundred thousand people to flee their homes just this year the government says it's now in control but many of the splay say it's still not safe to return police in nigeria have fired tear gas at hundreds of shia muslim protesters in a it's the second day of rallies in the capital demonstrators are calling for the release of a jailed religious leader. and that is it from me for now i'm going to have all the latest on today's news on the al-jazeera news our coming up in less than half an hour coming up next inside story.