i think that the european commission would be very very. water privatization on anybody stanley fields. people who see every two years something to invest a profit of one dollar. to the last drop on al jazeera. stories and light. and inspiration. a series of short documentaries from around the world that celebrate the human spirit against the arts. our serious unlike gangs.

the us media says north korea's leader has met donald trump's nominee for secretary of state head of highly anticipated talks. last have been the get together was talk of a peace treaty between north and south korea. this is al jazeera live from coming up. if the u.n. security team decides that the situation is sound and the fact finding mission will begin its work on wednesday on syria's u.n. envoy confirms chemical weapons inspectors are expected to when to do more in the coming hours. former u.s. first lady who said she looked like everybody's grandmother has died barbara bush was ninety two.

big developments on north korea first we're getting reports out of south korea of a peace treaty in the making this comes on top of us media reports that secretary of state nominee mike pompei o has met north korea's leader kim jong il and in the capital pyongyang the washington post says the former cia director went there is the u.s. president's envoy easter weekend it was there reportedly to prepare for a possible meeting between donald trump and kim expected in may or june and south korean media is reporting that the presidential office is considering a peace treaty with the north our diplomatic go to james bays has more from pyongyang in north korea. this is an extremely high levels is it this is the highest level serving u.s. official to visit young yang since the u.s. secretary of state madeline albright came here back in the year two thousand and

it's important to note that north korea has made no comment on this confirmation from the north koreans side all of the information coming from the american side can only now that this important meeting took place here in pyongyang. to that the u.s. does not have diplomatic relations with north korea so there is no u.s. embassy in pyongyang i've been speaking though to other members of the diplomatic community here in the north korean capital and i've been told by them where there is a channel of communication open between the cia and north korean intelligence and that's the main channel of communications between the two countries at this stage and one of those diplomats told me they thought it was likely that this meeting took place but they had no confirmation they had no knowledge of it themselves but

given the other things they know if they thought it was like this had taken place this meeting at this very high level to prepare the ground for a possible summit between the north korean leader and president trump himself and remember there's a very important event happening just over a week's time on the twenty seventh of that and that is another high level summit that's a meeting between the north korean leader kim jong un and the south korean president and for the first time a leader of north korea will go to south korea only a few feet into south korea in the dominican. but an important moment there now the word we're getting is that that. is likely to give the americans indication i think whether there should be this high level meeting possibly in june with president trump actually meeting the supreme leader kim. kathy novak joins us from

seoul to talk about those reports of a possible peace treaty between the two koreas what are officials saying about that caffie well one of the reasons that this upcoming meeting that james was referring to there between the south korean president lee j. and then the north korean leader kim jong un is so notable is because these two men are leaders of two countries that remain technically at war an armistice not a peace treaty marked the end of hostilities in the korean war in one thousand nine hundred fifty three so going into this into korean summit the south korean government is keen to discuss not only denuclearization but promoting peace on the korean peninsula so the suggestion now is that one of the topics that might come up for discussion between moon and kim could be how to transition from that armistice to a more long lasting peace agreement and the u.s. president donald trump has suggested that he has given his blessing for the two koreas to go ahead and discuss this but ultimately it may not be

a decision that can be made at the injured korean summit that's because south korea wasn't actually a signatory to that armistice in one thousand nine hundred eighty three it was the united states that was leading the united nations command the allies including south korea that signed the armistice with north korea and china so it is moon and kim do discuss how to transition from the armistice it may be that they are able to perhaps lay the groundwork for the summit that is expected between donald trump and kim jong un who may be more in a position to make a more concrete agreement that would move on from the armistice semi kathy novak. north korea's already been dominating talks between donald trump and japan's prime minister shinzo abbay visit to trumpet the president's monologue or results in florida to discuss film yang's weapons program. japan and ourselves are

locked in we are very unified on the subject of north korea we will probably be depending on various meetings and conversations we'll be having meetings with kim jong very soon it'll be taking place probably in early june or a little before that assuming things go well it's possible things won't go well or we won't have the meetings and we'll just continue to go along this very strong path that we've taken. but we will see what happens syria's ambassador to the u.n. says chemical weapons inspectors will enter do more on wednesday if it's safe enough he says a u.n. security team is at the site and will make an independent decision on access for an open c.w. team the investigators will look into a suspected chemical attack on april the seventh but won't assign blame arrives in damascus on saturday and of called for access as soon as possible so really a state media or earlier reporting weapons experts have entered the former rebel on

close when you don't i mean today the u.n. security team and duma around three pm in order to assess the security situation on the ground and if the security team the u n security team decides that the situation is sound in duma then a fact finding mission will begin its work in duma on wednesday the decision for the arrival of the fact finding mission is the decision of the u.n. and the old p.c. w alone then a holder has more now from beirut. now the russian government and the syrian government have been criticized for what they called preventing the team from entering a western nation said that the team was not given access now the team arrived in the syrian capital damascus on saturday both the russian and syrian government cited security concerns and that's why there has been a delay now the o.p.c. w.'s mission is to determine whether or not

a chemical weapons attack actually happened its mandate does not a portion any blame the united states and other western countries like france for example believe that the proof or the evidence could have been tampered with because when this alleged chemical weapons attack happened the opposition that was in control of they then surrendered russian military police entered duma and they carried out their own inspection and declared that they did not find any traces of chemical weapons that were used 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 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. and the russian military says it's found

a chemical weapons stockpile that belongs to rebels in dubai a russian state media put out this video which claims to show chlorine components for producing mustard gas moscow has repeatedly accused rebels of involvement in chemical attacks. a new framework for negotiations to end the war in yemen will be presented to the un security council within the next two months that's the assurance of the new un special envoy in yemen martin griffiths he was appointed in february he also briefed the council for the first time about the humanitarian crisis in the country where eight million people face famine mike hanna reports the message from the special envoy that a resumption of political dialogue is essential and he maintains that all parties in the conflict that he's spoken to in the past four weeks agreeing but the portrait to of a nation on my third one in which a single violent event could consume attempts at conciliation and our concern is

simple that these that any of these developments would at a single stroke take peace off the table the us ambassador picked up on her recurrent theme that iran is waging a proxy war in the region through the opposition in december she displayed the fragments of missiles fired at saudi targets that she maintained were supplied by iran and this year is caught at the entire security council to view what she described as evidence that who it is didn't just figure out on their own how to build and fire ballistic missiles more than a thousand kilometers to hit the saudi capital iran is supporting them this council taking action to stop the flow of arms to the who would be a step forward helping to resolve this war in his response to russian ambassador pointed out that civilians on both sides of the saudi yemen border were under

threat when we should know this was the last going to frantically condemns indiscriminate strikes his victims are civilians we also categorically reject a ballistic missile strikes against populated areas on saudi arabia's soil. all security council members though united on the need for dialogue and welcoming the special representatives pledged to deliver a framework within two months there's one cause for optimism who three opposition to talks with the previous special representative accusing him of bias but it appears willing to engage with the man who's just been appointed the un's humanitarian chief warned that the coming rains could herald a massive cholera outbreak and asked all parties inside and outside yemen to allow greater access for food and medical supplies to the stock fact facing the council that while political resolution remains in limbo more than eight million people in

him and are facing famine mike hanna al-jazeera united nations. still ahead on al-jazeera. the old gods about to go we examine why the cubans expect to change of direction after the castro's plus. spent too many years using technology to take advantage of people's openness and goodwill the confession of a former cambridge analytical work or how it could have affected the briggs's. from a fresh coast to breeze. to watching the sunset on the australian outback. and out is still raining in afghanistan or snowing depending on how far above sea level you are and you can see why it is pretty obvious frontal system of some sort and is still hanging around tashkent as well. but to the west of that part from occasional

shots of the caspian it's a dry scene and that's right back to the coast of the mediterranean temperature wise you're very dependent on the wind direction but twenty five in beirut thirty four in baghdad you can see this and back is much warmer than it was so the suns are for a while the breeze is not overly strong stop particular dusty that's true throughout the arabian peninsula as well but look at the koreans the coast of vermont it's not yet monsoon clades not we'll start in the fifth period but it's interesting to see is there it might be useful to have rain to the coastal part of them are occasional showers are possible in the center of saudi would think it's unlikely equally slightly dry in yemen. and it should be drawn out in the good part of south africa we do see a full crossover case to shop around johannesburg and even a line of rain that wants to get into western cape into cape time but i think it will skirt science and do no good at all then the pictures effectively a pretty dry one ok show show maybe but dry as far north as lusaka beyond. the

weather sponsored by qatar and makes. the scene for us where there are on line what is american sign in yemen that peace is always possible but it never happens not because the situation is complicated but because no one cares or if you join us on sat there people that there are choosing between buying medication and eating this is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who's an activist and she's close to the story join the global conversation at this time on al-jazeera.

and watching out to see a reminder now of our top stories this hour u.s. media reports say the secretary of state nominee mike comp aoe recently traveled to north korea to meet its leader kim jong il and a top secret talks happened two weeks ago ahead of a potential summit between president trump and kim. syria's ambassador to the u.n. says chemical weapons inspectors will learn to do more on wednesday if it's safe enough says a u.n. security team is that the site investigators were looking into this month suspected chemical attack but want to assign blame. the u.n. says new special envoy for yemen is working on a plan for talks to when the three year civil war montenegro. it's will outline his proposal to the security council within two months he says all sides of a pair to negotiate an end to the fighting. china is conducting live fire drills just off the coast of taiwan for the first time in two decades it comes amid

growing tension over the u.s. relationship with taiwan which china sees as a breakaway province adrian brown has more from beijing beijing has given no official reason as to why this large scale military drill is happening now in the narrow strait of water that separates china from taiwan but of course this military drill comes at a time of heightened trade tensions between washington and beijing as well as deepening concern in china over the growing interaction between taipei and washington in the past few months we've seen a current gresham delegation visit taiwan we've also seen the house of representatives pass the taiwan travel act if that becomes law it would allow high ranking government officials from taiwan to visit the united states also in may officials from taiwan and the united states a jew to meet in taiwan to discuss arms sales and the united states is also beefing up its trade representative office in taiwan so all these factors

a feeding into the deepening frustration and anger here in china now of course this military drill in the straits of taiwan comes just less than a week after china held a large scale a large scale military display in the south china sea involving its new aircraft carrier the leone ng that display was watched over by president xi jinping who warned that now was the time for china to strengthen its military especially its navy. i mean miles president has granted amnesty to more than eight thousand frozen when me and signed the pardon which includes the release of foreigners and political activists drug offenders along with the sick and elderly will also be freed from prison. one family's dominance of cuban politics since the nine hundred fifty nine communist revolution is coming to an end a successor to president roll castro be chosen on wednesday our latin america editor lucy newman reports from heaven or. barring the unthinkable eighty six

year old president old castro will be handing over power for the first time in six decades to a cuban who doesn't carry his last name and who was born after the one nine hundred fifty nine revolution that he hoping to power for only four generations of cubans live in this have an apartment grandmother daughter ianna granddaughter another and her two children only eighty five year old elsa remembers a time when cuba was not ruled by fidel castro you know where you're going to know when the revolution triumphed everyone was happy because there were high expectations. but like the beautiful decaying city of havana the expectations began to crumble cubans had free education and healthcare but they became isolated economically and technologically under a one party communist system our twenty six year old plans to join millions of

other cubans who've emigrated very little. young people are hungry for something else to have access to things we don't have to be paid a decent wage. some say raul castro a pragmatist came to power too late after ill health forced his elder brother fidel to resign pradelle castro is still glorified here as the supreme leader of the cuban revolution but it is our gastro who will be remembered for introducing some of the most long awaited reforms to the communist system and the decade that he has been at the helm none of these reforms though include easing even slightly the one party states absolute grip on political power. and while castro's attempts to improve cuba's socialist economic model have fallen far short of their mark his main objective now is to ensure political continuity with the communist party dictating policy guidelines and that's the way he likes him. that's that's the

style he he was known to have been a fan of soviet style political decision making process. and so not surprisingly on the eve of what will be the end of the nira on the streets of cuba's capital there's a sense that little is about to change to see a newman and just have an. police in nigeria have fired tear gas at hundreds of share muslim protesters in a booth it's the second day of rallies in the capital demonstrators want the release of their religious leader ibrahim zach sackey who's been jailed without charge since december two thousand and fifteen. dozens have been injured in protests in armenia over what the opposition calls a power grab by the former president so go sarkozy and he served his maximum two terms in office but has now been sworn in as prime minister and the hawks to reports. this isn't quite the welcoming greeting

a new prime minister would be hoping for tens of thousands took to the streets on tuesday for the fifth consecutive day braving a heavy police presence to show their fury over search circassians appointment armenian police made dozens of arrests using water cannons and stun guns to keep the protesters far away from disrupting the election within parliament. and not shared by lawmakers in the assembly with an overwhelming majority of seventy seven to seventeen votes the former president became the new prime minister got our children to the stage of forming the government starts now but will not last long. a change of role but not in power he oversaw a constitution shift to a new parliamentary system in two thousand and fifteen increasing the power of the prime minister roles last a minute in the power of the president changes due to come into effect when his term expired last week that date had been denounced by european observers who

alleged vote rigging two years on armenians reacting to those changes coming into effect. who isn't enough ago accomplished after two presidential terms suge the kissin wants to become prime minister and all that despite the fact that his ten years of presidency have caused great harm to society poverty migration fourteen percent of the population of less. the country. protests have always clouded his time in power ten people died in clashes when he was fast elected ten years ago when supporters of the defeated candidate reacted ten years on his position seems even stronger with the lack of opposition. the focus seems to be on the. young but the let's assume starkey's young leader is changes his mind. the parliament these don't mean a goodbye. and great because look he's bug. sasha seca c.n.n.

was a military officer who sat in the safe it in the one nine hundred seventy s. despite all many of the eighteen for independence from the save it union in one thousand nine hundred one his links with moscow remain strong but the key issue is how easily russia are going to react to these are developments because og. main strategy in the south cook us. analyst's a dubbing his move as doing a putin opponents look no closer to being appeased. a former employee of cambridge analytical has been testifying about its role in the braggs vote the company's on the scrutiny for harvesting personal data from millions of facebook users britain kaiser told the u.k. parliamentary committee that a major backer of the leave campaign used information for political purposes lawrence three reports but humans as well personally kaiser was asked to testify as

a woman who had 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 the start 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 at 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 claims 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 levy you had quarters which was the same building with the same . is that when a senior data 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 would clearly be wrong for people's personal data maybe help our insurance company to be used in a political campaign without their consent and so on the question is was consent sought or given and if not then that's quite that's potentially quite a serious data breach that i think should be investigated fully by the information commissioner like a former colleague christopher wiley she painted

a picture of cambridge analytical as an organization which was a moral and which was happy to destabilize 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 lee al jazeera london southwest airlines will inspect its entire fleet after an engine broke apart mid-flight smashing a window and killing a passenger a forty three year old woman who died was partially sucked out of the broken window before other passengers pulled her back in the u.s. national transportation safety board says a preliminary examination of the engine showed signs of metal fatigue all starbucks outlets in the u.s. will close for an afternoon at the end of next month for what it's calling racial bias education nearly one hundred seventy five thousand staff or more than eight

thousand stores will get training on how to combat discrimination video released last week showed two black men being arrested at the philadelphia store while they prepared for a business meeting. for me us first lady barbara bush has died at the age of ninety two the wife and mother of two former presidents was in hospital several times this year she's often been ranked in polls as the most popular first lady in modern u.s. history alan fischer looks back on my life. over bush often dismissed her popularity saying it was simply because she looked like everybody's grandmother with her signature white here in peril necklace but she will be remembered as one of only two women in u.s. history to be married to a president so help me and the mother to one officer present united states she was just sixteen years old when she met george h.w. bush at a christmas dance both born to privilege she would later drop out of college in mali the young navy pilot home from world war two they would settle down in texas

so he could make his fortune in the oil business but their growing family would soon face tragedy the three year old daughter died after a fight with leukemia she said she clung to her children even more after that four boys and another girl would grow up watching their father's political career which would ultimately lead to the white house leaving heart the role of disciplinary and you're just so you know anything they do is all right. but someone has to be sure that the standards are captain he he leads by example by denying something and i am the enforcing there's no question about it. there is no question of our loyalty either anyone who did criticize her children or even more so husband would quickly face her quick wit an icy stare she didn't want her husband or her son george to run for the presidency admits she didn't think they would when she made

news when speculation turned to another son jeff. no question. it's the best qualified person to run for president but i help him on this i think all my enemies all his brothers all and their other family i refuse to accept that this great country isn't raising. other wonderful people thank you all for that warm welcome to the tree ark of a political dynasty the first wife to speak at a political convention but beyond the campaign she wasn't known to give either a husband or son political advice in office she advocated for family literacy but mostly she prided herself on a family that she said was a true legacy i think they feel and i hope. if i have a legacy other than being the enforcer that it will be there. along with george

a great family a family that will be remembered along with the woman at the center of it. let's take you through some of the headlines here al jazeera now u.s. major ford say that secretary of state nominee mike has traveled to north korea to meet it's. the top secret talks are reported to have happened to weeks ago ahead of the potential summit between donald trump and kidd. diplomatic editor james vai's has more from pyongyang north korea. it's important to note that north korea has made no comment on this the u.s. does not have diplomatic relations with north korea so there is no u.s. embassy here in pyongyang i've been speaking though to other members of the diplomatic community here in the north korean capital and i've been told by them that they're well aware that there really is

a channel of communication open between the cia and north korean intelligence one of those diplomats told me they thought it was likely that this meeting took place north korea's already been dominating talks between trump and japan's prime minister shinzo are bears visited the president has his mar-a lago resort in florida discussed pyongyang's weapons program. syria's ambassador to the u.n. says chemical weapons inspectors will lead to do more on wednesday if it's safe enough says a u.n. security team is at the site and will make a decision on access for the investigators to look into this man suspected chemical attack but want to assign any blame among the un's new special envoy for yemen is working on a plan for talks when the three year civil war martin griffiths will outline his proposal to the security council within two months he says all sides are prepared to negotiate an end to the fighting and anti-government rallies have intensified in

armenia after a vote allowing the former president to become prime minister. tens of thousands of people protested in the capital and other cities queues. of a power grab he was president for a decade i mean years new constitution has given him more power to the office of the prime minister. in the stream next so stay with us. getting to the heart of the matter if more stuff i can do the turkish cypriot leader calls you today and says let's have towards would you accept facing realities what do you think reunification of look like relative people think the peace for unification is the only option for prosperity of south korea here their story on talk to al-jazeera.