with drones to surviving drought small funds al-jazeera award winning environmental solutions program which homes that would move up and work then to a real job but. making the people communities and organizations addressing some of the greatest manmade environmental problems threatening our planet. a new season of earth price coming soon i'll disappear. with its leaders in jail a greek neo nazi party will eyes on the lives mothers and daughters of the imprisoned leaders to represent them. the women behind the fierce some right wing nationalist party going to join us but when you say i'm not going to what exactly does it mean it means nationalized golden dawn giles' a witness documentary on al-jazeera future for the masses.

castro's successor miguel diaz that can now is named as the sole candidate to take over as cuba's president. tell them to limit all of this is al jazeera live from london also coming up president trump confirms his spine chivas held top level secret talks with north korea's kim jong il in pyongyang. this president called surprise early elections bringing stronger powers for his office process. the way celebrates its first independence day with i was robert mugabe in charge but how much is really changing.

a warm welcome to the program it's the end of a new year out in cuba the cuban national assembly has nominated me as camel as the sole candidate to take over the presidency from raul castro fifty nine years on from when fidel castro led the successful revolution in cuba it's the first time the castro would be leaving the country nomination will be voted on later on what state in america is to lucy and human joins us now from havana solis see a significant moment in cuba us history. indeed julie you know it's taken sixty nine years but it's certainly it seems to be happening very very quickly the nomination was made or at least announced by the president of the nominee committee that was only one candidate for the top job and that is as you just mentioned miguel diaz skynet and they were also several other candidates that will be voted on for the for the second and third job but really

the scandal is the most important one of all she mentioned as she announced his name that this was in keeping with the with the will of god still the current president the last of the castros who would be leaving the country that he has expressed his with the will to not just are no longer in the top job everyone stood up the law and it was a rather emotional moment but the actual voting itself is going to take place we calculated within the next hour or so that could take also about an hour because there are six hundred and five deputies to the national assembly that have to put in those little pieces of paper but the result of course is a foregone conclusion doing at least tell us more about the man himself. you know most people don't know very much about him at all except in the santa land and that province in sydney where he was born and where he was first a leader of the communist party he was very active at the university here is an

engineer by profession but he has spent most of his life in politics working his way up the communist party from the bottom all the way up to the top he's always kept a low profile and that has certainly helped him get to where he is right now many other confidants of their all and fidel castro fell by the wayside when it is said here they thought their good they know more than the top man or they became too big for their britches while the while the colonel has kept as i say a low profile he is not considered to be particularly a reform arm but out but an open minded man who wants to bring about the reforms particularly economic reforms of this country desperately needs to really see a new and they're joining us live from. thank you. u.s. president has confirmed that his spy chief made

a secret visit to north korea and met its leader kim jong un chum tweeted that the meeting with the cia had my complete all went very smoothly and a good relationship was for him it comes as the groundwork is laid for a possible summit between the two al-jazeera is diplomatic and this is james phase is in pyongyang with the latest. north korean officials are not commenting on all confirming the visit. to the. all of the information at this stage is coming from the u.s. side but this is the highest level visit for a serving u.s. official since secretary of state madeline albright came to pyongyang in the year two thousand the u.s. doesn't have diplomatic relations with north korea there is no and. see here members of the diplomatic community have told me though they are aware that there is a channel of communication of negotiation ongoing between the u.s. and north korea between the cia and the north korean intelligence service they

clearly are looking at the possibility of a meeting between the supreme leader kim yong and president trump the possible things that could be discussed possible things that could happen at the end of that meeting for example three american citizens who are held in jail here in north korea the americans want them to be released but also have been talking about the possible venues for a meeting could it be in europe could it be here in pyongyang could it be down in the demilitarized zone between north and south korea are there other places that we mentioned mongolia for example can really have good joins us now live from west palm beach in florida hi there kimberly so the white house said yesterday that they don't comment on cia matters and then the president tweets about five com pale strip this morning. right imagine the president sort of breaking with the administration sort of tradition and protocol it's sort of standard practice for this president and certainly what we've seen here are some revelations that have

stunned the international community the president tweeting that in fact there was a meeting held over the easter weekend with the top cia director mike pompei o in north korea with kim jong un apparently they forged a good relationship according to the president things went very smoothly but not a lot of detail beyond that not clear how this will affect the cia director's confirmation hearings to become the top diplomat u.s. secretary of state certainly that's made some members of congress nervous but in terms of the visit itself as the top spy of the united states certainly almost seems fitting that the president has sent his top spy instead of a senior diplomat given the fact that this whole meeting has been kind of shrouded in mystery and presumably the united states also hoping to do some intelligence gathering there as well as laying the groundwork and kimberly how is all this going to affect the talks today with the japanese prime minister. well certainly this

an orthodox approach by the u.s. president is making the japanese very nervous you have to remember that japan is the top u.s. ally and rather that is the america's top ally in asia and certainly you know traditionally the united states is always consulted japan on these matters so there is this fear among the japanese here as there is this two day meeting that is taking place that once again japan has been sidelined kind of finding out after the fact that these talks have been going on in advance so certainly this is something shinzo abbate has cautioned against the white house and donald trump moving forward on that you have to remember actions speak louder than words and downturn has repeatedly said that there's never been a stronger ally the relationship the. the relationship between the united states and japan but certainly there has to be this feeling right now that there is this feeling of being left out when it comes to the relationship can really how could

there live from west palm beach kimberly thanks. so says they could pursue a formal resolution say end the war with north korea when the two countries meet for talks next week the korean conflict ended sixty five years ago with a truce in a country still technically at war kathy novak has more from seoul one of the reasons that this upcoming meeting between the south korean president and the north korean leader kim jong un is so notable is because these two been 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 nine hundred fifty three so going into the summit the south korean government is keen to discuss denuclearization and also how to promote peace on the korean peninsula so now the suggestion is that one of the items that could come up for discussion between wingy and kim jong un could be how to transition from that armistice to a more long lasting peace agreement and the us president donald trump has suggested

he has given his blessing for the two koreas to discuss this but it may not alternately be a decision that can be made at the into korean summit that is because south korea was not actually a signatory to the armistice that was signed in one nine hundred fifty three it was the united states that ledley allies in the united nations command that signed the armistice with north korea and china so the suggestion may be that if you and kim jong un do discuss this it may lay the groundwork for the summit that is expected between kim jong un and donald trump who may be more in a position to make a concrete agreement to move on from that armistice. the turkish president has called surprise early elections for june bordeaux and as the elections origination the november twenty ninth team will now be held on june twenty fourth so inching from a parliamentary system to a presidential one would mean that new powers for the president could not take

effect a year earlier than originally planned this is the first time that the ruling party since assuming power in two thousand and two if it's the first time that they have gone for voluntarily and actively for an early election usually they they they prefer they were against any early elections as a sign of weakness so given the worsening state of the turkish economy at the government twenty with the present heir to one of the ruling party want for an organ actions i think that the accused at this stage the likelihood is that the ruling party will maintain its majority in the parliament and. should will probably win the presidential elections however the key question is how will the voters perceive this early election will it will be perceive it as a sign of weakness and a sign of panic and therefore try to hurt to the ruling party or will they rally to the to president won as a known quantity in turkish politics still to come here on jazeera and the

assassination attempt on a senior military leader in eastern libya. senegal pioneers early detection technology to combat africa's biggest killer malaria. welcome back we'll look at the weather around the levant and western parts of asia still some snow over the mountains you can see and on up to the woman there for all nutty in kazakhstan just eleven degrees tashkent news becky stan not a great deal better fifteen degrees celsius fine conditions around the caspian sea generally and further towards the west we've got warm weather for banked out there thirty three looking fine around the eastern side of the mediterranean and germany staying that way as we head through friday that we have got some showers affecting

more eastern parts of turkey heading down in theory be impinged where we've got a bit of a breeze was a little bit lifted dust there from mecca but certainly very hot there forty degrees. here in doha very pleasant thirty three degrees celsius and it remains fine as a head on through into friday abu dhabi there twenty nine so as we head into southern portions of africa we've got largely fine weather conditions across namibia down through just south africa run the eastern cape and that's likely still to be there during the course of thursday but largely dry for durban fine sunny in johannesburg and across mozambique through zambian zimbabwe we're looking at pretty good conditions there lusaka in zambia highs of twenty eight space in a high of twenty eight degrees also in when took in the maybe.

was. it reminds of our current top stories here on al-jazeera cuban vice president me grell diaz ken ellis set to become the first person i would cite the castro family to leave cuba after being formally nominated to take over from raul castro as president. u.s.

presidents confirmed that a spy chief had a secret meeting with north korea's president in a tweet said cia head mike pale met kim jong un last week. turkey's president has called surprise elections for june great ship already won and that is that the vote originally the november twenty ninth team will now be held eighteen months early. chemical weapons inspectors waiting to enter the site of a suspected gas attack in syria have been delayed due to security concerns the chief of the o.p.c. deadly mission says it's now unclear when they'll be able to enter the duma the team arrived in the capital damascus on saturday the u.n. security group entered the city on tuesday to assess the situation but had to withdraw after gunfire and protest u.s. and its allies accused russia of delaying the inspectors entry and tampering with the site in my eyes this sonata has the latest from. the organization for the

prohibition of chemical weapons confirming whether un official told us earlier and that is the u.n. security team that entered to montreux they came under small arms fire c.w. also confirming that during their visit to one of the sites an explosive device was detonated now there were no injuries but the security team left and right now the o.p.c. w. does not know when they can deploy their chemical weapons inspectors to do more of the site of the alleged chemical weapons attack there will be c.w. saying any deployment will have to follow a security clearance from the united nations so it really raises a lot of question about. the fate of of this mission now neither the u.n. nor the o.p.c. w. blamed any particular side for that shooting incident but is under the control of the russian military as well as the syrian government both both of them confirming a few days ago that they quote fully liberated the area from terrorists now both moscow and to mask this have been accused by western powers of trying to prevent

the inspectors from reaching the site and to delay and hamper their work accusations that both both moscow and damascus have denied but there really concerns about whether or not there is still hard evidence because it's been what twelve days now since that suspected chemical weapons attack will be evidence be still there some western nations even accusing russia of tampering with the evidence and another question is will the witnesses and survivors or doctors that the o.p.c. w. inspectors speak to will they be speaking freely or will they feel intimidated by the new authority on the ground so right now we do not know if and when the o.p.c. w. inspectors will reach. jolley is a former inspector for the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons and he says the experts are unlikely to find evidence at the site after such a long delay. it has been a long time since the attack took place not talking about eleven days of the same

time actually we are talking about chemicals some of them are one of the two deals so if you are in control of all sides with them because for such a long time it's very easy actually to temper with the place and to change the facts on the ground. you actually do some what we call it in the. military this business is the contamination process which is in a move all the. evidence is on the ground by using other chemicals to neutralize the can because of the gun also you can't do with the munition it's out of the bodies of the munition change remove what the body you can do also to prepare a some witnesses order to prepare some medical reports all these to go that are actually kind to the facts that i think. there are shows on this it is the out of climate change the idea on the ground after seven years of conflict in syria has

life for many refugees is only getting worse many afraid to neighboring fled to neighboring jordan where poverty is pushing some parents to marry off their filth as a sin as they can detach a game reports from the capital where child marriage is on the rise amongst syrian refugee girls. but mom was almost fifteen and living in a syrian refugee camp when her parents told her she was engaged she fought with them for days before she agreed to marry she's now sixteen has a five month old daughter and another baby on the way she says she loves her husband but their lives are hard they work ten hours a day every day at a factory. people say to me when you are still young you have a baby and you are mad at this. this is the normal life for my situation and i'm ok with that more than seven years into the syrian war life is becoming increasingly

difficult for refugees forced to flee to countries such as jordan poverty is the primary reason driving families to marry off their girls according to statistics from jordan's court system child marriage among syrian refugees primarily girls is on the rise in twenty fourteen fifteen percent of all syrian marriages included a child bride now it's thirty six percent last year jordan's chief justice issued new stipulations allowing girls the right to demand a marriage contract with conditions including completing their education and working but the united nations children's agency unicef says girls need even greater protection and what we would like to do more is the prevention as it really work with our courts work with religious leaders and really promoting that

goes to education that we need to break the cycle of poverty and prevent them from dropping out of school and calling into our lives but most says her biggest regret is dropping out of school at the age of ten she hopes early marriage and her family stops with her generation. i wish i could have continued my studies this is my destiny i want to let my daughter gets married young she needs to be twenty five or so it's too much responsibility. when asked about her dreams for the future fatma says she just wants to live in one room independently from her in-laws natasha going to name a man. the chief of staff of the eastern libyan military has survived a link that hit his convoy at say benghazi abdullah take on the doughty smelter king was also struck by gunfire in the attack on the authority as the leader of the armed forces at least in libya's general. is recuperating in

a french hospital after a recent illness thyra has rejected a u.n. backed government in the capital tripoli and is aligned with a rival parliament in eastern libya awkward abdo what had has more for us from tripoli the assassination attempt by a car bomb that targeted the chief of staff of operation dignity that is the military campaign led by only good general so far as to. today the chief of staff of operation dignity. escaped a summation by a car bomb on the way from one of our z to a city where his residence is half way between one of her gentle marriage in city district a car bomb targeted the convoy of general abdul aziz. he escaped assassination but one civilian a passer by was killed and another wanted according to a hospital that is the main hospital in but that's an indication of the power

vacuum following the absence of any good general hurley for did the commander of the operation dignity and also an indication of the curious dissent and divisions among the operation dignity camp we know that you know the region that has a good not only is one of two contenders who are competing to replace that individual. have to. the u.n. refugee agency says it's alon by the horrific conditions faced by newly arrived refugees in gehman agency says migrants in asylum seekers fleeing places like somalia and ethiopia face abuse physical and sexual violence some of them are being kidnapped for ransom while others have been forced back into the sea the u.n. special envoy on yemen has also warned about the humanitarian crisis in the country well william spindler is the spokesman for the un refugee agency and he says many refugees are falling victim to yemen as groups yemen has been

trance it country and a country of this nation for people fleeing the horn of africa for for many years and many somalis but also people from european and other countries in africa have been going to yemen looking for protection and some of them have also gone there with the hope of moving on to other countries in the gulf for instance or in saudi arabia or even to move on to europe but many of them are finding now that because of the conflict they are stuck in yemen also because of the conflict many of them are being abused and exploited by different groups including smugglers and armed groups that are holding them captive in some cases. extorting money out of them told to bring them raping them and we have seen

horrific cases of this in detention in southern yemen specifically in the tensions and in the pardon and that's why we are so concerned that because of the. conflict in yemen many people are falling into the hands of criminals who are exploiting them. the united arab emirates has suspended operations of the hospital it ran in somalia's capital mogadishu comes amid growing bilateral tensions that have seen business as band of amorality diplomats searched in somalia mom of the dough explained. the u.n. a year and ship desired hospital in mogadishu and now close to the public staff there say they received orders to stop operations in definit. we met the u.s. ambassador at his residence and we asked him about the hospital status and if it had been closed he told us that funding for the first stage of operating the

hospital had run out and that they were forced to shut the hospital until second stage funding were available he said reopening the hospital could happen at any time without preconditions the facility offered treatment mainly to poor and displaced people in the somali capital medical workers also performed lifesaving surgery on those injured in mogadishu as frequent car bomb attacks can follow how they are this is basically a punishment for the people of somalia for simply defending their sovereignty if the u.a.e. had opened a hospital for humanitarian purposes they would not have close to residents of mogadishu have been reacting to the news all of the bill of the powerful in humanitarian aid should never be politicized where the u.a.e. has done a shameful then here in a former somalia is a free country we might be weak today but we don't want the aids that comes with strings attached relations between mogadishu and abu dhabi have been frosty since june last year when mogadishu resist the pressure from the u.a.e. and so did a bia to cut ties with qatar and during the blockade the impost on it. in

march somalia band u e's dubai ports world from doing business in the country of the ethan allen magnum and the company had entered into with ethiopia and some other land for the management of better but up port in the breakaway and clear last week somalia intercepted a plane chartered by u.a.e. diplomats and confiscated almost ten million dollars in cash saying it would investigate the intended purpose of the funds. on monday security forces in somalia as puntland prevented them of the u.a.e. plane from living out of the in the military trainers refused two hundred of their luggage to be searched it really looks like nobody can win so much here is a very. poor country. i was called it reconstruction it needs to focus on rebuilding and developing internally and not to be bogged down

in these kinds of disputes. and in the latest sign of a father breakdown in relations both countries of and of the military cooperation program that began in two thousand and fourteen in which the u.s. trained equipped and paid the sun it is of hundreds of somali troops mohammed at all jazeera and ellen tricity blackout has hit the entire island of puerto rico nearly seven months after hurricane maria devastated the u.s. territory officials predict it could take up to thirty six hours to restore power to the island where so week has been struggling with an unstable power grid since the cats equiv four storm hit in september last year it's still unclear what caused wednesday's massive i wanted but it comes less than a week after a falling tree cut services to almost one hundred thousand customers so bob wayne has celebrated their first independence day without robert mugabe as leader of the economy and upcoming elections a big test for a new president emerson. took over when the military forced mugabe to resign

however metacity reports from celebrations in harare. it's the first independence day celebrations without robert mugabe is about his former president in charge the military forced him to resign in november. the new leader innocent i gotta lies independence flame which was first lit thirty eight years ago with the bobby gained independence from britain in one nine hundred eighty. after years of government corruption and mismanagement and demagogue his role when i go is under pressure to in crippling foreign currency shortages and create jobs. and. when i go is pushing for more direct foreign investment to revive the economy some

people warn that will not necessarily create jobs we need to have you know a targeted approach towards it because it's not just going to trickle down once the economy starts growing it last will really be factored in to everything that happens in the country and of course then it's not only government's responsibility for job creation for to bring in the private sector you've got to bring in workers . you've another challenge when a guy goes administration is organizing three day and credible elections later this year the main opposition leader nelson chamisa attended the independence elaborations when mugabe was in charge opposition parties boycotted the event in protest some political analysts say this is a positive development. let's test the country's electoral system after complaints of rigging in previous years if the polls are credible in its national unity said they'll consider him the best thing in zimbabwe again. the president's more

immediate concern is managing people's expectations and frustrations teachers are threatening to strike if they pay and working conditions don't improve civil servants say they may do the same nurses in public hospitals have been stretching for days when i got response was to file all the nurses who refused to. support. a move that puts more people out of work in a country was one of the highest unemployment rates in the world how do with al-jazeera how to. remind of our main stories here on al-jazeera give us national assembly is formally nominated vice president big well diaz and them to become the island's next president has camel who arrived at the meeting alongside the current leader raul castro will be the first person outside the castro family's whom cuba in almost sixty years a latin america editor they see him human is in. most people don't know very much about him at all except in the family background and the problems in sydney where

he was born and where he was first a leader of a communist party he was very active at the university here is an engineer by profession but he has spent most of his life in politics working his way up the communist party from the bottom all the way up to the top he's always kept a low profile. u.s. presidents confirmed that the head of the cia secretly traveled to north korea to meet president kim jong il and donald trump is currently hosting the japanese prime minister tweeted that my home pale couldn't join in north korea last week well it comes as the ground works being laid for a possible summit between the u.s. and north korea turkey's president has called surprise early elections for june rage ip tayyip erdogan and that's the vote originally shed for november twenty ninth team will now be held on june the twenty fourth means new greater powers for the president will come into force a year and

a half earlier than planned. chemical weapons experts who want to visit the site and alleged chemical attack in syria have had their mission delayed after a u.n. security team traveling ahead of them was fired upon analysts from the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons then waiting to get into doing today it's been eleven days since the alleged poison gas attack happened and the time those are our current top stories inside stories next we'll be back with a full news hour at the top of the hour we hope to have your company to em.