choosing between. eating this is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who's an activist who's close to the story joining the global conversation at this time on al-jazeera one of the really special things about working for al-jazeera is that even as a camera woman i get to have so much employed in contribution to a story i feel we cover this region better than anyone else. but to give because if people get their own political. people. across the globe.

north korea says it will suspend nuclear and missile tests and shut down a test site. i know there are. also coming up new calls for the investigation of israel's use of force on palestinian protesters after four people were killed and friday demonstrations. syria's government moves on the remaining rebel held areas near the capital. and cubans contemplate a new era with a president who isn't named castro. north korea says it will stop all nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests the announcement comes ahead of a meeting between north and south korean leaders in six days time yes present

donald trump has tweeted that it's very good news for north korea and the world. korean state run t.v. news has issued a statement on commitment to end all nuclear tests on the peninsula. so you. should chip we will discontinue nuclear testing and intercontinental ballistic rocket test firings from april twenty first the northern nuclear test of the d.p. r. k. will also be dismantled to transparently guarantee the discontinuance of nuclear testing that this continuance of the nuclear test is an important process for the world wide disarmament and the d.p. r. k. will join the international desire as efforts for total halt to nuclear testing the d.p. r. k. will never use nuclear weapons nor transfer them or nuclear technology under any circumstances unless there is a nuclear threat or qualification against. all japan's prime minister is sounding a more cautious note a thought process never thought of north korea's announcement is forward motion

that i'd like to welcome it but what's important is that this motion leads to complete verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of north korea's nuclear and missile programs i want to take a close look at that kathy novak has the reaction from seoul. south korea says it welcomes north korea's decision to shut down its nuclear test site and to suspend nuclear and missile tests the announcement was made at a meeting of the central committee of the workers' party chaired by the leader kim jong un and it seems to represent a significant shift five years ago kim jong il unveiled his signature policy which was a jewel track of pursuing development of the nuclear weapons program and also the economy well now kim seems to say that the nuclear weapons program development is complete tests are no longer needed and a shift can be made towards focusing on the economy the question though is how will north korea be able to do that while it is still under intense campaign of sanctions imposed by the international community japan has said that campaign of

maximum pressure must continue until north korea changes its policy japan's prime minister shinzo ave has said he welcomes this announcement but added it must be followed by complete verifiable irreversible dismantlement of north korea's nuclear and missile program denuclearization is expected to be high on the agenda when south korea's president meets kim jong un on friday christopher hill was the head of the u.s. delegation to the six party talks on the north korean nuclear issue he says north korea's announcement is welcome but also counsel caution. i would. issue a few cautions here first of all the way he's selling it is to say we have already completed our nuclear program we're all set to go we have of him well where did he go he tested more that's not the first time said that he could certainly be

playing a role in a process of even if he was a ship but it could also simply be following the old sense of we're nuclear power or don we don't he tells us it's nothing anyone can do about it so i'd be a little caution but secondly with respect to the shutting down of the test side to be where they've had some six nuclear test there have been widespread reports in the media and elsewhere about the fact that you know he may be entering its final phase of the shelf life. test would cause a collapse of the wound there's a lot of concern about just the ecology there so i'm going to be a little cautious but all that said it is pretty clear that we are better position today than we were before. the united nations is calling for an independent investigation into israel's use of force on protesters four palestinians including a fifteen year old boy were killed by israeli gunfire another day of demonstrations

on gaza's border have been funerals for the latest casualties thirty five people have died in four weeks of protests calling for palestinians right to return to ancestral lands from gaza but a smith reports. they've become a feature of the weekly palestinian confrontations with israel's military this friday the wind was with the protestors as clouds of smoke from burning tires drifted over israeli positions. but it's not enough to stop israel snipers and volleys of tear gas. others who you might think would be put off after previous experiences have instead come back for more. i don't care about the injury even if i lose my legs this will not stop me coming back what happened here won't people up and reminded them about all cause we've come here to get our right of return and a lot of states. but. us.

in this with giving something another day. but i'm here to show my enthusiasm and to inspire the young guys to continue their struggle. the. the as he does every week hamas is leading gaza yassin was visited the protests a prime target for israeli snipers he'd have been easily spotted by the drones above but was protected by the crowds be love. this friday the count was moved three hundred meters closer to israel their mission is that when these protests climax on may the fifteenth these towns will be the border between gaza and israel but after four weeks no demonstrations there's been nothing in the way of concessions from the israelis that would improve the daily life of palestinians living in gaza. furnace with al-jazeera scars. defense minister says hamas is

wasting its time trying to gain the upper hand in the conflict and. remove. we have all the support from the army from the chief of staff and everybody that something the other side must understand there is a determined and trained army behind which are determined people support the army and he had to their residents of communities adjacent to gaza who are determined and ready to give all their brick to the army this combination can't be beaten and it is a waste of time a waste of their if it i expect gaza residents to take their destiny into their own hands and not be led by hamas who are misleading them. the u.s. has again warm syria's president about the use of chemical weapons defense actually james mattis made the comments whilst meeting his japanese counterpart comes a week after us that strikes on weapons facilities in syria they were in response to a suspected chemical attack and doom on the seventh of april syria and its ally russia

deny it happened. full support for that regrettable but necessary attack on. his research and engineering part of his. weapons program weapons of mass destruction right he will be all advised to ignore the international community. and we stand ready to address anything in the future. cuba's new leader is vowing to defend the socialist revolution and modernize their economy but many doubt they'll be any significant improvement under president miguel diaz chemical latin america has to see a new man reports. getting their daily bread cuban style with your ration card in hand one roll per day per person at a minute state subsidized price a system that dates back to the soviet union. in recent years the government has been forced to cut back on ration card items but there's still rice beans sugar

salt and occasionally meet aid with cuba's national currency the pay so. that if we didn't have this option those on a worker's wage could not afford to buy almost anything. you can also use pesos to buy fruits and vegetables. but for almost everything else from shampoo to shoes you need a c. you see the cuban government's version of hard currency on an average monthly wage you can purchase thirty c. you see not enough to fill a car with petrol cuba's dual currency is a monetary abnormality that stunting economic growth and scaring off investment. and like the ration card doing away with it is a must if cuba's new president to me. is going to make good on his promise to update cuban communism what is the government hasn't already done it it's because merging these two currencies into one is much more complex than it sounds in

a country where the state is supposed to always provide it's going to make life much more difficult for cubans who are already struggling. and eliminating the dual currency system will devalue the pace or but it's a necessary change concedes medium leyva a longtime opponent of the cuban government. in fact after watching thursday's presidential handover of power from broadcast to discuss the only changes she expects are on the economic front almost on the emotional level i don't feel any change i hope i'll feel it some day when our society really opens up and i have the right to participate in no matter my opinions. the transition to a post castro era does not contemplate political change but reforming the state run economy to make it more rational and effective could be almost as revolutionary to see in human. than. still ahead here on al-jazeera. the

graduate. students lead to another call for action on gun violence in the u.s. on the nineteenth anniversary of the columbine massacre plus. now one syrian story of life in new york one of the films about a women that starring at a festival. welcome back as we take a look at weather conditions across the levant and western parts of asia. and also for kazakhstan weather conditions looking good tascam there twenty five degrees celsius fair amount of cloud around the caspian sea one of two showers likely but this is an area of rain across parts of turkey which will be extending into iran

and iraq as we move through into sunday syria two scenes mowbray's of rain elsewhere on the eastern side of the met jerry looking good beirut should enjoy sunshine and highs of twenty degrees of course lots of sunshine here the arabian peninsula and hot coming at forty degrees celsius on this side of the peninsula we're looking at thirty five degrees in tow and thirty two in abu dhabi so the weather conditions pretty static at the moment so let's head across into southern portions of africa where again it's looking largely fine here a lot of sunshine here a long way north before you start to pick up the showers for some zimbabwe in zambia across in tango and through namibia down towards south africa all looking fine little bit of cloud across the eastern cape but otherwise weather conditions looking good there johannesburg highs of twenty four degrees and then into central parts of africa some heavy showers across east africa south asia is also in the gulf of guinea where expect he wanted to downpours to be affecting the prevail.

stories of life. and inspiration. and series of documentaries from around the world that celebrate the human spirit against the odds. al-jazeera cinemax.

but again you're watching there has reminder of our top stories this hour north korea's official news agency says the country will stop all nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests the move includes shutting down its main nuclear testing site is present donald trump has tweeted that it's a very good news for north korea the walls. palestine's ambassador to the u.n. is calling for an independent investigation into israel's use of force on protesters for palestinians including a fifteen year old boy were killed by israeli gunfire in another day of demonstrations on gaza's border on friday. and syrian rebels have reportedly agreed to withdraw from the last area near the capital is not under government control the army is continuing to bombard the enclave and south of moscow still a full surrender deal is reached. the u.s. democratic party is suing the donald trump campaign and russia over alleged collusion in the twenty sixteen presidential election they cuse russia of contacting trump's advisers informing them of

a cyber attack that leaked negative information about his democratic rival hillary clinton the lawsuit also involves wiki leaks and its founder julian assange the democrats accuse him of wanting the trump a team in advance for publishing the information on clinton bicycle lane is following events in washington d.c. . it's an unusual move but not an unprecedented one democrats have sued over the watergate break in and they did get some money on the day that richard nixon left office in disgrace now the lawsuit is against russia russia's intelligence service and some russian citizens it is difficult to sue a sovereign nation in the united states but it is possible difficult but possible it also sues wiki leaks and its founder julian assange and it really targets people very close to the president president donald trump not named in this lawsuit because it's really hard to sue a sitting president but his campaign is named along with his son don jr son in law jerry cushion or his former campaign chairman paul mann afford his advisor roger stone and former campaign aides george papadopoulos and richard gates now the

complaint alleges that the trump campaign colluded with russia to steal and publish e-mails from the democratic campaign workers in an attempt to help trump win the presidency much of what is in this lawsuit was already known but there are a couple of things that we didn't know for example it says it alleges that in late twenty fifteen that far back that european intelligence services said that they were witnessing some suspicious communications between russian operatives and members of the trump campaign that they notified the u.s. about that again at late two thousand and fifteen it also goes on to say that the hack was earlier than we previously thought that it happened again in twenty fifteen and it wasn't just the computer system it was the phone system that was compromised so some new details in this lawsuit this could be seen as a dangerous move if people perceive that it is in any way going to interfere with special counsel robert mueller who is investigating potential collusion between. the term campaign and russia but it also could serve the purpose of putting just

another venue to get the information out there there's growing concern that the special counsel will be tampered with or could possibly be let go if this lawsuit is allowed to proceed this basically puts before court before jury all on the record exactly what happened in the twenty sixteen campaign and it also serves as putting even more pressure on people in trump's orbit they're already facing pretty high legal bills and legal issues and this will only add to that. bruce fein is a former us associate deputy attorney general he says it's unlikely the democrats lawsuit will become a substantial threat to the trumpet ministration there's a twofold element to this on the one hand some may view it as just another partisan effort because it's obviously the democrats who brought the lawsuit on the other hand it does give another burst of publicity and it shows for the time being that they have a very beleaguered president he's now fighting three or four front war instead of

a one or two front war but a my belief is that no matter how sound the case is in the long run when there is no activity and i can guarantee you bring me back on in two weeks they'll be a grant of a stay in motion if there's no new moves it will really not have much more than a twenty four hour effect south africa's new president has become the mediator and growing protests in northwest province demonstrates is a calling for the resignation of the region's leader catherine sawyer has more from him that he can. residents of mike hang in the northwest province wait for the outcome of a meeting between president cyril ramaphosa and the provincial leadership. people in several paths of the region have been protesting for days now they say they want better houses jobs and an end to corruption they're demanding the provincial leaders suprema home appeal whom they accuse of failing to do his job and overseeing corruption to step down the president catches his trip to the u.k.

where he was attending a commonwealth heads of state meeting to deal with the situation having listened to all imports we have decided that we would like to engage further with a number of other people particularly members of the community. not only in my he but also in the northwest what i can assure you now is that even if all of the monologue lead we are not going to solyndra will go in full what streets are deserted but evidence of the violent protests is everywhere. so this is one of the areas where protesters had blocked the roads using running tires and anything else they could find police have been trying to clear this road we've also seen shops that have been broken in to and looted and the situation here is still very tense this petrol station is in one of the hot spots

a group of young people is say to have done this many shop owners are devastated. i don't know how to start over i used all my money to stock the shop to get tells us others whose businesses were destroyed comped at the heritage house where the leadership was meeting they tell us what happened to their shops had nothing to do with genuine demonstrations nor did they want to get a problem but they're not involving them and we're not just doing anything you're just doing business. residents of this region continue to wait for answers but these are difficult issues that may not be fully resolved fairly soon catherine saw al jazeera mike kang south africa. hundreds of workers have rallied in zimbabwe's capital to speak out against the firing of more than sixteen thousand nurses protesters say hospital employees and patients are paying the price for a struggling health system hella has her dying reports.

was these nurses want to go back to work they went on strike hoping for higher pay and better working conditions instead they got fired by the government we love our country we love our patients please do not make us suffer anymore do not make opposition suffer any more want to go back to work. medical teams say they are overworked and underpaid in public hospitals medication and resources are limited patients are sometimes asked to bring their own supplies lower paid nurses earn less than three hundred dollars a month before allowances we have to take out money from on pockets to buy the next basic compost you name it really patient so it's not only about money for them this is also the resources for the hospital more than sixteen thousand nurses across them are now out of a job their dismissal was ordered by vice president constantine and she when he believes the strikes are unreasonable and politically motivated since the strike

began the opposition has laid out problems with the country's health care system you can't come in and say you are open for business things are happening when they're not happening in the west because when i would have been in for patients for people that is an acceptable. five months after taking over as president emerson god while faces a weak economy and a struggling public health care system the strike is seen as yet another challenge in his young presidency i'm just deeply concerned that if we if we don't stand up in solidarity. and we don't push to have this health care crisis resolved many more people will die. the government says retired nurses will replace those on strike but some nurses association says the dismissals are invalid in the meantime hospitals are understaffed and patients are paying the price cuts yellow piss of the young jazeera there's been a dramatic twist in the trial of two reuters journalists who've been covering the

rangar crisis in manama with a policeman telling the court their arrest was a setup while alone and char sawyer who accused to avoid violating a state secrets law by acquiring official documents if found guilty they could face fourteen years in jail but a policeman who is appearing as a prosecution witness told the court that one of his senior officers gave the documents to the journalists turn trucks them. thousands of armenians are protesting against what they see as a bid by their former president to cling on to power one hundred eighty people were arrested as protesters blocked roads leading to the capital the demonstrations started eight days ago when parliament moved to appoint former president serge sachs and as prime minister and have ruled since two thousand and eight and only stepped down as president this month term limits prevented him running again but a two thousand and fifteen referendum shifted executive powers to the prime minister's office. students across the united states are taking action on gun

violence on the one thousand anniversary of the columbine school massacre the movement's picked up momentum since seventeen people were killed in a florida shooting in february and agalloch reports from parkland. once again the students of marjorie stoneman douglas high school left their classrooms to call for gun reform in february the students lost fourteen of their classmates and three teaches. that. they've been campaigning for a changing gun laws ever since and were joined by students from across the country from coast to coast there were more than two thousand demonstrations in all our school our teacher was shot and killed at the beginning of the year so this is something that we take very personally and if you look at it allocated for us the people all the students that have just been freed by police from inside the building the day marks nineteen years since thirteen people were killed at columbine high school in colorado in the years since gun laws have largely remained

unchanged and school shootings have got worse it's happened at sandy hook it's happened at great mills and i happen at my school like we shouldn't be letting this happen we shouldn't be letting people die without trying to change something and stop something even a students marched in parkland another school shooting was reported in central florida the alleged shooter is now in custody and no one was killed but it's a reminder of what children here face every day the walk out here and the thousands of others across the country demonstrate the resolve of this generation more than any other they've been affected by the plague of gun violence and they hope to be the ones that finally bring change and they gallacher al-jazeera park in florida lonnie and sandy phillips the parents of jessica galway who was murdered in twenty twelve in the war a theater massacre in colorado they say the student led protests against gun violence have brought hope to the movement. jessie went to a movie in denver colorado with her best friend. and never came home

actually she did come home in a box with ashes she was struck six times in the last shot hit her in the head. and blew our brains out on to the theater floor causing a five inch hole in the left side of her face that's about the size of your hand and it hit her here and took her top of the head off and that's what we live with every day that's the the image that we wake up with every morning and go to bed with every night these students have demanded the same thing that lonnie and myself have been talking to senators and congressmen about for almost six years now but they're doing it in a way that has empowered the entire gun violence prevention movement where happy to have them speaking out and speaking up and taking the lead and we will support them and follow them anywhere they want us to go because they will become voters and

they will absolutely affect change in this country and we're very very happy to have them join this movement they have the they are the spark that's going to spark the fire that's going to burn the n.r.a. to the ground where you could say it's ladies' night this is track a film festival taking center stage at the new york event as kristen salumi reports . films by women and about with the starring role the seventeenth try back a film festival which opened with love guild a time when i thought that all i wanted to do was work a tribute to comedienne and saturday night live star gilda radner directed by lisa dop aledo. but one of things interesting about the festival this year is that we really try to have fifty fifty parity so forty six percent of our narrative films are directed by women and you get a different perspective with strong women characters which is something i take

facial muscles and his body posture like zoe this year's centerpiece film aside if i romanticize about finding love in a world of technological artifice that also has an of the moment feel different. with nearly one hundred feature films plus shorts t.v. and online works not to mention the live music an artist talks there's a little something for everyone to try back out this is an international festival but it gets its name from its new york neighborhood as well as a spirit of activism. i don't know what kind of tipping point we're at the work of the new york times grappling with how to cover an adversarial president is featured in the closing night documentary called before the state well to shorts surviving theater nine and notes from dunblane give voice to the survivors of mass shootings in the country's gun control debate continuing the festival's tradition of socially relevant selections new york itself is going to

have a tradition of filmmaking creative people here is certainly gritty and so i think you could see some of that character in the programming in some of the kinds of people that the first war tracks. even international issues come with new york perspective like the short film salaam about a syrian palestinian woman who drives the city streets for a living while awaiting life or death news from home it's a story about an immigrant made by an immigrant child back i was the absolute power affects premier venue for my film because this is a new york film it's you know celebrating all of the different cultures that we have in new york. it's celebrating the fact that this is a liberal city festival goers try back up provides a window on the world and the cutting edge of culture with plenty of new york attitude christian salumi al-jazeera new york.

you're watching al-jazeera these are our top stories north korea's official news agency says the country will stop all nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests the moving clears shutting down its main nuclear testing sites. that this continuance of the nuclear test is an important process for the worldwide disarmament and the t.p.r. cable joint international desire and efforts for total halt to nuclear testing the d.p. r. k. will never use nuclear weapons nor transfer them or nuclear technology under any circumstances unless there is a nuclear threat or paf occasion against it yes president donald trump has tweeted it's very good news for north korea and the world japan's prime minister is sounding a more cautious note. that north korea's announcement is forward motion that i'd

like to welcome but what's important is that this motion leads to complete verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of north korea's nuclear and missile programs i want to take a close look at that. the u.n. is calling for an independent investigation into israel's use of force on protesters for palestinians including a fifteen year old boy killed by israeli gunfire in another day of demonstrations on gaza's border. syrian rebels reportedly agreed to withdraw from the last area near the capsule that's not under government control the army is continuing to bombard the enclave and south to mask us until a full surrender deal is reached it means president bashar al assad is in his strongest position since the early stages of the seven year war. the u.s. democratic party is suing the donald trump campaign and russia for alleged collusion in the twenty sixteen presidential election it accuses russia of contacting trump's advisers informing them of a cyber attack that leads negative information about his democratic rival hillary

clinton lawsuit also involves wiki leaks and its founder julian assange bush. south africa's president cyril ramaphosa has become the mediator in growing protests in northwest province demonstrators are demanding jobs better housing roads and hospitals but also calling for the resignation of the regional leader the president cut short his trip to the u.k. to deal with the rest there's i had lines more news on al-jazeera after a.j. select. with its leaders in jail agreed. on the lives. of the imprisoned leaders to represent them. the women behind the fearsome right wing nationalist party going to do. when you see in myanmar to do you know what exactly does it mean it means not for most golden doing girls a witness documentary on al-jazeera.