of that which is known as the deal of the century what role has the media played in the region's issues. the twelve al-jazeera forum the gulf the arabs and the world amid current developments doha april twenty eighth and twenty nine two thousand and eighteen. within the borders of chernobyl is exclusion zone a toxic nuclear waste and touching any vegetation is far better. grows into the writing system. defining the surviving on the homeland they band together in a land contaminated by its past cultivated kind unshakable sense of belonging to witness the bush because of chernobyl on al-jazeera.

oh. security ramped up as. of a con the north korean leader at the end of the south since the korean war. hello i'm maryanne demasi this is al jazeera live from london also coming up president obama's doctor withdraws his nomination to head veteran affairs after allegations he overprescribed drugs and drank on the job. russia ratchets up its efforts to prove to mold wasn't hit by gas attack taking a group of syrians to the chemical weapons watchdog in the hague. thousands protest across spain after five men known as the wolf pack are cleared of gang rape and pump load.

come to the program our top story north korean leader kim jong un is on his way to historic face to face meeting with his south korean counterpart which is due to begin in around two and a half hours in will host kim in the south korean border village of puntland jom on friday morning they'll discuss a broad range of issues including nuclear and missile programs north korea's state news agency says kim will open hearted lee discussed improving into korean relations and achieving the peace prosperity and security of the korean peninsula so let's look at how the day is set to unfold kim jong un will travel to the demilitarized zone on the tight security to meet and making him the first north korean leader to cross the border since the korean war kim will be flanked by nine officials including his sister who led delegation to this year's winter olympics after meeting in the morning and moon will have lunch and plant a tree using soil from both countries that they will wrap up with dinner and a movie called spring of one

a diplomatic editor james spays is in pod you on the south korean side of the border. the final rehearsal took place in the south after noon body doubles playing the role of supreme leader kim and president moon both sides very keen that the choreography is just right because of the camera angles and the images but also because of the important question of security this is quite a remarkable event when you think what has happened on the korean peninsula in recent months the fact that tensions have been so high here last year particularly during the summer last year and really a remarkable turnaround of events bring us to this first of two possible high level summits what changed what allowed room for diplomacy i've been gauging that at the u.n. in new york in european capitals and here on the korean peninsula i filed this report from the north korean capital. when you walk around pyongyang everywhere you seem

to go you hear military music blaring from shops and loud speakers last summer the drums of war beating particularly heavily it was arguably the tenses time on the korean peninsula in decades in september north korean foreign minister re on ho headed from his ministry here to new york to give his speech at the annual meeting of world leaders at the u.n. ahead of him in the speaking order the new president of the us the united states has great strength and patients but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies we will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. al-jazeera has learnt that hours after that speech foreign minister re sought a brief meeting with the u.n. secretary general antonio good terrorists at the end of the meeting the north

korean invited a senior united nations official to pyongyang a trip the un had been trying to arrange for over a year at the beginning of december jeffrey feltman then the un's head of political affairs made a visit to pyongyang in meetings with north korean officials feltman suggested that kim jong un used his new year's speech to strike a more conciliatory tone he suggested to the winter olympics which are about to be staged in south korea would be a useful occasion to improve relations it's not clear whether the north koreans listen to his advice but they did the things he suggested the leaders sister kim yo chung's visit to the olympics change the atmosphere between the north and south starting a diplomatic dialogue there was another important back channel to sweden's foreign minister margot will strum authorized expanded conversations with the north koreans at one point had been planned for foreign minister rio ho to meet the then u.s.

secretary of state rex tillerson in stockholm that plan changed when president trump surprised his own officials saying he wanted a face to face meeting with kim jong un and then secret dispatched his cia director mike pompei otoh pyongyang to begin the negotiations i've been speaking to diplomats at the u.n. in new york and here on the korean peninsula strategic discussions here in north korea are made at the highest level and done in secret but everyone i've spoken to believes that the bellicose speech by donald trump at the u.n. general assembly was what kickstarted the current diplomatic efforts james al-jazeera pyongyang. and tara is a former state department dept and that specializing in north korea is as the summit could lay important ground wire towards convincing chang'an to abandon its nuclear program. well i think first and foremost the industry and summit is going to be a big spectacle it's going to be about generating the optics of

a very positive relationship between the two koreas so that it provides momentum heading into a potential summit between u.s. president donald trump the north korean leader kim jong il and the bigger question is whether that could lead to any sort of concrete agreement. i'm not expecting very much from the into korean summit but there may be the seeds planted for further progress and further dialogue coming from the us i think kim jong un has recognized that there is a tactical opportunity in the fact that his nuclear weapons program has progressed to a very advanced state he also recognizes that there is opportunity in a south korean president who wants to engage with north korea and the u.s. president who wants to be seen as a deal maker and so maybe that will prompt some flexibility from north korea. and he also understands that. you know complete denuclearization is the priority for pyongyang but it may be flexible at

a lower level below that threshold the white house's response has the new u.s. secretary of state secret meeting with the north korean leader kim jong un might pompei or travel to pyongyang earlier this month as cia director to lay the basis for a meeting between kim and u.s. president donald trump is now on his way to brussels for a nato meeting before going to the middle east it comes just hours after the u.s. senate confirmed him as the top u.s. diplomat by fifty seven votes to forty two let's get more from diana estabrook in washington so of course we know my point was in pyongyang what is the significance of releasing these photographs now. well i think because today he was confirmed as the new secretary of state and i think it's to you know send a message out that this is the secretary of state that president trump can work with any trusts and that was one of the issues with rex tillerson because those two really never forged

a very good relationship and i think those pictures show that my pompei a was sent over there when he was still cia director he had been nominated as the secretary of state he was supposed to go over and just lay the groundwork for this potential summit but in fact ended up getting a meeting with kim jong un for about an hour or so i think it's optics and to show again that the president has a secretary of state that he can work with and that he can trust what kind of secretary of state will pump a.o.b. how might he compared to his predecessor. well certainly more hawkish and again somebody that has the president's ear somebody that the president has respected he respected him as a cabinet member when he was cia director i don't think we'll maybe see him undercut or contradict pompei of the way he did rex tillerson pump aoe is a bit controversial to some people in congress he's made controversial comments

about muslims he's also supported he also was a supporter of torture when he was a congressman. and as a congressman he says he was very very critical of the iran nuclear deal although during his confirmation hearings he said that he would do everything he could to keep the u.s. in that deal and and that remains to be seen because the u.s. has to make a decision whether it's going to stay in that deal within the next few weeks the other thing that he has to work on is morale at the state department it was decimated under rex tillerson tillerson came in and made significant cuts to staff morale was very low there and so he'll need to go in and build that back up again and it seems like he does have the confidence of many of the people that work at the state department so. from washington an esoteric thank you with german chancellor angela merkel will visit the white house on friday and as it says set to issue the saying please have french counterpart the president to stay in the iran

nuclear deal but the trip could be overshadowed by fresh control to seize in the trump administration like his personal doctors allege drink driving in lavish spending on travel by environmental protection agency administrator white house correspondent can really help get reports. he was the u.s. president's doctor and trump liked him so much he wanted ronnie jackson to take a cabinet position as secretary of veterans affairs but after mounting allegations that he drank on the job and handed out opioids like candy jackson withdrew his nomination on thursday well greeting schoolchildren in the white house rose garden trump defended jackson is a great man and a lot of going to be very very rarely get treated really unfairly it's the latest in a series of appointments and nominations that has opponents questioning the president's judgment the real blame here falls on the administration for once again being sloppy and careless in the vetting process on thursday those accusations continued

against another member of trump's inner circle the environmental protection agency administrators scott pruitt's been accused of lavish spending on travel and security as well as giving raises to friends your actions or embarrassment to president trump and if i were the president i wouldn't want your help i just get rid of you and in another distraction trumps personal lawyer michael cohen refused to answer questions in a court case related to an affair the president allegedly had with a porn star cohen's decision has led to questions about whether he's covering up something on behalf of trump donald trump is going to join us live in an angry tirade on a morning show on thursday trump defended his decisions but he also fueled another controversy the russia investigation led by special counsel robert mueller he was asked if he'll speak to investigators looking into whether his twenty sixteen

campaign colluded with moscow i've taken a position and i don't have to take this position and maybe i'll change that i will not be involved with the justice department all of this surrounds the president as important decisions need to be made on north korea and iran and also hangs over a very important meeting on friday with german chancellor angela merkel kimberly help at al-jazeera at the white house. a u.s. senate committee has approved a bipartisan bill aimed at protecting special counsel robert miller from being fired by president trump what his investigation into russian meddling in the tiny sixteen election has been repeatedly attacked by trump but it's highly unlikely it's going to be passed into law the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has said he wanted to allow a vote on the bill the president would almost certainly refuse to sign it into law . you know that as they are still ahead on the program thousands in gaza join the funeral of the hamas engineer shot dead in malaysia last week and

a plastic promise more than forty british companies vow to slash their use of harmful packaging. follow the weather's looking lousy fun and dry across australia over the next couple of days get a bit of class still air into central parts still a possibility of one or two showers towards the new south wales coast but nothing much to speak of the shaft is easing up towards the gold coast as well twenty six celsius there for brisbane twenty three in perth as a cloud just around the southwestern corner that will make you sweat and further research was as we go on into sas day and temperatures at this stage will be picking up to around twenty six degrees as the sunshine coming through so the cloud make us way into south australia twenty one cell just for adelaide eighteen in

melbourne sit down a little here and eighty in sydney as well but again at least it's lucky fine and dry now we have got temperatures getting up quite nicely into a new zealand for the time being it's all gone downhill over the next hour or so because this area cloud sliding across the tasman that will bring some very heavy rain is the south on a friday twenty celsius to christchurch eighteen in alton a poor old crisis has become one it's us and thirty degrees is that rain really sets in some very heavy weather in store here for the north into japan here is looking fine in fly over the next couple of days with glorious sunshine for saturday. australia's multibillion dollar international student industry is booming but it has a dark start when used examines widespread revelations of sexual assault on foreign universities to. visit.

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 the matter to you al-jazeera. going back a look at the top stories now the north korean leader kim jong un is on his way to an historic face to face meeting with his south korean counterpart which is due to begin in just over two hours time hope the talks will ease tensions out of a meeting between kim jong un and u.s. president donald trump later this year the white house has released photos of the new u.s. secretary of state secret meeting with the north korean leader. travel to pyongyang

earlier this month as cia director. and ronny jackson donald trump's personal doctor a nominee for u.s. veteran affairs secretary has quit his bid for the post after being accused of several instances of misconduct. almost goes taken a number of syrians to the headquarters of a chemical weapons watchdog in the netherlands to support their claim that the gas attack in duma was fake the witnesses have been presented to the o.p.c. w. at the hague to recount what they saw on april seventh russia says the syrian statements prove the chemical attack was staged allegations the u.s. and its allies strongly deny a young syrian oil was at a briefing. we were in the basement we heard cries in the street that we should go to the hospital we got skeered we went to the hospital through the tunnel they started pouring water on me at the hospital i don't know why after that they took me to a different place so when you go has more from the hague well the only evidence

that we've managed to see here in the press conference is really videos and effects witness statements that they say were present at the hospital in june when the alleged attack took place but what was quite striking is that the video and the picture evidence that they presented was accompanied by their own take on it which was talking about evidence for example how it couldn't have been real picos the damage didn't fit the. the attack had been described and there was a lot of condemnation of the of the white helmets condemning the message as a terrorist group supported by the u.s. and the u.k. without any other evidence backing that up as well but what was quite striking about the statements that were provided by the seventeen syrians that were brought including that of a young boy son was that the rule quite short there were very similar in terms of

what they were saying a lot of the people that were presented there were working out the hospital and it seemed to follow like a very similar situation that all of a sudden there were a lot of people who were being brought in from the shelter a bar of and then a lot of people who were being doused in water but that there was no evidence of any chemical attack but yet there was no scientific evidence to back that up it is only their word that we have to go on with that. have been huge protests across spain after five men were cleared of the gang rape of a woman at the two thousand and sixteen pump alone a bull running festival after a five month trial the men who belong to a whatsapp group called the wolf pack were convicted of the lesser crime of sexual abuse and given one year sentences hundreds of protesters gathered outside the court chanting it's not abuse it's right. and not some sort of meanness there's nothing some for minas is a party and the people that come must come to enjoy but not to do the wolfpack to.

their own i'm all so i need my little boat to make and be a journalist from barcelona he explained why so many are angered by the sentencing trial the defense tried to prove various ways that the woman i'm concerned about is sex and only later growing embarrassed by the news wanted to change her mind to the spying presenting a piece of evidence such as socially your posts of her ostensibly believe a normal life free of trauma. which many people found pretty repulsive and so the difference between social use and what they call here aggression were great is the use of violence or intimidation which magistrates and judges clearly the men did not use on this woman or her sex or a palestinian journalist who was shot by israeli forces while covering protests at the gaza border has been laid to rest to abu hussein died on wednesday from

injuries he sustained while covering a protest a week ago around a thousand people attended his funeral in gaza he is the second journalist killed by israeli gunfire since protests in the region began last month. meanwhile thousands of palestinians joined another mass funeral in gaza for an engineer who was shot dead in malaysia last week a mass member. was laid to rest shortly after his body was returned to gaza through the egyptian border stephanie decker has more from jabalya. the large crowd you turned out here in germany to pay their respects to. the box the body you were inside that mosque in the belief you were there is that of my money are you the political leader of the mosques now by the police almost to the week in the malaysian capital from a rumor by to the known gunmen on a motorcycle the body of. the living. coffin being

escorted by the ceremonial police the. crowd here. to be taken to the cemetery where he will be buried. it's taken a while to get the body the offer crossing. which is the judge by egypt from a couple of hours the news it was in the. hearing the message from the leadership of hamas is that they are only really countable and one of the senior leaders that israel. is israel of course denies any involvement in the killing. of the saudis but certainly the feeling here is one of the thousands of people have now made their way to the cemetery where the body has been laid to rest you can hear gunfire in salutes

to friday back she is now come back home he was born and he's now been buried here the u.n. special coordinator for the middle east peace process. his call for deescalation in the region at a briefing to the security council there was wide ranging criticism of israel's action against demonstrators in gaza but also a spirited defense from the israeli ambassador and his u.s. ally mike hanna reports from the united nations investigation the security council chamber was packed as always in these quarterly briefings a number of observers ranging from the e.u. to the vatican taking part and looming over proceedings the ever escalating crisis in gaza where the death toll continues to rise among those demonstrating on the border with israel to israel must calibrate its use of force and minimize the use of life fire lethal force should be used only as a last resort a mass in the leaders of the demonstrations must keep protesters away from the

girls offense and prevent all violent actions and probations the israeli ambassador maintained israel was exercising its right of self-defense even have an obligation to protect our citizens and we will do so well minimizing civilian casualties to the other side the fact is that despite these impossible conditions the vast majority of those killed were confirmed members of the wrist organization no acknowledgement of that among the dead are number of children an explanation of this left to israel's prime defender in the council the u.s. says always leaping to the defense of its close ally the ambassador claiming that how much should bear the responsibility for the children killed or injured. anyone who truly cares about children and gaza should insist that hamas immediately stop

using children as cannon fodder in its conflict with israel the palestinian representative was adamant that the demonstrations are legitimate protest against continued israeli occupation and see why is the occupying power source or prized that the people would rise up to demand their dignity and freedom why is it so outraged that people would use all possible peaceful means to bring an end to its persecution at the end of the meeting it appeared the words of the special coordinator at the beginning all but forgotten his plea that everyone in the middle east needs to step back from the brink and heard or ignored all my summits to join the my can are united nations was to prove a jury in the usa to pennsylvania has found actor bill cosby guilty on all counts in his sexual assault we trial the eighty year old comedian once known as america's

dad was found guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting a female friend at his philadelphia home in two thousand and four cosby lashed out and yell profanities at the prosecutor that asked for him to be taken into custody immediately ministers from more than seventy countries have committed to new measures to fight the funding of terrorism french president emanuel macron hosted the meeting issuing a plea to ministers to work together to fight a common enemy they the chase reports from paris. president emanuel macro singled out al qaeda and i saw the so-called islamic state as the main enemies that have to be confronted delivering the final address of the conference on the financing of terror he called for a new chapter to be opened a new methods used to neutralize them. i want to thank you all for your commitment by coming here particularly the middle east and all those who accept our different points of view and to accept to commit to this new method it's necessary it's

a first we must maintain it we must implement it and we must make it last. it's been estimated the so-called islamic state made one billion dollars a year when they controlled the oil fields in iraq and syria no one knows where those funds have gone. but what is known is that the cost of mounting a terrorist attack has been dropping dramatically like the attack in the square of lorry was a weapon that was used to kill more than eighty people paris's public prosecutor from estimated the attack in the french capital an event but twenty fifteen which killed one hundred thirty people cost around one hundred twenty thousand dollars some experts are now warning that the fight against the financing of terror groups has proved largely ineffective they can easily transfer money without using the international banking system which proved too easy to trace i am hoping that as a result of this conference there will now be

a more nuanced approach to terrorist financing and we are moving away from the model that was developed in response to nine eleven but that might not be as effective when we're talking about new actors president macross said that terrorists must be fought wherever they are found it but some of the measures are hurting charities trying to bring aid to civilians in conflict. as one relief worker put it it's now easier to send a weapons to syria than medical equipment or school supplies david chaytor al jazeera powers. the holiday island of our kind of philippines has been closed for six months clean up tourists have been banned while the infrastructure is improved and volunteers remove rubbish from the beaches president want to go to territory ordered to shut down this month after calling the result a cesspool critics say it's an overreaction affecting people who depend on the island for their jobs. it's painful for us to lose our jobs and

it's also sort of even though i don't have my own family i support my siblings now this is happened we can't do anything but accept it. now forty two u.k. companies including the major supermarkets have pledged to tackle pollution by committing. plastic over the next seven years they signed up to the u.k. plastics packs a promise to make all their plastic packaging reusable recyclable or composite will by the year two thousand and twenty five charlie angela has mall. we're outside tesco is one of forty two british companies and supermarkets that have signed up for the u.k. plastics voluntarily they are agreeing that by twenty twenty five that plastic bags that food packaging like this covering but not on those will be fully reusable recyclable and possible now these companies account for eighty percent of the plastic packaging used in u.k.

supermarkets so the impact could be in moments the prime minister to reason may has promised to eliminate avoidable plastic waste by twenty forty two as part of a national action the government is a vicious and it should be because the threat to the environment is so severe that this is a global problem and it needs a global response when you consider that the amount of plastic we produce each year is equivalent to the entire weight a few about this is public concern about plastic waste that is driving the agenda it's being called the blue planet effect of the television series by so david asman which is expose the impact of plastic on aussies and wildlife and the critics say that this new tax is just bought and true there's no way of forcing it the public is committed to change already seeing people replacing the plastic shopping bags for usable close ones and taking their daily coffee in a reusable call that expecting retailers to commit to trying to.

look at the headlines this hour north korean leader kim jong un is on his way to on his story face to face meeting with a south korean counterpart which is due to begin in around two hours time and will host kim jong un in the south korean border village of on one jump they'll discuss a range of issues including pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs our diplomatic editor james space is in poggio on the south korean side of the board now. the final rehearsal took place this afternoon body doubles playing the role of supreme leader kim and president moon both sides very keen that the choreography is just right because of the camera angles of the images but also because of the important question of security this is quite a remarkable learned when you think what has happened on the korean peninsula in recent months the current the tensions have been so hard here president

obama's personal doctor has withdrawn himself from consideration for veterans affairs secretary after mounting misconduct allegations ronnie jackson is accused of crashing a car while driving under the influence and of overprescribing drugs and other developments a u.s. senate committee has approved a bipartisan bill aimed at protecting special counsel robert miller from being fired by president trump well as investigation into russian meddling in the twenty sixteen election has been repeatedly attacked by trump but the bill is highly unlikely to be passed into law because the senate majority leader says he won't allow a vote moscow has taken a number of syrians to the headquarters of a chemical weapons watchdog to support their claim that the gas attack in duma was fake the witnesses of address the o.p.c. w. at the hague to recount what they saw on april seventh russia says the syrian statements prove the chemical attack was staged allegations the u.s. and its allies deny. they have been huge protests across spain after five men were cleared of the gang rape of a woman at the two thousand and sixteen pump loanable running festival the man who

belong to a whatsapp group called the wolf pack were convicted of the lesser crime of sexual abuse and given nine year sentences palestinian journalist who was shot by israeli forces while covering protests at the gaza border has been laid to rest his st died on wednesday from injuries he sustained during demonstrations two weeks ago. well those are the headlines of one one east is coming up next and then ongoing coverage from doha on that historic north south korean summit. u.s. president donald trump has said he will slap new tariffs on imports of steel and alum in your bra five jeans will mean faucet data times about ten times faster than forty we bring you the stories to the shaping the economic world we live in counting the cost of this time zero.