april twenty eighth and twenty ninth two thousand and eighteen. eight. made on al-jazeera. press freedom day. and examines the state of freedom of the price around the world. u.s. general in afghanistan about his plans for defeating by the taliban and an isis insurgency. struggling with security issues and economic uncertainty. to hold elections as an unseen global battle rages for results is. still to be claimed commemorating seventy years from now but. has changed in the past seven decades on both sides of this conflict may.

hold. to historic summit with the south or that north korea will dismantle a nuclear test site. also coming up. as middle east war with iran's nuclear deal high on the agenda. a so-called million man march in yemen following the saudi. leaders. and the host u.s. president abandons the white house correspondents dinner here. the south korean government says north korea will dismantle its nuclear test site

next month and invite foreign experts to oversee the closure south korean president and welcome the move saying it shows. sincere about the nuclearization on the peninsula. has more from seoul. south korea's presidential blue house has given a briefing on the historic meeting between me and the north korean leader kim jong un on friday we're told that kim jong un told mungy ensuring that meeting that north korea intends to shut down a nuclear test facility and invite u.s. and south korean experts and journalists to inspect it last weekend ahead of the summit north korea announced that it would stop nuclear and missile tests and shut down and nuclear test facility in the declaration that was signed between lindsay and kim jong il and there was a broad reference to completely denuclearization of the korean peninsula but no specific reference to steps that north korea would take in order to dismantle its nuclear program now this appears to be a new concession from north korea

a head of the meeting that is expected between the u.s. president donald trump and kim jong un in addition north korea says it will also be changing its time zone back in twenty fifteen it changed its time by half an hour because it said that its original time was imposed by japanese imperialists sharing the time of japanese occupation well now it says it will put it back to match seoul time and no longer be a half hour different leaders of the association of southeast asian nations have welcomed the enter korean summit as a positive step towards peace and stability in the region bloc also vowed to work more closely with china and india to counter the pressure of protectionism and shore continued growth singapore's prime minister urged the leaders of the ten country bloc to do more to promote free trade and warned of the growing threat of cyber attacks we need to be resilient conventional threats and also

unconventional threats such as terrorism i'm sorry but it's. so these are issues that peace but these threats are very real. crisis continues to propagate is the geology and to foment trouble in southeast asia despite having been defeated militarily in the middle east and we're also seeing more cyber attacks as we push for digitization really appointed u.s. secretary of state might pompei o has arrived in saudi arabia as part of a three day trip to the region talks with the saudi foreign minister a delegate there before having dinner with crown prince mohammed bin salma they're expected to discuss the iran nuclear deal following donald trump's threats to pull the united states out of the agreement next month pail was sworn in on thursday after his predecessor rex tillerson left office last month person salome as more from washington d.c. . the state department says a strong u.s. saudi partnership is crucial to peace and prosperity in the middle east so perhaps

not surprising that mike pompei a would make a visit to saudi arabia part of his first official trip as secretary of state he also has the fast approaching deadline of may twelfth when president trump must decide whether or not to reimpose sanctions on iran a move that many feel will be the end of the iran nuclear deal mike pompei o is much closer to president trump on this issue than his predecessor rex tillerson was tillerson was sympathetic to the european point of view which is the deal should be strengthened and not abandoned he lost his job essentially over that mike pompei a will also no doubt be talking about the situation in syria during this visit president chavez has called on gulf countries to do more to stabilize the situation there in terms of troops and funding from saudi arabia pompei zero heads to israel and then to jordan like a visit to saudi arabia comes as iran backed with the rebels in yemen fired new

rounds of missiles into the kingdom this follows a saudi led coalition air strike that killed two rebel leaders in yemen's capital last week a high ranking rebel commander was killed in a strike thousands gathered in sana to honor him the torah gate and the reports he supposes descend on the center of center protesting against the death of the most senior the official to be killed by the saudi led coalition in yemen's three year war. died in an airstrike on the coastal who day to provence last week. maurya you will get revenge for the death of the president of the republic. and i have a message for the saudi aggressors you bring invaders here from all over the world we will kill them and we will burn them to the leaders and dozens of fighters were killed in another saudi led coalition air strike on saturday saudi state television says the strike targeted a high level meeting at the these interior ministry in santa after three years of

fighting and no end to the war in sight analysts say the saudi led coalition is trying something new the saudis are stepping up their game. targeting higher higher level officials and the hope is as well are also are there also to stepping up their game firing more and more ballistic missiles into saudi territory i think the message is clear that they still believe both parties still believe that they're the only solution is a military solution but it's a risky strategy the fighters say their mood determined than ever to continue their fight for control of yemen. you know this protest was made for president saleh osama and we tell him that we will keep going on your path and we will not drift away his death strengthened us and provided us with resistance god willing we will not drift away. it's a conflict that's already killed thousands of people and caused the united nations says is the world's one to monetary crisis now there are signs of an escalation

from both sides saudi arabia says it intercepted fool the missiles fired from yemen targeting the city of g.'s then victoria gave him be al jazeera to bangladesh now where united nations security council delegation is meeting with her head to refugees a fifteen member panel as head and cots is bizarre where hundreds of thousands of refugees are living after a firsthand assessment of the crisis the team will then travel to me and mar to visit violence scar rakhine state trial strapper has more from cox's bazaar in bangladesh. this u.n. security council delegation has just arrived we're at the cone of power a refugee camp that's in no man's land the myanmar border fence is about one hundred yards to my right now the delegation is here so they say to see the conditions on the ground here from here they will be going to he could supply

a long refugee camp an extension of that refugee camp to speak to some of the ranger refugees there and talk about what they have witnessed what they have suffered in recent months and what they experienced as they played me on mon now the conditions in these camps are bad already and they could get a lot worse in the next couple of months we now have strong the united nations security council has been respect to really issuing strong statements and resolutions because there are fears with respect to china's veto and we know that myanmar has made it almost impossible for any impossible for any independent investigation it is banned in independent investigations from going to recover in state but it's fair to say the pressure is mounting on me and ma there is a u.s. state department led investigation ongoing we understand at least a thousand people inside these refugee camps have been insitute by that investigation focusing on sexual violence austin and mass murder that will trump

avoided the annual white house correspondents' dinner for the second year running until last year the sitting president attended every event for more than three decades and stature and held a campaign rally in michigan more from diaster. you may have heard i was invited to another event tonight the white house correspondents dinner it will but i'd much rather be in washington michigan that are watching. president donald trump drew cheers from supporters at this michigan rally as he took swipes at everyone from the press two former u.s. presidents flew to michigan snow big hundreds of journalists and celebrities who turned out for the annual white house correspondents' dinner in washington last year he was the first president in nearly four decades to boycott the gala where

comedians and correspondents traded barbs with the commander in chief as the press and gathered for dinner and jokes about the president. stood before an audience of roughly ten thousand telling the success of his get tough approach with north korea interrupted by chance of nobel nobel from the audience i think will have a meeting over the next three or four weeks are going to be a very important meeting the nuclearization of the korean peninsula you work through with you trying to really ninety minute speech was a chance for him to connect with his base mostly white middle class voters who continue to support his policies but it was also a missed opportunity to connect with the press and possibly show a sense of humor. the president did send a surrogate his press secretary sarah huckabee sanders stood in for trump and for her she said it was an opportunity to interact with the press in

a less contentious setting diane estabrook al jazeera washington still ahead on al-jazeera as armenians unite behind their protest a leader of the ruling party says it will not put forward a candidate for star and china aims to put its name on the moviemaking map with the opening of the world's largest film studio. from a fresh coast to breeze. to watching the sunset on the australian outback. hello the weather starting to quieten down now across the levant has some very lively storms across that he says out of the mediterranean still a fair pace of cloud in position here the storms just not seeing a little will brighten up that will quieten down there to syria lebanon jordan just one to share i was there for a sunday when the weather will make its way into iraq east and positive iraq

baghdad time sings a very lively showers and that will inevitably lead to some localized flooding somewhat to weather too over towards terra and further east it's general retried as we go on through monday with a few showers just creeping towards afghanistan bright skies come back in behind and i just want to show is that that east is side of iraq but over towards the western side of the region just around the mediterranean it looks fine and dry by rate at twenty seven celsius in the sunshine then but is sunshine across the reagan peninsula and should be come down to the fos out the gulf of aden still got a fair amount of plaid in place a system like the showers possibly some wet weather into that western side of them but elsewhere it's going to be warm dry and sunny thirty five celsius in doha dry and sunny to across a good parts of southern africa we've had a few showers moving through cape town where the weather certainly a possibility for parts of the eastern cape. the with it sponsored by cats on race. rewind returns with

a new series of fear bring your people back to life i'm sorry i'm brian new updates on the best of al-jazeera documentaries there has been a number of reforms put in place since the program was full rewind continues with also darkness we were following orders we saw in young people to fight these wars put them in the most complex situations you can imagine and have them make life and death decisions rewind on al-jazeera. watching al-jazeera let's recap the top stories for you south korea says pyongyang will dismantle its nuclear test site next month and will invite foreign experts to

oversee its closure south korean president mungy and welcome the move saying it shows kim jong un is sincere about the nuclearization on the planet on the peninsula pardon me the north also plans to match time zones with south korea. newly appointed u.s. . a.o. is in saudi arabia as part of a three day visit to the middle east he's been holding talks with the saudi foreign minister at a fair and also meeting the crown prince mohammed bin salma iran nuclear deal is expected to top the agenda and in yemen a million man march in the capital sana has been held to honor a high ranking rebel leader killed in an airstrike by the city like coalition last week comes hours after saudi arabia says it has killed two leaders in a terror strike. are now on our top stories south korea's announcement that the north has agreed to dismantle its nuclear test site on dry land called joins us live now from soltys a professor of korean studies at cookham koopman university me appreciate your time

so this obviously sounds like a a grand pronouncements is it is grand as it seems. no it's not because actually in last year out there they were going to close the test site but this time is if you invite some foreign journalists to shows them around and just to come through on that valve this side is now being dismantled which is well more to good news it's a sign of openness it's definitely a very good diplomatic manouver to build a better grounds for the future talks between north and the united states so it's a good move bought it does not make it doesn't have as much difference doesn't make as much difference as many people sort of halting for because the test side has been jell-o. tickler unstable and it was vitally expected that it would be close to

a levy and right now it's just a very convenient time to save our closing one of our to sites it sounds like you're saying that north korea's is just doing a very good job of playing the international community because the timing actually also works to their advantage absolutely and they have survived doing a very good job it brings the international community for many many decades they're brilliant diplomats it doesn't mean that they're not going to make serious concessions yes we should expect that north korea. is significant part of its nuclear producing facilities is a view of definitely freeze their nuclear missile program on the current level they will definitely behave vs much more restraint that they have done here and those are some of those are all good they very good. absolutely this is

a very good seems though to borders me is that many people expect the impossible that is that it will just surrender nuclear weapons and become just a normal state a sort of minor version of chad that it's not going to happen because of many reasons above all if they demand of what happened to qaddafi government in libya through government in iraq that they believe that bizarre happens their company destruction and death or imprisonment all of what for all elite is just a ration of time so they keep some nuclear weapons but it will be better if they have just a few enough to ensure the security but not much more not enough to threaten the outside world so it's indeed seems to be possible now and let's hope so do you do you think that the international community will be right back at this point again in the future five ten fifteen years from now. i think that.

nuclear arsenal if you would be reduced in size put under some kind of the international control and they'd be growing. and this is good because a major reason the outbreak of tensions in the last two years was not that much the existence of the north korean nuclear weapons study has been nuclear for more than twenty years but now but this is their attempts to create a new type of weapons far more powerful and especially delivery system. skeptical of heating any point in the world if this does this part of their program i believe then ten fifty years for ten years fifteen years they will can leave it of course lip service will be paid to the needs of the eventual company good nuclearization but they don't see how it can possibly happen as long as. under the come for all of

the king family government and stable so let me ask you looking ahead to this this meeting between kim jong un and donald trump do you see that building upon the progress that has been made or do you think that something could go wrong there these are two really strong unpredictable personalities. i'm afraid that was really strong and predictable and i would apply this description more to president donald trump than to chairman kim a so i can model is that something will get out of control during the meeting and it's not good because it was a partial solution of arms control and arms reduction ease nothing bombs. of tension easy lead to a massive military conflict involve the most industrially advanced parts of the world. mr like all thank you very much for your expertise we appreciate it yes

the british toddler at the center of an emotional legal battle has died terminally ill alfie evans whose parents fight to keep him on life support even attracted the support of the pope his case is the latest in high profile battles between parents and british courts and hawkster has marked my gladiator has laid down his sheryl's and gained his wings at two thirty am evans father took to social media to announce his twenty three month old son has lost his battle and passed away on saturday morning the parents added they were heartbroken and thanked all their followers for support. the toddler had spent the last eighteen months of his life in intensive care being treated for red to generative brain disorder doctors over seen his care argued further treatment for the terminally ill child was futile prolonging his discomfort and that he should be able to die peacefully. under british law courts

can intervene when parents and doctors disagree over the treatment of the child. the head of the catholic church got past the involved and met with alfie's parents kate and tom and appealed for their wishes to be followed in. italy even granted alfre citizenship so that he could be moved to vatican hospital to keep him alive on a ventilator if british courts allowed him but a judge ruled in the local doctor's favor to end his suffering a move condemned by officials in the largely catholic poland who criticized the health service in the united kingdom the paper is one of the first to respond following the announcement of his death and he posted his sympathy on twitter he went on to preach for sound ethics and science but alluding to the evans's case to want this to inform them entirely in this situation it is fundamental that we improve our awareness of the ethical responsibility in respect of the human kind and the environment in which we live while the church applauds every effort in

research and application directed to the care of our suffering brothers and sisters she is also mindful of the basic principle that not everything technically possible or doable is thereby ethically acceptable this is not the first time the pope has gotten involved in a case pitting parents against the british state last year the british high court ruled a tummy ill baby charlie god's life support be switched off mourners gathered to pay their respect to our evans short life but his death has reignited an international debate over who should decide for end of life care for sick children . al-jazeera. russia's foreign minister has accused the u.s. of trying to divide syria into parts sergey lavrov made the comments in moscow while meeting his turkish and iranian counterparts to discuss the war in syria the meeting prepares the groundwork for the ninth round of astonished talks to be held next month three countries believe it's the only way of ending the violence in this

seven year syrian war or a challenge has more from moscow. this meeting was a way for russia turkey and iran co-sponsors of the standard talks to set the scene for the next round of those negotiations which are in a couple of week's time a the fourteenth and fifteenth the three countries here although they have been pushing these negotiations into their ninth round now. do have disagreements they have disagreements over the future of president bashar al assad's turkey has always thought that he shouldn't be part of syria's future and turkey also disagrees with russia on iran over the recent u.s. u.k. and french airstrikes which were a response to what those three countries said was a chemical weapons attack in duma now turkey supports that view and thinks that the russian perspective that this has set back the political process in syria

is not necessarily true. but the turks do have a criticisms of the united states saying that they should give up their ongoing support for the kurds when we do get to the next round of a stand of sorts in a couple weeks we're likely to see. a similar situation to previous times which is that the opposition are reluctant to come now the route the opposition has always felt the. talks were essentially a sideshow a distraction from what should be taking place which is the resumption of negotiations in geneva the official u.n. sponsored talks and the opposition has long felt that water started as essentially doing is just hollowing out geneva stripping it of all the main political platforms political points and essentially giving cover for russia and the

syrian government forces on the ground to continue pushing home. military advantage a spokesman for army is ruling party and now if they will not nominate a candidate for prime minister he says it's an effort to avoid more tension in the region the opposition movement which has attracted tens of thousands of armenians onto the streets and forced the resignation of the long term president turned prime minister sorry sarkozy and is demanding the election of nicole. i've been forced to walk reports on a day of political drama from the northern armenian city of venice or. this convoy has all the euphoria of a victory parade one that stretches for kilometers. while the capital takes a rest the opposition movement is traveling to the regions to show the republican party that the whole country is now behind one bad week.

on tuesday there will be a crucial vote in parliament to decide on a new prime minister and the crowds know who they want for the job the culpa. mea culpas she began this movement with a two week walk across all media in april the cold medians to join him and reject the country's unpopular leader said. the former journalist but. critic and served jail time for his activism. that while his faction is only a minority parliament the simple message has attracted thousands frustrated by the political elite and inspired by his revolutionary line which. i do not want our only people who have fallen. fifteen protests and he sees it on the spot is somehow different you could feel the excitement i can see the anticipation

in the house and the expectations on the face you know these people you want the best things are being a little nance i don't know he's here we just didn't want to give each other he gives the power to us to the people not just the one person or two people but to everyone that's why we love him so so it is changing all this. mean then dignitary only. heard the news and. saw the outside car update system is changing. this was the moment mr. announced to the crowds that the republican party looked to be the candidate of cheese steak was now how it does seem to be with the people of i'll be reading first you walk out zero then it's in. china has

unveiled the world's biggest movie studio which is being touted as the country's rival to hollywood the owners dalen want a group are aiming to host at least five hollywood projects and the first year its full operation its c.e.o. says the complex will turn the northern city of qingdao into a global film production. is she son is a film director and the executive director of filming east at festival she says it will be a major boost about china's domestic and international film audience as a filmmaker myself walked in both the u.k. and china i see one doll what they are doing is like to show they had these solves this potential and then bishes to flex it it. almost sick filmmaking as well as international side so it will really boost the chinese food industry and also turn. very lovely and.

this city. hall up for the international film make to main in chinese film market is huge it's lots of potential lots of opportunities so to be honest i do feel very positive about that and also the policy is different censorship is different however for the new talents it's a completely new war would so feel the energy. and also the new generation of filmmakers from china they've been studying in different places in in the world in western countries so i think in their generation i mean even younger than me it's a time for dom to try to marry western and eastern culture in the filmmaking. our web site is al jazeera dot com there's the news from

around the world it's updated throughout the day visit when you get a moment al-jazeera dot com. and we shall carry let's pick up the headlines for you on al-jazeera south korea says he has announced that it will dismantle its nuclear test site next month and will invite foreign experts to oversee its closure south korean president mungy and welcome the move saying it shows kim jong un is sincere about denuclearization on the peninsula the north also plans to match time zones with south korea leaders of the association of southeast asian nations also welcome the historic enter korean summit as a positive step towards peace and stability in the region they also vow to work more closely with china and india to counter the pressure of protectionism and ensure continued growth. newly appointed u.s. secretary of state mike pompei oh is in saudi arabia as part of

a three day visit to the middle east he's been holding talks with the saudi foreign minister of belgium baer and meeting crown prince mohammed bin salma iran nuclear deal is expected to top the agenda. yes president donald trump has avoided attending the white house correspondents' dinner for the second year running last year trump became the first president in thirty six years to skip the event a college scholarship fund raiser celebrates the relationship between the media and the white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders is taking trump's place instead attended a campaign rally and michigan thousands turned out for this event in the eastern part of the state trump told the crowd he thinks he'll meet with north korea's kim jong so. i think we'll have a meeting over the next three or four weeks are going to be a very important meeting the d. nuclearization of the korean peninsula thank. you thank you. but we'll see how it go

and again whatever happens happens look i may go and. i leave i'm not going to be john kerry who makes that horrible around. trump and south korean president and have agreed the summit between the u.s. and north korea needs to happen soon the leader spoke on the phone late saturday with trump praising moon and kim jong un for reaffirming the goal of complete denuclearization on the peninsula and those are the headlines in his continues and al-jazeera rewind is next. with and for you.