more strained over the past year with differences over issues such as the iran deal and climate change the least they say that the 2 leaders now going to have talks are going to have lunch in called the main city of normandy on the table will be a range of issues including trade another contentious one because a model michael doesn't want the european union to enter into any trade talks with the united states unless environmental policy is on the table the u.s. rejoins the paris climate's accord so be interesting to see how often these 2 leaders who show unity at this ceremony koval so may be interesting to see how that plays out a little bit later and whether those differences mean that they can't find a common ground a common vision we won't actually know exactly what they might say because they were to be any speech or statement all right natasha butler live for us in normandy natasha thank you saudi arabia is reported to have improved its ballistic missile capability by buying technology from china as media report cites 3 unnamed sources

for the previously reported classified intelligence describes a suspected missile factory west of the capital riyadh president donald trump is accused of not disclosing the intelligence to congress which is infuriating democrats as trump refuses to rule out military action against iran the saudi missile report heightens concerns of a middle east arms race brown has more from beijing. the comments from china's foreign ministry were significant on thursday because earlier this year the chinese government denied helping saudi arabia develop its missile technology but now on thursday a spokesman for the foreign ministry confirmed that actually the cooperation between china and saudi arabia in this area was now quite strong china has been selling missile technology to saudi arabia since the late eighty's that was when it sold them the dung fung 3 medium range missile then a few years ago china sold the saudi arabians the dung func $21.00 long range

missile and that was part of an arms package worth more than $100000000000.00 so it's quite clear that saudi arabia is becoming a very important customer for chinese arms and of course the united states also sells a lot of arms to saudi arabia now the foreign ministry media briefing on thursday i also spokesman. how china was helping saudi arabia develop its ballistic missiles program it was interesting there was like a 15 2nd delay between my question and his answer as he looked on his desk to find his prepared answer because this was a question he was expecting here's what he had to say the truth. the chinese government has always opposed the use of weapons of mass destruction as well as their proliferation trying to has been very strict with the export of missile technology china and saudi arabia are strategic cooperation partners we've maintained good cooperation in many fields including straight from this corporation

does not violate any international law and does not involve any proliferation issues of weapons of mass destruction so what china was a century saying on thursday was this the weapons that china sells to saudi arabia are not defined by china as being weapons of mass destruction are china right now is the world's 5th. largest arms exports are the middle east is becoming an increasingly important market for china and of course when it comes to the middle east china has pulled off something of a country trick because it has very good relations with saudi arabia very good relations with iran and very good relations with israel. still ahead on al-jazeera the man believed to be germany's deadliest post-war serial killer and sentenced. and south korea scramble to stop a swine fever outbreak crossing the border. hello

there were scenes of very heavy downpours ever parts of china recently so we not have this weather system here that is now working its way towards the korean peninsula and still giving us some heavy downpours as it does so if we hear reports of hunchy was wet as we head through friday so very wet across this region and then spreading its way eastwards for the still as we head into saturday behind it still quite a large amount of cloud but it shouldn't be has wet as it has been the temperatures will be getting to around $28.00 in seoul and force in pyongyang will be hotter than if you head across towards beijing all temperature making it to $32.00 degrees but further towards the south and this still plenty of wet weather here lots of heavy rain that's for this for friday saturday and again some of that will be very heavy and could cause a problem with some localized flooding further south they could also be one or 2 showers force in hong kong for the southeastern parts of asia most of what weather

here is well some of the wettest at the moment is over parts of somalia just stretching all the way up towards vietnam and this region again looks pretty wet for friday on saturday breaks up a little bit but instead we see the heavier rain stretches way towards the east and further south some of it could make its way into jobs we could see the old role the heavy shower in jakarta bali though i think should stay dry.

this is al jazeera and these are the top stories right now the african union is holding an emergency meeting to address the deadly crackdown on a protest camp in sudan that's killed at least 100 people the united nations and the u.k. embassy have both announced they're removing some of their staff from the country. president of france has welcomed other allied leaders to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the d.-day landings. on and donald trump visited a cemetery for around $10000.00 u.s. soldiers and normandy. and saudi arabia is reported to have improved its ballistic missile capability by buying technology from china president donald trump is

accused of not disclosing the classified intelligence to congress which is angering to mcgrath's. china's president xi jinping is the guest of honor of a major economic summit and russia is in st petersburg on the 2nd day of his state visit lattimer putin says the relationship with russia's biggest trading partner is at an unprecedented level with exports growing every year the leaders have also been talking about the korean peninsula syria and venezuela. and it's in st petersburg for us as to what is on the agenda for the for this year. yes president changing bring in the main a guest of honor here at this in petersburg economic forum and he has brought a significant delegation of a 1000 people the 50000 people who are attending but there's another name going around during this conference and that's the name of michael caliphate he's a u.s. investment banker and he was arrested in february on those charges. of frauds which

he says are being fabricated he is now under house arrest but his arrest has shocked many investors and the u.s. official delegation is not boycotting this event because of his arrest now he has us to be here during this forum and the kremlin was actually quite supportive and they said day he should be here but they couldn't intervene in the law so basically his case focuses on this legal uncertainty here in russia many people many thousands of russian business men are also. under arrest or in detention because of unclear charges and the big question here now is is calvin coming or not so what does russia have to get out of this forum. well russia needs more investment more business economy is going through a very deep point right now the growth records are only 0.5 percent in the 1st 3 months of the year so basically what's happening is of course these sanctions

western sanctions after the next session of crimea and its involvement in ukraine but that's not the whole story there's also a low consumption rate right now because a consumer tax was raised by 2 percent so president putin has announced his national programs to revive the economy but they still have to materialize and it's also been believed that he will announce more plans during this forum here today but we'll have to see president xi and him will also have several other meetings of course the chinese investment and trade is also very important for russia right now all right stuff in st petersburg thank you. and germany a hospital nurse who murdered dozens of his patients with lethal injections has been sentenced to life in prison hold whole goal is thought to be the most prolific serial killer in germany since the 2nd world war is known to have killed 85 patients and a 5 year period police suspect he may have selected more than 200 victims at random

the judge described his killing spree as an comprehensible 42 year old asked for forgiveness from his victims' families dominick cain has more from berlin in passing its verdict on new year's hogle the court said that the crimes he committed for a particular gravity of guilt in other words that he could not expect this life sentence to have any parole that he would spend the rest of his life in custody point here is that he has been in custody already for 14 years having been arrested 1st in the middle of the last decade in 2005 the point with these 85 he had already admitted last year many of these charges saying he had killed these people but he couldn't couldn't recall entirely all the details of the cases for the families of his victims this does bring finality they now know that german law has found this man guilty of killing their loved one but for the prosecution in this case they now say

they want to focus their attentions on those in the hospitals where mr hogle worked what was their role were they in some sense culpable for allowing him to carry out the activities that he does and m.p.'s and best are getting the easter sunday church and hotel bombings have been told repeated warnings were received including one just before the attacks happened the 12 member special parliamentary committee for alba director of state intelligence made calls warning something was about to happen more than $250.00 people were killed in the coordinated attacks in april which are blamed on a group linked eyesore. the debate over what to do with relatives of ice fighters is back in the spotlight that's after 8 americans with ties to eisele were repatriated from northeast syria to women and 6 children are among thousands of people who've been detained in camps controlled by kurdish forces this week hundreds have been allowed to go home also in jordan as the details from washington

d.c. not much is known about this group of 8 u.s. citizens said to be 2 women and 6 children being brought back to the united states from northeastern syria where they apparently have been living in a refugee camp it's not known whether they're going to be immediately returning to their home communities or whether there's going to be some sort of transition process the u.s. state department says it can't reveal any of that information under federal privacy act considerations now this would be possibly the 2nd such repatriation of at least a woman and several children in recent weeks another family a family of 4 has already been brought back to the united states but the u.s. has also repatriated 18 people it says took up arms for i sold 13 of them are on trial it does raise the question about whether there is a consistent policy to repatriate those who joined the caliphate between

2014 and earlier this year when the caliphate fell to u.s. and syrian forces this is also a situation where you're asking now what actually happens to those people who have survived the end of the caliphate how are they rehabilitated do they pose a security risk and in the case of the 10s of thousands of children can they go back to their home communities can they be reintegrated will they be cared for or will they suffer the damage of having been raised in the middle of a war zone. pig farmers and south korea are taking emergency measures to stop an outgrowth right to swine fever in north korea from crossing the border farmers in the south are concerned the north is ignoring calls for joint quarantine efforts traps and fences are being built around hundreds of farms to keep out wild boars from roaming in which roam in the north florence louis has more from a major pig farming region in south korea. well here on gungho island one of

several places designated by the south korean government as a special surveillance area following and out flake of african swine fever in north korea were really close to the border with the north it lies just beyond the riverbed about 2 kilometers away an endless island that about $35.00 pig farms african swine fever is harmless to humans but it's fatal to pigs to prevent the disease from spreading south korea's agriculture ministry is taking several measures access to and from pig farms is now on tightly controlled farm workers have been told to carry out disinfection and then fences and traps have been set up to prevent infected wild boars from coming into contact with domestic pigs not many wild boars will be able to cross the bob wire fences or make it across the heavily mined border area but that's a possibility that some of them may be able to swim across the river and get into

south korea and that's why the south has proposed to the north that they work together to prevent the spread of the disease and that is the political dimension to this story relations between the 2 countries have cooled considerably since a february summit between u.s. president donald trump and north korean leader kim jong il and ended without agreement on the outbreak of the disease cannot come at a worse time for north korea which is already experiencing a severe food shortage following its worst harvest in a decade but while some analysts say the promise of aid may not be enough to north korea back to talks there are others who say that humanitarian assistance may lead to other exchanges perhaps even in the political arena and that could possibly be what south korea's strategy is. architects from around the world are meeting in las vegas at the american ends to tape architects conference to discuss the latest trends in design and for this year's theme is blueprint for

a better future and it seems would may play a role on 100 reports if a new generation of rogue architects has their way the era of the concrete and steel skyscraper might be over the future they say lies in a millennia old building material would be challenges actually in the believe it or not not structural it's more of a psychological barriers of getting over there were working on the new buildings are made with cross laminated timber stronger because the layers of wood are stacked in opposite directions the technology has been used for years in europe wooden buildings like the airy 80 story river beach project in chicago might just be a blueprint for a new era in architecture the reason this is kind of exploding right now is because it's an engineered what technology that uses small diameter trees but are combined to make massive panels. wooden buildings go up faster and cheaper a concrete floor takes at least 2 weeks to dry for each story timber weighs 80

percent less than concrete so it takes fewer trucks to deliver the wood which is cut in the factory in snaps together with not a saw on site but there's another more pressing reason to use wood timber buildings or green or both ice caps are melting in the storms are getting worse that we all have to step forward and do what we can and in my profession what i can do is change my material choice for what i'm going to build with and build with something that's more socially and environmentally responsible the manufacturer of concrete and steel emits planet warming carbon dioxide wood absorbs carbon actually cleaning the air i fell in love with a building i love their windows the view is at 29 meters this is the tallest cross laminated timber building in the united states but the architect who designed it is already designing another one at 137 meters and he says with these materials the sky's the limit the growing industry faces 2 nagging questions is it

deforesting the plan and they say by using smaller trees from certified renewable forests there would supply is sustainable and what about fire architects a wooden buildings can be as fire safe as any other is treated mass timber char's rather than burns. the biggest open question is whether builders and consumers will buy into the idea of living in a wooden building towering into the sky john hendren 0 portland oregon. and we shall carry let's take a look at the headlines right now on al-jazeera the sudan professionals association which is one of the main protest groups is dallying to help keep demonstrations peaceful and says the paramilitary rapid support forces are leaving weapons behind in a bid to incite further violence the african union has been holding an emergency meeting

on the crackdown and has just suspended sudan's membership from the organization the president of france has welcomed other allied leaders to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the d.-day landings and real mark ron and donald trump visited a cemetery for around 10000 u.s. soldiers in normandy today we remember those who fell and we honor all who fought right here in normandy. they won back this ground for civilization to more than 100 several veterans of the 2nd world war who join us today you are among the very greatest americans who will ever live. you are the pride of our nation you are the glory of our republic. and we thank you from the bottom of our heart.

saudi arabia is reported to have improved its ballistic missile capability by buying technology from china president ronald trump is accused of not disclosing the classified intelligence to congress which is angering democrats china's president xi jinping is the guest of honor at a major economic summit in russia he is in st petersburg on the 2nd day of his state visit a lot of appearances the relationship with russia's biggest trading partner is at an unprecedented level of exports growing every year the leaders have also been talking about the korean peninsula syria and venezuela. and the m.p.'s investigating the easter sunday church and hotel bombings have been told repeated warnings were received including one just before the attacks happened 12 member a special parliamentary committee heard how the director of state intelligence made phone calls warning something was about to happen more than $250.00 people were killed in the coordinated attacks and april which are blamed on a group linked to i saw. some of the headlines to keep it here on al-jazeera we

have an update at the top of the hour in the meantime stick around for inside story . the impulse in the gulf 2 years since comfort was blockaded by 4 arab nations 2 years of regional isolation and still no end in sight so is this just the new normal in the gulf or is it a crisis which could actually be solved this is inside story.

hello everyone i'm come all santamaria welcome to inside story a lot can happen in 730 days except it seems in the gulf crisis in fact arguably the standoff between qatar and the group of 4 arab nations which blockaded it is still where it was some 2 years ago you'll remember those 4 nations saudi arabia the u.a.e. behind and egypt cuts their diplomatic and economic ties with kata they close the only land border and imposed an air and sea blockade on june the 5th of 2017 kuwait stepped in to mediate but even as recently as last week saudi arabia's foreign minister was saying quote hopefully there will be a solution if it comes back to the right path suggesting there's been little or no compromise made in that time which are now out of scotian is coming up after this report from victoria case and the. a handshake between saudi king salmon bin abdulaziz and the qatari prime minister but if anyone saw this is

a sign of warming relations between the 2 countries they'd be wrong that was a week ago and despite the most high profile meeting between the qataris and saudis in 2 year is the g.c.c. is still in crisis and very much divided. we had reservations about many parts of the statement these elements include 1st the issue of only condemning iran and the escalation against in the absence of any moderate policy to engage in dialogue with iran. the statement also mentioned the united go. to the gulf where we have 3 gulf states blockading another gulf state ever since saudi arabia the united arab emirates and egypt imposed a land air and sea blockade on cattle in june 2017 the gulf cooperation council has been at olds. the g.c.c. has held 2 summits in saudi arabia and one in kuwait which has led mediation efforts at the 1st summit since the blockade began a catalyst to mean been hammered out that he attended but his adversaries said the

foreign minister is their absence was seen as a snub to kuwait city to heal the rift throughout the dispute catto has strongly denied claims made by the saudis and generalities the doha supports terrorism or is too close to iran. be groups have been engaged in cattle's foreign ministry has arranged meetings with representatives from dozens of countries with the i'm a and foreign minister touring the world riyadh and abu dhabi will say being busy with media campaigns against cattle including one targeting the 2022 world cup yet both have been dealing with crises of their own the killing of saudi jenna's jamal khashoggi in istanbul and accusations that it was ordered by crown prince mohammed bin salmond have damaged the kingdom's image. so has the war in yemen and the humanitarian disaster it's caused. the amorality is and saudis have been accused of

committing human rights violations there and cattle says that's the real reason it's being targeted by its neighbors but the blockade appears to have had little effect in the past 2 years trade between cattle and iran has increased and qatari media outlet al-jazeera and others are operating freely despite demands by the saudis and deborah artie's for their closure qatar is a country that has immensely grown and has a lot of positive developments since the crisis because they have a lot more freedom to maneuver freedom to choose their suppliers choose their partners in the region without being hamstrung or tied down to. a dictator as the g.c.c. crisis and does its 3rd year division and distrust between the council's members appear to be becoming the norm and if people in the gulf begin to accept that reality that could make changing it more difficult in the long run victoria gating be al jazeera. so 2 years

on let's introduce the panel to you here in the studio as he was actually 2 years ago when this crisis began is a whore who is an academic research or he contributed to the book policymaking in a transformative state the case of cancer so welcome also in london with got him other than algebra a political commentator there and running out of power from lancaster in the north of england is simon mobile a senior lecturer in international studies at lancaster university gentlemen welcome to you all a quick question for each of you the same question and i'll just go around you to get a very quick thoughts to start with and i'll start with you abilities what has been achieved in 2 years what has this blockade achieved other than disunity in the gulf actually this is a very good questions because in. if you remember last year i said we bleed they bleed we lose a dollar they lose a dollar and this is what what happened actually you know what the gulf region is

the most resourceful region it's a hub of energy it's a hub of a world with its it has been a practicing and helping a lot of countries in the region what we have lost is this unity and what we have lost is the the cut of social relationship among families who are really into related what we have lost or it's as the people who cannot perform there and what we have lost is people who cannot to manage their assets and the blockading countries what we have lost as people who lost i mean getting their qualifications and certificated from the the last simister or one loss to either of their studies this is what we have lost so i don't think we

have achieved anything by the blue kade and as i said even last year it's a clear act of war against qatar. in london your thoughts on well as abilities put losses and gains. well in fact just one point i would like to to mention about out there he said that by the hodge in many ways for the people and cut out to do the hedge but the other the broken from the from the in so when we have this we don't we have fought a protocol that with conditions we don't have followed. the way we don't. have that i hear you or you turn away from this away from so do you out to be at all when the door for the height of the cutout by the government of qatar to stop that so hard that we have to be honest when we got all this a lot of thoughts you know the way you talk we have to mention the people i thought i had my own time and i'm going to jump in we have got to do what you have to get

on the dollar be on it and no bitterness is not right of people but if you haven't had just you know interest we cannot hear what either of you are saying you know my light is stopped you are so i don't know why you know what it's like to just too much of this anyway ok madeline you've made the point about how this why from saudi out of but that kind of government block that way anyway this is not the end of the day there is a situation for this this is a crisis because it isn't the end of the day we are losing from each side we are rosing it is not good for the future but that out of 15 to mines the cut that i am sure should apply for this sort of one for this but don't tell me what i mean open the door how do i knocked to finish this a lot of getting the money is ok i'm sort of doing here is a student you know i don't think as it is becoming back to up to the states that are is i mean i was there 3 years at 15 my style as it is chilled let's bring in simon my bow now your thoughts. so i think it's

a really interesting question and i think as well you've seen from the different perceptions the way that people answer this question is contingent on their own backgrounds their own experiences their own unique takes on this this particular crisis i think what we have seen is the doubling down of the various positions involved we've seen 2 years of diplomatic rhetoric we've seen 2 years of of posturing and we've also seen the rise of qatari nationalism i was in doha a couple of months before the crisis and then again about a year afterwards and and what i saw was the real emergence of a strong got the nationalist sentiment that saw the depiction of the mirror everywhere across qatar and i think that's one of the real things that we're starting to see out of it whilst we see the entrenchment of positions we also see the emergence of a strong nationalist sentiment from one of the smaller gulf states so i think it's

quite interesting to see that and to see how that has then manifested in qatar's behavior trying to carve a new path for itself away from its larger more powerful neighbors but when the problem is that nothing's really changed i made this point in my introduction if you look at where we were 2 years ago you could say yes there has been talk that has been mediations but as a model being pointed out the demands are still in place the 13 demands and mediation doesn't seem to have produced anything mediation by the kuwaitis simon. yeah i think that's entirely accurate there has been very little movement in terms of getting this situation resolved we saw in the past that there was a resolution to a previous crisis between these various actors but that was resolved through mediation this one hasn't been and i think that tells you a lot about the concerns that the various sides have and that these concerns and the suspicions really mana fest in that behavior towards each other i think one

thing that we have started to see is that qataris. right to assert itself independently of the other members of the g.c.c. it's carving this new path for itself it's trying to become more self sustainable it's tried to get a new economic direction and it's starting to do that in a successful way according to the i.m.f. at least so i think that's one thing that we have seen but of course that does not get a resolution to this crisis and i think that whilst it was many would hope that it would be mediated and resolved by by one of their own let's say a member of the g.c.c. it may well take a more powerful external like to like the u.s. who possess a strong ties with with both the saudis and the qataris as a way of actually trying to get this thing resolved in model did in your opinion what's happened to the mediation process now for example we had the numerous summits in saudi arabia last week and the cut the trees were invited and the qatari prime minister to go i mean that seemed like a positive step but as we've discussed there with simon the actual mediation

process is well it's almost inactive it happens when it happens in your opinion what's going wrong with that what to go through we were really happy that you know the prime minister of qatar there were praise would be something open the door to finish this problem for 2 years but suddenly after the summit they changed their mind which is that it is surprise you know we are observing is when when we saw that action. review surprised us because you know when they begin to go as good and he was there he has no objection why you when he left back he has his objection and then refused this is that he does surprise me something whatever beyond this action something but i shot or something from. him because this is our biggest problem because the cutout in egypt stand by the. iranian regime and there are egypt sectarian.