. —— bashar al—assad's rule.he conflict. they have fled time and time again and now they can go no further so they asked, now that there are so many of them, can the world continue to ignore their fate? for young and old, there is now almost no safe place in idlib. after enduring nine years of misery, the last place they want to be is left at the mercy of bashar al—assad. the environment secretary has defended boris johnson's decision not to visit communities affected by flooding, in the wake of storm dennis. the prime minister has faced criticism, including from some conservative mps. however speaking to the bbc, george eustace, whojoined the cabinet earlier this month, said the government is not "a one—man show", and added that a ‘national response centre is dealing with the situation. you have to recognise that the flood infrastructure we've invested in and put in place in the last decade is working and is actually delivering benefits. in the last week we would have had 25,000 homes flooded were it not for tha

on the turkey syria border with more on bashar al assad's comments. this is a delicate moment for the syrian opposition but also for the syrian government and this explains why president bashar assad has been celebrating in his speech the new major gains made by the syrian army particularly on the outskirts of. and also the southern parts of it live saying basically that this is just about a matter of time before the opposition is defeated this explains why he has been saying that the fight will continue until the terrace and this is the term that he uses. most of the time to describe the syrian opposition would no longer in 2014 or 15 when the syrian government was on the verge of collapse and when the syrian opposition was making spectacular gains across the country all those gains were reversed and now they're just confined to it which is their last stronghold but president bashar assad also told his people that they have to wait and that this is not the end of the war and i think he was hinting to the fact that with the growing turkish involvement

basics for a 2nd is it lip significant because it was the most vociferous vessel of hatred of the bashar al assad regime. i mean yes adlib was was part of the 1980 s. apprise uprising against the assad regime and yes was one of the centers of the uprising against the assad regime but having you know having said that i would say you know it's important now regionally because of the refugee crisis you have refugees living in and refugees from other regions which were pushed also by the assad regime advance and they have there now and then lebanon you know definitely this will have consequences on the on the turkish side just you know just a small remark about the libya conflict and its relationship to syria it's it's it's quite symbolic that now on alongside have started there are protege militias pro assad regime militias fighting syrians fighting and in our long side have those regime and also on the other side on the turkish backed side art artist backed rebels who are moved from syria into the libyan battlefield syrians are fighting each other not only in syria but also in libya on you know usi

ali in beirut do you agree with that analysis that there's got to be a hard response against bashar al assad to do with it live if only because according to the u.n. and i quote the violence is now indiscriminate so in that sense it seems to be a scorched earth policy. and this has been assad's policy since the very beginning of the conflict the scorched earth policy has been exactly what he has done in aleppo before and also on hamas this is you know this is the assad regime modus operandi along with its allies russia and iran and syria i think the you know turkey definitely faces a an existential question regards to the humanitarian crisis when the if if assad's forces supported by russia continue to advance we will see even a worse humanitarian catastrophe another refugee crisis which i don't think turkey is capable of handling and i think you know this will have to precautions on the international community specifically europe which had a deal with turkey a while ago on managing the refugee crisis i think the next phase is also about maintaining the turkish washing relations i mean russi

bashar al—assad's forces are less than six miles from here., we will head to turkey, but they aren't letting anyone in. in the end, we will have to go to the border, because the alternative is death." towns and villages have been emptied out. a million people have fled in the last three months. the border camps are full. abu douma has already tried to leave once. the shelling is close enough now to make the children flinch. translation: it was like judgment day. there were columns upon columns of vehicles leaving. there was nowhere to go. there were no houses left to rent, not even tents. rebel—held idlib is shrinking fast. these turkish—backed forces and armed jihadists have lost village after town. they took us closer to the front lines. turkey has given them new weapons and vehicles. but they are outmatched by the regime and russia and powerless to stop the advance. war has been these children's lives. here at idlib orphanage number one, they try to shut it out, but it's getting harder. war came knocking again earlier this week when regime

bashar al—assad's forces are less than six miles from here.we will head to turkey, but they aren't letting anyone in. in the end, we will have to go to the border, because the alternative is death. towns and villages have been emptied out. a million people have fled in the last three months. the border camps are full. abu douma has already tried to leave once. the shelling is close enough now to make the children flinch. translation: it was like judgment day. there were columns upon columns of vehicles leaving. there was nowhere to go. there were no houses left to rent, not even tents. rebel—held idlib is shrinking fast. these turkish—backed forces and armed jihadists have lost village after town. they took us closer to the front lines. turkey has given them new weapons and vehicles. but they are outmatched by the regime and russia, and powerless to stop the advance. war has been these children's lives. here at idlib orphanage number one, they try to shut it out, but it's getting harder. war came knocking again earlier this week, when regime s

bashar al—assad's forces are less than six miles from here.we will head to turkey, but they aren't letting anyone in. in the end, we will have to go to the border, because the alternative is death. towns and villages have been emptied out. a million people have fled in the last three months. the border camps are full. abu douma has already tried to leave once. the shelling is close enough now to make the children flinch. translation: it was like judgment day. there were columns upon columns of vehicles leaving. there was nowhere to go. there were no houses left to rent, not even tents. rebel—held idlib is shrinking fast. these turkish—backed forces and armed jihadists have lost village after town. they took us closer to the front lines. turkey has given them new weapons and vehicles. but they are outmatched by the regime and russia and powerless to stop the advance. war has been these children's lives. here at idlib orphanage number one, they try to shut it out, but it's getting harder. war came knocking again earlier this week when regime she

controlled by rebels russian planes have been bombing the region in the north west president bashar al assad's forces have made significant gains over the past few days seizing these to teach them 5 highway which links aleppo with the capital damascus. turkey's trying to stop that advance into the last rebel held areas u.s. president donald trump has commended turkey's president for trying to stop the syrian government forces backed by russia earlier turkey's foreign minister told his russian counterpart ankara will take the necessary steps if diplomatic efforts with moscow fail and that cover sulu held talks in munich the syrian government with the help of its ally russia is also advancing in libya several turkish soldiers have been killed. well the syrian government tightens its grip rebels are abandoning strategic areas in aleppo and turkey steps up its involvement in the conflict those fighting bashar al assad's forces see a chance to regain ground bar reports from had say on turkey's border with syria. these are fighters from the national liberation front a rebel alliance backed by turkey

bashar al—assad's forces are tearing at their heels.ape here as the regime captures more and more territory. the world has stopped counting syria's dead, but in idlib, they don't have that luxury. in the blanket, the charred corpse of another victim. here, they knew the regime warplanes were coming and ran for cover, but their homes gave them little protection. "i can't recognise him. my father or my brother? i don't know", he says. the turkish—backed rebels and islamist extremists are losing idlib, but today they had a small victory, the downing of a helicopter. "the helicopter behind me belongs to the regime", he says in turkish. "it was dropping barrel bombs on innocent civilians, women and children". there is no peace here, even for the dead. returning regime soldiers film themselves desecrating the grave of a rebel commander. the living here are running out of breathing space. ahmed hasjust been dug out of the rubble after syrian jets attacked a market in idlib city. 17 people died around him. the pleas for a ceasefire, some respit

the north west turkey backs opposition groups and had sent reinforcements to counter president bashar al assad's offensive syria's main ally russia is blaming turkey for not coordinating its troop movements president rajiv type erdogan says his forces retaliated by hitting syrian military targets and killing up to 35 soldiers and he had this warning from moscow. no no the we told russia you are not al counterparty the regime so don't try to stand in our way it's not possible for us to remain silent when our soldiers starlight we will continue to hold them to what counts for this butyl of. those who test turkey's determination to such a violent attacks understand the state. meanwhile civilians are caught in the middle the u.n. says the fighting in libya has displaced 390000 people since december many want to cross the border into turkey but ankara says it can't take anymore syrian refugees so let's break down what's happening in syria the war began mainly between forces porting president bashar al assad and rebel fighters who oppose his rule but other countries soon got involved assad is backed b

held aleppo province russian planes have been bombing the region in the northwest president bashar al assad's forces have made significant gains in the past few days they've also seize the strategic m 5 highway which links aleppo to the capital damascus turkey has sent in thousands of troops to shore up its observation posts in it well turkey is trying to stop that advance into the last rebel held areas and its foreign minister has told his russian counterpart ankara will take quite necessary steps if diplomatic efforts with russia fail have that cover so you and sergey lavrov helpful to him you know the syrian government with the help of russia or is as we said advancing in the province and turkish soldiers are on the ground with several killed as well so as the syrian government tighten the grip on the north rebels of abandoned strategic areas in both aleppo and it leap and his involvement in syria increases those fighting bashar allows for bashar al assad's forces see a chance to regain some ground. reports now from the tie on turkey's border with syria. these are fighters from the nationa

it is no longer up to bashar al-assad to decide what happens next.is something it boils down to three key players. russia, turkey, they have been holding talks in moscow to defuse tension in iran is also another regional player. the three, iran, russia and turkey, will decide the future of syria in the near future. bombers killed seven people and wounded others in pakistan. in a provincial capital of the largest and say a teenager detonated a bomb heading toward a religious rally. so far no group has said it was behind the attack. the government in burkina faso killed 24 people in a church. among the dead, the pastor in the village. the attackers then set the building on fire. this is the third time religious leaders have been targeted in the past week. activist and russia are concerned about government plans for one of the world's largest facial recognition systems. they're not taking legal action. they say the surveillance system is being used to single out credits of vladimir putin. police say lot by the have nothing to fear. our correspondent has

well it is one of the last remaining areas out of bashar al assad's control the last rebel held a bastion there in syria home to about 3000000 people most of them internally displaced assad one still retake all of syria so he definitely needs a turkey's president edwin on the other hand wants to stop assad because if the ellipse holds turkey faces another large scale influx of refugees hundreds of thousands of people have already fled to areas near the turkish border some say up to a 1000000 are basically waiting there in search for security fleeing outside so russian backed offensive turks present and what has repeatedly said he already has for a 1000000 refugees that is something that has proven politically costly for him so he says we caught on state anymore refugees and then of course look at the humanitarian situation there people are living in makeshift camps it's winter it's freezing cold and some organizations say that needy hoffa it lives free 1000000 civilians are children ok you know you you would so much as stake for both sides were can we expect things to go from there. well

what did we do to bashar al—assad? let him go to the front line.which supports the rebels, has accused moscow of deliberately targeting civilians. moscow denies this. towns have been left deserted. turkey has sent reinforcements to the border, warning it will strike back if turkish soldiers are hurt. 13 have been killed so far this month. the tension is rising between turkey and russia, but this is where it's being felt, 600 kilometres away from ankara and 3000 kilometres away from moscow. richard preston, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: the growing popularity of online dating in pakistan's conservative society. there's mr mandela. mr nelson mandela, a free man, taking his first steps into a new south africa. iran's spiritual leader ayatollah khomeini has said he's passed a death sentence on salman rushdie, the british author of a book which many muslims say is blasphemous. the people of haiti have flocked to church to give thanks for the ousting of their former president, 'ba by doc' duvalier. because of his considerable value a

our batteries on the turkey syria border with more on bashar al assad's comments. this is a delicate moment for the syrian opposition but also for the syrian government at this explains why president bashar assad has been celebrating in his speech the new major gains made by the syrian army particularly on the outskirts of aleppo and also the southern parts of it live saying basically that this is just about a matter of time before the opposition is defeated this explains why he has been saying that the fight will continue until the terrorists of this is the term that he uses. most of the time to describe the syrian opposition would no longer in 2014 or 13 when the syrian government was on the verge of collapse and when the syrian opposition was making spectacular gains across the country all those gains were reversed and just confined to it which is their last stronghold but president bashar assad also told his people that they have to wait or that this is not the end of the war and i think he was hinting to the fact that with the growing turkish involvement with t

syria's president bashar al assad makes a rare appearance on state television and threatens to continue a major offensive until the very end. and how long it's in and this is al-jazeera life and don't harm also coming up in the e.u. agrees to launch a new mission to force an arms embargo in libya that's currently being here nor its effect at americans for much of the virus but of cruise ship arrives home on evacuation flights the epidemic kinds more lines in china plus moscow's eyes in the sky we take a call saying that the face recognition system provoking fears of big brother. but we begin with syrian president bashar assad has made a rare appearance on state television he's threatened to continue a government offensive until the very end has despite massive gains against rebel forces in recent days where the military says 30 villages were captured in aleppo on monday alone. in an item and we fully understand that this liberation does not mean the end of the war or the end of plots or terrorism eva this liberation does not mean the enemy's will surrender this liberation means that we

forces have recaptured parts of aleppo province which was once controlled by rebels president bashar al assad's forces have made significant gains over the past several days seizing the strategic in 5 highway which links aleppo with the major syrian cities turkey which backs a section of the opposition is trying to stop those advances and rebels who have left those areas in aleppo and neighboring it live now see ankara's increased involvement is the only way to regain lost ground. reports say on turkey's border with syria. these are fighters from the national liberation front a rebel alliance backed by turkey outgunned and outnumbered the fighters secret behind in newly erected embankment on the other side government troops are stepping up their campaign. we are consolidating our defense lines setting up small flexible command centers and most of the factions are coordinating their operations and our image to drag government forces into our own area fighting has surged over the last few days president bashar al assad's forces have regained control of many areas in aleppo and. their advance infu

soldiers on monday this is the syrian army continues to make key territorial gains president bashar al assad's forces are now firmly in control of almost the entire country except those opposition controlled areas marked in green and kurdish held in the north locked in yellow the there are reports that for the 1st time in syria's 8 year civil war government forces have seized control of the entire n 5 highway by driving opposition fighters out of that area west of aleppo and that's important because it's the main trade route running from the north all the way to the southern border with jordan it connects the commercial hub of aleppo with major cities like damascus homs and hama and will make it easier for assad forces to move in to capture. syrian opposition rebels have recaptured a village in a lead province as they tried to regain territory recently lost to government forces action reports. the odds were against the syrian rebels forced to retreat and abandon their strongholds in the more these fighters have suffered major setbacks over the last few days than they launched a sudden countera

tighten their grip in the northwest but with turkey's involvement increasing those fighting bashar al assad's forces are hoping they can regain ground and reverse the government's gains. ports from turkey's border with syria. these are fighters from the national liberation front a rebel alliance backed by turkey outgunned and outnumbered the fighters seek refuge behind in you directed embankment on the other side government troops are stepping up their campaign. thought more through what. we are consolidating our defense lines setting up small flexible command centers and most of the factions are coordinating their operations and our image to drag government forces into our own area fighting has surged over the last few days president bashar al assad's forces have regained control of many areas in aleppo and live. there advance infuriated turkey which accuses said of violating the terms of a cease fire agreement turkey signed with russia and iran 2 years ago unka has sent more troops into it and expanded its military outposts despite that damascus insists its campaign won't stop turkey's grow

bashar al—assad's forces are tearing at their heels.stopped counting syria's dead, but in idlib, they don't have that luxury. in the blanket, the charred corpse of another victim. here, they knew the regime warplanes were coming and ran for cover, but their homes gave them little protection. "i can't recognise him. my father or my brother? i don't know", he says. the turkish—backed rebels and islamist extremists are losing idlib, but today they had a small victory, the downing of a helicopter. "the helicopter behind me belongs to the regime," he says in turkish. "it was dropping barrel bombs on innocent civilians, women and children." there is no peace here, even for the dead. returning regime soldiers film themselves desecrating the grave of a rebel commander. the living here are running out of breathing space. ahmed hasjust been dug out of the rubble after syrian jets attacked a market in idlib city. 17 people died around him. the pleas for a ceasefire, some respite, are ignored. girl cries. in a nearby bed, an 11—year—old screams fro

backed by a russian fighter jets the opposition's military victory was shot lived and president bashar al assad's troops soon regain control of the town. although a nadir holds no strategic importance the rebels needed a small victory to reassure the millions of civilians trapped in it live there the fight is far from over. the rebels gains in and they were largely due to turkey's growing involvement in. the turkish military has intensified is shallowing of syrian army defense lines in and they are there and. more took his troops are pouring into it live establishing military outposts their aim is to prevent syrian forces from advancing towards the city this. order the syrian regime got what it deserved but that's not enough it will pay a heavy price for attacking turkey soldiers i will announce the actions to be taken about the syrian issue after i meet with my parliamentary group tomorrow. as fighting intensifies civilians abandoning their villages. is a ghost town its population of 80000 has largely left for safer areas around 700000 people have been displaced over the past 2 months as the syr

bashar al—assad's forces are tearing at their heels.andscape here as the regime captures more and more territory. the world has stopped counting syria's dead, but in idlib, they don't have that luxury. in the blanket, the charred corpse of another victim. here, they knew the regime warplanes were coming and ran for cover, but their homes gave them little protection. "i can't recognise him. my father or my brother? i don't know", he says. the turkish—backed rebels and islamist extremists are losing idlib, but today they had a small victory, the downing of a helicopter. "the helicopter behind me belongs to the regime," he says in turkish. "it was dropping barrel bombs on innocent civilians, women and children." there is no peace here, even for the dead. returning regime soldiers film themselves desecrating the grave of a rebel commander. the living here are running out of breathing space. ahmed hasjust been dug out of the rubble after syrian jets attacked a market in idlib city. 17 people died around him. the pleas for a ceasefire, some r

held aleppo province russian planes have been bombing the region in the northwest president bashar al assad's forces have made significant gains in the past few days seizing the strategic m 5 highway which links aleppo with damascus turkey has sent thousands of troops to shore up its observation posts in. turkey trying to stop that advance of course into the last rebel held areas and its foreign minister has told his russian counterpart ankara will take quote necessary steps if diplomatic efforts with russia fail. cover so you and so they held talks in munich the syrian government with the help of russia is advancing in this last rebel held region mostly made up of a province there are turkish soldiers on the ground there and several have been killed. so as the syrian government tightens its grip on the north rebels have abandoned their strategic areas in aleppo and in but as turkey's involvement in syria increases those fighting bashar al assad's forces seen a chance to regain some ground. reports now from how to tie turkey's border with syria. these are fighters from the national liberation

the humanitarian crisis has reached a horrifying new level that's come after syrian president bashar al assad said his country had achieved victory but the fight wasn't over a syrian government offensive to retake the last rebel held areas has created the single biggest civilian displacement during this 9 year war there's a headlines keep it here on al-jazeera inside story is next. and the race for the white house has begun. to 04 states have their say on the dance to please don't try. to continue to stick to the 2020 u.s. election. only just. how is artificial intelligence shaping our society from offices to living rooms devices with human like characteristics are quickly creeping into our lives besides the benefits what are the risks and will ai take over the world one day this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program peter w. now many of us interact every day with siri apple's voice activated digital personal assistant siri can find information gives us directions sends messages plays music one example of how ai is becoming a bigger part of everyday.

in the province have had to leave for other areas already and despite that syria's president bashar al assad has promised to press ahead with the offensive and it led in a rare address on state television he congratulated his forces for again save made recently syrian government troops are backed by russia's air force and iranian backed militias on the ground here lebanon and i'd be fully understand if this liberation does not mean the end of the war or the end of plots or terrorism eva this liberation does not mean the enemy's will surrender this liberation means that we put our enemies pride and nose in the dirt as a primary step to defeat them completely sooner or later. the turkey syria border and says while it's clear all side is confident of victory the country's fate isn't really in his hands. this is a delicate moment for the syrian opposition but also for the syrian government and this explains why president bashar assad has been celebrating in his speech the new major gains made by the syrian army particularly on the outskirts of aleppo and also the southern parts of it live saying

we'll update the headlines in a moment and then syria's president bashar al assad congratulates his forces for their gains in the north the u.n. though is warning of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis and we'll look at moscow's eyes in the sky a closer look at the facial recognition system provoking fears of big brother. hello again welcome back to international weather forecast all of the next few days things are going to be changing here across northern parts of japan a little bit messy here as we go towards tuesday and the reason being is we have a system coming out of the russian maritimes and into the northern part of japan that's going to bring a lot of snow over the next day particularly in the overnight hours but really just last in one day by the time we do get towards wednesday the system pulls out quite quickly into the pacific it's going to be a little bit cooler but it's going to be a little bit brighter across much of the area tokyo at about 12 degrees here on wednesday and a sucka at about 11 to greece you there well down towards indonesia it's going to be a lot of rain ov

let's get your brief down some of the other stories making the news at this hour syrian president bashar al assad has vowed to continue the offensive against rebels in their last major stronghold and it led provinces in the country's northwest in a rare televised address he said complete victory was in sight russian backed offensive as displaced some 900000 people since early december. protesters in haiti set fire to carnival stands in the capital port au prince local sources say the protesters were angry that the government spent money on carnival celebrations he has seen months of unrest and it's wise for poverty and a deepening social and economic crisis. some 50 people are stranded at a mountain lodge in southern norway to do very severe winter weather cars are buried in meters of snow while one of the country's most important roads remain shut down the travelers are inside and safe happy to say but will need to wait for better weather before they can leave. like the world's richest man jeff bezos says he intends to spend $10000000000.00 to help fight climate change the fund will provide gran

the week syrian troops loyal to president bashar al assad have been attacking turkish backed rebels with russian support in response turkey sent thousands of ground troops to italy province there's been heavy fighting in since last year after thursday's syrian attack on the turkish military anchor our nato for a special session the head of nato has offered verbal backing to nato member ankara and has called for syria to exercise restraint. we also call almost russia and syria all to fully respect international law because we have seen warming over civilian targets this latest escalation has again shown how quickly the war in syria spills across borders escalations quickly cause ripples far beyond them. well judy judy hong is on the border between turkey and greece where she says a couple of 1000 people are trapped in no man's land at the border crossing in the turkish city of d.n.a. we kept seeing people here actually moving through the surrounding fields to wards these border areas surprisingly not too many syrian refugees we've talked to afghan people to people from iraq who told us th

to the turkish president sending a stark warning to the syrian government threatening to dr bashar al assad's forces out of parts of war torn by the end of the month. sitting on a powder keg greece takes on n.g.o.s over claims.

for weeks syrian troops loyal to president bashar al assad have been attacking turkish backed rebels with russian support in response turkey sent thousands of ground troops to italy province there's been heavy fighting and since last year after thursday's syrian attack on the turkish military anchor our nato for a special session the head of nato has offered verbal backing to nato member ankara and has called for syria to exercise restraint we also call all russia to fully respect international law because you have seen warning of civilian targets this latest escalation has again shown how quickly the war in syria spills across borders escalations quickly cause ripples far beyond them. let's go straight over to data correspondent yulia han she's just arrived at the turkish great land border where a lot of people have been arriving here tell us what's going on down there right now. well yes so many refugees have had it here during the day off if they had news reports that turkey would no longer stop refugees from trying to cross into europe now right behind me is the borders zone betw

of to many in the attacks have intensified over the last few days earlier this week president bashar al assad said in a rare that his troops won't hold their campaign until it live forced into their hands talks between russia and turkey to diffuse tension have stalled each side is accusing the other of failing to implement the terms of the escalation in sure the guerrillas the key agreement on it was to separate the syrian armed opposition who cooperates with turkey from the terrorists a terrorist according to the agreements regarding adlib was not be involved in a cease fire regime russia considers hay at the head of an alliance of rebel groups in it live a terrorist organization and therefore excluded from the ceasefire agreement of 2018 turkey seems to want the syrian government troops to go back to the areas behind the demilitarized zone but for president said such zones are no longer relevant since his army has advanced further into it and taken over more territory if there's no agreement by the end of this month the chances the ask. the fighting about turned into an outright war between