e people on the damascus suburbs are slowly dying. cancer patients are dying from lack of chemotherapy. kidney patients are dying from lack of dyalisis and children are suffering most of all. re than 1/3 are happening to children under the age of 15. they have bombed all the hospitals in the area, they cannot receive professional treatment for their injuries. these are the atrocities occurring in syria every day that don't make the headlines. a resident doctor and one of the only cancer centers summed up the condition of her patients when she said, death is coming at them from every direction. when death surrounds you, words mean very, very little. assad has proven he will increase the suffering of his people not ease it. it falls to others to do what basic human decency requires. russia must deliver real peace talks. the sieges of the syrian people must be lifted. the theft of the medical supplies must be stopped. the syrians in desperate need of humanitarian assistance must receive it. assad is starving hundreds of thousands of peop

you cannot fire on the russian industry in damascus. then you don't agree even to publish an ordinary communiquÉ, a press release, condemning the attack on the russian embassy in damascus. where tensions have mounted due to the missile strike of the united states, the importance of political efforts is becoming more important. obviously the provocation such wille one that occurred only strengthen the positions of those who are in favor of a military solution. we need to conduct a comprehensive investigation. i was surprised to hear that french experts have already thated a conclusion damascus is responsible. i am amazed that this was the conclusion. how do you know that? the fate of the country should be determined by the syrians themselves. .nd not by someone else that is absolutely clear. we together with other , and iors, turkey, iran want to also warmly thank the leadership of kazakh a stand. russia is ready to fulfill its obligations and strengthening the cease-fire, but you need to part inyour working with the various opposition g

you cannot fire on the russian embassy in damascus. then, you don't agree even to publish an ordinary communique, a press release, condemning the attack on the russian embassy in damascus. in the situation where tensions the missile due to strike of the united states. the importance of political efforts have become more important. obviously, the provocation, such as one that occurred there will only strengthen the positions of those in favor of a military solution. facts, to find out the conduct a comprehensive investigation. i was quite surprised to hear that french experts have already reached the conclusion that damascus is responsible. i am amazed that this was the conclusion. no one has visited the site of the crime. how do you know that? the fate of the country should be determined by the syrians t hemselves and not by someone else. that is absolutely clear. we, together with other guarantors, together with turkey and iran, and i want to warmly thank the leadership of kazakhstan, we are ready to continue working on that platform.

problem -- damascus province. many aspleted, as 30,000 people have been evacuated. be one of the largest population exchanges in syria. 16,000 residents are being moved to the coastal province, the capital of domestic desk capital domestic debt capital damascus or republican held -- capital of damascus. the siege since 2015, 4 towns have been deemed a humanitarian catastrophe by the united nations. receivedtime anyone you and eight was november 2016. a spike in tensions had delayed the exchange. >> a referendum which could lead to sweeping changes to the political system. the yes camp will bring about greater stability while the no camp will result in a secular values of the nation's founder and a risk of disappearing for good. >> it is erdogan's greatest project. a mosque visible from almost anywhere in his temple. a congress symbol for the president push for the is the miser nation of turkey. ization ofislam turkey. -- is campaigning in a referendum that would expand his tower in norman slate. an employee at the

they built external part of damascus and demographically built and kind of dot same thing.in the areas that have been cleared. >> all right well that brings us to an end. thank you very much for coming. you're watching booktv's live of the los angeles times elf if of books here on the campus of the university of southern california. a lot going on doing interviews who are covering panels, all sorts of different venues and our booktv marketing folks are here. and they're passing out the official book bag for the festival within side says booktv the other side say los angeles times festival of books and if you happen to be in the area come on down and see us and grab a back bag we'll be here all day again tomorrow. now we've got another panel coming up in about a half an hour and this is a panel on writing and publishing and one of the people that will be speaking at that panel is lisa lucas who is executive director of the national book foundation which gives out national book award every year after that the radio talk show host and author will be doing a call-in and able to

so i've just landed back in damascus. so it showed a chubby boy. the background looked like a blue sky swirled with the yellow of the sun, rays of light radiating from the center that almost cast a hail low around his heat -- halo around his head. he was still on the childish side of the age. even became familiar with this portrait of him and a still from him after death, a naked and bloated corpse nearly purple from all the bruising. security force had arrested him on april 29th four days after i had arrived in damascus for attending a rally with his family, but no one would hear of it until nearly a month later when his body was returned. a video was made and circulated, soon reaching global networks like al-jazeera. the body showed many signs of torture. there were bullet wounds on his arms, black eyes, cuts, injuries consistent with electric shock devices, bruises and whip marks. his neck had been broken, and he had been castrated. while american media often sanitize what viewers can see, the same cannot be said for arab audiences. imma imagine

mayor of damascus. the government does not rule over most of the country at this point. host: let me get your reactions to the meeting with sergey lavrov and rex tillerson, following their closed door meeting that included a session with vladimir putin, this from the secretary of state. [video clip] >> we did discuss at length the future role for assad, whether it be in a future political rocess or not. clearly our view is that the r eign of the assad family is coming to an end and they again brought it on themselves with their conduct of the war these past few years. we discussed our view that russia is their closest ally in the conflict and perhaps has the best means of helping assad recognize this reality. we do think it's important that assad's departure is done in an orderly way. so that certain interests and constituencies he represents feel they have been represented at the negotiating table for a political solution. how that occurs, we leave that to the process going forward. we do not think one

to hearite surprised that french experts have already reached a conclusion that damascus is responsible. i'm amazed that this was the conclusion. no one has yet visited the site of the crime. how do you know that? fate of the country should be determined by the syrians themselves and not by someone else. clear. absolutely we, together with other guarantors, together with turkey, iran -- and i want to also warmly thank the leadership of cause extend -- of kazakhstan. we are ready to continue working on the platform. russia is ready to fulfill its obligations in strengthening the cease-fire, but you need to also do your part in working with the various opposition groups. it cannot become a panacea in a situation where others are .orking to undermine it significant progress has been achieved in terms of local truces, which have made it possible to ease the situation and normalize the lives of people from a humanitarian point of view. many have said today that access to besieged areas -- this problem should be resolved through access to besieged areas, but let us be there -- let us be fair.

but to exclude damascus. to exclude the representatives of the syria arab republic from this process is unprofessional, unacceptable, unethical and arrogant. political settlement is the only way of returning syria to peace and to easing the tensions in the middle east through syria and through a political improvement and -- in this country. that is the path towards normalizing the situation in many countries of the middle east. there's an opportunity of making syria a model of cooperation for a ettlement. but the various destructive geopolitical projects will not contribute to that. at least we will not -- we will not give them a free pass on the security council. thank you very much, madam president. >> i thank the representative of the russian federation. and i now give the floor to the representative of italy. >> thank you, madam president. i would like to thank the special envoy. for his briefing and for especially his leadership in advancing the political process in very challenging circumstances. madam

the region felt like it might finally be giving way to something else, i decided to move back to damascus i felt, i had the opportunity, having been a human a human rights lawyer and journalist these are occupations that are hazardous to your health in syria. i never had an opportunity to be me in syria once i had become an adult with professions. i had been a frequent visitor and for the first years of our life in the united states we always planned on going back so there was a lot of back and forth but there was this opportunity to go and i had a cover story. in syria, 40 years of strong police state that is always watching you. for me as an american as well as the syrian and someone who's been in human rights law and someone who became a journalist, there's a lot of around me. i needed to have a credible and observable reason to the people who are going, as to why i would be there. i was renovating my grandmother's house and the house is the central metaphor through the book. the house that my grandmother had moved to was a new bride in the country was new in the 1940s and it was a new

and damascus. i've seen the number of victims climbing higher and lie higher. growing discussion of public instruction such schooled, houses fashion silts and marks, install violation of international humanitarian law. eastern gutta is where 400,000 people are beseemed. this is particularly worrisome effort. according to the who three public hospitals and 17 healther ins in area nor longer operational and that inaccessible to population. furthermore, the last time a u.n. humanitarian convoy reached the region was on 29 october 2016. and nonetheless, the u.n. and it partners have consistent continued in spite of very difficult conditions to provide support to this in need. in this connection my delegation would like to welcome praiseworth where progress made by march 2017 with assistant provided to 307,000 people out of 787 thundershower target -- how to targeted. this threw five interagency convoys convoys and is a coverage rate of 39% against 28% coverage for last february. the relevant syrian authorities have approved 71.7% of u.n. requests for april, may 201

those towns close to damascus, those rebel-held towns are no empty or virtually empty. north, in the northwest, there's still a number to be moved, and this is still a small fraction of the total number of civilians besieged across syria. >> time for business now and will hilderbrandt is back in the studio with me. we are beginning with that snap election in the u.k. how is the business world responding? >> we are seeing a reaction on the currency markets. the british pound drop about .1% against the dollar, but currently, it is down against the greenback about .4%. on tuesday, when prime minister theresa may announced the snap election, the #a six-month high against the greenback, and that has been bad news for britain's most important stock index as many multinational companies on the ftse 100 have foreign-based revenues. here is how one senior analyst responded. >> it looks like markets are taking the story of a may election victory at face value. they are expecting a strong majority from conservatives based on the polls, of course, and that led to the big rise we sa

for that purpose, you need to have a somewhat stable government in damascus. the issue that the trump administration is going to be looking at is can someone else lead that regime? can you get a substitute figure? if not, bashar al-assad must stay in order to discuss the diplomacy. we haven't been able to have a successful talk in part because many of the rebel groups have been invited to show up to the table won't sit down with any government in damascus. this is a chance for assad to kind of recalculate and make his own assessment about what is in the best interest of his clan, his family, the minority group in syria and also his country. we'll see, one thing for sure is he's been put on notice, if he uses chemical weapons again it will be the end of his regime. >> do you have a feeling that this moment has created an opportunity for clarity, so much criticism of the syrian war has been the dithering, lack of a focus of what the nca really is, is there a moment here for the united states to say we can do more to pursue an end state that we really like, or is

damascus, which have different facts.e them but we stand for impartial, honest investigations. we also discussed the situation, state of affairs, in oui’ the situation, state of affairs, in ourairforce, the situation, state of affairs, in our airforce, russia the situation, state of affairs, in our air force, russia and the situation, state of affairs, in our airforce, russia and the us led coalition, in the context of the memorandum of preventing incidents and providing security for aviation and providing security for aviation and because of operations in syria, as you know, the memorandum was suspended by russia. now, today, president putin confirmed our readiness to resume its work, the initial objective of american — us led coalition and russian forces, airforce, will be confirmed, namely fighting iis and other terrorist organisations. also, from the fact that the publicly declared line of the united states and russia is to intervene in the domestic affairs of syria by other nations remains valid and we hope that the

so, that's damascus. other places on the coast, and the stronghold of a lot of the people that make up the army and the regime, has taken in a lot of internally displaced people. so it's kind of happening. that economy is doing quite well in many ways because it's one of the few places that all these people have come in and they feel it's safe to stay. so these are the principle areas under assad control. then where they have incontrol they have cleansed it of the population want and have already started planning for reconstruction and trying to access reconstruction funds andd dem graphically secure their power by who they tabling, which is something that the father did when he came -- he also comes from the coast and when they took power they moved people from down there who would be loyal to them and built the external parts of dam mass extras are demographically built with regime supporters. >> well, that brings us too an end. thank you very much for coming. >> you're watching booktv on c-span2. with

to consider a co—ordinated response — which could include support for new sanctions on moscow and damascus secretary of state, rex tillerson, said america

not a memoir, not about damascus. it's not -- amazing and then there was this guy -- and changed everything. what else -- >> not part of the book. [laughing] >> we could all do this together. there's a lot of this stuff out there. that's not what this is. there were no water pipes in your book. >> none. >> no sweet tea no water pipes. >> none of this women in high heels in beirut in the nightclub. i was watching us have a conversation and it -- we digress. i think it's important that we tell different kinds of stories, obviously, because i don't think -- we can't expect people to be dropped into this situation and to have a real understanding -- we can have empathy to some extent but i don't know can we really expect them to understand what it is to live in the skin of that's people and we have not had that maybe artistic interventions before syria we can see. i want to do that and there some characters in my family, like, generations of them. as there are in many families. but i was willing to take the risk to right

in fact, today there have been heavy bombardments in areas, suburbs of damascus to the west of damascusup around the city to the north of damascus called hama. then again up around idlib. there have been heavy strikes. even large surface-to-surface missiles today. >> you left your post in protest to the obama administration's lack of attention. from your perspective, is this a valuable change in u.s. policy toward syria? >> it could be. as i said, i think assad with his russian -- will begin to test after a period of time, they will begin to test american resolve and the resolve of our allies, with us, and about helpful if secretary tillerson in russia next week can convince the russians that we are determined to, again the point driven home by ambassador to the united nations ni ckki haley. tillerson has to get the russians to understand that and, in turn, for the russians to lean on bashir al assad. >> tillerson has said in the past 24 hours there is something of a plan to remove president al assad. does the u.s. have the leverage now after this strike that it needs to push negotiatio

did you convey any message during your meeting in damascus? >> no. any reports suggesting otherwise are complete bogus and fake news. >> what was bashar al-assad's message to you, congresswoman? >> he talked about what was happening in his country, his interest in defeating isis and how to bring about an end to this war. >> you have any regrets about going? you face a lot of criticisms as i pointed out since then? >> no, i never made decisions based on fear of what people may think or what is politically add ve adventagious for me. i went to congress promising my constituents and veterans and brothers and sisters in uniforms that i can do all i could to prec prevent our country making these mistakes in the future. i went to syria with the focus and mission on peace. how we can end this regime war. i am continuing that fight today. >> congresswoman, we got to take a quick break. i want to continue our conversation. lets take the break and we'll resume the discussion right after this. everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. even a "truck-c

they built external part of damascus and demographically built and kind of dot same thing. in the areas that have been cleared. >> all right well that brings us to an end. thank you very much for coming. you're watching booktv's live of the los angeles times elf if of books here on the campus of the university of southern california. a lot going on doing interviews who are covering panels, all sorts of different venues and our booktv marketing folks are here. and they're passing out the official book bag for the festival within side says booktv the other side say los angeles times festival of books and if you happen to be in the area come on down and see us and grab a back bag we'll be here all day again tomorrow. now we've got another panel coming up in about a half an hour and this is a panel on writing and publishing and one of the people that will be speaking at that panel is lisa lucas who is executive director of the national book foundation which gives out national book award every year after that the radio talk show host and author will be doing a call-in and able t

in damascus, and the un team were there and conducted demonstrations and showed sarin agent had been used. syria declared agent had been used. syria declared a quantity of agents, just over 1000 tonnes of chemical warfare material, and the 0bc w and the un verified the destruction and removal of all of that. the big question is who owns this agent, if indeed it is agent, where it came from, who manufactured it, and those are the questions that will have to be looked into in the next days and weeks. in your own mind, what do you think is going on here? do the syrians simply have other stocks which they have got access to? where did they get them from?” which they have got access to? where did they get them from? i think before identifying who might have used it, we need to establish what it is because that in itself will start to give lines of inquiry and questions. there are number of options. it may be the syrian regime has employed agent that they hadn't declared. potentially it could be the manufacturing that could come from somewhere else. there are sources of potential chemical

the missile strike hit the shayrat airbase in the west of syria, north of the capital, damascus. people are thought to have been killed, and the pentagon says aircraft and buildings were severely damaged. the strike was a direct response to the chemical attack believed to have been carried out by the syrian regime further north in the town of khan skeikhoun. ourfirst report comes from our correspondent in washington, david willis. it contains flashing images from the start. it was a decisive response from an administration that has often seemed disorganised and at times dysfunctional. a fusillade of tomahawk cruise missiles fired from us navy ships in the mediterranean, aimed at the syrian air base from which america says that deadly chemical weapons attack was launched earlier this week. a line—in—the—sand moment for the new commander—in—chief. on tuesday, syrian dictator bashar al—assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians. using a deadly nerve agent, assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. these are the heart—breaking images

state tv in damascus said syria had been a victim of american aggression and the governor of homs saidhe missile strikes served the goals of so—called islamic state. earlier, russia warned of negative consequences of any us military action in syria but the pentagon did warn moscow of the air strikes. i'm aron heslehurst. in business, face—to—face and just the start of what president trump calls a great relationship, the leaders of the world, two biggest economies, finally meet as the rest of the world hold its breath to see if these two can avoid a fight. and the lawsuits that probably runs more than 140 characters. twitter is suing the us government after the trump administration demanded to know the identity of an anti—trump account. but first, president donald trump has said the us military has carried out a cruise missile attack on an airbase from which syrian government planes staged a chemical weapons attack on a rebel—held town. more than 50 tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from american navy ships in the mediterranean, hitting the shayrat airbase which lies 150 kilometres no

now knows that if he wants his stooge bashar al-assad to stay alive he ought to get him out of matt damascu- >> sean: a thousand pounds of munitions, each and every tomahawk missiles 18 feet long, two feet wide flying at low altitudes, 600-mile attack here, they took out 29 aircraft in this attack. it is almost position perfect.

within weeks, you would have isis and al-qaeda fighting it out on the streets of damascus and the entire country would implode. the trick here is to have a negotiated and order to the pa rt have a negotiated and order to the part show of assad, possibly months away, but with russian agreement, albeit through gritted teeth, but to do it in an ordered and structured way while preserving a majority of the syrian regime. that might not be palatable to the rebels but if you rip out the heart of central government in the way that happened in iraq in 2003, you get chaos. and the one thing the middle east absolutely craves more than democracy, more than rights and anything else, is stability. and syria desperately needs that stability. not in any way is supporting president assad, he has been monstrous to his people and his regime is guilty of the vast majority of deaths in that country. but nevertheless, if you were to get rid of him suddenly and if russia stopped supporting him suddenly and he no longer had the russian air power to support him, his army would crumble and you would see the rebe

he said that sent a message of encouragement to damascus.most mattek—sands electrifying moment came when the new ambassador for the trump administration spoke. she got up trump administration spoke. she got up to her feet, trump administration spoke. she got up to herfeet, which is rare in the security council, and branded photographs of the children who had died. she asked pointedly of the russians, how many children need to die before russia cares? we arejoined by we are joined by a webcam we arejoined by a webcam by we are joined by a webcam by an expert on russia from london kings,. thank you forjoining us. thank you very much. why is it is strategically at portage relationship for russia to have an alliance with syria in the way that it does? it is very important for russia for a variety of reasons, primarily because russia is trying to make sure that there is not a colla pse to make sure that there is not a collapse of the assad regime and a ta keover collapse of the assad regime and a takeover by sidnei insurgents, radical islamists o

syria has accused israel of causing a huge explosion near damascus airport.e'll talk to bbc arabic about that. and we'll be live in philadelphia to discuss donald trump's first 100 days in office. about an hour ago this newswire came in from reuters telling us the inspector general of the pentagon has launched an investigation into whether michael flynn, trump's former national security adviser, accepted money from foreign entities without the required approval. you may remember the story as we have covered it many times on outside source. michael flynn left the trump administration earlier this year after it was revealed that he had misled the vice president about his communications with the russian ambassador. this is the leading democratic on the committee that exercises oversight for the federal government. i honestly do not understand why the white house is covering up for michael flynn. i don't get it. after the president fired him for lying. so the president fired him for lying about communications with the russian ambassador. they should be bending ov

in damascus, to u.s. naval vessels to pride -- applied in the mediterranean launched about 49 missiles aimed at the air base. the united states stated this was in response to what it states was the syrian government's use of chemical weapons from this airbase. the u.s. has claimed the missiles severely damaged or destroyed syrian aircraft and support infrastructure quim. according to news reports, the u.s. said they informed russian federation forces of the strike advance using the established mechanism and taking precautions to minimize risk to russian or syrian personnel located at the airfield. a statement from the syrian general command of the army forces called the act a blatant act of aggression which had caused six deaths and huge madamy , council has the primary responsibility to ensure peace and security. we hope the council can unite an d exercise that responsibility to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons. it is important that this council sends a strong collective wedges -- message

in damascus, to u.s. naval vessels to pride -- applied in the mediterranean launched about 49 missiles aimed at the air base. the united states stated this was in response to what it states was the syrian government's use of chemical weapons from this airbase. the u.s. has claimed the missiles severely damaged or androyed syrian aircraft equipment in verse infrastructure. the u.s. said they informed russian federation forces of the strike advance using the established mechanism and taking precautions to minimize risk to russian or syrian personnel located at the airfield. a statement from the syrian general command of the army forces called the act a blatant act of aggression which had caused six deaths and huge material damage. iran and the russian federation attack.d the the u.k., australia, germany, turkey, saudi arabia, germany, japan, the netherlands and austria have expressed support for the strike. the security council has the primary responsibility to ensure peace and security. we hope the council

it was based on pre-determining damascus being guilty. where is your principle of presuming innocence capital why do you forget the presumption of innocence in other cases? all of this is taking place because washington, london, and paris. i spoke about this in close consultation and i say this again. they have this paranoiac idea of overthrowing the legitimate government in sovereign syria. of overthrowing the legitimate government in sovereign syria. and this was clearly shown by the non-diplomatic actions and statements made by the u.k. stop doing these -- putting forward these unprofessional arguments and accusations against my country. these are not diplomatic. they are lies. once again, i warn, don't even try to get into fights in the arab world. nothing will work. and nothing will be achieved. that is why you are getting annoyed. countries recall your colonial hypocrisy. the ambassador rycroft in his statements talked about issues. i would like to recall exactly what has happened now -- those who undertook this attack are in no way

is the message going to be received in damascus? >> it is interesting that the runway wasn't hit and maybe wasn't the right mu in addition for that, it wasn't even touched apparently, that probably was a deliberate thing in terms of the strength of the message. isn't the risk here, they sent this message because of the chemical attack that killed a few dozen people horrendously. tomorrow barrel bombs will start falling from syrian helicopters and people will start being torn to shreds. and then does that not require a response? >> you can kill as many people as you want it appears with conventional weapons. but you drop one chemical round and all of a sudden, you're an international pariah. it is kind of puzzling, there are so many deaths, 400,000 syrians have died so far in this civil war, yet an attack that kills less than 100 draws this kind of response. it's a symptom of the time i guess. >> back to my point, why did assad feel he needed to use a chemical weapon? it just wasn't necessary. >> he's spoken about complete victory, t

or the islamic state in damascus. you said y you accepted that position, but after this chemical gas attack, you seem to have drifted from that position. we need to know now your position because we're going to base our military calculations in syria on what you tell us today. tillerson anding president trump extremely important yesterday. it has been lost in all of this madcap kremlin game in washshington, ththat american-relatioions relations y be at an all-time low. that is a very poor and statement. it gets our attention back on the essential. tillerson said, there is don't trust between us. and that is not acceptable when we're talking about the two nuclear superpowers. so where all of the media riff on this, the mainstream media here is what it -- here's what it wants to hear, i thought that was very important. the news is very bad, but that was a piece of good news. nermeen: when you say russia wanted to know who is making policy and washington, what do they suspect if it is not trump and tillerson? who might b

but if the united states wanted to take out damascus -- easy. >> yeah.illerson goes to moscow next week. we'll talk about what that meeting will be like. implications for foreign policy and the markets in the days to come. >>> when we return, a busy morning. the president is holding that second day of meeting with us the chinese president. a lot at stake for their respective companies. look at the premarket. the dow is perfectly flat for the week. see what happens when the opening bell rings in about 18 minutes. the power of a low volatility investing approach. the power of smart beta. power your client's portfolio with powershares. before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. call 800-983-0903 for the prospectus containing this information. read it carefully. distributed by invesco distributors inc. containing this information. read it carefully. i can't wait for her to have that college experience that i had. the classes, the friends, the independence. and since we planned for it, that student debt is the on

damascus and moscow denied involvement, but that is not good enough for many western countries, including the united states. holding photographs of dead syrian children the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. warned her country might take unilateral action if the security council failed to respond. president trump said many, many lines beyond a redline had been crossed. 5-year-old abraham went to bed in spiderman pajamas and woke up to the latest tour in the syrian unending war. his grandmother was by his bedside, caring for him and his sister because their father was killed in the attack. lives ruined tight talks a cloud that filled victim's lungs with cloud thaty a toxic filled victim's lungs with poison. >> they just fell to the floor. too easy to is become desensitized to the suffering of the syrian people. lost 20 his plight, he members of his family, including his twin children, killed in a second explosion. why did this happen? i went to help other people, i thought my children were ok. now, they are gone. reporter: president trump derided barack obama for saying chemical weapons crossed t

where the bulk of the population is. >> not damascus. i'm sure that was all over the telephone networks and social media and of course we're going to see a lot of government reaction and i suspect although there may not have been a lot of civilian casualties, we may see a lot of civilian casualties in the morning engineered. >> we're going to bring the president's statement in about two minutes. we are getting the tape cued up. in terms of russian personnel, that's the other question we don't know. were there russian personnel at that base and if so how many and if so what happened to them? >> i would say my estimate and i have no real knowledge, but i would say probably a low likelihood of russian personnel there. this was not their front line fighter base. this base houses the old airframe. it's well built and rugged. it's old. it doesn't drop precision guided ammunitions. anything can fall off a wing. i would >> we're going to be bringing the president's remarks in a moment. the first major military strike of the trump administration

agenda. ideological and talked of an anti-damascus agenda.he anti—damascus campaign which does not seem to... has not yet reached a place deserves on the landfill of history. when the political process in geneva and as sta n political process in geneva and as stan as that static shape and gains speed then strangely all sorts of incidents start to occur. the last example is a tragedy. according to our information the syrian opposition has requested that the syrian government... the syrian government has requested to send a mission to investigate these events and provide assistance. there's no need to repeat that the russian federation has always had a clear and unequivocal position. the view from russia. earlier i spoke to dr beyza unal, research fellow with the international security department at chatham house, who told me what she thinks happened. there is speculation whether this nerve agent or a different type of chemical attack happened. i think what we have seen was the use of sarin ora similartype what we have seen was the use of sarin

when you start to think about when they start to look at a future, control of damascus, they are willing to negotiate a political future of syria that does not include bashar assad, and the only way to that without enabling al qaeda and isis is to our moderate groups. >> i know you know the region very well, but a lot of americans are worried about arming someone who will come back to bite us. >> the number one thing we should do is not give them ground to air missiles. >> will leave it there. so good to have your perspective this morning. >> thank you so much. president trump getting support by both sides of the political aisle. >> live from mar-a-lago in palm beach florida. the president is waking up to demands from congressional action and approval from here on out. what are you hearing? >> it's very clear that already this morning president trump has the support of three top republican senators, marco rubi rubio, john mccain, and lindsey graham have all come out and said that they support the action that president trump took because not only did president trump stop any future chemic

this morning it looked just like their chemical attacks in 2013 near damascus.with seems just like this president 0bama threatened military action, and then pulled back when syria gave up its chemical weapons. if this latest mayhem was caused by a regime attack, it suggests some chemical weapons were held back. condemnation is coming in from around the world. i'm appalled by the reports that there's been a chemical weapons attack on a town south of idlib, allegedly by the syrian regime. we condemn the use of chemical weapons in all circumstances. if proven, this will be further evidence of the barbarism of the syrian regime. we have understood it was a chemical attack and it came from the air. we will be stimulating all those who have the capacity of finding out technically what happened. president assad's regime has denied it launched the attack, but if that's not true, what's in it for them? this idlib is one of the last rebel strongholds in syria. perhaps someone strongholds in syria. perhaps someone in the regime thought it was time to increase the pressure.

time and time again, russia uses the same false narrative to deflect attention from their allies in damascus. time and time again, without any factual basis, russia attempts to place blame on others. there's an obvious truth here that must be spoken. the truth is that assad, russia, and iran have no interest in peace. the illegitimate syrian government led by a man with no conscience has committed untold atrocities against his people for more than six years. assad has made it clear that he doesn't want to take part in a meaningful political process. iran has reinforced assad's military and russia has shielded assad from u.n. sanctions. if russia has the influence in syria that it claims to have, we need to see them use it. we need to see them put an end to these horrific acts. how many more children have to die before russia cares? the eyes sees yesterday's attack -- the united states sees yesterday's attack as a disgrace at the highest level, an assurance that humanity means nothing to the syrian government. the question members of this council must ask themselveses is this- if we are not a

the regime in damascus really no interest in -- they have interest in negotiating with the rebels, but i don't think they have interest in peace with assadrebel groups because has said he wants to take the whole country back at some point. not is a possible or different story, but the russians are there to stay and naval base in ge syria, which is the only overseas naval base. they have several airfields. iran. e with syria, for them, is the major state. it presents a route for them to hezbollah in o lebanon. they're not going to walk away anytime soon. investments in syria and the kurds to the north autonomous region so they won't give up and you have the t

damascus simply does not possess it. >> reporter: many of these people died of asphyxiation from what is believed to be seren gas. the u.s. says it will investigate any possibility of russia complicity, including russian troops were at the airbase where this russian drone captured the after attack of the u.s. attack. did the russians know anything about the chemical bombing? was eight russian warplane that later bombed a hospital, treating victim itself, perhaps trying to destroy evidence? and after years of regime chemical attacks, u.s. military official say they will work aggressively to monitor syrian programs with russian involvement. the pittsburgh showed it had proof to justify the limited u.s. strike t. track of the syrian planes and imagery of where the nerve agent bomb hit t. syrian mill they were denied using chemical weapons, blameing terrorist groups. >> this condemnable u.s. aggression confirms the continuation of the flawed u.s. strategy and it undermines the process of combating terrorism. >> reporter: the u.s. military have no intention of destroying the air field. it

including the southern suburbs of damascus where they are preparing to release some sort of substancerom moscow, we've been speaking to our correspondent there, steve rosenberg. after the stalemate it would seem as if rex tillerson is coming to moscow in some sort of holding role.|j think so. he still believes that he can geta think so. he still believes that he can get a deal with the russians and he doesn't believe this is an impossible mission. he does have formed with the russians, when he was an or an executive, he was quite close to people high up in the russian leadership —— an oil executive of the he was given an award in fact by vladimir putin, but it would be much harderfor rex tillerson to secure the political privacy is seen, a u—turn by the kremlin on syria, because if president assad is russia's key military ally in the middle east, no doubt about that. and the russians have invested heavily in him, militarily and politically and financially, to make sure that assad stays in power, and in the eyes of moscow president assad is not only a figure they believe guarantees aga

destruction and more interestingly he says more chemical attacks are being planned on sites south of damascus in order to blame president assad. he's not quoting sources, just saying our sources are telling us that more attacks are planned. he says also that his country will ignore western criticisms of russia's role in syria. so vladimir putin definitely fighting back in the hours in advance of rex tillerson's arrival here. he's due in an hour's time with those talks. of course, rex tillerson arriving with some tough talk of his own saying that russia was either complicit in that attack or incompetent because it didn't know that syria had chemical weapons. so the heat is without question rising in advance of these talks. vladimir putin there suggesting that someone -- some sources are telling russia that more chemical attacks are planned in damascus. >> help us to deconstruct this. what it means for this visit and what essentially, bill, do you think this does in terms of the wider picture and the view of the international community? >> reporter: we've all been watching and indeed the kremli

hundreds of villagers and fighters have left for rebel held ridges in syria, two of them close to damascus administration will not make public the white house visit records of who has visited the president and his staff. they say it will be kept secret for five years citing privacy concerns. secret for five years citing privacy concerns. barack secret for five years citing privacy concerns. ba rack 0bama secret for five years citing privacy concerns. barack 0bama disclosed 6 million visits. police in italy have arrested a mafia boss. sicilian concetta bonne coursey has been serving a life sentence for murder and drug trafficking. he was spotted preparing a barbecue outside a flat in tuscany. stay with us, still to come. a force of nature. why do — is making a triumphant return to old roaming grounds in canada. —— why the bison. pol pot, one of the century's greatest mass murderers is reported to have died of natural causes. he and the khmer rouge movement he led were responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million cambodians. there have been violent protests in indonesia where playb

determined to hold to account if not now, in the nearest future as possible [inaudible]where outside damascus where there are reports of strikes and ground ac fighting. roots have reportedly been closed and though the un hasac been unable to access from increased fighting also result resulted. they continue to kill civilians and damaged infrastructure. just this week a medical village was reportedly struck by airstrikes. markets were taken out which resulted in the deaths of seven civilians including a child and wounding 30 more. there's also the displacement joining the tens of thousands already in camps and more arrive every day.pr four out of five don't have appropriate shelter due to the lack of medical care. united nations are responding and scaling up the response in the coming days. access to life-savin the life-sg support is at every turn. i'm concerned by the rise in administrative and other restrictions by all parties for example in the northeasternhaveb syria they have been in place since march which includes provisions from those among apr, others. local authorities attempted to d

buses are taking people from rebel held areas west of damascus and from two government controlled townsneighbouring lebanon. ready to move after a series of delays. ambulances and buses are taking civilians and fighters from besieged towns in syria. foua and kefraya are held by the government. madaya is an opposition town. another, zabadani, is also part of the deal. it thought people there will begin to be moved as late as saturday. all four towns have been under siege for more than two years but many people didn't want to leave their homes. they call us migrants from our land. translation: we don't know what to say at this time. you feel like you're leaving your land, we are leaving our lives, our hopes, ourfuture, our memory, our past. un has described the humanitarian situation as catastrophic in these places. activists shared footage last year that appeared to show people eating grass and leaves from trees to survive. people from the government towns were taken to this opposition held area near aleppo ahead of their onward journey. critics say starvation is being used as a tactic t