implementation of resolution twenty two fifty four negotiated in the geneva interested in dog profit under the auspices of the un and of mandated by the security of all the reaffirmed their commitment to respecting my mandate in that regard and to the geneva political process facilitated by the un. recalling that only sustainable lucian to the current crisis in through an inclusive and c.d.n. led the political process that meets the illegitimate aspirations of the syrian people and also building in mind that if cage all improv for drafting a new constitution is to be set in geneva in geneva in the geneva process in accordance with the resolution twenty two fifty four i assess that it is understood. that any constitutional committee would at the very least compromise compromise government opposition representatives in the interest syria and all syrian and birth civil. independence tribal leaders and women what care. that care would be taken to ensure adequate representation of syria's ethnic and religious component and that finally green meant if to be reached in the un geneva process

at this point probably a lot of people will be skeptic about that just remember geneva eight rounders just which were in mid december didn't achieve much defender mr rudd the time had actually expressed really was a bit worried that. they had reached a deadlock he also blamed a lot the government delegation for not wanting to go ahead with with talks on the issues of constitution and elections which are the two main subject that should be discussed this time around in the geneva nine talks even if they're held here in vienna and he had said at the time that he was frustrated because the government delegation was concentrating on the issue of terrorism and didn't want to talk about anything else now would that happen again this time does a lot of skepticism around certainly but i think also what you will have on the table is a conversation about the upcoming talks in sochi they should be held earlier early next week the opposition just as as of last night said that it will actually announce whether it will attend those talks called upon by russia along with turkey and iran at

according to the participants who've turned up here basically going to be channeling into the geneva peace process and that of course is what is ultimately going to reach at some point when it kickstarts again the final political settlement for syria of course there are opposition figures who have been staying away who have objected to this whole. conference from the get go. gradually being paving away from it as the days of progress towards the start of it . they have always thought that this was russia's way of kind of circumventing geneva or of moving around it and establishing a much more moscow and damascus friendly version of a future syria of course the we will have to see how this all primes out and then in the closing ceremony and watch has actually been decided about this this commission really each other's thank you very much indeed. what charles list is a senior fellow at the u.s. based middle east institute where he focuses on the conflict in syria he joins us live from washington d.c. thank you very much for being with us what would you make of these initial lines that

taking action but some activists remain unconvinced that in baba has more from geneva. at the u.n. in geneva the united arab emirates was at the center of attention on monday but as they were lining up with the national flag one floor above diplomats lined up to highlight how the u.a.e. needs to improve its human rights one of the areas of concern in the recent u.n. report is arbitrary detention and torture that's something ninety how down knows all about the u.s. lebanese businesswoman was arrested at his home in abu dhabi he still doesn't know why he held an unknown location and beaten over many months he was eventually convicted of supporting terrorism and based on a confession made under duress you know interrogators threatened to. to do things to my wife i couldn't i couldn't take it after the all the physical abuse was you know somehow following but when it came to that i know he was serious because whatever he said before he did. so i could not i told him you know whatever you want i'll sign anything. as a side event at the un victims of abuse and their lawyers spoke out people

u.n. sponsored geneva process the codes to control almost twenty percent of syrian territory are also refusing to attend they are the focus of a turkish military operation now in northern syria with ankara saying that the fight has on terrorists al jazeera stephanie deck reports from the town of killie's on the turkey syria or dead. there's just been incoming from syria into turkey we were actually preparing for a live when we heard a whiz over our heads. and then we saw the smoke landing around five hundred meters from our position well the police have now come to inspect the crater this is a reminder of course that this is an act of conflict and there are consequences for these border towns these border cities kilis has had rockets and shells land here before also the one day on the other side of the border are the people that residents that we've spoken to here will tell you that they are concerned they're used to it because i still was here just a couple of years ago along the border and there was this kind of tense situation as well but one gentleman we spoke to yesterday sa

gave to the u.n. security council after the last round of talks in geneva in mid december they say that they felt that that report was biased against the syrian government so they basically here to hear they basically here to listen. to or has to say for himself if you recall after the last round of talks was lasted about two weeks the fundamental expressed his frustration and sort of squarely blamed the failure of those talks on the syrian government saying that they did not want to tackle any of the core issues here at stake saying that the syrian government was only concentrating for two weeks on the issue of terrorism and he then at the time had said the whole world is facing terrors terrorism is an issue in syria as well but that's not what the delegation should be talking about as a priority ok many thanks for that update from vienna her until her maid for more now on who controls won't. go pitter. the battery map of the syrian civil war has changed dramatically over the past year seemingly shifting the balance of power this is what syria looked like a year ago fractured betw

committee will be organized in geneva according to the resolution twenty two fifty four. well let's get more front up to mattick editor james bays and so james we heard there about the possibility of elections being held about changes to the syrian constitution any more detail from the mr as to how this is all supposed to work. yes they found him a store of courses in sochi still after those meetings that took place but a short time ago he was beamed in by telephone to the press conference room here at the united nations in new york and we had a chance to ask him questions it's pretty clear this is an important the development but not yet a breakthrough he gave us some more ideas of how this would work you had about one hundred fifty people being chosen for this committee will he's going to whittle it down to about forty five to fifty that lachie meet in geneva to discuss a constitution for syria he says he's going to try and make it representative he's going to have members of the government members the opposition and members of civil society those that are independent in this committe

what this means for talks possibly the start and of course the focus geneva. exactly and a lot rides actually on what stefan de mistura makes of all this everything we goes on here in sochi and that's because essentially turkey and the various opposition groups have decided for one reason or another that they don't want to come here have basically said that they will they will go along with whatever is decided in sochi as long as it gets the approval of the united nations and as long as this congress feeds into the geneva track for peace in syria because let's not forget it is geneva which is the kind of overarching architecture for a final resolution of the syrian conflict that's where things ultimately will end up the opposition groups and to a certain extent turkey as well have always felt that so if you have a danger of basically steering round geneva and trying to get more of a moscow or damascus based settlements well if stuff and i'm a store approves of what happens here and it filters directly into geneva then that to a greater level a better extent will satisfy some of the w

the slightly forward because we're heading towards geneva talks on the twenty fifth of january how does this military operation feed into a long term peace plan that in fact some elements of the. freedom fighters if you want to call them that are in syria don't really agree with what's going on either in a style or certain not in sochi perhaps not even geneva. well it's going to help both the genie when there are standard processes because as we have made it very clear from the very beginning and as our president had done has raised this issue with the russians and iranians as well as the americans and the united nations if you do not want to see any terrorist groups being invited to either geneva and our stunna and we have been successful in making that i mean making sure that only legitimate representatives of the syrian people including the kurds arabs to come on and others are invited to these meetings so eliminating this terror threat coming from other african region and and putting aside the p y d y p g elements out of this talks in fact is going to help the success of these

should be discussed all these things should be discussed in geneva and they don't want to actually switch in order to replace geneva because they they fear that the russians will put pressure on the opposition in order to give more concessions even on the political solution and on top of them this is why i believe russia is trying to humiliate even the opposition up right now there are trying actually to tell them forget about the departure of bashar assad to focus now on the things that we want to actually to focus on to talk about the constitution elections and. not in damascus not in geneva not anywhere else the opposition in syria perhaps the most significant failing of it has been its disunity isn't it absolutely and as we see also in this massive what appears to be a car bomb killing around twenty five people is an indication isn't it of so many different groups there are with different priorities and allegiances that's very true and this has been the problem from the very beginning within the syria within the sunni or positions. what kills in my opinion the syrian opposition

from sochi believing that this is undermining the geneva process the kurdish groups such as the y. p.g. then not here either they are considered persona non grata by turkey and of essentially being shut out of the thing they want to come anyway because of what's going on in africa and so this all basically steers towards the moscow and damascus perspective on the syrian conflict the upshot of this congress is likely to be the endorsement of the new what they're calling a constitutional committee made up supposedly all of the syrian government on one side and opposition representatives on the other but if the main groups of the opposition are not here then this allows damascus to essentially say that the opposition groups boycotting sochi boycotting this process are saboteurs of peace the big question of course is where the u.n. stands on the of this and whether stefan de mistura will approve of these measures and not allow this to filter in to the geneva process the russians believe that he is on board the left is wait to see whether the u.s. that suggest that is confirmed or not. let'

from thank you when i speak to. a global risk analyst at the geneva center for security policy and that is where he is joining us from geneva thanks for speaking to us on al-jazeera so let's just pause for a moment and take a look at the u.s. his role here now in the past the u.s. has declared. with eisel defeated the caliphates gone it will draw down its support for the kurds yet now you have this announcement off a new security border force and you have the u.s. sectors that rex tillerson recently saying as early as this week saying that the american troops will remain in syria long after their fight against eisel seeming to imply that the u.s. is in no hurry to leave the country is that is that an accurate assessment. well we are witnessing now if you on the second part of the operation in syria the first one was the defeat of isis and this is almost done except for a few pockets and there were some kind of agreements between the different actors in the region. for school which was defeating isis now the second objectives are popping up and obviously here this is where you have

meeting in geneva at a review of the country's rights record many states urged it to end all but three detentions and the torture of palestinian prisoners that he has got more from geneva. well the last time israel's human rights record was under review here that was five years ago the israelis actually boycotted the session well on tuesday there was an israeli delegation here and they pointed out several areas in which they said there had been improvements in the human rights situation in israel for example increasing access to legal aid for the country's bedouin arab population setting up an action plan to combat racism against people of ethiopian origin and fighting human trafficking but what many countries talked about was the country got to get a sions to protect the human rights of palestinians living in the occupied palestinian territory so east jerusalem the west bank and gaza israel is the only state in the world that can be called an apartheid state we remain deeply concerned at the denial of the right of self-determination to the palestinian people in the absence of which no

barber who's at the united nations in geneva for us what else are we expecting in this report nadine also held the session this afternoon here in geneva will be looking at some of those concerns raised by the human rights council in that report that came out there were lots of areas of concern included as you said the freedom of expression and freedom of information the lack of a body a national body for human rights that met the standards set out by the united nations problems like human trafficking the fact that children in some cases are trafficked into the u.a.e. to be then forced into the sex industry sex work industry but one of the biggest focuses is on the issue of arbitrary detention and torture in the united arab emirates i'm joined now by rodney dixon q.c. who's a lawyer who's represented some people who've been the victim of that can you just tell me first of all how common that is it's particularly widespread in the i represent some victims but the or reports concerning hundreds of persons held in secret detention facilities and who have been tortured and abused before b

. imogen foukes reports from geneva. so much snow, literally tonnes of it. its sheer weight forces it down to the valleys. this was the scene in switzerland. no one was hurt here, but the avalanche risk is the highest it's been for almost a decade. over a metre of snow fell in parts of the alps on monday alone. in the italian resort of sestriere, residents were evacuated when snow poured down into their homes. villages are cut off, many schools are closed. this is les houches in france. translation: we heard a big noise at first. no tremor, but a very big noise, a huge growl. then i saw the cloud coming down, so we ran back and into the basement. it's always a shock, always. it's not nice to see. we thought the house would explode. when you see that, your heart sinks. in the shadow of the famous matterhorn, over 13,000 tourists in the swiss resort of zermatt cannot leave. snow has blocked road and rail links. skiing isn't possible, slopes are closed because of the avalanche danger. residents and holiday—makers alike are being warned to avoid high alpine roads and to follow all sa

new york and at the human rights council in geneva we must not be silent the people of iran are crying out for freedom all freedom loving people must stand with their cause. in berlin in front of the brandenburg gate to rein in exiles gathered to show they've not forgotten those committed to the protests back home. in london another gathering calling on the european public to stand up for political freedom and the release of prisoners and in rome that same message delivered from outside the iranian embassy beauty shop al-jazeera. french president emanuel macron has expressed his concern about the unrest to iran's president he's also postponed a trip it was due to make to teheran this week earlier i spoke to eric randolph a.f.p. media deputy bureau chief who is in teheran he says that while the protests may be using revolutionary slogans they are rooted in economic grievances. well for now it seems relatively calm but i have to say that it's very difficult for us to report from aaron i mean there are very tight restrictions on what the media can do and surround we know there's a

in geneva and the government and opposition still have not met face to face well let's get more from abdul hamid who is following developments for us in vienna tell us what's the latest on these talks. well certainly there have been it's been a very long day i would say for stephon the mistura the u.n. envoy started with a very long meeting with the opposition about five hours during which they discussed this working document that has been put forward by five countries france britain the us saudi and jordan now this document was described to us working document two to discuss mechanism to basically kick start the over revive the peace talks because we keep on saying these are peace talks but what has been going on at least for the last two rounds they're basically trying to find ways about how to start the substance of negotiation or even talks been very difficult even to in vienna here for the past two days you never had two delegations in this building at the same time you know after the meeting with the opposition then the regime delegation arrived here and that meeting was m

hateful things and he said them repeatedly. from the united nation, in geneva, came the stiffest of rebukes. these are shocking and shameful comments from the president of the united states. i am sorry but there is no other word one can use but racist. you can not dismiss entire countries and continents as "shitholes". across africa there has been a furious response. the botswana government called donald trump's comments "reprehensible and racist". it may be just words, maybe in another part of the world, but on this continent, that word is an insult. chant: build the wall, build the wall. "build the wall" was the cry of voters who loved donald trump's hardline stance on immigration during the election. we are going to build the wall, folks, don't worry about it. and he was said to be doing a victory lap at the white house last night, believing this row will rev up his base. donald trump launched his campaign for the white house with an attack on mexican immigrants and rose to political prominence by claiming, falsely, that barack obama was not an american. this latest racial contro

is quite a shock. from the united nations in geneva came the stiffest of rebukes. these are shocking and shameful comments from the president of the united states. i'm sorry but there's no other word one can use but racist. you cannot dismiss entire countries and continents. the allegation has gone unanswered by the president. he had an opportunity at this ceremony in celebration of martin luther king. but it was awkward. after signing a proclamation in honour of the civil rights leader, mr trump dodged the most uncomfortable of questions. mr president, are you a racist? the president left without responding. he earlier tweeted that he'd used tough language in a meeting with senators but not the derogatory language attributed to him. peter bowes, bbc news. dentists have accused the government of not doing enough to tackle tooth decay in england. new figures indicate there were nearly 43,000 operations to remove children's teeth last year — a i7% increase on four years ago. the british dental association says england now provides a second—class service compared to scotland and wal

united nations in geneva came the stiffest of rebukes. these are shocking and shameful comments from the president of the united states. i'm sorry but there's no other word one can use but racist. you cannot dismiss entire countries and continents. the allegation has gone unanswered by the president. he had an opportunity at this ceremony in celebration of martin luther king. but it was awkward. after signing a proclamation in honour of the civil rights leader, mr trump dodged the most uncomfortable of questions. mr president, are you a racist? the president left without responding. he earlier tweeted that he'd used tough language in a meeting with senators but not the derogatory language attributed to him. peter bowes, bbc news. hawaii's emergency management agency has been forced to send out a tweet reassuring citizens there is no missile threat to hawaii. it comes after residents allegedly received emergency alert warning of an incoming ballistic missile. it was later revealed to be a false alarm. david willis is in washington. this must have been absolutely petrifying for people.

valued partner for the africans, this is quite a shock. from the united nations in geneva came the stiffest of rebukes. these are shocking and shameful comments from the president of the united states. i'm sorry but there's no other word one can use but racist. you cannot dismiss entire countries and continents. the allegation has gone unanswered by the president. he had an opportunity at this ceremony in celebration of martin luther king. but it was awkward. after signing a proclamation in honour of the civil rights leader, mr trump dodged the most uncomfortable of questions. mr president, are you a racist? the president left without responding. he earlier tweeted that he'd used tough language in a meeting with senators but not the derogatory language attributed to him. peter bowes, bbc news. meanwhile, a speech this morning by the mayor of london, sadiq khan, has been disrupted by protesters shouting support for brexit and president trump. mr khan's address to the fabian society in london was suspended for several minutes while the demonstrators were taken out of the building by

sit out thursday start of thursday would start forming in geneva behind temps has risen because we've got a storm system go through wednesday night thursday winds in excess of hundred twenty kilometers per hour by this time on the coast of poland most likely the dutch coast all the noland countries could see something of a surge we've got high tides same time not a good position to be that a storm will blow itself out but it does mean it will be a pretty poor start to the day and it takes all the energy away from further south or we've got going on throughout the middle trainees quite weather until you get to cyprus and eastwards and look at turkey even covered in massive rain and then snows that's certainly an active system on its way through and then the breeze comes back out of the still warm sarra so tripoli's up to nineteen by the time we get to friday and tunis is eighteen whereas rather crowd here about still maintained seventeen. and. the arrival of refugees is debated and european parliament's. but the journey itself is little understood. to syrians document the route that ha

geneva convention, hospitals, and medics, are supposed to be protected, but they have almost been used as a key target, and it really does break the will of the people when you see the hospitals destroyed. ghouta has the last conclave that the syrians and the russians have not defeated, and it appears that they are having a final push. we are all hopeful that these talks will start again. i think a lot of us very closely involved had been devastated by the silence of ireland politicians and western politicians are really calling on president trump, who we just heard, prime minister may, president macron, and others to get behind a ceasefire. we feel if a season that can be imposed, this humanitarian aid that is stacked up on the borders of syria can get in and said those people, and the un peace process will develop to allow free and fair elections in some time. but at the moment, things are absolutely desperate. we have been in direct contact with the russians, with president putin and in direct contact with president assad, and they have in their path and lead ceasefires, and i

via skype from geneva not a good to have you with us what difference to the business of getting aid into yemen will these four cranes at her data make the make a huge difference is there anybody can use when they need by far the last one hundred men they want to make it doesn't matter if what used to come in you know as i'm looking in the majority of human relations though if you need think go back normal maybe your friends own. the director of not even home one yet. not the normal again you know the saudi led coalition said some time ago that it was allowing more aid into the country what is the situation on the ground are people getting access to the aid that they need. when ags got me into the country even though not us weekly us will be needed there are long queues for example that what aid but the problem is that you really do need is not enough this is a country of twenty seven million people so many different agencies. and who would end medicine for the whole country what we need is for commercial flights to grammy and the leverage of those inside insufficient what about the

africans, this is quite a shock. from the united nations in geneva came the stiffest of rebukes. these are shocking and shameful comments from the president of the united states. i'm sorry but there's no other word one can use but racist. you cannot dismiss entire countries and continents. the allegation has gone unanswered by the president. he had an opportunity at this ceremony in celebration of martin luther king. but it was awkward. after signing a proclamation in honour of the civil rights leader, mr trump dodged the most uncomfortable of questions. mr president, are you a racist? the president left without responding. he earlier tweeted that he used tough language in a meeting with senators but not the derogatory language attributed to him. peter bowes, bbc news. despite the furore over the president's comments, the political analyst eric ham says mr trump's words will resonate with his republican base. we know how the president feels about courting his base and making sure that they stay in the fold. in fa ct a sure that they stay in the fold. in fact a very conservative

human rights council in geneva we must not be silent the people of iran are crying out for freedom all freedom loving people must stand with their cause this echoing sentiments expressed by president trump early earth who said in a tweet the people of iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt or a new regime all of the money that president obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their pockets the people have little food big inflation and no human rights the u.s. is watching. this little evidence in the streets of tehran of the turmoil evident in some other parts of the country but there are deep concerns expressed about the rise in food prices and drop in employment. to join the cause i'm working but in this society i'm always stressed about the possibility of getting fired the next day always being worried about my job my family the security of my family the main problems people are grappling with are their security the economy and their livelihood ammonia das and there are some who are poor and cannot make ends meet what should they do life is really di

geneva of course have not been successful so far if the main success of the talks was the deescalation then they are not working out what are the prospects i think is especially because the russians want you know they want to stay in power which is a nonstarter for the opposition is very true i mean the russians they have started actually the process from the very beginning for the opposition they believe the russians started that is the. we need our process the russians tried in fact actually to have some sort of political discussions in that satanic process the talked about the new constitution they talked about the new elections presidential and parliamentary but i think now everything is in danger right now everything seems to be if if the russian. the turks and the iranians they don't come together again and try to deescalate the situation right now and even so she is not serious now because the opposition or huge part of the opposition is actually seeing that we are not going to go to. every means like this on the ground it's very difficult for us to justify our part

geneva according to the resolution twenty two fifty four of the constitutional committee and if the reform do comprising the government of the syrian republic delegation along with the wide represented opposition delegation for drafting a constitutional reform and james bays has more now from the united nations. this is an important development but not a breakthrough you just need to look at the fact that at sochi the opposition weren't even represented so it's not clear whether they will take part in this new constitutional committee that's being set up it's also worth remembering that all the previous rounds of peace talks over the last four years the government side is never properly engaged on issues like the constitution so it's not clear with they'll do that now that they'll be part of a committee rather than part of full peace talks the other problem facing the special envoy stefan de mistura is that he faces a really difficult job of choosing who's going to be part of this committee he says he'll choose about forty five members that represent the opposition that represent th

civil war in syria america's taking a backseat we look towards a starter we look towards geneva now we're looking towards. there doesn't seem to be an end in sight so many contributors and analysts are saying that the war is coming to an end it doesn't seem to be like that when we see images like saluting because the russians have been so far and need been actually two and convents the syrian opposition to adopt the sort of political solution that they want because as you know the russians are so much reluctant to accept the position of the of the opposition on the future of the syrian president bashar assad they wanted some sort of cosmetic changes in syria and leave things as as the are on the other hand true that the americans are not taking a very active role in syria but there are also supporting the russians in their office in fact we have been hearing statements by david something for you who was acting as assistant secretary of state for the new system if we are is actually seeing that the americans will not be supporting that the suci conference and that drove my opinion th

lifetime bans for doping at a hearing in geneva they're hoping a court of arbitration for sport will lift the bans in time for the winter games in pyongyang thirty nine of the forty three fleets disqualified for doping at the sochi games have been making their case a decision is due at the end of the month just nine days before the start of the olympics the i.o.c. has banned russia from these games over allegations of systematic doping but those who proved they are clean will be allowed to compete as neutrals there are most because yes they listened to us perfectly gave us time to think they asked a simple income questions and we did well a lawyer said we did well for sure to be allowed in the olympics this would be a perfect ending for every one. of the russians who are allowed to go to the winter olympics they've been unveiling new uniforms for the occasion although much like the men's outfits the design and what is allowed to go on them is something of a grey area they cannot have the flag but as they're competing under the banner of a limb pick athlete from russia they do have th

disciplines in pyeongchang. our correspondent is in geneva where she says this feels like quite a moment. yes, it did. in fact it took place here in this room at the international olympic committee, thomas bach called it a milestone, he reminded us who were listening, that he too was from a divided country, he is from germany, which has only been reunited in the last two decades or so, so i think he personally took it as a real achievement that the two koreas will march under the same flag, they will field one unified team, ice hockey, and 22 north korean athletes despite they missed the deadline to register, they will now be allowed to ta ke register, they will now be allowed to take part in the olympics next month. church bells and music venues in england are to be offered extra protection against attempts to silence them by people living in newly built housing nearby. the government is changing planning—guidance so that long—standing, but noisy, community facilities won't have to make expensive changes because of complaints from new neighbours. instead, housing developers will be

split syria such an approach is taking place without a u.n. resolution or negotiations in geneva russia iran and turkey expect clarifications from the u.s. more on the correction of this force and the fallout from al-jazeera is very on the whole and. turkish president today chip tayyip erdogan and using a party address to look staunch in the face of a u.s. backed couldst force on his southern border he promised to respond with a show of force saying tikki will launch its own military operation and the northern syrian city of buffeting not so still a lot of religion that just like we do not let the kurdistan workers party or p.k. open their eyes within our borders we are determined to vanquish them on the other side of fall border god willing in the coming days we will continue the operation to purge our southern border from terror. turkey has fought kiddish factions within its borders for more than thirty years and doesn't want to see the kurds gain power and neighboring syria the u.s. and the european union say the p.k. k. is a terror group but in northern syria the americans sa

united nations in geneva came the stiffest of rebukes. these are shocking and shameful comments from the president of the united states. i'm sorry but there's no other word one can use but racist. he had an opportunity at this ceremony in celebration of martin luther king. but it was awkward. the president left without responding. peter bowes, bbc news. iran has said the us has crossed a "red line" by imposing sanctions on the head of itsjudiciary and has vowed to retaliate. ayatollah sadeq amoli—larijani is among 1a individuals and bodies targeted. and bodies targeted. and the pressure over thejudiciary, and the pressure over iran's nuclear programme? thejudiciary, and the pressure over iran's nuclear programme ?|j thejudiciary, and the pressure over iran's nuclear programme? i don't think they are that much linked, and these new sanctions are a consequence of the recent protests we have seen in iran. and the fact that the white house wanted to show a reaction. donald trump and the white house were very vocal, trying to offer support to the protesters, while they were in the

how al-jazeera. and joining us on skype from geneva is leonard doyle he's the spokesman for the international organization for migration good to have you with us so two thousand and eighteen has already has just started and we're already seeing a number of cases of attempts to cross the mediterranean of people drowning and so on. are the numbers increasing once again well the numbers are starting at about eight hundred so far and considerably down and last year i think what's troubling is you're seeing these apparent number of drownings perhaps as many as one hundred. people are taking desperate and the smugglers the traffickers are putting them to sea in really all in conditions there's caught between a rock and a hard between the risk of abuse and potential being sold as slaves if they stay in libya or drowning is the city so there's clearly a big problem here what is driving people to continue to try and make this journey after all the measures which the european union took coordination with the libyan coast guard i think at the root of everything that we're seeing is an enor

years in syriac, hospitals have been a target under the giroud can then —— under the cheever geneva convention, hospitals are not supposed to be a target. ghouta is it last big on clear that the syrians and russians have not defeated, and it appears that they are having a final push. we are all hopeful that peace talks will start again. i think a lot of us very closely involved have been devastated by the silence of on politicians and western politicians and already calling on president trump, who we just and already calling on president trump, who wejust had, president macron and others to get behind a ceasefire. we feel if a ceasefire can be encouraged, this humanitarian aid for these people can get in and save them. and the un peace process will develop to allow free and fair elections for some time. but at the moment, things are absolutely desperate. we have been in direct contact with the russians, with president putin and with president assad, and they have in the past and load ceasefires, and i think what we really need that is a countrywide ceasefire. otherwise, we are going

quite a shock. from the united nations in geneva came the stiffest of rebukes. these are shocking and shameful comments from the president of the united states. i'm sorry but there's no other word one can use but racist. you cannot dismiss entire countries and continents. the allegation has gone unanswered by the president. he had an opportunity at this ceremony in celebration of martin luther king. but it was awkward. after signing a proclamation in honour of the civil rights leader, mr trump dodged the most uncomfortable of questions. mr president, are you a racist? the president left without responding. he'd earlier tweeted that he'd used "tough" language in a meeting with senators but not the derogatory language attributed to him. peter bowes, bbc news. the leader of the liberal democrats, vince cable, said the president's visit to the uk should not go ahead. if that is the case the government will have to work harder to make sure it doesn't happen because it would be appalling if this man, in view of everything he has said and done, would come and be treated as a state visit. con