A resolution condemning chemical weapons in syria. U. S. Financial markets plunge is it a correction all the start of something bigger. The state of emergency is declared in the political crisis in the mall to use it deepens. And after a week of posturing in washington over a republican memo about the f. B. I. Now its the democrats turn. Russia has blocked a u. N. Security Council Statement condemning the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian Government the u. S. Ambassador Nikki Haley Says there is obvious evidence of recent chlorine gas attacks by the assad regime but russia is accusing the u. S. Of waging a Propaganda Campaign as that debate was taking place at least forty nine people were killed by syrian and russian airstrikes in the province and eastern go to according to activists outside syria aid agencies are warning that hundreds of thousands of displaced syrians are at risk of being forcibly returned to their homes despite the violence continues to talk but on this issue is unable to act the continuing sporadic Chemical Attacks underlining its weakness and undermining the International Consensus against the use of some of the worlds most hideous weapons james out of the United Nations well as we heard a moment ago aid agencies say the displaced syrians are at risk of being forced to return home despite the fighting a new report says gains by the Syrian Government are giving a false impression that many areas a stable enough to go back to is in a harder has more from Lebanons Bekaa valley. He says sheriff says some of his family members were killed in the war in neighboring syria he has also lost contact with others who have been displaced lebanon has been his home for six years he is from the opposition held province of idlib and for him going back is not an option. We want to save zone to return to otherwise where do they want us to go back to do they want us to die if we go back will be able bodied theres nowhere safe theres only death. It live is a deescalation zone there is supposed to be a ceasefire here instead civilians are being killed in almost daily airstrikes by syrian and russian planes humanitarian agencies say the violence in some parts of syria means its still not safe for refugees to return they are warning governments in europe the United States and the region not to force them back we the humanitarian organizations that are on the ground in syria and in the neighboring countries we call this report dangerous grounds for the simple reason that these women children and men have to be informed of the conditions and we have to assure that it is voluntary when they go back and then we have to assist and protect the return. The u. N. Doesnt have exact numbers but the figures available show some seventy thousand refugees returned on their own from neighboring countries last year but aid agencies say for every returning there were three more uli displaced because of the violence since mid december more than two hundred thousand people had to leave their homes because of fighting in the southern edges of it lip province. Government forces control the main cities theyve recaptured a lot of territory from the opposition i saw has been pushed out of many areas and there are local cease fire agreements in place but the picture is misleading there are many areas where fighting continues its not just safety there is widespread destruction there are few civilian facilities left of hospitals have been hit mass returns cant be sustainable if these people cant find jobs and if there is no health care or schools. There are no proper Living Conditions imagine if i need to take my children to a doctor there are no Health Centers there is no life there im afraid of the day when they kick us out of here lebanons government says there will be no forced returns and any returns will be coordinated with the United Nations but refugees here are still worried so are aid agencies that is why they are warning no one should be forced back to syria without a plan that takes into account their safety and wellbeing. Because valley lebannon ok to the u. S. Economy now stock markets in new york have suffered big losses on monday with concerns over a possible Interest Rate rise seen as the main cause the dow jones index crashed back through the twenty five thousand mark meaning it wiped off all the gains its made over the last month or so in jordan reports from washington d. C. If investors werent spooked by the u. S. Stock market selloff on friday theyre almost certainly wishing theyd put in for a three day weekend the Dow Jones Industrial average fell four point six percent on monday and its down eight point five percent since its high point on january twenty sixth that means stocks are now cheaper but the value of retirement and investment accounts has dropped making americans poorer at least on paper some market watchers fear the u. S. Could be on the brink of recession but not everyone agrees in reality it feels that way but its not really to the point where we can say its a repeat of one thousand nine hundred eighty seven now i think investors need to be calm i think they have to look at the the whole picture. And and the economic picture remains quite strong while traders dumped everything from energy to finance and tech stocks the u. S. President donald trump said nothing just last week trump was bragging about the stock market strike but in cincinnati he was celebrating tax cuts and accusing Congressional Democrats of trying to sabotage the economy somebody is a treasonous i mean just why not now we call that treason why not. I mean they certainly didnt seem to love our country very much but you look at that and its its really very very sad Later White House aides released a statement downplaying the market turmoil and praising the president s focus on tax cuts and deregulation still Barack Obamas former press secretary jay carney taunted trump on twitter quote we never boasted about the stock market because we knew two things one the stock market is not the economy and two if you claim the rise you own the fall the stock selloff comes at a time of change at the u. S. The central bank on monday Jerome Powell was sworn in as the Federal Reserve chairman replacing janet yellen she had been criticized for not raising Interest Rates quickly enough to curb inflation but now economists will be watching help out keeps the u. S. Economy humming and investors from panicking a difficult test in his first days on the job rosalyn jordan aljazeera washington ok lets take a look at how the does being playing out recently over the last five trading days in the drop in the Dow Jones Industrial average has been state but when we compare that to the dows performance over the past three months the losses of the past few days have only wiped out the markets gains since december when we look back further across a six month period where you can see the dows overall trend is still increasing making these most recent losses arguably just a normalize ation. Well todays trading is well underway across asia stock indices there are following the dows q. And theyre heading downwards the main stock index in australia open about two and a half percent lower in tokyo where its approaching a day run about the benchmark nikkei index is down about five percent rajeev bass was the asia pacific chief economist for i. H. S. Global insight hes joining us now from singapore via skype im also seeing that the hong kong is done by about three point seven seven percent given the fact that the u. S. Market has been on this increasing trend for some time now and the usual answer if i understand it correctly is to rack up the Interest Rates in order to be able to take some of the heat out of the that everybody seems to be reacting as though this is some sort of surprise but is it. Well i think the. Expectations last year in terms of the outlook for the markets was too complacent basically the puzzle that confronted the bad throughout twenty seven was that wages in the u. S. Have not been really showing any upward momentum even though unemployment well and to four point one percent by the end of last year so i think what were now seeing is a pullback in rubble markets because weve suddenly seen in the january payrolls numbers that are out of reach are really earnings jumped up to two point nine percent year over year thats quite a big upturn and so i think its jolted Financial Markets worldwide out of their complacency about the outlook for inflation in the u. S. Because now with the higher average Hourly Earnings the fear is that the fed is behind the curve and that the fed will now be more aggressive in their training we had expected three rate hikes this year weve now increased up to four rate hikes from the fed this year and so i think what were seeing in a shop and in Global Markets generally is a repricing of assets to meet this new reality. Of higher inflation in the u. S. So then of course im only in that seeing higher inflation in asia as well sorry to interrupt you there but i just you raise an interesting point in times of the timescale of this are we just seeing that the markets around the world making that readjustment to account for all of the circumstances that youve been talking about in the u. S. Or is this the beginning of a period of volatility thats going to last for a while. I think its a readjustment i think its a repricing of assets to take into account the increased outlook throat higher inflation in the u. S. But at the moment probably the expectations for higher inflation if they could still be too low and thats the issue that weve already seen bone yields in the u. S. For the ten years getting up to almost three percent and thats a very rock that is just the feeling of this year and so if we were to see that inflation pressures continue to rise particularly wage costs in the us it could mean more heavy weather for Global Equity markets i think right now this is a temporary correction to price and the new higher inflation levels that are associated with that wage rise that were seeing but the reality is u. S. Unemployment is only one point one percent on the economy is looking in pretty good shape so although thats good for earnings it also means that wages many start showing some further upward pressure so i think the risks are there that we could see some bump he whether the equity markets the cheekily if we see more evidence that the u. S. Labor market is tightening and that wages are moving higher so on the one who wrote in the Global Economy its very positive you know strong growth in the u. S. Helped by the time its also a very strong growth in the euro zone and pretty robust growth in china so on the growth front thats good right but its but the theory now is that wages in the u. S. Are going higher and dots really whats in markets right now so i think at least a temporary adjustment for markets can again work all of the higher earnings expectations. Via test Global Insight we appreciate your time giving us that explanation thank you very much indeed thank you. Plenty more ahead in the news hour including new doubts about the future of south africas president as the a. N. C. Calls a special meeting to discuss his fate. Were going to have more on why one of asias poorest countries could be borrowing too much money from its neighbors and in sports the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback has been named the super bowls most valuable player after guiding his team to a dramatic victory. The u. S. House Intelligence Committees voted to release a memo prepared by the committees democrats as a rebuttal to a controversial republican documents made public on friday that republican memo was declassified by President Donald Trump and it contained allegations of f. B. I. Bias and abuse of power in the way it spied on a trump aide the f. B. I. Questioned the accuracy of the republican memo saying it contained a missions of fact the committees top democrat adam schiff says the president will need to approve the rival papers release i think its going to be very hard for the white house like it was hard for the republicans on the committee to block release of this i am more concerned that they make political redactions not redactions to protect sources and methods and thats why were going to insist that the department of justice and the f. B. I. Report to us on what reactions they think are necessary so that we can segregate any political interference from the white house which of goodstein is a Democratic Political consultant who was a former advisor to president bill clinton hes joining me now from washington d. C. Thanks very much indeed for being with us what do you think the democrats have thank you for having me what do you think the democrats have had to put in their memo to try to counteract the republican one. Well for one thing i think the republican the newness memo on its own frankly if it just sat out there would be kind of the focus that would show how lacking that memo is in force and trying to kind of make the case that somehow or other this investigation should be ended if anything it demonstrated that well before there was any surveillance on anybody connected with the campaign there was already information coming to the f. B. I. From this fellow George Papadopoulos who couldnt quite help himself but talking about how they were interested in getting the dope on Hillary Clinton i think actually the democrats are going to be very methodical in their memo which will see presumably in showing the ways in which the new nest memo was lacking or distorted the facts that are on the Public Record without presumably disclosing anything thats classified you know we heard from the shift just a few moments ago saying that the next stage is of course for the president to give his approval to have this released under what circumstances could the president either block this or redact parts of it. You know its funny rob the fact is i think its a general belief that the republican memo was allowed into the Public Domain a week ahead of what even if the white house approves the release of the democratic memo to let the public kind of kind of true on the newness memo to see if it kind of had any. Kind of. Kind of feeling that of truth and i think the answer is it has and its really kind of fallen flat could the president monkey with it he could but i think that frankly look every step in my humble opinion that the president is taking is not consistent with the steps taken by somebody who believes who believes it and is in a sense hes taking steps firing komi firing you know getting rid of the number two man at the f. B. I. Became lying about a meeting that his son was involved in with the russians in june of two thousand and sixteen every step hes said and done things that are not consistent with the actions of somebody whos innocent so if you proceed to redact things or withhold it altogether honestly i think that would kind of reinforce the notion that he thinks hes got something to hide given the fact that were concentrating so much on the to and fro about these two memos does this do you think have any bearing the toll on the standing of the miller investigation and the direction its going to take. I dont i dont want one quick thing if i can i actually think theres a possibility that the Stock Market Movement downward starting friday happened to coincide with the release of the newness of the republican memo which was so wanting that i think any investor who thought well maybe this whole investigation of really will go away like the republicans are claiming and when they read it i think people thought this is going to be here for a long time i dont think its going to be any impact whatsoever on the look i think muller and his team are going to be driven by facts not by either partys spin or take on what the facts are but just by the facts and i think this is not going to end anytime soon i think frankly people who are in the trump orbit are theyre all getting a lawyer and i think theyre all going to be in for some rough sledding and one of this implication of this is the wage that has been driven between the trumpet ministration the white house and the Intelligence Community in the u. S. Now in many ways this might put the Intelligence Community in a difficult position because they are not presumably forced to try to demonstrate that they are bipartisan that they are not in any way allies to any Political Party and regain trust of the American People how can they do that do you think. You know its an excellent question i will tell you this is the republican notion that somehow the f. B. I. Is in the back pocket of democrats is belied by the fact that during the twenty sixteen campaign it was komi then the head of the f. B. I. Who twice when he had an initial press conference about Hillary Clintons emails and then ten days before the election issued a letter that again drew attention to this that really i think wards the cause of her undoing if you look at the polls right before that second that komi letter she was running way ahead and then proceeded to drop at the same time that the f. B. I. Knew that the russians were trying to mettle to help donald trump and said nothing to the American Public i think that again the f. B.