As. A un envoy for syria is attending along with syrian. Government representatives but the main Opposition Group is boycotting so what are the chances of success at this meeting while so many others have failed a live report from sochi. Also on the grid on side thousands of workers from the u. N. Agency for Palestinian Refugees take to the series of protests against the u. S. Decision to cut aid to the agency they support some five million palestinians the organization has launched a global fund and campaign to make up the shortfall and taking the heat fitness tracking companies is under scrutiny after i published a heat map showing the exercise rooms of a sousa rom the worlds problem is some of those words appear to reveal secretly u. S. Military locations used by soldiers overseas. Lots of conversation around the story followed. Beyond the Security Issues its brought attention to all the anonymous data thats been collected from our personal devices turns out its not so anonymous i mean are supposed to be this requests and comments throughout the show using the hash tag it. With the news be live on air and streaming online through you tube Facebook Live and at aljazeera dot com thank you for joining us for the first time russia is hosting negotiations on the war in syria while at the same time its forces are helping the Syrian Government on the ground the two Day Conference in sochi is a ready off to a rocky start because the main opposition bloc the High Negotiations Committee is boycotting the meeting but the u. N. Envoy for syria stefan de mistura is attending and so are the representatives from the turkish government and this meeting is part of a long line of initiatives and meetings on syria over the past few years this time the main Opposition Group says its not taking pot because it sees the talks in sochi as an effort to undermine the u. N. Bastion eva talks and while the diplomatic effort goes on in sochi activists have accused Syrian Government forces of killing thirty three civilians in s. Rights in italy province in the past twenty four hours alone so youve got the geneva talks not the negotiations in sochi but dont forget last years asked donna talks held in kazakhstans capital with the aim of reaching a cease fire russia turkey any ron agreed then to set up socalled the escalation zones by Syrian Government forces have been accused of violating the cease fire live to rory chinamans who is in sochi russia for a story so one of the chances of success in sochi when so many of the key players are missing in action. Well it depends i think on who is being asked about that success russia and iran and turkey jointly sponsoring this round of talks in sochi russia has really been pushing this for the last few months trying to get it together trying to get as many different groups from across the spectrum of syrian life to come here and talk it out so they were asking alawite say were asking yazidi as they were osc sunnis and shias they are asking baath this opposition parties and kurds and when it comes down to it a lot of different groups have decided to come here but there are as you said before notable exceptions the Syrian Negotiating Committee has decided to stay away because it thinks that this is a sideshow and distracting from the process in geneva and there are also groups who decided to pull out fairly late on because of attacks that are ongoing in libya and the kurds as well the main body of this sort of separatist regions in northeastern syria they decided to stay away and also were not welcome ankara decided that they did not want to talk to kurdish groups here so the problem is that this has a slight imbalance here and there are important parts of the syrian diaspora the syrian negotiations the syrian Syrian Opposition who have decided to stay away from this and that means that there is a likelihood that this will tend towards a moscow and damascus perspective on the compass so in that case whats the final communique going to look like in social. Well the the expectation is that there is going to be a push for some sort of new Constitutional Committee to be formed out of after this this meeting and that Constitutional Committee is likely to be made up of the Syrian Government on the one side and representatives from the opposition on the other but again as i say if there are important parts of the opposition that are staying away from this whole process then this is going to give the government in damascus an opportunity to portray those groups essentially saboteurs to peace and might well allow the damascus governments or consolidate power even further now the only question of course is which is what the what role the u. N. Is going to play in this stuff and a mystery is here is he going to take this is a valuable part of the process towards getting people back around the table again in geneva well have to wait and see what the official u. N. View of that as as this whole congress pans out probably thank you very much for that well italians live for us in sochi on the news great and this meeting in sochi comes at a time when violence is escalating on several fronts in syria as a bring in Stephanie Deca who is monitoring the situation from near the turkey syria border stephanie on the one hand the russians are talking peace in sochi and on the other hand there and the Syrian Government allies are conducting intensive as rice a deadly province which is supposed to be part of the socalled deescalation zones. Thats right and theyve really been doing for the last two months and at the same time holding those two shootings given the green light for turkey to lose its operation inside africa because russia is control of its airspace and russia had troops on the ground in the day that that offensive was announced and we were here russia and then finally announced it was jordans military personnel so there is a certain irony to this. Weve listened to this for years now just very difficult not to be cynical listening to the politicians from all these Different Countries not particularly coming from syria about now theres only the possibility of a political solution to this conflict before we see here is military right into syria the other day we should the situation today along the border more airstrikes just driving up now going back to our air strikes across the mountains we had a rocket whiz over our heads earlier on today it remains a very active conflict just briefly we talk about the politics of the negotiation the military but there are hundreds of thousands of civilians in it in. Dire circumstances because of the military offensive that keeps on going so you know big question mark as to what is going to be achieved at the negotiating table the real thing is once the countries involved in this how satisfied their spears of influence i think youll find some kind of you know unraveling of this cult that it seems very activity thank you very much for that Stephanie Stephanie for us of the turkey syria border lets explore this further now with Joshua Landis who is director of the center for middle east studies at the university of oklahoma he joins us via skype from ad so in italy thank you very much for being with us joshua just going back to whats happening in sochi right now the High Negotiations Committee the main syrian Opposition Group says this conference by the russians is an attempt to undercut the u. N. Effort to broker a peace deal for syria but at the same time youve got the u. N. Staff envoy to syria whos in sochi stefan de mistura so given the opposition is right in boycotting this process. Well the sochi talks were announced months ago in the meantime if we look at whats happened just the last few months its thrown the entire serious situation into the air first and foremost secretary of States Tillerson who is key to this whole process came out and announced two weeks ago that the United States stood firmly on the side of regime change in syria and was going to keep its troops for the forseeable future there in order to oversee a un mandated elections that would get rid of assad so this has given the opposition a lot of new hope that geneva pressured by that trump and invigorated trumpet ministration will somehow drive a side out and thats going to give courage to up their groups in the meantime turkey isnt made it and turkey has even said that theyre going to push american backed kurds away from the border so we dont know whats going to happen between turkey and United States the kurds twelve percent of the country are not there at these talks the place is in chaos and us side is bombing it led province and others in an attempt to take back rebel parts of syria does war is going to be settled on the battlefield not probably in sochi so you dont think that whatever is going to be decided in sochi over the next two days is going to make a difference as far as the situation on the ground right now. Well russia is a very big player and Assad Military is a big player and they seem determined to push ahead and take back the rebel controlled areas whether snow who time outside of damascus where theres an adlib up near turkey or on the jordanian border and i dont see where russia they want what russia and assad want is the opposition to come and talk about how to surrender the opposition has been given a lot of new courage and new fire in their belly because of what tillerson has said because that turkish invasion against the kurds which has fired up syrian sunni rebel groups that have been working with turkey so there is new hope i think on the horizon that the United States turkey that somehow the rebel groups will find a new fire against russia but some but it seems to our celeb is that right now it is the russians leading this dance in syria and excuse my expression the americans have been taking a step back so how can we really expect u. S. Policy to make a difference as you say well thats the Million Dollar question why would the u. S. Be testifying in congress why would tell us to make these announcements about how our side has to go if they dont plan to do anything thats the big question are they just blowing hot air or are there are they formulating a new policy thats going to get new muscle behind the rebels in meantime the rebels have no interest and going in caving into the russians if the americans are possibly going to give them some new fire. As always very good to hear farce on the situation in syria Joshua Landis from the university of oklahoma joining us there via skype on the news great now youve just heard about the various peace initiatives for syria over the past few years but worth taking a pause also to take a look back at how it all began in february itll be exactly seven years since the start of the war in syria and theres an excellent documentary on aljazeera dot com looking at the very beginning of the uprising its called the boy who started the Syrian Civil War and it tells a story of why yes the man who was just fourteen years old when he sprayed antigovernment graffiti on a school wall in their eyes in february twenty levon it was that minor acts that sparked a full blown civil war its a fascinating film to watch if you can its on aljazeera. And some very good comments on these talks in sochi and also the situation in syria from our viewers here on the news great the far on facebook who says the u. N. Failed to maintain peace in the world they either stand on their feet or dissolve the u. N. Thank you for your comments and you can keep those comments coming by contacting us use the hash tag a. J. News grid on social media and all the other ways to get in touch with us on the bottom right of your screen right now including number seven four five zero one triple one four nine moving on thousands of Union Workers from the u. N. Agency for Palestinian Refugees have been protesting in gaza against cuts to u. S. Aid washington announced it will withdraw millions of dollars worth of funding to the organization which runs nearly three hundred schools in gaza in response the Agency Launch a campaign called dignity is priceless to raise funds for its operations in gaza. Has more from the protests in gaza. This was one of the largest protests seen here in gaza city for a very long time officials are saying at least thirteen thousand people came out was all going to buy the unions clearly a very Big Organization here they were able to get numbers out onto the streets and the protest was really about the austerity measures that the United NationsRelief Works Agency has had to put in place because of the u. S. Funding cuts to its budget for Palestinian Refugees last week the u. S. Announced that it was cutting sixty five Million Dollars from us funding and then they followed up very quickly with a further forty five billion dollars for food aid now the is in crisis mode right now is having to deal with all of these budget cuts and what theyre doing is theyre immediately putting into place hiring freezes for people like Teachers Health workers people that put money into the economy had their families rely on them for the work that they do also they cutting graduate employment programs and theyre also warning that if something doesnt happen if the money isnt in place soon that theyre going to run out within about two months time and theyll have to shut down all of programs and clearly thats a concern to a lot of the palestinians here lets hear from then see what they have to say im not jamie im going to suddenly say we came here today to show our anger and our worry for the future and our destiny as refugees we came here to send a message to both sides first to the side that wants to influence the policies of the agency and clinch the budget the second is for the International Agency to respond and intervene in need of the refugees now whether the International Community is actually listening or not remains to be seen the u. S. Is clearly taking a hard line towards under all this is concerned the United Nations general you said that the United NationsRelief Works Agency is a part of the u. N. The shouldnt be playing politics with it and that the funding should be given to them as soon as possible theyre going to launch another campaign another round. Of looking for financing some figures just be looking for about eight hundred Million Dollars if they dont get that money that doesnt just affect people here in gaza this five million Palestinian Refugees across the region it will affect all of them and in many cases a lot of those palestinians rely on for any the little money the little support the little help that they get now its also a concern to israel as well in the local media in recent days the israelis security agencies have been talking theyve been saying that actually opposes a Security Threat to israel because its not just about the gazan economy here is very fragile its about to collapse according to a lot of the palestinian business workers if the economy collapses if theres no money if that does present a significant security situation for israel and a humanitarian disaster for the palestinians themselves well joining us now on the news great is adnan. Who is on the rise spokesman being the u. N. Refugee agency radical Palestinian Refugees he joins us from gaza thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us what can a strike by under a worker achieves. Yes first of all its not just charlie in our clinics schools did not include they did not close them but it was a peaceful is to live there or to walk for one hour only you know people they are. Handling a lot out to the president of the General Assembly you know there are you know sort of dirty with the agency. You know in bad need of on raw in bad need of and they cannot the minority in gaza can imagine that you know services will be cut off or on the road will disappear because of that there are lots of fields. You know some People Living in all the cannot imagine things you know how they would look like without on. The u. S. Air mob sixty Million Dollars understand allegiance to the twenty eight thousand but they say sixty five Million Dollars will be withheld for future consideration how is this going to affect your operations not just in gaza but in other areas in this region where on rise assisting Palestinian Refugees. Yes were not going talk about oh no were not talking about gaza were talking about syria living on the jordan rose bank and gaza its not only sixty five Million Dollars the United States is the major si