allo good evening. this is al jazeera america. shut down and locked down, the man hunt for a paris attacker in belgium tonight. the discovery of a suicide belt that could help investigators. defeating i.s.i.l., the french president wants the u.s. to play a bigger role. his pitch and the possibility of russia becoming a partner. the new face of america, white christians are no longer the majority and what that change could mean in the political

arena. it is now 5am in brussels, a city still shut down. the government says it hopes to lift the lock down soon. an international man hunt is still under way for salah abdeslam, a key suspect in the paris attacks. he is believed to have travelled to brussels after the deadly raids. meanwhile, an explosive belt without a detonator was found in paris. it contained the same explosive used by the suicide bombers. records place salah abdeslam in the area on the day of the attacks. more on the lock down and the man hunt. >> reporter: at the belgium prime minister's office another late night security briefing. after three days on high alert, a decision to keep the capital's

emergency status at the maximum level for at least another week. with some facilities returning to normal by wednesday. >> translation: we want to do everything we can to return as quickly as possible to normal life. it was decided that schools will be reopened as of wednesday with additional security measures around schools and that the metro would be opened also after wednesday. it's possible that the opening of the metro may be progressive, that everything will be done so we can open it as extensively possible >> reporter: the level 4 tait us here in brussels means that an attack is imminent. for the rest of the country level 3, which means attack is probable. with the alert lasting for several days, the question is how long can people live like this. the security measures have seen the brussels underground metro system closed for a third day

and schools shut across the capital. at the main stations as people begin returning to work staff try to direct people to alternative routes. the overground transport system is running, but the knock-on effect of the security clamp down has been enormous. -- they say that the brussels drive normally, but apparently they drive normally-- buses drive normally, but a lot of drivers didn't come to work because they're scared. -- i go to work in hospital, but metro, no metro, so i take tram and tram and tram. so i'm already late for work. >> reporter: in the last two days police have mounted a series of raids in brussels, search and arrest operations were also mounted in other cities, dozens were detained, several remain in custody for questioning. police say one person has been

charged with terror-related offences drinked directly-- linked directly to the paris attacks. still little progress in the hann hunt for salah abdeslam thought to be one of the paris gunmen. police believe when he escapped after the attacks he may still have been wearing an explosive vest. nonessential meetings have been cancelled here. the cismd and canadian embassys have closed consular services. schools and universities will be opened as soon as possible, but with the heavy armed presence set to continue, it could be much longer before normality returns brittain's prime minister says he wants to increase targets on i.s.i.l. in syria. he was to seek approval of the plan from reluctant british law makers. he made the pledge on his visit

to paris with francois hollande. francois hollande heads to washington dc to meet with president obama tomorrow and then off to moscow to meet putin. more on what francois hollande hopes to accomplish now >> reporter: a relationship centuries old. u.s. leaders have called france america's oldest ally. -- france is america's oldest friend. our first ally. >> reporter: the statue of liberty a symbol of that friendship. francois hollande is asking the international community to work together in the wake of this month's attacks in paris. >> translation: these actions confirm, once again, that we are at war. a war against terrorists who themselves brought war to us. >> reporter: the paris attacks thrusting p france and francois hollande into the center of the fight against i.s.i.l. -- he is taking a much greater role and much greater leadership

within this international community. >> reporter: francois hollande kicked off a week of international meetings monday with british p.m. cameron. -- i firmly support the action that president francois hollande has taken to strike i.s.i.l. in syria and it is my firm conviction that britain should do so too. >> reporter: it is the start of shuttle dip loam where he drn-- diplomacy. -- he did not get a very strong response from us americans, i don't think, in the sense that we pledge manied our undying solidarity and we could do everything. he is not considering ground forces. >> reporter: francois hollande may call for more weapons in the hands of rebels. information sharing about targets. -- intelligence has only been shared after the paris attacks. this is what allowed paris to undertake these strikes on

raqqa. -- don't forget that after washington francois hollande is moving to moscow and this will be the on most important part of the visit of the strip and this is why also i think what francois hollande is expecting is to really have a clear pledge by his american court part, president obama, to really have a firmer stance on the next meetings of vienna with the russians >> reporter: the talks over future have been stymied by the issue of bashar al-assad who russia wants to keep in power. the french remember 2013 when president obama backed off threatening bashar al-assad despite his use of chemical weapons -- we have been very clear to the outside regime, but also to other players on the ground that a red line for us is

we start saying a whole bunch of chemical weapons muffling around were being utilised. that would change my equation. >> reporter: learning from that red line, france is now intent on building coalitions, not just with its long time american ally, but other nations concerned about i.s.i.l. >> reporter: the state department has posted an unusually broad worldwide travel alert. it urges u.s. citizens to be alert to possible terrorist activity while overseas. the department cites increasing threats from i.s.i.l., al-qaeda, boko haram and other groups. people should be vigilant when attending large public gatherings. the alert will remain in effect for three months. russia president putin has spent the day in iran and he pledged new cooperation with iran's nuclear ambitions. he met with the counterpart in tie ran.

he lifted annex port ban on nuclear equipment and technology to iran. now russian companies will be able to work on iranian nuclear sites and take part in uranium trade from iranians. two pilots died together in south korea. it went down 90 miles east of seoul. the names have not been released. the choppier may have hit voltage power lines before the crash. one of the biggest mergers in corporate history is once again raising questions about big drug companies avoiding factiones. it is two pharmaceutical companies. it is a move that will constantly reduce the company's tax rate >> reporter: the merger between fhizer and alle are gan is one

of the big deals, said to be 160 billion dollars. -- we need to say what lives are we attaching today and making better >> reporter: it is aimed at helping the company save billions of dollars in tax elizabeth. it is hoard in ireland, meaning-- head quarerred in island. the maker of botox will be the buyer, even though fhizer is the bigger company. the transaction would side step rules known as corporate inversions. it will allow it to lower its tax from 25% to 15%. the ceo says there no competitive advantaged to being head quartered in the u.s. -- i have companies that have tax rates of 50% who can invest more

in research than we can, and we're fighting one hand tied behind our back >> reporter: the maker of viagara and lipitor has cut sales by more than 228 billion by 2010 the united states population has passed a major milestone. white christians make up less than half of americans now. what that shift means on the political front. why donald trump seems immune to accusations he has been making up stories and statistics on the campaign trail.

a controversial abortion law has been ruled unconstitutional. it required abortion provided to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. appeals court said that amounts to a constitutional restriction on abortion. the u.s. court is said to hear a case out of texas which should consider the matter nationally. women will be able to get prescriptions for contraceptives from a pharmacist. a prescription will be issued after a screening process. a pure research survey published today show white christians no longer make up the majority of americans.

their numbers are down in most demographic group, especially for one the republican party. it has been a shift -- this has all taken place over the last nine to 10 years. at least that's the time frame that has been showing up. this could be a problem for the party as it tiptoes to win back the white house in a company that the base, middle age to older white chrissens are dwindling. >> reporter: look at these pictures. notice anything? the people are mostly white. a new survey by the research center suggests that white christians make up less than half the u.s. population, proceeding with one key exception, the republican party. according to the survey, just

46% of american adults are white christians down from 55% in 2007. pugh says gnarl seven out of 10, 69% identify with or lean towards the g.o.p. while just 31% go for the democrats. >> reporter: gem - gem graphically, the republican is in a pickle. >> reporter: it is a problem for the republicans. -- it has a coalition base, a support base that is getting older, that is whiter certainly than the democratic party, and as the united states of america becomes as multi registrational country, that is playing into the democrats favor rather than the republican. >> reporter: among white chris tenses, 32% lean towards democrats and 13% the republicans in which case why aren't people flocking to ben

carson, clearly a non-christian. -- they're not interested in ben carson versus hillary clinton. they have had a long history over the past several generations, several decades with the democratic party. >> reporter: experts say the white christian downward shift is partially due to the nation's growing ethnic diversity abdomen the increasing number of americans who don't have any religious affiliations of course, that was the big news from the pugh organization at the beginning of this month when they revealed that 63% of those surveyed said they're absolutely certain god exists compared to 71% in 2007 when they did the survey lost it donald trump is known for speaking his mind and that sometimes gets him in trouble. his recent claims about the 911 attacks and the white house plan for syrian refugees has raised

eyebrows. now his rivals are starting to use his words against him -- get him out of here >> reporter: it was another weekend of controversy for republican presidential front runner donald trump. on saturday a black activist interrupted him. security officers appeared to punch and kick a response donald trump defended. -- maybe he should have been roughed up because it was stuffeding what he was doing >> reporter: he was claiming that on 911 after the attacks on the twin tours he saw a frightening reaction from muslims nearby -- i watched in jeer see city in new jersey where thousands of people were cheering as that building kass coming down >> reporter: there is no evidence such celebrations, if any, occurred at all were broadcast on tv. still, on sunday trump doubled down -- did you misspeak?

reporter: provoketive and questionable statements have long been a hall mark of his campaign. critics appeared rivals have repeatedly said he is stoking racial tensions. jab bush says his comments about muslim are manipulating peoples angsts and fears. he also recently hammered neural surgeon ben carson. -- he said he has got pathological disease. he actually said path lodge kaeng temper and then he defined it as disease. he said he has pathological disease >> reporter: by pathological trump added this -- if you're a child monthliester, a sick puppy, there's no cure for that. -- what he does is speak the way regular people speak, not in terms of a neuro surgeon or governor or a long time senator.

he just lets it fly and that's how most people talk when they're comfortable talking to pair pals. >> reporter: trump's misleading claims are getting a pass right now for other reasons as well. a recent washing post abc news policy suggested that 75% of republicans believe most people in politics cannot be trusted -- people absolutely believe that politicians over state so he is no different from any other politician in most people's view. he just says it in a different way >> reporter: even a few of his own supporters will acknowledge some of his claims are absurd, but they say his sentiments are spot on -- we're very stupid people running our country. the illegal immigrants are being treated better than our vets. that's sad >> reporter: railways rivals are beginning to ratchet up attacks aimed at trump.

on friday this was released -- no. natural. i want a database of refugees. >> reporter: analysts say it is only a party of time that ads turn trump's own rhetoric against him -- how stupid are the people of iowa abdomen the people of the country to believe this crap? some there are now only three northern white rhinos left on earth. one was put down. how they're hoping to save the species from extinction.

announcer: zoo announced the death of a white rhino. there are only three white rhein rhinos are left on earth. her health had declined. in kenya armed guards are being used around the clock to ensure the survival of the remaining three. an in-vitro program is moving forward in an attempt to

repopulate the species. animal ambassador working with the program. we appreciate you working with us which has been a sad day for you. your zoo has rescued other species for distinction. you tried with white rhinos. why didn't it work?

we hoped that we would have success with the white rhinos why did we get to this point? why did we get to this almost extinction? was it poaching?

is enough being done?

free in the wild. we could have success genetical speaker. we haven't done the science that we're going to do in an attempt to have a southern white rhino be a surrogate for the northern. we know they're very closely related. the challenges is because it has never been done in rhinos, their reproductive systems are unique. we will keep hopeful that we will have live cous in 10 years it could take decades and cost many millions to do it. why is it worth it?

just in times for thanks giving holiday travel, a new transportation study out today confirms the country's top 50 highway bottle next are not only wasting driver's times, they're hurting the economy as well. interstate 910 is one of the big. it costs 418 million dollars of lost productivity. transportation secretary says the impact of those losses is especially severe for state budgets >> reporter: there's not enough money in the system now to build the road systems that we need going forward. that's one of the reasons why a long time highway build is so critical because it sets the table for folks to be able to make decisions at the state level about what they can and cannot do and where they want to be innovative or not. many states are dealing in a vacuum because they don't have certainty from the federal government the report says that overall there are too many drivers and

not enough space to accommodate them. thanks for joining us for the latest news. any time you can head over to aljazeera.com. ray suarez is up next with "inside story". ♪ >> the united states has sent military forces to war in many places in the last 60 years, korea, vietnam, the dominican republic, kosovo, afghanistan, iraq again, without the congress doing what is specified in the constitution, declaring war against a national enemy. there is a growing sentiment among americans that the united states should send ground troops to syria. we're asking, anything to declare? it's the "inside story." ♪