tv Weekend News Al Jazeera January 24, 2016 8:00pm-9:01pm EST
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8 to 9 news this is al jazeera america with a look at today's top stories. russian air strikes against i.s.i.l. in syria intensified this weekend on the eve of scheduled united nations talks on ending the country's nearly five-year war. thousands are digging out after the record breaking blizzard that pounded the east coast. it left at least 25 people dead.
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nine days left before voters make the first choice about who should be the next occupant of the white house. the upcoming elections become the backdrop for a fight over voting rights. we look at the federal court case over highly dismissive voters identifiation laws. - identification laws we begin tonight with the war in syria. the secretary of state john kerry spent the weekend trying to shore up the peace talks. meetings were scheduled to begin tomorrow in geneva, but a diplomat close to the negotiations says it is now unlikely to get underway before wednesday. delegates for the syrian opposition say kerry is pressuring them to participate so that they can negotiate a halt to air strikes, one of their preconditions for a meeting. an independent monitoring group
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tells al jazeera russian air strikes have killed 1500 people in syria since they began in september during a meeting with gulf leaders kerry tried to give assurances for reaching a political solution. >> we are confident that with good initiative in the next day or so those talks can get going and that the u.n. representative special envoy will be convening people in an appropriate manner for the proximity talks that will be the first meeting in geneva to begin to lay down the process to try very hard to implement the geneva agreement meanwhile he was on work on the peace talks and the fighting in syria persisted. videos from social media show i.s.i.l. fighters clashing with syrian forces yesterday in
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aleppo helped by russian air strikes today syrian forces seized control of a rebel stronghold in the west. in the city the air strikes were blamed for casualties. >> reporter: they gather to search for bodies, to sift through their belongings and what's left of their homes. villagers here say air strikes to saturday killed relatives and friends, just ordinary citizens. this man could only muster a prayer calling on god to help his people. rights groups say russian jepts are responsible for the strikes and that this is not the first time. dozens of civilians are reported to have dies during days of bombing. russia launched its military
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operation in syria and have flown 5700 missions. rights groups say more than a thousand civilians have lost their lives in that time. moscow continues to insist that its campaign is directed at i.s.i.l. and other armed groups. it's also rejected claims that aircraft have hit civilians saying instead that it uses planes to drop humanitarian aid to those living in besieged areas. >> translation: i think that today there is not a single army in the world that would talk about its military operation so thoroughly as the russians have in syria. i would like to stress it's an operation against international terrorism in this region. >> reporter: i.s.i.l. controls most of the province here. it has kept the remaining pockets of government-held pockets there under siege for the past year.
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this week it has been on the push to capture those areas. the russians say the intensified aerial bombardments are to counter that push by i.s.i.l. fighters, but the people here say it's all been at their expense joining me now is joshua landers. thank you for joining us. first, about the peace talks with geneva, what is your understanding about what has apparently delayed them? >> there is a lot of dispute about who is going to be in the talks. russia has asked that the kurds be represented. they're about 10% of the syrian population. they have carved out a rather independent state.
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in a northern strip along the turkish border. the regime is favorable towards the kurds and the opposition, the rebels, are not. so that is complicating things. they've also asked that a moderate opposition person, and the saudis and the opposition that met in riyadh do not want either of these people included in the opposition. they say we've already established who the opposition is and it's not fair for the russians to be trying to say who the opposition are given the fact that russia has apparently, obviously, changed the situation on the ground helping bashar al-assad's forces to retake territory that had been controlled by some opposition fighters, given the picture on the battle field, what is your best analysis of what can come out of the geneva
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peace talks in whatever form they take place? >> you're absolutely right to point to the balance of power. the balance of power has shifted very dramatically in bashar al-assad's favor since the russians stepped in at the end of september and our bombing with a very advanced air force. this is causing the rebels to lose a considerable amount of land since they entered in. we just saw today it has fallen, the last big town where rebels were holed up in the province the latakia. so the rebels have been pushed out of that province so the next province will be idlib. so this is difficult for rebels to make demands. the bashar al-assad administration or the government said we're going to geneva to listen, but not to negotiate. we will make no concessions. so it's very difficult for the
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syrian opposition to get anything out of these negotiations is u.s. involvement in the peace talks helpful, hurtful or inconsequential? >> i'm losing you in my ear i will repeat the question. with respect to secretary kerry and u.s. intervention, is u.s. involvement in the upcoming geneva peace talks helpful, hurtful or inconsequential? >> there's a great deal of - the rebels and the opposition are very angry right now because kerry has told them that they've got to be flexible. russia holds the cards and kerry wants to get these talks off the ground and moving because if necessity stall now and they come appears, a great deal of energy has been put into them. the united states doesn't have a lot of cards to play. president obama made it very
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clear on september 30 when he said the united states is not going to get into a proxy war with the russians over syria. so kerry has got a limited amount of cords. the saw-- cards. the saudi foreign minister when he met with the opposition in riyadh opened the meeting and said there is a military solution about president bashar al-assad doesn't agree to step down. i think the syrian opposition are counting on the saudis. they have gone to the talks because the saudis have insisted they go to please the americans, but they have given backbone saying there are military options. i think the syrians are going to be looking to the saudis to see what kind of military options are there for the opposition if the u.s. doesn't support a military option, can the saudis reasonably be expected to engage in any kind of military option because, after all, the saudis are very close to the
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u.s. correct? >> that is true. the saudis are, of course, bogged down in a very bad situation in yemen. the saudis are supplying most of the money and we saw from a new york times story today in the paper there is a big story that most c ichl a money that has gone to the rebels has been supplied by saudi arabia. they have been supplying the missiles, most of them, and other heavy weaponry that the rebels have used favorably. so i think they're going to turn to the saudis and say you've got to up the number of weapons, the money and we need better - we need to be able to face this air force. they're going to want anti aircraft missiles and that is what turned things around in yemen for the arab fighters and the muhajideen. so far nobody has supplied the
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syrian rebels with anti aircraft missiles will people watch what is happening with the-- we will watching what happens. thank you now to the deadly blizzard that paralysed most of the east of the country. some areas were buried under two feet of snow. air travel remains paralysed for many with thousands of flights cancelled. our correspondent is live in new york city. do you think new york will be up and running by business tomorrow morning? >> reporter: the schools are supposed to be opened tomorrow much to the sdament of a couple-- disappointment to a couple of kids who wanted a snow day. if you take a look around the streets are again filled with cars. yesterday at this time they were pretty empty.
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everybody was staying inside. the city has sent out 4600 workers working around the clock to clean up these streets and all day today we saw more and more people venturing outside. snow from saturday's blizzard plus wind and rising tides flooded towns up and down the jersey shore. people are cleaning up and dealing with damage like this church that collapsed under the weight of the snow. >> i opened up the door and looked up and just a gaping hole in the roof. some 60 foot by 60 foot the firefighters told us. >> reporter: it dumped up to 40 inch epz of snow parcel liesing road and rail travel and cutting power to 200,000 people. in new york 30 inches of snow fell in some areas >> this storm was the second largest snow storm in term of accumulation in the history of this city.
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>> reporter: the mayor lift you a one-day ban on driving put in place on saturday to try and get the streets cleaned. this man working for the city, it took him and his crew six hours to shovel here. >> i'm 56 6 years old. -- a56 years old. >> reporter: the city said to shoefl carefulfully. >> don't use your back. bend your knees. there you go, just like that. you're a professional already. you're already a professional. >> reporter: i'm from north dakot, i should know how to do it >> i should say >> reporter: people emerged from their homes and tried to free their bury cards. >> i have been in the city since
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1978. i haven't seen a big a dig out or burial. >> reporter: for families like this in central park, the day after the blizzard was a day of fun >> i love it. it's a party. it's a snow festival. it's play all day. it's fun. >> translation: i'm sledding and i was having that snow ball fight with my brother. >> reporter: who won? >> he won. >> reporter: the three airports around new york city are open, but hundreds of flights have been cancelled so people who are planning to fly through those airports should check with their airline first thank you. to washington dc. what's happening there? >> reporter: i will do anything for money, you know me. that's the way it just is. the news here at washington dc is the people are poking their
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noses out gradually to see what has been going on. they realized that the world didn't end over the weekend, which is good news, of course, and they have seen the blue skies are and have been coming out to get rid of that cabin fever. here we have some headline news regarding tomorrow, and that is that the federal government will be closed. it doesn't happen very often as you know. i think the last time was in 2010 during the snowmageddon. this is a reasonably rare event. the dc will be closed tomorrow all except for the sanitation department. the streets need to be cleared in order to do their work. take a listen. >> we want to have tomorrow to continue to keep cars off the road so that we can clear those major arterials and clear the
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places where people would normally park. >> reporter: the federal government, the dc government shut tomorrow, then. also to the north in merrylands, larry hogan has cancelled the business tomorrow and to the south the mayor has done the same in virginia which which had the most snow fall of all. which was 30 inches in all i think up next reaction to donald trump's comments about his loyal supporters. >> i could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot somebody and i wouldn't lose any voters. okay. it's like incredible comments about gun violence when we come back. later, a national fight over fighting rights. we look at the court case over highly divisive laws.
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>> reporter: it has been a roller-coaster of high hopes and low disappointments for this woman and her family since president obama announced his executive actions on immigration in 2014. at first it looked like they could receive permission to lawfully live and work here. she had had plans to finish her degree in dental surgery in the u.s. >> translation: it was a dream come true, she says, to improve our future with the work permit and a better job. she is among the four million undocumented immigrants who may have qualified because they have u.s. born children. the president's program known as dappa never took effect. halted by a lawsuit filed by texas and 25 other mostly republican-led states claiming obama lacked authority to take the executive actions. we had already prepared documents for the application and made plans she says, but then suddenly the opportunity
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disappeared. we still hope, though, that it will happen she says. that day may come by this summer if the supreme court sides with the administrative station. the attorney-general is on plotting the course. he stated: practice practice >> reporter: meanwhile the obama admission recent raids targeting central american women and children for deportation has sent mixed messages to the immigrant community. >> the officers have entered the bedrooms of sleeping children to snatch them from their homes and put them in these jails. >> reporter: i'm worried they will knock on my door she says. i'm scared they will take me away from my daughter who was born here and deport me. if the supreme court rules in the white house's favor, at best
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the obama administration would have seven months to put its immigration plan into action, all of which can be undone with the stroke of a pen by a new preside president in the race for the white house the boston globe is throwing its support behind the hillary clinton campaign. the paper endorsement of the candidate comes just 16 days before the new hampshire primary. only eight days remain until the start of the iowa caucuses. on the republican side marco rubio is taking aim at president obama's executive actions >> when i get to the ovl office, i'm going to repeal every single one of obama's unconstitutional executive orders the 44 year old senator continued his nine day sprint across iowa. he will appear with senator joan
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oo ernst tomorrow. the new york mayor responded to comments made by donald trump. heed he could commit a violent crime and not lose a single supporter donald trump said >> i could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn't lose any voters he criticized his statements and questioned his fitness to run the country >> it is incensetive. for someone who says he wants to be president to say that, it shows he is not just presidential. it is incredibly arrogant too for him to suggest that his voters be with him no matter what he does. this is an indicator that donald trump is not ready for prime time >> reporter: the mayor is a major supporter of hillary clinton. donald trump says the mayor has been doing a poor job running the city of new york. the candidates are responding to the news that former new york
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city mayor, michael bloomburg, is contemplating running as an independent but on n.b.c. meet the press hillary clinton dismissed the possibility. >> he is a good friends of mine and-- friend of mine and i'm going to do the best i can to make sure i will get the nomination and we will go from there >> reporter: you're not worried about him getting it? >> the way i read what he said is if i didn't get the nomination, he might consider it. i'm going to relieve him of that and get the nomination, so he doesn't have to the main democratic opponent bernie sanders also spoke about a possible bloomberg run today >> if donald trump wins and mr bloomberg gets in two multi billionaires run for the president of the u.s. against me. i think the american people do
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not want to see our nation move towards a tycoon era he said he would spend at least one billion of his own money on a campaign, but he will not make a decision until march. after dealing with this weekend's snow emergency new jersey governor chris christie headed to new hampshire. he used his state's handling of the storm of his example of his ability to make people feel safe and secure. he said voters could not fix what is wrong with the country with anger. he said he is mad enough to burn down washington because it is so ineffective but asked who is going to rebuild it. john kasich is also skipping iowa to focus on new hampshire. he held another town hall there today. he is on track to pass 100 town halls in new hampshire and it is helping. john kasich is second in a number of recent polls there.
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donald trump still holds a strong lead. obama says he does not mind candidates videoing for the presidency. he said he would not run for a third term even if he could, noting he is looking forward to getting out of the bubble of constant security presence >> the bubble is the hardest thing about the presidency. i don't think anybody would ever get used to it. it is the things that makes he happiest about my tenure coming to an end president obama added that he is ready to turn over the keys to the white house because he feels confident about the progress he has made as president. up next, the highly charged national debate over voting rights. we look at the federal court case over voter identification laws, the topics of tonight's
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peace talks in syria were meant to be beginning in geneva tomorrow but it is now unlikely to get underway before wednesday. a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck on sunday morning. several homes were destroyed after the quake triggered a natural gas leak. after shocks could continue for weeks it is sunday might and time for our regular look at the week ahead. north carl carl id law act has been in place since 2013. it eliminates same day registration, cuts early voting by a week and starting with the 2016 election it requires voters to show specific forms of id. the id provision is unfair to poor, young and minority voters
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it is said. it was first challenged last summer. this week the court will hear arguments in favor of the original more restrictive law. the case will be closely watched. republicans claims these laws are necessary to prevent fraud and preserve the integrity of the electoral process. democrats call them a thinly veiled power. >> reporter: we are less than two weeks from the presidential primaries beginning here in the u.s. it starts off in iowa with the caucuses then onto new hampshire south carl carl and florida. six weeks from now it will hit north carl carl where a new law will require all people going out to vote to have an official government id. >> it is cynical, it is hurtful, it is wrong. it is a form of political
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violence. all of america should be ashamed and we have to fight here in north carolina because if this becomes the precedent in the law, then they could spread this all over the country. >> reporter: but there are many who do not agree. one of them is the governor of north carolina >> many of those from the extreme left who have been criticizing photo id are using scare tactics. they're more interested in the vice of politics. >> make sure you are registered >> reporter: voting right advocates will be out and about across the state. many polling booths will be there to answer questions about the new law. they have their own educational booklets that they will be passing out to voters to help answer many of these new answers. -- nuances in the city now jennifer
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clerk and john fund, columnist with the national review. until about 2003 most states did not require any form of id in order to be able to vote. what happened after 2003 that caused this sudden increase? we have 30 states with various forms of id and many of them are being challenged? >> many did require it and after 2000 the florida recount between bush and gore, there was an incredible focus how much a few votes can affect the polling. he became president because of a small number. any disparity or fraud ininconsistency or miscounting can affect an election and the 2000 election brought that to bear that had to do with counting the votes, not verifying people who voted >> no. they were on both sides.
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there were disputes. there were people who claimed in palm beach county that the ballot had been mislabelled and people had opinion denied the right to vote. there were also people who claimed that felons who were not eligible to vote did vote. that was part of the controversy. i was there. i covered it ms clerk, i suspect you have a different take on that issue? >> well, i don't think mr funds is wrong that there were certainly people's attention was turned to electoral integrity and that is important. one of the particular issues that he brought up that concern over potential persons with criminal convictions voting, the best way to combat something like that is not through something like a strict photo id law but through making sure that our nations voter registration rules are as clean as possible. i think everybody agrees that is should be the case
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to what extent is there any proof, quantitative proof that there is a problem with fraud or impersonation >> in 2008 it was shown that 1200 felons did vote and they won by 300 votes. he became the deciding vote for obamacare. just here in new york city in 20014 the new york city department of investigations, the fish investigative arm of the city government sent out 63 inspectors to see if they could vote in the name of someone who was dead, someone who was in prison or someone who has moved out of state. they succeeded 97% of the time. if there had been a voter id law in place, that 97% success rate would have been by down to mr funds' point that there have been problems, would you agree that there needs to be some form of identification for
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people to exercise this all important right? >> it's certainly true that it is a right and everybody agrees that electoral integrity is important. as he stated in his first answer, elections can be very close and it would be awful for ln election to be stolen by fraud, but what is truly awful and what we have data on that is happening is that true eligible voters are unable to vote because they're being disenfranchised such as the strict photo id law. if the elections are close, we want to be sheer that all eligible-- sure that all eligible voters can vote and get a chance spell out for me what your objection is to the north carolina case >> it is important to step back from voter id in that case pause the law that was passed in 2013
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was an omni bus, huge elections bill, that not only imposed voter ich d requirements that were at that time very strict, but it also cut back a week of early voting, it also eliminated same day registration and as has been shown by the people who are challenging the law, those were two methods to get to vote that were used disproportion@ly by african americans in north carlina. you need to understand that this law is notoriously one of the most restricted laws in the country. it doesn't stand-alone. it is part of a nationwide trend. since 2010 there are 21 states that have restrictive voter laws on the book that weren't there in 2010. for the first time in a presidential election now this fall voters will be faced with those obstacles if you just look at what happened before and since, do you accept, mr fund, that there could be the conclusion drawn by
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critics that the reason of all this change is because the liberalization of voting rights resulted in an increase in minority voting and now to reduce that you change the rules? >> except the facts belie that. there are stricter laws elsewhere. they've been in place since 2008. minority voter turn out has gone up in both georgia and indeanne a-- indianna. there is no evidence rather than anecdotal or statistical projection that anyone's vote is being denied here. the brennan center for all the good work that they do came out with the preposterous study the other day in which they said 25% of african americans lack a government issued id.
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do you disagree with that conclusion? >> in terms of statistics and people who do lack id and you spoke about the north carlina law, there say law in texas that is as strict or stricter than the laws that mr fund discussed. i sat in the courtroom when people were testifying and there are certainly people who do not have id because they lost their birth certificate and they're unable to get the id that's retired. they're certainly - i don't think anybody is sitting here saying that id in and of itself is the issue. the issue is that these are very small number of ids and there are people who don't have them who are eligible voters voter id laws as we have been discussing very widely across the u.s., but most states people are required to identify themselves in some way in order to cast a ballot.
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out of those states nine have restrictive laws requiring photo ids, just 17 states require no identification to vote. now, back to the point of north carlina and the difficulty, mr fun, that people may have in finding id. we know of a case of a 94-year-old who has been voting for 70 yeahs. she was voting at the time of the poll tax and when you had to resite passages from the u.s. constitution, provisions that were eliminated. here is the thing: with this new id law, this lady has had to travel back and fords from her rural residence trying to get reconciliation between her birth certificate and the driver's licence and name on her voter registration which is something that a lot of people have to do which makes it difficult for them to vote. i suppose it's not a matter of id is necessary, but what form
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of id is necessary and how difficult should it be for someone to get it and whether they have to pay money to get if >> certainly if there are provisions in the law that do not account for people who were born 94 years ago when records were not kept as well, we should change that. all of these ids in these states are free. the id is free and if you need to get a copy of why you are birth certificate for purposes of registering to vote that is free as well in texas. so there's no costs. if you just declare you can't afford the fee it is waived advocates argue that the laws that have been changed in recent years have virtually nothing to do with fraud or im% nation and everything-- in impersons nation. >> none of the states that you reference has seen a decline in minority turn out. they have seen increases in minority turn out. if you have counter examples,
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give them to me because they don't exist >> the government accountability office published a study last year, i believe, that took a look at this exact question. they did find in tennessee and in kansas that after voter id laws were passed that required one of a very small number of documents that turn out, did go down and that turn out - the turn out was disproportionately among poor voters, young voters and minority voters as well as first time voters. so there are certainly examples. in the texas case it's not one example here and one example there. there have been three courts now that have reviewed the texas strict photo id law. all courts have agreed it discriminates against african american and latino voters >> this is not controversial. you need to show an id in every
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part of your life cashing a check to applying for medicare. if people don't have an id, let's get them a free id. it will help them in the mainstream of life. if you have to get married, whether it's gay or otherwise here, this is the list of identification you have to show to get married. it is all government-issued id thank you both for joining us to discuss this issue. we have been watching this case which i suspect will be going up the chain of the court system fairly soon. thank you for joining us on al jazeera america. before we go, here is a look at other stories we will be watching in the weak week ahead. iranian president will make his first trip to the vatican on monday. he will meet with pope francis. an alleged senior member of al-qaeda is said to appear in court on tuesday. he is in prison in guantanamo bay. he is accused of ordering
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attacks that killed at least eight americanss. the challenger explosion anniversary as well this week. a memorial will be held. the country of chile is facing a severe housing problem and if it is not fixed, billions of people could end especially homeless. >> this means that we will have to build a one million people city per week with $10,000 per family in steps, the winner of the so-called noble prize to solve the problem. that story is next. the uprising that helped change the political landscape of the middle east. the anniversary of egypt's arab spring
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china's president xi jinping send his week abroad where leaders agreed on a 600 billion dollar trade deal. al jazeera's correspondent has more on china's growing influence in the region. >> reporter: it is the first visit by a chinese president for 14 years an iran is happy to roll out the red carpet >> translation: today we negotiated over the preparation of a 25-year comprehensive document on the strategic ties between the two countries as
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well as stepping up bilateral relations to 600 billions dollars in the next 10 years. >> reporter: the countries have agreed to work together on regional security issues, including those in iraq, syria and yemen. those are the three countries that iran views are in conflict with others in the region. president xi jinping's tur of the middle east took in both sides of the divide-- tour. he signed 14 agreements mostly on economic issues and some on strengthening security. >> translation: the saudi kingdom and china are aiming for enhancing security and stability in the world and we appreciate this. the challenges facing the world require international action particularly nonintervention in the internal affairs of countries and respect of sovereignty in order for security and peace to prevail. >> reporter: china says its
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foreign policy is based on that palestinian, but critics would like china atto be more proactive. as the conflict heated up in yemen last year, the chinese president postponed a planned trip to saudi arabia and egypt. he had to send war ships to rescue nationals from yemen. china's so-called no enemies policy doesn't stop it from selling military hard ware and expertise in the middle east >> translation: i would like to express egypt's appreciation of the sdwishld achievement with china it has been completed in record time for the development of economic and military cooperation that has reached unprecedented heights. >> reporter: expansion of economic ties remains at the core of the country's policy. the economic goals in the region, china is walking a tight rope between rivals but similar promises to all sides
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five years ago millions of people poured into cairo's scare making it the focal point of the arab spring. monday marks the anniversary of the so-called january 25 revolution. >> reporter: the army is on the streets. there is a stepped up security presence ahead of the fifth an ver reof egypt t-- anniversary of egypt's revolution. authorities say they will not allow protests. thousands of homes have been surged. officials say the crackdown is happening in the aim of security. >> five years after egypt's up rising hope has given way to total repreparation. the egyptian authorities are terrified of another uprising. the arrests of activists that we have seen over the last few days and weeks are warning shots. >> reporter: it has been five years since weeks of protests of
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a president who kept in power for more than three decades. this is the reaction when he said he was stepping down. soon the space that had been the epicenter of revolt was no longer a place to come to celebrate. the square became a place where opposing sides of the divide raised their grievances. at first the chance called for the downfall of the man who had taken over from mubarak. activists feel he was a military man of hijacked the revolution. eventually power was transferred to civilian authorities. elections were held. the muslim brotherhood leader became the first elected head of state. it didn't take long for protesters to return to the streets. miss opponent said he was pursuing a religious agenda and
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strengthening his grip on power. calls for him to step down grew louders. protests intensified and so did the violence. the military stepped in. it arrested him and many others and the enquires civilian president was installed. those who defended the government were violently expressed. the man behind the protests was urged to run for president. he did. many say he saved the national. >> you have forces who have tried to hijack the revolution. you have major idea logical and social cleavages in society. you have an islamic nationalist divide. >> reporter: hundreds have been killed, thousands, including
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journalists, locked up. the authorities say they are committed to democracy. their opponents believe otherwise. for them mubarak's security state is back hundreds of pro-refugee protesters at the border. riot police blocked the mob of protesters some who tore up a european flag. they're angry after a boat sank in the sea killing dozens of refugees, mostly children. they want officials to lift border restrictions and allow people to travel further into europe by lands. >> we've had enough. it is completely inhumane. the european immigration policies are killing people and something needs to change. there is a land border which is safer and can prevent the you drownings. so we call to open the border
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and have safe passage for people fleeing persecution and need a safe country to reside in further north in poland dozens of people turned out to protest against the influx of refugees. >> demonstrators rallied outside the office of a company that is set to build a new refugee camp to house 120 people. they say they do not want to host any muslims, worried that there might are terrorists hiding among them. it is often referred to as an noble prize for architects. this year's prize has done to an architect in chile which made a project that could be the future for urban housing. >> reporter: this man is an architect obsessed with the needs of his time. a time when by miss calculations two out of-- his calculations two out of five people will be living in cities below the
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poverty line >> this means we will have to build a one million people city per week with $10,000 per family. >> reporter: he has already started. here in chile with the revolutionary social house design which has made him one of the youngest recipients of this award. >> the problem is that the scale, speed and strategy with the means for which we have to respond to this phenomenon has no precedence in human history. >> reporter: he was hired to rapidly rebuild a city destroyed by the 2010 earthquake. he came up with a novel solution. >> instead of producing tiny units, we ask ourselves why don't we think it's half of a good house, and we thought it was efficient to make the half that a family will never be able to achieve on its own and then allow families to do their other hassle in their own timing according to their own needs
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>> reporter: it is called participatory expanding design. poor residents moved from this to this, homes that families built on by adding more bedrooms, or a terrace or balcony, or a shop, and not on the outskirts of the city but right in one of the city's wealthiest districts. these residents used to live far away appeared travel for hours to get here. now they work and live in the same area-- and travel chsh chsh which improve their quality of life and in turn reduces the inequality gap. that is the point. although his musculo-ligamentous tea million dollar prestige projects have won him critical acclaim the world over, he seems most proud of his social architecture which includes public spaces alongside public housing. >> public space by definition is what improves or not the quality
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of life for free in cities. >> reporter: architecture that he hopes will ultimately stand the test of time thank you for joining us >> i will be back with another hour at news at 11 prime minister eastern, 8 prime minister specific. we hope you will stay tuned for fault lines coming up next on al jazeera america. zeera america. >> farm workers striking in mexico... >> all that tension is about what's happening right now. >> unlivable wages... >> you can work very hard and you will remain poor. >> what's the cost of harvesting america's food? >> do you see how it will be hard to get by on their salary? >> yeah >> fault lines, al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> today they will be arrested... >> ground breaking... they're firing canisters of gas at us... emmy award winning
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>> every year, the u.s. imports more and more produce - fresh fruits and vegetables - from mexico. and every year, wages have stayed the same for the people that harvest that produce - sometimes the last people to touch the fruit bought by u.s. consumers. but after years of long, hot days and stagnant pay, workers left the fields and took to the streets to demand better working conditions - and a living wage. the response from the government was swift - and fierce.
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