attempts to put on tributes on its head of the september twenty fourth national election survey showed a satisfied to the stage of their economy this is easily a slow news biggest tech success story the company was bought by microsoft in two thousand and eleven we bring you the stories to the economic world we live in counting the cost at this time on al-jazeera. palestinian say they won't be blackmailed after the white house threatens to cost of hundreds of millions of dollars in aid. and this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up ethiopia plans to free

political prisoners and shots in the toilets prison camp in a move to foster national reconciliation. a show of support tens of thousands rally in iran to back the government after days of unrest. president donald trump accuses a former aide of losing his mind off to comments in a new book about life inside the white house. palestinian leaders say they won't be blackmailed off the u.s. president donald trump threaten to cut aid worth around three quarters of a billion dollars a year time by the statements on twitter blaming palestinians for refusing to engage in middle east peace talks relations with the u.s. have promised said since trump recognized jerusalem as israel's capital last month the cuts threaten money allocated to the palestinian authority most u.s. funding goes to development and infrastructure. projects and not directly to the

authority itself or said risk is funding to the united nations relief and works agency or which assists palestinian refugees the u.s. is its largest donor both measures if they go ahead with cuts around seven hundred sixty five million dollars a year in aid to the palestinians mama june reports now from the city of ramallah in the occupied west bank. a mother of three palestinian refugee children a routine trip to the doctor was already riddled with complications. but after hearing the u.s. may decide to cut more than three hundred million dollars of annual aid to the united nations relief and works agency for palestinian refugees or as it is known she now worries a bad situation may worsen. it's getting more difficult it's getting more complicated and things aren't getting solved everything is becoming more expensive

gotten laws available to the poor is not nowadays on wednesday residents of the occupied west bank woke up to the news that u.s. president donald trump may halt aid payments worth hundreds of millions of dollars to palestinians if they're no longer willing to talk peace sixty year old wooden a fool like so many other palestinian refugees here relies on this under a well supported clinic in a refugee camp a health center that depends on foreign aid. it's hard because of the difficult situation in all conditions and allow us to go to this clinic while officials tell us they've not been informed by the u.s. administration of any changes in funding to the agency the cuts could have a devastating impact approximately five million palestinian refugees are eligible for services close to eight hundred thousand of them live here in the west bank and another one point three million are in gaza condemnation from palestinian officials who insist they are still very much committed to the peace process was swift many

of them said palestine was not for sale we've lived for a long time without american aid and we can sort of buy without american aid and if it's really means that there will be more hunger and less ability to survive look at what the gazans have sustained because of the israeli siege of gaza. but but people you know i'm not willing to sell their homeland for money now faced with the prospect of a political solution growing dimmer and humanitarian. getting scarcer the only thing it seems palestinians can count on is even more uncertainty homage to images either among the occupied west bank. spokesman christopher guinness told al-jazeera that there's been no official word from the us that it will pull support and the aid organization will continue to provide health care and education. we have had no indications whatsoever from the us administration that they intend to cut funds

from under they remain the single largest donor last year giving us three hundred sixty five million dollars we have daily conversations with them and as i say we've had no indications whatsoever of funding cut our contribution to the human dignity and the capital human capital of five point two million refugees the middle east is widely recognized it's enormous we run schools for half a million children seven hundred schools we are doctors do nine million patient consultations per year we have of nine thousand students in vocational training centers we have tens of thousands of disabled refugees we serve our micro finance department dispenses tens of millions of dollars of loans every year it's huge our contribution it's obscene massive our contribution to human development is really widely recognised as being widespread and indeed profound if their peers government

has announced it will release all political prisoners and players in the tourist prison camp in a surprise move charges against many who are facing prosecution will also be dropped now this follows increase pressure on the government to end its crackdown on opposition voices stephanie decker reports. has been under pressure domestically and on the international stage there have been anti-government protests since two thousand and fifteen they continue to pose a serious challenge it's groups of accused security forces of using excessive and lethal force. during wednesday's news conference the government announced it's closing the notorious mark palau a prison and turning it into a newsier facilities been singled out by rights groups in the past for suspected rights violations including torture and critics meant tain the government needs to address the underlying grievances of the protesters such as economic social and ethnic rights it's not clear what chi. impact the release of political prisoners

will have on the growing opposition movement stephanie decker. tens of thousands of government supporters of rallies across iran the show of support comes after seven days the demonstrations against iran's leadership they gather to condemn the unrest in which at least twenty two people were killed iran's revolutionary guard is now declared the protests over rob masson reports. on a rainy and state t.v. pictures of government supporters filling city streets condemning protests and deaths during days of unrest i it's basically people who are believing that what so what's happening is against that he jeem and they want to support the regime by saying this is a revolutionary jeem and we are in favor of it. the t.v. pictures are why these days pro-government rallies are a contrast to coverage of demonstrations against iran's leadership which began last thursday. and. the government has shut down some social media platforms.

but pictures have been posted showing damaged cars burning buildings and chanting crowds. protests about unemployment and iran's economy which has been struggling after years of sanctions have grown to include demands for greater freedoms hundreds of people have been arrested the u.s. is demanding an emergency meeting of the u.n. security council if the arrangement dictatorships history is any guide we can expect more outrageous abuses in the days to come the u.n. must speak out. president donald trump has sided with the anti-government protesters he's tweeted the people of iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt iranian 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 iran's foreign minister has tweeted back saying iran's security instability depends on its own people who unlike the peoples of trump's regional be f.-f. so are best friends forever have the right to vote and to protest. more pro-government rallies are expected but there have also been calls for more demonstrations against the government it's not clear if both sides will be on the same streets at the same time lot matheson al-jazeera u.s. president don't trump his last start at his former chief strategist steve bannon it follows publication of excerpts from an upcoming book in which span and denounces tom's eldest son as treasonous and unpatriotic for meeting with a lawyer with kremlin connections in two thousand and six in that meeting is central to an investigation into alleged russian made lying in the presidential campaign trump has issued a statement saying steve benen has nothing to do with me or my presidency when he

was fired he not only lost his job he lost his mind he went on to say steve is little to do with our historic victory and steve doesn't represent my bases only in its form self than easterbrook has more from washington d.c. . well we've seen a lot of people within the administration or some people within the administration come and go some on their own and some have been fired but this really is the first time that we have seen president trump lash out at anybody who has left the white house and and he did it for a couple of reasons the president really demands loyalty from the people who serve him and also as sarah sander sort of pointed out during the press briefing you do not curry favor with president trump by criticizing or claiming that his son committed treason and was unpatriotic that was crossing the line for president trump and this also comes at a time when this investigation by special prosecutor robert muller is deepening

this this investigation into russian meddling into the twenty sixteen election and potential collusion by the trumpet ministrations so you have this coming out at a time when this investigation is deepening and then you have steve bannon making claims that his the president's son potentially committed treason the other thing to keep in mind too is steve bannon also brought this net sort of brought this nationalist movement along with him into the campaign and those people have been very loyal to the president it's been part of his core the question is will those people remain loyal to the president now that he's lashed out at steve bannon and according to sarah sanders she thinks that they will. the us president's former campaign chairman paul manifold is searing the u.s. justice department special counsel mueller over the russian investigation manifold is trying to fend off his criminal trial due to start in may he faces laundering charges relate to work he did for the ukrainian government is no suit accuses

miller of going beyond his legal authority by filing the charges against him. head on al-jazeera a jury in the u.s. decides the fate of a turkish bank accused of taking part in a scheme to breach sanctions against iran and britain's hospitals take drastic measures to cope with surging demand. by the sky ninety. four off the coast of the italian riviera. and we've seen a lot of heavy rain and snow over parts of china recently take a look at the chart for thursday we can see a lot of wet weather stretching all the way up towards shanghai there and it's on the northern edge of that where we're seeing a lot of wintery weather and that system is a bit of a blink and you miss it a fair because as we head into friday it was completely disappeared because the

energy from the atmosphere so we sucked into a system that's off towards the east so far dry air for us on friday and shanghai there getting to around seven degrees so not a warm day a tool a bit further towards the south you can see this little blob of cloud hid this is all storm that's working its way towards the southern parts of it now expect some heavy rain then potentially some flooding as we head through the next couple of days or so the philippines is looking very very wet lots of heavy rains hit today and across many parts of southeast asia we're also expecting some showers particularly for us in k.l. and singapore there on thursday by friday that it's like it should be a little bit troyer if we head across towards the west you can see on the satellite picture this huge area of travis and stretching its way across me and ma has given some of us some very heavy rain but it's easing now so more in the way of dry weather to be found here and actually for many parts of india and pakistan it looks like it should stay dry over the next few days but of course that won't help us with our current problem with. the way that sponsored by the time.

there were over forty charges as i recall primarily it was material support the holy land foundation was the biggest muslim charity in the us and they were considered to be a legitimate american charity because we weren't able to see the secret we weren't able to tell and in a two part series al-jazeera world examines one of the most controversial court cases of the so-called terror the holy land phone at this time on al jazeera. again you watching out is a mine of our top stories palestinian leaders say they won't be blackmailed off the

u.s. president on trying to threaten to cut aid worth around three quarters of a billion dollars a year in a tweet he blamed palestinians for refusing to engage in middle east peace talks. ethiopia's government says it will release and pardon all political prisoners the surprise announcement by the prime minister will see the tourist now callao we present tend into news in the plan to widen democracy for the months of anti-government protests in tunisia and. u.s. president john trampas last out of his former chief strategist steve bannon say he's lost his mind from his publication of excerpts from an upcoming book in which bannon denounces trump's eldest son as treasonous and unpatriotic. a turkish bank has been found guilty in a u.s. court of taking part in the scheme to violate washington sanctions on iran met attila and eight others with queues of moving billions of dollars worth of iranian money through american banks disguised as food and gold sales christensen amy

reports from new york. attila took the stand and insisted he never conspired to evade u.s. sanctions at the deputy general manager of hulk bank his attorneys suggested his boss and others were to blame but it was a tila who was arrested while traveling to the united states while his boss and others charged in the case remain free in turkey the only other defendant to face trial in the us turkish ronnie and gold trade and reza rob he pleaded guilty and became a key witness for the prosecution making accusations that rose to the top of turkey's government saurabh testified he paid tens of millions in bribes to government ministers and the scheme that president rest of tired and want himself had authorized when he was prime minister turkish officials who initially lobbied u.s. officials released have now moved to condemning him and seizing his assets the very

fact that everyone has been so concerned about this case does suggest that at some level he feels vulnerable however given the ease with which he's dealt with previous allegations of corruption in the past it's hard to imagine this it's hard to imagine a sort of suggested this is going to be the thing that brings him down everyone's government claims the u.s. is trying to weaken his government and do the bidding of political rival for to lead glenn lives in the united states they go. back to. this court case or stop being judicial became completely political with the sole aim to corner turkey and its economy and damage the country a charge prosecutors have described as ridiculous you can choose to willfully help iran said acting u.s. attorney june kim in a statement or you can choose to be a part of the international banking community transacting in u.s. dollars but you can't do both so rob provided no evidence that a tila ever took a bribe but as u.s. prosecutors successfully argued that didn't mean he was innocent now he could face

decades behind bars for a scheme he helped design but others including zurab got rich off of christian salumi al jazeera new york. north korea has reopened a telephone hotline with south korea for the first time in almost two years this took place ahead of talks between the two governments scheduled for tuesday has been its misreports this is the only official means of communication between north korea and south korea but for almost two years the north koreans have refused to answer the phone until wednesday when they placed a call to the south. kim jong un has given an order to reopen the hotline between the north and the south to contact south korea regarding a right time for talks and sending a delegation to the kyung chuang winter olympics. the decision was welcomed in seoul a day after the government there proposed high level talks amid a tense standoff over north korea's missile and nuclear programs but the u.s.

government wasn't impressed we won't take any of the talk seriously if they don't do something to ban all nuclear weapons in north korea we consider this to be a very reckless regime we don't think we need a band-aid we don't think we need to take a picture we think that we need to have them start nuclear weapons and they need to stop it now. in his new year's speech kim jong un warned the u.s. he had a nuclear button on his desk. that prompted donald trump to continue his apparent mockery of a president he's nicknamed little rocket man in a tweet the u.s. president wrote i too have a nuclear button but it's a much bigger and more powerful woman his on my button works north korea has been punished with unprecedented sanctions by the u.n. over its weapons programs the u.s. has warned of more measures if pyongyang conducts another missile test. burnet

smith al-jazeera. was a strain as embassador in seoul he says washington's attitude may hinder talks between north and south korea. i think it's a very positive thing it's very good that they've gotten the line again it's very good the president more has has agreed to it it's also a prospect now that the north koreans will send a delegation sporting team to the solomon cell winter olympics and that's good too i think the only or one of the problems is of course the united states attitude nikki haley from the united nations the u.n. u.s. representative the u.n. has has poured scorn on this and said what we want is for north korea to destroy disarm before we'll talk to them she's also said that nothing will drive a wedge between the relations we have with south korea and are quite frankly it's it's it's i think it's a reinforcing united states mindset of having having some sort of colonial feeling

about south korea which doesn't really exist and should they should welcome the fact that north korea and south korea want to have talks that would possibly relieve tension and that's what we want to see i just wish that the united states and the donald trump would be less critical of this to saying you know we want to do anything until the north koreans disarm the not going to disarm they have nuclear weapons they're not going to lose them they'll hang on to them in recent weeks the saudis have allowed some humanitarian aid to flow into yemen but as the task uname reports people in the port city of her data say little is changed. far from the front lines and the ports it's a life of increasing challenges for so many yemenis bound by a feeling that they've been forgotten. our life is miserable with the war raging for years i lost my job too we cannot afford a daily meal if we have

a meal we are not sure if we are going to have the next one a house in salem says his family circumstances are unraveling in a way he never thought possible a lost job then a lost home and now uncertainty over how much worse things could get wound up like that. we are left with nothing only god is our rock the nearby who died out port is no longer a source of employment or humanitarian aid since november the saudi led coalition has either blocked or limited access to ports of entry in yemen citing security concerns that a coalition claims to have reopened a court on december twentieth we were in the first week of january in the coalition is still misleading the public fabricating excuses to continue see jean and starving the yemeni people. the interruption in the flow of aid is adding to what is already described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis unlove the mother

thought the u.n. reiterated that even if the data port is operating at maximum capacity it would not be enough to meet the needs of the yemeni people so you can imagine how dire the situation is. salem and his family say they used to be able to rely on some assistance from relief agencies but no more like so many yemenis they are left to cope on their own natasha going to al-jazeera says is in the u.s. continues to brace for extreme cold weather and may just snowstorms in northeastern united states the cold snap is expected to worsen in the coming days and has caused some areas of the night before to freeze. and people in tallahassee florida work up to see snow falling for the first time in nearly three decades the governor has declared a state of emergency warning residents to expect icy roads and freezing temperatures. produce hospitals drastic measures to cope with demand national

health service officials are warning non urgent procedures will be put off for weeks the n.h.s. is one of the country's most valued institutions providing free health care for more than seventy years business parker reports concern about its future. hundreds of british hospitals are in the grip of a winter crisis patient numbers regularly surge during the colder months but this year sickness levels have sought to ease the pressure of health officials of doctors in england from carrying out all the merge and see surgery such as cataract or hip replacement operations until the end of january people have been told to only go to hospital in a real emergency some patients are waiting twelve hours to see a doctor others are being treated and kodos medical staff also feeling the strain on twitter this doctor apologized to third world conditions at the hospital he worked in. i shouldn't be and t.

is every day at work because of a lack of resources and lack of capacity wrote this nurse an estimated fifty five thousand procedures are expected to be postponed in the coming weeks and h.s. chiefs have defended the move this is a planned response to a winter that we knew was going to be difficult and we are managing that in the way that we expected and we're taking early action we're not waiting for have to respond to. the n.h.s. is one of the u.k.'s most we've been at institutions offering free health care to all u.k. residents but it's under mounting strain so much so that this time last year the red cross the international aid group said that if things didn't improve that it raised a humanitarian crisis. and the n.h.s. is still struggling to cope many doctors blame successive governments for starving the service of funding all in a gradual attempt they say to privatized the public health service we've seen the n.h.s. over this decade undergoing the biggest funding squeeze since it began. over those

seventy years and what we've seen in this decade is approximately forty billion pounds of cuts by the time we get to twenty twenty not simply on pressed into the n.h.s. it's not surprising we're seeing the kind of scenes that we are when turan last winter the government insists the delays are part of a well planned system and the cancer operations of time critical procedures will go ahead as planned but all many people can see is a cherished service sinking deeper into crisis the park al-jazeera london. businesses in the gaza strip have been struggling under an israeli blockade for years many are barely able to keep running malcolm web reports on a cartoon that saying that we are facing one sweet factory. a girl called nor buys an ice cream and wins a ticket to visit a sweet factory. where you have had even maisano lauder

shot in the snow was a hollow yet was known as a fictional character in an animation made by an israeli rights group but the factory and its owner mohammed tell bonnie a real and some of the many problems operating under the blockade of gaza by israel in egypt. no discovers them as mohammed shows have around starting with a power cut electricity is off most of the time in gaza during my visit mohammed explained that since the siege began ten years ago most of his production lines are closed most of the time. he didn't want to fire any of his four hundred staff their families depend on the wages to employees had their hours cut instead. of the animation also shows the machinery they use has problems to israeli authorities restrict the import of anything they say could be used to make weapons. the

packaging is meant to be done for some icici by this machine but it needs a spare parts and that's not being allowed in this machine but the cream filling in biscuit needs ikea's technician to come here and service it and on allowed to come this whole production line being down for you some of the equipment these be sent to germany for servicing and that's not allowed either. the mohammed doesn't believe the restrictions a just for security reasons it's there is that a lot of this is. the stuff that's. the make the people it's ready that is the politico. israel's military assault on gaza these conflicts with hamas haven't helped either three years ago when she was hit by an israeli blockade. mohammed gifts the sweet factory to know that as she sees its problems becomes the story of shattered dreams. the rights group that made it who says it

aim to inform people but also challenge stereotypes we wanted to be able to tell the story of a movement restrictions on the gaza strip and do it in a creative way so that we could attract new audiences and open people's eyes to the fact that there is a different reality inside of the gaza strip than the one they normally hear business is also being hurt by israeli restrictions on exports mohammed says trade won't pick up in less the siege and. at the end of the film new makes everything right with her imagination in reality things so simple and gas industries are still crippled malcolm webb al-jazeera in the gaza strip. and the headlines on al-jazeera palestinian leaders say they won't be blackmailed after u.s. president donald trump threaten to cut aid worth around three quarters of a billion dollars a year in a tweet he blamed palestinians for refusing to engage in middle east peace talks

relations with the u.s. have plummeted since trump recognized jerusalem as israel's capital last month it is his government says it will release and pardon all political prisoners the surprise announcement by the prime minister will see them a tourist make lousy present turned into a museum as part of a plan to widen democracy following months of anti government protests in tunisia and. tens of thousands of government supporters of rallies across iran the show of support comes after seven days of demonstrations against iran's leadership they gathered to condemn the unrest which killed at least twenty two people iran's revolutionary guard has now declared the protests over. u.s. president donald trump has lashed out at his former chief strategist steve bannon saying is lost his mind follows publication of exits from an upcoming book in which bannon denounces tom's eldest son as treasonous and unpatriotic to have

a two thousand and sixteen meeting with a lawyer with kremlin connections to the white house press secretary calls the claims baseless. i think that is a ridiculous accusation and one that i'm pretty sure we've addressed many times from here before if that's in reference to comments made by mr bennett i'd refer you back to the ones that he made previously on sixty minutes worry called the collusion with russia about this president a total farce so i think i would look back at that if anybody's been inconsistent it's been him certainly has been the president or this administration the u.s. president's former campaign chairman paul metaphor to suing the u.s. justice department and special counsel robert mueller of the russian investigation metaphor is trying to fend off his criminal trial due to start in may he faces known dring charges related to work he did for the ukrainian government is little says accuses me of a of going beyond his legal authority by charging him as the headlines and news

continues on al-jazeera off the inside story. iran's leadership is both to the task as violent protests continue to run planes falling out evidence for stirring up trouble so is the rest about the economy or is it and to stop basement and how will iran deal with the growing public anger this is inside story. the lead.