ukraine could use a bribe says you've been corrupt i don't know i've been corrupt i did just what presidents the challenges here investigations the only goal at this time. i consider it a work of fiction. president trump dismisses the book that raises questions of his mental health and describes himself as a stable genius. and on the cloud is out there live from london also coming up in the program.

the thousands rally in support of iran's government as the foreign minister mocks the u.s. for its emergency meeting at the u.n. . the scenes in bethlehem as palestinians protest against the greek orthodox patriarch accusing him of sending church law into israel. and that some good news from the hole in the ozone layer is getting smaller thanks to the global ban on c.b.c. and the cold. so the president trump has rejected accusations that he is mentally unfit for office describing himself in a tweet as a stable genius responding to criticism in a newly published book that comes down to his ability to do his job he posted actually throughout my life my two greatest assets have been my mental stability and being like really smart i went from a very successful businessman to top t.v.

star to president of the united states i think that would qualify as not smarts but genius and a very stable genius at that. well speaking to media directly mr trumpets again insisted that he's the right man to lead the u.s. and strongly criticized the book's author. i consider it a work of fiction and i think it's a disgrace that somebody is able to have something do something like that the libel laws are very weak in this country if they were strong it would be very helpful you wouldn't have things like that happen where you can say whatever comes to your head but just so you know i never interviewed with him in the white house at all he was never in the oval office we didn't have an interview and i did a quick interview with him a long time ago having to do with an article but i don't know this man i guess sloppy steve brought him into the white house quite a bit and it was one of those things that's why sloppy steve is now looking for

a job. president trump has also turned his focus to keep policy making congressional leaders that kind of infrastructure and welfare reform are expected to as well as immigration of the truck administration plans to ask congress for eighteen billion dollars to build a security along the mexican border well let's talk when john hendren in washington d.c. will talk about that border war in a second john but first up of course the president's been at it again he seems to deflect these things with some ease what's what tell us more about what he's been saying. well nick the president of the united states woke up first thing this morning and defended his stability and his mental fitness and when you have to do that things are not going well and they should be going well for donald trump he just passed a big tax cut he's meeting with republican leaders who have control of congress who largely agree with him and who are now discussing his administration's new

immigration policy that of course was the centerpiece of his campaign and instead of talking about all that they are talking about that but the focus is really on this book this book that has clearly rattled the president. he has been obsessed with this apparently for a couple of days now and it's really thrown him off message when he should be talking about those accomplishments and the things that the he wants to do with the republican congress into the next year and of course they want to achieve a lot because the twenty eight hundred elections are coming up and that could change control of congress so things are not going well today for donald trump and the border will join the tribe of course in his campaign is own kind of pain promise that mexico would pay for it so well if the else can congress for the eight hundred billion dollars. yes conspicuously absent from that announcement was mexico paying for that don't trump was asked about that today and he said he still expects mexico to pay for that wall somehow he didn't say how he is

talking about renegotiating nafta there is there has been some discussion that perhaps what he would want to do would be to add some kind of feeds that would essentially pay for the wall through some kind of mathematic alchemy but really it is looking so far like a broken campaign can't promise because it is congress that is now presenting eighteen million billion dollar bill for that wall that wall would go across much of the southern border of the united states extending what is currently there and this this legislation would also deal with the status of the the children of undocumented immigrants the people to the so-called dreamers that came here with their parents president obama had protected them and now president trump is rescinded that that is supposed to be addressed in this bill as well but of course a lot of the questions today that we heard were about the book or john thanks very

much in the us john hundred in washington d.c. . thousands more pro-government demonstrators have been rallying in iran in a show of strength after more than a week of anti-government protests government supporters marched in the streets waving rain in france and challenging slogans against the united states israel and britain iran's government has blamed western nations of the for many the unrest which is seen twenty two people killed and more than one thousand arrested in the last ten days iran has accused the u.s. of abusing its power as a permanent member of the un security council called an emergency meeting on the protests when iran and russia both accused washington of exploiting the protests to undermine the iran nuclear deal and this ravi is in tehran and has the latest.

iran's leaders are no doubt celebrating what they'll consider another victory against the united states on the diplomatic front shortly after the u.n. security council met to discuss anti-government protests in iran the foreign minister jawad serif tweeted out that he was glad that the majority of security council member countries rebuffed america's attempt to misuse its power to bring what is essentially a domestic iranian affair onto the international stage he also called it another foreign policy blunder for the truck white house we also heard from iran's presidency president hassan rouhani as chief of staff in a statement said that the move by the united states at security council was both desperate and further isolated the united states itself on the international stage now as far as the protest themselves are concerned anti-government protests are all but over while pro-government rallies still continue as the government continues to cement its footprint on the streets later on on sunday lawmakers will meet to hold a close session of parliament where they will discuss the root causes of the recent

unrest many lawmakers see it as foreign espionage that led to these protests and blame foreign countries for trying to create instability in iran and other lawmakers sympathize with protesters saying that they have valid concerns and valid grievances since many iranians suffer a great deal of economic hardship now whether they agree with the demonstrators or not lawmakers in iran do realize one thing that if they don't address economic concerns that these protests could happen again. saudi media says that eleven princes of being detained in riyadh and are awaiting trial often staging a protest outside the roll palace at the princes are reportedly being held in a notorious high security prison and that is in contrast to dozens of other high profile figures who were detained in a luxury hotel last year during the ninety corruption drug there are conflicting reports about what spot the protests somewhat say it was about the removal of state subsidies of the say it was about the previous round of detentions. well this is the saudi king announces plans to give

a monthly allowance to state employees military personnel and pensions to help offset the impact of economic reforms for the next year one point one eight million saudis employed by the government will get two hundred sixty seven dollars a month to help with rising living costs i want a quarter million pensioners will receive one hundred thirty three dollars a month and they'll be a bonus of more than one thousand three hundred dollars for military personnel currently involved in the country's ongoing war in yemen the announcement comes days after the kingdom doubled petrol prices and introduced a five percent value added tax to a broad range of goods and services a budget plan released last month projected a deficit of fifty two billion dollars for the year two thousand and eighteen so let's take this on we can speak now to jamal khashoggi who's a saudi journalist joins me now from washington d.c. so this group annoyed apparently because the government has stripped away their

ability to pay bills is that the case or what do you think the real reason behind it is. it could be the case i would not rule out what was leaked to a couple of saudi newspapers. because he's also a scion of the nervousness wood and the oil family. of mohammed bin saddam and reform to restore in. the advantage or the advantage of the royal family the privileges that they've enjoyed . throughout the history of saudi arabia and as a sort of the citizen i see he is doing the right thing for the nation and for the country. to make the royal family pay for their dues for the utilities bills and to take over their police ridges in businesses which have saudi arabians

economy and what have you they said they just a sign of that just want to jump anyway why why would these guys be put into this high security prison where in the previous round of detentions of course they stayed in this five star hotel because. the five star hotel is closing down anyway. those were not brought into because of course of action there were. there were taken to jail because the challenger state that is a different when we talk of the saudi royal family one might imagine a few dozen people in an extended family but it is way more than that tell us a little bit about the saudi royal family and and how many people are involved in it. what we're talking about. ten thousand people belong to the royal family these two groups extended.

their royal highnesses who lit who could become one of them could become a king of the sons underground sons of the founder of the kingdom. and. their highnesses whole they would never become kings but their enjoy is to be dense and some advantages and the groups who are listed there are not from that if there aren't it's a church from a cousin family. to the sons of abdulla's his family. and rumor that in riyadh in which and that's what we're hopefully making many royals nervous that mohamed bin son mine and i think doing that i think if he will do that is going to the structure of the definitions of royal and limited to the king and his sons and his brothers only i think that would be done i think for us

to interrupt the moroccan or the tour de in more done rather to hunt other than to have an extended royal family that course the budget a huge amount ok good to get your perspective on this jamal khashoggi thanks very much indeed. come here on al-jazeera syrian forces launch airstrikes on the areas of countryside outside the capital damascus plus. of the maze a violent year in mexico's history the murders of six politicians and lead to fears for the upcoming elections. hello and welcome back we're going to see some quite snowy weather conditions across parts of beer and potentially over next twenty four hours in a big area of low pressure here which is going to give some to stow weather some

really strong winds blowing in across about the eric islands and really for eastern parts of spain some wet weather central areas seen some heavy snow fall in other parts here weather conditions somewhat quiet especially across southeastern areas where it should remain largely draw and fine ten degrees and sixteen in athens northern areas on the chilly side there temperatures around freezing only five in london but still the low pressure center sitting there in the western part of the mediterranean you also have an influence on the other side of the mediterranean with some snow over the atlas mountains and some rain for low levels of morocco the same really goes for algeria and eventually to this is that low pressure moves further towards the east over the next forty eight hours more eastern parts on the coast generally dry and fine karo sunshine there and highs in the low twenty's central parts of africa generally looking pretty good all the way from uganda across the r.c. towards kabban but to west africa is dry and fine plenty of sunshine here nice day in accra in ghana with highs of thirty one further towards the south tropical cycle

and even continues to drop some very large amounts of rain on madagascar. there were over forty charges as i recall that primarily it was material support the parents the holy land foundation was the biggest muslim charity in the usa they were considered to be a legitimate american charity because we weren't able to see the secret we were unable 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 falling at this time on al jazeera.

i got a reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera and u.s. president donald trump says the new be released book which cost down to his fitness for office is that work of fiction the book by michael wolff questions trumps ability to do his job claims and stuff you him as a child. thousands more government supporters of take to the streets of iran with a show of strength all from the week of anti-government protests in which twenty two people were killed. saturday media are reporting that eleven princes have been detained in riyadh off the staging a protest against the kingdom's austerity measures it is said to be held in a high security prison in contrast with dozens of other high profile figures who were detained in their luxury hotel. there were angry scenes in the occupied west bank as the patriarch of jerusalem arrived at manger square in bethlehem after mocking orthodox christmas the affiliates of the third has been at the center of

growing public anger to be accused of selling off large swathes of churches to private businesses while the protests and tensions in bethlehem have cost the show . a day over normally a festive period. despite the best efforts of the organizers there has been a dampened sense of enthusiasm here in manger square in bethlehem in the occupied west bank far fewer people than would usually be here on orthodox christmas eve now part of the reason for that is the fact that there have been calls by groups to boycott the arrival of the greek orthodox patriarch the awfulness the third because there is growing anger among palestinian christians about allegations that have been made in israeli media outlets that the greek orthodox patriarch has been involved in selling properties or selling lands to foreign tax havens and in those reports it's also been alleged that some of the buyers may end up being israeli

businesses that's one reason why there are fewer people here because usually the ushers that would be here to try to welcome the greek patriarch who has not yet arrived they are basically turning a cold shoulder to the patriarch now we've also spoken to the church about these allegations and they have denied the allegations and they have said in fact which was going on is that the greek orthodox patriarch it has in fact been trying to rectify bad deals that were made in the past and that that's really what's going on right now now there's another reason why there is such a dampened sense of enthusiasm and that's because of the sense of hopelessness that's really spreading far and wide here because of the decision just a month ago today by u.s. president donald trump to recognize two slim as the capital of israel since that decision was made week after week we've seen protests that turn violent in the occupied west bank and in other areas and that's just one more reason why there's a sense of uncertainty and a sense of hopelessness at

a time when usually people are so celebrate torreon festive. the new york times is reporting that egypt has arse's media there to play down opposition to president trump's controversial decision to move the u.s. embassy in israel to jerusalem and leaks phone recordings a senior egyptian intelligence officer reportedly told leading t.v. talk show hosts to influence their viewers to back the decision and that's despite egypt's public condemnation of the report comes as egypt and saudi arabia have vetoed a call from jordan for an emergency arab summit on jerusalem. we have specific bequests the most important of which is the recognition of a palestinian state with your very slim is its capital according to the truth in the fourth nine hundred sixty seven borders just as there was a political decision to recognize devo slim as the capital of israel will now work to achieve an international political decision recognizing the palestinian state at the nine hundred sixty seven border. with its capitals saudi led coalition

airstrikes have targeted a fruit and vegetable market and gas facility in northern yemen witnesses say the strikes killed one person and left three others injured the area is under the control of iran backed rebels who are friday fired a ballistic missile into saudi territory some ten thousand people have died in yemen's civil war in syria at least seventeen people have been killed by a strikes in the rebel held area of eastern ghouta artillery attacks were also launched by syrian forces on areas of countryside outside the capital damascus and there have been reports of an increased number of air strikes deliberately targeting hospitals in rebel areas in the last ten days has to britain gordon is advisor to a coalition of medical charities in syria and he told us there are currently more than one hundred twenty children who need urgent medical care in rebel held areas that are under attack. the last ten days it's been horrific. attacks particularly. christmas and new year period we've seen over ten hospitals attacked

and put out of commission in both. the damascus but also in live both these areas are supposed to be deescalation zones at the installment tolls of green some seven months ago and all supposed to be protected we were fortunate on the twenty seventh of december that we managed to evacuate twenty knowing very seriously injured people. and there was a short seesaw which the russians and the syrians agreed however since then the attacks seem to have intensified markedly and we currently have on twenty five children and four hundred i don't see any urgency of course all we absolutely need syria is a seesaw so that those seriously injured children get treated to save twenty five percent of children in dying from our long tradition there are people starving all over syria and we need to get aid in and we need to allow the peace process to find

a diplomatic solution but things are as desperate as they were this time last year now that when seventy people were killed by these asteroids funerals have been held for four policemen killed in a bomb attack in india that minutes that kashmir is the latest in a series of bombings by rebels who want to end india's rule of the northwest region which is disputed with pakistan well as more. ten dollars to the hundreds of this funeral in the northern town of about. half that. it's the birthplace of one of the four policemen killed on saturday the blast happened in the nearby town of support in the northern part of the indian administered kashmir. security sources say is opposed to indian rule to good an improvised explosive device targeting a police patrol. the town is about fifty kilometers northwest of synagogue

city the summit capital of the regional government they say fighters planted the device beneath a shop in a marketplace to target the patrolled the blast also damaged shops in the area eunice will good rebuttal to god here we were called to the town today and this was on normal deployment for maintaining law and order these boys were deployed in a small alley in the market and the blast happened in which four of our boys were martyred. to shut down the offices and fighting two was made by arab leaders to mock the twenty fifth anniversary of an indian security crackdown not killed forty seven people that operation was a response to the killing of an indian soldier by devils local newspaper say disha mohammed one of the main rebel groups opposing the indian rule of kashmir has announced its a sponsibility for the blasts on saturday the city jim has been witnessing at the soda violence for the last seventy years kashmiri rebels who say they represent the

province's muslim majority have been fighting for separation from india a lot. of the. on the fight. the eastern united states and kind of their awaking out once again to record low temperatures in the wake of what meteorologists refer to as a bomb cyclic temperatures in some parts of fall as far as minus forty degrees celsius with gusts of more than one hundred ten kilometers per dumping half a meter of snow at least eighteen deaths of say fall being blamed on the snowstorms . police in southern mexico are being investigated after the dismembered bodies of two young men were found outside the beach resort of acapulco state authorities in guerrero said the men had been arrested last saturday following a brawl at a christmas fair and police officers were later suspected of murdering them at least one other young man has disappeared. the threats of political violence is

casting a shadow over the run up to mexico's presidential election later this year after the murders of six more public officials more than twenty three thousand people were killed in two thousand and seventeen make it the deadliest year since records began in one thousand nine hundred ninety seven and will repel a ports now from mexico city. local politics can be a dangerous business in mexico just ask people thirty year old political hopeful who wants to become mayor of the town of hope in the state of morelos. is new to the political scene but he knows that the risk of harassment extortion and even death at the hands of organized crime is bearing real if they had a. they knew i would be lying if i said i wasn't afraid it would also be a lie to say that fear is not in the back of my mind but today were motivated by work to make a better chance. at least six mexican politicians have been killed in recent weeks

this includes of all four seven i know gather the mayor of a small town in the state of get little who was murdered on new year's eve. with a national election drawing near political leaders in mexico. worry over these types of attacks against public servants. but this. i think this is a warning by organized crime against the political parties the problem here is impunity and the phenomenon of political violence the more this will continue because there is no punishment. experts say that the rising level of violence in mexico is not only putting the lives of political candidates at risk but could also be frightening voters which could damage the democratic process less political participation less third out. because of fear less political you know less people voting. and all of that and is henderson the strength of

a democratic system. there are over three thousand four hundred elected positions up for grabs in the upcoming elections but it's candidates for local posts who are especially vulnerable targets by organized crime twenty one local public servants were murdered in two thousand and seventy which was also a record breaking year for homicides in mexico the concern now is over the potential for yet another exceptionally violent year as we approach the two thousand and eighteen general election and ended up on al jazeera mexico city. two of robert mugabe's former senior ministers have been released on bail after being charged with corruption and criminal abuse of office a form of foreign affairs minister will to be on the left and former energy minister. appeared in court after being arrested on friday the german and turkish foreign ministers have held talks in germany and have agreed to work on improving relations bilateral ties became strained off to the arrests of

german citizens in turkey and berlin's criticism of the turkish crackdown of the failed coup in two thousand and sixteen the foreign ministers acknowledged that differences remain that said they believe they can tackle their issues through dialogue and cooperation. australia's great barrier reef has long been under threat from manmade pollution but no hold the world heritage site is being destroyed by one of its natural predators tens of thousands of crown of thorns starfish are currently eating their way through coral the southern end of the reef. nasa says the hole in the ozone layer is getting smaller thanks to what many scientists claim is the most successful environmental agreements in history which shows that chlorine levels in the stratosphere have rapidly declining dr manmade chemicals known as c f c's were bound over thirty years ago and a hawkster is more finally a rare good news concern in the environment nasa scientists say ozone depletion is

going down is a lead is the protective gas in the atmosphere that shields from harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun this is the source of the good news and that's the satellite that monitors the hole in the ozone layer which was first detected at the end of the one nine hundred seventy s. that's what we're excited about is that we see for the first time chlorine levels are definitely going down and ozone levels are responding to it manmade chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons or c.f.c.'s left chlorine and this is the effect it has on plants c.f.c.'s were found in products like aerosols pesticide sprays packing materials and refrigerants and they were banned globally in one thousand nine hundred seven nasa has released images that show the changing ozone concentrations since the c.f.c.'s were phased out the montreal protocol has been a great success once the protocol was signed in those the regulations went into effect we saw at the surface level of the vote on depleting substances going down

the scientists warn that full recovery will take decades because of c.f.c.'s could remain in the atmosphere for another fifty to one hundred years. as there. don't forget all the news we're covering right there website al jazeera dot com is the address lots of comment and analysis two. part time for an update of the top stories here on al-jazeera and donald trump says the newly released book which cost delta over his fitness for office is a work of fiction the president has described and fury inside the trump white house as full of lies misrepresentations and sources that doesn't exist but questions his ability to do is job and claims the stuff you him as a child trump says he is in fact a staple of genius i went to the best colleges for college i

went to i had a situation where it's a very excellent student came out and made billions and billions of dollars became one of the top business people went to television for ten years was a tremendous success as you probably have heard ran for president one time in one and then i hear this guy that does not know me doesn't know me at all by the way did not interview me for three city interviewed me for three hours in the white house it didn't exist ok it's in his imagination. thousands more pro-government demonstrators have been rallying in iran in this show of strength after more than a week of anti-government protests the government supporters marched in the streets waving a red flags and chanting anti western slogans iran's government is accuse western nations of fomenting the unrest which is seen twenty two people killed and more than one thousand the rest of the. saudi media says that eleven princes have

been detained in riyadh off to staging a protest outside the role palace are reportedly being held in a new taurus high security prison in contrast with dozens of other high profile figures it was detained in a luxury hotel last year during an anti corruption drive site a news website subject says that the prince's were protesting against the kingdom's steroids he says there have been scuffles in the occupied west bank as the patriarch of jerusalem attempted to leave manger square in bethlehem after holding mass to mark orthodox christmas. the third has been the center of growing public anger after being accused of selling off long swathes of church lend to israeli private businesses all right you're up to date so with all the stories head on al-jazeera coming up next it is the listening post.