just. risking it all to destroy you know just. the. al-jazeera. america we're in for you. and we made it clear that it was a pledge it was not a guarantee. more age trouble for palestinians the u.s. spends a forty five million dollars payment of un food funds. than

norah collis is live from doha also coming up washington tells turkey not to attack a kurdish held enclave in syria. the u.n. warns more than a quarter of a million children and war torn south sudan face starvation. and as donald trump marks one year in office we'll look at the impact of his foreign policy on the middle east. the u.s. says it will withhold a forty five million dollars payment to the u.s. relief agency for palestinian refugees it is not sesa new date for paying it the money which was for food aid was promised last month. at the time when we provided that note that information to honor we made it clear that it was

a pledge it was not a guarantee and that it would need to be confirmed later at this time we will not be providing that but that it does not mean i want to make it clear that does not mean that it will not be provided in the future all this follows another announcement earlier this week where the top administration cut in half the one hundred twenty five million dollars allocated to the un relief and works agency for palestine refugees better known as it's a massive reduction from last year when the us cable and three hundred fifty million dollars in aid to palestinians under obama most of that went to the un's palestine agency helps to pay for the education of more than half a million palestinian children in over seven hundred schools it funds will the nine million doctors visit almost one hundred fifty primary health clinics in total helps an estimated five million people living in camps in the occupied west bank gaza strip jordan lebanon and syria under simmons has more from ramallah and the

occupied west bank. donald trump's policy on this issue is to really hits the most underprivileged in this whole conflict as a means of trying to bring the palestinian politicians to the negotiating table to what is a non-existing peace process on top of that he's already making news that soon as we all know to shift the u.s. embassy to jerusalem making it the capital as far as he's concerned of all of israel so this is all highly politically charged but let's look at the humanitarian picture because it actually cuts into every aspect of refugee life in this part of the world from education down to garbage collection food aid a critical aspect for so many people living in impoverished conditions particularly

in gaza but also here right across the west bank occupied west bank we see situations where people are absolutely desperate and this is just fueling the situation more than anything else we haven't had any official response yet from they are off the record saying that this is just a massive blow to their existence they're already having to lay off teachers in their education services dozens of them here in the occupied west bank and also in gaza further than that in jordan we're seeing teaches me a lot more teachers being laid off they're having to anticipate what's happening because the sixty five million cut you referred to which was made on tuesday is that's. another tactic taken by donald trump and this one is very recent because only last month december we have this emergency aid appeal for

food for the occupied west bank and gaza. in particular and now we have this announcement that it's not a cut they're just withholding that pledge it could be turned around on these political tactics well whatever they are whatever they might be the situation is directly affecting the most underprivileged in this part of the world. yes state department is urging tacking not to proceed with a planned offensive against the cutters held and cave in syria turkey's forces amassing on its southern border in preparation for action against kurdish y.p. offering take a seize the why p.j. as a terrorist group has been a key ally for the u.s. elsewhere in syria. the turkish army is steadily increasing its presence along this stretch of the syrian border present one has been threatening to attack the kurdish run area baffling for almost a week now there has been sporadic shelling. inside africa and thousands marched on

thursday in protest to turkey's aggression in the healthy unless the goal of this large demonstration is to send a message to the world and especially to turkey concerning the turkish threats we will not be a fright. you know we came here to protest against the attacks on offering we will stand by a free and outreach that. is one of three autonomy as kurdish enclaves controlled by the syrian kurdish p why do party and its armed when the y p g turkey sees the why p.g. is an offshoot of the kurdistan workers' party or p k k which it together with the us in europe consider a terrorist organization but the white p.g. has been working with the u.s. to push ice a lot of syria not enough lean but further east of the euphrates river the americans have never had a presence in africa but the russians do and often has been relatively peaceful throughout this war and it hosts tens of thousands of internally displaced syrians

it will let you know after you have been there for quite a long time through like you know was it a serious shortage or turkey but they are going to probably need is this kind of nationalistic. you know rhetoric and attentional use its military in order to be able to gain more. with the upcoming elections in. you know so the starting. tensions have been stoked further in recent days by the u.s. announcement of a so-called border force which will be based east of the euphrates along the border with turkey and iraq and the y.p. will form its backbone not. a terrorist organization that threatens this be acceptable it is unacceptable and inexplicably but u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson says it's not

a border force the us role has been missed part trade and turkey is owed an explanation he says the build up is aimed at countering the resurgence of eisel will be internally focused and is important for the stability of syria however that's not what others involved in syria's war think ankara moscow and damascus have all voice their opposition to the force once again it highlights the complicated nature of syria's war isis been pushed out of most of the territory that it once held and so the battlefield is becoming perhaps even more complicated with each side trying to carve out its fear of influence and it seems the syrians are the ones that hold the least sway of stephanie decker al-jazeera and. deputy foreign minister says his military force as well attack any flying over the kurdish held region he made the comment shortly before texas heads of intelligence and military leaders arrived in moscow to discuss the use of syrian as space.

we warned that the syrian air defenses restored all its capacity and power and is ready to destroy turkish targets in the skies of the syrian arab republic this means that in any case gresham by particular air force it won't be made easy. united nations says syrian refugees in lebanon are more reliance now than ever on international aid with more harsh winter weather forecast extra funds are urgently needed a survey says three quarters of the one million syrian refugees in lebanon living on less than four dollars a day many of them in makeshift camps sixty percent are in extreme poverty an increase of five percent on the same time last year nine in ten of the refugees are regulate going hungry he went agencies in lebanon say last year they received a third of the money they needed to meet the needs of the refugees they are appealing for two point seven billion dollars in funding for this year said huldah

has more from levels back alley. these people have been here since the conflict began seven years ago like you mentioned a harsh winter it's raining there's heavy winds and just look how people live this is just one of the many informal settlements where hundreds of thousands of refugees live this is their shelter plastic sheeting and it really does nothing in the cold temperatures are very low it is very cold we're going to show you some of the really the miserable conditions that these people live in happy with the cold the rain the heavy rainfall some of these tents like i mentioned there is no proper shelters no concrete shelters simply because the lebanese government bans concrete shelters they don't want anything to be too permanent they do not want these refugees to feel comfortable and to encourage them to stay they would like them to go back to syria and were just entering one of the homes well we're going to call

it a home but you can see the water has reached inside their their living rooms their living quarters and the people here have told us that they have to remove all their belongings because they got wet and in the floods in the flooding so life really is very difficult and a lot of them live in poverty a lot of them are in debt and the united nations is warning that because of the poverty children for example are very very vulnerable a lot of them especially the young girls they're being forced into child marriages and some of them also work they're forced to work to help their family survive so the situation is quite miserable it is miserable as you can see it is snowing now. at least nine people have been killed by a violent storm swept across europe belgium the netherlands and germany they all enjoyed gale force wind that knocked down trees and left thousands without power catherine stossel reports. the storm pummeled western europe with hurricane like

force here the wind ripped a roof off of a building in the netherlands and peels off the side of a house with severe weather alerts were issued in the netherlands as gale force winds reached one hundred forty kilometers an hour people were urged to stay home for their own safety. and those who did venture outdoors were struggling to keep their feet on the ground but it didn't deter this daredevil who saw the high winds as an opportunity to go for the ultimate kite surfing experience the storm is causing travel chaos hundreds of flights were grounded and in germany all long distance rail services were suspended. boy there is a danger that trees will fall onto the overhead wires and there's a danger that trees will block glutes we know from past experience with extreme weather conditions that it's better to keep the trains in so much stations where we can but to take care of passengers in between stations power outages hits tens of

thousands of people in germany belgium and another lands and roads were blocked by fallen trees and debris high winds and heavy snow also hit parts of the u.k. scotland is dealing with power outages and dangerously icy roads but the storm isn't losing strength it's moving across the continent with eastern europe in its sights happenstance all al-jazeera. seller has had on al-jazeera pope francis arrives in peru with a country in the middle of a political crisis. and the secretive world of the playing in the u.s. comes under more scrutiny. hello the big rain showers over southeast asia are coming back again this big messy

should see between borneo and southern cambodian southern vietnam i think not like he's been a right in the next day or so the same is true for plants in malaysia but the concentration is actually probably further south through jobber in similar ways see still some showers showing up when it's in central and southern philippines but not so much in luzon but there's the picture for sunday suggesting the south coastal southeast coast of vietnam and maybe sudden thailand and malaysia will be particularly wet should be quite that weather this time of the year in australia all the rain is still in the top and few showers further south that she's been the temperature variation again that's been the telling thing very high temperatures now adelaide in melbourne but they're taking a step back and as you can see this is not an unreasonable picture if i put the red background on to show you where the real heat is it's just a bit it lands a bit of a wind change given twenty seven in melbourne and thirty one in person fuchsia still possible there western australia up to thirty three in adelaide come sunday in fourteen springs but we're still cool around the south and east coast up to

brisbane's area as new zealand not the same level of heat is called of course it's still raining in north island but not as much as it was. just largest catholic country is witnessing a dramatic rise in teenage pregnancy. when used investigates why so many filipino children having babies. at this time on al-jazeera. it's impossible to underestimate the size and scale of the economic crisis it's not just about the billion. dollar debt it's not just about the banks it's not just about big government to real people.

there again you're watching our. top stories this hour the u.s. says it will withhold a forty five million dollars payment to the un's relief agency for palestinian refugees the money which was earmarked for food aid was promised last month this is on top of the sixty five billion dollars cut to announced earlier this week. your state department is urging turkey not to go ahead with a planned offensive against a kurdish held and played in syria his forces are preparing to move against the paris white t. and the border district of print. at least nine people have been killed in a major storm lashing northern europe winds of up to one hundred forty kilometers an hour have hit the netherlands causing trains and flights to be cancelled. the new executive director of the u.n. children's agency unicef has warned hundreds of thousands of children in south

sudan bay die if emergency action isn't taken to boost food security ongoing fighting between forces loyal to the president and rival feiss loyal to his deputy continue to devastate the country millions of being displaced unicef says two point four million children have been forced to flee their homes since the conflict began in two thousand and thirteen well than two thousand children have been killed nineteen thousand have been recruited into groups but these one in three schools damaged or closed well and seventy percent of children are not getting an education . interceptor wrecks and reactor four who is visiting the country told al-jazeera the civil war is causing widespread malnutrition the islands has meant that many of the farmers have run away from their fields their trade to do the farming and as a result there is just not food in the markets we just ended the harvest season and we're now into the dry period and the lean period and it means that there is just

less food less water to be found we are very worried that a quarter of a million children are going to be facing death that it's year before the next harvest in july so it is a serious male nutrition problem yesterday we were up in some of the camps where the mothers and children are coming to see if there's malnutrition and the acute beer malnutrition is it's growing stronger so it's a continuing crisis and it's one the world needs to think about and to do something about it's it's serious here in south sudan yes ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley has met a group of african diplomats just days after president of the trump derogatory remarks on immigration from the continent to space has more from the u.n. in new york. this was the highest level meeting between an official of the trump administration and african nations ambassador nikki haley is not just the u.n.

ambassador for the trumpet ministration she's a member of the cabinet she was in damage limitation mode but she did not apologize i understand that she told the african ambassador she didn't know exactly what was said in that meeting last week in washington d.c. she simply said she regretted the political drama regarding what had been said she stressed the long ties between the continent and the united states and the investment and contribution that the u.s. had made towards africa for example citing the sixty six billion dollars the u.s. has given since the year two thousand to fight hiv aids the african ambassadors thanked her for talking to them remember only a few days ago they were asking for attraction and a formal apology they said though that these comments are not only been heard by african ambassadors but also by the african people and african leaders and stress

to her that african leaders are we meeting at an african union summit in the next two weeks and said it would be useful if president trump was to send a message to that summit and asked the haley said she'll be going from here in new york to washington d.c. in the coming hours and she said she would relay that message directly to the president. was asked a marks one year since president donald trump took the oath of office becoming the forty fifth president of the united states looks at how his presidency has affected the middle east. it was the first time that saudi arabia had been chosen by u.s. president for his debut overseas trip donald trump and the saudi leadership wanted to reset relations strange under the obama administration particularly over iran

the u.s. and the saudis are traditional allies but it's clearly a new relationship at least between the leaderships he has closely a brace but haven't been so bad in saudi arabia and he has literally tweeted the king a train prince of saudi arabia enjoy his talk to confidence so he has essentially given them a diplomatic blank check and that is why many believe saudi arabia along with the united arab emirates bahrain and egypt miscalculated when they imposed an sea and land blockade on cata seven months ago katsa denies accusations of backing terrorist organizations trump initially supported the blockade before the white house shifted its position has to very much on the side of saudi arabia and i think . he has simply gone ahead with whatever his son in law. transmitted to him meant terms of messages between hamas and himself and at the beginning he demonstrated that he knew very little as to the strategic importance of qatar to

the united states trump as more than one shown a lack of knowledge not just about u.s. interests while meeting lebanon's prime minister saad hariri he seemed confused about the role of hezbollah lebanon is on the front lines in the fight against isis al-qaeda and hizbollah. hezbollah is part of the government it's also backed by iran iran has been the common denominator between the trumpet ministration the saudis and the israelis but so far there doesn't seem to be a clear strategy on how to confront iran they are. there in iraq and in syria after. has been. very very good. of a parent an american military presence. but it is likely that iran is going to maintain a major influence there u.s.

troops were deployed in the mainly kurdish region in northeast syria to assist in the fight against isis the u.s. led coalition says the american personnel will stay and help create a border security force of thirty thousand mainly kurdish troops the u.s. policy is to contain iran and it's using its only leverage in syria the kurds to try to do that it's. a trump doesn't have a new policy for syria he inherited his policy of nor direct military intervention but he doesn't want the russians iranian regime to declare victory the u.s. is not in a position to confront but it wants to postpone addict a ration of victory what he didn't perspiring however was his campaign pledge today we finally acknowledge the obvious that jerusalem is israel's capital with this highly controversial move trump overturn decades of u.s. foreign policy in the middle east but one year in what this administration thinks its policies in the region will ultimately achieve remains on please.

a spending bill to keep the u.s. government operating has passed the house of representatives legislation to release funding for federal agencies until the middle of next month will now be debated in the senate government agencies are warning employees of a shutdown later on friday if the money isn't approved it. they've been a rise in the number of lobbying companies in the us declaring that foreign entities. failing to reveal nothing for the ukrainian government. about being caught on the wrong side of the law. there's a story circulating in washington d.c. that the international industry here behind the anonymous facades of k. street is running scared since former trump campaign. was indicted for some eighteen million dollars that he earned through his undeclared lobbying work for

the ukrainian government for was in violation of foreign the foreign agents registration act that requires lobbyists to declare their work for foreign powers the trouble is there's very little money for enforcement for almost fifty years there were just. fair and criminal prosecutions that were brought to bear and only three of those actually led to convictions and now that's three convictions in over fifty years that's less than a conviction a decade and so if nobody is being punished for violating the law there was a sort of sort of perverse incentive for companies not to file with farrah if they were filing with fair or not to file their paperwork and certainly not to file in on time the special counsel investigation may have started with inquiries about russia but it's become apparent that any undeclared foreign lobbying on behalf of any country that he turns up as part of his investigation may be of interest the number of lobbying firms reporting their work for foreign governments grew in twenty seventeen forty one new firms declared themselves one hundred three new

foreign clones were added to those already known to be lobbying in d.c. and two hundred seventy foreign lobbyists declared themselves examples of the new filings include three hundred thirty three thousand dollars in payments for a campaign by the u.s. to link qatar to terrorism fifty thousand dollars for a speech writing for queen rania of jordan t.v. appearances by general wesley clark on behalf of the turks against us based cleric for. some say that the timing is purely coincidental they would have reported therefore and work anyway would be read through to find things was simply the result of routine reviews of those however say that a turning point has been reached and that finally flora is being taken seriously freeman however is unconvinced the only thing that's changed right now is we have a special council investigating russian interference in the twenty sixteen election in three with that they have indicted people for pharaoh violations once that special counsel goes away all of those resources all of that will go away in farah

war me in the same lackluster law that it's always been congress has no plans to grow the department of justice any more money to enforce foreign so yes there may be some fear here on k. street amongst lobbyist but it may only be temporary while the special counsel and his well financed investigators look in to the lobbying activities here once that investigation is over it may well be business as usual mobius trying to rake in as much money from foreign powers influence us policy and not only up to it shihab rattansi al-jazeera washington the russian opposition need to volley has suffered a new setback as he tries to find a preventing him from running in this year's presidential election russia's constitutional court is refusing to review a complaint lodged by it was barred from the race to use a forward conviction he says the charges were politically motivated president vladimir putin is why do expect to win a fourth time in march francis has arrived in peru in the midst of

a domestic political crisis and the sexual abuse scandal involving the catholic church tens of thousands of his followers lined streets of lima as he passed through the capital is the second and final leg of his south american tour. has more from leaving. pope will be spending the night in early on friday he will be heading to mali the u.s. an area in the amazon that is a very important visit for the pope since this is an area that has been devastated by illegal miners and the pope been a champion of a healthy environment around the world will he will be visiting this place is a place at least very important for him and he will be meeting some of the indigenous communities members of the indigenous communities there he will be presiding a religious ceremony on sunday where a million and a half people are expected to attend before he heads back to rome. some

people have been protesting here the visit of the pope the vatican is protecting one man who is the leader or he was the leader of a very important religious organization he's accused of committing sexual abuse against the young men and so before. the pope arrived in peru he asked the vatican to intervene this is a religious organization called the so at least whom however people are angry at the pope that this hasn't been done before and so people are protesting but the government has said that no protests will be allowed and that anyone protesting will risk being detained. and brazil a cars driven onto a crowded. rio de janeiro's copacabana beach killing an eight month old baby and

injuring sixteen other people police have arrested the driver he says he lost control of the vehicle suffering attack. in a world first a drone has been used to help save the lives of two swimmers teenage boys was forces struggling in dangerous waves of the eastern coast of australia in the state of new south wales lifeguards flew the drone above the drop to float i made it safely to shore and just over a minute a lifeguard would have taken up to six minutes to complete the rescue i mean lympics fame has been carried across the unification bridge between north and south korea that's after the two countries agreed to send a unified team of athletes to the winter games next month it will light the cauldron at the opening ceremony at china. this is al jazeera these are the top stories the u.s.

says it will withhold a forty five million dollars payment to the un's relief agency for palestinian refugees the money which is in march for food aid was promised last month this is on top of the sixty five million dollars and also this week the u.s. state department is urging turkey not to go ahead with a planned offensive against the kurdish held and pave in syria take these forces are preparing to move against the kind of like in the border district of a frame and sees the white p.g. as a terrorist group but it's been a key ally for the u.s. elsewhere in syria at least nine people have been killed as a major storm lashes northern europe winds of up to one hundred forty kilometers an hour the netherlands causing trains and flights to be canceled the u.n. children's agency unicef is what hundreds of thousands of children in south sudan lay dying unless emergency actions taken to boost food security ongoing fighting between forces loyal to the president and rival fighters loyal to his deputy

continues to devastate the country. well the bar has meant that many of the farmers have run away from their fields their trade to do the farming and as a result there is just not food in the markets we've just ended the harvest season we're now into the dry period and the lean period and it means that there is just less food less water to be found we are very worried that a quarter of a million children are going to be facing death that it's year before the next harvest in july russian opposition leader has suffered a new setback as he tries to fight a ban preventing him from running in this year's presidential election russia's constitutional court is refusing to review complaints lodged me who was barred from the race fraud conviction he says the charges were politically motivated. and tens of thousands of people have lined the streets of peru's capital lima to welcome the

pope on the final leg of his south american talk cruz has appealed to the pontiff to help resolve a political crisis following the pardon given to former president fujimori. there's all your headlines more news considering how on al-jazeera that's one of. america's controversial president continues to polarize opinions. do solemnly swear marking one year since he was sworn into office i'll just see reprise you a special program about the impact president trumpets had at home and around the globe trumps first year on al-jazeera. in the philippines biggest maternity hospital a baby is born every few minutes and often the new mothers are just children themselves. with the legal age of consent just twelve teen pregnancy is on the rise

in your. many to.