but the snow leopard trust believes it's premature to tell great the cats on the international list of threatened species this is held most dangerous force vicious where the slightest error means a one way ticket over the. realities that we men are coming to morrow holds a lot of meat on children braving tough conditions facing death at every turn. to exist here three years ago though gamble with their lives just took on an if risking it all on al-jazeera. what we've just witnessed on the floor was a cynical decision but senate democrats this will be called the trump shutdown.

a political blame game after the u.s. sees its first government shutdown envy is. it i'm or a kyle this is a live from doha also coming up the turkish army shells cut its possessions in syria as forces backed by and cry prepare for an offensive. egypt's president says he's going to run for a second term as his main rival calls for a leving level playing field. i'm told brennan at the institute for cancer research looking at the possibility of a blood test which could be a breakthrough in cancer diagnosis. obstructionist loses that's what we're trying to ministrations calling us democrats after the senate rejected a last minute vote to avoid

a federal government shutdown it's now in effect across the country with only essential offices and services staying open because of this broke down of a deadlock on the status of young undocumented immigrants known as the dreamers. reports from washington. this is not the anniversary any leader wants to have it was exactly one year ago when donald trump made this promise and became president we will face challenges we will confront hardships but we will get the job done he vowed government would work again it's clear with this. it isn't republicans who control the congress and the white house lost four of their own members but picked up five democrats still not enough to pass the bill that means many nonessential government employees won't be coming to work on monday without a deal although most essential federal services will continue the employees just won't get paid until it's over it came down to this

a program that was in place to protect children brought into this country without documentation president trump threw it out and said congress should fix it he promised to help if we do this properly dr you know it's so far away from comprehensive immigration reform and if you want to take that further step i'll take the heat i don't care i don't care i'll take all the heat you want to get. they brought him a bipartisan deal and he refused to sign it so democrats refused to help pass the budget now the white house is saying they still have the weekend to work out a deal i think it will be taken care of the month i actually that's why i just said i think i really think there's a really difficult to. fix before the officers are with you for now it is a standoff a functioning government held hostage well two parties wait to see which side the public will blame for the very dysfunction that trump promised to end exactly one year ago what we've just witnessed on the floor was a son

a call decision by senate democrats to shovel. millions of americans for the sake of irresponsible political gash a government shutdown was one hundred percent avoidable this will be called the trump shutdown because there is no one no one. who deserves the blame for the position we find ourselves in more than president trump pedicle al-jazeera washington. well here's what happens now that the u.s. government has officially shut down hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be affected but its impact will vary across departments more than ninety five percent of employees at the environmental protection agency and housing department will be out of work that's compared to about fifty percent of workers at the treasury the u.s. defense secretary says training and maintenance and intelligence operations will be

impacted around half of the defense department seven hundred forty thousand civilian workers will have to take a leave of absence and if you're planning to visit the u.s. landmark tourist sites like washington's famous smithsonian museums and the national zoo will be closed but services like border and airport security as well as air traffic control will continue the state department also says visa services at u.s. embassies will remain as long as funding remains scott lucas is a professor of american and international studies at the university of birmingham he says continued budget uncertainty will have an impact well beyond the shutdown we're in this position because the trumpet ministration has not passed the federal government budget after one year in office it doesn't even have one ready to present so that's the core issue where it's had to go again and again back to congress on this occasion for a fourth time to get supplemental funding how long can a federal government go without setting out its revenue and spending plans how long

can it go without explaining how it's going to pay for that one point five trillion dollar tax cut that it pushed through in december and the longer you have the uncertainty about the fundamentals of the government rather than the shutdown then that's really what's going to shake international investment plans to see. turkey is mobilizing thousands of free syrian army rebels inside syria and it would take them a convoy of buses as part of a military operation against syrian kurdish fighters known as the why p.g. in the syrian town of a free in turkey calls them a terrorist group has intensified shelling on nothing in recent days and turkish officials say an offensive is imminent spokesman for us to get terrorists is warning against increased military activity in the region we've seen the reports of shelling in africa we reiterate or call on all concerned parties to avoid further escalation in any acts that could deepen the suffering of the syrian people

all parties must ensure protection of civilians at all times under any circumstances. joins us live now from the turkey syria border stephanie what activity is saying that. when the last hour or so we've heard about two or three. bodies of shelling just landed around that way were around less than a kilometer away from the syrian border also i'll just step out of shot and that there was some tanks that were just sort of maneuvering around their base i mean nothing major certainly when it comes to the political rhetoric that we've heard that this was imminent it was going to happen yes there's sporadic shelling we've spoken to villagers here who tell us that overnight there was also a bit of shelling but nothing as much that had happened yesterday we've also seen bulldozers move in gravel and big convoys of concrete blocks those

that hardware has made itself to the border of course turkey has built this war a long series that looks like they're making some kind of defensive measures and of course as you mentioned there's also movement inside syria with those syrian rebels that turkey is supporting the f.s.a. around fifteen thousand we were told yesterday have been moved towards the towns of this would be sort of these turn front but talking about all of that laura is sort of playing into the context that anger has been talking at this is imminent the reality is nothing can really happen without the consent of russia and this is why we've seen some of the senior sort of the chief of staff the head of intelligence in moscow trying to talk to negotiate how this will go forward because russia has troops inside the area of afraid it also controls airspace and many will tell you that turkey is very keen to use that air space to start this offensive to minimize casualties on their side so that any indications that russia might get home bored with this offensive. and that's

a very difficult question there's a lot of things that happen when it comes to syria you know behind closed doors that is very difficult to understand very often nothing is that it seems that me just. show you the syrian border how close it is just to give you a jog or a few of where we are but you know i think when it comes to this point of time in the in the syrian conflict seven years on it's a lot about the international players trying to carve out their spheres of influence russia will certainly be trying to negotiate with turkey what will it get in return if russia allows turkey to carry out this offensive that it is so keen on you have the issue of which is the province that is mainly controlled by a group called. that is led by the group for minors in the store front where there's been an offensive by the syrian government and the russians there that turkey is unhappy about then of course you have the americans talking about this border force which is further east from here on the other side also with y p g fighters turkey isn't happy about that it's incredibly complicated there are so many different players and they're all trying to carve out their own sphere of

influence and we have two meetings coming up of the next couple of weeks you have sochi in russia you have vienna that's the u.n. sponsored ones and i think it's very very difficult what's happening behind the scenes what's happening with the free and i think all these things are linked whether russia will agree or not we don't know i think it's clear that they haven't yet otherwise i think turkey would have moved already. reporting to turkey syria border. gypsum president. has announced he will run for a second time the elections are set to take place in march so you see various to power in two thousand ousting his predecessor mohamed morsy and a military coup. reports. the announcement was widely expected now egyptian president thomas but data sisi has made it official anesthetic a lot about info to collect you might have been today as a to members of the sysop moments we have gone through and think about the serious

challenges that face our home country and the huge expectations and the hopes we have for our homeland i find myself standing confused before my national conscious as i speak to you with the honesty and transparency we have been used to in our dialogue and hope that you will accept me for the presidency of the republic. analysts are hardly surprised by his staying in power this way that way i think of the elections as one source of going to get him a seal or a facade of this committee that would say that he won the elections fed and square and he has significant popular support. c.c. who swept to power in two thousand and thirteen after a military coup against former president mohammed morsi obtained ninety seven percent of the vote in the two thousand and fourteen election international observers question the credibility of the results saying the election fell short of

international standards. campaign promises included rebuilding egypt reviving the country's economy and raising living conditions. but almost four years into his presidency many egyptians are disillusioned with his rule concern has grown that it has brought with it a return to the authoritarian security state that prevailed under former president hosni mubarak rendering the hero square revolution only a brief experiment in democracy. real opposition to sisi in the march election is likely to be thin on the ground potential candidates have either already withdrawn or seen their candidacy blocked some have blamed an atmosphere of fear observers say cc's tactic is a recognizable one in the region of the mubarak and his message and saddam's of the agent has used it for they would tell the international individual community that they won with ninety percent or ninety nine percent of whatever the percentage of the same time there are no consequences for that so on one end it to bolster that

eames that intimacy of that it seems on one and and the other and you know there are no consequences for that actions. cc's rule has been marked by a brutal crackdown on freedom of expression and civil liberties economic turbulence and increasing attacks by armed groups human rights groups have been placed under severe restrictions and many critics in the media have been silenced. his allies however dismissed accusations of abuses saying his tactics are needed for security in the face of an insurgency in the north sinai region that has expanded to include civilian targets mohammed does either. forces chief of staff says he'll also run called for state institutions to be neutral towards all candor that a lot of the i'm a warlock a thought of if i am elected to this is store position to save egypt that belongs to the people i call on all citizens to do their part in their responsibility to

the nation. home our society don't icon the country's institutions both private and military to remain neutral towards all who have announcer candidacy and to not take sides of the current president this is against our constitution he is merely a candidate among other candidates. so i had hair on al-jazeera i found his makes a plea to protect the amazon and its people during his trip to peru plus. i'm charlie rangel in london for the lumia festival which progress is to transform the city into a nocturnal gathering. hello there the weather is quite quiet for us over the northern parts of asia at the moment the satellite picture jos just show a little bit of cloud there drifting its way into the northern parts of japan that

will make things for all the grace of some of us and we could see just the odd flurry of snow rain at times too towards the west it's also generally quite quiet with beijing getting no higher than around minus one things do change though as we head through sunday into monday for this role the active system will be pushing its way towards the northeast and this will be giving us some heavy rains i think here she does it pretty wet that will then be pushing its way northward across hunchy so we head through the afternoon and overnight a bit further towards the south is quite a bit of cloud over the southeastern parts of china for sunday but as we head through into monday gradually dissolves and it does look like it should be dry for most of us so fairly mild for this time of year shine. high up it twelve degrees of force in hong kong will be up at twenty four for the southeastern parts of asia where here there's been plenty of showers recently more still to come i think for sunday some of the wettest of the weather is likely to be over mindanao that will gradually ease there as you head through into monday so monday should be the dry of the two days for the south and we've also got some what

a weather beginning to build for us around java jakarta does look particularly wet but will still get to twenty eight degrees. immediately it's going to keep going i soon in afghanistan with some taliban fighters a new call to the taliban leader is a threat to their authority. to see. a new son in law. is the only love me. unprecedented access i still and the taliban at this time on al-jazeera.

you're watching out there has reminder of our top stories this hour republicans and democrats in the u.s. are blaming each other for a government shutdown following a failed senate vote to fund federal agencies until next month. for the syrian army rebels are being mobilized by turkey inside syria as part of preparations for a turkish military operation against kurdish fighters known as the white p.g. in the syrian town of free. and the president of fattah el-sisi has announced he is running for a second term sees his main challenger will be former armed forces chief of staff. u.s. vice president is on his way to the middle east for a three day trip to discuss moving the american embassy in israel to jerusalem this is provoked international anger pens will go to egypt jordan and spend two days in

israel i have addressed parliament says have made it clear he is not welcome out of the show reports from washington d.c. . america's vice president flies to the middle east with the country still facing in. the national anger over its controversial decision to declare jerusalem israel's capital among the protests may not be as furious or widespread mike pence will find there is still deep seated resentment at the american position typically these trips are about. trying to demonstrate support for u.s. priorities and prerogatives in the region and you know demonstrate how close we are with our allies and demonstrate how close we are with israel and demonstrate that we can come to some kind of compromise with the palestinians it's a big show these trips are ostentatious for a reason but the practical kind of nuts and bolts of the top administration approach on this issue is

a known failure donald trump made his controversial announcement last month it is time to officially recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel. a more number of sites had previously been identified it could still take several years for the switch to go through pence will first go to egypt where he'll meet with president i'll see see other senior figures of told them they're not interested in seeing him from there it's on to jordan and the face to face with king abdullah finally he will be in israel for two days where he will meet prime minister benjamin netanyahu and president reagan revelent the palestinians have snubbed the vice president's visit you cannot meet people when they're insult you when humiliate you when they ignore you when they sided with your enemy you have to particular the message we are angry we don't accept this and this is cannot continue should not be hypocrisy this is hypocrisy if we meet you we are not on a star on something mike pence is traveling to the middle east to convince everyone

the u.s. can still be an honest broker in the peace process that donald trump believes as a self-proclaimed a deal maker he can still pull something together pence's visit will test the new waters alan fischer al-jazeera washington. lebanese workers dismissed from the construction firm ogre are protesting in front of a saudi embassy in beirut demanding unpaid salaries and compensation from the saudi government so that is their. we are not begging we are asking for our rights this is the message former employees of the saudi construction company o'shea are making they're standing outside the saudi embassy in beirut demanding compensation the company was forced to close in the summer of last year at these people didn't get any end of service payments and the company was in dire straits and they didn't receive any salaries for for almost two years so these people returned to lebanon with almost nothing there aren't being able to send their children to school they're demanding that the saudi government pays their juice to the company five

billion dollars in order for the company to pay them their salaries now the company is not owned by the saudi government it is owned by the how to the families how to how do you lebanon's prime minister so why do they blame the saudi government will they also blame. but if the saudi government pays the company that amount of money then they will be able to get paid their salaries that this whole case really shows the deteriorating relationship between the new saudi leadership and south of how do you do because saudi oshea the company was established by saddle how do these father decades ago it was a very profitable company but now at the relationship between saddam the new saudi leadership has deteriorated and i can tell you the fact that these people three thousand five hundred lebanese workers if they don't get paid sort of how do you lose the support he's going to lose votes in upcoming parliamentary elections so this is the feeling that saudi arabia is using this card against heidi for him to lose popularity of course we have to remember in the saddle how did he resigned

while in saudi arabia and there were reports that he was being held against his will so a deteriorating relationship thousands of people caught in the middle of this and some of them even unable to send their children to school. francaise has called for the protection of indigenous people wolf it's in the heart of peru's amazon forest the head of the catholic church condemned this for taishan of ten by ghassan gold in the area which he said is in danger of native peruvians says following the pope . i did all the work there. the first stop on a three day tour in. pope francis a champion of clean environment but members of amazonian indigenous communities the pope says they are the most vulnerable people and now they're living in danger and then you see the native peoples have probably never been so threatened on the lens as they are at present there is no extract of islam and. by great business interests that want to lay hands on its petroleum gas lumber and gold. more than

anywhere else than here in the mother the region the government says the gold rush has destroyed more than thirty two thousand hectares of forest nearly eight hundred thousand kilos of gold are produced here every year the pope once here is placed to stop illegal miners dumping chemicals into the river destroying the eco system cuts affect some of the poorest communities. the government says three thousand tonnes of mercury have been dumped in the am as of rivers the son thought that the community depends on the river to survive community leader he says they want the pope to help yes i mean that the river is contaminated with fish a prime minister drinkable water we need to take care of the forest would need fish farmers and we want to stop we have to defend our territory. along the way and mother the peruvians packed the streets to cheer the pontiff eighty percent

of peruvians are catholic. at the presidential palace in lima the pope said the environmental degradation cannot be separated from the moral degradation. and how much evil is done to an american people and the democracies of this continent by the social virus a phenomenon that in fix everything. great to be done to the poor. people reference to the allegations of corruption among many politicians in latin america are now proved beyond spit aside their anger at politicians to cheer and welcome their most important religious leader. in this i just i just gave us. facebook is launching a survey for members to identify news sources that are trustworthy chief executive mark zuckerberg wants to prioritize what he calls high quality news saying there's

too much sensationalism and misinformation in the news feed the firm is not expected to release the results of the survey. scientists in the us have developed a universal blood test capable of detecting eight different types of cancer the aim of the test which is called cancer seekers to catch the disease early and save lives paul brennan reports. the scientists here at johns hopkins university in baltimore analyzed more than a thousand patients who chose symptoms of cancer to see whether this new test would accurately confirm the diagnosis and they were excited to discover that for certain she was the counsel to seek test was up to ninety eight percent accuracy on the same test was effective for eight different types of cancer including five which no early screening currently exists here's how it works as a chuma forms and grows the cancerous cells within it change reproduce and die

sometimes chooses shed cells that can get into the bloodstream and when cancer cells die they can also release d.n.a. and other fragments that also get into the blood cancer seek is described as a liquid biopsy and analyzes a patient's blood sample for traces of that cancer d.n.a. and identifying which genes in mutations are most active can identify the type of cancer and the best treatment the importance of early diagnosis of cancer can't be understated for example in the case of brow counts ovarian cancer and breast cancer ninety percent of those diagnosed early will continue to live for more than five years but the survival rate if it's caught at an advanced stage is much lower in the case of a variant cancer is just five percent in the u.k. cancer specialists are giving a cautious welcome to the findings but this is a very exciting first step along the way to such

a blood test they've shown that you can pick up toys any traces of the cancer in the blood. but potentially has the ability to pick up cancers early on and identify patients for surgery but it is a first step another specialist though wants to see the test accuracy improved stage one when we want to diagnose these cancers. this is a do it is just. so that is something. that might just. try to. get the baltimore study worked with patients who had already shown symptoms of cancer the true breakthrough will happen if this test can identify cancer before the symptoms emerge that could really make a massive impact on survival rates this test is one step closer to the. al-jazeera london. london's a bleak winter is getting

a bright make over. the door and with lights and installations as part of the four day lumia festival the works of dozens of british and international artists are also being put on display in some of the capital's best known buildings reports. a tunnel of triangles lighting up london's dark winter nights a line of. weaving through the streets this is london's lumiere festival the chance to see the city in a different light for four nights only with the capital as their canvas some of the fifty artists have transformed it by conic buildings with large scale projections westminster abbey with its martyrs painted in glorious technicolor that the original architects could only have dreamed of audiences have to wrap up warm but organizers say it's a chance to change into something other than a screen arts shake a company that i run that produced the event it's really dedicated to creating

moments in people's lives that are away from screens you know whether that's a phone or tablet or a computer or tele you read all of those things you can be anywhere you can meet anyone you like but actually it's not real the free festival hopes to lure more than a million visitors at a time of year when most stay at home some of the works into active and stick to like this sculpture called control. you know. the more playful ones like impulse get adults a chance to play in a public street like children once did less to square is overrun with nocturnal animals a reminder that we share this city with others that we don't always see we tend to be very self centered and actually we have a much broader picture and everything is connected artists and scientists collaborated for this piece cosmos scope a chance for viewers to contemplate our universe to be quite

a kind of oldest equal total statement about the history of our understanding of the cosmos and the cosmos itself and our place importantly within it and what it means to think about the universe i judge of one's own individual existence some of the pieces do pose a question like this one was by a dutch artist the idea is that we are underwater after the effects of climate change and rising sea levels have taken their toll and it is eerily surreal yourself even further you can take out your phone download the soundtrack that goes with it and plug in your headphones. illuminating spaces that people would normally pass by without of the what do you mean a is a rare chance to see london in a new light charlie rangel al-jazeera. is all the top stories will publicans and democrats in the us are blaming each

other for a government shutdown following a failed senate vote to fund federal agencies until next month because asians broke down over the deadlock on the status of young undocumented immigrants it comes as donald trump completes its first year in office as president. what we've just witnessed on the floor was a cynical decision democrats are shoving. millions of americans for the sake of irresponsibility political games the government shutdown was one hundred first avoidable will be called the trump shutdown because there is no one no one who deserves the blame for the position we find ourselves in more than president. free syrian army rebels being mobilized by turkey inside syria they were taken in a convoy of buses out of preparations for

a turkish military operation against kurdish fighters as the white p.g. in the syrian town of after the turkish army has intensified its shelling on the area in recent days and says an offensive is imminent. egypt's president after fattah el-sisi has announced he is running for a second term the power after leading the military coup to oust his predecessor mohamed morsi in two thousand and thirteen his main challenger will be former armed forces chief of staff. u.s. vice president mike pence is on his way to the middle east for a three day trip to discuss moving the american embassy in israel to jerusalem the u.s. decision to recognize jerusalem as israel's capital provoked international anger will go to egypt and jordan and spend two days in israel where he will address parliament palestinians have made it clear he is not welcome and facebook is launching a survey too for members to identify news sources that are trustworthy chief

executive mark zuckerberg wants a priority is what he calls high quality news saying there's too much sensationalism and misinformation in the news feeds those are your headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after inside story. the u.s. withhold aid for palestinian refugees the trumpet ministration says the u.n. agency responsible for the money needs reform palestinians say they are being punished for defying the u.s. over jerusalem so it's humanitarian aid being used for political blackmail this is

inside story.