the nation's and global diplomacy for al-jazeera english is pretty incredible this is where talks happen and what happens there matters. news has never been more available it's a constant barrage of it with every day but the message is a simplistic you have the brain good logical rational person crazy monsters and misinformation is rife dismissal and does not hold well documented accusations and evidence is part of genocide the listening post provides a critical counterpoint trying to bring mainstream media narratives at this time on al-jazeera. at a major hotel at least five people dead. and

welcome to. move into the northern. city of. the u.s. vice president begins a controversial. president has polarized the nation. on the intercontinental hotel at least five civilians have been killed has been from the top of the five star hotel. to the. three attackers have been killed. one hundred and fifty three people including

foreigners have also been evacuated let's go to our correspondent jennifer glass now she's joining us on the phone from kabul we had heard from afghan authorities that the sea was over but. what do you hearing. that's right a little bit i'm just outside the intercontinental hotel mini road i can see the hotel parts of it are charred black from fires that during the evening in the last hour at least half a dozen large explosion quite a lot of small and heavy arms fire and just five minutes just know we saw afghan security reinforcements getting to that hotel into trucks because large machine. and on the back of them so this siege by no means is over yet still hearing a lot of shooting and explosion at the hotel there are a number of ambulances lined up here on the road waiting for anybody who might come

out of that hotel as he said elizabeth more than one hundred fifty three people had been rescued from the hotel and the death toll right now stands at five to tell us more about the hotel the area and how attack is could have entered it was these weapons with the ammunition well that is going to be the very big question and clearly they have a lot of weapons ammunition and do a side to understand of the interior ministry had said there were three attackers but obviously something is going on in there right now because we've been hearing explosions and gunfire the hotel the intercontinental hotel sits on a hillside just another explosion i don't know if you could hear that elizabeth just now the intercontinental hotel to come out on a hill overlooking kabul and boggy by law and there's one road going into a charity has been very tight because the gates of the hotel was attacked in two thousand and eleven then twenty one people were killed nine attackers involved in

that attack a lot of questions will be answered the interior ministry already saying it will launch an investigation as to how these attackers got in and i must say no one has claimed responsibility as of yet al jazeera spoke to the taliban spokesman just in the last half hour or so and he says they can neither confirm nor deny that the taliban are involved in this they say they have no communication with the fighters on the ground here in kabul. jennifer was also saying reports that security at this hotel had actually been handed over to a private company some two weeks ago what's the security situation in kabul being like lately. well security here has been very tight and actually just a couple of days ago the american embassy issued a warning telling for not to go to hotels they said that they had into intelligence that a complex attack like this one could be carried out anywhere where foreigners gather

they did mention a hotel but not this one one actually across town near the airport was one they had cited in that warning but a security here has been tight across the city then security at the intercontinental hotel had been anyway with a checkpoint going in and security searches going in as well the blast walls are everywhere in kabul and it seems like more go up every day surrounding not only the green zone but homes of prominent afghan members of parliament anyone who feels that they might be under threat and of course this isn't certainly the first attack in kabul it's been a very difficult several weeks here an attack on a community center an attack on a gathering of worshippers here all in the last few weeks as well i can security forces have been on high alert you see lots of police and security on the roads lots of checkpoints but they haven't been able to stop this leak going into forty thousand now jennifer thank you very much for that for now that's

a correspondent jennifer glass turning us on the phone from kabul thank you very much jennifer well let's talk to him is a regional security specialist based and kabul and he thinks it's likely the attack was an inside job. security has been very tight around the appellant inside the hotel but you have to go through at least two checkpoints before entering the main lobby where one checkpoint gives you. the full body search and then just ahead of entering into the main lobby one has to go through the again a comprehensive body check so security security is pretty trite even the around the hotel area up to five hundred meters have been cleared for security reasons i mean it's it's a bar there nobody is allowed around the area which that used to be a picnic area nobody is allowed just because of the summer two thousand and eleven attacks they have really taken the security so the question really is that how can such sophisticated attack can take place and the rumors around is that there must

be some sort of support for the attackers otherwise looking at the security arrangements around or get inside or it's pretty impossible to enter. into the premises with so much i mean asians in arms we're going to move on to other news now turkey has opened up a new front in the war in syria president of egypt says his forces have begun an and ground operation in the f.a. invasion and enclave could fight is backed by the u.s. but confirmed the campaign dubbed operation all of branch was conducted by air forces and that nearly all targets were destroyed the servian kodesh y p g militia and his strikes killed six people well turkey has framed the offensive as part of the line of battle against kurdish separatists and southwest tookey but the air strikes raise for the tensions with its nato ally the u.s. we're joined now on and stephanie deck of his life arise from. the border with

syria what's what's the latest you hang stephanie about what's happening in. well we're actually on the syrian border with turkey we're now in on takio we've been hearing intensive shelling and heavy machine gunfire from where we are also earlier the sounds of jets in the sky the military has now made us move just behind this mountain because they say there's a five kilometer sort of military zone in place but certainly it is an active ongoing fight turkish media reporting that f.s.a. fighters these are the syrian rebels that turkey supports have launched a ground offensive we're trying to confirm this we haven't been able to confirm that with turkish military or f.s.a. sources but what we do know is that thousands of s.a.'s f.s.a. fighters have been reinforced inside syria on the eastern front so to speak and also turkey has brought a number of those fighters to the northern border and also here to the western

border where they will then be moving and we've also just seen a convoy paul sauce with sort of machine guns mounted on trucks so there is a logistical operation that is ongoing and as you mentioned turkey saying that it is reached ninety six percent of its targets in intensive air campaign which started yesterday elizabeth with seventy two jets involved let's take a look at how it all unfolded. shortly before sunset on saturday turkey launched its air campaign on a free turkish officials had said that the operation was imminent. much of the president. spoke just a few hours before the jets to call them. go to go to them we would watch how this corridor will step by step starting from the west africa operation has to factor started in the field this will be followed by bad since the promises made about maybe you should go to the camps have nobody can say eighty three when we do what

is necessary. throughout the morning along turkey's western border with the turkish army had brought in bulldozers gravel and concrete blocks appearing to build up their defenses along the border with syria. tank shelled specific locations on the mountain and hours later this mountain would be targeted by airstrikes the army made us move from this position a few hours before the campaign officially began and this is just one of the locations that the turkish army is shelling out free in is pretty much surrounded turkey to its west and north and there's also been a build up inside syria by free syrian army fighters to the east about three now those are the rebels that turkey supports. turkey and reinforce the f.s.a. with thousands more men over the last few days these buses drove the fighters across the border into syria they will be part of a ground offensive against the y.p. ji the kurdish group turkey considers to be a terrorist organization it is also however the group the americans consider their

best ally in fighting eisel the international dimensions are vast russia and now wants to pulled out a few hundred military personnel that had enough money in shortly after the campaign started and russia controls this airspace meaning turkey could not be flying their planes without russia's consent turkey says it is only targeting what it calls terrorists but there are already reports coming out of africa in that civilians have been affected it seems syria's seven year war is entering yet another phase another phase stephanie and no shortage of international actors involved. absolutely and we've known this throughout this conflict that really has increased you had negotiations ongoing between turkey and russia russia of course controls the air space. there is again it's a race that's happening the border just about kilometer from here but yes russia

has given the green light so to speak because it is the airspace that it controls to that seat anyway that turkey can be flying their jets they pulled out around three hundred military personnel that the russians had and they pulled them out yesterday from russia saying that they're concerned about this and that they're monitoring it but many people will tell you that's ironic because they've had to allow it they've also blamed the americans they said the americans giving you know military support weapons. under the form of the s.d.f. of course that group that is fighting i still is what caused this so russia also sort of baiting the u.s. with this and then if we briefly look ahead to which is a town still controlled by the. the president has said will be next those are really forces under the sort of influence of the americans and last time there was a conflict between turkish backed rebels and the y.p. gee it's complicated elizabeth but the americans physically got involved with their soldiers and armored vehicles in syria to prevent that so it just gives you

a sense of just how complicated this situation is an absolutely you're what you're seeing is international actors trying to carve out their sphere of influence inside syria stephanie thank you very much for that for now that stephanie with the very latest thank you. now u.s. vice president mike pence has arrived. to meet king abdullah as part of his regional tour earlier he met president of. egypt and the israeli palestinian peace process and says the u.s. is still committed to a two state solution despite the controversial decision to recognize a jerusalem as israel's capital. but i assured him that even as president trump made that decision a decision that i will reaffirm in jordan and reaffirm in israel before the end of this trip that will also reaffirm what president trump also said that we're absolutely committed to the two preserving the status quo with regard to holy sites

in jerusalem that we are there we've we've we've we have come to know a final resolution about boundaries or other issues that are to be negotiated between the parties and if the parties agree i reminded president el-sisi that president trump said that if the parties agree we will support a two state solution now the anniversary of us president donald trump's an alteration has been mocked by government shutdown off of the senate failed to agree on a spending bill that will try again early on monday to vote for a deal with immigration the main sticking point republicans and democrats blaming each other for the deadlock my kind of a poll. house democratic minority leader nancy pelosi was the monger thousands of people protesting near the white house the presence at the moment no longer needed on capitol hill when to go see a chanst between senate democrats and republicans on the new wooding up a stopgap funding bill full of hot democrats who are quick to blame the president

and right wing forces within his administration negotiating with this white house is like negotiating with jell-o. it's next to impossible as soon as you take one step forward. the hard right forces the president three steps back but republicans in turn accuse the democrats and schumer in particular of negotiating in bad ways like that so mr she was going to have to up his game a little bit be a little bit more honest with the president states if we can see for others from the from the president himself posted multiple tweets one reading democrats holding our military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration this is the one year anniversary of my presidency and democrats wanted to give me a nice present president trump himself well he's canceled a visit to his florida club house where he was going to celebrate the anniversary of his inauguration along with those willing to pay up to one hundred thousand dollars

a plate more significantly perhaps it appears he's also canceling his trip to the world economic forum in davos where global leaders gather each year. a year ago and this might the newly inaugurated president was dancing at his inaugural party at the insistence on doing things his way have left americans contemplating an indefinite freeze of many government services mike hanna al-jazeera washington. still ahead on the bulletin of. the. tens of thousands of remains are confronted by riot police during anti corruption demonstrations and will take a look at the bygone era of model engine engineering in the u.k. wide appears to be dying out.

allys not vicious storm has blown out tonight the remains over this circulation here still dropping stuff in this un year latvia and estonia and there was something better routes but the wind isn't as strong and there is a following braise and all that tire represent all the rain or snow forming out of it once again we got lies to them for the alps crossing to tear all further south a carpathian mountains following on behind the next system briefly bring snow into the eastern side of the british isles on sunday then it probably turned to right we've got mild weather coming in here that's true coming down through france as well but ahead of it all is still called enough to be wintry the stars died out in the baltic states but not for the sas and romania it's folding come monday we've got right into south of that just coming through greece and the west side of ticky the next system developing now the onshore breezes make it pretty easy when the ice

probably still has a fairly good wood if you look at out of the water in algiers or from tunis that breeze will die at some degree and then you have the development further east for crete cyprus and turkey the one that came through here a couple days ago first of produce the first proper winter well in the event this could repeat that process middle that week.

good to have you with on these are our top stories the gunfire and explosions can still be heard from outside the intercontinental hotel in the afghan capital kabul despite declaring the siege. killed in the attack which began when gunmen stormed the five star hotel on saturday night. turkey has launched a new campaign in syria targeting kurdish controlled on clay of. artillery and air strikes have killed at least six people and troops a ground assault president says the next target. of talent under kurdish

control and the anniversary of president has been mocked by a government shutdown after the senate failed to agree on a spending bill that will try again on monday to vote for a deal with immigration the main sticking point republicans and democrats for the deadlock. now tens of thousands of romanians have protested against changes to their judicial system demonstrators say the amended rules will make it harder to prosecute officials for corruption the ruling party has been implicated in several fraud cases had a hawk star has more. if the palmer was hoping the snow storms raging across remain it would deter protesters from marching they were to be disappointed tens of thousands gathered in bucharest braving the rain and the cold and hostile police presence to show their opposition to. the protests who organized the ruling democrats o.p.'s the pasta last month which could make

a. harder to prosecute crime and high level corruption has been a controversial issue in romania since the government was sworn in a year ago. i came here to live in a free country that is not full of corrupt people i want these assassins and we might hear people. say the revolution in the country i don't think i come here because we want to correct politicians and justice in rumania. protest march followed another event for we can remain here with the president speaking out after a second felt government saw another prime minister ousted i'm day. after i weighed all the arguments taking into account the actual situation in parliament i decided to give the social democrats one more chance and to designate the person they proposed to mrs dunn she. done chiller would be the third prime minister and eleven months the first woman to ever lead the government she still

has to be approved by the parliament most controversially she's considered a very close ally to the p.s.t. leader liviu drag he was convicted for ballot rigging and faces charges of abuse of office his two year prison sentence was suspended if the current anti graft legislation is passed the case against him would be dropped. dan jenner was brought in after her predecessor stepped down on monday after falling out with the party head deeply embarrassing because the japanese prime minister was on a state visit to remain at the time his meeting with his counterpart was quickly scrapped and a day with the president was fast forwarded instead meanwhile the european union has spoken out and germania to do more to prevent and tackle high level corruption . remain a joint european union in two thousand and seven and is subject to special monitoring on the judiciary and the rule of law i've been one to remain informal ministers deputies and senators have been indicted by the council of europe's anti corruption

unit since two thousand and six but brussels has been accused of being too soft on the former soviet state the scale of the protest is nothing new and remain is history tens of thousands took to the streets in one thousand nine hundred nine and the mass uprising which led to the downfall of the communist dictator nicolae ceausescu memories of that revolution seemed rife nearly thirty years later the new prime minister is set to be sworn in in early february perhaps her first task is appeasing the marchers. al-jazeera. now the united nations special rapporteur for me on mine has been visiting one hundred refugee camps in abandoned their janjaweed was banned from entering myanmar a visit to neighboring bond with it comes just days before one hundred refugees are due to start returning to myanmar the repatriation process is expected to last two years more than six hundred thousand two hundred have fled to bond with their since myanmar's army launched a crackdown in northern state in august last year. at least seventeen people have

been killed in a factory fire just outside the indian capital new delhi the blaze started in the basement of a plastic manufacturing facility it took rescuers do two hours to contain the fire and the search and rescue operation continued late to the night the government says it will investigate the course of the blaze. francis has condemned the killings of women which he says has turned lashon america into the most violent place on earth for women the leader of the catholic church also spoke out against drug violence during mass in the northern peruvian city of he then returned to lima and spent time speaking with followers and blessing children. now jamaica's government has declared a state of emergency in parts of its north west because of violent crime police and soldiers have been given extra powers in and around montego bay more than three hundred murders were committed in the area last year tourists have been warned to stay in their resorts the measures will last until the fifteenth of february. now

the two thousand and sixteen presidential election in the us left the us rather bitterly divided or more people over all chose hillary clinton donald trump was the winner getting more electoral college votes in a close race and trump's first year in office has polarized the country even further allen first to travel to pennsylvania a state trump unexpectedly won to see just how deep the divide really is. america's political waters have not run smoothly over the past twelve months the separation the divisions are often very obvious some find it hard to clear the support for the president but even with a badge with his name i will wear to events you know republican events but to wear it out you know people sometimes treat you a little different we've spoken with many on stan's a few times over the past year and early trump supporter she still believes he's

doing a great job all we did was campaigned he told people what he wanted to do some people didn't like what he wanted to do and you know everyone expected that hillary was going to win and it was a shock to everyone that she didn't win so i think this was a much harder part of loss and i think that's why you know there is more of a divide and you pull published to mark one year since the inauguration shows the problem of one nation under trump divided three in four americans say the country is clearly divided six in ten say they don't have trust in the political system and six in ten say racial tensions have increased the divide is most notable with women more tend to vote democratic and with people of color they're less likely to support trump but bitter division is nothing new i generally point to the election of eight hundred which i think is perhaps the most contentious of of all of our elections i think with perhaps. some of the harshest dialogue and discourse that

we've ever had in a presidential campaign we definitely have these periods of a real polarization and and then we do we are able to come back from that are you finding people are engaged for money the rise of donald trump has made them confront the idea of political power and influence and to work together at the community level to change outcomes in this political moment where we are literally fighting for our lives where we are fighting to maintain any of the gains that have answers we've made around health care or the environment. or or or any kind of. oppression efforts they're working towards i think it only apple pfizer urgency of now in just a few weeks there will be a special election in this part of pennsylvania for a vacancy in congress it will begin to get a great deal of national attention it will be seen as a referendum on donald trump's presidency and it will again expose the deep

divisions in america's politics. donald trump has repeatedly said he wants to bring all americans together to work for the greater good but there's no evidence of that happening called reality as your two begins alan fischer al-jazeera pittsburgh. now finally this bulletin if you're interested in traditional steam locomotion eiffel tower was made of the condo in the model engineering show in london as the place for you there are hundreds of exhibits but many say it's becoming a lost art because of the digital era pizza shop explains why. toys for the boys will not exactly this is london showcase of modeling forty five clubs and societies display more than two thousand exhibits but you struggle to find the few in the crowd under the age of sixty. modeling may be on its way to being a bygone record it's produced. it took twenty

seven months to build his tower in paris using the regional drawings colin davis spent over a year to create the precise dimensions of this complex architectural masterpiece the half inch hole spacing for the. is exactly a five foot six inches which is about height perhaps more challenging in scope and scale the five metre long replica of the royal navy's h.m.s. oc royal dan forty started her in one thousand nine hundred ninety two and finished twenty five years later he served on a similar carrier in the cold war and brought that experience to provide the authentic detail on the flight deck many of these modeling clubs go back to the turn of the century but with the digital age their future can no longer be assured . kids raised

a top top notch. and seem to play computer. and that the concept of using your hands and thinking chimps have gone very sad. most of the exhibits reinforce a comfortable sense of nostalgia among these ancient modelers the s.s. great britain was launched exactly one hundred seventy five years ago and was the longest passenger ship in the world and naturally in this exhibition the traces the very origin of modeling there's a matchstick model to show her lines. and then there's this quite bizarre and old favorite with the kids. al-jazeera london. and again ominous. the headlines on al-jazeera the gunfire and explosions can still

be heard from outside the intercontinental hotel in the afghan capital kabul despite the interior minister declaring the siege over at least five civilians have been killed in the attack which began when gunmen stormed the five star hotel on saturday night. turkey has launched a new campaign in syria targeting the kurdish control fane artillery and air strikes have killed at least six people and troops and for a ground assault turkey's president says the next target will be another town under kurdish control. u.s. was president mike pence has arrived and jordan king abdullah as part of his regional tour earlier he met president than fattah el-sisi in egypt to discuss security and the israeli palestinian peace process speaking to reporters before his departure from egypt and said the u.s. is still committed to a two state solution despite the controversial u.s. decision to recognized as israel's capital. but i assured him

that even as president made that decision a decision that i will reaffirm in jordan and reaffirm in israel before the end of this trip that will also reaffirm what president. there were absolutely committed to the two preserving the status quo with regard to holy sites in jerusalem that we are that we've we we have come to know a final resolution about boundaries or other issues that are to be negotiated between the parties and if the parties agree i reminded president el-sisi the president that if the parties agree we will support a two state solution. the anniversary of u.s. president trump's inauguration has been marked by a government shutdown are the senate failed to agree on a spending bill that will try again early on monday to vote for a deal but immigration the main sticking point republicans and democrats are blaming each other for the deadlock. pope francis has condemned the killing of women which he says have turned latin america into the most violent place on earth

for women the leader of the catholic church also spoke out against drug weiland during mass in the northern peruvian city of tokyo. are the headlines on al-jazeera inside story is coming up next. and the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world. al-jazeera. the u.s. government shuts down over a failed budget deal of the day president trump celebrates his first year in office workers are told to stay home democrats and republicans trades in saul's what's really to blame and what does it mean for trump's administration this is inside story.