the challenge of perceptions the contours of this story are shaped by the interests of the countries involved only on al-jazeera from the centuries egypt to the sword to come on power over the mild event out we aren't harming any of the knowledge base in the country they don't mean that if they get their water from rainfall boss upstream this dominance is being challenge by countries who want to agree to share i know some you can eat your. own question i guess this circumstances have changed and changed quite a struggle over the mild at this time on al-jazeera. on to the. border.

and welcome to. headquarters and. also ahead benjamin netanyahu welcomes the president. as liberia. as president of the challenges facing office. is about to begin in washington d.c. . to work. and rebel allies have stepped up their battle against kurdish fighters along the turkish syrian border to drive kurdish. district and northwest corner. plans to create a so-called safe zone. to protect its border stephanie decker has more from the

turkish syrian border. we've been hearing intense tank shelling and heavy artillery outgoing throughout the period of the morning it is an active campaign it is the third day of turkey's offensive the ground offensive also started on sunday we know there's been fighting back and forth in the northwest of syria is of course also a concern for the civilians it's been very difficult to speak to anyone over the last day or so it seems that the coal mines in that area are pretty much nil there are reports of civilian civilian casualties the white saying at least ten again this is difficult to confirm turkey's stresses it's doing everything to stop to avoid civilian casualties however as we know when it comes to war they are always a very murky situation and nothing is clear cut the reality is had been a relatively peaceful area throughout this war there are also many i.d.p.'s there

so certainly also the psychological impact of this campaign will be terrifying for the people there. in the last few minutes the syrian democratic forces have released a statement on the fighting around offering they are the u.s. backed coalition whose main group the kurdish one the target off the turkish offensive well the s.t.'s statement says that over the last twenty four hours the group has lost a number of what it calls marches and fighting against i so what it says is it's only enemy the s.d.f. call for turkish offensive sudden an unwarranted and says the syrian people need to focus on political reconciliation and rebuilding the country the russian defense ministry says an operations underway by syrian government forces to remove the group. formerly known as front from the eastern part of the province syrian police seize weapons and ammunition meant for. fighters and extend and drugs and medical devices found among the whole. moving on to other news now

palestinian president mahmoud abbas is in brussels to ask the european union for support is expected to me to european foreign ministers and the blocs foreign policy chief federico me boss wants the e.u. to officially recognize palestine as a state in response to the u.s. decision to recognize reversing them as the israeli capital. clearly there is a problem with jerusalem i would say this is a very diplomatic euphemism and we europeans as well as all of the out of words and the united nations system starts. still continue to believe that the only mathematic realistic solution for jerusalem has to come through direct negotiations and has to be the capital of two states. we will continue to worth to support an international framework. israel has both as security in jerusalem for a visit by the u.s. a vice president mike pence met israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu for talks

on monday it's the second day of a visit to israel that has been boycotted by palestinians they're protesting because of the u.s. decision to recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel the city's status as a key point of contention in the middle east peace process well let's get more on this now we're joined by correspondent terry forth he's live for us in west jerusalem so what are we expecting from this visit harry and what's the likely the likely substance of discussions between pence and netanyahu. well as far as both men have been trailing these talks they will be about wider regional security as well as what could potentially happen in any efforts to try and resuscitate the priest process between the israelis and the palestinians given the reaction that we've just been hearing about that the palestinians have given to this highly controversial move by donald trump in recognizing druce them as the capital of israel the israeli prime minister last night ahead of these talks so that they

would be about two things about peace and security he said that anybody who did not want to sit down with the united states as the main sponsor of any peace process was not serious obviously addressing that directly to mahmoud abbas the palestinian president and he said that they would talk more generally about regional security issues he of course is very focused on the iranian. issue something he shares with the trumpet ministration so it was that we part of the talks as well for harry and we know that mike pence as due to address the knesset shortly what kind of reception can hear there. oh yes we're in the knesset now awaiting the israeli parliament awaiting the visit of mike pence he will be making a speech inside the chamber and obviously he'll be getting a very warm reception for from most of the members of the knesset here across israeli jewish opinion at least there is a very broad acceptance of this decision from the united states is really

palestinians though of course see it entirely differently and we were speaking to one very senior member of the of the knesset for who represents palestinians inside israel and there had been talk that they would boycott it entirely it now does appear that they may be inside the chamber at some point he said wait and see what we do so there obviously be some kind of action taken to register palestinian displeasure with pence's visit and with u.s. policy more generally and of course as we're just hearing this is all happening at the same time as the palestinian leadership is entirely rejected this visit would have us instead in europe trying to get european nations to recognize palestine and potentially be. an alternative framework to any peace process going forward excluding the united states from that of what harry thank you very much for that for now that's how i thought it joining us live from west jerusalem and we will of course be going back to him once the u.s. vice president addresses the knesset thank you. now the u.s.

government shutdown is set to continue into the workweek as republicans and democrats struggle to end the stalemate over funding a vote of the government spending bill has been delayed until monday off the two sides failed to reach a compromise where money for federal agencies was cut off on sesh day effect and a range of departments including passport and visa services immigration is at the heart of the dispute democrats are refusing to approve the funding until there's protection for undocumented migrants who enter the u.s. as children they're known as dreamers. is following developments from washington d.c. . the shutdown of the u.s. government will stretch into a third day this is after the faint glimmer of hope to achieve an overnight compromise was dashed when senate democrats announced that yet there was still no deal now the next possible vote would come at noon monday but on an elusive compromise that has yet to be reached

a group of bipartisan centrist senators have been working behind closed doors to reach that compromise so far what's been discussed is a temporary measure to reopen the government until february eighth and then to address immigration that may be a hard pill for democrats to swallow they see this as their opportunity to leverage the budget in order to help the eight hundred thousand young undocumented immigrants hold dreamers who were brought to this country illegally as children meanwhile u.s. president donald trump one time said he wished to help the legalize those young people has now in recent days turned back on that stance playing to his base and saying he wants a harder stance on immigration with these shifting stances and with the finger pointing coming from trump's account on twitter it remains to be seen when and if a compromise to reopen the federal government will occur. well hell since women

have gathered at a football stadium in las vegas on the second day of global demonstrations against inequality. well the rally is also being held to mark one year since the u.s. president's inauguration many are denouncing donald trump's views on issues including immigration abortion and l.g. rights rally organizers have a campaign to encourage female voters to register and run for office in november midterm elections. to sit on the have released seven detained journalists there were arrested after covering protests against new government measures which have increased the price of bread and other products activists say the latest arrests issues surrounding press freedom in the country as head of morgan reports from khartoum. he's been walking through these gates every day for eight years but just who runs his own daily newspaper al-hayat says a lot has changed and not for the better he now has fewer staff because he can't

afford to pay them all additions of his paper have been stopped from going on sale more than twenty times in the past year four times just this month and the. press freedom in sudan depends on the political atmosphere when we started working in the ninety's the freedom was much more than it is now so there are a lot of restrictions the government uses like confiscating the papers after printing to cause economic loss stopping some articles from being published restricting the movements of journalists it comes down to the political scene with no regard to the media laws i'll tell you it is one of more than have a dozen newspapers which were confiscated before hitting sudan streets in the past twelve months editors a national security agency a printing press houses confiscate additions that contain stories critical of the government some newspaper readers now turn to the internet to find out what's going on in the country but you can be thank you for telling i open social media and. then i go to the web. i check several websites that can give me the critics news

news that i believe is factual part of why we had this there's nothing you can do when the papers are confiscated you can't get a chance to go through the news so we turn to the internet and see what's there the international organization reporters without borders ranks sudan one hundred seventy fourth out of one hundred eighty countries on its press freedom index and there are concerns it's about to get even tougher for journalists in sudan to do their job members of parliament are deliberating a bill to allow national security agents to shut down newspapers radio stations and t.v. stations for fifteen days without sizing any reason and if that bill becomes law students press council would have the power to indefinitely ban any journalists who write or broadcast anything that opposes government policies that a journalist detained this month we're covering protests over hyped bread prices the government failed to respond to requests for comment on the arrests or on the freedom of the press. but he got it in the right way to regulate the press is

through the courts since the laws more than a single law confiscating papers or things like that is not a good idea and journalists who are detained should be presented to court and if they have any fault they should bear responsibility but the shouldn't be put in jail without any clear charge directors for editors like last month the concern is not about being charged for what they report on but being prevented from reporting in the first place and the shutting down of any outlet that doesn't follow government lines people morgan al-jazeera khartoum. still ahead on the bulletin. of a million people turned out for part found final mass and end of a controversial time of latin america plus. i'm robert bryden and avoid problems with the solar panels that are helping china float to the top of the green on the.

welcome back we'll start by look at the weather across southeastern parts of asia this is general sherry picture much as you would expect northern parts of the philippines looking dr miller should stay sunny all day highs of thirty one degrees and for java look so they'll be some heavy showers around but that's really all note across the region otherwise maybe through into wednesday up through them in a pinch a fairly dry want to two showers in particular in the gulf of thailand bangkok might just see the odd downpours during the day heading down into a straight here main feature is a trough of low pressure right across the top end and here we've seen some pretty significant rainfall totals over the last twenty four hours as these two areas of low pressure dominated certainly a little on them there just off the top and given some very large rainfall totals northern parts of queens and to your peninsula it's also been pretty wet so if you

look at the forecast more showers across this region long spells of rain mixed in there could be some localized flooding certainly looking pretty well months again for sydney thirteen some of the suburbs still way in the upper thirty's forty's a maxim there for alice springs and then across western australia pleasant in perth with highs of twenty seven when you see there's still some heavy showers effect in the north island in particular. our. documentary. at this time on al-jazeera.

good to have you with us on our top stories. stepped up their battle could. create. to protect its border. president mike pence is in jerusalem the highest ranking u.s. official to visit the city since president recognized it as the capital of israel. and palestinians protested against his arrival. and hundreds of thousands of federal employees in the u.s. will have to stay at home as the government shutdown continues money for federal

agencies. the senate failed to build a new spending plan in the coming hours. bringing his six day tour of south america to an end while he was welcomed by millions of catholics and chile and spain overshadowed by sex abuse cases and both countries. reports from. more than a million people joined francis for his farewell mass. the last time proving prayed with the pope was nearly thirty years ago here that now. says the pope's visit was inspirational when they're mostly and i'm going to i'm going it's been such a wonderful emotion for me you have no idea how much i've cried. peruvians followed eighty one year old friends from the amazon in the south to the beachfront

mass in one chuckle in the north. many like seventy year old. made long journeys to see the pope. so i believe in the holy father so i started from my back i made the effort travelling twenty four hours by bus i'm happy. france is still proven to not forget the poor. a society that doesn't accept those who suffer compassion toward suffering is cruel and inhumane. the argentine born pontiff criticised corruption in latin america he urged indigenous people to protect the amazon and condemned human trafficking and crimes against women but said nothing about sex abuse by the clergy. part of the trip was overshadowed by

the sex scandals and with the solution i have both the revolutionary and the others defending him. in chile at least ten churches were burned more than eighty people were arrested for protesting the abuses by the clergy but the pope defended bishops. who victims say covered up abuses and yet everything and every. day i'm sure in perfect sense to bishop are also. then i will talk there is not one piece of proof against him it's also clear. the pope is under a lot of pressure never. muster reasons for not saying anything about those cases where the judiciary is following up and justice must be done the. while the pontiff drew cute during his visit to the victims of abuse see the pope

missed a chance to bring them some peace and comfort. with the innocent just leave . has arrived in denmark despite threats from spain that he would be detained there on sunday spain's state prosecutor said it will really issue an arrest warrant for. belgium to join a debate at the university of copenhagen and was invited to the danish parliament where the former president of fled to brussels and after his regional government declared independence from spain in a referendum world illegal madrid. former football star george way is set to be sworn in as liberia's president in a few hours he is replacing nobel peace prize winner ellen johnson sirleaf who led the west african nation for twelve years. reports from monrovia on the challenges ahead. liberia's president elect arrives a one last set of. the mood here

is celebre. but many believe it would be for. story takes over from outgoing president ellen johnson sirleaf whose term expired a week ago. but the challenges she leaves behind are huge on employment it's going to be a key issue to resolve. and the conditions are not pretty it is all able to find his feet within the first six months he will lose attention of the international development community he'll lose attention of global capital and he will lose the interest of a largely impatient voting base. the youth form one of weir's biggest voting bloc in the last election and this group is largely unskilled and impatient for change he told us opening up the rural areas is

a huge priority for. the recipe. but there are several unresolved issues that are equally picking for attention education electricity industrialization and national reconciliation ellen johnson sirleaf may have stabilized post-war liberia but like most developing countries it still struggles with the twin problems of corruption and under development one hundred seventy years after it was founded when jordan where takes the also from office of the twenty fifth president of liberia on these grounds is supporters and one of so fun sixty percent of liberia's budget will be watching closely to see how he discharges his responsibilities the first will be who he appoints interest cabinet because with that we have been branded as inexperienced he needs to put his best foot forward he needs

a stroll minister fire ants that can send a message to the local and international economic players that liberia is capable of doing business. georgia where is ticking off these months after international donors have started scaling down operations in liberia which means the country sees less. but some liberian say it's time they take their destiny in their own hands. for now they celebrate point it's not clear how long the wind would last or how soon the impatience will set. now only seven people have been killed in ethiopia and fighting with security forces the violence broke out during religious celebrations in the heart of region worshippers are said to have fought with security forces during a procession for the christian festival of the perfidy. a plan to repatriate hundreds of thousands of one hundred refugees to myanmar which was due to begin on

tuesday has been delayed bangor they have agreed to move around seven hundred fifty thousand who fled ethnic violence and stayed the repatriation process is expected to take two years but a list of over one million names compiled by bangladesh is yet to be passed on to myanmar or many refugees so they're feeling pressure to go back to iraq and a worried about their safety james gomes is amnesty international regional director for southeast asia and he says no one should be forced to return. we are not clear about the fundamental conditions to which the refugees returning to because they have fled you know probably the risk to life destruction at the hands of the time a door in raw kind state and name sending them back to the same conditions so this is why the issue of voluntariness is important to ascertain although the document

you know framing the return agreement and the physical agreement do make reference to the voluntary returns but we need effective oversight to determine if indeed these returns are voluntary here i think the role of the un his chair is important although the documentation you know that we have cited provides for the un h.r. to cite lists of return me but that is not good enough you know u.n.h.c.r. needs to be central to oversight the process to ensure that it is indeed voluntary and it should have the mandate to you know. ensure that you know that it's able to prevent or stop those returns that are not voluntary and this its role should not only be on the bangladesh side it also needs to play a part to determine the conditions on the b.m.r.

side so therefore you know in this situation i think the returns that are you know . that are planned for the twenty third of january are just simply too premature and to stage. experts warning that a major volcanic eruption may be eminent and pop when you thousands of people have been evacuated from around in recent weeks scientists have national volcanic activity in the area of the fifth of january flights have been cancelled and ships want to stay away from the area when you get a's prime minister has told coastal communities to be on alert. for tsunamis. saudi arabia is planning to make one and a half billion dollars in new aid to yemen that is despite its continued bombardment that's pushed millions of yemenis to the brink of famine and cause the world's worst humanitarian crisis the u.n. launched its largest appeal for yemen on sunday it's asking for about three billion dollars in donations almost three years of some of the led air strikes and fighting

gadhafi rebels have left about half of the population and desperate need of lifesaving assistance it's not just. because of this. there is villages where they haven't been access. or access medical facilities and even to disease a space that you now how fairly is wealth distributed among people in your country where the latest annual report from oxfam paints a gloomy picture eighty two percent of the global wealth generated last year went to the richest one percent of the population while the three point seven billion people who make up the poorest half of the world saw no increase in their wealth the report singles out countries where the guy gap is widening including the united states says the three richest people in the u.s. on the same wealth as the bottom half of the population that is one hundred sixteen

million people. one person has been killed in the line others injured after a racing sailboat collided with a fishing vessel off the coast of hong kong the american danish yacht was approaching the finish line in the fourth leg of the evolver ocean base when the accident happened the yacht's crew was injured but the boat was damaged and forced to retire from the race. right to china now the country is the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases but it also invests more each year and wend hydro and solar power than any other country robin wright reports from one signature project that is the largest floating solar farm on earth. they float in the winter sunshine shimmering islands silently generating enough power for a small city on the shore new sections of solar panels are bolted together and then floated out to join the others the lake they occupy was formed by the collapse of

a disused coal mine underground that would otherwise go to waste to design these sections like this especially for this area they weren't you no matter how much the land flowed. the water helps cool the panels and keeps them free of dust to make them more efficient. and hoyt like other provinces is experiencing an unusually severe winter. if it's the result of climate change it's a reminder that a country which is built its prosperity on coal must look to renewable energy for its future with its demand for energy china is still burning about half the world's coal but that is fast changing the government has promised to spend three hundred sixty billion dollars on clean energy by twenty twenty and the difference is clear to see quite literally. beijing and other cities in northern china have been

enjoying blue skies this winter largely because of a restriction on coal burning it's a controversial policy that's left many people shivering without enough alternative energy sources but it's given a glimpse of a smoke free future without coal. back in the coal mine and power station can be seen beyond the solar panels. jew twenty year and used to work that but says the soul of bond pays him twice as much and he's happy to work above ground. what my son also works in the industry it's got a job putting panels on people's roofs and. pots of a huge workforce that will eventually number in the millions finding a clean a life in green energy rob mcbride al-jazeera unholy providence china.

now again as a prominent headline thought i'll just say i took his army and rebel out stepped up their battle against kurdish fascists in northern syria the trying to drive why p.j. fighters out of a frame where they want to create a so-called safe zone first economy state to protect their border. u.s. vice president mike pence as in jerusalem is the highest ranking u.s. official to visit the city since president trump recognized it as the capital of israel visit was welcomed by israel but palestinians protested his arrival and to see what pans had to say soon after meeting netanyahu. making sure. the research president wrote. recognize. israel's current ryssdal. there were an opportunity. to move.

goods through. israel. is that if you go to prison. well meanwhile palestinian president mahmoud abbas is in brussels to ask the european union for its support is expected to meet to european foreign ministers and the blocs foreign policy chief federica mongering boss wants you to officially recognize palestine as a state and response to the u.s. decision to recognize jerusalem as the israeli capital. hundreds of thousands of federal employees in the u.s. will have to stay at home as the government shutdown continues the money for federal agencies was cut off on saturday after the senate failed to pass a funding bill. alstad leader carlists purged amount has arrived in denmark despite threats from spain he would be detained there to join a debate at the university of copenhagen the former president of the national in

your region fled to brussels and october pope francis has concluded his tour of south america with a final mass in lima more than a million people gathered to hear the pontiff and for his capital. those are the headlines on al-jazeera what this is coming up next. as witchcraft is sorcery killing spreads across up a new guinea. when east exposes shocking human rights abuses. of a specific nation's dark subject when used at this time on al-jazeera. we have been here since the beginning of time this is not the calm warm of

a strike this is the you'd enjoy a cherry tree.