as we shed light on the troubles afflicting venezuela today the big picture the battle for venezuela at this time on al jazeera news has never been more and they lable but the message is a simplistic and misinformation is rife listening post provides a critical counterpoint challenging mainstream media narrative at this time on al-jazeera. it's both parties fault. the u.s. government stumbles into its second shutdown in just three weeks. hello and welcome to al-jazeera live from my headquarters in doha with me and it's with piron and also ahead. a historic moment the north korean leader arrives in

south korea for the winter olympics. syria's government throws around accusations of war crimes as its jets continue an assault that's killed more than two hundred people and just four days and what israel is demanding from the family of a palestinian man who was crushed to death under a military vehicle. u.s. politicians are debating into the pre-dawn hours in washington d.c. as they try to end the government's second shutdown and just three weeks these are live pictures from the house of representatives they are looking at legislation that spain approved by the senate which provides stopgap funding for federal agencies as question salumi reports congress missed a deadline which would have avoided the latest shutdown. midnight came and went

sending the u.s. government towards its second shutdown in less than three weeks so everything about this stinks to tell you the truth the vote to keep the government running held up by a single senator republican rand paul he says government spending is out of control everybody's getting more spending. the military the right's getting more military spending the left is getting more well versed bending and you're getting stuck with the bill the late night drama played out for hours we're going to end this madness as soon as we possibly can republican lindsey graham repeatedly called for a vote is there jackson mr president senator from kentucky rand paul stopped it every time frustrating his fellow senators it makes no sense to me it will not accomplish anything we can right now provide certainty to that thousands and thousands of people that expect government to be open and we can play this game

until one am the deal would raise spending caps by roughly three hundred billion dollars over two years more than half going to the military the rest non-defense spending including much needed money for disaster relief programs infrastructure projects and community health clinics fiscally conservative critics like paul say the budget deal will send the deficit soaring to more than a trillion dollars by next year but many democrats aren't happy either the bill does nothing to address immigration and faces an even tougher battle in the house of representatives before it can be signed into law kristen salumi al-jazeera washington d.c. well let's get more on this now a joined by clive allcock professor of government at georgetown university great to have you with us on al-jazeera bestival cox a tough battle indeed will the house of representatives how likely is it to pass this legislation i think is a tough tough vote for the house basically that republicans have a bloc that is the tea party with conservatives who are going to oppose it and then

many of the really liberal democrats are going to oppose it because it doesn't provide protection for the dream works you know and have heard from house minority leader nancy pelosi who said that that she's not going to support this legislation but will the democrats follow suit well she has told them it's a conscience that is not going to whip them into line so they can do. however they want many of the moderates will want to vote to keep the government open. but the bargaining will probably be palosi and the speaker over whether to take a separate vote on the dreamers the senate is promised a separate vote on the dreamers cleaned up the house will want to do that and the democrats won and how long do you think before we see if that the compromise of that's what's going to happen you know they're counting the votes now right so what they have is people going around and asking people who's on the fence and bargaining with them and so forth and while we're here second government shutdown in three weeks as we've been reporting what is the say about the about things in

washington d.c. about politics in washington d.c. well normally in this kind of situation it's presidential leadership that pulls it together and this particular case was golfing right where they did the negotiation so they just decided to go ahead on the road in the senate and cut a deal so is there a lack of leadership then yes definitely on the presidential side right in the parties are stalemated over important issues yeah so these are not trivial issues and it's interesting that this president who's very vocal on a number of matters and very active on twitter we haven't actually heard from him about this as well you can't claim credit for it he likes to claim credit for things but if they get this deal is it's pretty much a two year deal so this would prevent this from happening again for a while. thank you very much for that for now that is clive allcock thank you. let's move on to other news now in the system of north korea's leader has become

the first member of her family to step foot in south korea since the two countries went to war and nine hundred fifty jong as part of the north korean delegation that survived for the opening ceremony of the. pics of south korea's leader the hoping to use the games as an opportunity to revive meaningful communication after a long period of high tension over north korea's nuclear and weapons program going to name has more. the historic arrival of a high ranking north korean delegation has generated a lot of buzz in south korea on that delegation is the sister of north korean leader kim jong il her name is kim jong she is a trusted advisor of the north korean leader she has ascended the ranks of the north korean power structure rapidly since her brother took office she is thought to have the ear of the leader and the power to relay any concerns the north korean

leader might have to the south korean government the north korean delegation that will be meeting with south korean president in on saturday there's speculation in the south korean media that perhaps kim you know john will extend an invitation for president moon to visit north korea president moon is very pro engagement with north korea he's hoping to seize the pyongyang winter olympics as an opportunity for reconsideration between the two koreas after a very tense year there are skeptics some say this charm offensive won't amount to anything but advancing the north korean agenda and driving a wedge between the united states and south korea in the coming hours we will see north and south korean athletes marching under a unified flag during the opening ceremony this is not the first time this is happened but it's the first time in eleven years that we've seen korean athletes marching together at an international sporting event this is considered

a celebration of korean nationalism now a last minute appeal by forty one russian athletes and coaches to take part in a gang has been hijacked it the court of arbitration for sport to dismiss the case of russians had appeared against the exclusion by the international olympic committee of the two thousand and fourteen doesn't scandal at the sochi games one hundred seventeen russian athletes have been chaotic and paint because the country is banned they'll be flying in neutral in the pic flag. to egypt now the army has launched what it calls a comprehensive operation against armed groups in the sinai peninsula the plan was announced by an army spokesman on a video posted on its official website the military has already ordered hospitals to be placed on high alert preparing extra beds and personnel to deal with emergencies and medical evacuations local media are also reporting an unusual increase in the number of military vehicles in the sinai to syria now where the

government is accusing the u.s. of committing a war crime by bombing fighters loyal to president bashar asad in their hours or province the u.s. led coalition says one hundred fighters loyal to the syrian government died in the airstrikes it says they were in response to what it called an unprovoked attack on the headquarters of its ally the syrian democratic forces but russia which backs as south says the strikes are part of an effort by washington to control key economic assets in the region our pentagon correspondent patty culhane has more. i've had a briefing with secretary of defense jim mattis he was off camera but on the record and he called what happened in syria a quote for plex in situation and he said because for years the euphrates river has been a kind of do not cross line that if the u.s. or u.s. backed forces or russian or russian backed forces were going to cross it they talk about it before and he said that didn't happen this time he said u.s. forces were embedded along with the s.d.f. and they saw tanks and artillery start rolling in and say that one shell got within

five hundred meters of the s.d.f. headquarters says that is when they picked up the phone they called their russian counterparts and he says he doesn't think that the group that moved in is actually controlled by russia he called this a great success story because in his words two great powers did not fight each other still the russian ambassador to the united nations was less than pleased i asked him to remember that the. syria illegally in fact. they would look like the. they claim. they fight international terrorism but we see that it goes beyond that. to confront those who really fight with the traditional terrorist with the glove with the city and say is is giving the secretary mabus didn't speculate on how many casualties were caused by the firing from u.s. jets and heavy artillery positions but he did say that they took out two of the

incoming tanks and the heavy artillery positions the u.s. is calling this self defense and warning that that happens again the left again. well elsewhere in syria bombs have been falling on rebel held areas for a fifth consecutive day local media say government and russian air strikes have killed at least fifty seven people in eastern guta on the edge of damascus on thursday including children and a medic they've escalated their attacks there and the province since a russian jet was shot down on saturday the number of people killed has passed two hundred in just four days and turkey has resumed bombing raids over the northern survey an enclave of a fleeing after a five day break kurdish media posted this video showing turkish airstrikes on the outskirts of a free turkey began in the air and ground operation last month to oust the y.p. from a fiend regards the y p g as terrorists. still ahead on the monitor and

a camera outside mediator to help bring an end to the political strife and talk about. how the weather's lousy fought to drive for a good parts of malaysia pushing up into thailand settled weather coming through here further south that's where we got the liveliest of the showers little bit of wet weather will gradually make its way into the philippines some heavy showers into that east the side of borneo for a time and some really heavy rain just pushing down across the indonesia notching a little further south was. seeing some rather heavy showers and long spells of rain then as we go on through sunday because at thirty degrees celsius flooding problem certainly set to continue here further north is fine and dry temperatures getting up into the thirty's and the same temperatures staying well up into the

thirty's for queensland over the next let me clear skies across much of our strike a little bit of cloud just making its way through south australia through victoria that will continue to ease its way over towards new zealand we getting up to around thirty celsius in melbourne thirty one in adelaide thirty three embrace been add rising will touch thirty seven in brisbane on sunday afternoon in this heat wave thousand set to really dig in over the next few days so he worth keeping an eye on his central air is getting up to around forty degrees celsius therefore we got a few showers there into right down into the southwest and cold a little colder in perth with a high of twenty eight. the marshall islands holds a toxic legacy from years of u.s. military nuclear testing. as the sea levels rise one on one east investigates the threats this followed posers at this time on al-jazeera.

al-jazeera. swear every jew it's. good to have you with us on our dizzier these are our top stories a high level north korean delegation to the channel in france has touched down and south korea that includes leader kim jong un sister kim jong arrival marks the first time a member of north korea's ruling family has crossed the border and from one nine hundred fifty korean war. the syrian government and its russian ally are continuing

a bombing campaign in eastern guta near the capital damascus local media say government and russian air strikes killed at least fifty seven people on thursday. u.s. senators have just passed legislation to fund the government which has slipped into a second shutdown and just three weeks that's now being voted on in the house of representatives well earlier the senate missed a midnight deadline to pass the legislation which resulted in the new shutdown. even before the shutdown happened it was another very bad day on wall street of the dow jones plunged by more than a thousand points only the second time this ever happened in one day. excuse me after launch games and early january. share

prices are trading around ten percent noah. gave any sound has more make no mistake about it this was a huge stocks plunge the big question is what's causing it now there are a whole host of reasons but most economists and traders are pointing to three key things number one concerns over rising deficit spending the federal budget that's being negotiated right now in washington is expected to add at least three hundred billion dollars in deficit spending over the next two years add that with one point five trillion in deficit spending for the new taxed overhaul plan that trump and the republicans pushed through late last year and you're seeing these huge amounts of money that is added to the deficit and that is really concerning wall street the second reason is inflationary concern and rising interest rates and the third being political uncertainty in washington with the trumpet ministrations continued fights

public battles with the f.b.i. and the continuing russia investigation leaving the markets uncertain about the political future of the administration and how they're going to navigate all of this markets don't like any uncertainty and they don't like political uncertainty either the israeli army is so in the family of a young palestinian man who was crushed to death by one of their calls they said the twenty one year old damaged the jeep before the incident which happened three years ago and iran contra ports. the israeli army killed a name in june two thousand and fifteen and now it wants twenty eight thousand dollars for damages to this jeep to crush the twenty one year old after his death ability family filed a lawsuit against the israeli state the case continues then in january this year the army build the family. this is a copy of the lawsuit given to us by the family lawyer. they reopened

there so shameless that they are demanding compensation not because they want the money because they want to make it impossible for us palestinians it's not about the money they want us to give in but we say we have the right you won't break because. in june two thousand and fifteen there was a raid by the army and they had a mullah that turned violent the israelis say a below three of five all of the jeep which then swerved into him for over three hours the family says the army wouldn't allow medics to treat a villa as he lay beneath the jeep he eventually played to death the entire village turned out the funeral. lawyers say asking for compensation is part of a new israeli strategy to penalize palestinians for any kind of resistance or internal opposition. messing up their little. story honestly we're not used to seeing this sort of claim but if you take it in

context where israel is going when it comes to killings fines and bills of votes in the knesset i think they're heading to a level where anyone who utters the word occupation can be harassed arrested and possibly find that he might be considered to insult the state and its inhabitants al-jazeera reached out to the israeli ministry of defense for comment it says it has submitted a statement of defense to the court stating that the event in which the plaintiffs was killed constitutes wartime activity as defined by the law and therefore the state is immune from. in this event in the light of the damage that was caused to the i.d.f. jeep as a result of the molotov cocktail through my the plaintiffs the ministry has filed account to suit. remembered very fondly and he's seen as a martyr for the palestinian cause graffiti of his face adorns the walls of the village people here say they'll never forget about him. the family say they will

continue to fight for justice for the law and they've named the new after him they say they would rather face whatever consequences there may be than pay the israeli army any money imran khan how does it go from alec occupied west bank. the roches news agency says it has evidence that one hundred men were massacred in myanmar last september it is the first time such an account has been backed up by what in the statements from both the villages and security forces themselves the two journalists behind the investigation have been detained and denied bail and want to report contains images that some viewers may find disturbing. it's a chilling and detailed account of what can only be described as a premeditated massacre the photographs provided to reuters by a buddhist village elder don't lie the first the news agency says was taken on september first and shows the ten rocking jet captives lined up in a row the second taken the day after shows their slain bodies in

a mass grave their ages range from seventeen to forty five among them were students fishermen farmers shop owners fathers they were all part of the same community from the village of indian in myanmar's northern rakhine state but a little bit about the building when they were taking them away they said they do not worry we will send your sons back soon we have taken them for me till i die hard on all that you know of indian six thousand rocking chair remained in the village as of october and surprisingly their relatives are reluctant to move back. i would not go back there how can i go and they killed our husbands we have all listened babies how will they survive myanmar's military says the ten men belong to a group of two hundred terrorists that had attacked them earlier but accounts given to the news agency by both ranger and buddhist witnesses deny such large scale attack ever happens in the village the writer story draws for the first time on

interviews with buddhist villagers who confessed to torching rohingya homes bury bodies and killing muslims it also marks the first time soldiers and paramilitary police have been implicated by testimony from security personnel themselves the two reporters behind the story wallow in your story who are both myanmar nationals and were detained on december twelfth for allegedly obtaining confidential documents the statement released by the military on january tenth confirmed what they were preparing to report ten write in demand had been massacred in that village at least coincided with a judicial request by prosecutors to charge the two journalists under the official secrets act they have been denied bail and the convicted could face up to forty units in prison on the silver al-jazeera. the female activists has been detained in saudi arabia for seventeen days and what rights groups are calling

a quiet government crackdown on human rights campaigners know how al balawi has been held and provoked after being questioned by police who accuse her of advocating women's rights on social media she faces five years in prison of charged and found guilty on thursday a saudi court sentenced journalist to five years in prison for what it called insulting the royal court. international mediators are expected to meet in the west african nation off togo next week they're hoping to help solve a political standoff that's brought large protests against president saying they and his government opponents say they're fed up with a family that's been in power since the one nine hundred sixty seven john holl reports. in togo protests and public sector strikes have been going on for months the west african country has been ruled by a single family for half a century in the nursing bay did a city song president for nursing day has followed father without presidential term limits and benito goolies has had enough. pressure from the streets has brought

a commitment by the president to end to constitutional reform talks to go expect concrete results well. he's a teacher who's drawing destructors or not i have a professional degree and my salary is one hundred twenty five u.s. dollars per month it's the cost of living is high and we're overwhelmed by debt so it's very difficult because a different subject as a french teacher i handle four classes of more than one hundred students each with two different subjects at the end of a semester i have more than a thousand papers tomorrow without any support we lack infrastructure no library to do research in some classes there's no space for all the children. health workers are also on strike. says the decision to walk out of his hospital job was not taken lightly the health service he says is no longer fit for purpose.

we have given an oath to serve and save life but when you take a decision to go on strike you should understand that the situation is appalling and we're not going to be complicit with it. the police. department says function without personnel that night like ophthalmology and the pediatric nurse serving in the recovery room is the same nurse who has to rush to attend the babies and other. international mediators for. say talks between the government and the opposition. group the fifty journal. but to russia now where eight candidates have been officially named for this year's presidential election president vladimir putin is hoping to win a fourth term in office opinion polls give him a sixty percent opposition leader. organize mass protests against corruption has been. due to be held on the eighteenth of march. colombians are holding

their noses in the capital. collectors are on strike thousands of tons of garbage are rushing in the streets the workers walked out because they fear mass redundancies where new contracts are awarded. have more. for a week now more than half of colombia's capital has been inundated by collected garbage left to rot on street corners and parks the crisis started with three housing employees of a public service called i was the answer to strike the mayor and we continue because we are the only environmental emergency allowing private sanitation workers to help with the collection but residents say the situation keeps getting and fear health consequences this has to it's a disaster such neglect and disregard for the community the smell is unbearable people are getting sick with paying the garbage tax like everybody else so what is

the may doing the workers of the builder or afraid go lose their job due to changes in the way garbage contracts are awarded in past days they clashed with the police and damaged a number of garbage trucks tuesday residents of one of the worst affected neighborhoods burned garbage and blocked main roads with rubbish bags the mayor is blaming his predecessor to change the rubbish collection system and was temporarily suspended for allegedly nice man if you get. but it will be difficult for the mayor to avoid responsibility he's now being investigated by control tory he even as he's promising to end the crisis in the next three days something the people have definitely are hoping for. to argentina now where flooding in the north is making life even tougher for many already struggling to make a living of this burst its banks force and thousands from their homes and sell to providence as home to several indigenous communities as daniel sean the reports

from santa victoria. when the waters rise they do so rapidly and they're ruthless there's just time to save what's essential to the place over and over that. i saved my nephew but then i couldn't get back seven kilometers from there i haven't heard anything from my sister more than one hundred members of the indigenous community left everything behind when they fled santa victoria evacuated to this school in the nearby town about what i said being fed they want to go home or. we were ready to go back but we're scared the water is filtered through losing our things would be very we spent our lives there our children grew up there carlos is one of the few who risk staying behind you know not the level but i like there's nothing to eat today it's been two days since we last eight carlos is waiting for his neighbors to return which they will when this

you know you rode into town it's repaired. the water is a subsiding these defenses and constant vigilance saved santa victoria this time but life here for the mostly indigenous communities is precarious they're returning home but wondering when the floods will come again these two were not so lucky their community. flooded and is now reachable but they were rescued by the provincial civil defense force blocking police the army and the red cross. out of the many. it's not about preventing emergencies any more emergencies come by themselves there's no way of stopping them well it's got to do is reduce the risk determine what the risk is and be there. it's a plan that was proper pairing for disaster is one way to deal with ever more frequent flooding in forest fires song of other ideas. the river is

we have fisherman and we live from now she's giving the signal telling his children think of your future so we'll meet and decide whether to move away from here for the future of our children and grandchildren this is a harsh infertile region. eking out a living keeping the community together is in secure and predictable the floods have made that challenge a whole lot more difficult. in the sun to victoria northern argentina. just a reminder now that you can always keep up to date with all the news on our website that's at al-jazeera dot com. and again on the front of the headlines on al-jazeera with again with live pictures from the u.s. house of representatives where politicians are voting on legislation to end the government's second shutdown in just three weeks the senate approved it earlier but

missed a deadline which would have avoided the new shutdown the bill is worth four hundred billion dollars over two years and includes short term legislation to fund government departments until the end of march was held up in the senate rand paul off the republican party who opposes a big budget deficit. don't you remember when republicans how just how i haven't the president obama was spending us into the gutter spending us into oblivion and now republicans are doing the same thing and so i asked the question whose fault is it republicans. yes whose fault is it democrats yes it's both parties fault and on the news a high level north korean delegation to the china lympics has touched down in south korea it includes leader kim jong un cystic kim your job arrival marks the first time a member of north korea's ruling family has crossed the border since the one nine hundred fifty korean war the egyptian army has launched what it calls

a comprehensive operation against armed groups in the sinai peninsula the plan was announced by an army spokesman on a video posted on its official website the military has already ordered hospitals to be placed on high alert preparing extra beds and personnel to deal with emergencies and medical evacuations syria is accusing the u.s. of committing a war crime by bombing fighters loyal to president bashar asad the u.s. led coalition says one hundred fighters died in the airstrikes and there are so province that was a response to what the u.s. called an unprovoked attack on its allies the syrian democratic forces russia says the u.s. strikes are part of an american effort to control economic assets and turkey has resumed bombing raids over the northern survie an enclave of a fleeing after a five day break local kurdish media posted this video showing turkish airstrikes on the outskirts of the well turkey began an air and ground operation last month to oust the peachey group from thinking those are the headlines on al-jazeera one

o one east is coming up next. facing realities growing up when did you realize that you were living in a special place the so-called secret city getting to the heart of the matter why is activists to live in jail just because she expressed herself hear their story on and talk to al-jazeera at this time in. the marshall islands is a tiny pacific nation with a very big problem. once ground zero for america's cold war atomic testing it's been left with a toxic radioactive legacy. now rising sea levels threaten to small the islands and if that happens deadly nuclear way.