storm on top to al-jazeera at this time. we understand the differences and the similarities of cultures across the world. so no matter where you call home al-jazeera will bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you. al-jazeera. the twenty eighteen winter olympics open in pyong channel when the extraordinary show of unity between north and south korea but the u.s. keeps this distance. hello i'm citizen this is al jazeera live from london also coming up crisis averted the u.s.

government is open for business after another shutdown the most americans probably slept through egypt launches a massive military operation that it says is targeting terrorists in sinai. and mexico's deploying thousands of extra police to come back to ballooning murder rates where on patrol with some of them on the beaches in canton. the winter olympics have officially opened in the south korean city of chung chung with a spectacular fireworks display thousands turned out in freezing temperatures to attend the event one that it is hoped will help bring about a diplomatic for between north and south korea for now it looks like the ice has been broken with what's being described as an historic handshake between south korea's leader in and the sister of north korea's leader kim young john that's going on reports. a step towards reconciliation for the first time since

the korean war more than half a century ago a member of north korea's ruling family is welcomed in the south the arrival of leader kim jong sr is fascinating many south koreans jiang has quickly become a power broker in another historic moment south korean president moon j. in greeted her at the opening ceremony before she sat near u.s. vice president mike pence the two didn't appear to exchange greetings then the moment many had been waiting for north and south korean athletes marched under a unified flag as a celebration of ethnic nationalism it's the first time they've done that at an international sporting event in eleven years moon said the chain winter olympics offer a meaningful opportunity for a world divided by conflicts to unite critics say the north korean charm offensive is only intended to advance its agenda. decided to look nice for

a vial of this option if you would use chance chances that president krom be authorizing me to take their ration bought as a program to ease that main fundamentals have not changed and i determined to have end of i.c.b.m. intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear strike as a continuum for the united states in the run up to the games the north koreans have absorbed much of the spotlight first by agreeing to participate and then by sending a high level delegation to the south this week american diplomat said they would soon unveil the toughest economic sanctions against north korea yet while also saying a diplomatic solution was the focus. for now this is a moment for south koreans to show the world what it dine. namak country they live

in during the opening ceremony spectators were taken back in time to show the history of the korean people and what organizers called their relentless pursuit of peace. i hope that with north korean athletes participation this could be peaceful and picks and i hope we can achieve reunification between the south and the. mood here is good in south korea is hosting the olympics and athletes are coming from around the world a good opportunity to promote south korea. and the hope is this will set the stage down only for a sporting spectacular but historic breakthrough with their northern neighbors. old zero continent south korea. meanwhile russia's bent to get forty five of its banned athletes into the games fails just hours before the opening ceremony that ban stems from a massive doping scheme the twenty fourteen such

a games. the russian doping scandal is all ghibli the most murky sob story in the history of sport and yes i spent years covering the for the first scandal but this involves the public being completely cheated metals being involved. seem to be poisoned from the top down how do we get to this position well four years ago putin's grand plan for sports or succeed in russia around the home olympics the very expensive such the winter olympics i off the allegations it was shown by investigation but there'd been systematic doping in washoe so the international olympic committee found forty three russian competitors for life. fast forward a couple of years of politics and then we get into a situation where the ultimate coach in sport a court of arbitration for sport overturned those lost on bonds by sight but not clearing the dopers completely but there's not enough evidence for lifetime bans so the russians want to compete here twenty eight of them supposedly allowed to

compete in the international olympic committee so i know we're still not inviting them so the russians appeal again and it goes back to the court of arbitration for sport bystander in pyongyang and it goes to the guy you are going to actually begin today the division of the court of arbitration for sport dismissed the application filed by thirty two russian athletes against the international olympic committee it does also dismissed. yesterday by fifty and coaches against the use so the cast this engine is very good news for the international olympic committee who have been fighting the legal and political battles for months even years over the russian doping scandal. afterwards he said we welcome this decision which supports the fight against doping and brings clarity for all athletes like all of us i just want to get on with the sport now. and that sport is in full flow throughout saturday with the first medals of the guns being decided in five events

one of the events is speed skating there were plenty of korean interested not but most interest of course in the unified women's hockey team from korea by mike has to be their first guy against switzerland. u.s. president are champus signed off on a spending bill ending the second the government shutdown this year although this one lasted just a few hours a day like stance funding into march the twenty third many are unhappy about spending increases and they're expected to push a budget deficit since they want trillion dollar as an all white house correspondent kimberly hellcats has more from washington. it was a u.s. government shutdown that occurred while most americans were asleep for five and a half hours in federal agencies in theory only shut their doors will members of congress debated lifting strict limits on government spending or so everything

about this stinks to tell you the truth most of the drama occurred in the u.s. senate the vote to keep the government running held up by as a single senator republican rand paul who says government spending is out of control everybody's getting more spending the military the rights getting more military spending the left is getting more well versed bending and you're getting stuck with the bill the late night debate played out for hours and eventually passing in the upper chamber but still needing approval in the house of representatives deal raises 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 say the budget deal will send the deficit soaring but the deal doesn't protect illegal immigrants brought to the united states as children providing a pathway for legal status has been

a key demand of democrats they previously been protected as part of the obama era daca program the leading house republican says the issue will soon be address my commitments to working together on an immigration measure that we can make law is the sincere commitments let me repeat i'm a commitment to working together on an immigration measure that we can make law as a sincere commitment we will solve this doc a problem with that promise the house republicans and democrats passed the budget deal sending it to the white house for the president to sign into law. well i watched house correspondent can we now joins us from washington it's a second shutdown in under a month over the funding of the u.s. government does this but i'm sure it doesn't just push it as a as a stopgap homeless further down alone this lease resolves it for

a couple of years now this will allow for government departments and agencies to essentially do something which they haven't been able to do for some time and that is move beyond the limping along and actually do some strategic planning which is particularly an issue for the military and that's why we heard earlier in the week from the secretary of defense james mattis underscoring how much this was harming strategic infor interests of the united states around the world given the fact that there was not a solid budget in place but certainly there are big concerns in washington about the bloated nature of this these spending caps being lifted what this essentially means is when you have a republican in the white house republicans controlling congress there's really no one to keep the spending in check and as a result that's what you saw the senator from kentucky rand paul really calling his his fellow republicans hypocrites because typically republicans are fiscal

conservatives to certainly we didn't see that this time and as you mentioned in your report a lot of the stalemate was about the democrats wanting to protect the rights of the children of illegal immigrants that wasn't part of the budget deal or will stop. oh well there was really this feeling look at this is going to take some time we can't rush this through it's a difficult calculation for many democrats particularly since we have congressional elections coming up in november it's a big gamble because they have run many of them promising to resolve this issue what i should point out that simply members of congress have not been able to resolve for almost twenty years so they recognize the clock was running out there was a need to make sure that they also didn't have blowback as a result of a shattered government so there was this calculation made by the democrats the promise made by the top republican paul ryan of the house of representatives that this would be addressed if the funding was resolved but certainly it's a gamble

a lot concern that this won't be a promise that was is a promise made but the concern is it won't be a promise kept good to talk to ken lay coming or how come we're with the very latest on the shutdown at least one person has been killed and more than seventy injured after two bombs were detonated during friday prayers as a mosque going at a mosque in the same city the egyptian army has launched what it's calling a comprehensive operation against terrorist and criminal groups in the sinai peninsula making the announcement in a televised statement and army spokesman said it involves land sea and air forces covering central sinai and areas in egypt's nile delta and western deserts hospitals have been put on high alert and ordered to prepare extra vents and soft to do with emergencies and medical evacuations well earlier we spoke to omar sure who is a professor of security studies at doha institute he says there is a political dimension to the new offensive. if you saw the pattern from twenty

thirteen on words you'll find the scale ations happening with one major political events coming up so when the coup happened in july twenty third dean you had an escalation following in september and the whole idea part of the coup and that is all that of the new regime coming is that security and counterterrorism needs to be implemented partly in sinai but also elsewhere the interesting part about the communique of the armed forces of the not talking just about sinai there's an escalation in tensions delta and there's in this collation in the western deserts which are the two other areas that you saw some kind of political violence happening in the i think it has to do a lot with the force going presidential elections i think these escalations and the level of. men and arms shipped to sinai is not new cutting the you know suspending the internet communications blocking roads this is all not new to has been happening since twenty fifteen and probably before twenty fifteen as well so i'm not sure if there's something new or there's

a measured saying that you know the strongman is back he's trying to secure the region and therefore mobilize for him in the next presidential elections which is happening next month still to come on the program friday. continue. the prime minister. and their. glory and the winter olympics. however the weather remains lousy fine and dry into southeastern parts solved china twenty two celsius in hong kong a southerly breeze here in full back as we go on through the next couple of days let the cooler air coming in cool enough into central parts for a little bit of rain as well i should east somewhat as we go through sunday but it

is sliding a little further south was this the other the northerly wind pushes the disturbed weather a little further south seventeen celsius in hong kong as the cooler assets stay largely fine and dry here staying wadi dry across india still a fair amount of cloud into central and southern pos at present but i think it's not really going to bring too much in the way of any wet weather across the region so you might see a little bit of a few spots of rain but essentially it doesn't look settled the cloud even extending up towards the northern plains a little bit of snow there to the far northwest of pakistan a cloud thick enough to produce some disturbed weather as we go on through saturday added into sunday might be more widespread by the states with some right at lower levels not too much in the way of rain across the peninsula it should be lost if on into i twenty five celsius here in doha on saturday a touch cooler on sunday by sunday a top temperature in riyadh the thirty degrees. for

the pneumatic jack outright survival is about reaching their destination. if we don't hurry will never be able to give up the storm we follow the mongolian herdsmen on a treacherous migration. country dangerous the ice is again as they strive to preserve their traditional way of life. or sometimes lose or. they would die of cold or because of the storm risking you don't go here at this time on al-jazeera.

welcome back reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera the winter olympics about with a historic show of unity between north and south korea athletes from the two countries marched together on the south korean presidential council with king john the sister of the north korean leader kim jong un and. u.s. president donald trump a signed off on a spending bill ending the second government shutdown this year after a deal to extend funding was agreed by congress and the egyptian army has launched what it's calling a comprehensive operation against terrorist and criminal groups in a sign up in syria and only spokesman said it involves land at sea and forces. the mexican government is deploying fountains of federal police offices across the country to combat a huge surge in the number of murders more than twenty five thousand people were murdered in mexico last year that's the highest number in decades in january five thousand additional police officers were sent to several tourist cities where

violence links to drug cartels and organized crime has been high most of them have been deployed into you all of which borders san diego in california the rest are in california along the tourist areas of law pass and los cabos cancun chill punching go the states of dallas go as well as the state of colima. for more on what's been happening. in cancun so we're hearing the police force numbers. but we're not seeing the rates of violent acts violent crimes and homicide going down why is that . two thousand seven hundred certainly was a record setting year for homicides in mexico over two twenty five thousand recorded homicides according to those government statistics but make it mexico really has been struggling to curb back the violence for for years over a decade now when it begins with that security policy that was put in place by former mexican president felipe because they don't want a policy that most security analysts agree is

a failed policy that resulted in militarization of police in the streets a policy that's been continued by current president into the campaign and yet bill that involves a crackdown of organized crime and drug cartels and he's splintering of smaller organized crime groups that compete for control of production distribution of course the sale of illicit drugs not only cocaine and heroin but also methamphetamines and now these synthetic opioids to deal but we want to give you an idea of what we've witnessed here in cannes in one of the cities where police are being deployed over the course of the last few days take a look. police and military forces are holding a routine checkpoint in cancun in response to a homicide rate that has risen three hundred percent in the last fourteen months this driver was detained after officers found a half dozen mobile phones and a handgun in his vehicle but even with the cooperation of military state and local police law enforcement agencies are struggling to fight crime. related

to organized crime committed by criminal groups competing for control over all other criminal groups all of it is related to the sale of drugs. we rode along with a division of federal police officers patrolling a popular beach mexico's peak tourism season is fast approaching and the government is dispatching some five thousand federal agents across the country for tourists looking for white sand in turquoise waters however the violence seems far away from the soda i feel there is say i worked. around late yesterday and it was very calm and i haven't noticed a lot of bad things happening or anything. can cool draws in billions of dollars from tourism every year once the sun sets bars and nightclubs are packed with party goers but just a short drive away there's another more dangerous side to the city. we're in

a residential neighborhood near the center of town and police have blocked off this road behind me after a shooting took place only about one hour ago police tell us that two people were shot and the gunmen fled sadly this is a scene that plays out on a near daily basis here in cannes khun. the district attorney says there are one to two murders on average every day for civil society groups or you that the recent increase in police hasn't served everyone equally this isn't so for their government to protect. hotel industry but what about the ones that work in that industry and then return to the areas where crime. and violence prevails walking along the hotel district the two sides of the city become apparent a nightly patrol by federal police makes foreign tourists feel safe but it also keeps the nearby violence out of sight and out of mind. the mexican

federal government has committed an estimated five thousand federal police officers to a handful of cities across mexico for reasons of in states like get away at all it is to combat the violence that's rooted in crime and drug cartels that are competing for control of the opium poppy fields that are used in the production of heroin in tijuana it's over the proximity that the city has the u.s. southern border here it came through and it being such a popular tourist destination a third of all the tourism dollars generated in mexico are generated here in cancun but ultimately it is this strategy that is in place to to prevent that violence that record violence from two thousand and seventeen from spilling into even more territories and new cities here in mexico as man speaking to us live from cancun and in part two of his investigation into violence on the streets in. acapulco on the country's pacific coast i don't says are saying an epidemic of mental illness

caused by constant gangland killings as on saturday right on al jazeera. european union's chief breck said negotiator has warned that plans for a period of transition to a person's withdrawal from the bloc will be at risk michel barnier says substantial disagreements with person object are the missing london's plans for a transition period of around two years after it for me in the e.u. in turn dealing team also rejected criticism from britain's brics it minister david davis who described proposals to sanction britain if it breached e.u. rules joining the transition as discourteous it was. the position of the european union is very logical from my point of view by asking to enjoy the advantages of the single market the customs union and common policies the united kingdom has to accept all the rules the obligations until the end of the transition that's only logical but also has to accept the electable consequences of its

decision to leave the european union to leave its institutions and its policies considering this disagreement to be quite frank transition today is not a given if these disagreements persist the transition is not a given the syrian government warplanes are continuing to bomb the rebel held area of eastern ghouta in what's been the deadliest week since twenty fifty more than two hundred thirty people have been killed in the last four days aid agencies say they are unable to help the estimated four hundred thousand people who live in the besieged and play area just outside of the capital damascus is running desperately low on food medicine and medical equipment. rescue workers in taiwan have pulled two more bodies from the flattened remains of a hotel and while the end the number of people killed in tuesday's six point four magnitude earthquake now stands at twelve five chinese nationals who were staying at the hotel are still missing and rescue workers say they're racing against time

to try to find them arafat's have been hampered by more than two hundred aftershocks. supporters of bangladesh's former prime minister zia are continuing to protest after she was jailed for five years on corruption charges the seventy two year old was in prison on thursday for embezzling around two hundred fifty thousand dollars in donations meant for an infant son and for ainsworth given ten year sentences as opposed to say the verdict is politically motivated time they're chanting from dhaka. thousands of people came out of the city's biggest mosque by the look around to protest again former prime minister call of the syrians friday the heavy presence of riot police in the straight a lot of this protest are gathered near the party central office but they've been described since because of the police all eyes are on the high court now bangladesh nationalist party wants to appeal her friday. courts are heavily influenced by the government

critics and opposition are saying the bangladesh court is nowhere near term special in the lord called they're influenced by the government and about it was politically motivated we have yet to see what the high court ruddock will be to exult case never the last one of those nationalist parties saying it will still run for the election even if their leader is behind the bar that other leaders to give them guidelines including colors he a son who is in london but the protest across the country's continuing critics an expert there saying this is a major concern for instability in the country unless the major national party takes pride in the election otherwise the country will go into political uncertainty down the road the prime minister has announced election to be somewhere around december of this year we have yet to see how the political fallout is down the road. a female activist has been detained in saudi arabia for seventeen days

and what rights groups are calling a quiets government crackdown on human rights campaign is no high has been held in taba after being questioned by police who accuse her of advocating women's rights on social media she faces five years in prison if challenged and found guilty. when the first olympic medal event starts on saturday you can expect to see plenty of goals around the necks of sweets the country is traditionally one of the best performance in winter olympics some rules and hof of the medals have come in cross country skiing police reports on the culture behind the success. go down to the woods today in sweden county and you may well be

a cross-country skier. for thousands of years skis were how you traveled traded and survived in this part of the world now cross country is a national pursuit that is also responsible for most of sweden success at the winter games. cross-country skiing is very good for the body. for their knees but their back like a symbol to see him that we are all going to count very sweden's twenty nine cross country olympic gold medals second in the world only to their cousins next door now for sweden at the olympics cross country skiing is all about their rivalry with norway but it means much more than that back home where they have skiing partially to thank for swedish independence that revolutionary king. this region on skis in the sixteenth century drumming up support for his rebellion it led to victory

against the danes in fallen and four hundred years later it led to vasa lump it. you know all told the gun in one thousand nine hundred twenty two wasilla puts all the vasa race is the biggest in the world ninety kilometers long and with sixteen thousand competitors the route is based on one supposedly taken by costar vasa but the race name for the king has become more a part of swedish d.n.a. than the royal history even if norwegians sometimes when it did seven hours and twenty minutes and i think that's a really good time for the first first try i think credible i can't really imagine but there's ten thousand people lining up to to do this crazy thing i mean it's just really i mean i get really psyched up i want to do it sober and it's just really amazing the pull of the race for swedes leads many to high official vasile up at coaches be glorious for this very swedish rite of passage the olympics sort

of like fifty k. the longest distance in the olympics and it's i think also precedes the race by their own and it's a really good engine for the cross-country ski sweden or also in the world twelve years have gone by since sweden last topped the olympic cross-country table now hope the time until the next coronation isn't measured in centuries polar east al-jazeera followed sweden. let's give you a quick reminder of our main headline the winter olympics have officially opened with a historic show of unity between north and south korea athletes on the country's most together and they south korean president shook hands with came you know jong the sister of the north korean leader kim jong il the u.s. vice president mike pence arrived after the handshakes close to the north koreans

in west president signed off on a spending bill ending. the second government shutdown this year although this one lasted just a few hours the deal to extend funding was agreed by congress but disagreements between republicans and democrats over immigration remain to be solved on the bill will have major primaries you want to consider. but the cost of this bipartisan budget deal is staggering expanding america's twenty trillion dollar debt it's an astonishing number for a congress controlled by republicans a party once known for fiscal conservatism a priority it appears to now have abandoned at least two people have been killed and more than seventy injured when two bombs were detonated during friday press as a mosque in the libyan city of benghazi officials say both devices were planted in separate rooms inside and the egyptian army has launched what it's calling a comprehensive operation against terrorist and criminal groups in the sinai

peninsula making the announcement in a televised statement an army spokesman said it involves land sea and air forces covering central sinai and areas in egypt delta and west and that the european union's chief bricks it negotiator has warned that plans for a period of transition to a person's withdrawal from the bloc could be a risk michelle obama and says substantial disagreements with person jeopardizing london's plans for a two year transition period after it leaves and twenty nineteen and supporters of bangladeshis former prime minister there are continuing to protest after she was job for five years on corruption charges. as your headlines up next gets risking it all.