and managed part of business. has become more united. beyond the blockade at this time on al-jazeera. we understand the differences and the similarities of cultures across the wound. so no matter where you call home al-jazeera international bringing the news and current of families that matter to you. al-jazeera. a sign of hope at the winter olympics as athletes from the two koreas march under a unified flag watched by top officials from both north and south. lawn welcome mining's b.t.w.

watching al-jazeera live from our headquarters here in doha also coming up. the u.s. president donald trump refuses to deep classify a democratic memo on the russia investigation citing national security concerns. llambias former rebel group the fox suspends political campaigning following days of angry protests. and the space x. rockets ahead fears in russia that its own legacy could be under threat. well the first full day of competition at the winter games is now underway in south korea later today the first medals will be awarded winners a set crowned and biathlon cross country skiing speed skating and ski jumping meanwhile away from the slopes and the ice rinks diplomacy is drawing almost as much attention as the games themselves live now to natasha can and who joins us

from kong long natasha just walk us through what we're expecting to happen today. yeah who knew part peter that the diplomatic goings on would have as much drama as the olympics but that has been the case south koreans have been riveted by the arrival of this high profile north korean delegation it's meeting right now with president a south korean president mungy in at the blue house the presidential blue house and this visit is already historic it is replete with symbolism skeptics doubt that it will result in a substantive seismic shift between the two koreas but that is certainly the hope president moon is pushing engagement with north korea he is the son of growth korean refugee parents so clearly this is an issue dear to him and he's hoping to use the pyongyang winter olympics as a launching pad for reconciliation all eyes are on kim jong un sister kim jong

there is a document at the table she is sitting at in front of her and it's only going to feed speculation that inside that document with a letter from the north korean leader and that perhaps the north korean leader is going to extend an invite to president moon and you can hear right there if they'll stay for a performance by north korean troops but peter the interest it's one of two performances by this north korean are true and the interest in south korea will be great that more than one hundred fifty six thousand people entered a lottery to get tickets ok it will leave it there thank you well the north korea analyst says the stakes are high for policies involved in this new round of diplomacy. well in the spirit of the olympics it's quite exciting to see both countries represented together in the opening ceremonies i must say

however that i think it's also significant that the leader of north korea sent his sister and that the present united states sent the vice president and mrs pence this is high level attention on the part of both nations the united states and north korea and it also states as to the seriousness of the overall situation on the peninsula today well we're in new territory now aren't we given the degree to which north and south korea are interacting in the context of the olympics i would imagine that there is there are plans for the north there is probably a hope by leaders in south korea that this will turn into something more substantive as relates to future dialogue. no the u.s. president donald trump has blocked the release of a classified memo written by democrats on the house intelligence committee citing national security concerns the memo reports a document prepared by the committee's republicans which was made public last week

the republican memo allege the f.b.i. was biased against mr trump during its investigation into his presidential campaigns links to russia now that memo was released despite public opposition from the f.b.i. mr trump claimed that document quote totally vindicates him but democrats and subgroups are proper republicans are disputing that the white house states this although the president is inclined to declassify the february the fifth memorandum because the memorandum contains numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages he's able to do so at this time however given the public interest in transparency in these unprecedented circumstances the president has directed the justice department personnel be available to give technical assistance to the committee should the committee wish to revise the february the fifth memo to mitigate the risks identified by the department christine salumi joins us live now

from washington christine very dense language there what does this mean why won't they just publish it. well what they're saying is it's a national security concern that the f.b.i. is worried that publishing this memo could reveal information about sources and ongoing in investigations and their methods but to be fair the f.b.i. raised these same concerns about the republican memo and president trump want to head and release that anyway and that's why democrats are outraged about this they wanted a chance to respond they claim that five page document the republicans released was missing a lot of key facts it didn't have much in the way of facts it was a can foregone conclusion and it that the president had been targeted unfairly by investigators who were biased against him so they wanted a chance to respond and in fact even the republican trey gowdy on the house

intelligence committee said that the republican memo in no way. did anything to discredit the muller investigation so the democrats were looking for this chance to respond they didn't get it in fact they're calling it a double standard the fact that the president wouldn't release this they're saying that perhaps he has something to hide that was the question that was asked by senator chuck schumer and representative nancy pelosi why won't he release this what does he have to hide and regarding the f.b.i. is offer and the justice department's offer to help rewrite that memo in a way that it could be released that's something that democrats say that they are definitely going to take them up on the other focus of what we're talking about today as well kristen another official thrown under a bus goes by the way because of these allegations to do with him basically being a wife be said to his his former two wives have come forward and said he was handy with his fists if you will but mr trump praising him doing what mr trump has done

historically praising someone who is formally very close to the administration. absolutely we know president trying very loyal to people who are loyal to him and we've seen it in the past with his former national security advisor mike flynn and even after he stepped down the president had good things to say about him he supported alabama senate contender were more who was accused of being a pedophile basically the inappropriate contact with women many of them under age the president supported him in his bid for the senate saying he denies it of course many people especially women are saying that he is in these comments completely ignoring. what. their side of the story and not sin sending the wrong message basically to women who could be suffering from abuse that you know

it gives them the wrong message not to come forward basically and share their stories and tonight in fact we have news that another white house official has stepped down amid allegations of abuse a speechwriter for the controversial senior policy adviser steven miller his name is david sorenson he stepped down when he got wind that the washington post was talking to his ex-wife who claims that she was abused by him these are allegations that the man categorically denies but he said he didn't want to bring more negative attention to the white house so he stepped away from his post and is planning to try to fight the charges against him in the in some way he claims it was actually his wife who is abusive to him he was also in the process of getting a security clearance and the reason his wife came forward and was talking to the washington post is she had given similar information to f.b.i.

officials during his background check just like porter information the f.b.i. had gathered about him about his abuse. isn't didn't stop him from getting his security clearance this gentleman did not require the top secret security clearance that porter did but nevertheless was in the process of getting a background check and had received it yet again deciding to step away lots of controversy peter tonight surrounding the trouble ministration kristen thanks very much ok we got two memos let's go back to that aspect of our coverage out of washington claire finkelstein is director of ethics and the rule of law at the university of pennsylvania law school she says the democrats will not go down without a fight it's very unlikely that the democratic memo can hanes intelligence that is sensitive over and above the intelligence that was in the republican memo so the marginal amount of intelligence that's released by releasing the democratic memo if they were to do so is probably as a minimal impact on national security and therefore it's very hard to believe that

the president has refused to release the memo on grounds of protecting intelligence . the democrats have a number of different options here i doubt they're going to take this lying down they know in that in all likelihood president front has just trying to shield himself from the effects of the muller investigation columbia's former rebel group the fox has temporarily suspended its campaign for forthcoming elections because of demonstrations and threats to its candidates the group became a political party last year after it made a peace deal with the colombian government and in more than fifty two years of conflict but many colombians are still angry at the far can believe its members should be in prison. well in the end though we have decided to suspend campaign activities until we have sufficient guarantee we call on all parties and political movements without exception to biggest statements rejecting this type of aggression

we invite all to meet us to the forum to agree of a game of clean rules egyptian army has launched what is calling a quotes comprehensive operation against terrorist and criminal groups in the sinai peninsula in a televised statement an army spokesman said it involves land sea and air forces covering central sinai and areas in the nile delta and western desert hospitals have been put on high alert and ordered to prepare extra beds and staff to deal with emergencies and medical evacuations earlier we spoke to omar sure who is a professor of security studies at the institute he says there is a political dimension to this new offensive. if you saw the pattern from twenty thirteen on words you'll find the scale ations happening with one major political events are coming up so when the coup happened in july twenty third dean you had this commission following in september and the whole idea of 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 that are they're not talking just about sinai they're saying there's an escalation in central delta and there's in this creation in the western deserts which are the two other areas that you saw some kind of political violence happening in there i think it has to do a lot with the forthcoming presidential elections i think these escalations and the level of. men and you know the ship the sinai is not new cutting. spending the internet communications blocking roads this is all not new has been happening since twenty fifteen and probably before twenty thirteen 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. where more women than ever are hoping to get elected into government choosing representatives in more than three hundred local government

elections a change in the law that requires women to fill a quarter of all those seats in elfin and reports now from colombia. and during the latest political race with a bang. form of this is diplomat and parliamentarian is to become the mayor of a number she's the first woman to even try i strongly believe that you cannot have democracy if you do not interest the needs of the main population the majority of the population sri lanka. she's one of more than seventy thousand women. elections record women for positions in three hundred forty two. a recent change of the law has made it mandatory to have twenty five percent of women in local government than twelve times the number but now some only go to see the marxist people's liberation front says the changes will give more deserving women a chance in our country and some ministers daughter are siblings are those from.

politics. but we think honest women should come into politics where laws are made this election can do that. it's a view that this voter in colombo endorsed you just hype time that the sri lankans the politicians at least. they should give a list of the women. it's the first time in decades that elections to all local bodies around the country are being held on a single day the stakes are high for all political parties going into this local government election with the president by policy recently and prime minister become a singer whose parties are contesting separately it's a battle to be the land leaving three years ago which is the reason why local issues such as roads street lights and garbage disposal are taking on the intensity of a national fight the coalition government of the president and prime minister is struggling

to maintain its popularity following a series of scandals and failure to deliver on its campaign promise to root out corruption both leaders have travelled around the country to support their candidates their main threat is former president rajapaksa despite being voted out of his bid for the third presidential term rajapaksa still commands the loyalty of a large voter base a base he's trying to mobilize for a new political front despite the fact that he's not a member of it and remains a member of his successors party the problem or the way forward for the upcoming national elections will be starting from this but the boy saw it is for the president for the prime minister was coming from that would be put in political parties and in the other hand the former president's campaign will have a. whatever the larger political stakes local elections voters

will be hoping for a competent candidates both male and female to ensure the smooth running of the two sions finance al-jazeera colombo. also new still to come for you here on al-jazeera including these stories we'll look at how the public in turkey is viewing the military offensive targeting kurdish fighters in syria. and as she in fame gets ready to elect a new leader here in dublin i'll be looking at the political journey of gerry adams who's headed the party for decades. i will say some rather nasty weather pushing across the eastern side of the u.s. over the next couple of days of the moment we're looking at snow sliding for the plains through the midwest with that northeastern core as we go through

a sas day that wintry mix will feed its way up through new england so that east assad of canada head of that there is the model weather around new york at around nine degrees celsius heavy rain though see that's setting in there across that eastern side of texas into really louisiana mississippi alabama all making its way further east was the model there winds out d.c. gets up to around eighteen celsius because see how it's getting into double figures for new york really heavy rain here possibility some localized flooding just around the middle and six days a little further northwards snow on the northern flank very heavy right towards the south and further west there's generally fine and dry still warm temperatures here i say around twenty four degrees celsius in the sunshine them out of sunshine across the caribbean over the next few days is looking pretty good actually is the dry season so it should be just one or two into the day showers bring up the sun maybe into budget maker maybe also into cuba over the next day or so but essentially it doesn't last the settled and sunny thirty celsius there having

thinks that in the sunshine wanted to shallows for nicaragua and panama. 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 threat this followed posers at this time on al-jazeera and this is different not to say whether someone is going home or someone is very rich it does not have any truth i think it's how you approach an individual and i think it is a certain way of doing it to qantas inject a story and fly out. welcome

back you're with al-jazeera i'm peter dobby here in doha your top stories after leeds from north and south korea have marched under a unified korea's flag for the opening of the winter olympics in pyongyang south korea's president used the ceremony to reach out to pyongyang shaking hands with the north korean leaders system. the u.s. president donald trump has blocked the release of a classified memo written by democrats on the house intelligence committee citing national security concerns the memo rebuts a document prepared by the committee's republicans that alleged f.b.i. bias against donald trump. on seventeen thousand women in sri lanka are vying to be elected into government votes to choose to representatives in more than three hundred local elections on saturday a change in the law now requires women to fill a quarter of all seats. in the turkish military as a stablish in a new position in syria's province as part of efforts to expand

a so-called deescalation zone they have deployed in tal talk can and that's according to turkey's state news agency russian forces are expected to position themselves six kilometers outside the time the objective is to create a line dividing syrian government forces and opposition fighters to prevent any contact has been the site of intense bombardment and ground fighting in recent weeks turkey is facing what could be difficult talks on syria with the u.s. secretary of state next week and korea's offensive in northern syria against u.s. backed kurdish fighters a strain ties with washington in turkey however the operation still strong has. public support a cynical sort of reports now from istanbul. these are whole it's the shells and production there used by the turkish army in operational of ranch in northern syria . an offensive jointly conducted with the free syrian army in syria's kurdish

enclave afrin province employees of this arms supplier well into to work an extra hour every day they say it is the least they can do to support the army. he also yaman a twenty one year old student is one of them. he wants to join the army as soon as possible. by submitting this application letter i wanted to show a positive and concrete support for our soldiers and set an example for others if the operation hadn't been launched and the y. p.g. would have attacked us with the weapons the u.s. provided to them. turkey vs the us spec kurdish group in syria the i p g as a branch of the p.k. . the kurdistan workers' party which is this is as a terrorist group by turkey the e.u. and the us. the forty year old flick between the picking and turkey has cost around thirty thousand lives from both sides of the world i wonder if this operation

should have been launched much earlier our border should have been cleared of terror as the weather gets colder women launched different campaigns to support the army some are knitting scars and socks for the soldiers. others are sending jars of jam or will pray for the safety of the armed forces. the main opposition protestants support to the offering operation something that is quite rare in turkey but it is parliament members say the military intervention in africa is actually an invasion in the african area. and there is nor ever shared truth. for the turkish borders and the turkish state some of those who oppose a phrase in all of brent's play what they call turkey is misguided policies in syria for escalating the situation others say this is a move by the government to preserve the nationalist votes in next year's election

none of them however it wanted to speak to us on camera saying they were scared to be framed now this is a concern considering how frayed gyal and polarized turkey is political and why mint has become so you know because sort of al-jazeera stumbled o'connor herschel irish republican leader gerry adams is stepping down as head of the shin fein party after thirty four years he was considered a spokesman for the ira during its three decades of a bombing campaign aimed at ending british rule in northern ireland in more recent years he's been seen as a pivotal figure in the peace process he'll be replaced by mary lou mcdonald who has no links to the conflicts from dublin but in barber now reports. over the years gerry adams has been praised as a brave political leader and condemned as a secret terrorist commander the boy from belfast became active in northern ireland civil rights movement in the one nine hundred sixty s. . following the arrival of british troops the province descended into decades of

sectarian conflict the troubles. in the one nine hundred seventy s. as events like the bloody sunday shooting of catholic protesters by the british army hit the headlines adams was very silly and turned and arrested he always denied being a member of the provisional ira or irish republican army but many people on both sides of the border believe that's a nonsense in one thousand nine hundred three out of his became president of the ira's political wing shin fein that same year osting stack's father a chief prison officer was shot dead by the ira he later met adams trying to find out who ordered the killing all the evidence points to the fact that he had a leadership role i mean there's a new autobiography out on him and it's quite obvious from that even that the way when he was in tears that the other prisoners there had a parade past him every day and saluted them and you don't do that to someone that's just in the political arm of the organizations of this week soon though gerry adams was arguing that shin fein had more to gain by contesting elections he

want to seat in the u.k. parliament in westminster but never took it up all the while the ira's bombing campaign continued to kill people not just in northern ireland but on the mainland to those whose tools are bombs and bullets. your way is not the right way in one thousand nine hundred eight protracted talks led to what's known as the good friday agreement setting up a power sharing executive at stormont as well as the decommissioning of weapons and the early release of paramilitary prisoners while shin fein's martin mcguinness went on to become deputy first minister of northern ireland adams took a back seat briefly in twenty eleven he contested and won a seat in the republic of ireland part of a deliberate shift in the focus for shin fein strategy as became becoming involved in decision making on both sides of the border in the north they quickly establish themselves as the dominant political party and have been the dominant nationalist

party effort generation now but in the south they needed to build up from a very low base under gerry adams his leadership shin fein has become not only the largest nationalist party in northern ireland but the third largest group here in the irish doyle parliament and they're hoping to be in government here in the not so distant future when martin mcguinness was buried gerry adams carried his coffin so too did mary lou mcdonald who officially becomes shin feigns new leader on saturday her challenge now is to broaden the party's appeal to a younger generation that never knew the troubles nadine barber al-jazeera dublin. the soviet union put the first satellite the first man and the first woman into space the russian are seven rockets that launched the first satellite a still servicing the international space station but with this week's space x. launch russia fears losing its commercial edge in the modern space race challenge now from moscow. the pitches and the achievement amazed millions of people who are

around the world but space x. is falcon heavy rocket launch with its gracefully landing boosters didn't seem to impress russia's state space agency roscoe's most they dismissed it as little more than a p.r. stunt for either on musk's tesla electric cars if you have noticed ross cosmo said on a russian radio station this launch went up not with some empty dummy or a load which he wouldn't regret losing in a failure but with one specific car. there's some truth in what ross cosmo says pilon mask is among other things a master of promoting his various products but thrust cosmos also seems to be covering its eyes to the main point space x. is a space technology game changer and it's a game some russians fear they're likely to lose. reveal his success is in fact that he made the process less expensive he's workers are to be used multiple times therefore he doesn't have to build

a new rocket every time and the price is low he can take a satellite into orbit cheaper and we'll lose it in this competition because our rockets can be used only once igor corage and go is one of a number of deeply concerned russian defense and space analysts he's concerned for russia's share of the space market and concerned space x. will benefit the u.s. military the workhorses of russia's state space program like this so you see i suddenly feel like aging remnants from a different era which they are really so used first launched in one thousand nine hundred sixty six a new cosmodrome called rostock germany and russia's far east has brought some modernization but millions of dollars have gone missing from the accounts because my dreams corruption scandals highlight the country's problem with self sabotage even on projects of national priority with russia's illustrious history of space exploration is still a huge source of national pride but as the dawn breaks on

a new era one of commercial space travel russia will have to match innovative nimble relatively cheap operators like space x. if it's to stay competitive that's a huge political and technological challenge and one the country is only just waking up to rory chalons al-jazeera moscow. lots more news is always there for you al jazeera dot com is the website you need there you can see the latest on our top story a deadly bomb blast ripping through benghazi mosque the headlines are next. updating the top stories for you so far today athletes from north and south korea have marched under a unified korea's flag for the opening of the winter olympics in pyongyang south korea's president mungy in use the ceremony to reach out to pyongyang shaking hands

with the north korean leaders sr the u.s. president donald trump has blocks the release of a classified memo written by democrats on the house intelligence committee citing national security concerns the memo rebuts a document prepared by the committee's republicans which was made public last week the republican memo alleges the f.b.i. was biased against mr trump during its investigation into his presidential campaigns links to russia the memo was released despite public opposition from the f.b.i. mr trump claimed that document totally vindicates him but democrats and some republicans dispute that colombia's former rebel group the fog has temporarily suspended its campaign for forthcoming elections because of demonstrations and threats to its candidates the group became a political party last year after it made a peace deal with the government ending more than fifty two years of conflict but many colombians are still angry at the far and believe its members should be in prison or. we have decided to suspend campaign activities until we have sufficient

guarantee we call on all parties and political movements without exception to biggest statements rejecting this type of aggression we invite all to meet us to the forum to agree of a game of clean rules. more than seventeen thousand women in sri lanka are vying to be elected into government voters are choosing representatives in more than three hundred local elections on saturday a change in the law now requires women to fill one quarter of all the seats the egyptian army has launched what is calling a comprehensive operation against terrorist and criminal groups in the sinai peninsula in a televised statement an army spokesman said it involves land sea and air forces covering some areas in the desert and western desert hospitals have been put on high alert and ordered to prepare extra beds and staff to deal with emergencies and medical evacuations petrol stations and shops have also been told to close those

are your headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after one a one east i will see you very soon. we understand the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world so no matter how you take al-jazeera will bring in the news and current events that matter to you al-jazeera. the marshall islands. 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 waste.