has defended its decision saying it complied with a valid legal request chinese president xi jinping is not ruling out using military force against supporters of independence in taiwan and his first major speech addressing the cell frood island president she said taiwan's reunification with china is inevitable taiwan's leader rejected that statement and said beijing let's face the reality is door sergio bari with the latest. a new year's speech with a familiar message. chinese president xi jinping has urged the people of taiwan to accept that it must and will be reunited with china in a speech on the fortieth anniversary of a key policy statement he reiterated beijing's call for peaceful unification. we are firmly against any plots to create two china or one china one taiwan or

taiwan independence we've achieved a major victory in the fight against taiwan independence or separatist activities nobody and no party can change the historical and legal fact the top one is part of china and both sides of the strait along to china. president she has increased pressure on taiwan since the election of sighing when as president in two thousand and sixteen she leads the pro independence democratic progressive party and on tuesday insisted the island's twenty three million people and want to maintain self rule is. if you're gentle young to somebody like read me i want to appeal to china and must admit to the reality of taiwan's existence and must respect our twenty three million peoples insistence on freedom and democracy in a steel with our differences in a peaceful way as equals and it must be the government or public agencies that happen authorized by the government to sit down and talk with us. while taiwan is

self-governing it has never formally declared independence from the mainland however it has acted as an independent nation since one thousand nine hundred fifty when china's nationalist government leaders fled to the islands after being defeated by communist forces the legitimacy of the c.c.p. the ruling government today in china in just on several things was a ball rolling on economic governance and people was there but secondly she being national. to have to deal with the chinese identity is all she can bring and bang on about the need for you to take action the credibility of the packages on the ability to deliver on that goal while in recent years china has become more assertive over its claims over taiwan it has also managed to convince more of taipei's few international allies to cut diplomatic ties with the islands. for now neither side appears to be willing to back down in this longstanding dispute

dorsett apart al-jazeera. lots more to come on this al-jazeera news hour including . a challenge to emanuel mccraw in france can the yellow vest protests have an impact on the european parliamentary elections. where also in the occupied west bank to look at why there's even more pressure to build new illegal settlement. on the varians in the blackhawks and a classic contest joe will have the option for one of america's schools things back to cause. thank. you that's in the philippines where rescue workers are struggling to reach areas that have been cut off by floods and landslides at least eighty five people have been killed storm to hit just days after christmas displacing around twenty five thousand people

a state of calamity has been declared in three provinces jamila al indo them has more on the rescue operations from the capital manila the main focus remains to be rescue and retrieval operations but local government officials also say the critical part here is infrastructure that is because roads and bridges leading to several areas in the beagle region have been destroyed these are critical because much needed aid need to be brought as you know be called province this might be always at the forefront of natural disasters here is seem to be the best when it comes to emergency response in the past it has always achieved its zero casualty goal but not this time there was not even a declared typhoon but due to incessant and heavy rains several areas suffered landslide there have been triggered by flooding this is something that surprises local government officials here they had protectively evacuated more than twenty

thousand people in preparation for this heavy rains but that did not stop this disaster are less heat now richard gordon who is chairman of the philippines red cross he's also in the philippines capital manila thank you very much indeed for joining us tell us about your response to what is a disaster in at least three provinces. well we were the first responder and the last laid area in people who were there about twenty one dead so far and. we were able to provoke the rescue of one theory and also we're now in the process of a program to be more water there's so much so many basis where what there has been diminished or destroyed of filtration plant so we would be in order for that they shouldn't or when what or who they should as well as what it's about or want or are going to start a story that really do work or back but they're there so that it could be here with

water the river by the also non-food items said just so you know i need to it's and that we shouldn't be needy and sooner who even crash land so that they can buy their excessive piece with dignity and i'm not sort of transport a you use them what sort of forms of charles will they be using given that so many bridges and roads seem to either be said messy move on bridges have been washed away believe direct process. six by six trucks that they're negotiating the state by is above the undercarriage way up there so they're going to go shoot this area's radar water tankers are also ten readers and they're going to. be but we also have a small. piece that can go to the areas that are easy affected by a landslide so never a lot of pick ups so we have a lot of one of us on the ground as well right as you can see we're in the midst of . being our people out of harm's way and at the same time only to be those that can

be saved and in your estimation i mean yeah and the philippines experience is around about twenty cyclons that every year doesn't it in your experience and in your assessment then what do you think is going wrong this time that is that the same many people being displaced and seventy people having nothing. what went wrong you say. they were over confident faithful it's not even a faithful tropical depression. and it was missed appreciate it and sad that they thought it was going to be slow not good strong faithful and but it rather a lot of angry and really sad for fish tanks where there are a lot of mountainous there in the nude and they don't last landslides and so all the trick now is to tear down people not my there our strong our we pay for next it should immediately evacuate those who are on the land

a lot of slate brought here which and that's where most of the fat actually came about at the same time it actually came about because of our overflow from recruits . for example did not work those are all under their label the it went over it up the wall slightest and you know today that up the chest the sometimes you know even going beyond the mat sacks so to portland that we be a little bit more aggressive and make sure that we expect any kind of people be fresh specially in these areas that are offered a good base of nearby try to end once the emergency scenario is over what do these people need because presumably not only are homes and jobs and livelihoods effectively what a way but also food production i mean agriculture must be completely disrupted if not devastated by these events. well the recognizer been giving out seven

seed leads and the labels or at the same time they've been very good at providing homes with for weight eighty thousand of what they flew me on so it was the one thousand five hundred on separate damage although they were destroyed you can provide for it depending on how caro much resources rick and other it at the same time routes are granted that you're in so that it can be preserved so they can have shortage but how do they build their themselves and their family is very very fast so the governments of benefit would start but at the same time recommending making sure that they get the creature comforts us to british so just our sets us up well guys are personally sestito they feel that they're getting their life back and a lot of psychosocial support and a lot of j.c.s. be cooked up there and they're going to be there for them even when everybody is right richard golden of the for the plains red cross thank you very much you very

much pretty. well there's also been a weather disaster in into the indonesia where rescuers assessing the people who have fared buried beneath landslides there fifteen people so far are being killed in west java these twenty people still missing on cheese they says hafitz had to pause because of the heavy rain the government have killed at least thirty seven people in central mali women and children were among those killed in the central month team region and this is the latest in a space a violent incidents often told rooting ethnic for lonnie had as. the u.n. special envoy to somalia has been ordered out of the country he's accused of interfering in the country's internal affairs the government to see the statement saying nicolas has some would no longer be allowed to work in somalia a few days ago he wrote a letter to the interior security minister in it he asked for information about the

arrest of a former leader turned politician as well as about civilian deaths in protests that followed last month the pressure is mounting on sudan's president omar al bashir to resolve the growing political crisis opposition parties have joined calls the him to step down following weeks of antigovernment protests the situation is also prompted two parties to withdraw from his own coalition within the past week ever morgan has more from the capital khartoum. thousands have been demonstrating in sudan demanding president obama to bashir step down now twenty two different opposition parties are also calling on the president to resign has seen. the government needs to end its real and step times that we need to form a provisional council and a transitional government that will run this new steers and prepare us for the new elections. the opposition groups say they will submit a memo with their demands to the president on wednesday in

a further set back for the government another opposition party has announced it's withdrawing from the cabinet will. we realize the consequences of the current events and we are proud of our historic stand being in the thick of it therefore we decided within our political bureau to withdraw any representation we have in any official post. thank the crisis started two weeks ago with protest in the city of overbred shortages and rising prices that's quickly spread to other parts of the country and turned into demonstrations calling on president and bashir to end his twenty nine year old amnesty international says at least thirty seven people have been killed as police responded with tear gas and live ammunition the president has promised to cut costs and improve economy but that has not stopped the protests despite the growing calls for mary bashir and his ruling party to step down the president seems determined to continue his term until elections scheduled for twenty twenty elections that he's not eligible to stand in unless the dance

constitution is amended more demonstrations are planned in the coming days but some analysts say that likely won't change the president's position. on the continuation of protests in cities including khartoum doesn't mean it's a people's revolution yet there are many factors that are needed to make this a popular revolution and the sudanese president knows that this time there are factors missing to make demands that he step down effective there things can change down the road. a memo may not force the president to resign like the opposition wants but with more protests planned and a defined president to dance or to head may not be easy people morgan al-jazeera to the french president emmanuel micro had no shortage of challenges last year perceived as being out of touch anger with his government came to a head with often violent yellow vests protests which continue to this day and has been and smith reports from paris political rivals are trying to capitalize on the

mood in the country to prepare for the next european elections in may. they have no leader no manifesto no political party and no candidate yet five months before election day for the european parliament france's main political parties a nervous about what they call the yellow vest effect was was. there's no political party that can decide on the out of the people we are the french people that fall for the land and we continue the struggle no political party is above the french people. honestly i'm not going to fight because i don't want to fight the people who look down on us who talk to us disrespectfully who despise anthony leave us alone anonymous you aisy one of the protestors strongest demands after tax relief is for direct democracy referendums rather than more elected representatives that worries e.u. leaders just forty percent of french people voted in the last european elections

there is a real crisis suffer presentation and europe is part of it in particular as the open parliament is not so well known by most people it's important to. show much better what's wrong he's doing for people for all people from a high of three hundred thousand protesters nationwide in november to thirty thousand by the end of the year that may be far fewer yellow vests willing to take to the streets every week but polls consistently show support for more than seventy percent of french people support the political parties a trying to harness actually saying you know there's one thing i think that we can from on there are topics on the table meaning what actually is in europe if you're winning and that's for them on the euro on the day to day basis only one opinion poll has tested how yellow vest candidates might fare in new york election and it

suggested they'd win twelve percent of the vote and almost all last would be at the expense of the far left and far right the same polls that a lot. the public on the move got twenty one percent of the vote whatever the yellow vests do the biggest problem might be the yellow vests. which is so far resisted attempts to create a leadership burnitz with al-jazeera perils in just a moment or two kevin will have the weather here on the al-jazeera news hour and also coming out u.s. border agents more tear gas at people trying to get across the mexican border to claim. a look at my customers are leaving nigeria's banks in droves and how it's having their cash. and nick kiryas is back on course and up to his old tricks joe will have the details on the new tennis.

by the skyline of nation harbor or off the coast of the italian riviera. well we could be looking at a historic tropical storm making landfall in thailand in just a few days or green all the details in just a moment but here it is right here on our satellite image take a look at the path of the storm over the last few days the storm is continued to make its way towards the west but very very slowly and we have seen a lot of rain come out of the storm particularly in the southern portions of vietnam where we've seen some flooding associate with that as well right now the storm only sixty five kilometer hour winds gusting up to about eighty three moving to the west at nine but let me tell you a little bit about the historic part of what the storm could be no cyclon has ever made landfall in thailand in the month of january also in the month of february or march either so this is one storm that could be doing that in the next couple days the last tropical storm that did make landfall here was in one thousand nine

hundred sixty two when we saw nine hundred thirty five people die that was the greatest tests that we had seen with any tropical storm this is going to make a very similar path with that past storm harriet i want to show you what we can expect to see as we go from thursday and into friday the storm is going to stay in open water in the gulf of thailand and we could be seeing that storm making landfall probably friday or saturday and then by the time we get towards sunday exiting into the indian ocean. the winter sponsored by cat time race. look the arrival of refugees is debated in european parliament's. but the journey itself is little understood. to syrians document the route that is claimed so many lives searching for sanctuary to people in power

on al-jazeera the. al-jazeera. where ever you are. right time versus take a look at the top stories here in the al-jazeera news out to women to become the

first age between ten and fifty to go into a hindu temple in india's southern state of care and the women of that age group had been banned the decades but that ban was overturned by the supreme court religious conservatives a still trying to block women's entry. british politicians and international lawyers of all saudi arabia permission to visit detained activists they want to investigate allegations that they are being told. taiwan has rejected xi jinping school for unification and address the chinese president xi jinping didn't rule out the use of force against taiwan's pro independence opposes. that brazil's new president j a ball scenario has been sworn in and he called for unity and promised to free brazil of corruption and crime and to improve the economy opponents they worry about his far right beliefs well now from john the whole man

who was at the ceremony. standing in the shadow of her hero christina new year's day is the start of change help me that. it's the opportunity for the country to grow it's an opportunity to stop being the country known for corruption and this opportunity is named boston ato. to. join your bullshit model for years he was a low profile congressman now he's been catapulted into power as the leader of south america's biggest economy but the far right populist has polarized brazil supporters love his plain speaking style and hard stance from crime opponents fear his intolerance of activists minorities and ambivalence to the environment but but also noddles main promise beating corruption appeals to brazil's political class has been engulfed by scandal. it is full it is that this is the political

favors force trading that needs to be left in the past we want the whole nation to benefit everything that we do henceforth has an undeniable purpose that is to put first and foremost the interests of brazilians. he's also promised to crack down on crime and revive a sluggish economy many believe that he can and not just his supporters leaving his inauguration in a poll just out sixty five percent of people said that they think he will do a great or a good job but this is a man who's admitted he knows little about the economy and whose security plan has revolved around giving people great the access to guns and police more license to kill. bill so not as opponents worry about the lack of substance and his affinity to the military dictatorships of brazil's recent past in his speech to congress he committed to democracy but the effect was slightly spoiled by his final

remarks directed against the leftist workers' party which governed here for years. this is our flag it will never be red even if we need to shed our blood to keep it green and yellow. was a warning perhaps for those who hope there will be a more moderate president then candidate john abell sonata oh i see no reason to change john heilemann al-jazeera. there is growing pressure on israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu to expand illegal settlements as he launches his reelection bid last week israel announced plans to extend an existing settlement south of bethlehem from there seventy deca reports. we are deep in the occupied west bank just south of bethlehem but trying to find the location israel has earmarked for the latest announcement of its illegal settlement expansion an

area rights groups are calling to it's striking how many settlements are already cut across this land land that is meant to be part of a future palestinian state and he could make resident money for are going to help us find the hills a small group of settlers are already here. for example take bethlehem their settlement block in from the north and road sixty from the west and the settlement of efrat from the south and tacoma is there behind us what's going to happen to us what's left where should we palestinians bre when you're looking for west bank today it's not listing and continuities you're going to continue to between the villages and cities all e. to faggy is an expert in the geography of the land where the settlements are and what their presence means here's your a zillion so we have a big live view of settlements this is the more than any bloke we are given i was able broken my earlier that we look at to mean the big kind of go to. the jordan

valley but in two it's more dangerous than this one it's me in that all the biggest dream city in north of this garage it's your own will be divided for two pieces one of them is surrounded with in the north and second settlement and so there is no go for the city one word the rights group peace now is fighting this latest expansion in the courts arguing this land should be allocated for palestinians not to build more illegal settlements i'm afraid that the coming months before elections will be used by the settlers to set facts on the ground that the government will not want to fight against and the government will issue new plans fangled a new. acts because they feel that it's a window of opportunities not knowing what will be after the elections and with the trumpet ministration in their back they can do whatever they want back in the west

bank on a road that skims a small palestinian village we come across to israeli settlers and we ask them where the new allocated area is born and they say it's in the settlement of it from what they believe that this is their land given to them by god unless there is significant pressure on israel by the united states and the international community to reverse this decision peace now tells us that it's only a matter of a couple of years until we'll see bulldozers arrive here and start building thousands more illegal settlement homes stephanie decker al-jazeera south of butler him in the occupied west bank u.s. border agents again via tear gas to stop people crossing the mexican border to wana women and children were among those trying to breach the friends the border agency says it was responding to rocks being thrown at offices there's been renewed debate about america's immigration policy after the deaths of two gotham a mom and children who died in u.s.

custody the latest group attempting to breach the fence is part of a so-called caravan of asylum seekers the migrants from central america from tijuana manwell the apollo reports. arriving by the dozen at the us mexico border central american asylum seekers prepared to jump the wall into the united states. i haven't seen my family in two months but brought now god willing to reach out dream . is from honduras he knows crossing over will be difficult but he says he's committed to making the jump push you know i don't put if i'm caught a complete and fought for saddam if i'm deported i guess i'll keep moving forward with his life there's hope that's what will do this is an older section of the war but border patrol agents are watching from the other side national guard troops are also on the lookout for passing migrants these kids out to free to do as we came closer to the border patrol agents accused us of coercing people to cross the fence

like i said i can't speak for everybody i'm just here to watch here the way it was because you guys are going to the shows are looking to come over here they are unable to find a place to cross people began splitting up we've been walking for a while along the u.s. southern border on the mexican side with somewhere around one hundred migrants that left the shelter if you want to hear a helicopter constantly circling overhead and quite a bit of border patrol on the other side of the fence migrants here seem to be just wandering back and forth along along the border wall it's very cold the rain is on and off and it's not clear whether or not any of them are going to actually get a chance to make it across this evening at one point border guards launched tear gas migrants apart from smoke there was tension and uncertainty on the other one member of the group picked up the smoking canister and sent it back to the wall. it's the middle of the night in the one. bed is

a salvador national says he's tired and he feels he's running out of options. to the movement that our minds are blank right now i don't know what we'll do i don't know if we'll go back or try to cross. after several failed attempts at crossing the wall more than twelve hours of scouring the border for a safe passage the group had no choice but to return to the shelter and try their luck again another day a little up a little dizzy don't want to. and the u.s. president says he's ready to negotiate an end to the partial government shutdown which is now been in place for almost two weeks donald trump's invited political leaders from both parties to the white house on wednesday and that is just a day before the democrats take over as the majority party in the house of representatives president trump has been refusing to sign off on new spending unless it includes five billion dollars for his border will she have a chance he is in washington with more of the white house says congressional

leaders are being invited to a briefing on border security by senior members of the department of homeland security clearly donald trump is trying to continue to frame the shutdown inter in the terms that he prefers which is it's because the democrats don't want secure borders that the government is shut down and this hasn't gone down terribly well with democrats and there's no guarantee that anyone will actually turn up to this meeting nancy pelosi who will be taking power in the house of representatives almost thursday didn't even reference this meeting in the her tweet and her response to the invitation she simply said that she will be pursuing legislation on thursday to reopen the government but then there's still that question as to whether any legislation passed in the house will have a vote in the senate because the senate republican leadership says they won't have any votes unless they have a guarantee that donald trump will sign the distillation of passes in the senate so

we haven't really moved on about for now economists are warning that bad debts and low savings are threatening the very survival of many commercial banks in nigeria many people are refusing to put their money into account saying that banks can't be trusted i'm a dangerous reports. they yearn to get him bungle farms and souls an instance some nigerians neighbors at the peak of the season he makes about thirty thousand dollars a week despite this income he stopped taking his money to the bank at a bank he although i'm not satisfied with the services i receive a used to have an account that i was disappointed several times so i put my earnings back into the business and invest in real estate. and millions of other nigerians either not putting their money into a savings account or have never even set foot in a bank. economist blame a number of factors including low income and poverty but even some of the rich and

looking elsewhere to take their money if you look at the investment of fortune it is that i will often especially i'll save nigeria and that will lead to associate head was it best to me and such but interests it. less is and to for there. in the country or lead to this to our side but importantly the saban's culture must be institutionalized by the government itself with many banks going out of business during the last decade economists say better supervision and enforcement is needed to attract the savings and investment the banking system relies on. any institutions to roll into this trance in terms of the high profile obvious torts are said been taken away and been combative in twelve long it indicates that the surveillance system provided by central mungo nigella and i gender for the insurance corporation is adequate or low all that is good and what

it claimed i was on the part of that of the greater authorities banks are becoming lino with fewer branches and staff and the christians and mergers are also becoming the new. bank used to be here someone else is renting the building now after decades of doing business the bank shut down because it didn't have enough customers many people up and don't have enough. is the distrust of the banking system. small businessmen like they want more from the banks access not only to loans but better returns on their savings too if that's not provided the banks may find a number of customers contributing to savings accounts goodling father. reese al-jazeera . nigeria after avoids lasting more than a decade and massive probe has performed the most distant flyby in the history of face exploration the new her.