or if any true progress can be made more to do it she knows with the leaders of congress to be new vies you do we have to you know they're going to attend. that's i'm i'm not sure i know that this meeting is planned for this afternoon it was announced in the early morning here in d.c. and it is expected that the leaders of both parties who have been invited. attend at least to show voters that there is some efforts in washington to reopen the government which has been partially shut down now going on twelve days but i also should add that this is interesting timing because as of tomorrow there will be a new congress sworn in in d.c. and there will be a dramatic shift in the political dynamic because democrats will take over the house of representatives and donald trump will have his first taste of governing a divided government democrats are seeing that as an opportunity to demonstrate to voters that they can succeed in reopening the government whether republican

colleagues have failed and they have vowed that the first act in the house will be to pass a bipartisan bill that had already cleared the senate earlier which affords one point three billion dollars toward border security not for the wall per se so it remains to be seen whether or not that will happen and then if that bill that goes through the house lands on donald trump's desk whether or not he will sign into law and the stalemate mortified really interesting to live or a dull moment is there in washington d.c. hi jake us or thank you. well u.s. border agents a five people crossing the mexican border at. the group attempting to breach the fences fall of a cycle caravan of asylum seekers and migrants from central america u.s. authorities say they were responding to rocks being thrown at them and a warning man well the report contains flashing images 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 but if i'm called a completed fought for saddam if i'm deported i guess i'll keep moving forward with his life there's hope that's what we'll do this is an older section of the wall but border patrol agents are watching from the other side national guard troops are also on the lookout for passing migrants these kids not the 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. your witness because you guys are going to show you're going to come over here or 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 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 migrants apart from there was tension and uncertainty and 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 saw the door national says he's tired and he feels he's running out of options. our minds are blank right now i don't know what will do i don't know where four go

back or try to cross after several failed attempts at crossing the wall more than twelve hours 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. one. in this hour including a look why nigeria's banks are failing to attract millions of customers. plus the mind bending exhibition of artists takes visitors in new york to another dimension. and the brands and the black coats of a classic contest leah will have the details coming up soon. the chinese president xi jinping is not ruling out using military force against supporters of independence in taiwan in his first major speech addressing the

people of the self rule to island president she said taiwan's reunification with china is inevitable taiwan's leader rejected the same and said beijing must face reality. 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. well . we are firmly against any plots to create to china a 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 tabone is part of china and both sides of the strike belong to china thank. president

she has increased pressure on taiwan since the election of citing when as president in twenty sixteen she leads the pro independence democratic progressive party and on tuesday insisted the island's twenty three million people want to maintain self rule into a doubtful. democratic values and ideals and way of life cherished by taiwan's people we call on china to bravely step out onto the path of democracy only then can they truly understand the persistence and ideals of the taiwanese people. while taiwan is self-governed it has never formally declared independence from the mainland however it has acted as an independent nation since one nine hundred fifty when china's nationalist government leaders fled to the island after being defeated by communists forces the legitimacy of the ruling government today in china in just on several things possible economic governance and people which they have done but secondly she being national. to have to deal with the chinese identity is all she

can bring bang on about the need for you to take action the credibility of the party who just on their ability to deliver on that goal while in recent years china has become more assertive over its claims over taiwan and it has also managed to convince more of taipei's view international allies to cut diplomatic ties with the island. for now neither side appears to be willing to back down in this longstanding dispute and are chapelle al-jazeera. in the philippines rescue workers are struggling to reach areas of the castle flash floods and landslides. odds that have killed at least eighty five people so just days after christmas twenty five thousand people were displaced a state of calamity has been declared in three provinces lindo them has more from 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 are in the beagle region have been destroyed these are critical because much needed aid needs 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 and at least fifteen people are dead in indonesia after a series of landslides in west java province twenty people are still missing buses million one hundred falls a rescue effort is being hampered by heavy rain and the threat of more learned

slides. the wall of mud and debris came without warning just before some see it on new year's eve. with about one hundred people live in the village of soon it is me it slammed into the heinz burying at least thirty buildings many up to their broods . around to the back of my house and saw the barn turn upside down and then be carried away by source so much soil coming my way very very fast at least thirty five people are thought to have been swallowed up by the landslide survivors and rescue workers for the most part using basic tools they head and to clear the thick mud to find survivors and the deeds but this is dangerous work ongoing heavy rainfall on the unstable soil has triggered at least full more landslides hampering the refits soon it is me village is on the hill one of more

than thirty areas within the sukhumi district that disaster relief officials head assist to be at medium to high risk if you. decree our policy to make sure. you use the way of relief invest is really weiss and. but that's little comfort for those whose family and friends did well still missing . that day my brother was visiting me down at the beach in the afternoon he said he wanted to return to his house i asked him to stay overnight but he said no i'm afraid of the tsunami and then i heard what happened there i came straight away to look for him. indonesia was hit by more than two and a half thousand netra disasters in two thousand and eighteen including earthquakes cannick eruptions tsunamis and landslides. this disaster

on the last day of the year took the death toll for two thousand and eighteen across indonesia to more than three thousand the highest number in more than a decade and. pressure is mounting on sudan's president omar al bashir to resolve a growing political crisis opposition parties have joined coltrane to step down following weeks of antigovernment protests the situation's also prompted to policies to withdrawal from his own cabinet within the past week ever more than has more from the capital khartoum. thousands have been demonstrating in sudan demanding president almighty bashir step down now twenty two different opposition parties are also calling on the president to resign has. 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 stairs 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 its 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 draw any representation we have in any official post. the crisis started two weeks ago with protests 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 of 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 formerly 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 see that likely won't change the president's position. of all the continuation of protests in cities including khartoum doesn't mean it's a people's revolution year 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 steps down effective so things can change down the road. and memo may not force the president to resign like the opposition ones but with more protests planned and a defined president to dance or to head may not be easy people morgan al-jazeera to . the u.n. special envoy to somalia has been ordered to leave the country accuse of interfering in somalia's internal affairs the government is either say saying this was hastened would no longer be allowed to work in somalia just a few days ago nicholas hasan wrote

a letter to somalia's interior security minister he asked for information about the arrest of a former al-shabaab leader turned politician and about civilian deaths in protests that followed last month. south africa's government has introduced a minimum wage for the first time the head of april's general elections president cyril ramaphosa has promised millions of workers better pay as he seeks to increase his voter pay voter base particularly in rural areas critics say could lead to increased unemployment as some business owners won't be able to afford to pay the minimum wage of one dollar forty cents an hour. economists a warning bad debt and low savings are threatening the very survival of many commercial banks in nigeria many people are refusing to put their money into the banks saying they can't be trusted comedy address explains. they only give them bungle farms and souls only 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 clerk at a bank he was not satisfied with the services i received a used to have an accountant but i was disappointed several times so i put my earnings back into the business and invested realistic as a go. and millions of other nigerians either not putting their money into 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 outside of nigeria and the relatively high associated was investment in such ventures it because less is center for them. in the country or led to invest in our side but importantly. the sabin's

culture must be institutionalized by the government itself with many banks going out of business during the last decade economy see better supervision and enforcement is needed to attract the savings and investment the banking system. or any institutions to roll in to destress in terms of the. obvious total of this are said been taken away and been combative in long it indicates that the surveillance system provided by central mungo nigella and as your lender for the insurance corporation is adequate or low all that it and what it can i was on the of that of a greater authority banks are becoming leaner or fewer branches and staff and i because issues and mergers are also becoming the norm. a 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 are one and don't

have enough. is a 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 the number of customers contributing to savings accounts goodling father. reese al jazeera. nigeria. right it's time for the weather now is calving that's right and we are beginning to thousand and nineteen very much the same way we ended in two thousand and eighteen here across europe where we have been persistent storms down here across much of the southeast take all of the clouds right there in the weather pattern unfortunately over at least the next week is not going to be changing the reason being is we have the jet stream which is coming straight north to south across central europe out here towards ease we have a lot of messy weather out here towards the west much better weather still quite cold but unfortunately with that jet stream coming down like that that means we are

going to be developing a lot of storms down here towards parts of greece as well as into turkey now that was the trend as we enter the last year we saw a lot of flooding we saw a lot of snow take a look what we have here here on thursday this area of low pressure that's developing in athens a lot of rain right there putting that into motion as we go from thursday into friday a lot of that rain moves into parts of turkey you know to the snow in the higher elevations as well pushing across the black sea and then we have another disturbance you can see over athens again really developing so this is going to be the trend as we go for the next couple of least seven days very much heavy rain as well as snow across much of the region here across parts of the u.s. we're watching one particular storm down here across texas dallas a high temperature of three degrees with a mix of rain and snow that means it's going to be very messy and if you are flying there could be many of delays across that area. kevin thank you very much indeed still to come on this al-jazeera news in the occupied west bank plans are underway

for the expansion of an illegal israeli settlement. brazil's new president promises to crack down on crime and to improve the economy that many question his lack of experience. nick kyrgios is back on course and up to his old tricks later we'll have the latest from the new tennis season. in the next episode of science in the golden age i'll be exploring the contributions made by scholars during the medieval islamic period in the field of astronomy. the pernik chris knows this day to these medieval astronomers from the golden age. that's trillions in many ways with the computers of the day you can use it to find the time you could navigate science in a golden age with germany. when the

news breaks and the story it's when people need to be heard and the story needs to be told. with exclusive interviews and in-depth reports. al-jazeera has teens on the ground to bring you more award winning documentaries. and life needs on air and online. let's have a look at the top stories here on. tree women event of a hindu temple in india southern state of carola defying hardline protesters the

temple was historically close to women between the ages of ten and fifty but the supreme court overturned the ban in september. british politicians and international lawyers of all saudi arabia permission to visit detained activists they want to investigate allegations that they're being tortured. taiwan has rejected xi jinping his latest call for unification in an address the chinese president didn't rule out the use of force against taiwan's pro independence opposes. growing pressure on israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu to expire and illegal settlements as he launches his reelection bid last week israel announced plans to extend an existing settlement south of bethlehem from there stephanie decker reports. we are deep in the occupied west bank just south of bethlehem we're 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. resident need for wagner helps us find the hills a small group of settlers are already here. for example take bethlehem their settlement block it from the north end road sixty from the west and the settlement of efrat from the south and is now behind us what's going to happen to us what's left where should we palestinians bre when you're looking for. it's not. going to continue to between the villages and cities. the five g. is an expert in the geography of the land where the settlements are. and what their presence means here's your resilience so we have a big live view of sort of image this is the more than any bloke and you have to

give i was able bloke on malia that we look at me in the big kind of go to. the jordan valley but it's more dangerous than this one it's really that all the biggest dream city in north of this garage it's you will be divided for two pieces one of them is surrounded with certainly in the north and second sort of an insult 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 and new facts because they feel that it's a window of opportunities not knowing what will be after the elections and with

a 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 formed and they say it's in the settlement of a fraught 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. a train crash in denmark has killed at least six people and injured sixteen others it happened of the great belt bridge which links the central danish islands and zealand and finn a passenger train was traveling from the city of a dense towards the capital capen hagen when it was hit by deputy from

a cargo train blown off by strong winds the train was carrying one hundred thirty one passengers and three crew tech giants in france now have to pay more taxes so-called gas attacks named after google apple facebook and amazon is to ensure global digital phones pay their fair share the measure is expected to raise around five hundred seventy million dollars for france this year the french government had been pushing for an e.u. wide levy but failed to get the required support. brazil's far right president j a boss or not it was sworn in during a ceremony in the capital brasilia and it is first speech as president he called for unity and promise to free brazil of corruption and crime as well as improve the economy more now from john homan who was there. standing in the shadow of her hero christina new year's day is the start of change help with anything 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. to. join you both to 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 bilson otto's main promise beating corruption appeals to brazil's political class has been engulfed by scandal. void is full it is that those charges of political favors forced trading that needs to be left in the past we want the whole nation to benefit everything that we do hence forward as 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. which governed here for years i. know this is our flag it will never be red even if we need to share our blood to keep it

green and yellow. was a warning perhaps for those who hope that he'll be a more moderate president then candidate j. boss or not oh i see no reason to change john heilemann does it or brasilia. argentina is known to have the best the polo in the world and one of the reasons why is the quality of its whole series but it's not all down to nature animal cloning has become a common practice in the sport and as today's a bow reports it also created a heated discussion about the ethics of such practices. polo horses at the most important tournaments in the world they may all look the same except that a few of these horses are clones. they were created here at this center fifty kilometers outside when a site is catamaran keiser explains that to clone a horse they take tissue from the neck of the animal they want to copy then what's

generated out of that tissue is inserted into an empty cell no you cannot just because you don't know there's no sperm here it's considered a sexual reproduction even though the initial cell we want to clone had a mother and a father. then they wait for a few days to see if the procedure is successful so they can later implant the embryo. this fall as you can see here is a clone of course said if playing argentina is polo championship it was created in a laboratory and implanted in this manner it is expected to be as good as the original version of the idea and mortal has been leading the cloning process in argentina he says that cloning has helped them accelerate the refuge action process of what is considered an except. horse well we're going to call this but he said we cannot clone experiences what nature does we copy it in a lab and it has inefficiencies it's always an imitation of nature and even though

we reset to just start from the beginning we cannot delete the genetic marks in the d.n.a. so it's not crazy to think that the clones are born with more experience than the original animal. but i will be esle considered argentina's best polo player has cloned his mare quite a bit more than a dozen times then mary and her clones are the stars of every tournament in the country. the discussion over the ethics of horse cloning has forced the polo association to regulate what can be allowed in the industry. there is a big debate it one hundred twenty five laboratories want to mutate change and adapt and that's why our association with the government decided that cloning is one thing and manipulating genetically is something else. the demand for horses is what has made this industry warm and even though ethical questions about animal cloning remain it has allowed some of argentina's best horses to transcend in time

. when a site is right let's go to arthur caplan who's director of medical ethics at new york university school of medicine is joining us from connecticut in the u.s. thank you for taking the time what are your thoughts about this you think that first of all on the ethical side of things that it's perfectly ok for argentina polo industry for that is what it is to to have so much success based upon cloned animals. i don't i think cloning gives an obvious advantage to those able to afford to do it it's not cheap to clone horses very expensive probably one of the few sports where the participants could get away with it is polo where there's a lot of wealth. but it undermines fair play and again no one would be cloning horses if it didn't give an advantage to those who can ride them absolutely said

ken they cloned horses in this instance that they perform as well if not better than the original. well they're likely to probability wise the problem is when you clone a horse or for that matter any in a mall whether it's for sports or food if there is danger of making it in a mall with genetic problems with birth defects or are prone to diseases we saw that long ago with dolly the sheep viewers who remember that she died early and had many many diseases cloning carries risks and so the horse may not be as healthy if you did not work out well and you could get an excellent horse but presumably since dolly the sheep technology has advanced to reduce that to reduce many of those problems that professing counted right you'd think that but no because the same techniques to make these horses are the same techniques being that were used to make dolly there's no real improvement in what's going on we don't understand any

better than we did why these cloning efforts often result in a stillborn who are sore a horse with a birth defect so no there hasn't been much progress made yet and fundamentally and in in the every nerve sport because obviously that's what popular is i mean is it fair. i think it's not fair and i think the polo says ca ssion probably has allowed this because again there's so much wealth there's so much money around that most of the people who play probably could afford to clone a horse but if you extend that out to other sports even horse racing or other sports where in a mills are involved i think you'd find competitive advantages to those permitted to clone and again the cost in terms of bad outcomes the pregnancies that end poorly in a ml's that are sick i think is too high the cost in.