negotiations and unstable agreements the worst humanitarian crisis in recent history continues with more than fourteen million gemini's on the brink of famine after yemen griffith's plans to visit saudi arabia to meet with exile yemeni president abdul rob a month to hadi. u.s. secretary of state mike pump alle the schedule to stop in riyadh and the u.a.e. next week the war in yemen will likely be at the top of the agenda was another attempt to enforce and ultimately save a fragile cease fire with lingering optimism that both sides will comply katia lopez who will yawn al-jazeera still ahead for you in this news hour from london ukraine's also dogs church officially becomes independent severing ties with religious leaders in russia cracking down on crime brazil's new president sends in the military to contain violence in the northeast and then later in sport the u.s. open champion tells herself off of being childish santa will have backstory.

thousands of anti-government protesters have rallied in the hungarian capital as anger rises over a controversial change to labor rules called the slave law by critics it to boost the amount of overtime employers can demand while delaying salary payments at the same time the marches have now snowballed into a call for the end of prime minister viktor or bands rule or a challenge reports. it's no secret what these hunger in protesters think of prime minister viktor orban. with christmas and the year after the way thousands of people around on the streets again still angry at new laws passed by parliament in december. there was no coordination with the law was just pushed through in such

a way that even the opposition could not have its voice heard we just saw on t.v. you know that this government with that two thirds majority can do what they want but we have to say stop now because people should not be treated like this in the working world. particularly hated is what's been called the slave law and the labor code could add two hours of overtime to the average working day increase government control of the court system is also unpopular as is state media which gives little airtime to what position parties. we disagree with almost everything that has been going on since this government got into power and corruption to pseudo democracy and everything else mentioned at the protests the government doesn't represent the people. everybody has to have a voice here and that's not what's happening in hungary at the moment just a part of the population is represented. when they began in mid december big bands

government called the demonstrations the work of foreign forces and the liberal billionaire george soros. after winning a landslide election in april can say his party enjoys popular support. but these ongoing protests suggest opposition voices are more galvanized than they have been in years not all hunger ariens like where viktor orbán is taking his country will reach islands how does it. well griff witte is a senior journalist with the washington post and joins us via skype now from the hungarian capital thanks very much for taking the time to speak to us you were at the protest today can you describe what it was like and who was that it was a very energetic protest and i think that it was one in which a pretty wide spectrum of variance was participating it was not just the usual crowd that you often see protests where it's a smaller crowd there there has not been

a lot of energy behind the opposition in hungary in recent years and i think a lot of people were beginning to think that there was no opposition there was no resistance to big there are going to be more and what i think we were seeing with these protests over the last few weeks and today is that the opposition and the resistance torben actually does have a pulse that they're not different that's right because there had been some criticism of the opposition with was as you say pretty divided an ineffectual but now they have managed to rally round this opposition to legislation does it look like it's going to be a part to battle then with all bans government. it seems that way because the government's is certainly not showing any signs of backing down here they have not said that they're going to be retracting the so-called slave law and the opposition is saying that they're going to keep these protests up and we might see an escalation the trade unions which have been very involved in these protests along with the opposition parties and civil society groups have all been saying that if they are contemplating strikes that they're first proceeding with plans for strikes

so so we could see an escalation of these protests in to strike action in the next few weeks which would be important for a hungry hungry is a country that that really relies on workers or a lot is on your factories for businesses that have their bases across europe that have their factories here. it's an important is a hugely important part of the economy and if the workers go on strike that that could affect things greatly and if there is strike action that could be economic to economically damaging for the country how might the government respond and that's an aria. well the government has a lot of tools in its arsenal and i think it's important to keep in context here the fact that this is still a government and prime minister who are very much in the driver's seat there the government had already passed a number of years ago a very restrictive strike law that makes it very difficult for the unions to carry out lots widescale shut down strikes and the government also of course

really has a stranglehold on the media here so in terms of what people are seeing. about these protests in terms of what hungary and outside of budapest are hearing about them a lot of people in villages small towns small cities are hearing the government's point of view and only the government's point of view and so i think that the government has a lot of tools in its arsenal be at the media be it the strike law or be it the fact that it still has this two thirds majority in the parliament which allows it to to do whatever it pleases but that control of independent institutions could galvanize the opposition even more beyond strike action is their affair the demonstrations could turn violent. well we've seen them in the recent protests was quite peaceful although there was not any violence today in recent weeks there had been tear gas fired at several points when up when the protesters were trying to breach the perimeter of the parliament for instance in general the government is

trying to have a light touch not resort to brute force tactics when it comes to suppressing dissent in hungary did they have other tactics other more subtle and sleeker ways of suppressing to stand but i think that that is a question going into the coming months is just you know are we headed for a clash here and is this government going to be forced to use some heavier handed tactics than the kind that it typically uses. from the washington post thank you very much for joining us there from budapest thank you so much. well in serbia thousands of people there have been protesting against their president and ruling party these demonstrations of been held every saturday for the last five weeks the protests in belgrade have been demanding media freedom and an end to attacks on journalists and opposition figures. while the orthodox church of ukraine has split from its religious leadership in russia the ecumenical patriarch in istanbul the

church's worldwide head a signed a document granting independence russian church is said to have broken all links with its ukrainian parishes while matheson has mall. for the simple sweep of a pan ukraine's author talks churches gain their independence or autocephaly a move likely to infuriate russian religious leaders and deepening feelings of a global split in the church days before the ceremony in istanbul the leader of the author talks church worldwide denied he'd been given bribes to authorize the separation however he admitted to a group of children he had been given chocolates by ukrainian president petro poroshenko. president poroshenko also has a chocolate factory even if the russian church is accusing me of being bribed with money to do this autocephaly in reality i didn't receive money because i got a lot of the sweets and chocolate from the factory apportioning go. according to an

agreement made a centuries ago ukraine's orthodox churches have been under the jurisdiction of the churches of russia. but pressure has been growing for ukraine's churches to sever ties since the country became independent from russia in one thousand nine hundred one. and that pressure has been getting stronger since russia annexed crimea in twenty fourteen when large parts of eastern ukraine were taken over by russian backed forces and for fighting continues. crean's leadership headed by president petro poroshenko who's been attending saturday's ceremony accuses the russian controlled side of the church of spreading pro moscow propaganda a charge russia denies your fifty three you dear ukrainians this is a historic event this is a great day i'm sure that it will go down in history for river. the document authorizing this operation known as the thomas will be taken back to crane on sunday the author talks christmassy

a celebration is to be held in kiev the following day a celebration the church as leaders in russia may not share a lot matheson algis if. we go to thailand now where the first tropical storm in thirty years has left one dead and another missing as rain wind and surging seawater into trees and brought down power lines. we can call depression but risk of flooding is still there for now from coast to movie in southern thailand. less than twenty four hours after it made landfall public has been downgraded to a tropical depression the province of no concept appears to have been hit hardest by the storm. but. only five or six minutes after the storm hit the roof was blown away. dozens of buildings have been damaged power supplies disrupted and streets flooded thousands of people way evacuated ahead of its

arrival. fall there is wind and rain we have children in our family so we hurried here the head of our village urged us to leave as well the tourist destination of coast and other islands nearby suffered no severe damage as the eye of the storm passed farther south than initially forecast. public is unlikely to have a long term effect on tourism or economic growth in the southern provinces financial losses will stem mainly from the fact that businesses have got to shut for a couple of days already boat ferry and flight services that were suspended on friday have resumed there were fears public could be the worst tropical storm to hit thailand in thirty years that fear hasn't been borne out weakened as it made its way across southern thailand and by saturday morning it had moved into the andaman sea florence al-jazeera. brazil's new president gyre ball

sanaa is deploying troops to the northeastern state of syra after a wave of attacks on banks and public offices criminal gangs have damaged buildings and vehicles over the last two days it comes as forty terrorists were robbed at gunpoint on a popular hiking trail in rio de janeiro also swept to power promises to crack down on crime or birds in miami has mall. it is brazil's most iconic landmark christ the redeemer towers over rio de janeiro seen by many as a symbol of peace but the trail leading up to it on coke about a mountain has become known for violent crimes dozens have been ambushed held hostage and dropped at gunpoint prompting tourists to think twice about visiting young was an employee a while back as we know they've advised us that tourists were robbed yesterday so we didn't hike up we have our camera so we didn't go i didn't want to go because

the people there they robbed forty people and i started a bit scary as a tourist you want to be safe you want to go you don't want to miss your cell phone your wallet your camera. it's not the first incident last year the area was closed after a polish man was stabbed the trail runs close to a feller all city slum that is home to some of the poorest in the city. many fear that it's a run by drug gangs and criminal organizations rising violence and red as you narrow has impacted the number of visitors in two thousand and seventeen there was a reported loss of more than two hundred million dollars in tours in revenue. both scenarios swept to power on a promise to crack down on crime and corruption to fulfill his promise he sending three hundred soldiers to the northeastern state of seattle to contain violence by criminal gangs. the national force has already been contacted the mobilization plan is in action and is about to leave scenes like this and not unusual in brazil's

northeastern state there's been a wave of attacks in the previous few months that's included armed robberies and the targeting of public buildings and banks brazil has one of the highest murder rates in the world with tens of thousands killed every year paulson are has vowed to take action but arming civilians. experts say this will only fuel the violence. al-jazeera. said i had for you on the program in the bag turkey introduces charge on plastic bags as it tries to reduce the amount of plastic working its way into the mediterranean. will be meeting one of hong kong's lost my job is as the traditional game gives way to smartphones and computer games. and sport find out why organize a so that's just to stay on course this is dakar rally. hello

again welcome back to your international weather forecast well all of the snow we've been talking about here across central and eastern parts of europe right here you can see those clouds well good news is as we go towards the beginning of the week that snow is going to be ending there was still going to be dealing with some very low temperatures across much of this area warsaw at minus three kiev at minus four but it is going to be a little bit of break from that very very heavy snow that you saw over the weekend down here towards the south we're still dealing with some snow in some rain across parts of turkey and then now here towards the northwest well a new front a boundary is coming in off the atlantic and that is going to be bring some winds across northern ireland scotland and also some very heavy rain over the next few days well here across the northeastern part of africa we're still dealing with those winds also you can see here on our forecast map winds coming out of the

northwest also some clouds but also some very heavy rain expected along the coastal areas of egypt that is going to continue on forty as we go towards monday and we do expect possibly especially here over towards parts of lebanon over towards jordan syria we could be seeing some isolated flooding out here towards the west so look quite nice over here towards morocco are but we expect to see a temperature few of sixteen degrees in algiers clear skies here with a temperature of about fifteen degrees there. rewind returns a can bring your people back to life i'm sorry with brian new updates on the best of documentaries they has been a number of reforms put in chi since the prime graham film rewind begins with mohammed at the time when i was in libya i was the both of us. and the

other student i was very fortunate to be awarded a rewind on al-jazeera. begins with but it does not in there no terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat than the regime of saddam hussein this is a regime that has something to hide they had prepared a significant propaganda machine and guess what not one. was found in iraq since one thousand nine hundred ninety one iraq. on al-jazeera.

welcome back a quick recap of the top stories this hour ago she is in washington a working through the weekend to break a deadlock between the white house and congress which is left the government partially shut down president donald trump has threatened to let the closure continue for years unless democrats allow funding for orderable with mexico. members of the religious minority a pleading with the u.s. to not withdraw that troops from northern syria saying it would help i still stage a comeback and thousands of people have rallied in hungary's capital budapest against what many of the slaves lol the legislation introduced by prime minister viktor orban the amount of overtime that employers can demand. more on top story now a partial u.s. government shutdown i'm joined from washington by the founder and president of the politics u.s. thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us we can negotiations to break the deadlock don't appear to have gone well which policy is likely to pay the

greater political price if the shutdown drags on. i think it's going to be the republicans because they are sticking firm to this issue that's not very popular among the american electorate i think what we saw happen in november with our midterm elections and what we saw this week with historic gains made in the congress with a very diverse new membership among the new members what we're seeing is that americans they don't want the wall of the president is just seems that he is trying to fulfill a campaign promise and if this drags on it's going to hurt the republicans more than it will hurt the democrats but it's also a precarious position for the democrats to be in as well might the effects of the shutdown and the disruption caused possibly change that calculations in this i don't think so again because it's such an unpopular issue there are a lot of people that are they want to see the democrats stay firm and not been to

the will of what the president is asking in terms of the five point six billion dollars to build a wall the democrats of done a pretty good job stating that they're not against funding for security on the border but they're saying that they're not going to fund this wall that is really small in proportion to what the border is and what is necessary to be able to secure the border in itself this is the problem because if you think about how fundamental the the border will was to trump's campaign his ideology and now his presidency is it unrealistic to expect him to compromise a told on what was a key player a supporter says. well i think is the president is doing what the president feels is necessary he's trying to maintain a campaign promise to fulfill some of the for his base but let's really think about this the longer that the shutdown goes the more people that are going to be impacted i mean we're talking about transportation safety administration officials who work in the airport are not being paid we're talking about people who are some employees are still having to go to work they don't know when they're going to be

paid their right now we were two weeks and once we get to another two weeks they're going to be people that are going to start finding it more difficult to pay for their rent they are already fighting that difficult pay for it basically central things for food childcare so this is this has really long reaching implications and it's not just to those government workers as also to the businesses around these government workers as well as tax refunds are supposed to go out in april and may in people the government is open is receiving people's tax returns but it's not operational because they're not employees there who can process the refund so this is this is a this is a serious issue here thanks very much for sharing your thoughts with us at the nigerian president and founder of posse politics u.s. joining us now from washington thank you. far right groups have faced off with counter protest as in one of melbourne's most popular tourist spots they were protesting against a spike in years crime which they blame on people of african descent but they were

opposed by demonstrators supporting multiculturalism kathy novak report. wasn't killed or in melbourne is usually a place to relax at the beach not today instead a scene of far right nationalists facing off against left wing groups hurling insults across the police line with very different views of the kind of a stray leah in which they wish to live and immigration nationalists say they came out to protest against crime on the beaches which they blame on a stray leons of african descent ok doing the wrong thing and there's still enough for every hurt in the all over we want to ever exist but we want to draw back we want the lot for the sudanese australians in particular have been under scrutiny recently with local media airing reports referring to african gang violence but those who rallied in support of multiculturalism in australia say the minority group has been made a scapegoat for bigger issues i've lived in melbourne my whole life now there isn't

a problem with african crime we have issues with us not having enough and gauge mint things today about the fact there's the fact that they tried to scapegoat it on africanus ryans is really disappointing only prior notice that the far right groups would be rallying at the beach and that counter protest would be staged in response to doing all they can to keep the two groups apart to prevent any escalation of physical violence the opposing sides moved from the beach front into the streets of st kilda shutting down roads as police maintained their lines using pepper spray at times to break ups couples extraordinary scenes outside the iconic luna park were children come to ride the roller coasters likely to be much more frightened by the anger on display outside the fun part kathy novak al-jazeera milverton. one of the world's most recognisable animals is being threatened with extinction in nigeria hundreds of don't hold in rural markets every week with

a growing demand for them meat and hides and now at risk of becoming critically endangered but as interest reports from. one politician is pushing for a new law to protect them. these animals are heading to the market it's certain that most of them will end up on someone's dinner table and the heights processed for export local say the rush for the beast is driving the numbers down but all the dealers are bothered about is price drop. a sluggish or leg b. fall maybe because of lack of money but the fact is we don't sell productive was. the money is not in principle at all. he says there are thousands in the wild where he gets some of his stock. forty don't use are sold of every week in this rural market on average what prices ranging from fifty to one hundred fifty dollars per

head. in northern nigeria long commute is not the many but the highs are valuable to traders who come here to buy the animals and with more and more don't is being killed there but it's having been done by the elderly because younger people have moved to cities to find work. former owners such as. regret they sold their animals. the life is tough without it don't you get used to the help you get from. old people like me are used to living with them that's our source of transportational. a member of parliament who says the animals may soon join the growing list of critically endangered species is pushing for a law to save the remaining stock and. their fate may lie in the hands of small time breeders such as a couple. breeding a donkey is tough and easy at the same time the pregnancy is long nearly

a year feeding it is hard work and. it probably will take more than people like him to save the animals neighbors such as an easy have already stopped exports of life donkeys it's questionable whether that and other measures will be enough to save the dependable dog. a habit he agrees. that the mighty nigeria. we've got a turkey now the country's interest is to challenge on single use plastic bags in an attempt to clean up the mediterranean sea its waters have polluted with thousands of tonnes of plastic every year but plastic manufacturers say tens of thousands of jobs and out risk. has more from istanbul. like many countries worldwide turkey has a major problem with plastic waste turkey is your second largest plastics producer and six in the world. millions of tons are thrown away every year.

often ending up in the mediterranean sea and littering turkey's coastline it is estimated one hundred forty four tons of plastics from turkey alone and stop in the sea every day one hour of every five fish has my for plastic in its digestive system and one million. birds are suffocating in plastic bags every year. the turkish government is implementing what is called a zero waste policy turkish m.p.'s passed a law aimed at cutting the cost stemming from pollution in the long run single use passive facts are the first target. from now on shoppers will have to buy plastic bags shops carts given the way face a fine farmer's market traders around sure have the new law will work it would cost too much for a customer how would we charge them everybody now keep the bags and use them again

. the turkish government estimates every turk uses four hundred forty plastic bags every year with the new plastic bag tax that total is expected to fall to forty a year by two thousand and twenty five many people here are hopeful the new government's measures to reduce plastic consumption will be just as successful as the ban on smoking in public places a decade ago and more mentalist say the success of the new regulations depends on troops being responsible citizens they need to be encouraged to avoid single use plastic packing and to help save the world from the dangers of pollution. plastic bag makers say the law could make tens of thousands of fact. three workers redundant guard bags can be recycled for maximum of three times the main problem is a lack of awareness and decomposing. turkic current the recycles thirty percent of its plastic waste within the next twelve years the government says it is aiming for

one hundred percent c namco saulo al-jazeera a stumble. speculation is mounting that north korea's kim jong un could soon make his start visit to south korea nations between the two countries have steadily improved that's also having a visible impact on the heavily fortified border that separates north and south as south korea correspondent robin wright travel to young john island which is just a short distance away from the north korean mainland from its observation points you can clearly make out the coastline of north korea just twelve kilometers away and at times of extreme tension young people on the island has found itself in the sights of north korea's guns eight years ago it was the scene of an artillery jewel that killed four people and wounded nineteen others the most serious clash since the korean war today the same waterfront is that peace following

a year of diplomatic engagements between the leaders of north and south korea. for many of the two thousand people who live and work here things have never looked so good you know until the good things should improve for better kim jong un wants it out sorters manji and given that most feel of reconciliation things will improve but the fractious history of into korean relations makes others more cautious talking. with their track record and it's possible that they might change in an unpredictable way so i don't have complete trust. today the only sound of gunfire comes from the firing ranges of the marines who are based here the shelters that people are taught to run to when the event of an attack are chained and locked. one of the houses destroyed in the attack has been preserved as

a memorial the disputed maritime border has long been a flashpoint between north and south korea in addition to the shelling of twenty ten there have been deadly clashes between naval vessels near here but the remarkable improvement in korean relations in the past year is having a remarkable impact on the heavily fortified border separating the north and the south. guard posts along the demilitarized zone have been dismantled and the numbers of weapons facing off against each other reduced. assuming the process continues the fortifications of young killing island could eventually become part of a bygone era rob mcbride al-jazeera young piano island south korea. still ahead for you on the news hour a two hundred seventy eight kilo cino that's fashola record price at tokyo's new year auction you i believe how much tell me just

a couple of moments on that in sport asia's biggest international football tournament gets underway in the united arab emirates on hold to hear that story. water an essential resource for all humankind across europe pressure to recognize water as a human right and put its management back into public hands is increasing i think that the european commission would be very very true those words are probably on anybody if they articulate. those people who see everything as something to invest the profit of they want our way up to the last drop on al-jazeera. when the news breaks on the story that'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 light needs on air and online. in days gone by if you are in hong kong the holiday season will be a good excuse for a game of logical but the obsession with mobile phones and computer games means fewer people know house of play and the author of handmade tiles for the traditional table game a dying out if you go pollen reports. whew.