the program providing food stamps to some thirty eight million low income americans could face drastic cuts if the shutdown continues and starting levels at national parks have been severely reduced the government decided to keep most parks open while the political analyst eric ham says the partial shutdown is going to have a devastating effect on workers and their communities. if this shutdown goes another week this will be the first time within the shutdown that federal workers are not receiving paychecks and so think about that you have now that the holidays are over college students are going back to school and you have parents who are not working and so the question becomes do they pay mortgages or do they pay college tuition do they pay for groceries or do they pay utilities and so these are some of the bread and butter issues that people are faced with now as this shutdown continues to lome and they hear the president say that this shutdown he could take the shutdown for

a year or four years that i'm sure has many workers hitting the panic button on how they were actually survive going forward because when you look at those eight hundred thousand employees many of those eight hundred thousand employees are not within washington d.c. they're scattered throughout the country and so think about small businesses think about food trucks that may set up around government offices or building and though those are small businesses and now that those workers aren't coming into the office that's putting a crimp on small businesses opportunities to earn as well so we're not just talking about a hundred thousand employees going without paychecks we're talking about the residual small businesses and other entities that will not be getting paid as a result of these federal workers not working and so i mean it's a ripple effect and i just don't think either the president or even congress really understands what's at stake and i think we're going to really see the pressure ramp

up next week when we see government workers start losing paychecks. the pentagon's chief of staff a step down weeks after the resignation of defense secretary james mattis kevin sweeney is the third senior pentagon official the leave his post after president trump decided to withdraw u.s. forces from syria u.s. officials have said there's no timetable for the pullout but the announcement has caused tensions within the trump administration. the u.s. national security adviser is due to discuss the troop withdrawal with israel john bolton is on a two day trip to jerusalem is expected to address the israeli prime minister's concerns that iran may gain more influence in syria bolton milena had to ankara turkey has promised to lead the fight against that reportedly wants u.s. military help to continue to put out the no has more on the turkey syria border. tucky is waiting for u.s. national security adviser bolton with a list of good months on top form this list is that a moment all for kaddish y p d a fight is that it considers terrorists u.s.

forces on the y.p. d of the heights off the fight against. calling them the most effective force against the group who wants them only does the but out of. control. from the border also talk you want us to call them. takes over from the us forces the top off finishing what remains of flights in the city of course. that region syria. for u.s. troop withdrawal from syria we are seeing intensive fighting going on between opposition groups the higher the fetus shaam ts which many people say easy allied to. on the offensive trying to finish the few opposition groups in the

west and. been at cutting out of the free syrian army a group supported by just over my took the town of todd if they. chose with elders and asked for the removal of militias in the town all these to try and position themselves as the most dominant group in the city and put a question for getting a place in peace talks future peace talks. plenty more ahead here on the news hour including unexpected backing for briggs it will tell you why some immigrants in one of london's multicultural neighborhoods want to leave the european union. disappearing sound of the desert was given a lifeline thanks to the internet. and in sports gold and steak in sacramento break an n.b.a. record together the details coming up a little bit later in all the sports.

now thousands of people in me and miles rakhine state of fled their homes after rebels attacked four police stations on friday killing at least thirteen offices the u.n. humanitarian agency says many of those displaced are sheltering in camps i'm on a street attacks were carried out by the our economy which wants autonomy to rakhine state. responded with air strikes and to infantry divisions have been deployed to the area let's get more on this now and talk to benjamin's iwaki he's a southeast asia political analyst who joins us live via skype from the thai capital bangkok benjamin they've been weeks of renewed fighting between ethnic rebels and the me and my military so what's causing the conflict to suddenly intensify and how worrying is it. well it's a conflict that goes back decades if not longer in many ways it was it was kept under wraps while the military was in firm control the country between say nine

hundred sixty two and in two thousand and twelve or so the only informed speculation as to why the uptick in violence this past week is on account of the me on mar dependence day which would have been a media draw for domestic media when the country was focused on patriotism nationalism independence and these sorts of things would have been a prime time for the this our economy to draw attention to itself and to its grievances when a country was of paying attention as it were it probably also stands to reason that tactically perhaps connected to independence day the police outpost that chose to attack were probably lightly guarded or not expecting such an attack and the rebel era konami's pushing of the great autonomy and retiring state but clearly this is not something the maymont government's prepared to negotiate on. you know when they haven't been prepared to go shiite on that for for years and years of course at the root of a lot of these grievances well it's an ethnic minority first of all it is unlike

the range of population it is one of the ethnic minorities that is recognized by the central burmese authorities as being one of the hundred thirty five official at the minorities but they've been seeking autonomy and they've also been seeking a greater share in the very slow economic development of the our economy or rakhine state in which they're based there's been increased chinese investment for example through its belt eroded initiative in that state which is either the first or second poorest state in the m.r. but the local people there the archimedes people have not reached very many economic benefits from that investment and so they're seeking autonomy politically but also a greater share of the economic pie and less us remind our viewers that this is a separate conflict from the miniatures crackdown against the minority or a hinge of muslim population but it's still forced thousands of civilians from their homes but will this conflict make it more difficult for the wreckin just to go home you're at the ridges are both an ethnic and religious minority being

a muslim population the current crisis or conflict is between buddhists it's basically iraq and he's buddhists and the central authorities that are that are likewise buddhists and it will probably have a more difficult effect on the ranges because it only seeks or will only result in greater militarize ation as we heard earlier in the program of the state and will probably cause the central authorities the military to to crack down on both groups between whom there's there's very little love lost actually in trying to just increase their level of control throughout that country both politically and economically yeah just a final thought from you because i was going to ask if you know with these latest these latest deadly attacks by the ira konami on the police post is there now a real fear but the army has lots to crack down with a much heavier response. well it's a source of almost embarrassment if you will that they would have been hit not only several times by the regime. related supposedly related to armed groups but now by an erstwhile sort of silent or latent arik an army that saw and it's been waiting

for its chance and so yes i would expect to see the unfortunate far heavier hand being brought to bear rakhine state than we've seen in recent years benjamin zaki thank you very much indeed for talking to al jazeera an egyptian police officer has been killed while trying to defuse a bomb near a church in cairo two of the offices and a civilian nearby were injured when the device exploded it comes days before egypt's christian minority celebrates the coptic christmas egyptian christians have been targeted in number of attacks in recent years a dolly a farm is associate professor of political science at long island university in the u.s. she says there's been more attacks in egypt around the holiday season. unfortunately seen a pattern of targeting churches before christmas just as happened last year with the last a terror attack being the killing during age child's baptism back in november. we don't know who is taking claim for this and we also know that there was an attack on a tourist bus just last week exactly

a week ago from tonight and so is turning see an uptick and targeting of civilians when we look at the pattern of terrorist behavior they start with attacking the state or symbols of the state security apparatus for the police and in egypt that's what and surveyed them not just a terrorist organization that folded into ice all started doing back in two thousand and thirteen they then ask to attacking those seeming to be in cahoots or sympathetic to the state and that's when we saw the attack on susi shrines last just around this time last year because those were supposedly families that we whiled state they've then escalated that to now attacking civilian and one terrorist here speak into attack civilians and mass what it's meant to do is to actually chill society so that they act for political change now we don't know if i'm sorry too much has done this because no one has the credit but we do know is

that during the holiday suits and during the peak time of egypt's tourist time period we're seeing an uptick in terrorist attacks and that is no way to but i just chill society but attacked. millions of all the docs christians are celebrating the christmas holiday eastern orthodox faith follows the old julian calendar which pushed puts the birth of jesus christ on generally seven celebrations are taking place in bethlehem in the occupied west bank the city celebrates christmas three times a year for different denominations. ukraine's new orthodox church has been blessed during mass by global orthodox leaders based in turkey ukraine's church was officially granted independence from the russian orthodox church on saturday the decree was handed over during sunday's service in istanbul the move has angered moscow for months reports. for the simple sweep of a plan ukraine's orthodox churches gain their independence or autocephaly a move likely to infuriate russian religious leaders and deepening 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 if you can see. the real you dear ukrainians this is stark a feat this is a great day i'm sure that it will go down in history for river. the document author . arising this operation known as the thomas will be taken back to crane on sunday the author docks christmas in a celebration is to be held in kiev the following day a celebration the church as leaders in russia may not share what matheson argues in a bomb blast as injured at least three policeman in the afghan capital kabul they've been taken to hospital no one has yet claimed responsibility for yet tak

the un special envoy is back in yemen trying to convince both sides in the war to fully comply with a cease fire agreement there's hope the warring sides will agree to meet later this month possibly into eight. reports. an attempt at piecing together a broken ceasefire the u.s. envoy martin griffiths is that going to yemen carving on war inside the truce they agreed to months of negotiations cracked within weeks he was met by cancer patients who demand the sunnah airport be reopened they are among the thousands of patients who cannot travel out of yemen for life saving treatments one of the many consequences of the ongoing war. we would like to tell the world that there are those who are besieging us in saunas and in the rest of the provinces that there are those who prevent us from water and medicine equipment facilities and medical devices every day we have six thousand passengers who cannot leave this airport.

there have been reports of attacks and repeated violations a mother and her child were killed in the residential area of time at least sixteen people were injured by who three artillery shelling. on friday at least fifteen people were killed in clashes between yemen's u.a.e. backed forces and locals in the southern province of sabah or far cry from the expectations of a cease fire agreement signed in sweden on december eighteenth. was. the was in the port city of her data the lifeline to deliver aid to the rest of the country protesters are calling on the un to one horse a full ceasefire and for yemen's government to follow it the accuse the saudi led coalition of carrying out low altitude flights over the city but the blame goes both ways the coalition accuses who the fighters of remaining in three ports despite a previous agreement to leave. amid negotiations and

unstable agreements the worst humanitarian crisis in recent history continues with more than fourteen million yemenis 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 hardy the u.s. secretary of state might 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. with a young al-jazeera. in a few moments we'll have all the weather with rob but still to come here on al-jazeera i am god i am. standing up against what they're calling a slave law unions in hungary call for a national strike. and they were once used as bomb shelters during world war two

now we'll show you what they've become. sport ages biggest international football tournament gets underway in the united arab emirates policy to the details a little bit more in the states. from the clear blue sky of the doha moony. to the french autumn breeze in the city of. central europe is in the deep midwinter in many ways in the depths of snow is maybe the most telling thing you can see in the clouds been it's moving south at some speed for the last week as a northerly wind sense jessi's cold this is southern germany that's a fairly good you think typical when to see in this been some accidents been some not two hundred flights delayed in munich airport and this is the view you see and not just in the manson's i have to say it's true through austria it's true in

switzerland as well it's no big surprise but the amount of snow may be i'm we're talking about a meter folding in twenty four hours this is the pictures account is that it is it's good sudden germany and austria which are in the white race there is snow elsewhere down through the balkans and particularly in turkey they'll be more here to come but overnight is just system larry which sees it's. so in fact so much so you wouldn't think so at least if it was actually a warning in place clearly is an avalanche risk is near the highest there is second highest but there's another potential meter to fall this is in the bavarian alps and in the tour all across other parts of austria too and having seen that it will briefly dry out for a while and then it is a huge tapas day on tuesday and turkey joins in. the weather sponsored by cattle and peace. water an essential resource for all humankind across europe pressure to recognise 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. water privatization on anybody is the only field. goals people who see every two years something to invest a profit of a one dollar up to the last drop on al-jazeera the latest news as it breaks in a poll just out sixty five percent of people said that they think it will do a great or a good job with detailed coverage is the second time this year doctors walked out on strike the governor signed about issuing suspension. from the around the world increased warning level columns as a blow to the thousands of people displaced by the tsunami of wanting to return home.

welcome back a quick amount of our top stories here on the al-jazeera results from the democratic republic of congo's presidential election have been delayed by a week and announcement was expected on sunday but fewer than half the votes have been counted so far. as of people in me and miles rakhine state affect their homes after rebels attacked four police stations on friday getting at least thirteen offices the raids were carried out by a group which wants or ptolemy for rakhine state. and seen the democrats and trump administration officials of failed to break a deadlock over the past. u.s. government shutdown president said there was no headway made but vice president mike pence says the meeting was productive. one congresswoman's comments about president trump of turned into

a global hash tag calling for his impeachment and while many disagree with her use of foul language others see her as a fighter standing up to a bully as more. the comments made by congresswoman rashida to lead to her supporters on thursday continue to generate lots of heated conversation online people love you and you know when your son likes it she says mama look you want bully don't play and maybe don't because we're going to go in there we're going to teach the mother. the president was then asked about her remarks and this was his response this weekly what i told her comments were just graceful this is a person that i don't know i assume she's new i think she dishonored herself and i think she just honored her family using language like that in front of her son and whoever else was there i thought that was a great dishonor to her and to her family i thought it was highly disrespectful to the united states of america yes well after the president weighed in twitter lit up

the hash tag impeach the m.f. propelled to the top trending hash tag in the united states and you might be able to see that many people around the world have since used it to express their own views so there's a big conversation happening on twitter about this exchange on one side you have people saying that the president says and does worse things in public all the time former u.s. attorney preet bharara for one thinks that lying in public is worse than a representative cussing in private but you have others including some very prominent democrats who say that using profanity profanity rather is from trump's playbook can really stresses a d.c. based columnist for the wall street journal who says that this in particular is one of the democrats' biggest complaints about him and some of its leaves constituents and michigan agree the comments a. noble put that down you know always. it's good to do that. so i would probably lose a little bit but i think they would. see that everyone is doing this well we

speculate that there is not that we will. that's a different but here's the but. so. obama just say. when you go when they go load you go get what happened to the well congresswoman to leave is unapologetic and says that she will always speak truth to power a man wavering and everyone knows that from taking on huge big bullies right back at home in the district i'm not going to back down from this biggest bully that now i have to take on the speaker of the house nancy pelosi says that she wouldn't use that kind of language but agrees that president trump has said worse but the thing is he and other men tend to get away with it. britain's prime minister to resign may says her critics are putting democracy at risk if they can't unite behind her breaks that deal m.p.'s and use a vote on her agreement to leave the e.u.

next week while westminster remains divided there's an unexpected surge of support from some immigrants in one of london's multicultural neighborhoods explains. this part of south london is home to people from all over the world afghans sell fruits and vegetables to eastern europeans and africans who rub along perfectly happily with british people who have lived here for generations you might assume this multicultural pockets of the capital is entirely against a brick say it's often portrayed as a defense of whites britain but not so for this nigerian restaurant there is a quiet satisfaction at the prospect of the u.k. cutting its ties with europe and starting to pay more attention to its historical friends in the commonwealth if they struggle for the right to stay in the u.k. while e.u. citizens don't and they think it isn't fair so most of them voted leave before because we see bridges in this in your rights to leave iraq in the after go to the

queen naturalized and mad nationality to the common which is a lot of money well when people come from europe to come to the country today that this is them they don't need to go to india nationality and then because their countries part of europe the after that everything and we as a in pensacola i feel cheated i feel jealous about average africa. african british gladly work for breakfast because i know not because i was anything against the rope and why it would give us this leverage in terms of treatment opportunity are walking. governments has already tried to indicate its support for the commonwealth the prime minister visited both kenya. and nigeria last may in london the africa next patch it looked all of this enthusiastically britain. from nigeria especially and i do not want to talk

more than i do they believe there somewhere from was a lot of you know thing investments in nigeria and cutting their money from their own daily bases so they have to return something back to us. it is perhaps an open question what some hard call backs it is make of the support for their cause from black people after all some of the people on this rally in london carried white supremacist flags and hold openly racist opinions the nigerians in london level this but they don't see board ever since the referendum nearly two and a half years ago polling organizations have tried as hard as they can to understand the voting intentions of almost every demographic but for all that the idea that people from commonwealth countries like nigeria might of voted in large numbers to leave the european union is still an almost entirely untold story and one which may have had a bigger affects on the outcome of the referendum than has previously been understood

. there are of course economic arguments that future british trading arrangements with the commonwealth wouldn't be anything like as lucrative for the u.k. as remaining in the e.u. but much of bracks it is about emotion and not facts the idea of a rebooted british commonwealth has many supporters here horsley al-jazeera in south florida. union leaders in hungary are calling for a national strike on more protests as anger rises of a controversial labor reform so-called slave law increases the amount of overtime employers can demand while delaying salary payments or a challenge reports. it's no secret what these hunger in protesters think of prime minister viktor orban. with christmas and new year out of 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 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

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 hungry ariens like where victor is taking his country. al-jazeera. is burning bureau chief for the washington post he doesn't believe the protests are a threat to the government. 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 what's widescale shutdowns tronics and the government also of course

really has a stranglehold on the media here so in terms of what people are seeing in 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 lot 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 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 dissent but i think that that is

a question going into the coming months and 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 brazil's new government has deployed troops to the northern city of fourteen days a counter a spike in violent crime in any eighteen robberies gun attacks and fire has been reported this week across the state of sierra reports suggest drug gangs are responding to tough new measures and presence. well a sentry's old musical tradition is being kept alive in mauritania thanks to modern technology it involves the use of an instrument that is played by a woman. on the outskirts of the capital. it is an invitation no man can refuse. men for women. and women play for men at the heart of

this tradition is this instrument. more than a harp it's also a drum. and produces note that do not exist in western music. only women can play it it's a tradition passed on from mothers to daughters since the thirteenth century. when i see. it gives me joy i give them rhythm and the time they dance to my beat and the men love it. and that's mitt and her daughter a cast of musical storytellers and poet they mostly sing praises to god and their love for the divine at the heart of this is the. this is the tradition. and. the down that

goes with. so how do we. how do we do it. it's called. the feel good song that's played during weddings it's a one song that. you invented. because. less and less people are playing the r d the idea here is to find a way to continue this tradition. on this journey is. the jimi hendrix of instead of seeing modern music and the internet as a threat to the tradition she uses it to spread her music. norah and her band are preparing to tour europe in the.