the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world. al-jazeera. trumps national security advisor says the u.s. will assure the defense of israel and its kurdish allies before it pulls out of syria. hello i'm in london you're with al jazeera also coming up on the program slow progress in the d.l.c. where voters have been told they'll have to wait another week for the election results. pope francis' opinion leaders to find

a safe port for forty nine migrants stranded at sea off the coast of malta also. major where the margin. president reiterated his threat to use emergency powers to secure money for his border war with mexico. welcome to the program president trump's national security adviser says he does not want turkey to take military action in syria unless it's fully coordinated with the united states john bolton made this comment during a press conference with the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu earlier he said there's still no timetable for the pullout but it is conditional on turkey sharing the safety of washington's kurdish allies the u.s. also wants to ensure that the last remnants of ice still are defeated sixty

thousand kurdish and other syrian fighters help the u.s. push i still out of it stronghold in eastern syria. we're going to be discussing the president's decision to withdraw all of that to do so from northeast syria in a way that make sure that isis is defeated and is not able to. revive itself and become a threat again and to make sure that the. defense of israel and our other friends in the region is absolutely assured well john bolton made those comments ahead of a planned meeting with the turkish president. next week but tell can consider as many of the u.s. backed kurdish fighters to be terrorists and wants them removed from areas near its border with syria while going to doe's in gaziantep close to the taki syria border and has more now on techies reaction to bolton's comments. a spokesman for the

president of the on house of luck to both come and say tuck you has absolutely no problem with a cardinal question in hockey and that's the problem of talking is with two particular groups the y p d n p k k which turkey recognizes the terrorist organizations and says it's easy to be disrespectful bolton to say that the been repressed by these two organizations who are the spokesman called terrorists of course we've seen a situation where there's been a scramble by regional powers to try and feel a possible void of the u.s. troop withdrawal with other countries rushing into measures to mend relationships with assad and reopening off embassies by the united arab emirates and behind for example all the to put in check and tatties influence in syria once the u.s. troops withdraw but us pushing that has been criticized by city and opposition

groups who called mr assad a criminal whether he's going to buy a falzon or even a million leaders across the world. al-jazeera stephanie deca is in western and joins us now so tell can israel ah the the main focus john bolton on his visit wed to israel's concerns lie when it comes to syria. well it's all about the iranian presence militias backed by iran hezbollah in particular this is also an area where israel has been very active militarily throughout the syrian war it has targeted very rarely confirms has done so occasion the policy of targeting weapons shipments to hezbollah weapons warehouses and this is something that it says it will continue to do now the americans are saying that it fully supports israel in this but israel's concern of course is if you have these troops pull out you will have

a power vacuum which of course it's all about balance of power when it comes to the ground in syria so it's concern that these iranian backed militias will benefit from that situation so this is what they'll be discussing what is the pullout going to look like when is it going to happen as you mentioned earlier bolton putting a couple of preconditions on that now that make it a little more complicated so i think still a big question mark about how and when it's going to happen but i think the israeli prime minister will be very keen to show the national security adviser why israel's concern able to taking him up to the occupied golan heights tomorrow of course israel's been undertaking an operation against tunnels that it says hezbollah has dug from lebanon on into the occupied golan heights so this is all part of the message that israel needs its security men tain and this is why a phased withdrawal perhaps a far more cautious one than initially was put out by the american president donald trump when he said thirty days but of course now it seems we are far off from that

thank you very much from weiser islam stephanie. election officials in the democratic republic of congo say voters will have to wait another week for the preliminary results of last month's election the initial outcome of last sunday's vote to choose a successor to president joseph kabila was due to be declared on sunday but the head of the election commission now says just fifty three percent of the votes have been counted election was postponed in three opposition strongholds which led to protests and violence or. a political played their parts in their country and i fear it may to generate if the election commission doesn't tell the truth about the results. i fear nothing even if the electoral commission publishes a different result the church will denounce it but it's the people who decide what to do them. out is there is how brains this not more now from can chasa.

opposition leaders offer a straight and they say they want to know why it's taking so long to release the results to ruling party gave a press briefing and the state of the confidence that the candidates diary is going to win the election they say if you liza's for whatever reason they would challenge the result important to building there behind me that is the electoral commission officials then they also gave a press briefing with the state so far they have counted fifty three percent of the votes but they still don't know when exactly they're going to release the results it urging people to remain calm some people here are concerned that there could be violence the longer it takes to release the results the main opposition leaders are saying that they concerned it wouldn't party the government is tab pretty good numbers to make sure they candidate the mangy daryn wins the government denies the allegations but so far all eyes are on the initial commission when will the final results be released and of course once a results are released but isn't happy how are they going to react. well to sudan

now where police have been using tear gas and stun grenades to stop anti-government protesters reaching the presidential palace this is the latest in a series of demonstrations against president tomorrow the share which began on december nineteenth anger of a rising food prices and government corruption have led to calls for the share to step down at least one thousand people have died since the unrest started with some rights groups putting the figure much higher level morgan is in the capital for ten . anti-government protests are in its third week once again you've seen people marching out and streets demonstrating against the rule of president ahmed rashid are they saying that they want president i'm going to push you to end his twenty one year rule and step down something he said he's not going to do so people are saying that they will not stop protesting and demonstrating in the streets and so the president gives in to their demands now we've seen people being separated from the crowd and the protest using live ammunition and tear gas something that has happened over and over again during the previous protests and certainly something

that has happened today people of the police have been using tear gas and live in militias. disperse protesters foreign governments have said that the police are using excessive force against protesters who are armed making their demands known to the government and to the world now opposition figures of also come out and said that they understand why people are demonstrating in the streets and that they are lending their support to these people who are protesting and that they also want the president to step down and hand over power to an interim council it's not clear how that would happen but the thing is the president has said that he's not going to step down he did offer some kind of economic concessions he said that he was going to improve the living wages for civil workers and he's going to increase their salaries he also promised that he was going to look into the matters of the protesters and how they were being handled by the police amnesty international says at least thirty seven people have been killed that was within the first week of the protests and opposition figures have been saying more and more people have been killed since then it's not clear yet how if people have died but will we do know is that level munition and tear gas has been used to disperse protesters and that people have been arrested don't stray sions in the streets it's not clear where

this would go and how it would end the government says that they're going to try to ease the situation for them people are saying that they will continue to protest so sudan seems to be in for a long haul between the government and the protesters at least thirty people have died in afghanistan after flooding triggered a landslide in an illegal gold mine rescuers are searching for survivors in northeastern badakhshan province police say around fifty people were digging for gold when they were caught in the flash floods the villagers had dug a shaft in a dry riverbed which had been mined for gold in the past. pope francis is leaders to stop arguing over forty nine migrants stranded off the coast of malta and help them the head of the roman catholic church urged the member states to allow the migrants to land on the shores. of ports. in front of an audience of tens of thousands gathered at st peter's square pope francis asked european union leaders to stop bickering and allow two humanitarian ships with refugees and

migrants rescued at sea to dock now by ricky jordan e for several days and forty nine people rescued in the mediterranean sea have been on board to enjoy ships seeking a safe port where they can disembark. thirty two of those rescued at sea are on the sea watch three the rescue ship is operated by a german humanitarian group the refugees were saved from their unsafe boats on december twenty second among them my three children and four teenagers. box. well being is beyond cold these sheep dogs. let's eat some weeks. no sleeping because all day we. you know. you are seeing. a second ship called c.i. operated by a different german group rescued seventeen people on december twenty ninth and it

too is waiting for a port to dock we had. good times and really hot times together with our guests the good times for example last christmas when we had a bend at a nice party on the offtake celebrating together. with them and we had hot times when there was storm and there was heavy wind and high waves and when everybody was afraid and unsecure and unsafe. those onboard the two ships include people from different countries many are seasick after stormy crossings. but i make a heartfelt appeal to european leaders that they show some concrete solidarity with respect to these people. both italy and malta have closed their ports to boats who've rescued refugees and migrants from the sea. their stance follows the hard line taken by many e.u.

countries on immigration. the netherlands and germany say they will take some of those on the ships but for now all these people can do is hope and pray that a message from the head of the roman catholic church will allow them to set foot on land paul trotter gian al jazeera. so i had for you on the program you. the spiritual leaders of the wild orthodox christians present a to create of the ukrainian church giving independence from russia and why most of the nigerian community living in london voted for the person to end the european union. welcome back to international weather forecast we have seen plenty of snow here across parts of central europe the good news is we're going to have one day break

of no snow across the area but we're going to be seeing some more as we go towards the tuesday and wednesday take a look the forecast map here on monday we're all of us in better conditions here across much of the area we will see a little active weather here across parts of the else but nothing like what we have seen this past weekend but as we go towards tuesday look at all the snow that is back on our forecast maps they were from the east across much of the central area and then behind this front we're talking about very windy conditions as well for many locations including poland as well as into germany down here towards the south another storm is going to be bringing quite a bit of snow across parts of turkey as well we were watching that storm and also some very heavy rain across the eastern med now speaking in the mediterranean we're going to be seeing still some very windy conditions across the northern and northeastern part of africa where the missing those brain shows across parts of coastal egypt as well alexandria you'll be seeing a rainy day but for cairo it will be cool at seventy degrees as your high there and then as we go towards tuesday mostly cloudy conditions along most of the coastal

regions up here towards algiers it's going to be a partly clay to do fourteen degrees and rebut clouds in the forecast for the temperature of sixteen. in a four part series a russian filmmaker travels across his homeland to discover what life is like under putin many russians view the somebody was a difficult job rather than an authoritarian leader with imperial ambitions and many critics of putin are equally critical of the west meeting with russians from across the political spectrum under a necromancer discovers a complex attitude towards that country's leader and his policies in search of putin's russia jazeera.

just a quick look at top stories now donald trump's national security advisor says the u.s. will only withdraw its troops from syria after isolates fully defeated and turkey promises to protect kurdish fighters in the country john bolton made the comments during a visit to israel. election officials in the democratic republic of congo say voters will have to wait another week for the preliminary results of last month's election one week after the election just over hoffa of the votes have been counted. and antigovernment protesters in sudan have tried to march to the presidential palace and hard to stop them with tear gas and stun grenades. now thousands of people have been displaced in east in myanmar off the violence there between an armed rebel group and security forces the hour can all me attacks police

and rock kind stay on friday killing thirteen offices is the same region where a military crackdown in two thousand and seventeen drive seven hundred thousand wrangham muslims across the border into bangladesh has more. parents piled their children and animals into boats fleeing fighting in rakhine state they cross the yo chung creek and build a makeshift camp away from the bullets there was heavy fighting between a buddhist rebel group and the security forces nearby on friday the u.n. estimates twenty five hundred people fled similar violence in december that number is now expected to be much higher. the rebel group is the our economy whose members say they are fighting for greater autonomy for kinds buddhist population. they posted this video to mark the night then of the three last year since november seventh crease their attacks on facebook they posted these photos of ammunition as

well as police and civilians captured in friday's race they were later released. ministry of information confirms the latest pre-dawn attack on four police outpost near the bangladeshi border the government responded this is a carefully planned premeditated attack to harm the lives and property of the people and to further the aggravate the instability in rakhine state it is learned that the security forces will take effective offensive actions to crush the terrorist attacks of the ark an army the fighting is bad news for the muslim or seven hundred thousand were driven from or kind stakes across the border into bangladesh during the military crackdown that began in twenty seven tane and system age of thousands were killed during the exodus the increase fighting now another reason why they cannot return. the military announced a four month cease fire against other rebel groups in north and east myanmar in december or kind state was excluded the arak an army says the military is using the

truce to double down and rakhine the source of almost embarrassment if you will that they would have been hit not only several times by the regime. related supposed to be related to. groups but now by an erstwhile sort of silent or latent arc an army that it's been waiting for its chance and so yes i would expect to see unfortunately a far heavier hand being brought to bear rakhine state than we've seen in recent years. so these people must fashion together the a future using bamboo and string and whatever their backs can bear a life of displacement and survival becoming the norm for those born in myanmar's rakhine stakes shelob ellis. u.s. president donald trump is meeting with white house advisers at the presidential retreat camp david to discuss the partial government shutdown eight hundred thousand workers haven't been paid for more than two weeks and millions of americans risk having their government cut trump has repeated his threat to declare

a national emergency and use the military to construct a wall without the approval of congress gabriel as on the reports from washington. as donald trump emerged from the white house on sunday he was a president as defiant as ever in his position over five billion for a border wall where the government remains shut down and then there's a possibility of even more extreme measures to get what he wants i may declare a national emergency dependent so what's going to happen over the next few days but i think we're going to have. some very serious so. one day they would say we have sad border security we don't have border security we're going to be crime ridden and it's going to get worse and worse. over the weekend between the white house and staff members of key congressional democrats you know agreement many parts of the government remain closed eight hundred thousand federal employees either per load

or working without pay if trump declares a national emergency along the southern border it would give him vast powers to do what he wants without congressional approval but even if he does this it's still unclear where he would find the money to build the border wall that he wants some of the suggested it could come out of the budget of the defense department but democrats say that would be a mistake in this case i think the president would be wide open to a court challenge saying where's the emergency you have to establish that in order to do this but beyond that this would be a terrible use of department of defense dollars that these republican strategist bradley blakeman says one of the main reasons trump was elected was his promise to build a wall so he can't back down you know a staring contest who's going to blink first and i think the president has the upper hand because he's made a fundamental promise democrats know it in the campaign he said read my lips in

effect. we need border security a wall. republicans call it a wall democrats call it border security it's the same thing. you're battling on words semantics so i think it's the question of who blinks first that's the question as the shutdown enters a third week who will compromise and most importantly when so that the government can finally reopen gabriels sandow al-jazeera washington. orthodox christians have been celebrating the separation of the ukrainian church from the russian branch of the way a decree granting its independence was handed over in the techies city of istanbul off to a mass to mount a feast at the bethany it comes at a time of heightened tension between ukraine and russia as well matheson our ports . war but hold on you the first the leader of the eastern orthodox church and a man at the center of what's being described as potentially one of the biggest

rifts in christianity in recent times. with his signature on saturday he officially split most of ukraine's orthodox churches from centuries of russian jurisdiction flow for thirty or more words on sunday during a service in the turkish city of istanbul to mark the orthodox feast day of a perfectly the document for the separation also known as the thomas was officially handed over to the leader of the no independent ukrainian orthodox churches. after darkness the light comes the old injustice is eliminated but justice is a power game and now the ukrainian daughter by god's will your care and mother church will become stronger. watching from the side petro poroshenko the ukrainian president his post for ukraine's orthodox church is to split from what he and others have described as russian influence and propaganda ukraine's churches have been under pressure to sever ties since the country became independent after the breakup of the soviet union in one thousand nine hundred one. and that pressure has

been getting stronger since russia annexed crimea in twenty fourteen ukraine impose . martial law in november saying it feared a full scale invasion after russia captured three of its vessels in the care of straight muslim us. and the toll most for us is actually another act of proclaiming ukraine's independence it will complete the assertion of independence of the ukrainian state strengthen religious freedom and enter confessional peace it will strengthen the rights and freedoms of citizens. of. the split has been largely boycotted by ukraine's largest orthodox church which remains loyal to russia moscow and the russian branch of the church have also cut ties with istanbul which is regarded as the center of the eastern orthodox faith. for. only a few days into a new year ukraine's orthodox churches begin a newly independent and some feel uncertain future rob matheson odyssey

the u.k. prime minister to resign may has admitted the nation will be in uncharted territory if had a deal to leave the european union is rejected by parliament is that we start debating a brecht's it deal next week and of the vote from december parliament in the public remain deeply divided over leaving the e.u. but lawrence lee reports from london one unexpected community is still firmly behind bricks it. 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 and does it have an arguer right to leave iraq in after we go to the queen chainman naturalized in mad nationality to the community which is a lot of money but 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 whole in pensacola i feel cheated i feel jealous about the average africa. african british gladly work for breakfast because i know not because i've 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 there in nigeria special of around ideas are going to talk more than i do believe there are so more from was there have been a lot of you know. 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 in london carried white supremacist flags and hold openly racist opinions the nigerians in london this but they did it

wasn't 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 much 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 brics it is about emotion and not facts the idea of a reputed british commonwealth has many supporters here. al-jazeera in. the seventy sixth annual golden globe awards will be taking place in beverly hills in the coming hour as. a star is

born featuring bradley cooper and lady gaga is expected to take home several of ward's a political comedy vice about us vice president dick cheney got the most nominations six and the film became ian rhapsody which chronicles the rise of the band painter has two nominations and leading the way in the television category. nation of gianni versace and the thriller. now after weeks of speculation malaysia's king has abdicated from the throne the first time it's happened in the nation's history king mohammed the fifth came to power in december two thousand and sixteen but took a leave of absence for medical reasons two months ago when he's reported to have married a former russian beauty queen in moscow malaysia has a unique system where the king is picked from the heads of nine states and each of them serves a fixed five year term forty seven couples in china have braved the freezing cold

take part in the largest ever mass wedding at the harbin ice festival the happy couples had to wear special down coats over best suits and wedding dresses but it didn't seem to stop them in showing a big day in temperatures dropping to almost minus twenty degrees far too cold but this is the thirty fifth edition of the annual ice festival in the northeastern city of harbin where the spectacular ice sculptures draw tourists from all over the world. just a quick recap of the top stories this hour now donald trump's national security advisor is saying that u.s. withdrawal from syria is conditional on turkey assuring the safety of america's kurdish allies john bolton says there's still no timetable for the pullout but the u.s. also wants to ensure the last remnants of isolate defeated sixty thousand kurdish and all the syrian fighters help the u.s.

push eisel out from a stronghold in eastern syria. we're going to be discussing the president's decision to withdraw the to do so from northeast syria in a way that make sure that isis is defeated is not able to. revive itself and become a threat again and make sure that the. defense of israel and their friends in the region is absolutely assured. in all the headlines election officials in the democratic republic of congo say voters will have to wait another week for the preliminary results of last month's election people in the d.l.c. voted last week to choose a successor to president joseph kabila and the results were expected to be declared on sunday but only fifty three percent of the votes have been counted in saddam police there of use tear gas and stun grenades to stop thousands of anti-government protesters reaching the presidential palace is the latest in a series of demonstrations against president tomorrow bashir that began on december

nineteenth anger over rising food prices and government corruption as led to calls for al bashir to step down at least nineteen people have died since the unless started and some rights groups are actually pushing that figure much higher at least thirty people have died in afghanistan after flooding triggered a landslide in an illegal gold mine rescue is a searching for survivors in northeastern by the province police say around fifty people were digging for gold when they were caught in the flash flood and thousands of people have been displaced in east in myanmar off the violence between a buddhist rebel group and security forces thirteen police officers died when an armed group called the ark an army attacked police in rack on friday you're up to date with all of our top stories coming up acquittals president tonight in marina tells us about the challenges facing his country that's in talk to al jazeera.

when we see. ecuador like other latin american countries faces many challenges including poverty migration and corruption ecuadorians trusted lenin merino to be the man who would meet those challenges and make their country a better place he became president in twenty seventeen after rafael korea had governed for ten years korea along with chavez in venezuela and abel morales in bolivia was a self declared revolutionary aiming to spread a populist rhetoric in the continent and beyond but he was accused of wealth or.