it was one of the biggest bank robberies of modern times with over eighty million dollars stolen from bangladesh's central bank when east investigates how cyber hackers infiltrated the global banking system. on al-jazeera. seeking to reassure its allies the u.s. says it won't withdraw troops from syria until i saw is defeated. i'm richelle carey this is al jazeera live from town hall so coming up place in sudan fire tear gas and stun grenades as protests against president omar al bashir show no sign of ending. you leave a little over the bitter sick sweet christmas for the russian

orthodox church is a face of its biggest split and for centuries. this is bearing sound of the desert has given a lifeline thanks to the internet. national security adviser says u.s. troops won't leave syria until i solace to feed it and the region john bolton was speaking in israel where there's been concern over president tunneled from so propped announcement and the summer that american forces are to pull out bolton says there is no timetable for the withdrawal which was initially expected to take weeks at a press conference with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu he also said he doesn't want turkey to take military action against kurdish fighters in syria who've been backed by u.s. forces. were 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 it 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 so if he decorous more from. not much concrete came out of that press conference of course the two countries reiterating the incredible support for each other john bolton saying that the troop withdrawal would happen but not without ensuring that israel's offensive israel's security was maintained this is of course going to be top of the agenda israel's main concerns inside syria is the presence of iranian backed militias is the presence of hezbollah and any potential weapons that can reach the group and can threaten israel security now these are the prime minister will be taking john

bolton up to the occupied golan heights. and of course will be keen to show him the operation that israel's been undertaking there against tunnels that were dug by hezbollah also a message there in that press conference calling on the international community saying it was time for them to recognize the golden heights of course that israel occupied after the one nine hundred sixty seven war so syria and iran the threat of iran will be top of the agenda of course bolton looking to reassure israel that the troop withdrawal is not going to be a threat to israel's security of course the timing of that now very much up in the air i think no one really knows exactly how and when that is going to happen john h. jones is a u.s. foreign policy expert and a former senior congressional advisor he says bolton is trying to reassure allies concerned by trump's foreign policy. the number one problem is the trump policy of

carrying out foreign policy your tweet has real world consequences and the impulsive decision to pull troops out of syria has started our allies in the region and even led to the resignation of the us defense secretary so i'm sure a ambassador bolton is there an attempt to assure partners in the region that even though this announcement was announced in a rather cavalier way. it is the plan in the attention of the administration to not carry out this withdrawal in the same way it was announced and the hope i would imagine from ambassador bolton the point is to try to reduce the tremendous level of concern in the region which is totally understandable i believe if you just look at the past two years there are those in israel who. by and large support trumps decision to switch the u.s. embassy or to move the u.s.

embassy to jerusalem there are many in israel who support president support. the u.s. defense cooperation there in the u.s. defense relationship however i would imagine that there are those in israel who are growing tired of what seems to be a administration that is viewed as very erratic and at times in polls of democrats in the u.s. are warning donald trump that help is legal consequences if he tries to declare a national emergency in order to build a wall on the border of mexico chavez threaten the move of congress doesn't apply to five point six billion dollars to build it and pass our funding aside to a partial government shutdown like his and its third week having eight hundred thousand government workers without pay. i can relate and i'm sure that the people that are on the receiving end will make it just that they always do and they

will make it just as people understand exactly what's going on but many of those people that won't be receiving a paycheck many of those people agree one hundred protests with what i'm doing to judge good and tomorrow and it could also go on for a long time it depends is really dependent on the democrat. every elizondo has more from washington d.c. . talks continue here in washington trying to break this stalemate on this government shutdown but there is no indication that they need any agreement will be reached before the weekend is over both sides are digging in president donald trump still demanding that he gets more than five billion dollars to build the border wall democrats saying they haven't changed their position they are saying they'll give the president some money less than five billion but not for the border wall just for general border security so this is where things stand at this point

president donald trump himself even said he does not expect the talks late sunday to lead to any sort of agreement at all and he is still threatening to declare a national emergency that would enable him powers to perhaps go around the congress get other money to build the wall in itself but there are legal experts that say even if he was to declare a national emergency on the border many people say. it's unclear if that even would give him the money that he would need to move forward so it is really a stalemate here in washington with no in sight to this government shutdown places here dan have use tear gas and stun grenades to stop anti-government protestors from reaching the presidential palace it's the latest thing continuing demonstrations against president omar al bashir which began almost three weeks ago anger over rising food prices and government corruption have calls for bashir to

step down after nearly thirty years in power at least nineteen people have died since the unrest started with some rights groups putting that figure much higher. in the capital khartoum. anti-government protests are in its third week once again you've seen people marching out of new streets demonstrating against the rule of president almost bashir they saying that they want president obama to shoot 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 on the streets and so the president gives in to their demands now we've seen people being separated from the crowd in 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 have the police have been using tear gas and live in munitions to disperse protesters foreign governments have said that the police are using excessive force against protesters who are on armed making their demands known to the government and to the world now opposition figures are 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 but for testing 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 me saying more and more people have been killed since then it's not clear yet how if people have died but we do know is that eleven munition and tear gas has been used to disperse protesters and that people have been arrested demonstrations 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 as president donald trump says he's hopeful a new round of negotiations with china bring an end to the trade war between the

two nations talks are to be held in beijing on monday they come during a ninety day truce on imposing new tariffs which expire in march it all started early last year when washington impose lie. based on a number of chinese products arguing the u.s. was getting a bad deal azing retaliated leading to a serious have to protest terrified that south to spark volatility on global markets as uncertainty mounts over what will happen next between the world's two largest economies are a scot as a senior international khana messed up the economy policy and well thanks his new talks will tackle the issues which set off the trade war in the first place well i think the priority of mr lay hisor is the trade representative who will be leading the negotiations in china is to obtain a relief on the technology front he wants to stop time from stealing technology from us companies he wants to enforce u.s. copyrights and patents and he wants to limit china's investments in the high tech

industries of the future i think his chances of ringing about that kind of change in a chinese economy are so very slight so we do have leverage on the trade side but it's very difficult if we're still in a two open is market if china does not want to there are a large powerful country they're used to controlling what goes on within their borders u.s. exports to china are down trade deficit with china is up so it's actually backfired it's been bad for the domestic economy the deficit in china is growing faster than into this of the world as a whole i think also this kind of uncertainty has certainly contributed to the downfall in the stock market i think as a great concern to the president he's put great value in the rise in the market since he was elected and we see a tremendous decline in value over twenty percent now i think just in the last three months and he's very much i think concerned about that and certainly this as

well as the chaos in washington contributes to the point in the market in the last few months. so hat on al-jazeera thousands are forced from their homes as fighting intensifies between rebels and demand more army and rakhine state plus. by the spend discord in bethlehem during celebrations for orthodox christmas. from cool brisk knows in few weeks. to the warm tranquil waters of southeast asia. again welcome back to international weather forecast well over the next few days the amount of rain and moisture pushing into parts of china is really going to be on the increase for us well i want to take you a look over here towards the west and show you what's going to be happening we are picking up some residual moisture from our old tropical storm that was out here in

the bay of bengal you can see the rain starts to push into that southwestern parts of china as we go towards tuesday it really begins to expand in these areas we could be see anywhere between one hundred ten to one hundred seventy five millimeters of rain over the next few days so we'll be watching that very carefully down towards hong kong it is going to be a partly cloudy day with a temperature there of about twenty two degrees while not looking too bad over here towards the philippines not a lot of clouds on the satellite image and that's really going to reflect what we see here on our forecast map as we go towards monday manila partly cloudy conditions few of twenty nine degrees over towards bangkok still a few rain showers in your forecast at thirty three but conditions get a little better by the time we get towards tuesday with the times there of about thirty one degrees and then very quickly over towards india looking quite nice across much of the subcontinent maybe a few clouds of here towards the north but take your forecast map we are looking at some dry conditions down towards tonight with a temperature of twenty eight and hyderabad at twenty nine degrees. there with

sponsored by cats on release. a lot again of some of the control don't know really what it's tremendous for the country so i think you know he was determined to go on could you do salute the going to school to avenge. eighty eighty is east smashes the frankish on the couch is the king of jerusalem he seizes the truth crawls and this is the great military victory the crusades an arab perspective that was sold three unification of this time on a just. watching now to syria let's take

a look at the top stories right now donald trump's national security adviser says u.s. troops won't leave syria until i saw is defeated in the region john bolton was speaking in israel where there's been concern about president trump's abrupt announcement and the summer about a troop pullout. place in sudan a fire tear gas and stun grenades to stop protesters from marching towards the presidential palace in khartoum. about rising food prices and government corruption the protests have been going on for almost three weeks. democrats in the u.s. are warning donald trump that he'll face legal challenges if he tries to declare a national emergency in order to build his mexico border wall truck threaten to move the congress doesn't approve five point six billion dollars to build it and passes led to a partial government shutdown. greek orthodox christians are celebrating christmas at the church of the nativity in bethlehem in the occupied west bank latin and eastern orthodox pilgrims hold their christmas midnight mass at the church. acetic

they built over a crowd over jesus was born. christians in palestine were marred by demonstrations and people boycott of the visit of the orthodox patriarch entrance into bethlehem or testers are angry that has been selling church land to israelis or faucet was at the protests in the occupied west bank. this is a familiar pilgrimage for the orthodox patriarch of jerusalem he comes here to bethlehem every year for the orthodox christmas to mark christ's birth at the church of the holy it's a pity and usually he would come here on foot proceeded by marching bands or scouts he would be met by officials from the bethlehem and surrounding governments. manger square would usually be thronged with people to welcome him but this year it's very different there is a group within the orthodox community who want this visit boycotted on political grounds because of its policy of selling church lands which regularly find their

way into israeli jewish hands this year even asperities both of bethlehem and the surrounding cities have decided to join not boycott actually with our position themis abilities we are not going the buds in will coming but there is another because. actually there are there is documents says that his selling. their lands on the pro but it is of the orthodox but real whereas in most years main just dry would be occupied by people welcoming and celebrating christmas with the patriarch here we see a small group of protesters he's managed to get their way into the square past what has been extremely heavy security around the square in rule the surrounding streets along which the patriarch i was his was meant to come and progress to the church of the holy city we've been speaking to members of the orthodox community here while

some. very much support the boycott to say he is not welcome investment and others feel that politics should be kept separate from a religious festival such as this right against selling glance at the who will rule . but this is not the day this is the day of christmas this is the day of celebrations we have three hundred sixty four days we can the opposite we can put us three can do many things was a protest as had been chanting traitor in the direction of the patriarch elsewhere in manger square there are people beating drums and dancing celebrating with him this christmas day the division that that man was talking about between politics and religion doesn't really appear to be attaining here today the politics of the policies of the orthodox church in israel are very much opposed by many here in the occupied west bank and even on this holy day it is really affecting how it is being

celebrated the christian orthodox church i think crane has formally split from its religious leadership and russia and ukraine granting its end dependence once handed over to the turkish city of istanbul and as a homage and share reports the secession underscores the deepening tensions between moscow and kiev. for almost four thousand of 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 boresight emotive on sunday during a service in the turkish city of istanbul to mark the orthodox feast day of the pippen the the document for the separation also known as the thomas was officially handed over to the leader of the now independent ukrainian orthodox churches is nobody watching from the side petro poroshenko the ukrainian. president he's pushed

for ukraine's orthodox churches 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 ninety one. and that pressure has been getting stronger since russia annexed crimea in two thousand and fourteen ukraine imposed martial law in november saying it feared a full scale invasion after russia captured three of its vessels in the current strait a third muslim the us says if a fish the ship 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. in moscow political analysts say this is as much about politics as it is about religion and the impact of a church split the on religious bit on the bus and the crane is working you know

for both the positions of moscow but adequate. in ukraine and. the long way around the region depend on so getting on orthodoxy and cranium states from russian influence in general of the officer to the split has been largely boycotted by ukraine's largest orthodox church which remains loyal to russia oh moscow in the russian branch of the church have also cut ties with istanbul which is regarded as the center of the eastern orthodox faith it's unclear how all this will ultimately play out but for many in ukraine the creation of an orthodox church independent from moscow is a momentous step toward ukraine's political independence from russia. moscow. thousands of people have been displaced and me and maher after violence between a buddhist rebel group and security forces there are an army attacked police post on friday and rakhine state thirteen officers were killed and rest as in the same

area where a military crackdown in two thousand and seventeen drove seven hundred thousand are ahead to enter bangladesh charlotte reports. parents pile 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 are a con army whose members say they are fighting for greater autonomy for kind's buddhist population. they posted this video to mock the night then of the street 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 right

they were later released. ministry of information confirms the latest pre-dawn attack on full 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 seven hundred thousand were driven from or kind stacks 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. four month cease fire against other rebel groups in north and east myanmar in december but were kind state was excluded the arak an army says the military is using the troops 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 supposedly related armed groups but now by erstwhile sort of silent or latent arc an army that has 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 their 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 as were kind stakes shelob ellis. as prime minister has warned her critics they're putting democracy at risk if they can't unite behind her back said he all m.p.'s are due to vote on teresa mayes withdrawal agreement next week speaking on the b.b.c.'s andrew marr show ne said backing her deal was the only way to honor the referendum result and protect the economy election officials and democratic

republic of congo same voters will have to wait another week for the preliminary results of the presidential election initial outcome of last week's vote to choose a successor for president joseph kabila was due on sunday but early half of the votes remain uncounted arma toss reports i'm conscious of. the head of the electoral commission. says he would not be rushed into making an announcement preliminary results were meant to be declared on sunday instead the people at the d c were told to wait a few more days. with the least of provisional results want to happen today because the coalition of exult is still going on across the continent it's a huge challenge but we are working very hard to result as soon as possible. the election campaign was occasionally marred by violence in some areas on polling day several voters complained of logistical problems saying some of the voting machines

which would be nice for the first time didn't work some congolese were unable to. break and conflict in parts of the country. the streets of. people wait for the results consistent elections in two thousand and six and two thousand and eleven little violent street protests election officials say they have counted just over fifty percent of the votes they say the process is slow and asking people to remain calm by law only the electoral commission can announce results supporters of emanuel dari president joseph kabila the preferred candidate say they are confident he has won we are not giving a result of the presidential election but according to about one million. machines that we have. in. the country we can say that we are claiming victory all for. shirley for election the government has cut internet and s.m.s.

services saying it's to stop fake results circulating on social media if the results aren't disputed it really congo's first democratic transfer of power since independence nobody wants violence. this is a historical time for the congo. a peaceful transition of power never happen in this country everybody's really for the moment they receive. a peaceful transition and could give legitimacy to the administration of the next president whoever that's going to be. tradition is being kept alive in. technology and involves the use of. women. on the outskirts of the capital. it is an invitation no man can refuse.

to read a region of mauritania 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 men gives me joy i give them rhythm and the tying 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 downs that

goes with. so how do we. how do we do it. it's called. the feel good song one that's played during weddings it's 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 united states so. i'm afraid that if we stop using the men we favor other instruments they now way of life is great and storyteller will also disappear and that's what's at stake it's to save our culture. but dean cannot disappear for this unmistakable this is just the sound of an instrument. is the voice of the desert. he said the headlines right now on al-jazeera national security adviser says u.s. troops won't leave syria until i soul is defeated in the region john bolton was speaking in israel where there's been concern over president. about troop

withdrawal. we're going to be discussing the president's decision 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 to make sure that the. defense of israel and our other friends in the region is absolutely assured place in sudan a fired tear gas and stun grenades to stop protesters are marching towards the presidential palace in khartoum people are angry about rising food prices devalued currency and government corruption the protests have been going on for almost three weeks now. democrats in the u.s. are warning president donald trump will face legal challenges if he tries to declare a national emergency in order to build us mexico border wall threaten to make that move if congress doesn't approve five point six billion dollars to build it impasse

over funding is led to a partial government shutdown which is in its third week a delegation of u.s. officials has arrived in china for talks aimed at resolving a trade war between the two nations as president is optimistic about the new round of negotiations those sides agreed to a ninety day trips on imposing new tariffs which will expire in march. ukraine's orthodox christian church has officially split from its leadership in russia a move that has angered moscow a decree granting the ukrainian orthodox church separation from russia was handed over and the turkish city of istanbul they were all greek orthodox christians had been celebrating christmas at the church of the nativity in bethlehem in the occupied west bank in eastern orthodox pilgrims hold their christmas midnight mass at that church place of worship is said to be built over a crowd where christians believe jesus was born. as are the headlines keep it on al-jazeera much more news to come and cite story as that next.

deadlock in the u.s. says the president threatens years of government shutdown a few doesn't get money for his border wall but is the face off about a wall over the presidency and how's that changing american politics this is inside story. hello and welcome to the show i'm sammy's a bill that wall was a regular slogan from.