the root drivers and riders through the peruvian desert and this year there's a little restaurant in the way of mountains mud or trucks and a sanchez reports. a last look at the vehicles and their drivers the toughest race in the world is gone with five hundred forty one competitors and three hundred thirty four vehicles. traditionally held in northern africa this year the latin american country of peru is the venue for the forty one year old rally it's since ninth dakar he says he's made it to the finish line nearly every time now he says he'll need to be very focused on the p.c. it will be a very difficult even though it's a few a day i think it will be very tough and several of us already know peru and we already know how difficult it is among the competitors one hundred thirty five rookies who don't know what's it like to racing one of them dutch pilot was sleep it and says he's trained for two years we go from the motor cross writing is the

writing you know you have to learn every geisha and writing together and that's a big a big thing because you're writing. first for navigation. this one country rally will be special the largest group of women seventeen are racing in various categories and for the first time a young man with down syndrome drone will compete next to his father all the way from all the particularly challenging those pilots will fail in the first. apparel. nearly three thousand people will support a diverse mix of vehicles along the way others will be their own mechanics because it is such a hard braley for many competitors the objective is not to win but to reach the finish line. we have to end. march the drivers and wish them well.

many peruvians are thrilled the five thousand kilometer race begins and ends in lima with. good ways by the way could be held anywhere but having the race improve is wonderful because we have culture tradition and history to show the world. although many critics say the dakar ruins the cultural heritage for others the rally is an inspiration. and for crew vians a chance to showcase what their country has to offer the innocent just want to see that. the charges have advanced to the n.f.l. divisional playoffs they beat the baltimore ravens twenty three to seven saying in this wild card game their loss was walker again it's good to keep it going we know we're a tough task next week because. of this team this year the way we want we wanted so many different ways pretty defensively office boy come from a microphone got the buzzer. so many different ways and there's

a collective team went to a great opponent and defending super bowl champions the philadelphia eagles just made it through against the chicago bears the bears missed a last minute field goal attempt as the game finished sixteen fifteen to the polls . it was a crazy game and there's a tremendous team. you know played here this is a crazy place to play and you know our difference here i mean jeff you know i really hear the first half tears you know you should hear him afterwards i stream to think it picks and there you know the astros really just still play the play that's just a few games now ok that is why sport is looking for now more lights and that's all for this hour superhero less of fraud and that's up next. in this year new immigration laws and projects funded by european governments have

seen a rapid decline in the migrant transport trade people in power travels to agadez to explore the realities faced by the drivers left out of pocket and the migrants who are choosing to return home who would like to go back to the country where they're from you know just to get more he's going back to what i want to build. europe migration on a. colleague nothing much is saying has now been held in pretrial detention for two years what is his crime. why hasn't he been tried yet why hasn't justice been applied in this case is he detained because he's a journalist as journalism become a crime have moles become a tool to silence weiss's of truth we will continue our news coverage with professionalism and impartiality our work will remain credible and accurate but journalism is not a crime incarcerating journalists is not acceptable we demand the immediate release

of all colleague mama to same and all journalists detained in a gyptian jails free mahmoud's and all his colleagues we stand for press freedom. headlines warn the streets of melbourne australia are by. under threat by game. but how real the displays. when used investigates. we understand the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world so no matter how you take it al-jazeera will bring you the news and current affairs that matter to al-jazeera.

north korea's leader makes his fourth visit to china at the end of president xi jinping. and welcome to our. headquarters and. also ahead turkey's president tells the u.s. that the withdrawal of its troops from syria must be carefully planned and with the right. the former chairman of nisanit makes his full first court appearance since his arrest for financial misconduct and denies any wrongdoing and the u.s. president refuses to back down from his demand for a controversial border wall instead choosing to make his case before the nation.

chinese state media have confirmed that north korea's leader kim jong un is the sit in beijing where he'll meet with president xi jinping will china as pyongyang's main diplomatic and economic ally the trip comes as can seeks to continue improving relations with south korea ahead of an expected visit to seoul well let's get more on this now we're joined by correspondent vehicle part and she's following the story from hong kong as usual via the arrival shrouded in secrecy not announced until kim is actually in china we know it's his full for the past year so what are we expecting from this one. that's right elizabeth as you said this is his fourth visit and what's interesting about his visits over the past year is that they've either preceded or occurred off their major diplomatic moves with either kim meeting tromp or are committing to a south korean president so this time it seems like he wants to involve ping and china in that process it's worth remembering that china is north korea's biggest

benefactor and the biggest ally and their relations have been strained over the past couple of years with kim jong un not necessarily responding to beijing or beijing's. beijing's requests in the way that ping would have liked to so according to the korean state news agency or the north korean state news agency beijing had invited kim jong un to beijing for these talks and it seems like kim jong un wants to include china now in its diplomatic offensive last year we saw north korea open up in an unprecedented way this year kim as you said in this new year's speech had extended yet another all of branch or a step towards peace two words the united states saying that they're willing to continue with talks they're willing to denuclearize nuclearize watts with conditions. interesting that before these. visits to china and the six years since

kim jong un had been in power there were no visits as a whole and he is saying the right things about involving china in any talks on denuclearize ation so what volcker is china looking to play here. well china of course wants to be front and center with any moves between north korea and the us china has always been north korea's international face has always represented or been key to any negotiations with north korea so being left out in the cold last year was definitely something that frustrated china as being rather can join him coming to see this year while negotiations are in place between another set of talks between the u.s. and north korea according to trump they are negotiating over a location for

a second set of talks there also you know trump also said in are off to kim jong il and gave his new year's speech saying he got a great letter from kim kim is also using his leverage here at this point which is why analysts say they think that kim is now using the fact that relations between the u.s. and china are strained particularly if they are in the midst of a strained trade war to get as much as north korea could possibly get out of these talks also so involving china would be a key strategic move for north korea it's also worth noting noting that it's kim jong un's birthday today so going to china would in a way be paying a certain amount of respect to beijing or at the view thank you very much for that for now that vehicle live in hong kong thank you. unfolded chang is an asia analyst and he says beijing is trying to assess its dominance and may be sending a message to trump. it looks like the chinese just summoned kim jong un to beijing

once again you know this is really getting a little bit monotonous now kiran is going to chinese soil floor times in a row so you're getting is not going to north korea at all that's a bridge or a protocol you know i don't think people anymore believe that you know the relations between china and north korea are poor maybe the north koreans don't like the chinese but it's every time the chinese pull the string the north korean leader comes running and i think that's a real indication about we are a power lies in this relationship what it's been doing is supplying the north koreans were crucial equipment in technologies for their ballistic missiles a nuclear weapons program and have generally i think given the current north koreans sort of encouragement not to deal in good faith with the international community. you know i think that essentially what's going on here if you just really speculate is that so you can pretty realizes that he's run out of ammunition in connection with trade friction with the united states and he's now dangling the

prospect of help on north korea in front of president trump to try to get a trade advantage i don't the president doesn't fall for it because if the chinese want to help they would have done that in two thousand and seventeen or two thousand and eighteen it's a little bit late for this let's move on to other news now until he's president tried to get them on his praise donald trump decision to withdraw u.s. troops from syria boston an opinion piece in the new york times at the once of the pullout must be done carefully he says only took it can provide the latest ship in the region to create stability there are fears that the u.s. pullout will pave the way for attention sault against american aligned kurdish fighters in northern syria how do you men leverage as a former u.s. diplomat and she says at the onset opinion pace is directed at his american counterpart. i think he's speaking to president donald trump and he needs to do so because the national security adviser john bolton who has been in israel is now

going to turkey and we know that national security adviser bolton has a very different view of turkey of syria of israel than then president urged on and even president trump so early on i think is trying to establish or continue to build on his direct channel to president trump through his phone calls through an op ed in the new york times newspaper that donald trump reads i think his his audience is the one and only president turn up i think whatever to one is trying to do and i think with the help of some some very skillful advisors who understand the american policy dynamic and understand washington quite well i think what erdogan is trying to do is to present turkey as the credible partner for the united states in syria and more broadly in the middle east that the united states may have wanted to work more closely with russia when trump was first elected but the u.s. policy toward russia has all but collapsed under the weight of the domestic

investigations here and that. cannot work with with iran because he's boxed himself in so much with iran the other key player in syria and so really turkey is the only player in turkey i think under present president to want is trying to present itself as credible as a player that the united states can work with as a major and nato ally as an important country and a country that trump can work with. japan now with a former chairman of the company missed and has appeared in question tokyo ways to his innocence carlos colon is accused of underreporting and sad i mean by millions of dollars of a several kid is what she denies he's been in detention since november and was fired by the board of the said let's go to our correspondent role but five now he's outside the courthouse in tokyo it was his first opportunity to put his k. . forward rob so what did he have to say. that's right elizabeth

along the way to the vans were talking to the court answering for the first time giving his side of the story and saying he's completely innocent of these allegations groundless he says he has said he's always done business legally and fairly and is not responsible for any financial damages to the company of which until recently he was chairman it's claimed that he transferred personal losses to the company also that he underestimated for several years his earnings from this and amounting to some tens of billions of dollars these are not small allegations further claimed that he misused company finances to finance homes in rio de janeiro and beirut he has been a hearing in this quarter his lawyer has been arguing for his bail he has been and continuous detention for a couple of months it is claimed by the executive that he has dedicated the past

two decades of his life to turning around the fortunes of this and that he does not deserve to be in detention but the court elizabeth has also been hearing that given his the international nature of this case and the international nature of aggression in itself he has nationalities in other countries he is a flight risk and also potentially could destroy potential evidence if he is released so we are still waiting to see the outcome of that if his detention will continue or whether he gets bail weekend a lot of other people rob because there's huge interest in this case guy was a prominent businessman of course not just and japan but as you mentioned internationally as they've been any fallout from his detention in japan or of athene. there are all sorts of implications from this and all sorts of intrigue swirling around this case he was thought to be the architect behind a merger between this and the french carmaker rhino of course he turned around the

fortunes of both companies it's thought that could have been some boardroom intrigue possibly the knives were out it may sound that they were resisting this merger there is the potential of implications for the diplomatic relationship between france and japan given the fact that they could be fallout for this planned merger a proposed merger between the two companies but also i think it also goes to the heart of the japanese business culture especially here in japan it has sparked a lot of debate japanese companies as we know are renowned for being hierarchical for having board rooms filled with with middle aged man used to making decisions that aren't questions the business is not transparent enough it's something that has long been a criticism of business here is something going to be the prime minister wants to change and according to many critics of japanese business this is yet again another

example of that kind of nontransparent culture elizabeth thank you very much for that that is probably all the latest live in tokyo thank you. but u.s. president will visit the mexican border on thursday in an attempt to pressure democratic opponents and congress to end the partial government shutdown but before heading south donald trump for the drest the nation to make his case for a controversial war he wants more than five billion dollars to build it but the democrats agreeing to that the dispute over the funding has led to a posh government shutdown which has now lasted seventeen days. every time president trump throws a tantrum and demands he get his way unless the government will be shut down. it will create disaster a little courage his worst instincts which are bad enough now in march we have the debt ceiling coming up people we you know people go along with this.

you know nasty way of governing imagine what will happen when the debt ceiling occurs imagine what will happen when the march budget or curse the government will unravel further than it has still ahead burlington the pressure at the pump in mexico. favoritism short supply in several states and grayson's government chooses crowdfunding to keep its navy a flood. hello again it's good to have you back when you're cross united states are watching one system make its way towards the eastern seaboard this is the clouds right here the system is moving quite quickly most.