a cut thirty american coordination of the annual coordination meeting between secretary powell and the qatari foreign minister so they the ducks are lined up if you will is there american leverage is that american will to see this through that's the question what about the american well when it comes to sort of be the politics of the region because what we see now is the trumpet minutes to trump perhaps and suffers the spots to mend my pompei owen and bolton it to this region what do you see their main missions are right now and are they going to achieve them i think in terms of. their national security adviser john bolton his mission is damage control because trump president from said one thing then his lieutenant says another thing and whatever he said in the beginning might of. might have sounded very good. and even the new york times piece yes they say praising the present time for his decision to withdraw forces from syria but certainly this is

not bold well neither in washington security establishment nor in tel aviv for that matter or jordan or riyadh or other places especially after trump said we would draw the troops and the iran can do whatever it wants to syria well that's not american foreign policy certainly not well thought through statement according to the john bolton's one players of the world so i think they're probably talked into some kind of a new narrative that says we might withdraw our forces militarily but we will remain engaged in the reason politically hence john bolton came to deliver a message to the turkish president saying you can't do anything another in syria without core do you think first with the americans something that sounded very insulting to the turkish president who said look i'm dealing with the american president not with his lieutenants but as you said from istanbul and the turks are correct they said you know why don't you folks in washington agree amongst yourself . and then come and tell us what is it that you really want and i would see i would

add something to that not only. that the top administration needs to get among themselves i think companies to agree with trump because in the for the one day he says we're going to withdraw or let the wrong do whatever it does and then he tweets just the day before yesterday saying we're going to take our time it's going to be poor don't we're not going to withdraw so quickly from syria and so on so forth so there isn't a clear strategy a policy from washington in fact the people in the region from the gulf to turkey are dumbstruck by zigzag by the by the flip flopping comment from washington there is no clear american structure in the region and whatever it has accomplished it's been dismantled and a lot of it counterproductive ok mom ashara thank you plenty more ahead on the al-jazeera news hour including.

demanding a living wage in nigeria unions threaten and nationwide strike making do in makeshift camps the plight of syrian refugees living in lebanon on during winter. and when the going gets tough competitors face a stern mental and physical task of this year's dakar rally later we'll explain in sports. but first the north korean leader kim jong un is in china for his fourth visit within a year the trip is at the invitation of the chinese president xi jinping south korea hopes the meeting will help efforts for peace as the vehicle paula reports from hong kong. kim jong un his wife and senior officials boarding his customary armor train to beijing this video was released by the north korean state news agency in beijing news outlets were announcing the visit of the north korean leader an unusual move for both sides which usually keep their meeting shrouded in secrecy

. this time though beijing wants to show washington its leverage with north korea as china and the us tussle in a trade war recent years spent with this drug administration the relationship with china has really got very sour and moreover as the as the trouble of a stray ship got a ramped up its north korea contacts they did so without any effort really to bring china and china as a fairly substantial country with one point four billion people and i think they really don't want to be ignored so i think this is china's effort to try to be a part of this process and the key question of course is what is their message to the north koreans and for north korea having its biggest ally in benefactor by its side as can john and prepares for another summit with the u.s. president donald trump is expected to put young man in a stronger negotiating position kim jong un's previous three trips all occurred before are off to holding meetings with the u.s.

or south korean presidents many see this trip as an opportunity to engage china as north korea sets out its diplomatic strategy for the coming year twenty eighteen was a momentous year for north korean diplomacy in june for the first time in its history its leader met with the u.s. president following that trump kim summit in singapore north and south korean relations improved with the two sides of the peninsula working to improve communication sent to sillett east soul has welcomed the latest meeting in beijing congealing you and we hope that conjunctions visit to china contributes to complete denuclearized sation and you stop and last in peace on the korean peninsula there has been little progress since the us north korea summit in june pyongyang says it has made concessions with regards to its nuclear program but washington says it needs to see more concrete action. many are now watching closely to see whether china will have any influence in pushing the diplomatic process forward if you go

palin are just there hong kong where the latest bid for peace talks to end the afghan war has failed as the taliban refused to meet with u.s. representatives for years all parties including the kabul government have tried to meet for reconciliation but to no avail. explains taliban leaders canceled a meeting with the u.s. officials only a few hours after telling the media they were willing to hold face to face talks in qatar in the coming days and the reason is differences over inviting the afghan government delegation to join the talks a few days ago the taliban rejected an offer to meet afghan government representatives in saudi arabia preferring instant to hold talks with the u.s. special envoy. to the united states in taleban both have some

cards taliban also try to play chess board in politics they don't want to open up. they want to give a little take a lot. the afghan government says it's ready to me the taliban anytime anywhere but for the talks to succeed afghanistan needs help from neighboring pakistan the u.s. has repeatedly accused islamabad of providing safe haven for taliban leaders accusations dismissed by the pakistani government pakistan being the immediate neighborhood and a star is interested that any development in afghanistan leads to peace and stability of the region got to be efforts and a beard towards a political settlement in a fantasy and the drawl of u.s. troops should be part of a peace process we did to ensure that it is nor bar vacuum in a fantasy. despite huge international aid and

a military campaign led by the us war is far from over and the taliban is far from defeated reports of the trump administration might be withdrawing troops in the coming months triggered panic among afghan officials but the u.s. isn't the sole player in the region the russians invited the taliban and members of the kabul based afghan peace council for talks last year saudi arabia and the u.a.e. took part in the last round of talks in december. iran has also been active over the last two years building bridges with the taliban and the government iran says its goal is to ensure an afghan led peace deal. with the talks gained momentum last year but it's unclear if all the parties are willing to make concessions and they are we on a unity government. the un rights groups are criticizing india for the

importing row hinder asylum seekers to man maher where the muslim minority has been persecuted amnesty intern. national has accused the government of disrespecting international law ever hinge a family of five was expelled last week the second deportation in the past few months and diaz hindu nationalist government regards the right hand as illegal migrants and a security risk factor there is a legal import policy advisor on this international india she says the intent government has refused to acknowledge the right hand as asylum seekers. this particular family that was returned last week was in fact i just stood with the un at the un refugee agency in india and they repeatedly asked to be able to meet the family and speak with them but the indian government chose to ignore the un at c.i.s. request so this is in addition to the fact that the indian government has dubbed that and seekers and refugees are able migrants and i sending them back to myanmar

that in fact even stopping you when i see i've been speaking to people who are registered as asylum seekers with the organization so and that india is quite concerned about this and we have been campaigning for people who are in india for a while but unfortunately the government seems to be going ahead with this policy of forcibly returning really sad seekers and refugees to me on my wedding dress got serious human rights violations they know that men stated that about an estimated forty thousand really get people in india the un at the us state that are six eighteen thousand of them actually they just stood with the un at the office in india either as asylum seekers or a few g.'s and they sped up over the country in their state now in august of two thousand and seventeen the ministry of home affairs kind of declared this policy that they will be forcibly to joining. all these so-called illegal

immigrants they are refused to acknowledge that they are designed seekers and refugees and instead calling them illegal immigrants and saying that therefore they need to be sent back to myanmar. a severe winter storm hitting lebanon is adding to the misery of syrian refugees for many it's their fourth winter in makeshift camps at least one hundred seventy thousand of the one million refugees registered with the u.n. are particularly vulnerable because they live in informal shelters and then a hundred more from one of the camps in the back alley. the storm hit lebanon hard and it is not over syrian refugees are feeling the impact their makeshift tents have been damaged because of the snow rain and strong winds plastic sheeting offers them a little protection. the wind blew away the sheep so what can i say just look around you can we get you sheets we feel helpless. winter conditions are already

bad in this region close to syria's border but storms make them even harder it was a difficult night for these people pools of sewage are posing health risks oh well . look at the reality can you believe that sewage water is everywhere you look up to this where is the international community where is the united nations. the waste water even reached inside what these people call their homes for many of these syrians this is their eighth winter in exile the united nations says at least one hundred seventy thousand of the almost one million registered refugees live in makeshift shelters refugees cannot build better shelters no concrete construction is allowed in these informal camps the lebanese government does not permit the united nations or any other organization to set up permanent structures in these settlements. it's

a policy here to discourage refugees to settle in lebanon permanently something doesn't want to do but for now he says he doesn't have an option. i lost my home in syria we're living miserable lives do you think. if it's another choice . it's a sentiment shared by many who are bracing themselves for what is expected to be even harsher conditions as temperatures continue to drop. because eastern lebanon let's speak to. the u.n. representative in lebanon she's joining us live from beirut thanks very much for speaking to us so we were seeing reports in the bekaa valley a pretty dismal conditions what can you tell us about what your teams on the ground are telling you about the conditions in these informal camps for syrian refugees. the situation is very serious as you have seen from the from the images we have

thousands of people affected since the storm started in this on sunday teams have been working around the clock to assess affected areas and to provide response stocks have been put in place since the beginning of winter precisely to face these kind of situations but as you can see people have been hit very hard and the more the storm last the more shaky the settlements will be calm so we the teams are distributing plastic sheeting mattresses blankets or relocating people that have been affected by. by floods to warmer and safer areas until the water recedes but the storm is still ongoing as your team was saying and we don't know what the night will be will be bringing we know that temperatures are going to drop further to the most vulnerable people such as children elderly person people with weak physical condition face in a very dire situation and so are there any sort of. that are being put in place to

help the most vulnerable families. yes indeed we have what we call it extreme weather response mechanism where all you might agencies divide if you wish to reach a graphic area to. direct themselves in the directions and try to identify the most affected populations the sites being identified to shelter people in schools or empty buildings until until the water can be removed from that can restart a new tent but in the circumstances you see the very shaky conditions in which people are leaving and it's difficult to make these kind of settlements dissent there is a lot of cooperation on the ground with the central authorities the municipalities the civil defense as we speak now two families are stranded in the place where water level is increasing a newborn babies with them the civil defense is trying to reach them the what the

water is preventing access by road and we're trying to rescue them so what i want to ask here i'll tell you the weather conditions been for. u.n.h.c.r. and other teams to carry out this work and bring in aid to the shelters. where certain roads are closed of access because of heavy snows or floods saw we are trying to take the alternative routes we can or using the stockpile that have been prepositions all over lebannon before the winter already and they are distributed look at it before we can actually reach the place where they are mechanisms in place to reach people even if the roads are blocked but we have not yet. identified all the sediment affected in new settlements are affected as we move further into the storm. we thank you very much for speaking to us on al-jazeera from beirut. thank you for the news hour still ahead. the

former chairman of nisson makes his first court appearance since his arrest for financial misconduct. hello there we've still got some wet and windy weather across parts of the middle east at the moment we've got the latest system making its way across turkey then stretching down through syria and then that will activate this system to the south so we're going to see some heavy rain across this region and a fair amount of snow as we head through wednesday that will then work its way eastwards and behind it we'll see another weather system begin to knock on the door of turkey as we head through thursday so generally speaking for many of us really quite unsettled at the moment with a good deal of cloud of rain and snow pushing through here in doha though the winds are feeding up from the south on wednesday and that does mean they could be

a little bit of mr fog first thing but when that clears it's going to be quite a warm day i'll talk temperature of a twenty six degrees but this one weather isn't going to last as we head through thursday may be a change in the wind direction this time the winds will be firing down from the northwest it will be quite a blustery day and the temperatures will be dropping so a maximum just of twenty three degrees which is seventy three in found height and expected to get quite cool during the night as well down to around sixteen for the southern parts of africa plenty of what weather here you can see it stretching all the way across madagascar plenty of heavy rain here we're also seeing quite a few showers in the eastern parts of south africa a couple more likely here but most of the wet weather on wednesday is for the north . five families fight to survive in twenty first century america i live off my credit cards when i don't make enough money the last couple months it's been minimum balances can only keep their heads above water in

a tough economic climate companies have had to lay off thousands of workers if you want to go to school he'll be pain for his classes and books and all of that he can do that on the walgreens salary. and. just zero. discover a wealth of winning programming from around the globe. phyllis. the government seems to have lost control the balance of power in favor of this. good big discussion you get while there's a lot of disillusionment with the un across the globe. documentary. from a different perspective. only zero. zero

again the top stories on the al-jazeera news hour the turkish president has lashed out at what he calls mixed messages from the trumpet ministration about its plans to pull troops out of syria. and says he never agreed not to target washington's kurdish allies which it regards as terrorists meanwhile the u.s. secretary of state has reassured regional allies that withdrawing troops from syria won't jeopardize our efforts to put pressure on iran is in jordan. on the first stop of his eight day middle east tour. the u.s. department department's envoy to resolve the blockade of qatar anthony zinni has resigned the retired general says he quit his job after realizing he could not help solve the dispute his decision comes eighteen months after four nations saudi

arabia u.a.e. egypt. imposed the land sea and air blockades. more now on the impact of the planned withdrawal of u.s. troops from syria. minority community targeted by eisel in the middle east perry ibrahim is the for. the executive director of the free use of the foundation she's joining us from washington good to speak to you on al-jazeera so you're going to this any premature withdrawal of the united states forces from syria will effectively endanger religious minorities like the explain why you think u.s. withdrawal is an existential threat to the minority groups well we wrote this report because we have a lot of concerns one of the concerns is that we know dead that is still existing in syria. the numbers are very from fourteen thousand until thirty thousand

members aside from that we also know that a lot of the isis fighters have melted into the population and as soon as there is an opportunity another group like. you will start to organize and gain strength we saw in two thousand and fourteen that isis started attacking the z.t. communities the christians committing a genocide against. not a lot of numbers of fighters so this is one of our concerns aside from this one of the concerns that we have written in the report is that we see that this will be an opportunity for turkey to start fighting to gain power in parts of syria and what we now know is that is one of the strongest forces against isis and if you would draws its troops there is not a lot of strength for as you have to continue this fight fight against that irish

and against turkey at that moment even though turkey and heard. in fact that turkey is committed to defeating. as well as other quote unquote terrorist groups in syria but let me ask you this because it's not the year. alone that you're concerned about there are other minority groups as well. yes of course i mean. genocide against is it is one of the things we are mainly focusing on but of course we have to give early warning signs if there are threats to religious minorities to . ethnic cleansing of religious minorities we all know dead if we look back into what happened there when turkey started to attack that territory a lot of the use e.d.s. and christians and others minorities were living in coexistence now they can live there but not in a way they used to live so we are concerned about all minorities all religious minorities who are living in that area we're talking about syria and iraq this will

have a big effect on the. communities in both countries and you also underscore the importance of solidarity with the international community and those who. i saw what is the international community's role in fact in protecting religious minorities. i mean we've seen from a lot of different governments that they really want to try to protect religious ethnic religious minority groups like the izzy's like the christians there's a big push to make sure that these communities can go back to where they came from . is about but we always have to remember that if we're going to invest a lot of time a lot of energy a lot of money in return in these populations we have to make sure that there is if there are dangers if there are signs of these things that can happen again to these religious minorities we have to be sure did there is

a security. plan to get these people out of there all right harry brahimi thank you very much for speaking to us from washington. the sudanese president has praised the army for defending the country's antigovernment protests continue. addressed a military parade in the city where protests over rising prices and government corruption started three weeks ago the rallies spread across the country calling for bashir to step down after nearly thirty years in power of thirty say at least nineteen people have been killed during the protests but amnesty international puts the death toll at thirty seven nationwide protest is underway in nigeria to demand better minimum wage the federal government had agreed to an amount but some states said they could not afford to pay it labor unions say all states must agree to pay a minimum wage of eighty three u.s. dollars per month. zimbabwe is going through its worst economic crisis in

a decade hundreds of doctors have been on strike for weeks and now teachers are joining forces demands in the government to do more to help make ends meet priyanka gupta reports. a new year a new term but an actual start for the students of zimbabwe. i was there instead of notebooks inside classrooms some teachers are outside holding placards they say they can only hold classes for two days a week and a threatening to go on strike in the coming days they want their salaries to be paid and u.s. dollars to shield them from a spiraling currency crisis this was at leeds was a negotiated and agreed into and it will be the spending level in the early i'll go to that violated that night because it is one feel of a practice for the second month in a row hundreds of doctors are staying at home they too want their salaries in dollars and a demanding better working conditions we wanted dad the mitigation defenders to be

dangerous people was a wonder it would diminish in terms of salaries good salaries in terms of the vehicles as a kid something towns could lose working with the public hospitals are running out of medicines and pharmacies are turning away people unless they're paying in dollars. there's not enough resources in the hospitals we're statuses patients are even being told to buy out any syringes. but the government says it doesn't have enough foreign currency to meet the protesters demands zimbabwe depends heavily on imports and uses ball notes and electronic currency that speck to the dollar a shortage of dollars means those bones are losing their value but they should now with the immediately now or tomorrow go into negotiations where the government will offer in terms of

a million or aiding the plight of the civil service in the areas that they might get on the streets of the capital harare lines like these are all too common a price. of basic goods have more than tripled and there is a fuel shortage this crisis is one of the biggest challenges facing president emerson been a god who promised economic growth and for investments to prince about we out of two decades of finance you disagree. robert mugabe. with these teachers say the government needs to do more to help those who are struggling. on just about . a twenty year old german man has been arrested over a massive data breach that saw the private information of hundreds of politicians including chancellor angela merkel published online german media are reporting the suspect has confessed that he acted out of annoyance about public statements made by the figures the only political party not affected by the breach was the right

wing a f t but police say it's too soon to say of the arrested man has right wing sympathies meanwhile the far right politician in germany has been seriously injured by what police are calling a politically motivated attack frank magnet's who leads the local branch of the alternative for germany party was set upon as he left the office of a local newspaper if he released the graphic photo of magnets his injuries on social media politicians and critics of magnets have condemned the attack british prime minister to resign may has been holding another cabinet meeting is speculation grows about her government's next move it's all titians are due to vote on the deal to leave the bloc next week the bracks it secretary has denied reports that u.k. and the e.u. officials are talking about delaying breck said if m.p.'s reject may's withdrawal agreement stephen barclay said the u.k. remains committed to leaving the block on march the twenty nine. the former

chairman of card company has declared his innocence in court in tokyo saying he's been unfairly detained. accused of underreporting his salary by millions of dollars he was fired by the board of medicine and mitsubishi but kept on by renault rob mcbride reports. this was goes first chance to publicly allegations against him the presence of diplomats to hear it was evidence of the international nature of this case in court gone denied any financial wrongdoing saying he has always conducted business legally and fairly he said he dedicated the last twenty years of his life to the near san company he chaired until recently engineering its alliance with french automaker renault his lawyers argued his continued detention is grossly unfair. to the session of the court today was held in order to request the court to make the clear reason for detaining mr gone under the suspicion you

know that the reason we made such requests for procedures to take place today as mr ganns defense team is we believe there's no reason for him to be detained and this case is attracted intense media interest given goans international stature the man who turned around the fortunes of renault and then did the same with their son it's made his fourth from grace all the more dramatic. it remains to be seen what why duran packed the case will have on carmakers in france and japan and if they'll be any diplomatic fallout between the two governments. the personal impact on gone is all too clear while the court considers the allegations he remains in detention mcbride al jazeera tokyo and consumer electronics show has kicked off in las vegas it's usually a proving ground for innovators a new technologies but many are focusing on what the trade war between the u.s.

and china might mean for them are brunell's joining us from las vegas to talk us through what's new and exciting this year. well we've got the best of show here in los vegas it spread out all over town tens of thousands of square meters of space four thousand companies exhibiting their wares everything from tiny little startups to gigantic companies like sony and. the auto bakers and many many others so what's not and what's not daryn fortunately we have an expert who knows a lot more about this than i do a con a goodie elmo tony just stepped right in there thank you so much for being with us to help us understand what's laid the the latest in tech so what's what's the raising eyebrows and causing buzz here well there are a couple of things that are going on it's interesting this is the first time that

the u.s. government shutdown has affected ts we've seen some of the speakers that were intended to come from the government including actually pio who's the chairman of the f.c.c. not come to the show because the shutdown has affected it it's also raise questions a lot of devices that we're seeing here wireless mobile devices require government approval and but the government shutdown will that hold up the release of some of these f.c.c. approved products and devices we don't know the answer to that but it is interesting is the first time the show has had that effect from the u.s. government shutdown and what's what are some of the products that are. creating buzz some of the products that are creating buzz our t.v.'s we're seeing l.g. has an all led t.v. sixty five inches that rolls down and disappears from the.