killed in a reaction you were waiting reaction from president donald trump none has been forthcoming as of yet but al jazeera has spoken to the white house press office it has confirmed in fact that there were u.s. service members killed in that attack the number they will not confirm but there is reportedly a statement forthcoming the u.s. president is meeting with the secretary of state at this hour for lunch where we expect that they will discuss the issue of syria but already the president is getting some fresh criticism from one of his staunch allies on capitol hill senator lindsey graham who believes that the announcement by the president last month that surprise announcement that the two thousand u.s. troops there in syria would be returning to the united states it's his view that this has emboldened essentially pointing to attacks such as this saying that he has seen this before in iraq and now it appears in syria and that the president should look long and hard at what he is doing in syria now having said that the president

certainly did surprise many with that announcement of the withdrawal one that did commence last week it rattled u.s. allies and certainly rattled many in the united states and of course led to the resignation of his secretary of defense james mattis and detailed information about that withdrawal kimberly has been hard to come by do we know any more on if and when it's going to happen. the white house for now is referring all of those questions to the department of defense but certainly in the last seventy two hours there has been an escalation of tensions between the united states and turkey over these discussions about the withdrawal we know that the secretary of state might pump aoe has been in consultations with his counterpart about a potential thirty two kilometer safe zone to protect the kurds that of course assisted the u.s. led coalition in the effort to defeat eisel as well we know that the joint chiefs

of staff general james dunford is in fact in brussels meeting with his church's counterpart as those discussions continue turkey has been very clear that it believes that the kurdish forces in fact are part of a larger terrorist network in turkey's view this is something that the united states is concerned about and looking for those assurances that the kurds will be protected but for now those have not been forthcoming and that's why these negotiations continue all right thank you for using weather is being blamed for the deaths of fifteen children in camps for internally displaced people in syria the harsh weather is also affecting camps in neighboring lebanon that's where hundreds of thousands of syrian refugees live in makeshift tents reports it's close to lebanon's border with syria. fatma is very ill. the two year old is suffering from respiratory problems temperatures regularly drop

below zero during the winter months in this corner of lebanon but this year is particularly harsh and these children refugees from syria are the most vulnerable they live in tents made of flimsy plastic sheeting it is a struggle to keep warm and it is hard to stay dry. most united nation gave us money to buy gasoline for the whole winter but there mark you can purchase is not enough what a month and a half we need ten dollars a day i have three kids it's hard for fathers like up to when they can't buy medicine and meet the needs of their children these desperate families have survived one severe storm already this year and now they're bracing for another storm the second in less than a week the united nations says twenty two thousand syrians were affected in the first storm flooding heavy rain and snow whipped by strong winds destroyed their

tents last week many fear the worst is yet to come. and look like i am scared of the upcoming storm because i suffered in the last one my tent was flooded and we couldn't stay inside my family and i had to live with others in another tent and i'm sure this would happen again imagine how much harder it is for the elderly ninety four year old has and his daughters are hit up are trapped as they should be very moving when weather conditions are bad we can't do anything but stay inside and i wrap my father with a lot of blankets like a child to keep me warm and i have no choice but to wait for the storm to end before going outside there are no shelters to accommodate these refugees in times like this the united nations says seventy thousand people are at risk because of harsh weather conditions forty thousand of them are children they live and shelters and sites that are prone to flooding and are in danger of collapse because of heavy

snowfall levanon refuses to set up proper camps to prevent the long term resettlement of refugees the u.n. says one hundred seventy thousand of the one million refugees registered in lebanon live like this for them in particular it is proving to be a tough winter santa. ourself northeastern lebanon plenty more ahead on the al jazeera news hour including. anger in abidjan after be i.c.c. rejects an appeal against the former ivorian president shah ecuador. he will pursue relentlessly. wherever they will be until they are still. to come. kenya's president vows to bring to justice attackers who killed fourteen people at an eye robey hotel and find out who came on top in south korea and china met to decide top spot in the asian cup to group c.

that's coming up a little later in sport with me. but first the international criminal court will release former ivory coast president laurent gbagbo after rejecting a prosecution bid to extend his detention the court in the netherlands ruled by a bow is free to go a day after his shock acquittal on charges of crimes against humanity they related to post-election violence eight years ago in which three thousand people were killed the prosecution had planned to appear on that i should butler is joining us from the hague to tell us about the reaction when it was announced that bagwell would be released. as i will when the judge period the international criminal court said that faith in the trial was over the former ivory coast leader laura backbone looked visibly relieved he punched the air and some of his supporters began celebrating now all this comes just

a day after key and his former minister of charles a good day were acquitted by this court of crimes against humanity relating to that post-election violence in ivory coast and twenty ten twenty eleven the judge in fact said that the prosecutor's case was too weak it didn't stand up and that is why it was being very now now what this means is that these two men could walk free in the coming days but there are a certain amount of formalities to go through so we don't in fact have a timeline and there is another caviar and that is that prosecutors could lodge another appeal that for example the release is done with certain conditions that these two men guarantee that they would come back to another trial in the future because the prosecution do intend to appeal they would like to see another trial in the future and what is this decision as well as the prosecution's disappointment at us i mean for the i.c.c. as an institution as a whole. was

a surgeon of the judge is saying that the prosecutor's case was extremely weak in a way is a blow to the international criminal court you know it's been around for more than twenty years and so many convicted three individuals quite low level individuals never a government leader in fact it was just year twenty eighteen that are the former vice president of congo shop here pember while his case was thrown out and so some say that it means it calls into question if you like the credibility of this court it's abilities but we spoke to the spokesperson for the prosecutor here who said in fact it's just evidence that the court is doing its job correctly the i.c.c. is a court of law and a court of course credibility is measured by its respect of its rules of its legal rules its efficient and effective respect of the rights of the defense of the fans of the proceedings and as maybe you have heard or not the defense yesterday they

were explaining that. exactly this point the legitimacy and the credibility of the court is measured by the full respect that is given to the rights of the defense for the rights of the victims and in general to the fairness of the proceedings and i think that one important thing that the decision they will straight is the independence of the judges and their impartiality when at this stage if bag though and they do walk free in the coming days the question is where will they go days lawyers have said that he would like to go straight back to ivory coast back bow it's less clear and there are reports that he could first go to belgium because that is where he has some personal ties with russia about their thank you. now kenya's president ahora kenyatta is promising to find those responsible for a nineteen hours siege at an eye robey hotel at least fourteen people were killed when attackers detonated a bomb in the lobby and opened fire the red cross says fifty people remain

unaccounted for alexey o'brien reports. outside this morgue in nairobi anxious family members and colleagues white for news. now the siege is over details of what happened inside the dusit hotel a beginning to emerge surveillance cameras captured the beginning of the attack when heavily armed men walked into the upmarket complex pulled out children from all over the place employees are running all over the place he was screaming for up one to realize that the best thing to do is to find examples please to hike. for hours afterward terrified workers barricaded themselves in as gunfire and explosives rang out. others jumped from the windows of the do sixty two which includes offices and restaurants frequented by some of nairobi's many ex-pat workers survivors spoke of chaos and confusion we go out to say for they

make it work you shouldn't but they make a big mistake because it was not secure we go and move the ship up to us hundreds of others were taken to safety in an operation that lasted through the night they called them in the strongest terms possible this just acts of courage of the enemies of the of human civilization. him as a joke divisions also she says divisions i want to just say one zero sum variable depends on standing together against these agents of. the somali based on group al shabaab says it was behind the attack it's often targeted nairobi in response to kenya sent. troops to help protect the un backed government and neighboring somalia kenya's president is vowing justice we will seek out every person that was involved in the funding planning and

execution of this but we will pursue relentlessly wherever they will be until they are held to account pictures circulated online appears to show the attack is bodies the hotel is now a crime scene and i wrote in morning once more. al-jazeera. zimbabwe's main cities have been calm but tense on the last day of a national strike it was called to protest against the government's imposed hike in fuel prices a leading activist has been arrested in harare and faces charges of inciting violence internet activity is back up and running in the country after the telecoms that works blocked access to social media sites bernard smith reports. and activists pastor has been using social media to encourage people to observe

a three day national stay at home protest triggered by a steep rise in fuel prices in zimbabwe that's how to arrested and facing allegations of inciting violence. how people away. but of course this is a new. there's been an uneasy calm and zimbabwe's main cities on wednesday the third day of the national strike businesses and schools remained closed mobile phone internet networks are still off on government orders the government blames the main opposition for the protests. this was a low cloud. three people including a police officer died during violent demonstrations in the capital harare on monday

and in the second city pull away oh shops were looted and cars set on fire as we are hoping for the bit that maybe if you do these men to take us into macy's was just doing it all just going to wake us up if you can these mobile. cities. slowed to you. baby. if you break in the zimbabwe's president has been in russia during the demonstrations. is accused by protesters a failing to live up to pre-election promises to kick start the economy instead shortages of hard currency are affecting the imports of fuel and drugs rocketing inflation is eating into people's savings. still ahead on the al-jazeera news hour why can't these sculptures near the nine eleven memorial in new york are causing an uproar. and more on how the u.s. china trade war has affected our manufacturers and america. coming up in sport only

i will be here with action from the australian open second round match. hello again welcome back to international weather forecast or you're going to see a system coming out of the med in this system is going to bring a lot of rain as well as snow across much of the divide over the next few days so here on thursday we do have quite a bit of snow here across parts of iraq as well as some rain coming into parts of iran that system is going to be moving quite quickly over here towards the east as we go from thursday to friday for you're going to be getting out of those clouds and snow terms are there about six degrees and then. as we go towards friday that is going to be making its way towards the east down towards quite city we do expect to see a partly cloudy day for you but the temps are a fifteen degrees one here in doha expect to see

a drop in temperature as we go through the weekend so here on thursday twenty seven degrees winds are going to be coming out of the south but as we go towards friday well twenty degrees is going to be the high there temperatures are going to be dropping winds are going to be coming out of the north same for abu dhabi good temperatures are going to be dropping as well with winds coming out of the north at twenty two degrees over towards miska a nice day for you at twenty six and then very quickly over here towards the sun part of africa we are looking at fairly nice conditions across much of the area over here towards durban we are going to be seeing temperatures at about twenty eight degrees there up towards johannesburg at about twenty nine in capetown partly cloudy twenty four. in the next episode of science in the golden age i'll be exploring the contributions made by scholars during the medieval islamic period in the field of engineering. the heights of sophistication in mechanics at the time was the

extravagant elephant cloak. written around age fifty eight the book contains a range of ingenious inventions and contraptions science from a golden marriage with jim. if you were looking at this from the outside you would really wonder what was going on what is this gross is a religion that they have an in-depth exploration of global capitalism and our obsession with economic growth this is still the center of capitalism there is no limits i view myself as a capital artist. trying to play for the world small small we don't want to be realistic in the world we would rather have a fantasy growing coming soon. hello

again the top stories on the al-jazeera news hour in about half an hour the u.k. government faces a no confidence vote in parliament the british prime minister to resign may is widely expected to survive that challenge but she must still return to parliament on monday with an updated on at least fifteen people some of the members of the u.s. military have been killed in an explosion in the northern syrian city of. another nineteen were injured areas under the control of the kurdish people's protection units also known as the y.p. jeep. and the international criminal court will release former ivory coast president laurent gbagbo after rejecting a process. to extend his detention the court in the netherlands ruled that by boat is free to go a day after his stop acquittal on charges of crimes against humanity. the palestinian authority has been accused of running a regime before gaining

a state senate sharply worded attack on its policies on online freedom of speech human rights watch made the comments during a forum on palestinian digital activism which is looking for new ways to advocate the palestinian cause through social media harry force that reports from ramallah in the occupied west bank. has dedicated a soul to the business of storytelling today at a forum on online activism it's the story of how and why she set up her own digital publishing site and attempt to share but also reshape a palestinian story so often seen through the lens of conflict an occupation beard or the will of stories is weighted towards optimism ambition humor she says it's a different way to fight the palestinian cause and exploit the opportunities presented by social media and most of us like they waste time on checkpoints but we have an article this cause called the checkpoints so you can do medication or you can do your homework you can use the time on the checkpoint in

a very productive way so here we're talking about the plans to new york city but we're presenting it in a different way thirteen years since the last national elections palestinians are just living under occupation but also with a democratic deficit the online world where more than two million people in the occupied west bank and gaza use facebook is therefore a vital space for activism and debate but the organizers of this forum say it's far from a safe space israel has detained hundreds of people over their social media use and there have been power of crackdowns by hamas in gaza and the palestinian authority here in the west bank it has detained journalists and activists and block websites under a recently adopted cybercrime law on stage the israel palestine director of human rights. swatch cited what he called intimidatory detentions in both gaza and the west bank quoting one recent detainee despairing of the fact that a regime had emerged before a palestinian state it was a direct challenge to a leading prosecutor from the palestinian authority who had himself been condemning

israel for abusing online freedoms i mean he denied there was any organized campaign against free speech saying you authority did its utmost to protect human rights for those who don't believe it is. the things which the these authorities may believe that it's. so the of course that we will think twice before. or say anything against either the authority or of course there is a very glum a and our colleagues can't do much about the restrictions on their digital space but they are determined to use it to help change the way their generation of palestinians see themselves and is seen by the outside world are a force it. an art exhibit in new york has been removed after sparking anger and protests it was near a nine eleven memorial and included a flag of saudi arabia zeros christened salumi explains at first glance there are

hardly offensive giant pieces of candy wrapped in the flags of g. twenty nations countries that represent the world's twenty leading industrialized and emerging economies but seeing the flag of saudi arabia as part of a public art exhibit so close to the september eleventh memorial made terry strada furious to have it anywhere near nine eleven memorial let alone right there beside the oculus in the side where the reflecting pools are it was insulting and extremely hurtful stratas husband the father of her three children died in the world trade center attack of two thousand and one fifteen of the nineteen hijackers who carried out the attack were saudi just days after strada complained to the public agency responsible for the exhibit it was taken down to be relocated the port authority said in a statement we believe the solution respects the unique sensitivities of the site

and preserves the artistic integrity of the exhibit in recent years strada has lobbied elected officials for the right to sue the saudi government over its alleged role in the nine eleven attacks which killed nearly three thousand people as the head of the group nine eleven families and survivors united for justice against terrorism the case is still making its way through the courts the saudis deny any involvement in the attacks. i love my country i love america and i want to be safer and i don't think we're safe as long as countries like saudi arabia continue to fund terrorist organizations that continue to vow to kill and destroy us the french artist a little wrong who created the sculptures and first display them back in two thousand and eleven say they are meant to celebrate mankind and the similarities between nations that message may have a better chance of getting through when the exhibit moves to its new location the airport christian salumi al jazeera new york now the u.n.

security council has voted unanimously to deploy up to seventy five observers to yemen's port city of what they the monitors will be sent for six months to supervise a cease fire and the withdrawal of rival forces it's part of a truce signed in stockholm last month fighters allied with the saudi led coalition have been battling the rebels for control of the city most of yemen's food aid and medicine passes through the day does poor it's our diplomatic editor james gray joining us from the united nations it's been a shaky cease fire and her tell us more about the mandate of these troops. well this is a mandate for her date specifically and the idea is to expand and extend the monitoring mission that is already in place been in place since that peace deal in december that took place in sweden up to seventy five mana says right now we believe there are about twenty there to monitor that sees far in her data as you say there being numerous violations it's fragile it's shaky everyone is concerned

about the situation one bit of good news one of the places that the u.n. have been trying to get access to called the red sea mills it's behind the who three frontline that's a warehouse with a great deal of supplies in it and the u.n. and now being given access there trying to get the aid that stored there get it out to the people of yemen because even though we've seen some progress with this somewhat shaky cease fire it hasn't really impacted the humanitarian situation in yemen which remains dire and for martin griffith the u.n. special envoy what are his next steps to push forward the peace talks. well there are two really to try and move this forward from this data agreement which was the first step and the next step is one that actually hoped to get in place before those peace talks in sweden so it's been in the works for many months

and that's trying to get a large prisoner exchange underway between the various parties and get some of the prisoners returned to their home side that is taking place talks now under the auspices of the u.n. and the international committee of the red cross that's taking place in amman jordan there are still controversies over that the who thiis say that they are worried about the involvement of saudi arabia and the united arab emirates because they say many of their side that have been taken prisoner about should be taken from yemen and taken to those two countries the next phase for this russian envoy martin griffis has already been pushed back it was supposed to take place in january is now going to move to february they hope and that's the much more difficult process of political talks trying to get a a last thing political agreement for all of yemen there were talk on of talks taking place not in sweden this time but in kuwait who things i'm told are

uneasy about kuwait as a venue and now another security council member germany is apparently offering a venue in germany for talks in february but not at all clear at this stage whether they are going to proceed and james worth reminding our viewers that one day that is quite critical in terms of bringing in food and medicine to a civilian population that need said desperately. absolutely you data is the lifeline for yemen and that is why the focus has been so much on. it is the biggest port in yemen it is where the vast majority of food medicine other a needs to get to the people of yemen and you'll be remember that the u.n. has repeatedly warned that the situation is not getting any better in yemen it's a country where some people are close to famine status and that's why he dangerous

point ok james bays thank you the taliban has threatened to walk away from peace talks with the united states accusing it of deflecting from the issue or would drawing forces from afghanistan last week the armed group council planning goes he sends word zalmay khalilzad he's the u.s. special envoy for peace and i'm gonna stand he's been touring the region in pursuit off in a ghost headed end to the years long conflict come out hi there has more from islamabad . confusion still persisting over the. taliban. took place in abu dhabi and in their state. now the us special representative for peace and reconciliation four of one is done ambassador. was due to come to. the pakistani government on how to bring the of one taliban to the negotiating table to pakistan saying that it had to have control over the of our taliban the

other one taliban also issuing a statement saying that any attempt to outmaneuver. would be unacceptable and that the u.s. was now putting conditionalities which were unacceptable to the afghan taliban according to diplomats are still sticking to their guns saying that they will not fall to the puppet regime in kabul and warn nothing short of a foreign drawled from of honest on their four day is a complicated issue at hand and it is going to be difficult to see how do you have one taliban will come to the negotiating table today the united states of insincerity. the first stage of china's biggest investment project in surrey lanka is ending the government describes the controversial one point four billion dollar port city project a technological marvel but critics say it's part of a crippling debt trap when a friend is reports. this bad expensive landry claim from the season around colombo

is where she lanka is building a port city that hopes to become the financial hub of south asia china is helping pay full and build this new project its ambassador was on hand to check on progress . the colombo port city project is an important project of the one belt one road initiative in sri lanka which is one of the key countries along the maritime silk route it is also an important project to implement the consensus of china and sri lanka and is an important project for the benefit of sri lankan society and its people for its part china will own a little less than half the land for ninety nine years yet the government is confident that the new development will help sri lanka's economic prospects we are going to be the center of change in the next few years and port city will be the catalyst in getting us there china is dominant and in sri lanka cannot be ignored

this its latest project sri lanka's largest single foreign direct investment a project to build a two hundred sixty nine ahead financial city on land reclaimed from the sea and now china is back again offering sri lanka more million dollar loans the government will likely use that money to pay some of its staggering debt which stands at around thirty billion dollars and chinese loans account for some of that far in debt this board in the southern region of humber was built with loans from china but the government could make its big. and had to give up control of the facility to be zhang for ninety nine years china has been criticised for pulling sri lanka into what some have called a death trap but others see it differently any investor. china will go where it seems it's opportunities and you know if you long has been not as still

as we would like in our whole work and our preparedness we may pay the price so as it builds this new port city near colombo again with chinese money analysts say issue lanka's government needs to do better to manage its debts and ensure that it keeps control of make up projects like these never nando is al-jazeera colombo a court in moscow has extended the detention of at least four of the twenty four ukrainian sailors detained by russia in november will be held until april the russian navy arrested the men off the coast the crimea and accuses them of entering russia's waters illegally tensions have remained high between naval forces in the area since russia's annexation of the crimean peninsula in twenty fourteen carmakers say the us president donald trump's trade war with china is driving up steel and many in prices it's a hot topic at the north american auto show in detroit from where john hendren

reports. here in the hallowed home of the american auto industry there is a collective case of tariff terror tariffs is really given us more uncertainty in an industry that is already very uncertain you know every body who uses metals is saying increase prices even if they were sourced domestically because the domestic sources are fixing greater demand. of the biggest automakers here at the north american international auto show in detroit the motor city's own ford and general motors say tariffs are cutting twenty eight hundred profits by a billion dollars each the world's largest car market china the target of u.s. steel tariffs is contracting and after a nearly decade long auto industry boom forecasters say the industry is due to decline in two thousand and nineteen in part due to a trade war president donald trump picked with china the president who calls himself a tariff man insists the u.s. treasury is reaping billions from chinese tariffs.