the negotiating process and talking about it they're talking about what would a good program for eventual withdrawal of u.s. troops look like. and is it something that the taliban leadership would be able to sell to their members who of course have given tens of thousands of dead supposedly fighting to push the u.s. troops out and then of course they have to. agree if this is to go forward how having you know talked about the talked about the prospects for u.s. withdrawal then they have to talk with their fellow afghans with the afghan government and other political forces yes let me if you have the ask government so how difficult is this pardon me but isn't this all going to be somewhat challenging considering that the taliban doesn't recognize the afghan government's well i mean now we get down to the difficult work of starting a war is very easy coming together with the settlement which actually sells to the

different warring parties of course that is challenging. i think that. many taliban who i've talked with realize that their public position at the moment are rhetorical. they are not the basis of a settlement they realize that they do have to sit with the afghan government that they cannot force their will upon. all members of afghan society who have opposed them until now so they're looking for the conditions in which they could actually sit down to those talks and tell their membership that we have been true to the goals of our movement and we actually do have a binding commitment or a practical commitment from the u.s. to withdraw troops and of course the afghan government is not going to safeguard the interests of its own constituencies and that's the challenge of peacemaking all right so michael semple we thank you for speaking to us from belfast. well thank you overtime washington d.c.

that is the rose garden where in a few moments we expect the president donald trump to be making a speech we think that's going to be on the partial government shutdown that's now entered its thirty fifth day so once president makes an appearance we will cross back live to the rose garden just outside the white house. has a quiet skies for turn to iran and they are returning to afghanistan as a massive cloud of the caucasus and the moment and yet more weather stormy weather is brewing in the mediterranean it's been causing floods and storm damage actually in western turkey and that is coming across turkey into northern lebanon syria and iraq over the next couple of days so this is the position that the position on sunday was rain for many places and star of course

a target in northern iraq and syria up into the caucasus the rain will spread down across the border into northern side was a massive cloud to the south of that but that's about as far as against certain immediate future of the arabian peninsula far from just over the border inside and it's really inducing a southerly breeze and therefore warming but dusty trends that won't last i think by tuesday we're back into the north but the next couple days warming and dusty still very active with around madagascar you'll notice the country see a circulation in the last disappeared but the influence is still there so heavy rains still in mozambique a bit further north than it was answer northern madagascar and you'll notice the eastern side of south africa including the suit too so the potential for big showers is back from joburg science words at least for saturday. the battle over the minimum wage heated up across the country today thousands of

fast food workers walked off the job desperate for a better way to use if you give your average worker a little more money they're probably going to be able to pay bills maybe to spend a little bit more i mean to fifty right now so fifty k. painting would be to survive in twenty first century america novis we cannot afford for one of us to move a job. on al-jazeera. in a world where journalism as an industry is changing we had fortunate to be able to continue to expand to continue to have that passenger drive and present the stories in a way that is important to our viewers. everyone has a story worth hearing to. uncover those that are often ignored we don't weigh our coverage towards one particular region or continent that's why i joined al-jazeera .

hello again the top stories on the al-jazeera news. reports in the united states are delays because the government shutdown is leading to. the thirty five day closure has forced eight hundred thousand people to. donald trump is expected to make a speech about the shutdown shortly. a close confidant of the u.s. president roger stone has been arrested as part of special counsel investigation into possible russian collusion and. stone was taken into custody in florida after a grand jury indictment. as well an opposition leader has vowed to continue his

campaign against. american nations and claims he's venezuela's rightful leader in a similar television address my. position was attempting a coup suggested the u.s. was. greece's parliament has voted to ratify a landmark agreement with its northern neighbor to change its name to north macedonia greek politicians voted one hundred fifty three to one hundred forty six for the un brokered deal signed last june it was approved following days if he did debates protesters against the deal have been braving the rain outside parliament just hours after they were dispersed by riot police. has more from athens. there are a lot of positive reactions from europe particularly from nato and the european union . which the republic of. we are now in syria

at least stands to join the lifting of the greek veto. again stolzenberg secretary general of nato saying it's an important contribution to the stability and prosperity of the region donald tusk european council president praising the two prime ministers for their imagination and courage and putting the common good ahead of the narrow political interests but here in greece there are mixed reactions from the people that were on the square behind me earlier on very very negative reactions a very depressed atmosphere frankly after the vote it was more like a funeral than a political protest as people realize that this deal was now done the government the minority government of alexis tsipras that has one hundred forty five in that three hundred seat chamber was joined by eight m.p.'s who crossed the aisle forming a majority of one hundred fifty three a rather large majority. by the standards of greek politics these days in order to

get this post all qatar says it will hand over a fifteen million dollars donation for gaza to the un after the palestinian group hamas rejected the funding the announcement comes two days after israel approved the donation but hamas says it won't accept the money because of conditions imposed by israel describing it as blackmail and money was set to fund the civil service and support the people in gaza of let's not get out of hamas after we were informed by the leadership of hamas that they would not accept the ground as an attempt to alleviate pressures on them it was decided to channel the money to other humanitarian projects in cooperation with the u.n. to systems to poor families or the improvement of electricity and sewage facilities . charles stopford has more from gaza. this the forty fourth week of friday protests along gaza's border this one of five locations across the border along the border where protests to happening. we've seen

a lot of tear gas fired the ministry of health already saying that a number of people have been treated for what they described was injuries received from live ammunition being shot by the israeli army now these protests happen already happening only a few hours after an announcement by casa's envoy to gaza saying that the money that was jus to be delivered here is parts all the aid package that comes with an agreement that was set in november costs money at least fifty million dollars that house refused to accept yesterday because of what it described as conditions that were being put upon it by israel as anyone else saying that that money will be directed to aid projects here in gaza with the cool nation of the u.n. we understand that the first signing of those kind of coordination agreements with the u.n. will happen on monday meanwhile. says that with or without this cash these protests that we've seen here every week since march will continue until

israel lift the siege that al-jazeera gaza in indonesia the number of people killed by floods and landslides has risen to fifty nine many villages living near an overflowing down in the south sulawesi province had to be evacuated thousands more were forced to leave their homes since tuesday after torrential rain triggered severe flooding across the region earlier this month another landslide in java killed thirty two people soaring temperatures in australia have sparked more than fifty bus fires across the southern island state of tasmania hundreds of firefighters have been brought in from other parts of the country to help contain them the heat waves prompted emergency warnings in other cities as well. their rocky city of basra has faced months of protests against corruption and poor services and demonstrators now say they want to get more organized and unite with other groups and their embrace a movement that began in france that's right matheson reports. yellow is no the

color of protest in the southern iraqi city of basra angry crowds mainly of young people have adopted the brightly colored vests first seen in demonstrations on the streets of paris a few months ago for her if they were our universe movement symbolizes the rise against corruption by the people of basra and iraq we'll wearing these yellow vests to deliver a message to politicians that even simple oppressed protesters can make a change about seventy percent of iraq's oil sits beneath the land around basra. yet people who live here say little of the money comes to them. the city's electricity supply barely works the top water is undrinkable because it's full of salt. and there's high unemployment. the last set and i tell a friend all enough is enough the iraqi people have been suffering we need to wake up these politicians are making

a joke out of us they can't even resolve their differences in parliament how can they manage a country street protests began in the summer of twenty eight when barely functioning air conditioners couldn't stave off the burning heat the protesters in basra blamed the problems in their city mainly on corruption in corporations but also in parts of the government which is based here in baghdad iraqi prime minister the marquis went to visit basra just recently to see the problems for themselves in the tolbert his predecessor. did the same thing but despite these high profile visits the people of basra say nothing has changed these latest protests a different this time they're organized by zero zero best say they want to join forces with other protest groups and put even more pressure on the government and today i had the idea must rise always going to be a pot and the situation will go out of control of things aren't solved.

the color of protest in basra may have changed but the problems are still the same rob matheson al jazeera baghdad there is optimism in the democratic republic of congo as people welcomed their new leader despite the economic hurdles ahead and questions over the election that brought him to power all the public is eager to see how felix jessica they will deal with high unemployment corruption and fix poor services from some of the reports from kinshasa. it was just as former president joseph kabila took office eighteen years ago that abraham will open this roadside printing shop he says he started the business after he couldn't find a job in a country hit by high unemployment now that new president felix to security has been sworn in abraham says things may be different. i think with the new elected president things may change especially in the economy so that my business can grow but we will have the same individual sharing the wealth of the country i will be

very disappointed to see katie controversially won the election in december with the result still disputed by rival martin for you know people here have long accused the government and elite of benefiting from the country's wealth with little trickling down this market is popular with students it's when many take a break between classes most is now which is about to complete a degree in communication he says he wants more opportunities for new graduates our country we are so rich because we're very all of garlands a dime loans and so on yes so we did but the put us through what you see and we don't understand what's the reason for why the people must stay in poverty the d.r.s. he has an estimated twenty four trillion dollars worth of natural resources including iron ore natural gas gold and cobalt according to the u.s. geological survey the d r c produces more than a half of the world's cobalt and more than twenty percent of global diamonds yet it

remains one of the poorest countries in the world many have come to the capital kinshasa to find work with more than ten percent of the eighty five million population living here the city's overcrowded housing is expensive and hard to come by especially for the poor developments like this one when meant to provide homes for them but instead it was rented out all force up by the wealthy many people here say the government hasn't followed through on its promises to help the plus. corruption along with insecurity and conflict continues to hamper economic growth ninety percent of the population doesn't have access to basic services. the first challenge for the new president is infrastructure electricity and water you must put into action projects which will develop the country this will increase the level of income and through this we will reduce corruption. felix the

security begins his first week in office not only on a wave of optimism but also realistic expectation while the d r c goes through its first peaceful handover of power the challenges remain great for the new president for me deborah al-jazeera kinshasa. we're waiting for donald trump to speak shortly from the rose garden there's the podium that's in the white house and alan fischer is following this developing story he's joining us from washington d.c. so we're hearing that some sort of deal to end the shutdown could be in the works alan. exile everything comes when it's with donald trump with the caveat we think there has been an agreement reached between seven republicans and democrats to fund the government for three weeks that were below the things to reopen that would allow traffic controllers to be paid f.b.i. agents to be paid for airline security to be paid in port security to be paid all

of that would go back into place all of the government programs that are funded by the government they would all start receiving money but no one is willing to say this is actually going to happen until the president says this is actually going to happen and that's not just respect for the office that is essential e once bitten twice shy or as mitch mcconnell who is the republican leader in the senate says there is no lesson to be had from the second kick of a mule sensually what that means is that they thought they had a deal at the end of december it passed through the senate they thought the president was going to sign it and then suddenly he wasn't going to sign it the house came up with a different kind of bill and donald trump threw his weight behind that but if what we're hearing is correct and there is a three week agreement tolo farther discussions but in that three week agreement there is no money for a border wall then this is a big win for nancy pelosi and this will be the second big win for nancy pelosi the

speaker of the house a democrat in this week because you'll remember that she told the president he couldn't do the state of the union because the government wasn't open and she was worried about security donald trump thought he would call our bluff by sending a letter saying you sent the invite i'm going to be there on cheers day thanks very much she then sent back a note saying the only way you get into the house of representatives to deliver that speech is of both houses the senate and the house of representatives pass a resolution to allow that to happen and while the government shutdown that is. isn't going to happen and donald trump surprising to many people said ok i'll give the state of the union when the government's back open but we know the tone in washington changed over the last twenty four hours there was a vote in the senate a motion put forward by the republicans to reopen the government funded border wall that failed the democrats put forward a motion saying fund the government more discussions that failed but more people

including more damage more people voted for the democrats' motion than the republicans including a number of high profile republican senators that perhaps through donald trump a message saying you are losing the support of the base now add to that the problems of had with traffic control in the last few hours in the united states you can see why there was perhaps renewed enthusiasm in the oval office to try and bring these this partial shutdown into a closed ok alan would leave it there for.