to get this resolution passed in both houses and could put pressure on president trump to sign it the u.n. humanitarian chief has repeated his warning of a crisis on the border between syria and jordan if there's a military operation in the market local is calling on all parties to let aid in to the makeshift refugee camp just inside jordan made convoys expected to arrive next week after a security guarantees from russia and the international coalition in syria some forty two thousand people remain stranded in rock band along the syria jordan border conditions in the informal settlement have continued to deteriorate since the last humanitarian convoy to the area from three to eight november eight infants have reportedly died since last month again the cold is making the situation even worse so it's critical that the parties support

a second convoy to rick graham. the us president has called his own intelligence chiefs passive and naive and suggested they should go back to school donald trump was reacting to officials who contradicted his positions on foreign policy and national security particle has more from washington d.c. but american leadership is absolutely essential this doesn't usually happen the republican leader of the senate introducing an amendment urging the president a member of his own party to change his policy and not change the level of u.s. troops in syria or afghanistan so what we must remember mr brodrick is how hard won these gains. for this progress was not be to take our foot off the gas pedal but rather to keep up those creditors that are clearly work. this followed another highly unusual move the president's own intelligence chiefs telling congress

tuesday that their boss the president of the united states is wrong all along a north korea not going to give up nuclear weapons on iran not actually violating its nuclear agreement i still isis will continue to be a threat not really defeated and the southern border not mentioned not a crisis the president was not happy and he took to twitter to call his own officials extremely passive and naive and in another tweet suggested perhaps intelligent should go back to school the president of the united states for two years this is a president who is mostly gone unchallenged by his cabinet by his party in congress but that seems to be changing now declined al-jazeera washington. well the u.s. president's been offered some praised by his for us secretary sarah sanders says dog was chosen by god to win the two thousand and sixteen election i think odd

calls all of us to fill different roles at different times and i think that he wanted donald trump to become president and that's why he's there and i think he has done a tremendous job and is supporting a lot of the things that people of faith really care about. but they've also had on the news hour including in the could how the afghan government's hold on power is slipping plus. i'm wayne hay in me and thousands of come out to mark seventy years since a rebel group took up arms against the government a cease fire is in place it will tell you why permanent peace seems to be drifting further away. and its full time champions japan prepared to face the tournament's top scorers in the asian cup final with.

samsung has announced its first quarterly drop in two years profits in the last quarter of two thousand and eighteen that's one of the worst performances ever posted by the south korean tech giant the company blames growing competition from chinese smartphone makers in the cotton orders for its memory chips for more speak to eliot zog man who joins us on skype from bangkok he's the co-host of the china tech invest podcast good to have you with us so i understand the profits decreased because of slowing demand but why is demand slowing well there is really a confluence of three different factors here the first is that demand a slowing for chips across the board a lot of chip makers are having trouble right now and sampling is the chip maker the second is the chinese market is slowing down and that's a tough market for exams and the third of smartphones and smartphones are slowing

down across the board as well and there's a lot of competition in the sector as well. how much of this is down also to the sort of tensions trade tensions and problems between china and the u.s. is this at all connected. i think that it does play a role when it comes to the chinese economy in that i think there is less consumer confidence because of the trade war and the trade tensions but i would look more at the trends of this commerce in china in general that samsung has been doing worse and worse in china in recent years and it has very little to do with the trade war it's because a lot of their chinese competitors are quite strong and whereas apple has the luxury cachet and this kind of innovators cachet. samsung doesn't as much and the chinese companies like la and tell me they have they have

a patriotic appeal on their side so this is primarily down to the performance of chinese companies might this trend extend to other chinese companies might we see this softly maybe more rolled in the sector well i think when it comes to smartphones in general we're definitely seeing trouble so apple they they've been slower lately. and there's just too much competition and the market's just too sad for it in a lot of places most people that have enough money in their done enough disposable income to buy smartphones have already bought them so when it comes to the high end where the margins are there's not much growth to be had there where the growth is this in the low end in places like india or southeast asia or africa where people don't have as much disposable income or it's good to get your. if it sounds former chairman has accused the japanese car manufacturer of trying to

destroy his reputation carlos ghosn made the comments during an interview from his tokyo prison cell it's the first time he's spoken to foreign media since being detained in november on suspicion of financial misconduct going described his arrest as a story of betrayal because of his resistance to run on the sun integration the u.n. is warning refugees and migrants crossing the mediterranean a dying at an alarming rate new figures released by the un's refugee agency shows six people died on average every day last year it estimates more than two thousand two hundred people drowned or went missing while attempting the crossing the route was particularly dangerous for boats leaving from libya where one person died at sea for every fourteen who arrived in europe that's despite a major drop in the number of refugees reaching europe one hundred thirty nine thousand arrived in two thousand and eighteen the lowest number in five years charlie actually is

a spokesman for the un refugee agency he says the number of migrant deaths in two thousand and eighteen was deeply concerning. the number of people arriving on european shores by mediterranean routes is down substantially compared to previous years we're back now to levels that we were typically seeing throughout the early two thousand but what is deeply concerning is that for the fifth year in a row more than two thousand people lost their lives and this is happening particularly on the central mediterranean where on the route from libya to europe a combination of smugglers and traffickers attempting ever more dangerous journeys figure of more than two thousand dead could in fact be quite far higher these are only the ones we know about and there remains a lack of n.g.o.s operating search and rescue operations because of restrictions that have been imposed on them by states and we're seeing the deadly consequences of that now many of these people are in need of humanitarian assistance many of

these people are in need of international protection and this is having a deterrent effect on boats who may wish to conduct search and rescue operations one of the things you in a.c.r. is really concerned about is that if this situation continues we may have vessels particularly commercial ships waver or even ignore distress signals for fear of being stranded at sea for days on end. the u.n. high commissioner for refugees says politicians are to be blamed for the crisis it's a race between countries not the people so it's a negative race it's in and peacefully diary theories that the governments for political reasons are performing pushing the responsibility of this rather simple gesture to pick a few. miserable people. in their country. about

a dozen asylum seekers have been sent back to mexico by the u.s. as part of the trumpet ministrations new policy on illegal immigration refugees and migrants have traditionally been allowed to remain in america while their claims of being processed through the courts where the partial government shutdown crazy the backlog of cases the u.s. is expected to send back up to twenty migrants a day despite many of them not being from mexico and the number of migrants who died when two boats capsized off the coast of djibouti on tuesday has risen to fifty two many others are mostly theo peons are still missing the boat carrying about one hundred thirty people thousands of people from the horn of africa often attend the dangerous journey across the red sea to find work in gulf countries sudan's president omar al bashir has announced the reopening of the border with eritrea it's been closed for a year after khartoum accused the eritrean government of supporting rebel groups in

sudan both countries deployed troops to the eastern border town of salah during the dispute the announcement comes at a time of growing protests demanding president bashir steps down ahmed vile is live for us now in khartoum so is this part of a broader normalization of relations between the two countries. some it looks like the normalization even though we haven't seen the taking place ahead of this announcement between the two countries we know that president model bashir has been touring both internal regions trying to appease the sentiments about these protests and so on disgruntlement on happiness with the state policies but also he has been touring the region has been to egypt as we know the latest country he visits so we see in this service here see in this decision both internal and external messages it turns out he's trying to. give

a message of you know of help and you know to the to the people of because they have been suffering from the closing of the world the for a year now in june last year the border was completely closed between sudan and eritrea and that's a very vital border for tribes and populations living on both sides of it and that was when the sudan got reports that egyptian and every tree and troops were gathering were. organizing the new version and so on exercises next to the border on the on the editorial side so now he has also as i said been in egypt and has sided with countries including egypt saudi arabia the united arab emirates. just days after that visit we see that he's opening the border with three or so lots of things to get in this in this message but but. as i said i think the in terms of messages is the most important now for the sudanese people. so much one hundred.

now the taliban says it's not seeking a monopoly on power in a future administration and afghanistan the group says it's looking for ways to co-exist with others earlier this week the u.s. envoys been agreements in principle towards a framework for peace with the taliban but that framework was drawn up without input from the afghan government which the taliban regards as illegitimate the report on u.s. operations in afghanistan shows the government's influence has declined kabul controls around sixty three percent of the country that's down almost two percent from the previous quarter whereas the taliban has slightly increased its influence trolling nearly eleven percent the report also reveals the u.s. dropped five times more munitions last year compared to two thousand and sixteen and it accuses senior afghan security forces of involvement in narcotics rings in

the northern and western regions last year more than seven hundred fifty thousand undocumented afghans returned from iran and according to the report they're vulnerable to recruitment into armed groups more than ten million afghans face severe food shortages in the around two hundred sixty thousand people have been displaced in this are hard them is a political analyst a lecturer a more a university he says the report highlights the need for the u.s. to change its tactics. it's not only one point three per saying that the taliban or maybe they're in opposition in torreon control but some more certainly for me that why we're not winning this war while you were just stuck in the mud for the last fifteen years after eighteen years why the united states the international community and all stuck in government are still claiming that they can fight but still we see that in the control of the afghan government they died a state of america would like to play two tactics in the same time they would like to shake the right hands and they would like to hold iraq and the left both back to

work us so far because the special and donald trump meeting have been meeting with the taliban for six days in qatar when he came to afghanistan i think that it was not very happy he shared his concerns in his briefings with person gani there was no good reaction that i mean definitely that he is on the table but if we're not going to right direction i think that we're not in that succeeding position and we have to change that the peaks and a major taliban are still fight for the political power sharing what they means and how they can play their minds in afghanistan if they're not part of the political power they do not want the political power monopoly but they would like to be part of the political structure which is nice is that inuits is a logical position in the we have to understand that when we are dealing with taliban in terms of bringing peace that should be part of it and we have to be having flexibility to share the power list when there is no point for taliban to just fight for the last fifteen years they will not say it but i think there is

a head and latent idea that they will share the power. the oldest and one of the largest rebel armies and me and mom wants to unite with neighboring groups to fight the government the idea came most the current national liberation army wants seventy years since its fight for grace for autonomy began but attempts to reach a peaceful solution have failed point a report from current state. throughout decades of civil war korean refugees have poured across the river from me and ma seeking shelter in thailand this journey was in the other direction but still in the name of the fight. this is my first time and i am very happy to come and mock revolution day it's like the current new year . i'm not sure what the future holds but we hope that we will get freedom and happiness. they came to the jungle headquarters in eastern myanmar of the qur'an national liberation army to mark seventy years since it took up arms against the government they call it revolution day but the revolution still hasn't been

realised. the fight will go on because the government won't give us freedom easily so we have to fight for that. the mainly christian organization is one of many armed ethnic groups that are fighting for greater rights and self-determination a cease fire is in place but it's broken regularly. and peace talks have made little progress one of the main problems is that the armed if the groups say when the negotiating with me in must civilian government they don't get anywhere because don not the ones who are really in control it's me and miles military that run the country for almost fifty years that still has ultimate power and they say when they do talk to the me and my military there's a lack of trust and. the korean leaders have now suspended involvement in the peace process choosing instead to hold informal talks on their own terms those involved say it's a temporary setback to does the nature of the peace process not only in our country some other gun treat so peace brother does sometimes still mean sometimes the

magnet. over the decades the fight in korean state has splintered but this was the first time in fifteen years that all korean groups came together to mark the anniversary they now hope to reunite and join forces in battle. i want to see all commend groups fighting together for the same victory target we're trying and we hope it will happen in the future. the me and my military says the rebel groups must give up ideas of separation from the state and surrender their weapons but these fighters say it's never really been about independence it's about having control over their destiny and written into their mission statement surrender is out of the question wayne hay al jazeera korean state me and ma. i've missed nine people have died in extreme cold weather in the us some parts of the midwest and northeast in states the deep freeze is plunged to minus thirty degrees celsius the coldest for

a generation al-jazeera is john hendren has more now from willis in michigan. in arctic freezing envelops the american midwest bringing dangerous cold in record low temperatures this is an event unlike any. i think it's really that we protect people the arctic air of the polar vortex is sweeping the region driving temperatures down to thirty below zero celsius it o'hare airport with wind chills in the suburbs making it feel like minus forty eight the predicted low of minus thirty three at o'hare on thursday would be chicago's lowest temperature in recorded history the weather system stretches across a huge swath from the dakotas in the north that minus thirty degrees celsius to maine in the east and as far south as alabama to prevent freezing chicago sets the train tracks on fire schools post offices and businesses are closed even a few minutes exposure to temperatures this low can cause frostbite one local

forecaster is warning if you shut your eyes for too long they can freeze closed it's that kind of cold. the frigid air that forms the polar vortex once spun around the stratosphere over the north pole but its current now disrupted is pushing down into the u.s. the arctic blast leaves a mess of crash cars and broken pipes with days to go before the cleanup begins john hendren al-jazeera willis michigan. well in a few moments we'll have more of the weather though we have in but still ahead here now sirrah. we'll tell you why thousands of retired indian soldiers accuse the prime minister of not keeping his promise is. find out when basketball's biggest star sets return to action off the longest injury to his career.

we've got plenty of wintry weather on the other side of the atlantic to nowhere near as cold it has to be said but you can see how the cloud is rolling in into western parts very complicated mess of fronts coming through missing a fair bit of rain some very strong winds add also some snow yesterday snow that made its way out of southern parts of england and wales rolling across the low countries this is brussels yes they must it'll dusting of snow it's the pleasant amount didn't cause too much trouble there is more on the way and we've already seen some heaviest snow will surfing that western side of nice good covering of snow here this is over the high ground down towards bergen in the southwest of the country not too far from stuart most eloquent as we go on into the weekend because

the wet weather as it is at the moment bumping into the cold air you can just make out over ireland first signs of that snow which is going to continue as it makes its way further east which through the next twenty four hours as i say quite a bit of snow coming in across parts of southern england through south wales right across back into the low countries will see that wintry mix just making its way through the race was over the next lots of rain also affecting a good part of france in the coming days. sponsored. short films of hope. and inspiration. series of short stories that highlight the human triumph against the odds.

al-jazeera selects. the world's largest oil company fails to become public water tap and. are the kingdom of the company inseparable here the world's largest oil producer and you don't list in the world's largest stock exchange that definitely felt something al-jazeera investigates the politics of oil the middle east most potent economic weapon. saudi arab. the company and the state on al-jazeera. come back time to recap the headlines now european leaders are setting up

a new payment system to continue trading with iran despite u.s. sanctions that will allow e.u. companies to do business with to iran using the european payment channel and avoid u.s. penalties venezuela's self-proclaimed interim leader says he's held secret meetings with members of the military and security forces he wants military chiefs to withdraw support from president nicolas maduro. at least nine people have died in extreme cold weather in the u.s. some parts of the midwest the northeastern states the deep freeze is plunged to mind those thirty degrees celsius. the u.a.e. has used spying software to hack the i phones of rival foreign leaders diplomats and activists that's according to the reuters news agency whose investigation found the u.a.e. used a special tool to spy on hundreds of people in two thousand and sixteen and two

thousand and seventeen among the targets cutters and media and human rights activists who's been awarded the nobel peace prize. as more the software is called karma a sophisticated cyber tool that can hack into i phones the united arab emirates reportedly hired former us intelligence operatives in two thousand and sixteen to use the tool against its rivals and political enemies abroad or is investigating revealed hundreds of people were targeted. so this included surveillance of dissidents journalists rivals in the region and as we found out in our story it also eventually included the americans. an i phone used by the emir of qatar shave time in vain how model tawny was half also targeted was a human rights activist known as the iron woman of yemen toko carmen became a prominent figure of yemen's arab spring and was awarded the two thousand and eleven nobel peace prize it's unclear what information was obtained this cyber tool

cannot intercept phone calls unlike similar software kharma can hack into i phones fairly quickly getting access to documents location information passwords and other sensitive material here what was really unusual is that all you needed was the person's phone number or email address and it would automatically send a text message to that person and have to click on it they need to interact with it all he would just automatically begin to infiltrate the person's i phone spying on rivals isn't new sophisticated cyber weapons however were usually limited to global super powers the digital era has broken that mold with foreign leaders now competing for the most sophisticated hacking tools and personnel. these revelations could further damage in our body strained relationship between current are in the united arab emirates which is one of the four nations that has imposed a blockade on qatar since june two thousand and seventeen by the end of that year apple said security updates to its i phones made karma less effective but with

every update hackers start working on new cyber tools to get around them and offer to their clients. simply yawn al-jazeera. let's bring in nolen girls now a technology ethicist in day in there the lindsays an assistant professor at the university of twenty good to have you with us first of all is it surprising that former u.s. intelligence officials would end up helping a monarchy to hack not only world leaders phones but to hack into the human rights activists and journalists technology right or make sense. if you think about the very name karma the idea that this would blow back against us could imagine this is concerned you know if you're helping on the side of defense you could talk yourself into it but the idea that you know how do you draw the line from defensive to off and sort of it is immediately unclear and we are forced to trust that it's the

people on the ground so it's not always that unclear i mean reading through the reuters report quoting one former projects raven is that's the name of the project and former the same person is a former n.s.a. employees talk about how difficult it was to target a sixteen year old kid. yeah it's very disconcerting the idea that again anyone just have a good eye shot because you were targeted. what n.s.a. employees being involved in a program that also targets fellow american citizens be something illegal. yes i believe so the idea that. this idea that you cannot share a confidential information across country lives but that you could share your tools your knowledge and this idea that you know we again are hoping that you obey the law but how do we actually protect against. do you expect there will be some

kind of fallout from these revelations now i think this will add to the increasing paranoia that our tools that again make up the very nature of our daily lives that are like our i phones are a source of paranoia rather than a source of trust but i mean some perhaps legal repercussions and fallout do you expect any scaling back of these sorts of projects who is that they dreaming. i think there is increasing cope that this will lead to moving away from simply trying to regulate cyber weapons to perhaps implement to get banned and thinking about cyber weapons more on par with things like biological or chemical weapons as a danger to the environment itself. all right good to get your analysis on that known and. carmakers in the u.k. are blaming brigs it for a slowdown in business foreign investment in the british car sector almost hard last year production for its biggest drop in almost ten years this emerged after

britain's prime minister's freeze the main opposition leader jeremy corbin held talks in an attempt to find common ground on the brakes the deal and the barber reports from london. westminster one day closer to break sit down and whisper it's signs of cross party efforts to find a way forward jeremy corbett leader of the opposition labor party finally held direct talks with prime minister to resume a he previously refused until she ruled out a no deal breaks it was very pleased that the house voted yesterday to take no deal off the table and the house of promise assurance that we were not back into the territory or threatening no deal as a way of getting support failed deal which is obviously got very limited support in parliament the prime minister the parliament also voted to pass to reserve raise bricks that deal if she can negotiate changes to the so-called irish backstop the house did vote to reject no deal but that cannot be the end of the story the only

way. i think i think that's the first triangle is actually that you can't just vote to reject no deal you have to vote for a deal was. well that prospect may be looming large or at least that's what the head of the european commission told the parliament in brussels from time to. pressure and. some hope that at twenty six other countries should be burned. at the last minute but this is not a game the e.u.'s chief negotiator was also resolute calling the withdrawal agreements the best and only means of avoiding a hard irish border that could threaten the historic good friday agreement. the backstop is not being dogmatic it is a realistic solution throughout the negotiations under your control we sought solutions to the problems created by brics itself in particular but not only in

ireland and while islands clearly worried about unload it dublin says some considerations trump economic interests we need a backstop or insurance mechanism based on legal certainty and not just wishful thinking for now we're left with mixed messages from the politicians here m.p.'s have said no to no deal without any clarity or consensus on how to stop it but not for this man that source was tortured for eighteen days he said the psychological abuse was the worst of british interrogator told him you'll die every day in here like a pig in your own blood and mud. with a wet blanket on my face to make it difficult to breathe and place the bucket over my head my hands were tied the british soldiers started hitting me and quipping my back and feet using turn terms on my knees they would do it in shifts evangelist

public car this was the last of the freedom fighters to fall to his death from this new sin the prison and also the youngest just nineteen years old his family stood outside the prison gates as he was executed. i felt so much pain also the whole family the first years so much anger right it gets softer over the years but it has never gone away. the scene is just outside nicosia and these pictures underline the fact that with the recent flare up of a ok activity the security forces can take no chances. every bridge is a potential danger and a likely place for a bomb to have been planned patrols on the side for hidden or suspects may themselves run into trouble they must always be on the lookout for a mine a bomb or an amber.