resolution urging other nations to follow pitot example but how do you measure it many brits anees happiness but when shit if it is quantifiable but by simply turning its pursuit into policy bhutan has done what no other country has. we must reject the politics of revenge resistance and retribution and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation compromise and the common good. a call for unity from the u.s. president of the state of the union of the outlines his plan for the next year. and a dream thinking this is not a zero life and also coming up the u.s.

president announces a second summit with north korea's leader kim jong un at the end of this month. venezuelan opposition members in colombia the transfer desperately needed aid. and people from this story and city worst hit by days of flooding start to return home. the u.s. president donald trump has given his state of the union address calling for political unity on immigration in particular in a wide ranging speech he told republicans and democrats that they must join forces to confront what he's calling an urgent national crisis congress has until february fifteenth to end its deadlock over funding for a border war with mexico to avoid another government shutdown. i stand here ready to work with you to achieve historic breakthroughs for all americans

millions of our fellow citizens are watching us now gathered in this great chamber hoping that we will govern not as two parties but as one nation i thank . the asia and i will lay out this evening is not a republican agenda or a democrat agenda it's the agenda of the american people stacy abrams who lost her bid to become the first black female governor of georgia last year delivered the democratic response to the president's state of the union address and she used it to criticize trump's immigration policy this it ministration chooses to cage

children and tear families apart compassionate treatment at the border is not the same as open borders president reagan understood this president obama understood this americans understand this and democrats stand ready to effectively secure our ports and borders but we must all embrace that from agriculture to health care to entrepreneurship america's made stronger by the presence of immigrants not walls let's go live now to capitol hill our white house correspondent kelly holcomb is there of course kimberly congress now controlled by the democrats that was the official democratic response we heard there just a moment ago from stacy abrams one of how of others reacted. very different political dynamics in front of the house of representatives now controlled by democrats the senate still controlled by republicans but certainly

were as they were all together there in that one chamber of the house of representatives sitting side by side donald trump sort of made an effort to reach out and try and work towards unity recognizing this is a very divided nation under his presidency but it doesn't appear that that seemed to work some of the sort of early reaction to the president's speech on social media bernie sanders former presidential candidate of course called some of the arguments the president made particularly with respect to his call for a ban on late term abortion he called this a repeated extreme anti-woman attack a coordinated attack on a woman's right to choose chuck schumer the top democrat in the u.s. senate saying that he called donald trump stupid the dress a warm up act for the real thing that people need to watch in the united states and that was the democratic rebuttal by stacy abrams nancy pelosi said that it will

take days to fact check all the misrepresentations of donald trump state of the union address adam schiff top ranking democrat on the house or rather the now the chair of the house intelligence committee calling don't try a speech fear division falsehoods not hope and unity so it appears that donald trump started his speech much as he ended it calling for choosing american greatness appealing for unity but it doesn't appear that many people were buying some of the arguments you made in order to get to that goal given that many thanks indeed as you were saying president trump. while he sounded different at times during that stage of the union address he continued more or less the same rhetoric when it comes to immigration and his desire for a border wall he urged congress to find some sort of compromise on immigration that seems more determined than ever to acquire the funding for that area between mexico and the u.s. . in the past most of the people in this room voted for

a wall but the proper wall never got built i will get it built the m this is a smart strategic see through steel barrier not just a simple concrete wall it will be deployed in the areas identified by the border agents as having the greatest need and these agents will tell you. where walls go up illegal crossings go away way down let's take you live out of the city of calexico something california on the border with mexico and as soon as rob reynolds is that simply put the president said rob rules work and bulls save lives. a bit of sniggering here in the studio when he said that he wanted to build a see through steel beriah how can a steel barrier be b.c.

through but it's very similar of the one the that you're standing in front of right now isn't it. that's right that's exactly right adrian this is a wall that has been here for a number of years now it is a series of steel slats and fencing. and it is topped with razor wire which is a new feature that is been added over the past couple of months people here in calexico take issue with president trump's depiction of the border as a sort of savage crime wasteland confrontational place and they say in fact here in calexico they have deep and strong economic and family and social ties with their sister city across the the fence mexicali it's interesting the president in his speech many people

were listening carefully to see if he would lay down an ultimatum about the border war whether he would threaten to shut the government down again or to he or whether he would hint at declaring a national emergency in order to secure the funding for the border wall but he did neither instead he rehashed a lot of rhetoric that he is deployed in the past about a surge of crime gang members sex traffickers drugs and so on surging across the mexican border into the united states. but he framed the border wall as something that he wanted rather than something that he demanded it wasn't framed as give me the money for the wall or else. as a candidate of course president trump of often said that he would build a wall

a concrete wall and barrier from one end of the border to the other completely is since backed off from that you heard him say that it would be a see through steel barrier built only in places where the border patrol said it was necessary also as a candidate for president from said that mexico would pay for the wall he never talks about that anymore now it is. also in the recent past president trump has said and demanded that democrats give him the money for the wall but he didn't do that this time so it seems that the president is steadily retreated on what was really the signature issue in his twenty sixteen election campaign and it's not clear any longer where he goes for it from here on that issue from many thanks. rice let's move on during his address to u.s.

president confound the hold a second summit with north korea's leader kim jong un at the end of this month a two day meeting in vietnam will begin on february the twenty seventh bryant reports from seoul. after their first historic meeting in singapore all now looks set for round two a time since last june the processes appeared to stall with fears it could collapse altogether but both leaders appear so keen to meet again that in recent weeks a second summit has seemed a certainty. kim jong un is looking very forward to what. made a lot of progress that has not been reported by what we have seen a lot of progress. just how much we will soon find out negotiators from both sides have been meeting knowing the next summit will have to produce something of substance following criticism that

singapore was little more than a photo opportunity it probably won't be anything big maybe the decommissioning of some nuclear facilities under international monitoring in return for the security guarantees that north korea craves and just possibly some relief from sanctions after the stalemate of the past half year anything that moves the process forward will counter success even partial binya collusion or freezing it's a better then or to bring nothing test though waiting for ever for north korea to agree on completing which is almost impossible for a totalitarian regime whether this process is moving towards full denuclearization the more immediate need for trump and kim seems to be maintaining the narrative that it is. with us now live in seoul rob first singapore now

vietnam why vietnam. it is an interesting choice adrian it's a neutral location that's acceptable to both sides there's also so amount of symbolism associated with vietnam of course this is a former photo of the united states with whom it now has normalized relations and an economy that is booming it has in the past few decades opened up its economy to the outside world much as north korea says it wants to do to help raise people's living standards as a result of that though the communist party of vietnam has not been weakened if anything it's been strengthened following very much the chinese model of state controlled capitalism so it does show a model for north korea to follow follow forward in more practical logistical terms and north korea has embassy in hanoi its one of its few remaining communist allies

in the world and also it has the kind of locations that can be secured for a summit or there's a very strong state control there are very strong law enforcement agencies there that can decide that this block will be sealed off this road will be closed for the dignitaries to meet attended by of course the thousands of media that will be descending on vietnam and now making plans for this forthcoming summit quite frustratingly though for the media we don't know yet whether it is going to be denying the beach resort halfway up the coast of vietnam or hanoi itself or lots of media organizations around the world ourselves included waiting to make those hotel bookings and flight bookings and not knowing exactly where we're headed all right rob many thanks indeed been brought there live in seoul. weather update next here on out to zero then with temperatures plunging into iraq there are urgent calls to

protect children living in displacement camps and standing in nights ahead leaders from africa south whole region call for more help from the un in their struggle against armed groups. however we've got something which changes the weather making its way across the eastern side of the mediterranean pushing into the levant increasing coude will spill and doesn't see about of a moment make the most of it because as we go on through wednesday here comes the cloudy comes the right some heavy downpours there into syria lebanon jordan right the way down into israel twenty one celsius in beirut pushing lads' a similar temperature twenty degrees there for baghdad folk you a city. but at least is staying dry and some dry weather coming back into kabul the temperatures struggling to get around three or four over the next couple of days

pakistan now twenty celsius there and karate temp just to fall away on the other side of the region that by rated around eighteen celsius that cloud that rain that disturbed weather with some snow across the east the positive i will make his way in temperatures starting to fall back to just have been falling a touch here across iraq in peninsula twenty three celsius. but there is some pleasant sunshine said feeling pretty good by the day tom little bit of cloud just creeping its way into northern parts of saudi arabia from the event with some outbreaks of brian always a possibility that some right around the eastern side of south africa recently that's making its way further north. every weekly news sankoh brings a seemingly simple breaking story and that of course is donald trump told through the eyes of the outstanding that's right out of

a hamas script that calls for the annihilation of israel that is not what that phrase means at all listening post as we turn the cameras on the media focus on how they were caught on the stories that matter the most in battle is a free palestine a listening taste on al-jazeera. again this is al jazeera a reminder of the main news the u.s. president donald trump has used his state of the union address to pull for political unity a host of issues including immigration in a wide ranging speech he told republicans and democrats that they must join forces to confront what he's calling

a security crisis on the border with tax trump also confirmed that he'll hold a second summit with north korea's leader kim jong il and at the end of this month the two day meeting in vietnam will begin on february twenty seventh the president has been seeking another summit to firm up north korea's commitment to denuclearize asia. for those waiters opposition politicians are in colombia preparing for the transfer of aid and supplies from the u.s. trucks were sent after a request for help myself to play an interim president on why do it's unclear if military forces who remain loyal to president nicolas maduro will allow the aid into the country there is a ball report style from caracas. employee said bismuth hospital in the capital get access say they are in desperate need of aid. they say their hospital urgently needs basic medicines and medical equipment they say the venezuelan government shouldn't get in the way of international aid entering the country. only. this

hospital had the best doctors the business is the best of everything and now we are seeing a complete deterioration with shortages of medicine food for patients and cleaning products the self declared interim president why though says the president. is illegitimate he's pushing for legislation in the opposition controlled national assembly to be passed to remove the roadblocks on humanitarian aid members of the national assembly say that they would like to create a humanitarian corridor composed of ngo's religious groups and doctors that will allow the aid to reach those who need it the most but it won't be easy because the government says that the humanitarian aid is a political show by the opposition that will allow the united states to intervene in the country where. he's in charge of coordinating the push for aid in the national assembly he says is wrong. though it is not only the

united states that is an evolved it is the leymah group that meter canada nobody can cite justin trudeau is the extreme right or pedro cinches and spain i want to see the message to the world venus why this constitutional order is broken we won legislative elections and i took our wife from us we asked for a referendum and they did not want it they do not want to get out of power what we are offering is not a liberation army just the ability to choose our future and a new election in the same building but in another room met the rival constituent assembly the legislative body created by the government two years ago to redraft the constitution now it is proposing to call for legislative elections to replace the opposition controlled parliament mandate expires next. here i you know he said you are going to go to the opposition want to lecture and so we could call for legislative elections because parliament is controlled by the extreme right at that stage in a coup they are the only power that has not been revalidated recently. and that

sentiment was shared by supporters of. hoof around at the national assembly building during the session. if one way the once the chair then you can buy it at the store because here no one would allow him to sit on the presidential seat a political crisis where nobody really knows how or when it is going to end the. rival factions from central african republic of signed an initial deal to end six years of fighting an agreement between c.i.s. governments and fourteen rebel groups was reached on sunday after two weeks of un lead negotiators in sudan a more detailed agreement is due to be signed in sales capital bangui on wednesday thousands have been killed and millions displaced in fighting between christian and muslim militias since twenty thirteen hundred volt reports from car too. the government of the central african republic and fourteen rebel leaders have signed

a peace agreement that has been long in the making difficult negotiations for over a week here in the sudanese capital khartoum the heads of state of sudan and the central african republic have attended the signing with initials here today the final signing will be on wednesday in the capital bangui the capital of the central african republic but what distinguishes this agreement is that it is a it is the fruit of first time head to head face to face negotiations between the rebel leaders and the government of the central african republic eet is labeled an agreement of peace and reconciliation and it is going to open the door for a unity government in that country and also for an honesty to that i believe is that amnesty to that of leaders has been a sticking point in the negotiations so all the parties to the this conflict and the sponsors i hope that this time around this agreement will hold and it will

bring final peace to the people of the central african republic five countries from africa said whole region of the past the united nations for help in the fight against armed groups leaders of the king of mali mauritania and this year made the plea for money and other aid at a summit in capital attacks by armed groups have surged in the region since chaos engulfed libya in two thousand and eleven the meeting coincided with military raids on book universal's border of the two a turks left nineteen people dead and serious nicholas harker's monitoring events from dakar senegal. this is a region where there is no physical front chair it's a region used to nomadic herders that come across into brick so in search of food and water no one has been able to independently verify the circumstances of the death that occurred during this operation but it's certainly a small victory for the brick in

a fire so army that have come under attack they say it's in response to an attack on villagers late on sunday night where armed men went house to house killing villagers and it comes just days before the start of the u.s. training operation flintlock that will take place in brooklyn a fast now what's clear is that this conflict that started in a region of mali is spilling outside of its border across the region into neighboring countries and. has suffered the most loss but this comes as a victory for the forces in brooklyn a far so who are facing what it seems an unending conflict egypt's parliament is advancing plans to let. on as president six years to the end of his term and twenty twenty two the proposal still has to pass several legislative hurdles before becoming a constitutional amendment opposition figures fear that it may be

a sign of the country slipping back into or through tarion ism eight years after the overthrow of hosni mubarak during the arab spring. is associate professor of political science at long island university and says the president could even be in power until twenty thirty four. it's not a surprise and remember this is a president i came into power through a coup solving one of the bloodiest massacres in egypt's history she has systematically consolidated power around himself virtually decapitating the judiciary the security services have really purchased most of the media outlets there is no independent journalism in egypt and we're seeing right now is that the parliament has become a rubber stamp on his authority and so it's not a surprise that he would be extending term limits or that there would be an extension of his term but that the only question was when it was going to happen and so now we have this proposal that was already approved by one fifth of the

parliament which is all it needed and so we have this proposal that will go to some sort of vote in the coming months in the summer time probably and all it needs is two thirds approval and that they've already secured according to many parliamentarians and so this will pass and so the terms will go from four to six hears and virtually meaning that there will be some kind of special accommodation made for president sisi so that he remains president until twenty thirty four ironically enough in twenty thirty four if he will be eighty years old very similar to the age that mubarak was when he was removed from office the eighth anniversary which is just next week and so are having this display of a show of extreme executive power coming upon this moment when the ears ago egyptians were actually celebrating change and so we're seeing today is not only has egypt regressed to pre-revolutionary moments but it's actually consolidating

through this constitutional amendment if it indeed goes to a referendum and votes in a boat and in the summer that we are way worse than we were under mubarak. the un has warned of dire consequences if war isn't done to protect children in iraq unicef says the harsh winter could be fatal to some of the one hundred fifty thousand children in displacement camps it's also calling for more money to be spent on education matheson reports from back that. some of these children may not live through the plunging temperatures of iraq's winter. the un's children's agency is warning that those already weakened by hypothermia and disease after severe flooding in november might not survive the horrors cold and here. we need a lot to be done health is the lifeline of our society but we're not seeing much happening people organize rallies but our calls are falling on deaf ears unicef

says iraq spends just under six percent of its annual budget on education even though many young children are determined to go to school. schools open across the city of mosul our school is one of several which have more than six hundred students we can barely cope with unicef says there have been big improvements when it comes to health care the children it says that less than one percent of children die in childbirth and that's because eighty five percent are now hockey in hospitals it also says that ninety two friends of the rockies children like these children at this kindergarten in baghdad are likely to go into primary school but he says that number drops significantly when they get to secondary school state particularly in areas which have been badly affected by college. according to unicef in areas such as the northern province of nineveh province to the south only one child in every form goes to secondary school instead many have to work to help

support their families there must've challenges of it if the situation continues as it is today in iraq the children of the future will. i have very little future how are you going to play today so they have a future for tomorrow how you going to invest in them so they can aspire for a future a future that they are part of the government has set up a three hundred million dollars fund to help the poorest people in areas hardest hit by conflict but unicef insists more needs to be done to stop children like these becoming iraq's last generation rob matheson al-jazeera backdown. flood water is beginning to recede in some parts of northeastern australia which is seen some of the heaviest rainfall in recent memory new flood warnings that have been issued some residents are now returning to their homes to assess the damage and zeros under thomas has more from the city of townsville where thousands of

homes were submerged this is what you see in front of houses all live at townsville now the floodwaters have largely gone down but anything that people weren't able to get out of their house in time things like fresh raises well there aren't that whiting to be picked up as rubbish well this house belongs to kevin martin. you've been clearing up your place all day kevin help it so i can see everything on the ground was really how high was the water and probably are from right around man for now you know i came up pretty quick and it didn't come up with out things that there was. spiders you know i meant it came with it you saw us night i did that and i was eight o'clock at night it was back there at a small lot and a different relation when it disappeared so as you're clearing out if you are watching which happens you know i was feeling left and. right and i read there is always a man or a python and i know you were able to get sentimental items and electronics you know it was very nice rifle it's just finely anything to it was only grain yeah right

trade and a whole idea is just you know what you get everything swelling up again and i think the clearing bedrooms that you have to carry mattresses you ripping up the carpets i guess you need to dry out everything before you can even start thinking about replacing but you aren't sure yes or yeah good luck good luck with the cleanup this is a situation being repeated all over townsville on the wednesday the worst of the rain . has moved south but still wet and there's a lot of cleaning up today. to tell you with the same dream for to get here in the headlines and i'll just hear a u.s. president donald trump has used his state of the union address to call for political unity on a host of issues including immigration it worried ranging speech he told republicans and democrats they must join forces to confront what he's calling

a security crisis on the border with mexico congress has until february fifteenth to end its deadlock over funding for a border wall to avoid another government shutdown. i stand here ready to work with you to achieve historic breakthroughs for all americans millions of our fellow citizens are watching us now gathered in this great chamber hoping that we will govern not as two parties but as one nation was the us president also confirmed that he will hold a second summit with north korea's leader kim jong il and at the end of this month the two day meeting in vietnam will begin on february twenty seventh trumpet been seeking and other summits to phone up north korea's commitment to denuclearization but as wayland opposition politicians in korea are in colombia preparing for the

transfer of aid and supplies from the u.s. trucks were sent off at the request of us for help by self declared interim president on white or egypt parliament is advancing plans to let abdul fattah el-sisi stay on as president well beyond the end of his term in twenty twenty two moves raising fears of increasing authoritarianism eighty years after the overthrow of hosni mubarak rival factions from central african republic of signed an initial deal to end six years of fighting and agreement between the government and fourteen rebel groups was reached on sunday after two weeks of un led negotiations a more detailed agreement is due to be signed in the cia os capital will be late on wednesday five countries from africa's a hell region have asked the united nations for help in the fight against armed groups and those are the headlines will have more news on syria after this week's edition of the listening post next. in recent years the sawhill of north africa has witnessed the so-called war on terror.

but is this official narrative. masking a larger a battle. a battle for the earth's natural resources. shadow war in the sahara on how much is. tremendous when opposition leader one guy go declared himself the country's the right man as well as battle president nicolas my little accusing me question. to force of rock of god. i'm on the right sort of right now but it's about almost has served two presidents. hello i'm richard burton you're the listening post here are some of the stories that we're covering this week a coup take shape in qatar washington is supporting it and the u.s. news media who are usually.