call peace keeping u.s. soldiers in syria for an undetermined amount of time now the question is what are the parameters of this quote unquote peace keeping force of u.s. soldiers number one and then how long will they be there that's an unanswered question as well will be one month six months a year open ended who knows we don't know the answer to that yet but what the real issue here is is this safe zone that turkey wants created in the north a safe zone that they want. the kurdish fighters to be pushed out of this area because turkey considers the kurdish these kurdish fighters to be a terrorist organization of course but the u.s. for these for the u.s. these kurdish fighters are allies for many years now in the fight against isis so this is the big question now and when the u.s. said they were going to pull out they asked their allies in europe the u.k. and france primarily to stay france and the u.k. said no we're going to leave too but now with these two hundred apparent troops staying there it'll be interesting to see if the other european allies decide to

also remain in syria as well but for now thanks very much indeed i want to bring in david there are she's an associate professor of the near east asia center for security studies previously served at the pentagon is joining us now by skype from maryland just outside washington d.c. we appreciate your time so thank you very much indeed get was explaining there this still seems like some vagueness about the actual detail of surrounding these two hundred troops what kind of message do you think washington is trying to send by leaving these troops there. well it's it's not a large number of forces so it's too small to be militarily significant so when you look at it in s.p. political politically significant and i think there's two possible messages one to the turks is that yes we are serious about protecting your interests as you see it and so we're willing to keep our forces here in order to restrain the kurdish

elements of the syrian democratic forces from align themselves with the p k k attack in turkey and i think the second message will be to the white b.g. forces which is that you're not going to be abandoned we will have a presence on the ground here to restrain the turks from attacking if they do so in extent and in practice it looks as though these guys will almost be. there as hostages to both sides to keep them on their best behavior and given your experience near and with military matters particularly with relation to the pentagon do you think that there's anything strategically on logistically that two hundred u.s. troops can actually achieve other than be as you say held hostage by both sides. well. hostage is a poor choice of words but i can't think of a better one at this point no two hundred is too small to do anything except provide liaison possible fire support maintain logistics perhaps oversee some sort

of a ongoing training but at the end of the day two hundred soldiers are not going to hold a lot of border between turkey and syria they're there more to verify that each side will hold to the terms of what they've done and american forces have the same role in the sinai peninsula between egypt and israel so we've done this before as you have again explaining the cody's troops that have had the cut issue of forces rather that have been working inside syria have played a significant role particularly in the fight against i so how do you think they are going to interpret two hundred troops being left. well before this report there were going to be no troops being left there so i think they will welcome it bear in mind you know the numbers that we have in syria is only about twenty nine hundred that is not a large number either and so they were looking at nothing i think two hundred is substantially better than nothing and you know they're there is enough in that to

provide the level of support that we're willing to provide but it certainly won't be the same numbers as we had at the height of the battle to fight isis just very briefly i want to ask you about how you think this is going to be interpreted across the border in iraq which of course has had its own issues with u.s. forces that have been training the local iraqi troops in order to deal with i so how do you think it's going to interpret what's been happening the announcement of these two hundred troops for many but the withdrawal of troops in this area. i think that will probably be seen as a positive view most people in iraq who are not in the pay of the iranians. welcome an american presence but i think there was some concern that if we withdrew to the iraqi side of the border as we had planned to do that we would be allowing the enemy to rebuild its mass in syria so to have some sort of this digital

presence even a small one i think will be welcomed they have a divorce thank you very much for indeed for joining us on al-jazeera we really appreciate it. there have been two bombings in syria in separate locations and suspected car bomb killed at least twenty people near. a just near dead as all areas held by the u.s. backed syrian democratic forces and it's close to an oil field oil workers were among those killed dozens of others were injured another suspected car bomb exploded in the city of a fiend which is under the control of a turkish backed militia at least four people are thought to have died after the blast in the city center earlier there was a military parade in the city for new free syrian army recruits and plenty more ahead on the news hour including a region on edge what's triggering fears of more violence in indian administered kashmir. u.s. prosecutors outline the detailed plans kept by a man they accuse of being a domestic terrorist. and in sports we'll tell you if the return of arsenal's

german superstar could bring them back to life in the europa league. the leader of the roman catholic church says concrete measures a needed to fight sexual abuse of children by priests pope francis has opened a historic meeting by saying it's time to heal the wounds caused by paedophilia were a challenge to ports. the vatican now acknowledges that catholicism has an existential crisis it's described this sexual abuse meeting as an attempt to restore the very credibility of the church are opening the unprecedented events on thursday pope francis said action was necessary. facing the plague of sexual abuse by the churches many against minors i thought to consult you because all together to hear the holy spirit and listen to the cry of the young

justice the way to pastor an ecclesiastic responsibility which forces us to discuss this together is a burden on our meeting about how to face this evil which afflicts the church and the whole of humanity the holy people of god are watching us and wait not just for simple and expected conviction but concrete and effective measures. senior clergy have been summoned to the vatican from all over the world francis wants bishops and cardinals to understand that sexual abuse by priests is a scandal that they all have a responsibility to stop for a lot of years the first the problem was to call them to avoid the scandal of the good name of the church now that. is not going to happen and something is changing that is a process that needs time and i told about victims of abuse like canadian leona hawkins who was abused by

a priest from the age of twelve reassured by what they've heard from the meeting so far as survivors were on the outside i'm concerned some of the things that i'm hearing coming out the bishop said this morning that we're looking for mercy for both the survivor and the perpetrator this focus should be on the survivors only on the crime of clergy abuse you know what you say may be on the outside but survivor groups like ending clergy abuse are still trying to keep up the pressure hoping that their message. getting three the phrase they keep you here is the reason i don't know why they want sex abuse to throw the priest. thing at the vatican has not produced and the people here want to be satisfied that the catholic church is really facing up to its responsibility to protect i've always really want to challenge this road. well some of the survivors of the vigil

you saw there have recounted their own stories of abuse. the trauma is too big everything takes us back to those being full moments i stopped believing in god because god would not allow this i grew up in a catholic environment i was a boy scout i served as an altar boy i was an entertainer during church summer camps and they took this all over now too many people are dying for this all this needs to be stopped the u.s. and china are trying to reach a deal that could end a seven month trade war i level talks are continuing in washington to end the standoff in washington and beijing imposed for tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods to go shares a drawing up six memorandums of understanding on issues including cyber theft agriculture and currency shihab rattansi has more from washington. first there we go she began with very rosy reports of an almost progress having been made

memorandum of understanding being hashed out on the many contentious issues between the u.s. and china with trying to also proposing to buy hundreds of billions of dollars worth of extra goods from the u.s. to reduce the trade deficit this was a framework that was being built which could actually avert a full scale trade war but then by the end of the day there was a new york times report suggesting though things were very stern that the u.s. negotiator wasn't really buying chinese promises he didn't feel that there was enough enough oversight over them keeping their promises and things weren't going terribly well perhaps background briefings were underway from different factions between the u.s. government and we're all being caught in the middle what we do know is they'll be another day of negotiation on friday including an oval office meeting that's being reported between donald trump and the chinese vice premier by that ash has called off a rescue mission in the capital dhaka so far tore through several buildings in the old town at least seventy people have died and forty others are seriously injured

barbara and gopi reports. then tat chemical cylinders some of what's left at the watch at the mansion in. the hamad alam run a stall close by the fire has changed his life and to tell about it is that my son died he was with me in the store just for the incident i told him to go home and have used in the ten minutes of day he left i heard some big noise i came out and saw a large fire off to seeing the fire i went back inside my store but i couldn't stay inside the store because they was heat generated from the fire. the area was known for its chemical warehouses and past factories but people there say that's not where the fire started it. because i lost there were several loud noises so i came out to see what was going on witnesses told me that a gas cylinder in a car in a wedding procession exploded then the fire spread towards the why did mention second floor where perfect chemicals was stored which then ignited fire fighters

have launched an inquiry exactly what happened all our. division and then throw the investigation there and find a lot of clothes just those clothes and. getting them for the five there are an estimated one thousand factories in the old part of dhaka more than eight hundred fifty of them are illegal a fire in the same area killed one hundred twenty people. since then the government has carried out raids to shut down illegal operations as recently as last month and the owner said if i'm not letting them to stop there was things here for the search for dozens of people who were trapped in the building as it. is i'm going to wait for those wanting nisa friends and relatives who are inside it is an anxious one. out to syria. tensions so high in indian administered

kashmir a week after a suicide attack against indian troops that affairs online messages from on groups on the government could trigger more violence as a mill reports from new delhi. kashmiris have been reading the latest message on twitter thought to be from the armed group his bill majid had been one of several based in indeed in mr kashmir it's in response to last week's suicide attack claimed by another group jaish e mohammed that killed at least forty one paramilitary troops the unconfirmed message says in part the coffins of your soldiers will continue to fill the days and far when our fifteen year old children will strap explosives on their bodies and barge into your army vehicle. separatist leaders in india in mr kashmir say armed groups are gaining because there's no negotiation over the disputed region this is also a huge issue for the years old twenty five years old odd becoming suicide bomb

because this is something which the which the world community has to look in that how. awful it is being pushed by the indian state many rights advocates are not surprised young people frustrated. never listened to them then you because they have that young blood they have. the social media is the name of the game this former advisor to the indian government believes the main point behind the message put on social media by armed groups is to remind the public they're still active sometimes they're claiming things sometimes they are they want to raise a banner. to show that they're still going strong these messages are keeping tensions high in kashmir and throughout india as there are fears there will be more violence and as armed groups speak out about last week's attack india's military is doing the same. on tuesday the head of indian forces in kashmir held

a news conference throughout the rest all of them out of the question here who lives at risk there are some who have done this around. these young men listen to the general's words but it's not necessarily change their minds i mean obviously people are gone you can't push people to the wall and then expect not to people to react. as the battle for hearts and minds in kashmir goes on local kashmiris continue to feel stuck in the middle of the conflict without an end in sight as jamil al jazeera you dealt. still ahead in al-jazeera minding their language we meet people in mexico who are trying to save their native tongue. applauding another big step in space what japanese explorers are and from the land they three hundred forty million kilometers away. and in sports the west indies cricket is just as himself into the record.

hello that this batch of rain is finally caring from parts of china it's been with us awhile now giving us some heavy downpours and or this is now working away towards the east behind it but it looks like it should be a draw a day for most of us as we had three friday shanghai they may still have a fair amount of tad and rain and rain into saturday though that has going to be back gathering once more so many of us are expecting another run of the so game day and again in the north of that we could expect to see a fair amount of snow the river that there was a sound still plenty of sunshine across parts of the philippines through parts of vietnam cambodia and into thailand but for the south the showers here of going over the past day or so so for some of us in somalia down through java and also through

borneo it's looking fairly wet at the moment and those showers a still looking pretty lively as we head through the day on saturday as well out towards the west in the rain here is being pretty heavy to pakistan has suffered quite badly from. the latest storm system that's now running away towards the northeast behind it is looking a lot calmer as we head through friday and into saturday new delhi that will be getting to around twenty four degrees the ship be a fair amount of brightness coming through here for the south it should also be drawing for the southern parts of india and sri sri lanka such a lanka should have a fine day that colombo getting to thirty three. the weather sponsored by qatar and. between two thousand and two thousand and seven there one million racist murders in different parts of germany but the police were painfully slow to track down the killer. al jazeera world reveals the truths about the deaths linked by a single weapon the involvement of the far right and the serious political fallout

didn't see the cheska murders case solved on al-jazeera. one of the really special things about working for al-jazeera is that even as a camera woman i get to have so much empathy and contribution to a story i feel we cover this region better than anyone else would be foolish is you know it's very challenging even in this particular because you have a lot of people that are divided on political issues. the people believe to tell the real story i'll just mandate is to deliver in-depth journalism we don't feel inferior to the audience across the globe.

we want to remind her of our top stories this hour venezuela has closed its border with brazil as president nicolas maduro stepped up his attempts to stop u.s. aid from coming in opposition leader volunteers are trying to get the first delivering in by saturday. the u.s. has confirmed two hundred troops will remain in syria after the majority of them pull out in december president donald trump announced the withdrawal surprising u.s. satellites. head of the roman catholic church says it's time to heal the wounds caused by sexual abuse of children by priests at the start of a landmark meeting in vatican city pope francis says concrete measures are needed to fight paedophilia. a judge in the u.s. has tightened the gag order against president trump's former political adviser roger stone and threaten jail time if you violates it stone was in court after posting a picture on social media which appeared to show the judge in his case in the

crosshairs of a gun stone was previously ordered not to speak publicly about the case which is related to the investigation into possible russian interference in the twenty sixteen u.s. presidential election. a u.s. coast guard lieutenant is under arrest for plotting to murder journalists and democratic politicians prosecutors say the forty nine year old man is a white supremacist it was preparing to carry out a domestic terror attack ideas or castle rip. when investigators entered the washington suburb apartment of christopher paul house and last week they discovered this cache of weapons fifteen handguns and rifles more than a thousand bullets also steere oids police say hassen had been planning to take to be a more lethal killer the sheer number and force of the weapons that were recovered from mr haskins residence in this case coupled with the disturbing nature of his

writings appear to reflect a very significant threat to the safety of our community the forty nine year old u.s. coast guard lieutenant and former marine is now under arrest on weapons and drugs charges but prosecutors say more serious charges are to come their court filings say hassen is a long time white supremacist who wish to establish a white homeland i am dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on earth he wrote in a draft email in two thousand and seventeen i think a plague would be most successful but how do i acquire the needed spanish flu botulism anthrax hasn't composed in apparent list of targets including the names of prominent media personalities and democratic lawmakers and in january use the internet to search what if trump is illegally impeached and best place in d.c. to see congresspeople with the house plans to wage an attack were thwarted hate

crimes and hate groups are on the rise in america the civil rights groups southern poverty law center says twenty eighteen saw white supremacy groups surge driven by extremists fear of losing a white majority by twenty forty four we've had a real backlash in our country to a changing demographics we've seen that in the growth of faith groups really for the last twenty years trump has exacerbated that but he didn't create it in the first place one concerning twist. to the housing case is his connection to the u.s. military the lieutenant now labeled a domestic terrorist who worked in the headquarters of the coast guard here in washington in fact he used government computers to research his targets a spokesperson for the coast guard says it was internal agents who led the investigation into hasn't but this wasn't the first time in recent months that the coast guard has been tainted by white nationalism in september twitter users

noticed an officer flashing a sign that can mean white power in the background of a televised interview the coast guard never identified the man but said his actions do not reflect those of the united states coast guard the cases while isolated expose concerns the u.s. military is fertile grounds for elements of white nationalism a growing fear in troubled times. castro al-jazeera washington tens of thousands of people have rallied across slovakia accusing the government of inaction over the death of a journalist it's one years since investigative reporter jon was shot along with his field and what prosecutors say was a contract killing has been about to publish a report alleging ties between politicians and the italian mafia four people have been indicted in connection with the murders but there's been no date set for the

trial the two main challengers to israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu have joined forces for april's election the centrist kind of it's benny gantz and you know you have lockheed will run together and the new alliance is expected to shake up the ruling party's campaign finance smith has more from west to. israel's general election in april looked like being a foregone conclusion with another victory for benjamin netanyahu could party but all that changed on thursday morning when two centrist parties one of them led by any gansa former israeli military chief of stuff these two parties joined forces to present a bloc against netanyahu is party and this bloc according to the latest polls will get around thirty four seats at most in the hundred twenty seat knesset netanyahu as party will get most thirty seats so in response to this too far right wing parties have merged and i've said they will serve in a netanyahu government after the elections and they will be given as

a reward the education and housing ministries and two seats in the cabinet and this matters because what is already widely seen as a one of the most right wing governments israel has ever had could become even more right wing one of these parties that has merged of the inheritors of robert a mere kahana he was banned thirty years ago from standing for election because of his anti arab racism and these two parties are also a strong settler bloc senegal's heading to the polls on sunday for its presidential election while there's been no televised debate some candidates have agreed to participate in a public forum to attract young voters and with the average age in senegal just eighteen securing the youth vote could be key to victory because haq reports from the capital dakar. ordinary people got a rare chance to hold a three candidates to account during an election forum. among them eighteen year

old. silver you say you are the candidate of the people but what will you do about women's rights because i can't see it in your manifesto another takes the mike. what will you do for people with disabilities we need jobs what about foreign fishing vessels another. can't compete against that how many of our men have to die at sea before the government does something about it. visibly taken aback by some of the questions each candidate have a few minutes to answer. i wanted to look at him straight in the eyes and see if i can really trust him with my future and the future of a country on stage is former tax man he's the youngest candidate in the race he just as the anti establishment candidate but for cannot a john his policies appear conservative and you have young people who think like. people who think so really i don't think it's about the age i think it's about the

vision and i think that nowadays. you have less and less people who would present a vision. to identified. born after two thousand and have lived under only two presidents during the campaign many took to social media calling for a televised debate but with incumbent president and opposition rival refusing to take part in such an event the broadcast regulator announced it cannot take place on television. even people no longer vote for candidates based on religion or ethnicity they vote for ideas that's why we need a forum like this where the senegalese are better informed and can make the right choice. since independence there have been eleven presidential elections all of them resulting in peaceful transitions of power senegal may have a long tradition of democracy and open discussion but not of public debate

organizers of this event say attitudes are changing because the many who are attending this event are first time voters and they are no longer afraid of confronting powerful politicians in public and asking them tough questions. climate change pollution unemployment or minority rights important to young cynical while politicians make promises many say they are still undecided on how to vote. nicolas hawke al-jazeera to car to sons of the mexican drug lord. facing drugs can this conspiracy charges in the u.s. . and the video goes thought to be on the run in mexico u.s. prosecutors say the brothers planned to distribute cocaine methamphetamine than marijuana from mexico to the u.s. a father was convicted in new york earlier this month and he's facing life behind bars mexico celebrating international mother tongue they bought the futures looking

bleak for diverse mix of languages sixty percent of its indigenous languages are in danger of being silenced for good john holdren reports from mexico city. mbaye is up his palace the high temple of mexican culture poet seller lena sanchez is reciting in her native tongue sabi. hj. it's part of the celebrations for international mother tongue day here it's missed specially big deal seven and a half million mcs can speak one of the country's sixty eight indigenous languages but not always well will than half of them are in danger that that will now if my language dives i'll never know how to name things how to see the world from my point of view i wouldn't be able to do that the loss of native languages hasn't happened by accident here indigenous people have historically been discriminated against even punished for speaking their languages in schools migration to cities

or the us has also taken its toll when he says he's now one of the only young people from his village in the tricky region to still play the old songs. and things have to change we shouldn't be thinking that people are less for speaking an indigenous language i want to tell the world that it's actually very valuable because it locks in all of our ancestral knowledge music and medicine the things that we've been losing myths can seem to be coming round to that point of view those taken the now what two poems hundred outburst fissures in the metro a keen to hang on to their roots but now they've got a bit of it was just it's important not to lose our traditions and languages because there are inheritance we've already almost lost them but we should teach our children to value what we have that spilled into mexico's artistic life but it hasn't necessarily got beyond this increasingly sentence and support for cope with

this one but linguistics to say that it's in the day to day that things change for example in hospital when in the genocide areas of the. lack of interpreted people coming to this is exactly what's wrong with them the same with the judicial system in which the jewish people have been sent down we don't really know what's going on in the trial those are the harder list visible changes that the new government will have to gauge with if it wants the country to continue celebrating not moving its mother turns john home in. mexico city. a japanese spacecraft has landed on an asteroid thought to be as old as our solar system there were celebrations at the exploration agency in saigon the hot us as the probe touched down and the real grow asteroid it's traveling through space three hundred forty million kilometers from the explorer is expected to return in two thousand

and twenty with samples of the asteroid it's a triumph for the scientists from the japanese space agency your group is relatively small just nine hundred meters wide but because of its rocky terrain the landing zone for the higher the two was only six meters it's the second time a spacecraft has landed on an asteroid but this is the first one that's rich in carbon offering the possibility of answers to the origins of our solar system and even life on earth but for that to happen i was a too nice now collect samples and bring them two hundred eighteen million kilometers back to earth in pristine condition when modest jones is the author of several books and space exploration he joins us from sydney thank you very much indeed for being with us it's a tremendous achievement obviously to actually be able to land the explorer on the asteroid in the first place but that's only half the battle isn't it in the they've got to bring those samples back as we say in pristine condition so they can be

studied. well this is the advantage of this mission is that so many probes go out to visit planets and asteroids but very few of them come back to the wood and the samples will be stored in a medically sealed container they've got to be dropped back and survive atmospheric reentry in a small capsule that be landing here in a straight out forwards the end of twenty twenty and then they'll be swiftly transferred to all of our tree in japan given the fact the jeffries. has been able to make such a mission this is a significant try on business for them just being able to get the explorer on to the asteroid in the first place it's very challenging partly because the terrain of the asteroid is so rugged but it's also because the gravity is very weak and it's very uneven and if you don't approach at the right

hangal or at the right speed you can file to land you can bounce off the asteroid or you can even crash so and to do this so remotely with no human intervention where the whole landing sequence is order magic was very tricky. let's assume that the whole mission is a tremendous success on the samples do return in. condition what can they teach us about the universe that we live in well in some ways it's a mission in space but it's also like a time machine like time travel because we think that some of the samples are probably in apparently pristine condition and they've probably stayed that way for millions or possibly even billions of years and so it's like seeing what the early history of the saw of the solar systems like probably before the earth itself had even formed so what we're getting inside.