welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is duncan golestani. our top stories: the us shutdown stand—off continues. senators postpone a vote that could have seen the reopening of the federal government. turkey's advance — troops cross into syria, targeting kurdish groups who'd been fighting the so—called islamic state. turkey is clearly committed militarily to this operation and has widespread popular support here, but if the turks suffer losses or civilian casualties grow, that could change. at least 18 people are now known to have died in saturday's attack on a hotel in kabul. most of them were foreigners. leaving the biggest till last — more than a million people attend an open air mass as the pope ends his tour of peru. hello.

welcome to the programme. the us senate has agreed to postpone a vote on ending the us government shutdown to noon on monday — that's i7oogmt. the vote will be on a stopgap spending measure. but in the meantime, the federal government will remain closed as the working week begins. the failure of the majority republicans and minority democrats to reach agreement on friday meant that much of the federal government shut up shop, with hundreds of thousands of federal employees facing uncertainty as monday morning approaches. both sides are blaming each other with divisions over military spending and immigration policy. our correspondent david willis gave me the latest from washington. there was to have been a vote in the early hours of monday morning, duncan, which has now been postponed. members of the senate are heading home and they come back

onto the floor of the senate chamber at 10am, and there will be a vote at midday. basically, the republicans are offering funding of an olive branch to the democrats who have wanted to see the fate of the so—called dreamers, that's the 800 or so people who were brought to this country illegally, through no fault of their own, they are facing deportation in march. mitch mcconnell, the senate majority leader, basically proposed a shorter stopgap finance measure and gave a pledge to take up the plight of the dreamers thereafter on the senate floor, if, indeed, theirfate had not been discussed in the meantime. chuck schumer, the minority leader, the democrat leader in the senate, rejected that. they will now come back, as i say, tomorrow. what is basically happening is the members of the senate have

gone away to sleep on it, if you like, and clearly with both sides talking, there is now some hope of a compromise being reached but we will have to wait and see. it is brinkmanship, of course. it will be day three of the federal government shutdown, and, of course, on monday, a few hours from now, it will actually really start to bite because the federal government doesn't really operate at the weekend but come monday, we will see it starting to bite with some government offices closed and some government workers not getting paid, duncan. yes, what will that actually mean for the workers? will they go into work or will they be told that they are not needed? we are told that non—essential government workers will be told to stay at home. now, there were about 800,000 of them, back in 2013, the last government shutdown,

who got that message. they don't get paid while the government is in shutdown, although they are subsequently paid retrospectively. it is very damaging, potentially, for the economy which has been doing very well — president trump, of course, has made a lot of the fact that the us economy is in a very strong position at the moment. any sort of government shutdown doesn't help with that. meanwhile, he is being accused of not doing enough, despite the fact that he spent the weekend in the building behind me, to actually solve this impasse. new york governor andrew cuomo says the statue of liberty will reopen on monday, despite the us government shutdown extending into the working week. the governor said emergency state funding would be used to allow the landmark monument to reopen, even if dozens of other national parks and monuments remained closed.

tomorrow, it is going to be open and running as normal. i also think in many ways, the statue of liberty is symbolic for what's going on right now in washington. the issue is about immigration. the concept of closing the doors to immigrants is repugnant to the concept of america. the un security council is due to discuss on monday the worsening crisis in syria, with turkey opening up a new front against kurdish militia in the north of the country. the militia, the ypg, are backed by the united states for helping in the fight against islamic state militants, but they are viewed by turkey as a terrorist organisation. from the turkey—syria border, mark lowen reports. as if syria needed more of this. artillery fire from turkey, launching a new ground and air offensive.

it's called 0peration olive branch, though it's anything but a gesture of peace. from the air, turkish f—16s struck yesterday. their target — the syrian kurdish militia, or ypg. turkey sees them as terrorists, linked to the outlawed pkk who have long fought an insurgency in turkey on behalf of the kurdish minority. and it wants them pushed back from the border town of afrin. turkey's president has his own troops fighting for their hero and with elections next year, war rallies his support base. translation: this is a national struggle. and in this national struggle, we will crush anyone who stands against us. that's a message that resonates in border villages, where grape grower 0mer gazel and his friends watched the jets. translation: we felt proud and happy as they took off. everyone came out to bid them farewell.

but the ypg has backing, too, both in syria, where kurds rallied today, and beyond. translation: we condemn the attack on afrin, and we tell our brothers there that they are in our hearts, and that we are with them. because of the bravery of the ypg heroes, we will win the battle in afrin. the us armed them in the fight against the islamic state group, infuriating turkey. france, too, voiced support for them today, calling on turkey to pull back. but the turks are ploughing on. this unverified footage posted on pro—government media aiming to prove turkey's military might. in the hills beside the border, we found a further build—up, as the offensive shows no sign of ending. reinforcements are perched here, a show of strength, ready to back up the ground troops and fighterjets

already inside syria. every few minutes, you hear the thud of an artillery strike. turkey has clearly committed militarily to this operation and it has widespread popular support here. but if the turks suffer losses or civilian casualties grow, that could change. and the risk is clear. this border town was hit by a rocket, said to be from the ypg, killing one and injuring more. turkey is on dangerous ground, and a likely long, costly offensive is onlyjust beginning. authorities in afghanistan say 18 people, including 1a foreigners, are now confirmed dead after gunmen attacked a luxury hotel in kabul. afghan troops fought through the night, over more than 12 hours, to free those trapped inside. the taliban says it carried out the attack. zia shahreyar has the story. the final moments of a fight that had lasted all night.

gunfire and explosions as afghan special forces battle to regain control of the intercontinental hotel. 0ne soldier throws a grenade. he moves away, then the explosion. the room is soon on fire — evidence of the struggle that had taken place. the afghan national flag waving from the roof proof that the building has been reta ken. we are in the area. you can see the hotel intercontinental on the hill in kabul, and as you can see, it was burned, part of the hotel was burned and black smoke has blackened the southern part of the hotel. more than 150 people, including some foreigners, were inside yesterday evening when gunmen burst in and opened fire. eyewitnesses said they

were afterforeigners. translation: the attackers were knocking on the door of each room, trying to reach their targets. they killed ordinary people and officials. they were also targeting foreigners. these images, filmed by local tv, showed people escaping by climbing down bed sheets that they'd tied to balconies. this telecoms engineer fell from the sixth floor as he tried to get away. translation: when the sixth floor caught fire this morning, my room—mates told me to either burn or escape. i got a bed sheet and tied it onto the balcony. i tried to come down but i was heavy and my arms were not strong enough. i fell down and injured my shoulder and leg. this sustained and complex assault will prompt urgent questions as to how the gunmen got through. in australia, 16 passengers have

been injured after a train failed to stop as it came into a station in sydney. emergency helicopters and fire crews were sent to the crash. more from our correspondent, hywel griffith. the normally quiet suburban emergency workers rushed to help the injured and assess the damage. the train was reaching the end of the line when it failed to stop, an eyewitness described seeing passengers being thrown into the air as it hit the buffers. there were initial fears that some passengers we re initial fears that some passengers were trapped in the front courage but paramedics were able to reach all of the injured with 15 people needing hospital treatment. at least one person has suffered a broken leg but most of the injuries are thought to be minor. some have described the loud bang as the collision happened

with the fourth enough to shake nearby buildings. an investigation will now try to work out why the train failed to stop and consider whether cheques will be needed. hywel griffith, bbc news, sydney. after months of deadlock, germany has moved a step closer to forming a new government. the centre—left social democratic party has voted to enter into new coalition talks with chancellor merkel‘s conservative bloc. at a party meeting in bonn, the spd‘s martin schulz urged many sceptical delegates to press ahead, describing a new coalition as the best way to combat hard right politics in europe. angela merkel welcomed the development. translation: the (du already cleared the way for coalition talks last week. after concluding the exploratory talks, now we are pleased and welcome that the spd did so today at its congress. today, we are preparing for this coalition negotiation. tomorrow, within the cdu, we will work together, and then quickly enter into joint discussion with the social democrats.

that's what today's decision of the spd allows. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: for a second day, women around the world have been on the march. in las vegas, they're protesting donald trump's presidency and trying to persuade more women to stand for office. the people of saigon have just heard that, at last, there is to be a ceasefire. the reaction of american servicemen was predictable. i'm going home. demonstrators waiting for mike getting and his rebel cricket team were attacked with tear gas and set upon by police dogs. anti—apartheid campaigners say they will carry on the protests throughout the tour.

they called him the butcher of lyon. klaus altmann is being held on a fraud charge in bolivia. but the west germans want to extradite him for crimes committed in wartime france. there, he was the gestapo chief klaus barbie. millions came to bathe as close as possible to this spot, a tide of humanity that is believed by officials to have broken all records. welcome back. this is bbc news. our top story this hour. us senators have postponed a vote until monday afternoon that could have seen the reopening of the federal government. let's stay with that story then. watching the shutdown in washington is sahil kapur, national political reporter for bloomberg politics. i asked him how the shutdown will affect public opinion of the two main parties.

usually what happens during government shutdowns is the president belongs to one party and one or both chambers of congress are controlled by the other party. that is what happened in the shutdowns under 0bama, bill clinton and ronald reagan. those are the presidents in the modern budgeting era where this has happened. this is the first time in the united states where a party that controls the white house, the senate and the house, the republican party, has overseen a shutdown. this time it could work differently. the republicans usually blame the party that is leading congress and not the president, at this time they are one and the same. not looking great for republicans. having said that, the democrats having used their minority power in the senate to prevent legislation from passing. democrats are not without some blame in this as well. what do you make of president trump's role in all this? he seems to be taking

quite a back seat? the shutdown happened in three stages, essentially, democrats linked the fate of about 700,000 people brought to the country illegally as children to government funding, they used that deadline as leverage to provide legal status for them. they will be in limbo after march 5th due to a decision made by president trump. but the republican leaders in congress are not signing off on any deal to normalise their status without approval from the president on such a deal, he has been too indecisive to make that deal, so we are at an impasse. you brought up the immigration issue, the so—called dreamers, the children of immigrants who came here illegally. is this a dangerous issue for the democrats, do you think? because we have already seen republicans trying to portray them as putting immigrants over national security and veterans. a couple of different dimensions to that. the issue of the dreamers, as they are called here, is a very sympathetic

one to american voters. about 80%, sometimes as high as 90% of american voters believe they should be allowed to stay here and have their status normalised. and not have to be deported. having said that, there was a poll that came out recently that found that by a 22 point margin the american public is not in favour of shutting down the government over any issue. as they are not in favour of shutting it down over any issue, there is some danger in both directions. thousands of women have been demonstrating in las vegas, in the latest protest to mark the anniversary of president trump's inauguration. rallies have already taken place this weekend in other us cities and in europe. in las vegas, women are being urged to register to vote ahead of this year's mid—term us elections. rajini vaidya nathan reports. all the way from paris to london, to las vegas,

i'm empowered and i'm ready to get people talking about these issues and get people excited about them. a year into donald trump's presidency and the focus isn't just on the man himself, but his policies. many believe his immigration plans and cuts he has made to abortion funding and contraception access adversely affect women. he's pushing to make birth control less accessible for women. you know, it isjust ridiculous how he is supposed to be for the people but he's against the people, he's against everyone that is here and that is why i'm here today. in the wake of the metoo movement and a growing conversation around equal pay, many are here to fight on other issues. for amy, who came here today

with her five—year—old daughter, charlie, this is personal. for 12 years, i was a victim of domestic violence that my children observed, now i am free, finally, thank goodness. through no help of the systems that were meant to protect us, and i am here to hope that the world will listen and we can create systemic change to help little girls like charlie and myself. and one way organisers think that change can happen is by getting more women to register to vote and even to run for office. they‘ re channelling their energy on this year's mid—term congressional elections, the state of nevada was picked for this rally because it's a swing state with a senate seat democrats believe they can win back from the republicans. there may be thousands of women here protesting donald trump, but don't forget that he won the election with a majority of white women voters, and many of those think he is doing a greatjob for women. and so, like so many issues here in the united states, even that of women's rights

is one where this country is deeply divided. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news now. six people have been killed during opposition protests in the capital of the democratic republic of congo. police used teargas and live ammunition to disperse demonstrators in kinshasa. they were demanding presidentjoseph kabila give up power. mr kabila's term of office expired more than a year ago. north korean officials have been inspecting winter olympic venues in south korea. it's the first such trip by a delegation from the north

since south korean president moon jae—in took office last may. sophia tran—thomson has this report, which does contain some flash photography. the symbolic torch is already doing the rounds in south korea, but with less than three weeks until the opening ceremony of pyeongchang's winter olympics, there's been plenty of speculation that the north wouldn't be taking part. on sunday, a sigh of relief for organisers and athletes, as a north korean delegation crossed the border under heavy police guard. the officials, led by north korean girl band star hyon song—wol, will spend two days inspecting venues and preparing culture performances. boarding a train in seoul, the representatives avoided answering questions about why they'd previously postponed a visit. regardless, the trip is somewhat of a breakthrough after a year of escalating tension over the north's nuclear missile programme, and a milestone announcement from the ioc in switzerland on saturday confirming that the two nations will march together at the opening ceremony and compete under a unified

korean flag. the north will send 22 athletes to the winter games and compete in three sports and five disciplines. translation: north korea's participation in the winter olympics will present the most dramatic scene in the history of the olympics. it can be a chance to show the value and power of sport when players from two koreas march together and compete as a unified team. seoul and the organisers hope that the games, which they're calling the peace 0lympics, could ease tensions with their northern neighbours, who they have never officially made peace with since the korean war ended in armistice in 1953. pope francis has finished his south american tour with a call for people from all walks of life to tackle corruption. speaking to bishops in the peruvian capital, lima, he said politics on the continent had become diseased because of bribery and corruption.

andrew plant reports. waiting to the crowds in peru, the pope on his final day of his visit to south america which began in chile a week before. very happy, today is my birthday and it was a gift to be here. i feel so excited, you can't imagine. what you feel is excitement. this affection people give for the pope, i do not have words to explain it. it was very special and one of a kind, i feel very moved by this whole event. pope francis celebrated mass on sunday afternoon, the final few hours before flying back to rome. translation: thank you for being here, thank you for praying for this trip to be a blessing for the peruvian people. to all of you, thank you very much. meeting with bishops earlier in the day, he talked about global politics, saying latin america faced a crisis of corruption.

he's previously called corruption the "gangrene of society". there was controversy on the trip too, before his arrival, catholic churches were attacked, thought to be a protest over poverty and ancestral land ownership in chile. and he has had to address an ongoing scandal over sexual abuse in the catholic church here. pope francis ended his tour with a mass at a military base in lima, his popularity ensuring crowds of tens of thousands of people. but with many using his visit to highlight their grievances too. andrew plant, bbc news. let's get a reminder of our top story now. the us senate has agreed to postpone a vote on ending the us government shutdown to noon on monday, local time. that's 1700 gmt. the vote will be on a stopgap spending measure, but in

the meantime, the federal government will remain closed as the working week begins. the failure of the majority republicans and minority democrats to reach agreement on friday meant that much of the federal government shut up shop, with hundreds of thousands of federal employees facing uncertainty as monday morning approaches. before we go, some pictures to show you of priests in poland taking part in their annual skiing competition. the clerics are timed over a slalom course at wisla, in southern poland. cassocks are optional, though as you can see, most of the priests kept them on. the competition, we're told, is designed to show people it's important notjust to pray, but also to take exercise and to compete with honesty. to the watching bbc news. thank you for watching. —— you are watching.

hello there. a very different feel to the weather over the next few days. the transition began during sunday, some northern and eastern areas stuck below freezing through the afternoon, with some snow. down to the south—west, it was much milder. skip ahead to tuesday, and all of us will be into that mild air, which is moving in our direction on this south—westerly wind, having more of an influence across the british isles as we go through the next couple of days. this monday morning starts off on a much milder note for most. still possibly some icy stretches across parts of north—east england and eastern scotland, but many places starting the day with significantly higher temperatures. one area of rain perilously close to parts of south—west england, along the south coast as well. but that rain will be clearing off very quickly, and then essentially across england and wales, through the day, we're looking at large areas of cloud and a sunny spells. just one or two showers across parts of north—west england, and still the potentialfor some icy stretches across parts of north—east

england, just through the first part of the morning. showers packing in across scotland but look at the temperatures, five, six degrees in edinburgh and glasgow. we didn't get anywhere near that even through the middle of the afternoon on sunday. northern ireland, starting off mainly dry — pretty cloudy but some sunny breaks, and we'll see some sunny breaks developing across wales, and the west midlands, as well. rain in the south will disappear into the near continent very quickly through the morning. we'll keep some showers going across northern scotland. it will be windy here. but generally speaking, not a bad day. the cloud breaking up to give some sunshine, and those temperatures much higher than they were on sunday — in many places at 6—11 degrees. during monday night, things are pretty quiet. the south—westerly winds continuing to bring the milder air in our direction. some outbreaks of rain pushing into western areas. 3—9 degrees, those are your starting temperatures for tuesday morning. and really, on tuesday, it is all about us being

in the thick of this mild air, pumping all the way up from the south—west. tuesday the mildest day of the week for many of us, but that doesn't mean it'll be wall—to—wall sunshine, not by any means. some outbreaks of rain, perhaps the south—west. best chance of any brightness to the east of high ground. it'll be windy, but very mild. 10 degrees in glasgow, 13 the high in london. now, a bit of a change on wednesday. we're going to bring a cold front southwards and eastwards. a band of heavy rain, strong winds as well, and that will start to reintroduce some slightly cold air. i say slightly colder — yes, the end of the week will feel a little bit chillier, but nothing like as cold as it has been. this is bbc news. the headlines: the united states senate has postponed a vote until midday, local time, on monday on a budget measure to end the federal government shutdown, which started on friday night. republican and democrat senators are facing pressure from the public to end their stalemate over spending limits and immigration policy. washington has called on turkey to show restraint after it began

a ground offensive against kurdish militia in northern syria. a number of civilian casualties have been reported. the group targeted, the ypg, which ankara regards as a terrorist organisation, said it had repelled the raid. afghan officials say at least 18 people are now known to have died in a taliban attack on the intercontinental hotel in kabul late on saturday. most of the dead were foreigners. hundreds of people have been paying their respects to the cranberries lead singer dolores 0'riordan who died suddenly in london last week.