documentary starts in january thirteenth on w. . this is news coming to you live from berlin a breakthrough in the lunar exploration you're looking at the first ever photo from the surface of the dark side of the moon taken on a mission today by an unmanned chinese spacecraft have all the details for you in just a moment also coming up u.s. democrats take over the house of representatives today allowing them to along much

of the president's agenda what does that mean for gold in the current government shutdown we'll hear from our correspondent in washington. and shares it will take a tumble and a sales figures show chinese buyers losing their appetite for the i phone. hello i'm terry martin good to have you with us a chinese spacecraft has made the first successful landing on the far side of the moon this is a close up look at the part of the moon that can never be seen from our planet the mission is key is seen as key to china's ambitions to become a space superpower the lunar probe is equipped with a rover and measuring devices and will carry out experiments involving planting seeds here's more. this animation shows the first ever

soft landing on the far side of the moon. and the probe was not sent by the us of russia but china state media was proud to announce its touchdown at ten twenty six beijing time. the whole process was as expected the result was precise and the landing stable the current landing location is our ideal landing place in other words we are right on target. the progress carrying instruments to map the regions geology is also carrying seeds for an experiment in cultivating vegetables in a closed environment this is the first picture from the surface sent by the chiang efore lunar probe. it's unexplored territory. if the noise has one side not facing us the moon itself is an obstacle so the back of the moon is a blind spot for the transmission of information between the earth and the mean c c

c. the dark side of the moon is ravin unseen side than one lacking light it's because the moon takes just as long to rotate on its own axis as it takes to complete one orbit of earth the mission is part of a larger chinese program of lunar exploration but the landing on the dark side is one of the country's biggest leaps forward and its space race ambitions or for more let's bring in keith cowing he's a former rocket scientist and editor of the blog nasa watch thanks for being with us this morning first of all what's laden so difficult to lend a probe on the far side of the moon it's never been done before. no it hasn't and we've done it many times on the near side of the moon because we can interrupt radio contact with that because we can see that side of the moon but on the far side is blocked from directory of contact with the earth so china had to put

a real a satellite phone around the moon so that he could see the earth so the spacecraft could talk to the satellite and sound like than talk to earth so it adds an extra layer of complexity ok so it's a bit complicated but why is it scientifically significant what we learn from all this. well first of all the linear locations very interesting incident on carbon crater which is inside a larger crater called the a can basin which is a monster's crater it's bigger than any crater on anything in our solar system and it was so deep that when it happened parts of the or original lunar crust may have been brought up so that's where the probe landed and it'll be the first time anybody's landed there to take a look at it scientifically so that's the most important thing about trying to did not offer a live broadcast of this event it only announced it once it was done why the secrecy. and you know i was actually on cd t.n. about two hours before it landed everybody soon it was going to happen you know i

don't know maybe they just wanted to make sure they got it right or you know i don't know but as soon as they knew that they got it they now since zero and even the nasa administrator tweeted a congratulation to them a minute later so once they did it they told everybody ok now china is a lens on the far side of the moon here we've got india about to launch its second moon mission why are these developing powers investing so heavily in their space capabilities. you know that's a question i actually ask a lot because here in states who are i would you go fifty years ago and why are these other countries doing it now and i guess what are they learning that we've forgotten and it was a matter of national pride draw spec in the sixty's and now the search is sort of seems to be a gold standard for being in an advanced technological nation china has done it you know japan is probs the orbit the moon israel's what the land of commercial later in the so as they said the sixty's you know the everyman's going back to the moon

apparently that song's going to be hit again ok ok thank you so much says keith cowing there editor of the blog at nasa watch. a lot happening out in space the moon america's space agency is also achieved a space exploration milestone this one billions of kilometers from the sun says new horizons probe sent the first detailed images of the space rock ulti matula the pictures show what looks like a child at snow. nasa has described it as an entirely new kind of world the frozen rock at the edge of our solar system is the most distant object ever explored by human kind. now to some of the other stories making headlines around the world today protests erupted in the indian state of carola after two women defied a centuries old to boot and entered a hindu temple one protester died in clashes last year india's supreme court

revoked the ban on women entering somber amala temple but traditionalists have prevented them from doing some. serious defense ministry says kurdish forces are withdrawing from the northern syrian town of monday. proximately four hundred fighters have already left the town close to the turkish border you know it's with came a few days after the kurds damascus to support them against an expected assault by the turkish army. and the death toll from a high speed train accident in denmark has risen to eight people sixteen others were injured when the danish passenger train struck a part of a freight train travelling in the other direction trains were crossing a major bridge between two danish islands in poor weather conditions. in the united states democrats take control of the house of representatives today ending the republicans monopoly on power in washington under president all trial so

what's on third gender most pressing issue of course will be trying to end the government shutdown over funding for president trump's border wall with mexico house democrats are also expected to stand up for the affordable care act also known as obama care amid legal challenges that several republican led states are waging they're also likely to launch their own investigations into the dealings of the trump white house and republican interference in the twenty six thousand election democrats leader nancy pelosi is expected to be elected speaker of the house today and she will not have much time to settle in because the first confrontation with president trump is already in full swing. there's a showdown already well underway as congress begins its new term in the republic top democrats say the latest talks with the president reduced no hint that he will sign their bill to end

a partial shutdown of government services everybody in the room neither side seems pretty to budge him because he says he won't sign it and use the government as hostage we should just give in the american people don't want that that's bad for our country and that's not the way to govern and you little value the biggest tax president trump initiated the government shutdown nearly two weeks ago. he refused to approve a budget deal because it did not include billions in funding for building a wall at the border with mexico. democrats sold the oppose his plans for the barrier and the nearly six billion dollars he wants for it an open wound. this is the result of their dispute and end to government services such as some trash collection. no access to museums and other federally operated sites. and no pay for hundreds of thousands of federal workers. thank you now the question

is how long could the shutdown last as long as it takes i think the people of this country think i'm right again i could have done nothing i could have had a lot easier presidency by doing nothing but. i'm here i want to do it right. it's a stormy start to a congressional term with huge potential for conflict. democrats say they want to use their new majority in the house to probe the president's finances and alleged abuses of power. but trump has warned against their plans to assume a war like posture if his opponent's investigations go forward. well for more let's bring in d.w. stefan seaman's from our washington bureau so stefan start that's the democrats have control of the house of representatives how will this change things in washington particularly for president trial. as you've indicated in your report

this will change everything keyword in this to gauge and subpoena is that there is interest so the life won't get any better or easier for the president and for the white house or for anybody working for him you still have the mauler prover in full swing everybody is awaiting an outcome at some point you remember a few months ago we said yes absolutely after the midterm elections there will be reports well we were all wrong mr maule is still investigating on top of that democrats are determined to make life harder for donald trump and to as they say now bring checks and balances back into the system as the republicans in their view of miserably failed to do this. the new house has its work cut out for it the government partial government shutdown is underway it's been ongoing now for two weeks what do americans make of this showdown between president trump and congress

. i think most americans are absolutely aware and understand that this is politics this is washington right now. as you have indicated or said in the report in this meeting this time and there were no cameras to roll remember a few weeks ago and in front of live cameras nancy pelosi and chuck schumer collided with the president. yet was he was much better reportedly in the private meeting in the situation room this time and the president outright refused reportedly to sign anything and to bring the government back on its feet basically partially the partial charge down to negate the partial shutdown because reportedly he said he would look foolish so saying that meaning by this it's all about politics at the moment and there's no sign of anybody taking

a step back and doing the right thing here which is probably from the view of those four hundred five hundred thousand who are working or not working and don't have a paycheck bring the government back from the shutdown. thank you so much for that analysis. in washington. one of the world's most valuable companies tech giant has seen its shares tumble today it came after it was forced to cut its quarterly sales forecast blaming falling i phone sales in china but apple is also struggling in some developed markets where the number of i phone upgrades was lower than expected. apple's bad news seems to confirm what investors have feared for some time the i phone hype could be over and so far there doesn't seem to be a solid plan coming out of cupertino to re excite consumers for years the i phone has been apple superstar the device brings a solid sixty percent of apple's revenue but if those sales fall as they did over

the christmas quarter it hits apple hard the company's problems have been looming for months after reaching a high last summer the share price has fallen by thirty percent since september back then analysts reported that asian i phone suppliers were cutting back production because apple needed fewer parts news that sent out an alarm signal. the company says demand has weakened particularly in china apple c.e.o. tim cook blames the trade dispute between the u.s. and china for causing some customers to avoid buying u.s. products but analysts say another reason is apple's pricing strategy while prices are dropping on many smartphones from other companies apple has continued to raise its prices the most expensive costing more than sixteen hundred euros but fewer customers are willing to pay such costs for their device. it appears tim cook's strategy of looking to charge a high price to achieve high profits despite lower i phone sales has failed the

development could sign the end of a success story that began twelve years ago. you're watching g.w. news coming to you from we have more for you at the top of the hour sumi will be with you then be well you can get all the latest news and information around the clock on our web site that's at d w dot com thanks for. the. letter we were. when we were. americans and some. experience hardship.