you. know. i think the only. way. i. can the stories that shape the week here are not tens of thousands of demonstrators take to the streets of france and the ninth consecutive weekend sprites says clashes with police erupt again. also to come from continue small corners of the democrats in

the standoff over his border wall plants which has resulted in the longest government shutdown in u.s. history and. this is day to day just. to see just. the british prime minister suffers another bad day at the office ahead of tuesday's crucial vote on her divorce plan. follow that well look back at what's been happening over the last seven days and we start with france where demonstrators are keeping up the pressure on the government there with the yellow vests movement holding its ninth consecutive weekend of protest from paris is shot at the brits.

oh. the first tensions are rising here the up to three or three in paris one of the protests in the city one of many protests taking place across france we have had violence here in new york to creoles. her. but. there's water cannons now in full force trying to push protesters away. that water cannon and tear gas plumes coming up from the ground we've seen the

protesters throwing a projectiles at the police we've seen the police responding. to gas that's just being dispersed there's flash pulls and those cast ballots as well as what looked like to be stun canapes and a mobile police force now you can see running in the hole dressed in black you could just see behind me that is a small fire that's just appeared that's been coming along people reveling around that as that i guess comes in the air the tear gas is just moving we can hear it now and people are moving to once why when i have improved as the eyes tear gas of being up. pushed out there aren't five thousand offices taking

part in the security all of paris eight thousand across france people like the chelation all say yes this is act nine this is the ninth consecutive weekends but this is not going to stop this is going to continue. in paris where it wasn't only the french capital that experience protests on saturday in non thousands took to the streets there with police using tear gas to disperse the crowds and then in lille hundreds marched in tribute to the victims of the protests so far they released yellow balloons and laid flowers and two on of them and some cities though didn't escape sporadic violence i owe i i was french called pastor elsie i reported to its journalists and to accompany security officers were assaulted they were covering a rally in

a northern french city of rule one of the security offices had his nose broken and needed hospital treatment also reports to of attacks into meditation on journalists across the country. now the u.s. government shutdown has become the longest in the country's history in this week accusations have been flying back and forth between the democrat leaders and donald trump democrats in congress have refused to acknowledge the crisis president trump mustapha holding nothing people hostage might stop manufacturing a crisis stoke fear and divert attention from the turmoil in his administration and must reopen the government the federal government remains shut down for one reason and one reason only because democrats will not fund border security no. the president should pound the table and demand he gets his way or

else the government shuts down senator chuck schumer has repeatedly supported a physical barrier in the past along with many other democrats they change their mind only after i was elected president on wednesday the us president stormed out of talks with his democratic counterparts branding them a total waste of time he later tweeted he said bye bye to the house speaker nancy pelosi when she refused to approve funding for his war or former florida state democratic party chairman mitch caesar and also the american political commentator steve malzberg had differing views on the boardwalk dispute. he hit on every note and you know what's holding all this up you know it's just keeping the government shutdown and holding all this up is the fact that nancy pelosi says no wall not one penny that's not negotiating this was a purely political attempt to help you saying poll numbers where sixty three percent of the people in america now say they don't want the war and they want to

turn back on his statements about mexico is still going to pay for the wall because of tariffs that's nonsense we're lowering the tariffs would be less money coming in it's exactly the opposite almost every democrat including schumer voted for a fence a few years ago with obama and love the fence and make speeches about how they need it wall obama made speeches about it now it's immoral because it's trump who wants it so please trump will declare a national emergency reopen the government take the funding from the military and guess what the democrats won't like that either so nothing donald trump could do they won't negotiate with them and he will be makes it to criticize so you know it is what it is that's the political reality today when i think backs of times of presidents democrat or republican who asked for national time like candy during the cuban missile crisis or obama when we killed osama bin ladin or bush with nine eleven those were real national situations the problem is is that when we have

a real national crisis two thirds of this country will not believe president trump based on all his past behavior both of his case for the well donald trump travel to the border between mexico and texas and while that he will show some of the contraband crossing into american.

when i took the oath of office i swore to protect our country and that is what i will always do my administration has presented to congress with a detail proposal to secure the border and stop the criminal gangs drug smugglers and human trafficking. in the u.k. with the taking down to you choose the crucial vote in the british parliament to resume may's had a busy week trying to win backing for her divorce but once again the prime minister was given a hostile reception. as is the deadest. i

believe it is possible to have that future relationship which is deep in place with the european union that gives us the freedom to do what we want to do. our minister has been recklessly wasting time holding the country to ransom with the threats of no geo. when will the prime minister face the facts that has little support for a deal or no deal in this case we man why on earth would we walk away from this to be frank i have lost trust in the prime minister's ability to negotiate a good do. if this deal is rejected is that we have the risk of brakes or promises. to carry new york up making derogatory comments about threats that stick on the subject of bricks it happens to be. affix to or in the windscreen of my wife's car yes i'm sure

the owner who gentleman wouldn't suggest for one moment. was a wife is somehow the property or chattel. house. does symmetries america be forced to draft a new deal as the current one is not expected to pass on tuesday and with a growing number of m.p.'s expressing their opposition to the prime minister's plan another option is that the u.k. leaves the and its institutions without any deal in place as to all and may be uncertain to either of also being called for an extension of article fifty which would give the u.k. more time to negotiate a divorce and while tourism a has ruled out calling a second referendum to could still potentially happen all this is contributed to tension in and outside parliament as party boyko reports meet on a super e she's

a conservative politician and a vocal opponent of bragg's it but this week some of her opponents came to westminster and got more vocal than her. right. up early on if you were offended by the irish i just think this is astonishing this is this is what has happened to our country something has happened here the debate over how britain's departure from the e.u. should look or whether it should take place at all now has turned rather ugly this is the palace of westminster it's where british politicians work and the area around it is a public street as you can see anybody can walk down here there can be demonstrators as well and it's not unusual on any given day to see a politician maybe a member of parliament or even a senior minister simply walk out of here and towards abingdon green here where they might be taking part in a t.v. debate or an interview but that practice is increasingly under threat as the

atmosphere here turns increasingly intense over the impending gregg's it day and the fact that there is no agreed plan of action in place this was an assumed retrying to leave after the interviews. that are going to lose it when it comes to the poll. titian's aren't the only ones getting abuse from agitated members of the public sky news anchor kay burley was heckled by pro brags that protesters while live on air. flow. out of the hood. and owen jones a left wing journalist and author was taunted by a group of right wing protesters i believe everything. there was because i'm sure you know this situation outside parliament has now become an issue for parliament to deal with i must tell you to the house that it is frankly in total if

members of parliament and lists. go about their business in fear. this situation cannot stand over sixty politicians have written a letter to london's chief of police warning of the deteriorating security situation around parliament and demanding better protection some of the systems have said that a certain degree of abuse or heckling simply because of the territory of being a elected politician or just a public figure in a functioning democracy but the police here now have the rama difficult task of balancing the freedom to protest of some with protecting the safety of others including mine. for their reporting outside parliament this week still to come on the weekly this hour the u.s.

secretary of state islam the obama administration's middle east policies promising that big changes on the way we'll have a look at that in more detail just after the break. he. joined me everything on me all excited i'm sure and i'll be speaking to get us to the world. war. i'm sure i'll see you the. politicians are always telling us all we can have everything at the same time we can have peace and democracy blah blah blah in of course conflicts intuition or in a war situation that's not true is that instead of telling people what you can't have everything and then failing to deliver on everything at all we should be

fabric here and say ok you can have cheese like some kind of peace you can have some kind of democracy you can have some kind of justice in the short term but unfortunately we cannot build everything at the same time so someone has to make a choice. greece is on the brink of chaos after the defense minister quit adding that his party would also leave the ruling coalition the prime minister is now calling for a confidence vote in the government raising the possibility of snap elections. again today past common are said he's resigning as the fence minister and that he

would ask the same from other members of the independent greeks party i accepted his resignation and they will accept any other resignation to come or move swiftly to the procedure that our constitution and the parliamentary rules oblige for the renewal of confidence in my government by parliament in order to proceed with a clear majority on all those crucial choices for our society and our country like the defense minister bitterly opposed his government plans to improve its northern neighbor changing its name to north macedonia he added that any dealing cluing macedonia in the name of the balkan state was unacceptable as the name was tied to greek civilization and culture. so you very much with the issue of macedonia the issue of the name for which thousands of people good does not allow me to search for as my position in the government. or the shock resignation intensify as a twenty seven year dispute over what to call greece's neighbor here's a look at why. for decades greece is forced bristly over neighbor macedonia's name

because athens border region is also called macedonia one of the country's official name safeway r o m short for the former yugoslav republic of macedonia stop the laying claim to the rich history of that name after all military genius alexander the great still study to walk out of these round the world was born in macedonia without blocking its neighbors nato and the e.u. membership over the issue is finally greeted me the republic of north macedonia macedonia as parliament be amended its constitution to ratify the name change but greece's politics means it has yet to do the same and the deadline for ratification this month. ok we can get that he's now have to meet up a list he's a former economics editor the athens news and you're very welcome thanks for your time tonight demetrius firstly politically what could this mean for greece to think

that mr sipress has called for a confidence vote in the government what could be the outcome. as far as prime minister is concerned he may just go through this crisis relatively unscathed that. he has secured one hundred fifty one of three hundred votes in parliament seats in parliament and this allows him to be fairly confident that he would have the confidence vote on the other hand there is a major. zation crisis in the country because eighty percent of the population is known to be opposed strongly opposed to the agreement with. our northern neighbor to be called. anything related to must. donia which

is of course part of greek history of a very glorious part of greek history which the greeks did not want to share with. sure a multi-national multi-ethnic state demetrius do you think today's development then puts that deal in jeopardy. i'm not sure it puts a deal in jeopardy in the short run we're not yet clear whether they're following the confidence vote. prime minister is going to steamroll the agreement itself. with sculpture in parliament or whether he's going to use the confidence vote as a license to pass. the. international agreement however. the problem here is that there is also

a constitutional question. the scope your parliament has voted with one hundred and with eighty votes or one hundred twenty which is eighty percent of their parliament to. confirm and pass the agreement in greece athens has a bigger problem than sculpture to accept that our goal. has decided that a one hundred fifty or one or both that is fifty percent plus one is enough to pass such a major agreement which according to the constitution article twenty eight. says that three fifths of. the greek parliament of the greek parliament seats that is one hundred eighty are required so there is

a constitutional question there which the opposition to this agreement. sure to protest over ok all right to me and how the more furthermore maybe we don't know i'm so sorry we've run out of time we are going to have to leave it there but good to get your analysis on this that was to me tristan awful us former economics editor at the athens nice thank you. matthew u.s. secretary of state has lashed out at ministrations middle east policies and called for a renewed effort in fighting extremists might pompei also highlighted the main directions of current u.s. policy in the middle east but his speech in cairo somewhat echoed one barack obama made in the same city ten years ago. i've come here to cairo to seek a new beginning between the united states and muslims around the world. the age of

self-inflicted american shame is over and so are the policies that produce so much needless suffering. now comes the real new beginning. here to iran's leaders and people that my country is prepared to move forward president trump has reversed our willful blindness to the danger of the regime and withdrew from the failed nuclear deal with its false promises to the us we imposed sanctions should never have been lifted. because commitment will not weaken. indeed none of us should tolerate these extremists. the president has made the decision to bring our troops home from syria we always do and now is the time airstrikes in the region will continue as targets arise we will keep working with our partners in the coalition to defeat isis we will continue to hunt down terrorists who seek a safe havens in libya and in yemen. speech that comes during a controversial phase of the u.s.

campaign in syria while throwing its troops from the region washington recently stepped up the number of airstrikes on holcomb's reports. with every u.s. intervention the question of when why and if a tool to withdraw its forces has sooner or later taken center stage and both debate and controversy syria is the latest example and how much confusion this discussion has already caused. first problem to solve is how the withdrawal will look it still remains a mystery not only to the world but seemingly also to u.s. officials themselves they're all coming back and they're coming back now they said recently that we have more time is of no if you were to were going to be removing our troops i never said we're doing exactly three years i want to wipe your time when you want to be said for months but this is your time with dr who do you think

they should have heard that word oh we're withdrawing is it mission accomplished as with george bush's iraq war speech things that look that clear and simple. and the biggest problem of all just how will the u.s. balance the interests of its permanent and temporary allies in the region we're going to be discussing the president's decision to withdraw or to do so from northeast syria in a way that makes sure that the. defense of israel or other friends in the region. is absolutely assured those other allies are the kurds the u.s. says they won't leave until they're safe and this is a red line for turkey a longstanding nato ally any kurd linked conditions or caviar simply unacceptable for ankara. if the withdrawal is put off with ridiculous excuses like the turks are massacring kurds which does not reflect the reality we will implement this decision

and we haven't even spoken about containing iran. also does the defeat of isis also might. equal us exit president trump certainly seem to think so we have won against isis we've beaten them and we've beaten up badly but others like. john bolton still talk with the continuing battle against islamic state u.s. forces continue as trucks in syria which show no sign of abating which brings me to this next point. and despite the concerns of top officials the pentagon is already taking a more relaxed that a shoot to that current strike reports the continued degree of isis leads to decreased connecticut t.t.'s against the terrorist organization our intent is to reduce the number of reports while maintaining transparency reports will decrease from weekly to twice a month and releases will no longer indicates

a specific time location or even target for such strikes it's an indication that the united states is not really withdrawing from from syria and then a meaningful way i think it means that they are plan to continue with their effort to undermine and attack the syrian government in one form or another they have not yet given up their idea of basically promoting division within syria the effort to break off northeast syria and effectively create a separate entity in that the kurdish region that effort is failing for various reasons but there and elsewhere there's still a long term goal to prevent syria from being a strong stable united force that is independent of both washington and riyadh and if the hope for the u.s. plan in syria was a new year new strategy it hasn't quite materialized with the u.s.

administration seemingly as confused as the rest of us. that brings us to the end of the weekly phone i will back again though at the top of the hour with headlines and more stories. on the welcome to the first edition of worlds apart in two thousand and nineteen happy holidays and thank you for keeping us by your side this year and all at each house the councils of war never five meaning that decision makers often get caught up in deliberations rather than actually making and implementing decisions that may not be so bad in the case of war but what about peace do councils of peace or the

u.n. peacekeeping operations deliver what they set out to do well to discuss that i'm now joined by several of us there professor of political science at barnard college columbia university and the scholar of peacekeeping professor out us there is great pleasure talking to you thank you very much for your time thank you so much for having me professor let me start with a personal question i know you spent years studying african conflicts which happen to be some of the deadliest conflicts on this planet and you started them primarily through field work rather than social media relations to be the custom these days what made you saw attracted to these inherently dangerous subject well it's an inherently dangerous subject but it's also fest in a changing and the in that research and how if we can get things right if we can understand how to feel case what works in building peace that can impact the lives

of millions of people so to me it's really worth it if i remember it. may sound like a sexist question but as a woman who worked in conflict zones i think i can ask you that violence and sexual violence is prevalent in most conflict zones and i assume africa is no exception did your as western school or as a young attractive woman. run the same risks as some of the people whose experiences you were studying well i think that no matter who you are or once you end up in a conflict zone there is a likelihood that you're going to end up at the wrong place at the wrong time and then for example it's happened to me several times that i was in a place that was considered safe and then rebel groups started bombing the city and one of the bombs actually fell in my garden so that's the kind of thing that no matter who.