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strong financial partnerships are best cultivated for the years to come, giving your company the resources and stability to thrive. mufg, we build relationships that build the world. >> and now, bbc world news america. >> this is bbc world news america from washington. handshakes in havana for the most senior american visitor in decades. now, the hard work of normalizing relations. in the midst of a standoff, the israeli prime minister is invited to washington and no one bothered to consult the white house. the northern white rhino is close to extinction. we will show you the efforts being made to stop the disappearance for good. ♪

>> welcome to our viewers on public television in america and around the globe. the talks between cuba and the u.s. are not just historic. they are being called collaborative and productive. the countries have not met in decades. years of diplomatic decrees mean there are hurdles to restoring ties. we have this report. >> it feels like the beginning of a new era. the negotiators know each other for previous talks -- from previous talks. the diplomat is in town, the most senior visit in 35 years. they will be making history at the table restoring diplomatic ties and reopening embassies.

the united states arty has a presence on the main seaside mourad. -- motorway. updating that is an important step on the new cuba policy something highlighted in the state of the union. >> the shift in the cuba policy has the potential to end the mistrust in our hemisphere and removes the phony excuse for restrictions in cuba, stands up for democratic values, and extends a hand of friendship to the cuban people. congress should begin the work of ending the embargo. >> republican leaders do not want to rebuild ties, as long as the communist party remains in control. obama has done whatever he could, in terms of easing travel restrictions. there has been a trickle of americans. ernest hemingway's house.

now, even more will come. more will come to boost the private sector and communications technology. the images of cuba that appeal to tourists do not compare to the hardship of the lives the cubans endure. they hope their lives will improve now. >> this is a historic moment and you feel the weight of history and passions nurtured over years of hostilities. dealings of a different system of government. restoring diplomatic ties may be the easy part. normalizing relations will be a longer and deeper process. bbc news, havana. >> for more on the u.s. delegation visit to havana, i am joined by julia, the senior fellow at the council on foreign relations. what is the speed of change on this? >> indeed.

raul castro and obama went simultaneous with the broadcast to the public. the treasury department and commerce department rolled out regulations that opened prospects for trade and travel. today, diplomatic talks in havana between senior woman diplomats. >> how serious are they? >> there are many hurdles. your reporter was correct that this is the easy part. the embassies and residences are in place. we have 55 years of bad habits on both sides and between the countries to get over. a big hurdle has to do with the claims of american companies who have properties nationalized back in the early 1960's. they would like restitution's of the claims to be part of the normalization. that is a big one.

for american business, all of american society to figure out how to connect with counterparts in cuba and vice versa. there is no bench in the bureaucracy to help facilitate. they have been used to getting in the way. that is a large problem. >> are you surprised by the -- how little opposition there has been to the policy? >> i have been an advocate of this direction for reasons of national interests. our policy in latin america and the relationship being in bad shape. i have seen it in the last 5, 6, 10 years that the opposition becomes narrower. demographics in florida have changed. i'm not surprised. this is a policy that the majority of americans and cuban support.

it took presidential leadership to pull the curtain back on the myth of opposition. there is little. >> it improves relations between washington and havana. this does something for the american standing in the rest of the hemisphere. >> i think this was a driving factor in the decision in the white house to make this happen. time and again, the vice president and president meet with latin americans and heatr, if you are serious about the relationship, deal with the symbolic legacy issue of cuba. they are starting to do that. >> the president of yemen says an agreement has been reached to end the fighting in the capital and makes concessions to the rebels who took over the palace and surrounded his home. gulf and arab states have

accused the rebels of staging a coup. thousands of germans gathered tonight in what organizers call a rally against the islamization of europe. one of the protest leaders resigned after a newspaper per today photograph of him that made him look like hitler. the police are trying to keep the peace between the protesters and the thousands of germans who say that muslims are welcome in their country. we have this report. >> they march because no one listens. this is a movement whose leaders say they are not racist, anti-immigration they are giving a voice to the people. >> i am german. i do not will my granddaughter to end up wearing a burqa. >> if they are taurus, students politically persecuted, they can come.

economic migrants, no way. >> you can hear them shouting, we are the people. is a catch fries -- catch phrase -- it is a catchphrase from anti-communist protesters 25 years ago. >> the demonstrations helped to bring down the berlin wall. it is the people power they aim to emulate. it in rages many germans. -- enrages many germans. for every demonstration, there is a counter-protest. >> i'm glad, he says, so many citizens stand up against the group. i want foreigners and refugees to be welcome in our country. >> we have enough. >> today, the founder stood down after the german press to list

this picture. reportedly, an old image. he has apologized for online posts that described asylum seekers as animals and scumbags. scuffles on the street tonight. the movement is dismissed by the political establishment and rejected by most germans. it has ignited a public debate and it is getting harder to ignore. bbc news. >> they are drying the crowds in the streets, clearly. obama warned republicans that he would veto any new sanctions against iran. the republicans retaliated by inviting the israeli prime minister to washington to discuss the issue without consulting obama. since the white house would normally be involved, this looks to be, at best, a breach of

protocol. at worst, a snub. thank you for coming in. is this a snub? >> it is a sign of -- after the president seized control of the agenda with the state of the union, the timing is not disassociated from that. speaker boehner says, i am in charge. the republicans have control. there is not much the president can do. it is a power-play in washington and internationally. >> the speaker says, we have power around here, too. how much of a breach of protocol is this? >> it is odd. it is unusual in all those respects. it is hard to imagine the white house was unaware that this was going on.

they were probably not formally consulted through official channels. there must have been whispers of it. nothing on a formal level of consultation that you would normally expect. >> it is hard to think that both sides didn't know exactly what they were doing. let's talk about the substance of it. iran. this comes from the row over iran. with have to say -- the republicans are saying, we need to have the threat of sections on the table. the white house says, if you put the threat of sections on the table, they will walk. >> the iranians have said they do not want to see more sanctions. the u.s. government says, if you threaten more sanctions, the iranians will walk away. maybe they deserve an element of the benefit of the doubt.

these talks are taking place behind closed doors. certainly, that was one of the few veto threats. the president issued a few. that was one that was unusual. >> the newly elected republican loggers and the white house. -- republican congress and the white house. >> this was a huge talking point. they were using it to take out a few vulnerable senate democrats as a sign of weakness and tying them to the president. this is going to be a fight in the next couple of months to get a deal on march 1 or july 1. they will be having a fight over this because the republicans will not be happy about this. no matter what comes, the republicans will not be happy. >> thank you for coming in. you are watching bbc world news. the world may be getting richer. what does it mean for those at

the bottom and the top? we start a special series. journalists in afghanistan are facing increasing dangers according to the campaign group, human rights watch. it is not just threats from the taliban. it is politicians. we have this report. >> it is a success story of the new afghanistan. a woman presents a -- unthinkable and the former televangelist ara. -- unthinkable in the former taliban era. >> there is never a follow-up to this. they do it again. >> people think they can kill journalists and get away with it. >> yes. it is the definition of

impunity. no one in the government of afghanistan. >> and local radio journalist was the first media casualty in afghanistan. his colleagues staged a protest after. the common complaint by journalist who spoke to human rights watch was that they face intimidation if they report land grabs and they hold back from doing reports. >> they shy away and practice self-censorship. thing tellis that they routinely -- they tell us they routinely have to censor themselves to survive. >> it has been 14 years since the taliban. still, producing a daily newspaper is not a safe occupation.

human rights campaign has appealed to come out more strongly to protect those on the front line of free speech. >> it was central to obama's state of the union last night. it is central to the discussions of davos. the gap between the rich and poor and what to do about it. a new series called, "a richer world." >> the world is getting richer. fewer people live in extreme poverty. less than one dollar a day. the disparity remains. the richest 1% own half of the world's wealth. that means that 85 people own as

much as the poorest 3.5 billion. more people own cars. in botswana, you are three times more likely to have a car than a decade ago. many have mobile phones. some of the quickest pickup is in developing countries. more than three quarters of households own a fridge. there are downsides to a richer world. it can be bad for your health. americans are obese. it is a growing problem in many countries. the richer world completely more pressure on natural resources. and extra 2 billion people consume water, compared to 25 years ago. water levels have fallen. half of the world population may live in areas of water stress.

more have access to the internet and better access to health care. some of the poorest people in the world also get richer. >> that is the big question. to discuss the numbers, i spoke with robert reich. he has a book called "aftershock." more are going to primary school. the world seems to be getting richer. that is a good thing. >> absolutely. the question has to do with distribution of resources. what we are seeing, if you put china to one side -- that is a special case. we are seeing the rich in the

world going in one direction and everybody else in the world is doing a little bit better. not all that better. >> how much of that is the fact that the top 1% keep taking a bigger slice of the wealth. or, is it that the bottom is not rising? it is not inequality that matters. it is the bottom of not being lifted up. >> both his right. there is a problem at the bottom is not being lifted up enough. we are seeing the median income stagnating. people at the bottom or having a hard time advancing because the middle classes are not growing. the middle classes are shrinking. that is a problem. it is related to the fact that more and more of the resources of a nation are going to the top 1%. productivity keeps growing. most of our economies to growing.

they continue to grow. where is the money going? it is not going to the middle class. that is going to the people at the top. >> according to what you wrote recently, that seems unlikely to change. robots are cheaper and less difficult. easier to maintain than people. >> undoubtedly. over the next 5-10 years governments in advanced nations and most around the world, even in developing nations, are going to have to focus on something we have not really focused on before, what happens when robots and machines begin to take away good jobs when they start reducing the opportunity for everyone. we have to get serious about the issue of something we do not like to talk about very much, redistribution. >> is this a reality we have to

live with? the world may be getting richer. for the large chunk of the population, the future looks bleak. >> we do not have to allow this to happen. markets are not created in nature. they are created by human beings. governments determine the rules of property and contract. what we hold in common and do not hold in common. one of the great challenges for governments is to try to figure out the dilemma of increasing prosperity and the prosperity concentrating in fewer and fewer hands. do we redistribute from taxation ? do we get into the structure of the market? do we change the rules for intellectual property? is it possible that patent life could be shortened?

do we get serious about providing everyone with a world-class education and the kind of benefits with the capacity to organize for better wages? >> if governments do those things, the future looks less bleak. prized for valuable florence, the northern white rhino is on the brink of extinction. there is just five of them left in the world. david shipman has been given special access to one of the last survivors. >> of the quiet lonely shuffle of a giant animal facing extinction. one of the last five of a rhino. they have built up one of the largest collections from africa. this rhino no longer exists in

the wild because gulf war and -- because the horn it is prized. they are not reproducing. the last was 15 years ago. there is a real risk that this species would join the others that human activity has wiped out. >> you can witness them dying out one by one. it is a really desperate situation. i do not want to witness these animals die out like this in a few coming years. >> the zoo has gone to extraordinary lengths to try to encourage more offspring. it is quite a task to waste a rhino into the air. repeated attempts of artificial insemination has come

to nothing. the procedures have dangers. >> when you are close, you realize how difficult the technique is for assisted reproduction. in one operation, a righthino died. this may be the last chance. scientists are exploring all of the options at the research center in berlin. they use scanners to gain a better understanding of the animals. specialist believe there are techniques that could save the northern white rhinos. stalled in liquid nitrogen is samples of sperm. they want to collect eggs. there are more radical ideas. using tissue samples to produce stem cells that could make embryos and bring the animals

back from extinction sometime in the future. >> we hope we only need a few years to fight technology to use to create babies out of these. >> sometimes, science can head off extinction. giant pandas were helped. by contrast, lonesome george died two years ago. it may be tried. it may work. or, the northern white rhinos may skip away at a time where others are on the brink of extinction. >> it is amazing when there is only five of a species left. >> you can find out more on that

story and the news on our website. from all of us here at bbc world news, thank you for watching. tune in again tomorrow. >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding of the presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation. the newman's own foundation, giving all profits to charity and pursuing the common good. kovler foundation. and, mufg. >> build a solid foundation and you can connect communities and commerce for centuries. that is the strength behind good

banking relationships. we believe financial partnerships should endure the test of time. with time, change. what matters is that you are strong enough to support it. we build relationships that build the world. >>

15,000 years ago after the last great ice age ended and man first began to live in permanent settlements another species was watching closely from the forest. and they saw us as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. within just a few hundred years, these wolves changed from deadly predators into man's best friend. canis lupus familiaris the very first dogs. this transformation from wild wolf to tame dog proved revolutionary to man. dogs became our hunting partners protectors of our settlements and our