and in port royal, jamaica, then in places like halifax. to large parts of the year, the ice and weather conditions in canada really precluded ships -- to be repaired. and the facilities were much better in the islands. i think in places like halifax and new york were used for emergency repairs. after the battle of the chesapeake, the admiral took his flle back to new yok. one of the reasons they were not able to turn back to yorktown was the time that the repairs were taking. >> [inaudible] -- invest in trying to get the colonies to join the original 3. >> that is a good question. was there any attempt by the 13 colonies to lobby or engage the island colonies? and the answer is yes. but their major attempt was canada, not the islands. in face, in the articles of confederation, which is essentially the pact and alliance between the states, there was a 14th article to canada. it was remarkable that the continental army attempted to invade canada right in the earliest stages of the war even before the declaration of independence. one of the g

and matt aikins is a journalist based in kabul and joins us now from halifax, nova scotia in canada.ns is currently a schell fellow at the nation institute. his recent report for rolling stone magazine is titled "afghanistan: the making of a narco state." welcome both to democracy now! kathy kelly, you were just in afghanistan. what is the significance of saying the formal war is over but in fact, the formal work continues with u.s. troops fighting? >> i think the united states doesn't want to knowledge that what went on over the last 13 years at a cost of one tree and dollars is not only been -- one tree in dollars has not only been a defeat, but also the extent of expending $80 billion under the obama administration that feels corruption and did not improve the lives of people in afghanistan in any measurable way like never ever to be held up as some kind of a success story. i think the united states wants to walk away from responsibilities within afghanistan, is certain he doesn't talk about paying reparations. >>a, talk about officially what this means. you have lived in afghanis

halifax believed that the choice of the library as the permanent resting place of this memorial was,uote, symbolic of the community of thought that belongs to those who have inherited free institutions and find in these the expression of their own love of freedom. supreme court judge frankfurt, also a close friend, spoke too of lothian's courage through the dark days of 1940. but it is his own speech at the handover on 28 november 1939, he gave a speech that best conveys his sentiments. he began almost mischievously by asking, why all this trouble, about what he described as a medieval relic. then he gave his answer. the almost self-evident truths it pronounced have echoed through the pages of history, century after century, by individual citizens and subjects, by rebels and conservatives, by parliaments and congresses, as the sufficient ground on which to base their claim for liberty and responsibility. he continued. in its immortal words, we see the nucleus of most of our liberties. the supremacy of law over arbitrary power. the inspiration which nerved the hands of those who struc

this tree is a gift from halifax, canada, sister city. people can enjoy the magical scene until christmas day. all right. that's all for now. here is your extended forecast. >>> people in japan are making preparations to ring in the new year. they're decorating with traditional ornaments such as a sacred straw to -- strike red straw rope known as shimenawa. the temple attracts millions of visitors during the new year holidays. the temple adorns its main hall with a huge shimenawa designed to resemble rice stalks. the centuries old tradition is intended to assure an abubdant harvest. workers at the temple have been busy tying straw bundles since early november. the completed shimenawa will be about six meters long and weigh about 00 kilograms. >> translator: visitors come here with all sorts of wishes. we pray that the sacred rope we're making will allow their wishes to come true. >> the decoration will be displayed at the front of the main hall from december 25th to welcome visitors. >>> that's "newsline" for this hour. i'm gene otani in

his work caught the eye of a small community called lower sackville located outside halifax nova scotiaanada. city leader brad johns wanted to bring in some holiday cheer for his 21,000 or so residents. >> we thought it would be a great idea to try to bring back a talking christmas tree. >> reporter: a few phone calls, $25,000 and two months later, this one of a kind animated christmas tree was created and shipped out. almost not making it through customs. waiting for it back in town, the nay-sayers. on social media, one woman saying the money could have been put to better use. >> i think the initial shock people saw it as i think that they thought it was a one-time shot at $25,000. they didn't realize that the life expectancy is of the tree i 10 years. >> when we send stuff out it gets rave reviews. >> ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages. >> reporter: but when the town turned the tree on this week, it earned rave reviews and attracted big crowds who filled local shops and donated thousands of dollars in donations for lower sackville's holiday food bank. >> kids love it. i mean,

just to the southwest of halifax winds wrap around in counter clockwise fashion and south from doon to the lehigh valley. that's what locked this in yesterday or locked us in all week. what happens here you get on horse and get out of here and that sets up a decent monday and milder tuesday and wednesday. once the storm right there you see it spinning is begins to paul way the flow becomes north and east across the country and that allows it to spread. you see how mild it is out there. milder than philadelphia st. louis 49, dallas 62. real enough stuff out here temperature wise it shifts east over the next two or three daysy cloudy and we get into monday and monday shew say decent amount of sunshine. tuesday the next same rivz. increasing clouds by 2, 3:00 each that band pushes into the city i-95 corridor late afternoon. tuesday arch,vening it would be be in the form of rain. morning clouds giving way to some afternoon sun. openle chilly side. normal this time of year is 46. we're a little below 45 eagles taking on cowboys later this evening. 8:30, kickoff time. cloudy, calm, not much

and all right there's tuesday nor'easter still spinning off coast of maine pushing east south of halifax. there is sunshine right there. western new york state, western pennsylvania, starting to see brighter skies. and it is shifting east. but unfortunately it doesn't look like it will arrive until the sunset s mainly cloudy skies rest of the way and you can see how slow of mover this was. tuesday when we saw heavier rains with that nor'easter and wednesday, thursday, it actually would be loop de loop pulling out to sea and it moved a little towards west or backwards. that's what brought the snow showers thursday. again now it's starting to get up on its way. looks like we have one more afternoon here of decent amount of cloud cover. small sliver there 150 miles worth of clouds and south it's mostly sunny just to the west they're starting to pick up sun as well. surface maps look like this pacific high moving towards east coast that warms us up over the next three days and this guy right here runs spine of the appalachians west of philadelphia. which means it will drive in milder air. wh

you travel with him, right to halifax for that conference just a couple weeks ago? >> just a couple weeks ago we had a bipartisan delegation went up. 60 nations were in halifax for a defense conference. we had defense ministers, foreign ministers, heads of state. it was really a terrific conference. >> any particular takeaway? >> what was striking was the unanimity of perspective among our allies. we did a number of i-r bilateral meetings in the margins, typical at these conferences. one after another the allies would look at us in as ton meshment and say, where is america -- astonishment. whatever the challenge was. whether it was standing up to isis. whether it was standing up to iran. whether it was standing up to russia and putin's aggressiveness. one after another of our allies would say, if america doesn't lead, the world is a heck of a lot more dangerous. it was striking, you could almost hit play and same message would come from one ally after another after another. we need american leadership back in the world. >> as one of the first issues come up before s

. >> you were at the recent conference in hole halifax. ted cruz talked about meetings had with foreign leader and it what striking how much uncertainty was about where the u.s. is and what we're doing. >> i heard from many people and formal and informal setting in halifax, conference, probably 40, maybe 60 countries, and deep concern about america's engagement with their countries or region of the world, and the charts that the obama administration was going to take. the path it was going to chart forward, and a deep, deep cry for american engagement in the world. i mean, went to one last year in munich as well, a similar conference, and i have yet to hear from a single country that says they want america less engaged in the world, and that seems to be the -- president part of the president's problem he use the problems in the result as a result of american engagement and leadership and thinks if we just retreat to our domestic shores, then the world would be a better place and i think most people who are adults about that realize that's.

looking at the satellite you can see wide circulation of halifax that is where nor'easter is but still seeing cloud cover making it down through philadelphia and baltimore and washington with some sun breaks in there in south jersey and we will be seeing that slowly improving, over next couple days. west coast big weather store which heavy rain, flooding rain, they need it but not all at once. we are going to watch this system continue to move inland. it will be impacting our weather because a big trough has built in from the west and that means a ridge built in the east. ridge means high pressure, it means warming temperatures. that is what we will be seeing over the course of the weekend. what does that h mean as far as temperatures are concerned? well, 40's for your saturday, upper 40's for sunday and then by monday, the peak of the warmth, that will be 50 degrees with plenty of sunshine, looking forward to that. overnight the low temperature will be 30 with northwesterly win, tomorrow breezy, not windy, high temperature of 43. a little chill in the air. as we look ahead heading nor

delegation that went up, about 60 nations were in halifax for defense contracts. defense ministers, heads of state. it was a terrific conference. and -- >> any particular take away? >> you know, what was striking was the unanimity of perspectives among our allies. i mean, we did a number of bilateral meetings in the margins as is typical at these conferences, and one after the other, our allies would just look at us in astonishment and say where is america? what has happened? whatever the challenge was, whether it was standing up to isis, whether it was standing up to iran, whether it was standing up to russia and putin's aggressiveness. one after the other of the allies would say, listen, if america doesn't lead, the world is a heck of a lot more dangerous. and it was striking. you could almost hit play, and the same message would come from one ally after another, after another, we need american leadership back in the world. >> this was one of the first issues that will come up before senate armed services committee and the new congress will be the confirmation o

jim from's get halifax, pennsylvania. our line for democrats. caller: good morning, sir.ood morning, america. wasink the american dream severely assaulted by ronald reagan when he started stealing from social security and not putting anything back. to this day, the use of social security for things it was not intended for. the republicans who listen to the people, trickled out affects, how can anyone get ahead when we are just supposed to take the trinkets that corporations want to drop down to us? host: one more tweet from sam -- that's all the comments we will take in this segment. open phones in our last half hour or so. first come up next, we talk about the early contenders and the early jockeying underway for the 26 election cycle. the day the interview is set for a limited release, the influence of american culture and america's image abroad with martha bayless. first, on newsmakers this week, the new chair of the democratic governors association. newsmakers airs on sundays. this clip, he talks about the money flowing into campaigns from outside groups. [video clip]

the characteristics of the yields and halifax produce the entire product spectrum seeds fruits grains, would oil's residents, pulp, rich in energy protein 35% more salt water than not to grow this staff. so you can use halothane biomass and energy, petrochemical feedstock, would come the co2 sequestration. for centuries on the indians have caught it, there's been a successful agriculture for food and water with no salt tilt up and 22 nations are now growing halothane. wastelands will really massive capacity to do this. australia, persian gulf, middle east again, sahara, southwest u.s. including text as and many others. the current effort to make uae though we may still growing how sites for airplane fuel. and the state department there is an operation. farms in northern mexico are also growing feel and several others are in the formative stages. so my last dates chart is to utilize the opportunity of deserts, really inexpensive land utilize seawater which is extremely plentiful and inexpensive. grow halla five, grow really massive amounts of food massive amounts of biomass both a true

mike rogers of the nsa, was recently up at the halifax international security forum also saying thatn intelligence and technical intelligence but these capacities take awhile to build and the nature of the threat and the frajty we're dealing with in the world fast moving that it's -- you know, there isn't a betty crocker pop up on human intelligence. it takes a long time to develop these sources and leads. and some people will say, you know, on the covert when you hang out with the folks that we have more of these assets than we let on. there is human intelligence out there we just don't talk about it much. clearly there needs to be more. >> it's 21 after the hour. the ceremony was supposed to start at 10:10 eastern time. we see people filing into the room. by the way among those not there is secretary hagel. he's not expected at this announcement ceremony today. we're going to take a short break. be right back. you won't miss anything. we'll have it for you live. you don't need to think about the energy that makes our lives possible. because we do. we're exxonmobil... and powering t