Forced to back down over plans to overhaul the house ethics committee. Laura thats where we begin this hour in the united states, when what shouldve been a day of triumph for republicans, today the party took control of both house of representatives and the senate, and in 17 days, Republican Donald Trump will of course take the white house. But instead of celebrating, Senior Republicans were left redfaced. Here to tell us why is are reported from washington. A really debacle for republicans today. Tell us a bit about what happened. Reporter a complete turnaround, some 24 hours after members of the house, republican members basically got to out and ethics committee, in doing so behind closed doors. So secretly that the president elect himself blasted that move and forced the rankandfile in congress to basically withdraw and quickly back down from that desire to do away with a very unpopular committee in Congress Whose task as its name indicates into ethical matters, forcing their dirtyse laundry, if you can call it that , for everyone to see when they are being investigated and at times prosecuted over wrongdoing while serving in congress. Donald trump was sort of ambiguous and criticizing the move, saying that although he agrees the committee is unfair, congress should be taking care of much bigger priorities. Democrats were more fierce in criticism of the move which was done in secret, which they feel is revealing of the kind of atmosphere that is said to fall upon the house and senate, which will clearly be dominated by republicans who will soon have control of the white house, giving them in theory at least a free rein to go ahead and enact a very conservative agenda. What does this tell us about the relationship between president elect trump and Senior Republicans . Gallagher that he is not afraid to be at odds with members of his own party. We saw that during the campaign where donald trump was very not not very much embraced by the establishment of the conservative party, in this particular case with the ethics committee. He is fighting with the work prominent figures of the parties such as the speaker of the house, paul ryan, who sided with trump and criticizing the move pulled off by the house who behind closed doors to that vote on monday evening. However, in other issues, donald trump is at odds with the entire party at times, such as on the theer of investigating supposed hacks into computers and email accounts during the campaign. You remember that john mccain back in 2008 in the president ial race wanted the matter to be fully investigated. Hearing with members of the intelligence community, donald trump on that specific matter has said that he wants the country to move on. So we are seeing a president who doesnt necessarily feel compelled to always fall in line with members of his own party. Laura meanwhile, outgoing president barack obama made closing the Guantanamo Bay prison a priority when he took office eight years ago. He has failed to do that, but he is making some lastminute moves, nonetheless. Tell us about that. Gallagher he is basically looking into releasing more detainees from that infamous facility, the Guantanamo Bay prison which barack obama from the first day he came into office vowed to close it down. He met many obstacles along the way. The republican dominated congress being one of those. He has tried to dwindle that population of detainees down to a bare minimum. He managed to release 179 detainees, there are 59 left. Finding countries willing to host them is a complicated and timeconsuming matter. The president elect has said he wants to fill guantanamo up with bad dudes. As is customary for him through his twitter account, calling on the Outgoing Obama Administration not to release any more of those very dangerous people who should not be allowed back onto the battlefield. Somewhat of a difficult transition between these two administrations. Gallagher, thank you very much, reporting from washington. Police in turkey say 16 people are being held over the new years attack at a nightclub in istanbul. Despite several leads, the government the gunmen remains at large. ,his shows him filming himself it is not known at the video was taken before or after the shooting. 39 People Killed in that attack. This newly released video shows revelers at the nightclub counting down and then celebrating new years. Later, already nine of them were shot dead. Turkish Authorities Say they are closing in on the chief suspect. They say to have his fingerprints and this photo of him. Turkish media report he is thought to be from kurdistan hough authorities there police are investigating whether he was part of a terrorist cell, the same one thought to be behind an attack at the istanbul airport which left dozens of people dead. To foreign nationals were arrested at that same airport on tuesday on suspicions of having links to the nightclub attack. The nationality of the pair has not been disclosed. Over doesnt have been detained in the wider investigation. Over a dozen have been detained. We have to work harder on security. We dont want any more deaths. I dont feel safe i feel that we have to try to feel safe because we have to start somewhere to show that we are not afraid. Meanwhile, funerals have been taking place across the middle east are some of the victims. Hundreds in israel attended the burial for the youngest of those who died, and 18yearold arabisraeli woman. Hoax of this year could bring an end to the war in syria have taken a major blow. Rebel groups have threatened to pull out of a piece conference, they say its in response to the governments continued shelling including a town that is close to damascus. They also cite other violations. Thats go to our correspondent in beirut. Say thee rebels government is completely ignoring the ceasefire. Released ahave where they named a number of places where they say the government is committing violations. One of them is getting the most attention. Says the Islamic State group is not included in the ceasefire but neither is that calls itself they say there are fighters from this group in that area. I spoke to the head of the syrian observatory for human rights, and he saiaid as far ase is concerned, there are fighters from that group in that area, fighters, of those which would perhaps justify the that they position are still carrying out assaults there. We spoke of the heads of one of political wings of a division of the Free Syrian Army and he suggest there could be another reason behind this pullout from the talks, which is basically that h he doesnt thik the russians arere capable of controlling the iranian b backed shia militia who are fighting alongside the syrian army. This individual we spoke to that was also a reason not only that the fighting has continued but that areiranian act militia continuing the fight. Laura weve seen several ceasefires in syria fall apart before. Does this look likely to go the same way, adam . Itm there is time to put back together between now and the talks scheduled for later this month. It is russia and turkey that brokered the talks but they are also participants in the war. Stake becauset at they also have their own reasons for wanting them around the table. It would be a tremendous diplomatic coup for the russians and the turks have reasons of their own to try to diminish the toluences of the kurds and some extent to take their position inside syria. Have not been eyetoeye before, they both get around the table. There is still time to get it back on track although as we have seen with other agreements in syria, there is plenty that can still go wrong. Adam reporting there from beirut. Dozens of prisoners have escaped in brazil following the countrys deadliest prison riot in nearly 25 years. 60 inmates were killed when violence broke out between rival gangs and it took police 17 hours to bring it under control. In a northern state. Gang members were fighting for control of drug routes on the outside. Our correspondent has the story. Escape inthere was an the early hours of sunday morning in a different, nearby prison, which seems to have worked as a kind of smokescreen for what was a premeditated attack by members of one criminal faction on another. However, brazils Justice Minister is stressing that the causes of this go far deeper betweenely a turf war criminal factions. Were looking at the very precarious nature of brazils prison system, where it is possible because of corruption for weapons to be smuggled into prisons. We are looking at a context 306 per 100,000 inhabitants, which is more than twice the global average. That figure has more than doubled in the last 13 years. The system seems to be a breaking point. Repeatedlyhas visited the prison where the disaster took place. He described that prison as a factory for torture, producing violence, and creating monsters. Situationpolitical for the government to deal with, because with the prison system on the edge of collapse in an economic recession where the government is following austerity measures, how can you invest in a prison system when in bigcity brazil have been victims of Violent Crime . Its politically very difficult rehabilitatione of prisoners in that kind of environment. Firefighters in valparaiso have a major blaze under control. The fire destroyed over 100 homes and prompted 400 people to evacuate. The cause of the fire is yet to be confirmed. High temperatures and strong winds have been hampering the rescue if. Rescue efforts. The blaze took residents by surprise. District on the outskirts of the city. People salvaged what they could before fleeing their homes. Some 400 people were forced to evacuate. We didnt get anything out. We bought a small house with a subsidy, and now this happened again. The fire has damaged at least 100 homes in valparaiso, where many houses are made of wood. Hundreds of other homes remain at risk. High temperatures and strong winds helped spread the blaze. The firetors say spread on trash left in the ravines that run throughout the city. Some residents return to assess the damage. We just came back to look, and there is nothing left. We lost everything. Nearly 50 fire were gates have been deployed to fight the blaze, but their task is complicated by sprawling hills, narrow roads, and lack of water mains. Valparaiso has been ravaged by series of fires in recent years. In 2014, a forest fire killed 15 people and destroyed several thousand homes. Here in france, members of the socialist party are preparing to vote for the president ial candidate ahead of the elections in may. Setformer Prime Minister out his policy priorities which include a state payout for 18yearolds unable to find work. Alexander takes a closer look. Reporter a manuel valls has to walk a political tightrope to defend his record as Prime Minister while also presenting himself as something new. Move have to continue to forward with the things we have already begun and go even further. For example, in education, but in other areas as well. Strategy is to contrast sharply with conservative candidate france. All Francois Fillon he is preparing a drastic reduction in public services. He needs to maintain appeal. O centrist voters among the proposals of his ls is promoted to hire more police officers, increase teacher pay, Institute Six months of mandatory National Service for young adults and exempt overtime hours from taxes. The primary takes place in two rounds, january 22 and then a week later on january 29. Laura im joined by paul smith from Nottingham University in united kingdom. Thanks for being with us tonight on france 24. Has a tough job, he must defend himself as Prime Minister and distance himself from. Rancois hollande youre quite right, thats , to sayhas to try to do there is something new about him as a candidate, that there is a kind of strongman image but also that he wants to open up, as your correspondent says, toward the center by making these gestures toward young people and talking about increasing the of policemen and so forth. Hes trying to address those two areas. Law and order, but also a much more centrist economic policy. He also has quite a leftwing agenda in terms of boosting government spending. He said he wants to boost spending on defense and wants to bring in a welfare payment for adults who cannot find work. Unemployment here stubbornly remains at around 10 . It all sounds pretty expensive, though. Yes, it is expensive, and it will be interesting to , thatse gets through always the problem with these things, with primaries. They dont want to delve into the details, but it will be expensive. From his point of view it as his hisof trying to outbid rivals, who have come up with the idea of basic payment, which is very much like what is being tried out in finland at the moment, this idea of a payment that you get in any case, its a new kind of step forward. Laura he will have a much tougher job beating the conservative candidate in may. Reporter i think it is an enormous ask. Willther problem valls have, if he does go all the way through the first round of the election, the president ial election, its a very big danger of the two men canceling one another out. Difficult to see how he can seriously challenge something hes going to have to really shift seismically. He may well be the favorite, but there are a lot of candidates on the left, even though there is a llon inspace between fi the center and the left. There are a lot of candidates fighting for that space. Laura thank you much very much indeed, paul smith. Lets start with a victory for france. Dominated,ch driver the nine time world rally in argentina in two hours, six minutes and 55 seconds. The phase one winner by one minute and 23 seconds. And the toyota driver at the top of the standings. The defending champion from australia secured a second win in as many days. Two minutes and 39 seconds at the top of the standings. France, the first major recruit of the winter transfer window, the german has a four Year Contract for a reported 36 million euro transfer fee. Today he got to meet his new teammates and have his first Training Session. He turned to a familiar face, 23yearold , the draxle will be competing for a startingr spot. He could make his debut on saturday. That would be in the french cup. Lets listen to him speaking for the first time as a new player. Am very happy to be here. Just very happy on here and i hope i can play a lot of games. Thats what i like most. Over in england, the primary league continues with three games currently underway. Palace hopes to regain their third spot. Breakow the blues can arsenals record of 13 straight wins in a single season if they win, but the spurs have been extremely vocal about preventing their rivals from breaking that record. This leaves the chelsea manager even more cautious. This is quite an achievement for us. Tomorrow we all know that we have a tough game. Good team, a very strong team. For this reason it is important to try to continue our run. There are a few players missing from the premier league danes. African players who are now focused on the upcoming continental event, the africa cup of nations. Defending champions ivory coast started their Training Session less than two weeks before kickoff. S havester united defender been named by the manager. Defenders have been named on the squad along with the veteran forward who is set to appear in his fifth tournament. They will be without their captain, jeremy neal, who is out without aand will be Manchester City star who retired from International Football two months ago. The first game will be on january 16. , the u. S. S news continuing their march toward saturdays final and a possible beatrical title as they the Czech Republic on sunday and completed it lean sweep queen suite clean sweep. Singles, lopez took the first set against jack sock, who then found his momentum in the second set. It was all a done deal then. The americans had to battle it out to win it in three sets. Up next, the u. S. Wraps up the round robin with the Czech Republic who defeated australia. Some nba action, the bucks taking on the thunder in milwaukee. Star, they did hold on in the second half. Westbrook made only three of 17 shots in the second half. The bucks use that to outscore the thunder in the third. Milwaukee wins 9894. Cavs beating the pelicans at via lebron6 points james. Orlando beating the nick at Madison Square garden, the warriors beat the nuggets in the performance of the night in chicago, jimmy butler with 52 points, giving the bulls the wind again at charlotte. Still in the league, extending the lead 190 miles between the two men. Place, 625 miles behind the leader. For those still in the south pacific, things are little bit more difficult for skippers suffering damages to their boats. They are all still hoping to make some repairs and repairs and finish the race. Laura not for the fainthearted, that one. Were taking a short break. Qwux 01 03 17 01 03 17 [captioning made possible by democracy now ] amy from pacifica, this is democracy now conferencee republican votes to get the house ethics office. This as the new Congress Opens today. We will speak with public citizens craig holman, who set up the office of congressional ethics. Then to turkey where Police Continue to search for him and who opened fire inside a nightclub during a new years celebration,