out of that i'm watching al-jazeera live from london also coming up the u.s. says it's done being a member of the un's cultural body. anti israel bias and israel says it will pull out too. i believe they're starting to respect the united states again. donald trump praises park a song for its role in the release of a u.s. canadian couple of the children held hostage for years by the taliban plus. i'm kristen salumi in manhattan where the chinese artist ai wei wei has painted one of his latest sculptures goal coming up i'll tell you which famous new yorker he's trying to reach. palestinians in gaza and the occupied west bank i've been alice on the street center. a reconciliation deal between fatah and hamas brokered by egypt the agreement between the rival political movements will end a decade long splits under the agreement a unity government will take administrative control of gaza which has been run by hamas for the last ten years by december the first are a force that reports from ramallah in the occupied west bank. in a grand hall of the egyptian intelligence headquarters and hamas officially signed on to egypt's grand plan for palestinian reconciliation after a decade of division both sides expressed hope that this time it was for good. there has been full agreement on the concept of empowering the government and. the legitimate palestinian government will return to working normally in accordance with. the law. despite the fact that we have some different views different political points we have different disputes but this will never change the fact that we are brothers we are brothers in religion we are brothers in nationality we are brothers in the national interest we suffer the same we have the same future we need to find a way for a unity of our people to secure the end patients of our people. this isn't the first time they've been here repeated attempts to reconcile have failed a main stumbling block the future of hamas military wing appears for now to have been set aside palestinian authority security services are to resume running gaza's border crossings including the vital one with egypt and other issues how to run internal security and merge two separate groups of government workers are being addressed step by step along the lines of a twenty eleven agreement also signed with great fanfare in cairo here in ramallah the palestinian president mahmoud abbas welcomed the deal saying it accelerated palestinian reconciliation is fatah delegation head indicated its timelines and targets would ensure that it stayed on track and of course it has egypt breathing hard down the necks of both parties in gaza so damaged by the split the economic blockade and three israeli wars people are talking cautiously in terms of hope. when we used to hear about any reconciliation efforts we would think immediately of the failure of it but we hope this time is different but unity could at least solve the power crisis and bring happiness to the gazan people. we've had enough eleven years of suffering without electricity no medicine for old people no travelling we want to live like other nations. so far the israeli reaction has been muted saying how mass would need to recognize israel and give up its arms but without the full bore opposition of previous reconciliation attempts an international push for palestinian reconciliation led by the us who is much more interested in the so-called big deal between the palestinians and israelis and without palestinian reconciliation this deal might not go forward. in gaza celebrations were underway not least of the prospect of an end to restrictions on salaries and electricity imposed by the palestinian authority earlier this year to put pressure on hamas but it's clear that this is the start of a process the coming weeks will feature plenty of opportunities to build mutual trust or we can it carry four sit in the occupied west bank where he respects al jazeera senior political analyst marwan bashar and he explained the why did this deal. much of the process is about running the autonomous territories in the west bank and gaza that's it so it's about the palestine national authority and the legislative council governing those territories in terms of diplomacy it's the palestine liberation organization the p.l.o. that the rules that are present all palestinians including those in east jerusalem including those in lebanon in jordan in the refugee areas and source of course so the palestine liberation organization that represents all palestinians is not for the time being under scrutiny in terms of gaza the west bank preparation they want on the long term to reform the p.l.o. in order to include have mass in it but for the time being all the diplomatic agreements will continue to be honored by president abbas as the head of the p.l.o. so i think much of these arrangements do not infringe on that the provided process again the question is for the palestinian is whether they're getting anything at all out of the plebiscite. the united states and israel are pulling out of unesco the united nations cultural agency washington announced its decision first saying the body needs fundamental reform and also accused unesco of having an anti israel bias and a few hours later the israeli prime minister binyamin netanyahu announced his country was also withdrawing when i was there in the past about a can join us live now from unesco's headquarters in paris so natasha any reaction from us kate to this decision. i was you can imagine it's been the talk of the day here you know sco in paris i mean it's just not good news for the organization you have two members saying that they want to pull out and the united states is one of the founding members of this organization which was created to try and promote unity and consensus in terms of the united states decision at least it wasn't a complete surprise because the trumpet ministration have indicated that they may consider pulling out of unesco but we now have a date it will be at the end of next year and the relationship between washington and us go certainly been very fraught over the past years in twenty eleven unesco decided to give the palestinians full membership and that was something which angered the united states they are of course a very close ally of israel and they suspended their financial contributions to unesco and i were talking of of about eighty million dollars a year it was a huge financial loss for us to go however the director general irina bokova said that she hopes perhaps whoever is the next director general because there is an election ongoing at the moment she hopes that perhaps that person may be able to reverse this decision either way she said it was deeply and she she was she felt deep regret about it. i express my deep regrets. i remember what they said in two thousand and eleven already when the united states the law states are voting rights and suspended their payment to the united states might the put you in a school and unesco might the whole united states in fact if you go back into history we will see not only that. united states is a founding member of going to school the whole idea that you can build peace through education science a culture of communication. is basically an american idea interesting isn't it natasha that this news comes as you know currently voting for its next director general any idea whether we'll have any impacts on not voting. it was been a very does been ongoing all week the fifty eight members of the executive board are going to pick their candidate we will know who it is on friday it's been a very tightly run contest and so far leading the pack is the cattery candidate closely followed by egypt and france now we're going to see on friday is katter's definitely through egypt and france where they'll have a runoff and one of them will then they face the cattery candidates and we'll find out who that new director general is who ever it is though they are going to have quite a challenge ahead to try and in a way really direct this organization that's been accused of needing these reforms and possibly see if it will be able if that person will be able to try and reverse those decisions from those members who have decided to pull out is going to be a huge challenge and we'll have to see who will be the person facing that at the end of friday paris time certainly will natasha him paris thank you. pakistan's army has rescued a family held captive by the her candy network an organization aligned to the afghan taliban the army says canadian joshua boyle his american wife coleman and their three children were recovered in a tribal district along the pakistan afghanistan border after a tip off by u.s. intelligence agencies they were kidnapped in afghanistan and twenty twelve while they were backpacking well the trunk has praised pakistan for its involvement i want to thank the pakistani government want to thank pakistan they they were very hard on this. and i believe they're starting to respect the united states again it's very important i think a lot of can right now a lot of countries are starting to respect the united states of america once again . we hope to see this type of cooperation and teamwork in helping secure the release of remaining hostages and in our future joint counterterrorism operations. to has more on this from. operation. were able to recover all five. including mr boyd. american wife children they were under the custody of the. when they were in for a backpacking. operation and the american. however all happening at a time when friction between islamabad and washington. in the u.s. . but. that day would not allow any foreign troops to operate in any joint operation . and they would of course on the other hand appreciate any actionable intelligence. operation in their own. well i still had some on the program can use government bonds. deepening crisis. spain's national day spike a parade of trades. to find it's possible. hello and welcome to international weather forecast the weather is getting quite interesting across europe changes are afoot is still looking pretty unsettled across northern areas and across the east you see this low pressure center bringing cold air in the cross certainly parts of russia there with eleven as of meissen in moscow but central areas looking fine and we're getting more of a southerly flow pushing up from the west and this warm air is going to continue to push northwards over the next few days so certainly fine weather across central and southern areas frontal systems pushing across northwestern parts of the u.k. specially towards the early part of next week but really read the mediterranean absolutely beautiful conditions at the moment rome they're looking at temperatures mid twenty's athens something similar on the other side of the mediterranean the breeze is coming in off the sea there are a few showers around the gulf of sirte otherwise caro's looking fine weather conditions temperatures that in the upper twenty's are very pleasant indeed it stays that way through saturday so let's head into central parts of africa and here we've got heavy showers really from congo across towards japan and northward towards cameroon there are a few showers further towards the west but once you get up into mali where the conditions are largely dry and fine highs of thirty eight there and bamako for southern portions of africa looking terry fine high for twenty four in capetown. a family business handed down from generation to generation but when this funeral director retires will his son continue the tradition. for just like i don't feel like i was actually docked for a difficult choice for an al-jazeera producer caught between two worlds well it's really by tending to the dead to the living a better an intimate portrait of an industry most encounter only fleetingly al-jazeera correspondent death in the family at this time. and again at the top stories here on al-jazeera palestinians have been celebrating a reconciliation deal between. fatah which could end a decade long split. israel in the united states say they're pulling out of unesco the u.s. state department says the organization needs fundamental reform and has an anti israel bias. us president donald trump says the pakistani army is rescue of a north american family held captive by the haqqani network shows islam about is starting to quote respects america again. kenya's government is banning opposition protests in three cities just weeks before the repeat presidential election is due to be held demonstrations have been banned in nairobi kisumu and mombasa the government says protesters of looted and attacked police stations they also say the police have used force on the opposition leader announced this week that he would be withdrawing from the race throwing the nation into political turmoil catherine soit has more from nairobi. the reason given for this ban is in security and it's not a blanket ban it's a ban on protests in the central business district of nairobi in western kenya and . at the kenyan coast this is where protests have been most sustained and increasingly particularly in nairobi and been seeing incidents of people be robbed shops being vandalized as well the opposition says that have been hired to infiltrate what they see as peaceful demonstrations they also blame the police for using excessive force for example a couple of weeks ago we saw video of police heresy and beating up university students inside their campus here in nairobi yesterday and during the protests dozens of people who were injured several of them have been hospitalized with gunshot wounds they blame the police so the interior cabinet minister at that press conference saying that what they're doing is trying to prevent an escalation of violence and it's going to be interesting how this goes going forward because the opposition is adamant they say they will continue with their protests to push for electoral reforms a cease fire deal in syria that could see an end to the siege in the rebel held areas south of damascus has been reached the agreement brokered by cairo and moscow includes the josh al islam group of fall short of specifically mentioning i saw. has more from antakya along with turkey syria border. for the rebels this is quite a significant deal because they have areas in which out about to fall into the control of the governments of all the time that being there would be able to maintain those areas particularly in the south of the capital damascus now at the same time they would have a humanitarian aid allowed into those areas because we have to bear in mind that is similar to has been besieged by government forces for quite some time now it's also important for the syrian government because the syrian army has been the focus of his fight to effect i said for some parts of the country it particularly and the response from conflict with the rebels in damascus will allow the government to shift all its focus to workers and send board you ploy more reinforcements to the east some part of the country now. there's also another interesting development in the story which is basically the egyptians deeply involved in the syrian conflict they will have their own monitors on the ground to ensure that all the parties in play by the terms of the cease fire the russians and the iranians because they have been key players in the past that main backers of the president said there was still the instruments of ensuring that all the parties will. to the terms of the. baghdad has denied accusations that it is planning an attack on the autonomous kurdish region of iraq kurdish authorities even night saying they received a warning from the iraqi military of a planned attack on kurdish controlled areas. that is in. northern iraq. this is the last kurdish peshmerga checkpoint on the bill mostly road. the kurdish authorities closed it and another route into nineveh province for a few hours overnight saying they had received messages from the iraqi military that it was planning attacks in kurdish control. pressure is mounting from baghdad on the kurdish regional government ok argy following the recent referendum on secession from iraq many people say they feel punished and afraid the iraqi government is trying to fight the chaos economically wanted to close its land borders they have already closed the international airspace they have cut the federal budget to the k. are cheap it's all coming from a bad government this is not right civilians should not be punished like this the federal government in baghdad denied any responsibility for these messages that the k r g said that it received last night from the iraqi military and shia militia groups saying that they were planning attacks around the oil rich city of kirkuk and north of mosul but the closure of this road last night as a result of those messages shows just how nervous the kurdish regional government is getting. a federal court has issued arrest warrants for members of the kurdish regional government electoral commission like dad says it wants federal control over kayla ji banks and telephone networks. both turkey and iran have held a joint military operations with the iraqi army close to the k r g international borders and a spokesperson for the turkish president receive type says turkey will eventually take control of its k r g border in coordination with baghdad and to herat the kurdish regional government says baghdad's action amounts to collective punishment this is a clear prove that that is not ready for democracy or for dialogue we from our side will engender violence confrontation we are not focused collation and we do not want to provoke but but likewise we have to respect the will of the people of iraq you prime minister hyderabadi says military confrontation is not the solution . but he says there will be no dialogue with the kayleigh ji until the referendum results are made and avoid all the ninety two percent of those who voted said yes to eventual kurdish secession the k r g says the kurdish people of iraq have spoken charles strafford al jazeera northern iraq. spain has been celebrating its national day with a massive military show of unity while the pressure remains on the castle and pushed them all to say whether or not he has declared independence there were military parades flyovers and marches in madrid while smaller anti spain demonstrations took place. once the reports. in the last fortnight hadn't been dramatic enough the spectacle of national day provided the finishing touch madrid laid it on thick the whole military display the flags of the regions used as an opportunity to say to the cattle lands just look how united we are nobody wants your independence the crowd of course loyal supporters of king and country. here but here i want to do it right here today we celebrate the day of spain which is the day of all spanish people but there's a group of us spaniards who are bent on breaking up our shared country. that they should understand and got to learn you that we belong to one country which is spain and not just a republic which they are pushing for. for the first time in thirty years a national police were invited to rapturous applause. the government said the decision to honor them came after the barcelona attack in august this is of course the same national police which on referendum day tear gassed and fired rubber bullets at spanish citizens in catalonia. six of them are incredibly provocative if madrid wanted to rub the caps alarms noses in the does this is how you do it. in barcelona the pro independence faction held its own protest march it was tiny compared to madrid there on the back foot now the splits in the movement being exploited by the national governments but how they hated the spanish national police being celebrated by madrid. i mean it's shocking as the national police are occupying forces. it's as if they sent in the tanks we don't want them here they're not our police force to form a government that does not represent us. and zip to demonstrate how divided catalonia remains there was a symbol ten years approach spanish rally the police had to make sure they were at some distance from each other on one occasion they failed and the prospect of them pro-capital on demonstrators made it entirely clear what they thought of one another. so much it knows it has the catalan president in a trap now whichever way he decides on the independence question he risks losing part of his base on this day it felt like the dream was in a triumphant mood. gloriously al-jazeera in madrid. u.s. president donald trump is threatening to pull aid funding from hurricane ravaged question recoat three weeks after it was hit by hurricane maria many of puerto rico's three point four million residents are still struggling without basic services such as power and running water in a series of tweets trump insisted that financial aid would be limited and blamed the u.s. territory for its financial struggles. the united nations says the number of civilian casualties in afghanistan has soared this year after the u.s. run top its aerial campaign four hundred sixty six civilians have been killed or injured by air strikes since the start of the year up fifty two percent from the same period in twenty sixteen the un says women and children accounted for more than two thirds of the victims. mammals leader aung sun suu cheney has called for national unity in an address to the nation on the red refugee crisis so she is under massive international pressure of the un among others accuse the country's army of a string of human rights abuses against the muslim minority she says she's ready to talk to bangladesh about returning some of the heart a million were him who fled violence in a kind state. then radiation angle you know he did we are now negotiating with the government of bangladesh on the matter of accepting those who are now in bangladesh since our independence we have twice successfully negotiated with bangladesh on the issue based on the successful traditions we are now negotiating for time. has more from the m.r. . well for the bulk of the speech and science it she announced that they want to start rehabilitating bringing humanitarian aid assistance and rebuilding state where the conflict that military operations against the road is taking place but also perhaps the strangest part of the speech is that she called on donations from the public to help with that in endeavor basically calling on people to donate to rebuild the homes that have just been destroyed by this military operation now as we know this these operations are ongoing just yesterday on wednesday the un's human rights chief called on the military to stop its operations in iraq and state a damning report about the campaign in iraq and say calling it a well organized coordinated and systematic campaign to expel the road and prevent them from ever coming back to me in march and includes testimony about indiscriminate killings mass rapes and the burning of homes very homes now that and some food she wants people to donate in order to see them rebuilt on this international criticism and some food she didn't say all that much except that she said that we need to understand that there's international criticisms but that nobody knows me in my better than we do and that nobody wants development of mean maher more than we do so really address wednesday's report by the un's human rights chief chinese artist ai wei wei has installed more than one hundred wire fence exhibits of various sites across new york city the exhibition is aimed at highlighting the plight of refugees and government policies towards immigrants christensen reports. two people cut through the fence that now blocks the triumphal arch in new york's washington square park a giant work of public art inspired by the global refugee crisis it's called good fences make good neighbors but these fences founded parks and on sidewalks all around new york city have openings one of things i love about the park system in the city is that you never know what you're going to cross so there's always that sense of adventure and exploration and when there's something like this it's very thought provoking and enjoyable i think it's beautiful i think it has a lot of good work that like people can interact with it starts a conversation it's creators the chinese artist ai wei wei lived in the city for twelve years but at first hesitated to take on the commission as a savior loves so much is not a using for me to do the just. sculpture in the city i have to do sums and to. pay back my respects to my love these days i way way is an international superstar known as much for his political activism as his art but while sculptures like these may be warmly received here in new york they haven't always the light of the authorities back home. i has at times been detained and harassed in his homeland of china this time he's taking aim at the west his gilded cage painted to match trump tower just a few blocks away. time there's no tolerance. divided on the. collar reduce religion nationality. which is i think it's a complete good. going back warts. the message is universal but has a special resonance in the city of emigrants york city's very open it it accepts people from all kinds of backgrounds and i think that was a very profound experience so i think he'll be values that he wants to make sure that we think about it in don't take it for granted eyes boundaries are fluid meant to provide comfort not divide and circling the community with the masses that all are welcome here christian salumi al jazeera new york and there is much more on our website the address is al jazeera dot com al-jazeera dot com. and reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera the palestinians have been celebrating a reconciliation deal between hamas which controls gaza and fatah which runs the occupied west bank the deal brokered by egypt was signed in cairo and will see the formation of a national unity government force that has more from ramallah. there are some key targets that have been put in place for instance november the first for having full control over the borders under the palestinian authority presidential security guards even though there is some potential for problems the rafa crossing is currently undergoing some redevelopment on the egyptian side will it be ready for the palestinian authority security services to fully take over a number of ember the first will it really happen on the ground it's a real prize for hamas the control of that crossing the united states and israel say there with during a from unesco the united nations cultural agency washington announced its decision saying the body needs fundamental reform it also accused unesco of having an anti israel bias. the israeli prime minister binyamin netanyahu announced his country was also withdrawing. the pakistani army has rescued a family held captive by the her conny network an armed organization aligned to the afghan taliban the army says they were recovered in a tribal district along the pakistan afghanistan border after tip off by u.s. intelligence agencies u.s. president donald trump says the rescue shows pakistan is beginning to respect america again. kenya's government is banning opposition protests in three cities just weeks before the repeat presidential election is held demonstrations be banned in nairobi because to move and mombasa the government says protesters have looted at the time police stations baghdad has denied that it's planning an attack on the autonomous kurdish region of iraq kurdish authorities say they received a warning from the iraqi military of a plan to type on kurdish controlled areas tension has been mounting since iraqi kurds overwhelmingly voted in favor of secession two weeks ago. and those headlines here on al-jazeera i'm back with an update for you in twenty five minutes the stream though is coming next. and you're in the stream now live on you tube today the political turmoil in kenya is the country's upcoming rerun presidential election in jeopardy now that the opposition candidate has withdrawn from the race.