hello i'm rob matheson this is the news hour live from coming up in the next sixty minutes the u.s. asks turkey not to take military action in a kurdish controlled district in northern syria. u.s. politicians move a step closer to avoiding a government shutdown. crowds of well wishers welcome pope francis to peru for the second leg of his south america two. and a major storm blows through europe killing at least seven people and disrupting travel. the u.s. state department is urging turkey not to take military action in f. in northern syria turkish forces are massing on the border and they're threatening to attack the kurdish why p.g. turkey considers the wipe e.g. a terrorist group but its fighters have been a key ally for the u.s. elsewhere inside. stephanie decker has more from takeo. the turkish army is steadily increasing its presence along this stretch of the syrian border present to one has been threatening to attack the kurdish run area of africa and for almost a week now there has been sporadic shelling. inside africa and thousands marched on thursday in protest to turkey's aggression how the wealthy and that's the goal of this large demonstration is to send a message to the world and especially to turkey concerning the turkish threats we will not be a fright. you know we came here to protest against the attacks on offering we will stand by african and our troops the wife. is one of three autonomy's kurdish enclaves controlled by the syrian kurdish p why do party and its armed when the y p g turkey sees the y p g as an offshoot of the kurdistan workers' party or p k k which it together with the u.s. in europe consider a terrorist organization but the white p.g. has been working with the u.s. to push ice a lot of syria not enough lean but further east of the euphrates river the americans have never had a presence in africa but the russians do and africa has been relatively peaceful throughout this war and it hosts tens of thousands of internally displaced syrians it will like you know africa has been there for quite a long time it's never through like you know was it a serious issue to threats or turkey but there are going to probably need is this kind of nationalistic. you know rhetoric and potentially use its military in order to be able to gain more. with the upcoming elections in turkey so i think it comes to. you know it's at the start when it comes to actual interaction and into a friend tensions have been stoked further in recent days by the u.s. announcement of a so-called border force which will be based east of the euphrates along the border . turkey in iraq and the wife will form its backbone not to the. united states and he supports a terrorist organization that threatens did a good this be acceptable it is unacceptable and inexplicably the us secretary of state rex tillerson says it's not a border force the us role has been misplaced trade and turkey is owed an explanation he says the build up is aimed at countering the resurgence of eisel will be internally focused and is important for the stability of syria however that's not what others involved in syria's war think ankara to han moscow and damascus have all voiced their opposition to the force once again it highlights the complicated nature of syria's war isis been pushed out of most of the territory that it once held and so the battlefield is becoming perhaps even more complicated with each side trying to carve out its fear of influence and it seems the syrians are the ones that hold the least sway of all stephanie decker al-jazeera. meanwhile syria's deputy foreign minister says his government's forces will attack turkish jets flying over its kurdish region he made the comment shortly before the turkish heads of intelligence an army arrived in moscow to discuss the use of syrian air space. most of them. have a tokyo we warn that the syrian air defenses restored all its capacity and power and is ready to destroy to keep targets in the skies of the syrian arab republic but this means that in any case i think russian by the ticket force it won't be made in easy while the u.s. appears to be sending mixed messages about the forces helping to create in syria i think ok has more from washington d.c. . the long term goals of u.s. policy in syria have been a bit muddled but the secretary of state rex tillerson is trying to make one point crystal clear u.s. forces are not leaving united states will maintain a military presence in syria focused on ensuring isis cannot reemerge our military mission in syria will remain conditions based its main focus training a local force but that has enraged turkey who see those they are teaching why p.g. fighters as a grave threat to their security turkey says that is why its forces are massing at the border prompting this warning from the u.s. we would call on certainly on the turks to not take any actions of that sort here's what caused the concern this statement from the u.s. military writing quote the coalition is working jointly with the syrian democratic forces to establish and train the new syrian border security force the statement repeatedly refers to training a border security force thirty thousand strong raising concerns in turkey that they could have no thomas region now secretary tillerson says it isn't a border force that in his words has been mis portrayed mis described former u.s. ambassador to syria robert ford says that's ridiculous that the us trained force would of course control the border they're just ignoring the turkish concern they know what their concerns are they just don't care basically they're making a bet that turkey will not walk too far away from its longstanding alliance with the united states they are making that bet. the u.s. betting that turkey's leaders will be angry and not act whether that turns out to be true will depend in large part on what the leader of russia says not tillerson or trump pedicle hain al-jazeera washington alleges it is senior political analyst amal english odysseys a significant change in u.s. strategy in syria this is a major departure from both the trump administration strategy or beacon of strategy the last year and it's certainly a major departure from the obama administration's strategy in syria and in the greater middle east. in fact you know one who of course would say that this is well thought through stretches the probably took weeks if not months just like what we've seen the kind of a departure of a new strategy in afghanistan i think now we're seeing a change of policy towards syria so this is not a trump midnite tweet this is the strategy of the united states in syria and it really marks a major departure whereby as we've heard there's going to be an indefinite deployment of u.s. military presence in syria it's going to be a militant presence that will push towards the removal of the assad regime in syria it's going to create a safe haven of some sort whereby it allows for refugees to come back into syria it's going to support a local force notably the white b.g. with a strong kurdish presence and so forth the worst the north and the east and it's clearly going to put iran on notice it's going to confront the new russia iran turkey triangle in syria. turkey's parliament has extended the state of emergency in the country for another three months it's the sixth extension since the failed coup in twenty sixteen and as a lot of the president to bypass parliament by decree critics accuse the government of misusing its emergency powers to go after all of poland's british prime minister theresa may and french president emmanuel mack wrong have pledged to maintain their nation's close relationship they'll cooperate on security issues after the u.k. leaves the european union france will also get more funding from britain to deal with a large number of people gathering in ports like to try to reach the u.k. john holl has more from the sandhurst military academy in the u.k. where the two leaders met. we're better to talk defense and security cooperation than britain's world famous sandhurst military academy the british army may not be the global force it once was but france and britain are still the main e.u. military powers just one of many things in common that these two leaders say they are keen to preserve post breaks it while this summit takes place is the u.k. prepares to leave the e.u. we are and will remain a steadfast partner to our friends and allies and a strong and deep relationship between the united kingdom and france remains in both our interests. the president and i agree on the importance of the u.k. france relationship not just to our security but to european security they also share a border on the french side including the sometimes troubled port of kalai and a border agreement that emanuel initially had said he wanted to tear up instead britain will pay tens of millions of dollars more towards reinforcing it and helping france deal with the burden of migrants and refugees trying to reach britain it is mr mack rahm's nod in the direction of common interests and continued close future ties. there are two things that cannot be changed our history and our geography these cannot be impacted by changes in the institution or office we are facing common challenges and we share the same destiny. the two sides also promised to help each other in their foreign military operations british helicopters to help france's fight against eisel and al-qaeda in north africa french assistance in securing the e.u. use eastern borders with russia but the real focus of attention here is as much defense as it is diplomacy it is the u.k. government trying to forge a close future relationship with france inside the e.u. when britain is out. as bricks of negotiations enter their most difficult stage trade talks there may well be more of this sort of treatment of e.u. leaders britain trying to maintain influence while it still can and relevance when it's all over jonah hill al-jazeera at sandhurst. plenty more ahead in the news hour including as donald trump marks his first year in office we'll look at the tumultuous effect of his foreign policies in the middle east plus. floating in a colossal brian space find out how artists are using virtual reality as a new media. was right at the limits this is truly an open becoming too hot to handle for some players he's going to have all the action on. a spending bill to keep the u.s. government operating has passed the house of representatives that i just laid to release funding for federal agencies until the middle of next month when i'll be debated in the senate government agencies are warning employees of a shutdown on friday if the money isn't proved. well the democrats say they won't support a bill unless there are guarantees that children of migrants who enter the u.s. without documents will be protected our white house correspondent kimberly harkat reports. senator how did i know i have called carlos roll was brought to the united states from venezuela illegally by his parents at the age of two his university educated and now lives in chicago but is spending his vacation in washington to plead his case before lawmakers now we're all here to support the dream act i've been senator i wanted to check in with you about your support for the dream act growing needs congressional support to pass a law so he can stay in the united states legally under a program called daca i don't see anything it's fair that they're playing politics with our lives i mean it's really problematic and the fact that you know we are you know we are real people we are support you know we are contributors economy like my employers you know our employers are concerned about the political what's politically at stake dr recipients like rola have become central in the debate over funding that could shut down the u.s. government at midnight friday within required twenty eighteen government funding legislation democrats are demanding protections for doctor recipients they also want money for health insurance for low income children republicans are demanding money for president trump's border wall along the southern border with mexico to stop illegal immigration they also want funding to rebuild the u.s. military if for any reason a judge down the worst thing is what happens to our military but democrats say dr recipients are the real victims in this battle if protections aren't put in place. some protesting in the u.s. congress were even arrested for advocating on behalf of illegal immigrants without status it's possible a short term funding deal could keep the government open allowing time for bigger issues to be addressed the last time there was a government shutdown was nearly five years ago and it could happen again if democrats and republicans are able to overcome their differences. kimberly how did al-jazeera washington u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley has met a group of african diplomats just days after president donald trump's derogatory remarks on immigration diplomatic editor james bays has more from the u.n. in new york this was the highest level meeting between an official of the trump administration an african nations ambassador nikki haley is not just the u.n. ambassador for the trumpet ministration she's a member of the cabinet she was in damage limitation mode but she did not apologize i understand that she told the african ambassador she didn't know exactly what was said in that meeting last week in washington d.c. she simply said she regretted the political drama regarding what had been said she stressed the long ties between the continent and the united states and the investment and contribution that the u.s. had made towards africa for example citing the sixty six billion dollars the u.s. has given since the year two thousand to fight hiv aids the african ambassadors thanked her for talking to them remember only a few days ago they were asking for attraction and a formal apology they said though that these comments are not only been heard by african ambassadors but also by the african people in african leaders and stressed to her that african leaders will be meeting at an african union summit in the next two weeks and said it would be useful if president trump was to send a message to that summit and basta haley said she'll be going from here in new york to washington d.c. in the coming hours and she said she would relay that message directly to the president. well joining us from washington d.c. is robin saunders she's a former u.s. ambassador to nigeria and republic of congo thank you very much indeed for joining us i want to talk to you about the u.s. is foreign policy particularly with regard to africa in a moment but if this situation with these comments being made by a president it happened when you were an ambassador working in these countries how would you have handled it well i think that you know the state department issued what i thought was a very very good statement and i know and bastards have been deployed across the continent to basically underscore that we are still committed and engaged on the continent and that's exactly what i would be saying we have a long history working with the african nations it is a very strategic and important region and all of us here that heard the report and comments are quite dismayed and we've been engaged with senior officials former senior officials of the of the government and other african leaders right here in the united states to talk about this so it is a very very sensitive time i think between the u.s. and the region and we definitely need to be in damage control on our end in terms of damage control what can the u.s. do in order to try to make this situation to ease the tensions if you like make this situation go away and also what do you think the african can't come trees can do to try to bridge the gap that's obviously appeared. well i think that over time that the partnership that we've had in the past needs to be restated i think there's a sense i just came back from spending a month in the region actually and what i heard there was that they thought that the u.s. was not only retrenching from a number of key issues like climate change but also from the region writ large and i think africa is so important and if we don't understand that as a nation it's important to us from a business perspective a trade perspective as well as just as a humanitarian perspective the the nations of the country of the continent are vibrant dynamic that people are and i've spent half my life there and it was very very disheartening to hear these comments so we have to put everything back on a equal footing reaching out building on what we have had over the last fifteen years in the the aid the support on the democracies the business relationships we need to put all that back on the front burner so that we can rebuild and go forward to have a few good partnership like we need to have if the trumpet ministration continues to prove by as it appears to do at the moment what do you think the consequence will be in terms of power and influence within the african continent. i think we see a shift in power ready china has a tremendous influence on the continent and what i don't understand from the u.s. policy perspective is looking at a region of the world that has a population that's going to reach reach two point four billion people in about fifteen years or so they will have the largest working age population in the world so even if you hypothetically just thought about the business and trade relationship where are we going to trade who are we going to trade with who are going to be our counterparts as political leaders as economic leaders if you're not focused on and looking at africa as a partnership so that part i don't understand about our foreign policy yes there are security issues and yes there are challenges but that's not the whole story of the continent just like any other region in the world there are good news stories there are dynamic places there are dynamic leaders there and the people on the on the common are dynamic themselves so reducing the region down to just its challenges does not make sense really good to hear your views on this robin sound as a former u.s. ambassador to nigeria and the republic of congo thank you very much for your time pleasure. saturday marks one year since president donald trump took the oath of office becoming the forty fifth president of the united states that's been riddled with scandals and investigations and foreign policy mishaps xeno called it looks at how his presidency has impacted the middle east. it was the first time that saudi arabia had been chosen by a u.s. president for his debussy overseas trip donald trump in the saudi leadership wanted to reset relations is strange to under the obama administration particularly over iran the u.s. and the saudis are traditional allies but it's clearly a new relationship that he has closely a brace but haven't been so bad in saudi arabia and he has literally tweeted that. a trade prince of saudi arabia enjoy his twenty two co-defendants so he has essentially given them a diplomatic blank check and that is why many believe saudi arabia along with the united arab emirates battering in egypt miscalculated when they imposed an air sea and land blockade on qatar seven months ago qatar denies accusations of backing terrorist organizations trump and initially supported the blockade before the white house shifted its position has to very much on the side of saudi arabia and i think . he has simply gone ahead with whatever his son in law and transmitted to him and terms of messages between hamas been so mine and himself and at the beginning he demonstrated that he knew very little as to the strategic importance of qatar to the united states trump has more than once shown a lack of knowledge not just about u.s. interests while meeting lebanon's prime minister saad had easy he seemed confused about the role of has been lost lebanon is on the front lines in the fight against isis al qaeda and hezbollah hezbollah is a part of. the government it's also backed by iran iran has been the common denominator between the trumpet ministration the saudis and the israelis but so far there doesn't seem to be a clear strategy on how to confront iran. further in iraq and in syria as. has been. the last year but how do they do it very very good. of a parent an american military presence in syria but it is likely that iran is going to maintain a major influence there u.s. troops were deployed in the kurdish region in syria to assist in the fight against i so the u.s. led coalition says the american personnel will stay and help create a border security force of thirty thousand kurdish troops the u.s. policy is to contain iran and it is using its only leverage in syria the kurds to try to do that. trump doesn't have a new policy for syria he inherited his predecessor policy of nor direct military intervention but he doesn't want the russians iranians the syrian regime to declare victory the u.s. is not in a position to confront what it wants to postpone addict a ration of victory what he didn't postpone however was his campaign pledge but today we finally acknowledge the obvious that jerusalem is israel's capital. with this highly controversial move trump overturned decades of u.s. foreign policy in the middle east but one year in what this administration thinks its policies in the region will ultimately achieve remains unclear how to put their asses into beirut we've been broadcasting special reports on donald trump's first year in office and on friday we'll be looking at the global impact of his decisions on climate change and the environment. pope francis has arrived in peru on the second leg of his south american tour the leader of the roman catholic church was welcomed to leave by peruvian president had republicans in ski during his trip he's expected to meet indigenous people large parts of their homeland have been destroyed by a gold rush in produce amazon rain forest and i am a sanchez is in lima and she's been following the pope's journey. well the pope arrived from chile just a few hours ago he was received welcomed at the airport by president bill public with chains keep his ministers and the archbishop of lima the pope then did a quick tour of. some of the streets of the center of lima with thousands of people cheering and welcoming him the pope will be spending the night in lima throughout his visits but early on friday he will be heading to mt it is an area in the amazon that is a very important this is for the pope since this is an area that has been devastated by these evil miners and the pope's been a champion of a healthy environment around the world we'll see who disagree displaced is a place of very important for him and he will be meeting some of the indigenous communities members of the indigenous communities there he will be presiding a religious ceremony on sunday where a million and a half people are expected to attend before he heads back to rome about say some people have been protesting here the visit of the pope the vatican is protecting one man who is the leader or he was the leader of a very important religious organization he's accused of committing sexual abuse against the young men and so before. the pope arrived in peru he asked of the vatican to intervene this is a religious organization called the police whom however people are angry at the pope that this hasn't been done before and so people are protesting but the government has said that no protests will be allowed and that anyone protesting will risk being in deep. paned still ahead and al jazeera the secret world of lobbying firms in the us is revealed as they come under pressure to comply with the law. times where the sundance film festival put me to movement is in the spotlight . and a mountain to climb to catch the leader of the dakar rally with two stages to go and he's going to have all the action in this sport. by the springtime flowering of a mountain lake. to the first snowfall on a winter's day. well we've had some nasty weather into central parts of china in the form of some rather dense fog i'm hopeful for shanghai it shouldn't be too bad over the next few days south of that to me light way inside still a possibility of seeing some other foci conditions as we go on through friday minimal in the way of cloud towards the southwest must see a few spots of rain squeezed out of that not just a little bit of cloud just creeping its way into the fosse out east of the country as we go on through saturday by the even see a little bit of wet weather down towards the gulf of tonkin for many it will stay dry and rather quiet not to mention the quiet weather across southeast asia meanwhile we have got some lively shadows once again into southern areas of the philippines the usual scattering of heat of the day shallows there across malaysia down into into the system big downpours a possibility for to come out to for example some parts of the philippines then still seeing some heavy showers on friday be a little lighter as we go on a saturday but then never really too far away and the same line of sharon makes its way right across into the my peninsula and into that eastern side of thailand we may see want to see showers too into the eastern side all schrag of a much of south asia i think dry and fine sums it up over the next few days with a bit of mist and fog there up towards new delhi but warm sunshine to the south. the weather sponsored by cats on. the scene for us where on line what is american sign in yemen that peace is possible but not what happens not because the situation is complicated but because no one cares or if you join us on sent there are people that that are choosing between buying medication and eating this is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who's an ounce of us and has posted a story join the global conversation at this time on al-jazeera. the harvester. and you're watching al-jazeera a reminder of our top stories this hour the u.s. state department is urging turkey not to intervene against kurdish forces in athens in syria the turkish government says it may have to act in the coming days but it's seeking approval from russia first. a spending bill to keep the u.s. government operating has passed the house of representatives the legislation still needs the senate's approval government agencies are warning of a shutdown on friday if the money isn't approved. pope francis is arrived in peru on the second leg of a south american tour the leader of the roman catholic church was welcome to lima by putting in president pedal publicans in ski. at least nine people have been killed by a violent storm that swept across europe belgium the netherlands and germany faced gale force winds that knocked down trees and left thousands without power catherine stansell reports. the storm pummeled western europe with hurricane like force here the wind rips a roof off of a building in the netherlands and peels off the side of a house with severe weather alerts were issued in the netherlands as gale force winds reached one hundred forty kilometers an hour people were urged to stay home for their own safety. and those who did venture outdoors were struggling to keep their feet on the ground but it didn't deter this daredevil who saw the high winds as an opportunity to go for the ultimate kite surfing experience the storm is causing travel chaos hundreds of flights were grounded and in germany all long distance rail services were suspended. boy there is a danger that trees will fall onto the overhead wires and there's a danger that trees will block glutes we know from past experience with extreme weather conditions that it's better to keep the trains in some stations where we can but to take care of passengers then in between stations power outages hits tens of thousands of people in germany belgium and in other lands and roads were blocked by fallen trees and debris high winds and heavy snow also hit parts of the u.k. scotland is dealing with power outages and dangerously icy roads but the storm isn't losing strength it's moving across the continent with eastern europe in its sights happenstance on al-jazeera. u.s. president donald trump says his plan to build a wall of growing the u.s. border with mexico has quote never changed or evolved contradicting comments made by his chief of staff on wednesday john kerry told lawmakers that some of trumps immigration views during the campaign where uninformed and later in a television interview kerry insisted the president's views had involved but in an apartment rebuke of kerry trump tweeted that the wall is the wall saying it will be paid for by mexico john heilemann is on the border between mexico and the united states and sent us this update. this thursday saw another tussle between donald trump and the mexican government the u.s. president claimed via twitter that this country is the most dangerous in the world that such be not true and that only his proposed rule could stop the flow of drugs across the border between the two countries that claims are actually very interesting particularly since that the a published report in two thousand and fifteen saying that the cartels move most of their drugs through ports of entry like the one that you can see behind us between on this side and son diego in the united states the mexican government along with rebutting president trump's claims also said that this was a shared problem that it's not just about mexican supply it's also about overwhelming u.s. demand when it comes to drugs they said as well that they're not going to negotiate over social media this of course is part of a wider picture of negotiations between president trump republicans and democrats over government funding and also about migration issues particularly about the dreamers young people that were brought to the united states his children illegally but have been allowed to stay and allowed to work their future at the moment very much hangs in the balance but mexico at this moment is really the unwitting full guy in those negotiations and it doesn't like it mexicans living in the u.s. is sending home record amounts of money is concerned grows over the government's immigration crackdown last year the transfer twenty six billion dollars providing a vital lifeline to some of mexico's poorest communities al-jazeera is manuel our polo visited one community in the southern mexican city of one. yeah. who deanna cruz and her mother or handcrafting pottery the same way most of the women in the town of san marcos make a living it's not always enough to make ends meet but who yanna gets help from her brother who lives in the united states that. this work that i do helps us and sometimes when my brother sends money that helps us to. ghana isn't the only person here who receives money from relatives in the u.s. . this line outside a local wire service is a common sight and on most days the line can be much longer for many mexicans these remittance payments can be a way out of poverty is that says so they use this cash mainly for food to buy clothes to build their homes and they also use a very small amount for savings. last year remittances sent from the united states increased by four percent experts say it's a result of changing policies in the united states i. think there's a fear among immigrants that the u.s. government will take away what they have part of the reason for the increase in remittances is over the fear that their assets will be seized at their. money sent home by migrants has historically been an important part of the mexican economy accounting for more than two percent of the country's g.d.p. in two thousand and seventeen remittances outpaced all of mexico's commercial exports combined excluding oil and according to mexico central bank that cash totaled twenty six point one billion dollars between january and november of last year. for families like cruz and her mother it's pottery that puts food on the table but that extra cash for brother sends goes a long way in maintaining their quality of life whenever i. walk a mexico. and leaving zimbabwe an opposition politician has died in a helicopter crash in the united states roy bennett says one of five people killed in a remote mountain area in the state of new mexico bennett was the treasurer general of the m.d.c. tea party and a strong critic of reformer president robert mugabe he equity is a five second policy analyst and he says benet's death will come as a shock to many ordinary people in zimbabwe in terms of raise and because the history of zimbabwe race raised plays a role he was a white farmer he was sixty sixty years old he had a farm in the eastern part of zimbabwe. and you know mr former president mugabe taking learn from. this mr bennett and his reputation are generally was that his neighborhood where he had his father the poor people there black people loved him. he paid school fees for people he saw him as the champion in the lookout should not along with to give him a need name means one of us so he had to have babies but of cause he clashed heads with mr mr mugabe's government because he was a prominent member of the m.d.c. the opposition and so his death comes i say i say shock and the american authorities are looking into it but i think it will have an impact on board the opposition and the new government in zimbabwe the u.s. is spending a forty five million dollars payment to the un's relief agency for palestinian refugees the money which was earmarked for food aid was promised last month now it's separate from the sixty five million dollars cut to. this week. at the time though when we provided that note that information to honor we made it clear that it was a pledge it was not a guarantee and that it would need to be confirmed later at this time we will not be providing that but that it does not mean i want to make it clear that does not mean that it will not be provided in the future saudi arabia is again defending itself against allegations that helped the hijackers who carried out the attacks on the u.s. in two thousand and one saudi government lawyers have appeared in a courtroom in new york trying to convince us judges to throw out a lawsuit brought by victims and their family members all to see it as kristen salumi has the details. this is the third time that nine eleven family members of tried to sue the kingdom of saudi arabia but it's the first time since congress passed a law making it easier to take foreign governments to court on terrorism related charges the families lobbied hard for the legislation known as the justice against sponsors of terrorism act or jasta which took away aspects of sovereign immunity that had prevented their previous lawsuits from being heard and they say they have new evidence as well in the form of declassified documents and testimony from former f.b.i. investigators to support their claim that saudi agents based in the united states helped the hijackers they also accuse the kingdom of being the principal source of funding for al qaeda in the years leading up to the attacks through the religious charities that support it the saudis say the claims are baseless and argue that even with changes to the law the evidence isn't strong enough to proceed to trial their lawyers went as far as accusing the plaintiffs of equating all of the kingdom's work promoting islam whether it's building mosques are buying korans with terrorism an argument strongly rejected by the family. the kingdom is trying to stop the case from moving forward to the phase where they can subpoena documents and testimony from saudi officials the families say they have a right to see that evidence and have their day in court. there's been a rise of lobbying companies in the us declaring their work on behalf of foreign entities that's after donald trump's former campaign manager was indicted for failing to reveal lobbying for the ukrainian government funds are wanted about being caught on the wrong side of the love that she has a ton see reports. there's a story circulating in washington d.c. that the international low being industry here based behind the anonymous facades of k. street is running scared since former trump campaign manager paul mom of four was indicted for some eighteen million dollars that he earned through his undeclared lobbying work for the ukrainian government for was in violation of foreign the foreign agents registration act that requires lobbyists to declare their work for foreign powers the trouble is there's very little money for enforcement for almost fifty years there were just savin fair and criminal prosecutions that that were brought to bear and only three of those actually led to convictions and now that's three convictions in over fifty years that's less than a conviction a decade and so nobody is being punished for violating a law there was a sort of sort of perverse incentive for companies not to file with farrah if they were filing with fair or not to file their paperwork and certainly not to file in on time the special counsel investigation may have started with inquiries about russia but it's become apparent that any undeclared foreign lobbying on behalf of any country that he turns up as part of his investigation may be of interest the number of lobbying firms reporting their work for foreign governments grew in twenty seventeen forty one new firms declared themselves one hundred three new foreign clones were added to those already known to be lobbying in d.c. and two hundred seventy foreign lobbyists declared themselves examples of the new filings include three hundred thirty three thousand dollars in payments for a campaign by the u.s. to link qatar to terrorism fifty thousand dollars for speech writing to queen rania of jordan t.v. appearances by general wesley clark on behalf of the turks against us based cleric for. some say that the timing is purely coincidental they would have reported the foreign work anyway will be read through and to find things was simply the result of routine reviews of those however say that a turning point has been reached and that finally flora is being taken seriously freeman however is unconvinced the only thing that's changed right now is we have a special council investigating russian interference in the two thousand and sixteen election in through that they have indicted people for fear of violations once that special counsel goes away all of those resources all of that will go away and farah will wear me in the same lackluster law that it's always been congress has no plans to ground the department of justice any more money to enforce foreign so yes there may be some fair hair on k. street amongst lobbyists but it may only be temporary while the special counsel and his well financed investigators look in to the lobbying activities here once that investigation is over it may well be business as usual mobius trying to rake in as much money from foreign powers influence us policy and not own up to it she had zero washington israel's embassy in jordan is reopening after israel apologized for the shooting incident it was closed in july when an israeli security guard shot dead two jordanians up to one of them stabbed and the guard was allowed to return to israel under diplomatic immunity. emirates has thrown a lifeline to the world's largest passenger jets the dubai based airline has ordered twenty eight three eighty s. with the option to buy sixteen more it's the first order for the super jumbo in three years airbus had previously warned it would have to stop production of the double decker planes if the deal fell through ahead of aviation at the university of west london amul father says air bus and needs a substantial number of orders to make its money back. for the airlines it's fairly difficult to fill an aircraft five hundred to six hundred passage it's also a fairly large aircraft and so many airports around the world simply don't have the infrastructure with the ability to handle such a large aircraft i mean even heathrow airport for example has special restrictions but it is quite an expensive project and it's estimated to cost a of us about twenty five billion u.s. dollars and that's you know research development costs production costs etc and to make that money back requires a fairly large and substantial number of orders. still ahead on al-jazeera in sports the n.h.l. its first black player was on notice sixteen years on from the day he broke through the game's color barrier. the sundance film festival has opened in the u.s. state of utah the ideal event will showcase more than one hundred movies but this year's focus isn't just on the films it's also on the me too movement while brunell's isn't box city. mouli the conversation here in park city utah during the sundance film festival is all about films but this year another topic has really dominated the conversation and that is the sexual misconduct scandal that broke involving our producer harvey weinstein back in october and has morphed into a industry wide affair also enveloping other industries of course including journalism and and others but here in sundance today the. founder of the festival robert redford the veteran actor said that he believes this is a tipping point women will now gain more say more of a voice in the film industry and that men will have to sit back and listen other people we've been talking to here including female film directors from all around the world say that they believe that the mitsu movement has ignited a sweeping change perhaps a tipping point but some are not so sure everyone agrees it will take a much longer period of time months perhaps years perhaps even a generation before the male dominance and the corruption of power for sexual gratification can be effectively eliminated and it's time for the sport now here's a handy thank you very much well six time champion of a joke that said conditions were right on the limits of safety on a scorching day at the australian open with temperatures hitting forty degrees in malbon joke which was just one plant fading the hate trying to reports. play is safety in the brutal heat at melbourne park has been something of a regular discussion over the years and with temperatures topping forty degrees celsius on thursday it was no surprise to hear them question where the plane should have been suspended. these said he felt like he was dying on court and suffered dizziness in his match with novak djokovic on fisa needed a doctor in the second set and he continued to battle but eventually lost in the last six to djokovic i knew you kind of work and train hard to be able to sustain this kind of conditions and be tough but i think there is there is there is a limit and that is a level of i guess tolerance between being being fit and being. i think in danger in terms of health. defending champion roger federer had easy a condition to his night match against german opponent again struck despite being taken to a tie breaking third set federer prevailed to reach the third round to play rashad guess kate had to get organizers to give him another night match well there's maybe sixty guys asking for stuff so i'm one of those guys yes do you think you have more leverage than some. possibly but i it's not my call it's their call women's top seed simona halep was also spared the worst of the conditions and was able to cruise into the third round with a six two six two win over canada's usually bouchard. earlier in the day the former world number one maria sharp appeared to be in a hurry to get through her match with anastasio the best about she won the first set in just twenty three minutes and dominated the tie break in the second to win. but wimbledon champion got to be good also will play no further part at this tournament after being given her marching orders in a straight sets loss to taiwan's shay's to wait the world number eighty eight dumping out the third seed and turning up the heat in the race for the women's time i joined as roster al-jazeera. all sixty years ago today a young hockey player called willie irene made n.h.l. history he became the league's first black player appearing for the boston bruins in a win over the montreal canadiens six decades on a reef back on the ice here in boston for a member that night in one nine hundred fifty eight the canadiens spent a total of twenty one years in pro hockey and now works as a diversity ambassador for the n.h.l. . the sponsor raise prices n.h.l. history the league still faces criticism for its inability to spread the word that hockey is for everyone the ice is still. overwhelmingly whites when it comes to top level play is research in twenty fifteen found that just five percent savannah shell stars all black components the n.b.a. weapon players make up more than three quarters of the league and i fell not far behind either another study in the u.s. last year found that ninety two percent of the n.h.l. fun base is want the n.b.a. the only big north american league with a majority of african american fans well earlier on we spoke to the u.s. sports for us aaron gordon he says it's becoming a commercial as well as a social imperative for the game and it's appeal now that the league is getting less popular among their core group of white males it's more imperative than ever and it's not just about diversity within the u.s. it's also about diversity around the world you look at where hockey is popular elsewhere in the world and it's also white majority countries like in northern europe and in russia so i think there are a lot of reasons why they have to look to expand their fan base beyond white majority populations not just in the u.s. i think p.k. subban is an excellent example of a black canadian player who is a he's a role model he in every way embodies what you want a sports star to be but the league hasn't put very much energy into promoting him instead they stick with promoting the same type of you know young white canadian faces that we've always seen the league kind of lean on like the sidney crosby's and even the patrick kane if you're going to american players so i do think it's very fair to say the league should be doing more to promote the minority players who have come up and are stars in the league really mockery made a stronger it's and sue competitive go five to three months out with a rib injury micro shooting a bogey free round of sixty nine on day one of the the championship. he is three shots behind co-leader and defending champion tommy fleetwood the four time major winner has slipped eleventh in the world rankings i'm. sorta knew what i was expecting out there but at the same time you never really know. your first competitive draw and then over one hundred days so it's a little bit different but i did well i i stayed patient i gave myself a load of chances and started the day with eleven straight far so i was trying to those patients possible so it was nice to. have very three of the last seven there and get in and under seventy with two stages left of this year's dakar rally car science is closing in on victory the spaniards lead was cut down to forty four minutes after he made a bit of a mistake on the route to san juan in argentina but that's still a big advantage of a second place stephan pat's a handsome so it is nice to see it went on to win his third stage of the year's race ok that's a sports looking for now more light or one of the world's first a dedicated virtual reality art spaces opened in london a new wave of artists have begun to experimenting with the technology set to revolutionize the way arts produced few didn't even sold barker reports. it's a gallery space like no other bare walls no sculptures canvases all photographs just several headsets and a dark sponge lined room the centuries new technologies helped to evolve this is the next level i'm floating in a colossal bright space it feels like i'm in miniature and there are giant around me there's a huge garden i've now floated into a huge room and what looks like the artist is sitting all or more down below me it all sounds very alice in wonderland why quite simply because it is. the works by american artist rachel ross in the first of several immersive displays all show in this dedicated virtual reality space this isn't just simply about representing the real world in the virtual it's also experiencing the artist's mind frame an emotional state at the time of creation long before the tech was sort of commercially available people were experimenting with developing kits to make make games. turning to it as a sort of new medium to explore and as with anything that's kind of stages it's really interesting to see what the scope of it might be several renowned artists are now experimenting with the medium among them celebrated british artist callie sure this work threshold is a portal to the past view is a transported back to the eighteenth thirty's and an exhibition of early photography virtual realities redefining the traditional gallery and reshaping the artist's studio this is where color shore works serve a computer screen and headset all the tools of the virtual artist there's a lot of all works out there that or a long bronze sculpture model of tokens of and i think it's all work should be dealing in these mediums that all the cutting edge off stuff that we have basically assimilating images and videos and pictures representations of the world so it's important to do with the medium the technology is developing fast so i can see it was a mouse that just. plain has around. the market is now establishing ways to buy and sell work securely in the near future it may even be possible to download a virtual home there are seemingly infinite worlds yet to explore. al-jazeera london. don jordan is here in a couple of minutes with all more and all the stories are role models thanks for being with me but. i am. on the fringes of some of africa's mega city. to make a slum the splurged on stilts front row. but the cities are beginning to develop even get surgery is one of the architects goodley of the army is also the most sustainable solution to the communities harvested by the tides of change or the luck that you continue with working. this time on a just. al-jazeera is there what a story breaks but it's also dead to see what happens next actuation the mansion on . fire but at the rear where model a barricade of the seventh street that we need to hear some of it is now it has been all about change people have gone past the fear barrier the mission of the national army is the search the entire complex and al-jazeera story is about telling it from the people's perspective what they think is happening in their culture. in two thousand and eight al-jazeera documented a groundbreaking skin. preparing some of india's poorest children for entry into its toughest universities. ten years on we return to see how the students and the scheme of helping change the face of india. suka thirty at this time on al-jazeera. al-jazeera. it's. where every. u.s. aust turkey not to take military action in a kurdish controlled district in the us or.