U.s. Some government buildings have been closed and many federal employees have been told not to go to work not because of Christmas but because of a government shutdown senators however were working they were called to a special session of Congress to try to find a funding deal acceptable to all but without any sign of compromise Democrats and Republicans were left simply blaming each other the Roi is about Donald Trump's long promise for a physical barrier along the border between Mexico and America Democrats have refused to give the president the $5000000000.00 He says he needs to build it you're listening to the latest world news from the b.b.c. . President Trump's decision to withdraw u.s. Troops from Syria has led to another high level resignation at the White House Brett McGurk The envoy to the global coalition fighting the Islamic state group said in his resignation letter that the premise or pullout of American forces from the region would create the conditions that gave rise to Islamic state peace of both reports Brett McGurk who was appointed to his post by President Obama in 2015 had been due to leave in 2 months but in his resignation letter he says he felt he could continue no longer after President Trump's decision to withdraw from Syria Mr Trump has declared victory over so-called Islamic State and has announced that all 2000 u.s. Troops in Syria will be heading home in his letter Mr McGurk says that while the militants were on the run they were not yet defeated the campaign against i.s.c. Said was not yet done tens of thousands of people have marched in the Serbian capital Belgrade for the 3rd consecutive weekend to protest against what they say is the president's increasingly autocratic rule the protesters say President Alexander vote church has consolidated control over the courts and the media which they say he uses to campaign against opponents. Hundreds of people in Morocco have attended vigils to mark the murder of 2 young Scandinavian women in a tourist spot in the Atlas Mountains earlier this week Luisa Vester a hay yes person from Denmark and Maher and land from Norway were found dead near the village of Israel with wounds to their necks. The last surviving fighter of the 1943 war so ghetto uprising has died at the age of 94 Simcha wrote was one of hundreds of Jewish partisans who rose up against the Nazis when they began mass deportations to the troubling her death camp thousands died in the uprising survived by leading an escape through the drainage system which saved dozens of fighters lives b.b.c. News. Hello you are listening to the newsroom from the b.b.c. World Service with me I mean you have something let's begin with the tsunami that struck Indonesia Long Beach is on the soon to strike the water between the islands of Java and Sumatra at least $43.00 people are now known to have died and almost $600.00 are injured there are reports that the tsunami was triggered by an earlier option of the Kirk a tow boat Kaino or understand was watching when it struck I was the sounding of the beach trying to photograph the erupting I Will Cain will come to fall further and the evening it was like that I have been directed activity about just prior to that wave hit thing as the beach there was no activity as a whole it was just dark out there and suddenly I saw this wave of calming and I had to run it was 2 waves the 1st wave wasn't back strong and I could run from it off the dock I run the straight to the hotel where my wife and my at some were sleeping and I woke them up when I was waking them up I heard a bigger waves coming and I looked out the window one of the 2nd wave hit that it was much bigger well and speak live to our Indonesia correspondent who joins me live now Rebecca we heard a very dramatic account there from the witness but what more do we know. Well we're getting a clearer images now of those beach towns along the coast of West Java that face on to the cinder straight images of crumbled buildings mainly made out of wood and bamboo as well as ceramic tiles all in a pile rubbles along the coast there we've also seen the images from last night of these waves as we heard just describe rushing into hotels that area along the beach she is a prop popular local tourist destination we're also hearing about devastation on the other side so much rain Lampel with some areas officials say they haven't been able to contact so they warning that the death toll is very much likely to rise as they continue to get more information about what happened last night and we've been hearing it described as a volcano tsunami can you explain what that is well yes and that has been a ramp doing this is a small Vo Cannick island that sits in the soon this stright it's been a variety doing into the air lava and ash now the national disaster agency says that they believe that volcanic activity may have caused an underwater landslide so powerful that it then triggered the tsunami compain with a high tides due to the full moon causing these huge waves to hear it and Indonesia has not been a stranger to these types of disasters especially this year of the underslung as he was badly hit in September. That's right it has been a very difficult year for Indonesia with many natural disasters by a long ball so with the all being hit by volcanic eruptions earthquakes and that's an anomaly in Pod Lou So the authorities are stretched at this holiday time but they're vowing to deploy a medical teams the health workers as well as the military to these areas to help with those now displaced and what will be a difficult recovery effort once again so they are be deploying all sorts of teams to assess the damage they will indeed they have promised to various teams to head out them particularly to these areas that they haven't been able to contact yet we're hearing from residents that did flee that they are now sleeping in mosques and relatives houses they've lost everything and there is a need for medical teams to get in to help this more than 600 people that we know for certain injured and looking at the images of the devastation it's very much likely that there are many more people who were injured in that tsunami Rebecca in Indonesia thank you now to Washington where the deadlock between President trumpet his Republican Party on one side and Democrats on the other over a spending bill has led to the shutdown of 15 government departments just days before Christmas that leaves the pay of hundreds of thousands of government employees in question the stumbling block is President Drum's insistence on allocating more than $5000000000.00 of taxpayers' money to pay for a Mexico border wall the bill passed through the Republican controlled House on Thursday but Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer described it as an unnecessary and wasteful policy it will never pass the Senate not today not next week not next year so Mr President President Trump if you want to open the government. You must abandon the war plain and simple so where does this leave the us government and the trump of ministration a question for our Washington Correspondent Chris Buckley or the simple thing is after listening to what happened inside the Senate today you get a real sense the Republicans and Democrats don't want to compromise at this time and that's certainly true when it comes to President Trump the person who above all has to be satisfied with this he obviously wants $5000000000.00 for this border wall with Mexico something he has long promised something he has long campaigned for but you got the real sense from Democrats today that they are not going to compromise with him and at this stage it doesn't seem clear when this shutdown is going to end and how much of the government is affected Well it's not huge a mind in terms of the overall government so we're talking about a quarter of the government itself that is involved in this partial shutdown Hi ever it's a lot of employees we're talking about It's 100 thaws and employees being affected now those are federal workers on Iran half of them are going to be told just to stay at home they're being put on what is effectively on paid leave so temporarily laid off if you like the other half are going to have to keep on coming to work because they're involved in the types of jobs that really are needed there are emergency jobs there are jobs like law enforcement and border security things where essentially they are doing essential work so they will still have to go and but the truth is they can't be sure when they will be paid and that's not the only challenge that President Trump is facing at the moment he still feeling the fallout from his unexpected decision a few days ago to announce he was pulling u.s. Troops out of Syria we had the resignation of the defense secretary James Mattis and now a top official who was the president's special envoy in the fight against Islamic state has. Also announce that he's resigning Yeah Brett McGurk is a really interesting character because he's somebody that people may not know an awful lot of boys but he is incredibly important in terms of developing u.s. Policy in tackling the so-called Islamic State grip basically he was a special presidential envoy for the global coalition to defeat Yes And as that he was involved in wider strategy he was also involved in working very closely with our allies to try to ensure that they came up with some kind of way of tackling Oh yes and he's been very clear that he is concerned about the whole policy of or potentially withdrawing too early or potentially leaving a gap there in Syria which could a loyal u.s. To develop and in fact as you know he's been making these comments very recently to the b.b.c. It's a open ended commitment it is a very focused commitment to make sure that internal security forces are trained I mean interact for example we've trained about 170000 members of Iraqi security forces a coalition of 75 partners 32 military contributors in Iraq who want to make sure that this continues the point is the military commitment doesn't end with the end of the cane if it as a playwright and there's no timeline on it and the time was so you get a sense that not that long ago Brett McGurk very very clear that it was the American policy to stay and all of a sudden the president has said something else and that has surprised him it surprised Jim Matheson defense secretary as you mentioned and as a result he's decided to join him in making a pointed resignation and that is to send a message to the president. Chris Butler in Washington you're listening to the newsroom on the b.b.c. World Service Now David has the headlines a tsunami has killed at least $43.00 people in the Sunday straight region of Indonesia at least $600.00 others have been injured a number of people are missing emergency workers have not yet arrived in the affected area as the day has his abdication draws closer and BRACA heater of Japan has issued his final birthday message a budget stalemate in the u.s. Congress will keep key government agencies shut until at least Thursday and Paddy Ashdown of the British liberal politician has died at the age of 77 yes hero a natural leader who made an immeasurable contribution to furthering the cause of liberalism these are some of the tributes being paid Paddy Ashdown the former leader of Britain's centrist liberal Democrat Party Lord Ashdown with the longest ever serving leader of the Lib Dems Tim Farron is another former leader of the party and said he was a different type of politician he wasn't somebody who is stuck in the air if I don't mislead Westminster. Irregular extraordinary who is also an ordinary person I am self and fell in always come passionate that people are political correspondent Jonathan Blake has been looking over Lord Ashdown legacy. Paddy Ashdown was a giant of British politics and it's slightly ironic really because he led a party that certainly when he took over was very much on the margins of politics in the u.k. The Liberal Party had merged with the Social Democrat Party and it was really finding its feet but Paddy Ashdown is a new m.p. He had a very swift rise to the top became the leader and brought the party to prominence it became the 3rd party aside from the labor and the conservative party in British politics and it had a a resonance and for a while certainly Paddy Ashdown now Lord Ashdown when he died really was the Liberal Democrats he was the one recognizable face and voice of the party before he went into politics he saw a great deal of the world he was born in India he grew up in Northern Ireland and he joined the military he was in the role Marines in the Special Forces for a while as well and then joined intelligence services he spent time in Switzerland working on behalf of the u.k. Government in various other countries in the world as well and he served some time when he was in the military in Bosnia and that's came back to him later in life when he served as the international community's high representative to Bosnia and made I think what is widely regarded as a positive contribution to rebuilding that country after the Balkans conflict and he also gave evidence at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic the former Serbian leader and Paddy Ashdown was quoted once saying that Bosnia is under my skin it's the place you cannot leave behind and in recent years you've been a very active campaigner against Bracks it yes he didn't leave politics when he left parliament he became a liberal Democrat peers sitting in the upper house but he was very much active still in the debate around politics and just weeks ago he was tweeting and commenting on the state of the governing Conservative Party in the u.k. And still putting forward his arguments against leaving. She said that was something that occupied him right up until his recent illness and death is that her who'd be remembered as somebody who just wasn't afraid to speak her mind definitely he was somebody who was held in new universal high regard it Westminster I have to say and politicians on all sides might have been respected him even if they didn't agree with him and we've seen that reflected in the tributes which have been paid to Paddy Ashdown But yes he had this action man image he was a big guy I saw him a party conference of a few months ago he was mingling with party members down in Brighton on the South Coast signing autographs towering above everybody else and he was a big presence in the room you know as well he fixed you with these kind of steely squinting eyes it could be quite intimidating and I think that sort of steely determination is something that certainly helped him rise to the high levels that he did Jonathan Blake on the life of Lord Ashdown who's died at the age of 77 animal print including crocodile printers made a big splash this year in the fashion world and the luxury goods made from real crocodile skins might be making a resurgence thanks to a change in the law in Australia crocodile hunters in the state of Queensland will be allowed to legally collect the reptiles eggs in the wild and haps them are Sydney correspondent joins me for Mercer joins me for more on this Phil tell us more about the change in the rules in Australia Well this decision will allow Crocodile Hunter in Queensland to collect about $5000.00 a exe each year female crocodiles build nests made from mounds of vegetation between November and May the eggs will be sold to private crocodile farms for about 14 us dollars each as you say hatched into captivity one day they might well become an expensive handbag or a belt crocodile meat is low in fat and high in protein collectors will need a permit to do this and there will be strict guidelines Charlie may know. He's the chief scientist at Wildlife Management International that's a consultancy in the city of Darwin and he says the changes are good for both commerce and conservation in every case where there was a profit all the obvious to the populations in nice countries had increased substantially it's not just about taking exe for commercial purposes it's also for government it's about creating those incentives to have crocodiles and the best way to conserve crocodiles is really to make them valuable to the community you can't just apply for a permit and that's a year off you go and collect crocodile legs right there does need to be an experienced person doing it or people landowners do need to be trying and is there any idea why they decided to change the rules now. Well the deal forces in Queensland believe that there are now sounds commercial environmental and more importantly scientific reasons for this they fight to seek approval from Australia's federal governments which regulates wildlife products and I think the old fart is up in Queensland perhaps being looking across the border in the Northern Territory egg collecting as being legal in Australia as Northern Territory since the 1980s the quoted there is for about $100000.00 crocodile eggs to be collected each year crocodile populations in that part of the country have flourished and the view there ease that the trade in eggs hasn't disrupted the number of wild crocodiles surely animal rights activists much might disagree well conservation groups have always stressed the research should prove the crocodile numbers in the wild shouldn't be affected the old fart is in Queens them believe that they believe that that will be the case that the exit the experience in the Northern Territory proves that by taking a certain number of vague so that wildlife proper while populations don't suffer certainly farmers so welcome in the opportunity for extra income as are impoverished Aboriginal communities so there is a feeling that this will bring both commercial benefits and conservation ones as well for Mercer in Sydney thank you the head of a un team of observers is due to head to the Red Sea port of data in Yemen today to start monitoring a cease fire that started there last Tuesday Patrick American a retired Dutch general arrived on Saturday in Yemen hours after the u.n. Security Council finally approved the deployment of monitors although the British sponsored resolution had been watered down after days of wrangling our Arab affairs editor Sebastian I'm sure reports there is a glimmer of hope in Yemen for the 1st time in years the agreement between the warring sides for a truce in data was achieved the talks earlier this month which with an so seen as a step. Towards more significant negotiations in the New Year data has been a potentially devastating flashpoint for much of this year to teach it it's been a key goal for the Saudi backed pro-government forces trying to capture from the rebels but the port is also a lifeline for millions of Yemenis on the brink of famine the guns have not been completely silenced in the days since the ceasefire came into effect but it's still mostly holding under the deal the who these are due to pull back from the port to allow the un to take over its ministration later both sides are to withdraw from the entire city and its surroundings Patrick Kamut and his team will be monitoring this difficult process the success of which could not only save the lives of many in a danger itself the provide a model towards a wider resolution of the conflict sébastien are sure Now David has some other stories from our news desk Cuba's National Assembly has unanimously approved a draft of a new constitution that will replace the 1976 national charter the new charter reaffirms the overriding principles of a socialist economy and central economic planning recognises the role of the market and of private property the new constitution will go to a referendum next February have been chaotic scenes in Italy's upper house of parliament as senators debate budget measures which were revised after objections from the European Commission a v