venezuela's opposition surges to victory defeating the socialists for the first time in almost two decades. excuse me. you're watching al jazeera. >> we will overcome it freedom is more powerful than fear as obam a vows to

defeat i.s.i.l. the rainbow nation goes green now that south africa is looking to replace coal with wind venezuela's opposition has triumphed over the socialists. madu ruchings conceded his party's defeat. the land sloe slide victim marks a break with the legacy of the late leader-- victory. some seats are yet to be counted, but so far the opposition has won 99 seats. that's more than double of the ruling party which has 46 seats so far. 22 seats are still to declare

>> reporter: the country wants a change and this change begins today. the agenda of peace reigns. the people spoke clearly. venezuelan families are tired with living with the consequences of failure. >> translation: we've lost a battle today, but the struggle to build new socialism and a new society starts now. we should take this as a slap in the face to wake up us so that we can work towards the future. we must start over in a lot of things. that's fine. we're experts at it. we came from the struggle of the streets more details from latin america. >> reporter: it was past midnight when venezuela's electoral council gave the results. they were a bitter blow to the socialist government since it came to power 17 years ago. the president addressed the

nation looking stern, but recognising the defeat saying that the socialist revolution would live to see a better day. however, the opposition is esat that timic, it's-- estatic. they have now at the very least a simple majority in the national assembly that allows them to control the budget to set the agendas, to name the president and depending on 17 deputys that are still being contested could have a three fifth majority that will allow them to dismiss ministers. what that means for the country is still unknown. will it mean a cooperation, a sharing of powers or negotiation between the government and the opposition. it's too early to tell. will it mean more grid lock? the last thing the voters were voting for obama has vowed to defeat terrorism and fight i.s.i.l.

the threat was real he said but freedom is more powerful than fear. his comments were framed by the shooting in california in which 14 people died >> on wednesday, 14 americans died. >> reporter: this is only the third time the president has used this setting for a national address. it was meant to send a message of seriousness after the attacks in california that left 14 dead. investigators looking into whether the killers were inspired by the islamic state in iraq and the levant. he told the americans he has a strategy to defeat the group. >> the threat from terrorism is real but we will over come it. >> reporter: he has had a tough time. 57% disprove of his effort. 60% say it's time to send more troops into iraq and syria. his strategy is also facing serious criticism from

republican presidential candidates. >> for god's sake, mr president training your strategy. come up with a ground force that go in and destroy the caliphate before we get hit at home. >> reporter: the president says it's time for gun control legislation. that is unlikely. just last week the senate voted down the bill people on the no fly list from buying weapons. he urged the americans to not frame this as a war against lamb. >> that is what groups of i.s.i.l. want. they do not speak for islam. they're thugs and killers, part of a cult of death. they account for a tiny fraction of a more than a billion muslims around the world. >> reporter: before the speech hundreds of advocates rallied outside the white house to send a similar message >> the basic thing is to make the world realise that the terrorism that they're seeing

not only domestic clew but international-- domestically but here. >> reporter: it was clear after the speech the president has no plans to change it joined by james boyce, a professor of international relations. president obama has called for american unity in the face of terrorism. he is urging the nation not to turn on muslim neighbors. what we're talking about here is two home grown self radicalized suspects who flew under the radar. is obama's message enough to ease america's nervousness we're their own community?

the oval office only three times in it's entire time in office. the stakes were raised for this speech. we got a shopping list about what the administration has already done. no idea about whether the administration is going. we saw the opinion poll ratings of the american people. they are speaking and they don't like what the administration is doing, but there's no sign about any sense of impetus or urgency by this president about what to do next with regard to a threat that's posed by both domestic and international terrorism which i have to take issue with, did not begin on 911 whatever, but it is a threat that has been around many decades if not throughout the entire history i want to talk about the intelligence gathering as well. the obama administration has been embroiled in the intelligence gathering

controversy. what's involved here? these are two home grown suspects that were able to elewd the f.b.i.'s net. what does this mean going father in terms of u.s. intel?

effectively the threat from islamic state and now they appear to be striking at the heart of the american community. we've also got disparty between what the f.b.i. is saying and what the white house is saying. there is a lack of coherent message coming out of washington at this time as you said, nothing new really in his speech. it doesn't seem like any of the policies, any of the policies from the obama administration is going to be changing. he also reiterated america's determination to defeat i.s.i.l. in iraq as well as in syria, further justifying the current coalition air raids over iraq as well as syria. there are those who say you can't bomb an ideology. do you think washington and its allies are doing enough to try and counter this ideology that i.s.i.l. is offering new recruits?

bomb an enemy into submission. what the coalition appears to be doing is enough to appease the general pa population without deciding to engage militarily. if we can use the west to use aerial bombardment to suppress this organization in the short-term, in the hope in the medium to long-term nations from the local region will step up and engage in fighting on the ground on their own, but there seems to be little expectation of that in the intermediate years. clearly the united states has no desire to put any boots on the ground besides for a presidential election thank you for being with us. hundreds of syrian rebels are preparing to pull out of homs. 12 buses you have arrived to

transport them out of the area. it is the last rebel stronghold. homs have been under siege by the government for two years. aid agencies are now allowed in. iraq says it will go to the u.n. security council if turkey doesn't withdraw its forces based near mosul. baghdad says the deployment violator and they say have been invited. the prime minister has promised not to send any more soldiers, but he stopped short of ordering a withdrawal. the far right has achieved a vote in elections. marine le pen's national front party received at least 30% of the votes, center right led by the post-mortemer president are in second place with 27%. president francois hollande socialist party is trailing in the third place with 22% of the

vote. jacky rowland has more from paris. >> reporter: jubilation at marine le pen's campaign headquarters. her national front has emerged as the leading party after the first round of voting. she personally has swept the board in her northern stronghold with more than 40% of the vote. it's a political slide and she is savouring the moment >> translation: the national front is the only republican front because it's the only one which defends the nation's seventy. it is the only-- sovereignty. >> reporter: close behind the national front are the republicans led by the former preside president. he had words of warning for people who voted for the national front. >> translation: i want to tell

those who made that choice that we can hear their worries, but they won't obtain any answer from a party whose proposals would dramatically wore worsen the country's position. >> reporter: the socialist leader president francois hollande has seen his personal approval ratings jump since the paris attacks last month. that popularity doesn't seem to extend to his party. the socialists are trailing and they say they will withdraw from the second round in the north and the south-east. the national front is currently in the lead in several regions, but now is when tactical voting kicks in. in the second round people may choose to vote for a candidate not necessarily from their preferred party, but simply to keep the far right out. for now the national front is

celebrating, but this was only round 1 and the turnout was low at 50%. the second and decisive round will take place in one week's time. jacky rowland still to come on al jazeera, how sailors are protecting themselves against pirets in asia's most important water ways. we look at the controversy surrounding the tokyo's 2020 olympics. the only way to get better is to challenge yourself,

and that's what we're doing at xfinity. we are challenging ourselves to improve every aspect of your experience. and this includes our commitment to being on time. every time. that's why if we're ever late for an appointment, we'll credit your account $20. it's our promise to you. we're doing everything we can to give you the best experience possible. because we should fit into your life. not the other way around.

>> "inside story" takes you beyond the headlines, beyond the quick cuts, beyond the soundbites. we're giving you a deeper dive into the stories that are making our world what it is. welcome back.

the top stories. venezuela's opposition has won control of the national assembly. the right wing victory marks a break. u.s. president obama has pledged to destroy i.s.i.l. in a rare address from the oval office. he says the threat from terrorism was real, but america would overcome it. he defended his international security policy after shh people were shot dead on wednesday. the front party has seen its better ever result in local election, the first since the paris attacks in november. it received at least 30% of the vote. there will be a second round of voting next week. flood waters are beginning to recede in the southern indian city of chennai leaving behind piles of rubbish. there are shortages of food,

drinking water and shelter for survivors. health workers are worried about the spread of disease. >> reporter: with the few household items the flood waters spared, this woman prepares a meal for her family. it's not much back-up it is better than nothing. for the past week she has struggled to find the basics to keep her family alive. >> translation: when the floods came suddenly we ran out of this place. the first floor was submerged and the water kept rising up. i've been wearing this for the past five days. everything was washed away. we don't know how we're going to continue our life. our future is a question mark. >> reporter: power is slowly being restored in the city and surrounding areas. until the lights come on, all this man can do is wait. this is a perfect breeding ground for disease. no-one has answered his call for

help he says. >> translation: so far nobody from the ruling or the opposition parties has visited us. they never bothered to find out what condition we're in. water was rising but no-one came. >> reporter: flood waters have receded in this neighborhood but residents still have a lot to worry about. piles of rubbish and fears that water sources are contaminated are raising concerns about possible outbreaks of illness. rain continues to threaten this city's recovery. but where they can, communities are beginning to clean up. >> translation: we urge the government to provide basic amenities like drinking water and milk, but first they must clean up the garbage. the people who have lost millions, we urge the government to estimate the loss and compensate at least half of it.

>> reporter: for nearly a week millions of people have waded through these waters. the height of destruction along this river bank serves as a reminder of how bad things were. while the worst are behind many of these people, they have troubling times a global deal talks are in the final weeks in paris. a draft agreement was agreed over the weekend. on sunday activists gathered in front of the tower to call for more renewable energy. some paddled down the river urge ing change. many people in south africa have to deal with rolling power cuts. the country relies relies on fossil fuel like coal to produce

energy but that is not enough. a new way of trying to address the energy crisis is changing south africa's rural areas. >> reporter: the wind turbines towering over the landscape of the eastern cape are hard to his. the government hopes-- to his. it's also heavily depend episode on fossil fuels like coal. >> it is not doing enough to our addiction to coal, generating almost 90% of the electricity by coal and this is where we've got it wrong. we have unexploited renubile energy that can be used. >> reporter: developers of this wind farm project have signed a 20-year contract with the state owned power company.

this wind farm just outside port elizabeth has 20 wind turbines that generate up to 60 meg watts of electricity. that will power around 40,000 medium sized homes. port elizabeth is known as the windy city. this is a perfect place to build wind farms. the electricity produced by this are better for the environment. a percentage of the profits go into a community trust that decides what families need, like health care, education and the solar powered water heaters. the local youth center is being maintained with money from some of the wind farm profits. children from poor communities have a safe place to play and learn a new sport. >> the kids go away from their homes because there's no hope and then they come to these projects so that they can be better people than staying in the home, of not having things that kids need

>> reporter: wind energy costs 5 drecks per kilowatt hour, roughly the half of coal. they're expected to have more of these popping up across the country. it could still take a while, but officials hope that these turbines will become part of the country's landscape a rescue operation in northern england is still trying to get peoples outside of homes that flooded. the storm hit over the past few days. military personnel have been deployed to join teams of emergency workers. they have been going house to house to rescue residents trapped by flood waters. jimmy carter says he is free of cancer. the 91-year-old says his most recent mri brain scan did not reveal any scien of the original cancer spots or any new ones. he announced in august that cancer had been detected in his

liver and in his brain. business is booming for armed security firms who are being employed to protect cargo from pirets in south-east asia. in the second part of our special series on piracy from singapore >> reporter: armed guards to protect ships. security countries are flourishing from the numbers of hijacks and robberies at sea. a singapore based security company says it regularly provides armed guards to shipping companies. >> easily about 55 to 60% in this vicinity when they are travelling south of singapore towards the islands or away from the singapore island towards south china sea.

>> reporter: ship owner knows the threat very well. his oil tankers have been highjacked by armed pirates three times in the past year. >> we are very concerned. we have started our own sop on how to deter this. >> reporter: the ship owner is reluctant to carry armed guards. he relies on the malaysian navy to protect his ships and crews. navy says ship owners should be on alert. >> i request all marine rs out there, please observe the good practices. should they see any suspicious contact approaching you, at any time, days or night, we must be alerted. >> reporter: besides armed

guards, equipment is being offered to scare them off by sound or water. patrols have been stepped up but they're not allowed to enter each other's territory. while it is seen as an important solution to combat piracy in south-east asia. it is said that the leaders of sinned dates. three months ago police in indonesia detained a suspect after malaysian ship was highjacked but sources in indonesia say the suspected person is a singaporean businessman is yet to be arrested. navy police and singapore hasn't responded >> perhaps singapore wants to deny that its citizens or residents not be involved in piracy activities. the financial sector in singapore is very strong, quite

influential and it has always been autonomous of the singapore government. perhaps there is a degree of reluctance to open up that pandora's box. >> reporter: a lack of sharing information continues to create uncertainty and fear for the thousands of sailors who pass through south-east asia every day a competition to choose the official logo for the 2020 tokyo olympics closes on monday. it is likely to end at least one of the many embarrassing chapters for the olympic committee >> reporter: since the bidding process viewed as a way of showing japan could rebound from the 2011 triple disaster, there has been a series of very embarrassing missteps. one of them has involved the

logo. there was a graphic artist in belgium who sued the tokyo logo for its similarities to his design for a belgium theatre. that's why that design was scrapped and it was opened to everyone in japan over the age of 18 to submit an alternative and there have been thousands of submissions among the favorites are the city logo of schery blossoms and a spain-based japanese graphic artist showing an opening fan. it is not clear whether those two are actually in the competition, but the submissions will be evaluated in early january, narrowed down and a selection will be made. the bigger has surrounded the site itself for the olympic stadium. the original was swelled to double the original estimate and it was scrapped earlier this year. we don't have a final destin.

it is spectate that that will be-- design. it will expected to be decided on later this year. an already important deadline, rugby world cup to be here ain 2019 won't have the super piece stadium. the tokyo government has committed to at least a quarter of the funding necessary to build this stadium, total it's estimated 1.3 billion dollars groceries and other essential supplies are rocketing towards the international space station. >> reporter: three, two, one it's the first time in months the u.s. has sent a shipment after bad weather caused delays. the orbital atk capsule is due to arrive at the space station on wednesday. it was tweeted esanda is on his-- is an that is on-- santa

is on his way. rare rocks is going under the hammer in paris. most of the rocks are thought to be up to 4.5 billion years old. you can always catch all the latest news on our website, aljazeera.com pass hello, i'm richard gizbert, and you are at "the listening post". here are some of the media stories we are tracking. turkey, russia, recep tayyip erdogan and vladimir putin, and the media kat fight over what led to the downing of the russian war plane. unapologetic, the british tabloid that karnt bring itself to say -- can't bring itself to