december on al-jazeera we look back at twenty seventeen through the eyes of five families who have been affected by some of the big stories of the year in an increasingly polarized world people in power sheds light on the darkest abuses of authority ten days of comprehensive coverage about nuclear arsenals around the globe and the impact they have on the diplomatic stage a special program dedicated to this year's nobel peace prize laureates i can and their pursuit of a nuclear weapon free world and we look ahead to the big stories that could dominate the headlines in twenty eighteen. december on al-jazeera.

walking into a diplomatic minefield pope francis touches down in myanmar and meets military leaders accused of ethnic cleansing. hello i'm maryam namazie this is al jazeera life from london coming up. flights canceled one hundred thousand people evacuated denise's mount maybe about. celebrating victory in pakistan protest leaders called off sam massive. top level resignation. on the united kingdom prepares for another royal wedding as prince harry announces his engagement to the american actress make and model. the man in charge of mammals military crackdown against muslims has denied that religious discrimination exists in his country seen

a general men ally made the comments in a facebook post off the holding a last minute meeting with pope francis who's on his first visit to myanmar a catholic leader is known to be sympathetic to the ranger but has been advised to avoid even using the term scott hyde has more from young. word coming out late on monday here the first day of the pope's visit to myanmar that he met with the commander in chief gentlemen now this is a meeting that was supposed to take place on thursday caught some people off guard because this word came out late on monday that was originally described as a rest day for the pope now. the general posted a statement on his facebook page say they met for about fifteen minutes now he said also in that meeting he got across the idea he said to the pope that there wasn't religious discrimination in the country but that it in press office said that the discussed several issues and that the pope got across to the general that there is great responsibility for the authorities here in myanmar during this transition period no there's no word from either side if the issue was brought up now

obviously that's a very sensitive topic during the pope's visit here now on tuesday the pope will travel to the capital where he'll meet with the civilian leader and other members of the government and other members of the religious affiliations now it'll be interesting to see how those meetings go and if they'll be any mention of but this first high level meeting that the pope had unexpected high level meeting the pope had with the commander in chief of the military no mention of we'll see if that changes when the pope goes the neighborhood or on tuesday. father thomas. foundation. with the vatican as has his assessment of how francis will handle the issue. he goes as a peace maker and is a bridge builder he never goes to burn bridges he's been well informed and advised by those on the scene by cardinal boll by the bishops by other people not to use language that would provoke and burn bridges he is certainly aware of the refugee

crisis he's referred to it several times over the past year and i think it would be unfair for you or for anyone to simply reduce the visit to myanmar as whether or not he's going to say the r word he's going to build peace he's going to encourage people to change the schedule already this morning rather than meeting with the military leaders later on he chose to do that right in the beginning it's also important to realize that he will be meeting when he gets to bangladesh with some of the hundreds of thousands of refugees and so he's listening he's coming as a peacemaker he's coming to build bridges he's certainly not coming to provoke. and then asia has raised its. volcano to the highest level warning that its first major eruption in fifty four years could be imminent hundred thousand people have

been ordered to evacuate an expanded danger zone in the main international airport has been closed well homage on june has well it could lead to a major eruption at any moment that's what indonesian officials are saying about the volcano on the island of bali agung has been rumbling and spewing ash into the atmosphere since the weekend on monday a mass evacuation was ordered and the danger zone was expanded on the jetty the possibility of a large eruption is very high some indications show they will indeed be an eruption since yesterday the eruption that happened has been accompanied by the sound of explosions and vibrations that can be heard and felt within a distance of twelve kilometers. indonesian officials say they will continue to search all the villages in the area and force residents to evacuate if need be. until now based on incoming reports that eruptions and trim is continuous and the

love is filling the crater the lava will flow down the slopes after the crater is full. bali's international airport was closed hundreds of flights were canceled and tens of thousands of travelers were stranded after tests indicated ash had reached its airspace. everything up there and you can get right back to. bali is the top tourist destination in indonesia and plays host to millions of visitors each year the volcano last erupted in one thousand nine hundred sixty three when more than one thousand people were killed mohamed and does either. but just as in pakistan of officially ended the capital is often the law minister. and resigned they've been demanding i mean step down over the winding of a parliamentary bill which they describe as blasphemous. after

more than three weeks this sit in has turned into a celebration. supporters of pakistan's blasphemy laws were able to force the government into giving in to their demands. not only has the federal law minister step down but the government of pakistan muslim noon has also agreed to investigate itself. a crowd of just thousands brought cities of millions to a standstill here by choking a main artery in and out of the capital city and this really is becoming a common way and all too common a way of achieving any kind of power here in pakistan by being a disruptive force on the streets and effectively laying siege to islamabad and then making political demands but the threat of force leaders of this fringe group have been bolstered by their newfound influence on the country's political affairs pakistan was great on the basis of the belief that there is no god but allah and mohammed is the messenger of allah we know that for seventy years food has been

committed against their religion so now we should place religion on the thriving. is the man at the center of all this a one time preacher at a mosque in lahore he was removed by that city's governing religious body for his hardline views he's built his support base by being a staunch advocate for the country's blasphemy laws he's even run for a seat in parliament so what's next for this fledgling political party asked the crowd and the answer is more or less stay the same. they are the latest whatever guidelines like your best we will follow accordingly. whatever all the just tell us to do we are completely out of this paramilitary. units were on standby to prevent any more unrest and while protest leaders agreed to end their sit in hours later people here were still not ready to leave and more demonstrators were arriving. it's the kind of do or die loyalty that political parties campaigned for decades to achieve something rizvi has been able to accomplish in

a few months just ahead of next year's elections zain bus ravi al-jazeera islam a bad. one thousand people have been killed by russian airstrikes in the east and go to the syrian capital the latest casualties come as russia denies responsibility for the deaths of dozens of civilians in strikes targeting the weekend meanwhile attempts to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict have stalled because the syrian government delegation has yet to arrive in geneva and diplomatic editor james bays reports. peace talks in geneva were supposed to stop this bloodshed. but as we've seen many times before the timetable of failed diplomacy is actually crossing the agony of the people of syria. parts of aleppo province. and the outskirts of damascus bombarded the assad government has been intensifying its onslaught in the days and hours before talks due to start.

assad didn't leave a single corner that hasn't been destroyed if you want to fight it don't target civilians instead take on the armed groups at the front lines god willing they'll teach you a lesson briefing the u.n. security council in new york the man who's supposed to lead the talks on tuesday stefan de mistura condemned the violence he noted that the syrian government had perspire its travel to geneva but he said they needed to attend naturally we hope indeed expect that the government will be on its way shortly but to get an idea president the third of men to prove that in putting when they met in sochi that meeting part of intense diplomacy in recent weeks the russians who turned things around on the battlefield for assad are supposed to bring the syrian government to the geneva table but the saudis created a new opposition group ing to go to the talks out are key players like former

leader riyadh his job in a figures closer to moscow some of which were previously even. well you did as a side stitches a number of western diplomats have told me they're concerned about the way stuff. is handling this process they fear it's becoming russian flavored with a focus on a new constitution and elections rather than old political transition. now early results have given honduras as opposition leader a short lead in the presidential election supporters of salvadoran are celebrating after the announcement from the electoral court with more than half of the votes counted as a lead of forty five percent to forty percent the current president one arlanda one and as was expected to comfortably win a second time with more than twelve hours since polls closed a still no final results arianna sanchez's following events in the capital officials of the electoral tribunal have said that. that around seventy percent of

what has been counted is urban vote mainly and they want to have a better projection of how the country voted so they want to wait for more rules to come in now there's been trucks throughout the morning coming from very different areas of the country but feel there are many remote areas you know so we are basically waiting for those ballots to come in however this is something very unusual and that's why the political opposition has the alliance has tried to started to get nervous and they said that in a few hours they will be protesting in front of the tribunals because they are getting suspicious they've been seen in the past few weeks that the election would be rigged however that hasn't happened according to observers so we'll have to wait and see until those ballots come in. still to come for you on al-jazeera what

continues in ethiopia on what will be africa's biggest hydroelectric dam can it hold off a challenge from egypt. and online retailer amazon goes shopping for a new head forces on missing jobs and investment but how much any action. hello and welcome back now across europe we've got some really cold air taking down we've got snow in many areas this area across hungry remaining crossed into the black sea region is going to cause some problems we've got snow further north into parts of russia some snow over the alps good for the ski season and cold air taking down across the u.k. with some snow showers in the east and west coasts and as we head down into appearing put into the area of rain the snow is going to become heavier with time

this is frontal system across southern areas too so all in all is looking pretty unsettled cross many parts of europe as was done in greece the best the weather but nothing special there with highs of fourteen degrees on the other side the mediterranean the circulation of low pressure is just increasing the winds along the coast of both libya and through into egypt but caro should get away with a fairly nice day temperatures of twenty three degrees celsius now as you head into central parts of africa looking fairly quiet here at the moment has to be said some showers across the congo gabon but otherwise largely dry thing for many areas and i stand lagos nigeria and ghana should be dry and fine with plenty of sunshine same goes through into wednesday for southern portions of the continent we've got to find weather in many areas highs of twenty two in sunny cape town. we will maintain the finest fighting force the world has ever known united states

army was so reliant on the private sector i would call it a dependency we have a mismatch between the way we. work to be and the reality of the twenty first century you know. how many of the persons that you're something of child soldiers. child soldiers reloaded at this time. that's update on the top stories this hour the man in charge of myanmar as military crackdown against their henge as told pope francis says no religious discrimination in his country. in tunisia has raised its body is not going to the highest level

warning a major eruption could be imminent. and protest leaders in islamabad of called off a sit in of thousands of demonstrators after the resignation of pakistan's law minister they accuse of blasphemy. now zimbabwe's new president. is expected to form his cabinet this week all eyes are on whether he'll break with the past and name a broad based government or select old guard ficus from robert mugabe's era are we talking to reports from harare. nearly two weeks says the military takeover zimbabwe security forces say the situation is getting back to normal the police who haven't been seen on the streets of iraq for days. for now that means doing joint patrols with soldiers to try and maintain law and order law enforcement agents are already receiving reports of looting and illegal congressional other people's properties particularly farms in houses because beer. is

criminal in the arguments the spirit of man. and it will be made by the fall of the law the announcement comes days after innocent men and the new president urged citizens not to take matters into their own hands by punishing allies of the former president robert mugabe there are reports that robert mugabe and his wife grace have been given immunity from prosecution the police won't say how many of mugabe's allies have been arrested so far the most high profile is a gracious the former finance minister he's accused of corruption going back at least ten years and. some say selective punishment could be a sign not much is going to change under the new administration we might have had one person removed but the higher. remains in place so for me the more things change the more they remain the same and you know if i'm against you and i think

you are challenging me. you become fair game of human rights abuses the high court recently ruled the military takeover which eventually saw robert mugabe resign was lawful zimbabweans who are tired of having regarded as their leader for thirty seven years have welcomed the court's decision. but others worry allowing the army to legitimize taking over the functions of the state sets a dangerous precedent. for al-jazeera. a turkish goal try to charge with conspiring to evade u.s. sanctions against iran will not go on trial in new york this week reza dropped out of sight in the two months leading up to a scheduled trial prompting turkey's prime minister suggest to suggest a plea deal with u.s. authorities. and an executive of the turkish state turned out i think a charge with doing deals with the iranian government and entities worth hundreds

of millions of dollars but talk insists the case is being instigated by supporters of the us based religious leader for two local land. javert county has more from washington d.c. turkish president has tried and failed to lobby the u.s. government to get this case scraps talking to then vice president joe biden and twenty sixteen and president trump in a phone call in september of this year a key question is whether one of the main defendants raise a has flipped and is now a cooperating prosecution witness prosecutors have said in documents they filed with the court that they will show that the turkish government was involved in this money laundering scheme there is another element to this case as well the special prosecutor examining allegations of alleged russian meddling in the u.s. presidential election this year has already been looking at the role michael flynn the former national security adviser to dog trouble had with turkish lobbying

efforts and there's some question as to whether we'll get more information about bat as a result of this case as well questions prince harry and his new fiance u.s. actress meghan markle have given their first television interview following official announcement of their engagement it comes here and a half after they first met and introduction by neutral friends to the shop reports . prince harry and meghan markle together outside london's kensington palace the thirty six year old actress brings a touch of the twenty first century to britain's royal family she's an american who describes herself as mixed race which came under scrutiny in media coverage of their relationship and some of that scrutiny and you ended up making a very public statement about it some of that scrutiny was centered around your ethnicity. when you realize that or to think of course it's disheartening you know it's. it's a shame that that is the climate in this world to focus that much on that or that

that would be discriminatory in that sense but i think. you know the end of the day i'm really just proud of who i am and where i come from and we have never put any focus on that we've just focused on who we are as a couple and so when you take all those extra layers away and all of that noise and i think it makes it really easy to just enjoy being together and to know all the rest of that out. it was in september two thousand and sixteen that they made their first public appearance a sports event for wounded veterans later prince harry was incensed by the press coverage of their relationship his office issued an unprecedented rebuke his girlfriend meghan markle has been subjected to a wave of abuse and harassment a smear on the front page of a national newspaper the racial undertones of comment pieces and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls this is not a game it is her life and his prince harry who's fifth in line to the throne so

permission from the queen to marry this is a family that from the top that means with the times and sage to say to it to its members and you harry's a modern going he's a guy he's great not been you know in the modern world he wants to do things his way he's not bound by tradition he's following his heart as opposed to any form of protocol that people think he should marry the world's media had set up outside kensington palace but on the streets of london news of the engagement was greeted with a mixture of delight and disinterest. actually they're. going to get mad when you think. how much of her interests. don't you know really up to well then. missing gauge woman speaks volumes about how the royal family has changed american actress of mixed race will become a duchess unthinkable even a few years ago peter shot al-jazeera in london. if

you have here is pushing on with the construction of a controversial dam despite growing objections from egypt project has strained relations between the two nations because egypt says it's a risk to its water supply and a valley has visited the site of a five billion dollar project which will one day be africa's biggest hydroelectric dam. work at the ground if you're putin the sas continues through the night floodlights help workers connect by adults that beehive atmosphere on top of the central section of the one point seven kilometer dam concrete slabs suspended from giant cranes for the next layer of the wall the projects chief engineer says work is so advanced that some of the sixteen pilot or binds are already in place. within this hydro power scheme we have two powerhouses one is on the right side and the other on is on the left side that right is

a queue for the with ten units and in the left is a cure for the with six units in we have sixteen units with this we can generate up to a maximum of five hundred megawatts of electricity. the final capacity of the dam however will exceed six thousand megawatt it will allow you to open not only to satisfy its domestic needs in electric power but also to become a major exporter of electricity to regions as far away south africa and the western world with sixty three percent of the construction achieved according to engineers here the dam is beginning to take its final shape if you see this part of it it represents the highest level beyond it that's the beginning of the reservoir of the lake on the upstream side it is going to be able to hold up to seventy four billion cubic meters of water. a five kilometer long supplementary dam is being built to

world this side of the reservoir that would cover an area of one thousand eight hundred and seventy four square kilometers despite the cost of the dam nearing five billion dollars and the controversy around it it joe perry cysts on completing it so it's old news its next door neighbor sudan says it's happy with the project saying it will preserve its share of the water that used to go to egypt but egypt the major downstream benefit of the nile water is concerned the dam would affect its share of this vital resource it's open officials say egypt wants construction to stop pending the completion of the chemical studies and the final agreement over the issues but if your peer is infusing to comply. with the madam said god bless bunch trucks and has never stopped and will never stop until the project is completed during the technical committee meetings the work continued in the dam we are not concerned by what he did things he did to benefit them as water sources

without causing harm to anyone if you are pure hasn't made clear how long it will take to fill the dam or how it plans to fulfill its promise of not harming downstream countries like egypt as a rhetorical over the project heats up sources have told us there are security around the dam with an undeclared no fly zone and anti-aircraft defenses there have been rumors on social media here in ethiopia about possible air strikes by egypt to destroy the. triggering fears that what could be africa's most ambitious hydroelectric project could perhaps provoke a destructive conflict. or does iraq but the ground. northwest of ethiopia. now reindeer herders in norway are calling for the state owned company to take action after more than one hundred reindeer were killed by freight trains in the past four days sixty five of the animals were loaned out line down by trains on saturday a low. in a remote area of the far north reindeer

a car in migrating from the mountains to the coast a route which often takes them across train tracks state rail companies already set lower speed limits but there are now when you calls for safety fences well. now it cyber monday the time of year when online shoppers bagged deep discounts on everything from gaming consuls to big screen t.v.'s and people in the u.s. is spending big black friday in thanksgiving online sales of a record high of seven point nine billion dollars nearly eighteen percent from a year ago and the buying frenzy continues analysts expect cyber monday to drive six point six billion dollars in internet sales making it the largest u.s. online shopping day in history online giant i was and is doing so well that it's now looking to open a second headquarters hundreds of cities are competing for the five billion dollar prize munich is one of the front runners but not everyone is convinced of the benefits. reports. and old abandoned baseball stadium what's become a symbol of

a city decline but in the city of newark there are signs that things are changing what is this going to be. this is going to be a very large for me to broaden you know have a. housing unit. in newark a revival with the development boom in recent years we believe that time has come. and that we wanted to be part of it but now the city located just fifteen kilometers from new york is thought to be a top contender for the second headquarters of the retail giant amazon the city is treating it like it was beating to host the olympics we are that match we had the infrastructure you know we have the people we have the diversity newark is not alone in wanting to become the host city for amazon second headquarters more than two hundred thirty cities. they're making beards they are all over the country and

range from big cities like boston chicago denver and los angeles to small cities like wilmington delaware population seventy one thousand amazon has promised to invest five billion dollars in the local economy to the winning city and i said the second headquarters could bring fifty thousand new jobs in its bid to move our amazon here to newark the city and state are offering the company huge financial incentives primarily between five and seven billion dollars in tax breaks critics say the plan is built on a flawed theory called trickle down economics so your idea that reducing taxes on business will stimulate economic growth for the poor trickle down doesn't really trickle down to the working class or to low income people so i think people in newark should be really concerned and some people are while we had the paychecks and they don't understand that that's not good to me but others see opportunity i'm

not sure support amazon because a lot of people need jobs just one city like so many others in north america looking for amazon to make another delivery a boost to their local economy gabriel zonda al-jazeera in newark new jersey. well now if you thought running a marathon was hard enough try competing in one of the coldest places on earth. fifty five runners have braved a grueling forty two kilometer course and antarctica less than a thousand kilometers from the south pole they will full face mosque's goggles gloves waterproof pants and several layers of thermal clothing to guard against temperatures of minus twenty five degrees and still probably cold after all at all much more on everything we're covering right here out.

a look at the top stories for you now the man in charge of myanmar's military crackdown against range of muslims has denied that religious discrimination exists in his country sr gen min our ally made the comments in a facebook post after holding a last minute meeting with pope francis who's on his first visit to myanmar catholic leader is known to be sympathetic to read but has been advised to avoid using the town scott haida has more hand on in that meeting he got across the idea he said to the pope that there wasn't religious discrimination in the country the vatican press office said that the discussed several issues and that the pope got across to the general that there is great responsibility for the authorities here in myanmar during this transition period you know there's no word from either side if the refugee issue was brought up now obviously it's a very sensitive topic during the pope's visit here protest leaders in islamabad of called off a sit in

a fountain of demonstrators after the resignation of pakistan's law minister. supporters of a little known religious party accuse the heat hammett of blasphemy after he left prophet muhammad's name out of an oath meant to be taken by elected officials he's been under increasing pressure to step down after a weekend of protests across pakistan indonesia has raised it. to the highest level. one hundred thousand people have been ordered to leave the area around the volcano the international airport on the island has also been closed. nineteen people have been killed by russian as strikes in the eastern suburb of the syrian capital damascus a russia denied responsibility for the deaths of dozens of civilians in strikes targeting i.c.l. over the weekend attempts to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict of stalled because the syrian government delegation has yet to arrive in geneva for talks. and the results have given

honduras is opposition leader a shot made in the presidential election supporters of salvador celebrating after the announcement from the electoral court with more than half of the votes counted he leads president one or lend a hand as by five percent you up to date with all of our top stories the stream is coming up next on al-jazeera but then i'll be back after that in about twenty five minutes time with a round up of your top stories. now. ok and i'm really could be live and here in the stream today where he's playing more

than just a guy look at the native american origins of lacrosse.