that the scale of what we do have still got this conviction that everyone has a deep reservoir of thomas but to have people give them the opportunity to wonderful things start to look at us with this defense there's at least twenty thousand or hinder refugees who live here we badly need at these moments near the ship and tell prisoners posting about it as resides donald trump is going to be the next president retaliation where banks had a guy go back she found reconnaissance of gas subsidies to be doing their best to prevent the behavior getting anywhere in the pacific or the. capital he achieved something that never happened before.

and live from studio fourteen he had al-jazeera headquarters in doha and jane dutton well come to the news good because the first female president in africa and one of these men will be in charge one of former football or the other the current vice president if it all goes well liberia will have its first democratic transition of power in seventy three years we've got a live update from the capital and the vote and what it means for the country's future also in the news good more unrest in peru after a decision to pardon a former president about to forge a mori had been serving a twenty five year sentence for crimes against humanity and corruption president pedro public a chance he calls the pardon the most difficult decision obvious live so why did he do it examine that we look at china's expanding footprint in afghanistan this time as a peacemaker between pakistan and the afghan government up for discussion economic

and security cooperation we explore these developments with a regional specialist i'm sorry it's an obvious sign your house seat in the philippines presidential family has been playing out on social media so it's us with your thoughts and comments live on facebook throughout the site and the high side as always a.j. . and streaming online through you tube facebook live and at al-jazeera dot com now just a few hours left to vote in liberia's presidential runoff but already there's been an enthusiastic turnout elections are expected to lead to the first democratic transition of power there in seventy three years former football star george weah cost his vote in monrovia he's taking on the current vice president. because i one of them. takeover from ellen johnson sirleaf job creation and fighting corruption

have been the major campaign issues in one of the world's poorest countries let's go over to his live for us in the capital monrovia believe there's been quite a turn out talk of through the day. yes indeed there is a lot of. momentum around these elections liberians see really crucial to their country's future but election officials are telling us that time out is not as big as it was in the foster round bottles held in october joining me to discuss this further. she's a musician and civil society activists. are you surprised that there are far fewer volatile schooltime about today than in october when the first sound was held . very very surprise. why so. well because there

was this overwhelming. numbers of voters in the first round there was such a hype. about the percentages that had come out etc and. yes the process was slowed down as a result of the complaint of the supreme court and everything else but we still got the message let's go ahead let's go ahead so to finally arrive at this let's go ahead and we can hardly see the same number of person says it's kind of confusing what the libyans who have been talking to since we came to monrovia have been telling us is what they need most is peace and that they're very happy that they have enjoyed some told years of continuous peace under

president ellen johnson sirleaf but peace beyond the bay the results are declared depends on how the losing party takes it. of course of course and that's why we saw you know we kind of concerned we sitting with bated breath because in this much is a lot of people i think the general feeling is towards one party hopefully one party will win the more tolerant party but we also face with the scenario that. if the had were pretty if the wrong moves loses. then we might not have that peace for a while. about is what many liberians are grabbing. election vaulting at six o'clock. here. and then vote

counting begins altitudes the electoral commission has two weeks to deliver the divorce official say they will announce that is all within the next four days but as we refer to the thanks for that mohammed. now ellen johnson sirleaf will finish her term as one of the most celebrated african leaders in history but she is behind a checkered legacy she was the first woman to be elected to lead a government in africa so elise efforts to rebuild a fragile country virtually broken by a civil war so her saw her receive a nobel peace prize for protecting women's rights she steered the country through the devastating a outbreak which killed almost five thousand liberians but this bled the country's economy and said it has not been able to ensure a full recovery she tried to end female genital mutilation or if g.m.

but failed to get enough support in parliament to ban it one in four women still are subjected to f g m to this day and despite declaring corruption public enemy number one a government was accused of being the totally corrupt. vines head of africa program a chatham house joins us from london good to see you alex it's a bit confusing isn't it when you try to put together how much of a success or lack of success she brought to the country what do you see as her achievements and her failures. well look there are three clear achievements and you have mentioned several of them already jane in your introduction so firstly she is africa's first woman president that's a great achievement and. you know she's a puff puff breaker in that regard secondly she shed a nobel peace prize that's also. really good at scheveningen and thirdly and most importantly in my mind she provided peace for for

a for liberia for twelve years as president so she provided that stability which is why we now have an election which is really significant in liberian history because there won't have been a peaceful transfer of power from one president to another for over seventy is the last time liberian sold this was in one thousand nine hundred four so she's stepping down after two terms peacefully and handing over to have a wins the election stand i must be hard to take all the boxes must in that when you inherit what you what she in heritage but is just talking a bit more about her being a woman i know many women of the country were frustrated that she didn't what they say do enough for her do you think that that was her objective or was it more to lead purely as a politician not as a woman. look she is fundamentally a politician i don't think the gender issue comes in. stokley into this i mean i've

worked with her i knew her when she was in opposition and so it was about reconstruction of the country it was stabilizing it off the civil war those were her priorities she had intel national goodwill and success and a lot of eight and support did guy come into liberia but the legacies of decades of conflict and of poor administration meant that she was always going to have a mixed and a term record which is exactly what we're discussing now i think one of her mistakes was to be too focused on her relationships with the international community during her first term during his second term as you mentioned she experienced a bowdler in particular and was much for more focused on domestic politics but it is striking that she hasn't revealed who should like to succeed partly because she realizes that inside liberia she's much less popular than she is internationally

all right so you do you think should take over now what will be good for the country and why. come on what a question and i don't have a view of who should take over i reckon that george waya will succeed and for a simple fact that. the majority of the liberian population seventy percent of it is under thirty five and he's gunning the you folks very significantly so i think it will be george where is president and i think his therefore the deputy president the vice president is going to be a jewel howard tell you the wife of the former strongman charles taylor this will be very interesting in terms of the politics for liberia moving forward but it will be a put peaceful transition the only worry. many of us have is that the losing. candidate will will will challenge the election results we've seen already two challenges in

the supreme court these elections were originally meant to be on november the seventh but then delayed twice and so the result that we're expecting in four days within four days could be challenged again but i hope not if there's a very clear majority for the winner and i think it will be george where than it may be that the court challenge won't come and i think some should be able to answer this question but we have run out of time i was going to read it out this is from jeff on facebook library was supposed to be the model for former slaves who repatriated to africa and of the men rode ministration why did they lose their democracy in the first place obviously lots to talk about and it finds good to get your thoughts as always we'd like to hear from you on this and other stories we're covering on the grid today you can send your comments to any of our online platforms you can tweet us that a.j. english on facebook at facebook dot com slash a.j. news good you can also send us a whatsapp message at plus nine seven four five one trouble one four nine don't

forget to use the hash tag a.j. news great proof that former president fujimori is asking people for their forgiveness is being little sympathy for him though with thousands continuing to protest against his pardon he was serving a twenty five year sentence for corruption and human rights abuses shouted bellus as more. chaos in lima these peruvians a furious the former president alberto fujimori was pardoned by the current president pedro public option ski a man they believe was trying to save his political korea ok so i thought i was going to be nice i'm afraid of seeing all the people mobilizing the police were following us in circling us they got close to us and threw bombs at us. fujimori was serving a twenty five year prison sentence for murders kidnappings and disappearances

carried out by a government death squad during his time in office he made from one thousand nine hundred ninety into two thousand. started on sunday the families of his victims lead the charge and i think that if they try to fit any i'm angry because i think it's a violation of the memory of her family members it's a violation of the fight for the relatives for justice and truth a frail seventy nine year old furniture mori was admitted to hospital on saturday suffering from low blood pressure and hostile arrhythmia he responded to the outcry on facebook and think. i am aware that what resulted during my administration on one hand were well received but i recognize that on the other hand i also disappointed other compatriots to them i ask forgiveness from the bottom of my heart. critics say it was his son came g. who secure with the pardon he's a congressman in the majority popular force posse that's led by his sister keiko

and saved president kaczynski from impeachment by abstaining from a vote last week critics say it was in exchange for his father's pardon the president has defended the decision saying it was made because of fujimori's poor health. or says it's obvious to all of us that the government he inherited at the beginning of the ninety's the country was in a chaotic and violent. crisis incurred significant transgressions of the law as far as democracy and human rights are concerned but i also believe his government contributed to national progress i'm convinced that those of us who believe in democracy cannot allow alberto fujimori to die in prison. the pardon was but by a silent majority a survey in may found sixty percent of peruvians wanted fujimori free supporters credit him with the defeat of the shining path rebels and saving the economy from collapse. the fujimori's critics the death squads still hold them with

a he's imprisoned or not they say they will voice their calls for justice charlotte bellus al jazeera for those going touch with us from georgia pakistan sierra leone and liberia thank you for that let's go over to london now suited and is standing by with the other world news thank you james the kremlin is investigating where the calls by russian opposition leader alexei know valley to boycott next year's election breaks the law now only has called for voters to avoid the march vote after he was barred for running as a candidate russian officials say he is and eligible to take part due to a suspended prison sentence valley says the challenges are motivated well when we challenge is life for us in moscow he could well be getting into even more trouble if indeed he calls for this boycott. yeah i think it's no surprise the kremlin seems sensitive to what looks like

a and attempts from alexina valmy to drive down voter turnout when the election swings around in march. the kremlin is concerns that the talks been swirling around all year really the kremlin is concerned about political apathy voter apathy in this tightly controlled and rather stifled political system that it's created and it seems to once turn out to be around seventy percent in march to keep a sense of legitimacy really and if that starts dipping much below sixty percent well they're going to start getting worried it's unclear at the moment exactly how they might prosecute me for calling for a boycott will have to watch to see what they what they come up with to sort of push that push their agenda but this can certainly i think be viewed as a shot across his bows and it's also interesting to note that patriarch kirill

who's the head of the russian orthodox church spoke today saying that it was every believing russians duty ready to vote and he's always been a longtime putin loyalist. supported really does that a lot of thing around there have across the why the russian not just in moscow. well i mean you know it's interesting looking at how much. ground he's gained in the last year pulling people out onto the streets all across the country in places where you don't usually see political protests but let's be clear this is not the most russians would vote for and the latest polls say that if a vote was taken today then only would probably only get between two and three percent those polls are being done by gallup and levada. so he's not a man that is likely to be able to challenge putin one on one and beat him

lots he could still do damage in this in this political system and that's perhaps one of the reasons why the kremlin has chosen to keep him out of it if he were allowed onto state t.v. for instance and allowed to debate he could really cause ripples getting his message out so a wider audience so that's probably one of the reasons why they've kept him out so i have to say that he could probably do carry on doing damage from outside the system he's been very successful on he chewed his videos get millions and millions of hits and as i say he's very adept at managing to get particularly a younger generation of russians out onto the streets thank you well let me tell you there live from moscow. and israeli court has extended the detention of a palestinian teenager and mother and cousin they were arrested a week ago after this video was posted online it shows sixteen year old al-timimi

pushing and hitting an israeli soldier the incident reportedly happened after her relative was shot in the face by israeli forces and critically injured has appeared in several of the videos challenging israeli soldiers. syrian government forces and their allies have launched an offensive against the rebel held province of italy they have entered small parts of the region from the northern countryside of hama and there's been an increase in airstrikes targeting civilian areas they know how to has more from beirut. those who were killed in this airstrike were internally displaced syrians a woman and her two children their new home a tent has been destroyed whatever belongings they had now rubble they moved to tella to convolute in the southern edges of the rebel controlled province of idlib and search for safety but in recent weeks the region has been the target of heavy airstrikes. the displaced from came here the planes came and hit them

they're targeting civilians there are no unfortunates here where do you want us to go or i it's not clear if the bombing raids are being carried out by syrian government planes or those of its ally russia but what is clear is that the strikes are only increasing. they are putting pressure on the civilians the civilians would pressure the rebels not to fight because the regime has made major advances on the ground. they want people to hasten the ruggles and the regime is trying to pressure the rebels to agree to a political settlement. this stepped up airstrikes coincide with a ground offensive by pro-government forces who have been advancing from the northern countryside of hama and the southern countryside of aleppo towards. they entered small parts of the province advancing into the administrative borders for the first time since the rebels forced them out of and two thousand and fifteen

an all out assault on. many of whom were other areas seized by pro-government forces it's still not clear whether the government. the whole province or whether it's just. control of some areas in the countryside. what is clear is that the government wants the airbase back it is one of the largest military airports in the norse turkey reportedly wants to use that base as an observation post already its military is deployed in some areas of it live as part of a deescalation deal. it is supposed to be a safe area under that deal. the opposition now fears the presence of al qaeda linked fighters and it will be used by the government as an excuse to step up the bombing campaign they also fear that pro-government forces are no longer busy on other fronts and are now turning their attention to adlib. beirut

canada and venezuela are locked in an escalating diplomatic row canada is moving to expel a venezuelan diplomats two days after venezuela throughout canada's embassador for criticizing its human rights record and as well as being barred from returning to auto nicolas maduro the government has also expelled the brazilian envoy who it accused of interfering in domestic affairs. or may for now back to joint in doha thank you sue typhoon tembin left a trail of destruction on the philippine island of mindanao with already have been criticized for not doing enough to help the storm has killed at least two hundred people with many more still missing rob mcbride traveled to taba ton where an entire neighborhood was destroyed. when the flood came this river was turned into a torrent throwing boulders and trees against the houses in its path it took more than one hundred homes and killed nearly fifty people those in the area had been

told to leave but many had heeded the warning too late i would there are trying to evacuate but the surge was like in three to five minutes all the houses were wiped out. what's left of mary louis tim's possessions are below the ruins of what used to be her house she escaped with her children and her brother's family just in time well me until we were all crying and the water gap getting stronger and i told my brother i think we are going to die here they survived but another brother died. their temporary home is now the local school it's also where rosemarie sort of yellow now lives with her children and ten other families in the one classroom she says she had never experienced a flood like it going on i don't want to get that there was a flood before but we didn't evacuate that time but after what happened this time i

can't go back all in a country that receives up to twenty life threatening storms a year there's been criticism of why mindanao suffered so badly as one of the most disaster prone countries in the world the philippines invests heavily in infrastructure and awareness programs to deal with severe storms but in mindanao the ongoing conflict makes that difficult and it's the poorest people living in the most vulnerable places who suffer the most in storms like this. community leaders have told people not to rebuild their homes along the river but the need to earn a living from farming nearby means many in time probably will and when a future storm comes the river will probably take more lives rob the bride i'll just era two but town southern philippines there's been another storm brewing in diversity on mindanao island but of

a political nature and involves the president's family a social media producer is here to tell us more about that that's right jane and it all started on friday the story has gone viral in the philippines and it started as a war of words on social media between the president's eldest son and his daughter is about to see can see their pictures there now she alleged in the tweet that her father has no right to says it can harm someone just because he's in a position of power especially if that someone is a child now problem to tell it's a responded to her own facebook disapproving of her lifestyle and calling her a disrespectful he since deactivated his account and on monday to take quit his job and is no longer the vice mayor of devour now he's blamed his resignation on social media and the family feud among other things this is what he said in the statement there are recent unfortunate events in my life that are closely told to my first failed marriage this is one of those instances where i need to protect my honor and

that of my children now the recent events he mentions could be related to this not part of the territories accused of being involved in an international drug trafficking ring now appearing at a senate hearing in september he denied opposition accusations of links to a chinese drug cartel or being involved in the smuggling of one hundred twenty eight million dollars worth of drugs now president roger regurgitated to insists he didn't tell power to resign and that his son was actually fed up with what he called. unfair attacks now few months ago the president says he would have a son killed if the drug trafficking allegations turned out to be true as a vast city is the largest on the island of mindanao in a political stronghold of the terrorists a family now during a long spell as mayor rodriguez it's hard to develop his controversial anti drugs campaign that he's rolled out across the country once becoming president and his daughter sorry who is now the mayor of our says she sounds by her brother's

decision and that he will remain on leave until her father who is resignation regardless of opposition actually quest's it questioning his resignation some accusing him of trying to smokescreen the accusations are happening with the drugs related incidences now you in the philippines want to find out what you think of the story of course that's outside his family have been quite divisive get in touch with us on social media is the hash tag a.j. nice grades. pressure is mounting on me and government to release two reuters journalists who've been detained for two weeks the u.s. canada the european union as well as top u.n. officials are among those demanding one loan and quiet be released meanwhile authorities say the pair was arrested on december the twelfth for obtaining information illegally and could face up to fourteen years in jail the journalists

were covering the crisis regional child is the chief operating officer at reuters news and he joins us on skype from singapore it's very good to have you on al-jazeera to talk about this what do you know about the incident and any word on where they are. well frankly you've covered most of what we know there's been very little information coming out from the government officially repaired very little official contact with them we haven't been in touch with them or their families haven't been in touch with them we don't know where they're being held we don't know when they will be released if they will be released we don't know what condition they're in you know they they were invited to a dinner with two policeman on december the twelfth they went to dinner and essentially were arrested there and then. we haven't had really any information since then and now information has come out you know by the way through the government social media through local media so we have some understanding of what's

going on but by and large through the official word we know about as much as you do right now because they saying that they obtained information illegally whatever that means in this context well and we don't know what that means either to be honest you know look we don't believe they've done anything wrong we think they're completely innocent of all wrongdoing you know they're reporters they report they go out they gather facts. they're you know i'd rather not talk about what they were working on but certainly everything that that they were doing you know was the gentleman journalism and to accuse the you know of having secrets of some kind seems to be a stretch moreover the law that is so what do you think it suggests when the government is taking this sort of action i mean makes you wonder what they are concerned about what they're hiding. obviously it does as well but i

really don't know i mean again what they're working on you know is good important stories but nothing that would that would rise to the level of you know. challenging national security that's what the law is about and that's such a broad law in any case right it's an official secrets act that's from clearly old days that's very broad you know pretty much anything that the government does is of fishel or deems are you know national security points can be can fall into law which means pretty much anyone can fall afoul of it in any given time so again until we have some access to them and we don't have any access to them we don't know what questions they've been asked we don't know what the government is looking for and frankly they won't tell us side i said what are you going to do now and what should the international community be doing if you're not going to get any help from inside. as.

a tremendous outpouring of support from across the world from human rights organizations from that and so we once on the government to. you know i think those ministers are obviously going underground you know we're engaged lawyers were you know were very closely in touch with the family we're reaching out as much as we can and obviously we're trying to reach out to the government to make the case that these are just ordinary hardworking journalist has and shouldn't be held anymore original charge very good to get your thoughts on what you know about this thank you and al-jazeera is demanding the release of it journalist mahmoud has say it's now been more than a year since he was arrested and jailed in egypt same as a kid support casting false news to spread chaos which he and al jazeera strongly deny he's repeatedly complained of mistreatment in jail. still ahead on news great in the third part of the series of reports on artificial

intelligence looks at how driverless cars will make a difference to the world's transport system. hello again across western parts of asia we've got a massive cloud which is gradually clearing away towards the east look at the forecast dry conditions across much of this region fine in kabul in afghanistan the highs of twelve and it's all looking fine on the caspian sea the eastern side of the mediterranean still a fair amount of cloud but the winds from the south so temperatures not too bad if i should reach twenty degrees in beirut on thursday here in the arabian peninsula has been the weak front pushing down from the north and temperatures only just twenty one in riyadh and rosalee cool nighttime temperatures quite low doha twenty three just sort of clear the air somewhat so we've lost the fog for the time being

on the other side of the pinchers looking warm america with highs of thirty four degrees they said then into southern parts of africa where we've got some heavy showers affecting parts of and goler through zambian zimbabwe and towards mozambique that's where the bulk of the charlotte city will be it could be quite wet into soccer but further towards the south fine up to the woman harare just nineteen degrees plenty of sunshine across parts of south africa there with durban coming in at twenty seven degrees celsius and that fine weather continues to head on through into thursday showers across angola further south fine across much in the maybe thirty three the high in winter.

training page kicks off with a look ahead at the ten predictions for two thousand and eighteen run by the phillips one of our correspondents he says that he believes that the middle east could get even more dangerous and also believe that tourism a will retain her position of power those are just two of the ten you should check it out it's interesting you also as he says you know he doesn't get them all right israel is in touch with ten countries over the embassy moves as you know that's incredibly controversial. many countries in europe i believe

after venezuela said they would make their move. in first position has become a problem for russian on the dogs that's a good read on the role that the only docs are playing on a long standing relationship with putin what sort of power broker that man continues to be so take a look at that trending good reads could lead us to you and this if you got something to say about the stories. that age are english or on facebook at facebook dot com slash a.j. news group you can also send us a whatsapp message at plus nine seven four five zero one triple one four nine as always you can use the hash tag a j news quit. china is hosting senior officials from afghanistan and pakistan to find a solution to longstanding disputes between the neighbors the first tripartite dialogue comes as china expands its economic interests in pakistan beijing is

looking to expand its fifty seven billion dollar china pakistan economic cotto to afghanistan is that the chinese foreign minister had to say after the meeting. pakistan and afghanistan agreed to improve their relations as soon as possible to achieve the goal of harmonious coexistence between the two nations they express a point that they will not allow any party or force to use the territories to engage in activities that would undermine the security of the other side and of course this meeting highlights china's growing influence in the region as we mentioned earlier it sees afghanistan as a crucial part of its ambitious new silk road plan linking asia europe and beyond but the threat posed by armed groups including eisel and the taliban remain a challenge of gunnison often accuses pakistan of providing a safe haven to the taliban which it says is trying to overthrow its government and china's role in this region is likely to raise concerns in washington the trumpet

ministration recently announced it wants india to get involved something that's strongly opposed by pakistan such an go hell is an international security director for the asia pacific foundation he joins us on skype from carrick in the u.k. very good to have you with us sancho what sort of role do you think china can play here as a mediator where can china succeed where others have failed. well firstly the top ask ahead for china is going to be a very difficult one precarious this with a lot of obstacles because other countries especially the united states under the bush administration and the obama administration to try to bring pakistan and afghanistan together they looked at various options including dialogue with the taliban and none of those reached any positive conclusions in fact the taliban have only increased the islands in afghanistan one of the key sticking points is that afghanistan believes that pakistan is harboring groups like the quote to shura

taliban the haqqani network that they used box on as a launch pad to carry out attacks in afghanistan and as china has a vested interest in both countries especially through the one belt one road project they will need to try and rein in pakistan in stopping that territory from being used for terrorism because it's not only going to have an impact on understand it can actually have an impact on china as well shouldn't filling the political and security vacuum that we see in afghanistan be the first step to achieving any sort of stability that. well the two elements causing problems in afghanistan on the one hand the security apparatus inside the country is very weak there is a security vacuum taking place ever since press doesn't obama carried out the drawdown of troops in combat operations the taliban has increased the tempo of

violence that they've taken territory in southern afghanistan but they're also operating in northern afghanistan in places where they didn't even have control during the one nine hundred ninety s. when they were at the peak the other aspect that's so important is the border security for there to be stability in afghanistan economic political and social there also has to be border security and this goes back to that proper problem that the afghans have been accusing pakistan off turning a blind eye to terrorist groups and militant out sort of been operate in pakistan that have been crossed over carried out attacks and go back and this is something that are china if it wants to try and play a role in terms of bringing peace to to the region this is something they're going to have to tackle because they have very good relations with pakistan they call it the all over the friendship and this is perhaps where that aspect will get tested mostly ok so that could possibly work but i'm wondering where this leaves india obviously they're going to be concerned with china getting more involved and

pakistan's role where will it leave the u.s. who has been putting out specially and donald trump and as we know earlier in the year it was some russians that said the u.s. needs to stay there they need to stay there from a security point of view. well the u.s. is absolutely critical for the security apparatus in afghanistan that needs to be built up they have been in afghanistan the u.s. since post september eleventh and many people are talking about this being a never ending presence but the problem has been is there's never been a consistent sustained program by u.s. administrations in the past to actually commit to a gun is not to help provide the security training its national security forces general john nicholson who is the senior u.s. commander on the ground in afghanistan he has requested an additional troop surge which it seems that the u.s. and nato have agreed to we will see more trainers coming into

a gun is done in twenty eighteen that is absolutely critical and essentially for a gun is done stability of god is done needs to have at least three years of consistent policy by western leaders especially the united states and they are early is that since two thousand and one that has never been that that has never existed. so i don't think i have thank you very much good to talk to you. as two thousand and seventeen comes to an end we're looking back at some of the biggest stories of the year through the eyes of five families in the penultimate part of our five part series we speak to a kenyan family who lost their six month old daughter during political violence fighting a disputed presidential vote catherine sawyer reports from kisumu. joseph and his wife linda are still trying to come to terms of the killing of the six month old daughter samantha pendle. they say she died from a severe head injury when police raided their home in the town of. this was in

august just after the fast presidential election when president was declared the winner. supporters of opposition leader the took to the streets in protest. police responding with tear gas batons and live ammunition joseph and learned so however say they were attacked in their home at night. it's been an unpredictable and volatile election year in kenya the supreme court over time to the oldest paul citing irregularities of fast in africa. then withdrew from the repeat election saying the commission first needed reforms. rerun went ahead anyway in october. one thousand percent of the vote but only sad of the one thousand million registered voters cast their ballots. all the while political

brinkmanship deeply divided the country along partisan lines continue street confrontations between police and protesters only making things worse more than thirty people including baby panda have died in the violence since august and are used to play here and on that night in august her family and neighbors say police came banging on doors they used tear gas to force people out of their houses pendle was in her mother's arms when they were being beaten she did not stand a chance. of a doubt she will ever vote again. i didn't know that that can cause me pain or should i put this in an informative one is tame whenever they'd be election at all is remember that. during election day. she also says they'll continue to seek justice for their daughter catherine sawyer

. west and kenya you know we do have a story off the grid for you but a singer who canceled a concert in israel for what happened. in fact she's made headlines having sold millions of records why. but there's spike that new zealand singer songwriter a lot has cancelled a concert she was due to hold in israel in june and that follows an online campaign by activists opposed to these radio patients of palestine north says her decision was made after receiving an overwhelming number of messages and letters now she had to engage with critics on social media following her announcement of the dates among those who had contacted her in an open letter telling her why she should cancel her concert with two activists one palestinian and one jewish and she responded saying she was considering canceling and was taking advice on the

complexities of the political situation that well she followed through with that she did cancel and without people responded on social media some were praising her decision and others have been condemning and johnny ryan thinks the singer is young and brave and on the side of history and many more others are calling her decision a b.d.'s fixture e now that's a reference to the boycott divestment and sanctions movement which is being used to put pressure on israel by boycotting commercial commercial and cultural ties with israeli institutions but sweets like the vests one from absence and says this is another p.d.s. victory since the singer canceled her concert in what she calls an apartheid state systematically oppresses palestinians and so it's like these have opened up a whole discussion on this movement and its impact and they in fact a u.s. based author and commentator he's a rabbi shmuley has criticized those decision he posted this live on facebook.

why lord with huge seek to create international tension by condemning them boycotting and participating in the anticipated actions against all democracy in the middle east i mean think about this for a second you're going to russia yes lord it's an anticipated movement it's designed to demonize the state of israel we jews don't what this is about we finally get a tiny little country a little sliver of freedom democracy and human rights now israel's culture minister may marry reg as has issued a statement calling on lord to reconsider and time to hand he tweeted saying israel has to its core reason she should cancel every show in countries and human rights contrivances no it is not just us artists and fights a cancellation is where she's followed the likes of elvis costello lauren hill and grandness who've also cancelled the show in the past not everyone has though and what do you think of this story this is something that seems to come up quite often

we'd love to know your thoughts you can send us a whatsapp message or write me directly on twitter. is the twitter handle going for a two thousand seven hundred saw the emergence of driverless cars and trucks being tested on roads in the u.s. and u.k. developer say more than a million lives a year could be saved without humans behind the wheel as accidents would be almost eradicated but that could also mean a loss of millions of jobs as lawrence lee reports. in this brave new world events official intelligence the first direct effect on all our lives will be in transport it's already begun and it will change humanity in many ways. it's well enough known by now that driverless cars and lorries are being childs the future we're told may involve our children not having to learn how to drive please press the automation button to place the car to go to meetings when a satirical was this one even sitting in a simulator you feel a lack of control if you don't grip the wheel or press the brakes driving on for

real involves a leap of faith you know that is true and anything to the steering wheel you are now free to engage in other times the engineers here assure the technology is good enough for driverless travel on motorways if not in congested cities because there's too much going on. you know that this is extremely busy and complex environment with lots of potential who destructors people running across roads. so i think that's probably too complex we've certainly trying to contemporary think automation both on the motorway and in urban environments. they don't work at all in urban environments and even on motorways they require regular interventions by human drivers. the future it seems may be a combination of systems moving us from port to driverless port modern rail systems near airports are driverless and people use those quite happily the paths of the

cars through space would be similar to if there were you know some physical guide to them so i think in some cases so long as the as the speeds are fairly low it's probably a safe proposition. true believers in driverless transport say we will be able to sleep or work in our vehicle but if that sounds good it will also mean the loss of millions of jobs and i wonder trades unions want to know how those jobs will be replaced we're looking to see massive massive investment in electric vehicles driverless vehicles future mobility we need a great leap forward it's easy to understand this concern in the u.k. there was a massive shock when car factories which had traditionally employed thousands of people all shut because of foreign competition this used to be the jackie were factory in the west midlands now it's going to be a warehouse the advent of driverless cars and wide automation could be a far greater shock still the british government reckons that driverless cars could

create up to thirty thousand jobs in the u.k. which sounds ok until you hear evidence that says that in this part of england alone automation could cost three hundred thousand jobs it becomes pretty clear that governments like the one in britain with a job strategy for automation and quickly were asked to consider a world in which no humans at the wheel of a vehicle means accidents will not happen more than a million lives will be saved every year driverless vehicles will be on the roads and soon but will human souse jobs rely on transport except them and can we learn to trust the machines to safeguard the lives of those we love lawrence lee al jazeera london. and in part four of us series the rise of artificial intelligence and robotics has revolutionized health care operations can be carried out by surgeons using robots now the extraordinary progress of robotics is leading to suggestions that machines could care for us when we are old or sick but do we want

a robot to look after us instead of a human lawrence lee has that story on wins and if you want to know more about how automation and technology is going to further revolutionize modern living do you watch an episode of talk to al-jazeera in which felicity bart talks to stephen roberts professor of machine learning at the university of oxford he talks about ethics and regulations governing artificial intelligence a very interesting interview aired last month which you can view on our web site www dot com it's funny what people talk about today in sports thank you very much dale i said he hasn't been a quite christmas in the world of sports as because of a hugely controversial game in the n.b.a. christmas day off and the teams from last season's finals competes and the game between golden state that warriors and the cleveland cavaliers whipped up a social media storm and has. thank you for all the credit was supposed to be le bron james as knights and it started off that way to end the body that worked in

the absence of the injured steph curry golden state so wanted to make it a christmas to remember one hundred eighty of one it was a back and forth affair for much of the game with each side trading the lead heaven john looked like the dominant force he was six months ago when he helped the warriors win the n.b.a. finals thanks lee brown did what he could tying the game at ninety two but played something came free with his poor three pointer of the game but in golden state i had a good. cry in the dying seconds of the match le bron drive to the basket but any chance of a christmas a comeback was blocked by drunks. finished with twenty five point seven rebounds and five block shots golden state closing out the rematch in one thousand nine hundred ninety two. small for supposed to go smaller force. so

if you know anybody else with a guard on the main open could put pad on over he just looked too small. or does a star so i guess i was the last guy just on but i just like our my position and i was good guy both things and i don't have a fall game and you know i had a lot of transition point like a guy but in transitioning out and i was a. telltale sign of the game for us in the last month and the brawn and the cavs will have the chance for a bunch next month on the side space each other again in cleveland police and al-jazeera. well in case you missed the controversial play it is causing all the fuss a hair is again gone ses kevin durant's appears to file a look braun a in the closing stages and it doesn't get called that basically and in the cavs hopes it's made up for not very happy holidays for le bron and cleveland fans. well joining us live now via skype is someone that watched that

game that very closely sports legal analyst exam public david thank you very much for doing this and first of all merry christmas and happy birthday as well. thanks though so it was it a foul absolutely bron james was found on two consecutive possessions by kevin durant they won't call and it is a really great back and forth game wound up kept hearing out of the end with the referees involved looking at the different replays to determine whether the hall was out of bounds to get possession and it just was a messy ending to a fantastic game but the cleveland cavaliers can't blame the officials they shot poorly from the field in the second half of the game and that was the reason they were in a position to potentially lose their game for the first close i mean as you can see like you know this was trending all over social media do you think this would have been a big deal of him volved another player other than a bron james. absolutely not this is the christmas day game this is the day that

the n.b.a. celebrates unofficial start of the season and this is just a huge platform for the n.b.a. to showcase itself and it was not le bron james would have been a big deal but it was the most important player in the league he's been socially active i one know so he has been the most popular people in the world in he was against the n.b.a. finals in b.p. and kevin durant's and they were guarding him hits one another and so it was a big important moment and i think the controversy is good for the league it's it's great promotion on the n.b.a. season moving forward so it worked out ron james but it just another regular season game and both teams will get themselves together and continue on with the season we know they will be meeting in the n.b.a. finals and let the fans are blaming this anti on the referees and on the need to get south do you think if it was a mistake would the n.b.a. admit it and one pick ations would that have. done of course not be it's not going to be made a mistake number one and number two when the n.b.a.

decides to be a few. different calls whether it's whether called balls out of bounds when they do that they could have reviewed and saw then clearly le bron james was pile mention during the broadcast fight you have been going to he was covering the game for a.b.c. and it wasn't done and so if the n.b.a. wants to be really sincere about getting calls right it's easy to route the review in saying hey this guy was five out of bron james clearly out on review it was not done by the league and this is something that the league should definitely address xavier probably thank you very much for that thank you so much. now as we mentioned that game has caused a bit of a social media a fall between the cavs and the warriors fans one aria fan a has a post of the cartoon of le bron james whining about those no calls that were it says saying kevin this is for you while some are calling him

a baby braun braun some feel the brawn is the n.b.a. spoiled kids cliff brand has tweeted this saying that was fun game but truly we go back to this there he is remember when k.d. which is kevin durant's got solved by le bron at the end of game two of the finals and didn't get the call k.d. is finally that dude who can get away with stuff the way le bron did back then well some fans are there to let the controversy spoil their christmas book but they are blaming it on the referees at home as a league tweeted that was a fun game but truly outrageous and being full the officials of course before we go a once started is blowing everyone's mind. we'll have to leave it here and back to a day it will be back at eight hundred eighty of thanks for the hot summer and. that's it from me for the end of this newsgroup but obviously we'll have more at

the same time two or eighteen hundred g.m.t. in just remember that you can keep in touch with us on so many of our social media platforms all the stories that we're looking at liberia it was great to get your feedback about that today a.j. news created twitter's at a.j. english and of course facebook dot com access al-jazeera and whatsapp as well and we'll try to get back to you as often as we can afford of those who did get in touch with us today so if i was able to get back to you would really be done but on the photo comment again sometimes my response.

travel often. by tranquil board tubes and purple forests near prague want all. walks of orange. by icons landmarks valleys and scott guides. to live for adventure. discover new jobs because faraway places closer to going says together with cattle airways. you are making very pointed remarks where on line the main u.s. response to drug use and the drug trade over the last fifty years has been to criminalize or if you join us on sad to know you will first just wakes up other than the morning and says i want to call the world of darkness this is a dialogue and that could be what leading to some of the confusion the lie was about people saying they don't actually know what's going on join the colobus

conversation at this time on al-jazeera i really felt liberated as a journalist was. getting to the truth as i would was with his job. as i wanted to finally we're going to ask about it but that's the ball is a ball not i see more listeners that are not the set says they're not the same wonder the other lot of all of our cousins the bunches of the china at the bottom in the first episode of a two part series al-jazeera investigates the world of performance enhancing drugs . sports during the a ministry use this time.