just the old world and covers a story of tough choices and determined. that it gave all my friends at this time an al-jazeera. well. we were. out when we were. twenty seventeen has been full of stories that have changed the global political landscape and al jazeera has been there to cover them all. joining us as we look back at some of our most memorable interviews of the year this special edition of talk tell just at this time. medical evacuations begin in a rebel held area near the syrian capital damascus. a

little calling peace a w watching all to zero live from doha also coming up the philippines government reaches out to help people displaced by storms on political violence in morocco we. vote counting is underway in liberia's presidential election. russia's largest party makes its official backing me a petition for another term in the kremlin. the international committee of the red cross and red crescent has begun medical evacuations from east and besieged rebel held areas in the syrian capital damascus at least four hundred thousand people have been trapped by government forces since twenty thirteen the enclave has been the target of hundreds of air strikes and

artillery attacks the u.n. had earlier called for five hundred people in need of urgent medical care to be allowed to leave is monitoring developments for us from neighboring lebanon she joins us. the capital beirut how many people children are being moved. well what we understand is that twenty nine people will be evacuated critically ill patients among them twenty two women and children really it is a race against time for hundreds of people you mentioned four hundred ninety four that is on the united nations' priority list there seems to be a deal between the syrian government and the main rebel group and. that is why twenty nine people are being allowed to be evacuated in return. is going to release twenty nine prisoners government prisoners so really a race against time this is not enough it is a welcome move but what we understand is that there are just no medical supplies

and this is a besieged they cannot treat the wounded they cannot treat people who are chronically illnesses they cannot treat people who suffer from cancer they cannot treat people who suffer from kidney failure and a lot of those cases are women and children so four people have now reached hospitals in damascus it is less than an hour's drive twenty two people are going to be evacuated in the coming days but still hundreds need treatment is this one of those areas should in theory be a cease fire in place but there's no cease fire. that's correct peter a deescalation zone not just a cease fire there should be the freedom of movement of aid and goods into eastern but aid has not entered eastern since september and when i entered in september it was only enough for forty thousand people you are talking about you mentioned the four hundred thousand number there are four hundred thousand people trapped in this

neighborhood and it's not just that they don't have enough food and whatever food is available the prices are so high in recent years the siege really has been in place for four years but in recent months the government tightened those siege they closed the smuggling routes and it's not only that there is child malnutrition the u.n. is worried that this is the worst outbreak of child malnutrition two hundred thirty two acute cases and one thousand five hundred children at risk so it's not just those who need medical help that need to be evacuated the people who are trapped inside they need food and especially the children any word yet from the syrian government from bashar al assad's offices. you know there has been no statement from the syrian government office but we have to remember we've seen this before in the seven year conflict here the seven year conflict what they do is they impose a siege on an area it's really starve the people tell them this is your only choice

you need to surrender or you die now you talk to activists in eastern route and they tell you no we're not going to lay down our arms and accept to be evacuated to live and never be able to return to our homes but as the pressure keeps on there are a lot of other people are wondering if they're going to have another choice because yes the rebels are holding the lines they're not allowing or preventing the government forces from advancing into eastern so far the government has made no advances on the ground but how long can this last and how long can people continue to suffer so this is what the fear is that these tactics the siege and tactics are just going to become harder and more difficult for the people in order for them to surrender it will leave it there are many things in a lot of the reporting from beirut. the philippines government is setting up more than six hundred temporary shelters for people displaced by conflict in the city of mirali the army the area from separatist fighters in october after a five month siege fighting cause more than

a billion dollars worth of damage and thousands of people are still homeless and the robbery was hit by tropical storm tembin last week making the situation there even worse rob mcbride has more now from morocco. on the edge of your our way this is a hopeful sign in an area that has been plagued by conflict and now the effects of these damaging storms this is a new housing development for people who've been displaced by months of fighting between government forces and also fighters who are linked to i still be given its importance president rhodri go to turkey and it will be coming here to perform the ceremony it is very important for him in his presidency he is from mindanao he calls himself a son of mindanao and has promised that the people will find eventually long lasting peace and the people here have suffered from the double effect of both the storm and also conflict so it's very important around the building exercise for the

president to be here in this hole of mindanao faces the classic dilemma of a conflict which holds up development then the lack of money and jobs then feeds into the underlying feeling and rest which then contributes to. the violence all of this is of course not helped by have been batted by the storms now the united states has imposed sanctions on to north korean scientists linked to the country's missile program the u.s. and south korea's kim jong see right. our senior figures in north korean leader kim jong un's ballistic missile development team it is the latest move by the u.s. to pressure fueling yang into abandoning its weapons program. vote counting continues in liberia's presidential runoff between the former football star george weah and the current vice president joseph despite a low turnout international observers have praised the process that is expected to

produce the first democratic transition of power in more than seven decades my little reports now from the capital city of monrovia. thousands lined up to vote in more than five thousand polling stations across liberia arriving long before the stations opened the tunnels however nowhere near the heart of the foster home held in october that had been delayed twice of the being contested in court amid claims of the declared it is in the foster round officials say the reduction of candidates from twenty two just to may have cost a pretty among voters a kindle four for the so-called. new processor score smoke this morning and i hope everything will go well this morning the contests is between a former international football star george ware and vice president just whack i the wino would replace africa's first female head of state ellen johnson sirleaf who came to power after the country's lost civil war toll of years ago but i'm not

associated there were losing them to do this there's virtually no they said to me that i'm going to wind up work hard to know we know georgia seventy two year old joseph walker has served as les beauteous vice president since two thousand and six he too wanted in the capital and red bearded coaches in terms of democracy we went in one there were twenty i work in i would use a tool. we have today we're going through a difficult process isn't working to the processes that were true we're willing to live with both where promising peace in liberia and also want an end to corruption in one of the world's poorest countries if the results hold. it will be the first time in generations the pledge billions will witness the transfer of power from one elected leader to another international observers also praising what they call a violence free pool sis finally in liberia the bottle books replaced ballots

but this is a big election for everyone who is calling democracy west africa the trend has certainly been you know more towards the democratic shift and really rooting that more firmly and i think that is what we will see here in liberia today the liberian people are determined to do it they're ready to do it. and i'm very confident they will then a commission has two weeks within which to declare that it's all it's official so how about confident that we'll have them ready in four days. so why was the turnout so low this time around do you think. why is because of a minute thinks one of them is because this is a ronnell few surely the fost on the second do not have the same level of timeout and also because in the first round that there was more than twenty candidates and just two in this one all those people who had come out because they had holes in

them least cuddly bate. vying for the presidency many of them do not have any and some of them have shown up with you and this is one of the reasons why they has been a little time out also because then there was. a parliamentary elections also going on and of some of the candidates for the different parliamentary seats in this country ha transported people from major towns to the rule areas now people either don't have the means or do not feel encouraged enough to go and vote where they hundred just and so these are some of the reasons why we had more time out in this town mr weir is sounding very very confident with some of his comments just in the past twelve hours or so might that confidence be misplaced. while from the results declared so far from polling stations vote counting is still

going on. shows thought well ha's go into a huge lead over he's all pointed to joseph block this was totally unexpected he's a man very popular with the country see you he's a man who's could be ted with. not only. being from a humble background but also succeeding against all the orbs in the field of soca and also coming back giving back to the society funding the national team organizing football teams of course. country among the youth so he sees a man who's popular with sixty plus cent off the population of this confused young people and this is one of the reasons why he attained thirty eight percent in the foster round many people believe that he is headed for victory but as a demonstration of democracy in action i guess you know one elected leader handing

over to another elected leader that's a big good step in the right direction. yes indeed it isa something liberia something that witnessed for generations for seventy three years there's been no handle both power from one civilian elected leader to another now the biggest seems to be on the verge of witnessing that is if the results of this election hold they already feel is that whichever losing party whichever of the thirty's that loses may not accept the result and that is what people here are fearing a slight back to violence and conflict that is what they want they have enjoyed toll of years of uninterrupted peace and ellen johnson sirleaf the long as their hard since one nine hundred eighty nine and they do not want to see this country sliding back to conflict again we will wait and watch mohammed many thanks talk to

you later. the russian president vladimir putin has been nominated for reelection he's running as an independent candidate but he is backed by the program and united russia party is expected to win a fourth term comfortably come election in march so far refrained from campaigning but he has praised his government's management of the economy the russian economy has rebounded from its worst recession in twenty years. can you see them. more do. of course these have been difficult years for both the country and for those who had to ensure stable development and overcome the difficulties that stemmed from the world economy i can say that the russian government not only did everything that it could but in my opinion even more than that you have essentially solved all the economic tasks at hand. well the electoral commission has allowed a t.v. personality because then you're subject to one against mr putin in the elections next march is nominated by the group civil initiative she's the daughter of mr

putin's former mentor anatoly sobchak the first elected mayor of st petersburg however critics say her decision to run plays into the hands of the kremlin by creating an artificial contest. still to come here on al-jazeera extends its detention of two reuters journalists by another two weeks. i will tell you the remote road linking oman and yemen has become a path to refugees coming out aid. hello there we're seeing plenty of heavy showers across the southeast and parts of asia for the philippines a plenty of showers all gradually drifting their way towards the west and we're also seeing some rather lively showers towards the west impossible as well in fact

because the movie so sixty two millimeters of rain there so if you're there on holiday you'll notice it was certainly very very wet more showers still to come as well i think as we head through the next few days so all the dark colored hair giving us some rather hefty showers over the next few days for the south that will also be some showers here but generally a little bit more broken more sunshine in between them for some of us in eastern parts of java we can expect some heavy showers here and here it's been very wet over the past few weeks and we've seen quite a bit of flooding over towards australia and this huge area of cloud here is a low pressure that may or may don't develop into a so i clone what it certainly will do is bring more rain for the northwestern parts of say for the northern parts of western australia more rain still to come on thursday and that area of unsettled weather then pushes down through other parts of australia as well say for some of us we can expect to see more rain that we're used to over the next day or say that system then pushes further inland through western australia on friday but still a chance of the shower too of course parts of alice springs.

when diplomacy fields and fear sweep then our borders are wide open wide open to drugs terrorists we've proven the barriers are built to impose division and it's ill to sixty's instead of being an ox to could tell wastes it became another obstacle to peace in a four part series al-jazeera revisits the reasons for divisions in different parts of the world and the impact they have on both sides walls of shame at this time on al jazeera.

welcome back you're watching al-jazeera live from doha your headlines aid workers have started evacuating emergency medical cases from the besieged area of eastern guta in the syrian capital damascus many have been waiting for months during the time when u.n. says at least sixteen people died the area's been surrounded by government forces since twenty thirteen. the government in the philippines says it's setting up more than six hundred temporary shelters for people displaced by the conflict in the city of morale we the army we took the area from separatist fighters in october after a five month seen each other all it was also battered by tropical storm tembin last week. vote counting is underway in the liberian presidential runoff between the former footballer george weah and the current vice presidential support despite a low turnout the process is expected to produce the first democratic transition of power in more than seven decades. since the war in yemen began one

escape route from the fighting has been by road across the border into oman but some of mani's a driving in the other direction they're taking truckloads of much required aid into yemen matheson reports from musket. for over forty days mohammed has been waiting he has on call his brothers and their seventy year old father have traveled over two and a half thousand kilometers to moscow from their home in the yemeni port city of aden. services in aden are very bad there's no electricity water or food we have to buy it from the black market and it costs too much life is very difficult one hundred father has spent those six weeks inside the muscat apartment they all share he has cancer he has a visa for treatment in germany mohammed is his father's official companion but his visa hasn't come through him and the health system in yemen has almost collapsed they can only do simple first aid and basic operations but for serious illnesses

there is no treatment and people can't afford it much of yemen has been ripped apart by fighting between who the rebels and saudi led forces backing the internationally recognized government documents or friday and many hospitals have been destroyed the government of a man doesn't issue official statistics to show all of the number of yemenis there are in the country people who've been injured in the fighting or people who've escaped here i need medical treatment have been treated by the hospitals here but a man is very concerned that the fighting in yemen is going to spill over the border and because of that it's tightening its border controls and that's going to make it more difficult for people like muhammad and his uncle to come to amman. so some of monies are taking aid to yemen not at all just tommy has been three times already. in october he took three trucks filled with food clothes and blankets

over time when i'm going there is give me hope to go again ok not because i don't go for fighting my truck is not not for fighting is to helping people. on the last journey seventeen year old sort out reality you finally persuaded nasser to take him to more concerned the safety of those people there and the problems which we fish in now and i wish any made you questioned comes and remove this problem eleven mohamed says he has no intention of staying away from yemen there is no place like home he and his family work in construction and when the fighting stops they say they'll have to rebuild their country road matheson al-jazeera nice cat omar. now the detention of two reuters journalists in myanmar has been extended for another fourteen days while alone and your three are all happy and allowed to meet families and lawyers outside their court hearing they

were arrested earlier this month after they were invited to meet police officials on the outskirts of young dawn accuses them of planning to share illegally acquired information with foreign media they were working on stories about the military crackdown on muslims in rakhine state. police believe we were just carrying out our jobs as journalists we have been detained at the criminal investigation department we never violated our journalism ethics. reuters chief operating officer reginald schwab spoke to al-jazeera about the arrests he said information from me and had been hard to come by. 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. there you know i'd rather not talk about what they were working on but certainly everything 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 and what they're working on you know is is good important stories but nothing that would that would rise the level of you know. challenging national security that's what the law is about and that such a broad law in any case right it's an official secrets act that's one clearly old days that's very broad you know pretty much anything that the government. is of official or deems of 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 either now as twenty seventeen comes to a close we're looking back at some of the biggest stories of the year through the eyes of five families a final report we focus on the korean peninsula and families split between the two countries florence and we spoke to a man who's been separated from his father for nearly fifty years. this is one of

one in charles treasured possessions it's the only photo he has of him with his father he was two years old when he last saw his dad nearly fifty years ago it wasn't until he was nine that he found out the truth you know wanted to know i asked my mother when he was coming home and she told me he was on a business trip to the united states and will be home for christmas people i believed her and waited and waited. his father. had been traveling on a domestic flight in south korea but it was hijacked and flown to north korea the incident sparked an international outcry north korea eventually returned most of those on board the flight that refused to allow eleven of us to leave including kwan's father because. there was a time i hated my father so muds because i was told by my family that he stood out too much during ideologist sessions in the north he would argue with the of dorry's

and that's why he wasn't sent back to hong has spent much of his adult life campaigning for his father's release setting up a group to the south korean government and international community to pressure north korea to release the remaining crew and passengers. when there were tensions around the korean peninsula intensified my father's case was pushed aside whenever there were any issues between the core yes and our story became the least priority for me though it's a tragedy my family has had to carry looking inward. and security concerns on the peninsula had deepened this year in september north korea tested a hydrogen bomb weapons experts also say north korean scientists appear to have made rapid progress with each missile test and could possibly combine nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities by next year. one realizes these developments will

make a reunion more unlikely but he's certain his dad still yeah. they tried to defect in two dozen thirteen i heard that the rest of the people in his group who made the same attempt were all executed no one was then in march two thousand and sixteen i heard he was living in what was told last december you know that those surveillance was too strong for anyone to approach him or talk in that. but one is not giving up determined to be reunited with his father no matter what it takes florence. soul. the rise of artificial intelligence and robotics is changing health care more operations and carried out by surgeons using robots lawrence lee finds out if we should let machines look after us. these. guys hospital in central london and

a man is about to have his life chances vastly improved with the help of the robots . he has prostate cancer the surgeon and his team would in the past have cut him open and felt around with their hands. but now they insert choose. and then we let the robot. soon the surgeon is at a console moving the robot remotely it's fine tools stitch up the man's colon before moving in to perform the operation. in principle you could have the surgery carried out or part steps of the said he did a very clearly defined carried out by a surgical instrument that was basically set up until i had laser eye surgery only ten years ago and i know for fat that the op thousand did my eyes a he met devon think he set a machine hit a button and it was a machine that did the surgery wasn't. all kinds of surgeries are done like this

welcomed by those lucky enough in the rich world to have an operation made quicker and less painful than in the past. but the new frontier is not in medicine but in care the robot succumbing to help the aged to consider the role that robots can have in caring for those we love is surely at the sharp end of the debate around automation in the human world after all robots home to modes that don't have the human touch and so how do we as human beings feel about outsourcing a duty of care to a machine in the coming weeks these dimentia suffer as a care home in north london will have robots for company the owners run dozens of places like this across the u.k. they want to roll the machines out everywhere because what we're dealing with is dementia residents people who forget who have

a memory lapses and if robots could remember. things about them or their cultural needs aboard that have it's about the back end of living and if they could relate this to a new pierced or even an agency staff was coming in it could be a lot of emotional things that is these people experience because when you forget things you get agitated and you cannot recollect what you have really gotten how are you very and you robots like this it is argued could help organize delivery of medicines or relatives could skype their loved ones through it screen but cannot love but it is argued they could help dispenses the agonizing question is whether we want them to i think ethically it's undesirable to have robots take the place of carers for these specific issues of being reassured you know being helped to death and so on i think very few people would say that we should staff our hospice with

robots i mean at the end of life that's really where you want a completely human type of interaction in parts of the world robotic care assistance has already been viewed by people a socially acceptable. in japan a nation of technology lovers with an ageing population is becoming common but will carers ever be replaced by machines it would surely to questions about how much we value our own humanity lawrence leigh al-jazeera london. and on thursday we'll have part five of our series on auto fishel intelligence a future with robots and ai is coming and it is going to affect us all in the final part of our series al-jazeera talks to those seeking to reduce the fallout you can watch it again of course for the web site as well al-jazeera dot com.

welcome if you're just joining us you're watching al-jazeera live from doha i'm peter davi top stories the international committee of the red cross and red crescent has begun medical evacuations from the east and the besieged rebel held area in the syrian capital damascus at least four hundred thousand people have been trapped there by government forces since twenty thirteen the enclave has been the target of hundreds of airstrikes and artillery attacks. the government in the philippines is setting up more than six hundred temporary shelters for people displaced by conflict in the city of murali the army we took the area from separatist fighters in october after a five month siege the fighting cause more than a billion dollars worth of damage and thousands of people are still homeless and he was hit by tropical storm tembin last week making the situation there even worse. vote counting is underway in liberia's presidential runoff between the form of footballer george weah and the current vice president joseph despite a low turnout the process is expected to produce the first democratic transition of

power in more than seventy years the russian president vladimir putin has been nominated for reelection he's running as an independent candidate but he's backed by the pro kremlin united russia party he is expected to win comfortably come march which and so far refrained from campaigning but he has praised his government's management of the economy russia has rebounded from its worst recession in two decades. the u.s. has imposed sanctions on two north korean scientists linked to the country's missile program the u.s. and south korea's kim jong seek. senior figures in the north korean leader kim jong un's ballistic missile development team it is the latest move by the u.s. to pressure pyongyang into abandoning its weapons program. the detention of two reuters journalists in myanmar has been extended for another fourteen days while alone and all have been allowed to meet families and lawyers outside the court hearing they were arrested earlier this month after they were invited to meet

police officials on the outskirts of gone accuses them of planning to share illegally acquired information with foreign media they were working on stories about the military crackdown on writing good muslims and were kind state adrian is here in this chair with the news in about half an hour and then it's artscape. as another year draws to an end we'll take you around the world to find out what's expected in twenty eighteen. join us for a series of special reports as we assess the potential global impact of what's to come. twenty first century africa a continent undergoing great change and finally seizing control of its image but it's been a long battle one that he has a goal for telegraphy was a colonial to going to have to run the place.