all this the deployment of thousands and thousands of troops now that they're losing aspects of their hold on them or at least what the sort of policies they expect them to be carrying out you know it's interesting there we are getting more details with people reporting about how that phone call between president and on trump last friday was key to this decision and now a.p. has just come out with more details about what actually transpired in that phone call it seems that the president to out according to a.p. said look you said the only reason that the u.s. was in northeast syria was to fight the islamic state your own people say that the only retains one percent of the territory why are you still there donald trump then john bolton who was also this thing on the line this is according to the a.p. why are we still that him and john bolton was forced to admit yes isn't it the islamic state only does still hold one percent of territory but they that there's a need to stay for more enduring enduring peace don't trump did not buy that so

almost immediately said. all right we're going to leave them on that court by surprise other one said wait a second let's not be too hasty here but we're getting more details about about that about that phone call which will pretty fascinating yes certainly is a she had been in it also begs the question of what happens next what sort of foreign policy are we going to see from president jumping in twenty nineteen and are we going to see a defense secretary that is more in line with how see he sees the world. i think we waiting to see whether this is a fundamental shift in the entire foreign policy agenda there's a new foreign policy doctrine a trump doctrine or this is simply this is simply limited to what he's always been saying we need to get out of afghanistan we need to get out of areas where we're not really getting anything with we've spent too much money in the middle east and so on so we are waiting to see how far this actually goes he does seem determined

however to pull out of syria and it seems he does want to be out of afghanistan to at least have. a substantial troop withdrawal perhaps by the state of the universe address next year and late january but we are waiting and the congress though can still put a spot in the works if as jim matters suggested that the outgoing defense secretary nominates a defense secretary is more in line with drums drums thinking that the senate and congress can stand in the way of any nomination and we're already seeing rumblings of huge drumlins of discontent not just from republicans but also establishment democrats who are always voting for was wherever that wherever the commander in chief wants wants them to take place lindsey graham there in the last few hours has been talking about having congressional hearings now on this decision so it's an interesting fight we're seeing shape up between establishment democrats stablish with republicans against trauma's congressional course supporters in the republican party but also progressive left wing democrats let's go to new influx of them coming in in january who have long been saying yes the u.s.

should be getting out of the middle east so you have a chance to live in washington thanks. now on the domestic front the shutdown of the federal government is looking more likely with each hour this friday that's because there aren't enough votes in the u.s. senate to pass a bill to finance president charmes border war a shutdown would mean all but essential government services would close tens of thousands of federal employees including law enforcement officers would not be paid a president trump has been tweeting about the vote not surprisingly he says the democrats whose votes we need in the senate will probably vote against border security and the war even though they know it is desperately needed if the dems vote no there will be a shutdown that will last for a very long time people don't want open borders and crime alan fischer joins us now from washington with more on this so allan where do things stand right now.

well of the moment the senate has started the debate on a motion to approve the bill that went through the house of representatives which gives donald trump his five billion dollars for the border war in this continuing resolution this isn't an entire budget solution this is just something to keep funding the government until february will he get it highly unlikely that simply because to get anything through the senate you need essentially sixty votes remember there's one hundred people in the united states senate the republicans have fifty one seats at the moment so they need to get nine democrats voting alongside them that's really not going to happen so we've moved from a position where if you asked twenty four hours ago a shutdown loot unlikely to a position no where it is almost inevitable because donald trump won't sign any bill that doesn't of the five billion dollars for the war and the democrats aren't going to pass any bill that has donald trump's five billion dollars for the war you see the problem are it and the narrative has changed as well in the last day or so

donald trump as you heard liz tweets firmly blaming the democrats for this saying they don't want border security democrats are talking about border security they're just not talking about building a wall and he says that they are blocking this this ten days after in that bizarre meeting in the white house in the oval office when he met nancy pelosi and chuck schumer the two leading democrats on capitol hill and said if there's a shutdown then i will take the blame our i'll bear the responsibility for that he doesn't want to do that now and that point was emphasized by his press secretary serious sanders who says if there is a shutdown it's all in the democrats'. let's be really clear what is on the line here is something that they've all supported in the past and frankly they've also put in the last week they talk about wanting border security that's exactly what this bill does it also has a nearly eight billion dollars for disaster relief for states that have been

ravaged by natural disasters so the fact that senate democrats would put that on the line for political purposes that's a sad sad moment i think it's a sad day in america when the mexican government is doing more to protect our borders and stop the illegal flow of drugs human trafficking and terrorists across our border than senate democrats are willing to do. the u.n. security council is set to vote on a resolution to allow u.n. monitors to oversee a cease fire in the yemeni city of a date it would indorse the terms of the agreement set out urgent steps to alleviate yemen's humanitarian crisis these are live pictures we're looking at right now james bays is live for us at the u.n. james talk us through what's happening here. you know when you go to see the security council vote all of those talks in sweden endorsing what happened i'm setting up a monitoring mission those are the security council members their hands in the air

who are in favor of the resolution looking almost screen here and it looks like everyone has voted in favor but you can't see the whole council holzschuh table on one screen so let's just watch carefully to see. if there is any one vote. i think it was carried from what i can see unanimously so this is important news the u.s. secretary at the secretary general will be very pleased indeed that he can go ahead with his monitoring mission to. there are two reasons for that i think they clearly are worried about a shaky fragile peace in her date and now that that has formally endorsed by the security council that's good news and also it means that they can put things like insurance in place for the monitors now they've got a security council resolution the person who drew up this resolution is the british

ambassador karen pearce she's speaking now. a unanimous resolution the first resolution on this sort of subject on political settlement and humanitarian over two years the resolution we've just passed mr president will hopefully get the maximum possible backing to the outcomes of the stockholm meeting and the stockholm agreement and once again i'd like to thank our friends in sweden for everything that they have than to help bring that moment about. we also salute the u.n. for the work of the special envoy but also the secretary general lowcock who have been instrumental in trying to bring about progress including on the ground and i think as we get to the end of twenty eighteen in this council and your presidency it is good that the council was able to show unanimity on this very important issue

that affected so many millions of citizens in yemen today mr president the resolution endorses all the agreements reached by the parties stop home these critically include cease fire and mutual redeployment of forces. from her date of city and port and that came into force on the eighteenth of december it authorizes the united nations to deploy support for implementation of those agreements including monitors and as we heard from the secretary general the other day he is working on an advance team that will go in in the next few days the resolution also sets out the council's port for the remaining steps needed to address the humanitarian situation and we've heard from our local can david beasley in this chamber that despite the progress made it stopped at the situation remains

precarious and work is urgently needed to mitigate the risk of famine the resolution sets out the council's clear expectations concerning the need for the parties to comply with international humanitarian law mr president you ninety kingdom attack his great importance to shell and to accountability and to the need to investigate alleged violations of i.h.l. and for hold those responsible accountable and finally mr president the resolution obviously reiterate saw full support for the u.n. special envoy and the political process that he is driving and it looks ahead to the next steps in that process and i'm sure the council will want to join me in looking forward to further progress in january the most important matter now is that we turn to implementation it's vital that the parties follow through on their

commitments to pave the way for a formal written launch of negotiations and at the same time mr president delivering real improvements on the ground that make a tangible difference to ordinary yemen is we have asked the u.n. to update the council on a weekly basis for the foreseeable future and i look forward to further action and unity from the council on one of the most important dossiers we had thank you mr president. you will not see it out of prison. while you remain. the u.k. ambassador karen pearce speaking there moments after the u.n. security council unanimously passed a resolution endorsing what was achieved at those peace talks in stockholm in fact the swedish ambassador now speaking because he was the host his country was the host of those talks and it means the u.n. can now go for the forward with its plans to have monitors on the ground in yemen

and in her day the secretary general of the u.n. could himself have sent monitors in the problem is if you don't have a legally binding security council resolution i'm told getting any life assurance for those monitors while they're doing their job will be difficult it would difficult to get medical evacuation plans my understanding is they want to get a military versions vessel from one of the member states of the united nations off the coast of yemen which would have a medical hospital ship which would be available if any of the monitors got injured so those sort of arrangements can be now put in place because this resolution has been passed i can tell you it's a somewhat contentious process getting this resolution through the resolution we have now this is what's been passed is actually a slimmed down version of the original resolution very quickly tell you what was taken out first a reference to iran supporting the who thiis was in there originally the russians

said if that was in they were going to veto the americans then said well if that isn't in then we're going to be the u.s. i think has second thoughts about that and then came up with their own slimmed down version of a resolution which took all the humanitarian aspects out of this you had the rather unseemly moment of the u.k. and the u.s. having rival resolutions these two western allies i'm told it went all the way to the top and there were contacts between the u.k. foreign secretary jeremy hunt and the u.s. secretary of state mike pompei out to resolve this difference between countries that are normally. allies so we now have a resolution it doesn't mention iran but it also has taken a language that was calling for accountability of crimes under international humanitarian law and i back could have targeted of course the saudi led coalition i think the u.s. was doing the bidding of the saudi led coalition by getting that bit deleted from

the resolution that has now been passed james thanks very much james bays updating us there from u.n. headquarters on the security council in just the last couple of minutes authorizing monitors to observe the yemen cease fire. now session ists in the spanish region of catalonia once again at all with the central government a year after the regional parliament held a breakaway referendum without madrid's approval the prime minister is holding a cabinet meeting in barcelona that sparked protests from catalan activist sonia going to go reports. blocked roads. confrontations with police a far cry from the message spain's prime minister hoped to bring to the city headache for the politicians aiming to turn the page on the catalan crisis if there had been doubts about resolving it and friday's events certainly proved them right i don't care about what is being durai we'll stay here they will. share my

opinion. and i will follow this movement to achieve our independent they just came here to show ours to show everybody that it is these their homeland and that we don't have anything to do under the spanish government's decision so far i haven't let me think that was according to them supposed to be a symbolic so i'm reaching out to the region but for the independence protestors here it's being seen nothing as more than a provocative show of force and it's just an example of how the bits of divide between the two sides remains the shows little sign of resulting what. one thousand police officers secured the streets just down the road in the middle of all powerless surrounded by a sizeable security cordon prime minister better sancia held a meeting with his cabinet an area of relative calm away from the outpouring of

outside but the spanish government has insisted it's doing this to advance talks with the council and leadership because. this is the only possible proposal the situation cannot be solved. by continuing to hide one another it will only be solved through dialogue negotiations and a bill that two of those scientists is offering up both sides concert green how to solve this spain's government continues to maintain the crisis can only be resolved within the law but the catalan government doesn't agree and sees it as a political maneuver to deny it further independence from madrid at this moment we are not that created what is the origin what is the nature of the conflict and how to file bit so we either start talking but i will r.t. seriously and with the best. with a breath aim to keep moving forward on this is not work it has been full team months since the outlawed referendum which triggered the current crisis emotions

are running high on both sides but no path has yet been carved out to resolve the current standoff sony vaio al-jazeera barcelona. are still ahead on al-jazeera back on the streets again hungry ariens about to start a mass rally against their what they calling the slave law. and snow on mars the european space agency satellite sends home a stunning christmas gift after fifteen years orbiting the red planet. and a bad day for the houston rockets and one of their star players in the n.b.a. details in sport with leo late. hello there the weather is going to come down for most of us in the middle east as

we head through the next couple of days but this rather lively area of cloud here that's given a few outbreaks of rain but it's spiraling its way eastwards and it's drawing out as it does say things he had three saturday then we'll see some clouds maybe a few breaks of snow there and then that will gradually retreat its way further east to its we head into sunday towards the west it's largely quiet for most of it's here to just in the far northern parts of our map with more in the way of wet weather that's just getting its way over the phone north coast of turkey and it will make things here all the way and windy a bit further towards the south and here in doha the winds will be picking up as we had three set today so a breezy day for us and a bit cooler than it has been so twenty three degrees the maximum during the day but dropping down to sixteen at night and with that wind it will feel a little bit cooler twenty five with a marksman abu dabi but here will see that cooler weather work its way towards us as well for sunday so our temperatures will be dropping as well if we had down towards the southern parts of africa there's quite a bit of what weather here at the moment look at all the cloud over our satellite picture stretching across many of us also affecting us across parts of mozambique

and while that distinctive swell that is a tropical cycle it's going to work its way quite close to the rishis but then work away towards the south the sunday. a policy imposed decades ago. that you would look to be goods and when he boards changing demographics across asia with far reaching consequences you're creating a pool of socially disadvantaged young men so you have the system where people at every level will be get being given money to agree distro zation our money to get other people to be the sterilisation out there examines the politics of population control when the news breaks and the story there it's the fight against isis is still continuing in the desert when people need to be hurt. and the story

needs to be told by families status and wealth has benefited from their choice translated people al-jazeera has teams on the ground to bring you more award winning documentaries and liveliness on air and online. and again you're watching al-jazeera mind of our top stories this hour president donald trump has reportedly ordered the withdrawal of up to seven thousand u.s. troops from afghanistan that would ha the number of american soldiers in the country turkey's president richard to any is delaying a military operation against eisel and kurdish targets in northern syria that's

after a phone call with the u.s. president who told when he'll be pulling all u.s. forces from syria. a team of u.n. monitors is expected to arrive in yemen in the next few days after security council resolution. they will oversee a ceasefire in the port city of her data. flights at london's gatwick airport have been suspended again because of another suspected drone sighting and that comes just eleven hours after flights had resumed at the u.k. second largest airport after drones brought it to a standstill there on thursday british troops have been sent in to join the hunt for the operators of the drones for brennan joins me now from london so paul what's happening there. well you catch me cat checking my telephone because we could have developments in a story it looks like the reports coming through the runways might be reopening

again but i can't see it on either of the social media feeds of sussex police or gatwick airport so i'll put that to one side for the moment and tell you what we actually do know now what we know is that ten past five g.m.t. the seedling that's after dark unconfirmed reports of the drone activity came through and as a precaution gatwick airport this major international airport it is the second biggest airports in the south of england decided to shut its runway again now this is after thirty six hours of disruption that happened on thursday or wednesday wednesday night into thursday dashing the hopes of thousands of passengers who'd been desperately praying that they would finally get away for christmas breaks and family reunions etc this statement from sussex police said that gatwick airport had advised them air field operations had been suspended for safety reasons while reports of renewed drone activity were investigated sussex police were supporting

the airport and proactively deploying significant resources to seek and locate the drone and its operator but the police have also said before this that it may not be just one drone operator they suspect that there may be a number of people out there either were acting in concert together or perhaps just individual copycats yeah and paul a lot of people will be wondering especially since they've got to do the army involved in this now what why it's so hard to to catch these drones in and catch the people operating in. well they're operating under cover of darkness the initial reports happened on that weapons day night these are very small and fast moving machines they're no more than about half a meter across some of them but they don't know what exactly what type of drone has been used what the predominant drone in this case is and therefore they're not sure

exactly what frequencies to use to try to janice they have brought in the army which are some specialist equipment equipment it's been used for example to defend bases in places like afghanistan against drone attack so they have jamming devices and various other things it could boil down to something has cumbersome as a shotgun but that's not exactly a state of the are kind of weapon given the height that some of these drones can actually reach so they're the kind of difficulties that the authorities have had in trying to devise some kind of method of stopping the drones from disrupting the air airfield and the air operations and they're weighing the risk of these drones striking an aircraft against the lives of potentially thousands of people you know each one of these aircraft carries two three four hundred people or i for the moment paul brennan live for us there in london thanks paul now protesters are gathering for a major rally in hungary year to protest

a new amendment to the labor laws what critics are calling the slave law it would allow employers to force people to work more over time and even delay payments for up to three years nationwide protests have been held there since last week robin for a still new yorker is live for us in budapest so robin what is it looking like their own now. hi there yes we had a little preview of the protests that are expected in just a short while where a crowd of two or three thousand we think gathered not far from here and then set off on a march around the area in which the parliament is based you can see that lovely building behind me which is where in a few minutes time. the main event is supposed to take place this evening. already we're seeing people starting to gather and so this protest tonight is

just the latest in a series of manifestations that we've seen happening in budapest and in other towns in hungary over the last few weeks what's interesting about this evening is that the government has if you like pushed back. or in effect gone ahead with those unpopular laws that kick started this opposition movement this time around and the president's popular labor law only yesterday so they were calling this event last night it was going going to be. that's a reference to the president and they had to change their name to. shame on you because he went ahead and did it anyway an indication that the hunt garion government is not yet ready to take this opposition movement which is a made up of disparate political groups interest groups civil activists students it's

a sign that the government at the moment is not going to take them seriously and going to press ahead with this legislation which it says is necessary for the hungaroring economy and robin given that these protests have been taking place over several days now this is this is the latest one it doesn't seem as if this movement is going to end anytime soon. well it's christmas. just around the corner and i think that the government that all burns government is gambling on people just deciding that they're going to go home it's getting colder and colder you want to be with their families but then if you talk to people who are fired up enough to come out tonight and speak to some of these movements they say it's not about this just hanging around for a couple weeks this is something different about it this time around and they're prepared to stick it out because this is the first time in many years where different political parties some of which are in parliament in opposition some of

which are not but are from the left or from the rights of the political spectrum of decided to put their differences the saeed's and challenge the government so i spoke to some people earlier today and i said you know is it different this time and they said to me they hope they hope that it is but certainly people are angry about the fact that the government has not listened to them so far and it really is quite important i think to see just how many people are ready to come out tonight and exercise their discontent all right robin foresty a walk on life for us there in budapest. opposition candidates have called for calm in the democratic republic of congo off the long awaited presidential elections once again delayed supporters rallied outside the headquarters of one of the opposition parties to vent their anger at the decision the votes will now take place on the sender thirty's catherine so it has moved from kinshasa. right out

like that you have what is this is the largest opposition political party in the country got a presidential candidate in the leadership to keighley who that dictates how hold a press conference and all the rest of the portal reacting to that announcement of a new day yes of them but that the new election date the people here are really waiting to hear what he's going to say the very disappointed that they're lecture alchemies are really hide out all this time to plan and then it can cause the election law already to go to the polls on sunday to vote here. and you didn't want of you speaking. are vital to. have faith that also disappointed they want that advent of the electoral commission that down that they that is not a done deal but on the presidential candidate also saying that we need to give the

electoral commission time to organize the selection but the real question really is is a week or even enough of full commission put everything in place of creating what elections . have been closed in sudan's capital after eight people were killed in protests against rising food and fuel prices the state of emergency is in place in the cities of a bar and get thought if in the last twenty four hours demonstrations spread to people are angry about seventy percent inflation rate one of the world's highest the sudanese economy has struggled since the independence of south sudan in twenty eleven when it lost the majority of its oil revenues. after fifteen years the european space agency's mars express satellite has over to the red planet gathering images and vital data and just in time for christmas the agency has released these stunning photographs of

a mars crater filled with bright white ice the coral have created measures eighty two kilometers across the ice is an incredible one point eight kilometers thick at its deepest speak now to francisco diego he is a senior research fellow at the university college london where he specializes in physics and astronomy joins us now from our london studio thanks very much for being with us so snow on mars is this a new phenomenon in illinois is not a bad thing this extent is a huge plate that as yourself more than eighty kilometers across the last two kilometers the or ice not snow but solid ice which is six three million poured down to see this amount of water flows and work there on the surface of mars very important discovery and it is it and how significant is it the snow would be be found on mars considering that water has also been found on the planet years

week of product of the mars express a few months ago also that there are on that water reservoir of liquid water actually salty water that is a substantial amount of water there which is pointing to the possibility of the life is in the near future we're not going to finally go to mars i'm sure there will that that some kind of science or biological activity person or in the past and what kind of contribution will this finding add to our understanding of the whole planet of mars and how it works. well it is it is a very important way of starting mars from orbit week of their march to spread the mars global surveyor as well from nasa and they are gathering pristine information if you see in detail the details of this quote a live creator owned a dream of the creator you see a lot of material as i weld the frozen water and probably frost and carbon dioxide

which we like dry ice. examining that way all these deposits are there together with the polar caps which also contain a lot of water and carbon dioxide both the south pole and the on the on the north pole polar caps we realize the marcellus a substantial amount of water now the relevance of the society explained before is the where there were what we call water there will be liquid water on their on the ground in more benign conditions so to speak where life could have thrived even today or in the past and certainly there is a big reservoir of water for us from us going there in the future good to speak with you francisco diego in london thanks very much. it's a pleasure. police in japan have reportedly raided the home of nisanit ousted chairman after prosecutors filed a new charge against him carlos ghosn is accused of breach of trust.