security checkpoint near the presidential palace tell us how they are reports. the first car bomb exploded at a military checkpoint soldiers and civilians among the dead. moments later that explosion also a car bomb bodies were scattered on the street just a few hundred meters from the somali presidential residence in mogadishu the go out one look at me i was at the scene of the attack first i saw a vehicle driving back and forth and we tried to stop people walking here and there and then within the blink of an eye the vehicle exploded causing havoc. police say government officials have been travelling in the area earlier in the day now the road is covered with charred cars and debris we know explosion today up in mogadishu somali capital and the first explosion was your suicide bomber and targeted security checkpoints. in the national. somali but eventually.

the station in the area and it is really getting a blaze. mogadishu afghan targeted by the al qaeda linked group al-shabaab its members want to dislodge the government and impose islamic law the group maintains a foothold in some regions of somalia but was forced mogadishu in two thousand and eleven. thousands of somalis have died in this divisive decade long battle many of them civilians. the young al-jazeera. still ahead of al-jazeera feeling helpless and frustrated palestinians in the occupied west bank say there are more israeli soldiers on the streets plus. i don't watch anything else my wife watches other channels just so that you can have conversations with other people but i only get information from you to. south koreans turn to a news source for news. becomes the voice of thousands. hello

again welcome back we're here cross china we are going to see a few rain showers here across parts of hong kong over the next day or two nothing too significant but we are going to be seeing some clouds as well so here on sunday a few showers in your forecast clouds there at twenty two degrees but the clouds are going to stay as we go towards monday those showers making their way to the north and a little further to the north though shanghai some quite nice with a temperature few of about eleven degrees well here across india we're still looking at some very heavy rain down towards the south this is including parts of sri lanka as well you can see those on the satellite image making their way slowly over here towards the west the rains could extend up here towards tonight down towards colombo maybe a little break here on sunday but you can see it is going to stretch just to the

north and really stay in the forecast there isolated flow cool flooding in the area we can't rule that out for that area but up here towards hyderabad it is going to be a partly cloudy day for you where the temperature there of about twenty nine to graze and here across much of the gulf we are looking at temperatures for doha a little cool at twenty two degrees but over here towards the west well for mecca it is going to be thirty three degrees there we are going to see some clouds over here towards medina on sunday but those clouds should start to dissipate as we go towards monday with attempt a few of about twenty five degrees. the lights are on. and there's nowhere to hide isn't the easiest way to solve this to allow u.n. observers who you invited into the country earlier this year to finish their job i haven't said it's a right wing conspiracy or anybody's conspiracy straight talking debate do you think we're going to see some kind of sea change in the u.s. relationship with saudi arabia we have an obligation there is that journalistic

integrity and then in this case it was betrayed totally upfront own al-jazeera. welcome back time to recap our headlines now a partial shutdown of the us federal government has begun after politicians failed to win the deadlock over spending president donald trump refused to back down on funding for his border war forcing congress to adjourn without a budget deal. the head of the u.n. team tasked with marching a cease fire has arrived in the yemeni city of data on friday the security council

agreed to send a team of observers to oversee a u.n. brokered cease fire between the three rebels and the saudi of iraq to back yemeni government. two explosions in somalia's capital have killed at least thirteen people suicide car bombers attack the security checkpoint near the presidential palace in mogadishu. at least ten people have been killed in sudan during protests against the rising cost of food and fuel schools and universities closed in at least five states cities of their affairs while those white nile states are under emergency rule protesters are angry at high inflation which is running at around seventy percent economy and struggled since south sudan became in two thousand and eleven and lost a majority of its oil revenue. the head of sudan's of position or more parties saw the command he says positive about the protest movement a good motive for our party reiterate his support of the demonstrations by the

masses who have taken to the streets the party has released a statement to that effect and you can rely on the contents of such a statement regarding any talk of a compromise i see no we are now talking about what we need to call a new regime a new system a new structure that will be in nationalist model to follow. a driver has died in a car crash as a roundabout blocked by so-called yellow vests protesters in southern france these are pictures from the sixth saturday of rallies they were triggered by rising fuel prices the turnout in paris appears to have dropped significantly after the government canceled the new taxes for many kept up traffic disruptions to protest against president among micron's other economic policies fervid smith is with the protesters in paris. this has been an all day protest march nonstop through

the street. from. owning right. the day they've been far away. to follow them all the way as police try to block various routes are slow peaceful have been a couple of stations but they all of us protesters have wanted it to be peaceful and they try to make sure that everybody has stayed on the right side of the law there are about a thousand people left this time of the day number similar to last week and many people here that we've spoken to not at all interested in the concessions present manual from how to make they say they don't go far enough they're too little too late and they will keep protesting right into the new year. iran's revolutionary guards have conducted military drills in the strategic straits of hormuz the passageway for nearly a third of all oil traded by sea. the annual

exercises showcase the guard's combat helicopters and drones on friday the iranian army trailed the u.s. aircraft carrier that entered the persian gulf iran is under increasing pressure from the u.s. after the trumpet ministration renewed sanctions on iran over its nuclear program. hundreds of people have taken part in the funerals of four palestinians killed on friday by the israeli army mourners gathered in gaza for the burial of the men who were killed during weekly protests against the israeli and egyptian blockade of territory. demonstrates the border every friday since march. palestinians say they're increasingly frustrated living in the occupied west bank and there's a growing feeling of helplessness told the observer it's made worse by a greater israeli military presence no also by the ineptitude of their own political leaders stephanie becker reports from ramallah. it's been especially

tense few weeks in the occupied west bank palestinian shootings in israeli incursions have killed people on both sides palestinians tell us they had not seen this amount of israeli soldiers on the streets of ramallah in years ramallah is the seat of power for the ruling palestinian authority and supposedly under full palestinian security control it's outage an already pessimistic atmosphere. what's needed is that the palestinian authority stop security coordination with the israelis stop working together we don't benefit anything we are a lost people they love their situation has become very bad every time i come to ramallah lightsome misery it's so hard to reach checkpoints all over the roads the traffic is a nightmare we hope that the world will do something to change this political situation a recent poll across the occupied west bank and gaza indicates that almost two thirds of palestinians want the resignation of president mahmoud abbas and other shows it increasing support for half particularly aftermath of the escalation here

in the west bank and also in gaza and the poll also suggests that the idea of an armed intifada as opposition to the occupation is gaining support that's moving away from diplomatic negotiations. carried out. the survey he says the palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas are facing increasing questions about their credibility and the lack of palestinian unity between the rival political groups fatah and hamas is a major issue is a significant criticism of the p.r. for the lack of progress on the reunification efforts most of the public to blame the pm two to one the blame is being placed on abbas on the rob a ban on hamas this is a significant change from the past in the past most of the blame was being put on hamas most people here say that if palestinians were united they would be stronger to deal with israel everybody hoping for peace but you know everybody knows other

side is very strong israel is very strong every time we come a closer to make it because then they stop it excuses all the time they have excuses i would be able they are ready for peace but the other side are not ready you see the smile is seventy six years old and has lived in the ramallah all his life. in the palestinian authority to is controlled by israel just like us they should be a sovereign palestinian state every time the israelis want to raid the towns they go in they go out they do what they want. as another year draws to an end palestinians say they seem to be moving further and further away from their hopes of one day achieving their own sovereign state stephanie decker al-jazeera in the occupied west bank. president hardline policy on asylum seekers has been dealt a serious blow by the supreme court the proposed restrictions were rejected four to five five a court's judges the measure had sought to ban anyone seeking refuge if they didn't

enter the country using approved border entry points. the family of the guatemalan girl who died after she was taken into custody by border guards is pleading with the u.s. to allow the father to stay in the country seven year old jacqueline was taken to hospital suffering from dehydration and shock her family disputes the official story about how she died they did most of the force from san antonio cortez guatemala. when claudia mckean said goodbye to her daughter jacqueline on december first she never imagined it would be the last time she'd see her alive but what started out as the dream of a better life quickly turned to tragedy and just a week after her husband and daughter left this remote what a mile and village and headed north the united states cloudy received the news every mother dreads media i quote the moment i found out that my daughter died i felt an immense pain in my heart it was something that i never thought would happen

when she heard that her father was going she decided she wanted to go to jacqueline died in a texas hospital two days after being taken into custody by u.s. border patrol domingo kyle says his seven year old granddaughter was happiest when she was at her father's side jacqueline jumped at the chance to join her father on his trip north and her family saw it as a chance to escape the poverty and lack of opportunity that plagues their community and any of them was a. good girl made the decision to go to the united states and she was excited leaping up and down she was really happy but after they left we don't know what happened it hurts it really hurts. the cornfield where jacqueline used to play is quiet now and the shack where she lived with her parents and three siblings is locked up the memories of the little girl are too painful yet even as her family

mourns others are preparing for their own american dream in communities like because it's rumored that smugglers are convincing people to bring their children on the trip north promising to the have a greater chance of getting political asylum for authorities here it's a worrying trend. if her husband is deported cloudier doesn't know how they will ever pay off their debt to the smugglers who took him in jacqueline to the border one to africa to find we don't have the means to support our children that's why my husband left i'm pleading to officials in the united states to let him stay and work so we can get ahead for now the cattle family awaits for jacqueline's body to be returned so they can say goodbye for the last time david mercer al-jazeera san antonio say cortez what amala supporters of announced and south korean president so it's turning to online video sites to demand her release i'm going hey was jailed in april for twenty four years for corruption and abuse of power

conservatives say they've lost their voice in politics after she was removed from office eugene john reports. did his team go live every weekday at six pm it may look like a television studio but this is tell me is office in seoul the audience exclusively on you tube and mike is a right leaning channel with close to three hundred twenty thousand subscribers. chong says the political scandal involving former president weakened the conservative voice in south korea's mainstream media. but she still has a lot of support and their protests against her imprisonment continue. new. people with conservative right leaning views who do not agree with president park's in pietschmann have nowhere to turn for news they're trying to fill that void and it might at the height of the turmoil surrounding park she gave charlie on

exclusive interview which proved a turning point for him when park was removed from office he lost his job of thirty years as a journalist at a national newspaper and was forced to look elsewhere for a platform to express his opinions he found it online. he has since become a star in the political online news arena the latest battleground for south korean politics. after the change in administration conservative political pundits were pushed out of the mainstream media then while searching for a new place became upon this new media space called u two and made their home at a weekly conservative rally many protesters most of them in their fifty's and sixty's are eager consumers of the news. simon out of ten people over fifty own a small town in south korea and what the country boasting one of the world's fastest mobile internet connectivity there is no shortage of you tube videos to

watch especially political views. i'm dumb but. i don't watch anything else my wife watches other channels just so that she can have conversations with other people but i only get information from you tube i don't watch anything else but depending solely on one outlet for news is raising fears about the spread of misinformation. there aren't any regulations to control what gets posted on you tube so we see a lot of extreme stories being told because people are drawn to radical and provocative content. for conservative voters opposed to the democratic president when. they will continue to listen to news that suits their views e.g. al jazeera saw. spain's bumper christmas last three years been drawn with this year's prize topping two point seven billion dollars it was a very emotional moment for at least one of the schoolchildren given the

opportunity to call the list of prizes on live television. c.s.n. dan. was with. the two hundred year old glossary held each year on december twenty second is known as gold or the fact one of the top prize for a winning ticket is four hundred fifty five thousand dollars but there are also plenty of smaller prizes and goto is ranked as the biggest loss for you in the world in terms of total prize money. let's take you through some of the headlines here now to syria now a partial shutdown of the u.s. federal government has begun after politicians failed to end the deadlock over

spending president donald trump refused to back down on funding for his border wall forcing congress to adjourn without a budget deal we're going to have a shutdown there's nothing we could do about that because we need the democrats to give us their votes call it a democrat shutdown call it whatever you want but we need their help to get this approved so democrats we have a wonderful list of things that we need to keep our country safe let's get out let's work together let's be bipartisan and let's get it done the shutdown hopefully will not last long. the head of the u.n. team task with monitoring a cease fire has arrived in the yemeni city of data on friday the security council agreed to send a team of observers to oversee a u.n. brokered cease fire between the rebels and the saudi a morality backed yemeni government monitors world where uniform or be armed the initial deployment is expected for thirty days it's hoped the limited ceasefire

agreement and withdrawal of troops from the ports will lead to a breakthrough in the civil war two explosions in somalia's capital of killed at least thirteen people suicide car bombers attacked a security checkpoint near the presidential palace in mogadishu it's unclear who's behind the blasts ten people have been killed in sudan during protests against the rising costs of food and fuel schools and universities are closed in at least five states the cities of. and the entire white nile states are on the emergency rule protesters are angry at high inflation is running at around seventy percent the economy has struggled since south sudan who came independence in two thousand and eleven. a driver has died in a car crash at a roundabout blocked by so-called yellow vests protesters in southern france the

demonstrations were triggered by rising fuel prices the turnout paris appears to drop significantly after the government canceled new taxes. getting to the heart of the matter how can you be a refugee after a while it borders between five safe countries facing realities that from the very beginning got there by. providing context housing is not just about four walls and a roof hear their story and talk to how does iraq. it's been fifteen years since the united states and its allies invaded and occupied iraq millions of refugees and hundreds of thousands of dead later some supporters of the war still believe there's nothing to apologize for in an op from special challenge the u.s. military's former chief spokesman in iraq retired general mark kimmitt.

mark kimmitt thanks for joining me up front as brigadier general use as the deputy director of operations and chief u.s. military spokesman in iraq after the invasion fifteen years on from that invasion and occupation of iraq by the u.s. and its allies do you have any regrets you have anything you want to apologize for you think the u.s. should apologize for or don't think so i was on the record as apologizing for the abu ghraib problem the opera group situation obviously some of our soldiers had screwed up their the embarrass the nation the embarrass their credibility inside a brac i apologize for that but i think by and large there is nothing to apologize for nothing to apologize for so when the u.s. invaded iraq in two thousand and three in defiance of international law no w m d's found no al qaeda connections terror threat to the us increased thousands of people

tortured hundreds of thousands killed millions displaced from their homes iran's influence increased in the region eisel born in iraq several trillion dollars burned through in the process you know that requires any kind of you know well we got some things wrong well we certainly did get some things wrong but that's what happens unlike being in the media where you can write a editorial saying i got it wrong you don't get to do overs in history you don't get to do over in these types of events look i understand your point of view you've had that point of view. since two thousand and three you're selecting your facts to promote your thesis but i think that's somewhat of it in the company point of view it is certainly in the media well plenty of top u.s. general of the time no no no not in their opposition to what i've read your article from two thousand and thirteen and and that's exactly what you said in two thousand and thirteen and you're repeating it now so what so why don't i quote someone else plenty of top u.s. generals of the time at the time for get do overs they won't eric shinseki former

army chief of staff needs any form a cent com commander even colin powell in private former general secretary of state the time how dead doubts about that will be you didn't did you i mean you still seem to be a true believer you went to work for george w. bush after retiring from the military well let's be very clear i was in europe when the invasion one off i had no influence on the decisions that were made but like good soldiers when i was assigned to iraq i did my job and that's exactly what did you and that's exactly what five hundred thousand other soldiers did as well i'm just wondering did you have your doubts at the time i'm not sure there's ever been a soldier that's gone into a war or gone into battle that hasn't had some doubts countless inquiries in the u.k. in the u.s. have said the intelligence wasn't just wrong it was heavily politicized selected cherry picked to use an argument you're using about my argument it wasn't just an innocent error of going into iraq i don't think you can get every nation in the world that's an alliance in the situation to selectively cherry pick intelligence there's always an outlier that was the majority of the world riposte to the iraq

invasion so if they they interpret the intelligence very differently you'll certainly didn't vote that way in the u.n. they didn't they didn't vote that way in the u.n. did you get a u.n. resolution to support the war was in violation of international law one of the things i said earlier did in fact the security council meet in oppose the war did the u.n. security council approve the war. you didn't answer my question because i'm not here to answer a question and i'm not here to answer well if you don't have to answer my question that's very. very odd thing to say in an interview. or selectively choosing selective anything you say is selective so that's a let me also question you and then also when did the united nations security council approve the war in iraq kofi annan said it was a violation of international law no they didn't but at the same time eleven forty one gave a lot of reason for the war to occur would we like to do a do over of course we would would we have done it differently of course would you have done it at all is the question let's start what i'm wondering well let's take a look at syria today the conditions are very very much the same authoritarian

leader he is leading a group that is a minority inside the country heavily oppressed his people and look what's happening there you talk to two thousand and fourteen about the greatest disaster two thousand and thirteen about the greatest disaster and refugee flow and humanitarian problems inside the middle east and syria is worse in syria's worse than iraq's number two and zero states is responsible for that serious it's the two worst refugee crisis mccool's by assad in the us government it's not great company to be in is it now it certainly is not but the facts in the reasons are different do you believe that saddam if still in power would be running sort of some mesopotamian holiday spall of course he would be oppressing his people the arab spring would have reached his want to counterfactual you can't say we have gone in and we're responsible for tens of thousands of deaths millions of refugees but you know what have we not done it would have been worse we don't know that do we you know if we many people died as

a result of an illegal we did not enjoy into the war on a counterfactual every intelligence service in the world particularly in the wake of nine eleven which i think you discount completely believe that there was a weapons of mass destruction threat if we had not believed that as a government if we had not believed that as a nation if we had not been. that is military we wouldn't have gone and having now knowing what you know now would you go in again jeb bush for example instead of the horse we would not have but you don't get to do that that that's the prevalence of the media you don't get to go back and do it again but you do get to say i'm sorry we got it wrong we should've done it we got you're not going to say we got it wrong ok so you do think that what don't look toward someone that's what i don't want to some checking what's that which but are you saying that was wrong we didn't have the facts then that we have now of course we would have enjoyed having the facts then we wouldn't have done it that way and we may have done it a different way and the other countries of the same facts and didn't but your invasion is such

a case such as from germany russia china. did the german intelligence services not have the same intelligence as you they did but that was a political decision not an intelligence but a good political decision engelman went in there we had listened he nations thought yes i want to know on the chilcot inquiry the efficient investigation to lambasted the british government for its how it used intelligence and how it how it legal illegal it so what you're suggesting is that there was a conspiracy of almost every intelligence service in the world to politicize and i'm saying there was definitely a conspiracy by members of the bush administration to lean on those facts politicize those facts cherry pick those facts and present a false case full well i mean why did you have to do that why did your country with all of that is what we certainly believe was on board ok and the and the other countries were on board as well which other countries name how many countries supported the war in iraq there are one hundred ninety one hundred in the world seventeen countries on the trees that america lean on the only major countries australia britain the united states of america i mean count on one hand ok so the

idea that this get the majority of the world pulling was was against the war the majority of the world didn't support the war at the united nations in any shape or form or objected to it but just what i know the biggest protest we saw at the time in the us if you forgot the millions of people on the street so there were millions of people in the streets so let's hear what millions of people on this you are suggesting that there was an there were millions of people who said in the united states fine let me clarify now millions of people around the world protested against the war ok but let me ask you this question tell me you of an event ever were polled testing suggested it was time to go to war. i'm sure there are many wars of popular support blame on all popular sport once they were kicked off before the war nobody wants to go to war nobody i didn't want to go to war none of my soldiers wanted to be there but we had a job lot of people didn't want to go to war dick cheney george w. bush tony blair let's just talk about your view of iraq at the time and since there was some of you that you've never really want to take sept how bad the situation in

iraq is even at the time when you were spokesman back in two thousand and four when images were being shown on news channels of iraqi civilians being killed by u.s. forces you famously advised people to quote change the channel but the facts are the facts thousands of people did lose their lives in iraq continue to die today you can't just look away you can just change the channel when confronted with the well it was awed that in fact it was your channel that asked the question showed the pictures which later turned out to be false to suggest that american soldiers were going out there to intentionally massacre of civilians i find reprehensible you don't think the us soldiers carried out massacres of civilians their own i don't what was that the massacre what was the mahmoudiya massacre what was the massacre we. have no idea what you're talking about i think you are inventing situations telling me that twenty four people unarmed iraqi civilian men women and children were not killed and had some of them shot multiple times at close range that didn't happen in november two thousand and five you believe that happened

there was never an investigation done on that so all the journalists all the human rights watch experts all the all the people have looked at these massacres in balad in memory dia full of dead civilian family following the gang rape of that's all made up i'm not saying it was made up i'm saying those situations happen were they done by americans were they done. for goodness sakes when i've u.s. soldiers were charged in mahmoudiya with those killings what's your response to that my responses five soldiers may have been alleged to have committed those atrocities if you are convicted by a civilian court how do you allege have done that i'm confused it's a very weird say in american courts convicted those four us five soldiers. you know aware of that i'm personally not aware of it and i don't think many people are aware of that but let's get let's get back because what you're saying is you're taking a specific incident three different incident three different sort of any and and trying to indict the entire american military and law and i don't know you and i did my job by the way not to indict the whole american nation no no no no i'm sorry with respect you don't speak for the entire american nation and nor do you and i

never claimed to and nor do i know what you do i mean nor do you accuse the entire american made good i'm glad we agree i don't know you is anyone of anything i was responding to your specific rather bizarre claim that the americans haven't killed anyone in iraq intentionally no civilians when there is evidence that they have plenty of it over fifteen years you're suggesting that americans routinely and you are going to tell you didn't win them on that and it's a one hundred thirteen well read your own two thousand and thirteen article ok i don't know which took about one twenty thirty to i'm going to ask you simple questions and you have been struggling but when i also give i'm not just going to i'm not struggle i'm told you know what yes i'm going to work and i am going back to the simple thesis that it's a new to. the three you've been opposed to the iraqis have indeed and what you are now doing is you are that's like do you know and so my question is is it because i must be very sad because of the american soldiers killed intentionally you say no i give you evidence you say i'm not aware of the evidence then you quote miles to go to me that's a very old way of again i'm not challenging your facts i'm challenging your

intention for asking the specific question an interview with a guest i have them every week but right now let's talk about what you said so for example you said at the time change the channel i'm saying ok you can't really do that when people are dying for. let's talk about. how many civilians were killed in fallujah do you think by the u.s. forces and no one thousand and four have no idea why you should tell me when you should tell me you were in charge of the u.s. military was doing the killing i was in charge of the u.s. military and a senior u.s. military senior in the audience are in there ok i agree so how many people died in future how many people died in combat inside a full accounting of civilians were killed by u.s. . intentionally know how many total would kill i don't know if you can i certainly carry every every going to the loss of a civilian life in years to fight every loss of a civilian life is a tragedy i accept that everyone is a tragedy i'm saying how many died in fallujah i don't know why you don't that's a bizarre thing you go to war you bomb

a city you don't bother to find out how many people you killed intentionally or unintentionally we got out of the body count business years ago the numbers while relevant are not something that we quote nor do we keep in our back pocket different studies show suggests between eight hundred maybe more civilians were killed in two thousand and four in the two attacks on fallujah against insurgents by the us military than ten times what we do know intentional and there was documented killings by journalists on the ground i would tell you right now that. it is unfortunate every time a civilian is caught in the middle of a crossfire collateral damage or soldiers go to extensive extensive manner to try to avoid that but there hasn't been a clean war in the history of warfare a senior british army officer at the time told the telegraph newspaper which is a pro will paper in the u.k. my view in the view of the british chain of command is that the americans use of violence is not proportionate and over response to the threat they're facing they don't see the iraqi people the way we see them they view them as to mention

subhumans the nazi language they're not concerned about iraqi loss of life of their own allied offices saying i can find one hundred officers that would speak that you again you're cherry picking the facts it is certainly go to zero but i could probably get a thousand army also has to challenge that saying won't tell you that the americans went extraordinarily took extraordinary measures over that making it up as his agenda and i'm going to give that opinion but he probably was never attacked by operation center watching a strike by apaches or by or a craft and watch them get waved off because we were concerned about civilians in the still end up killing several hundred civilians. flattening the city i mean people who went to police just saw the destruction that was done i have no doubt of that i mean i saw it as well and that is unfortunate in many ways it is. well it's extraordinarily sad for how it affects the civilians but it turned them against americans that this is war this is war and so that symbols and we

follow those rules did we intentionally attack civilian targets no but you are aware that under the rules of war even without intentionally targeting if the attacks a disproportionate huge numbers of people die quote unquote collateral damage that's a problem too you can always zero back and we didn't mean it we didn't mean to kill ten thousand people or whatever it is again i would accept that right again you can i will repeat to you we followed the rules of engagement we went to extraordinary lengths to avoid collateral damage and you still ended up killing so. many people and we ended up unfortunately killing people that we would not have intentionally killed had we known that the reader was there or that it is not the business of the american military to kill civilians for stuff as we discussed earlier there are plenty of examples where that has happened you guys are usually you guys used allegedly used white phosphorus and depleted uranium weapons against not just military targets but civilian targets which is denied by the u.s.

military to be fair but what do you step it is absolutely no you didn't use it i don't mean the american military admitted to using against civilians i think you're saying you civilians you're exactly right if we did not intentionally use one phosphorus and yet what do you say to the fact that plenty of studies since two thousand and four show quote dramatic increases in infant mortality cancer leukemia and the city of fallujah they link rates of miscarriages and disability in children born in fallujah to u.s. moment military operations i don't know has there been at the p.d. i'm a logical i can't pronounce a word i have had these done in the bulletin of environmental contamination and toxicology nov twenty twelve found unusual numbers of birth defects surfacing in the city a study carried out by professor alister hay at leeds university said the studies are extraordinary there's been a five fold increase in birth defects in fallujah is that something is that something is that something you feel i would want to know. about response i feel extraordinarily sad about that. but you don't take responsibility for what i take

responsibility for is certainly knowing that ethically morally it hurts when we kill civilians we certainly don't do it intentionally that's the cost of war and what you try to do in war is achieve victory at the smallest cost so let's treat the being has a list of our smallest cuts in civilian cultures not just fallujah in two thousand and four in may the u.s. bombed a wedding party killing more than forty iraqi civilians the massacre it's been referred to by many iraqis you want to have the u.s. military took to the podium and said quote there was no evidence of a wedding there may have been some kind of celebration bad people have celebrations too and yet the associated press straight off to get video footage proving that it was a wedding and those were innocent people again you're talking about ex post in our priore op priore the intelligence was very clear that there were known insurgents at that location and that because of that they believe within the rules

of engagement the authority and in many ways the responsibility to attack at target . ex post i'm not sure what was found out at the time i made that statement we had absolutely no evidence that there was a wedding party if it had been determined after that that there was a wedding party again but that is what will have celebrations too is a very flippant response to forty two dead including thirteen eleven women and fourteen children at that time there was no evidence of forty two people dead and when you found out to do people are dead general mattis now defense secretary then a commander on the ground said bad things happen in war i don't have to apologize for the conduct of my men just on why so many iraqis were so antagonized by the u.s. presence when that was the kind of attitude towards innocent deaths yes do you regret making those remarks the kind of months you and general mattis made i have no regrets of the remarks i made no music matters his remarks were a mistake i'm not here to talk for general mattis so then what do you regret him confuse you're not regretting you're not going to the one i said i regretted my own comments when they in fact in fact were seen as flippant and after the fact if they

were seen as wrong i certainly regret that it wasn't the only comment you made that upset people when asked by an iraqi journalist at a press conference in february for why u.s. helicopters or mounting night raids flying so low to the ground terrifying iraqi children you replied quote what we would tell the children of iraq is that the noise day here is the sound of freedom and again you're taken out of context my wife taught school inside of military schools for decades and that's exactly what she told her children when they had only to what it does make it right that a teacher will console her children when our tillery fire is going near that location would console them us saying don't worry you'll be fine not that's the sound of freedom from american occupied again if you read the quote that's where i said my wife said but is it correct to have said that either you or her it certainly worked in the case of the children that she taught do you really think iraqi children across the country many of whom suffer now from mental disorders

p.t.s.d. do you really think they were thinking that was the sound of freedom when they were getting bombed when they thought of what they didn't think at the time of me make. in that comment it was poor choice of words however it had been taken out of context both in terms of how that was just read and i took it out of context i projected what my wife was saying to children which call them half a world away but you can see how that looked kindly indifferent and offensive to a generation of children who've been scarred by war insulted by your country well i don't think that there are too many people and children scarred by that one comment not by that comment but the raids by the bombing that you were defending in your role as chief minister but i think every child that is in the middle of a war zone is affected by that yes i mean iraqi children entire generation growing up in a war zone i think something like five presidents george bush sr bill clinton george bush jr barack obama donald trump have all bombed iraq five presidents running this

one country has taken a lot of bombs from united states of children let's go back to the children you were there last one i want to go did you see children walking around shaking from the sound of bombs going off not in the part of iraq i was in nor i but i also met dozens of orphans thousands of iraqi children being laid off and there are studies showing that one in ten iraqi kids in the mosul. you're not listening to told you yourself say that was and is but it's a rule that you guys and i am not suggesting for a moment that war is not bad and i'm not suggesting for a moment that war doesn't kill people i'm not suggesting for a moment that war doesn't sometimes kill. innocent civilians that's the price of war so as a soldier what you do is try to minimize that at all costs and anybody that believes that collateral damage doesn't happen in war is a living in a fool spirit ninety percent of eighteen to twenty four of the rockies in a poll not long ago said that they believe the americans are an enemy that's an

entire generation of young people who've grown up they don't fans of what you and your colleagues achieved i agree why do you think that is do you think we've been talking about for the last half hour if we didn't believe that we wouldn't be having this conversation so when you were there in iran can you watching the your fellow soldiers locking up people who some of you some of whom you believe security threats and putting them not just in abu ghraib but come cropper and all that is it did you think at the time did you imagine that you know what we're laying the groundwork for i saw you know i did what did you say at the time what did you say to your colleagues you actually predicted that this would happen i didn't predict it i was worried about it i was worried at the time that the mass incarceration of what the troops on the ground believe would be security threats would come back to haunt us yes and yet you said i told that to my colleagues and i told that to my spirit knowing that thinking that then and knowing what we know now you still started this interview saying we don't have anything to apologize i don't think we

do have anything to apologize if you are helping give the world eisel well first of all let's make sure we understand eisel was not created inside of iraq was it created well they started out primarily inside of syria al-qaeda or if you're suggesting that it's a business that started in iraq and moved to syria. we can have that the scream and because we didn't start in syria to know is. still going on you'll want to know actually in iraq. started inside of a jordanian prison. agree with that but you know what i'm saying is. the link between the iraq war and i still that's one of the legacies of or are you suggesting that the legacy of iraq is that it created islamic extremism i'm saying the legacy of iraq is it did help give the world yes there was no prior to two thousand and three you can put a name on it the question is simple did the iraq war. which many people believe start the rise of its own excess abated and i think you would agree most

intelligence agencies in the world you love to quote intelligence agree that iraq increased the terror threat to the world to the region to the us i think it was yeah i'll stipulate that sure ok last question last december following the recapture of one of the last remaining isolated towns in iraq the country's promise to hyderabadi said the end of the war now it's the end of the war against eisel back in august twenty fifteen the general odierno who is the u.s. army commander on the ground he warned that we could go into iraq with a certain amount of american forces we could probably defeat eisel the problem would be we'll be right back where we all six months later do you think that still holds true today well first of all he wasn't the commander twenty fifteen he was commander twenty five however you brought up a very good point which is why the united states took a new strategy after the rise of beisel rather than having the american troops those boots on the ground doing the fighting we went into a training advising and assisting role who's been killing eisel inside of iraq probably i can say it's been the iraqi military it's been the iraqi federal police

it's been the iraqi counterterrorism service and i believe that by killing i saw and by conducting operations play such as mosul we are not creating that antagonism which we did the first time mark kimmitt thanks for joining me on that front thanks for having me thank you. adored by millions the stones most famous cookie to arrive just kindness out on the grave of national celebration. now one hundred days into his leadership he asks whether delivering on promises would be as easy in practice as it was in theory. right now the nation is not feeling confident right all people are disappointed with the bombing in minus one hundred days on al-jazeera. a colleague must much the same as now being held in pretrial detention for two years

what is his crime. why hasn't he been tried yet why hasn't justice been applied in this case is he detained because he said charnel us as journalism become a crime have moles become a tool to silence weiss's of truth we will continue our news coverage with professionalism and impartiality our work will remain credible and accurate but journalism is not a crime incarcerating journalists is not acceptable we demand the immediate release of all colleague mahmoud to say and all journalists attained in a gyptian jails free mahmoud's and all his colleagues we stand for press freedom. in the first episode of science in a golden age i'll be exploring the contributions made by scholars during the medieval islam in that period in the field of. professor jim. brings the

brilliance of the pasta line. the last point credible always does no real we've done is block out the mud from the room and then allow it to come through the small hole served one of science and go into marriage on al-jazeera. i'm. some other like. al jazeera and live from studio fourteen here at al-jazeera headquarters in doha and hasn't welcome to the news good day one of the shutdown u.s. president donald trump and congress in a standoff over funding for his border war his refusal to back down means hundreds

of thousands of government employees will work unpaid over the christmas holidays we'll have the latest from washington also on the grid one phone call is all it took you account of how the u.s. president moved to pull troops out of syria this week we learn more about donald trump's conversation with turkey's president and what it tells us about his decision making. see the thing in sudan protests growing across the country over crippling food and fuel prices schools are closed and a state of emergency is declared in one region. and they're now in german publication to speak of his accusers. and gets a harsh reaction from the trunk administration. next verse throughout this say the hash tag is a spirit. of the newsgroup live on air and streaming online through you tube facebook live and

dot com good to have you with us on this saturday well for the third time in a year the u.s. government has shut down after the congress failed to reach a spending agreement funding for donald trump's border wall is the sticking point the u.s. president wants five billion dollars to build the wall. on the u.s. border with mexico he's delayed the start of his christmas vacation until there's a resolution on the impasse in an edited video message posted late on friday trump defended his position on the shutdown we're going to have a shutdown there's nothing we could do about that because we need the democrats to give us their votes call it a democrat shutdown call it whatever you want but we need their help to get this approved so democrats we have a wonderful list of things that we need to keep our country safe let's get out let's work together let's be bipartisan and let's get it done the shutdown

hopefully will not last long i while the president and members of congress argue about funding the measure average americans are paying the price four hundred thousand federal workers heading into the christmas holidays without pay it's not just in the u.s. where this has implications the prospect of the shutdown triggered a sell off in markets around the world john hendren joins us live now from washington so john what it fact is this shutdown having beyond washington. and you're right is going to have affect all across the united states as you point out hundreds of thousands of workers will either be furloughed or they'll be forced to work without pay if they're in those jobs deemed essential those are people like border patrol agents for many americans who are going to national parks for example those parks will be open but they might not be manned they might not be park rangers or amenities there for them to enjoy while they do that and meanwhile

things like tax refunds and passports will all be delayed but that doesn't really start immediately and that's because of the christmas holiday coming up this happens at a time when the government was going to be operating a little slower people won't generally feel these changes until about wednesday of next week so big changes maybe not so long on both sides digging their heels at this point so the big question a lot of people want to know is is there any chance of this point of this impossible broken. well right now neither side is blinking but the president knew he didn't have the votes for this in that's why he signaled through his press secretary just a few days ago that he was willing to accept a spending measure they didn't include the five billion dollars for this southern border wall but what happened then is he got extraordinary blowback from conservatives a conservative commentator named and coulter normally a big fan of trump called him gutless

a number of other conservatives have spoken out and these are the people who of course are part of trump's base so he reversed course and said that he had sisted on that funding being in there many senators had already gone home had to come back to deal with this again on capitol hill so what is likely to happen is something will happen between now and january third that's when the democrats take over the house of representatives they won forty extra seats in the last midterm election so trump knows that there's no possibility of getting this wall funding through the house of representatives by then now it's just a matter of whether there is some face saving solution or whether one side buckles yeah i want to just have to wait to wait and see at this point john thanks very much john hendren live in washington now ashleigh caso berry is an adjunct fellow at fordham university and joins us by skype now from new york thanks for being with us so as we were saying there this isn't just about politicians in

a room trying to trying to get things to to get this through this this has real world effects doesn't it on people's paychecks services being close and the whole knock on effect of that. yes you have over eight hundred federal employees are being impacted yes there is sniffing there are furlough and then you have the essential federal employees our work our law enforcement safety that will be now forced to work without pay so you know we aren't used to something like this is that they're shut down but as far as how long it will take to reopen that's the big question here and you know it does become quite a problem on how long you will work without pay so what's going to happen the longer this goes on. as mentioned before as it is pro law as you know it is deathly going to be

a significant difference after the thirty january where you will have the house who would take over are the democrats and also in terms of go along in this situation you know it just shows a sign of dysfunction has come upon the united states you're going to see where people are not to be able to go home for the holidays and they're going to be forced to stay washington to pretty much resolve this situation is that i have to accept it deftly show them a bad political climate and you can have a lot of who are going to get frustrated so my opinion there will be a whole some sort of qualms of the situation this is or that there were benefits from a shutdown and president trump as as he has with many things has has gone back and forth on this whole border war and the shutdown. just a just a day before he said he would agree to the spending bill without the without the war and then he said he wouldn't he wouldn't sign it and the report said it was

because of this pushback from a number of core trump supporters and right wing talk radio hosts and so on what do you make of that. yes i think it gets it out you have the right wing you know leaders like and and caller who pretty much was well known to pretty much advice and say hey you know you need the money for the then shut down you promised is this new money for the war you know you promised this is not happened it's been now two years so he's under a lot of political pressure and that's when you start to see who came very rich unwind the money and then of course that ring down in terms of negotiating with the democrats and republicans on the hill trying to get some resolution and so again you start to see where he was he declined to sign up any of these spending bills for the fact that the money for the war was not included and what does this say about the state of affairs in the u.s.

right now that this is the third government shutdown that we've had just in twenty eighteen alone. political polarization is really bad and have either within one party like the republicans where you do have them on the hill that not support their finding but then you do have a broader base that deciples so you have a lot of political splinters of all across the political atmosphere or are going by where we're having a hard time agreeing to certain things because there's too much polarization with regards to right wing and moderates and iraq's on the left when it definitely is a reflection of our political divisions are i could speak for you ashleigh council very joining us there from new york. don't play you can get in touch share with us we want to hear from you on these stories you can send us your comments to any of our online platforms were on twitter just use the hash tag a.j. news grid our handle is a.j.

english we're also on facebook facebook dot com slash zero or you can send us a message on whatsapp or telegram at plus nine seven four five one trip or one four nine now more details on another controversy swirling around trump his decision to pull troops out of syria earlier this week reports say that he had made that decision during a phone call with turkish president wretch of type two when just days earlier without consulting his advisors the white house rejects that description of the call on friday the president added one welcomed trump's move and since two thousand and fourteen the u.s. military has been backing kurdish led forces who control much of northeast syria the decision to leave is seen as abandoning the kurds and handing a strategic advantage to iran and russia turkey have been calling for a u.s. withdrawal and is planning an offensive into kurdish held territory it considers

the kurdish fighters terrorists a u.s. and turkish leaders will meet next month to discuss president trump's decision to take troops out of syria turkey says it will delay launching a cross border attack on kurdish fighters but the would draw could cause more instability or reports from on turkey's border with syria. these syrian refugees have been living in this turkish border town for three years they say they can't return home as long as their towns and villages are controlled by the syrian armed group the why peachey while fighting eisel the why p.g. backed by the u.s. had taken control of predominantly arab and mixed areas across northern syria their residents say those territorial gains are about creating a kurdish state an accusation denied by the y.p. . in two thousand and fifteen the white b.g.

enter tel aviv under the pretext of fighting isis but they forcibly displaced the autopen looted their homes they started to impose the kurdish language and what they call democracy close like preventing us from practicing religion. the y.p. she could lose the autonomous enclave government in north eastern syria a plan to pull out of american troops will leave it vulnerable the group controls an area rich in oil and agricultural land valuable economic assets for the government and to mask this which is struggling under sanctions president bashar assad has repeatedly said he wants to retake this corner of syria either by negotiation or force the y. p.g. may be trying to cut a deal. the us is no longer planning a rapid pullout turkey has reportedly convince president donald trump to coordinate the withdrawal also that there will be no vacuum u.s. and turkish officials will meet in washington on january the eighth it's seen.