to go to schools and universities because of the state of emergency in some places the curfews and others and because of the suspension they don't want to try to get people didn't want to masses to try to congregate to be able to protest there's also a report that the emir of qatar a share shift to mean been hammered has phoned the president omar bashir and that he said his group is willing to offer support how that's what kind of form that support will take it's not here yet the government is saying the sudanese government is saying that it's in the form of one billion dollars which would help ease the crisis now other countries have also been responding in the different ways for example has called into its citizens here in sudan to leave the country and they have said that they've issued a travel advisory saying that sudan is not safe to travel to and that they're willing to facilitate the exit of the citizens here so it seems like this works as ours a spotless working concerns not just to the sudanese government but to other foreign governments as well as there is here but morgan that live for us in khartoum thanks to a former british politician paddy ashdown who was a leading figure in the bosnian peace process has died from cancer at age seventy

seven ashdown served as the un's high representative in bosnia and herzegovina between two thousand and two and two thousand and six helping the country to rebuild in the aftermath of the civil war in the one nine hundred ninety s. before that he led the noble democrat party the u.k.'s third largest political force at the time for eleven years he also served in the british army special services where the next still to come the democratic republic of congo prepares for a long delayed elections that have been pushed back by another week. no solution yet to the standoff that's partially shut down the u.s. government again. by the springtime flowers of a mountain lake. to the first snowfall on the wind this day. hello again welcome back to international weather forecasts were here across china

we are seeing some spotty showers perfectly down here towards hong kong and those are going to lead to some clouds as we go towards the beginning of the week so here we start on sunday clouds in the forecast rain as well twenty one degrees there up towards shanghai though it is going to be mostly the clouds we're going to be talking about getting better by the time we get towards monday but over here towards taipei it's going to be quite rainy weeks back to see attempts there of about twenty degrees well also very rainy across parts of the philippines as has been the trend over the last several days we think it's going to be continuing by the time we go towards the beginning of the week there are those clouds right there making their way towards the northwest so for manila that is going to mean very heavy rain in the forecast at least for the next two days and there could also be some localized flooding so a temperature a few of about twenty seven degrees pretty much staying the same as we go towards sunday maybe a little bit warmer there also some rain coming back for parts of thailand where it's been fairly nice over the last few days but there's that rain showers extending all the way down towards parts of malaysia as well as regularly over here towards sri lanka well the rain is also going to be a prick problem we do have

a tropical wave in the bamberg all of that has been quite stationary bring a lot of clouds across the region we do expect to see a temperature there of about twenty nine degrees in chinoy a rainy day for you with a temperature of twenty eight. there with sponsored by cat time race. getting to the heart of the matter how can you be a refugee after you while it borders between five safe countries facing the realities of the pain starts from the very beginning of the binding scrutiny of providing context housing is not just about four walls and a roof hear their story and talk to al-jazeera.

welcome back. a reminder of our top stories this hour a tsunami has hit indonesia killing at least one hundred sixty eight people and injuring more than seven hundred others waves between hoffa me. struck areas along the strait between two of the country's biggest islands scientists say the tsunami was triggered by undersea landslides from the eruption of the volcano on the krakatoa. main opposition party has asked people to join nationwide protests on sunday against the rising cost of food and fuel at least ten people have died since the demonstration started on wednesday. four million ballot papers a due to arrive in the democratic republic of congo's capital to replace those that were destroyed by fire last week the blaze in kinshasa also damaged more than eight

thousand voting machines the presidential election originally shed for today sunday has been pushed back by a week catherine sawyer has more. the campaign. as it was. and presidential candidate have agreed to wait until the election but the question many people asking now. that everything together to be able to. elect. the president elect will commission saying that one of the biggest problems that the prices in. our warehouse burned down. last week destroying most of the voting materials from what to be used in the capital city a sound of the materials are still getting in and they have to be deployed to different parts of the country and this is a country we very poor infrastructure so it's a logistical nightmare just getting this materials to where they're supposed to be

the government has used all help financial and logistical help from the u.n. and other countries as well as some people are saying at least another is another problem it's going to be interesting to see how this week plays out the president of the electoral commission saying be patient give us time we're trying to do everything we can to make sure that we have an election that is then we've got a lot of people with doctoring is saying that this election given all the circumstances might just end up being another election. the trumpet ministration has lost another important national security figure but the resignation of the u.s. diplomat dealing with eisel replica christian protest against president abrupt decision to withdraw american troops from syria has our state department correspondent. us president don't trump made two major foreign policy decisions

this week he said he's pulling seven thousand u.s. troops out of afghanistan and is pulling out all two thousand u.s. service personnel from northeast syria a decision he's been defending on twitter on syria we were originally going to be there for three months and that was seven years ago we never left when i became president isis was going wild now isis is largely defeated and other local countries including turkey should be able to easily take care of whatever remains we are coming home. defense secretary jim mattis quit in protest on thursday on saturday it was revealed that a top u.s. diplomat in charge of coordinating the fight against eisold is also quit the military mission is the enduring defeat of isis we have obviously learned a lot of lessons in the past so we know that once a physical space is defeated we can just pick up and leave this was brett mcgurk the special on boy briefing reporters on the anti eisel fight in syria under

similar eleventh mcgurk new everyone in the region and he reportedly told colleagues this week the president's new policy on syria would make it impossible for him to continue in his post already both congressional democrats and republicans have called trump syria decision dangerous and deplored jim matta says departure from the pentagon now those who had been fighting alongside the americans are looking to these legislators to try to change the white house's mind dear senator lindsey graham south carolina kurds in syria appreciate your strong opposition on the wrongfulness of trumps unilateral decision to withdraw from syria and your principled stance on standing by your kurdish allies the next step in fighting i saw now certain as the trumpet ministration declares it won't be u.s. forces and resources leading the charge rosalyn jordan al-jazeera washington.

just days after that announcement of a u.s. troop withdrawal by truck there are reports the takesh on me is sending soldiers to the syrian border president obama has threatened to strike why p.g. targets in northern syria the kurdish group is being backed by u.s. special forces in the fight against i so many fear the u.s. pullout from syria could now lead to a power vacuum on the ground as anna coren reports from. 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. religious are controlled by the syrian armed group the y. 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 white p.g. . in two thousand and fifteen the white b.g.

enter tel aviv under the pretext of fighting eisel 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 eighth it seems ankara

wants the enclave to be handed over to representatives of arab majority towns that have been under the control of the white. turkey believes the white peach is linked to the outlawed kurdistan workers' party the p.k. k. which has been fighting for self rule in south east turkey. turkey doesn't have that authority or ambitions in syria and they want to end the subsurface project there and it wants to end the threat along its southern border it will cooperate with the syrian opposition who will convene to give us its agenda and couplings with the p k k. a military option is still on the table president to tell you border guard says a new operational strategy to eliminate both the y.p. g. and i still is being worked on turkey and the us may be in agreement on what happens next but there are other players in syria including russia. that will also want its interest secured. a check on the turkey syria border.

iran's revolutionary guards have held military exercises in the strategic strait of hormuz where much of the oil traded by sea through. the annual exercises showcased combat helicopters and drones on friday the iranian army trailed a u.s. aircraft carrier in the gulf iran is under increasing pressure from the u.s. which has reimposed sanctions the u.s. government expected to stay partially closed past christmas day and a standoff over president demand for money to build a border war with mexico it's the third shutdown this year and will leave eight hundred thousand workers out of pocket until it gets sorted out john hendren has more from washington. the two sides seem far apart in the government shutdown president trump met with republican leaders in the white house if he is negotiating with democrats he is not doing it at that meeting and the senate came into session

and a bit of senate theater the republican leader mitch mcconnell came out in a red christmas sweater saying he hoped that they could wrap up business and everybody could go on to their christmas holiday but that does not seem likely to happen terribly soon and that is because democrats know the president does not have the votes in the u.s. senate in order to pass his five billion dollars in border wall funding that he wants for the southern border you need a supermajority in the senate in order to pass legislation like that and he simply does not yet have the votes so the two sides remain at an impasse and chuck schumer the democratic leader told the president speaking on the floor of the senate if you want to open the government you must abandon the wall and he went on to say the wall will come not today not next week not next year so it does seem like the two sides are far apart monday and tuesday are holidays the full impact of the

government shutdown probably will not be felt until wednesday and of course democrats may simply wait until january third that is when democrats take over control of the u.s. house of representatives and at that time they believe that they can definitively stop funding for the president's wall so the democrats believe time is on their side the latest yellow vest antigovernment protests have been generally peaceful but about forty thousand tunning out across from us that's well down on the hundreds of thousands who took part when the demonstrations peaks in the past six weeks they have a spots of violence over nice in paris where a police officer drew his gun on crowds in the city as a he and another officer and then sped away on a motorbike as demonstrations how things that. and anger over what's been described as a slave law has been bringing out thousands of people onto the streets of hungary's largest cities over the past week the legislation allows companies to make their employees work more overtime and still a payment for it from being

a pest robin for us to watch a walkout reports hungry at christmas time with more than two percent average growth low taxation it's an attractive place to come and spend your money. hungry economic model depends a lot on german common you factoring in twenty seventeen it made up twenty nine percent of industrial output soon a billion dollar b.m.w. plants will provide thousands of jobs in the east but there's a problem a shortage of skilled workers. the government hopes its new labor law will fix that allowing over time of more than four hundred hours a year but that has angered the working hunger ariens more than eighty percent according to recent polls opposed to legislation that will make them have to work opposition groups of united in protest from the left and the rights calling it a slave law thuggery government says that's not the case the hungary and regulation

is fully in line with the european regulations and does not induce labor that's a political goal but which is being used by extremist political opinion and political activists on the ground the real problem is that as a matter of fact these political protests are nothing to do with the labor code a lot of them are very educated some believe the law will only worsen the problem and variance have been working much longer hours in recent years than anyone in western europe so if you just check european union statistics eastern europeans work more than western europeans in hungary and work more than people in western europe so there's already a lot of overtime in the system and secondly wages are very low so if you make people work longer hours for the same wages is just an incentive for people to move away the way that one gary in government sees it the garion economy is a victim of its own success with near full employment but it might have more to do with the fact that hungary has

a strict immigration policy and skilled gary ans seeking better opportunities abroad. young hunger ariens like peter are increasingly interested in leaving hungry and starting their careers elsewhere i might add are hungry and students and i just saw exactly the same motivation and that they just wanted something better than hunger we can offer and at the same time they just so that. the trends are not looking promising and hungry hungry is not a load countries including poland slovakia and the czech republic are struggling with their own labor shortages. this. hour in europe is beginning to wear off. and in neighboring serbia antigovernment protests have gone into a third week demonstrators accuse president alexander of being tarion last week

opposition politician. was attacked the president has condemned the attack but his opponents say he's encouraged his supporters towards acts of violence the lighting of the first communal tree has attempted to bring some christmas joy to the besieged gaza strip hundreds of palestinian christians attended the ceremony after israeli authorities allowed similar festivities in the west bank and jerusalem it's the first time such a large celebration has been held in gaza where christians previously marked the occasion inside a church. hall and these are the top stories a tsunami has hit indonesia killing at least one hundred sixty eight people and injuring more than seven hundred others waves between. the high struck areas along the strait between two of the country's biggest islands the opposition has asked

people to join nationwide protests on sunday against the rising cost of food and fuel at least ten people have died since the demonstration wednesday. some of the opposition forces of united and called on to protestors to march for the fifth day to come out and protest now that they really needed to people have already been going out for four days ten people at least ten people have been killed dozens have been injured and dozens more have been arrested as a result of the protests now let's remember that it started on wednesday when there were proposed great hikes when they were proposed hikes and people basically said they've had enough at the moment one loaf of bread is worth once denise pounds and to many people that's already an affordable so hikes in prices would simply make it impossible protesters and police officers have fought during more demonstrations in the french capital against president and his government video has emerged of a french police officer pulling out his gun and pointing it at protesters during

the later street battles linked to the yellow vest anti-government movement. a un teen has landed in yemen to observe the departure of saudia morality back to government forces and the fighters from her data the two sides agreed to a ceasefire in the port city during talks in sweden the area is the main entry point for most figured aid into a country that's enjoyed almost four years of war sunday marks two years since al jazeera journalist mark which we say is a rest in egypt his imprisonment has been repeatedly extended despite international calls for his immediate release he's not faced any formal charges and is in solitary confinement former british politician paddy ashdown he was a leading figure in the bosnian peace process has died after a short battle with cancer he was seventy seven ashdown served as the un's high representative in bosnia and herzegovina between two thousand and two and two

thousand and six helping the country to rebuild in the aftermath of the civil war in the one nine hundred ninety s. those are the headlines i'll be back with more news after talk to al-jazeera. colleague must much hussein has now been 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 journalists as journalism become a crime have moles become a tool to silence voices of truth we will continue i 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 our colleague mahmoud to same and all journalists detained in a gyptian jails free mahmoud's and all his colleagues we stand for press freedom.

michael. you will. see. the peace treaty signed by government leaders and separatist rebels in mali three years ago was meant to usher in a new era of peace and stability in the north west african country but progress in implementing the agreement has been slow and insecurity has grown the violence that began with the uprising and seizure of territory in the north has now spread into a previously stable central model on groups have taken advantage of interethnic grievances and local resentment towards the government to spread fear and chaos forcing thousands to flee president. who has ruled since twenty thirteen was

reelected earlier this year for a second term he announced a government reshuffle aimed at restoring peace stability and foreign investment only important to boost the economy and reduce poverty as part of the reshuffle camisa was named miley's new minister of foreign affairs is a thirty five year old appointment the beginning of comprehensive institutional reforms and how can peace be achieved in the foreseeable future we find out more as . minister of foreign affairs talks to the. foreign minister could be some are i think you for talking to al-jazeera thank you for having a lot of things have gone wrong in mali since the multi-dimensional crisis that was triggered in twenty twelve in almost seventy is. witnessed a coup an insurgency intervention by french un african troops and yet

today armed groups reorganizing. extending violence from the northern to the central regions why is it so hard to bring peace and security to your country i think it's a very dramatic narrative that you're giving right now because miley has gone through a lot since two thousand and eleven we have indeed gone through a military coup an insurgency but we also have had a lot of successes we organize two peaceful presidential elections we have a peace process that is ongoing we have a d.d.r. that just started we have a full ministry in charge of the peace process we have the six percent growth rate this is positive outcomes that we've had from this dimensional crisis that you just described it's good to point out the positives because you are right they are indeed positives but when you look at the news we had money in authority saying

a few days ago that they arrested four men with links to i saw who were planning attacks in several west african capitals we've always known about the al qaeda threat but what about this i saw threat today how real and how serious is it and what's being done to prevent the group getting a foothold in this region so the terrorists issue is not a mali an issue we have been experiencing all it all over the world it's really difficult or i would say even inaccurate to take out the security issues of mali out of the issues of this the whole region that is why we have for example. hell which is in military partnership between five somehow countries namely mao you. chad. in order to curtail their tourism issue and there's a whole region there is terrorist issue in this whole region and also in there and indeed not just in mali but in the shares well in all these countries and i will

get to the g five in just a second to ask you why why it's taking a while to get the sports off. ground but just coming back to the violence in mali they has been into communal violence recently there has been intercommunal violence that is not linked at all to some terrorist elements infiltrating some of these regions which have had grievances it's way more complicated than that perhaps you can explain to our international audience in mali what we currently have is a position of multiple different security crisis that we've had over the years in the central part of mali it's really a difficult situation it's a complex one that cannot be simply described as a terrorist situation you have some cultural aspects of it you have. it's been described as an ethnic conflict which is in my opinion not currently the case you have what is it it's a pastoralist issue that has been exacerbated by terrorist groups that has been

utilized by the armed groups have infiltrated the as a local community do they do have infiltrated those local communities that have had grievances that have had grievances having grievances been addressed by the government of the local community so if you let me finish i can tell you that what we currently have again is a pastoralist issue between. herders that are against bozo herders and it's a complex security situation that has been exacerbated by terrorist groups so now it is being perceived as an ethnic conflict which is not necessarily the root of it coming back to my question is have the grievances been address what has the government done to address the grievances of the local communities in the center in the north which was the origin of the crisis in two thousand and twelve twenty thirteen so it's again it's more complex than that it is how it's been described in the news but for example when we're talking about grievances in the northern

regions of mali you also have to understand that. the issues that have been brought up by separatist rebels in northern mali are the same issues that other groups with throughout the country are currently facing lack of access to. to medical services like to be yes exactly to basic services so what the government is currently doing is making sure that those basic services are reachable for all of the population and we currently have an institutional reform going on so that those local services and the local population feel closer to those services let's talk about the g five because you touched on this and countries including mali joined forces in twenty seventeen to establish this multinational force security force with the aim of defeating armed groups in the region the primary aim . more than

a year after it was set up this force has yet to to fully become operational from what i understand why is it proving difficult to get it off the ground is it just down to a lack of resources and funding as we're hearing or the other factors in other other factors there's definitely a lack of funding for the joint force to be fully operational we currently have a need of over four hundred million euro per year now it's our job to make sure that into the international community understands that this joint force is the only sustainable solution we currently have in order to curtail the fragile security situation that we have in this hell region saw once we are able to do that then the international community does understand the need for us to have destroyed forces operational another aspect another difficulty of it is that this regional force is basically a corporation between military forces of five countries and some of them are perceived as weak such as the one in we currently have in mali but we are

rebuilding we have been rebuilding since two thousand. and thirteen and we also have to explain better that military forces that have more capacity struck such as the charge in one right in the scheme of eighty five the whole region can really pull up all of the other military forces and build their capacity what would you say to people who say that this g five experiment can't really work in a region that is crowded by sometimes competing military and domestic initiatives i would tell them that what we are doing right now is what the international community needs and this is what they're asking us to do which is take ownership of our own security situation so we are not in a negative. atmosphere here we are trying to find solutions to our own problems and this is what the international community has been pushing african countries to do you were at the g five donor conference in mauritania earlier this year but president wasn't in attendance despite being perhaps. one of the most

important countries in this chief five from a security point of view why did not attend the president president of mali he has a lot of competing meetings that he has to attend if he could not attend this one he could not you mentioned you know the fact that some countries had militaries that were perceived perhaps as weaker than the others are you happy with the current structure of the of the g five they have been reports that mali wants perhaps a bigger position a bigger role within this g five and that this been some discontent about mauritania taking a leading role can you deny or confirm these i can't tell you that rumors are rumors what i can tell you is that what we are trying to do is for five some help countries that are facing the same security issues to work together in order to curtail the growing terrorist so these are just rumors about the tensions with

mauritania these are totally relevant to the operationalization of the joint force of the chief i said it's not just of course the armed groups as you've said it's also drugs trafficking human trafficking in this region and the g five mandate i understand is to fight all of this it's a very tall order it is isn't it so how do you actually prioritize with. all these things that you have to fight with the different agendas also of your allies and european partners who are perhaps more interested in curbing illegal immigration how do you prioritize which of these to focus on the good thing with the g four s. the hell again is that we have five so how country is that all agree on why we came together we have an african union which is a continental organization that does support our efforts in the sahara region and we need the lead of the african union in order to shore european partners that we

know what we're doing and we know why whatever we are still concerned what is what is the most urgent task right now for this body all of these need to be addressed sumo tenuously you cannot just take one separately from the others they have to be taking that into account in your sleep when we're talking about the how there is also a development branch of the g five star health called. meaning that you cannot take away the security aspect of it without addressing the development needs of the region so we're doing both at the same time again it's a complex situation it's a multi-dimensional situation so all of those issues need to be addressed at the same time ok let's move on to the issue of human rights if we can foreign minister one of our teams was recently at the mali mauritania border and they encountered a number of mali and specifically from timbuktu who had crossed into mauritania.