how the weather looks quiet but cold across the good parts of north asia now a little area of disturbed weather making its way across the sea of japan bringing some outbreaks of france and snow to into the fall north of the country but i will clear through as we go on through monday temperature is minus one celsius there for support getting up to around eleven degrees for tokyo and also for a socket generally try as you can see across a good part of japan the korean peninsula added the northern areas of china little change as we go on into choose day just notice a little area of shabby rain just making its way to the western side of honshu for the middle part of the week meanwhile in sioux southern areas of china it's generally fine in through the southeast could see want to see showers along dispose of rain a possibility extending their way into taiwan but pulling away as we go through

tuesday temperatures getting up to around twenty three celsius there in hong kong that line a shallow as in west or whether it extends its way down into central and southern parts of vietnam will see some very heavy rain there possibly some big downpours too for a time in the good part of the philippines so expect see some showers here shadows they will continue just around java see more weather also affecting southern parts of somalia as we go through that week. medieval western society feudal society. and. ended his speech some people. will see. through the city. streets in. respect. of this time.

welcome back. a reminder about top stories this hour a tsunami has hit indonesia killing at least two hundred twenty two people and injuring more than seven hundred others waves between a half a meter underneath the high struck areas along the sunda straight between two of the country's biggest islands. demonstrations across don in the fifth day of protests against food and fuel prices at least ten people have died since the rallies began last wednesday. the turkish army is sending soldiers to the syrian

border just days after the u.s. president announced he was withdrawing american troops president out of one once the truth removed from northern syria the kurdish group gain significant control in the area after being backed by u.s. special forces in the fight against. the trumpet ministration has lost another important national security figure with the resignation of the u.s. diplomat dealing with eisel brett mcgurk quit in protest against president obama abrupt decision to withdraw american troops from syria here's our state department correspondent jordan. u.s. president donald trump made two major foreign policy decisions this week he said he's pulling seven thousand u.s. troops out of afghanistan and trump 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 madison quit in protest on thursday on saturday it was revealed that a top u.s. diplomat in charge of coordinating the fight against ice all is also quit the military mission as they are 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 envoy briefing reporters on the anti eisel fight in syria under a summer eleventh mcgurk knew 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's syria decision dangerous and deployed jim madison's

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 eisold now certain as the trumpet ministration declares it won't be u.s. forces and resources leading the charge rosalyn jordan al-jazeera washington staying with washington the us government remains partially shut down after politicians failed to break an impasse on the budget spending the standoff is over funding for president transplants mexico border wall the senate has now than agenda until thursday john hendren joins us now from washington john what actually happens

now is there any end in sight to this shutdown. well until thursday nothing happens at all really the two sides could keep negotiating but according to democratic leaders they are very far apart and the democrats who are going to take over the house of representatives on january third because they won forty seats in that body of four hundred thirty five seats in the last midterm elections they say they're willing to wait nancy pelosi is the democratic leader incoming of the house of representatives and she says we have certainty we will end this the first week in january that suggests this could go on for a while as you just said the senate has adjourned until thursday that pretty much guarantees that nothing will happen president trump however is putting on a working face instead of going to mar a lago his home in florida where his wife had already gone he says he's going to stay at the white house and keep working on it the bottom line though is trump

wants a border wall for five billion dollars and the democrats don't want to give it to him and reportedly yesterday mike pence his vice president went to capitol hill and tried to get something in between those numbers but the sticking point there is the democrats don't want any money to go for a border wall and they seem willing to wait and john as the trumpet ministration grapples with capitol hill that also has to be bleeding stoffel what kind of reaction have we seen ted breton the guts to patia. well mcgurk was a holdover from the obama administration from two thousand and fifteen but he was the point man for the president in the fight against i so the president tried to distance himself from a group yesterday in a flurry of tweets one of them saying brett mcgurk who i do not know was appointed by president obama in two thousand and fifteen was supposed to leave in february but he just resigned prior to leaving and then he questions his motives saying grandstander mcgirt for his part sent out an e-mail to colleagues in which he

explained his decision saying the recent decision by the president came as a shock and was a complete reversal of policy that was articulated to us in the end he said i ultimately concluded that i could not carry out these new instructions and maintain my integrity the president is acting as his own chief of staff but this hemorrhaging of senior officials unlike any other administration in recent history does suggest that a lot of people within the administration are dissenting particularly on these military moves the president has always said he knows more than his generals and his generals seem to feel that he doesn't how does or as john hendren speaking to us there from washington thanks john ballot papers for the democratic republic of congo is a long awaited presidents the election have just arrived in the capital up to four million papers were scheduled to arrive on saturday to replace those destroyed by fire last week the blaze in kinshasa also left eight thousand voting machines

damaged the presidential polls originally said the sunday i had been pushed back by a week catherine so it has the latest from kinshasa. this deal a lot of and patently we've been speaking to people particularly here in kinshasa who are very could stand a worried saying that they don't trust the commission at all the thing that they are worried the election could be postponed again and another crisis may come up the commission is under tremendous pressure from the lever a fairly credible election on sunday the executive board of the commission the meeting all of yesterday we are told right now we're still in a meeting later we might get a briefing from the deputy president just to keep people up to speed of what's going on but just to give you a clearer picture of what's going on like i said the ballot papers have now arrived which is a relief the commission had also ordered for voting machines from other regions to be brought to remember thousand voting machines were also destroyed by

a we're being told that technicians are now reprogramming those machines most of the materials meant for other parts of the country are now in regional headquarters but also have to be transported to the different tend. to be taken to the polling station an absolute just to call nightmare because the infrastructure here in the congo is very poor it's the rainy season now of some parts of the country are still not safe particularly in the east we have been in a ball or a ball or epidemic in the east as well so all these things making it very difficult for the electoral commission video has emerged as a french police officer pulling out his gun and pointing it at protesters during the laces street battles linked to the yellow vest anti-government reason and the officer on holster the weapon as another tried to lift his most of the ground while the crowd may have strong they then quickly sped away as demonstrators held things

out the protests began more than six weeks ago against high fuel prices and have turned violent. anger over what's been described as a slave law has been bringing thousands of people on to hungary and straits in the past week the legislation allows companies to make employees work more of the time and delay payment for it robin forrester walker reports from budapest hungary 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 car manufacturing and 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 areas more than eighty percent according to recent polls opposed to legislation that will make them have to work all opposition groups of united in protest from the left and the right calling it a slave law. andries 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 govt 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 hungary and like 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 trains 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. the showing of low cost labor powering europe from

its east is beginning to wear off. robyn first it will come out is either a budapest. and a neighboring sabba antigovernment protests have gone into a fed week demonstrators accuse president alexander of the church of becoming more authoritarian weak opposition politician the fun of it was attacked the president has condemned that attack but his opponents say he's encouraged his supporters towards acts of violence greece's rail industry is the smallest in europe but it's been revived since the country's economic crisis which forced the government to give out that's monopoly and as john seraph of the us reports it's about to spectacular results like station. athens commuter railway was built ahead of the two thousand and four olympics and it changed the lives of outlying communities a journey into the city that used to take an hour by car now takes twenty minutes by train livy it's very convenient i'm

a cancer patient and had to go into hospital for surgery i used to go by taxi and bus but now i just take the train it's a feat grayle hopes to repeat by the end of this year when it fully electrifies the country's main rail line from athens to the northern port city of the seventy that'll have travel time to three hours and twenty minutes so the train will now compete with the airplane that line will help realize another ambition this train loaded with goods made in china is headed for budapest the rail yard here in the port of paris is part of china's new silk road to europe the idea is for this port to become southeast europe's main supply line. these changes are happening as a result of greece's economic crisis port operations were sold to the china ocean shipping company the government rail monopoly was broken up there are now seven competing train operators and helena grayle was able to focus on one particular

area upgrading track now the industry is trying to make up for lost time. is the smallest in the european union. one percent of passenger journeys by land and one of the heart of overland freight transport compared to european average of eight and two percent that's because after greece joined the european union in one thousand eighty one most infrastructure spending went to rebuilding its motorways and rail was neglected so the trains currently move only a tiny fraction of these containers inland most leave by truck that is about to change this twenty five hector freight marshaling is the largest in southern europe and hellenic rail has just taken over its management the shipping on the graph look at this chart connects the container port with the rail network and beyond cargo from asia will enter here and will be distributed across europe greece's economy will acquire a new dimension and greece will become one of the biggest freight rail hubs in europe. even though the greek market suffered during the crisis the country is now

taking advantage of its geographical position to produce growth. but it's been two years since al jazeera journalist. was arrested in egypt he hasn't been charged with any crime his imprisonment has been repeatedly extended despite international calls for his immediate release at that office reports. for two years my hoodoo same has been locked inside an egyptian prison his right to trial tonight his legal rights rejected the al jazeera journalist free to cairo in two thousand and sixteen to visit his family after he landed he was questioned detained without being formally charged he suffered a broken arm and was refused pro. medical treatment egyptian prosecutors accuse the carter based journalist of broadcasting what it describes as false news and receiving foreign funds to defame state institutions he strongly denies the allegations and so did soldiers erupt echoing international outrage the un has been

calling for his release rights groups have reported unarmed proles crackdown on egyptian journalist since the military deposed the first democratically elected president mohammed morsi in two thousand and thirteen the suppression has increased under former general now president of the c.c. the committee to protect journalists say least twenty media workers are being held in egyptian prisons. which seems detention has breached egypt's own penal code since he's being held without trial for more than eighteen months the maximum period allowed for anyone being investigated for a crime he should have been released or taken to court neither has happened and two years in his family and others are waiting for justice alex to topless al-jazeera. detained there and these are the top stories a tsunami has had indonesia killing at least two hundred twenty two people and

injuring more than seven hundred others waves between half a meter and a meter high struck areas along the sunda straight between two of the country's biggest islands robin george andres is a science journalist and volcanologists he says that a partial government shutdown in the united states has meant the geological survey hasn't been able to provide up to date information about the tsunami. it is great that the indonesian authorities are working around the count to provide the most up to date geological information that's really helpful to journalists like myself and grounds and aid agencies but it is a great shame no what i think is one of the best you know scientific organizations in the world come and actually help out the moment because of the eight thousand or so staff there working i think you know maybe you know a few dozen actually allowed to work this time so it's a great shame demonstrations have started across here don in the fifth day of protests against food and fuel prices at least ten people have died from the rallies began last wednesday. the turkish army is sending soldiers to the syrian

border the move comes just days after u.s. president donald trump announced he was withdrawing american troops turkish president has threatened to strike why p.g. targets in northern syria the kurdish group has gained significant control in the area after being backed by u.s. special forces in the fight against eisel. an influential figure in the bosnian peace process has died from cancer at age seventy seven former british politician paddy ashdown served as the un's high representative involved and herzegovina between two thousand and two and two thousand and six he helped the country to rebuild in the aftermath of the one thousand nine hundred seventy war before that ashtown led the liberal democrat party the u.k.'s third largest political force for eleven years ballot papers for the democratic republic of congo's the long awaited presidential election have just arrived in the capital up to four million papers were said joe to arrive on saturday to replace those despite destroyed by fire last

week the blaze in kinshasa left eight thousand voting machines also damaged those are the headlines the news continues here after inside story. he's ruled for thirty years but he's facing unprecedented street protests public anger is growing in sudan all the rise in food prices so the president omar al bashir survived what is the out to offer and this is inside story.

hello and welcome to the program i'm richelle carey sudan lost most of its oil reserves when the south seceded in two thousand and eleven ended a struggle to recover and glacial rates have skyrocketed prices have more than doubled the value of the sudanese pound its plunge protest against the worsening situation started on wednesday in the eastern region quickly spreading across the country into the capital khartoum the government of omar al bashir reacted to demands that resign by imposing curfews and state of emergency he morgan has where from khartoum if the fall of protests in sudan and today people have come out in the southern state of south kordofan they've burned down the party's headquarters the national congress party's headquarters have been burned down to the ground and people are once again protesting the same thing they're protesting vacant on the crisis the protesting the fact that there is no bread in bakeries and that the government is trying to increase the price of bread when there is no bread to begin with they also protesting the fact that they have to wait in line at and who up at

a.t.m.'s and banks to be able to access their own money and that they have to queue up at fuel stations to access fuel and also vans economic situation has been determined rather quickly. with a hospital mom in january the dollar was one one dollar to thirty pounds but this but today this morning it's nearly sixty so it's news that this would be spun to a dollar and for many people that is very very an affordable and it makes market prices go higher and make its makes it very hard for them to be able to feed their own firm and the families this by the income that they earn it's now sudan's inflation right now is at seventy percent and and the government is saying that they're going to try to elevate the degree to try to ease for people they're going to try to make things easier for people and try to make sure that they have what they need so that they don't go out and protest and they have also told the security forces not to use brutal excessive force and nine people have been killed so far and dozens have been injured but the minister of information this morning also said that they are not going to tolerate people vandalizing things industry

that they're not going to tolerate houses cars and shops being burned down to the ground and it's quite concerning and for too many rights groups such as amnesty human rights watch of issued press statement saying that the government should not use excessive force to respond to these protesters now the protesters are very clear in their demands they want the government to go they want new economic reforms they want new economic policies that would simply make it easy for them to be able to afford daily goods and go on with their lives here morgan for inside story so who is omar al bashir he came to power in a military coup in one thousand nine hundred nine and his role sudan with an iron fist since then he's been reelected president several times most recently in two thousand and fifteen when most opposition parties are kind of the vote as government signed a peace deal to end the twenty one year civil war between north and south in two thousand and five and he oversaw the secession of south sudan into an independent state in two thousand and eleven. to international arrest warrants and a travel ban on charges of genocide and war crimes and there are four regions

despite this he's made several diplomatic visits and was the first arab leader to visit serious as the war began there. let's bring in our guest now from khartoum faisal hametz a political analyst and former director of programs at the press here in doha. elephant a professor of politics at the doha institute and in oxford in the u.k. douglas johnson author of the book south sudan a new history for a new nation welcome to the program all of you faisal i want to start with you the focal point of these protests has been why was why there and why was this the breaking point well that is news to play mission but maybe the history of that have been has a very long history during the lazy issues national struggle history. of the capital of the sudan then we. had court there was any doubt but it's.

where it is and the workers have a very long history of be. part of the national movement and of the union movement which is started for a model and i think a better preserved this history was part of of all the struggles either during the colonization or even the national government when we had. dictators or military governments so that i think part of the history of cool today to rezone was the eyes of the food prices pushing the british but that was all over the country but the start of came from about ok let's talk about that yes that it seems that the tipping point was the rise and bread prices but talk us through a goddess to this point. for the first greetings to face learned their loss and i think the i know this. from barbells next door to us but i would say also

was the start of this. the established relations and for all for a while i think people have been really reaching to pinpoint in the sense that. the not only the prices but the the literature of the government self and the way it has been dealing with the problems the insensitivity to be showy to the to the feelings and the people and. it has been sometimes provocative in its in its approach i mean only a couple of days ago the president was saying that we have to lift up the prices of of fuel that's all the solution and people were at the end of their tether i mean they don't they can't even get their hands on the cash they have in the banks

and a lot of people for example when they go to hospital is also the government has done a lot for the health to destroy the health service if you go to a hospital even an emergency you have to pay in advance as a hospital and the people at the hospital would not accept except cash and i margin say in an emergency so you might have a dying child and the middle of the night when there's no banks open and they will say you have to pay for example ten thousand pounds or we won't even look at your patient so i think this combination of. lack of cash lack of any people have low salaries but when they put their money in the bank they can get you thought you know that they what they should expect to be able to go get their money yes they expect you to come up with cash but where can i get cash in the middle of the night. if i have an emergency so i think this is this is only one

level of it's a city of eighty the government has been showing they just are not listening to the people so this is something more than only bread or just fuel and cash but the people who seem to see that this government is completely incompetent completely insensitive completely does not feel it's part of the country or the people ok that was only bring you into this when you listen to the conditions at our best describing and you say the protests were there were some sort of protests almost inevitable. well i think one of the things that is new here is that the protests have been right across the country. not just in the three terms of the capital. one of the things that has also emerged from the protest is is that in addition to mismanaging the economy in addition to our highly corrupt system of government you have an extremely repressive government you have

a national the national intelligence and state security will arrest detain and torture dissidents you will have the police going around shaving people's heads of hair off because they disagree of the supposed to be an islamic afros that people were supposed to be a voice of dissent or a symbol of dissent people are arrested for brewing in alcohol and killed in detention all of these things are bubbling up in addition to the fact that there are still wars being fought in the blue nile the nuba mountains in darfur and the government is spending money on the military and those wars rather than fixing the economy or the infrastructure of the country so ok all right i mean laid out quite a list there faisal the president omar al bashir. it seems that a lot of these problems are of his making actually the person to fix any of it i

don't think so they don't have the vision they don't have a plan and actually as a deterrent a fantasy the idea insensitive to the problem that people are facing as if they are not living with the people in the same can be the british then actually behave as if there is no problem that he's very stable he's parties here will be in power and that there are some problems that can be dealt with after twenty twenty lection where he's now you're just looking to twenty twenty and i think he. is maneuvering around he's also targeting twenty twenty lection and using all the government power all the government resources all the government organs just to work towards that goal of reaching twenty twenty election and when he appointed a new prime minister the new prime minister promised that he's going to solve the economic crisis but it appears that also they don't have any plan simply because it

is actually a political crisis more than an economic crisis you cannot solve the economic crisis result would going part to the political crisis is looking to a political reforms as mr going to said we have war in three areas in sudan we have corruption and that is a political problem need to be dealt with before you are going to face the economic crisis and i think the government is insensitive to that the president himself they said whenever he's on t.v. or speaking to people in any event as if he's not feeling with the people is feeling so faisal is say that he's been insensitive and you also he's been insensitive to that but has he he's never really had his hand forced he can be insensitive to it if he chooses to. thus just for his mistake is that if you sometimes people tolerate being seen by people do. give you

a chance for for various reasons because they're afraid of what might happen but i think here are sticking people yes has taken people to a level where there is no hope. for a while for example people have been saying if only if the american sections were lifted then things will improve so that american sanctions were lifted last two were things actually got completely and the worse can i ask you about that too that's actually something i wanted to bring up that yes that the sanctions were lifted but sudan is still labeled a sponsor of terrorism and there's still so much baggage that comes with dealing with sudan.