eisel to carve out a state of their own members is among predominantly arab areas under white peachey control over. damascus has been making its position known state media has been broadcasting images from the white b.g. controlled region of what it says are protests against a possible turkish offensive the government has accused turkey of territorial ambitions turkey's main objective in syria is to prevent the establishment of a kurdish state along its borders so as not to inflame separatist sentiment among its own kurdish population it's not clear if turkey will accept y.p. g.'s rule to be replaced by that of the syrian government but if it does its will demand guarantees that the y.p. jeep is rendered ineffective. turkey's president has promised to drive and the chief from syria his military has changed its posture strengthening turkey's hand a serious player is likely in gauging backdoor negotiations to prevent what could

be a new conflict. on the turkey syria border and spend time on this al jazeera news hour including why voters in the democratic republic of congo are worried about another holdup in long delayed elections plus a giant mirror all that transformed an industrial eyesore in south korea and india and australia was square off in one of cricket's most famous events speedo have the details in sports. first sudan's doctors are voted to go on an indefinite strike i mean protests calling for longtime leader omar al bashir to step down at least ten people have died since the protests began on wednesday the demonstrations have been spawned by the rising cost of food and fuel as well as corruption here morgan has this report from car too. it's may all seem calm here in the sudanese capital khartoum but the

doors of the school behind me tells of a different story itself the story of a country that has been forced to issue a nationwide suspension to schools high schools and universities to try to prevent people from congregating because they're worried that there will be for the protests on top of the five days of protests that it's already witnessing over the past few days people have been going out to the street they've been complaining and protesting against the rising prices of market commodities against the fact that the government has been trying to increase the price of a loaf of bread from once a nice pond to three sudanese pounds which to them is already an affordable and they don't want to see more price hikes but they've also been protesting about the government and its comic policies and reforms that the focus of the drought for the economic situation in sudan and deteriorating living conditions and high prices no bread no fuel no medicine and all that has led to the protests in different parts of the country the protests have been going since wednesday and more cities are joining every day it will grow our demand a sudanese is no longer improved economic conditions it's now

a demand for the government to step down they're bigger than the current situation is suffocating one leaves the house in the morning and doesn't know if he should go to the bank or stand in the line for bread go to work because there is no transport things have become suffocating at least ten people have been killed dozens have been injured and dozens more have been present now the government is saying that they're going to try to find full ways they're going to look for ways to try to ease the country out of this crisis but the people have been saying that they don't want this government they want a new government they want new policies they want new faces to take lead and that they're going to they're not going to stop protesting until they have better living conditions guaranteed for them. well let's now speak to a sour abdel jalil who's the president of the sudan doctors union she is via skype in the u.k. thank you so much for being with us as so why have your colony in sudan decided to join the protest movement what are their demands. thank you very much my colleagues

have been always in the movement from the beginning. we feel that there is nobody listening to the people of sudan so as your report mentioned. following the peaceful demonstration. there has been a lot of culture of these. injuries and i don't know when there is no hope. before the sudan professional you can. be a. it's the right step forward to start it serious of strikes the first team will be the doctors and that will strike from all the elected cook cases starting from two more ok i and i hear what you've just said there but i wanted to know as far as a sudanese doctors themselves and most of the people that we've seen on the streets

in recent days in the past five days have been protesting about their conditions about rising fuel prices the price of bread and so on what conditions are doctors in sudan facing what sort of grievances do they have. i don't think people on the street are just protesting because of fuel because of brant now but i think because there is the over all salient of the whole system and for the medical sector there is complete destruction for the infrastructure for the access the health services for the cost of treatment forward the absence of medication for lifesaving medication so the health sector is similar to the education sector the other sectors it's with arm where there is an overall. savior from the current government and therefore they have to step down and hand over the. you know the the power to the power to a government that can lead you can provide

a better life for the people of sudar what if the government was to make some gestures towards the people you talk about a failure of the system if the government were to meet some of the demands of the people would that be enough or is what people want today these people who are demonstrating adopters and the others on the streets of sudan is what they want for omar al bashir to step down well i think we have thirty years and that's more than enough for any government to prove whether they can be at all successful or not i think it's the tip of the iceberg this at the cost of the bread the absence of fuel this is just like. part of the whole of problem the whole issue is there is a complete poor governance and failure and crying for a change in sudan ok thank you very much for speaking to us sara abdel jimmy

joining us there from norwich in the u.k. thank you. millions of people across the democratic republic of congo should have been voting this sunday to elect a leader to replace president joseph kabila but ballot papers for the long awaited presidential election have just arrived in the capital they're needed to replace almost four million others which were destroyed by fire last week the blaze in kinshasa also left eight thousand voting machines damage there's been protests since the announcement that the election has been postponed by a week catherine story has the latest from kinshasa. they still a lot of and starting to move to speaking to people particularly here in kinshasa who are very concerned and worried saying that they don't trust the commission at all they're saying that they are worried. phoned again another crisis. coming up commission is under tremendous pressure to deliver

a fairly credible election on sunday the executive board of the commission been meeting all of us today we're told right now they'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 so 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 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 the regional headquarters but also have to be transported to the difference. to be taken to the polling stations and that's a logistical nightmare because the infrastructure here in the congo is very poor it's a rainy season now some parts of the country are still not particularly in the east

we haven't a boiler. epidemic in the east as well so all these things making it very difficult for the electoral commission. now one of the most powerful players calling for change is catholic church al-jazeera has more from st joseph's church in kinshasa. in the democratic republic of congo the catholic church has clout. nearly half of congress eighty million people going through its church services like this one in the capital kinshasa president joseph kabila didn't step down at the end of his second and final constitutional mandate the church stood up journalist john bell i was one of the key coordinators of the protests for democracy which eventually led to an election being called for sunday two years late three days ago it was postponed again until next week and some. until today we are aware of strategies to

not organize elections we are not surprised that we don't have elections even though there was enough time we were informed about the postponement of elections until the thirtieth and we think that for seven days let us not burn the whole country. the priest asks people to pray for the elections to be peaceful. the last two years were not dozens were killed by police in the protests the catholic church brokered a deal for delayed election to take place when it was finally announced more were killed during the campaigns mostly at opposition rallies the government promises its delivering democracy because the. the president of the republic is the one who has brought democracy in this country we've had difficulties organizing elections on time and the president is the one who is conscious of the fact that his two mandates are over that's why the electoral commission has all the means to organize elections. since the commission and nouns the postponement there have been pleas

and soldiers on the street near the university activists tried to organize a march they were completely out numbered so they gave up. the catholic church is powerful here they can speak up when others can't there is political work and northover people are now waiting to see if next week's election really will happen a lot of people are wondering if the ruling party and the electoral commission intend to hold any election at all. most people here say they want change they still don't know if they'll get it malcolm webb al-jazeera kinshasa in the democratic republic of congo it's been two years since al jazeera journalist mahmud hussein was arrested in egypt he hasn't been charged with any crime but his imprisonment has been repeatedly extended despite international calls for his immediate release topless reports. for two years mahmoud the same has been locked

inside an egyptian prison his right to trial denied his legal rights rejected the al jazeera journalist flew 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 proper medical treatment egyptian prosecutors accuse the kata based journalist of brokaw's think what it describes as false news and receiving foreign funds to defame state institutions he strongly denies the allegations and so does al-jazeera echoing international outrage the un has been calling for its release. rights groups are reported in our poll to crackdown on egyptian journalists into the military to pose the first democratically elected president mohammed morsi in two thousand and thirteen the suppression has increased under former general now president sisi the committee to protect journalists say at least twenty media workers are being held in egyptian prisons hussein's 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 larry i spoke to mahmoud hussein's daughter on the phone she says her father's imprisonment has left the family devastated. every time i go and see him his face powder them the develop spine touched me from inside to see my father like this the longer he stays i can see that on his face my grandfather and grandmother all of them the two of them have been sick and even my grandfather has been finalized you know from the shock. it's been like eleven eleven months ago he was with my father visiting him and emotionally he was very distressed and he went back home unable to

move at the same until now so it's very different staging is ruining our family i can't describe how hard it is for our for actually you know the the situation here in egypt is very hard so you can't figure out really what's going to make the change what's the point you know this will all disappear and you know life will go back as it were before so yes of course all these events and you know and their city stands with the father you know. it feels great you know to have the board but we won't we want something to happen i'm scared that my father's going to be forgotten two years is too much and i'm scared that the number is always only going to get higher well actually i don't know i i wish that i speak to someone and ask him why i only want to know why if he had if you had done something why don't

you know even what child you know why don't you investigate and you know do you work i don't know i don't understand please please let my father out please bring him back to us our life has been stopping the plug doesn't move and our last two years so it's very hard please please give us our father back. acting director general of the al jazeera media network he says the imprisonment of mamata saying is a violation of egyptian law itself for journalists i mean that mahmoud who is not the only one who is in jail i mean there are so many. egypt there are so many abuses and many people many journalists were killed in. two thousand and thirteen i mean many of them. is not free in egypt no there is no. any kind of position and that is what has been going on for a long time in addition to that. there is no tolerance to neutrality you have to

support the government or the wise you are considered the enemy it's the slogan of george bush the old george bush you know when he said if you or you are with us or you are against us and which is not the case why would hussein as they said was not working on issues at all he was working and just doing his job here if you are you should not be going to egypt things are better and they hope that happens soon however i would like to use but unity to call on the egyptian authorities to release mahmoud hussain with no conditions cuba's national assembly has agreed on the warning of a new draft constitution a referendum will be held in february on whether it'll be passed into law the document recognizes a right to own private profit property for the first time however it says a country will stay as centrally planned economy ruled by a single communist party and after pressure from the catholic church plans for

legalizing same sex marriage where remotes. i think they are going to that is the fundamental laws we have approved reaffirms a revolutionary socialist back and allows the state and the people to work towards protecting our society it reinforces the prevalence of the constitution that ensures inclusion equal rights and empowers the people over cuba's government to add on this news on mexico's new president faces challenges putting policy into practice plus the dutch me i aks know to keep up the pace the pace with leaders p.s.p. he will be here with all the action stay with us. hello there the weather is all quite quiet across the middle east at the moment we're

going to few bits and pieces of cloud around one drifting its way eastwards across afghanistan and another one making its way down from techie but nothing too significant i think that area of town we saw of a turkey would just drift its way eastwards towards the caspian sea on monday a few bits and pieces of rain maybe some snow mixed in with that but it's this system we've got to watch because this one is going to work its way towards the northwest impulsive take if you choose day and it's choose day that is looking pretty wet and windy pretty miserable actually for many of us in the northern parts of turkey expect some snow at times to elsewhere looking lushly fine draw i know about will mean baghdad now with the temperature just of seventeen degrees here in doha it's also feeling quite cool particularly if you're on to the wind it does have a bit of a bite to it twenty two degrees is the maximum during the day but at night we're dropping all the way down to around fifteen so it is feeling rather fresh. for us temperatures topping at around twenty seven and no major changes as we head into choose day down towards the southern parts of africa and there's quite

a few showers he can see there on the satellite picture stretching from angola all the way across into madagascar and then more showers in the eastern parts of south africa these have been pretty violent i think we'll see a few more over the next few days. a policy imposed decades ago pregnant woman thought that she would selectively goods and when the boy is changing demographics across asia with far reaching consequences for creating a pool of socially disadvantaged young men so you have the system where people at every level will be get being given money money to agree to sorrows ation our money to get other people to be the services out there examines the politics of population control.

and. where every. you're watching the news hour on al-jazeera with me fully back t. ball a reminder of our top stories now a tsunami has it indonesia killing at least two hundred twenty two people and injuring more than eight hundred others waves of up to a meter high struck areas along the soon the straits between two of the country's

biggest silence have been demonstrations across the don for a fifth day in a row many people are angry at the rising cost of food and fuel at least ten people have died since the bodies began on wednesday schools and universities close in at least five states and doctors have decided to join the protest movement and the u.s. defense chief james mattis will leave his post at the beginning of the year almost two months earlier than expected to present donald trump has named deputy secretary of defense patrick shanahan as the man to succeed mattis what's more on this let's not speak to lawrence korb who's a former assistant secretary of defense and a senior fellow at the center for american progress he's via skype from alexandria in virginia very good to have you with us on al-jazeera again so what do you make of jim matheson leaving his post earlier than expected what's behind this you think well i think you're curious number one resident who is not happy with our writers this resignation letter was march you know for the usual usually people leave they

said we don't want to spend more money. than the other is that it would have made matters in georgia florida to take their troops out of syria now not to stand in line drawn probably was going to learn you know would be really you know carry out those orders so patrick shanahan is the incoming defense secretary in an acting position what can you tell us about him well his views you think be better aligned with those of truck. well he is a bowling executive never been in the military has no current policy experience and see that in the pentagon he's mainly you know trying to make sure to cut out waste and inefficiency and his men in charge of the budget so i don't there is no record of his foreign policy views so it seems to me that he would be very unlikely to challenge president trump given the fact that he does not have that background why

for example madison out of bob gates who was secretary under obama we've had two major resignations as a result of from secession to pull out of syria against the advice of his military leaders they seem to be a crisis in u.s. strategy what does you know what does a strategy what is a strategy do we do is there one in your opinion no i mean what president trumpet is doing what do you agree or disagree these are tactics the requestion is what your strategy of you know you're going to get out of syria you just want to leave nor are you going to repeal the same way with afghanistan you quote found a number of jobs what about the negotiation that you know ambassador khalilzad is undertaking right now with the taliban out of the senate that got another i think is the real conservative on a lot of people not that the president is doing something like this what is it or overall who are all around it you. just coming back to syria the president says he

spoke with the turkish president had a lot about a snow and highly coordinated response to prevent and well authority vacuum from syria and patty they also talked about trade between turkey and the u.s. expanding trade it almost seems like. u.s. policy foreign policy anyway the military policies also being dictated by trade. you know no doubt about it just like with saudi arabia you know one of the regions a president has not condemned the n.b.a.'s or his involvement in the killing of mr good show he is because of all of the deals that he made with the saudi arabia we all were asked to maybe wonder what it's still a couple hundred billion dollars similarly it's what no accident why they are you're our resident trump decided to leave syria or can get one the turks apparently have agree to purchase patriot us missile wanted access twenty eight

minutes is. very interesting sucky thank you so much for speaking to us larry called joining us from an eccentric virginia thank you thank you for. a u.n. team has arrived in yemen sports city of her data to monitor a cease fire deal between yemen's government and healthy rebels earlier they met government representatives in the city of aden a deal between the government and whole thesis was reached in sweden almost two weeks ago. in lebanon hundreds of people have been demonstrating angry a deteriorating economic conditions and corruption scuffles broke out between protesters and riot police in the streets around the national parliament in beirut demonstrations are spread in recent weeks because politicians have failed to form a government since elections in may. in france the latest so-called yellow vests on thai government protests have been generally peaceful with about forty thousand people turning out across the country that's well down on the hundreds of thousands of took on at the peak of the demonstrations over the past six weeks but as venice

smith reports from paris they have been pockets of violence. with just a few hundred yellow vest protesters on the show's elisei on saturday night a small number sparked a violent confrontation with police. as the policeman scramble to save their bikes pulled a gun. the whole incident lasted about three minutes but is an indication of how quickly a quiet protest can turn ugly. yellow vest protesters described as act six began peacefully on saturday and became a nonstop march through the streets of paris the aim is always to reach the elisei palace on the front door of president emanuel macro but with police blocking roads leading to his official residence the yellow vests just kept walking and walking. and it if you don't it is clear that the response including judicial would be the most severe possible no it is calm and harmony that must prevail 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. for six weeks yellow vest protesters have been demanding relief from high taxes and more help for france's poorest the numbers of fallen from around three hundred thousand nationwide in the first week to about forty thousand this weekend. but it's with al-jazeera paris. a man and a woman who were arrested in relation to destructive drone frizer on london's gatwick airport have been released british police say the pair corporator and are no no longer considered suspects in the case they've been arrested on friday after drone scientists over the disrupted the travel plans of thousands of passengers the motive for the drone flying to still unknown. now in mexico's new president

mexico's news president is facing a backlash against the decision to cut the salaries and perks of the country's top government earners including himself at the same time under his money lopez obrador has lifted mexico's minimum public sector salary by sixteen percent the biggest single increase in more than twenty years john home and reports from mexico city. it all started with this from x. cruz new president without it we can't have a rich government and poor people that's why the government stopped salaries are going down he's practicing what he preaches slashing his own salary by more than half and forcing others in the public sector to cut those two by next year's budget lopez obrador is more in a party has majority in congress and is backing his plans deputies and senators have reduced some of their own lucrative perks you're going to get in a society i think it's necessary that we have an equilibrium between what a public servant and working person earns many have said that it's about training

and we don't argue with that but a construction worker or night guard works longer and harder. it is no cuts the president's promising raises for the lowest paid public sector workers those who earn less than a thousand dollars a month but not everyone's on board with the changes will them five thousand civil servants have launched legal appeals the supreme court's also waited in temporarily suspending cuts for the judiciary and some other institutions but critics say the judges themselves are part of mexico's gaping wage inequality the end around seventeen times that of the average worker this measure from the president schools a lot of debate from here in congress down to the streets for a lot of people are really happy at what they see as an entitle political class and public sector of finally going to get their salaries slashed other people say this could open the door to corruption and a brain drain to the private sector anti corruption experts say cutting the most

exorbitant salaries is needed but applying the measure across the board could backfire. the consequences of cutting everyone salary is that even though it's a noble aim to slash the pay of high level bureaucrats the medium and low level ones who are specialists and technicians aren't going to have enough incentives to stay in public. office and make the changes we need there are also worries that instead of taking the hit themselves those at the top could fire employees or trim their benefits to fit the shrinking budget it's now up to the new administration to check that good intentions to turn into power change john homan mexico city former british politician paddy ashdown who was a leading figure in the peace process after the balkans war has died following a short battle with cancer he was seventy seven a former soldier also worked to uncover war crimes committed during the conflict in yugoslavia. he was

a towering force in british politics credited with making the liberal democrats britain's third biggest party to have a stash out of conviction politician he devoted himself tirelessly to centrist politics for more than a decade and was admired across the political spectrum for his powerful oratory is it not now perfectly clear that what the government has to offer the country is not a continuation of the cure it's more of the boys born in india and raised in northern ireland he later served in the royal marines and special services his influence went beyond britain becoming the un's high representative for bosnia and herzegovina in two thousand and two where he investigated war crimes including the massacre of more than eight thousand men and boys in the town a sober needs or during the conflict in yugoslavia he was a forceful advocate for international intervention he would later give evidence at the trial of the former serbian leader slobodan milosevic he retired from politics

in two thousand and one but remained a prominent voice campaigning vigorously against bracks it it's not my job to be popular he once said i'm goal driven my job is to get results a little piece of a on al-jazeera. still ahead on al-jazeera a bad run to the mob breaks gets worse as one of the stop ailes is sent flying into the stands assisting haven't since the film decides. they want to focus three billion dollars worth of weaponry that was six billion pounds in commission. there is no hope of any more because there's always a small cobbles to call for really really good business. in essence we

in the united states have privatized the ultimate public function more shadow on al-jazeera. and under-reported world on. us and british companies have announced the biggest discovery of natural gas in west africa but what to do with these untapped natural resources is already a source of heated debate nothing much has changed they still spend most of their days looking forward to full dry river beds like this one five years on the syrians still feel battered or even those who managed to escape their countries have been truly unable to escape the work. place.

plug them back greece's rail industry is a small us in europe but things are on track for a chain.