a strained relationship over syria policy now you're hearing u.s. president donald trump in one way or another choose a turkey as its representative in syria saying that order god told him that they will fight eisel he gave him guarantees that they will fight isis so it's almost as if the u.s. president is saying we're pulling out and turkey is going to represent our interests in syria turkish officials over the past few days have been stressing really two words coordination and vacuum what they have been asking the united states is for this pullout to be orderly so that as to prevent a vacuum a security vacuum to avoid chaos what we understand from turkish officials is that in one way or another they want to avoid a military confrontation and what they're expecting from the united states is for them to hand over to hand over their positions to hand over this these territories and this really is going to raise a lot of questions because what is the fate of the syrian kurdish armed group the

white peachey former allies if you like of the united states is the united states going to disarm this group before they leave so many questions left unanswered but what is clear is that this is not going to be a rapid pullout and the u.s. and turkish officials are going to sit down together in washington on january eighth to discuss this with drawl of most of all to come here including three decades elysium reproduction to find out how nigeria is trying to rescue one of africa's biggest steel factories. we meet the nicaraguan cartoonists who are challenging the government crackdown with. by the skyline i mean the ancient harbor or off the coast of the italian riviera. and i bet there's a battle of wills across europe at the moment we've got some very cold air in the

north and some slightly warmer air in the south where they meet well under this huge area of cloud heaven around that area of cloud whizzing pulses of heavy rain and a fair amount of snow as well as all system is slipping its way southwards as we head into chews day so christmas day for most of us across europe is going to be a pretty cold one four degrees as a maximum in vienna and five in zurich towards the southeast though it's still going to be pretty stormy for some of us his so that ray will push its way southwards over parts of greece through turkey and then rock itself up through ukraine so really also wintery weather here and that will head to rain as you head further south so wet and windy for many of us here further west so here it looks like it's going to be quite cloudy a time there were many parts of spain including for us in madrid and the cloud also extends further south so for some of us in morocco monday it will be rather gray and then the system sweeps eastwood's for tuesday working its way into parts about geria or about there you should pop out into the sunshine one small say twenty

should be a maximum here for the east they'll be a bit of a breeze in benghazi but we'll get to around nineteen the central belt of africa has a lot of dry weather with us now and it looks like lagos will be at thirty one there with sponsored by the time. the lights are on. and there's nowhere to hide isn't the easiest way to solve this time allow u.n. observers who you invited into the country earlier this year to finish the 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's a journalistic integrity and then just in this case it was betrayed totally up front on al-jazeera.

this is a can of the top stories here it is there at least two hundred eighty one people have died after saturday's tsunami swept along the sun just straight and crashed twenty meters inland without warning rescue teams are working around the clock in search of survivors the indonesian president has promised to upgrade tsunami detection systems trade unions in sudan are calling for a general strike aimed at paralyzing the government this comes after police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters in the capital khartoum on saturday night. the pentagon has signed off on the withdrawal of u.s. military from northern syria comes after turkish president. spoke with president trump on sunday mr trump says president had one informed him he will eradicate

whatever's left of isis in syria. i'm patrick shanahan is to assume office is the new u.s. defense secretary replacing james that is on january the first president trump announce a change in a tweet pushing mattis from office two months earlier than planned mattis resigned on thursday over president trump's decision on syria. that south korea's government is in german car make a beer i'm doubly with a ten million dollar fine and is filing a criminal complaint against the company b.m.w. is accused of deliberately covering up technical problems that led to several engine fires in the country b.m.w. recalled one hundred seventy two thousand models and issued an apology earlier this year south korea's transport ministry says they didn't act fast enough for the democratic republic of congo is gearing up for a long day of lady elections to replace president kabila and one of the most

powerful players calling for changes the catholic church welcome word has more friends. in kinshasa. in the democratic republic of congo the catholic church has clout. nearly half of congress eighty million people go through its church services like this one in the capital kinshasa when president joseph kabila didn't step down at the end of his second and final constitutional mandate the church stood up journalist sean 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. 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 perspire moment 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 a delayed election to take place when it was finally announced more were killed during the campaigns mostly at opposition rallies the government promises it's delivering democracy because. 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 it's political works 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. after thirty seven years nigeria's parliament has finally approved a billion dollars to rescue one of africa's biggest steel plants the approval came out after an exclusive al-jazeera report on how corruption was blocking the company's revival amid interest has gone back to the kuta steel company. a dusty he hangs over one of africa's biggest cd plans as an eagle flies overhead

surveying the scene below. for more than three decades i don't just forty one plans that include steel electricity cement and footless appliance i've been idle despite the soviet era met resolutely being ninety five percent complete but change appears to be finally on the way we've tried to put the governance structure the structure in place it compact on my efficient structure to enable us carry out our responsibility and what we're sure we're doing is to ensure that there is a video of the dryer on a monthly basis the parliament has pushed the legislation through to fund its completion this government is one this is a mission and the route through a show that. walks before the end of this administration it's estimated that six hundred to seven hundred million dollars would be enough to complete the project but parliament has approved one billion dollars that has also

triggered a sudden interest from investors whether their funds come from decide the government or lot there are a special interest for so many companies on ten ukraine russia belarus are some other countries the plan steam powered electricity generators will soon contribute seventy megawatts to the nation's grid it will become one of africa's biggest deal plans producing up to ten million tons of steel each year while this massive plant lay dormant a south korean company with a similar sized plant built a year later by the same soviet union engineers has grown to become one of the four largest two producers in the world with revenues of about fifty billion dollars a year but after more than three decades corrupt government officials and their lobbyist make sure but there is still a company never took off. the machine tools section is the busiest here engineers

are designing and producing machine spares but customer demand especially from government on factories is for externally though most facilities including the conveyor belt need an overhaul of the rail system including the locomotives and trucks are still waiting to be used although the bridge riverport two hundred kilometers of rail link two hundred kilometers of internal roads and rail networks have been completed access to some iron ore mining sites is still a challenge. while the company with still more government support many nigerians wonder why a country which currently has a foreign reserves of forty five billion u.s. dollars cannot find a way to complete such an important project and kickstart the industrialization process how many agrees. nigeria. the body of a seven year old girl who died while seen u.s.

border patrol custody is now arrived back in guatemala jacqueline kyle's body will be handed over to her family and relatives in her home village her father says jack lima sick when they were taken into custody by the u.s. border patrol and that she was denied adequate medical attention. a deepening political crisis in nicaragua has prompted president danielle will take it to step up a crackdown on his critics that's pushing nicaraguans to find alternative forms of protest like in the out man while it meets one such artist from the capital managua has since had his studio raided by members of the police. at a private studio in the nicaraguan capital political cartoonist better molina sketching out an idea well the sketch is coming along legal to protest against the government here but bedroom says with few civil liberties many government critics

have turned to art. how bad the crisis has been the positive side is that it has spark in people because spaces for freedom of expression have been closed off not letting people march or anything else people are now looking for an alternative way of expressing themselves. the violent clashes of a few months ago on the streets of mine i won't have stopped at least temporarily a photography exhibit and you can i was university of central america highlights the increasingly repressive tactics by national security forces to silence critics of the president. cloudy a good deal curator of the exhibit says simply having these photographs on display creates a high risk of reprisal from the government. if india. were all definitely very afraid this isn't easy but the university wanted. take this risk which may or may not be prudent and it could have consequences.

across town local artists have put together another exhibit showcasing thirty paintings representing the thirty articles of the universal declaration of human rights artists can be allowed to be read says art gives people a way to express themselves when there is no other alternative would have been set up by law that any words can get you thrown in prison in this country i don't think i would be arrested for a painting or maybe so but that's a reality the moment we can no longer make art what's the point of living life when i. am a lot of not even. artists in my now was a few places are willing to host art exhibits if they're perceived as anti-government since the start of the political crisis hundreds of people in naked eye will have been sent to prison many for voicing their opinions or sharing them online back in the studio is finishing his sketch depicting the guy was president

then you know what they got and his wife the vice president as to puppets scattered on his desk are the portraits he's drawn of children activists and journalists who've been killed by government forces since the start of the crisis an artistic statement in a country where words of dissent are not allowed. i just. fifty years ago during christmas week three u.s. nationals flew around the moon the mission is considered to be nasa as boldest and bats as dangerous as ever well that fest voice set the stage for the apollo eleven moon landings seven months later al-jazeera is rather than joe of next planes why this scientific feat was historic i'm always someone. apollo eight the u.s. is bid to make history launch astronauts bill anders jim lovell and frank borman into space have them orbit the moon ten times bring the back to earth

a lot while the remarkable things about nasa at that time people that were there all or willing to subordinate every factor of their life their families their health everything to the success of the mission we three of us for a very fortunate to a system work and that kind of an environment i believe the nation committed. to achieving the goal. of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely could be your john kennedy had set the country this challenge in one thousand nine hundred sixty one but despite several preliminary missions and a fatal fire time was running out what's more the soviet union was ahead of the u.s. in the so-called space race washington was desperate to catch up nasa got its chance in august one thousand nine hundred sixty eight. had intelligence information i think that robert mentioned that the russians were going to put

a man or a man seven navigate the moon not orbit the moon which has gotten certain navigating come back sixteen weeks later time to board a saturn five rocket and leave the russians behind it was four days before christmas. long the plight of apollo eight animals yes the mission was newsworthy but the apollo eight mission also happened at the end of a very rough year in the united states both dr martin luther king jr and bobby kennedy had been assassinated and people were writing because of racism and because of the vietnam war and the failure of vietnam had forced the u.s. president to quit running for reelection it seemed everyone needed some good news

maybe not since the civil war we so torn apart so divided so many people distrustful of so many others and it seemed nothing could bring us together again so with the chaos in the streets and the highest of stresses at work finally the reason for the voyage seen through a window suddenly here was this beautiful fragile looking. planet our own home planet coming up in particularly is out emphasized over the stark lunar aizen five yards. wide. eyed. five five far off by a christmas eve message from these adventurers perhaps even more heartfelt than they could have ever imagined. roslyn jordan al-jazeera washington.

these are the top stories here it out there at least two hundred eighty one people have died after saturday's tsunami swept along the sundra strait and crashed twenty meters inland without warning rescue teams are working around the clock in search of survivors president joko widodo has promised to update tsunami detection systems . that i've ordered a check of all the tsunami detection equipment and the replacement of broken ones i think in the new budget year of twenty nineteen early january the replacement of broken equipment or old ones which can no longer be used. there are affairs that more tsunamis could hit the indonesian coastline as the volcano which triggered the weekend's devastating wave continues to erupt coastal residents near and that clock a towel volcano have been warned to keep away from the beaches trade unions in

savannah calling for a general strike aimed at paralyzing the government this comes after police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters in the capital khartoum on saturday night they chanted freedom songs and demand president omar bashir step down doctors across the country have already walked off the job as anti-government protests enter the sixth day. the pentagon has signed off on the withdrawal of u.s. military forces from northern syria comes after the turkish president roger federer and spoke with president trump on sunday president trump says miss everyone informed him he will eradicate whatever is left of isis in syria. patrick shanahan has assumed office is the new u.s. defense secretary replacing james mattis on january the first president trump announced the change in a tweet pushing masses from office two months earlier than planned mattis resigned

on thursday of a trump's decision on syria for a judge today headlines outfront next. getting to the heart of the matter how can you be a refugee after a while it borders between five safe countries facing new realities the pain starts from the very beginning of the school year 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 the 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 of iraq 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 was circling the media well plenty of top u.s. general in 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 to someone else plenty of top u.s. general at the time at the time for get do overs and they wound eric shinseki

former army chief of staff and to me zinni former centcom commander even colin powell in private former general secretary of state the time how dead doubts about the war but 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 and 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 i'm going to have to answer my question that's very. very odd thing to say in an interview. selectively choosing selective anything you say is selective and so that's all 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 in the states is multiple 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 do 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 were 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 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 and the chilcot inquiry the official 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 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 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 wall 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 take you 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 people in the streets so let's hear what millions of people in this new are suggesting that there was and there are millions of people who served in the united states on a fine let me clarify now are 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 bullet massacre when i know i 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 older people have looked at these massacres in balad and men with the full 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 alleged to have done that i'm confused it's a very we're saying american courts convicted those four yes 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 what am i don't know you and in my head oh by the way not to indict the whole american nation 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 or do you accuse the entire american neighborhood 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 have 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 that you can win them on that i mean one in thirteen will read your own two thousand and thirteen article ok i don't know we're going to talk about my twenty thirty to i'm going to ask you simple questions and you're having struggling when i'll see them not just going to i'm not struggling no you know what yes i'm going to work i am going back to the simple thesis that it's a new to. the three of you have been opposed to the iraqis i have indeed and what you are now doing and that is you are that's what i like to 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 while 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 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 seen you in the audience are in there ok i agree so how many people died in future how many people died in combat inside of fallujah the civilians were killed by u.s. forces in fallujah intentionally. how many total killed i don't know do you i certainly care every every going to loss of.