nice when immensely wealthy countries help rebuild their neighbors rather than a great country the us that is five thousand miles away thanks to saudi a while for more of that let's speak to rob reynolds in washington d.c. i mean as far as i know we've had no statement from the saudis either confirming or denying what the president has tweeted do we know any more now on why he tweeted and where this might have come from. no idea really where it came from as you mentioned barbara the saudis have not made any announcement along these lines of this is only president from tweeting he gave no details about how much money saudi arabia might be willing to give to rebuild syria. when that money would be given what it would be spent on specifically and you know we just heard a very comprehensive report from zena hodor about all of the divisions within syria

and the different spears of power and influence and territories that are controlled by various factions and powers and so who would get the money is another question would it be the assad regime it's just unknown exactly from from this brief tweet now from has often complained as we've heard in the past about the amounts of money that the united states spends militarily overseas and complaining that other countries like the nato alliance and south korea don't pay enough or don't pay their fair share and this tweet again comes right on the heels of the resignation of defense secretary james madison who who quit over trump's decision to abruptly pull the remaining american troops out of syria and of course trump made no mention either of so to saudi arabia's involvement ongoing involvement in the

war in yemen but this isn't the first time that trump has seemed to elevate the role of money in the u.s. saudi relationship of course even seem to disregard the conclusions of his own intelligence community and agencies regarding the saudi government's role in the murder of the journalist jamal khashoggi. because he said. saudi arabia was willing to spend a lot of money in the united states. program olds with the latest on that from washington d.c. we will be bringing you more developments of more analysis of that tweet and what it may or may not imply a little later in the program thank you the head of the united nations team tasked with monitoring a fragile cease fire in the yemeni city of her day that has visited stocks which are vital to the aid effort there retired dutch general patrick camera called on saudi backed government forces and who the rebels to respect the hard won

a truce that began on tuesday there's been sporadic fighting in the area in recent days but it's hoped the ceasefire will see more aid passing through data support to alleviate the dire humanitarian situation we cannot solve your problem. you have to do that yourselves and listen to the other story. and that means that we will see it we will discuss we will take the good but we have to move forward. for five months there wasn't any armed appearances here in haiti the city and the workers at the united nations knew that after the coalition attacked the city reporting reinforcements the united arab emirates says released photos of the daughter of one of the country's rulers after rights groups raised concerns about her wellbeing the pictures show. was former u.n. high commissioner for human rights mary robinson a state run news agency says the pictures were taken on the center fifteenth and that latifa is at home with her family and the by the princess had released

a forty minute video online that went viral where she claimed the shoes imprisoned and had been abused for several years. thank you more here on the al-jazeera news hour including a prime minister in. prison term as the country's driving corruption. after the approval of a billion dollar rescue plan. and here's a look back at some of the. sports that's coming up in the program. and the poor performance of u.s. stocks. despite the efforts of the treasury all three major indices closed down

three percent in the shorter trading day on sunday treasury secretary steven called the leaders of six of the us is biggest banks and was assured that they could survive that the client trump has blamed the federal reserve for the market turbulence. more on this from new york the market selloff. on monday and there's a whole host of factors driving it but it's turned into unpredictability and. markets right now. certainly with the government shutdown in washington with the federal reserve chairman powell and president trump's threats at least to try to remove him from his job something that the president does not have power to do nevertheless the fact that he's publicly discussing this or with his advisers is really. uncertainty in the markets and also the market downturn in the china trade war in terror back and forth between united states and all of this and this is why

you're seeing so much uncertainty in the market and that's why treasury secretary. called the top executives of some of the biggest banks in america. sunday this is a very unusual move for a treasury secretary to do but he said that he did it to try to call him the markets and reassure the markets but what it did was just had the very opposite effect because because it was so unusual for a treasury secretary to make such a call to the leaders of the biggest banks what it did is it just spooked the markets and that's why we saw the big sell off on monday it turned out to be the worst day for the dow on a christmas eve monday in the history of trading it gives you an idea of how bad things are now the the drop in the stock market will stop on tuesday because the markets are closed for the christmas holiday but when they reopen again on wednesday they're likely be a lot more uncertainty in the trading. former pakistani prime minister now was

sharif has been given a seven year jail sentence after being found guilty of corruption is also being fined twenty five million dollars sharif denies the allegations and says he's being targeted by the country's security establishment for such a party has more than three times prime minister nawaz sharif known as the tiger of pakistan is back in prison the anti-corruption court in islamabad imposed a seven year jail term for having investments beyond his the cleric assets. he was unable to prove the source of income for the ownership of a steel mill in saudi arabia. a dug them out of. the courts are supreme for us we will abide by their judgments our leader no washer resubmitted himself to the legal process but all these proceedings are one sided sharif who denied on doing had been

sentenced to ten years in prison in july by the same court on different charges they were related to the purchase of property in london he'd been freed on bail pending an appeal sharif's party last general elections in july of while he was in jail the history of progress than has been that no ruler in pakistan has had ever been actually ascendance you know prior to him the pakistani politicians have always been going scot free they have always believed they will not be sentenced in any case it is not possible they can exert influence but this time i think we are living in a different dimes people of pakistan they are going for you know accountability people are tired of corruption. the security around the court was tight for monday's verdict which shines on uncomfortable light on corruption at the highest levels of government in pakistan or such a party al jazeera so dan's president has promised economic reforms to provide

sudanese people with a better standard of living in his first public comments since protests began six days ago omar al bashir also warned the public not to respond to attempts to sow this chord in the country at least twelve people have been killed during the protests which were triggered by rising prices of food and fuel but protesters are now calling for president bashir to step down and end his twenty nine year rule of the country he bought morgan sent this report from the streets of the sudanese capital khartoum. process in sudan may have started because of a qana me and the rising prices of commodities in the markets but we've also heard people chanting different slogans like new government down with the government they basically have been saying that they want the government to step down and they're asking for a new government partly because they feel that they've been neglected and that the way the country has been run is not the way they wanted to go want to so we can see that is the health sector where people have been saying that it's very hard for them to get access to decent health care and medicines while the how they get the

need them getting a diagnosis is expensive medicines are expensive and citizens are suffering living is expensive food is expensive so when you get sick you are at your weakest your worst you have to go to private hospitals because government hospitals have nothing to offer. ways. people are suffering while the government officials and people from the ruling party are benefiting they get treatment in india in europe in the best hospitals. they don't go to the government hospitals like the rest of the people. but some of them are saying because of inflation and because of the way the health industry is being run big can't afford decent health care because of floods and medicines they want and especially because prices in the month market has been high prices of medicines have been going up high it's been nearly a week of protests more than a dozen people have been killed even more have been injured and even more have been imprisoned people are still going out to the streets people saying are saying that they are not going to stop to do the doctors had issued a statement saying that they wanted to go out on strike that hasn't happened but

what they also said that is that they want people to join their profession thermal servants to join them in a march tomorrow so that they can tell the government that they are already frustrated with the way things are being run and that they want to see change and they want to see it sooner rather than later. after thirty seven years nigeria's parliament has finally approved a billion dollars to rescue one of the of africa's biggest steel plants the approval came after an exclusive al-jazeera report on how corruption was blocking the company's revival acquitted or says revisited the steel company. by dusty hayes hangs over one of africa's biggest shield 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 this soviet era mattress a little being ninety five percent complete but change appears to be finally on the

way we've tried to put the governance structure of the structure in place it compact and my office and structure to enable us carry out our responsibilities and what we're sure we are doing is to ensure that there is a periodic dryer on a monthly basis the parliament has pushed legislation through to fund its completion this government is on this mission and the right to all ensure 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 the funds come from the side of government or lot there are a special interest for so many companies on ten ukraine russia the levels are some of the european 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 steel plants producing up to ten million tons of steel each year while this massive plant lay dormant i 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 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 a 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 degrees al-jazeera nigeria. plenty more still to come. as millions of venezuelans flee the turmoil at home some find sanctuary in the music of when a virus. belarus's president accuses russia of using its oil and gas supplies to deepen its control over the country and then sport river plate makes

a spectacular return the point is that this is they celebrated their new trophy with ferns. hello there is pretty cool for many of us in europe at the moment we take a look at the satellite picture we can see this huge area of cloud here and that's the leading edge of the cold air that's really digging down into the southeastern parts of europe at the moment as we head through the day on tuesday we're going to see that push further and further into parts of turkey through into greece is well heavy downpours here and a lot of wintery weather over the mountains as well that system and sweeps its way back around and works its way across ukraine for ukraine and for many of us in the western parts of russia the temperatures will be below freezing over the next few days elsewhere we just above freezing but it's really not that warm around six in

berlin and only around five in paris even down towards the southwest for madrid we're looking at a top temperature on wednesday of eleven degrees and there will be a fair amount of cloud at times to some of that cloud is pushing further south would still you can see it here stretching all the way up through parts of morocco and into algeria but it does disintegrate as it works its way eastwards and then many more of us will see some brighter weather for wednesday for the east there is going to be brighter here will see some of those showers just make their way on to the coast of libya and into egypt and some of them are likely to be rather heavy for the central belt of africa a good deal of sunshine for many of us the showers really are just in the far south . after joining the greenpeace team campaigning to protect the weddell sea in antarctica we're now in australia for the outcome with the first generation to realize the gravity of this crisis. but we may be the last to be able to do

something about it in another thread special find out if the effort to create the largest sentry on earth has succeeded thrice on al-jazeera. man.

welcome back here's a reminder the top stories on. three hundred seventy three people have been confirmed dead after a tsunami struck parts of indonesia without warning on saturday rescue teams are racing to find survivors on the island of java and sumatra as experts warn more could hit in the coming days at least twenty eight people have been killed in a car bomb and gun attack in the afghan capital kabul hundreds of people were trapped when gunmen stormed a government building in the city before attackers have now killed by security forces. and as the u.s. prepares to pull its troops out of syria president trump says saudi arabia is going to step in to rebuild the war torn country from made the comments over where else twitter saying saudi has agreed to spend and then necessary money. well for more

on what's happening in syria we're joined by middle east analyst. who joins us from our studio in washington d.c. yes sir thank you very much for finding the time to speak to us here. first of all let's just start with this tweet that donald trump wrote just a few hours ago effectively saying the saudis are going to pay to rebuild syria i know it's often difficult to interpret some of the president's tweets but what did you make of it especially in light of the fact that we haven't actually had any kind of confirmation from saudi arabia itself. as we are know by now trump president trump is operating in an on condition on conditional way so far we have seen that the saudis have committed one hundred million dollars for reconstruction funds for syria and that commitment was made actually only days after it was confirmed jamal khashoggi was killed in

a premeditated manner so trump's tweets today builds on the notion that saudi arabia will have to make concessions to its remedying its image on the international stage and to contribute to reconstruction in syria fits that pattern them of course saudi arabia one of the players involved in one way or another in the syria turkey another key one and then we've just heard the u.s. military officials are heading to turkey to meet their turkish counterparts there to discuss what happens after the u.s. troop withdrawal i mean how do you see the the sort of balance of power reshaping in that country if the u.s. does as triumph suggested withdraw its troops. what is important to understand. because of the fear turkey and saudi arabia have been logging heads in the international arena on how to proceed with this delicate matter and now that we're seeing that president trump is accelerating to

normalization process with turkey and we have seen reports today that president trump intends to visit turkey sometime in early two thousand and nineteen all of that. adds to the pressure on the saudis to move forward and provide a symbolic victory for trump if you will and that is that after he has come under extensive criticism for his decision to pull out of syria and how that decision was made president trump is now applying pressure for saudi arabia to make these concessions so that he has a political victory if you will that he can deliver to his base here in the united states so this is the diplomatic game that is playing out as we speak i guess if donald trump is going to win a diplomatic victory in the u.s. a lot of things don't matter so for example what happens to the y.p. g. forces the kurds in syria the u.s. electorate doesn't really care what they do care about though is the fight against eisel president on first saying that i saw had been defeated now we're hearing that

you know turkey for example will not rest until they defeat i so what do you think will happen to iceland now that the u.s. is planning to withdraw do you think we will see a strengthened group. i think that what we're seeing and what is playing out are two different things so first of all as we have seen present trump has declared that he will withdraw from from syria but at the same time we saw the turkish spokesperson for the president declared that it will be accorded a good response so in other words i don't think that the united states will fully withdraw from syria has been reported i think that the united states and turkey will carefully coordinate all moves going forward which includes ensuring that. that kurdish villages and kurdish civilians are not getting in harm's way precisely because the u.s. turkish relationship is strategic and the democrats that will take over to the u.s.

house of representatives next month will not tolerate any sort of humanitarian catastrophe hitting a turkish fighter sandor family so i think that this is actually a calibrated move and i think that some of the criticism that has come against trump have been politically motivated even though he is as we know operating in conventional manner there at least analysts to see good in me about her sir thank you so much for sharing your views with us thank you now israelis will vote in early elections next april seven months before they were due the announcement follows a deadlock over a controversial military conscription bill if prime minister benjamin netanyahu is returned to office he would be on course to become israel's of the longest serving leader that danielle says his coalition unanimously agreed to disband the government. sensible to.

integrate back. until how often is the chief political correspondent had the jerusalem post he says the election will delay the release of u.s. president donald trump's middle east peace plan. and it's in the hours going through a successful time when it comes to diplomacy security economy but a problematic time when it comes to his legal court cases and so he wants to get mandate from the voters to continue for another term continue what he's been doing successfully on those key issues while trying to make sure that he'll still be in office despite the criminal investigations against him which are intensify and it's in the out and donald trump are very close and any kind of peace plan that they'll be coming from donald trump is going to wait until after the election in israel though there had been talk that would happen by the end of two thousand and eighteen well that's obviously not going to happen anymore and now that we have an election coming up in israel now it's looking like it will happen only in the summer. and then it will be coordinated very closely between this and now and

donald trump. palestinians and pilgrims are gathering in bethlehem in the occupied west bank to mark a christmas eve earlier a procession of visitors made their way through an israeli gate in west jerusalem and into bethlehem the gaze is opened once a year and otherwise cuts the ancient religious route and midnight mass will be held at the church of the nativity will stephanie decker joins us live now from bethlehem and stephanie we are still was about just under half an hour away from midnight there and the start of the mass just tell us a little bit about the atmosphere how many people and what it's like in beslan which of course is such a key place for christianity what it's like going on christmas eve. there really is the heart of where it all began the ancient town of bethlehem a midnight mass has actually started now the president the policy of president mahmoud abbas hasn't yet arrived he is in bethlehem but he will be attending as

well so you still have a small crowd of visitors a lot of palestinian christians also foreign tourists everyone there it's a real celebratory atmosphere. the foreigners that have come here for the first time they will tell you how excited they are and also how surprised they are really seeing the reality of the world as you mentioned there that the archbishop had to pass through israel opens it only once a year there's a gate through that will that allows the archbishop to complete his journey that ancient religious hall rode from jerusalem to bethlehem so it's been a day of celebration it's been a day we watched many of the young scouts common play music there's been international fires at the foot of the tree and it's come now sort of winding down with that final moment of midnight mass that has foreign dignitaries diplomats the palestinian president attending but again you know the underlying issue here speaking to so many people is that they keep reiterating that the un resolved issue

of palestinian sovereignty needs to be a draw. even though it's christmas and everyone celebrate it it remains a real threat throughout people what they say when you talk to them because it's very interesting stephanie for a lot of people really christmas eve or christmas day we one of the few times that that it's easier for them to go to the palestinian territories that there will be a huge crowd of people from outside that maybe don't even live in the region that will go and visit so it really is the first time and one of the only times a year the people can really experience going into the palestinian territories like this. absolutely and the the religious pilgrimage here in the holy land is a multi billion dollar industry it is of course controlled by israel because the borders even if people enter let's say through jordan through the west bank those borders keep being controlled by israel so we've been speaking to the palestinian mayor who will tell you that they're not their full capacity of being able to take

full advantage of these tourist buses and we've been in and out of here for the last couple of months particularly you could see loads of tourists faces from everywhere from kenya from france from brazil from malaysia from singapore palestinians here in bethlehem will tell you even though it's been a good year is that people will come in and out they come in their buses they see the church of the nativity they'll see the milk and then they'll be with back into jerusalem into other areas so this is something that they want to have addressed but of course that feeds into the bigger issue of palestinian sovereignty and palestinian independence which remains at this point in time barbara very long way all. the really magical atmosphere behind you thank you. meanwhile in the vatican pope francis leading mass inside st peter's basilica the mass is one of the highlights of the vatican this year and is being beamed around the world thousands have gathered in st peter's square to watch the event christmas

day the eighty two year old pope will deliver his message and blessing in which he prays for the most suffering parts of the world. in the town of san antonio have been mourning as the body of a seven year old migrant girl who died in u.s. custody was laid to rest in her hometown jacqueline died after traveling more than two thousand kilometers from the u.s. border as part of the caravan of asylum seekers jacqueline's father says she was sick when they were taken into custody by u.s. border patrol and was the night adequate medical attention. more than two million venezuelans fleeing the economic crisis in their homeland of resettled in countries across south america in argentina many are turning to music to cope with the difficulties of being away from home met some musicians. a tradition an argentine tango music with the venice will end twist. on

years came to win a scientist who escaped the crisis in venezuela now a member of this band it makes her feel just a bit closer to home. via left because when my baby was born i was afraid he could die because we couldn't find medicine that's why we came here now playing here helps to stay united and we will all take care of each other as a family. this is the latin box machine the band members met him when a site is made hands in venezuela they were part of a program known as the system it was set up. in the one nine hundred seventy s. and used to music to attract thousands of innocent children away from a life in crime and poverty. and so forth the message of this bad is that in spite of the difficulty and the suffering of all the problems we face we never have to stop fighting for what we love and we are all musicians at heart.

many of those in the band got their start in argentina playing in they want to cite us metro system six months ago sis had a pretty sad arrived in the capital he still plays in the metro to help make ends meet but it was part of my destiny we all left for different reasons but finding ourselves as part of the miracle in the band no there's also people from other countries we all learn to see things differently since we left there are a whole. musicians who came to argentina from venezuela arrived here with little except their instruments the sound they make has made it possible for them. to start a new life millions of minutes wayland's are feeling the direct anomic situation in that country isn't coming to argentina brazil peru and quite a lot of the members of the band say that they're working with the united nations refugee agency to shed light on the problems faced by those who are forced to leave their countries behind. argentina has an open arms policy towards migrants but the

situation is not the same elsewhere as the time has come once again for latin america and the americans as a continent to continuing on or in the tradition of your are plenty of brother and sister hood in the sense that we would extend protection to all those who need it either if they come from venezuela nicaragua or the countries or the north of central america. music is a universal language and those venezuelans who make it have found a way to sustain themselves in argentina but they say they dream of the day they can again be their music back home. is having to see they are deciding. the leaders of russia are meeting in moscow on tuesday with the hope of repairing their frayed relationship president alexander lukashenko has accused russia of

using its oil and gas reserves to deepen its control of a below the if barker takes a closer look at how russia ties have evolved over the years. when the soviet union crumbled rusher impeller roofs remained symbolic in strategic partners but in recent years and the g. supplies and economics are revealed whether we'll bounce of our lives earlier this month live on russian state television president lukashenko interrupted president putin made flow as he outlined a new tax regime for russian oil imports the price hikes could cost the economy billions of dollars they can't afford valorise has asked for compensation rushes refused a heated exchange continued on camera tensions eventually subsided but in later interviews look at appears to suggest the tax hikes were deliberate to push the country further into russian control what the.