and he is able to claim that he's saved the united states a lot of money and this seems to be a case of the latter the unanswered questions are many. they include. how much money and does he think saudi arabia is going to put forward. how will that money be spent. who will receive the money and we just heard from zeno holder there about the complexities within syria so it's not as easy as handing money to a central government and say here this is for rebuilding your country because of the fraught situation there so there are just a great number of. questions to be answered and as you mentioned this is of course coming on the heels of a storm of criticism here in the united states and many concerns expressed abroad as well about the president's decision abruptly to pull u.s. troops out of syria and the subsequent resignation in protest of his defense

secretary james mattis interesting to see if we get any answers to some of the questions about the supposed that saudi development at the end of the holiday season for the moment rob reynolds in washington thank you. at least twenty nine people have been killed in a car bomb and gun attack in the afghan capital kabul hundreds of people were trapped when gunmen stormed the government building in the city four of the attackers have been killed and the area has been cleared no one has claimed responsibility for the attack well much thought caray he is a security analyst think kabul he was at the scene when the attack happened and described what he saw. i processed by the media just after the attack a few minutes after the attack took place. it is reported to be two car but car bomb. blasts taking place near the ministry of public works and blast took place just before. the stuff getting out of your offices and going

away from work saw yes a lot of smoke coming out of the idea was that the office was the fire had broken out in the building where the ministry spaced. i do have some local apartments who were trying to residential and it's a semi does eventually area. but he was still ahead on al-jazeera including pakistan's former prime minister and now was sharif receives a prison term as the country's dr against and demick corruption goes all the way to the top and the head of the u.n. team charged with monitoring a shaky truce in the data arrives in the vital port city.

hello there there's plenty of jurong i settled weather for many of us in australia at the moment the showers really are confined to the phone northern parts of queensland and across into the northern territory which is where you'd expect them have a stomach there will be a few more as we head through the next few days as well but elsewhere should be fine and dry the temperatures in adelaide will be wrong as we head into wednesday up to around thirty six so quite a warm day for us but we dropping in perth a bit more clouds rolling in here and a change in the wind direction will ensure we only get to around twenty three degrees there over towards new zealand and it's certainly been very wet here recently more rain still forming at the moment but that system will eventually pull away towards the east choose day looking very wet once more particularly across the north island but then it begins to clear out for wednesday so wednesday is the brighter day twenty two with the temperature in or clint not quite as warm forcing christchurch with a top temperature just sixteen if we head up towards the northern parts of asia though is certainly feeling quite cool for many of us here at the moment eight

degrees that's just the maximum for us in tokyo it will get a little bit milder as we head into wednesday i think this time we'll get to double figures she gets around eleven further west while it's cold in new impetus still a maximum of minus twenty six. 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 in another thread special find out if the effort to create the largest sentry on earth has succeeded thrice on al-jazeera.

welcome back here's a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera at least 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 that more tsunamis could hit in the coming days as the u.s. prepares to pull its troops out of syria president donald trump says saudi arabia is going to step in to rebuild the war torn country made the comments over twitter saying saudi has agreed to spend the money. and at least twenty nine people have been killed in a car bomb attack in the afghan capital kabul hundreds of people were trapped when government building. killed by security forces. the poor

performance of u.s. stocks monday despite the efforts of the treasury all three major indices closed down just under three percent in the shorter trading day on sunday treasury secretary even called the leaders of six of the us his biggest banks and was assured that they could survive the decline trampas blame the federal reserve for the market turbulence. for us from new york. the market selloff continued on monday and there's a whole host of factors on what's driving it but it's turned into unpredictability and uncertainty in the markets right now that are really driving this there's uncertainty with the government shutdown in washington with the federal reserve chairman jerome 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 at least with his advisers has

really been a lot of uncertainty in the markets and also the market downturn in the china trade war in terror of back and forth between the united states and china at all of this and this is why you're seeing so much uncertainty in the market and that's why treasury secretary steve menuhin called the top executives of some of the biggest banks in america on sunday this is a very unusual move for a treasury secretary to do but he said that he did it to try to call in 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 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 this 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. the head of the united nations team tasked with monitoring a fragile ceasefire in the yemeni city of data has visited its stocks which are vital to the aid effort they are retired dutch general patrick hammered called on saudi backed government forces and who the rebels to respect the hard won truce that began last tuesday there has been sporadic fighting in the area in recent days but it's hoped the ceasefire will see more aid passing through data sport to alleviate the dire humanitarian situation there we cannot solve your problem. you have to do that yourselves and listen to them. and that means that we will sit we will discuss we will go 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 mean for some. israelis will vote in early elections next next april seven months before the elections were actually due the announcement follows a bad luck over a controversial military conscription bill if prime minister benjamin it and now is returned to office he would be on course to become israel's longest serving leader it's now says his coalition unanimously agreed to disband the government. since. the complete agreement. economy and a great partnership. christmas day has begun in bethlehem in the occupied west bank midnight mass is being held at the church of the nativity on the site where jesus christ is believed to have been born. well stephanie decker in joins us live now

from a bethlehem itself so the mass is underway i can see lots of people behind you as the family tell us a little bit about what the atmosphere is like in manger square on the stage that is obviously very special for the people gathered behind you. absolutely it's christmas eve christmas eve christians believe that baby jesus jesus christ was born in the grotto in the cave underneath what is now the church of the nativity it's beautifully lit up you can see the screen actually palestinian president mahmoud abbas at midnight mass also the beautiful cherry it's been a real celebrate tree after a atmosphere here all day long you've had the scouts that would come down star street which is also the rude words but leave that to mary and joseph came down when there was no room at the inn almost to over two thousand years ago and gave birth in that grotto but of course the underlying issue here barbara when you speak to people is pretty much the same they do remind you of the issue of the cost of

israel's occupation how we do have to say this year we've seen more foreigners we see more people here than we have in previous years we were just talking to various people from canada from haiti from singapore from hong kong that's how far people have come to bethany have some of them pilgrims some of them tourists but certainly also the palestinian christians we've been speaking to saying that christmas is a time of joy the message is one of peace but that is something that is severely lacking here that the issue of palestinian sovereignty of the palestinian state needs to be addressed and that is something that despite the festive season despite that the real joy that is here people will remind you cannot be forgotten and is something that crucial needs to be addressed but they will tell you that as another year draws to an end barbara that they don't seem to be any closer to achieving that and stephanie obviously the people there are gathering because of their faith but religion can also be big business and there's a lot of pilgrimages for igs. to jerusalem round the year two billion christians

around the world many of them do go to their jerusalem to bethen for example you know not counting the difficulties about half an hour i think by car is so how much this bethlehem managed to capitalize on that you know should we say financial aspect of this pilgrimage around the year. well you hit the nail on the head because it is a multi-billion dollar industry barbara we did a story on it just in october when you had the highest number of visitors to israel but also in bethlehem but again the mayor of bethlehem was telling us that of course israel controls the tourist industry israel controls the borders of palestine is not a sovereign state so what you what will happen is that yes you have an increase in tourists coming to bethlehem they are bossed through the checkpoints through the israeli controlled checkpoints through that wall they will come here they will see the sights like the church of the nativity like the milk they may grab a bite to eat and then go home and we were actually having dinner this evening and

you could see one of the tour guides coming to the table and saying let's go let's go said there's a time people time table and people to really spend the night so this is something that palestinians will tell you links into the bigger picture which is the lack of a palestinian state which is the lack of palestinian sovereignty that is the lack of global support they will tell you even even even these days from the arab countries that are getting closer and closer to israel so they feel that at the moment there is no progress being made and just now you played that clip of benjamin netanyahu just to wrap it all up well we're now hearing from the white house that trump's deal of the century that he's been saying he's going to plan to try and resolve the very complicated issue of israel and palestine may now be delayed until this summer because netanyahu has called early elections so as always things incredibly complicated here in the holy land indeed complicated but it certainly does look beautiful behind you stephanie decker live in bethlehem thank you. well meanwhile the roman catholic pope pope francis is leading

a christmas eve mass inside st peter's basilica at the vatican the mass is one of the highlights of the vatican's year and is being beamed right around the world thousands of gathered in st peter's square to watch the event on christmas day the eighty two year old pope will deliver his message and the blessing in which he prays for the most suffering parts of the world. what about ones 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 coll 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 former pakistani prime minister now was sharif has been given a seven year jail sentence after being found guilty of corruption he's also been

fined twenty five million dollars sharif denies the allegations and says he's being targeted by the country's security establishment. has more three time 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. 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 the wrong 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 had been freed

on bail pending an appeal sharif's party last general elections in july of while he was in jail. the history of august on has been that no ruler in pakistan has had ever been actually sentenced you know prior to him the pakistani politicians have always been going scot free they have always believed they would 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 dime's people of pakistan 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 dorsetshire party al jazeera military personnel have been deployed across bangladesh ahead of elections there on sunday it follows weeks of election related violence convair choudhry has more now from the capital dhaka.

talking to the people in the street you can sense there is a sense of relief among the population since the army has been deployed all across the country here some reaction from the streets i mean. i feel that we were not going to have a fair and transparent election all this time but now that the army is deployed well hopeful that disprove be the case i don't know if it's good that the army has been deployed this means the election will be fair and we are happy about it. people are getting panicked jittery election related violence all across the country the government and the election commission both came under severe criticism from local from international bodies. and the. level playing field particularly for the opposition despite the military deployment we're still getting reports of clashes from different parts of the country the general population hope

that they're able to have already free fair and peaceful election and hoping that the security situation will improve the army is being deployed and before we go archaeologists have unearthed an exciting new discovery in pay the remains of the petrified horse and that saddle were found in a villa. to a high ranking military officer perhaps a general and were being prepared for a getaway when they were buried in full county count the remains of other horses have also been discovered at the site which officials hope to open to the public found. the eruption from it near the present day. in seventy nine. and i reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera at least three hundred seventy

three people have been confirmed dead and more than one hundred twenty are missing after a tsunami struck parts of indonesia and without warning on saturday rescue teams are racing to find survivors on the islands of java and sumatra twelve thousand people have been moved to higher ground as experts warn more tsunamis could hit in the coming days president has promised to upgrade tsunami detection and warning systems. at least twenty nine people have been killed in a car bomb and gun attack in the afghan capital kabul more than three hundred fifty people were trapped when gunmen stormed a government building in the city fighting there has now ended and security forces have killed the four attackers u.s. military officials are heading to turkey to meet their turkish counterparts and discuss coordination in syria later this week it follows the surprise u.s. withdrawal from the country where it has backed the syrian kurdish y.p. g. forces against eisel a spokesman for turkish president of the hun says turkey will not let up in the

fight against. the poor performance of u.s. stocks on monday despite the efforts of the treasury all three major indices close that down just under three percent in the shorter trading day on sunday treasury secretary stephen knew cian called the leaders of six of the us his biggest banks and was assured that they could survive the decline has blamed the federal reserve for the economic uncertainty pakistan's former prime minister has been sentenced to seven years in jail and fined twenty five million dollars after being found guilty of corruption the court said now was sharif was unable to prove a source of income that led him to his ownership of a steel mill in saudi arabia sharif denied the charges and says that they are politically motivated. israel will hold an early general election in april next year the announcement follows a deadlock over a controversial military conscription build the vote had been shy jailed for

november two thousand and nineteen those are the top stories a stay with us earthrise is coming up next and tomorrow if you're celebrating happy and merry. i wait all see in antarctica the size of an extraordinary page

to create the largest protected area on earth. for this special episode of earth rise we're going on board the greenpeace icebreaker arctic sunrise following one of the biggest campaigns in the environmental movement ations history witnessing the spectacular biodiversity and the many threats to life from climate change to a good fishing as a team of scientists photographers and ocean experts sets out to prove these vos remote waters must become an antarctic ocean sanctuary. before i set off down south i'm going to find out a little about the journey i'm about to embark on tucked away in this maze of old london streets something quite extraordinary. ever since i was

a boy i've been mesmerized by tales of the golden age of antarctic exploration of the early twentieth century names of polar explorers like roald amundsen and captain scott. well this is where some of those expeditions came to get their maps it was really because of the low good to see this is a kind of treasure trove of past exploration that comes out of that. turns out mankind has forever been hooked on the concept of a mysterious continent at the end of the world. from the fifteen eighties is the last of the classical worldview this is the world as it would have been understood the ancient greeks and romans still got this great terrill stall it's called me to the unknown something less spin forward three centuries to the time of men like

captain scott who died on his return from the south pole philip shows me a sledging match from that expedition is true. this is what actually used to place the food don't pose for the attempt on the pole incredible here we have him reaching the south pole and then of course the terrible trick. back tekton scott died here demonstrates how hard it was then just how challenging it was that a far cry from today. was this period is known as the heroic age they were truly great heroes up until the one nine hundred twenty days there were probably less than should think fifty or sixty people had actually ever stepped on to the cold lip. of course no thousands are going every year. like many of the old explorers i first had footprint to our anus in southern

chile but unlike i'll be flying into antarctica to king george island at the northern tip here all join the greenpeace ship the arctic sunrise and head into the weddell sea with luck will reach out target the sixty fourth parallel which marks the new world an age of the proposed asian century an internationally supported marine reserve covering one point eight million square kilometers that would be protected from direct human impacts like fishing oil drilling and deep sea mining. how times have changed immediately it's clear how connected the outer reaches of the antarctic continent to become the plane is full of tourists. what was once a grueling journey of months maybe is now can be done in an hour and a half with lunch and if you. want to. be an uphill fight there before. it's

a cold murky arrival surprised at how many people there are around dozens are coming in going here with no king george island and downscale related scientists now saying that they don't. look so remote as warm a transport you can see lots of tears gathered taking ribs out to inflatable boats out to meet cruise ships for the holidays and also ahead a lot of research stations. with the weather closing in we need to get a move on. in . the next two weeks. thank you. right a. program. well we're underway immediately heading for the proposed ocean sanctuary

is not a time to lose not just for the arctic sunrise winter is not far away and the ice will soon close in but it's also race against time to protect areas like the weddell sea before it's too late we'll maccallum it's a greenpeace campaign leader we're campaigning for will be the low balls largest protected area. to question sanction an area of the battle say to be about five times the size of germany the proposal is already on the table it's already got the backing of the. scientists are saying we need to protect a third of the world's oceans at least every one to let fish stocks recover if you want to mitigate against the worst impacts of climate change and man thought is a great place to start in just nine months time in hobart australia the decision will be made by the antarctic ocean commission the international body responsible for the conservation of these waters on whether to accept the sentry proposal the

aim of the expedition is to build the case that it needs to happen. is go by and the temperature drops significantly. on the bridge they're on high alert we're heading into dangerous waters tense times with skipper cool ruzicka you have what they call bertie bits growlers and icebergs depending on the size but they can all damage a ship when you're steaming at night key thing about ice is avoiding it but now we're going to look for the ice and we will intentionally go into some of the ice and there is room down here now i think to push our way through a bit of our. cut to cool climbs into the crow's nest to try and spot leads through the ice. come through the antarctic sound which i would buy sexy and talked. but it's not we're not on the web will see but not yet at the point at which they want to protect it

but to get there we've got to get through all this ice there's a lot of it around and we're finding these clear passages trying to we've always through the ice. everyone on board is just willing the ship to make it into the proposed sanctuary the big problem is getting people to realize why they should care about the i'm talking to you know this is lot like that most people have never come across will never come across and so being able to tell that story relies on us getting there are lots of us getting the footage back and tell talking about the importance of marine sanctuaries so the fact that fish stocks would only recover if we put these areas of limits the fact that climate change will be not as bad if we manage suppose large areas of the ocean off limits. dogma's falls but there is no rest on the bridge for the captain and the night crew there is an illusion there are. no.

floodlights on the boughs showed the ship now milledge dumped quietly against the ice and intentional maneuver for the remainder of the night but everyone is keyed up flying off. the next day at last the arctic sunrise has arrived surrounded by some of the coldest most diverse waters there are the most all on board who may yet be the largest protected area on the planet we will want a good day's good news very good news made it made it to this is for sitting there now. as someone of the ship and this entire space and you just go over this side and we suddenly saw getting so tens of of ships both cruise liners cargo ships fishing vessels the moment you get through this sound as us and another ship about that and that's it and i'll call a. that's slightly scary yes terrifying. but very exciting as well but

exciting kind of just makes the case that this is pristine this area is not developed his not called industry has never had industry is an area that's kind of the most i'm touchy even within and thought. oh no are you. going to. do next month i think it's right around my gran i'm going through. what we're looking at here is faulty yes see i said great icebergs to be topped off the classiest sweeping up james ross island that the weddell sea spent way to this proposed area already about just touched by human activity over its scientific research is taking place it is an incredible sight but deeply troubling two classes have always collapsed and carved into the antarctic ocean however with global

warming they're doing so with increasing speed and as the ice sheets retreat sea levels rise. this right here is humanity's problem for decades perhaps sentries ahead. it is laundry day or not sunrise and here's the thing we all think of being good citizens by wearing fleeces which is made out of recycled plastic also bottles that sort of thing but when you watch the. hundreds of thousands of micro fibers end up in the world's oceans so here import it wouldn't and not for governments. and of course plus. pollution in our seas is one of the biggest environmental

challenges of our time and the team makes the most of a rare opportunity for research. uses some of the americans would support a plan that would be appalling to do they could be blasting seriously greenpeace to conduct this experiment taking samples from the water to see if any micro plastics have infiltrated this environment. just step into the sea surface like west point was that maybe first so they're both taking something she fully trusted more to. the. extent. they were searching find the this is very cool just the way it was she said very close drawing a system and there's very few local sources of micro plastic fibers should be coming from however evidence is growing around the world from studies that like the plastic for the sonic stream the prisoner releases and they all be found the right results.