al-jazeera selects. thousands of protesters trying to reach sudan's presidential palace as calls grow for omar al bashir down. below and barbara starr you're watching live from london also coming up in the program turkey says the united states has agreed to this armed kurdish fighters in northern syria rescuers expand their search for survivors of last week's deadly

tsunami in indonesia as authorities warned of more high tides to come and the rats shrinking christian community celebrates christmas with the government declaring it an official public. hello thank you for joining us we begin the program in sudan where police fired tear gas and live ammunition to the spurs crowds of protesters in the capital to. thousands are attempting to reach the presidential palace as they continue their call for longtime leader omar al bashir to step down they blame his government for economic mismanagement and rising food and fuel costs official government figures say twelve people have died since the unrest began a week ago the international groups say that the real figure to be as high as thirty seven allowed to see has he been more again was on the sidelines of the

protest and hard to hear is what she saw. the curfew days now if. you can the amount of huge number of people protesting this saying that it's a peaceful protest they want the government to go they've been chanting things like down with the government this is the seventh day of protest against the government people are not clear if it is going to and obviously there's a lot of confusion there's a lot of security concerns who have been firing tear gas while we are watching this protest of everything that they are still protesting and turning out to be a huge crowd maybe probably much larger than the crowd was expecting it's not clear if this government is actually going to bow down to their demands and go away and five step like they want to it's it's been a very very shaky people have been protesting nobody knows where it's going to end . well he actually joins us live now from the heart. as you were saying there i mean no one knows where it's going to end this started as a protest about food and fuel omar al bashir spoke earlier today

a lot of people are protesting against him what did he have to say. well basically people have been protesting just they've been saying that the economy this started with an economic situation as we know but people have been protesting saying that they've had enough of this government they've had enough of twenty years of his rule and they're saying that there's no concrete reforms president bashir has spoken yesterday and spoken today in one of sudan states and he said that he was going to try to flip the situation around who's going to try to change the situation to make people's lives better but obviously people are saying that they've heard that before they've been there before they've turned up before and it hasn't created any concrete change it hasn't resulted in what they wanted to see so they don't want him anymore they've been saying they're down with the government new regime they want a new and old regime to go and it's obviously very it's terminus time so president bashir has never had to face that before he has faced protesters before also or they commonly but it's never been this huge amount of people it's not it's never been the sizable of a crowd today we've seen thousands of people marching saying that they don't want

this government anymore and that is very concerning to the government who said that these people are just trying to vandalize and destabilize the country i mean you say obviously the number of people has increased and is considerable tell us a little bit about the sorts of people that for example you saw out protesting today. well barbara it doesn't seem like these people are being backed up by any political party that some of the opposition groups said that yes they are supporting the movement they're supporting the protests they're supporting basically the overthrow of the government but these people seem to be very sporadic all we have seen in the streets is basically a group of people coming out protesting but in the process of them protesting you can easily see other people come and join in the protests we've seen people coming from unity of time schools basically school girls now going to schools because schools are closed but basically the same people school age children walking around seeing the protests and joining the protests so obviously for them it's a chance to vent their frustration about the economic situation and they can amik and that and the fact that the government has been around for twenty nine years

this is widespread and sonic's by the government the fact that they don't have a political party to direct this to and the fact that it's coming from the people as opposed to from opposition parties here morgan with the latest there for us from khartoum he was always thank you and i just cook at is a film director and member of jerry thena a nonviolent resistance movement taking part in the protests he says today's demonstration in khartoum marks a turning point. protests started as an economic condition but then it went escalated to now about only demand is for this government to leave and to have a transitional government and this is a build up of things that have been happening sudan for a long time i mean we do have and military slavek dictatorship have been in power for thirty years they believe genocides they create all this so people are angry and what happened was now we have a reason where people just lost their fear and our industries but this is a definite accumulation and right now the protest is about the government leaving

and that's our only demand right now so these are protests that be called for by professionals doctors engineers different unions today the turning point up to this week there would be like small court as they're going on in different areas there but not organized but today's one is definitely organized it will be cold war and it's definitely being led by civil society people on the ground not political parties but civil society. turkey's foreign minister says the u.s. is going to take back to military equipment supplied to kurdish led forces in northern syria that for weeks turkey has been threatening to launch a new offensive against the kurdish fighters who partnered with the u.s. in the battle against eisel but that operation was delayed after president donald trump announced suddenly that he was pulling u.s. troops from syria turkey and the u.s. have now agreed to cooperate to ensure that there isn't a power vacuum following the u.s.

withdrawal and began joint withdrawals around the city over the last months. this is all part of the man beach agreement reached between the u.s. and turkey in june as part of that deal the us guaranteed that kurdish fighters would withdraw from one beach to east to the east of the euphrates by the end of two thousand and eighteen a new city council would also be established by local arabs from the region who have been displaced due to the nearly four year civil war that the road map was put in place in order to avoid a confrontation between the u.s. and turkey washington has been training and arming kurdish y p g fighters since two thousand and fourteen but turkey consider is the group to be a terrorist organization find out more and speak the scene and qusay glu who is live for us in istanbul tell us a little bit more about the way that ankara sees all of the developments of course the end of the i mean this all really hinges on the statement we had from donald trump a few days ago a bit of a surprise announcing that the u.s.

was going to pull out militarily from syria. well barbara i must first say that it is this decision is very welcomed by the turkish politicians because turkey has been making a call that if united states doesn't do anything about the y.p. g. fighters and doesn't l m eight its threat to the turkish security border security turkey would be interfering today is inside of the euphrates river in order to. clear clean the area from what they call the terrorist for the y.p. g. fighters but i must say that of course the stance of the politicians understand of the military is a bit different because while the politicians are holding talks and they are more positive about this withdrawal because it's also a political gain for turkey especially its thinking about the local elections coming up in the next in the next couple of months it's a very it's

a very big success for turkey it's a big gain for turkey but when you talk to the military experts and military members they say they are watching this case very closely because the united states has been providing arms to the white p.g. and according to the turkish officials they have provided twenty two thousands of lorries if full of weapons. and an hour to the area also including have a weapon so turkey is the turkish military things like that how the united states is going to it really take those weapons from the y.p. because they are not registered and who can no one can guarantee that these weapons have been have been inside syria who they cannot guarantee that these weapons are not taken to iraq or any other places or no one can guarantee that these weapons can be given to the regime army or the russian military forces on the ground so this is a situation that turkey actually thinks in a cautious wait they welcome the decision by by the united states they welcome

their commitment but of course the question mark question marks remain over there. really center because they live with the latest from istanbul seen them thank you. indonesian rescuers are searching for hundreds of missing people following saturday's deadly tsunami but renshaw rains are hampering their efforts the best told in western jobber has now risen to four hundred twenty nine people with a further one thousand four hundred people injured and the experts meanwhile are warning residents to move to higher ground amid fears of more high tides and possible tsunamis and the thomas reports now from. the scenes in product line are familiar indonesians have seen lots of face this year the drudgery of a cleanup following disaster this is what remains of the hotel workers me out here in our day in the greeting guests when the tsunami hits on saturday both were swept

inland by the water and were injured as they were tumbled it was terrifying but not completely unexpected but. i saw what happened and i knew i just knew it would happen here i just didn't know when. palu is the city on indonesia's fourth largest island so the ways it struck by another tsunami and earthquake in september more than two thousand people don't like that and two major earthquakes killed more than five hundred people in the eastern oil and of lombok a few months ago so it's just and volcanologists say the amounts of tectonic activity in indonesia and twenty eight team hasn't been particularly unusual what is unusual is that the areas destroyed were heavily populated increasing the number of victims that's meant a very busy year for emergency services and aid organizations that help survivors pretty decisively to temp and beyond our planning so that's why we have red cross

to get requested that are sent over there is into is this us and they also collect money over and and under not sort of a fight this at no thought they're not in the north hundred line is now in the first. of a disaster recovery process that is more of a pause of in tunisia it's almost as if this right which is three mic constant throughout this and if people are on the ground as they try to clear up. lives but it will clear i'm like ok it will improve that's little comfort right now but the narrative in indonesia is a familiar one under thomas al jazeera hundred. much more to come on the program including preparations are under way for democratic republic of congo's a long delayed election on sunday questions remain over whether it will actually bring a credible result and no claim of responsibility for monday's deadly attack on a government building in kabul as the death toll now climbs to above forty.

hello dan it's good to have you back where across china we are looking at relatively quiet conditions from much of the area we are seeing some showers appear towards the north for shanghai those showers will stay in your forecast on wednesday twelve degrees there but as we go towards thursday the temperatures are going to come down to about seven so getting cooler but the rain is going to be ending for you there down here toward the south for hong kong relatively nice conditions for you partly cloudy and twenty three degrees over here towards taipei though it is going to be a mostly cloudy day with a temperature of twenty well for india down here towards the south as well sri lanka we're going to be seeing some rain in your forecast across much of that area notice the clouds across the bed over across india over towards arabian sea as well these clouds will continue with the rain as well colombo the rain for you is going

to continue we do expect to see attempts there of about thirty up towards the north down to delhi a little bit cooler we have had some problems with fog as well as some stagnant air across much of that area lowering the visibility so there has been a problem there over here towards cabin do on thursday attempt a few of fifteen degrees and then very quickly here in doha well we are going to see temperatures relatively normal for this time of year but watch those clouds can be into play from wednesday to thursday we do expect to see a mostly cloudy day by the time we get to friday. development. progress for. the end of a way of life is. a clash between corporate interests and the people who must prepare for the long fight to protect their heritage. the march to progress in the philippines part of the eve fine day

series on al-jazeera. welcome back as a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera police in sudan have fired tear gas and live ammunition on anti-government demonstrators in the capital thousands of people angry over the rising cost of living or attempting to reach the presidential palace calling for a lot of the sheer step down. turkey's foreign minister says the u.s. is going to take back military equipment supplied to kurdish led forces in northern syria it's part of

a plan for the city of monday show agreed between ankara and washington which will eventually see the complete withdrawal of kurdish fighters from that area. and torrential rain is hampering search and rescue efforts in the four hundred twenty nine people have now been confirmed dead after a tsunami struck the islands of java and smarter on saturday more than one hundred fifty people are still missing. voters in the democratic republic of congo will head to the polls this sunday but many remain concerned that the election will be compromised it's already been deferred by a week because of technical and logistical problems now electoral commission workers are racing to finish preparations for the historic vote effort so reports now from the capital kinshasa. electoral commission technicians in kinshasa a dealing with a crisis they have to make sure thousands of electronic voting machines are called from other regions and four million new ballot papers will walk on voting day

material to replace those that are seems to have been destroyed bad fire in a warehouse crippling dipali in the city and leading to a postponement of the election a lot. of you have four million voters here but we also needed some spares ballots so we ordered for five million people we know organizing them disobey district and working hard to make sure. of the. same you official say out of loyalty materials already in regional headquarters across the country so this analyst believes getting them to polling stations during the rainy season in a country with bad infrastructure poor security in parts as well as an outbreak in the east will not be. in terms of just six nobody is able to give. on the. credibility of the process is very very low robot trains local observers that are to be deployed to the provinces he's

already visited many parts of the country as if the electoral process to this point has been a sham. been unable to publish. the details. and the machine meant for those used to manipulate the outcome these are difficult and uncertain times in. people here in the capital. they say they're afraid the election could be. confident it will be. we don't trust the process but we must go vote one week is nothing but on election day we will take responsibility we either have a good election they resign or we force them to leave. the resignation of president kabila so we find another solution and i think the electoral

commission is just a puppet of the president and he is the real problem the commission is under pressure to be. credible election on sunday with just a few days to go. and we live in the capital. for the question of the very heart of it. will happen in light of everything that's happened before and do you think that it will be seen at least to be credible. many people that i've talked to here. are not confident at all that it's going to happen or if it's going to be credible if it does happen on sunday and some eight presidential candidates held a press conference and they think that they are very concerned they said that they will not accept any father delay to this election and you know there's also the issue of this controversial voting machines that has been an ongoing debate here

and at that press conference those candidates say that they only agreed to go to the election using the machine only eat the machine the devices will be used as printing machines to print the ballot paper so they said they do not want to see any active sim cards in the machine they don't want to see these devices used for any transmission of results as well we also had a from the bishop the bishop the catholic bishop here in kinshasa another catholic charge is a very important and influential voice in the congo's politics and we heard from these activists show up very strongly worded statement a thing that people the congolese people really are being held hostage they are walking in duck miss but he also told his congregation to keep the faith but many people barbara that we've been talking to telling us look how can we keep the faith and that this a comes to this with everything that is going on. i guess given the

space is important but what options would you say are less of the electoral commission it's. very limited options number one they could decide to go on with the election with whatever problems that are out there and hope for the best but then a lot of people like i mentioned before already saying that you know even if these elections go one they are not sure that they are confident that the selection will be credible and there is a possible possibility of you know a dispute to the election which could cause violence another. well them for the electoral commission to actually ask for another postponement now that will not go down well with many people who are already very disappointed and increasingly now we are hearing politicians civil society groups are calling for the resignation of the president of the electoral commission but again i have spoken to a political analyst who's told me that this in itself is problematic and is not

ideal at all because it means the removal of the president of sending up electoral commission means a crisis within that organization of vacuum and this could father delay the election and for a longer period of time. that's when it's over the latest from contrasts a classroom saying to. the best haul from a gun and suicide attack on a government compound in afghanistan's capital has climbed over forty no armed group has yet claimed responsibility for monday's attack but it was one of the deadliest assaults in kabul this year mariana hong reports. as the sun started to go down across the afghan capital kabul fires still burned the attack on the government buildings was coordinated and went on for hours a suicide bomber. explosives packed into a car before gunmen stormed the building and systematically moved through it firing an employee. it was

a frightening sound from the explosion we got scared an escaped people were very upset and everyone was running away police evacuated more than three hundred fifty government workers others reportedly themselves in their offices. but many more were caught happen an attack that reportedly went on. for eight hours. i was walking down the. block in the area when suddenly there was a huge explosion it knocked me down the taliban launches regular attacks and controls nearly half of afghanistan but i still known region me as is active to both armed groups have launched coordinated attacks like this one in the past this is a sensitive time in afghanistan as the attack unfolded pakistan's foreign minister was in kabul for talks with the afghan president afghanistan's peace process was on the ridge and. the u.s. has been pushing to revive peace talks with the taliban and just four days ago u.s.

president donald trump announced plans to withdraw all seven thousand american troops half of the u.s. force in the country so we are. represented. speaking to the u.s. special envoy. last week and they are said to me to again and the saudi capital riyadh next month we have had representatives from saudi arabia from markets there on. attend those meetings as well. thanks we knew it was over at least through its wake it's very monday deed but most of the at this with people working for the government and about to hit home for the dow. down to zero. iraqi christians are celebrating christmas at them are use of church in baghdad the city is one of the oldest christian communities in the world but

their numbers have dropped significantly since the two thousand and three u.s. led invasion and the rice of eisel but it's not all bad news for the community iraq's cabinet has just approved a law to mark christmas day is an official national holiday in my town has the latest now from baghdad. this is a much more hopeful christmas than iraqi christians have seen in a very long time small use of church the church in central baghdad people in riding across christmas day. attend mass and there is a very hopeful at was say that things have changed for iraq christians that there are much more secure than they ever have been just give you some facts and figures the last census that was undertaken was in one thousand and seven and there were about one point five million christians living in the country on officially in two thousand and eighteen the nearest figure that we can get is about two hundred fifty thousand christians left they fled the us led invasion and occupation of iraq in

two thousand and three and then when their homes were destroyed by eisel in mosul and on the outskirts of baghdad in two thousand and thirteen two thousand and fourteen now the iraqi government wants those christians to come back indeed what they've done is they've made christmas day and national holiday across iraq for all iraqis to take place not only have to go to a lot of the hotels here the public spaces and the big christmas trees and of the decorations like the ones you see behind me up in the hotel so there's a real sense that christians are much safer than they ever have been and the iraqi government would like them to come back to a safe and secure iraq in montana pushing their hand carved wooden manges and statues made in bethlehem are sought after around the world but this centuries old trade is under threat because the christian population is shrinking in the israeli

occupied holy land and the name is more now from best. enter the christmas house workshop and the smell transports you to the all of tree groves rooted in the holy land for millennia jacques chirac i'm on is a fourth generation woodcarver his creations range from this nativities seen on route to a church in france to tiny statues of jesus and mary displayed in people's homes across the globe you know really a dollar tree of the holy land if we are talking about a tree that grows in the holy land walk and the three grown up for twenty two hundred years three hundred years the demand for all of wood carver crafts is high but business owners say it's become more difficult to find workers that's partially due to the decline in the christian population in the holy land experts say one hundred years ago christians comprise seventeen percent of the palestinian

population today it's less than two percent this is important to have a christian community living stalls i wove we call them you know people living the holy places father jamal hodder says the struggle of living under israeli occupation continues to push christians to emigrate we see our mission here as a service of the whole community and that the same time preparing the way for a better future a future based on justice peace and reconciliation the ongoing exodus of christians from the holy land means jochum an is hiring muslim craftsman including anon for. we in the city of bethlehem live together like brothers we don't differentiate between religions this profession brings us together when jimmy. predicts difficult times ahead for the wood carvers he says the supply of all of

wood is dwindling due to the demolition of palestinian groves there are strict sions as. release place on land and the fact younger people are abandoning farming why we have to go to the next generation how and when and how and where they will get the wood maybe they have to import from being from other countries one of his daughters has expressed an interest in becoming the fifth generation of the family to carry on the trade but it'll be more than a decade before she's old enough and it's difficult to predict whether by then the political situation will prompt her to leave her homeland or how this ancient tradition might have changed natasha going to a melds is era bethleham. meanwhile a pope francis has used this annual christmas message to urge people to see their differences as a source of richness instead of danger speaking to sauza as of people gathered in st peter's square the pope pray that the spirit of the season might enable israelis

and palestinians to find a way towards peace he also prayed for a political solution in syria and for yemen where the population is facing from tunis going to me this christmas help us to rediscover the bonds of fraternity may it enable palestinians and israelis to resume dialogue and undertake a journey of peace that can put an end to conflict that has for over seventy years wrecked the land chosen by the lord to show his face of love with the child jesus allow the beloved and the beleaguered country of syria once again to find for eternity after these long years of war. now a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera police in sudan have prior tear gas and live ammunition to disperse crowds of anti-government protesters in the capital khartoum thousands are attempting to reach the presidential palace as they continue their call for the longtime leader omar al bashir to step down they blame his

government for economic mismanagement and rising food and fuel costs he by morgan has more now from heart to. the people have been protesting think that they've had enough of this government they've had enough of twenty years of his rule they're saying that there's no concrete reforms president bashir has spoken yesterday and spoken today in one of sudan states and he said that he was going to try to flip the situation around it was going to try to change the situation to make people's lives better but obviously people are saying that they've heard that before they've been there before the before and it hasn't created any concrete change it hasn't resulted in what they wanted to see so they don't want him anymore and they've been saying that down with the government new regime. turkey's foreign minister says the u.s. is going to take back military equipment supplied to kurdish led forces in northern syria it's part of a road map for the city of one be agreed by ankara and washington which guarantees kurdish white b.g. fighters will eventually withdraw from the area turkey had been threatening

a new offensive against the kurdish fighters which it considers a terrorist group but that operation was the late after the u.s. announced it was withdrawing troops from syria search and rescue teams in indonesia are looking for hundreds of missing people following saturday's deadly tsunami but the french are rains are hampering the efforts the best toll has now risen to four hundred twenty nine people with a further one thousand four hundred people injured election officials in the democratic republic of congo are racing to finish preparations for sunday's historic presidential vote it has already been deferred by a week because of technical and logistical problems there are still concerns the election will be compromised and the best poll from a gun and suicide attack on a government compound in afghanistan's capital has now climbed to more than forty of those are our top stories this stay with us viewfinder asia will be coming up next i'll have more news for you and one thousand gene my colleagues in delhi.

you find fresh perspectives through the lens of local filmmakers around the globe.

a bit of a.