malcolm webb al-jazeera kinshasa in the democratic republic of congo alex vines head of the africa program at chatham house says it will be difficult for the opposition to react to the delay because it's so divided and while the timing is terrible i mean we're just going to few days before the elections this election has been constant perspire and as many of you viewers know since twenty sixteen and the two locations in the east of the country bear me a brew tembo the authorities say have because of ebola and then you may be in the west because of violence but the problem is going to be that these are not for sperm to march they are opposition strongholds and we don't know how they're going to tally these votes with the final result especially sense of the moment the plan is to announce a president a new president in the democratic republic of congo on the eighteenth of january two thousand and ninety one of the opposition leaders is saying he'll probably still go ahead and contest the elections several of us are saying that they're

thinking about what to do and a number of others are saying that they'll pull out i mean there are twenty one candidates for the presidency in the democratic republic of congo so getting a unified platform is going to be pretty difficult if that couple of favorite favorite candidates so many out of the twenty one have no chance at all. not support think that the former interior minister mr dari who is the mr can be so the incumbents choice may well still win but that the opposition has a strong following one of the problems though the opposition is is split is divided attempts to get a unified platform have failed unless is this gives the incumbent see the incumbent party the biggest opportunity i think. still ahead on al jazeera historic gains after an unprecedented plunge we try to make sense of a volatile financial markets in the u.s. . and a health care meltdown how

a shortage of staff and medical equipment is crippling greece's health care system . from the neon lights of asia. to the c.c. that never sleeps. hello there it's pretty chilly for most of us across europe at the moment in the east there's also a fair amount of snow you can see these weather systems say that just tumbling their way southward and they are bringing a fair amount of wintery weather more outbreaks of snow or lightly during the day today and then as we head through friday this would just be sinking a bit further towards the south they still have been some heavy snow as they make their way across ukraine towards the west it's a touch mild ahead but still rather cool with a maximum just of six they paris on friday here we've got a high pressure in charge so generally it's fine and settled if a little bit misty

a murky at times quite a lot of fog and low cloud around at least up and to clear up for the other side of the mediterranean we'll be watching this area of town just work its way eastwards so for many of us along the north coast of libya and into egypt they'll be some dry weather today and a little bit less cloud still won't be that warm though a maximum temperature in bengazi just of sixteen and sixteen in cairo as well towards the west a little bit milder here more in the way of sunshine for us in out jeus so we'll get to around seventy those temperatures will ease that was we had through friday thanks to a little bit more cloud that's rolling its way across us the central belt of africa plenty of sunshine here is just in the south we've got the showers and they'll still we with this as we had three friday there with sponsored by the time he's. getting to the heart of the matter how can you be a refugee after a while it borders between five safe countries facing realities the pain starts from the very beginning go to school while you're providing context housing is not

just about four walls and a roof here their story on talk to al-jazeera. watching out to syria let's recap the top stories now donald trump has made a surprise visit to iraq the u.s. president and first lady molony trump met with troops and also an air base west of baghdad trip follows criticism over trump's failure to visit troops and overseas combat. in the nation of already saying no one is allowed than five kilometers of the volcano that occurred

a tsunami on saturday killing at least four hundred thirty people it continues to spew ash into the air days after its crater collapsed status has been raised to the second highest level. in the democratic republic of congo the postponement of sunday's presidential election and three opposition strongholds as provoking calls for anti-government protests commission as flaming the delays on the ebola virus and probabl attacks. since coming to office some as two years ago donald trump has turned presidential convention on its head that extends to his schedule which has been less hectic than many would expect white house correspondent kimberly halkett looks at what the u.s. president does with his day. given his background as a businessman with no prior time in elected office donald trump's presidency has been dramatically different from his predecessors that includes his public schedule it often appears a little light it's an accusation trump denies in less than two

years my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country. still trump's daily schedule has been under the microscope for months on most days his first meeting usually a daily intelligence briefing doesn't begin until eleven am it follows three hours of what the white house refers to as executive time it's what many others like presidential historian martha kumar call tweeting he tweets and he tells people what's what's on his mind. than he does in the morning and then he can see some of those themes resonate on television the white house has defended this unscheduled work time saying the president uses this time to make phone calls and his former doctor reports he sleeps very little that's probably one of the reasons why he's been successful are no because you know me personally i need

a lot more sleep than he's just one of the people i think that just does not require a lot of sleep indeed a study of trump's tweets shows he seems active at all hours of the day with no sign of a slackening pace who are says trump is among the most engaged when it comes to taking questions from reporters enough put down the mike describe the end of november trumpeting gaged in question and answer sessions with reporters three hundred and seven times that's in contrast to seventy times by president obama at the same point in his presidency and two hundred thirty four times for president bush kumar says even though trump's public schedule is blank it doesn't mean it's a blank schedule trump also spend some of his work day in the white house residence instead of the west wing oval office so he can consult with his personal lawyers as the justice department probes into possible collusion between trump's presidential campaign and russia there is an office up there and so it's not as if he's not

working he's simply doing what he wants to do without a lot of prying eyes seclusion as a private businessman is understandable but as a politician a public servant. promise to reinvent u.s. politics and sign a lead in washington so-called swap donald trump's then public schedule is far from transparent kimberly how could al-jazeera the white house share prices in the united states have made a remarkable recovery two days after suffering their worst ever christmas eve losses the main index on wall street rose more than a thousand points the five percent surge was the highest ever a single day again for the talent shown but investors are main worried about a recession in the world's largest economy as well as total trumps criticism of the fed central bank and trade war with china. what we're experiencing right now is a is a period of extreme what we call volatility or highs and lows the markets seem

so you know you know from very low one day to bounce back the next i think what's more important is to keep our eyes on the trend. overall the market still is down several thousand points from just levels of just a month ago and to the year both the dow and the s. and p. five hundred off about seven and a half points seven half percent rather so that's a substantial loss of value of the course of a year i think that reflects concerns about the risks of recession going forward we know the government spending is going to shrink in two thousand and nineteen the trade deficit is already rising and you know i.m.f. is rejected as projected over the next two or three years the u.s. deficit trade deficit could more than a nearly double that is nearly double in the next tuesday years and that those two factors together are going to greatly curtail growth in the united states could be enough to push a center recession economists seem to think that's increasingly likely to happen.

yes for the protection has ordered medical checks for every child in custody after a second child died while in its care eight year old philippe gomez alonzo died on christmas day hours after being discharged from the hospital he was diagnosed with the cold and fever philippe and his father had been in u.s. border control custody since entering the country a week earlier and a seven year old guatemalan girl died earlier this month after being detained so far as ease is professor of law and director of the center on security race and civil rights at rutgers university in the u.s. she explains how gang violence is driving refugees to the border. the estimate is that at least ninety three thousand people have come in two thousand eight hundred as of september thirtieth that was reported by the government that have come seeking asylum from central america and the primary reason is the rampant gang violence and the lack of control by the government the government is unable to protect its citizens from the gang violence and the gang violence is actually

a result of the one nine hundred ninety six law that the united states passed where it took thousands of gang members in the united states and deported them back to honduras el salvador guatemala where they created two major gangs the m s thirteen and the eighteenth street gang and these gangs have essentially destroyed those nations and resulted in this mass exodus of refugees any human being any parent across the world that is an unlivable and on acceptable circumstance so freeing and taking these extraordinary risks of going twenty five hundred miles if not more to the border of the united states to claim asylum is less dangerous than these gang members threats on their lives and the way in which they're being treated in their own country and the other problem is that the police is now either

incapable of protecting the people or they are also corrupt and working with the gangs bosnian serb man to man and the truth about ascends death has been released without charge after being detained on tuesday of or try to chavez alleges his twenty one year old son david was tortured and murdered and march tried to have a demonstration in the main bosnian serb city hours after being released by police it was arrested over allegations he threatened the country's interior minister case has become a rallying point for anti-government anger. another strong earthquake triggered by italy's mt etna volcano has struck the island of sicily injuring at least ten people with a four point eight magnitude jolt was one of more than a thousand tremors linked to those ongoing eruption that damaged buildings and forced about six hundred people into emergency shelters on monday mount and that erupted from its side for the first time in more than a decade. doctors say hospital waiting rooms are turning into same chaos because

a severe shortage of staff are warned they're also running out of supplies and supports in the town apache operations are being postponed. it takes several pieces of equipment to install an intravenous line in the patient needles taps catheters and rubber gloves must be sterile and discarded after use these are the cheapest of materials for one of the simplest of procedures there are no apparent shortages here at the outpatient clinics of st and brass hospital in part that are but staff say appearances are misleading i mean. we had a budget of sixty to sixty five million euros for the crisis today outlets it is fifteen to eighteen million this creates enormous problems that. the hospital is also short staffed this doctor says there are just two nurses for the outpatient clinics serving the city of two hundred thousand medicine and most days this room is full of stretchers with a queue of more outside shouting and pushing to get in and they come from towns all

over the region it can be a stick we can barely walk in here shortages have shut down clinics in smaller regional hospitals so the same town that is also takes in patients from the broader region of more than a million people with. twelve hundred before the financial crisis of two thousand and eight it is now down to thirteen hundred fifty and at least fifty doctors are urgently needed these trends and personnel and materials reflect the broader cuts in government health funding in just the past three years it has fallen from seven billion dollars to four point two billion that means greece is spending less than ten percent of its budget on health care the european union averages over fifteen percent it's driven many who can afford it into private health care. where only here for financial reasons of course national health doctors. more experienced in private sector doctors but from the moment you arrive here you're tied up our

patients get wary there are lots of people in line the dedication of the doctors and nurses who remain in the public sector has been rewarded with a forty percent pay cuts during the crisis and no government has tightened health spending more than that controlled by the city's a party which has made a point of producing even the highest surpluses than creditors demand with which to repay the country's debt next year's budget contains a further reduction in salaries for hospital staff a move which will and good many job. about that are. american and durrance athlete has become the first person to across antarctica alone braving raging winds temperatures and heavy snow fall colorado brady made a final thirty two hour push covering one hundred twenty nine kilometers to complete the track on wednesday at eight thirty three are all from portland hauled one hundred seventy kilograms of gear a distance of fifteen hundred kilometers for nearly two months the turquoise waters

of lake atitlan draw tourists from around the globe but the people of one lakeside town hope that more colors will attract even more visitors they've been inspired by dutch artists haas and hahn who transformed islam in brazil a painting it as david mercer reports. are doing the same. plan is renowned for its beauty now one lakeside town is drawing on these surroundings to transform itself into a giant work of art. it all starts with a fresh coat of paint families choose colors and designs inspired by the traditional hand-woven clothing worn by local women then they help to paint their own homes. because the house is going to end up looking really notice the result will be good and it makes a landscape here look it's a big change from before and i hope more neighbors paint the house as. the cool women have led. since it launched two years ago they helped develop the color

palettes and designs and administer the project. coordinator lydia coombe is says women have another key skill that's allowed the program to thrive and. i think that when women make decisions they seek consensus with this reedy helped us during the start of the project and that helps us keep the support of the community the weaving tradition is strong incentive. the patterns and colors of textiles are inspired by nature. she says women express their imagination through weaving and they are now able to share their talents on a different scale but. for me it's special to see our designs on the walls of town and to say it's beautiful and take photographs to remember it it makes me happy to see a traditional embroidery scene this. is attracting more tourists

for visitors who've been here before the transformation is clear. not so many activities. like. industries and everything. feels like much more respected though. is the first project with kind in guatemala organizers say that once they complete the painting of the eight hundred fifty buildings in this town they plan to. span the project the other towns around the kathy recently the project won an international design award showing how art can combat poverty and empower a community david mercer al-jazeera center at the. take a look at the top stories on al-jazeera has made

a surprise visit to iraq the u.s. president and first lady malani a trump met with troops at air base west of baghdad the foot follows criticism over trump's failure to visit troops and overseas combat zones. one year ago i gave our generals six more months in syria to see go and get out. and it turns out it was really a year and a half ago i should go get them we need six months. and they said give us another six months i said go get them. then they said go can we have one more like period of six months as a no. no. i said i gave you a lot of six months and now we're doing it a different way the no go zone near an erupting volcano in indonesia has and widened in the alert level raised experts fear another massive eruption will cause a second tsunami at least four hundred thirty people were killed when a five metre highway flooded coastal communities on saturday and wind pilots are

being warned to stay well away from the ash cloud above the end. and the democratic republic of congo the postponement of sunday's presidential election and three opposition strongholds as provoking calls for anti-government protests commission is blaming the delays on the ebola virus and rebel attacks so dancer one party is calling for an investigation into the killing of protesters during a week of anti-government demonstrations members of the popular congress party say seventeen people were killed after security forces used live ammunition at the protest but rights group amnesty international says at least thirty seven protesters were killed. as border protection has ordered medical checks for every child in custody after a second child died and its care a missile on diet on christmas day hours after being discharged from the hospital he was diagnosed with a cold and fever a seven year old girl died earlier this month after being detained

those are the headlines keep it here on al-jazeera there's much more news to the story miss that next. every week brings a series of breaking stories join them listening as we turn the cameras on the media and focus on how they record on the stories that matter. on al-jazeera. and here in this stream today a wave of african americans are choosing to move to the african continent but why and what happens when they get there join the conversation using the hash tag. or if you're watching live on you tube you'll eventually see us in that box you can leave your comments in the chat box and you too could be in the string.

right. in recent years thousands of african-americans have made the decision to quote return home to the african continent many say they want to escape the racial pressure pot of the united states while some want to connect to the land of their ancestors for others countries like ghana with an easy immigration process and the promise of a better life though many african countries are welcoming of the americans in their midst not everyone is thrilled by their new neighbors so joining us to talk about all of this in accra ghana. she's a marketing and media consultant she also made the documentary film blacks it about the migration of african americans in capetown south africa. he's an anthropologist and social literacy consultant and kaylin read into she's a journalist and editor of the website african american in africa and here in our studio there a writer and journalist focusing on race culture and politics in the united states

welcome to the stream everyone so this is a conversation that is very hot for their audience they love this topic and so everyone was. to chime in with why people might want to move to the continent of africa this is just one of the tweets we got this is from edmund who says it's about identity events like the slave trade in the colonial rule almost wiped away that african identity and thank goodness people are once again asking deep questions about that identity so i want to go to you with that idea talking about the draw of what made you want to leave the u.s. and move to namibia have a picture here on my laptop that i pulled up of you not too long ago you teach english to talk to us about that experience and what made it so enticing for you. you know basically by the time i was about twenty three twenty four years old i

personally just became kind of tired and bored of america and i just really fell in love with the energy and vibrancy that came with black nations especially after visiting barbados which is where i have met lineage and so i basically decided that you know i wanted to experience life on the african continent and so i started doing research on the internet about ways to move to africa and i found out that one of the easiest ways was through volunteer teaching and so i applied to an american organization and that's how i ended up in the libya and you know the rest is sister ended up getting married twenty maybe and i'm now a mother here but really just for me it was you know i personally was was kind of unsatisfied with american life and i've always felt a connection just to the continent and to my african ancestry and just sort of the energy of blackness so it was really attractive and it's been in and intoxicating experience you mentioned that i had to chuckle that tired and bored of living in

america and the american context really so i mean i want to go to you with that idea pull up on my screen here. a an article about you headlined why some african-americans are moving to africa this is from our colleagues on the al-jazeera english site and you decided to move to gone out for a one year fellowship in twenty fourteen and then stayed what was behind that decision. well actually i did graduate school and drama in two thousand and three but i didn't feel like it was time for me to move getting other things lots of things on the plate and i came back ten years later in two thousand and thirteen i had an amazing experience there with so much development that happened in that time that i was like now is the time i applied for a fellowship of the one year fellowship i figured that would give me enough time to you know get the lay of the land see how much i liked it and at this into one year

i was like i'm here i'm not going anywhere and i've been here since then. various you heard this two experiences will go through your mind when you hear that . it makes a lot of sense and you know because frankly people not being enjoying living in the united states or having issues as an african-american in the united states that makes a lot of sense and you know there's plenty of african-americans who have gone to you know countries in europe and felt more comfortable in europe than they have in america so going to africa and feeling you know the connection to war in african people which doesn't necessarily mean that it's your home per se where you go back and like your rican doing something that you you have a very real connection that you you know you're not saying the connection is completely gone but the comfort level and the ability to adapt and thrive in that environment it makes it makes a lot of sense and so i can see why people would be you know interested in doing so ok so then i want to throw

a little dynamite into this conversation here some people who are not so interested this is the mcneil who tweets definitely not african-american blood runs in the veins and sinews of the united states we should make this country more fair and equitable to people of color not cut and run so to speak we also got a video comment from someone who thinks similarly along those lines and she's also a former stream gas serine writes in this video on this point have a listen as a descendant of american chattel slavery i don't necessarily feel the need to go back to africa a place that i've never been in order to reconnect with my roots because i feel like right here in the united states where my ancestors literally ate their lives building this country as sleep people they start their legs sweat and tears into this country and i don't feel it's necessary to fight. so baird you you wrote a piece and twenty fifteen for the daily beast i pulled it up here

african-americans can't go home and the title there is ruthless and this is under the opinion page but talk to us about that idea that syrian mentioned in her video comment this is home this is where her roots are you know without a doubt as an african-american this this is our home like my my family has been here for generations upon generations and and i'm as american as you can get but the complexity of being an african-american is that we've never been allowed to have the complete agency to treat this fully as our home and like the true american sense and that will incline people to go in search of other places where they can feel they can fully exercise their agency and be their selves to the fullest and so that brings about a complexity where you kind of have as a culture to environments where you can't be fully home in either one but you do have an obligation domestically in the united states to to fight for equity for african-americans but at the same time the colonization across the globe has made

it so that at black stories african stories don't get the representation that they need and collectively we have to work to enhance that too so it's it's a fight you know domestically and internationally to elevate black voices and strive for equality across the board so you can go home per se but you do have a connection to both places that you have to you know work for the betterment of all black people let's i want to bring you into the conversation here on that point richard barrett raised about you can go home you work with students who go to the continent specifically south africa and you have different experiences can you talk to us about that. if we work with students like american exchange students they come here for study you poor programs but you also work with a lot of american international schools. and they are based here in south africa and what you often find is there's this desire for. the white students to you know serve this environment and how africa in

a very romantic sense but on the flip side you've got african-americans who come here and i'm looking for an idyllic sense of home magic sense of a reconnection with their roots which there is a little bit shallow because the i don't know but africa and the homeland that you're looking at is messy complex and asked people who were born and raised just trying to figure out themselves and so i think i'm that when the desire is very romantic and one that is lacking context i was just on the ground what is happening within the country if it becomes problematic and at times a little bit difficult for us as local south africans to engage with you realistically as a foreigner coming into the space to try and find something in this like spiritual mecca it's very complicated kalen well i think that's kind of like. first i think there's a misconception that i've seen thrown around that african-americans you know across the board like we don't have any insight you know to what is going on on the ground

in africa and in african nations you know like i am professors at howard university that that you know which is my alma mater that i know for a fact are you know all the way from from d.c. deeply engaged and aware of african politics of course being on the ground an african country and there's nothing that can replace it and also being an african or being a south african there's nothing that can replace you know that direct insight but i think it's a little bit you know a little bit of a reach to sort of just kind of say that you know we kind of have this shallow understanding. you know shuttle approach i would say you know i don't really think that's the case and i think sometimes people just kind of underestimate the insight that african-americans that many of us actually do have i mean i get a lot of african-americans don't know you know i don't have any interest in what's going on in africa but at the same time there are others that do like myself you know and i think that can be done is to give us

a chance you know what we are starting we're starting from you know from four hundred years four hundred plus years you know like you can't expect i don't think you should expect us to come you know and just know everything and just have a lay of the land that's where you know you can meet us halfway and we can all work together and get a better understanding and it won't be perfect and it will be kind of you know i don't know when i do it or what i do wish to add there's a quick caveat is i'm. we welcome people that wish to learn but what i'm saying is what the students are particularly young become in with a sense of this place will fit in this kind of walks of life to the motherland looks like i mean. actually many many african-american scholars of his years showed us to have an acute illness of the african continent. that's what james weldon and how his perception of. africa was milan's and in many ways fully aware of how that four hundred year history creates

a gap of knowledge so one hundred percent what i'm saying is the self interrogation which is happening from us locals i don't want to raise means to be extended and a desire to the needs to also occur with people that are coming inside if it makes sense not my opinion with one stroke at all i like talking i hear you saying i hear you're saying if you mention south interrogation and i think one of the things that came up in our community is a feeling for people on the continent that some americans are not doing that self interrogation as accurately and thoroughly as they need to be take a look at these two tweets from lon ray he mentions first of all this isn't new and that goes to the idea that the back to africa movements have been happening since one thousand nine hundred two contemporary times he says this is an experiment hundreds of years in the making i have friends here in nigeria who surnames are fernandez de silva their great grandparents are returning the slaves from brazil and they all have your about first names now in their.