demanding the withdrawal of u.s. troops from the country visit weaken the political parties that support the u.s. presence in iraq. there's also confusion about what the u.s. policy in the region is often trump ordered the withdrawal of u.s. forces from syria some fear the pentagon may well build up forces in iraq as a contingency for any future action in syria or a potential war with iran. iraqi politicians from all sides are now calling for a vote that ends the u.s. presence in iraq the largest block on the souther is now the nationalists the us president donald trump's visit to iraq may well have given them enough i mean nation to be able to win a vote that ends all u.s. involvement in the country iran current al-jazeera baghdad. around two hundred people seeking asylum in the u.s. spent some of christmas in a parking lot in texas off to being sent there by immigration and customs enforcement officials in el paso city the group including women and children with hundreds of all those sent to locations including bus shelters as gabriel elizondo

reports from el paso they were left to fend for themselves in the cold. by the will cast and yet they came to the u.s. from guatemala like so many others seeking a better life for his son philippe there now just trying to get warm at a shelter after a couple nights at a border patrol detention center at the end of the only. on that they put his in a cell it was very cold like an ice box it made his cough we went to another cell it was the same while we were there they didn't give us much food there wasn't much attention they said it was our fault we brought kids with us but it was as if necessity to find a better life in the united states. when finally released it got worse earlier this week immigration and customs enforcement officials unexpectedly released hundreds of migrants from detention facilities but instead of taking them to shelters they were dropped off in downtown el paso without any notice and nowhere for them to go

most like and well were from central american countries they were families young and old who would cross the border at bennett detention cells for anywhere from three to eight days it was left to volunteers from local nonprofits to rush to the scene to try to help the desperate migrants and asylum seekers many of them were hungry they were thirsty some of them were sick they were sick children were dropped off and they were confused and so what they did it was done on purpose he was going willfully advocates worry that immigration and custom officials are dumping migrants and asylum seekers out on the streets in order to reach. leave overcrowding in detention facilities particularly after two guatemalan children eight year old boy and a seven year old girl died this month while in border patrol custody radhika

escobar recently elected to the u.s. house of representatives says it's a crisis started by what she calls a cruel immigration policy by president donald trump one she hopes to change to children that we know of have died in american custody that should never happen again we need to know why it happened how it happened we need to know the conditions that other individuals are having to live through we need to know the foundation of this policy who called for it and we need to change it back at the community center where mad well is at falling tears are trying their best to help knowing more migrants will need it hoping for are left on the streets to fend for themselves give rosendo al-jazeera el paso texas. last more still to come for you here on the news hour including. these are congolese elections and that's what everybody has to understand to be defiant the outgoing congolese president

tells al-jazeera why he believes his country's sovereignty is at stake. also ahead the bolivian teenager born with us left and is transforming the lives of other young people. and of the sports news roger federer allowance his first big prize of the new tennis season and d.c. with that story in about thirty minutes. experts in indonesia are worrying that another volcanic eruption could cause a second tsunami at least four hundred thirty people died five metre high wave flooded coastal communities near the soundest. straight on saturday robin brought her story. a new exclusion zone around the volcano means no one is allowed to approach within five kilometers but the greater concern is for the people living

along the coasts on either side of the sunda strait they've again being warned to stay back between five hundred meters and one kilometer from the shoreline while commercial planes have been ordered to avoid the area i'll kind of cash is a mix euro and gas and it's classic rock fragments and minerals and all kind of glass and it's very very scratchy or in et so the dangers of that going yeah yeah so planes if there is that a large rips in the ash goes hina the planes are flying back not just to be a hazard well airlines the increased warning level comes as a blow to the thousands of people displaced by the tsunami of wanting to return home many seeking shelter on higher ground where even a few metres above sea level officer a greater sense of security. schools and community centers in the town of level one have been turned into makeshift homes giving a feeling of semipermanent. most of these people rely upon the sea for their

livelihoods by got. there mostly fishermen they can go to sea because their boats are gone so they can make a living. and many don't know if the houses they fled from are still standing we haven't been back to see the condition of our homes because we are still a freight. cracka towers latest eruptions will do nothing to ease those fears. mcbride joins us live now from some bolo village in district rob the increased alert level in real terms what does that mean. that means peter that there is it best specially an increased warning for people to stay away from the shore line we know that there has been this cruft exclusion zone put in place being told to avoid this area which they have been but we haven't heard of any flight disruption more importantly for people on the ground who live

along this coast is whether they will stay back and it is partly being adhered to it has to be said that people who tend to live maybe a couple of hundred meters back from the shoreline they are probably staying put their houses are pretty much intact if you lived on the shoreline itself down where we are the chances are that you don't really have a house to live in but people still come here pieces during the daylight hours to recover possessions and so on but come night time with the fears of a wave coming unexpectedly out of the darkness then people will naturally leave the shoreline move back to higher ground stay with relatives or in centers or mosques near here interestingly for friday morning here peter we're seeing something that we haven't seen for quite a raw a while and that's the highrise and it's a rare occurrence the last few days out that has just been a grave. callao the rain showers mist but the weather has eased slightly it's

forecast to deteriorate again over the weekend and into next week but the volcano experts have been using this opportunity to get a good chance a good visual fix on the volcano see what it's up to they have been reporting that they could continue to be these large plumes of volcanic ash and gas going up two hundred six hundred meters because of the prevailing winds some of those ashes have been coming here not much it has to be said but you do see more people as a precaution starting to wear face masks the bigger concern for the volcanologists some of the flows of rocks and lava down the side of the volcano the concern being that there might be another dynamic shift in the outside shape of this volcano a slip of mass down into the sea which once again might cause another way peter how active is the volcano at the moment. it is a relatively active active they talk about these continuous rumbles continuous eruptions

and it is a concern for people they are anxious you know we are at level three now and the scale goes up to four level four means it's basically blowing its top so we are pretty close to that crisis level it remains to be seen just what happens next but you're going around here people are quite fatalistic they certainly believe in the science they certainly heed for the most part warnings from the volcanologists it's a good job that they do that they live in such a place but they are also fatalistic and you talk to people here about are they afraid yes they are but they say hopefully it will be all right but they do believe in some respects that their lives are in the hands of a greater entity that we hope will be all right god willing will be all right but they do then i pray for us in any case it's a friday here mosques will be fill anyway you can probably bet that they would be a little more for the normal pizza rob thanks very much well it's been another

roller coaster day for the u.s. markets on thursday after open more than five hundred points the dow jones clawed its way back to finish up more than one percent the markets in europe also showed falls reflecting global market volatility and investors worries over global political uncertainty kristen salumi has more now from new york. stocks rallied late in the day to shake off steep losses earlier the dow jones industrial average at one point on thursday was down more than six hundred points closed up two hundred fifty eight points a volatile day and what has been an extremely volatile month wall street was on track to have its worst december since the great depression until wednesday the day after christmas when stocks rallied more than a thousand points the largest one day game in the market's history due largely to a strong retail selling season over the holidays but many things continue to weigh

on investors even as the u.s. economy overall remains strong there's concern about a trade war between the united states and china concern about the global economy slowing down and then there's the raising of interest rates by the fed that weighed on markets earlier in the month that started a war between president trump and the fed chairman your own power and on top of all of that you see this government shutdown in washington d.c. not directly related to the markets but it seems to be contributing experts say to an overall sense of unease and concern about dysfunction in washington d.c. all of this has many experts predicting that the market will remain volatile into the new year ten police officers have been killed in a little west of book enough aso three others were injured when gunmen the time convoy in the village of close to the border with mali. precludes the chunks of the

past three years mostly by al qaeda linked fighters. police in the d.r. see the democratic republic of congo where fired tear gas on opposition protesters just days before presidential and parliamentary elections there was anger after voting in some pro opposition areas was postponed the country's going to the polls on sunday. has more from the capital kinshasa. people in beni in eastern congo take to the streets to protest against the decision by their nicole commission to postpone the election until march next year this is part of a region where health workers are dealing with an ebola epidemic that has killed mainly that's a reason given for good laying the election as well as security problems. but part of it here. they say they must exercise their rights their rest of the country so some burned sections of an ebola trying to center suspected of having the disease

are held for. the natural kind of so not then we damn well we're tired of voters and brainy and but tembo gave this government the last election we've been killed by rebels and kept quiet they brought us a bowler and we did not say anything now we can't keep quiet any will. most of us assume that the but why is the government not concerned about the situation in beni we were told to go is here we accepted this but today they told us we could not vote because of ebola even though they themselves said the sickness was the creasing a few friends said that there was no more ball in the region but why stop us from voting. benny and with the family in the east in the western town of you may be a strongholds of one of the country's main presidential candidates. and have about one point two million voters he's quite a number of says in a country where the winner takes it all on the fast round every vote counts and

he's calling for a nationwide general strike. we have. to . stay here. friday. and do the same. three hours before. the nation. everywhere. we have seen. the. country. please please we are in the dark as all this was happening the government gave the european union's ambassador to deal forty eight hours to leave the country mainly because of sanctions the. new un fourteen individuals including. the ruling party's presidential candidate and president joseph kabila choice for the top job the interior minister between

december twenty sixth in march twenty seventh and scores of people were killed mostly by security forces during street protest since. these sanctions violate international law undermine the fundamental rights of those concerned and have been condemned by regional authorities for the sake of our historical partnership i've pleaded with the e.u. to lift the sanctions at the very least suspend them until after the general election. some say the electoral commission and the government are working together to reach the election in favor. they say they will not accept an outcome where he's declared winner it's hard to tell if this calls for a general strike will bring any change the country's main opposition leaders seem divided with some saying they will go to the election regardless of the announcement by the electoral commission what is clear is that many people will

talk to believe that this election is already tainted catherine al-jazeera. and staying with the story the outgoing president of the d.r. so you has rejected claims from the opposition that the country's electoral body favors the ruling party. spoke to president joseph kabila the election on sunday. this issue or issues about electoral commission be biased. to me is just nonsense the most important thing we should all understand and retain is that it is an independent electoral commission that more than two years ago the international community offered financial support to the democratic republic of congo to conduct this election but that support was rejected and then later all of these problems and challenges were cited we've always tried to elections in this country an issue

of sovereignty the sovereign nation of the congo plans for going to elections and i've already stated that the congo and the congolese state we are not the biggest we decided to organize our own elections like any other nation in the world and i don't see why anybody should take issue with that but you talked about sovereignty i think that the sovereignty that many congolese people feel they don't have in particular the thousands of people who've taken to the streets and the dozens who were killed in the hundreds who were detained in the process of these protests calling for elections i think they would dispute that they have sovereignty and they say sovereignty that they've been demanding. and the electoral process is always a sensitive issue and i was just stating that even if it will game between two so you have tensions that arise so during an electoral process you would have

tensions the most important thing is to have the necessary police force that's where equipped in order to give that a try and given point in time we did not have that capacity but we've been building that capacity so if this election takes place as planned if you step aside as you say you will what's next or what are you why why why are you so pessimistic you think about if. it's no longer about it it's been repeatedly postponed already waiting to see if it really will or will it really happen not been repeatedly postponed the problem is that these are congolese elections these are congolese elections and that's what everybody has to understand and there are. issues that have arisen once you know what we've been able to do

as a nation we don't want anybody to judge us and that apart from the congress people. rescue workers in the indian state make ali are trying to save the lives of fifteen coal miners trapped for more than two weeks the government under fire for its slow response to the rescue operation in this northeastern states is poultry. these rescue workers know the chance of finding the trapped miners alive is slim but they continue their search the teenage miners went into the legal coal mine in the north east indian state of magali on december thirteenth but got trapped soon after when the mines tunnel was flooded by a nearby river they've been without food or drinking water ever since the war that it is not going. to be to put football in addition to playing football but not fast

enough prime minister narendra modi's government is being criticized for not sending in the right equipment on time he was at a nearby state on christmas day and didn't mention the incident or the trapped miners divers at the scene say they aren't equipped to go down more than thirty meters and the miners are some ninety meters underground that's the bottom of it there will be in the start a little bit still we're doing all day and yet when dolly the sheep and visit the water live in the fish we don't handle. digging in abandoned mines has been banned for more than four years now but many break the law risking their lives by going down into so-called rat holes miners can earn up to twelve dollars a day which is a higher pay rate than most jobs in india a similar incident six years ago killed more than two dozen miners their bodies were never recovered and it is fear dissimilar fate awaits those trapped inside this call the area paul chatterjee on al-jazeera. still to come here on the news

hour brazil's military claiming success in its yearlong operation to fight crime in rio de janeiro but residents say nothing's changed. guns for cash the u.s. city of baltimore buys weapons in a push to get them off the streets and this course means when they find out if serving a williams could make a winning return in the first match since losing the u.s. open five. by this guy knowing if an asian harbor or off the coast of the italian riviera. hello again welcome back to your international weather forecast where we are seeing some showers over here down towards the south and also into the west here probably across parts of vietnam over the next few days is going to be mostly coastal showers for you there you hanoi is going to be seeing some showers as well up

towards the north though it is going to be some snow in some higher elevations over the next few days and the rain pretty well here towards the west is going to be on the increase for hong kong though it is going to be a cooler day for you than what we've seen over the last couple days with attempted there of about sixteen degrees well for the philippines we are watching a troublesome system make way across parts of the philippines over the next few days now it is going to increase in intensity slowly not become very powerful but we do expect to see some very heavy rain come out of the storm and because of that we could be looking at some localized flooding from friday as well as into saturday as it makes its way into the south china sea so we'll be watching that very carefully down here towards the south we are looking at some more showers across parts of indonesia which is going to impact the recovery in the relief efforts across an area well for india not looking too bad not even a big rain across the forecast map over the next few days dry up here towards the north in delhi we do expect to see attempt a few of eighteen degrees the pollution has been a problem there but down here towards tonight i attempt or twenty nine. the weather

sponsored by qatar airways. the latest news as it breaks i'll go inside on both sides of the political spectrum are you know it says in their criticism of victory old bones governments with details coverage only change so far as to make it explicit to cuba's communist party will remain as the only aki. from around the world the idea of an armed intifada as opposition to the occupation is gaining support that's moving away from diplomatic negotiations. whether online i want to start here on my laptop with a tweet or if you join us on sat there was a rush of adrenaline will be felt this is the moment that we have been waiting for this is a dialogue the government has called yes i may go protest i'll strike to police to use force to disperse the crowds everyone has a voice for votes for lots of different reasons what's different types of bricks

join the global conversation on how does iraq. welcome back you're watching the al-jazeera news hour live from doha my name's pizza dough these are your headlines saudi arabia's king salma has demoted his foreign minister as part of a major government reshuffle adel al g.p.o. will now serve as a minister of states follows the murder of the serbian journalist jamal khashoggi which was a diplomatic backlash against the kingdom. police in the d.r. see a fired tear gas on opposition protesters just days before presidential and parliamentary elections his anger after sunday's vote was postponed in some pro opposition areas

elections are already two years overdue. about two hundred people seeking asylum in the u.s. but some of christmas in a parking lot in texas after being sent by immigration officials in el paso city families were left to fend for themselves because there was no room in detention centers. brazil's military claims its crackdown on crime in rio de janeiro has been a success the controversial operation to swindle monday targeted some of the state's most violent areas but some residents say it failed to address the root cause of the problem. as the story. for nearly one year soldiers carrying machine guns have been raiding some of brazil's most dangerous favelas the military was called in when gang violence became unbearable the government says the plan worked. this ceremony marked its completion the state operation in rio de janeiro officially

ends on december thirty first the general in charge says the mission was accomplished no more meeting the storms here news we are here to mark the end of the federal intervention in public security in rio de janeiro is new an extraordinary measure took ten months of work and reached all its objectives by reducing the crime rate. since the military's arrival car thefts and street assaults have declined in targeted cities statistics show an eighteen percent drop in homicides compared with two thousand and seventeen but behind this progress critics say there's a hidden reality some brazilians say killings by security forces increased by underlying problems behind crime like unemployment and inequality work nor. because they are thought they must political defeats you will suppress of politics will never change on the contrary people will continue to be afraid and will be repressed this intervention is more political than effective so i think nothing's changed. thank when it was launched in february it marked the first federal

operation in a state since brazil return to democracy in the one nine hundred eighty s. top government officials welcomed it but it was criticized by some human rights groups. now some fear speaking out publicly on the crackdown. hours of fun helping if i share my opinion about it it will bring me serious problems so maybe it's better not to talk about this. brazil's new far right president will be sworn in on new year's day brazilians will be hoping for a new chapter there will bring security to a nation torm by crime. al-jazeera. the us government shutdown is likely to continue into the new year after both houses of congress adjourned without agreeing on a way forward politicians are now expected to vote on the impasse next week the standoff centers on donald trump's demand for five billion dollars for his border wall the next year's budget which the democrats firmly oppose an opinion poll

suggests more americans blame the president rather than the democrats for the shutdown. about forty thousand people were killed in gun related deaths in the u.s. the year twenty seventeen that's the highest number in two decades such as across america a grappling with an issue of gun violence with some turning to cash for guns schemes aimed at getting weapons off the streets is john and. if you know if they stop before you disappear in one of america's deadliest cities police are trying to even beyond. to reduce the number of weapons they face on the streets of baltimore they're buying them one hundred dollars for revolver and five hundred for a fully automated firearm no questions asked. i think i need to get rid of i think just great idea gets some street the problem.

there is little appetite on capitol hill to change gun laws the national rifle association has opposed any effort to curb gun rights and remains the most powerful lobbying group in america so police here are taking weapons off the street one of the few ways they can. one donor dropped off this rocket launcher with more than three hundred murders this year baltimore is one of the most violent cities in the united states and police say they hope with. just a little bit safer so the program is about getting guns off the streets of baltimore today is day number three of the program on the first day we took in five hundred seventy eight guns the second day five hundred. and we're only about an hour into the day and there's already a pretty long line inside with people turning brazil managed to take more than a million guns off the street with gun buyback from two thousand and three to two thousand and nine but with four hundred million guns in the u.s. more than one for every person the effect here is at best limited typically

a very small number of gaza turned in fifty one hundred two hundred guns might have . ass angeles when you get a lot like two thousand but they're still small relative to the number of guns in the united states but i think in a day i think most research suggests that it's actually simply p.r. for some their p.r. like. we can. find out well can we. trust them. with about one hundred thousand shootings each year nearly a third of them fatal in more than three hundred mass shootings across the u.s. in two thousand and eighteen in little chance of new gun restrictions police here say they are doing what they can john hendren al-jazeera baltimore the palestinian authority has suspended all fruit and vegetable imports from israel now that's a response to an israeli ban on similar imports from the occupied west bank the

move comes despite its israeli warnings the palestinian economy won't be able to withstand the measure was. it secretary general of the palestinian national initiative and formally a palestinian information minister he says the decision is too little too late just response to an israeli measure the israelis have decided to prevent palestinian products visitable food stricken and other things from entering israel and so the palestinian authority responded in the same manner but in reality the vast majority of palestinian products are from reaching israel while israel is selling no less than five point two billion dollars of products in the palestinian territories so in my opinion the palestinian authority should have responded more civilly and more strongly by declaring total boycott because it is not acceptable that israel

prohibits palestinian products while palestinians are importing other israeli products. a bomb explosion in the greek capital has injured two people including a police officer the blast occurred outside a church in athens just before morning service a caretaker was also heard so far no one has claimed responsibility for the attack . doctors in greece service you die a warning about the chaos in some public hospitals they say surgical supplies are running out and operations have been postponed the health system is also dealing with a severe staff shortage john psaropoulos reports now from the town of patra. 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. we had

a budget a sixty to sixty five million euros for the crisis today although 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. 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 this hospital had 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 personnel and materials reflect the brought a cur.