in twenty four hours and battle is ongoing in that area the army can only confirm that yes there's been some fighting that it has not lost control of this town of buy gas which is a fishing community but some residents who have fled the town are saying that book why don't fight is why deep inside the town one particular. resident was saying that they even led morning prayers this morning and by get time by the military is not giving too much details on the controlling that one person was killed and that they have on a search and rescue in such an area indication that probably some of their soldiers have been dispersed by blackwater um so right now it's still. not clear what exactly is happening in baghdad and we were told by a military source that operations in that area is ongoing but by the way by town is a scene of one of the worst book quite a massacres in nigeria for five days in general really two thousand and fifteen but

quite an fight as all that around that same military base multinational joint task force which is operated by soldiers from cameroon nigeria nizkor and been the republic and child as well who are fighting vocal i am and took over arms and ammunition from that area and massacred more than one thousand civil unions. still ahead here on al-jazeera a major government shakeup in saudi arabia as the kingdom faces pressure of jamal khashoggi she's murder and the war in yemen also fuel for thought germany pushes for greener cars those stories on the other side of the break do stay with us. we've got some rather nasty weather in sewer to pad over the next couple of days already saying quote a chilly wind feeding in from the north the tightly packed i suppose in to indicate

the strength of that window there will be some pockets of snow as we go on through the next couple of days and that western side of honshu saying that see affects the moesha feeding in from the sea of japan turning quite readily to snow as it moves in across a good part of honshu dries its way through as you go on through sunday and as you can say single figures the top temperature just about everywhere negative single figures there for the korean peninsula minus three the top temperature in cell and we'll see a similar temperature there kristie sunshine for beijing southern parts of china on the other hand very largely dry had little warmer as it expect fourteen celsius in hong kong synoptically with that northeasterly wind blasting his wife are essential areas we'll see some snow some rain down towards the gulf of tonkin for a time northern parts of vietnam sensing some rather lot of showers hanoi struggling to get into double figures meanwhile some very heavy rain making its way into the philippines now we have a tropical depression fading in that will bring some flooding concerns the winds

not say much of a problem it was slightly make its way west with the sunday. banks love to make loans to some friends because behind the suffering a millions of taxpayers because those tax payers never go away is a new one born every single day and ninety it is an urgent national necessity we have officially requested the education of the support mechanism we created together because i happen to live in greeks somehow i am a sinner i'm a bad person. that's machine on al-jazeera.

of the back you're watching has their arms a whole rob a reminder of our top stories the syrian army says that it sees the strategic city of bungee jump to a request from syrian kurds but mandate residents are disputing the claim saying there's no sign that any government forces. also opposition areas in the democratic republic of congo have observed a general strike after being excluded from sunday's presidential election meanwhile the electoral commission is concerned that you know voting machines in the capital kinshasa. fighters in nigeria have attached to military bases in the fight for control around lake chad large amounts of weapons were stolen. but the middle east now where saudi arabia has a new foreign minister with the former top diplomat. stripped of his post in a major cabinet reshuffle ordered by king so long the shake up comes as the

international backlash continues over the murder of the saudi journalist jamal khashoggi by agents of the arab kingdom has more. delonte beer a former advisor to the late king of dollar a former ambassador to the united states and now former foreign minister it was only the second saadi to be appointed foreign minister outside the royal family. has been demoted to minister of state for foreign affairs it comes after nearly three months of questions and denials about the killing of journalist. in the saudi consulate in istanbul saudi arabia has faced international backlash including from the u.s. congress who said crown prince mohammed bin son man was responsible for murder during a regional summit earlier this month denied the crown prince's involvement and see this with regards to issuing an arrest warrant we don't extradite our citizens i believe turkey's constitution prohibits the extradition of turkish citizens to be

a was appointed foreign minister by king solomon and twenty fifteen a month after saudi arabia went to war in yemen if strikes were launched with the aim of quickly crippling hooty fighters backed by iran and stage the war has dragged on for almost four years killing at least sixty thousand yemenis he's also overseen turmoil within the g.c.c. including a saudi lead in land and sea blockade of qatar for the past eighteen months or moves that have stalled controversy around the kingdom something his successor at last if no one here it's by having brought him last of who. he's a veteran he served as a minister of finance for twenty years from one nine hundred ninety six and two thousand and sixteen so now he's having come as a foreign minister in order to give that the message that now we are back to the foreign policy alas earth is the former finance minister he was one of many wealthy

and powerful saudis arrested and imprisoned and riyadh's ritz carlton hotel last year the crown prince championed to. theorist's as unnecessary crackdown on corruption. the yemen war and the g.c.c. blockade three of the main ongoing diplomatic crises facing the kingdom and its new foreign minister ybor him and massive challenge tell us al-jazeera. well staying in the region bahrain has reopened its embassy in syria so the united arab emirates the first direct flight in eight years from syria's capital to tunisia has also landed to new zealand's waving syrian flags greeted one hundred fifty tourists in damascus it's a further sign of regional relations being restored after eight years of war in syria. south asian our bangladesh's general election campaign has ended with more violence and arrests the opposition the bangladesh national party says nineteen activists have been arrested ahead of sunday's vote and police say a supporter of the ruling or why we leave was killed police boats are on patrol in

indonesia to enforce exclusion zone around volcano which is threatening to erupt again zones been widened and alert level raised for the and the krakatoa volcano another major eruption could cause a second tsunami a five metre high wave flooded coastal communities on saturday killing at least four hundred twenty six people robert bride has more from the lying in bet and profits. with the increase in the alert level a ministerial visit to the tsunami affected area coming to one of the observation post set up to see exactly what cracker tao is up to some fifty kilometers off shore they have been talking to geologists and volcanologists here who have used an opportunity a break in the weather early friday to get a visual fix on a crack at how what they have been seeing is

a shift of further rock and larva down the sides of the volcano disappearing into the sea and clouds of steam this is of concern because of course it was a shift of the side of the volcano that caused the sun army last saturday the vulcanologist have also been reporting plumes of gas and two hundred to six hundred meters in the air but there have been even bigger plumes in the previous few days. and. before depicted india was only around the world killing or but since yesterday ash has been falling on the land we did options up to twenty five hundred meters high. when the tsunami happened many people simply sought refuge in their local mosque especially those that are uphill and away from the coast and the number are still providing a shelter this friday nearly a week on from the tsunami all of the mosques along this part of the coastline of java are busier than usual and i want to pray for the people who passed away and

for those still living i want to pray for everyone at this and i'm glad i'm praying we don't have another tsunami so everyone can go back to making a living because we all make a living from the coastal area most people here believe in the science and heed the warnings of the experts but when it comes to the possibility of a future more devastating tsunami people of faith also believe that their destiny lies in the hands of a greater entity. of market rescue ship has docked in spain are being turned away by other e.u. countries the open arms charity vessel rescued more than three hundred migrants and refugees off the coast of libya a week ago it's the first time since spain has allowed a rescue ship to talk. amount to rescuers in the french alps are describing the discovery of a teenager a teenage avalanche survivor as miraculous the twelve year old was found alive after being buried under an avalanche for forty minutes though he was skiing off

piece that applause when he was swept away and dragged at least a hundred meters eventually found by a sniffer dog and taken to hospital for a check up. diesel powered vehicles could soon be banned in some of germany's largest cities the e.u. struggling to find the german government for breaching air pollution levels and clean air is also being demanded by environmental campaigners but he barbara has more. that's the version of blue michael runs a small plumbing company involved in that relies on quick deliveries to customers his employees use small diesel vans to get around he says he'd like to use green of vehicles but right now that's not feasible. it is all and. for a small firm like ours we can't afford to keep replacing our vehicles we bought our fleet of six vans years ago trusting in diesel and we're stuck with them. this street in central berlin is one of the city's busiest and not surprisingly emissions levels around here are above the legal limits now they've already brought

in a thirty kilometer an hour's big limit to try to do something about the problem but still very soon diesel vehicles. syria. the so-called diesel gate scandal focused attention on just how polluting diesel vehicles can be after german manufacturers including faults fog and dime are admitted cheating emissions tests the government's promise to make the automakers pay for retrofitting in other words installing hardware to reduce emissions since february german cities have also had the right to hold a diesel vehicles to reduce air pollution should gas bring in a total body january and at least fifteen heavily polluted cities across germany could soon have similar restrictions but the german government says in other places it needn't come to that the european union's accepted limits of nitrogen dioxide or n o two emissions is forty micrograms per cubic meter but under the proposed changes places where the level exceeds that doesn't go above fifty micrograms would

be exempt from diesel bans what also cities do is they modernize the busses and transport system at the moment quite intensively you can improve but going by bike you can also say we have an area in our town where we will no have very little have no traffic at all that's not nearly enough for campaigners who are currently suing dozens of municipalities over their failure to act they say the government's plan based on localised exemptions will leave drivers confused and do nothing to improve air quality they have now more than thirty thousand premature deaths in germany alone and alone due to the high and that's something. we have several hundred new cases of ask my diseases and other diseases each year so it's high time to eggs. for small businesses like me there might be exemptions on what type of vehicles are banned. but whether changing the law will do anything to make

city centers healthier is far from clear the al-jazeera bill in the other part of shutdown of the us government is likely to continue into the new year after both houses of congress adjourned without agreeing on a way forward a vote on the stalemate is expected next week president donald trump says the shutdown will continue until democrats meet his demand for five billion dollars in next year's budget to build a wall on the border with mexico rob runnels has more from washington d.c. . there is of course a very strong political element to the government shutdown president trump promised during his election campaign in two thousand and sixteen that he'd build the wall on the border with mexico he said he'd make mexico pay for it he's not saying that anymore but he wants five billion dollars to pay for a section of the wall and he's saying that democrats are being intransigent and not coming to the table this despite the fact that the president said he would be proud

to initiate the shutdown in a televised meeting with democratic leaders so the democrats' response is to try to paint president trump as being irresponsible and even him it sure using terms like temper tantrums one of the democratic leaders dick durbin senator of illinois said there's no end in sight to the president's government shutdown he's taken our government hostage over is outrageous demand for a five billion dollar border wall and at the moment about eight hundred thousand federal workers are either furloughed or working without pay if and when the government gets its act together so to speak and passes a bill to restore funding funding many of those people will get back pay they'll be compensated for the money the paychecks that they did not receive but still this new year season is going to be fraught with a lot of anxiety for

a lot of federal workers here in washington and all across the united states a month flown strike by don't design public hospitals in zimbabwe shows no sign of ending the physicians that assigning threats of being signed in the compay pay and improve conditions and patients all struggling to get life saving drugs how to toss one has. a valid should be at least hospital disappointed as. and in pain the sixty seven year old has cancer and the medication she needs has run out in public hospitals and doctors aren't strike she says she's been told to go to a private clinic for tests and to buy drugs their. use when they go to buy a made big chemist they want me to pay in u.s. dollars i don't have my children can't help me because they don't enjoy. only emergency cases are being seen at this public hospital junior doctors have not

reported for duty in weeks they say they want to be paid in dollars not in local bond notes which devalued constantly they also want their working conditions improved we're looking for basics absolute basic things to use sterile gloves sometimes even just ordinary gloves for us to be able to examine patients safely you're in bags we don't want a case where patient comes in we put in a catheter if it's available and the next thing is you've got urine all over the floor it's got to attach things like plastic bags the doctors say they are struggling to survive is the second time this year doctors walked out on strike the governor signed about issuing suspensions to more than five hundred of them without pay to add to the crisis necessary are overwhelmed and can't cope with politicians have told doctors this strike is illegal and have issued warnings of disciplinary hearings and potential sackings if they don't get back to work if they were for the

people who ended their want to be doctors and want to care for the people. seeing that it is what they are doing was wrong. but. we we are we have taken i love that we've taken out the measures to make sure that what's good tools will be administered adequately. some of those measures include a living some drugs and medical equipment but it's not enough for the whole country striking doctors seem defiant saying threats by this appears to fire them once gave them off they insist these wards will stay empty until they get paid more had. had a. daughter out of their arms the whole robin these are all top stories the syrian army says that its end of the strategic city of man beach after a request from syrian kurds for protection the i.p.g.

fears that turkish attacks following the u.s. decision to withdraw troops from the area russia has welcomed the move but syrian opposition sources have told hours there are there's no sign of government forces in the city however down. residents of mumble town who we spoke to have said that they have not seen any sign of syrian forces in the city but what we know is that syrian government troops are already been all the outskirts all the countryside of member where they were part of an international coalition that is fighting remnants of ours still this include the american forces that once withdrawn as well as french and other forces from other countries in the democratic republic of congo a general strike is being held in an opposition area excluded from sunday's presidential election workers walked out in the northeastern city of beni and police the fired tear gas at protesters in goma

a shortage of voting machines in the capital kinshasa is concerning election organizers in nigeria broke her own finances of attack to military bases in their fight for control around lake chad intense fighting in the fishing town of bugger falls nigerian army soldiers to retreat large quantities of weapons were stolen boko haram has increased attacks on military outposts recently police in sudan have detained opposition leaders and activists before more expected protests they began over rising bread and fuel prices and have grown into demands for president bashir to resign he's promised reforms and is blaming what he calls traitors and foreign interference for the unrest rights groups say dozens of protesters have been killed . and the partial shutdown of the us government is likely to continue into the new year after both houses of congress adjourned without agreeing for a way forward a vote on the impasse is expected next week donald trump wants democrats to meet his demand for five billion dollars in next year's budget to build

a wall on the border with mexico more news in half an hour with daryn george next it's inside story here on al-jazeera do stay with us. in a surprise visit to u.s. troops in there at all president trump stands by his order to pull american soldiers out of syria while critics warn against a hasty withdrawal it's reported afghanistan could be next what is trump strategy and how will the region fare with his decisions this is inside story.

hello and welcome to the program i'm homage i'm joined donald trump made an unannounced visit to u.s. troops in iraq the day after christmas he'd been criticized for not going to a conflict zone in the two years since becoming president the trip only lasted three hours and he didn't meet any of the docs leadership but he used the opportunity to defend his decision to withdraw american soldiers from syria our presence in syria was not open ended and was never intended to be permanent. eight years ago. we went there for three months and we never left but what a job you have done what they have done i made it clear from the beginning that our mission in syria was to strip isis of its military strongholds we're

not nation building rebuilding syria will require a political solution. and it's a solution that should be paid for by its very rich neighboring countries not the united states let them pay for it and they will they will in fact saudi arabia yesterday you probably read stepped up to the plate and has already made a commitment of substantial funds for development. and president aragon of turkey has also agreed to take out any remnants of isis and we'll be working with them but trump's claim over saudi funding has been debunked by a saudi embassy official in washington and a spokesperson for the u.s. national security council the kingdom has not made any new financial pledge for syria since august but let's have a look at how many u.s. troops are in some of these countries american forces arrived in syria in two thousand and fifteen recently there were two thousand there and there are five

thousand who remain in iraq the initial deployment happened in two thousand and three and fourteen thousand are based in afghanistan and america's longest running war which began in two thousand and one. all right let's bring in our panel joining us from baghdad eileen ashmead professor of political history at city university from sanibel island in florida on skype peter galbraith former united states ambassador and former deputy united nations envoy to afghanistan and in london. assistant professor of international relations at the university of nottingham welcome to the program alia nash me i want to start with you there was supposed to be a meeting taking place between president trump and there at the prime minister that didn't happen the reports are that it was because the parameters of the meeting could not be agreed to what kind of

a message does that sinned to or at off the leadership. no the thing that the term he carry many message in his visits one of the messages to the iraqi government. this message mean he didn't respect he didn't have any respect for that government or that stuff and he. called the iraqi government when he reach to the base of an exit and after that they call him to the . up to maddie to come to that base to the military base to meet him in that place in order that. he will in that time he was out of the bag that he cannot leave and that time they give him just one hour of this i think it's ready insulting for the iraqi government and in order that. the iraqi prime minister abdul mahdi he had a fuse dimity because he can't be turned in that base because he called him to come

to baghdad just a few minutes see if you can't. my procedures at the not allowed to be to come and order that that meeting was finished and they didn't meet and that peter galbraith erakat fish was must have also been shocked by president trump's decision to withdraw u.s. troops from syria and afghanistan was one of the objectives of this trip also to boost the iraqi government's confidence in the u.s. . it's hard to believe that that's the case given particularly the fact the managements were made with the iraqi government to have meetings and that incidentally is different from what president obama did when he went to iraq and two thousand and nine or the various trips that president bush made even when the u.s. was the occupation authority he met with the. iraqi political leaders to his trip once and about iraq it wasn't about syria it was about one person donald trump

he's been accused of being a coward. for not having visited the troops in combat. not having respect at the service spend on the progress that averse or is the answer for why the fight canceling a trip to belo woods the scene of a very major battle because it was raining and this also appeared although the trip must have been planted the depths of the same day as the new york tried story appeared page one story. making clear that the reason he got a draft deferments from vietnam was because they provided trips that the phones for was in fact attended is sponsored by real estate developer and got a sweetheart deal so this lets us donald trump responding to criticism about being a coward that had very little to do with iraq or iraqi policy and of course with the characteristic lack of diplomatic skills that has characterized

this mistrust. this trip comes at a time of increased tensions between president trump and top military leadership in the u.s. is this trip going to do anything to alleviate that. i'm not sure that this particular trip is going to change the relationship between president trump and his military leadership because the relationship has already been affected by his decision to withdraw troops from syria. general mattis he's secretary of defense has resigned on the basis this particular trip i think will probably enhanced if anything some of his support within the military there is a difference i detect having served under u.s. military command between the political if you like level of leadership in the

pentagon and the troops on the ground the troops on the ground. fight very bravely but recognize that what they do best provides very short term solutions they recognize the complexity of the situation and they realize i think that there is no long term effective strategy that i think. is something that mr trump. the political rhetoric has chimed with greatly he has always said that we don't have an effective strategy in afghanistan and in iraq and that we should withdraw from these countries and i think the syrian decision plays into that and all of this i think chimes at the lower levels of military command who recognize that if you like some truth in what he's saying allen nash me mr trump told reporters that the u.s.

might base american commandos on the border in iraq to launch raids and other missions into syria going forward if that was needed now is this something that the u.s. would need to get permission from the iraqi government to do in and what do are up the officials think about this statement. no i think this is what he said yesterday he said we are still in iraq because you know there is many forces arises yesterday and last weeks when mr. say. this is a decision to withdraw medical editor from syria and order that many many politicians in washington say this is a bad message for the extremists and he coming to iraq to prove against that he say we will stay in iraq and we stay in the middle east and we will make

a very wide the base again i think that base it will be ready for any intervention in syria and other until controlling the middle is that even he say about iran and that in order that i think that declaring that they thought a chattel and that in the history of the streets of iraq and the iraqi people and they're talking about how about that declaration because you know the backed sign between iraq and united states in two thousand and nine that one term said we will not leave any bases in iraq in order that they i think we did some change in that back to what was signed but you had a government on amharic and government in order that i think as many votes many votes as isis now in the electorate occupied by man to collect and to me it's about change and about his declaration about to build and when that american forces what are all from see that coming in iraq you say the thing that is now in iraq it's

more than seven thousand and that it can and that's based but the beginning when they fighting in eighteen and two thousand and fourteen say we will send the only five handed soldiers officials but now it's more the seven thousand i things many things will have been next week about this declaration peter got. it was widely known of course that president trump had wanted to withdraw troops from afghanistan for some time now he eventually came around to the thinking that had been espoused by secretary of defense or outgoing secretary of defense jim mattis i want you to take a listen to something that president trump said in two thousand and seventeen a hasty withdraw would create a vacuum that terrorists including isis and al qaeda would instantly fill just as happened before september eleventh and as we know in two

thousand and eleven america hastily and mistakenly withdrew from iraq as a result our hard won gains slipped back into the hands of terrorist enemies our soldiers watched as cities they had fought for and bled to liberate and one were occupied by a terrorist group called isis the vacuum we created by leaving too soon gave safe haven for isis to spread to grow recruit and launch attacks we cannot repeat in afghanistan the mistake our leaders made in iraq peter how does one go about reconciling what president trump said then in two thousand and seventeen with his strategy now withdrawing troops from syria and afghanistan it's hard to reconcile and i think what.