either to hide it or castro there in washington d.c. heidi thank you let's bring in nick carr he's an assistant professor at the moscow state institute of foreign relations he joins us live now from moscow so the kremlin's welcome this move by syrian forces why is moscow so pleased with developments on the ground well first of all because of the kurds were or seen as american agents in and so since the kurds are now much more flexible and read it to accept the protection from damascus it's eat is a real change it is it is a game changer because now the government will control a considerable part of the north of syria and maybe also north east and death will be a dramatic change because there are other oil fields so it's it is seen as an opportunity to rebuild the power of the government and in other step to rebuild into syria as it was before the war so moscow is really welcoming this but of course the reason

danger there is a risk of clashes between the syrian forces and the turkish forces if the turks if the syrians really arrive to the beach but i think russia and damascus are ready to accept a buffer zone along the border with turkey ok because now is the legitimate concerns of the turkish government. and so i think that's what we'll see in the near future nic and i let me just jump in here for his own money which my yes let me let me just jump in here nick and i because we know the turkish delegation is meeting with the russians in moscow tomorrow is this a sign that all key strategic decisions on the ground are being won across president putin's desk. well yes it is now russia is acting as a mediator between the government in turkey and between the government in damascus so yes the russians know my is a very important broker power but even prouder broker in syria it is true

and i think the cautions will be about actually the size of the buffer zone that i have mentioned before. just a final thought from you so where does this leave the kurds with effectively been abandoned by the americans is russia able to hold turkey in check and not allow them to launch an offensive against the kurds do you think well there will be an offensive but a limited one that's my expectation all right i think it will be an all out offensive towards iraq over top but it will be a limited offensive great a buffer zone along the border like it kilometers wide just just just a final thought then if the central axis nicholai is now russia iran and turkey does this indicate we're now any nearer to an endgame in syria. yes we are even if those three parties manage to find

a compromise between them because still there are lots of controversies on the future of syria even between russia and iran between russia and turkey of course between turkey and the run so this is the major question in besides the regime is also the government in damascus is also playing its own game so there are many complications but at least the american the american part of the equation is gone in it is an improvement of sorts because fewer players the easier it is to find a compromise nic and i said thank you very much already are also much more flexible ok all right nicholas i got thank you very much for talking to us jazeera. all right lots more to come here on the news hour including fighters attacked military bases in nigeria and escape with large quantities of weapons. and fuel for thought germany pushes for greener cars. and sport find out if serino williams could make a winning return in the first match since he was in the u.s. open that's all sort of.

now there are more anti-government demonstrations in sudan ever spiralling living costs and corruption the government says nineteen people were killed during protests in the last week meanwhile sort of these police have the tame nine opposition leaders and activists president omar al bashir has promised reforms and is blaming what he calls traitors and foreign interference for the unrest even morgan joins us live now from khartoum so these protests have been taking place now for more than a week so so how is the government been responding to them. well there and now the government has been responding using what some people have said or have described as brutal excessive force they've been using tear gas and lever missions to try to disperse the protesters who've been chanting for quite a few days now that they want to topple the regime that they want to see a new government and new policies obviously the fact that the government tried to appease them with new economic reforms two or three days after the process started

it was not ok with them they feel like they've been there before that they've heard these promises and that after twenty one year rule really for them they think that president omar bashir cannot deliver anymore than what he has already delivered which for them was obviously not satisfactory for them to come out to the streets and protest his twenty one year rule so at the moment while the government is promising new reforms and new policies they're also fighting the protesters using brute using tear gas and live on missions as some government described its brutal excessive force and it doesn't seem to be coming to an end with protesters adding more protests today in the capital khartoum and other parts of the country as you say more protests on the streets today what sort of turnout and support is the anti government movement getting overall. let's remember that when the protests started it was purely based on people people came out on the streets in different parts of the country different cities which it had to be put under curfew and now emergency rule but then after that two or three days after the protest as it some opposition

figures started lending their support and voicing their support saying that they feel the protesters have legitimate reasons to to protest against the government now we've seen in the past few days opposition figures saying that yes they are siding with the protesters we've seen members of the national government withdrawing from the government saying that they don't feel like the government represents them anymore and that they believe that people are legitimately protesting for a reason so we've seen that this this movement of people saying that they don't want the government and that they want a new regime we've seen it take quite a bigger momentum people are saying that now they feel like they saw that they have a reason to go out and opposition groups siding with them despite the fact that the government as you said earlier did arrest a few opposition figures to try to prevent them from trying to side with these of these protests. in khartoum heba thank you for that now gunman in between a facet of ambushed and killed ten policemen their convoy was attacked near the border with mali air has been repeatedly attacked mostly by fighters linked to al qaida over the last three years.

now in the democratic republic of congo a general strike is being held in opposition areas excluded from sunday's presidential election workers walked out in the northeastern city of beni police of fired tear gas protesters and arrested some of them in goma one officer has been injured there a shortage of voting machines in the capital kinshasa is concerning election organizers will our correspondent malcolm webb joins us live now from kinshasa malcolm so what's the response been to the call for this general strike. started in the eastern city of shut down shops and businesses closed turned into street protests and in eastern city of december both areas blocked from voting in the presidential elections and also the eastern city of goma there hasn't been blocked many people there for the same opposition candidate martin three of those

cities now the same process police have been trying to break them up with tear gas and live gunfire in this reasons of people taking these actions is very skeptical about the motives of the electoral commission for blocking these areas from voting their opposition stronghold electoral commission said it's because of an ebola outbreak and because of conflicts that opposition supporters don't believe that they see the electoral commission as. not being trustworthy we interviewed president joseph kabila one of the things i asked him about was the widespread perception the electoral commission is biased let's hear what he had to say. sure issues about electoral commission. to me is just nonsense the most important thing which we should all understand and retain is that it is an

independent electoral commission these are congolese elections and that's what everybody has to understand and there are. issues that vision once we've been able to do as a nation we don't want anybody to judge us that apart from the congress people and malcolm so with a possibility of over a million votes to be discounted come this election be seen as free and fair at all . well certainly among opposition supporters that really not the case and very skeptical about these announcements of the electoral commission and their motives the recent very recent opinion poll just published just a few hours ago by an independent congress research group and that the polling agency said that about half of their respondents said they wouldn't accept the announcement of the ruling party victory of their candidate for the ruling

coalition ramadani shattering and also about half of respondents said that was the case it would take to the street and they would process so that you could give this gives us some indication of just quite how skeptical congolese people are about this election before people have even gone to the polls that we've drawn of about of the polling station here in the capital kinshasa that is one of the most densely populated parts of the country with a very significant proportion and high concentration of the electorate is also going here we did expect to see long lines at the polling stations anyway reducing polling stations by a fear is going to make them even longer this is also an opposition stronghold that's definitely going to cause even more skepticism among people here in the capital malcolm thank you it's now a rescue boat carrying more than three hundred people as docked in spain after being refused entry by several other european countries the open arms charity

vessel rescued the migrants and refugees of the coast of libya week ago it's the first time since august that spain has allowed a rescue ship to dock some mountain rescuers in the french alps are describing the discovery of a teenage survivor as miraculous the twelve year old was found alive after being buried under an avalanche for forty minutes he was skiing off piste lapland when he was set to weigh in dry and that these two hundred meters was eventually found by a spliff a dog and taken to hospital for a check up. to india now rescuers are racing to find fifteen miners trapped underground for over two weeks in an illegal coal mine government leaders are being criticized for the slow response to the emergency in the northeastern state of make . reports. 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 illegal 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 if it is not going. to be to put football at an efficient playing was fun 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 the best of what the living there will be built in to start a little bit still we are doing all day and yet when the thief and visit the water live in the fish we don't and don't. 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 feared a similar fate awaits those charged inside this call the area paul should dirge on al-jazeera police boats are on patrol in nature to enforce the exclusion zone around a volcano which is threatening to erupt again the zone has been widened and the level raised for the are not 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 from abroad reports from pentagon in banten province . 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 towel 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 lava 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 nights with. before depicted india was only around the one king or but since yesterday ash has been falling on the land with good 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 of 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 will also believe that their destiny lies in the hands of a greater entity our time for the weather now. everton's here evident how's it looking around the sun distrait well thankfully down it does look dry at least for the next couple of days i suspect come next week it'll be a return to those seasonal showers if you take a satellite picture you can see glossy clear skies between java and those southern areas versus a march or in streaks of clout they're just rolling through but it as i said it

does look dry here as we go on through the next couple of days to search for jakarta temperatures around thirty three degrees over the next couple of days is just a little bit to the west of the sun the straight as we go on through the coming days then the real weather action will last further north you can see the huge swathe of cloud in and around the philippines big downpours coming in here at the moment and those showers as you can see it will make their way a little further west was but more those to come as we go on through the next day or so so this is a tropical system at tropical depression locally known as man as it makes its way across central parts of the philippines taking a very similar track to high and you remember high and five years ago caused devastation in and around the area just to the north of tacloban see some very heavy rain in and around the region hundred twenty one millimeters here in the past twenty four hours there's more where that come some from some places will see as much as one hundred fifty millimeters of rain and isolated spots down one of two places to get three hundred millimeters of it and thank you very much all right

lots more to come here not just here including we'll tell you why doctors in zimbabwe are still on strike one month on. brazil's military claim success and its year long operation to fight crime in rio de janeiro but people say nothing has changed and it's both roger federer lance's first big prize of the new tennis season and is here later with that story more on that stay with us. cartridge.

fresh perspectives new possibilities. fearless journalism. debates and discussions global terror attacks fell by our fair i'm fatalities from those attacks fell by a quarter that's a good news story isn't it al-jazeera is award winning programs take you on a journey around the globe because. only on al-jazeera. welcome back a quick reminder the top stories here on al-jazeera the syrian army says it sent to

the strategic city of man beach after a request from syrian kurds for protection the white b.g. fears turkish attacks following the u.s. decision to withdraw its troops from the area but syrian opposition sources say there's no sign of government forces actually in the city. or more anti-government demonstrations in sudan that aspire to living costs and corruption earlier sudanese police detained nine opposition leaders and activists the government says nineteen people were killed during protests in the last week. opposition areas in the democratic republic of congo a general strike up to being excluded from sunday's presidential election meanwhile the electoral commission is concerned that there are voting machines in the capital kinshasa. saudi arabia's new foreign minister has insisted the government is not going through a crisis over the murder of a journalist. on thursday saudi arabia's king sound man demoted his foreign minister other large abair as part of a major government reshuffle he will now serve as

a minister of state for the murder of her shuggie has brought a diplomatic backlash against the kingdom and the relationship between my country and the vast majority of the countries of the world is an excellent change so. of course i will i will. work and continue the efforts that had been built over many years and then by the way very proud to be following this to observe. and preserve the face and this important mission. to nigeria now where boko haram fighters have attacked two military bases in their fight for control around lake chad intense fighting in the fishing town of bagga forced nigerian army soldiers to retreat large quantities of weapons were stolen but recent think trees attacks on military outposts well joining us on the phone is mike edge of four he's acting president of the institute for security studies he was the former director of

nigeria's state security service this was clearly a planned then coordinated attack carried out by boko haram how surprised are you that the group can still operate with such impunity well i'm not only surprised very issue remember. not only court that becomes very very they have become more sophisticated in the uproots you know truck in military installations remote we try to create panic mosul where we're going to election you know just who don't believe in democracy so devoted to possible to twerk. proposed that we were sort of searching the park yeah i mean boko haram has repeatedly struck these outposts in recent months so what is the group strategy in this area is it about taking control of territory near lake chad. if only taking control of the area in the chart you called will also have the usual. islamic state

of west africa which those responding is trying to. make sure of cause. it be trying to expand the front of us. as much as possible to express the cause the. plants and trees planted among the members of the populace under specially if the military is on the top then the civilians look to see if i think that's what they're trying to achieve the government supposed to rise up to the challenge by bringing up the change in strategies and see how come to see. this coach mike let me get a final thought from you i mean despite what the government may say the nigerian military appears to be losing the fight against iraq i mean why is that i mean we are hearing reports that even policeman are refusing to be deployed against boko haram and nothing extraordinary. you see is not extraordinary decided like you said

like i said earlier we need to restore to put by involving international communities to assist those because of the way that military is not fully equipped to take this challenge because the look on her. we cannot do it alone hi i want the government to take the lead by police interests of musicians various countries to complete it in terms of crimi in terms of equipment and the rest of them because it is actually getting out of plan because for it's my get your four thank you very much indeed for your time. now the former president of madagascar. is back in the top job after winning the election with more than fifty five percent of the vote roger lino was up against another former president marc ravalomanana who has already announced what he called massive fraud he wants an investigation into the

december nineteenth vote the constitutional court has nine days to declare final results. but a month long strike by doctors and public hospitals in zimbabwe shows no sign of ending the physicians are defined threats of being sucked in their campaign for higher pay and improve working conditions and patients are struggling to get life saving drugs reports from iraq. a violent should be released hospital disappointed 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 came in they want me to pay in u.s. dollars i don't have my children can't help me because they don't in. 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 urine 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 governess mind 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 they issued warnings of disappearing 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 they're seeing that it is what they are doing was wrong. but. we. we are we have taken all of that we've taken out the measures to make sure that those patrols 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 won't scare them off they insist these wards will stay empty until they get paid more how to matteis al-jazeera. bangladesh's general election campaign has ended with more violence and arrests the opposition bangladesh nationalist party says nineteen out of this have been arrested ahead of sunday's vote and police are supporter of the ruling awami league was killed. donald trump's surprise visit to iraq has provoked

demands for u.s. troops based there to go home some iraqis say his whistle stop trip violated iraq's sovereignty and despite flying all the way from washington the u.s. president the prime minister instead of meeting him imran khan reports from baghdad . the u.s. president seems determined to keep u.s. troops in iraq. but his visit last in just three hours on wednesday night to al asad airbase one hundred thirty kilometers west of baghdad provoked a strong reaction from some iraqi politicians and had to do. i think it is shameful for the iraqi prime minister to accept the u.s. president's invitation to go to the u.s. after his mockery of iraqi politicians and the iraqi government he entered iraq surreptitiously without any coordination and no respect for iraq's sovereignty i spent three hours celebration with soldiers if you to achieved a great victory in fact this visit is considered to feel rather than a victory. there are five thousand two hundred u.s.

troops currently in iraq a lot less than the invasion sent to remove saddam hussein in two thousand and three more recently reinforcements were sent to help iraqi government forces defeat eisel fighters who seized large areas of territory iraqi commanders declared a victory over a year ago but pockets of fight still remain despite his long flight from washington trump didn't meet iraq's prime minister their schedule talks are canceled because of disagreements about the agenda by announcing u.s. troops will remain trump has gone against the iraqi constitution which requires parliamentary approval for foreign military bases some analysts say trump has weakened support here for the u.s. presence in iraq putting the prime minister in a tough position. so this visit gave great confidence to the political parties armed factions and all those who resist the u.s. presence in iraq to ask the parliament to come up with a decision demanding the withdrawal of u.s. troops from the country yes. is it 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 of the 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 of the southern us 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 iraq on al-jazeera baghdad around two hundred people seeking asylum in the united states spent part of christmas day in a car park in texas after being sent there by immigration and customs enforcement officials in el paso hundreds more were sent to other locations including bus shelters as al jazeera has gable in his honor reports from el paso they were left to fend for themselves in the cold. but well cast and yet it 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. when they would go free they put us 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 and they said it was our fault we brought kids with us but it was out of 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 it was done willfully advocates worry that immigration and customs officials are dumping migrants and asylum seekers out on the streets in order to relieve 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 or trying their best to help knowing more migrants will need it hoping no boar are left on the streets to fend for themselves. i'll just see it el paso texas the partial shutdown of the u.s. government's like it's a continue into the new year after both houses of congress adjourned without agreeing a way forward a vote on the impasse is expected next week 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 one opinion poll suggests more americans blame the president for the shutdown rather than the democrats and the latest crackdown on crime in rio de janeiro's due to end on monday and army commanders are already declaring it a success that's just butin by some brazilians who live in the slums and they say the military operation fails to address the root causes of the problem as hold a young reports. for nearly one here soldiers carrying machine guns have been raiding some of brazil's most dangerous fellas the military was called in when gang violence became unbearable the government says the plan to curve in security work. this ceremony marked its completion the state operation in rio de janeiro official .