the marshall islands holds a toxic legacy from years of u.s. military nuclear testing. as the sea levels rise one of money east investigates the threat this fall out poses on al-jazeera. the syrian city in the crosshairs of competing forces after the u.s. announced its pulling out. this is from doha also coming up in the program tourists are targeted in a deadly roadside bombing placed in egypt's engine param its. security is stepped

up ahead of bangladesh's general election after a campaign marred by violence. and. the kids need to go to school. we may see a man who calls himself robin hood making a living from kenya illegal gun trade. so than take his defense and foreign ministers a jew to meet their russian counterparts in moscow as confusion remains over who controls the strategic syrian city of manage the northern city has long been controlled by syrian kurdish forces but on friday the syrian army said it entered my bridge after an invitation from the kurds however the u.s. military says its forces are still in the city and have seen no evidence to back the regime's claim it's me now it's our correspondent mohammed atta who joins us from gaza on tap in turkey on the border with syria and mohamed what's the latest.

well nic the city of mumbai is calm the people are going about them normal businesses there's still no sign off city and begin forces in the city they have claimed on friday that they had entered the city and had taken over some administrative buildings where they had planted the country's national flag although it was been disputed by not only the residents of the city but also the u.s. forces who are going back countryside on part of the on to eisele international coalition that's also been disputed by city and rebels on the overnight kurdish leaders spoken say actually agreement with the syrian government forces was not for them to enter the city but also but to take in the western part of the countryside to which the border with turkey to stop any offensive from

taki they say that this was a desperate move they hard to take they have been pushed walk or not by the amongst them by president bush will spawn thought he was going to be moved and take away all the forces that the u.s. house they're up to two thousand of them now this is causing some shifting alliances as we can see as i say it take you to france and foreign minister meet the russian counterparts in moscow the expectations are. well this meting is going to be decisive for anything that's happens from here on in turkey would be looking to see whether russia will give the offensive because planned for monday the gore calls right now there has been a window of opportunity for president assad's forces to get a foothold in the kurdish controlled parts of syria that is up to fatah

plus sent tentatively of the entire country it's a huge deal and bashar assad as he comes to voc has been really looking to get a hold of this place now will russia now seeing that the syrian government forces have been invited by the cops themselves see a window of opportunity where bashar al assad can be given the whole country and the tent city that city is bought and ask the chuckie's governmental hold on by all the offensive of course turkey would need guarantee such as that the kurdish forces thought called wikipedia that it can see this a terrorist group will be taken out of the equation because that's the only thing that will of pieces or my thanks very much dave mohammed today reporting there from guns young tip but meanwhile u.s. republican senator marco rubio says he wants a gradual rather than a sudden withdrawal of u.s. troops rubio sits on the senate foreign relations committee and he says it's

important to protect u.s. israeli and kurdish interests in the region jordan has more now from washington d.c. . the u.s. republican senator marco rubio says that there's a slight change of plans when it comes to the us his decision to withdraw its two thousand troops from syria here's the senator speaking in florida on friday we have been able to sort of get the pace of the tree or withdraw slowed which is important i think for persepolis withdrawal would have been catastrophic for various reasons we can outline the moment. the a lot of attention has been paid to northeast syria and our presence alongside the turks aside the kurds are probably lost but we also have a presence in southern syria which is largely an anti hezbollah presence the fact that marco rubio and others u.s. republicans are not endorsing donald trump's decision to pull all two thousand u.s.

troops out of syria indicates that he is about to run into more pressure and more pushback from the u.s. congress in the coming year after years of giving the president the outsized decision to manage u.s. foreign policy there is a growing sense in the u.s. congress both among republicans and democrats that congressional leaders need to be engaged as well and how the u.s. deals with other countries engages in other crises and spends foreign policy money this is a sense of restructuring a balance between the two branches of government they have not been seen perhaps since the late one nine hundred eighty s. three foreign tourists in the egyptian guide have been killed in a bomb attack on a bus just outside kyra it happened near the ancient gives the pyramids matheson this report. a burned out shell all the trimmings of a tour bus hit by a roadside bomb near kabul and that's just what we saw people carry the dead bodies

some people brought the wounded inside an ambulance to take them to hospital and residents of the area helped carry the injured all of them would tolerate. fourteen vietnamese tourists were on board when the bomb exploded in a district close to the giza pyramids in the about that sometimes attacks such as this one can of course it may even happen again in the future and it isn't a country in the world where we can say is one hundred percent safe. tourists in egypt have been increasingly targeted as the government tries to suppress armed groups in the sinai peninsula tourism is key to egypt's struggling economy what you're doing is signaling to the egyptian regime that they're moving out of their own territory and now attacking the very primary source of income for many egyptians about thirty percent of the economy goes to tourism the remaining victims of the blast are being treated in hospital meanwhile investigators are trying to work out how a tourist bus could be bombed in egypt's heavily secured capital rob matheson

al-jazeera. well as we heard iraq's report the egyptian economy relies heavily on tourism it's worth billions of dollars each year but the number of tourists fell from almost fifteen million in two thousand and ten to fewer than five and a half million in two thousand and sixteen the two thousand and eleven uprising led to political uncertainty which kept some visitors away and in two thousand and fifteen a russian plane carrying tourists crashed over sinai killing all passengers on board russia and the united kingdom cancelled all direct flights to sharm el sheikh resort as a result in the stopping of two german women in two thousand and seventeen also had a direct effect on visits to numbers when i say an hour from tawfiq to use a senior fellow at the potomac institute for policy studies he says the targets in this attack and the timing of it send a new message. they have done some things but i don't believe they are enough to

really control the whole freedom now over the man that he actually usually from the egyptian government he is against the order of is focused on the security dimension of the problem and also on the political dimension like political islam but they have some limitations in advising the ideological component even though president the c.c.m. self at the several times but the alicia's the scholars are very reluctant. are very reluctant to take activist tapes to the weekend and the fire this ideology correctly and without fighting the ideology all of the efforts you do will be in vain or will be not effective because their ideology can bring another case is for ever as long as you treat it is very significant because number one it occurred before the new year eve and this is very significant the obvious these are the kills of the terrorists wants to hit the economy hardly and this is the

beginning of a change also for the target remember in the last a few couple of years there was not a single at back against the tourists for two years and i mean mainly the attacks were again is the security forces and the military now they are shifting the target so this is frightening by itself it's carrying a new message to bangladesh now where security forces are on high alert today head of the general election campaign ended with more arrests and violence the main opposition the nationalist party so some of its activists have been detained since november ruling awami league party maintains the vote will be free and. for more let's cross now to turn. in that what is the sense is the feeling that these will be fair elections. well it also depends who you ask if seok somebody from the ruling party they'll say yeah things will be fair and

they're very confident of winning the election by and large if you talk in the street to calm people and of course with the opposition members they'll say look that hasn't been a level playing field for the opposition that when unable to bring out campaign procession or rallies they couldn't even put postcard in the city and we roamed around the city or hardly could see any posters of the opposition we didn't see how do any rally last two lakes maybe one or two rallies in the dipstick towns it's been more violent the opposition rallies being attacked by allegedly by a ruling party people in many cases at least fifty nine candidates convoys by that time i was what i meant allies and a few days ago at least a dozen journalists what i type again allegedly by. birth so given the circumstance with this campaign took place despite the presence of heavy security many of this incident took place in front of police and in some cases the police where i had

a thing that candidates and that can come out and actually perform their campaign duties the opposition is saying how can this be a level playing field and the government and a lecture on came under heavy criticism from the civil rights society as well i mean civil society as well as rights bodies us human rights watch also a very critical the united states state department gave out a very strong statement and told a.b.c. to create a better level playing field for the opposition to consider in all those the critical question remains hundred four million people are going to vote for this election many are scared to go to the village to look we are not going to go bowling because many of the up ruling party people are openly saying if you are not a ruling party member don't bother to come so there's a fear factor here if people feel confident that go well there might be something chain a. could be a possibility how about an event to last night many of the opposition people

members were attacked and p. were detained so considering those facts are it's a very questionable election for many at least very very briefly. before that the ruling party what do they say about these allegations well the ruling party of course denies that they said look i want people have been attacked the prime minister herself said that look it's the opposition that is creating the reign of terror created by the mr eighteen months a death of a lot of people don't kill many have been injured so they're blaming everything on the up and down they're highlighting that we have provided security there is army there is paramilitary and there's no reason for opposition to complain about all this there is a level playing field but we have seen what actually happened in that you're bound for a time believing that the time being thanks very much to. well still ahead here on al-jazeera a meeting of minds. in brazil. a

at you. how i would go to mali where the pushing into northwestern parts of europe bring in a fair bit of cloud having said that because it's coming in from the atlantic we will see those temperatures nudging up quite nicely over the next couple of days further east while it's there but it's cold and i will that around minus seven celsius for moscow subzero in stockholm as well cloud and rain there that will make its way into norway into sweden to look at london twelve degrees celsius here with that mild air tucking in is it bumps into the colder air we are going to see some bits and pieces of snow to that western side of russia some rain there pushing down into a potent snow once again over the alps for the south we're looking at temps getting up to around twelve or thirteen degrees for athens and for rome northern parts of

africa generally try from the cool side of a northerly push on those winds are really getting up into the mid teens by and large eighteen celsius maybe at ninety degrees for cairo represents something or improvements in those temperatures meanwhile the dry weather extended out across the good parts of northern africa come into west africa again flouncy dry thirty one celsius the foreleg us the showers continue across equatorial bow some larger ones here all the way up the rift valley. you look at the arrival of refugees is debated and european parliament's. but the journey itself is little understood. to syrians document the route

that is claimed so many lives such infrasound cherry padawan people in power on al-jazeera. are going to welcome back you're watching. the top stories this. defense and foreign ministers a jew to meet their russian counterparts moscow's confusion remains over who controls the strategic syrian city of. the syrian army says it entered at the request of the kurdish y p g. a roadside bomb talk has killed four people pyramids in egypt three vietnamese visitors and an egyptian god has been no claim

of responsibility. bangladeshi security forces are on high alert today ahead of the general election prime minister's shaky seen as a why he is seeking a straight. protests over the exclusion of three areas from sunday's election have continued in parts of the democratic republic of congo the election commission's decision to delay the vote by three months is facing a challenge from a presidential candidate in the supreme court of france so i reports now from kinshasa. demonstrators in beni eastern d.-r. congo are not letting up rallying for the second successive day protesting against a three month postponement of voting in beni temple and all of them opposition strongholds police and soldiers fired tear gas and bullets to disperse them. the electoral commission says one and a quarter million voters from those areas will be voting on sunday because of the

a ball outbreak and security problems and the electoral process is or is a sensitive issue in an interview with al-jazeera outgoing president joseph kabila says the election process is going on fairly smoothly under the circumstances this is politics such incidents and this is a country with eighty million inhabitants with six hundred political parties with a million views that crash and you're bound to have differently here and a number of issues the electoral commission has also closed one thousand six hundred voting stations of the capital kinshasa is an opposition stronghold with over four million voters and nearly a thousand polling stations most of the city's electronic voting machines were recently destroyed in a warehouse fire phillips to see katie one of the main presidential candidates says what's happening is

a deliberate attempt by the electoral commission to wreck the election is that. what's happening binion provocation they want us to have protests with possible violence we'll be happy about that because dick. allows him to stay on. busy days he won't give him the satisfaction of the lead up to sandy's pool has been cast take it was supposed to happen two years ago but was postponed because of a lack of money and every benyon in the center of a country critics accused president kabila often liberated lengthy election to cling on to power and security forces were accused of killing thousands doing months of protests which are continuing right up to the eve of the an action. plan opposition candidate has called for a general strike in the copy told many people are poor and using a day's pay could be no food for their families most people here are told that they can't afford that. but they also say that i and just want to go to the polls but

they also want to read it and they're left and to get on with their life in kinshasa many doubt whether the election will be either free or fair or they just want to get on with it and protestants in the east of the country complaining of the exclusion from sunday's election say they will remain in the streets until their voice is hide cats we saw al-jazeera kinshasa. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu is in brazil and is promising stronger bilateral ties if he meets in the far right president elect jab elsinore and ridge to mirror the first visit by an israeli premier to the country there was no mention of brazil's anticipated move of its embassy in israel to jerusalem holeman has more from stop. incoming brazilian president try able sonando has been looking to strengthen ties with israel for some time and the visit on thursday by israeli prime minister

benjamin netanyahu in some ways to culmination of now this is not a smooth deal for israel the support of brazil remember that this is the biggest economy in south america the incoming brazilian president himself why is he done this is certainly a break with previous administrations in the last few years in brazil now perhaps among the chief reasons is that of president trump and his administration in the united states table so not over as long seen him as a sort of kindred spirit that both right wing populists they both like to use social media rather than the press to get their their message out and they both to cry what they would probably see as political correctness now obviously the united states has moved their embassy to jerusalem but something that in the past incoming president wilson out of his own so pledged to do and that sort of support will be very welcome to the israeli prime minister as you hear now. it's the first visit by

an israeli prime minister who was there ever here. and it's hard to believe that the context for. you because. the brother. you mention is really. compassionate great question is what is the problem with. the problem this is a bit of a change to brazil the leftist of ministrations that have governed it for most of the twenty first century so far favored the two state solution and showed some support for palestine the country was formally recognized as a sovereign state in brazil in two thousand and ten and in many ways this is something that i. it will so not do as well would like to break with the past he'd like to leave his own legacy and support for israel is part of that how is it going

to affect him and certainly not all positively in the arab nations this isn't going to be a message it's going to be very well welcomed and brazil actually sells a lot of allow me and also check in to many of those countries so this is going to be something that's not going to be positive for brazil we'll have to see how it plays out and how once he's president of the country that's going to happen on the first of january joe uble so not oh looks to handle that relationship with israel and also with palestine. the u.s. homeland security secretary is visiting the southern border off to two guatemalan children died in custody a post-mortem is shown eight year old philippe gomez along he died on monday at the flu before him seven year old jacqueline cullen mark and lost her life just hours after crossing from mexico well u.s. president donald trump has threatened to close the border with mexico if he doesn't get funding for his proposed border wall it's a raising of the stakes by trump in

a standoff with the democrats which has led to a partial government shutdown and is on their reports from the city of el paso texas. asylum seekers released from immigration detention centers in america only to be left on the streets to fend for themselves in the city of el paso texas where this is happening shelters for migrants are at capacity and it's left to volunteers like at the rockhouse cafe and community center to try to provide the basics i felt that they need or we felt that they needed a hot meal so the community responded and we set up tables at the rock and you know just fed people nor first outside and now that it's getting colder now inside with migrant detention centers and shelters full and opacity immigration officials have not ruled out continuing to dump migrant families on the streets to free up detention space the border is increasingly becoming politicized here in el

paso far away from the holes of power of washington d.c. it's migrants and asylum seekers that are becoming pawns in a political game. in a series of tweets on friday president donald trump threaten to close the entire border with mexico if congress doesn't give him the five billion dollars he wants to build a border wall trump has framed the immigration debate in america as a crisis being caused by too many migrants from central america trying to come to the u.s. something local activists in el paso reject christ is that the breath in this is creating to feed his base to do to build this ridiculous wall which is not going to help in anything but by the same time he's promoting the communalisation of immigrants incarceration of children and mistreatment of fall for if you like the ones that we're seeing being released in downtown. there are also signs of more

detentions this giant tent city detention center about an hour outside of bill paso was built over the summer to house my green tea. h. children it was supposed to close on the last day of the year but officials announced this week it will remain open it houses two thousand three hundred migrant teenagers. for those just to writing and hoping for a better life but finding their welcome to america not but they expected. el paso texas the united states has been hit by extreme weather forcing hundreds of flights to be canceled and contributing to the deaths of at least three people the temperature has plummeted in the midwest states of minnesota and nebraska brings snow for up to thirty meters deep meanwhile heavy rain is flooding the streets and inundating homes and businesses in some southern states including north carolina and alabama the severe conditions are expected to continue into the new year well

flash floods have destroyed cammies for internally displaced people in syria's province more than twenty five thousand people lost their makeshift homes and this video posted on social media is that the show one of several comes in the region of the. the biggest national security threat facing one of africa's largest economies might just be its own people the latest figures from the geneva based small arms survey showing three quarters of a million illegal small arms are in private kenyan hands this month the government began a ninety day moratorium against prosecuting illegal gun owners to encourage them to surrender unlicensed weapons reports now from nairobi. kenya who live in this nairobi slum call it chocolate city named for the color of the rusted metal sheets used to build the homes. life here is hard it's where we met a man who makes a living using a gun kind of afraid but he goes to bars hotels night clubs looking for easy prey

and fast cash robbing the rich police would say he's a common criminal he calls himself robin hood and. the kids need to go to school and that. he says he's willing to surrender his guns but friends who did ended up dead a few days later for men like him it seems survival means having a gun i'm doing this for my kids not for me to do what i'm doing i'm doing this for them to get the property. to get. a little support so they could be. in another house we need a mother who knows the consequences of gun violence all too well she says police shot her son richard in the back nearly a decade later she's still not sure what happened that day. you can meet the child wrong i remember him as a good hearted person he would come and hug me and he would always hug him and he

would always give me money and that's how the story ended. a victim of armed robbery herself she says the government program to surrender illegal firearms is a good idea but police should not shoot to kill. there are an estimated seven hundred fifty thousand rifles and pistols in private kenyan hands more than the police and army have combined mostly smuggled from somalia they're untraceable apart from gun crime the sheer number of guns is also a national security concern experts say it's like a public arsenal and anyone willing and able can secure arms relatively easily. away from towns and cities people need to keep their livestock safe from theft and their communities safe from tribal conflict kenya's rural gun culture is more need based what you see. it is for the ungoverned spaces which. the lack of government presence a security forces in those areas allows them therefore to protect themselves.

most kenyans don't necessarily welcome firearms those who faced injustice political and economic exclusion or have been marginalized in some way say they need weapons to defend themselves because no one else will critics of the government plan say disarming kenyans means first addressing their security concerns and winning hearts and minds. for a time to recap in the top stories here on al-jazeera and turkey's defense and foreign minister as a jew to meet their russian counterparts in moscow as confusion remains over who controls the strategic syrian city of man which the northern city has been controlled by syrian kurdish forces on friday the syrian army said it entered man bridge after an invitation from the kurds however the u.s. military says its forces are still in the city and have seen no evidence to back

the regime's claim i'm going to go. well this myth is going to be decisive for anything else happens from here on in turkey would be looking to see without russia will give the offensive to. the go ahead of course right now there has been a window of opportunity for president. to get the full control in the controlled part of syria. sent to the entire country three a foreign tourists and their egyptian guide have been killed in a bomb attack on a bus just outside car the bus was targeted near the ancient he's the pyramids south of the egyptian capital has been no claim of responsibility it is the first deadly attack against tourists in egypt yeah. she security forces are on hyla today head of the general election campaign ended with more arrests and violence the main opposition the bangladeshi nationalist party says thousands of its activists have

been detained since november the ruling awami league party maintains the vote will be free and fair unrest over the exclusion of three areas from sunday's election persists in eastern parts of the democratic republic of congo two people were killed during a workers' strike in the city of beni on friday and police fired tear gas to disperse opposition supporters in goa one presidential candidate has filed a case at the supreme court seeking to reverse the election commission's decision to delay a vote on those areas till march. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu is in brazil and is promising stronger bilateral ties he's been meeting the far right president elect jeb olsen are in rio de janeiro it is the first visit by an israeli permit to the country there was no mention of brazil's anticipated move of its embassy to in israel to jerusalem you have to say well the headline turnout is there inside story it's coming right up front. on counting the cost the economic

factors to watch it be ringing in the new year why call them is some predicting a rocky ride for the global economy and from china to the middle east find out why and where financial storms could be proved. counting the cost on the. russia's new hypersonic missile lattimer putin watches the test firing of the kremlin's latest weapon flying at twenty seven times faster than the speed of sound means it could reach the united states or anywhere else within minutes how big a threat is it this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program i'm glad i'm here putin is describing it as an

excellent new year's gift to the nation russia's president is hailing the successful testing of a new missile as guaranteeing security for decades to.