amazon burning on al-jazeera. my. more than 20 killed as the iraq commie tries to quell a new day of anti-government protests and the targeting of an iranian consulates. and how he did this is al-jazeera life in doha also coming up. welcome back from saudi prisons dozens of yemenis flown home as part of an exchange deal. saying thank you to america thousands rally in hong kong after president trump signs a lot supporting protestors. and aiming for mars and more europe unveils its new space exploration plans.

but for a city rock is stepping up its response to mass protests across the country the army says it sent a commanders to provinces to restore order and setting up what it calls crisis cells to quell the unrest well the announcement came as at least 29 people were killed in the syria on thursday when security forces opened fire to disperse a demonstration that this followed a night of violence in the city of not just where iran's consulate was set on fire tehran is calling for firm action against the protesters but the iraqi protestors are accusing tehran of backing a government that they are against at least 350 people have been killed during the protests which are pushing for more job special services and they completes overhaul of the political system so young men in the consulate when it was set on fire all the right plan within a job started firing on us as if we were burning iraq as

a whole the riot police by tear gas intensively and the security forces rendered heavily with live bullets now mohammed jumps in and is in baghdad. the fact that you have now had 2 attacks on iranian consulates in shiite holy cities within a matter of weeks this month that really goes to show how much frustration there is even in shiite majority cities toward the government of iran because of the outsized role that they play in the politics of course you had this attack last night that was an attack in which the anti-government demonstrators they got into that compound in and they set. the iranian consulate ablaze they burned it before the attack happened the staff at the consulate they had escaped through a back door we're now being told that off the military is going to be sending these security cells to some of the provinces to try to quell the protests we don't really know exactly what form that's going to take there is great concern here

right now that perhaps that could mean that there is a crackdown looming that perhaps there will be more violence we just don't know we'll have to wait and see but also we've been told that there is now a curfew that has been put in place in the city of najaf for the until further notice show there's so much going on here right now the protests continue to swell but the fact the matter is despite the violence despite the specter of potentially more violence all the demonstrators that we continue to speak with no matter what city they are in they say they are committed to continuing to come out until they have a government they feel that actually represents them. well last week a travel secret reports in cables from iran spy agency were published by the intercepts and the new york times shedding light on terror on's vast influence in iraq according to the document surround use the u.s. withdrawal and 2011 to expand its influence and surveillance operations adding top iraqi governments politicians military and security officials to their peril both in baghdad and in the senate honest kurdish region of northern iraq where they've

ripped routinely reported back to tehran about conversations halves with american diplomats there are humans also show how hiran has protected and paid former cia informants in iraq have kept tabs on u.s. activities there well not sure where is the director of the gulf studies center at cancer university he says public anger in iraq is directed both at the government's hands at a rainy and fluence. in the past few weeks there is no doubt the there was a process of rebirth and iraq and that the process basically talking about a new national identity because. you know sects close this it is across tribes all of these things so what's happening now in iraq. is an evidence that people there are fed up of you know our site or in interventions and i think we also see that how much this outsider and outside intervention has corrupted the political

atmosphere more and more and it creates a political elite which is more corrupted more related to the outsiders rather than to the interest of the people and this kind of level of anger increasing increased rapidly in the last few years with the with the expansion of you know corruption and poverty and the need and the lack of infrastructure and the services which the government unfortunately has failed to deliver to its own people the visitors they are against both they are against they recognize or not because there is the assumption that this government is very weak it's actually rely on outsiders and more important they are upset of their arc of the iranian intervention or enter. business in iraq and they see that this kind of intervention is not helping iraqis it's actually create contribute to see iraq as a failed state. 3 planeloads of yemenis have been broken back to their country from

presence in saudi arabia 128 men were flown into sonas international airport's awards red cross plains a few hours ago to be created greeted by he commanders and some family members but they were released as part of an exchange deal u.n. special envoy martin griffiths has welcomed the prisoner swaps that come out it's a new push to end the 5 year war the saudi unity led coalition announced on wednesday that santa airport would reopen to limited flights loan patients to fly aids for medical care monitor when she then moved from the airports. this flight is the 1st flight. for the president before this the 1st offer szell. swarup all relays are for presidents of war by saudi arabia u.a.e. little qualification people are hoping this would push forward for achieving all realizing the peace in yemen which has been going through difficult and destructive

times throughout nearly 5 years many of those wife talk to hope they will find their relatives. to agree to go out of this international both but so far we couldn't know that. the exact number of who though more will be ripe but according to the news that i have heard that some of them have been detained and. which is the just 40 kilometers from sun are also those who are being detained in areas in the course and the coastline of. there are also fisherman. are concerned that the they want their fighters to be released also there are thousands of people who are being detained who are that's involved in the war especially those who try to travel outside yemen through the areas which are under the control

of the saudi us. well there are there are reports of in yemen spoke city official abdul in a has shar who says the prisoner release is a good 1st step for peace. i walk speak to him to stop all the war against yemen to get in release all the prisoners to pay off the saudis of all the employees in yemen and also to open their son i have courts that is no any justification to close this airport for about 25000000 yemenis living in sinai and living in all yemeni government eats. china has accused donald trump of sinister intentions after the president signed the hong kong human rights bill the law means washington can impose sanctions on chinese and hong kong officials seemed responsible for human rights abuses and the sarah clarke reports from hong kong fisons are celebrating the u.s.

move. in central hong kong they gathered to say thank you to the united states president donald trump signed into law the hong kong human rights and democracy act on wednesday the pro-democracy protesters embraced it as a sign of support i think is a good thing for ha ha biggest given the special are how do you say that the economic. situation of our car to all mainland china actually yeah. i think it was affecting. the whole situation i'm very organised to be a part of the whole college stay standing here. i'm not saying the word sarah brady but to to. to share one delightful moment of being here yesterday for this remark was that thank you mr speaker i thank the legislation had rare broad bipartisan support in both the u.s.

senate and the house of representatives and for the people of hong kong it allows the u.s. to introduce economic sanctions against hong kong and withdraw the city special trade status if it believes the government is failing to protect democracy and human rights pro-democracy activist joshua wall held the legislation as a victory for the protest movement which is paralyzed parts of the city since june it just increased. well leaders around the world and politicians aware that it's time for them to it's down to hong kong but the hong kong government rejected the legislation accusing us of interfering in the city's internal affairs and sending the wrong message to violent protest critics included the city's former chief executive after all these years and just to be on me as to why people in the west are going to happen. opening the most of the countries as if they had done better dealing with all the mystic problems china echoed that message describing it

unnecessary and more into it and some of the u.s. ambassador in beijing jungle hong kong is china's hong kong hong kong if as purely china's internal affairs no foreign organization foreign government and foreign individual has the right to interfere with the u.s. legislation comes less the way got deployed democracy party secured a landslide victory in the city's district council elections that year has been a morale boost for these protesters but so far the government is showing no signs of compromise in meeting these demands for political reform sarah clarke al-jazeera hong kong. 41 people are confirmed dead following jesus powerful earthquake in albania rescue workers are trying to find survivors in several countries and sent teams to help and this was the most powerful earthquake to hit the country in decades john says that one of the worst hit cities duress he says most people there

have fled for fear of aftershocks. i'm standing among a group of apartment buildings and hotel buildings along the beach front of the resort town of buddhists and as you can see these apartments above me are completely uninhabited. and renters have fled them they are staying elsewhere they were afraid to come back because there are constant aftershocks and these people don't want to be caught in a situation where a building collapses on top of them because of an aftershock this is the situation all along the beach front of good is about 2 kilometers worth of buildings large high rise buildings like the municipality tells us that some 500 of these people are being kept in temporary shelters in the indoor gymnasium of the school building until their buildings are checked by an. and they're told that they can return to them or they're told the those buildings are going to be demolished i don't other 1000 we're told have been put into medium term shelters in hotel rooms because

their buildings most likely won't survive but there must be more than that there must be more people who shelter at the moment because we're seeing people sleeping in the in tehran on wednesday night thousands of people were sleeping in 3 or 4 kilometers of cars quadruple parked along one of the main avenues of the city they simply do not want to go to bed for the last time and be caught in an earthquake in which their building collapses and there are people who whom we have seen walking the streets here at night in do this with blankets wrapped around them and they said they say to us that they're going to sleep on cafeteria chairs or that they've spent the night on the beach this entire coastal section of the us the heart of its economy where all the tourism trade is this is now a ghost. so to come on al-jazeera accusations of sexual misconduct against

a key witness. in the impeachment inquiry and pledging ethnic different methods for testers are trying to put on a united front. hello once again the weather slushy settled into dry across a good parts of charter members and think a cloud in see those central parts in the times that cloud may be thick enough to produce a little bit apache rain or drizzle i think more so as we go on in sea where sas status cladistically up towards john and do some snow on the northern flank of that 15 celsius in shanghai could see the odd shower here but further south you go with the sunshine 25 degrees in hong kong the only show when the northeasterly wales will face some showers into that eastern side of vietnam and the same northeasterly

winds fading showers to southern parts of in the air just around the peninsula here's some very wet weather in play have some lively showers thundery downpours there for schrenker over the next couple of days carol we'll see what it is showers but it's pushing up towards the other possessing the heaviest of the showers as we go through the next few days largely dry to warsaw north of that some wintry weather there over the high ground but nothing much to speak of but a cloud there just pushing into the far northwest of the country a little bit of cloud perhaps thick enough a time speeches $1.00 to $2.00 spots around southern parts of oman maybe into yemen as well but for the arabian peninsula it's mostly fine dry and sunny. the brazilian journalist investigating a politically struction of land grab all the farmers helped yet another elected and he's reprieve them that's empowering everyday people to profit from the destruction

of the rain forest people are almost willing to give their life away and guarantee the occupation of the lands is journalism the last hope in the fight for sleep there on the sun the surface not only a land conflict but a culture of the narrative brazil the age of boston are all whose truth is it anyway on al-jazeera. this is a reminder of our top stories this hour a curfew has been imposed in the iraqi city of nasiriya after 29 people were killed string anti-government protests security forces opened fire on a demonstration the army is sending its commanders to several provinces to restore

order. busy prisoners who've been detained by saudi arabia have arrived home in yemen the group of around 130 prisoners landed in some airports which has been closed since 2816 there were released as part of an exchange deal with china has accused donald trump of sinister intentions after the president signed the hong kong human rights bill that could help protect protestors beijing has threatened to respond. now sudan's government says scrapped a controversial law that was used to limits women's rights cabinets plans to degree a decree nullifying the public order law set in place by former president omar bashir thousands of women were folks in public for when introduces going out with scarves or wearing indecent clothing or him organise in khartoum she explains how the new law will make a difference to women the public order act was an act that was introduced in the

mid ninety's by the former government now most of the people incidentally that as an act to regulate society it dictated how men should wear how women should wear where women should be seated seated in public transportation basically people feel like it was oppressing the freedom and the movement and the lifestyle of people here in sudan and that's something that local and international rights groups have said repeatedly they say that the laws under the act of the public order law made it very hard for people to be themselves women were not allowed to be out in public very late and very late was open to interpretation depending on the security agents it had its own moral police advice police that regulated and went around society to make sure that women did not come back home late that they did not dress indecently according to the invitation of the moral police law that was around at the time so people viewed it as a law that was basically around to constrain on the use of sadam and to try to dictate how they live their lifestyle and how they want about their daily lives

armed groups have carried out a new tanks in eastern democratic republic of congo to health workers were killed in a b a car towards a world health organization base the violence comes as residents protest against what they see as inaction by un peacekeepers tasked with keeping them safe. french president tomorrow and that crew has rejected an offer by russia suspend missile deployments and made the comments during a meeting with nato chief stoltenberg in paris russia proposed a moratorium after a ban on the maid was lifted in august starting burke used the meeting to address michael's criticism of nato a suffering brain death while questions are being asked about the strength of the transatlantic bomb north america and europe are doing more together than we had done for decades and i can hardly think about any stronger demonstration of the commitment to our alliance story collective defense to article 5 than the fact that

we are actually doing more together increasing are those of forces investing more in our security than we have done for many many years french presidents and i know michael is insisting that member states must increase their level of corporation let be on the up for the post if any peace in europe our work post i.n.f. treaty our relationship with russia the subject of turkey who is the enemy as long as we haven't resolved these questions we cannot negotiate to realize the cost of the total burden so maybe there's a wake up call that's needed i ask each to consider their priority is to think of the final goal and our strategic objectives we must have a method between us leaders of state and the government along with the organization secretary general on the basis of these questions that are asked so we can automatically move forward in the next following weeks. when the sash about law has more on the reaction to macro's remarks from the presidential palace in paris. well if there's no doubt the macro comments certainly roldan angered many nato members

who see him as undermining dangerously undermining the credibility of the alliance with the same time his comments are so focused minds of made other leaders think about nato its future and perhaps come up with new ideas and one idea that's been proposed by the german foreign minister. and the idea is to have an expert panel actually review the allies well yes stoltenberg seems to be on side with that he seems to agree that this could be useful and the idea is if it is agreed to at this meeting next week a special summit for the 70th anniversary in london the idea is that this expert panel from outside nato would look at the alliance we're here to come up with a report next november after the u.s. election. a key witness in the u.s. impeachment inquiry against president gore trump has been accused of sexual misconduct 3 women have made allegations against the u.s. envoy to the european union they claim he retaliated against them professionally

after they rejected sexual advances someone has denied all allegations calling them concocted his testimony lent president trump's decision to withhold aid from ukraine with investigations into his political rivals and another man at the center of all of that inquiry is also in trouble present personal lawyer has been accused of pursuing lucrative business deals with ukrainian officials u.s. media is reporting that the giuliani explore deals was hundreds of thousands of dollars that's why he was pressuring ukraine to take up damaging information on democratic presidential contender joe biden giuliani says he'd never accepted a penny. well see weeks of public impeachment hearings in the us haven't unifies american votes in fact paul suggests opinion is evenly split only a sheet analysts say the republican controlled senate is unlikely to try to convict donald trump and with the presidential election less than

a year away it could be up to swing state forces to decide if child gets a 2nd term in office. castro reports many a washing closely. the streets of media pennsylvania are adorned for the coming holidays but as matthew cole forbes awaits the trolley to work headlines from the impeachment hearings in washington threaten to take away some of his cheer i really don't agree with that. i mean they're going to i'm not a politician anything like that i just i think they've been trying to master $0.10 k. i think. the 20 year old restaurant worker and business student is among the white working class swing state voters who deliver trying to victory in 2016 in cold forbes says the impeachment inquiry centered on whether trump inappropriately pressured ukraine's president on a phone call has only cemented his support i don't really know what happened at all

on that phone call. but i read part of the transcript. and i don't really see what they're trying to all of you here. polls show americans remain evenly divided on whether to impeach trump weeks of public hearings have done little to change minds and democrats have privately knowledged that senate republicans will have the power to decide president trump's fate will not vote to convict him so it's a foregone conclusion that impeachment will not remove trump from office so what does it all for well he still has to fight for reelection within a year and so his future still very much depends on how the efforts to impeach him plays off of american vote. voters i've been hoping my truck gets a peach since the get go. they're finally getting around to it if you believe that abuses of power occur you have to you have to try to hold people accountable with most american showing a clear partisan divide and whether they support impeachment it's the rare swing

voter who will likely decide whether trump remains in office after 2020 like the voters who helped elect delaware county council woman monica taylor to office earlier this month for control of the local government flipped from republican to democrat for the 1st time in 150 years we have a lot of people who are moderate we have a lot of people are somewhere in the middle find themselves somewhere in the middle and i think we are a good example of where that swing vote is going to come from in pennsylvania is you know it's a swing state but even as political analysts say these pennsylvania and suburbs have shifted left in an apparent move both against trump wow areas of the state have moved further right recent local elections in western pennsylvania some republicans gain in string a sign that the battle for the state's electoral college votes pivotal to whether trump wins re-election in 2020 will be fierce. castro al-jazeera media

pennsylvania. a 3 day general strike is underway in lebanon where violent confrontations and threats and swaths of large city peaceful protests in recent days there were tense standoff between sectarian and political rivals but nearly 6 weeks since the start of the movement's protesters are to tournaments to restore a united voice against the ruling class say no reports from beirut it's. a message of peace at a time of political turmoil. mothers joined hands after a violent incident between supporters of rival political parties brought back dark memories. i know of many was where i look at on civil war began in 1975. the. called for national unity. the people that are affecting no are born after night after the war was gone they don't know what is the they stopped of the war they don't know if it's blood will come blood will not give them food will not give them

opportunities they walked for the mainly christian neighborhood of i don't go many towards what was the front line that divided the lebanese capital. they then crossed into the mainly shiite neighborhood of shia. it was a warm welcome from a person who seem to want to leave the past behind i i but it was a different picture a few nights ago there was a standoff between supporters of christian opposition parties and backers of shiite parties in power and hezbollah who have used force against the appetite establishment protestors across the country in recent days. is doing what they do is just play on the sectarian. the sectarian emotions they're trying to use the tools on the street of intimidating. peaceful protesters and this is being used basically to i think. for internal kind of balance and

power struggle in between the establishment parties opposition parties have been accused of hijacking a popular uprising for almost 2 months there have been protests against the political elite who are refusing to give up power and that was the story of the war and the ability that is why many are concerned the longer this political crisis lasts and the longer people remain in the streets the likelihood of more violence increases xenophobe their favor. the police chief in charge of operations during the 1989 hillsborough disaster has been found not guilty david duncan field was responsible for the hells for stadium in sheffield where overcrowding led to a stampede killing 96 liverpool supporters the tragedy horrified the nation and led to years of inquests and investigations where on thursday a jury finds the former chief not guilty of manslaughter the verdict means that no

one has been found liable in a criminal courts for the deaths of the football supporters europe is planning to launch some epic space missions in the coming years after 2 days of meetings in seville the $22.00 members of the european space agency have signed off on a record budget of nearly $16000000000.00 over the next 5 years the book buster proposals include voyages to the media and other planets as well as send in the 1st ever walk sample back from mars agency's also looking into space based 5 g. network to deliver faster phone connections and a way to get early warnings off store of solar storms. it looks almost so simple after such 2 days something tense of discussions when there is a program we have missions everything everything looks trivial but. each and every one who looks

a little bit more into detail knows that these are really complicated procedures and i'm therefore very happy i mean nasa has been government we have 22 so this is already a something which is different and i'm very grateful for all the member states plus live in your class canada to subdue for the support of what we're doing. this is al jazeera these are the headlines this hour a curfew has been imposed in the iraqi city of nasiriya after 29 people were killed in anti-government protests security forces opened fire on script forces opened fire on a demonstration the army sending its commanders to several provinces to restore order. he prisoners seeking to change by saudi arabia have arrived home in yemen a group of rise 130 man landed in some airports which has been courses 2016 they

were released as part of an exchange deal bamidele us up and she bought from santa this flight is the 1st flight. for the president or for this purpose the office will swap all relays of the presence of war by saudi arabia. people are hoping this would push forward for achieving all realizing the peace in yemen which has been going through difficult and destructive times throughout nearly 5 years. china has accused donald trump of sinister intentions and threaten to respond to a new u.s. law that could help protect protestors the law means washington can impose sanctions on chinese and hong kong officials deemed responsible for human rights abuses meanwhile hundreds of people are showing their gratitude for the patrol u.s. rally in central hong kong the protesters have called president trump's decision a timely thanksgiving present. sudan's government to

scrap the controversial law that was used to limit women's rights the cabinet passed a degree a degree nullifying the public order law set in place by former president omar al bashir. the police chief in charge of operations journeying a $989.00 british football stadium tragedy has been found not guilty of manslaughter david duncan field was responsible for the hillsborough stadium in sheffield overcrowding led to a stampede killing 96 liverpool supporters the incidents led to years of inquest and investigation but he was eventually found not guilty that's your up to date stay stay with us you're not.

saying. i. my name is modi simone t.v. i'm an investigative journalist in brazil. it is a very challenging time to be a journalist right now because of our president's jailable so not. was i think it. was a fish tank i. since taking office.