tens of thousands of indians say it discriminates but the prime minister narendra modi is defending a new citizenship law that excludes muslims. hello and welcome i'm peter w. watching al-jazeera live from our headquarters here and also coming up brushback syrian forces push deeper into it after a week long assault have brought a new exodus. whole towns burnt off the map australia battles catastrophic bush finds that in gulf scores of homes. also ahead how guns smuggled from the us are arming mexico's drug cartels al jazeera investigates the flow of weapons leading to

a record murder rate. india's main opposition has called on its supporters to take to the streets against the contentious new citizenship lore that's evoked widespread anger the prime minister narendra modi has defended the legislation and is blaming the opposition for stoking tensions huge rallies were held again in the capital new delhi and several other states on sunday a protest against the law which many say to scream and it's against muslims and into their 2nd week rights groups are accusing the police of using disproportionate force against the protestors subpoena stressed was at a rally in the capital 7. it's the greatest challenge india's prime minister narendra modi has faced since he came to power 5 years ago dozens of people have been killed during protests against to

citizenship. which many say discriminates against muslims addressing thousands of his supporters at an election rally in new delhi modi blamed the opposition for stoking the protests began by your. brother's sense this law has been passed some political parties have been spreading rumors these people are misleading the public they are inciting the public you look corporate america i want to ask those who are pelting stones and sticks getting people to enjoy police trying to do the us what are you hoping to achieve the police is no one's enemy. the citizenship amendment act makes it easier for migrants from afghanistan bangladesh and pakistan who aren't muslim to become indian citizens critics say the law could lead to many muslims losing their citizenship. your desk or i'm not a hog i'm not a writer staging protests is all right they should not be violent so i oppose that

whatever the police are doing i request them not to do it they should also listen also indians like you we are also humans i guess. as protests continued on sunday in the capital and other parts of the country the government insisted that law will not be repealed i protest has been ongoing since parliament passed the law earlier in december i was but a student protests and. university in the capital a week ago turned into a movement of hundreds of thousands of students and anti-government protesters nationwide people were angered after government forces fought with students and stormed the campus tear gas into the library and classrooms. i. the worst violence has been the british for more than 5000 people have been

detained at least 1500 have been arrested in other parts of india. some muslims can get so than shipped under the citizenship amendment act but it is feared millions who are unable to provide proof could be rendered stateless even if their families have lived in india but generations. of the raw new delhi. is a resident fellow at the american enterprise institute and has written extensively on mr modi's government and its policies he explains how international criticism is now becoming more vocal. i would argue that this is the single most divisive thing that narendra modi has done since he 1st came to power in 2000 and 14 'd it has polarized 'd the country not merely in terms of hindu than most and though that of course is the of course is part of it but i think more importantly between those indians of all states including many hindus 'd who see this as

a challenge to india secular foundations and b.g.p. supporters who see this as a great humanitarian gesture to religious minorities in those 3 countries pakistan are going to bangladesh the un is spoken up. 'd by members of the house of representatives and the u.s. has spoken up there's been extensive international media coverage i wrote a column in the wall street journal several others have written about this so i think the international community is certainly concerned it's true that government reactions have been muted but that's not the same as saying that the international community in general has given india a free pass on the contrary i think this has been the worst 2 weeks for the more the government in terms of international media coverage as if they took office. more than $18000.00 syrians are on the move towards turkey according to the turkish president the one the exodus follows heavy bombardment by russia and syrian forces in the rebel held province of idlib charlotte bellus reports. as so the nude lip is

pounded from above its people rushed towards the turkish border scrambling to escape the aerial onslaught from russian and syrian for instance. on the bottom. but we flit from the bombardment russian warplanes are striking helicopters missiles and rockets we cannot remain there. syrian president bashar al assad boasted his mission to retake the province from former al qaeda affiliates hiatt to here a week ago sunni provinces out of his control the russian backed syrian army celebrated retaking more than 20 villages on it lives fringe inspired by the price dozens of civilians killed tens of thousands displaced of them actually in the run is i'm out on the job you have fled from and to moderate a long line more than 20 times for what reason tell us where is our next

destination we don't know. but this is what they're running from. filmed on sunday on the damascus slipper highway and it lewd volunteers from a syrian in geo rushed to the aftermath of the suspected russian. it's tragic there is heavy bombardment the warplanes are always flying there come along as i counted on him yesterday more than $400.00 rockets hit us that are read a new man our children couldn't sleep through the night they were crying every hour and now we are heading towards the i don't know. turkish president read your time over one is bracing for the exodus from it live turkey currently holds 3700000 syrian refugees he says they cannot support more bomba the moment. john 6 more than 80000 of our brothers from ed live running from the bombs there have started migrating towards our borders if the violence towards the people of haiti that does not stop this number will increase even more turkey will not carry such

a migrant burden on its own the negative impact of that pressure will be something that all european nations especially greece but also feel. syrian rebels in the russian backed syrian forces had agreed to a ceasefire in august in the south of that is from the most we are putting up every effort with russia for the attacks to stop and we will continue to do so in fact we are sending a delegation to moscow on monday until the bombardment stops the exodus will continue resistance homes abandoned empty targets in the way of president assad's mission to retake the last rebel besting in shalah ballasts al-jazeera. australia's prime minister has rejected calls for more action on climate change as firefighters battle catastrophic blazes across the east in the south of the country is facing one of its worst ever bushfire seasons with almost $200.00 homes damaged in the past few days alone in the south wales and south australia scott morrison

says he wouldn't engage in quote reckless and job destroying cuts to the country's coal industry jessica washington is in balmoral in new south wales an area devastated by the bushfires. i'm here in balmoral in sydney's south standing in front of just one of the around 100 houses which were destroyed this weekend as bushfires tore through parts of new south wales which is a strangely is most populous state take a look at this house it's absolutely been decimated by a fire storm which tore through this area because the bushfire has reached such a huge size and such intense hate that it actually created its own weather system and that is the result of what happened this weekend this community has been absolutely torn apart by these bushfires it's a small community of just 400 people so you can imagine that this is having a huge impact on residents here take a look around and you see these blackened trees some residents have been allowed to

return to their houses to assess the damage but others haven't one of the reasons for that is as you can see the trees have been absolutely blackened some of them have been hollowed out by what happened over the weekend there's a real risk that they could fall and cause injury to residents and that's why we're wearing this protective gear we are authorized to be here but of course an incredibly challenging time for residents some of them will be without their houses this christmas hong kong's government has announced $500000000.00 worth of measures to try and save the economy from sliding further into recession 6 months of pro-democracy protests be blamed numbers and a drop in high street sales it's a different story with retailers capitalizing on global support for the movement is sarah clarke. streets once teeming with shoppers. restaurants have closed tourist numbers have high after 6 months of anti-government demonstrations some luxury

brands have reported a 45 percent drop in recent. but not everyone is struggling this store is expanding its stock in miniature figurines it's introduced a new line of protest related. complete with gas masks and helmets don't you wonder since this protest movement began to be has been increasingly more interested in the action figure how people love to assemble the toys but they also buy them to remember the difficulties and struggles in this movement was the protests have attracted local and global support sparking interest in a new retail sector protective gear like masks and hard hats are in high demand after 91 china locked all sales to hong kong this store also stocks clothing slogans like stand with hong kong but there's no shop front all merchandise is sold online since the launch in july it's been getting more and more popular for example on one day we can have 102300 orders printing what's happening on the streets on

the market for protest related merchandise is predominately online the retailers we've spoken to say it's still boyd being targeted by those opposed to the pro-democracy movement some of those are chosen to hide their identities i think threaten it's an indication of how fragile the political situation is in home the artists are also painting a picture of protests using asked to mortal as the summer of unrest and spread the word to an international market this exhibition showcases some of the key messages of the protestors if you're about what's happening in hong kong and also worry about the city's future everyone where everyone is worried about it because we love this place we love our homeland and we won't give it up we won't give up our 5 demands. cartoon characters like pepe the frog have been embraced in the demonstrations once representative of the hour right in the symbol of hate in the united states has become the protest mascot and sold widely across hong kong. the

big retailers may be struggling but with anti government protests expected to continue in 2020 these stores hope to capitalize growing global support for a movement sarah caught al-jazeera hong kong. staying in hong kong the police there have used pepper spray to disperse crowds at a rally in support of china's we go minority more than a 1000 people gathered for the demonstration the police arrested 2 protesters who tried to burn a chinese flag rights group say at least 1000000 weekers and members of other largely muslim minority groups have been detained inside chinese camps still ahead here on al-jazeera will take a look but the challenges facing lebanon few prime minister. and beyond also experience of his back you go to hoping for a change but human rights groups are raising.

hello again a welcome back to international weather forecasts were here across the central mediterranean we are watching a very potent weather system pushing in from the west towards the east and it's going to bring a lot of rain as well as winds from greece all the way to turkey here on monday you can see the very heavy rain on our forecast map on monday extending anywhere from central to western parts of turkey and with that we're going to be seeing some very gusty winds along the coast and pushing inland all the way up towards our corrupt as we go towards tuesday it is going to continue to make its way towards the east where to be singing even gusty winds even snow in the higher elevations and syria parts of lebanon you'll be getting in on the actual with those very gusty winds and those coastal showers by the time we get to tuesday and into wednesday that system moves even more towards the east there well here across much of the gulf we're looking quite nice of the next few days temperatures about average for this time of

year. plenty of sun winds are down as well we are picking up a few clouds across cross the coast of oman from muscat though it is going to get a little bit better by the time we get to tuesday with the tempter there of about $23.00 degrees and then very quickly across southern africa we have a lot of rain to talk about anywhere from johannesburg down towards durban tempter at $27.00 degrees for johannesburg but the rain starts to dissipate as we go towards tuesday and attempted though very warm at 30 degrees feel. the weather sponsored by catherine and. the stories generate thousands of headlines these protests are saying down with the system and down with all of the parks with different angles from different perspectives just because we came to prison doesn't mean right stop at the gate separate the spin from the facts the western media jumps on stories lead on taking down the misinformation from the journalism it's about telling the stories of those human beings on pick up with the listening post

on al-jazeera. watching al jazeera remind us of our top stories this hour tens of thousands of people across india have again defied a government ban on protesting against the citizenship law discriminates against muslims the prime minister has blamed the opposition for fueling on. syrian and russian killed at least 17 people and at least 25000 civilians have fled in the last 2 days and australia's prime minister has rejected calls for action on climate changes to intensify. cuts to the coal industry and emissions targets would be

reckless and destroy jobs. saddam has opened an investigation into crimes committed in the darfur region by a former government members who served under the ousted president omar al bashir the conflict between pro-government forces and ethnic minority rebels began in 2003 the u.n. says at least $300000.00 people were killed by the fighting as well as famine and disease bashir is already wanted by the international criminal court for crimes against humanity and genocide so the man baldo is a policy advisor on sudan for the enough project that's a genocide prevention organization he says reforms to sudan security forces a challenge by the disarming of certain groups. the army say that our forces are running out out today one highlight of the telling everyone. in a public event that the opposite of loss is a part of the sudanese army and my low you know the nominee and those are then his

army but clearly that apparel army i don't expect there would be a moon why the civilian government do this on they don't get it however there are provisions in the constitution jotham of the government to transition to islam the security sector in that case when the clam ok as it's expected that there will only one sudanese national army rather than to put our hands of the situation is currently our drill at tension into this detriment of the year particularly in the realm of the international criminal court before the security guards the last big issues seem to stir up knowledge that there have been generally changes to than that of the prosecutor office of the i.c.c. link to get sudan sometime but will be watching very carefully when the house was done hondurans the. crimes against humanity what crimes and genocide thought was i.c.c. has done but she didn't fall as she is wanted by the i.c.c.

i believe that the seeing if this persecution that's just a mancini that would be serious and indicative of an independent investigation to hama she and i'm goes of the officials of his are you responsible for the human psyche that. the rain more protests in lebanon's capital beirut but the numbers are smaller than was seen in previous weeks it's a sign many seem prepared to give the new prime minister designate a chance to form a government from beirut is tony but. for the 67th day lebanese gathered in beirut smarter square to make a stand against the economic and political crisis that on sunday was more like a carnival than a protest. the lebanese capital have witnessed some of the worst violence seen for years the security forces clash with supporters on either side of the political divide numbers will go down and in marked contrast the anger

and violence of previous gatherings is perhaps an indication that some at least are prepared to give the designated prime minister. a chance. it's. a big problem and. we're going to make him fail in this. why are we being pessimistic we should be optimistic the new prime minister is decent in is not corrupt and he seems to be the man for the job and if it doesn't work we'll find another solution which. was nominated by a weak majority parliament comprising of iran backed hezbollah and its allies the shia amal movement and president michel ounds christian free movement has promised to appoint a new government filled with technocrats and experts within 6 weeks tension may have reduced but for some within the sunni community there is still anger that their leader side hariri has not been chosen as prime minister and there are fears

that some are seeking to cause a rift between the sunni and shia communities. as. it seems like some are seek really trying to incite secretary in strength and in reality we are far away from that we took to the streets because of the economy and not religion. that is the priority the need for a government to solve the economic crisis lebanon is running out of short term choices the country has one of the world's biggest debt burdens and in march is due to repay a one and a half $1000000000.00 euro bonds loan which is likely to default and that can only worsen the guy economic situation here david hale the u.s. undersecretary of state for political affairs is in beirut meeting with various political leaders he is key to delivering $11000000000.00 in international aid which is being locked until economic and political reforms are implemented. it was an error in and. actually i think at

a certain stage for the next week or so there will be. constraints on the backing so. people will take to the streets. some are still singing about revolution but many are praying for a solution for now the people of lebanon can only wait and hope. al-jazeera the route. being counted in pakistan's parliamentary elections but observers say there were no genuine opposition choices all 5 parties running a seen as loyal to the president shafqat benazir your you or me it has more now from tashkent. it was the 1st parliamentary election since presidential museo you have took power in $2161.00 that is also supposed to mark the beginning of the end of tarion rule imposed by his predecessor for almost 3 decades and it's in

that spirit that many banks headed to the polls among them. my candidate seemed confident he appeared like someone who will hold his promise if he promised to help ordinary people. a steady stream of people kept on casting their ballots by mid-afternoon turnout was at 58 percent. hasn't missed an election since the age of 18 but this time she had to adapt to new rooms now we each have to vote before we didn't even come one person would fill in the ballots for all of us. who was next in line agreed he said the vote was more transparent the government is betting on these elections to showcase that it's serious about letting loose of old habits to bring the country forward. this is the 1st time does a digitised database of eligible voters and the unprecedented number of

international observers were granted access nationwide still this remains an election that doesn't pose any threat to the rule of the president or 5 parties are seen as pro-government renewal of parliament is quite likely because 2 thirds of the people running today are new entrants so that is the intention of all the actors and expectations in that sense are high it remains of course symbolically in terms of political substance because of the absence of any party that considers itself in opposition to voters taking place in an environment where freedom of speech has blossomed in ways that were unthinkable just 3 years ago not to rio you couldn't see me here. is a blogger who's often critical of the government she chose not to vote this is

unconstitutional it's my right i can bought or i don't if i don't want i cannot. 1st of all 2nd 2nd i didn't see. any and the quote. look at the candidates final results are still not known but no one expects them to take the country on a different course if anything they could give president museo illegitimate mandate to press ahead with reforms but at the meet. at least 16 inmates in a jail in honduras have been killed in fighting between rival gangs the violence comes less than 2 days after 18 other inmates in a separate facility were killed in a prison riot the army has been ordered to take control of the country's 27 prisons . mexico is dealing with its highest murder rate on rec ord with most firearms

involved being smuggled in from the united states violence across the border has come under increasing scrutiny after a number of american citizens were murdered last month in the 1st of a 2 part investigation into arms trafficking between the u.s. and mexico our correspondent john holmes talks to those smuggling guns across the border and the hits men that end up using them. in shock to mexico the 17th of october 2019 the day the sinhala cartel turned out like an army with a devastating array of firepower they subjugated the mix camilla crew itself and took over the streets of coolie account. this man says he was there fighting with the cartel we're talking about their weapons we're most of the people they're in on the side of the car with american guns to go yes of course because all of the arms that we use here are from the other side of the border. what they got to go he's a hit man a soldier for organized crime one of the many across mexico responsible for record

murder right how difficult would it be to do your job. if there wasn't this free flow coming from the united states. it would be hard because the u.s. is the chief supplier that's where we get the new explosive guns we need going to support all of the guns that have been seized in mexico and traced 70 percent come from the united states there's a reason it's hard to get a gun legally in mexico but the regulations are extremely strict not so in the u.s. and cartels you straw buyers and gun shop scene shows to get glocks a k 47 off fifteen's and even machine guns it's this man's job to smuggle them across the border about the truth is that it's very easy to get them across we do hide them in the upholstery or where we can but the customs agents here don't really focus on that on searching and they never search the car. we saw that for us

selves when we made the journey from the u.s. into mexico on a busy thursday night there were no possible controls we saw no border offices and just to customs officials checked to see of cars that were already free where internets could. a lack of vigilance which is hard to reconcile with mexico's concerns to let myself up over the last year the most worrying issue in mexico are the guns the guns that we saw on coulier khan were impressive i want to propose again but using the latest technology from both countries we can stop the arms trafficking at the border. we asked for an interview with mexico's foreign ministry in its customs agency too to discuss those border security plans we didn't hear back. meanwhile quantities of weapons continue to be brought across this stashed in a multitude of safe houses on arrival the gun run is in charge of this one in a suburb of the border town. more and more when we come back with guns they can stay here

a day or 2 and then our people come to get them when everything is ready take them away they distributed throughout the country being caught with one should mean jail time but if the government is get stopped by local police there's a simple solution. as they say here with money the dog dances sort it all out with cash and we each coraline way i don't know you and you don't know me. the guns make their way to the cartel soldiers the same ones that battle to beat me it's going to thirty's on the 17th of october this confrontation between the cartel and the government. that wouldn't have happened if the scene of. this easy access to weapons. through a process so yes it would happen but obviously as you say it would have been hard for us without that number of weapons i mean we probably wouldn't have beaten them if it wasn't so easy to get hold of the guns. the mexican forces humiliation then

and in direct consequence of leaving us gun regulations and this country's insufficient border security but there are other consequences to more intimate ones for the thousands of victims of mexico's shootings in part 2 will tell their stories john homan al jazeera mccully. recapping our top stories for you this half hour here on al-jazeera tens of thousands of people across india have once again defied a government ban to protest against a citizenship law which they say discriminates against muslims the prime minister narendra modi has blamed the opposition for feeling on the rest of my brothers since this law has been passed some political parties have been spreading rumors these people are misleading the public they are inciting the public. syrian and russian a strikes have killed at least 17 people in italy government forces are advancing

across the last rebel held province the offensive has displaced at least 25000 civilians in the last 2 days many heading towards the turkish border. but none of them on luggage and 6 i'm going to do down $80000.00 about probably from running from the bombs there have started migrating to which is if the violence towards the people of italy does not stop this number will increase even more in now case turkey will not carry such a market burden on its own pressure we will be subjected to would be something that all european nations especially greece will also feel. australia's prime minister has rejected calls for action on climate change as bushfires intensified scott morrison says cuts to the coal industry and emission targets would be quote reckless and destroy jobs the police in hong kong have used pepper spray to disperse crowds at a rally in support of china as we go minority more than a 1000 people gathered and 2 were arrested rights groups say at least 1000000

weekers have been detained in chinese camps sudan's opened an investigation into crimes committed in darfur the case will focus on former government members who served under the ousted president omar al bashir the conflict between pro-government forces and ethnic minority rebels began in 2003. at least 16 prisoners have been killed in fighting between rival gangs in honduras the violence comes less than 2 days after 18 other inmates in a separate facility well killed in a prison riot up next it's the listening post more news in 30 minutes i'll see that . on counting the cost especially on investing in the burgeoning markets from the doha for of right here in castle how foreign direct investment is reshaping the global economy and what that means for the future and to globalization a populist sense of. counting the cost on al-jazeera.

hello i'm richard gaisford and you're at the listening post on this program we track the global news media examine dominant narratives and spend more time critiquing journalism and celebrating it we're not an award show but to mark the end of 2019 we wanted to examine a few cases where quality reporting the kind that speaks truth to power exposes wrongdoing and helps rectify it has made an impact taking just 4 examples was not easy we wanted to get across geographies different kinds of stories various forms of media we settled on west africa and a documentary exposing sexual harassment on university campuses hong kong 1st person videos capturing police brutality.