change can these elections bring join us as we assess the outlook for africa's most troubled states. the pentagon confirms thousands of u.s. troops will leave afghanistan, hundreds more will also be brought home from iraq. oh, i'm maryam namazie in london. you're watching al-jazeera also coming up on the program. international condemnation of the ethiopian government targets rebels with it as strikes in the north of the country. protection for police or an attack on free speech, the controversial french law that could ban the broadcast of images showing officers faces and category 5,

hurricane weeks of across central america and a record breaking year for atlantic storms. oh, welcome to the program, our top story, u.s. president, donald trump, will reduce the number of u.s. forces in afghanistan from 4 and a half 100228, half 1000 before he leaves office. but it won't be the complete withdrawal by christmas that he promised the announcement on shoes day was anticipated, and it was preceded by warnings from military officials that any significant changes in those troop levels could undermine security in afghanistan and threaten peace talks with the taliban. the number of troops in iraq will be cut by 500 in ousmane was made by the acting u.s. defense secretary, christopher miller, who was only installed in the post last week by january 15th, 2021. our forces,

their size in afghanistan will be 2500 troops, or 4 sides in iraq will also be 2500 by that same day. this is consistent with our established plans and strategic objectives supported by the american people and does not equate to a change in u.s. policy or objectives. let's get more now from alan fischer, who is in washington for us now. and they've been concerns and warnings voiced about the effect of a prime, a cheer troop withdrawal. exactly. donald trump has been talking about reducing the u.s. troop levels in both afghanistan and iraq. since he ran for office in 2016, and clearly he's decided he wants to deliver on a promise of reducing the numbers quite markedly. afghanistan, you remember, is the u.s. is longest war. it's been going on for 19 years. it's been more than 2300 u.s.

army service personnel killed. it has cost, according to the pentagon, 100 $93000000000.00 over those 19 years. clearly there have been discussions going on for months. certainly that's the story. coming out of the pentagon in the last couple of hours about reducing troop numbers, donald trump even tweeted back in october that he wanted to see everyone in afghanistan back home by christmas, which is december the 25th. but there are a number of people, including those from the president's own party, who are deeply concerned about this. now if you go back to just before barack obama left office in 2011, there were people sort of 2016, there were people who were concerned because he reduced the troop numbers in iraq to 0 and pulled all american troops out. now he was just standing by an agreement that been drawn up by george w. bush and also meeting a timetable. but he didn't put up a fight to keep american troops in afghanistan. and republicans said that it was

that decision that led to the growth of eisel. now here we have republicans saying exactly the same thing. one congressman saying the decision by the u.s. to leave both iraq and afghanistan will be a great recruiting tool for the organization that donald trump had walk so hard to defeat on several battlefields. and you've got the leader of the senate, republicans saying that this will be great news. it will delight people who will wish us harm. so clearly there are a number of voices who are concerned that the president is taking these numbers down to fyrst to quickly he will of course, point to the fact that there were peace talks with taliban alongside qatar earlier this year, that suggested there would be a time scale of me, $22021.00 to remove all of those troops, but he clearly believes that this is a good move both for him politically, for america and for the troops that he's bringing home. thanks very much,

allan fisher at the white house. thank you alan. well, shortly after the announcement was made to several katyusha rockets landed in baghdad's fortified green zone. at least 7 rockets were fired. some of them landing in the u.s. embassy. the u.s. at defense system crown was deployed to intercept and destroy the rockets. one child was killed, so a lot of falls and has more on this now from the iraqi capital, baghdad. within minutes of the announcement to reduce troops to 2500, there was a rocket attack on the u.s. embassy here in baghdad. such attacks have occurred relatively frequently earlier this year, and they were blamed on iranian backed armed groups. now over the recent weeks, we saw a halt in these attacks. and some of these iranian backed groups have come out to say, we will wait for whoever is the new president elect. and we will wait for the trumpet ministrations to announce a full withdrawal of u.s.

troops from iraq. now that did not happen, the reduction to $2500.00 is not with these groups, were demanding. and tonight's rocket attack at the u.s. embassy was probably a way to voice their disapproval with this latest announcement. well, ethiopia's government says it is soldiers have achieved significant victories against rebel forces in the northern to grier region. on tuesday government as strikes targeted, the region's main city of macallan, the primary base of the tick white people's liberation front. but rebels are still refusing to lay down their weapons. if you appears prime minister ahmed says the conflict will only end once the t. p.l.f. is brought to justice. and his forces are preparing for a final attack. the united nations and a growing list of foreign leaders are still calling for mediation or quest. it's gone, largely ignored. and as more soldiers move and civilians continue to flee,

the un has called it a full scale humanitarian crisis with an estimated 27000 people crossing into neighboring sudan. refugees who are now arriving at the peace of $4000.00 per day. are coming out of it. really scared of the raid or with the stories saying that they have been fleeing heavy fighting and that there is not sign of the fighting to stop right now. of course, of the fear is as the fighting continues, we could see more refugees arriving the number of 27000 or more than that is what we have registered. it could reach 30000 and beyond. well, as there is 100, has been monitoring developments for us from the capital, addis ababa. the ethiopian prime minister ahmed is promising

a crucial and decisive face in the fighting that the great legion of will from ethiopia. he says his forces are now we're ready to take the city of mechanic up with all of the to go region. he made that announcement of the expiry of a 3 day that he had given to degree fighters to surrender themselves to the ethiopian national defense forces. security sources have told him visit of the next 48 hours would require, as the european forces launch a tux on mckinley for multiple fronts. the sources say that the fighting is expected to get more intense. that european forces near the mountainous areas surrounding the couple of the to give a region mckillop that to go people's liberation front leadership who are engaged in the conflict with the government in the suburb say that they had already to defend their positions to the last month have been complaining about civilians getting hot in aesthetics, cut it out by government forces in mckellar,

something that has been rejected and refuted by the government in the disability. late last week, the t.p.a. live fight and sent up to 3 missiles across the border to us. mother the cup with all of it, a trail, something diplomats say could bring in a trip into the fighting. but the tibial of leadership maintains that they are already fighting at a tree and forces on the ground and say that up to 16 divisions of the trim forces present and helping prime minister its forces. something that is of a body of nice at least 35 civilians have been killed in an attack on 2 villages in the democratic republic of congo. appen ambani in the country's northeast. the attack began on monday night and continued into the morning. it's believed rebels from the ugandan allied democratic forces or behind the attack. now at least 80 migrants have been killed and dozens injured when the engine exploded in the

north atlantic. see it happening today? off the western coast of africa, about 100 people, 150 people thought be on board at the time, mainly from senegal and gambia. it's believed the vessel was making its way from cape verde to spain. nicholas haq has been following the story from dakar in senegal and says the spanish authorities are struggling to cope with the influx of migrants. early this morning, he kept virgin coast guard were alerted by fishermen, that there was a fishing vessel that exploded on board were not fish, but schumann's that were on their way to the canary islands. when the iraq on the scene, they saw men, women, children holding on to plastic barrels normally used to contain food. now the vessel exploded. obviously it's not made to carry humans. it has happened before the vessels fishing vessels explode because they don't have enough fuel to travel

for such long distances. it was on its way to the canary island, where this year alone, 17000, african, west, african migrants have come to the canary islands seeking asylum. these are not migrants flee war, but looking for economic opportunities. many of them come from senegal, gambia or even morocco, and the mayor of this town. our green green on the canary island says that they're held in camps because in camps of shame because they have little access to running water. there rats, he says that are, there are cases of coronavirus. now the spanish authorities are not allowing the media to enter those camps. there are so many migrants in his town. that's normally a resort town for tourists that hotels normally filled by tourists are now being used by migrant that are waiting for their papers to be processed. now the palestinian authority says that it is ready to resume security coordination with israel ties in may of israel's now frozen plans to annex more parts of the occupied

. west bank for new ties could allow the payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax transfers that israel has been withholding from the authority. but the decision jeopardizes some efforts towards reconciliation with all the palestinian factions amasses, criticize the move, saying it's a step backwards. and watching out is there at live from london much more still to tell you about, grew up in a new interim president, but is the appointment of francisco ghastly going to bring the change? people are calling for and dozens are injured in thailand. this problem on a key and anti-government protesters clashed in front of the parliament. we've got some heat building across parts of australia at the moment. we got the

waltz, the hot weather up towards the northwest, some lively storms here. and the heat will slide its way into central and southeastern parts as we go on through the next couple days. already see the temperatures rising down towards the southeast 32 celsius there for adelaide, getting up to around 34 in melbourne by the time we come to thursday and was gradually pushing over towards sydney as well as we go on through the next couple of days. slightly cooler weather will not just weigh in from w.a.c. perth, around 25 celsius. assess you up to something we will see by the weekend getting up to the mid teens, the central passing easier, but not faring too badly in auckland highs here around 20 celsius with some sunshine. now make the most of the sunshine you have in japan over the next day or so we've got cloud and great streaming in across northeastern parts of china, sliding across the korean peninsula. so some wetter weather coming into north korea as we go through where to stay sinking further south, which as we go on through thursday,

has the rain at times that could lead to some localized flooding. notice and snow on the northern flank of that there's a dry weather for the time being in japan, tokyo with a high of 23 but for 23 years, mohsin has collected objects he finds along the coast. enough to fill his museum enough to break a guinness world record. armed with a story for every object, he's become an environmental activist and inspired artist and a voice for the plight of countless migrants such on al-jazeera.

welcome back. our main story this hour. u.s. president donald trump, will reduce the number of u.s. forces in iraq and afghanistan before he leaves office. the announcement on tuesday was anticipated and preceded by warnings from military officials that any significant changes in troop levels could undermine security in afghanistan and threaten peace talks with the taliban. shortly after the announcement was made, several katyusha rockets landed in baghdad's heavily fortified green zone. at least 7 rockets were fired and some of them landing near the u.s. embassy. one child was killed and 5 other civilians injured. and our other top story this hour, ethiopia's government says its troops have achieved significant victories in its conflict with forces in the northern to reach. and the national army has carried

out as strikes near the region's main city of nikolic. to grind, rebels have refused to give in to government demands to put down their weapons now to uproot the country is swearing in its new president. francisco sagacity will be the country's 3rd leader in the space of a week. he was chosen as interim president by peru's congress on monday. sagacity is a 76 year old former world bank official through has been in political turmoil since the impeachment of popular president martin of iscar last week, which led to protests. his successor, emmanuel marino lasted just 5 days in the job before signing on sunday, after 2 people died in anti-government protests. so let's get more on this now. marianna sanchez is following the story from lima. so is francisco sagacity going to last a bit longer than his predecessor let's hope so,

because many peruvians are ashamed of what has happened this past week. a few, as you just said, 3 precedents in just one week. one week ago of a former president martin discolor was being impeached from office, took office after that, and then he was ousted by the pressure of protesters who considered his government illegitimate. and 2 students died in the protests and now he has taken over. he has just been sworn in with many challenges ahead. for him. he's only going to take the government through these last few months into elections on a, on april next year and turn in the government over to a newly elected government in july. but he has many challenges ahead for these past few for the, for the next few days with, for the next few months. i think the most importantly is to bring back stability in

the country. that has been in turmoil for the past week. he understands this very well 24 hours before having been sworn in. he already spoke in congress saying that these protests have been a call, a serious call of attention to legislators and to politicians from the people. and he also understood that he had to get close to the people. he went out, he walked out and waved at protesters outside of congress. and then last night he went to hospital to visit those wounded in the protests. one very important thing, he needs to tackle the pandemic. peru had one of the worst outbreaks in the world, and he needs to tackle the economy because of the pandemic. millions of jobs have been lost. so he has a lot on his agenda now and he has said it's going to be brief and it's going

to be hard, but they are going to be very focused. and arianna, can i just can i ask you, he is obviously trying to pacify the protesters, but can you explain to us why, why people have been so unhappy with, with politicians in peru? mariyam, i think the main reason is because politicians in congress have been making life difficult to one government after the next. they see that president after he's believed, was the 2nd year in office. and then magically these cattle are confronted congress throughout his nearly 3 years in office and politicians also as we know, at least half of the legislators or more than half actually have criminal

investigations that go from serious crimes of murder and fraud, abuse, money laundering, and all this peruvians are absolutely fed up with corruption and also because there is a long history already of leaders who have been who are being investigated for corruption. all the precedents in the past 30 years from filthy madi, to our young, 200 a little even alan garcia who took his life before being arrested by by officials. this is a shameful history for peruvians who see that all their leaders are involved in corruption. thank you. very much from lima peru, marianna sanchez reporting now in other news, hearkening is pushing across central america after making landfall in nicaragua,

in a record breaking year for atlantic hearkens year to as the 1st to reach category 5 status. and the 2nd major hearkened to hit the region this month. tens of thousands of people have been forced into shelters. charlotte dallas, how small central america is facing its 2nd major hurricane in his many weeks. this is nicaragua, as hurricane iosa approach landfall. a storm surge of up to 6 meters and winds of 250 kilometers an hour battered northern beaches. but again, this is the 5th hurricane i've seen in my life. and it's one of the strongest and most destructive hurricanes we've ever seen. iosa made landfall in nicaragua, just 25 kilometers from where hurricane rita struck. 2 weeks ago. it killed more than 120 people resilience traumatized by eater flood again. but you know how you know that we are asking people to help us take our things to another place.

please we're asking them to take us to where it's safe because it's not safe here. i'm afraid for my life. ios across the caribbean as a category 5 hurricane. it's the strongest storm ever recorded in the atlantic. this late in the year, records began in 851 iota, 1st pushed over the colombian islands of san andres and providence. here it's the most powerful storm to ever his colombian territory, the devastation there is a me, it's africa. there is mix them damaged the infrastructure. we're talking about 98 percent of the infrastructure on the island of providence. here being ruined. i am sure is expected to move next to honduras and guatemala, soaking the already sort of track of hurricane rita. their presidents joined forces to ask for financial aid with economic forecasts just as dire as it has been

sent to verify it and seeing it in practice that central america and injurious are among the regions in the world most affected by climate change. we have a problem, countries know that due to the industries that they are, the greatest generic is of climate change effects. so they have green funds available, but it's extremely difficult for us to access the funding for the 2020 it led to current pain season has seen the most named storms on record. so mean that meteorologists ran out of names from the sit list. people across central america. hopeful, iosa is the last one of the year. charlotte ballasts al-jazeera. elsewhere the number of casualties from typhoon vanco continues to climb in the philippines with more than 60 people confirmed dead. the storm caused devastation across the main island of luzon, including the capital manila, and are going to ports now from calgary on province. one of the worst affected areas. people here in alkali say they are burying

a hero. larry died while rescuing these neighbors from floodwaters using his own food. you don't mind if you put his daughter angela is angry and is calling for justice. she says her father didn't have to die from electrocution. if only power lines were disconnected early enough, what i was hitting the entire philippine region of loose on was the sham one. was the charlemagne just this just this. there was the village captain. where was the police? my father wasn't any of those, but why did it to be him and to rescue the residents? none of them showed up. they found this body through these lethal type one bomb call was not meant to be this devastating. now, days after the typhoon struck, the government is facing widespread criticism from people here. they say the tragedy could have been contained with more able leadership and was not even,

and they're warning when the vanco hit the capital region. it was only experiencing once and brains at the time. more than $80000.00, people had to be rescued in this town alone. widespread deforestation has long been blamed for constant flooding here to makeshift shelters like this one are now visible along the highways of alkali and nearby towns, civilians who have lost nearly everything and during desperate need of aid. inside this small tent, there are 5 families who have to endure nights sleeping on the ground with their children. and in a going to be selling. our house is still under water, so we just have to stay here in cramped, under the tent, work rate for any help. they once said the rice fields and comfortable homes. now this is all they have left all the hit, the region of luzon for a few hours,

but it left a trail of destruction and suffering. jim duggan al jazeera could again, province northern philippines. we go to thailand now, and protesters have been rallying in front of the parliament in bangkok as lawmakers consider changes to the constitution. at least 40 people were injured when pro-monarchy and anti-government protesters clashed has more on this main avenue right in front of parliament. here in bangkok now is flooded with anti-government protesters, but just a few hours before they came in here, there were rows and rows of riot police as well as water cannon. and that's because the anti-government protesters came here to parliament as there are draft to the constitution being read today and on wednesday. so they staged protests on this side as well as the other side of parliament. but just before sunset, the police again, the rows and rows of riot police were treated down that street. now what made it interesting is it pro-monarchy as the yellow shirts had a rally earlier in the day because they want the constitution to stay as it is,

they were down to this street now there was a barricade and rightly separated them. but once there was that retreat, they confronted each other, both sides of this divide if you will. that's the 1st time we've really seen kind of a face to face pretty violent confrontation bottles were thrown stones and bricks were thrown. since this protest movement really kind of mushroom in july, that's the 1st time we saw that. but luckily, it only lasted about 1015 minutes. and now the protesters are occupying this street right in front of parliament over here, another rio, another day of session, reviewing these drafts to the constitution. again, they want the changes, the anti-government protesters, but the, the monocacy want things to stay the way they are. now the french parliament has been debating a controversial bill that could ban the pro cost of n.h.s. shine police officers faces. critics say it's an attack on free speech that could lead to impunity for police violence. and sasha reports from the capital, paris, french documentary, the monopoly of violence,

exposes and examines police brutality in france, focusing on recent protests, but also taking in the suburbs. a harrowing watch, it uses footage shot by journalists, all members of the public showing clips like this though, may not be possible in the future. the french government has proposed a new security law, part of which would crack down on the broadcast all sharing of images of police officers. filmmaker david de freyne says the bill destroys basic freedoms. that over the lawmakers want to stop the free circulation of information and knowledge because in the last few years, france has discovered police violence. it's something that, in reality, has existed for a very long time in the suburbs, but was not documented in this way. video has been used in several high profile cases of alleged police violence in the country, the death of delivery man, cedric sure, via during a police check in paris in general, was filmed by a possible by footage the lead to an inquiry in parliament m.p.'s debated the bill

if passed, a person could be jailed for up to a year and find more than $50000.00 for broadcasting sharing identifiable images of a police officer with the intention of harming them out. so i journalists and opponents, the law gathered to protest. campaigners fear that if jonathan citizens are dissuaded from filming the police, it will make it harder to hold some officers accountable for their actions, and some may act with impunity. but the government says the law is necessary to protect the safety of police officers. you say it's not about stopping journalists from working. the law doesn't impact the right to inform for journalists or citizens. but it prevents police officers from having their identities put on line with cost of violence or to be subject to reprisals. they can have grave consequences. protect doing the police for violence while on duty is essential, says this police union spokesperson,

but he says the new law is not the answer. i love to see them all or be involved if the government would clear on the role of the police, what they can and cannot do in the schools would not be necessary. only arrested demonstrations and recent attacks have prompted the government to take a tougher line on security, but instead of working on building more trust between police officers and the public, some say the new law threatens to erode it. natasha butler al jazeera paris. let's remind you of our top stories this hour, u.s. president on the tramp or reduce the number of u.s. forces and iraq and afghanistan before he leaves office. the decision was anticipated and preceded by warnings from military officials. that anything if it can change in troop levels, could undermine security in afghanistan and threaten peace talks with the to.