sunders far be deflated. if you are in the final episode, all hail the algorithm, just in the coming year. we will finish this generational war and bring our men and women home. the pentagon confirms thousands more u.s. troops will be withdrawn from afghanistan and iraq by january 15th days before joe biden takes office. within minutes of the announcement rockets are fired into baghdad secured green zone, killing a child and money inside. this is al jazeera life and also coming up international condemnation

off to ethiopia's government targets rebels in the north with as strikes. when you have companies that have the power of governments, some chance to give the bosses a facebook and twitter grilled by both sides of u.s. politics about their efforts to combat election. disinform ation and france debates a controversial new bill to protect police. but critics say it will stifle human rights and free speech. the pentagon has confirmed shop productions in the number of u.s. troops in afghanistan and iraq by mid january, just before president donald trump leaves office. trump had wanted a full withdrawal from the america's longest war by christmas instead, 2000 will come out of afghanistan and $500.00 from iraq leaving 2 and

a half 1000 and each country. let us remind those who question our resolve or may seek to interfere with this prudent well planned and coordinated transition. the united states armed forces remain committed to protecting the safety and security of the american people in supporting our like minded allies and partners worldwide . military leaders, u.s. allies and senior figures and charms. republican posse have warned of the dangers of putting too many troops out before conditions are right. and minutes after the announcement was made, several rockets hit baghdad's green zone. a child was killed at least 5 people injured. let's get more from our correspondent allen fisher's out the white house. and this is a significant announcement from trauma in his last few days of office. and surprisingly,

nothing on his twitter feed in the last few hours about it. but you'll remember back in 2016, when he ran for office, he was saying that he wanted to end america's involvement in endless wars, particularly those overseas, which he saw is just a drain on resources and on personnel. if you take afghanistan, it's been running for 19 years,, more than $2300.00. people have died there from the u.s., and it has cost the cording to the pentagon somewhere in the region of $193000000000.00. now this had been advertised. donald trump was keen to reduce troop numbers. you'll remember that back in 2018, he announced that he was withdrawing all american troops out of syria that led in part to the resignation of then defense secretary jim mattis. but the trumpet, ministration is trying to show that this isn't a rush decision. this hasn't been made just in the last few days that this is been under discussion for several months with many, many partners. and they finally took the decision to go ahead,

setting the date of january 15th, no, going back to the city in withdrawals. we know that the military slow walked, that they didn't withdraw all the troops as requested by the president. that caused a bit of a fury in the last few days with people saying that the military shouldn't be ignoring the president no matter which party came from or whether or not you agree with his decision. but they did slow walk that donald trump has made it clear that he's expecting the military this time, or pull out the troops that he wants out. and they will do it to the timetable that's been set. and key members of his party, not happy with this decision. that's right, this hasn't gained universal approval. if donald trump thought that might be the case that simply not going to happen. we've had a number of republicans saying that this is just a recruiting tool for eisel. you may remember that is barack obama came to the end of his time. in the white house, he pulled all of the u.s. troops out of iraq. that he was meeting an agreement that had been drawn up by

george w. bush and also a deadline that had been set by the bush administration. but he didn't put up much of a fight about it, and that gave the republicans the chance to attack barack obama and joe biden, in the recent election campaign by saying that decision fueled the rise of eisel. no, we have the main man for the republicans in the senate. mitch mcconnell, the majority leader there saying that this is not a smart decision either to extremely important here in the next couple of months. not to have any earth shaking changes with regard to defense and foreign policy. i think a perception is drawdown and either afghanistan or iraq would be a mistake. no, there also are democrats who have objected to the decision made by the president, but here's the reality. he's the commander in chief of america's forces. he gets to

make these decisions. so really, the decisions being made at the big question will be when joe biden goes into the white house on the 20th of january, will he consult with allies? will he divest that decision? will he do something from what donald trump has just announced? many thanks for that, alan fischer there for us at the white house. let's get the view from iraq. al-jazeera simona faulting isn't like that. the reduction of u.s. troops in iraq to $2500.00 is not that significant in light of the drawdown that already took place earlier this year. in january, there were $5000.00 troops present in country that number was reduced to 3000 as of september. and of course, the political and security context that precipitated this reduction was rather complex. back in january, we had the u.s. assassination of iranian general custom still in miami, as well as other iraqi officials,

which prompted the parliament here to vote to oust foreign troops. and we also saw a rise in rocket attacks against u.s. interests here in iraq. and in that context, the u.s. and iraq began renegotiating the presence of foreign troops that began reducing the numbers. of course, the u.s. arguing that this was not in response to the parliament vote or the rocket attacks that it was the result of the official defeat. that such a large presence was no longer needed. now it remains to be seen how iraqi officials will react and it remains to be seen how it rainy unbacked groups in country will react. and what is very interesting is that within minutes of the announcement to reduce troops to $2500.00, 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 militias 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. 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. s.p.s. an associate professor of political science at emory university. she joins us live from atlanta, georgia via skype. many thanks for speaking to us. on al-jazeera, there was concern that trump would cause havoc on his way out. is that what he's doing here with this move? well, i think that president trump's unpredictability is something that's predictable and so we expect him to make some really drastic changes. we saw that when he fired

marcus for his secretary of defense. and so we can anticipate that he's going to make more changes that could be perceived as jarring. between now and noon on january 20th, when he leaves office, what else could we expect from him in the next 64 days? i mean, i think the sort of general adage is to expect the unexpected. so, you know, the things that he's done so far in some way shouldn't be surprising. so the idea that not acknowledging his loss and impeding the transition, we could expect that they're going to be some executive orders. and we could expect him to make changes in lots of sectors that we've seen that with respect to national defense. we've seen some moves with respect to the environment. i would expect that they're also going to be some other regulatory changes that he's going to at least try to get started, at least before he leaves office. do you find it interesting that the man who announced the move today is only been in the job a few days than his predecessor, his predecessor was not in favor of pulling out troops now? no. so add to that international relations and foreign defense or are not my

research specialties. but it was widely reported that mark asked for head, you know, opposed the drastic troop drawdown. and that was one of the reasons why he was probably going to get fired, whether or not president trump lost the election. so i'm not surprised that he put a loyalist into position who was actually willing to do the things that president trump wanted to do. what do you think biden is going to do when he comes into office in, in 64 days? i mean, do you think he could reverse this particular move, or perhaps all the moves that trump might make in the next 2 months? so i mean, i think it's hard to say, i think we have to look at sort of the wide range of moves that president trump makes and then what tools are at his disposal and how easy it's going to be to reverse course on many policies. president elect biden has already promised that he's going to reverse course on something that happened a long time ago in the trunk, the administration. so for instance,

he's going to reenter the paris climate accords among other things. so we are going to see an about face on certain policies. and then i think the larger question is for some of the sort of more recent changes, the last minute changes. it's a question of what kind of path does that put america on and whether or not those actions are actually quickly reversible or not? typically, this period of the strands ition period as is known as the lame duck period. how would you compare this particular transition with others from the past? so the concern with the transition period now is the fact that it's really not being allowed to officially commence. so we know that the biden harris administration is planning as best that they could. but if this were an officially recognized transition period, the buying transition team would have money. they would also have access to current members of the administration who can provide counsel bring in the new incoming people up to speed. they would have access to be able to do the requisite

background checks that will allow people to be able to fully do their jobs on january 20th. if president trump persists in prolonging sort of the acknowledgment that he lost officially, that he lost the election, then that delays the official start of the transition period. which means that the, by an administration though it may want to sort of hit the ground running on january 20th, might not be able to do all of the things that we want to do. so. 'd that anybody would want to see happening in an administration, which would be a smooth transition of power. so we have to wait to see how long this is. it could very well be that the general services administration makes its ascertainment. you know, sometime, you know, when the electoral college has officially cast ballots on december 14th, we do know from history that that's actually, you know, not the optimal time to be making a transition. ideally, you would want and ministration to have more. and you know, 5 and a half weeks to be able or 6 weeks to be able to prepare for office. and

you know, so you know, a lot of people sort of charge that america was probably left a little flat, but it before the september 11th attacks in part because the transition started late while they were deliberating the results of the 2000 election. interesting to get your vote, what's going to be associate professor of political science emory university. thank you and the news coming out in president donald trump's fight against the u.s. election results now in the process of pushing across northern parts of nicaragua, weakening quite rapidly. now it's the equivalent of a category 2 hurricane on the surface. simpson scale 165 kilometers per hour.

significantly high gusts, those gusts still capable of causing catastrophic damage. and remember, this storm has made landfall just 20 kilometers away from where made landfall just 2 weeks ago. life threatening storm surge, flash flooding that is likely. and mudslides as well through the remainder of shoes day that west the weather, the windy weather that will drive its way across northern parts of nicaragua. throwing lots of heavy rain into 100 euro's and eventually a lot of heavy rain too into quite a model. come wednesday, the storm will weaken further, and it will eventually push way out into the open waters of the eastern pacific, but plenty of showers or longer spells of rain coming in across much of central america as we go through the next 2 or 3 days, maybe 500 millimeters all more for some of those spots. wet weather to into the western side of the u.s. and notice telling rather wintry across the pacific northwest cola, also driving its way down across into california water thought it was welcome further research dry,

but pretty cold to the east coast. one of the most wanted man on the planet, the mastermind of a $4500000000.00 fraud and want to put him in jail, but you cannot help being in christ reveals new never before had recordings implicating some of the world's most powerful players. everyone poster would benefit by the piece of power and jolo hunt for a fugitive from a just, you know

you're watching out. is there a mind of our top stories this hour? the pentagon has confirmed shah productions in the number of u.s. troops in afghanistan and iraq. by mid january, just before president donald trump leaves office 2000 will withdraw from afghanistan and $500.00 from iraq leaving 2 and a half 1000 in each country. military leaders, u.s. allies and even senior figures in trump's republican party of warned of the dangers of pulling too many troops out before conditions are right. minutes after the announcement was made, several rockets hit by god's green zone. some landed near the u.s. embassy. others were intercepted by air defense systems. a child was killed and at least 5 people injured. if europeans government says its troops have achieved significant victories in the conflict with forces in the northern tier, a region as strikes have been launched at the regional capital. it's the main

base for the tea. great people's liberation front or t.p.s. left, which governs that to grant fighters have refused to comply with government demands to put down their weapons. mohammed out there is in the ethiopian capital and says the government believes it can end the conflict quickly. the european prime minister ahmed, is promising a crucial and decisive face in the fighting that the grey region of more from ethiopia, he says, his forces are now ready to take the city of mechanic up with all of the to go region. he made that announcement of to 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 will be a question as the european forces launch a tux on mckinley for multiple fronts. the sources say that the fighting is expected to get more intense. if european forces near the mountainous areas with

a couple of the to go to a region, mackellar, the to grow people's liberation front leadership in the conflict with the government and the suburb, say that they had already to defend their positions to the last month. have been complaining about civilians getting hot in aesthetics. crowded out by government forces in macau is something that has been rejected and refuted by the government in the december late last week. the t.p.a. live fight to send up to 3 missiles across the border to a smarter a couple of at a trailer. something diplomats say could bring in better trained into the fighting . but the tibial of later should maintain, is that they are already fighting at a tree and forces on the ground and save up to 16 divisions of the trim forces present and helping prime minister its forces. something that is

a body of nice. well, both sides are largely ignoring calls for mediation from the un and foreign leaders . and as the conflict goes on, more civilians, a flaying about $27000.00, people have crossed the border into sudan. refugees who are no arriving at the peace of $4000.00 per day. are coming out of if you are really scared of raid or with the stories saying that there have been fleeing the fighting and that is not a sign of the fight. the 2 stroke right now or so. the fear is, as the fighting continues, we could see more refugees arriving the number of 27000 or more than that is what ridge's tip it could reach 30000 and beyond. we as member states of course follow, follow the situation very closely. we have and the secretary general himself is

active. he has talked several times to prime minister. he has talked to an african union and we are following this, this very closely. at least 80 refugees have been killed after the engine of a boat exploded in the north atlantic. see it happen? a cape verde, off the western coast of africa around $150.00, people were thought to be on the boat made from senegal and gambia. it was said to be making its way from cape verde to spain. prisoner, the interim president has called for calm after he was sworn in francisco sagacity as the country's 3rd leader in just one week. the former world bank official will serve until national elections are held in april. her has been in turmoil since the removal of president martin discard from office last week over unproven corruption allegations which led to widespread protests.

donald trump's legal efforts against the u.s. election outcome have had another setback. pennsylvania's supreme court has rejected the trump campaign's arguments that vote counting in the state was being mishandled. president elect joe biden is projected to have won the state by more than 74000 votes. but donald trump has been contesting the result there and in the battlegrounds. let's go straight to hijack ousters in wilmington, delaware. so talk us through what we have from court today. mylene, this was a ruling from the pennsylvania state supreme court and 52 decision. the judges there ruled that the trump campaign's claim had no merit. the complaint had been that republican poll watchers had been kept out of these rooms where ballots are

being counted. well, the judges ruled that simply wasn't the case. and the fact that the local election board of the city of philadelphia treated pool watchers, republican party of the democratic party in exactly the same way, and was in fact in compliance with state law. now almost simultaneously, as this decision came down, the campaign was making the very same argument in a different venue in a federal court also in pennsylvania alleging the same complaint. and in fact, the person making, the argument in that instance was president own attorney rudy giuliani. and he told the federal judge in that case that the pennsylvania vote quote, stole the election. now that we have this ruling that is against the trump campaign from the state court. well, certainly that doesn't give much confidence to this federal case going any further,

though it does remain pending. but all in all, it is undeniable that the trial campaign's legal strategy contesting this election is crumbling around them. out of the more than a dozen lawsuits filed around the country. almost all have been rejected either as baseless or lacking evidence. attorneys for the president have quit. others have been admonished in court by the judges. and meanwhile, though you have the president who has not had a public appearance in quite some time, still very active on twitter. continuing to claim that he won the election falsely alleging that there was voter fraud. many thanks for the efforts in wilmington, delaware, the bosses of facebook and twitter have promised action against election dissent from ation during heated questioning. at a u.s. senate hearing democratic party senate has grayle to mom and jack dorsey about hate

speech and incitement of violence. while republicans question them about a perceived bias against conservative voices. an opinion. in particular, how to have blocks an article by pro trump newspaper, the new york post. i believe this was the largest election integrity i've heard by any private company in recent times. this is what people expect of us, and i'm glad that from what we've seen. so far, our systems performed well. election interference remains an ongoing threat that will never fully be solved. so we continue to improve with each i watch it. but our integrity work is really only half the story. we also ran an unprecedented civic engagement program to encourage people to take part in our democracy. we made a quick interpretation using no other evidence that the materials in the article, were changed. and according to our o.c., we block them from being spread. further consideration, we've made a design action was wrong and corrected it within 24 hours. i hope this source

reads the rationale behind her actions, demonstrates or believed to keep mistakes and the changes all transparently to the public. saudi arabia has told yemen's her thiis, that it will find a un proposal for a nationwide cease fire if the group agrees to a buffer zone along the kingdom's borders. if a deal is struck, it would mark the biggest breakthrough in efforts to reach a political settlement since the conflict began in 2014, u.s. president elect joe biden pledged in his election campaign to halt arms sales to saudi arabia to pressure riyadh to end the war. techie's parliament has given president president government permission to deploy peacekeepers to azerbaijan. a joint mission with russia will monitor for any violations of a cease fire that ended fighting between azerbaijan and armenia and the disputed region to go in a cutback, the french parliament is debating

a proposed law that bans the broadcast of police officers faces. critics say it's an attack on free speech and could lead to police officers acting with impunity. natasha butler reports from paris, french documentary. the monopoly of violence, exposes and examines police brutality in france, focusing on recent protests, but also taking in the suburbs. the hiring 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 to try and 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 should via, during a police check in paris and generally 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 journalists and 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 the police for violence. one on duty is essential, says this police union spokesperson, but he says the new law is not the law because you're not going to be involved if the government would clear on the role of the police, what they can and cannot do in this clause would not be necessary, only rested 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, i'll just 0. paris. take his president has announced tighter restrictions on partial weekend lockdowns to try to reduce covert 19 infections. also ordered. all

schools remain closed until the end of the year. while restaurants will be limited to deliveries only turkeys recorded nearly 420000 infections and 11000 deaths. the head of the international lead, a limping committees, encouraging athletes to get vaccinated against covert. 19, thomas back finished his 2 day visit to take care at the national stadium. it's one of the main venue for the games, which have been of course, delayed by a year because of the pandemic. $11000.00 athletes are expected to compete in tokyo back stress that they wouldn't be forced to get a vaccination, but added it would be a good way to keep everyone safe. that whenever of course you have a vaccine, they should like to fish for their health. it's all color anyway, he had demonstrations of solidarity with their fellow athletes. believe

people. meanwhile, a small group of anti olympic protesters gathered outside the stadium during bax visit. many in japan, it concerned by the spiraling costs and health risks involved in holding such a huge event during a pandemic. this is al jazeera, these are your top stories. the pentagon has confirmed solid productions in the number of u.s. troops in afghanistan and iraq by mid january just before president leaves. office 2000 will withdrawal from afghanistan and 500 from iraq leaving 2 and a half 1000 in each country. let us remind those who question our resolve or may seek to interfere with this prudent well planned and coordinated transition.