he said he'll step down if his health stops him performing the ro, the vatican's foreign secretary recently hinted that pope benedict's death could make that path easier. it was already very complicated, having to man wearing white in the vatican. if folk francis had resigned while benedict was still alive, would have had to former popes and one reigning pope. put benedict was revered as a theologians by many catholics. but by his own admission, he was a leader who failed to act decisively enough on cases of sexual abuse by clerics. his legacy is long and complex. dba al jazeera california's governors declared a state of emergency or to a powerful storm cadillac christi to thousands of homes in the north. roads have been flooded and trees uprooted in sacramento authorities of toll, people to evacuate coastal areas vulnerable to mudslides is the 2nd storm to hit the west coast in the past week. not charles has more from san francisco,

california emergency official said this round and forms could be the most severe. california has been in the last 5 years with that they accept a lot of flooding, not only in the road, but also that would cause damage to homes that their biggest concern right now they say is high winds that could get as high as 70 miles per hour in the mountains and along the coast, they say with that they expect extensive power outages and also a lot of property damage for their asking people to stay off the road. ah, this is al jazeera, these, the top stories russian president vladimir putin has ordered a 36 hour cease far in ukraine for orthodox christmas. it would come into effect at mid day. on friday, a senior ukrainian official dismissed it as hypocrisy, saying a truce would only happened where russia left its territory. charles stratford has more from keith. this initially comes from a suggestion made by the,

the moscow patriarch, carroll, russia patriarch. carol, they're looking for these $36.00 assays far from about, well, from mid day, which effectively would be an orthodox christmas christmas eve, right? the way through the next a christmas day until 12 midnight. and it was a response to patriarch carol's suggestion that we heard from an adviser in the president's office, mikhail padaya and he just called this a cynical trap. israel has released the longest held palestinian prisoner, he'd been in detention for 40 years. kareem eunice is also in australia citizen and was convicted in 1983 for killing an x ray soldier in the golan heights. he was initially condemned to life imprisonment, but a sentence was crossed. the vote for a new speaker in the us house of representatives will go and say a 3rd day republican kevin mccarthy lost another 3 rounds of voting on wednesday. a

group of hod line is from his party, have opposed his bid. politicians will meet in the coming out is to try again. trying to insist it's being transparent when reporting on his coven 19 out break. the statement comes off to criticism from the world health organization. this as beijing is under stating the situation, china's foreign ministry says it is always shad relevant data with the international community. right? you're up to date those. the headlines. the news continues here and i'm just here a half to witness. ah,

a companies have access to radio ads and tv ads and online newspapers with the one space that is supposed to be sacred li, ours, belonging to the public for the public by the public is as the name implies, public space. there's something about them that has always seemed grotesque to me and just so out of place, i don't think that billboards have any appropriate function in a public space. this is the corner here. we're here. we're on for inside drive right now. a beautiful side street. in toronto, and this believe it or not is number 25, burnside. but then you've got these. they're so big. they're just so

big. it's like i like the way donald trump tweets in all caps. going to go up on one. i think this can be turned into a little cafe up here. it's really, really nice meeting there be a conveyor belt. coffee with this company right here. beautiful view. i actually took the time to ask the city if these billboards even had proper permits, like are they allowed to be there? and the city wrote back and said no, these billboards aren't supposed to be there. we're going to have them removed. this is a mistake that was 15 years ago with a if these billboards don't have proper permits, then technically they're actually pieces of corporate garbage just in around,

in which case i think it's our duty as citizens to clean up that garbage with. mm hm. mm hm. i started doing political activism in my late teens. i have a lot of archives down here from like, decades of activist projects rank ballot campaign. this is a b c referendum on voting reform. city i had all this is, this is original trauma, public space committee, stuff from 20 years ago. here we go. this is 15 years ago. i think it's such an important issue. and i think the way we communicate with each other visually in our own neighborhoods really affects people's sense of belonging and importance and empowerment. but for people who get involved with politics and activism,

and you've got poverty, and you've got a pandemic happening and you've got housing issues and you've got issues around race and equality. it's unlikely that the issue around billboards will go to the top of anyone's agenda. but i think it should be there, i think it affects all those other issues. you know, you can say it's sad to look back and realize we're still fighting the same fights we were in the ninety's. that's life, that's politics. these fights never end. and clearly, i horror to things with this is the monthly meeting, the toronto public space committee. thank you. i'm always curious if the billboard company is really showing up at these meetings, summers looking at the names that i don't now to see what might be watching

performance. and then i had a billboard company send enough people to a meeting to out vote me and they put forward a motion to cancel our campaign against them. we'll move on to an update from dave on the billboard. i have 2 questions to ask you guys right now. one is that there is some locations where we need to actually go on the ground and do triangulation and figure out whose property it's on any just hands up if anyone's interested in. oh, i see a i see a thumbs up from eagle. mm. mm. this parking lot is private property right here. this is part of the green outline on the map that is part of the hydro right of way. and as far as i can tell, the billboard literally crosses the line we look for property

markers just anywhere, anything i mean, if anything like, essentially, everywhere here didn't bring a machete like that in the email. i've never felt so attacked by nature. i'm in the, in the city should be doing this work anyways, so i can just ask the city like, can you guys figure this out? i'll regret this tomorrow. that slows things down. it's better if we can show them evidence that we've already figured it out in spectrum as lynn is not impressed with what i'm saying. so i was hoping we could say it's on this property. is there a permit or not? but i, i really can't tell. but i would bet this was put up without any permit to matter of proving it. and then convincing staff to enforce the rules. why don't we put some signs on them? like notice of it? i think the game will come to live without losing stuff. it scares people. i'm

definitely putting a sign up here. these doors are now under investigation for the turn up on the plains committee. me aside from asking city staff to look into the 20 year. so billboards that we're looking at. i also filed a freedom of information request and any citizen can file one of these and it's a way to get information from the government that usually wouldn't be able to get. that's not our website. it's not in a flyer, but, but it's technically public information. i applied a few weeks ago, i said, does the city have a list of all the billboards and any cross reference data about whether they have permits or not? so i got a response. the decision is accessed is granted in full to the records

provided for review. i have to pay a $10.00 fee for a usb stick. with an expect the that the records, the rec, the records will be mailed to you after we receive a check or money order. i love the government makes it as hard as possible. i can do this by paper how i can do by e transfer. i had to send them a check or a money order. it's so frustrating. the government is like so committed to being stuck in the dark ages. ah, with great one or 50. in the other, her left with her activism doesn't pay the bills. so got his new side get going with your kid. we're fabricating uninstalling.

bike racks. so people can lock bicycles in front of their house. you don't have to make the beeping south k go other way. oh, radiate id left, lucy little more and stop. i started doing like political activism in my late teens. there's an addictive nature to it. the pressure as an expectations of being seen as a leader can be a really heavy weight. ah and i it can create some serious mental health issues. so i've gone through a few major depressive episodes related to burn out and depression. i said for

me, every breakdown i had triggered an identity crisis. you put everything into a campaign. all you've got for months. when you lose it can just you can just feel like such an idiot like a failure. i was worried that my activism was killing me. and the only way i could survive was to drop politics and activism entirely. but i also knew that political work is so embedded in my dna, and that's part of who i am. i really struggle with trying to understand where my life was going. what is it 20 year old activists turn into. and then i met euchre. me. i knew because he was a full time activist. he lived in breathing activism. it wasn't like something he

did, it was something he, he was smart. he was clever. he knew how to take an issue and get on the front page . i like theater and gramma and agree and humor to put forward ideas about what are the year 2010 is to share that nobody goes to them. i re let everybody has a roof above their heads. i don't remember to current any context other than activism, so i don't really have memories of him just as a friend. i want to be like him, but i'm also, i don't wanna, i want to diverge from his journey. took him me the i oh i

ok. so essentially i did a freedom of information request to the city saying, what have you guys got in terms of a database of existing signs and whether or not you have permits and will know right away hopefully which which sites have permits. ok, check your mouse. don't open that yet. you ready? yeah, you're ready. you ready? big with it. yeah, they did a good job. okay. i'm opening it. invoice dates. ah, it's done by the tax amount. so it's $1570.00. what is almost 10000000 annually. so we're up against where does the part about where's the part about permits? i don't see anything here about permits. so i think we need to follow up. this does

not have the data i asked for me when it comes to advocacy. we're up against these companies who have multi $1000000.00 budget. they can hire the best lobbyist, the best p, r people. so we need to try every tactic. we can use amateur assistant today. what, madame, are you have your table are you will go over to the grass, i guess. yeah. they won't bring any flowers. no. this, these are. these are earth warm. there is no reason to be intimidated by me whatsoever. i guarantee you ok. you're the one actually with the power rate. you're asking me questions, so i don't know what's coming. good point. yeah. the billboards. burns. i. billboard. they've been there for quite a while and they're they could be distracting as just a lot of drivers near there. and not only just because it's an ad or billboard, but because it so sudden in the middle of all these trees what am i looking at?

it's just, i think they're turning the billboards from quite a while ago. this is dated 2006. it said there was something new information rich. not none of us were really sure of what it was. she just heard that there was new information that ended up having them remain, but they never divulged what that was. yeah. how would you like to work together to look into if they're allowed to be there and let's follow up and have a discussion. sure, thank you. me really strong, early, focused and creative, productive, and just mellow. i mean, i wrote this last year on an airplane in the middle of

a burnout, so it says you are here. and then it's got all these paths forward of different projects. i could be working on so this is the billboard thing i decided and this is a hobby. it will never be funded. i don't want it to be funded. i want it to be a hobby. it's when you start getting really hyper excited about the work and when you're being fueled on adrenalin that you risk burning out here, sylvia. and look at us in our matching hoodies with a squad man, billboard squad. so what could i have? it might be exciting. it might be nothing either and they've they're just sending us the same garbage again or they caved and sent us what i know they have. ok, here we better be different. it's a nice

u. s. b of the cities logo on it. ok, i'm scared to look at it. you look at it on what you see. i want permits. i want something. give us something. if they gave us a 2nd, mr. the numbers, permit numbers in science permit number. nice. i'm just scrolling down and when you get to like a 100, there's a bunch that say no records have been locating there are 662 entries that say no permit records have been located. this is great. this is the 1st time i've ever seen this data 25, burnside, no permit. records have been located. ha, so the mailing just um, what do we do now with all this? this is amazing. mary sheet, you're gonna say according to your records,

it seems like these don't have her man wrong. can you confirm right? either have them removed or have them get permits or can call alright bye everyone have a great weekend. thanks for helping out with me. ah . some ways we revere the most famous activists in history and martin luther king gandhi, everyone loves a good activist, but no one wants our kids to go down that route. so when i was in my twenties, everyone i grew up with was in university launching careers, and i'm marching the streets with artists. and never had anyone to turn to. and the one guy who i did jumped off of bridge is our, my pass code does my pass inevitably lead to taking my own life?

and this is the place you were before. i've been there before. i've been there 3 times now. each time i felt like i brought probably wasn't going to come out of it . i might have had stress like anyone does. but i was coping. and then suddenly i'm just crying like a baby for months. and i started to fear myself more than anything. i feel like it's all coming back to sucker now because that was the 1st time that you had that burnout was after he died. one of the question my head was like, can you be an, an activist in your thirty's forty's. and the only answer i could find really was to her. when he stepped off the bridge, this anchor that i had emotionally attached myself to suddenly was gone. and it put everything i had done in question. mm

mm. so you're at the meeting last time. so i did a freedom of information request. so this includes the burnside information that they've had for like 15 years and would never thought they should share. they didn't get a notice of violation saying that you've never had a sign permit and nothing in here suggest otherwise. feel like they're throwing everything they can at the right to get something to stag. because they never have the fact that they've done all this digging and haven't found anything with the word permit in it. i think that be really powerful to be able to say in these 47 pages, you've sent us the word term. it doesn't appear once. mm . i just want to thinking 1st, getting out of school

a little bit early for this you know, i don't even, i don't even have a culture now. okay. you're, you're welcome. so just what you learned. so the long and short of it is, is that the advice that i'm getting from the city staff is that they, they aren't convinced that they have. busy the tools they need in the toolbox to effectively get rid of the signs, so to say very plainly, whatever, whatever the city or i would do, they see it ending up in court where they are not convinced that the company would be unsuccessful. and are you, i'm good, i'm willing to try. they don't know it's so they're a, they're graduating that they're avoiding trying even trying to defend their own by law out of fear of a lot of losing. it wouldn't let me like not playing

a baseball game because you might know when i said the exactly verbatim i, that's funny i, i used the exact same example. it's pathetic. i don't buy it and i don't buy um that's reasonable. i find it kind of sad that the city's own lawyers are caving on this. you have not seen any information that would lead you to believe that 8 that a permit exists for the sites? no. okay. me. it's easy to get really emotionally attach. i've, i've done that like your campaign becomes like, like a child, and then when you lose a campaign, it's like it's so crushing me now we usually lose campaigns because of the stupidest reasons just because someone's trying to make a bach. mm. it's always like walk in this fine line you want to play by

the rules, but you have to be prepared to push the envelope a been who a letter that you wrote. dear activist, it's another strange day for me. i lived breathing and focused on activism. it kept me thinking, inspired, interested, and alive, but are also allowed me to ignore other things in life that now suddenly i realize i never developed. and now i find myself in a dark and confusing labyrinth trying to feel my way back to sanity. and told me, i think i've been in a place that was as dark as he was that day. the

scariest thing for me was worrying that i would make the same mistake, took her in i was able to maintain enough faith to believe that the nightmare with me and took her didn't get back from that particular was missing in the part that i've learned how to do really well, i think at this point is just loving myself and not feeling bad about that. mm hm. he wouldn't want us crying over him and he'd be like, sorry guys, no, sorry, i had to do that. but like, don't let it distract you from your activism. you gotta go see the world for at the end of the day, for me it's all about power. why don't we have power and i'm not thrilled with how the city has acted. i feel like there's

a bit of negligence on their part to regular work day for the trauma, public space committee by law citizen enforcement unit, someone's gotta do it. and this city bureaucracy will never be a leader in reform. there's always going to be a private interest that interferes with the needs of the community and the community doesn't stand up for themselves. they'll get trembled with. we've been pretty lucky with rain so far. okay. and if we're going to be a little hard, this is really when you're ready to go inspired me by making me realize that sometimes you have to be a little theatrical one uniform. absolutely gorgeous. i love

the human species has improved that fell through millions of tiny vectoring people in their own way at their own pace and trying to make a difference. and all these changes happen, not because of anyone here. it's because thousands and thousands of log again between them was wrong and i'm a part of in i'm tired and i need a milkshake way after a lifetime in finland, an emigrant returns to somali land upon discovering his ancestral home could be

a gold mine. but to benefit his community from the minerals beneath the land, he must navigate the age old, tribal disputes above it. mm. witness. golden light on al jazeera. ah, a new generation of young people are more political gave than the one that came before. welcome to generation change a global feelings and attempts to challenge and understand the ideas and mobilize youth around the world. in south africa,

it's women who are at the forefront as the woke generation. you must never, ever get tired of developing resistance strategies and that ignite the passion for stand up and fight generating chains. on al jazeera african narrative from african perspectives, home blooming gale from david transmit. what a while ago that was in a new series of short documentary, by african filmmakers from miami and gabon, is she been african samples, african good weight, medina, heritage, and making her future africa direct on al jazeera from the from dallas of caracas. so the battle fields around most of our job is to get to the truth and empower people through knowledge. ah.