ideas and mobilize youth around to work in south africa. if women who are at the forefront as the woke generation, you must never get tired of developing resistance strategies, and that is not the passion to stand up and fight generation change. on al jazeera african narrative from african perspectives, home blooming, gale, vivid, transmit total. well, i got a new series of short documentary by african filmmakers from mommy and get bonnie, is she been actually kinda fell off week? don't wait. may dean heritage and making her future africa direct on al jazeera from the privilege of correct us. so the battle fields around most of our job is to get to the truth and empower people through knowledge . ah

rushes president orders a 36 hour sees far. would ukraine to mark orthodox christmas holiday? give cause that hypocrisy? ah, i'm the bulk of this is al jazeera life dough. also coming up u. s. president joe biden. i was his a new program to accept up to 30000 migrants, haiti, cuba, nicaragua, and venezuela. ah, people are told not to leave their homes after a night of violence in the mexican drug cartel strongholds of sinner law. and emotional reunion as israel's longest serving palestinian prisoners released after completing his 40 years sentence.

the russian president, vladimir putin, has ordered a $36.00 south seas far in ukraine for orthodox christmas is set to come into effect at noon on friday. the kremlin is cooling a key if to do the same. however, a senior ukraine, the official dismissed as hypocrisy, saying a truth would only happen when russia left its territory. charles stratford is falling developments from keith. this initially comes from a suggestion made by the the moscow patriarch, carol, russia, patriarch. carol, they're looking for they study success these 5 from about, well, from mid day, which effectively would be own or that it was christmas christmas eve, right. the way through the next day, christmas day until 12 midnight. and it was a response to the patriarch carol's suggestion. that we heard from an adviser in

the president's office mikhail portfolio and he just called this a cynical trap. so we haven't had any official statement yet by president zalinski, but one can only assume that it's going to be consistent with what mr. police said . let me just give you a little bit of background here. there's a very create a very interesting sort of change of atmosphere in ukraine that is gathering place in as far as a move away from fundamentally unorthodox christmas here because many ukrainians associate orthodoxy with russia and by default russian aggression. so for example, christmas that is dis, gone by the artful for the, for the julian calendar that now is being gradually pushed for by many people and you going to be celebrated on the 24th and the 25th. there's also the issue that in 2019 the ukrainian church basically was set up

a stablish that has no affiliation whatsoever with the moscow patriarch. yes, peasant joe biden has announced that he will be allowing entry to an additional $30000.00 migrants from south america. the new migration program is said to allow people from haiti, cuba, nicaragua, and venezuela to work in the us. houses of people hoping to join the program, queued a border authority offices, actually in mexico. i. let's speak to our white house correspondent, kimberly how could so with more and this and company wants the rationale behind this may from the president. well, since the president came into office, his administration is as seen as being friendly to those that wish to come to the united states. in contrast to former president donald trump, and as a result of the surge of migrants coming through central america, mexico into the united states has been enormous. in fact,

some would say it has been record breaking. and as a result, the system has been overwhelmed and the administration has been struggling to figure out how to combat it. so as a result, the president, speaking from the roosevelt room, has just announced a new program that it hopes will a really stem the tide. and this surge of migrants coming into the united states as your now's the president saying that the number of migrants coming from cuba, haiti, nicaragua, venezuela, has been overwhelming. and so in order to contain this, the president has announced there will be a limited number of 30000 each month that will be permitted to cross into the united states. but typically those that have ties or family members here in the united states can show that they have of the financial means to support

these people coming into the u. s. that they will be allowed to stay and that they will be permitted to stay for up to 2 years. now this was really built on a program that was put in place in the fall, particularly from migrants from venezuela. so this is an expansion of a program that the white house believes has worked well. and so they felt that it was, it was advantageous to expand regularly at the same time the administration is looking to make it easier to remove people to 0. yeah, that is absolutely right, and this is where the biden administration is likely to get a lot of criticism because tucked into this program as well. there is now this legal pathway. there's also an expansion of the something known as title $42.00, which is very controversial. and this is a ban i those o seeking asylum being removed from the united states. and this is something that was put in place under the trumpet ministration. during the pandemic, it's

a public health measure. and essentially what it is, is that the expansion of emergency measures that those that are coming to the united states to as seek asylum cannot cross because of a fear of sickness. and so the united states government has now expanded this program saying that only the $30000.00 per month that we're letting in can come in and the rest of you must all leave. so they've really expanded this program. so the binder ministration is really open itself up to not only expanding a program, they strongly criticized, calling it in humane. but also, the fact that the president has said the pandemic is over and now is expanding a program put in place specifically to deal with the pandemic. is really going to be controversial and is going to open the president up to even more criticism for expanding this program. when the president said that he was very much compassionate

and towards those that are coming to seek a better life in the united states. all right, kimberly, how can i live in washington dc when he thinks thou gunfire from armed gangs has rocked the still the lower area of mexico cars are being burned and rose blocked around the regional capital. police have been sent in to quell the violence. they have told residents to stay in their homes. the region is known as the center for operations, for powerful drug lords and drug trafficking. manuel rap hello joins us now from mexico city and manuel violent and cold exceeds in a region that appears to be beyond the control of the authorities. this certainly is one of the most significant confrontations that we have seen between mexican security forces and elements of the sinaloa drug cartel here in recent years. all of this, of course, began in the early morning hours of thursday,

january 5th in the city of calia kind in the mexican state of siena, lois since then, there have been ongoing reports of, of gun fire, of a fires burning cars, of being used to block streets to block roads also being set ablaze. this is still ongoing. we should mention now what we're hearing from local media outlets. here in mexico is a sort of repeating the orders from government authorities from security forces, asking people to shelter in place to remain in their homes. schools have been closed. the airport in the city of kuda can, has been shut down until further notice. this is very much still an operation that is ongoing. now, local media outlets here in mexico have also been reporting that all of this has been in an effort to capture video whose mind the son of the infamous former leader of the sinaloa drug cartel, who are keen and chapel goes. mind we ourselves here at the al jazeera bureau in mexico city have not been able to independently verify whether or not he has or has

not been captured. we're still waiting for official confirmation from mexican security forces to tell us whether or not a video of mine has been captured. now we have been paying especially close attention to this, particularly because this is a scenario that has already played out in the past in 2019 a mexican security forces captured the same target of either was mine. and within a just moments after the announcement of his capture, the response from elements of the sin, a lower drug cartel, was violence on the streets, essentially terrorizing. the city of colette gun forcing mexican, a security forces to release over there was month, which is why we're seeing this play out almost exactly the way that it played out in 2019 we're paying especially close attention over what could happen next. and there's one more thing that we should mention here is that this all is happening, coincidentally, or perhaps not. coincidentally, with the arrival of u. s. president joe biden,

and canadian prime minister just introduce who are expected to arrive here in mexico and mexico city for a north american leaders summit that's expected to take place on monday. so still a lot going on and a lot to observe. and i'm sure we will be say, a sort of activity continue to play a course, potentially over the next few days. manuel, what more do we know about exactly how the cartels operate and sinaloa? how, for instance, they became quite as powerful as they are now? well, sale for a in short, how they operate is basically doing whatever they want. most of the time, it's essentially the way the sinaloa drug cartel, specifically here in mexico is viewed. we should note that this cartel specifically sent a low is one of the most infamous in mexico. it's one of the most influential of, at certainly at an international level. and if it is confirmed, if it is in fact true that, oh, video was mine was capture,

guzman was captured by mexicans, security forces. this represents a significant disruption to the operations of this in a low, a drug cartel. there are, he is wanted, by the united states, there is a fit $5000000.00 reward for his capture, as well. as for the capture of his brothers, they are known as some of the highest ranking leaders of the sinaloa drug cartel. so again, for, for a criminal organization with this much reach with this much influence, a capture of this level does represent a significant disruption to their operations. for now, manuel and propeller live in mexico city. many thanks. the politicians in the us house of representatives are gathering for the 3rd day in a row to elect a new speaker. a group of conservative republicans have been blocking. kevin mccarthy from becoming speaker is the 1st time in a century that the speaker hasn't been elected in the 1st ballot. role of u. s. house speaker is one of the most powerful political positions in washington

d. c. the speaker is 2nd in line to the presidency would take over the leadership if something happened to both the president and vice president. but the jobs most important role is political. as head of the majority party, the speaker has near total control over what gets debated and voted on by the full house when they come from the same party. the speaker can be one of the president's most important allies, but when they're rivals, the speaker becomes one of the president's most difficult opponents for more or less joined by john handwritten, whose lives capitol hill and john another votes. another round of debating what happens today. what's the choreography of what happens there? well, right now, what we're expecting is a 7th vote to go forward after 6 humiliating votes over 2 days for kevin mccarthy. and we don't expect him to win on this round. what everyone is looking for is whether he's going to make progress on those $21.00 votes against him. what he's

done overnight is offer additional concessions offering to allow people on it from that freedom caucus to be on the rules committee offering to finally concede to their demand that only one member of the us house of representatives would be required to call a vote to remove the speaker, it had been 5 that he had agreed to previously, and that is a far lower threshold than at nancy pelosi had to put up with as the democratic speaker of the house. so these are big concessions, and a lot of people here are concerned that that's rewarding bad behavior. nevertheless, mccarthy has little other choice and those are about all of the concessions that he has left to give. now there are some members of this freedom focus who might be called the never kevin caucus, people who, who will not vote for mccarthy. regardless. he can only afford to have 4 of those. you can only afford to lose 4 votes in order to reach the 218 boats. he needs that 218 can change depending on how many members vote present. but in any case, he has

a high threshold to meet. and so far he hasn't met john, if not, mccarthy. what are the other options if any, is there potentially another candidate waiting in the wings? the could unify republicans where there are a number of things that they can potentially do? i think what everyone's looking for is, does he cut into those 20 votes? does that suggest that he might be able to get to where he needs to be? if not, if he's not making progress, there are members who have said that they are going to break away from mccarthy. mccarthy. so what would happen in that case is you would have other members being nominated among the names that have been mentioned are his deputy at the scott lease. jim jordan, who has already been put up for about twice and was really only accepted by that small block of rebel voters. so far lease defining of new york has been another leader who's been mentioned. but right now,

everybody sticking with mccarthy and the other alternative is they could try to change the rules so that only a plurality would be needed. but what that would mean was, was that it would be essentially a challenge that was rebel republicans because so har hakim geoffrey, the democratic leader, has gotten the most votes in each of the 6 previous boat. so if you allow them to be only a plurality, they could end up with a democrat, so it's unlikely they'll take that course. so what we're looking for now is whether mccarthy makes progress, or whether some of those members decide to move on and support someone else. some interesting maneuvering in the house that john handwritten live from capitol hill, thanks. still ahead on al jazeera garners cocoa industry is still using child workers, despite campaigns to stop. it will find out why rockets ready to host footballs. arabian gulf come for the 1st time in 44 years. ah

hello there. we've seen some very unsettled weather effect parts of the middle east with flooding in places like western saudi arabia and the rain is set to continue. you can see those showers stretching a band across audio rober into those gulf states. we're also seeing some where to where the plague, northern areas of iraq that set to intensify and form into snow as it moves into western areas of iran. but for the gulf states it is looking like a bit of a wet. we can't, if we have a look at the 3 day in particular for doha in kata heavy showers on friday, but by sunday we will have that sunshine coming back in. there was a move across to north africa, improving picture for some coastal areas like libya as well as egypt. but the wet weather isn't very far away. touching into 2 nicea by the time we get to saturday.

now, temperatures are sitting below the average for places like mauretania for nigeria. lots of heat to come here. it is relatively dry though much about where to weather shifting further south stretching from angola through to northern areas of mozambique. it's rather soggy in the south east of south africa and we will see that rush of intense storms sweet their way across s. we're teeny, into more eastern areas of botswana and southern mozambique 70 by saturday. ah. oh

no. ah, you're watching out. just a reminder of our top stories this. our russian president, vladimir putin has ordered a 36 hour cease fire. when you crane for orthodox christmas, it would come into effect mid day. on friday, the seni ukrainian official dismiss to does the po christy saying a truce would only happen when russia left its territory. you're as president joe biden has announced a new migration program which is set to allow people from haiti, cuba, nicaragua, and venezuela. work in the u. s. is cooling the plant safe and humane and says it's

replacing a broken system. politicians in the us house of representatives, a gathering for the 3rd day in a row to elect a new speak at these alive pitches. a group of conservative republicans have been blocking cabin, but coffee from the chill. israel is released its longest held, palestinian prisoner israeli authorities freed. karen eunice who is also in australia citizens. he had been in a detention for 40 years. he was convicted in 1993 of killing in his rainy soldier in the golden heights. honesty in his railey was initially condemned to life imprisonment, but his sentence was later committed. they were on con, is in our village, where many people have gathered to welcome eunice back to his community. an emotional reunion for carry muniz who spent 40 years inside and his railey jail. he was jailed on the 6th of january, 1983 released just

a few hours ago of $530.00 a. m a. from a prison in central israel. he was taken to a nearby town. he was given a card that he didn't know what it was. he wasn't sure it was actually a bus pass. he then pulled his brother's brother picked him up and brought him here . it's very difficult to underestimate how, how important agreement is, was within the front of political lubin. he was a member of the central committee advising stone, if you will, when he was jailed in 1983 for the killing of an israeli soldier in the occupied. golan heights, now this was not part of a political exchange. this was not part of benevolence on the part of the israelis . this was simply the fact the man i served all 40 years of his sentence and therefore was released with saying now this is actually happening in defiance of

the israeli authorities. these radio authorities said that they should not walk this occasion, that no one they shouldn't set up, hence the family of ignored that i and they've managed to mark this reunion. now we have been speaking to the man himself, the cyclists, what he had to say about freedom. the like the give her get the has said no one of us. i have a lot of feelings in my wars. don't know how to express. it is the 1st time in 40 years to see the trees in the grass, and i used to see on the walls and cement. but to day i saw a lot of different things. i entered so many houses and i sat down on a sofa for the 1st time in 40 years. i got a very strange feeling when i 1st entered my brother's car, to the extent that i didn't know how to sit properly. it is a mix of feelings and emotions to see the sky without bars for the 1st time of 40 years. now wilma, now, even when he was in sight presently, still remain politically active. he was teaching other prisoners about the

palestinian struggle. like i say he is actually in his writing, the citizens of israel always said that his imprisonment was internal is ready, a matter. but now he's free. he's 66 years old and there's an awful lot for him to catch on. united nations security council is said to hold a meeting later on thursday after israel's national security minister entered the alex and mos compound. it's a mob been given his actions on choose. they have been widely condemned as provocative palestine sam baset to the you and his calling for strong action against israel. the attack is not only against our holy sites in alex, on mosque and, and the hot m sharif. there are because of this environment of extremism that this is the really extreme government, the extremist in the history of israel, is providing is leading to additional aggression against our christian sites.

christian, graveyards, you've seen by now that there are crosses over, you know, graveyards being trampled upon an attack by extreme settlers. this is a toxic environment. the international community has to speak with one voice. hundreds of thousands of children in west africa are working in hazardous conditions on cocoa farms las despite international campaigns against child labor. many of them have little or no access to education. i mean, interest reports from western gonna lane. yeah. for the 1st time in his young life, you know, gets his 1st taste of chocolate. he's been working on his family's cocoa farm for 7 years. you know, father says he put his son to work to prepare him for life's challenges. they do have a badge on the board, mag, you, man, i don't have any money to pay laborers and because there are no schools nearby to accommodate all the children, they help with the farmer. children as young as for are brought to farms to become

conditioned to such an bottom and just they grow. but the rules are being introduced in europe. that empty enforce, stricter protection of human and children's rights, as well as the environment. and producers in countries like gonna believe they could be affected. actively say more than half of all children living in agricultural areas. i engaged in work. most of them dangerous work. activity man would lobby knows what slike to work as a child from my end. as he grew up on a cocoa farm, but later graduated from university, his case is considered exceptional. i laugh yes, jumped out as my connie cough. i've always been doing. most of my might my, my phrase ladies were pregnant along the length. across west africa, one and a half 1000000 children. i involved in coco fami food, many work as farm laborers and, and less than

a dollar or nothing at all with officious. an agent travel to order communities to buy cocoa beans for $60.00 a sac. but they sell a 2 or 3 times that on the international market. i think local farmer, how much will you in, at the have a senior who call their price even lower as much as eaten again as it is who ordered them to see our transact closer to us. there is no quality education for them. pharmacy attempts by western cocoa, biased to forestall prizes, is keeping hundreds of thousands of children out of school and condemning them to a life of poverty. and they are you only by them receiving better prices and education being approved. can the lives of children like you know, can prove to increase algebra. he em, pennekamp zambia has increased the number of hours of plan blackouts. there's it struggles to source enough power,

some areas in the country and neighboring zimbabwe, already facing power accounts of up to 6 hours a day. recurring droughts and low rainfall have reduced supply. china insists it's been transparent when reporting on his coven 19 outbreak. the statement comes after criticism from the world health organization that says beijing is under stating the situation. china's foreign ministry says it has always shared relevant data in announced one covey death on wednesday. but francis's lead a funeral mass for his predecessor, pope ameritas by the duct, the 16th thousands of people gathered and saint peter's square to pay their final respects. he died at a vatican monastery on saturday at the age of 95 benedict as being buried in the crypt at saint peter's basilica. in 2013, he was the 1st pope to resign in 600 years after his health declined. tech giant amazon is laying off an additional $8000.00 people now. so after the company

announced in november, we cut $10000.00 employees. the reduction of staff is the largest in its history. the company is citing what it calls the uncertain economy. soaring inflation as false. come see mr. cut back. i'm spending amazon share price is also lost up to half its value. the lay offs will impact its e commerce and human resources departments. o iraq is hosting the rayburn golf club for the 1st time in 44 years. the tournament starts on friday with 8 countries taking part, including the asian champions, cut off saudi arabia and kuwait. mode of the war had, has more from boswell, a long awaited football championship gets underway in iraq. the 25th edition of the gulf copies being held in the southern city of basra. the opening matcher will see the host nation who head to head with. oh man. that's right, football fans from across the region. authorities here have waived visa fees for fans with your own book, all of you. it's been

a challenge for us because we've been waiting for this championship to be held in our country for so long. there's been a lot of logistics and technical obstacles, but we finally overcome them from iraq fittest hosted the arabian gulf cop in 1979, which he twan but its invasion of kuwait in 1990 under the leader saddam hussein. so it being banned from taken part in international competitions. are they when us ago appear this championship is significant for both iraq and the gulf countries. the government calls on all iraqi fans to show the best of their ethics and generosity. good. our guests, as this event is, were symbolic for all of us. to stay, jims have been chosen for the marches. this it is mean a stadium can accommodate 65000 spectators. while the port olympic stadium has a capacity of 30000, the tournament is expected to have a big impact on the city. besides revenue from live broadcasting of the matches

advertising and ticket sales, many of bus ross, roads and facilities have been upgraded ahead of the event, which will also highlight this. it is tourist attractions fans from gulf countries or his to take part in the festivities. i get them in the amount was come by car all the way from walmart to bus, to support our team. the tournament is the 1900 all goes countries. iraqis take pride in their ability to host a large tournament late this the seat can prove crucial for their suffering economy and renew ties with the gulf countries and the wider arab world. other said she didn't ali we boston, our residents are so proud of this event. is the 1st in iraq in my generation, been preparing for a month to make it comfortable for i guess that she for her birthday has been affected by years of unrest and conflict.