this is live from berlin tonight a stunning announcement from the white house the united states is withdrawing all troops from syria today president bush declared victory over so-called islamic state in syria the pentagon says the first of two thousand american personnel there are being pulled out his quickly as possible also the u.s. federal reserve as expected raises interest rates yet again despite pressure from the white house to reverse course and remembering the twelve people who lost their lives today two years ago. marks the second anniversary of the christmas market

terror attack. it's good to have you with us tonight the pentagon says it has started withdrawing the u.s. military from syria on the orders of u.s. president donald trump earlier today hinted at the move with a tweet claiming victory over so-called islamic state of the two thousand american troops in the country will start leaving it soon as possible a move which has taken many by surprise. the commander in chief has sounded the retreat u.s. president donald trump says america's mission in syria is complete he made the announcement on twitter we have defeated isis in syria he wrote the only reason for being there joining the trump presidency. that the us has the news broke across us

media trump instructed the pentagon to extract all troops as quickly as possible in order for all. about two thousand american soldiers are currently stationed in syria officially as trainers and advisers to rebel forces that includes kut his troops who have led the fight against the so-called islamic state the announcement caught washington by surprise outraging some of trump's own republican party representatives some think i s. remains a threat the decision to withdraw american on american presence in syria is. colossal in my mind the stakes and fight against isis particularly in northeast syria has largely been led by kurdish forces to wipe e.g. in the syrian democratic forces and it's happened because the united states has been there helping them trump has long seen the u.s. intervention in syria as expensive and on necessary he's expecting to win support

from the american people who are exasperated after years of war. hard let's go now to washington and bring in our correspondent my guest waiter she's on the story for us tonight good evening to you my other me this is a sudden decision to begin withdrawing u.s. troops from syria it feels like a rushed decision why has it coming now. the timing is definitely questionable and seems to have caught even some of the top military brass off guard because just days ago or even last week we saw the joint chief of staff saying that it would be a naive to assume that the mission is accomplished in syria and talking about how there are still many islamic state jihadi is still on the ground they don't know know how many are still around the estimates range somewhere between two thousand and thirty thousand so even u.s. military leaders are saying we need to stay on the ground stabilisation is our main

goal here and it is at risk if we leave what we do know in terms of the timing is that u.s. troops have been working closely with kurdish forces in the north and kurds are quite the target of turkish president russia type air to go on and on and trump have been having a series of conversations it seems over the past week including reportedly one phone call this morning just before this announcement was made and so what has been the fallout from. the troops will be coming home. well the pentagon has said that they will indeed start withdrawing their troops but there's been a lot of concern expressed from all quarters including from within the president's own party we've seen several prominent republican legislators come forward and say this is surprising we didn't know this was happening even one of the president's staunchest defenders saying i can't say whether or not this was the right call even though he tends to stand by the president and other legislators saying this sounds

like a really bad idea and may further damage our relations in the in the region especially because with the u.s. withdrawing that leaves a vacuum for our other actors in syria such as iran or russia growing their influence around the wires we are on the story for us tonight in washington wian thank you. well here's some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world the european commission has revealed plans to handle a no deal breaks it these include measures to avoid disruption in key sectors such as air traffic and financial trading british citizens residency rights in the e.u. would also be protected but new restrictions on trade in trouble would go into effect the world food program says it is cutting services to palestinians in the west bank in gaza strip due to a lack of funding two hundred thousand people will be affected by the cuts one of

the programs major donors was the united states but even the instant funding cuts to projects for palestinians earlier this year. several provinces in southern thailand are struggling with severe flooding following terrain terrain authorities are warning people living in low lying areas to prepare to evacuate twenty five thousand homes we understand are already affected. the u.s. federal reserve has hiked its been marked interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to a range between two and a quarter to two and a half percent fed chairman jerome powell said the central bank inspected the economy to continue performing well into next year but it projects just to great heights in two thousand and nineteen and had concerns about the trade dispute with china and signs of a slowing global economy higher interest rates tend to weigh on economic growth because they make it more expensive for businesses and consumers to borrow money. in our financial correspondent standing by the new york stock exchange good evening

to you yet so if the fed expects the economy to slow down next year why is it increasing interest rates again. well because in general the federal reserve is still saying that the economy is still remain strong even though it's not as strong at fifteen it in the past couple of months we see a strong labor market we see strong consumer spending and therefore this rate increase and obviously the street is not too happy with the decision right now and we know that the u.s. president he has broken with tradition here and he's openly opposed the fed policy of the including the increase of any rates what's he going to make of what happened today. well we can just wait for his next tweet and clearly he won't be too happy maybe that the federal reserve keeps increasing interest rates might be one reason so just to give the impression that they are not backing down from

the criticism of the us president donald trump the main point is not so much that we saw an interest rate increase today but the federal reserve did tend. to more rate increases next year and there we can argue if that was expected on not but i guess that is the main reason why wall street fell quite a bit before the rate decision got out by almost three hundred points now we just went into negative territory with the dow jones. at the new york stock exchange thank you. berlin is marking the second anniversary of the terror attack that left twelve people dead and dozens wounded right here in the german capital family and friends of victims joined berlin's mayor and other officials at a ceremony at the site of the attack exactly two years ago a rejected asylum seeker from geneva named. hijacked a truck killed its driver and plowed into

a crowd in christmas market. but was shot dead by police in italy a few days later. we met a survivor of the attack who says his life has not been the same since. i think. as i turned around i saw the truck just in the nick of time it was already in the square coming towards me it passed by me within half a meter of call and it was a horrific sight. straight after the attack there was a deathly silence you could have heard a pin drop out of it was a brief moment of total silence porton. two years ago under the asphalt survived to have referred go deal islamic extremist on his armory plowed a heavy truck into a christmas market in berlin sprites had plants killing twelve people shots was able to jump out of the way severely injuring himself in the process it with the

middle east i witnessed i didn't see all twelve people die but i did see four or five die that was intense from seeing people lying there injured on the ground i was injured myself the next morning i woke up in my bed in my clothes in my jacket and my shoes everything was smeared with blood. now two years later police and heavy barriers protect the christmas market. a memorial pays tribute to the dead. but it's rarely comes here anymore he still struggles daily with memories of the attack and isn't trauma counselling shouts a searching for answers to many unresolved questions he doesn't miss a single meeting of the committee investigating the attack. only to have i want clarification i'm still looking for answers and that's important to me and to the other relatives and victims who aren't here who don't have the energy to come here so that we can at least answer their questions or if

you give up now there's a danger that the subject gets forgotten and it definitely shouldn't be forgotten. shots blames the authorities saying they could have prevented the attack by keeping close tabs on memory of putting him under arrest. he no longer works in his former job as a truck driver he received nine thousand euros in compensation and now lives off unemployment benefits. the attack has become part of his daily life. not a lot of time it took and i'm still struggling with it it's always there at the back of my mind. i'd like to know why i had to experience something like that that i mean with what went wrong that all. shots will keep on doing what he's doing criticizing the authorities and raising awareness so that the twelve people who died on brideshead plats will not be forgotten. sports news now

byron munich are reportedly set to activate the eighty million euro release clause of defender lucas hernandez spanish media outlets to say that byron are preparing to shout of the bonus league as transfer record just signed the france world cup winner according to the reports are an end as would join the club on january first when the transfer window opens european champions real madrid have galloped into the club but world cup final thanks to a three one win over japan's because she. gareth bale scored a hat trick in abu dhabi to set up a meeting with host out in saturday's final the spaniards are in the running for a third straight world title. down here on earth well i should say up in outer space german astronaut alexander guest has handed over control of the international space station to a russian colleague before returning to earth yes has been in orbit for more than six months now he's ready for the journey home he says he should be back on the

ground in time for breakfast on thursday. congratulations. when the bell rang alexander guests time as captain of the international space station came to an end protocol on the i assessed requires that he hand over a keen symbolizing the command to cosmonaut all they could call on in code for two and a half months guest was in charge of security and operation of the i assess the first german to hold the position i will miss this place he tweeted his twitter account is chock full of fascinating photos from space but he was also kept busy doing scientific research. on their experiments with technology artificial intelligence materials muscles bones the land based mission leader is pleased with the results. we've completed ninety eight or ninety nine

percent of our program was because that's a real accomplishment there were tense times on both the i assess a whole was discovered in the wall of a transport parred guests colleagues took a space walk to repair it the cause of the hole is still being investigated. but guests mission has reached its and if all goes to plan he will land in the plains of kazakhstan early on thursday morning. and we wish him a safe return to earth europe. were to leave you now with some pictures from the vatican in rome a nativity scene with a difference made entirely sand to give up. her

first day at school with. her first clip listen and then the shores of grand moment arrives join the arena tango on her journey to freedom you know we're an interactive documentary. in and around a tame returns home.