the selling out of a country they don't. like. starts december twenty ninth on d w. this is the that we use line for enbrel and outrage and frustration first on donald trump's orders american troops out of syria provokes a storm of protest the president declares victory over so-called islamic state but republicans condemned the pullout as a costly mistake we'll find out how america's allies in europe are reacting also coming up back to earth

a safe landing for the crew of the international space station but their six month long mission was marred by technical problems. on little rock it's great to have you along president trump surprise decision to claim victory over so-called islamic state and were drawn american forces from syria has been met with criticism from both parties in congress leading republicans are calling it a premature and costly mistake one that would benefit iran and russia others question whether the i.s. militant group has in fact been defeated while two of america's allies britain and france say i.a.'s isn't finished yet and that the battle to clear them out should go on. if president truck gets his way the american troops currently in syria will start leaving the country as soon as possible. trump posted

a video on twitter explaining his move i've been president for almost two years and we've really stepped it up and we have won against isis we've beaten them and we've beaten a badly we've taken back the land and now it's time for our troops to come back home i get very saddened when i have to write letters or call parents or wives or husbands of soldiers who have been killed fighting for our country it's a great honor we cherish them but it's heartbreaking there's no question about it it's heartbreaking now we've won it's time to come back they're getting ready you're going to see him soon these are great american heroes about two thousand american soldiers are currently stationed in syria officially as instructors and advisers to rebel forces that includes kurdish troops with the sitting democratic forces the s.d.f. who have that the fight against the so-called islamic state the move to spot

surprise and outrage from republican lawmakers who called chums actions and rash and dangerous. it's a terrible thing for our nation it's a terrible thing for the. for the allies that we've been working with this terrible thing for the s.p.s. and it's just. it's hard to imagine that any president would wake up and make this kind of decision with this little communication with this little preparation i mean my understanding is we're. beginning to move out right now. yes. entirely. the withdrawal of u.s. troops is also called the allied nations involved in the anti i asked coalition offguard britain for its part said it continued to view i asked as a threat. well president moved to pull troops from syria blindsided advisors and allies to talk more about the fallout now i'd like to

welcome journalist and syria analyst kristen helberg a christian so good to have you here i'd like to get your insight into this of course president tom just said as we heard in our report that so-called islamic state has been defeated can american troops now in all honesty say mission done mission accomplished well i says dramatically we can definitely there are being core not in this trend of land between iraq and syria it's two thousand fighters they are left but the problem is that the so-called islamic state lives on ideologically because the u.s. is just militarily fighting it bombing for example the x. capital of the islamic state into rubbles and they were not ready to even rebuild the lot of young men millions of young men in iraq and syria without a perspective they are not politically engaged they cannot they are just oppressed by these regimes so this is the these are the conditions that extremists look for to build another extremist groups it's just

a question of time action for another isis to come up but you're talking about the power vacuum effectively that is going to be left now in syria talked a little bit more about who is going to fill the. power vacuum now effectively yeah it will be very quickly be filled in the north by turkey that are trying to attack the kurdish autonomous region in the north east of syria it will be filled by iran very happily because iran tries to bid it's shiite axis of resistance so-called resistance from iran through iraq and syria to lebanon where it has its ally hizbullah and sends their arms to hizbollah which very much for it because from an israeli point of view obviously iran is the biggest threat to israel's security and you have obviously with iran and russia the syrian regime that will be happy you know to recon troll to regain the control of the whole of syria let's talk about the kurds because this is affecting them arguably the most the us relied heavily on kurdish forces on the ground to make those gains against us with president trump

announcing pulling out troops from syria is effectively a green light for turkey now to move in and do what they want to do with the kurds i think so and the kurdish forces the syrian democratic forces very much feel betrayed by the us in this case because it was the kurdish fighters who fought against isis in the name of the west and now the americans are letting them down and i think that all this all has to do with a phone call between the trump and missed out on the touch president last week and there is a deal a weapons deal between turkey and the you as the test just been agreed upon by the u.s. administration shortly before the suspension of withdrawal because turkey will buy american air defense systems all three point five billion dollars this is what out of one pace to get the green light mr trump so that the souls that really mr trump has no interest whatsoever in the strategic policy in the middle east is just looking for short film economic gains that helps his presidency at home circus if

you're saying you correctly because of cold hard cash this transactional thing that's happened with turkey buying. from the u.s. the u.s. has said well that's good enough for us we're pulling out i think that this is the major reason for mr trump to do this actually to let the kurds in the end and this will lead to the kurds making a deal with damascus so in the end the syrian regime will go back to the northeast of syria they will call a broker some kind of deal the kurds and the mouse because in the end we will have syria falling back into the regime hands that is dependent on russia and iran christine helberg syria analyst and journalist always good to get your insights thanks for weighing in thank you. all right let's get you up to speed now with some of the other stories making news around the world. flights from london's gatwick airport are suspended after drones were spotted flying above the airfield late on wednesday and again on thursday now we're seeing coming flights have been diverted to other airports flying a drone with in

a one kilometer within one kilometer of an airport is illegal in great britain anyone convicted of the offense spend five years in jail. officials of the democratic republic of congo say sunday's presidential election has been postponed the electoral commission cited an ebola outbreak ethnic violence in the salt shortage of ballot papers as reasons for the delay voters are set to elect a successor for joseph kabila in the country's first democratic transition of power . one person is reported to have been killed as people take to the streets and some done to oppose price hikes and corruption demonstrators are angered by worsening economic conditions after prices more than triple this year a state of emergency was declared in the city of barra after protests erupted on wednesday. three astronauts have returned safely to earth after spending more

than six months on the international space station their mission proved to be problematic for technical reasons but german commander alexander garrett said the return trip at least went smoothly. back from space after spending months in zero gravity alex and aghast had to be helped out of the tiny saugus capsule they tarried him and his crew back to earth. first proving to think we feel so it feels like coming home although i am in kazakhstan in a place i haven't been to before but it still feels like i'm coming home with him on you know all the people in his fellow astronauts russian. and american serina annan chancellor both seemed exhausted but all are said to be doing well. the catcher was docked onto the international space station the i assess which has been home to the astronauts for the past six and a half months the crew performed dozens of scientific experiments on board alex and i guess later became the first german to take over command of the s.s.

. airbus. not always an easy task the replacement teams failed launch meant that many experiments could be carried out and cast had to extend his mission russian astronauts also had to carry out a grueling repair on a mysterious hole in the sole use capsule the craft that would ultimately bring them safely back to earth. during his mission alex and i guess stayed in touch with people on earth through social media he used his unique perspective from space to offer insight on scientific and environmentalists sick before he left the i assess he said a message to future generations. when looking down to earth i feel that i have to apologize. well nancy it looks like my generation is not going to leave the planet in the best shape. i wish i could look into the future with your eyes. look into your world and understand how you see it.

as. fortunately i can do that all i can do is try to play my part in giving you a future and the best possible version of it. just as expected to be home in germany tonight. back on earth just in time and by the way guest said a new record for a german astronaut three hundred sixty three days in space all together and with me now is the man whose record guest broke thomas reiter his corridor for the european space agency and a former astronaut himself and he's joining us from training and education center sir it's a privilege to have you here with us on the show talk just i mean you've been through this yourself how does it feel to return after such a trip. you know the feeling being in space having this beautiful perspective which alex will stress talking about having the perception of

weightlessness is always something absolutely remarkable but i can tell you after half a year you're also looking forward to easy task to adapt to mother earth after such a long time. no actually the adaptation takes sometimes however i have to say it looks like being in space at all the way he was coming out of the capsule he looked very energetic very dynamic. for myself i can say for the first minutes or even the first one and a half hours i didn't feel too good the body adepts very quickly but i think it will take him also a few weeks until he return to his same physical performance like before the mission now wasn't always smooth sailing for him or an easy mission for i assess that commander dare say how serious are such incidents in space when they take place. well you know every off nominal situation is

off cause a challenge for the crew but that's why we have extremely well trained astronauts up there and you know there's always the discussion is it not possible to replace the human beings by artificial intelligence and i think specifically these situations prove how important a human being with us pacific capabilities. to be around when things like that happen they have much more possibilities to sense what has happened to you know to take to find a solution to be sometimes so that challenges the crew on one side but they are very well prepared for it and i think all of these they have excellent yes they were definitely very are resourceful is the mission now completed or do you think that there's a lot more are still to do. well certainly for the scientists it will take a couple of weeks to go over all the data. and then his crew has collected in

this huge spectrum of scientific work that they have done i'm pretty sure in a couple of weeks we will get a first overview of the results you know it has been in all different disciplines like in medicine in biology in materials sciences in physics and we know of course some some very rough results we know that the experiments were very well performed but the exact results now the scientists need to work on are right now and this is such an exciting time in your field of because china is interested in the dark side of the moon that nasa is exploring mars where space travel are going from here. well i think we will see humans on the surface of the moon in the second half of the next decade i have no doubt about it of course i i'm very hopeful that

some of my european colleagues will be part of it the moon is still very important .