this is t w. news coming to you live from berlin. u.s., president, orders thousands of troops to leave afghanistan and iraq. the move helps fulfill his campaign promise to bring american troops home from conflicts oversea. some military officials and nato allies are sounding the alarm. also coming up, germany's soccer team suffers its worst defeat in almost 9 years, and its 6 mil loss to spain in the way for nations league has some questioning the future of coach walking live.

hello, i'm terry martin. good to have you with us. the united states says it's sharply reducing its troop numbers in afghanistan and iraq. by mid january, the deployment will be cut to 2 and a half 1000 soldiers in each country. president made the campaign promise to end what he called for ever wars, but the move has triggered opposition, both from leading republicans and nato allies. the sun could be setting on the us presence in afghanistan. american soldiers have been fighting here since 2001, helping stabilize the country after overthrowing taliban rule, but suffering over 2000 deaths over time. troop numbers have winked. now, outgoing president, donald trump will further reduce the number of soldiers here and in iraq. in light

of these tremendous sacrifices and with great humility and gratitude to those who came before us, i am formally announcing that we will implement president trumps orders to continue our repositioning of forces from those 2 countries by january 15th, 2021. our forces, their size in afghanistan will be 2500 troops are for size in, iraq will also be 2500. as u.s., troop numbers dwindled. extremists gained in strength. this attack on a kabul university last week killed 22 people. it was claimed by the so-called islamic state, which has emerged as a rival to the taliban. the taliban themselves have stepped up their attacks on security forces and civilians violating an agreement that foresaw the withdrawal of

all u.s. soldiers by may next year. criticism of the latest drawdown even came from within the president's own party. it's extremely important here in the next couple of months, not to have any earth shaking changes with regard to defense and foreign policy. shipping, as drawdown and a, there are afghanistan or iraq would be a mistake in iraq. the u.s. military presence was greatly reduced after the defeat of isis in 2017. this has increased the sway of neighboring iran and militia groups aligned with children. as u.s. soldiers head home, they could risk leaving the field to america's adversaries. for more now, i'm joined from from herat afghanistan by journalist. what's the reaction been enough data sent to the announced u.s.

troop withdrawal. it's not unexpected. i think it's just a matter of, at this point, the government really just wants a clear answer. they want to know what the u.s. is doing. if they're going to pull out their troops, obviously pulling out all of their troops in a quick manner is almost impossible at this point. but they just want some clear direction. they want to know what's going to happen and what they can do to move on without having to rely on foreign forces. are all of the government. they were live much us on foreign forces. but at the end of the day, what they need is a clear answer of what specifically the u.s. decision is. ok, is the afghan government capable of filling the void left by the departing u.s. troops? if indeed they are withdrawn. so i've spoken to of one security officials over the last month and they keep saying that they are ready that they have made plans to go on with this mission to go on. if they need to go on with this war to go on

with the peace process, whether or not the u.s. is still here. but if you just referred to the call the university attack last week, we saw during that attack that u.s. forces had to step in and help with this 6 hour fight against the forces that were in the university. so it's a major question and i think this is why the fundamental issue for the government that's being thrown into greater question with the arrival of the new administration is what exactly is the united states doing? what can they expect from them? and if they can expect anything, just so they know ahead of time so that they can be extra prepared. ok, so there's still some uncertainty there. given these plans though that have been announced, what could it mean for the taliban in afghanistan? and indeed the peace deal. so the taliban say that the peace deal, they actually put out a statement saying they signed the peace deal with washington, with washington as the head of the united states. so dared argument is that the

peace deal is with the united states regardless of who the administration is and that it has to be honored. no course we've seen and as you said earlier that the taliban have been in breach of the syrian. but that's all obama and i am not the government have been in breach of this agreement. this agreement is that it does look at this point in terms of the talks. and then there are also questions. you know that the head negotiator right now is on my highly thought. he's a very well known figure within the republican party. now with joe biden, coming in, the question is, will he be replaced and if he is replaced with clue, because the perception is that he's been very lenient with the taliban. he's given them a lot of leeway. and now the question is, who will take his place and who really can take his place? who has that sort of weight? that recognition with an i want to sell an ad within washington. so as i said, there are so many unanswered questions at this point. and we thank you so much. that was journalist ali latif in heaven. are you going to stay?

so you look now at some of the other stories making headlines around the world. president trump has fired his top. cyber security official, chris krebs via twitter, in a tweet, trump accused krapp's of making an inaccurate statement when he confirms the security of the november 3rd election from continues to claim the election was marred by fraud, but has yet to provide evidence. police in hong kong have arrested 3, former lawmakers for disrupting legislative meetings several months ago on 2 occasions in may and june teddy wheat as he chewed and raymond chandler detained after splashing pungent liquids in the main chamber. the arrests of again raised concern over the crackdown on hong kong's pro democracy. it says its troops are marching on the capital of the region meckwell after a deadline for rebel forces to surrender passed earlier, the federal government carried out what it called surgical strikes on the city and

also said that a final military operation would be completed within days. the government has also resisted so far resisted international pressure for mediation in the conflict. fallout from 2 weeks of fighting has potential to destabilize the entire region and has already started with the u.n. says is a full scale humanitarian crisis. ethiopian air force fighter jets on a mission in the skies above tikrit i captured by d.w. journalist on the ground. local t.v. later showed what appeared to be buildings damaged by the air offensive. the escalating violence has sent thousands,

spilling out beyond ethiopia's borders. aid groups say 25000, people have fled to sit down since the fighting broke out half of them children. well, i don't think, you know, we came with the clothes on our backs. i don't know where my husband is. i've been looking for him for 5 days. and i don't know where he is in an exclusive interview with t w. ethiopia's minister of defense says his country's fight was with rebel groups. group that you really must occur. gross violation of rights and then they conflict in ethiopia. therefore, it is, the operation is getting this the state t.v.

pictures claim to show national forces liberating towns, but hundreds are reported to have been killed. nevertheless, the government continues to resist calls for external mediation issue let your war income love affairs. so and also it doesn't take many, many pounds, it is really going to be a complete get within a week. therefore, we don't consider it. it is a big, it's a spanking income, not much. but theater i regional t.v. appeared to show footage of captured eritrean troops with whom the rebel forces have also been fighting ethiopia's prime minister has promised a quick end to the conflict with his quote final and crucial military operation. he said then he'd be ready to reintegrate the swelling numbers of refugees now trying

to survive on the banks of the to k.z. river in sudan. sports news now and the german soccer team has suffered its worst defeat in almost 90 years. germany were beaten. 6 nil by spain, in their final you a phoenicians league group match fair run. torres scored 3 of spain's goals, while germany only managed to get 2 shots on goal germany. coach watching live said the humiliating defeat was difficult to explain, and that everything had gone wrong. result means spain finish top of their group and are through to the final for joining me for more on this, on this historic defeat is lima. who talk you from d.w. sports. good. syria. what went wrong for germany? everything. i don't even know where to start and if you still don't believe your eyes and east pay attention to the numbers speak. germany yesterday did not

manage to register a single shot on net, you know, and that is unacceptable when you have players of the quality of lorson a team of an opera and you don't direct scott's hits bria but they also have just everything was wrong with them it wasn't just like one aspect of the game where they failed. i mean, they couldn't hold on to the bar. they had at the end, what was it only 30 percent possession. and that too is unheard of for germany's playing style. but what stood out to me was also just their body language. they just looked like they didn't even want to try. it looked like they didn't even want to fight. they didn't really challenge for the ball in the end. if you were watching yesterday, the game and the most interesting part was that you could not hear the germany players communicating. so you hear a lot, you heard a lot of spanish, but not a word of german and that in itself to show to you that the spanish players were communicating, giving out instructions, germany,

nothing but. and they just say one thing, it's ok to lose to spain. because spain was the better team, they was just a pressing game, was on point. but still, you know, a team like germany, you have so much quality used to not be losing 6. no, rather remarkable. where does this loss rank in the history of german defeat? it is, it's their worst ever competitive defeat the last time that happened. they also lost by 6 goals before and that was what is it back in 1981, that's almost if my math is correct, 80 or 90 years. oh. but they've also had the most recent. i think a big humiliating loss was probably back in 2004. and that was was it against romania. so yeah. but nothing is as bad as this one in there, the coach obviously is under pressure after this. is this is jeter safe?

i mean, that has been a talking point since 2018, since they have that humiliating exit, you know, at the world cup. but exactly, this question was also posed to the germany national team manager, all of a b, a half. and he was really clear. he said that this game does not change anything that they continue to have trust in your so i sink that we won't really find out until after the euro's, i think a lot of it depends on how it does at next year's euro's. and let's be honest, it's not what we saw yesterday, what we saw. that was not just the occupant of that was, i mean the coach can give out instructions. players have to execute them. but what i saw yesterday, i mean with the quality that they have most recently what they have for pay us, for example, that most recently won the champions league with bae in munich. you should not be performing like that. thank you. so much. did you from did every,

a sport you're watching the news? just remember you can always go latest news information around the clock on our web site, www. dot com. coming up next. go to documentary film for you, like date, delete, love and sex in internet time. i'm terry martin. thanks for watching. in mexico many pushed us right now in the climb. a tree is very often stored places my plastic waste from just one week before it can really guess we still have time to i'm going.