Hello, this is al jazeera, live. Also coming up. International condemnation after ethiopias government targets rebels in the north with airstrikes. Grace when you have companies that have the power of government, something has to give. The buses of facebook and twitter are grilled by both sides of u. S. Politics about their efforts to combat election disinformation. And france to bit a controversial new bill to protect police but critics say it will stifle him and right and free speech. Human rights watch free speech. The pentagon has confirmed sharp reductions in the number of u. S. Troops in afghanistan and iraq by midjanuary. Just before President Donald Trump leaves office. Trump wanted a full withdrawal from americas longest war by christmas. Instead, 2000 will come out of afghanistan and 500 from iraq, leaving 2. 5 thousand in each country. Chrysler does remind those that question or resolve or seek to interfere with this prudent, wellplanned and corrugated transition. The United States armed forces remain committed to protecting the safety and security of the American People and supporting our likeminded allies and partners worldwide. Military leaders, u. S. Allies and Senior Leaders in trucks revoking party trumps republic and party have warned about pulling too many troops out. A child was killed in baghdads green zone and at least five people injured. Lets go to the white house. We were expecting this announcement but it still might have come as a shock. If you go alloy back to 2015 or 2016 went down drop is running for president , he did show he did so based on foreign wars. His intention was always to dry these numbers. You may remember that he was announcing that he was pulling all of american personnel out of syria. That led to the resignation of jim mattis. This time, the army, the navy, everyone else has been given their orders that the president wants these people out of this countries by january 15, five days before the inauguration. When it came to syria, the military slow rolled that idea, holding up the whole process. This time, the president simply does not want that to happen. He wants them to go ahead. He wants to be able to leave the white house and say that yet another election promise was guaranteed. He has one eye on running again in 2024. He also wants to assure his base that when he makes election promise, he keeps it. There are those that will question whether donald trump should do this but he is absolutely clear that this is the right thing. He tweeted back in october that he wanted all of the troops out of afghanistan in time for christmas. That is december 25. He is not getting that. But he is getting significant reductions in troops in both afghanistan and iraq. What has the reaction bent to this announcement from within the white house . You would expect a number of democrats to be angry about this and they are. They think the president is doing something that is leaving a problem for joe biden to mop up. But there has been some disquiet among republicans as well. One republican congressman described it as a recruiting tool for isil. You may remember when barack obama was coming to the end of his term in the white house, he made an announcement that he was pulling troops out of iraq. The reason he was doing that was because of an agreement that had been raised by his assessor, george w. Bush. The date had been set as well. The republicans were saying that this really helped spawn the growth of isil. They were emboldened by the decision of the american president. This decision could have the same impact. It is extremely important in the next couple of months to not have any earthshaking changes. I think a precipitous drawdown in either afghanistan or iraq would be a mistake. You might be seen that if democrats are against this idea, what is to stop congress from getting in the way . It is difficult to do that because the president is the commanderinchief of the forces of the United States. If he wants this to happen, he will make it happen. Of course, he has an acting defense secretary who will do exactly what he wants. The question is, come january 20 when joe biden walks into the white house as the 46th president of the United States, what will he do . Will he consult with allies . He speak with people on the ground . Will he speak with people on the ground . Lets get the view from iraq. We are in baghdad. The reduction of u. S. Troops in iraq to 2500 is not that significant in light of the drawdown that already took place earlier this year. In january, there were 5000 troops present in the country. That number was reduced to 3000 as of september. Of course, the political insecurity context was rather complex. I can january, we had the assassination of iranians as well as other iraqi officials that punted the parliament to vote to oust foreign troops. He also saw a rise in rocket attacks against u. S. Interest troops in iraq. In that context, the u. S. And iraq began renegotiating the presence of foreign troops. They began reducing the numbers. The u. S. Arguing that this was not in response to the Parliament Vote or the rocket attacks. It was the result of the official defeat of isil. That such a large presence was no longer needed. It remains to be seen how iraqi officials will react. It remains to be seen however any backed groups will react. What is interesting is within minutes of the announcement to reduce troops to 2500, there was a rocket attack on the u. S. Embassy here. Such attacks have occurred relatively frequently. They were blamed on iranian backed groups. Over the recent weeks, weve seen a halt on these attacks. They say they will rate for whoever is the new president elect. We will wait for the trumpet administration to announce a full withdrawal of u. S. Troops from iraq. That did not happen. The reduction to 4500 is not what these groups were demanding. And tonights rocket attack at the u. S. Embassy was probably a way to voice their disapproval with this latest announcement. Quite ethiopias government says is troops have achieved significant victories in the conflict with forces in the northern region. Airstrikes have been launched at the regional capital. Fighters have refused to comply with government to mans to put down their weapons. Mohammed is in if the opiod capital. The Prime Minister is promising a crucial number of things in the fighting in this region of northern if the appeal. He says forces are now ready to attack the capital of the growing region. He told the fighters to come themselves to the Ethiopian National defense houses. The next 48 hours will be crucial. This as forces launch attacks from multiple fronts. The sources say that the fighting is expected to get more intense as the if the open forces leave the mountainous areas surrounding the capital. The leadership was engrossed in the conflict with government. Some say they are ready to defend their positions of the last month. They have been complaining about civilians getting hot in hurt in airstrikes carried out. Something that has been projected by the government. The fighter sent up to three missiles across the border. Something diplomats say could bring other people into the fighting. They say that up to 16 divisions of the military forces are present and helping the Prime Minister forces. Largely ignoring calls from for mediation from the u. N. And for leaders. As the conflict goes on, or civilians are fleeing. 23 have acrosstheboard the board into sudan. People refugees are arriving in the numbers of 4000 per day. They have been heavily fighting fleeing heavy fighting. There is no sign of the fighting to stop right now. The fear is as the fighting continues, we could see more refugees arriving. The number of 27,000 or more than that is what we have reached. It could be 30000 and beyond. The Palestinian Authority says it will store coordination with israel on the eve of a visit from mike pompeo. They suspend all contact six months ago in response to israeli plans to annex parts of the occupied west bank. It had significant impacts, including on organizing the transfer of palestinian patients to israeli hospitals. We have had disagreement on financial issues, health issues, put of issues, anything that they are ready for. The most important thing is that now israeli is saying that they are ready to close on themselves to these agreements. That means it is put a cook, health, financial, all other issues. Still ahead in the program the u. S. Agrees to drop charges against mexicos but warmer former defense minister. And another setback in President Donald Trumps fight against u. S. Election results. We have the rain clouds gathering across eastern parts of china at the moment. We have fair amount of wet weather streaming in here. That will roll across the other see into the korean peninsula. In japan, we join the sunshine. Heavy downpours are on the way. Some possibility of localized flooding. He slices through north korea, into south korea. Easing toward the western side of japan. A bit of snow coming in behind as well. That wet weather runs all the way down into central parts of china. Still on the warm side for the time being. Even here, those temperatures will gradually fall away. Further south, the police say we have some dry weather into the northern parts of the philippines and also across much of vietnam. We have seen awful flooding recently from that raft of typhoons making their way across the region. Under weather will be further south. This is all across part of indochina. It stays that way. The sunshine extend across northern india. Heavy downpours for sri lanka. One of the most wanted men on the planet. He masterminded the fraud. Wanto put him in jail but you cannot help being impressed. Al jazeera reveals never before heard recordings, implicate some of the was most powerful players. Everyone would benefit by the abuse of power and corruption. The hunt for the fugitive on al jazeera. You are watching al jazeera. A reminder of our top stories this hour. The pentagon has confirmed sharp reductions in the number of u. S. Troops in afghanistan and iraq by midjanuary, just before donald trump leaves office. 2000 with will withdraw from afghanistan and 500 from iraq. Leaving 2500 in each country. If europe is government says is troops have achieved significant victories. Airstrikes have been launched at the regional capital. The main base for the tpl f a major victory for the tpl left. A major victory for the tplf. Significant impacts, including on organizing the transfer of palestinian patients to israeli hospitals. At least 80 refugees have been killed after the engine of about exploded in the north atlantic c. Sea. Around 150 people were thought to be on the boat, mainly from gambia. It was said to be making its way to spain from the cape. The United States has agreed to drop the drug charges against icicles former defense minister. Salvador was arrested in psychos former defense minister. Salvador was arrested. He could be investigated in mexico and charged under mexican law if needed. Lets go to our correspondent in mexico. John, the u. S. Underwent a long investigation to catch this guy. They only arrested him a few weeks ago. Now they have let him go. Why is that . What has the reaction been for mexico . John this has been a huge shock when the news broke about one hour ago. In the first place, when the general was he was the former head of mexicos armed forces under the previous president. He was arrested in the los angeles airport. It caused a big shockwave at the time. Also because exit goes government was not informed before he was arrested by the u. S. Authorities and on the advice of the da dea. They seem to have a strong case against him. The prosecutors were saying they have messages between him and an actual cartel. It is called the h2 cartel. He was called el padrino, that translates as the godfather. Suddenly we have this bombshell that the u. S. Has decided that it will seek to drop those charges and that the general is going to be coming home to mexico. You asked about the reaction there. X goes foreign minister has just come out the press conference. He said this decision was taken out of respect for mexico and respect for the armed forces in mexico. There are a couple of key points is points within that. Respect was not told before the arrest took place. There were not told this was going to happen. They thought this is our guy, we should try him if anyone should. That came into play. He has quite a warm relationship with President Trump despite the fact that they are at different ends of the put of the spectrum. That played in here. Foreign policy concerns for the United States. He also said, respectfully, armed forces. He said that is key. The former head the armed forces, it would obviously not have taken this well that there former chief was arrested. It really depends on the armed forces. Not just at the moment for helping in his Security Strategy but also a long answer for you there but that is basically what has led into this and what is going on at the moment. You premuch summed it up. That was john, live in mexico city. Many thanks. The bosses of facebook and twitter have promised action against election disinformation against during heated questioning at a senate hearing. Commerce people grilled Mark Zuckerberg and jack dorsey and republicans spoke to them about a perceived bias on opinion. We made a quick interpretation using no other evidence that the materials in the article were obtained through hacking and according to our policy, we block them from being spread. On further consideration, we admitted this action was wrong and we corrected it within 24 hours. I hope this illustrates the rationale behind our actions and mistreats our ability to take feedback, make mistakes, make changes all transparently to the public. I believe this was the largest Election Integrity effort to any private company in recent times. This is what people expect of us. I am glad that from what we have seen so far, our system has performed well. Election interference remains an ongoing threat that will never fully be solved. We continue to improve with each election. Integrity work is really all he half the story. We also ran a Civic Engagement program to encourage people to take part in our democracy. Lets have kyle join us from washington dc. What did you make of the hearing . What stood out for you . Kyle what stood out to me is the dynamic that has been playing out for the s the last year. There is a very clear dynamic of democrats and republicans being at cross purposes on these issues. They both really want to exert pressure on the tech companies. They want to give the government more of a say in dictating how moderation could or should work. But they want exactly opposite things. Democrats are looking for greater action on misinformation, disinformation campaigns. Oftentimes, this is the exact same stuff, misleading tweets from President Trump. That is something republic is. 2 as republicans point to as anticonservative bias. Our prime takeaway from this session was four hours of a lot of clinical should. No real indication of the path forward for legislation rallies. Legislation around these issues. We did hear from your and zuckerberg that they are open to reforming section 30. Significant was that . Kyle this was the first time either of them spoke at length about it. Jack dorsey has said in advance testimony that this would come up. Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg have been saying for a little while now that we want to work with you. They certainly dont want to upend the apple card. They would think about how twitter would see section 230. He has been a little he has said we want to work with you, lets not blow this whole thing up. But there could be room for an update. Mark zuckerberg has been alone more specific. He said maybe we can work with you on legislation that would impose transparency requirements. We have to disclose exactly why we made a particular moderation call and deleted someones post or their account or added a factcheck to twitter. They have been working on privacy legislation for the longest time. The companys did not want to touch even the idea and then eventually, a couple of years ago, there were saying we want to work with you. We just went to make sure that there is one federal standard. Even that did not even actually materialize. There was a lot of backandforth and discussion. But we have not seen kyle, stay with us. We had a bit of breaking news and i want you to respond to it. We are hearing that President Trump has fired the director of the Cybersecurity Infrastructure security agency. This is because of statements he made recently about the security of the 21 election. Kyle, what are your thoughts on this . Kyle i believe this was last week chris put out a statement, a series of videos and other comments as well, just certifying that we are charged with election security. We have not observed any evidence whatsoever of these election machines being hacked. A lot of this nonsense that is being tossed around right now. He has been the voice in the administration clearly saying that this is not happening. Obviously, trump is continued to say that it has. This has been expected for the last week. He was sort of privately telling people in his orbit i think reporters said that he told reporters that he specter to be fired. Good to get your thoughts. That was kyle daley, [mikael colvilleandersen] the story of detroit has been told countless times all over the world. The rise and the fall are part of the narrative, but it is especially the renewal, the phoenix rising, that has captured peoples imaginations. And yeah, i get it. What a story i know that most of the renewal, most of the hype, is focused on downtown. The renewal of detroit has not reached most of the people who live here. Here in detroit, 90 of the population are not white, they rarely go downtown. I want to move past the headlines, i want to find the reality that is detroit. I want to meet the citizens of this city who are working hard, struggling insistently on making this city more lifesized,
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