BBC在线收听下载:共和党人谴责特朗普的叙利亚撤军令

BBC News. Hello, I'm Gareth Barlow.

Senators in the United States, including high-profile Republicans, have condemned President Trump's announcement that he's withdrawing American forces from Syria. Six senators led by the Republican Lindsey Graham have written to Mr. Trump, accusing him of making a costly mistake that threatened US security.

Earlier, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Corker, said the move was completely unexpected. We've got allies around the world that have been with us all this time, have been fighting with us. There's probably fifty or sixty countries that have been involved in some form of fashion. To my knowledge, we didn't even communicate with them that this morning we were gonna make this announcement. It's caught everybody off guard. I know that, I doubt there's anybody in the Republican Caucus in the Senate that just isn't stunned.

Britain, a major ally of the US has expressed concern and questioned Mr. Trump's assertion that Islamic State militants in Syria had been defeated. The British Defense Minister Tobias Ellwood said that on the contrary, the threat from IS was very much alive.

Japanese government sources say the country has decided to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission in order to resume whaling on a commercial basis. The BBC's Cat Wiener has more details.

In September, Japan launched a controversial bid to ease the moratorium on commercial whaling imposed by the IWC more than thirty years ago. But its argument that whale stocks has recovered sufficiently to justify the resumption of sustainable hunting was voted down. That seems to have paved the way for this decision. According to the Kyoto News Agency, Tokyo would only allow whaling in the seas around Japan and not stray into Antarctic waters.

Meanwhile, a court in Japan has rejected a request by prosecutors to extend the detention of Carlos Ghosn, the former chairman of Nissan who was sacked for alleged financial misconduct. The ruling means he could soon be released. With the details, Steve Jackson reports.

Carlos Ghosn was first detained on the nineteenth of November when his private jet landed in Tokyo. The 64-year-old French-Brazilian was one of the world's most powerful auto industry executives, but has spent the past month in prison. During that time, he's been charged with lying about his pay for several years. He's accused of hiding eighty million dollars of income and of misusing company funds. He denies all the allegations. The timing of his release is unclear, but Japanese media say it could happen as soon as Friday. The court also rejected an extension to the detention of Greg Kelly, an aide to Mr. Ghosn.

World news from the BBC.