one of the really special things about working for al-jazeera is that even as a camera woman i get to have so much empathy and contribution to a story i feel we cover this region better than anyone else working for it is you know it's very challenging even in a particular because you have a lot of people that are divided on political issues. with the people believed to tell the real story. generalism we don't feel in favor. across the globe. they won they want regime change that's obvious. america is the four arab countries behind a blockade of plotting to overthrow him. this

is al jazeera. also coming out the leader of the iraqi kurdish region is stepping down as he defends his controversial push for secession. marching for unity hundreds of thousands of people rally in barcelona to protest against catalonia tearing independence. and being heard the global online campaign against sexual harassment takes to the streets in france. says the country's behind the gulf crisis trying to force a change of leadership. was speaking to the u.s. television program sixty minutes this country's been living under a blockade for almost five months since four arab states cut diplomatic and economic ties michaela reports from washington. there was no sign of friction.

among gulf leaders when they met president trump on his first foreign trip it was all smiles and a common pledge to combat terrorism in all its forms yet less than two weeks later the blockade against qatar was launched much to the surprise of carter's emir shaikh bin. we were praising each other. laughing with each other this cussing you know how to solve this terrorism that is a threat for the rest of the world they are making demands of you that you shut down al-jazeera that you may give them your word that you're not supporting any islamist groups are you going to meet these demands our sovereignty is a red line we don't accept anybody interfering our sovereignty when you tell me to close a china like al-jazeera history were right one day in fifty or sixty seventy years how it changed the whole idea of free speech in the region do you believe that they want regime change yes they one they want a regime change it's obvious history as well tells us teaches us that they tried to

do that before in one thousand ninety six after my father. became the emir of qatar has denied any support for terrorism. offered this explanation as to why the taliban was allowed to open an office in doha the reason why they came here it's not because we asked them to come here because other people like the united states america united states wanted the taliban here they wanted to have dialogue so they asked us if we can host them here and have the dialogue so that we host of them here this is the reason why they're here how what they say and we want to turn and believe me charlie we want to turn. but nothing is going to be about our dignity our sovereignty but we wanted to and i almost say that if they get no walk one meters toward me and willing to walk ten thousand miles towards them but maybe left to others to persuade those continuing the blockade to take that first death mike

hanna al-jazeera washington was so much a heart is an associate professor of middle east studies at the university of oklahoma he says the emir's interview shows there's no softening of his country's position. i think that certainly the emir was speaking directly to the american people going well beyond the government and rex tillerson the secretary of state making the appeal to the american people that this is unjust and so on i think his claims about sovereignty which he made in an earlier in dress over the summer are not new i think what he did show determination and that and the claim that this was about regime change which we wish we all knew from the very beginning i think also is a toughening of stance as it were all of us knew from the very beginning that the saudis and the emirates he's behind these new directions would have loved to bring about regime change and in fact there might have been a military possibility in the first couple of days and they also miscalculated

thinking that the cuts every people would somehow rebel against their governments after the ending of formal relations and so on none of that happened so this was about regime change but see here the emir say that it was a bit startling so i think this was a serious attempt to address the american people and also the kind of educated classes and so on and i think it's also important to point out that in addition to his determination and his top stance he did offer a leaf or a possibility as you mention with this claim but he said it's said twice in the interview that he's willing to go ten thousand miles if they are willing to come one meter so in addition to determination there was also a claim that we are that qatar is moderate and reasonable and willing to find a reasonable solution to this crisis you know all bahrain's foreign minister is calling for qatar to be frozen out of the regional bloc the gulf cooperation council college but i don't have the phone has tweeted that bahrain one to attend

the upcoming g.c.c. summit unless consomme meets the demands of the train and the three other blockading nations. the president of the kurdish regional government in iraq is stepping down he says he won't stand for reelection his term in office and just two days time he was the driving force behind last month's controversial kurdish referendum on succession which the iraqi government dismissed as illegal from a bill to stephanie deca. an independent kurdistan was supposed to be his legacy and yet it seems to have led to his downfall a somber looking mustard better than a finally addressed the people directly on sunday night after relative silence for weeks. according to the law the president's camp extended by the parliament however i inform the parliament and i will not extend my term i will not accept any amendment in the law to extend my term as president supporters of the president gathered outside parliament they managed to get into its grounds despite the

presence of riot police at the entrance opposition media was attacked and these men also asked around for the names of critical opposition m.p.'s but it didn't disrupt parliament which after hours of talks approved the redistribution of presidential powers among the government parliament and the judiciary. after twelve years as president come wednesday by design he will take some lot of the back seat he remains head of the k.g.b. party and he'll still lead the high political council a body created to deal with the post referendum phase and he said he will remain what he called the highest rank especially references to the peshmerga featured heavily in his televised address last saturday darts in the fight against isis the clash mirka showed great bravery the people of kurdistan showed defending spirit the international community came here the role of the peshmerga the people of kurdistan but unfortunately at the time they had to show action they all went back to their own interests and all the principles disappeared you also referenced

a kurdish proverb saying again we realize that the kurds only have the mountains as our friends but you also mentioned the betrayal over losing her cook in reference to fellow kurds in an opposition party at the end of his address president must food but is that the kurds to be unified they've always been internal divisions here but the aftermath of that controversial referendum seems to have widened those cracks in kurdish unity could perhaps be the biggest challenge in the short term stephanie decker al-jazeera. a seventh round of talks on syria's ongoing war is due to begin in kazakhstan's capital in the coming hours a key outcome of the talks and i stammer so far has been an agreement on deescalation zones in certain areas it laid out the areas where rebels and government forces should hold hostilities including air strikes for six months although no one includes it province as well as northeastern parts of the takia western areas of aleppo and northern parts of hama province more than a million people live there the rust on them to be set on klav in northern homs

forms part two and eastern time the northern damascus countryside is home to about six hundred ninety thousand people it's part of zone three in the rebel controlled south along the border the jordan which includes parts of dead and can atra are in zone for. well despite the deal and the escalation zones there's been no end to the fighting imran khan has more on what to expect at the meeting in a stop. so the flags out for the various delegations are going to be arriving here in stana on monday and tuesday for the seventh round of talks now the sixth round of talks took place in september where there was a major breakthrough for deescalation zones agreed upon within syria and places like the taqiyya homes and lives now those deescalation zones to some degree say the russians the iranians and the turks with a guarantee guarantor story all of those deescalation zones however others say that

clashes have taken place now the russians say that they've been fighting groups like hates t s a crawl a sham and isis fighters now the observers that actually civilians have been caught in the middle of those clashes now in the next couple of days we are going to see talks taking place between those three guarantor countries russia turkey and iran are also going to be saying talks take place with the syrian opposition and with representatives of the syrian government also here are the united nations and the united states now that's going to be interesting because rex tillerson has in the last few days the secretary of state said that he wants to see independent verifiable elections take place within syria but he doesn't see a role for the assad family doesn't see the outside family having a political role of any kind in syria so that's going to be an interesting conversation they'll take place between the americans and the syrians if they actually do sit down and talk so

a lot of talking going on in the next couple of days let's see what happens but it's likely that we're going to see some sort of movement on these deescalation zones and whether they extend the deadline for the deescalation zones to last longer than the current six months not twenty six syrian hostages who escaped from i still have received an emotional homecoming in humps there among seventy people abducted by the armed group almost ten days ago when the syrian army and pro-government forces regained control of al qaeda attained some hostages are still missing syrian authorities say eisel kill more than a hundred people in a revenge campaign before that pushed on the town. hundreds of thousands of people have rallied in barcelona calling for spain to stay united the protesters say they have a sonnet majority who don't support that and has been for independence some way even dividing the rest of the council on the. other simmons reports from barcelona. two days after the vote to break from spain and for anyone who wondered how

strongly those opposed to the move feel then is the answer i they call for the jailing of carlie's police drama and they describe themselves as the silent majority you couldn't find silence in the center of barcelona this sunday in sound square the seat of power for a regional government has been sacked by the state it was tense and a small number of pro unionists pushed against barriers in front of the government palace overall it was a peaceful protest though the crowds cheering the spanish national police helicopters that provoked anger when overflying procession demonstrations for those who say catalonia should stay in spain this day belongs to them aside for a stranger people here what's striking about it is the number of people who are actually demonstrating for the first time this is

a family day out luis a column a and two of her daughters were reticent about it's a bit. like you wouldn't normally do people would literally in the street i watch out whatever i don't know like i wouldn't feel comfortable doing it because of that. to be quite. the kind of hate crimes people sometimes. says unionists on not extremists they are less people they're not right we're not fascist i'm never in the social splits it would be maybe two generations three generations. in a neighborhood nearby some of the session campaigners are working out their next moves and the mood isn't celebrated. this man says the movement is losing momentum because the regional government is spending a weekend doing little while the madrid government makes all the moves and he isn't alone we have plenty of confidence in our president. but it's very difficult

vice president at this very difficult for us to understand rights in their own mind most of the campaigners here say they're prepared to defend public buildings if the police try to arrest politicians with institutions all returning to work on monday their plans could soon be put to the test andrew simmons al-jazeera barcelona. also to come here and i just. don't think. that message for the u.s. president is the head of the nuclear watchdog visits iran. and from the cabinet we examine the new growth industry and the lebanese that are in that state.

bit wet and windy weather on its way across the eastern med to the levant at the moment the most active stuff from satellite is up over turkey heading towards the caucasus but ahead of it the winds already picking up and focus for us were knocking temperatures back to the low twenty's the cloud will pick up you know if i was forced to run in passing shots which may well get as far north as the far north of iraq in the next day or so but mostly concentrated and i'm still north twenty don degrees is the forecast in baghdad but got to get to choose day for that thirty two down in kuwait has been a bit of a drop but two rounds was to see the sunshine throughout iraq which is still true throughout the arabian peninsula the temperatures still low to mid thirty's on this side low to high thirty's further west but nothing hitting forty you'll notice but an onshore breeze in miami's increase humidity in salalah maybe a bit more cloud even the potential for a shower running off the horn of africa is a facet of yemen but most of the rain africa is concentrated still in the tropics

and that's curling dion's here i'm going to botswana it's tailed off and eastern side of south africa and mozambique where recently we've seen wet weather but in two days it'll be ready to speaking dry and warm. in the most heavily country in the world if there's any country that would be experiencing p.t.s.d. it would be a nation that's been at war for for generations al-jazeera externals the reason those drones are there is to assist the innocent civilians they exist in even they're not firing is them frightening because any moment think i'm living the dream. this time al-jazeera.

welcome back a quick reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera. told a u.s. television program sixty minutes of the country's behind the gulf crisis want regime change this country's been living under a blockade for almost five months after a four hour countries cut ties in june he says he never saw it coming. the president of the kurdish regional government in iraq is stepping down. was the driving force behind last month's referendum to secede from iraq voted to distribute his powers between itself the government and the. thousands of people have rallied in basle of spain to stay united is the biggest show of force yet from the so-called silent majority who don't support independence but some are even

arrest. kenya's opposition leader has branded the presidential election a rerun man called for a new poll within ninety days. church leaders and supporters in the capital as a country remains in political limbo but the poll was marred by violence and a low turnout of just forty three percent of the dough has more from nairobi. there's little doubt president two who headed for lunch when after thousands election was boycotted by the opposition but his shrunken electron monday. time out continues to tarnish the credibility of a process. opposition leader leading the company to describe it. i think. is a bizarre it is. i think elections.

in the turnout. from. kim. we said. three point five million people. but it printed in the so called addiction. custody. i was on the bottle of and boy has declared that he will play no part in the run up to the repeat tell action but didn't get demand of the electoral commission make reforms that he believed necessary to avoid previous mistakes that did not happen the election commission has promised for now so one voltage will take place in twenty five constituencies and was then kenya where security fears and violence prevented polling from taking place with voting incomplete it's unclear whether the

commission would wait or declare victory. it's violence between cannot time rain a supposed is the cosmos kenyans consigned in nairobi scalding water still some members of canal to. stand over the remains of their houses and shops of time i took clashes with the biggest supporters. both sides were armed with machetes my voice and other crude weapons what's taught that the violence is disputed with each side blaming the other yet wolf like knowledge the thing is it's a place it's bought kenya's deputy president says they're willing to hold conditional talks with the opposition we cannot engage in any discussion outside the negro or from work on the constitutional provisions that fix to change these or that we believe in danger to our country. police also accused of brutality and killings in opposition strongholds in the couple and was then kenya.

go to nose brother paul was shot and killed in mother's slums in nairobi yes. but how many plain jane lynch now. i mean my parents well you know in this study is the news that by the indian batting the child and then he's a very marked thing. crisis is a two thousand and seven boat sparked months of post-election violence that left one thousand one hundred people that mohammad it all just became. somalia's police and intelligence chiefs have been sacked after two suicide bomb attacks in mogadishu at least twenty seven people died in saturday's attack which has been claimed by the armed group al-shabaab most of those killed were security forces it's the second attack in the capital in just two weeks the head of the international atomic energy agency says iran is complying with the twenty fifty nuclear deal and so should everyone else who was visiting iran for the first time

since the us president told congress it wasn't complying with the agreement saying bizarre the reports from. what would have been a routine visit by the head of the international atomic energy agency has taken on added significance. i am very happy. yukiya amano put a positive face on proceedings but the stakes are high it's his first trip since president donald trump told the u.s. congress iran is not complying with the terms of the nuclear deal or the joint comprehensive plan of action a claim a minor made clear is not true as of today i can state that you can get commitment did it commitments made by iran under way being implemented and the message that seemed tailor made for the u.s. president the most important thing is to be optional. i think always. since i became the director general of the day sometimes i had to report the bad

news but i also reported good news. it is very important to stick to that role and i will continue to do so for iran's leaders among those visit was an opportunity to air their grievances. so far eight times a day has the least reported that state iran has met its commitments fully and addressing u.s. demands to inspect non-nuclear military facilities in iran journalists were told even talking about it was a waste of time many. military bases are not part of the deal so it's useless to talk about them the white house has said iran's development of a missile program is a threat to regional security and violates the spirit of the nuclear deal in a speech to parliament before meeting the i.a.e.a. chief iran's president hassan rouhani restated his country's commitment to its own defense. you know that we have built our building and will continue to

build missiles and this doesn't violate international law or the international resolution the pressure to keep the peace is now on european shoulders there are a lot of problems. that. having the deal is better being out of the. international community. sticks to the deal iranians will stick to the in as much as a model was doing its job this time his visit became a way. to any american officials that might be watching using the nuclear deal to pressure iran. puerto rico's power company says a three hundred million dollar deal to restore electricity to the island was not illegal even though it's being scrapped the contract between whitefish energy holdings and the bankrupt utility was canceled because there was no competitive bidding that seventy five percent of homes and businesses in the u.s.

territory are still without electricity after hurricane maria swept through last month thousands of people in from the mitsu online campaign to the streets the hash tags been used by millions of women worldwide to protest against sexual harassment it began in the wake of the harvey weinstein scandal a hollywood producer accused of sexual assault and rape has more from the french capital. the message has already gone viral on the internet in france women in paris sunday were making sure it was heard loud and clear on the streets as well. as paris meant as an everyday part of their lives and it has to stop because almost all women have experienced sexual aggression parise minutes either work are in their day to day life so the problem is huge there's no doubting that the problem

in this country and wrong paid for. through on june twenty. second some of. the younger generation have been born is a time where equality isn't rights already exist once you've earned that right then you can stop the struggle. how many of us have been bribed or sexually harassed all the women i know who've been harassed but didn't know that many women had been right. the gender equality minister. has set out plans for new laws including on the spot fines for catcalling. behavior public. and the french president emanuel macron has also acknowledged the scale of the issue in a television interview this month he said what adds insult to injury is the silence of the to boom too often women don't press charges because they don't dare to he said activists have set up a special mobile phone number for women being repeatedly press for their personal

contacts if the man doing the harrison rings it will get a text message back saying if a woman says no she means no. street terrorist meant makes up ten percent of the violence against women so this is a tool for them but to find a long term social solution we need the government to act only five percent of reported cases of harris mage reach court in france less than ten percent of those result in a conviction and four hundred thousand women have actually lost their jobs for reporting it david chaytor al jazeera. people who suffered under the soviet leader joseph stalin have been remembered at a ceremony in moscow hundreds of people took turns to read the names of some among the thousands executed under stalin's orders start and live the soviet union for twenty nine years until his death in one thousand nine hundred three lebanon's bekaa valley is notorious for its lucrative hashish industry but the needs of

tradesmen struggling as a result of the war in neighboring syria so some growers are now turning from cannabis to clerical cabernet as interest have now reports. cannabis is big business in lebanon according to the government bulis it trade is worth more than a billion dollars a year much of the crop is process that plants similar to this one to make his sheesh which is shipped across the middle east and around the world. but increasingly these fields are starting to disappear over the years the military has launched periodic crackdowns across the eastern because valley setting fire to plants and causing major losses for growers when she comes from a long line of cannabis cultivators he says despite the risks his family had often been able to make healthy profits but not anymore. we had to stop hashish cultivation because although it was lucrative and the environment here is excellent

for growing it was illegal we faced several challenges because we were small dealers and couldn't keep up with the big dealers who can export the has shisha brought one of the biggest issues facing the cannabis industry in recent years is their traditional smuggling routes through syria have been blocked because of the war tired of the uncertainty many farmers have turned to another crop to revive their fortunes grapes are making wine this vineyard was planted just a few years ago it produces grapes of such high quality that it is already being made into wine michelle who had been in the house she she destry for decades but gave it up to make wine says growing cabernet instead of cannabis was an easy choice. in the end we want to live with dignity and with a clear conscience rather than living with the fear of being fugitives that's why i was one of the first people to leave the drugs business because everyone here wants

to live a dignified and legal life and this winery was set up to allow small scale wine growers to work together as a cooperative it's part of attempts to help them crack the competitive lebanese market with their own vintages. january more than one hundred thousand bottles have been produced here which is still only a fraction of the eight million bottles of wine lebannon produces each year but with profits from grapevine cultivation started to surpass earnings from canada is growing there is little doubt there will soon be more wine then we'd hear. al-jazeera in lebanon. a quick reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera qatar's emir has told the u.s. television program sixty minutes that the countries behind the gulf crisis want regime

change his country's been living under a blockade almost five months after four arab countries cut ties in june he says he never saw it coming yes they one they want a regime change it's obvious history as well tells us teaches us that they tried to do that before and nine hundred ninety six after my father. became the emir you know bahrain's foreign minister is calling for qatar to be frozen out of the reason a bloc of the gulf cooperation council holligan ahmed al khalifa has tweeted that bahrain won't attend the upcoming g.c.c. summit unless cata meets the demands of bahrain and the three other nations the president of the kurdish regional government in iraq is stepping down. was the driving force behind last month's referendum to secede from iraq the parliament voted to distribute his powers but itself the government and the judiciary hundreds of thousands of people have rallied in barcelona to call for spain to stay united

is the biggest show of force yet from the so-called silent majority who don't support catalonia bid for independence some are even demanding the arrest of. somalia's police and intelligence chiefs have been sacked after two suicide bomb attacks in mogadishu at least twenty seven people died in saturday's attack which has been claimed by the group. most of those killed were security forces it's the second attack in the capital in two weeks kenya's main opposition leader raul odinga has called the presidential election a rerun sham he's demanding a new vote within ninety days the poll was marred by violence and a turnout of just forty three percent and puerto rico's power company says a three hundred million dollars deal to restore electricity to the island was not illegal even though it's being scrapped the contract between whitefish energy holdings and the bankrupt utility was cancelled because there was no competitive

bidding about seventy five percent of homes and businesses in the u.s. territory are still without electricity well those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after one thanks for watching. i'm counting the cost to know the region say more autonomy but who are the forces reshaping european politics china's new leadership the fact the economy plus why trade is that hong kong stock exchange is saying bye bye. can he look at this time. the battle against.