to fill his museum enough to break a guinness world record. with a story for every object has become an environmental activist uninspired. voice for the plot to. al-jazeera. saudi arabia says its defense system has intercepted a long range ballistic missile fired from yemen.

and though i'm watching al jazeera live from london also coming up deepening uncertainty in lebanon after the prime minister resigns during a trip to saudi arabia criticizing iran and saying he fears for his life. sucked collis bootable and i'll be reporting on why he drove his political leadership there in mourning. and more than a thousand people rally against the australian government's treatment of refugees mannus island. we begin with breaking news this hour from saudi arabia with the defense system with the defense ministry saying that it intercepted a missile at the airport which is thirty five kilometers northeast of riyadh hoofy rebels have also claim to a find

a long range ballistic missile that traveled five hundred kilometers over the border with saudi arabia a spokesman for the rebels told al jazeera that they launched a missile towards riyadh late on saturday so following that story but also some other news emerging from the country of the saudi prince. has been released from office now he was the saudi national guard minister in charge of a one hundred thousand strong force so that is another development that's just breaking let's get more on this story now with ian black who's a visiting senior fellow at the middle east center at the london school of economics he's also the former middle east editor at the guardian newspaper joins me now via skype so we're talking here about prince. and has been the national guard minister what does it mean what is the significance of him being released from office why is it happening now. well. they will be in the

family relationship we're very focused very much in saudi arabia looking at all the changes to be in that study the young crown prince comment in some time and of course that's a bit of delos the son of the late king abdullah so that would perhaps seem to fit into a pattern of the this rising young star very headline grabbing figure consolidating his position now is that something to do with the the reports of the missile hitting. riyadh it's not possible to say i guess little they will be to do with that because obviously the national guard minister in charge of the national guards really has some responsibility for defense defense issues on the other hand it may it may be too soon after that so we just don't know enough but there are clearly one of the most striking problems facing saudi arabia today is the war that is. where it's leading the coalition to try to restore the. president of yemen of

course that's been very much an issue which is over which the young crown prince has been criticized he was of course defense minister and began the campaign before being appointed crown prince this summer but it certainly underlines the quite volatile nature of what's happening in and around saudi arabia at this time the government is clearly trying to focus attention as it did just the other day with these ambitious plans for a new economic strategy vision twenty thirty and so on and the crown prince it is about a splinter of a wish to promote a moderate version of these learned that the war in in yemen next door is something that's not going to go away and certainly the myside attack is an unwelcome reminder that maybe that the removal of the. minister is linked to that as well yes and actually and just getting

a few more details coming into us now from the reuters news agency that saudi arabia has appointed new ministers for the national guard and also for economy and planning this according to state t.v. says the saudi state t.v. reporting this they're citing a royal the crazy so this looks as though there is a shift that goes beyond the national guard it looks more wide ranging than that and perhaps fits in with all the news we've had over this mega-city that that building as you say this is a a crown prince that is king to consolidate his control to what extent is it consistent with a very specific passon of behavior that we've seen on the part of the saudi crown prince well do you do any he really is a young man who is going places and is clearly in a hurry is attracting a lot a lot of attention and the object is that are coming to be associated with him words like in petra some people say reckless clearly

a very significant being made to promote him to burnish his image i mean the extraordinary performance you put in that the recent international investment conference in riyadh detracted less of attention across across the world underlining this quest for modernity and the changes that it will require it is quite striking if you look at a country which is generally speaking not easily accessible to foreign journalists it is causing an awful lot of attention and coverage and you feel the hand certainly of professional public relations people and so on in trying to promote that image i mean the least similarly we saw enormous attention when the news came through a few months ago of the decision to allow women in saudi arabia to drive something that had been very much. which part of the country's negative image so things are changing we see this young crown prince clearly again today trying to

consolidate power taking sudden decisions it's too early i think at this stage to read the the tea leaves of exactly what this means but it certainly fits a pattern what's missing in all this of course is amidst talk of economic reform to reduce the come kingdom's dependency on oil and elements of significant social change as well liberalization to some degree what we don't see is any sign of political change that will give ordinary saudis country of twenty million people any say directly in in their own country that hasn't happened yet so we've got another movement of ministers at the top which will doubtless be subject to much interpretation and that fits a rather old fashioned image of changes taking place without any kind of transparency it will be interesting to see if there's any explanation of what it

all means no that's right because we're talking about a system that is extremely a pagan we have to treat this information with caution and not speculate too much but you do make a crucial point that we are seeing a movement of ministers at the top and i suppose that does beg the question as to whether or not as these if these sort of changes continue whether that will translate into some sort of opposition at some point but of course that's one of the very important questions about it we have this on the one hand we have this degree of openness and accessibility and press conferences and dramatic announcement at the same time in recent months we've seen reports i think reliable reports of arrests a degree of repression of people who are criticizing the system not totally people who are considered to be conservative clerics from the established. and you may be unhappy with some of the changes but because as well that of that i think is the

missing piece of this fascinating story that is saudi arabia at the moment the emphasis on economic transformation is extraordinarily ambitious plans you know incident just the other day of the the futuristic mega city project neal on the on the gulf. on the red sea more more precisely. heralds potentially enormous changes in many many fields but at the top we still have these sort of mysterious and hard to understand moves which maybe didn't stick to do with internal rivalries and so on and so forth so there's a mismatch if you like between the level of ambition the scale of change that's being contemplated and the habits the political habits of what is still a closed and. closed system and lacking in very much transparency at all well thank you very much indeed for helping us put some of those pieces together on the

show we'll chat again saying now thank you. well in a shocking announcement earlier on lebanon's prime minister resigned saad hariri made the televised address from the saudi capital riyadh saying he was stepping down because he feared for his life in his statement however he also lashed out at iran and its lebanese ally hezbollah accusing both of destabilizing the region and reports now from beirut. it was an announcement you were expecting. i hereby announce my resignation as prime minister from the lebanese government known as the will of the lebanese is stronger and that determination is steadfast and will overcome any attempts to impose any custodianship over them from powers either inside or outside our country long live the people of lebanon so the whole reason resignation was made from the saudi capital riyadh in a televised address your so softly criticize hezbollah and its key backer you ron.

well how did i i would like to say to iran and its followers that they will be losers in their intervention in the arab a fast our nation will wake up as it did in the past and the hands in the region will be cut off really became prime minister in late two thousand and sixteen and a compromise deal under which michel own a political ally of hezbollah became president the agreement ended two and a half years of political deadlock it which the country was without a functioning government and while hariri surprise decision to quit raises more questions than answers it puts into focus the regional rivalries lebanon often finds itself at the center of the leading sunni politician is backed by saudi arabia while has bola lebanon's most powerful political social and armed movement is sponsored by iran despite the complex nature of lebanese politics the thirty member unity kept it appeared to be functioning up until now it's not cool by all measures and it's like an invitation for instability and put into that country

everybody was working for a program to rebuild the country economically politically we have an election there's a cohesion within the government there's agreement within the political party we've been working a beautifully and then a phone call will come and the whole calculus of. in the past five days how did he has made two separate visits to saudi arabia where he lived in self-imposed exile following the collapse of his last government there he met with crown prince mohammed bin some none who is known for his aggressive stance against iran u.s. president donald trump's administration is also pursuing tough policies on iran and its allies including recent sanctions on hezbollah his resignation comes as the war in neighboring syria appears to be entering a new phase the government of president bashar al assad which is backed by iran is increasing control over

a larger. arts of the devastated country and it's feared that tensions which have been simmering inside lebanon since the start of the war between hezbollah and israel and elsewhere could not only reemerge but has the potential of escalating into a major conflict. al-jazeera big three well into joins us live now from beirut. in an empty as it was it was a surprise move by the prime minister rafik hariri though there has been some time to digest the news now what are you hearing a what more have you heard about why he's chosen to resign and why now. that's right the speculation really running rampant not least because of the announcement of his resignation in which mr hariri said that he was resigning because of what he said was a threat that he learned to his life that there was an assassination plot against

him and that is why he was stepping down however we've been in touch with various intelligence agencies here and in lebanon and indeed the internal security services here in lebanon has put out it should be said it very carefully worded statement saying that they are not the source of that intelligence which mr hariri was referring to and perhaps more specifically that they also do not have that intelligence i do need to say it was a very carefully worded statement but it really does sort of put cold water on at least what on the surface anyways mr hariri would say why he stepped down but it's what he said in the rest of that statement which is getting a lot of attention and that is that blistering attack against hezbollah and perhaps more specifically iran with many people here especially those who are critical of mr hariri and indeed his backers in this case saudi arabia saying that this is a decision made by saudi arabia that mr hariri was just simply following their

orders i already a very fragile situation in lebanon how much concern is there about the impact this will have on the country. indeed there's a lot of concern here that this could lead to violence and again we just need to pay a bit more attention to this statement made by saad hariri this statement in which he said that the climate's or the atmosphere in lebanon was similar to that of the climate before his father. was killed in two thousand and five in that devastated car bombing and what we of course remember is after that car bombing there was a series of assassinations in lebanon so many are fearing that this could be the start of major instability here in lebanon whether that is in the form of this as the nation's or any other escalation of violence remains to be seen but as we've been saying there are lots of simmering tensions here in lebanon of course the war

in syria is a huge issue lebanon has worked very hard to prevent any major spillovers but those simmering tensions whether it's israel to the south and indeed these geo political or regional issues at least with saudi arabia or between saudi arabia and iran there is concern that things could go very bad very quickly here thank you very much indeed with all the latest from the lebanese capital well they must draw these entire on for us and has more on how the iranian government is reacting to how every resignation and criticism. hours after the resignation of lebanese prime minister saad hariri in which he criticized iran for its involvement in his country and in the region iran's foreign ministry spokesman bear her own cause to me rejected those allegations and said that the sudden resignation by the lebanese prime minister was both regretful and came as a surprise to teheran accost me also commented on the optics of the resignation

saying the fact that hariri resigned outside of the country in a hasty manner in saudi arabia were all signs that he was surrounded by parties that did not have lebanon's best interests at the tops of their agendas nor the best interests of the region the wider middle east at the tops of their agendas he pointed a finger at iran's usual suspects united states saudi arabia and israel and he said that these countries have come together in designed this situation to create a destabilizing event not only in lebanon but something that was designed to escalate tensions in the region and lawmakers here in iran are already looking forward and encouraging their lebanese counterparts to do the same saying to them that in the future if there are any problems to resolve do so through dialogue and not conflict watching out as they are still to come president and box on a five nation tour of asia presenting a united front against north korea. and don't deploy the family of a ten year old mexican girl a cerebral palsy the u.s.

government to day. syria's government and its allies have launched a military assault to push the last strip of land it controls in syria russian jets been pounding the city of qom on the syria iraq border and that there is ill countryside six members of the same family were killed after residential areas were hit syrian army's elite forces iran backed shia militia and hezbollah fighters are all leading the operation on the ground on. right day i still was pushed out of there as all city groups last major urban stronghold in the country asher bar is tracking those developments from gaziantep on the turkey syria border. the military campaign to take over a book come out is under way the russians are pounding i still positions inside the tunnel but will come out and the syrian army is standing we will force them and as

an elite unit which is going to engage with i still know civilians are concerned about their safety as i said of dozens of people were killed during those strikes i said that was left with very few options if it decides to fly there's absolutely no way they can cope with vastly superior army the syrian army which is backed by russia and this is at this time what we're going to see is basically the syrian army coming from the is the turkish as the iraqi army is coming from the south they will coordinate their military push to try to drive iso out from their last pockets in syria. back in his hometown push him on supporters say they agree with his decision to stay in belgium while others are not so convinced. this as a city celebrates its annual fiesta under simmons has more now on this. tradition is colliding with politics in general the city's annual festival has gone

ahead despite attempts to call. your own a province is the heartland of procession politics the home of carlos. despite appearances people say no one here is really happy. all my family. and they don't understand exactly what is happening out here. right. but i think it's very difficult in the old city many balconies make a political statement the spanish national flag represents the minority. city councillors say they're in mourning over the jailing of eight sacked cabinet ministers in the unusual just black drapes are laid on the front of city hall on

the flags above or at half mast the european union the catalan regional city floods the spanish national flag was removed once a session was declared more than a week ago. and the man says she supports pleased being in belgium. in the pick them and i fully understand why president puts them on is seeking european protection especially after seeing what has happened to the rest of the government ministers we can't have a situation where we have political prisoners and i think it's ok that he protects himself and he makes our conflict more visible internationally the weeklong first of all was supposed to end with a firework display but that's now being cancelled organizers who had to consider cutting out other parts of the shed you chose to focus on events aimed at children in catalonia culture tradition and politics have always gone hand in hand the

children may be having fun watch by their parents but this year's festival takes place against the backdrop of a long good increasingly bitter struggle for secession andrew simmons al-jazeera. we just want to recap some breaking news we're following very closely this hour saudi add offense saying that it intercepted a missile at the king holiday international airport near the capital riyadh you see rebels have also came to a fired a long range ballistic missile that traveled five hundred kilometers over the border with saudi arabia a spokesman for the rebels told al jazeera that they launched a burkhead to missile towards riyadh late on saturday well all of this as saudi arabia has appointed new ministers for the national guard but also for the economy and for planning so for more or less i'm joined by am black. sitting senior fellow middle east center at the london school of economics and so ian details are still coming through on the precise nature of these changes but it definitely looks as

though something that could be quite wide ranging affecting a number of portfolios all ministries national guard economy and planning is what we have so far what might be the rationale behind this move. well i mean we really are speculating of the moment because this news is only just coming out but i think it clearly it fits a pattern of accelerated change in saudi arabia which we all go surprisingly accustomed to this is a country where things are really quite paid sometimes even mysterious but in recent weeks and months we've had increasingly close attention paid to it generating headlines every so often only last week we had the announcement of this incredible very ambitious make a project. on the red sea coast this futuristic city going to cost five hundred billion dollars with all sorts of implications economic social we've

seen since june of this year very far reaching changes that of course was when mohamed been sort of. the younger son of king someone was appointed crown prince and that itself was a dramatic move of course he replaced the previous crown prince mohammed bin nayef who was very much considered to be in line as he formally was for the succession so since been some became the crown prince in june we've seen a lot of upheaval we've seen the announcement of this very and shifts strategic plan to to to transform the saudi economy vision twenty thirty that's to wean the economy saudi arabia people need to remember is the world's largest oil producer the arab world's largest oil producer to wean yourself loyal to diversify the economy and to bring about suddenly social change as well we all heard of

course the dramatic decision to allow women in saudi arabia to drive which they previously were not allowed to do this is a country where lots of things. happening we've seen been so. try to consolidate his position not in a particularly modern way was in a rather old fashioned and dineh stick way of appointing important relatives cousins in particular to key roles so it's hard to interpret at this stage these latest announcements the national guard position. dollar is obviously very significant in terms of national security is that linked to the dramatic story of the ballistic missile hitting riyadh we know you have the impression that it probably is not connected because it's being announced as part of a bundle of of changes at the top on the economy. there

is very intense attention being paid to the saudi economy and these dramatic and ambitious plans at the moment we've had donald trump the u.s. president appealing to the saudis to do list or run care of the national oil company the new york stock exchange the stakes are very very high what's fascinating is that while all this is going on there's a lot of. public relations going on to a lot of a lot of spin access to journalist access for for him through an scholefield goes an international business men in particular the the heart of what happens in saudi arabia the heart of the system remains opaque it's not transparent and that is the strange strange situation where we're in where lots of things are happening new. novelties happening almost daily and yet our understanding of the place is still fairly limited so it'll take a little time for people who follow things closely as

a sort of criminal in crime no not to call aspect to understanding saudi arabia still through all this mission to be be to. so we will have to wait and see what these changes mean that they're actually in she areas and they certainly are the now familiar step of the decisions of this patient and ambitious young crown prince who will of course one day be king of this country. and you you mentioned how the opaque system of governance and of course we know that the saudi royal family has always governed with the support of clerics and the emphasis has always been on slow change a very gradual reform in the kingdom now we've had a series of decisions that are being made as you say exaggerated change things that are coming quite suddenly how my conservative elements of the ruling establishment

see this. well that is a very important question we know that in the background in recent times of the more than a few months under. the law talking about the the reign of king saddam and although he's now an elderly man he's eighty two and in call health but we've seen signs not just in the last few months we've seen the the famous the saudi religious police as we call them in english they've had their powers restricted we've seen the move as we've discussed already to allow women to drive we haven't seen in public at least much in the way of significant opposition to this though there have been people who have been arrested that not always being explained some of them apparently are from the conservative bent of the clerical establishment but that is an important question and it's particularly important i think when it comes to the social aspects of all these changes that are being contemplated. you know another

recent decision is to allow women to to go to public stadiums to watch sports events and so on there's a lot of talk about the need for entertainment for young people saudi arabia we need to remember is a country where seventy percent of the population are under thirty and are keen to have more normal lives in a way that we all use social media that i think twitter in saudi arabia is the i think is the biggest per capita user of twitter and other social media in the entire world and again that jars with the image we have of this conservative kingdom with its the importance of sharia law capital punishment and these are all new present powerful clerics so there's a definite sense that things are changing that significant things are moving in less than six months since bin suddenly became crown prince but we still. you have

this problem of not really having a clear understanding of what happens at the heart of the system which remains as you know it is on unaccountable in a sense as it said again despite these dramatic ambitions for changing the future. thank you in fan out thank you very much for putting all of that into context for us will definitely continue to look at this story some more but also other stories to tell you about this hour an ancient croft gets a modern make over we'll tell you how artisans are trying to save china's self-employed retrains. and the mystery of russia's dad seals scientists are also after dozens washed up on the shores of a siberian like showing no sign of injury or disease.

welcome back now the weather across europe is shaping up require interest in next twenty four hours he said there is roughly quite under high pressure but we've got an area of low pressure developing in the gulf of genoa i'm not going to be pushing through friendship into more northern parts of italy through into the alps so we're going to see some very heavy snow for somebody severe storms moving through this whole area behind it some cold air pushing down from the northwest so temperatures really struggling for london paris and to double figures that low pressure continue to push little bit further towards the east over following twenty four hours but still a very unsettled spell of weather with heavy rain extending across parts of the balkans too now as we head across the other side of the mediterranean we've got some cloud pushing across coastal parts of algeria and tunis is a risk of one or two showers here otherwise weather conditions largely find that there is a chance the old show on the coast of both egypt and eastern parts of libya car

they're looking at temperatures very comfortably into the. mid twenty's are present conditions into central africa heavy showers for congo towards gabon so liberal could be quite what a times further towards the west we've got a scattering of showers and i crank on a could see wanted to hear thirty. sixty seven words that spelled promise one people but ended up a disaster for another. that led to the establishment of a jewish homeland at the expense of the palestinians one hundred years on al-jazeera world tells the story of the british declaration that changed the middle east for seeds of discord at this time. to be a child is to be innocent and carefree but it comes to an abrupt end with the burden

of young children. with a mother behind bars for siblings misspend for each other and decide whether to stick together. with the family in the hope of a chance across the us mexico border the other side of the. documentary at this time. i'm back watching on just there a quick look at the stories making headlines now saudi arabia says it's a defense system as intercepted a long range ballistic missile fired from.