than sharon that's the case too across the greater antilles as we go on through sas day a similar page we just wanted to shout was heading towards the dominican republic america generally try a few showers there into nicaragua costa rica but for the most part again the fine dry and sunny dry sunny to into central parts of the us not a little system just making its way across the rockies that will make its way further east with us live snow. the weather sponsored by cattle and nice. this is live from doha with ongoing coverage of a developing situation in the southwest of france where a man claiming allegiance to eyesore has taken people hostage at

a supermarket in the town of to. caucus on this incident began several hours earlier at ten thirty in the morning when a man shot at a group of police who were out jogging is reported claimed allegiance to i saw as we say we think it's the same man who were a couple of miles away then took hostages at a supermarket in the town's mayor telling french media that two people have been shot at that supermarket there are reports quoting the french interior ministry is saying that two people died early as we said in nearby caucus on a policeman was wounded after being shot by the same man france's prime minister has called the incident an act of terrorism. with the most fearful to the beach at ten thirty am he kept us on an armed man went towards four security officers one of

them was wounded his condition is not life threatening then at kneecap us on hostages have been taken police would quickly deploy to the scene of the operation is still going on anti terror unit of the paris prosecutor's office has been engaged to open an investigation all the information we have at the moment leads us to believe that this is an act of terrorism well it was the french prime minister as far as the french president is concerned we're waiting for him to address the media in brussels where he's attending the e.u. summit he was due to begin a media briefing around thirty minutes ago. as you can understand possibly the situation in twelve is a pretty fluid situation he's being briefed as we speak possibly and will eventually come out and speak to the media and we'll take that live as and when he does hear here on al-jazeera in the meantime let's bring it out zero's paul brennan who's in paris and has been following developments in the southwest of france paul

what do we know. yeah i think what we heard from edward philippe still stands in the sense that the police are very much treating this as a terrorist act but the statement made by edward phillipe the prime minister was about an hour and a half ago before he departed from eastern france where he was on a prime ministerial visit he's now coming back to paris and some of the numbers in his statement are starting to change a little bit we're hearing from the interior ministry now that two people have been killed at the supermarket and that three people have been wounded we're not clear whether those three people are all at the supermarket or whether that figure of three includes the c r s riot police officer who was wounded earlier in the. knology of the incident in caucus on and if i remind the viewers that what we have

here is a two locations in effect first of all cock a song where a group of four police officers out jogging shot out by a man in a car one officer was wounded the gunman in the car then left the scene in that vehicle and it appears that the same vehicle went to the super supermarket in tab it's about eight kilometers six miles away where he started to shoot at shoppers civilians that went inside hostage situation developed it appears that the only person left inside the supermarket with that gunman at the moment is a police officer a local police officer all of the civilians appear to have been evacuated or have escaped and what are what i can tell you about unconfirmed local media reports is that the gunman is being named local it's not named but identified locally as a thirty year old moroccan man and the local media at least saying that his mother

is down at the scene of that supermarket in tribe perhaps trying to persuade him to give himself up but the situation is fluid and ongoing we're waiting to hear what the french president has to say in brussels he was due to give a news conference at twelve thirty that was a shared jeweled news conference most likely about issues relating to breakfast and on the european union it's been overtaken somewhat by the events down in the southwest of france is no doubt being brought up to speed very rapidly by his security advisers and rapidly scrubbing out and rewriting large sections of the address that he was due to give to the media there but yeah we're expecting to hear from a moment emanuel not gone very soon indeed i pull for the moment in many things before we move on to work to to look at what else is happening in the world what we will of course keep our eye on the developments in the southwest of france and we'll take. that that. briefing from. when it gets underway let's speak to

an a.b.a. agree to who we spoke to a little earlier who's a security and political risk consultant he's on the line right now the managing director of global stress consultancy. good to have you with us once again what's your take on this situation. come out of new facts. are showing that. this war's most likely you know we're. all missing terrorist. reported that. he's on friends terror watch list is very well known for security services. and he's one who was one of the first and he said. join the jihad in syria the second thing he. asked for the release.

only jihad is a lie from the november. jail in france. the connection with. them with the. release of. this this was a spur of the movement this was something that was much more prepared in the long run than this will have. to come to light. how much he was. first and then. placed in simple minded and. all this is still unclear all right. what do you make then i mean he's obviously. from what we're hearing he's he's a man who is known to the police a local man of tunis in origin the reports are that his mother is down there at the supermarket trying to to help bring this situation to an end how it creates

a sense you give these these claims that he apparently in the earlier incident in caucus on pledged allegiance to eisele. terms of what we've seen i mean this is. likely to go on office because. when i just think in terms of. not. being. right in the beginning of the. war to join jihadists there and then putting the really. jihadists out of just all are. really going to confirm the the suggestion that. one way or another.

the fact that it's been quite a while since we've had any kind of incidents like this or people anything that links to isolate in france is it is that indicative of a security failure in france or or is it indicative that perhaps the security state services have been doing a good job lately. if you if you look at it that been doing a good job just last year there were twenty or distract in france including spending the last two months of the year and so far this year they have only two blocks what i think is. the fact that you know it didn't happen you know i didn't believe that we would expect an attack like barriers or so much. but really in montreal provincial town where. security is not. exactly yet been level it is in the region lost it is but having said that you know

somebody coming with a gun and shooting out of police officer could have been anywhere barry so well you don't need but the fact that this first target was. believed in it's quite telling on what. islam. other jihadists targeted and in the west in the back a few years all right living a good talk to many thanks indeed for the v.a. . a security expert on the line. out just to correct something i said earlier on the suspect in the cab incident and the only a caucus on incident is a moroccan origin and as i said just to remind you that a man claiming allegiance to isolate taken people hostages in hostage in southern france at a supermarket which the french prime minister has described as an act of terrorism the reports of at least two deaths and three injuries it's an ongoing situation we

will keep monitoring it here to syria we're expecting president emmanuel microamp to give a statement on the incident from brussels where he's at the e.u. summit will take that live here at al-jazeera and if there are any developments to report on this ongoing incident will be will be straight back. to you with them so stay tuned in the meantime we're going to move on and take a look at what else is happening in the world right now and this rather a lot to work to get through there's been a major shift in the foreign policy agenda of the white house donald trump has introduced a new point man on national security masses in the said goodbye to the man that he's going to replace the u.s. president tweeted i am pleased to announce that effective ninth a pro john bolton will be my new national security adviser i'm very thankful for the service of general h. l. mcmaster has done an outstanding job and will always remain my friend will jump

bolton brings with him past experience and i think it's fair to say a lot of criticism to potential canape reports. john bolton has worked for three republican presidents and caused controversy even among members of his own party now he joins a trumpet ministration apparently in turmoil analysts say bolton is a hard liner and donald trump is sending a very clear message by choosing him instead of a more moderate voice mr bolton didn't see a war that he didn't like you know when he was at the united nations as an acting ambassador there because he couldn't get confirmed by the senate he said you know diplomacy is useless it can might as well float out into the sea and sink i think what we can see is an escalation of tensions bolton has a history of imposing american military might he advocated the invasion of iraq in two thousand and three while ambassador to the u.n.

he took a hard line against north korea and iran by pushing saying. the united states has followed a policy for over four years sensually of deferring to european efforts to negotiate with iran i think it's clear that that policy has failed the season politicians return to the front line of foreign policy gives him an opportunity to shape the president's views on north korea and iran at a critical moment trump has spoken of wanting to rip up the iranian nuclear accord and he's due for a much anticipated meeting with north korean leader kim jong un in may the talks with north korea go poorly trump a walk out and say you know that don't really get us anything undone john bolton and i say look i told you we should strike north korea john bones but on the record he said twice in less six months u.s. should attack north korea even within trump's inner circle there's disagreement about whether bolton is the right man for the national security job is ideology is

thought to be aligned with his boss he's already tried to ease fears that he pushed the united states into another conflict saying he will be one voice among many who are advising the president and there should be a free exchange of ideas as an ever growing number of trumps right hand men and women have learned bolton's biggest challenge may be keeping the continued faith of president trump and his job natasha going to eight zero zero zero s. live out of washington i was there as white house correspondent kimberly how could this with the despite all the denials kimberly from the president's spokesman concerning a mosque has a future it seems that that when the media will write a list peculation was right what do you make of it. this is how this this white house operates you know they'll deny deny deny and then oh look we just decided this that the thelma standard playbook i think what we really need to focus here on right now is just the departure and how different these two national security

advisors are there's always going to be drama in this white house this is their reality t.v. show president and that's just how these announcements are made so i have to admit i'm not really surprised anymore but i am surprised i think a lot of americans are surprised at how this sort of cabinet is shaping up in terms of starting to look very much like a war cabinet when you look at the sort of two different approaches of h.r. mcmaster versus john bolton they couldn't be more different you know h.r. mcmaster as national security advisor is very much a moderating force he favored the iran deal he favored commitments to nato allies and even pushing back against russia john bolton sees the exact opposite on all of those he's dismissive of international diplomacy when he was an ambassador at the united nations he sort of mocked openly that body that international body as natasha pointed out in her package there he's called for the bombing of iran north korea he's known as an aggressive thinker and i think that's what's making many

people not just in diplomatic circles but here in the united states very nervous that he could in fact be leaving the united states to some sort of war but the president well known for not taking the advice of his advisors. even though there are perhaps more similarities in view between the president and john bolton they don't c.r.y. on everything do that. and that goes back to your first question adrian in terms of why there was so much denial and then why this announcement was so abruptly made and it comes to that point you're asking about right now is that it seems there was some negotiation back and forth i'm told from some of my sources here at the white house that because john bolton is known as being so aggressive on issues like north korea on issues like iran there was a bit of an understanding that had to be come to between the two men in terms of who is the decider here donald trump very much wanted to make it clear to john

bolton that he would value his input opinions but at the end of the day donald trump would be the one deciding also sometimes making people very nervous this really comes down to what we're seeing is a further right leaning cabinet we've got now not only john bolton but we have the cia director mike pompei a hard line conservative now being pushed forward to be the secretary of state again it is making many nervous in the united states around the world in terms of how trunk doctrine is shaped moving forward many thanks white house correspondent because. in washington what iran and north korea are not the only targets of both can top line views of the nine hundred ninety four panel discussion he took critical of the united nations here's what he have to say the united states makes the u.n. work when it wants to work and that is exactly the way it could be because the only question the only question united states is what's in our national interest and if you don't like that i'm sorry the point that i want to leave with you in this very

greek reason patients is where i start is there is no united nations. there is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world that's the united states when it suits their interests. and when we can get others to go along with kerry building in new york has thirty eight stories if you long can story today it would make the difference it's kind of mindless. creation of the united nations and something different in the united states' interest to do anything to sell here or anywhere else that's got the considered opinion of al-jazeera senior political analyst now and bashara joins us live from from london and i would have to say listening to that john bolton's got a point has made well you know there are two trends in american policy

have always been since second world war one is that america is the indispensable nation that the world needs america more than america needs the world and that if america pulls out of the world not only will the american established liberal alder would break down but the whole world would hence america needs to stay engaged but also america needs to lead because no one else can lead and that's why this whole issue of multilateralism of the whole issue of multipolar world is not really accepted by the likes of john bolton who really insists that there is only one nation able to lead and that is the united states itself and that sense you could say there is an established point of view and it's in that sense defend defensible in us fight as both of us concerned the record however shows or the record perhaps is mixed when it comes to that because during those very same years when he was in

the bush administrations we've seen what the american leadership meant in terms of the war against iraq in terms of taking international law into its own hands and in terms of the absolute war crime disaster that came to be known the war in iraq. so this is what can really help it was saying a few moments ago moments he's talking about. a great an ease about about having john bolton as national security advisor i mean. who is it good for who's who is it bad for. you know i just finished. general mcmasters book their election of judy still bad i think over that too late but be that as it may look there's two things to be distinguished i think two essential things not about moderations and radicalism and so on so forth but there are too many things in a so far as the administration is concerned for a long time mcmaster in his critique of the vietnam war and in american policy

towards war in general have said that the division of labor between civilians or politicians on the one hand and generals on the other hand was not so good in fact it was not in favorable to winning wars and hence to vietnam and to some degree iraq and in a sense he says basically it's not the generals that going to be interested with war it's the politicians that couldn't be interested wars and i think when he says that he has the people like. bolton in mind or trump in mind or pompei or in mind the likes of mcmaster don't trust it illogical politicians to go to war and hence i think moving forward perhaps is commission against iran would prove mcmaster to be right the second point which is not exactly in the same lines but it has to do with running the administration bolton is known to be a kiss up kick down kind of

a politician he just continues and he kisses up and he did that throughout his career interestingly. just the last few weeks we've seen john bolton make a hundred and eighty degrees change dramatic change on north korea during the obama administration john bolton criticized attacked obama for willingness to talk to north korea two weeks ago he praised donald trump for one thing to talk to north korean leader unconditionally so you can see that he is more than willing to walk along with trump because trump is the boss and basically kiss up in our fight as he can in order to become national security adviser read more americans thoughts that wouldn't do i'm sorry i'm sorry to interrupt you read more of moments thoughts at al jazeera dot com that's a senior political analyst known bashara in leather goods to two moment. let's get

back to our top story this hour the hostage situation playing out currently in southwestern france we're still waiting on the france president about. to were to give a press briefing in brussels where he's attending the european union summit that press conference was begin it was due to begin getting on for an hour ago now obviously the developing situation in the cab in southwestern france meaning the president is being brought up to speed on all the details we're waiting for his statement will take that live as and when it begins here on al-jazeera in the meantime let's speak to julian throne who we spoke to by phone a while back he's a political scientist and analyst who specializes international security it. sensitizes pro university joins us now live from paris good to see you at this time julian your thoughts first of all on this this incident now we know a little bit more about what has happened and who the hostage taker might be.

yes apparently at least that's what they host of state that claims but to a i say it's actually at least according to his political aims because he spoke about defunding brothers in syria and also claiming to free. was one of the remaining characters. of the terrorists attackers in november two thousand and fifteen addressing the but i cannot talks against cafes where people were sitting so apparently the man claims to be linked to isis but we don't have any specific claim from isis itself. even though in the past when the person claimed it usually it arrived rather true or not but it arrived. how julian just as we know it might be full today so

i just wanted to ask you credible the claims are of a link to i saw here this was a man of moroccan origin but lived in southwestern france we hear that his mother is is trying to help the with the negotiations to bring the situation to an end he was perhaps known to police is this is this war a man who perhaps drew inspiration from the ideology of beisel rather than having direct links or whether whether he was ordered to carry out this attack by. obviously the american population living in france is pretty much integrated in the country but it is reported to. be our internal services would have said that it was one of the first jihadi candidates to

go into syria a it's reported that he was known by there into a secret service is. yes it might be not pretty. recent affiliation to jihad the ideology indeed ok julian good to talk to you many thanks indeed for being with us juliette there on there. in paris now just before we leave that story and move on to what to another with some of. the. reuters news agency reporting that quoting a french police union official saying that the attack that the hostage taker. had to had killed someone else before taking someone hostage and we know that he shot and wounded a policeman but the roses use agency quoting this this french police union saying that he'd also killed someone by by shooting them in the head in caucus on before taking hostages in tab two cities of about twenty minutes drive from

one another as if we can't confirm that here at al-jazeera this is the reuters news agency quoting a french police union we're keeping across this developing story will bring you any more news as and when we get it here at out of syria in the meantime let's move on syrian state television is reporting that rebels have agreed to surrender in a second area in eastern the area was one of three parts controlled by rebels but fighters in. surrendered on thursday with a cease fire deal took place in a bin and i did do about further north a tentative cease fire early this month. broken. joins us now with the latest live from beirut tell us about this this latest ceasefire deal say. well the syrian state media confirming that a deal has been reached between the russian military and the. rebel faction we know

that the two sides were close to finalizing the deal that is why a cease fire has been in place in this southern pocket because eastern with us now divided into three different pockets now this is not going to be the first deal of its kind in eastern huta two days ago i found out a sham that is now another rebel faction agreeing to surrender harass the town of harasta from where people and fighters and their family members are being bussed to adlib to the northwestern province of. man agreeing to surrender those southern towns what we understand is up to seven thousand people among them fighters of course will be bussed out starting tomorrow morning nine am local time so two rebel factions now agreeing to this evacuation deal which of course amounts to a surrender but in the northern pocket of still holding out. there is no ceasefire here the pro-government alliances bombing dubai into submission the densely populated town to the north or pockets of the now divided

east or who to and claim is controlled by the rebel faction. the russian military and the syrian government want the rebels to surrender negotiations have stalled. duma in particular demonstrate that there is still ongoing very active and violent history is and people continue to be disgraced there's really no safe place in a lot of these areas that was reported that they've been sheltering in underground shelters in basements that even have not been able to be limited from the violence syrians who aren't afraid to go to government controlled territory have been streaming out. for days numbers vary but syrian state media says they are leaving the besieged town in their thousands passing through the government checkpoint that . hundreds remain trapped in duma particularly those who fear arrest or even execution because of their role in the opposition they are demanding an

internationally monitored safe passage to other rebel held areas. those people are wanted by the state for opposition related activities they include medical activists civil defense volunteers and medics the united nations says there are one thousand humanitarian and medical workers who are trapped in eastern with their families who fear for their future the government calls them terrorists accusing them of hiding behind humanitarian work. the syrian army and its allies have recaptured most of the rebel controlled enclave in what has been one of the fiercest bombing campaigns in the past seven years the remaining towns in the southern part of the enclave are controlled by five men that rebel faction is finalizing what amounts to a surrender deal with the russian military it says it wants to end the suffering of the people at whatever cost. that cost involved leaving their lives and homes behind. several thousand are being bussed from a town once controlled by

a sham fighters who are now along with their families on their way to the rebel held province in the northwest it has become a place where rebels who agreed to hand over territory to the government are sent and more often than not civilians accompany them but it isn't safe it too is a target for the care of its armed forces which are vowing to recapture the whole country will likely mentioned it live is not safe in the past few days dozens of civilians were killed in multiple attacks targeting different towns across that province so many six days out of their lives in beirut. twenty three british diplomats are being expelled from russia they were told to leave in retaliation for the u.k.'s expulsion of the same number of russian diplomats following the poisoning of a russian double agent has accused the kremlin of being behind the talks of the attack on script at his torso in england earlier this month let's get reaction from

both europe and from moscow will be with bobby phillips who's in brussels where the european union's for call it's on basta to russia in just a moment but first in moscow so twenty three british diplomats on their way back to london. yeah i think we just saw the pictures there didn't we a few hours ago the gates of the british embassy here in moscow opened and out came first a range rover with diplomatic number plates and then four minivans in those minivans were twenty three diplomats and their families most probably will never i think return to moscow they were cheered off by their colleagues who were left behind it's been times a snowy very cold day in moscow it's fitting weather i think for their exit because the temperature of u.k. russia relations is day by day and this is another mark in that deterioration

what's been the reaction if any rory to news that the e.u. is going to recall back from moscow. well i think as far as i understand this is a temporary recall basically the ambassador is being brought back to brussels for consultations the ambassador may or may not then return to moscow i suspect that the u.n. ambassador probably will but this basically is being viewed in moscow at least articulated in moscow as the u.k. managing the poll its european allies into a kind of and the russian campaign a campaign of hysteria. russia has been trying over the last couple of weeks to carefully cure rate this message of itself as the as the victim here basically

whatever happened in solsbury days ago was an assault on russia or essentially russian people in a foreign country and that russia has continued to be maligned by iran sorry i'm sorry to interrupt you rory but we're going to take you live now to what to brussels where france's president of money is giving a press briefing after that incident in southwest of france let's listen in an order the short armory into the. very quickly and. the at a time i want to see all rests with victims first of all i'd like to assure my support to all those who had to confront and are confronting this situation i will not give any official account the prosecutor of paris will provide as soon as possible all the elements related to the start of this inquiry he has already

but if you don't refer the case to the. prosecution paris and the magistrates are on site i'd like to ensure the inhabitant of travel the mobilization of the forces of law and order who are securing the premises. thirteen. person is being held i've just spoken to the minister of the interior who's coming on site and the prime minister's interrupted his travels and he's in paris or in a few hours time i shall be in paris to follow the events and the measures that need to be taken over the last two days we've had a meeting with the chancellor that we are able to hold this press conference together this joint press conference once again and the joint work has been

important over the last two days and was allowed thanks to the exchanges that we had last week in paris a few days after. the chance to lose an election and i wish to recruit congratulates so this european council was important because it allowed to cover many subjects that. the substantive order yesterday we had to intercept discussions on international such subjects strategic as you know i. went to the hague and france took the initiative for a new international partnership against the turkish and open nuclear weapons and we talked about syria and the events that took place in the united kingdom and the importance to continue our fight against the use. of these chemical chemical

weapons last night mrs may informed the european council of the circumstances of the attack. and the progress all the member states were actually going to leave the president back on the speaking of that either side that i was there as part of a phillips's is there in brussels that is listening to what he is saying in his press conference with. the german leader there will be speaking to bobby for some analysis about that what he hears in just a few minutes but i want to go back to this incident in southwestern france that the president is talking about there the beginning of that press briefing where he echoed his prime minister and said that the hostage taking incident in southwestern france appears to be a terrorist attack let's bring in our serious paul brennan is with us in paris paul we didn't exactly learn very very much more there from the president did we.

no but i can give you more details which are emerging from other sources as well let's just look at what emanuel micron's said and he basically praised the bravery of the police down the entire caucus on as well praising him thanking them for what he called extraordinary work he outlined that the paris prosecutor which is the person who generally leads on anti terror investigations is now in charge of the case and specialist judges are heading down to tribe to take control of the investigative part of this the french legal way judges actually lead the investigation it's not senior detectives as such detectives are directed by investigative judges on this he's coming back to paris is a man in a few hours after he's finished his duties there in brussels but i can give you other details that are emerging from and from caucus on as well and that is it now appears a little clearer as to what has happened that we're now looking i think three

specific incidents two in caucus on and then the climax which is ongoing in the supermarket in type there appears to have been this morning a hijacking of a car the. officials are now saying that the numbers dead all three dead and two wounded one of the dead is the passenger in a white opel vehicle which was hijacked carjacked in caracas on we believe by this gunman another the other wounded another wounded person is the driver of that white opel it appears that the gunman took that white opel car and the next incident in the chain of events is the shooting of the c r s riot squad officer who was one of four officers who was out jogging. he is another wounded person who's been wounded in the shoulder then it seems that same vehicle with this gunman aboard went to the super supermarket in the nearby village of type just on the

outskirts of tribe about eight kilometers six miles away where a hostage situation is on going the matter of time earlier said that civilians inside that supermarket had either been evacuated or escaped and the only person inside with the gunman was a police officer i have to say that the spokesperson for the interior ministry in the last twenty minutes while i was down there well what were you waiting for mr maclin president want to speak spokesman for the interior ministry is unable to confirm that there is just one hostage a police officer because the whole place is surrounded by police and you know we just don't know or they don't just don't know whether there may be somebody else hiding elsewhere in the building so let's just be cautious about one police officer he can confirm that absolutely just yes but what's interesting is it now appears to be three specific parts to this incident now not just what we believed initially which was to a shooting of four officers out jogging and then

a supermarket it appears there's a carjacking associated with this just before those four officers were shot at. many thanks indeed for bringing us up to speed of the live in paris as a civil will keep across that situation which is ongoing in the southwest of france will bring you were any further developments when they emerge right now though let's get back to brussels where a few moments ago we were we were listening in to where president about the old i'm not grown who addressed briefly the situation in southwestern france but then went on to talk about the details of the e.u. summit that he is attending and one of the things that he said is that front that the solsbury attack this nerve agent attack is a threat to all of our security as is part of the phillips is with us. live from brussels it seems that even leaders but to be getting firmly behind britain's prime minister to reason may on this poisoning saying that it looks pretty much like as

far as they're concerned russia is to blame. yes that's right and to resume a would have left brussels a couple of hours ago adrian an extremely happy woman just put it in context she left early because the talks that we're going to carry on which have just concluded here were about brics it about britain's departure from the e.u. in other words britain has pulled off the diplomatic coup of getting if you like maximum european solidarity even from an organization that it is in the process of conducting an awkward and times acrimonious divorce with and so i think the british are very pleased we've had some details about the talks about russia last night from leo varadkar the the prime minister of ireland he said that they listen to the intelligence that to reason may have presented and then he and president might draw of france proposed that the language be toughened up along the lines which the british had wanted he also said leo varadkar that is that ireland will be looking

at the possibility of expelling russian diplomats or intelligence officers or if you prefer spies just as the british have done from london in recent days and we've also heard a slightly more nuanced pitch from the czech prime minister he said that the czech republic would also be looking at the possibility of expelling russian diplomats but he said that the talks about russia last night were initially difficult that the e.u. was divided into two camps if you like that the hawks on russia and then the more sympathetic group to russia my opposition and it's only that would be that those countries would include greece italy hungary perhaps belgariad all of which have been more amenable more sympathetic to moscow but it does seem that the british point of view carried the day probably very thanks probably phillips live in brussels backed out of paul brennan in paris with

a development in that that hostage situation in the southwest of france which where we're hearing according to media reports on the we can't independently verify them just yet that the situation may have been brought to a dramatic close paul. yeah that's what i'm hearing is well it's a little difficult for the distance that i'm here in paris but certainly the reports that we're hearing and seeing from from the media there and they're among the media being kept a long way back from that supermarket at the moment you know the local television pictures that i'm monitoring from here in paris are way away from the supermarkets but what they are saying is that the assault has taken place at the supermarket in order to bring the standoff to an end and that the suspect inside the gunman inside has been shot now what they're not making clear is whether or not he has been shot dead or whether he's been shot and wounded and taken into custody but it does appear quite clearly that is an attempt to bring this situation to

a close definitively to not let it linger on and drag on and they pretty determined that they're not going to let this guy get away so well the reports that it was seeing right now in the last couple of minutes is that the police of moved in so a dramatic development in this ongoing situation it looks pretty much paula as though the hostage situation is over just just briefly remind us once again of what happened today that at least. two people. who are dead. i think it's i think that the reports now are three people dead now that we're connecting the earlier carjacking incident to the shooting of the c.r.s. riot squad joggers and the supermarket situation where two people were killed now that we're starting to link believe the linkage between the carjacking which

happened just before the c.r.s. officers were shot it now has to be three people dead and two people wounded in this and the details of course will start to clarify and solidify now if it is as we believe is happening the situation is being totally brought to an end by an assault on the on the supermarkets and the and the standoff hostage situation being being stalked. it will bring in their reporting live from paris just to remind you once again that it looks as though that situation that we've been covering for the last couple of hours here at al-jazeera that the hostage situation in have been the southwest of france has been brought to a dramatic close the the hostage taker. according to local media at the moment we can't independently verify this yet but according to local media the hostage taker has been shot we don't know what condition he is in reports that suggested that he was holding at least one person thought to be a policeman or a military officer

a hostage all the hostages had been freed from that supermarket the reports saying that the the person he was holding that the military officer of all policemen swapped himself for civilian hostages who were allowed to go but clearly something dramatic has happened to to to possibly bring that situation to a close we are monitoring events in the southwest of france and we'll bring you up to speed as soon as we were a little clearer as to what has happened in the meantime let's let's move on and talk about a couple of other news stories that are happening right now the u.s. has complained to the world trade organization accusing china of theft of american intellectual property it comes a day after president donald trump announced that he was imposing some sixty billion dollars worth of tariffs on chinese imports china is planning to retaliate with three billion dollars worth of taxes on american exports including poor can steal share indices across the world of form and as investors fear

a trade war between the world's two largest economies some people call it a mirror tariff or a mere attacks just use the word reciprocal if they charge us we charge them the same thing as sue it's got to be that's not the way it is for many many years for many decades it has not been that way. and i will say the people we're negotiating with smilingly they really agree with us i really believe they cannot believe they've gotten away with this for so long with china's response to those remarks scott heide is in the financial capital shanghai firing back china responded within hours to president donald trump's announcement of the tariffs beijing said it's planning to impose three billion dollars in tariffs of its own targeting one hundred twenty eight u.s. goods bound for china focusing on agriculture wine fruit nuts and pork products but

also recycled aluminum and steel pipes this is china vowed it will not back down from a trade war while insisting the friction should be resolved through negotiations if the dispute continues china says it could damage the broader picture of cooperation between the world's two largest economies it's telling the us to pull back from the brink. it's a destructive move china and the u.s. so will trade leaders i think it's going to escalate gradually it will damage the economic relationship between the two countries and that will have a negative impact on the global economy both nations have said they're going to start legal action through the world trade organization here in china's commercial capital shanghai there's growing concern over a trade war with the u.s. they're worried about jobs in they're worried about chinese businesses. so it may affect employment in china since export is a big part of china's economy there's

a lot of low and industry but in many people's jobs a dependent on exports. so i watch a lot of news of course china will fight back but the point of doing business is that we both we it doesn't work if america is the only leader china has to protect its own too. the increased trade tension could prove to be a challenge for chinese president xi jinping who by a measure passed during the national people's congress earlier this month to remain as leader indefinitely a big trade war with the u.s. could slow china's rapid growth critical to his long term vision it's got harder al-jazeera shanghai the e.u. is asking the u.s. for a permanent exemption from the u. tariffs on steel and aluminum a joint statement by twenty eight european leaders says the new tariffs a part of a trade conflict between the u.s. and china on friday trying to temporarily exclude at the e.u. and five other countries from a ten to twenty five percent duty on steel imports but only until may this year

daniel kleiman is a senior fellow at the asia pacific security program he joins us now live from washington d.c. let's clear the stock markets by the prospects of a possible trade war what are going to be the immediate knock on effects of this move for both the united states and also the rest of the world absolutely i think it's first important to take a step back and understand the context of these announced tariffs and future investment restrictions which is the united states and china are competing globally for power and influence china has used all instruments of national power economic military and diplomatic but the u.s. has really only used economic his of way to using economic tools until now essentially competed with one hand behind its back so you're seeing a shift by the u.s. to a more holistic competitive approach in my view that's a good thing we can discuss kind of what makes sense tactically but it's the right direction i think markets obviously are shocked now they may take into account the

real question in my mind is whether these tariffs provide effective leverage for u.s. negotiations with china to achieve more favorable treatment of american companies operating there and that remains to be seen. you could be speaking a foreign language as far as i'm concerned what does a trade war mean to me the average man of the street. so a trade war could mean that potentially if more tariffs are not to buy china which is only now three billion which was actually in response to u.s. steel and aluminum tariffs that potentially consumer prices for a certain goods could rise the other impacts depending on the nature of these tariffs could be certain industries in the u.s. and china could see their revenue fall as they don't have as many opportunities to sell a broad so you could see consumer prices rise on certain goods in certain industries could be harmed causing unemployment in those industries to know what are the

dangers of this possibly escalating what's the end game here what is the end point as far as both the u.s. is concerned. and china for the united states the i think it's aspirational and game based on administration statements are fair treatment of u.s. companies operating in china that they would not be forced to hand over their technology is the cost of doing business there i think the u.s. end game is also select restrictions on chinese investment in cutting edge technology industries in the united states for china i think it's certainly it's aspirational endgame would be the united states backs down perhaps pockets some token concessions but continues to do business as usual that china would like to continue to leverage its economic investment to obtain technology from the united states in ways that are not consistent with the world trade organization. daniel

really good to talk to you many thanks indeed for being with us daniel klein and the senior fellow at the asia pacific security program that. facebook c.e.o. mark zuckerberg is set to address his employees in a closed door meeting he'll likely be questioned about the controversy over a political consultancy firm's misuse of user data earlier this week zuckerberg admitted that his company made mistakes it's been revealed cambridge analytic accessed fifty million facebook users information to manipulate voters or it's alleged that they manipulated voters in the twenty sixteen u.s. election a u.s. house committee was called to testify as a serious. note he is live for us now outside facebook's london have courses. a journey yet it's all about the message from facebook's top executives including zuckerberg going to how they can try to claw back some of the credibility that they've lost in the last

week or so zuckerberg apologize for the data breach we're waiting to see what he says to his employees on friday on thursday in new york there was a conference where his head of news or partnerships admitted that the company had focused too much on what she called the positives and not looked at the negatives perhaps between the lines saying we were naive about the way things were going a few years ago the latest person to invite zuckerberg himself to give testimony about that data breach was the head of the european parliament of course lawmakers here in britain and in the u.s. have also done the same so very much under scrutiny right now at the same time there are there are ongoing questions about term the involvement of cambridge analytic what they did with her with that facebook in the first place for a bit more on that i'm joined by jim killick from the open rights group jim firstly

what does facebook need to be doing right now to restore its to restore users' trust we need to know about any company that's had a lot of the data that you've been able to access it through applications or whatever it happens to be facebook keep logs of who's got what data so they should say just who's been really getting this data ticket when it's been friends of friends that have shared it and i've got that data so you have no literally no idea that that data has been shared that was happening before twenty forty so once that's there maybe people will start getting their accounts of these apps deleted they can find out who's been profiling them in what kind of way and the second thing they need to do is look at this whole thing of have no targeting works because i think the law. people are borderline breaking the law when they start a deciding to choose to target people on the basis of their sexuality of their religion or their politics facebook gives you all this information effectively by

the kind of pages you've liked so the one hundred percent accurate really pretty much gives you know you're going to be likings pages about christianity unless you're a christian you know to be liking all the conservative pages unless you're conservative that if you wreck a says so these things tell you these incredibly detailed beliefs they need to be telling advertisers when they mustn't get in that way and just briefly governments need to have greater powers to find these big tech companies well absolutely and the interesting thing is we're getting these powers because the european union has brought in the general data protection regulations so after many big fines will be available when companies break the rules and i what we need to see is the information commissioner and others exercising those things and finding also on the potential of home graphs thank you very much for talking. about so for now back to you the day many thanks indeed that is almost it for this hour on observe we'll

update you on the day's top stories again in greater detail in just a moment i just want to bring you up to speed with the latest we've heard on that situation in the southwest of france a hostage situation the interior minister has confirmed the french police have killed the gunman had taken hostages earlier on friday we know that that been an assault on that supermarket let's bring the situation to an end full details on that in just a few moments else either. travel often. by tranquil boards and local forests may provide reliable. talks if only. by icons landmarks valleys and scott guides. to live for adventure. discovery good jobs because far away places

closer to the fish going places together with cats i always. what makes this moment this era we're living for so unique this is really an attack on truth itself is a lot of misunderstanding a distortion isn't what free speech is supposed to be about the context it's hugely important to have a right to publish it. to be offensive will provoke that's about it as people do setting the stage for a serious debate. up front at this time on al-jazeera. and monday pointed on the. us and british companies have announced the biggest discovery of natural gas in west africa but what to do with these untapped natural resources is already a source of heated debate nothing much has changed they still spend most of the days looking forward to full dry river beds like this one five years on the syrians

still feel battered or even those who managed to escape their country have been truly unable to escape the war. winning the will of the people hinges on the mass media and state p.r. machine it's going to overdrive. but just who can fill in saying. we just don't know yet where the lines will be drawn between what can be said and what conduct that. some journalists decided to sacrifice their integrity for outside. the listening post on al-jazeera. a gunman claiming allegiance to i saw has been shot dead at a supermarket siege in southern france at least three other people have been killed .