hello again it's good to have you back well in australia we are going to be seeing a temperature drop here across the southeast much needed because in melbourne temperatures were into the high thirty's just several days ago now with this front pushing through we're going to be dropping down to about normal for this time of year maybe twenty seven degrees but still a lot of clouds along the coast not towards queensland it is going to be potentially flooding rain here not only for townsville but most of the areas along that coastal sections you can see how that rain really stays there this is the old tropical system the really the remnants of the storm but still brings in very heavy rain across much of the area illand we are looking at alice springs at a warm hot thirty nine hundred there well across parts of new zealand things will he quite nice for the north island of new zealand where to be seen some clouds down here towards the south island over the next few days and temperature wise well it's not going to be looking too bad for auckland twenty one degrees there christ church at twenty and as we go towards the end of the weekend more clouds maybe potentially

some more rain down towards christchurch with the temperature they have twenty four degrees and for japan and also the korean peninsula it has been getting colder a lot of cold air coming in from siberia temperatures back across this fraud we're looking at really into the minus double digits for many locations but of awestruck it is going to be a sunny day if you would temperatures of minds ten. on counting the cost cats all becomes the first country in the middle east to quit opec un climate talks took place this week in a coal mining town plus why french president of money will not clones policies are so unpopular counting the cost.

back quick recap the top stories now u.s. prosecutors are seeking a substantial jail term for the president's former lawyer michael cohen cohen pleaded guilty in august for paying adult film star stormy daniels to conceal her relationship with donald trump as well as tax evasion. a top executive of chinese fam while way is facing fraud charges in the united states and legibly for violating sanctions against iran when joe is appeared in court after being arrested in vancouver last week. and president donald trump is officially nominated state department spokeswoman heaven now it has the next u.s.

ambassador to the united nations. right all moving now to political developments in germany the willing christian democratic union party has elected and a great karrenbauer to succeed as party leader the fifty six year old was favorite to take over and merkel's choice of successor dominic came reports from humbug of in fear in france for not seats in the end it was a close contest decided by a margin of just closely five votes out of almost a fires some wondered whether an eclipse company was closeness to angela merkel would be a help or hindrance with her victory the cd you can now expect a period of evolution not revolution. if we have the courage we will live in the strong year of which will complete. open tools the inside and secure two worlds the outside if we have the courage we will live in a europe which will finally make the euro stable and we will live in

a year with the european security council and the european army which does not just articulate but implements a common security interests from earlier. who. closest rival sleeveless melts but spent a decade on the sidelines forced there by angela merkel despite there once having been allies he returned with a promise to take his party to the right and with straight talking both domestically and on the international stage once even far more. i mean you probably know i'm a true friend of the united states but from time to time the americans need a clear message and that message is credible when it's not just germany delivering it but when the entire interview says this is not how we want it americans accept strength not weakness in size merit says strong showing means he can now expect to have much greater influence in the party if he wants it in one sense winning this election is the easy part now i know that come come on must persuade voters in

germany states and in a general election to come and she and her party are the ones to vote for. but that's for the future right now the c.d.u. is witnessing the passing of an era albeit one in which the chancellor will not be handing over ultimate power any time soon dominic came out zira hamburg we go to france now where the government is deploying a huge police presence on to the streets in anticipation of another weekend of violent demonstrations as the police are being heavily criticized after a video of the arrest of a group of students went viral david chase has more from paris. students have taken to the streets of paris in force openly a new front of protest against president i and outrage were growing at the tactics used by riot police gets high school students demonstrating outside the french capital day. this feed shows i'm being forced to kneel with their hands

behind their heads a police officer can be heard saying now there's a clause as behaving well the youngest amongst them a people aged twelve the french interior minister said the images had to be seen in context we feel there's roops agreeing the pure observer is sick over the past few days the students having joined by about one hundred school that you are met it clubs and devices on the tourney to pick a fight with the police and to have a little. the french education minister described the pictures a shocking but said the violence convulsing france justified the heavy handed policing this is not an opinion shared by the students in paris moment when has always been a country where we can say with people being gay and going this tweet saying. and they must hate and. now with my point like they would hold true to demonstrate

because the. police police officers are very. very likely limiting their and everything to their students joining the protests were just here in the parish but wide across the country is adding a new dimension and the new momentum to the yellow vests protests the interior minister went to inspect the aman cars that will be deployed by the police for the first time in paris at saturday's demonstrations that were used to clear barricades and turning roadblocks. he said these last few weeks a monster has been born that has run away from its creators. dozens of tourist attractions will be closed down in the capital for what the l a vessel calling act for of the revolt. torah jews have also ordered the shut down of schools of luxury boutiques restaurants and businesses in the seans of the. al-jazeera terrace.

russia says it will only discuss the fate of twenty four ukrainian sailors it captured last month wants their trials conclude russian coast guard opened fire on three crying in navy vessels and detained that crews as they tried to pass through the current straits and accused of entering russian waters which ukraine denies equine in defense ministry is one that will send its navy sailing through the coach strait in response. well day two of talks in sweden aimed to ending the war in yemen have hit deadlock after progress on thursday with the prisoner swap agreement and now issues of a reopening the capital's app ort and managing the strategic port city of data. from rember the village north of where the talks have been taking place in yemen talks by a thread as the government delegation toughens its stance against who the rebels. president of the. loyalists have told you and old boy martin griffiths the

world reopening son. to international flights the government delegation insists all international flights must be strictly through and it's controlled in aden and how to molt that if not tomorrow we came here in order to find a solution to open the airport of sana we cannot just prejudge everything what we are asking is is this in the interest of the people or not we are not here to reward the militias we are here for peace. the sun airport was one of the first targets of the saudi u.a.e. coalition into a thousand to fifteen the military alliance later closed the airport to stop what it said was a flow of weapons from iran to the who these. another sticking point in the talks is the port of her data which accounts for more than seventy percent of food imports to yemen the government asked the huth east to pull out immediately warning

it will resume the offensive to take control of the city if they don't the whole thing is had agreed to partially hand over management of the board to the united nations in exchange for a cease fire to be implemented and then what hell if we are to agree we need a governing authority that represents all of yemen and to which all parties will hand over weapons and. the first day of these talks so a rare agreement among yemen's rivals for president exchange deal it is widely seen as a significant step forward to and a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and created the worst humanitarian crisis in the world it's unclear if the u.n. will be able to narrow differences between the two parties as the resist calls to solve the dispute now the huth is insist on

a presidential council to replace had the and leave the country for an interim period a move that has been rejected by the government as a who the tactic to further expand their influence over yemen has. the town of rimbaud on the outskirts of stockholm. a u.s. democratic senator says a vote next week aimed at ending support for the saudi led coalition in yemen is a response to the killing of saudi journalist jamal khashoggi chris murphy said on twitter that pulling the united states out of the wall will hurt the saudi crown prince more than any sanctions there are growing calls for the white house to home on the open sound man responsible for the mata the head of technician teligent has already brief some u.s. senators on turkey's investigation into khashoggi death. now the man who drove his car into a protest as opposing a white nationalist rally in the united states in august has been convicted of first degree murder twenty one year old james fields plowed his hire car into the

counter demonstration in charlottesville virginia killing one person and injuring dozens more he now faces a maximum life sentence. the last migrant rescue ship operating in the mediterranean is ending its mission doctors without borders as a snick campaign by european governments as forced the aquarius to stop saving asylum seekers bryan explains. packing up the ship that's been a big can of hope for thirty thousand people over the past two years rescuing those making the treacherous sea crossing between libya and europe migrants and refugees risking everything for what many of us take for granted a safe place to call home the aquarius can no longer work in the charities doctors without borders and. they say that's because of european interference we've been subjected to a concerted campaign of harassment intimidation and obstruction it's taken the

pull of criminal investigation on the basis of spiritus allegations and we've been shot at and harassed by the libyan coast guard which is funded by european governments including including that of the u.k. aquarius has been blocked in the french port of ma say since october after panama revoked its registration the charity say it was at the request of. government then last month the police ordered its seizure for allegedly dumping toxic waste the charities denied the allegations. more than one hundred seven thousand people arrived in europe by sea this year at the height of the crisis twenty fifteen more than a million people made the voyage but while crossings have dropped the u.n. has said the journey is becoming more dangerous restrictions on search and rescue boats like the aquarius. earlier this year there were weeks of wrangling over who

would take the aquarius and the six hundred people it had rescued. refused entry and the international condemnation. that politics was taking precedence over people's lives spain later welcome to the boat being at sea it's not only risking people it's so does to feign to dare to watch to see what is happening today. no one is at sea you know when he's here to actually see to devote. the un says more than seventeen and a half thousand people have drowned all gone missing in the mediterranean since january twenty fourth tain last year there were five risky boats there now they are now on the charity say they're looking for replacement boat for the aquarius its crew fear that there are vulnerable people out there possibly in danger and no one to help them alexia brian al jazeera well as far as

a search and rescue work for s.o.s. mediterranean he says the charity is trying to return to the seas to carry out more missions for us it's important to focus that this may be the end of the barrier but it is not the end of the mission and it is not the end and the search and rescue in this seat in the mediterranean because it is our mission and our throng will use to come back as soon as possible to do our job the truth and the life we are actively trying to look in a tentative like a new ship. something that it's sustainable to be back in on the sea that's not possible and believe me i'm a rescuer and one of the people that because he take the people out of the water when they're drawing and it is our strong we are putting all our energy. to find a solution. presidential candidates are rallying supporters across the democratic

republic of congo out of this month's election they're twenty men and one woman a competing to succeed joseph kabila or a burden manley as more than her was people stream onto the streets of because in their thousands all to support opposition candidates in the democratic republic of congo's presidential race all with hopes of political change to men felix just ahead he and the telecom are haim have joined forces promising changes including regional security and jobs. they are very happy because the leaders came today people want to tell the government that they need to create jobs and make spec safety i am safety is a big concern in the northeast where there's been decades of fighting between rebel groups. just a few hours after opposition candidate marching to beni on thursday seventeen people were killed in an attack by the armed group the allied democratic forces the

u.n. says violence is hampering response to a recent poll outbreak in the region there are twenty one candidates competing in the presidential race joseph kabila who's been running the country for seventeen years would not take on another term really for some he's been accused of vote rigging in the past and his final term expired two years ago. but his refusal to step down sparked by inclining dozens were killed he's chosen emanuel dari as his successor but he's on the e.u. sanctions let's be humane rights crimes in the region which he was responsible for at the interior minister one of the biggest issues for any new president is the outbreak which is now the second largest on record. measures have been taken in order to control decide break and we are currently controlling to break in different areas for now. as people prepared to vote for

a new leadership many hope violence doesn't hinder efforts against the fatal disease. laura bowden manly al-jazeera. now you might want to turn up your volume for this story the surface of the planet mars is a hostile environment with wildly varying temperatures averaging minus sixty degree celsius but not as late as moslem has found it doesn't least have a gentle breeze. you can just about hear that but it easy if ever recording of wind on the red planet picked up by the insight land is air pressure sense and size moments of the martian winds were gusting between fifteen to twenty five kilometers an hour that incites main job will be probing below the surface.

one of rio quick recap of the top stories this hour now u.s. prosecutors are seeking a substantial jail term the president's former lawyer michael cohen cohen pleaded guilty in august to paying adult film star stormy daniels to conceal her relationship with donald trump as well as evading taxes now separately he also admitted to lying to congress about discussions over the construction of a proposed trump organization skyscraper in los gatos cohen has been off raising was bench especial counsel robert lewis investigation into russian interference in the two thousand and sixteen presidential election shavar tenancy has more we're never entirely sure how much cooperation michael gurr was given so we doubled from gave his theory that michael gurr was returned fully do everything in his way to try to get a shorter prison sentence it would appear from these documents that he wasn't giving any more information about the prosecutors already have especially with the

special counsel all whatever the special counsel is looking into that relates to michael kirby in this case actually both those property deals in russia where in our other top stories a top executive of one of china's most powerful companies is. basing fraud charges in the u.s. allegedly for violating sanctions against iran mung when jo who's the chief financial officer of huawei is appeared in court after being arrested in vancouver last week long is also the daughter of the company's founder if extradited to the u.s. she could get thirty years in prison on charges of conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions and other developments president donald trump is officially nominated to head the now is to be the new u.s. ambassador to the united nations now it is currently the spokeswoman for the u.s. state department nomination still needs to be endorsed by the republican controlled senate if approved now it will replace nikki haley who leaves the un at the end of the month and germany's christian democrats have elected on a gret karrenbauer to replace angle of merkel as party leader crown caraballo who

is merkel's protege one five hundred seventeen votes out of nine hundred ninety nine cost by delegates so it's fairly slim margin but the result does move her into pole position to succeed europe's most influential leader as chancellor that's it from london counting the cost is next getting to the heart of the matter how can you be a refugee after a while it borders between five safe countries facing new realities supremes starts from the very beginning go to. providing context housing is not just about four walls and a roof hear their story on talk to al-jazeera. hello i'm adrian finnegan this is counting the cost on al-jazeera a weekly look at the world of business and economics this week cattle becomes the

first country in the middle east to quit opec as a new dynamic take shape in the oil game also this week the dirtiest fossil fuel as un climate talks took place this week in a coal mining town and we'll look at why president manual macross policies are so on popular with the yellow vests or movement. after nearly six decades of membership cassava has left the organization of the petroleum exporting countries the gulf state says it wants to concentrate on gas production and that the move isn't political it's the first middle east nation to quit the oil cartel and the timing is significant to the high profile breakup happened during a key week for opec which is deciding oil policy for twenty nineteen zero some of in java reports. the world's largest supplier of liquefied natural gas is leaving the biggest oil cartel after being an opec member for more than fifty years arthur says the strategic change is needed for its long term ambitions to produce more

natural gas but there is one of opec smallest oil producers its main commodity is natural gas but the world's third largest reserves tensions between qatar and opec's largest producer saudi arabia suddenly increased and the saudis imposed a land sea and air blockade seventeen months ago but the government ministers say leaving opec is not politically motivated i don't want to politicize it i'm a very practical engineer i've been running kewpie for a long time the way i do business is really practical so we look at work you know what is the value and. you know i like to focus on efficiency is always and i think it's inefficient to focus on something that's not your core business and something this is not going to benefit you long term so for me to put effort and resources and time in in an organization where i'm a very small player and doesn't have don't have. you know seen what happens in that

organization. does not work it's not been a great year for opec its largest members such as saudi arabia ramped up production while others have carried out cuts meaning the worst compliance by members in years opec is a bit like a family and it has all the good aspects of a family the closeness but it also has the best aspects of a family which means the squabbles that all it like in families they all squabble and you all are sad when one of the cozzens think the sides to break rank of his departure comes as both houses in the us have introduced and the opec bills the so-called no pack bill has gained traction after the trumpet ministrations increased hostility towards opec if passed the legislation would pave the way for opec members to be sued for operating in one. as relations between saudi arabia and russia have improved iran iran and venezuela have found it difficult to abide by by and it will pick decisions but there isn't the first country to leave opec but it

is the first from the middle east raising questions about whether others could follow because as decision comes at a time when questions are being raised about who's really setting global oil policy there's a feeling that normal opec countries russia and the usa a calling the shots opec's power of the oil markets was made very clear when opec oil ministers met in the end of this week that meeting was all about lobbying russia to agree to any production targets or oil heavyweight russia isn't even a member of the cartel but it's been cooperating on production as part of the opec plus group meanwhile oil producers have been hit by a thirty percent plunge in crude prices since october as iran sanctions haven't taken as much oil off the market as expected over supply fears a back with a vengeance the united states is now the world's biggest crude producer and is pumping out a much better rate than expected joining us now from vienna is you have to spend any you have this is the founder and chairman of vienna based j b c energy group

welcome to counting the cost and it's good to have you with us so who is really controlling the world's oil policy at the moment opec on all the opec countries. well i think opec realized some time ago that it's increasingly difficult to do it alone so they have lobbied the a wider group which is no opec plus and russia is playing an instrumental role here . of course those countries have a big care say and they can remove football them in the market but what we have seen is that when the price of oil is high enough you see a lot of response from the u.s. and so the u.s. shale supply right now is probably the most pressing issue do you think that with castle with during this week the first middle eastern nation to do so that other countries will pull out of opec and we'll see more more countries outside the organization as part of opec plus the them within is. it's very difficult to understand the russian oil for countries to be either in or not in the organization

of course you can say there is a certain concentration of power was the bigger players they have something to say and their decisions have this huge impact but of course at the same time if you if you look on the small numbers producing maybe two hundred thousand barrels a day four hundred or more those volumes don't really matter so much when it comes to the end of the day it's always nice if you have more countries are part of it but why do they can contribute well opec is a research organization so having access to that research is maybe interesting for those countries but also i would guess having an international platform were the politicians can be seen to communicate and to be on the same level was politicians and public and so overall it is you know there may be many reasons whether it's influencing the price of oil whether it's influencing the supply whether it's influencing the political landscape in your domestic home country or just to have an access to research may be many reasons for that all right so what's going to

happen now with the price of oil and twenty one thousand we have this oversupply problem ministers have tentatively agreed to a production cuts. or where do we go from here well first of all the production cut is necessary because there's quite a lot of surplus right now and it's not necessarily just because of the uranium story and the consequences but it is because a lot of supply is emerging from many other countries and on top of that the biggest supply dition this year of course is the u.s. and you may expect more to come from the u.s. in the next year so that means opec has to stay on top of that i think that they will not try to push the prices back to the level that where they have been remember till last year prices were in the forty sixty range and only then prices really move higher and i would expect that the prices now stay around the sixty sixty five range and stabilize their yanis really good stocks kind of the cross many thanks indeed for being with us thank you very much. the week began with news

of a ninety day truce in the tit for tat us china trade war the world's biggest and second biggest economies agreed to postpone further tariffs on goods for three months starting on january first the polls however doesn't mean that the war is over big differences still remain on things like intellectual property protection something that a high profile arrest has made painfully clear the u.s. is seeking the extradition of one joe mang chief financial officer of way technologies she was arrested in canada on december first in connection with violating sanctions against iran china has demanded her release al-jazeera as adrian brown reports from beijing. huawei is the biggest private company in china worth almost twenty seven billion dollars according to the firm's latest annual report it recently overtook apple to become the world's second largest smartphone maker. mongering joe is not just the company's chief financial officer but daughter

of the found a company statement says it's not aware of any wrongdoing by her the response from china's government has been swift and angry it says a human rights have been harmed once her immediate release and a reason for her arrest. she don't let you go china has expressed our solemn position to canada and the us regarding the case china demands them to immediately clarify the reason for their arrest release the detainees and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the detainees while way has been under scrutiny by governments in the united states and elsewhere over its links to china's ruling communist party and whether its operations pose a threat to national security the cia director gina has made clear where she stood joining a confirmation hearing in may would you purchase a while we phone or connect your phone or computer to a while we are the t.v.

network well senator as i mentioned i don't even have a social media account that i wouldn't i wouldn't use while way products mung was arrested on the very day the leaders of china and the united states where agreeing to a ninety day truce in the trade war between the two countries given her high profile in china and the fact that mung is well politically connected there is one obvious question was president from where she was going to be arrested when he sat down with president xi jinping at that diplomatic dinner in one of stories on saturday and if not why not last year another chinese telecommunications company said t e was fined one point two billion dollars in the united states over products it sold to iran and north korea but unlike that de holloway has not so far been formally accused of breaching u.s. export sanctions still to come on counting the cost wholly in. and high why

bethlehem in the occupied west bank is say a record flow of tourists. but first who exactly will have to pay for saving the planet is a big question these days in france this week we see how low income drivers hit by fuel duty septic into the streets will get to the situation in france a little later in the program but first let's go to poland where the u.n. climate talks notice cop twenty four got underway this week in a coal mining town it's a chosen location right on the top of europe's biggest reserves of the fuel wasn't an accident delegates have to breathe polluted air as they made their way to the venue that task is to create the rules to change the world's energy supply and change the planet's naturalist and broadcaster david attenborough had this to say when he addressed the opening session on behalf of the world's people might now we are facing a manmade disaster of global scale our greatest tragedy thousands

of years climate change if we don't take action the collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world. it's on the horizon well this is the conference which is supposed to signpost the death of coal the most polluting fuel coal use accounts for forty percent of c o two emissions but the coal industry is still very much alive it accounts for forty percent of the world's electricity and millions of jobs worldwide something the u.s. government likes to highlight so there's talk of a just socially responsible transition the world bank group said on monday that it's doubling funding for poor countries preparing for climate change but then there's china the world's top carbon emitter a number one producer and consumer of coal ok it's trying to curb coal power and the deadly pollution but it courses at home but at the same time it's facing

mounting criticism for bankrolling new coal plants in other parts of.