to go through the deal never did go through and even the special prosecutor says cohen did not follow up on the invitation to go to moscow to get this deal done but there are two other bits here which may be of concern to donald trump current provided the special counsel with useful information concerning certain discrete russian related matters core to its investigation that he obtained by virtue of his regular contact with company executives during the campaign and kern provided relevant and useful information concerning his contacts with persons connected to the white house during the twenty seventeen twenty eighteen time period now that first thing it may or may not be related to collusion with russia to hack into the d.n.c. and so i'm sure there are a lot of people in cable news who are salivating at the prospect of that because that is all they pretty much talk about or it could be just. general contact with russia we're not sure but certainly again an important bit of this at this point about information concerning his contacts with persons connected to the white house during the twenty seventeen twenty eighteen time period is interesting though

because that's after donald trump was inaugurated his first year in office and that's the first time we've actually heard that the special counsel is looking into that time period as well so those are the bits of concern that donald trump might be having right now in these two documents was the what the further reaction is that even the white house the in the wider political spectrum for the moment she had thank you. well while all of this is happening donald trump has named several new people to keep government positions they all need to be confirmed by the senate first here are the proposed additions of what's been a revolving door at the white house while the attorney general jeff sessions fired last month this had to be replaced by william barr boss no stranger to the job you already held the position back in the early one nine hundred ninety s. under george h.w. bush joseph dunford is wrapping up his second term as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff a group of senior defense leaders and there are reports the truck will pick mark milley to or who is currently the army chief of staff to replace him and that he haley is stepping down as u.s. ambassador to the u.n.

after two years in the job and trump has chosen state department spokeswoman for the new it to be the face of washington at the new and new it was previously an anchor with fox news bill schneider is a political analyst and a professor of public policy at george mason university joins me now from washington d.c. good to have you with us on the program a whole raft of nominations announced and perhaps a useful distraction in the light of other issues that will talk about in a moment bill but can just give me your opinion on you know some of those nominees including sort of heather knew it nominated as the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. . well she has no foreign policy experience which is not surprising donald trump really doesn't have any foreign policy experience he hasn't value experience what he values in her is her partisanship and her loyalty to him which he presumes because she has been fiercely partisan on his behalf he values loyalty above all

other qualifications and the people that he's appointed have all shown that kind of loyalty another motivation involved here is that she's a woman so is thinking haley did very poorly or at least the democrats did sorry the republicans did very poorly with women voters in the midterm last month so i think he's particularly concerned with winning over more women when he runs for reelection in two thousand and twenty and he's trying to repair that relationship by making several female appointments. move on to some of the other issues that have been sort of hitting washington d.c. that's what james komi he has spoken after his behind closed doors meeting with lawmakers we knew that the ripple republicans weren't going to give him an easy time but he really didn't give too much away what we read into sort of the way he came out of that meeting. i did not see the transcript i meant sure it's been published yet but it he insisted that it be made public because he realized the republicans would take whatever he said and try to give it

a partisan spin so calmly said he would testify only if the committee agreed to publish the transcriptions and only if he were predict hark about what he actually said to the committee but i haven't actually seen the transcript yet it pops perhaps know much of that transcript is going to be redacted in the future for national security reasons sometimes lawmakers do use that reason sometimes do they not bill but also you talk about what komi wanted to get out of this meeting i mean how much pressure is there really on on the scenario around the russia investigation in the light of what we're hearing now about what prosecutors want to do to those that are very close to president trump i'm having audio difficulties i can't quite hear what you ask how much difficulty with what with how how much of a problem now will the president face both with the komi statements

on one side with the lawmakers and then on the other side the legal. developments that we've heard about his close associates and how prosecutors want to deal with them. it's very likely zero place a lot of legal problems particularly since the democrats now control the house of representatives and if you didn't know this the house has the unique power of being able to vote to impeach the president really for any reason they want the constitution says high crimes and misdemeanors but that can be anything the house says it is they're looking going to be looking very carefully at what mueller is charging and whether particularly i think the president should be concerned about charges of obstruction of justice the question is when he fired james comey earlier this year could that be construed as obstruction of justice well mueller who is very actually a friend of companies who was directly both in director of the f.b.i. the question is whether he would construe that as obstruction of justice that would

certainly do trump in both of them we'll leave it there bill schneider always good to have your insights and thanks for joining us from washington d.c. . well plenty more ahead here on the al-jazeera news hour including our own trajan france police are accused of heavy handed tactics in arresting student protesters. also our doctor strike in zimbabwe's affecting patients in the middle of a cholera outbreak. and in sport you venters extend their lead of the top of the italian football league peter we'll have that story later in the program. the u.s. state department has accused russia and syria falsely accusing opposition fighters of a chemical attack in aleppo last month the alleged gas attack injured up to one hundred people on november the twenty fourth the u.s. says it was credible information that pro regime forces likely used tear gas against civilians it also says both countries are using an attack as an opportunity

to undermine a ceasefire in rebel controlled it in the province. two days of talks aimed at ending the war in yemen of hit a wall some progress on thursday there is still disagreements over reopening of the airport in the capital sana'a and managing one of your means most important ports are reports from rimbaud a village north of stockholm where those talks of been taking place. yemen talks hanged by a thread as the government delegation toughens its stance against who the rebels. the president of the not so hard is loyalists have told you and all boy martin griffiths they weren't allowed reopening airport to international flights the government delegation insists all international flights must be strictly through airports under its control in aden and how to molt that if we have to mount we

came here in order to find a solution to open the airport of santa 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.s. coalition in two 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 port 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 whole thing 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. u.s. democratic senator says next week's vote seeking to end support for these thirty u.a.e. coalition in yemen is to send a message to saudi arabia that the killing of journalists. has consequences chris murphy has tweeted that pulling the united states out of the war will hurt the saudi crown prince more than any sanctions the white house has so far resisted calls to hold haven't been so long responsible for the murder of turkish intelligence as brief some u.s. senators on turkey's investigation into these death a white nationalist to rammed his car into a crowd of protesters in the u.s. last year has been found guilty of first degree murder james fields killed heather hare and left dozens of others injured in the attack in charlottesville it followed violent clashes between white nationalists protesters and counter-demonstrators. a deal to global oil production has been struck in vienna the so-called opec group

plus group plus of nations agreed to hold back a combined one point two million barrels a day they're trying to prop up the price which is fall over eighty five dollars in october to sixty this week but it needed the agreement of opec member russia to seal the deal paul brennan reports. for more than forty years opec controlled the global oil industry the group's near monopoly keeping a tight rein on supply and on prices the events of this week in vienna shows those days are truly over despite consensus that a cut in production is needed to stop a slide in the oil price thursday's gathering of just the opec member states failed to agree to tell the numbers and so on friday is the meeting expanded to include not opec members all eyes were on alexander novak the russian energy minister. was after thorough analysis which we have been conducting of the market situation will be ready to come to me chill understanding on how to take corporation further. the

final figures opec members will reduce output by eight hundred thousand barrels a day the non opec countries will hold back a further four hundred thousand barrels iran libya and venezuela will be exempted the prospect of cutting one point two million barrels a day was enough to push brant crude above sixty three dollars from below fifty nine dollars the previous day go back to the supply demand we believe that there are substantial volumes out there as a result of releasing the spare capacity that you to be. withdrawn and we hope that we will come to an agreement where all. producers will contribute with. equal cuts across the board there was significant transparency and here with going to be doing that for example saudi government laid out their pact of if they are moving back out there. the government also gave us a little window about what their words actions would be so i think this statement

was actually more transparent than expected i think it actually is a more robust than we extracted in the last couple days but what happens here in vienna is only part of the picture the united states is now the world's biggest crude oil producer now really eclipsing russia and with saudi arabia in third the fact is opec no longer calls the shots this is been a hard fought compromise deal and the fact it's been so difficult emphasizes the limits now of opec's effectiveness and there are still question marks as to how long the deal done here will actually last paul brennan al-jazeera vienna. well staying in europe germany's ruling christian democratic union party has selected. couple barr to succeed angela merkel as party leader the fifty six year old was favored to take over a choice to succeed her double it came reports from hamburg. in the end it was

a close contest decided by a margin of just thirty five votes out of almost a thousand some wondered whether an eclipse come as closeness to angela merkel would be a help or a hindrance with her victory the cd you can now expect a period of evolution not revolution then here it is no more time. if we have the courage we will live in the strong year of which will complete open towards the inside and secure towards the outside if we have the courage we will live in a europe which will finally make the year a 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 her closest rival melts it 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 ones even for 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 e.u. says this is not how we want it americans accept strength not weakness 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 and that compound must persuade voters in germany states and in the general election to go 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 anytime soon dominic came out just era. now the french government is deploying thousands of police officers onto the streets in anticipation of another weekend and the government demonstrations it

comes as the police are being heavily criticized after a video of the arrest of a group of students went viral david chaytor reports now from paris. the students have taken to the streets of paris in force opening a new front of protest against president was anger and outrage were growing at the tactics used by riot police gets high school students demonstrating outside the french capital on thursday. this video shows them 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 youngest amongst them a people aged twelve the french interior minister said the images had to be seen in context we feel those rules agreeing the pure observer is over the past few days the students having joined by about one whole recall that yields are met with clubs

an incendiary devices and attorneys to pick a fight with the police to have a little. the french education minister described the pictures a shocking but said the violence convulsing france justified the heavy handed policing it was not an opinion shared by the students in paris morning plans has always been a country where we can say with people being gay and going this tweet saying. and then the states and. now with my point like they were hard to demonstrate because the. police officers are very. very likely limiting an entry to students joining the protests were just here in the parish but right across the country is adding a new dimension and a new them a mentor to the best protests the interior minister went to inspect the armored cars that will be deployed by the police for the first time in paris as saturday's demonstrations will be used to clear barricades and burning 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 the authorities have also ordered the shutdown of scores of luxury boutiques restaurants and businesses in the seans of easy david chaytor al-jazeera paris. well still ahead here on the al-jazeera news hour doctors without borders claims the smear campaign that made it rescued refugees in the mediterranean. sea to do is achieved and start first against pakistan he said of the story it's.

hello there rain is pushing its way across north america now it's creeping up from mexico you can see the satellite picture brings in that cloud from mexico and it's working its way through parts of texas at the moment and then will gradually edge its way eastwards as we head through the next few days so quite a bit of what weather here then for friday and on saturday that pushes further northwards all the way across towards atlanta heavy rain in the south but on the northern edge that's where we see a fair amount of wintery weather and further north still well plenty of cool weather here it's going to stay pretty cold for many of us toronto of the maximum just getting to the arrow of force in new york we're just getting to two which is around thirty seven in faran high a bit further towards the south and we've got a stringy area of cloud hagen see it stretching across the bahamas there across the northern parts of cuba and into parts of mexico it's generally cool to the north of that and a bit hotter more humid to the south and in the south is also quite a few showers as well say along that east coast that that's where we're likely to

see the heaviest of the downpours if we head down to south america is be pretty cool for some of us here recently particularly in parts of argentina born as ari's again on friday struggling to get to twenty two but the winds change as we head into saturday and the temperatures will rise so this time we'll get to a warmer twenty five. my name's phil novell and i an addict i'm on my phone all day every day and my tablet is never really more than a few feet away the use of the internet elevates dopamine just like gambling and just like cocaine goes i will experience my own unusual digital detox i feel like i don't want to how this thing is there all the time anymore my digital addiction an al-jazeera. it is an appalling crime that destroys the dignity of individuals and

tears apart the fabric of communities. activists nati a mirage and congolese gun ecologist dennis mccuaig have been awarded the twenty eight hundred nobel peace prize for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence in conflict zones. in an exclusive interview live from oslo we talked to this year's laureates about their fight for justice the nobel interview and al jazeera exclusive. of the mark you're watching over there is a news article rather a reminder of our top stories u.s. special counsel robert miller says russia made efforts to contact the trump presidential campaign as far back as twenty fifteen that revelation is in addition

to court filings about trump's former aides called money for a michael cohen. u.s. prosecutors are seeking the extradition of a chief financial officer of the chinese telecom company hallway bank one issue is facing charges of fraud which is accused of violating your sanctions against iran play here in his company being held in canada. the second day of talks aimed at ending the war in yemen has hit a snag the saudi backed government and movie delegations our top sofa reopening the airport in sanaa and who managed the port of the data. the last market rescue ship operating in the mediterranean is ending its mission doctors without borders says a smear campaign by european governments has forced the aquarius to stop saving asylum seekers the boat lost its registration in september and october. packing up the ship that's been

a big can of hope for thirty thousand people over the past two years. 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 the charities doctors without borders and. say that's because of european interference we've been subjected to a concerted campaign of harassment intimidation and obstruction it's taken the form 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 quarter 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. crossings have dropped the. 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. welcome to the boat being at risk. to see what is happening. today. no one is that no one is here to actually.

saying the u.n. says more than seventeen and a half thousand people have drowned or gone missing in the mediterranean since january twenty fourth chain. last year they were five risky boats there now they are now on the charity say they're looking for a replacement for the aquarius its crew fear that there are vulnerable people out there possibly in danger and no one to help them alexia ryan al-jazeera mossad reporter with the search rescue worker for a source with the tauren he says that determined to go back on the water the shutdown of the ship has been planted in the last days and we are currently dismantling the getting the vessel. for us it's important to focus that this may be the end of the well yes but this is not the end of the mission and this is not the end for the search and rescue in this seat in the mediterranean because this is our

mission and our from will is to come back from the possible to do our job that is have a life we are actively trying to look and that are not like a new ship or a new flag or something that is sustainable to be back in on the sea a sort of possible and believe me i am a rescuer and one of the people that physically take the people out of the water when they are drawing and this is our strong we putting all our energy. to to find a solution at the moment or unfortunately aquarius was not in him or a sustainable solution for us to operate. so to africa. cholera has killed at least five people in fact it hundreds and zimbabwe but as her explains from darwin a strike by junior doctors as crippled the already struggling public health sector . health workers to speak the cholera outbreak in mount darwin started

here they say a gold mine is used water from a nearby river that's believed to be contaminated petra statoil this is the area where he works is remote and the roads are bad that's why he said some people didn't get to hospital until it was too late or. after i finished eating i started feeling strange and i knew something was wrong but they kept on working in the mine thinking it wasn't serious when it become serious i came to was put on test and confirmed that that call and. more than two hundred cases have been reported so far in the magdalen area doctors and nurses are encouraging people to get treatment early. or late actually. making. rescind before meeting in the city which is turtle so if the. the.

the treatment. it's almost a hundred. but a shortage of essential drugs and equipment in many public health centers makes it more difficult to deal with the disease some junior doctors are also on strike over pay and work conditions and nurses are threatening to do the same more than fifty people died from cholera in september that was in the capital harare this latest outbreak isn't contained here's this disease could spread opposition leaders say zimbabwe's health sector has suffered and the years of corruption and mismanagement but government officials deny the allegations insisting sanctions imposed by the west and economic crisis in the country are to blame. some of these miners planned to go back to work is the only job they can find they know there's a risk of reinfection but say they and their families need the money. dahlan zimbabwe. presidential candidates are running supporters across the democratic

republic of congo of upcoming elections twenty men. are competing to succeed just of can be. broken security problems are among the big issues of voters' minds. the reports. 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 hey have joined forces promising changes including regional security and jobs. are very happy because the leaders came today people want to tell the government that they need to create jobs and they expect 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 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 a relief for some he's been accused of vote rigging in the past and his final time expired two years ago. but his refusal to step down sparked by nani's dozens were killed he's chosen a man you're amazon has shut 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 the side 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. to asia pacific now or a senior journalist in the philippines has declared her innocence and social fight back after appearing in court on tax evasion charges maria ressa says the case is politically motivated her news agency rappler has been critical of president bush to go to turn his government who has branded it fake. reports now from manila. maria ressa is one of the most prominent journalists in the philippines and also one of the most in battle out and the news agency she co-founded called rappler have been inducted on multiple counts of tax evasion the government also tried to revoke the agency's license to operate with their day calling rappler

a feat use outlet. for maria and her supporters this is persecution from a government that sees journalists as the enemy. but it makes me think that we must either be doing something right or we must be doing an investigation they don't want to follow through with. we just keep doing our jobs you know we keep looking we try to maintain the news agenda recently but the government insists the warrant issued against media is not political persecution months after due to tear was sworn into office the government set up a special task force to focus on media security proof it says of its commitment to press freedom it meant rappler scase is different. you do not believe rather than using. her family. they claim a really big claim to be they say that they are. but then again we have to check in

with our laws last year reporters without borders calls the philippines the deadliest country for media in asia and what is happening here reflects a growing on the mosty towards journalists worldwide and that was thirty openly encouraged by political leaders and authoritarian regimes pose a threat to democracy. the center for media freedom and responsibility focuses on the rights of filipino journalists it says there have been more than eighty attacks on journalists since president assumed office in two thousand and sixteen we should not forget that despite of the big pattern and the pattern had been set march earlier. when president began to demonize mainstream breast since one nine hundred eighty six more than one hundred sixty journalists have been killed in the philippines most of them worked in the proper.