in campaign finance violations but it's not clear what these latest filings have to do with the russian collusion investigation if anything however taken in conjunction with this heavily redacted document that was filed earlier this week in conjunction with the investigation into a former security advisor michael flynn there's plenty of speculation she ever turns the outer zero washington down executive of the chinese tech giant huawei will remain in custody in canada over the weekend prosecutors are seeking mung ones use extradition to the united states which accuses her of breaching sanctions on iran kristen salumi reports. among china's business elite among ones who is considered royalty the daughter of the founder of telecom giant way the company's c.f.o. and possible heir to the throne but to the united states mom is a wanted criminal the charge confirmed in the canadian court on friday fraud

specifically using an unofficial weiwei subsidiary to do business with iran in violation of u.s. sanctions china's foreign ministry has condemned her arrests and demanded the evidence. she do what i can tell you is that not the canada nor the u.s. has provided any evidence to china that the person of the cases bottles of the two countries until now. canadian prosecutors acting on behalf of the u.s. argued against freeing mongan bail saying her wealth made her an extreme flight risk while her lawyer said she'd never do anything to embarrass her family or her country in court filings the united states argued that mung was likely to flee to china if released on bail the united states believes that one way officials have been avoiding travel to the united states since april of two thousand and seventeen when they became aware of the investigation and furthermore that they have been moving u.s. based employees out of the country who could have been called to testify in the

case that's why when they became aware of her travel to canada on november twenty ninth they requested her extradition. mom's arrest comes amid mounting trade tensions between the u.s. and china and news of her arrest rattled investors the dow closed down more than five hundred points for the week a racing gains for the year but experts say the case is not about trade i think it's very much sanctions issue and the desire to make sure that people know that we aren't kidding when the u.s. imposes sanctions nevertheless it could complicate trade relations as the two countries attempt to work out their differences kristen salumi al jazeera we've got a lot more to come here at al-jazeera including what checking in on those yemen peace talks of the taking place in sweden as the humanitarian tragedy continues and the museum reopens in belgium come from ting the country's dark

past. the problem is still raining fairly regularly in thailand we had rain in bangkok yesterday and you can see going through so the sassy station mainland is still sometimes wet but the heaviest rain has been further science which is where you might expect it sort of way see down in java which has been the west his place and up on the on the border here kind of on time now those showers obviously are not regularly the same place every day and they're still focused more in peninsula malaysia and should be down in indonesia but as you can see the forecast in jakarta eastwards is a relatively dry one not certain so as this is sunday and monday sees a cloud gather but the showers if you like even if your logic is they try to go up towards bangkok once more so sudden tallent is wet again. that affronts gone

through hell when it did that yesterday therefore temperatures have dropped as you can see the line of cat is not to make you much eastward progress largely because you've got a fairly good in fly for tropical queen's and that's heavy rain and stormy weather is the full cost for this weekend for all of tropical queensland so tonsils twenty eight is really more important you've got dark green big thunderstorms there temps remain disappointing twenty three in melbourne and twenty five in brisbane and shows a gathering again in western australia but persons. counting the cost castle 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 clones policies are so unpopular counting the cost on al-jazeera.

i really felt liberated as a journalist when i was getting to the truth as i was that's what his job. time for us to take a look at the top stories here about his era this is the scene live in paris the french capital as you can see there are hundreds and hundreds of protests is a converging in the heart of the city to protest at a variety of reasons we understand almost three hundred people have already been arrested and we're expecting that figure to rise throughout the day.

documents released by u.s. prosecutors have for the first time directly linked donald trump to financial crimes committed during his friday sixteen presidential campaign it's also been revealed that a russian who offered quote political synergy with that campaign contacted trump's former lawyer michael cohen as far back as twenty fifty. while ways chief financial officer among one june will spend the weekend in custody in canada u.s. prosecutors are seeking her extradition accusing her of breaching sanctions on iran . right it stays three of those talks that are designed to help end the war in yemen there's been some small breakthroughs and there remain deep divisions on key issues the u.n. says yemen's war is killing or injuring almost one hundred twenty three civilians every week there's also taking place in the swedish town of rimbaud just outside the capital stockholm from where our correspondent has. now joins us and

as we've said day three there's been some ups and downs and this is a negotiating process give us a sense of the mood of the tolls as day three gets under way. and it's going to be a long political process marty and for the reason for that reason because dick against the backdrop of the war of words between the two factions yesterday the u.n. has decided today to have three committees talking about three issues they're reopening of the airport and the issue of the port of seaport of date and then the issue of the prisoner swap deal and the third one is going to be purely political about the political framework which is what kind of political arrangement should be done in the near future so that all the parties going to greet on an interim period it's a political landscape that has baffled the international community for quite some

time and the hope now is that the united nations will be able to convince all the parties to set aside their differences and agree on a settlement as we're going to see in this report. yemen talks hanged by a thread as the government delegation toughened its stance against who threw the rebels. president of the. loyalists have told you and martin griffiths they weren't reopening airport to international flights the government delegation insists all international flights must be strictly through airports and it's controlled in aden and how to molt that if we have to move 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 son our airport was one of the first

targets of the saudi u.a.e. 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 healthy is had agreed to partially hand over management of the port to the united nations in exchange for a cease fire to be implemented 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. the first day of these talks so a rare agreement among yemen's rivals for

a prisoner 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. the talks are confined to the building that you can see behind me on the oscars of the so it is capital stock always going to take some time for all the parties to try and agree on a political settlement but back in yemen the expectations are high about the need for an on to the conflict that has been going on for almost four years and joining us of what about the latest developments is. a journalist who has just arrived from sun and how human just like to ask you first question about what's the expectation among the people in yemen very high very high hashmi right now people in yemen are we think it's the only hope left right now for yemen that these peace talks to

succeed millions of families are waiting on this millions of families who are suffering and dying from our big pain the hunger war not the military war i waited for this to happen at least that the the the the siege on the how did the port. is easing the airport is open the prisoner swap does take place right now it's only words and these of agreements have been happening for the last couple weeks but for this to happen it has to be a miracle it's easier said than done especially when it comes to the. the president's wops opposite the talks collapse because the failed many times he took us in geneva and to wait in different parts of the world that's not an option at all i'm here not as a journalist as a mediator a part of a mediation but this is not an option whatsoever this has to happen and both sides know that the saudi allies. like government know that they cannot step aside the who does have strict orders from aside from the leadership inside there that they

cannot. and these talks only on a successful basis so this needs to have been of in order for yemen to elisi light after this disaster you've been traveling across many parts of the country give us as an idea about the humanitarian situation unbearable harsh and when you walk in driving in seen people off families are living on street corners streets full of families or friends it's unbearable garbage is are are empty now and in the past families to. all the garbage right now these even these garbage m t people who families used to eat a meal for people in their town now i found the of ten india for two people so it's disastrous how these families are suffering and continue to suffer thank you very much indeed. martin is this humanitarian situation described by the u.n. as the worst in the world in modern times that is now driving many countries to try to put more pressure on the sandy led coalition but also all the fighting

parties in yemen to put an end towards to that because the biggest concern i mean basically saying that if the talks to laos will just have a knock on effect on the millions of two people desperate for food to be delivered immediately to the. live in sweden of those talks thank you very much indeed. now a controversial museum of focusing on belgians colonial past is reopening after having been closed for a year now the event is being overshadowed by demands from former colonies like the democratic republic of congo that ed return some of its artifacts of trash about their reports. for more than a century this opulent museum outside brussels was a symbol of belgium's colonial past it was created by king leopold the second with wealth amassed from his kingdom's plunder of congo its exhibits portrayed africans

as savage and primitive hundreds of congolese people were put on display in a human zoo but there was no mention of the fact that millions of people were enslaved or killed by their oppresses so until twenty years ago belgium didn't have any critical reflects the ryssdal of your past and nobody really questioned about how did google is really perceive it and if you talk to the release of the period i'm in they'll talk about your profession about the way they were treated and so when go to visit this museum will start reflecting well maybe the colonial system wasn't all that good. king leopold presented belgium's colonize ation of congo as a humanitarian mission but that was far from the brutal reality congolese artist mam panny hopes his work will force people to reflect on history or the mars or priscilla process it is thinking together about the past the present and making sure what happened never happens again and to end stereotypes and colonize the

image of central africa with pierre company came to belgium as a refugee from congo in one thousand nine hundred seventy five he's now the country's first black man he son vincent plays for belgium's national football team he says the museum could be a cultural bridge or you know from out his museum would be a different color both congo and belgian would. better understand the mistakes made in the future that awaits us. while those behind the reopening of this museum hope that it will help belgians confront their colonial past some critics say it's a missed opportunity that a greater gesture would have been to return some of the looted artworks and objects to congo so a lot is a these are not mere outworks for us they represent our ancestors so if my ancestors are enclosing the museum frozen in time then they are dead so i don't want to celebrate in this cemetery perhaps i would visit in the future if we start

returning the works state museums across europe have come under increasing pressure from campaign is to return objects taken from africa they say it would address some past injustices but also force people in former colonial powers like belgium to know and confront history for too long has been ignored natasha butler al-jazeera brussels belgium a new law passed by japan's parliament will see the world's third largest economy change dramatically and except many more foreign workers the contentious latest legislation well open doors for almost three hundred fifty thousand outsiders is designed to make up for japan's shrinking and aging workforce the measure will be in effect for around five years and starts in april. life in the east of iraq's second largest city is starting to return to normal

a year after i saw was defeated but for those most of those from the west of the city mosul it's a completely different story from there al-jazeera is from matheson little. to hear music drifting across a public square in mosul would have been unthinkable just over a year ago when i saw fighters roaming the city streets and being outside after nightfall could mean a beating or even death is that. this is a message of peace that eisen is no longer here in mosul the society should live in peace and harmony after these dark days. this is the eastern side of the tigris river here people are trying to reclaim the night while knowing a short distance away lies stark remind us of battles. here the west side of mosul is still in darkness most of the people there are soulless its age is alive but the west side is dead there is total destruction there it is like to hear regime

a bomb dropped daylight reveals the devastation on the western banks of the tigris people who used to live and houses of bricks and cement in western mosul and i was sheltering in tents in camps like this one thousands have lost everything parts of eastern warsaw may look like they're returning to normal but people from the west so there's nothing normal for them to return to. so i don't mohammed has been living in this tent with his family since their home in west mosul was bombed said who lost both arms in the attacks and those with hope we can return to mosul right now security is still fragile our houses are level to the ground there is no life for us there anymore it is better to stay in the camp for the time being despite the harsh living conditions people in mosul see the wreckage west of the tigris as a memorial to the city's dark past. but that the bustling parts of the east are the

signs of a brighter future rob matheson al-jazeera the kurdish region of northern iraq. here with al-jazeera these are the top stories scuffles have broken out on the streets of paris where several protests movements a converging raising fears of another weekend of violent riots this is the scene live very close to the outer trail where you can see security forces standing off against what could be hundreds if not thousands of yellow vested protesters they are demonstrating they have been demanding for an end to a fuel tax increase which the government has offered some concessions on nonetheless these demonstrations are attracting different groups as well the latest being the students many students are joining these protests and as you can see it's

a very tense situation in the city center today. and documents released by u.s. prosecutors have for the first time directly linked donald trump to financial crimes committed during his twenty sixteen presidential campaign it's also been revealed that a russian who offered quote political synergy with that campaign contacted transformer lawyer michael cohen as far back as twenty fifteen more now from she have returned z. and what this means for president trump. regarding cohen from robert that of interest that current provided the special counsel's office with useful information concerning certain discrete russian related matters to its investigation that he obtained by virtue of his regular contact with company executives during the campaign now that could just be more business dealings which would lead to some questions about thomas motivations during the campaign or some pundits i'm sure

hoping for this could be something to do with russian again. so we could be very clear about that third current provided relevant and useful information concerning his contacts with persons connected to the white house during the twenty seventeen twenty time period this is after the campaign we didn't know what it was looking into period during. the first year in office. disagreement say that the. those are the headlines coming out. here is a very important source of information for many people around the world. i'm still here go into areas. that story to the forefront.

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 states 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. a 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 you know what is the value and. you know i like to focus on efficiencies always and i think it's inefficient to focus on something that's not your core business and something this

is a good ability to 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 the sides to break rank but his departure comes as both houses in the us have introduced and the opec bills the so-called no peg 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 and went. as relations between saudi arabia and russia have improved iran iraq and venezuela have found it difficult to abide by by and it will pick decisions that 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 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-y. the 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 within it. 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 with 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 extra research may be many reasons for that all right so what's going to happen now with the price of oil in twenty nineteen 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 addition this year of course is the u.s. and you may expect more to come from the u.s. in the next year or 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 weiwei technologies she was arrested in canada on december first in connection with violating sanctions against iran china has to moderate 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 clarified 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 her confirmation hearing in may would you purchase a walk away from her connect your phone or computer to a why we are easy to 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 t. holloway has not so far been formally accused of breaching u.s. export sanctions still to come on counting the cost wholly. 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 civilisations. and the extinction of much of the natural world. is 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 asia africa and the middle east as part of its one belt one road initiative which is there as robert bride reports now from myanmar where activists say mining operations have increased recently in the northeastern shan state mines like this one a largely closed off to the outside world and have to be filmed discreetly. but the people living near them say there is no escaping the pollution they cause to their farmland and waterways site farms just a couple of fields that he says are now ruined there since the company started to

mine for coal i've lost the water for my farm my land is covered with coal dust and i can't grow any crops all around this area in million miles east in shan state is evidence of mining operations recent changes in regulations mean foreign companies can now invest in medium and large scale mining the government has defended its increasing use of coal to meet the country's electricity needs despite objections from environmental groups. and civil society groups who have been educating people on their legal rights say the relative stability in me in ma could lead to a mining boom. at first we thought it's a great idea for development in our community but in fact it's not good it's getting worse and destroying us. given the state's proximity to china many investors are chinese but companies from japan and australia are also interested

and there are fears about a lack of regulation of environmental and safety standards in this remote part of the country. this underground fire at one mine was filmed by a monk who does not want to reveal his identity for his own safety. we don't expect the government to fix this because the problem comes from the government they're cooperating with military and foreign investors and we're very concerned about our safety because we are in a small local and we're fighting against people who have a lot of money and our opening up to the outside world has been a boost for people in other parts of me and ma but for many in this area the existence of coal under their fields and outside investment is proving a toxic combination. now we've spoken before on the program about the power of what they call e.a.s. g environmental social and governance investing this is when investors leverage their power over companies to change their policies on things like climate change

or oil and gas giant shell has been under pressure from investors to include carbon emissions targets in its business model and this week management signed a joint statement with a group of three hundred ten investors the oil firm has agreed to reduce the carbon footprint of the products it sells and link targets to executive pay but in france there's been a u. turn on a fuel tax the french government has backed down on a planned these will tax hike of the worst riots in central paris for fifty years the so-called yellow vests movement began as a group of unhappy motorists in recent weeks it's grown into a nationwide revolt against what is viewed as an unfair tax system and an out of touch president david schaper reports now on how the so-called yellow vest movement took off. it was the worst violence seen on the streets of central paris since the uprising in may one nine hundred sixty eight. scores of people were hurt and hundreds arrested in battles with riot police it all began with

a petition posted on facebook by this woman in may calling for a drop in fuel prices at the pumps a million hits and six months later she was live streaming to her followers driving to the first of the yellow vest protests in november. we're streaming live. lots of roads have been blocked by the police. the truck driver eric drew eg call for national blockade against fuel prices on his facebook page it's now receive seventeen million hits but it's mark zuckerberg who's behind their success or a chief executive of facebook introduced a new algorithm this year for the company's news feed with this update we will prioritize post spot conversations and meaningful interaction between people. the result has been the internet gets flooded by the end of s. groups and pages from traditional media outlets are to get

a look in and now that they have redraw from this. huge tax they realize that's not enough anymore so i think micro is paying big time on this group them because he makes the game how you game for him to play it was tom who came up with the idea the yellow vests should become the symbol of the protest in a facebook video posted from the south of france it's received more than five million hits i hope something will change in french people will be motivated and go out traditional forms of journalism are taking a beating television reporters were booed and pushed away by demonstrators join the protests last week academics say according to the demonstrators the real expressions of people can only be found on facebook and journalists are just another elite who are out of touch with the voice of the matter. now students have joined the protests the demonstrations are gaining momentum at this high school

north of the capital one hundred forty six of them were arrested by police after clashes and herded into a garden joining us now from paris is very can guy and is adjunct professor of strategic management at a.t.c. in paris very good to have you with us has the french government done enough to put an end to these protests so the government then made a conversation yesterday but this concession is arriving too late and it is supposed to all of a fuckin station so if you had been done three weeks earlier they would have been able to this shows the protests but now the balance of power is in favor of the streets and the government seems to have lost control of the police seems to be overwhelmed and the people that make up the bulk offer the french society of the silent majority they are starting to realize that they have a lot of the. our they have a lot of clout and they can influence the decisions all the frustration of have

been simmering for years they are now unleashed in the public space but there's a certain irony here isn't there in that president mccraw is only introducing policies that were quite clear to everybody in the election campaign and that's why people voted him into power and now they're saying we don't like it. yes but the people who actually voted for him really supported his police yeah these are only twenty four percent of the population and if you were to take into consideration the number of people that three friend themself from voting you have only fifteen per cent of the population that are really in favor of the liberal reforms and i think that michael made major mistakes both in terms of style and in terms of content so in made a series of communication blunders and on top of that his party c. is lacking clarity is lacking relevance so it is a little bit tough for tax reform so fewer taxes here are more taxes there and

in the younger the level of economic. levy on the society on the economy is the same so there is no major changes and what is really more worrisome father people population is that there is no end to that you know so there is no vision so why should they make any effort any sacrifice so this is not clear and on top of that his foreign policy is a bet on a more integrated more cohesive europe is more or less a failure so. he has almost everything wrong and the population is bringing that to the scene and as far as governments tackling climate change are concerned this was was all about a rise in fuel tax which is sensibly was about was to help with the fight against climate change if governments can't raise taxes on fuel is that contribute to

climate change how can they tackle liberal big ations when it comes to the environment yes that's a real contradiction and what we're seeing in france are really raises the question whether climate changes and of fighting against climate change is compatible with economic growth that we have to question or. well i've been to consumption to death to growth all those questions i really have to be tackled and it's true that if you want to do something to preserve the planet and the climate it's not certain that's just marginal improvements to the economic system will be enough thirty eight really good to talk to many thanks indeed for being with us thank you for having me and finally this week the holy land is experiencing its highest number of tourists in years israel says that october figures were record breaking it's exactly what bethlehem in the occupied west bank needs that's where palestinians have been struggling to make ends meet stephanie deca reports from bethlehem.

the holy land pilgrimage is a multi billion dollar industry right now but it was a very just a right. it's been struggling over the past few years not in the. trade while i you know us a star as i know i think this year has been the best and years and there were so happy to see people coming from all over the world oh actually in the market out of india all of them willing to pull this pilgrim from brazil tells us everything is wonderful for you ladies from ten years from kenya is this your first time in bethlehem numbers and i'm born oh how are you finding the place then a nice little holy virgin what it will bethlehem is in the occupied west bank and the ongoing political tensions between israel and the palestinians have a direct effect on the tourism industry and the stores are going to important. reason for the police and that was to come through the not just the bethlehem or to

go down to the region and. this year was somehow. if you want to compare it with other years outside the main attraction pilgrims wait their turn to go inside but most of the visitors who come to bethlehem are religious tourists retracing jesus' steps including to where they believe his life began beneath what is now the church of the nativity but a different type of tourist is also starting to come attracted by big name art and it's raising awareness about the political complexities here the anonymous british artist banksy has been drawing attention here with his hotel next to the controversial separation barrier and boasting the worst view in the world his multi-million dollar art appeared on the separation wall last year from my point on have your it's or not of a good idea to have this well over over there between the two peoples who saw

necessary evil. well the problem is this french family tells us they came here because of the artists' work that they were shocked at seeing the wall while. they others as you i'm christian and i can't accept their homeland that so symbolic that you build a wall it's not possible they has to be another way than a wall and to terrorize a population whether the visitors are here for religion politics or art palestinians tell us they haven't seen this many foreign faces in bethlehem for a very long time and hope they will continue to come stephanie deca ending our show for this week if you'd like to get in touch with us to comment on anything that you've seen it a figure on twitter please use the hashtag a j c t c if you treat me well you could drop us a line counting the cost of al-jazeera that is our e-mail address as always there's plenty more for you online at al-jazeera dot com slash c.t.c. that takes you straight to our web page and they will find individual reports links

even entire episodes for you to catch up but that's it for this edition of counting the cost i'm adrian for the go for all of us here and thanks for being with us the news on al-jazeera is next. singapore is being accused of expanding its coastline with illegally dredged satins some of the islands off the coast of indonesia and literally vanished it's a big business smuggling you sample in they will take the sand there in fill in the sand is our parakeet you see this beautiful beach but behind it is something that's not so plentiful the tragedy is that people are just not aware and ecological investigation into a global emergency sand walls on al-jazeera. in nepal poverty leaves children vulnerable and at risk but sometimes those who say they can help cause the most harm one of many shines a light on predators in the aid industry. on al-jazeera.

this is al jazeera. hello again i'm adrian finnegan this is that is a live from doha coming up in the next sixty minutes french police arrest almost three hundred people anti-government protests resume in paris. court papers to regularly implicate donald trump in campaign finance crimes as new evidence is provided about contacts between his inner circle and russia. yemen talks in sweet and stalled with the warring sides divided over the reopening of some airport. on polar east for the sport event says prove unstoppable again in syria that already well on calls for an eighth talian title and.

the so-called yellow vest movement is protesting across france it's been a day full of tear gas and tension police say that daily two hundred eighty people were detained in the capital ahead of the demonstrations earlier this week president emmanuel mccall canceled planned hikes and fuel taxes which sparked the protests but many as says they won't stop demonstrating until the government meets their wider dumond's of last weekend's protests in paris where the most violent in decades one hundred thirty people were injured across the capital the french government doesn't want to repeat this weekend on friday the interior minister announced eighty nine thousand security forces have been deployed across the country of those eight thousand officers were sent to police the streets of paris and armored vehicles are in the capital for the first time since the protests began

last month let's go live now to paris was a serious david chaytor is that david the day began quietly enough in the last hour though things have changed what's happening. yes i can give you an eyewitness account of the first serious clashes here in the seans elisei i don't know how well you know it but it was a side street between long and cut did you lose. the whole crowd surged forward towards that at least barricades on that side street that comes off for you this aerial shots at least say they started trying to dismantle shakedown a metal fence trying oversea to get hold of some sort of something they could throw at the police lines and then they replied with a huge cascade of choking tear gas and all of those were forced to retreat and that is now exactly what the the whole to the whole thing is happening here.

raining down tear gas grenades stun grenades into the crowds to the capitol to here in the show and so the say and what you're hearing most of all ages from the crowds is the largest thing i can translate is that not grant them you see on which is macro design but the real anger is at the tactics being used by the right at least once again so the anger is surging around here in the seans elisei along with the tear gas and it's impossible to say where the next class will come out but they are coming they are happening and i've been told that it's a very to support other three hundred fifty four arrests have been made so far and that figure will of c. climb during the course of the day demonstrates is reporting that the police have removed the mosques that they were wearing earlier in the day they were wearing those mosques to protect against the tear gas that's now being fired against them

is it possible to put a number on that the number of people demonstrating that the interior minister said that he expected far fewer people to be on the streets this weekend's compared to last week. well i can say is that there must be several thousand here and there are more being allowed to come through but yes it's a significantly large turnout seems to me from being here last such day it seems to be a larger crowd so i think the interior minister just off custom there was a bit too optimistic about the number of yellow vests protesters it certainly is really sean's elisei and we're getting police patrols coming past as all the time they're trying to protect the side streets trying to protect the police barriers amending any of the real troublemakers through the the the and it casts. extreme

that the extreme right if they break down one of these barriers to the various down that would open up the seans elisei to real troublemakers for the moment everybody here has been searched by the police they've had their bags looked at they've they've removed any projectiles any any canisters anything that could be thrown at the police but still the protesters here on the moving towards the lines all police and attempting to push through them so that's where the clashes are happening and it's breaking out along the side streets of the seans of these say how david would you describe the mood among the protesters who's causing the trouble here is that just a core group of people intent on on trouble. that is what the the the police are saying as far as i'm concerned though it seems to be a general movement towards some of the side streets these are not typically any

different to anyone else on see india the best crowds here and issuance of the say it's just that they're getting very emotional as soon as the kick ass comes to stop coming in waves of moving against the police so it's back with them forwards all the time this seems to be no coordinates of movement by the testers but the police are always trying to keep them back from the on the side streets by using the sea again so it's impossible to say what's going to happen how long it will last how angry will the get. and it is seizing around mainly the police themselves and that that's where they're trying to focus and that's why they take us being used to drive them back from those barricades and the blow to the police report on the side streets a. david many thanks indeed is there is david changing lives in paris we'll. keep a close eye on what's happening in the french capital and of course bring you

updates. right throughout this news the government's reversal on its plans to hike fuel taxes hasn't stopped the demonstrations as you can see. the protesters say that they want more they've listed some forty seven demands which include the redistribution of wealth to bridge the gap between rich and poor the movement's calling for an increase in salaries with the minimum wage set around fourteen hundred dollars a month but the biggest demand is for president of money to step down they accuse him of making policy decisions that favor a big corporations and rich individuals. to the rest of the day's news to significant legal developments applying pressure on us president donald trump documents released by prosecutors in new york have for the first time directly linked the president to financial crimes allegedly committed during his twenty sixteen white house campaign separately team which is

investigating alleged russian interference in that campaign says that moscow contacted donald trump's then postal lawyer michael cohen as far back as twenty fifteen well his team also says that trump's former campaign manager pulled man a foot violated a plea deal by lying to them on five different masses including his contacts with a russian associate the white house says that none of this reveals anything new or damaging about president trump well there are several strands to this story as era shahab returns he breaks it all down for us now from washington. shortly after the release of some of the prosecution documents the u.s. president expressed his lack of concern totally clears the president he wrote thank you it's not clear exactly what he was referring to but some believe the contents of the latest memos should provide some cause for concern for donald trump michael cohen was trump's long time lawyer and fix up he's pled guilty to tax evasion and campaign finance violations and it's this latter charge that now directly

implicates the president in its filing prosecutors in new york say code made to hush money payments to women in contravention of campaign finance law that filing says as cohen has now admitted with respect to both payments he acted in coordination with and at the direction of individual one individual one is assumed to be donald trump so prosecutors are directly implicating the president in the crime the special counsel's moment about co and confirmed what was already in the public domain about failed attempts to build a trump tower in moscow that continued even as trump was on the campaign trail expounding about his proposed russian foreign policy however there are two new areas which might be of concern to trump firstly miller writes cohen provided the special counsel's office with useful information concerning certain discrete rusher related matters core to its investigation that he obtained by virtue of his regular contact with company executives during the campaign and cohen provided relevant and useful information concerning his contacts with persons connected to the white

house during the twenty seventeen twenty eighteen time period. it's unclear what information miller is referring to during the campaign but it's striking cohen is also discussing trump's first year in office with the special prosecutor. miller has also submitted a document about former trump campaign manager paul manifold he was convicted of illegal lobbying for the ukrainian government as well as financial fraud the special prosecutor says manifold broke a plea agreement reached to provide information in return for like a sentence this involves a redacted name miller says while negotiating the agreement manifold provided information about reduction that was pertinent to an investigation in another district however after signing the plea agreement manifold told the government a different and exculpatory version of the events in addition miller says manifold lied about context he had with the trumpet ministration off that he had reached that plea agreement the former director of the f.b.i. happened to be in capitol hill for a closed door questioning on friday he praised the special counsel's investigation

but gave a reminder that a lot of questions remain most important occasion of that is you don't know anything about it except twenty five something court and that's what makes it so don't trump has now been implicated directly in campaign finance violations but it's not clear what these latest findings have to do with the russian collusion investigation if anything however taken in conjunction with this heavily redacted document that was filed earlier this week in conjunction with the investigation into a former security advisor michael flynn there's plenty of speculation she ever dancey al-jazeera washington still to come on the news hour cleaning the what south korea is doing to cut air pollution that's coming from china. the. sights and sounds unthinkable a year ago and show just how far parts of iraq's mosul have come since the defeat of ice. place in sport will tell you how this eight year old girl scored

a goal to gender equality in full.