i was being the adult in the room is is nick has up to that joke. all areas has proven himself to be very professional and capable in his current position and he's seen as someone who has a certain political savvy that kelly may be lacking and for trump going into this new political climate in congress in january with the democrats taking over the house of representatives a politically savvy politician is someone that trump may be needed to navigate him through that new climate now i have to mention this not unusual for an american president to have major staffing shake ups after a midterm election however if you look at just the long list of positions that trump has lost or is losing this year alone it's not just kelly chief of staff but it's also the u.s. attorney general the u.n. ambassador the white house counsel secretary of state and i can just continue that list of notable cabinet members who are leaving that post and it does speak of the

turn of the high turnover rate in this white house specially in the early days of administration that was simply unprecedented as last close advisers many of whom felt alienated by his management style castro who live in washington. but thank you very much indeed. still to come here it is there are millions vote for the first time since this include velvet revolution that will be election cement the new leadership. and we've had the first snow of the season for some of us in japan and in some places it's been quite heavy so we not have this system hit festival that gave us some raid that it turned wintery and to turn to snow so the system is still

stringing its way along the southern parts there as we head through the day on monday for. the north well it could still be a few flurries of snow here as they makes its way across the sea of japan to the west it's very different here is generally a bit cold beijing at a maximum getting to minus one and if you think that chilly look at minus twenty two will be on top temperature on monday choose days obviously a balmy day will get to around minus seventeen well less cold at least as we head down towards the south we can see that we've got plenty of cloud over the southeastern parts of china at the moment there's that area of cloud making its way across shanghai that's going to be giving some of us some snow but i think force in shanghai is going to be a bit too mild so here we'll just see rain and fifty most slip its way southwards as we head through the day on tuesday so shanghai should have a dry and bright today more cloud there across the southern part so we could see a bit more great weather across hong kong for the south still and for many of us in the philippines it should be dry and we should also see a good deal of dry weather across borneo further west though this is where the

majority of the showers are. al-jazeera world follows the struggles of an iraqi painter a syrian screenwriter and a palestinian filmmaker as they come to terms with their lives as displaced artists in lebanon. the first to go and the last two to zero. five and you're home alone in my imagination. it's refugee artists on al-jazeera.

trying to take out of the top stories here it out is there a cleanup operations underway in paris after riot police squared off with thousands of anti-government protesters on saturday the government's deployed heavy security for the latest round of yellow vest demonstrations is the fourth straight weekend of protests against president macro with calls for him to resign al-jazeera is investigative unit has gone undercover to reveal one of france's fastest growing right wing movements members of generation identity and known for racist attacks and their willoughby's report exposes the group's connections to far right political figure marine le pen. the us president's chief of staff john kerry has quit donald trump is in talks with the vice president's top aides nick cares to replace him. the regional disunity is hanging over the gulf cooperation council the g.c.c.

summit as it gets underway in riyadh leaders have been arriving they're being met by the saudi king sound well the host and two other g.c.c. countries a continuing their economic blockade of fellow member cata and that disappears as well as a diplomatic fallout surrounding the murder of saudi journalist jamal khashoggi are among the issues overshadowing this annual event let's go live now to our correspondent who is covering the summit from kuwait city and jamal we see that there's been a tweet by the bahraini foreign minister criticizing cass after sending a minister of state describing that as a low level representative tell us about the other levels of representation being sent by the other members of the g.c.c. . indeed i mean it should be taken into context obviously as you mentioned there martin this is the second summit to take place since the blockade of qatar

began a blockade that's was launched by saudi arabia the united arab emirates behind and considering that the last summit was held here in kuwait which was mediating disputes in the emir of qatar did attend that sort representing his country whereas the heads of states of the three blockading nations refused to go was seen as a snub not only the g.c.c. is unity but more importantly attempts by kuwaiti mediation to find a resolution to this crisis this time around the fact that decided to send the assistance to the foreign minister to represent the country could be seen as by some as all source not from doha to the host nation but there is also significant concern or at least when you look at the way in which side the arabia has operated over the past year and a half in terms of the tension or the reports of the tension of minister saad how do you see when you look at the attempted or reports of an attempted coup inside by

saudi and other allies therefore a lot of commentators would say it was extremely unlikely that i was going to send its head of state considering the practices and policies that have taken place what's more important here is to look at what's could come out of these meetings martin and when you look at the representation those who are attending obviously represent the highest. position in their countries or at least close to it so for example you've got the united arab emirates and think it's deputy leader all my love easily said look it's foreign minister because it's head of states where he travels abroad but this is nothing more than really a symbolic kind of meeting in the sense that. the gulf countries like to show that they have unity they like to show that saudi arabia is essentially trying to lead a way for. obviously saudi being able to host this summit considering it's come out of the at a time where it's been receiving

a lot of bad press because of the murder of jamal khashoggi and because of our there are some policies pursued by crown prince muhammad in somalia will try and make the most of this to show that actually it's law isolated and that it is in fact a regional power that's probably the most tangible if anything will come out of this summit is that they will try to maybe portray it from that perspective but you're talking about a time where a member state is under blockade where the g.c.c. . hasn't been g.c.c. rather hasn't been able to use the mechanisms within to resolve the crisis where economic free trade which is the core of that g.c.c. has essentially been obliterated because of the crisis and therefore it's very difficult to see how anything positive will come out of this some all right jim thanks for that jim are live in kuwait city where here in the studio with me is giorgio. the chief executive of gulf state analytics which analyzes risk an opportunity is among the g.c.c.

nations interesting times aren't they given the amount of international attention international opprobrium actually being directed at saudi arabia because of its various activities in various to mainz how realistic is it do you think that there is enough pressure on riyadh to lift the blockade on cattle for instance. you know some people argue that if washington were to apply more pressure on the blockading countries this whole crisis would come to an end that may or may not be true but thus far the pressure which has come from washington has certainly been insufficient to resolve this crisis my opinion is that this dispute is set to last for quite some time but hasn't the pressure from washington increased in the aftermath of the affair in the pump a and has told all of the g.c.c. countries to put their heads together come up with a plan because the americans want all of this region in place ready to fall in line

behind them with regard to the sanctions campaign against the wrong who they see as the prime enemy yes so when the g.c.c. crisis began u.s. efforts to try to resolve this dispute diplomatically were futile and i think many in washington sort of gave up some hope then after the murder of a saudi journalist in turkey back in early october more officials in washington began to say you know what now we have an opportunity to use the qatar crisis as sort of a chip in our talks with the saudis but i think the yemen war is probably going to be more affected by this murder case the lawmakers in washington are increasingly outraged by the humanitarian crisis there but at the same time i think there might be a little more pressure on the called her crisis issue as well and we are coming up to about eighteen months of this blockade and is very very keen to present itself as having done rather well out of it just today the finance minister showing that

the economy is rebounding very well indeed in looking rather healthy is that the actual case you think oh do you think that is absorbing a great deal of damage if you like from the blockade this is been an unprecedented challenge for katara but i think of objective li speaking the tories have proven to be very resilient very flexible throughout. this crisis you know early on there were concerns that this pressure from the blockading countries was going to force called her to capitulates to these thirteen demands that would have automatically amounted to costs are giving up its sovereignty but doha has been able to work with other regional allies including two other g.c.c. members kuwait's and oman as well as other actors in the region as well as internationally to really circumvent this blockade and i think they've done a very good job to their credit giorgio caffie had oh thank you thank you now the outgoing u.s. ambassador to the u.n. has made a first public comments on the matter jamal khashoggi he had he told the atlantic

magazine that the saudi government doesn't get a pos we can't condone it we can't have a say it's ok we can't ever support thuggish behavior and we have to say that she have a tendency has more from washington. it's been widely speculated that nikki haley will run for political office again one day and this interview suggests she's in no mood to come down emphatically and offend anyone who may be useful to her in the future yes she says the saudis need to be held accountable but she also says they are the key ally for the u.s. in fighting iran her accountability her idea of accountability repeatedly in this interview is what she calls the dozen or so saudis who have been sanctioned by the u.s. she's pushed by the interviewer there what if it's shown that moment is directly accountable then she says well look then that's up to the trumpet ministration but she does accept that bollard when someone is technically responsible but only

technically responsible that's despite what we've heard the cia assessment is that he is fully responsible in their best assessment now we also have this new york times article about jared cush news current relationship with the saudis it confirms what we already know gerard mom had been someone are in very constant what's app contact and text each other a great deal that's continuing since the khashoggi murder that jarred the new york times says is a devising moment been someone on how to weather the storm and is his biggest supporter in the white house in addition the new york times gives us extra information on how that relationship developed the new york times says the saudis targeted krishna two years ago the reason their opinion that jarred knew very little about the middle east. china is warning canada of severe consequences if it doesn't release a top executive of one of the world's largest telecoms companies the foreign

ministry has launched a diplomatic protest calling the case extremely nasty who always chief financial officer among one june was arrested last week on charges of evading u.s. sanctions against iran the canadian courts are deciding whether to extradite her to the u.s. but she could face a years in prison. two people have been killed in opposition protests in togas capital loamy unidentified gunmen killed at least one of them liam arrested this west african nation followed a government ban on protests the opposition is boycotting a parliamentary election showed chilled for some of the twentieth alleging irregularities most of all protests have been heard over the past year calling for president nothing baze resignation libya's state oil company the n.a.c. has denounced what it called the occupation of an oil field by protesters local tries and

a threatening to shut down the l showed our field which produces more than three hundred thousand barrels a day they're demanding financial assistance for their community the n.o.c. says the oil is still flowing but warns of catastrophic consequences weatherfield to close libya's been in turmoil since the fall of moammar gadhafi is government in twenty eleven with large parts of the country under the control of armed groups. armenians are voting in their first parliamentary elections since mass demonstrations earlier this year ended decades of one party rule the polls suggest a landslide for the acting prime minister nicole passion yan he came to power in may after what became known as the velvet revolution robin for ca walker has more from the capital yet of our. nicole passion and he's my step alliance are riding sky high in opinion polls and therefore they are expected to win

by a significant majority in today's election and if that happens this will be the finishing touch if you like of his so-called velvet revolution when back in the spring he managed to bring out tens of thousands of armenians onto the street to bring about a peaceful transition of power back then he was elected prime minister. with hundreds of thousands of armenians on the streets demanding parliament make him the country's leader but he only had a handful of seats in power in parliament so what he needs now and why he's holding this snap election is to transfer that popular power that he has on the streets into the corridors of power where he will have a legitimate mandate to carry out the reforms that he's promised to the armenian people things like dealing with the oligarchs and their monopoly on the economy

bringing in more money bringing in investment changing the education system and of course one of his key platforms having a free and fair democratic system now this is been one of the criticisms that has been. raised at him brought into question the fact that he's holding these elections when he's riding this wave of popularity and there hasn't been much campaign so i mean the other political parties are at a disadvantage and if he gets into power with a significant majority how is he going to exercise his orthe already we've seen some harsh language coming from him in recent weeks he's been accused of using hate speech in intimidating his opponents he would argue that he's fine. in fire with fire he's been given that mandate by the armenian people to take all the corrupt old elites and so he's got to go in hard but whether or not he wins this election

with an extremely high majority is expected the question then will be whether he's going to. exercise his or towards the democratically the catholic church has paid tribute to monks and graduate and kill during our jarius civil war in the one nine hundred ninety s. the ceremony in iran saw nineteen people declared martyrs and steps taken towards granting them sainthood the pope sent a message franking the algerian government for allowing the services take place and hoped it would help heal the wounds of the past two hundred thousand people died in the conflict with christian clergy among those targeted by armed groups. time for a second over the top stories here around or more than seven hundred people have been arrested across france during the latest sacred yellow vests protest on

saturday a cleanup operations underway in paris after riot police squared off with thousands of anti-government protesters on saturday it's the fourth straight weekend of protests against president macro with calls for him to resign he is expected to address the protests in the coming days al-jazeera as investigative unit has gone undercover to reveal one of france's fastest growing right wing movements members of generation identity and known for racist attacks and verbal abuse the report exposes the group's connections to far right political figure marina pan. it's one of the fastest turnovers in u.s. presidential history and now another member senior self is leaving donald trump's white house chief of staff john kenny goes at the end of the year the retired marine general has been in the job for sixteen months is one of a series of resignations as the white house prepares to take on

a new democrat led house of representatives president tom is understood to be trying to take on the vice president's chief of staff nick as john kelly will be leaving retire but i don't know if i can say retiring but he's a great guy john kelly will be leaving at the end of the year we'll be announcing we take in john place it might be on an interim basis i'll be announcing that over the next day or two but john will be leaving at the end of the year he's been with me almost two years now as you know between the two positions so. we're probably going to see a bit a little while regional disunity is hanging over the gulf cooperation council the g.c.c. summit is it begins in riyadh leaders have been arriving to be met by the saudi king solomon the hosts into other g.c.c. countries are continuing their economic blockade a fellow member qatar that dispute and the diplomatic crisis surrounding the murder

of jamal khashoggi among the issues that are doing this the thirty ninth annual summit all right up to date those are the latest headlines from us air it out is there coming up next it's inside story. you're. cutting supply to push up prices some of the top oil producing countries have reached an agreement so what does it mean for consumers and how long will this deal between opec rivals and allies last this is in science or.

hello welcome to the program has the world's major oil producers agreed to slash production off the meeting in vienna in the hopes of getting prices up again the cuts by opec and other produces outside the cocktail we'll take one point two million barrels a day from world markets the price of oil has tumbled from eighty five dollars a bow in october to sixty dollars this week but it needed the agreement of non opec member russia will bring in our guests in a moment but first this report from paul brennan in vienna. 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 tail numbers and so on friday as the meeting expanded to include non opec members all eyes were on alexander novak the russian energy minister but she was after thorough analysis which we have been conducting of the market situation will be ready to come to me to understanding on how to take corporation further. the final figures opec members will reduce output by eight hundred thousand barrels a day the non-a pick 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 used 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 who was going to be doing that so for example the saudi government laid out their pact of if they were moving barrels the russian government also gave us in a window about what their with options would be so i think the statement was actually more transparent than expected i think it actually is a more robust cut than we expected to 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. does 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.

or so in october brant crude oil prices risa three year high but they then crashed around thirty percent from early october prompting this week's decision in vienna that's the spot us president donald trump urging saudi arabia and others to keep prices down the u.s. this year became the world's top while producer for the first time since the one nine hundred seventy three for saudi arabia and russia are second and third other big oil producers iran libya and venezuela have all been exempt from making any production cuts in this deal. let's bring in our guest now joining us on skype from moscow we have nicholai served gulf senior research fellow at the institute of world economy and international relations in london salami an international oil economist and in leesburg virginia a sane askari professor of international business and international affairs at

george washington university good to have you all with us gentleman let me start with you what do you make of this decision by opec and others. was it perhaps a bit more aggressive than than many were expecting. i think it is a good decision and a practical one to stop the decline of the oil prices it might not the result immediately in higher oil prices but it is a step in their either direction especially with the country beautician or a major contribution from saudi arabia and is slightly less contribution from russia it will even be a correction of a mistake made in june by saudi arabia and that of pressure from president graham

and russia when they added six hundred fifty thousand barrels of oil to their market and that increased at an already existing glop in the market that was wondering isn't why the prices gunned down there is another reason which is the. by the global oil market that the us sanctions on iran have not yet coerced iran a single battle of oil and so the market relaxed as you mean that there will be no all supply definitions see in the global oil market well let's put that point then to say no askari is this partly an effort to correct a decision that was made earlier in the year in june when they decided to pump more

oil to to make up for the the lost iranian supplies and prevent prices spiking. well i think that the. that what's going on is that in fact saudi arabia as was just mentioned by your previous guest saudi arabia increased its all production and i think that now the sacrifice the saudi arabia is supposed to be making is not really any kind of a sacrifice because it increases all production by quite a bit earlier this year and so when you take that from a base to cut back from that base is not that much of a sacrifice i think that when i look at the history of opec. i can tell you that i don't think that this decision will do very much opec has never been able to. not sheep to be able to stick together and now we're really talking more about not just opec but opec including not opec so i don't think this will have that much of an

effect on prices i think what's much much more important in this room of things is the state of the world economy if in fact what happens to the money i think right now is the key where you are in the u.s. has a nascar what about the trump factor in all of this and we know we know the u.s. president has been tweeting about and wanting to keep prices low yet the saudi arabia's energy minister. said that this decision was made out of economic necessity and in his words not driven by any political agenda and now in other words he's saying we're going to do what we need to do and it really doesn't matter what president trump tweets about it. well i think the saudi oil minister is rather brave in saying that i'm sorry to say that's not the history of things but i think for mr trump there are number of balancing issues that are at play here on the one hand i think you would like to see low oil prices because that helps his base it's

like a tax cut in the sense when you have low oil prices and also i think why he needs lower prices is that all indications are that the united states economy will go to into a recession later next year as so if you have a recession that will also hurt him because what that will do is that will be more unemployment and with the election coming up in twenty twenty he will be in an untenable position so he would like to see lower prices for that but on the other hand he has another problem which is when you have low oil prices the u.s. stock market generally goes down and that's added to volatility and the u.s. stock market going down and so i think mr trump has got it's got a real problem on his and but on balance i think he would like to see lower prices nicholai sort of the point was made in in paul's report there that this distill

could not be done without russia needed russia on board to get this done what does that say about how important a player it is now in the global oil market not being an opec member itself and what is a say about opec's power in all of this. well i think from the russian point of view opec is still strong and influential that is why russia is actually cooperating with opec and for russia opec is the only partner that can help really to stabilize the prices moscow is no interested in raising the prices as high as possible because well most of the government revenue comes from oil exports in and of course russia is ready to supply most to about one third of the costs so it is the. an important contribution and russia is ready to work with saudi

arabia in maintaining high old oil prices and i think this decision by opec was a very strong sign was a very important sign that russia and saudi arabia will work together on the oil market in order to maintain high prices it's a declaration of sorts both economically and politically and i think both countries are very much concerned we the consequences of the u.s. efforts to increase production of oil. america and of iranian sanctions because despite the fact that until now the sanctions didn't hit iran that seriously there is an expectation that iran very quickly will start exporting more and if you talk about cheating well that's what's being expected and iran will export at much lower prices than now so we need to take precautions in

order to stabilize the market and to maintain high prices mundo said i mean how much how much influence does does opec has a cartel really have on on well prices today that the fact they have to bring in russia and others in on this. first up it is not a car clearly it has never been at all in fact it was found in baghdad in one thousand sixteen to confront the kind of thing of the seven sisters its influence has gone through embargoes through wars through conflicts but it has set a vive it has a vital role to play in the global oil market is stab realizing that the market and step realizing oil prices facts star fear the role of a.