the few items of strength and stability in this administration everything that indicates stability everything that indicates strength everything that indicates knowledge is leaving this administration when president trump criticize nato and threaten to leave it matters was the one reassuring allies behind the scenes he helped push the president to moderate his position on the g.c.c. crisis. and he was able to get the president to make an open ended commitment in afghanistan while loosening restrictions on u.s. troops fighting there. and when trump tweeted out that he was banning transgender service members matters slow rolled the order until courts put it on hold the president's disenchantment was inevitably made public i think is sort of a democrat if you want to know the truth it would appear the final straw for james mattis was what many believe was a unilateral executive decision to withdraw u.s. forces from syria the secretary's resignation letter coming less than twenty four

hours later making clear the core difference in his belief in multilateralism and respect for allies and the president's lack of either the letter continues because you have the right to have a secretary of defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects i believe it's right for me to step down from my position this departures different from the many that have gone before highlighting like no other the maverick nature of a president that critics insist increasingly spurns advice even on the eve of a possible partial shutdown of government one that announces the resignation of a respected if not revered man who served his nation for decades in a tweet. mike hanna al-jazeera washington. tensions are once again running high in spain between barcelona and the central government a year after snap regional elections are cattle on the pendants activists are

holding protests in barcelona they coincide with a prime minister petro sanchez holding his cabinet meeting in that city on a go joins us live from barcelona so the cabinet meeting and that particular city why sonia. well prime minister better sanches has. really spawn this as a charm offensive saying that it's an opportunity a symbol of affection towards chats about society a sort of reaching out according to him that is not the way it is being perceived by pro independent titian's adaptiveness say they see it as a very provocative sign a symbol by the spanish government to still intent on toppling down on the region and preventing it from trying to exist in its own right as it was shot so this is part of the reason why they feel they need to be a lot

a lot more dialogue happening but speak these two hours five minutes to self is faced with between the two very difficult options has on one side politicians from his own party and from the opposition party saying he's being too soft by offering to have dialogue with the cats of our president and the government itself while sees being a set by criticism from the cat's lead saying he's still not doing enough to try and restore normal relations between the two and there has been a lot of very high vitriolic often rhetoric on both sides. and so this tension continues there is still no discernible option middle way that is being called through this. god has been really rocking this region for the possible teen months for shell and what is the status of catalonia now sonia.

totemist reachin it has come out six months ago from direct rule from madrid where the president was formally voted as head of the regional government. so that is still in play activists are worried though that this provocative situation here especially the fact that you've bought some nine thousand police school says patrolling the street trying to stop people from getting as close to the area where the cabinet meets mistake baseball so will they see it as a as a sign that the spot government is once again trying to provoke a situation where they will have to come down and use the heavy armor that will remember of course that when the illegal referendum took place fourteen months ago there was a scandal over how the national police force is set set themselves against protesters who would go in to vote in that illegal referendum so there is always that fear

that is by this central government will try to look for an excuse to reimpose direct route rule that's what the activists are saying but of course the central government they're saying no this is not what they want to do they just have to try and engage with the region and this is just one with that they have of trying to do it and they get to have to stick to dialogues and a lot of people are going to have to take compromise on both sides if there ever gets a result this issue michelle writes on it all live for us in barcelona signing thank you. plenty more head in the news hour and clothing long awaited elections and democratic republic of congo hit another setback. hurricane and its many allies know what china is doing to chinese men become the latest focus of a cyber dispute with the united states we'll hear from manchester united's new boss only been our sole shyer ahead of his first again then charge of things. i merely that it's coming up that's what.

goes in universities have been suspended in sudan's capital after eight people died in protest against rising food and fuel prices a state of emergency is in place in the city. and get a ref out of the capital khartoum police fire tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators near the presidential palace charlotte palace reports. outraged over rising food prices sudanese marched to the base of the slogan freedom purchase of a ruptured emotional susie's the largest store in the city of akbar was sudan is a flashpoint over rising inflation now at nearly seventy percent it's one of the world's highest i. was purchased just chant people want the government down it coing recalls heard in the arab spring revolution seven years ago this has been sudan's long ago where if you doubt of spring because. the government has not been listening for quite

a while but in the last few months they have also the economy has just gone downhill in the very back where i mean the situation just exploded there had been explosion board for a while now. a state of emergency was in forced an app or a after the headquarters of the ruling party was set on fire the curfews in force and schools are closed. a few hundred kilometers south down the river nile this long queues and growing concern of office for van marsh of the living conditions in sudan is deteriorating we have queues everywhere for fuel and at a.t.m.'s you can't even pull your money out of the bank you can't get your salary everything has become so expensive and we don't know what is happening it feels like there's a ticking bomb and we don't know when it'll explode. sudanese feel the inflation through the price of brit the cost of a loaf has tripled in some areas and they are a bridge and fuel shortages nation weis and the capital khartoum some queue for

hours outside bakeries government leaders announced a twenty nine hundred budget this week including one point four billion dollars of subsidies for fuel and brit but shopkeeper hussain osman says people need help now but what they're gonna. situation used to be good in the purchasing power people had was reasonable but conditions are bad now the goods are expensive and so people are unable to buy them the sudanese economy has struggled since the succession of south sudan in twenty eleven sudan lost three quarters of its oil output accounting for ninety percent of export revenues it was a crucial source of foreign currency the crisis is deep into this year after subsidy cuts and the devaluation of the sudanese pound now it's an anxious whites to see the true cost of this crisis chela ballasts. and ahead of the news council have another story about the disparity between the rich and poor and this time out

of thailand. opposition supporters in the democratic republic of congo are waiting to hear their leader for spawn's to the election delay it will now take place a week later on december thirtieth commission says violence and one just tickle issues force that. catherine so i reports in the capital kinshasa it's been a long and difficult day for the democratic republic of congo's independent national electoral commission sent election officials have been preparing for a march and dissipated presidential and parliamentary pool that has been delayed for two years now on sunday voters want to cast their ballots using new backed controversial electronic voting machines for the first time in the country we have . and election is going to take place on the tenth year of december this year. this was.

due. to. technical. relief to him in just. it's a logistical nightmare millions of ballot papers i get to arrive in the country the last batch on the gets to kinshasa on saturday the president of the electoral commission has said that the delay is mainly because of a crisis in kinshasa after a warehouse where the city's voting machines will stored was barnes' down security and i need outbreak in the east i've also been mention of some people are angry about this decision. blame all pain and suffering on president kabila and the same the president we are ready to be killed for our country this man who outside the commission's office is saying. send his executive board had held him audience your meetings with presidential candidates the catholic church and government officials to explain why it's impossible to go to the polls on sunday three main

candidates a man will show diary of the ruling party felix. leader of the country's largest opposition party as well as muslims the youth of the condit of a quality called america did not show up we are telling him yesterday he has to be told if both he and the mr avila was to be removed from the a twelve was because of the people of philadelphia the that they cannot have an excuse to force for the election for sure we're going to possess we will say no to this because this is kind of you know. of a a way of for you know of the respecting people. on wednesday the governor of conciousness suspended or political rallies in the city for security reasons this campaign period has been chaotic and violent delaying the election only adds the

tension and sat in thousand the country. and catherine sawyer joins us live now from contrast us so far and how are people there reacting to the news of the still a. personality being remarkably quiet about an hour. you have been talking. very good. i think i'll wait for more. where. we are right outside. the headquarters of the ethical library. in the country. and you didn't. believe. that news and anything. addressing the supporters have been coming here and to keep them away for a while but we've also been speaking to some of his advisors i say that they're

very disappointed that the electoral commission had all this time to prepare people they just wanted to put the vote on sunday they just wanted to vote for the perfect candidate on sunday so that saying that the president of the electoral commission. resigned because he hadn't done his job we've also been speaking to other presidential candidates who had similar thoughts. who know why in fact imagine. the day. and presidential candidates are saying that they have valid points and they really need people really need to be patient and see that pre-commitment trying to organize this election is a week long enough to organize this election catherine. that is why many people may be on the we shall not want an actual commission i stayed in that press conference i'm at the helm of the reserve down having

a technical technique called problems and they particularly cited a crisis in test if you remember last aware house in the city where out of the season this was the listing of what the board would find out almost all the nice things that were mentioned for voting on sunday what destroyed ballot papers those walls so that natural commuters days back the big problem and then you also have the issue of you know about four million ballot papers which i've yet to arrive in the country get told that their schedules are actually more they have to be deployed to different parts of the country and this is a country we very value for structure some places you can only get their own food and that truck commission itself the government has refused any help from international community that you went. help if you called. they say that david. election

is going to happen if they see people have already been elected by people here i think that they are not expecting much back in the election it's going to be. ok and of course continue to cover it catherine so i live there on the ground and contrast to thank you catherine. china has rejected us accusations that it's responsible for a massive hacking operation that targeted organizations including nasa and the u.s. navy to people have been arrested and justice department says the suspects are linked to the chinese government had a hand has more from washington d.c. . at the justice department sweeping allegations against two chinese nationals accused of widespread hacking the victims included companies in banking and finance telecommunications and computer consumer electronics medical quitman packaging manufacturing consulting healthcare biotechnology automotive oil and gas

exploration and mining the government says the hackers were able to get into the computers of nasa the energy department and the navy stealing the personal information of one hundred thousand sailors they wouldn't name the companies that were targeted but did say many of the attacks were aimed at managed service providers you've all heard about situations where you see somebody essentially the cyber equivalent of breaking into a house this is more like breaking into and getting the keys from the maintenance supervisor who has keys to hundreds and hundreds of apartments and all the residents in those apartments according to the indictment the to work for the chinese government and are believed to still be in china meaning they are unlikely to actually be arrested but this comes at a time of increased tensions between the u.s. and china after the arrest of a chinese tough. executive at the request of the u.s. on charges of violating sanctions and the clock ticking on a ninety day window hoped it ending the trade war leading to another bad day on the

stock market as the u.s. injects even more tension to the over the front u.s. china relationship. al-jazeera washington and estimate we will have whether with staff that's still ahead on al-jazeera grounded by a drone but there are some really for travelers who have been stranded for more than a day at britain's second biggest airports. in a bad day for the history rockets and one of their star players and the n.b.a. details in sport with santa. by the springtime flowers of a mountain unique. to the first month on the interstate. hello there for some of us in south america it has been absolutely throwing it down over the last day or say in fact when is are is the rains got so bad that the puddles have really got quite deep as you can see here so people have been wading

through in some of that water has also been entering some of the subways as well which has made it pretty miserable for people trying to get about all in all a very soggy picture there and it's all thanks to this weather system here you can see these bright white areas of collaborative just gradually drifted their way eastwards over the last twelve hours or so but the satellite picture is showing so we've had plenty of heavy rain and some of the worst of the weather has been aim when it's areas where we've seen around sixty millimeters of rain from the system fifty six in fact but over in brazil we've had even heavier downpours one hundred nine has been reported in santa maria say arguably the flooding should be worse there now all of that weather is going to stick around but it's on the move so the worst of it over what is are is just beginning to pull away eastwood's and instead behind it four point as always it should be a lot troy as we head through the next few days so that's definitely good news for us but you can see that system still drags its feet over parts of brazil and into

power so ascension is looking really quite wet as we head through saturday and sunday. the weather sponsored by qatar. adored by millions the stones most famous critic arrived just prime minister on the blades of the national celebration. now one hundred days into his leadership people in power asks whether delivering on promises will be is easy in practice as it was in theory. right now the nation is not feeling confident right now people are disappointed. in the one hundred days on al-jazeera. medieval western society it was a feudal society. the window to the bow as soon as to open ended his speech some people stood up so we'll see him at the entrance to the city was the cute people in the streets in the house and the goose

a. perspective that the sold one. at this time on the jersey you. are watching al-jazeera let's recap the top stories this hour president support ordered that withdrawal of up to seven thousand u.s. troops from afghanistan that would have the number of american soldiers in that country meanwhile u.s. defense secretary james mattis is quitting this is the latest high profile resignation in the trump administration and it comes a day after the president announced that all u.s. troops would be leaving syria broke out on independence activists are protesting in

barcelona as spain's prime minister holds a cabinet meeting in the city as are live pictures of those protests tensions are running high here after spain's government ruled that catalonia secession referendum was illegal. some flights have resumed at the u.k. second biggest airport after a drone brought it to a standstill on thursday the troops have been sent to gatwick airport south of london as police continue to hunt for the operator of two drones that if ice is reappeared nearby every time the airport tried to reopen its runway. let's go to me fark or who is at gatwick airport so what is the latest there. well after thirty six hours of transport chaos of misery for the tens of thousands of stranded passengers have been trying to arrive and depart from get we cap or it looks now as if things are very tentatively and very very slowly begin to return to

normal we're talking though about a very limited number of flights being allowed to depart and i arrived here at gatwick airport many of them to mystic flights all flights to europe long haul flights including transatlantic flights a largely still on hold largely still canceled having just go inside the terminal building here at gatwick south you already starting to see some people starting to get a little bit comfortable perhaps continuing the wait that started on thursday the arrivals area is largely quiet but if you go down into the departures hall where people are trying to check their luggage and there are very very long queues indeed the reason why the airport has been reopened tentatively is largely with the support of the military that were drafted in on thursday the police tell us that they believe now that there is specialist equipment in place enough specialist equipment in place to mitigate the possible reappearance of these mystery drones

here is what the assistant constable of sussex police told me a little bit earlier on. is two things i would say for the first one is when a much better place to say that we were yesterday in terms of the options available to us so we are in a really positive position in terms of detecting the drone tracking it mitigates the threat that it poses secondly the last confirmed sighting was just before ten pm last night so we've had a significant period of time where the drone hasn't appeared and i think that assessment has allowed the airport to open the runway. so the hunt of course for the rogue drone operator continues he's been referred to as the drone ranger or drone wolf by several british newspapers the police have told me that they are continuing to triangulate their. it's pulling the results of multiple agencies the military and intelligence to work out exactly who was responsible for this of course they keeping their leads close to their chests for now but there

have been some suggestions that perhaps environmentalists involved in protest against the expansion of gatwick airport are being investigated as part of these ongoing efforts the chief operating officer of get to work airport a little bit earlier on of the day told me that major lessons have been learned here at gatwick over the past thirty six hours learn very quickly indeed what has happened here at gatwick has major implications not only for airports and the rest of the country but also around the world parker abac airport thank you. black americans were the prime targets of russia's effort to help donald trump on the two thousand and sixteen presidential election that's the finding of a report from the u.s. senate and telethons committee black americans make up nearly thirteen percent of the population and tend to vote democrat out is there a site or cast or has a story. about september twenty sixth seen was a vulnerable time in charlotte north carolina the city was an upheaval over the police killing of a black man in the us presidential election was just over

a month away and your feet was among the local activists using social media to organize protesters there was somebody to reached out and said can we share this on our on our criminal justice reform page or something like that and i looked at the page and i had about three to four hundred thousand followers you know the likes or something like that so you know i'm thinking it's legit but black matter's us was actually made by hackers working for russia's internet research agency or the i r a a senate intelligence committee report found the most prolific ira efforts on facebook and instagram specifically targeted black american communities in appears to have been focused on developing black audiences and recruiting black americans as assets if these people were able to chart facebook twitter you sue google cia the f.b.i.

the obama administration of course they're going to trick the activists that are on the ground. but tricked them to do what u.s. intelligence has concluded russia wanted donald trump to win the presidency knowing that african-americans by and large were supporting hillary clinton they need to find some kind of way to intercept that leaders in the black church say russian hackers preyed on african-americans historic disenchantment with the us political system by tying that system to clinton and encouraging a paralyzing anger against her they polarize they highlighted the issues of. blacks in america and. you know again it was divide and conquer the protests that filled the charlot streets garnered national attention and waned racial tensions just weeks before the presidential election when it came time to cast a ballot the voter turnout among black americans was down seven percent from the

previous presidential election now the question is how much of that was due to russia's influence and was it enough to determine the winner do you think donald trump would be president if the russians had interfered directly targeting african-american voters in the u.s. no i don't think he would be president the u.s. government says there's no way to know for sure but to the people who were targeted by russia's influence campaign the answer is already clear heidi castro al-jazeera charlotte north carolina and the u.s. house of representatives has approved a spending bill with more than five billion dollars for president proposed wall along the border with mexico and now needs to get at least sixty votes in the senate to pass something that appears virtually impossible temporary funding bill must be approved and signed by midnight on friday to avoid a government shutdown cuba's new president miguel diaz canelo is over saying what's

being done as they modernization of socialism cubans have weighed in on a draft constitution which will be rubber stamp by the national assembly ahead of a referendum in february a cinema spoke with local locals that is about some of the changes they hope to see . after six decades the signs of decay in the western hemisphere's only communist country are evident and in recognition that nothing is in more need of modernization in cuba's political system ordinary citizens like roberto ramos are being allowed to weigh in on the draft a new constitution of the novels and there's. something interesting is happening in cuba people have the ability to meet to debate publicly not in a physical space but in a virtual space. drillbit the who runs a tattoo parlor is an activist who's pushing for the new constitution to recognize same sex marriage expanding those still expensive access to internet is allowing

him and many others to make demands publicly at and. one of the most pressing is for economic reform but it's being resisted by some who are clinging to the old economic model of total state control it's a tug of war i think there is a part of the goal to do. which are people more mordor more open minded looking at the world looking at the these model going to be a dummy's model i don't that that is because i have see that i have heard that musician this like many others is making perhaps the most difficult demand of all. that had to fight and that is for the constitution to give legal recognition for the right of anyone to have different political opinions whatever your political opinion may be and that you won't be considered a traitor or someone who's trying to destabilize the nation the draft constitution

will no longer allow officials including the president to perpetuate themselves in power and it also recognizes limited private property but when it comes to the political system the only change so far is to make it explicit that cuba's communist party will remain as the only. as the supreme and guiding force of society and the state even above the constitution cubans will be asked to approve the final draft in a referendum in february whether it will resemble the kind of constitution that they're asking for is still a mystery to see in human al-jazeera how than. the whining global wealth gap has sparked social unrest in many parts of the world it's raising particular concern in thailand after one survey named the country as having the biggest disparity one percent of the population controls more than two thirds of the country as well as highly reports from bangkok even though the physical distance between thailand's

rich and poor can be small for two it's just a matter of meters the wealth gap between them has been steadily widening and according to one report it's now the world's largest tos lived in a bangkok slum for forty five years and now in the shadow of the capital's latest ultra luxury mall she picks wild vegetables for her dinner who's worried should be kicked off the land her situation is not unique. a recent international report put thailand at the top of the wealth gap list in a country of nearly seventy million the richest one percent controls sixty six point nine percent of the country's wealth economist a bank executive on it raised concern on social media about the growing wealth inequality as it leads to social unrest like with the rival thai political groups known as the red shirts and yellow shirts that. things have been in new qualities you know for me the. red turk.

problem is quite clear to me that inequality at the grassroots some time capitalist thailand's military government quickly responded to pump on it and the wealthy records when you look at the data. the real data come from many countries table sixty six have only forty countries that country. even look at all country around the world. so for those ties at the lower end of the wealth chart it's not just about having few or no assets or even a low income it's about the lack of opportunities and resources so their chances and hope of changing their environment working their way up are extremely low a great deal of industries in retail in thailand are controlled by a select few firms or families they're well connected to the government ensuring their position top. top up lim chipped in oregon runs a craft beer company but he says he had to shift his brewing out of thailand because of regulations that favor the too large beer companies huge production

minimums and strict advertising laws he was even arrested emanuel. you cannot do it because someone already torso period. in this country that you know oh man not really. really. is possible for them too many people live at the moment so all their money. according to economists pump and it those unfair advantage is given to people who are already at the top of the wealth chart are the most damaging to the economy and the country it not only makes the rich richer but it takes money and opportunity away from others scotland al-jazeera banco. still ahead on al-jazeera former australian cricket captain steve smith addresses the media for the first time since his tearful apology for the ball tampering scandal assessed ahead in sport with saddam.