of avoiding the united states having to pay for a reconstruction in syria or for saudi arms sales from american companies for example and of course that was one of the reasons that president trump gave the saudi investment in the united states as a reason for basically shrugging off the conclusions of his intelligence agencies that officials at the highest levels of power in riyadh were responsible for the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi in istanbul in the saudi consulate there in october so this is part and parcel of the very friendly attitude towards the saudi regime and now asking saudi arabia to step up and pay some of the money that he thinks it should pay for the region. ellen wald as a senior fellow at the atlantic council and the author of saudi arabian kingdom's pursuit of profit and power she says president trump is defending u.s.

a strategic partnership with the kingdom. here's what i think the trumpet ministration thinks about this they see saudi arabia as a strategic partner in the region and trumpet certainly gone out maybe on the fence to defend that strategic partners ship and now he's saying look we are still committed to you now you've got to step up and do what needs to be done and it it's definitely been clear from tom's policy that they would like saudi arabia to really serve as an effective counterpoint in the region to iran and this is his way of saying look if we are going to be strategic partners then you have to play that role of partner and here's a place where you can step up and do that in the region there are plenty of places that money can go in syria to you know serve rebuilding efforts that aren't necessarily connected to iran or russia or the assad regime or turkey if there's not a dearth of there's plenty to be done in syria right now for turkey says it's working

with several countries to take an investigation into the killing or so to journalists to the united nations turkey's foreign minister has said ankara has demanded that riyadh share its findings on the case with the international community was killed inside the saudi consulate in istanbul nearly three months ago . at least thirty people have been killed in a coordinated sack in the afghan capital kabul hundreds were trapped when gunmen stormed a government building and began moving from floor to floor targeting employees marianna hong reports. as the sun starts to go down across the afghan capital kabul fires still burning and the attack on the government building was coordinated and went on for hour was a suicide bomber. explosives packed into a crowd before gunmen stormed the building and systematically moved through it firing on employees. it was

a frightening sound from the explosion we got scared an escaped people were very upset and everyone was running away police evacuated more than three hundred fifty government workers others reported themselves in their offices. but many more were caught happen an attack that reportedly went on. for eight hours. i was walking. in the area when suddenly there was a huge explosion it knocked me down the taliban launches regular attacks and controls nearly half of afghanistan but i still recall known recently as diane is active to both groups have launched coordination to text like this one in the past this is a sensitive time in afghanistan as the attack unfolded pakistan's foreign minister was in kabul for talks with the afghan president afghanistan's peace process was on the ridge and. the u.s.

has been pushing to revive peace talks with the taliban and just four days ago u.s. president donald trump announced plans to withdraw all seven thousand american troops half of the u.s. force in the country. when it was over at least it's making the deed but most of the people working for the government and about to head home for the day. are still had on al-jazeera u.s. stocks offer a further fall president tremblay aims the federal reserve while others blame him. israel's government calls early elections as the prime minister faces both political and legal troubles. in the spring skies by the taj mahal. are as the sun sets in the city of angels.

hello there the weather is quite quiet for many of us in the southeastern parts of china at the moment there is a fair amount of cloud but generally speaking it's also quite dry. though as we head through the day on wednesday and this time we'll see a few outbreaks of rain particularly through the who bay province and up through and if we can to shanghai this or a few heavy outbreaks of rain a likely hit to the south of that should be fine and dry force in hong kong all of top temperature twenty five but to the south and southeast well that's where the showers start once more so for us in taiwan we see a fair few showers and those i will say stretching across apos the philippines and into vietnam as well the satellite picture for the southeastern parts of asia well that's showing a lot of cloud here i've a job really is pretty wet here at the moment some of the rain really quite persistent further north we're seeing quite a intense area of showers that's making its way towards vietnam and that's going to intensify as we head into wednesday say vietnam looks pretty wet then and watch out for this little developing feature that's going to run its way to. wards of the

philippines as we head through the next few days they india and sri lanka we've still got the showers with us in the south you can see them here on the satellite picture they're sticking around so no major changes for us as we head through tuesday or wednesday furlan off a generally fine quiet with the weather nineteen degrees just the maximum in new delhi and quite. the weather sponsored by cateye race. kidnappings and murders in crimea since russia's forced onyx ation of the black sea peninsula. i don't understand why he was kidnapped. schools of crimea into ties have been arrested. on camera most believed by russian security forces. crimea russia's dirty secret on al-jazeera.

hello again the top stories on al-jazeera survivors of tsunami fear more waves of destruction could hit and with as little warning as saturday's disaster the volcano blamed for triggering the tsunami is still erupting at least three hundred seventy three people were killed when the wave slammed into the coastline. a u.s. delegation will be interviewed next week to discuss washington's decision to withdraw its troops from northern syria president donald trump has said saudi arabia will help to rebuild syrian cities that been destroyed in the war. at least thirty people have been killed in a car bomb and gun attack on a government building in afghanistan's capital kabul the eight hour siege ended when afghan police killed three gunmen. a partial united states government shutdown

and the trade war with china are having a crushing effect on u.s. stocks the market has tumbled to a historic christmas eve low but despite that president donald trump isn't taking any of the blame gabriel is all reports from new york. the closing bell couldn't ring fast enough on monday market sell off continued with the dow losing more than six hundred points and nearly three percent the worst christmas eve drop ever by far it continues to decline that's been going on for more than a month. until monday the worst drop on the day before christmas was one thousand nine hundred eighty five when it dropped half a percentage point markets hate uncertainty but now when wall street looks to washington they're getting that plus unpredictability here's what has the markets worried a partial government shutdown that some are predicting could last into two thousand one thousand frets of increased terrorist back and forth between china and the u.s.

trump has been looking to put the blame on the falling markets on the federal reserve and its chairman jerome powell who trump has threatened to replace even though he himself up pointed him and doesn't have the authority to fire him to unilaterally look at threats leaving wall street on edge i'm a little worried quite honestly i am behind here because of the valuation i think we're getting pretty t.v. although i feel no bottom in the market and i do think that the fed has made them contentious and serious. blunders and i feel like mr powell is going to get fired amidst the downturn monday trump showed no signs of backing down tweeting in part the only problem our economy has is the fed they don't have a feel for the market they don't understand unnecessary trade wars or strong dollars or even democrat shutdowns over borders just recently powell tried to put

a good face on the market volatility this is the best year since the financial crisis you have growth well above trend monday's sell off was also a fallout from treasury secretary steve minutia phone calls over the weekend to executives of america's top banks which was meant to assure them that the federal government was on solid footing but the unusual call only spooked the markets even more leaving many to wonder if there was something fundamentally wrong with the economy they weren't sharing the only good news on wall street perhaps. aps is that the market slide will stop at least on tuesday because that's when the stock exchange is closed for the christmas holiday but when it reopens again on wednesday all bets are off likely more worries of what's to come next april is on doe al-jazeera new york robert scott is a senior international economist at the economic policy institute he says donald

trump's economic policies are only partly to blame for the stock market woes i think the dow is actually responding to some very strong and negative economic fundamentals in the economy and i think it reflects that in part the jail here is a trumpet ministration economic policies not these trade policies for say but his broader budget and taxation policy which have caused that budget deficit to skyrocket and are pushing up long term interest rates which have a much bigger effect on the markets than the just the short term rates that are being pushed up by the fed i think there's a kernel of truth to what the what trump is saying that certainly the fed has contributed to the problem they're stepping on the brakes to hearten too fast and that is slowing the economy prematurely there are millions of people out there who could still go to work who needed jobs so we could continue this long run of growth that we've had for the last ten years or so so that's true but first of all i don't

think that's all that's going on as i said the tax and budget problems are a big problem i think that trump is looking looking at first state somebody other than himself that he can blame for the problems in the economy israel's government has called elections for april seven months earlier than expected and the announcement follows a deadlock over a controversial military conscription bill if prime minister benjamin netanyahu is returned to office he'd be on course to become israel's longest serving leader that's in yahoo says his coalition unanimously agreed to disband the government's. i think it's perfectly sensible to go to. complete agreement. complete unanimity and a great partnership with. all the elections been called as netanyahu faces a series of corruption allegations of the attorney general deciding whether to file charges against him gill hoffman is chief political correspondent with the jerusalem post he says that anyone who wants to get

a renewed mandate from the public netanyahu is going through a successful time when it comes to diplomacy security and connally but probably i.