because the damascus military is weak but over time damascus has damascus centralizes and reestablish itself it's going to eat away at that autonomy no doubt about it that damascus has made it very clear that they do not want the kind of situation that that kurds in iraq enjoy where almost no kurds speak arabic any longer and this has been very clear that you know that they need help that that they'll ally what with who and they've said russia iran what does this mean for the influence of countries like that in the region now that the u.s. seems to be such a shrinking factor was a big boost it's a big boost for russia it's a big boost for us what he needs that money you know america's policy was to beggar us to make him as poor as possible thinking that they could carry out regime change if they impoverished damascus by by by grabbing most of the oil resources agriculture and of course top down and euphrates water all of which now will fall

under damascus is control so that's a big boost it also means that poke that stock goes way up we're going to see our own he's going to be in the gulf and i think people are going to be paying attention what do what are your thoughts on the conflict concerns rather that isis is in a position now i still rather to to research i mean there are reports that you know nothing was done about the prisoners that are escaping it seems that there wasn't really any plan to even deal with that. there was not a plan and this is shows the chaos of the situation where things are deteriorating badly and we don't know what's going to happen those bruises on the other hand this puts the ball firmly in our sides court in the court of the kurds as well and russia's court all 3 are going to have tremendous interest in making sure that they keep control of the situation if it gets out of control and isis

pops back up of course it could draw america back in and that none of them want iran will be there as well they'll all i think cooperate if this situation doesn't out of control to try to make sure that isis does not come back what are the options to reign in arctic on it if this point if there really events are i mean there are reports that that on the line merkel made a phone call and then we keep hearing from the president trying tweeted it there are congresspeople that are saying let's try sanctions it's clear that donald trump is the one who growing let this in the 1st place if he really in a position to to rein this in in any way you know i think of this is where russia is going to really hold its cards in this it's because of very strong hand because

it's going to russia is going to want to mediate and to should limit the amount of damage that's done because whatever damage is done is going to big weigh heavily on the syrian government it's going to cost a lot more money and i don't think that you know air no one. this is very important for one it's very important for turkey that they achieve certain goals 1st of all national security goals but it's also seems quite clear and i think many people fear that turkey has territorial ambitions as well err don't want to have spoken the past of this is a time for courage this is a time for leadership and the borders are in flux he seems to be suggesting that if turkey makes some grabs it might end up keeping this territory and that you know that is a possibility because many of those militias the opposition militias you were talking about they don't want to be driven out of syria and they're depending on

turkey just the way the kurds are depending on the united states so turkey is going to. you know could be ensconced in this region for a long time to come to land us thank you so much for your your anti your expertise we appreciate it. plenty more head of the news hour including i'll tell you what happened in poland general election. and i pakistan's leader is on a tour of gulf countries and what he is hoping to achieve. and then support one of athletics longest standing world records has been broken in chicago. and tunisia conservative law for fessor a political outsider is poised to become the country's next president exit polls suggest it has secured 72.5 percent of the vote he's back by the end hotta party

which secured the majority of votes in last week's parliamentary election site promised to change the system and allow elected regional representatives to choose national leaders his rival media mogul now bale corey managed to get only 27.5 percent all of this is based on a turnout of 68 percent house of horrors in the capital tunis. it's a huge story here in tennessee it's the. it has managed to achieve what has eluded his predecessors is to $1011.00 this is someone who has won the election with more than 70 percent of the electoral votes which means that he has a strong mandate by the tennesseans to tackle the issues that the country faces but typically. economic problems and the political divides i think as soon as he takes the oath of office he's going to talk to the political parties to form a governing coalition as soon as possible as

a coach because the country cannot afford to wait longer and then start attacking the issues that the country faces with talking about someone who has emerged as a knowledge side that not to get to through the political landscape into his yeah as a political analyst law professor to becoming now to 2nd democratically elected president however he does understand that he faces a huge challenges ahead the political divide on one hand the budget deficit unemployment and poverty and he has made a promise to the people that he would change their lives for the better and he knows that from today people wait for him and see whether his guy into on of those promises him 8 i think what he has for the time being is this unprecedented popular backing his supporters are now on the side across the streets of the capital today celebrating he has the backing and this has this is happening for the 1st time now in tennessee after the 2011 revolution he has the backing of the leftist of the

nationalist and of the conservative party so even within the key components of the parliament he has a strong backing and he has a strong. mandate from the tunisians tonight more than 70 percent of the election a vote is behind him so with this i think he will go to the parliament and say you know why. i knew the governing coalition and i wanted to stop bickering feuding but i wanted to form a governing coalition. that's political stability if we can manage is to convince all the political parties the parties to implement some sense of stability that would help the nation to move forward and tackle the economy blame wants us professor at george washington university's elliott school of international affairs who joins us from washington d.c. thank you so much for your time so when you when with about 73 percent of the vote that is clearly a mandate what is the mandate for. its sort of

revolutionary agenda that has a conservative side to it how do we the opponent represented modernism but also the old regime he was corrupt he was in jail for much of the electoral campaign and that for that reason this candidate saeed refused to even campaign while he was still in jail but when they came out when he was released last week they had a presidential debate which ended up convincing a lot of tunisians that saeed was the better. candidate he's seen as someone with clean hands he was involved in the writing of the tunisian constitution youth respected him as a university professor now retired he has some conservative opinions which peeled to appeal to the islamists but this really was. a youth driven vote in favor of revolutionary ideals he does not have a party behind him and he's not the one that's forming the government that will be

done by the party that won the parliamentary elections so. let me back up on one thing of the debate that you mentioned this televised debate. how did that play out . well it was interesting kyra we looked like he hadn't spent a minute in jail but you can tell from the way in which they answered the questions and the way in which they presented themselves that saeed whose nickname is robo cop for his sort of robotic very measured deep voice style had positions on issues that appeal to most tunisians he's anti corruption he's against foreign 'd promotion of l g b t rights it's viewed that way he's against equal inheritance for women unless the head of the family decides to do it during his lifetime he's for sort of reasserting traditional tunisian values but new democratic values and that

combination captured the day so. what you had started to touch on was the challenges of him actually accomplishing anything he's the president how much power does the president actually happened. the remit for the president is primarily foreign affairs defense and to a degree intelligence and other security matters and for that reason the presidential debates the earlier ones which had over 30 candidates confused tunisians a lot because they wanted a president that would do things to fix the economy and and other domestic policies but that power is not held by the president it's held by the parliament and the head of parliament and of course the parliamentary elections were won by the islamists backed up by say the president he does have that foreign policy remit he spoke a lot in the election about foreign hands influencing tunisia in negative ways including the emirates and and others who were often accused i think accused too much but

accused of having a hand in tunisia politics in tunisia elections and he wants to have a a more firm uncorrupt uncorrupted control of tunisians foreign relations which then impacts the assistance tunisian gets what n.g.o.s can do in tunisia and those sorts of things i am lawrence thank you for your your insight. and ecuador hundreds of protesters have defied a government imposed curfew in the capital quito 24 hour nationwide curfew was put in place on saturday and response to demonstrations in the city demonstrators angry at a rising fuel prices attacked government buildings and burned media offices test 1st began nearly 2 weeks ago and are often joins us live now from key to know what is the latest there as this 24 hour curfew is nearing its end. well the curfew had already been partially lifted in parts of t. so to allow mobility and actually to allow for national dialogue to take place this

afternoon that dialogue is taking place right now there are other parts of the city more close to downtown where that curfew remains in effect these are places where people have actually defied that curfew we can confirm that thousands of people were still out on the streets where we left continuing to clash with police demonstrators using sticks and shields against officers who were launching quite a bit of tear gas as well as rubber bullets to disperse the crowd unfortunately it appears as though tensions are still very high out on the streets of the emotions are running very high a lot of people are upset over the heavy handed response from government over the course of the last 2 days so even though these now the national dialogue a roundtable being mediated by the united nations is taking place now as we speak people are still out on the streets protesting they're still out demonstrating against a lack of confidence in the government and for many of them this is growing out of hand this is grown beyond just protest against economic policies against austerity

measures against a decision by the government to remove decades worth of fuel subsidies this is growing into a much larger movement income encompassing several sectors of society that are almost in unison calling for the resignation of the president all right men are off low at the latest there and he to thank you congress prime minister viktor orban has suffered a big political setback a candidate backed by his party has lost a mayoral election and the capital budapest their daily car chauny was backed by several opposition parties they also projected to make gains in local elections in the rest of the country sunday's vote had one of the highest voter turnout and local elections and nearly 30 years. he's going to take sides on this victories a bit budapest becoming green and free to speak to is about taking the city from the 20th to the 21st century and this victory is about keeping the city with all our powers where history has always placed it we will take it back to europe exit

polls in poland and the cape the ruling law and justice party has increased its majority it's projected to come out on top with 43.6 percent of the vote its main rival the centrist more pro e.u. civic coalition has around 27.4 percent and or simmons has more from poland's capital warsaw. face looking like a big win for the law and justice party only minutes after the 1st exit poll results came in its leader proclaimed victory the opposition then responding saying that it has caused even more division in the country there have been references to the a really big push by all the opposition parties but it failed now it seems according to all indicates is that the policies of this ruling party have been successful they've can be trusted it seems by voters to deliver what they promise such as some social change a right across the divides and also

a number of other issues tackling the issue of the minimum wage raising that in this next term and also. a whole association with the us which is bringing in a new form of politics here this party delivers populism it is nationalistic it is right wing yet it has something of a song to play but the downside to all this is seen by opposition parties as it's effective trying to muzzle the media with a whole pile of of policies which are restricting media freedom that doesn't go down well in the your pin you know nor does it go down well what it is appoints judges according to a new policy which is very politically influenced so the years ahead in this next term a going to be interesting if not quite difficult in terms of society in poland. on

al-jazeera and at what's to come a major issue for voters ahead of tuesday's presidential election. tapping out by farmer sensor data warned about the gum arabic train. and the world beach games are underway into hot featuring a number of events you probably would not associate with life on the sand. all. hello that the snow is continuing to blow across those northern plains the crossing's united states also eastern as a canada but as we go through the next few hours this storm will actually clear away from the northern plains the upper midwest pushing back up into canada and you'll notice here we've got some snow beginning to push down on the backside of this system so much cold air coming back in play no doubt though monday across the eastern seaboard $24.00 in washington $22.00 celsius in los angeles those santa ana

winds beginning to ease but the time which is also coming up on tuesday $27.00 degrees celsius cloud pushing in the pacific northwest and then that same system pushing into eastern canada now feeding the snow back again into minnesota such as you head off into tuesday and then down towards the camera been some fairly widespread showers here and some rather heavy amounts of rain sun across into these northern sections of south america and in particular through central america panama . and these coastal areas of the pacific seeing some heavy rain as well it really throughout much of monday and tuesday not as bad across into southern sections of mexico but i choose dick and could see a few more back into the forecast a little bit unsettled and back city 24 is the high temperature the i mean one across into cuba it's mostly dry i want to scottish have on it with a high for she was.

very much a culture has been very harmful to the economy and the minds of many people challenging traditional attitudes narrowing the gender gap is helping women in the current climate keep poverty income we're trying to break these various of machismo by giving women access to resources to meet the women leading the way. women make change and i'll just do your own. environment doesn't know any boundaries what goes up into the environment goes around the world. that it's a very modern way to do pop believe me the measure of progress. in the domestic relations. should be your. circle of points on al-jazeera.

watching al-jazeera let's recap the top stories right now syrian government forces have struck a deal with the kurdish led syrian democratic forces which will see the syrian army deployed along the border with turkey yes jeff says this will help them in liberating areas under the control of turkish forces as they advance into northern syria earlier the u.s. announced it's pulling out all remaining american troops from northern syria u.s. president has been accused of abandoning the kurds the americans say they want their troops out of harms way. celebrations in tunisia as exit polls show a conservative was professor of political outsider is poised to become the

country's next president is projected to win more than 70 percent of the vote beating media mogul an appeal kouri. prime minister says he will do what he can to facilitate talks between iran and saudi arabia and iran conason tehran or he's met iran's president hassan rouhani and the country's supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei backus and wants to act as a mediator between iran and saudi arabia arabia that is to defuse rising tensions in the gulf region khan will travel to riyadh on tuesday a survey has more from tehran focused on iran khan has been trying to negotiate some form of mediation since the united nations general assembly last month in new york where he met president rouhani on the sidelines now this is the 2nd meeting between the 2 just in the last month and imran khan said today that this initiative is a pakistani initiative and no one has told focused on to do this he said that he wants to facilitate talks between iran and riyadh. there are news

a neighbor. boy is with the wrong way back. so the. has been one of our closest friends. who trusts when we have needed when we have been in need. and so the reason for this trip that we do not want to conflict between saudi arabia and iran we recognize that it's a complex issue we recognize that. but we feel. that this can be resolved through dialogue president rouhani was speaking alongside him on khan and he said that iran while comes talks with regional countries but a country thought that they could so instability in the region without a response they were terribly mistaken. i don't know if we discussed recent developments related to the middle east region particularly to the persian gulf and the sea of oman as we believe they are very critical regions for the gulf and the

whole region we also emphasized on the strengthening of stability and to more peace in the regions. tensions have been hind and we've been since the attack on the saudi aramco oil facilities on september 14th something the hutu rebels claimed responsibility for but sag arabia blamed iran something iran rejects but there was also an attack against the reigning oil tanker in the red sea now iran hasn't blamed anybody but tensions in region continue to be high now iran can set to visit sag arabia on tuesday where he's expected to meet the saudi crown prince mohammed bin some of mine and he's hoping that you can start some talks between the 2 regional rivals. a group of election officials in kosovo had been hospitalized but fell ill after opening ballot boxes from expatriate voters in serbia the count has been temporarily suspended for health snap elections last week of more than 300 ballot boxes from abroad are still to be counted 26 officials that are in electoral office in the capital pristina had allergic reactions after opening several boxes

kosovo declared independence from serbia in 2008 but that's ever been recognized by belgrade spain's supreme court is expected to sentence 12 catalan leaders over the role of a 2017 and referendum for independence the ruling could complicate spanish politics and reignite tensions just one month ahead of national elections on a day ago reports from barcelona. in the middle of also luna's largest train station a call for self-determination by catalan activists more than 2 years since catalonia is attempt to seat they are no closer to their go but they say they refuse to give up rather have a better movie going in fact this is a nonviolent action one of many more that are yet to come this is to defeat the system to change it and to become a new country. if the goal is a new nation then the full force of the spanish authorities is making sure it

doesn't happen the euphoria of the 2017 south declared independence gave way to serious repercussions tensions between pro and anti secessionist spilled onto the streets it led to 12 catalan politicians and civic leaders facing charges for their roles in a legal referendum on the region status. and the crisis has continued to divide catalonia the spanish government hopes that a ruling will bring an end to this terrible an episode in catalonia when the prime independent of us will likely move out from their promise to unleash a campaign of civil disobedience in the way i mean sentencing. council and separatists have always insisted there are peaceful movement but the have been concerns from the central government to madrid that any jail sentences could ignite further turmoil in the region especially among more radical groups it's not by

putting people in jail or pushing them into exile that will solve things we will make it worse the only way to solve those is to admit that there has to be a democratic outcome the spanish government has said it wants to restart talks to end the stalemate in catalonia until now some procession leaders were unwilling to engage unless there was an amnesty for those facing charges and with neither side giving way no one is optimistic that there is a way out of this crisis any time soon sunny guy able al-jazeera barcelona. at least 9 people have been taken to the hospital after a mortar attack in somalia's capital mogadishu at least 7 mortars were fired at mogadishu's international airport at around 1 pm local time the airport houses embassies and the united nations and african union missions it's not known who was behind that attack she says election in mozambique is going ahead even though people are still affected by devastating cyclons from 6 months ago thousands of

people remain homeless are living in camps more than $1300.00 people were killed malcolm webb reports from taiko one of the hardest hit areas and so fall a province will. flood water started gushing into to reason make it tires home it was when cycling to die struck central mozambique in march 1 wall collapsed then another. she ran and climbed this tree to escape the rising torrent her sister and her 2 small children climbed this one she saw them washed away when it collapsed single figure because it wasn't me and. i was very sad because my sister was gone that night i stayed in the tree crying the next day people came into kenya to rescue us eventually found their bodies. this tends now to resist home hundreds of people were killed by 2 cyclamens struck mozambique earlier this

year. thousands are still in camps where they're meant to vote in choose days presidential election. the people here have gathered to register for food handouts the cyclons affected areas where many people have historically voted for the political opposition rights groups say many won't be able to vote because voting cards were washed away i haven't been replaced the political opposition say the ruling for leave my party used humanitarian assistance to campaign for votes it was the port city of beirut where the 1st cyclon made landfall the city's mayor. is now running for president leads a growing opposition party called m d m we met him campaigning in a remote village 7 months ago was on the water he's not happy with the government's response even saying that if we don't vote if you don't spend your vote you want to

get before so that's what we're doing and that's a very bad but the national can do is watching it and not doing anything the sly claims ripped through rose and washed away bridges. many of which have now been repaired the ruling for leave my party says its recovery program has been a success. it promises to continue if it stays in power and it denies foul play was one that got a bad that's not true take the humanitarian aid and give it to the population is that the case that's not true humanitarian aid was distributed in front of the international community election season might bring handouts and promises from politicians but most cycling victims like to reserve lived in grinding poverty before the storms and since an election won't change that. malcolm where

al-jazeera mozambique. and sudan their affair are sort of the country's main exports is under threat sudan is the world's main producer of gum arabic used in many products from soft drinks to cosmetics but farmer say they're worried their income could dry up ever more going to ports elevate and north korea fun. these fields of acacia trees have been tended by any means to a man's family for generations for 30 years he's been planting harvesting and tapping them for their sap the liquid flows slowly for days before drying into gum arabic it's been the main source of income for his family for decades but he's concerned that's may not continue much longer. than the elusive the one still involved in the gum arabic business most of those harvest another bum 13 while the youth no longer have any interest they prefer quickening means like mining gold or construction but those holding on to the trade. and kneels farm in

north korea to find is one of hundreds in the state involved in arabic production which accounts for nearly 15 percent of sudan's income the products has many uses from food emulsifiers to cosmetic products to herbal medical treatments but due to a lack of processing facilities in sudan the material is exported wrong and at a lower price. because of its importance internationally gum arabic was the only product exempted from the u.s. trade sanctions list imposed on sudan in 1907 so dam produces more than 70 percent of the world's gum arabic and more than half of the 3000000 population here in north korea from parents from it but the business is changing and people moving away from farming there are other challenges. authorities say because gum arabic can't be processed in sudan up to 30 percent of what is produced is smuggled out of the country and education experts say those involved in the business of gum arabic

aren't necessarily following the best farming practices climate change has a direct effect on the production. of the farmers may be the. most drought seasons in the last the effect of the 3. most loving for the for the poor for that it benefits for all of this so also to increase their incomes so-called sending. they are using the tubs that the during the off season for the for the. authorities also say that out of the 11000 square kilometers available to plant and harvest acacia in the state less than half is being used and . as a government we're planning in the next 3 years to increase the trees in the gum arabic build working to distribute young acacia trees to farmers here so that they can farm in areas that haven't been tapped yet and we've proposed building factories so that harvest is in trade as can profit from the added value to process

gum arabic. says he's going to wait to see the changes that he's told will improve his earnings he hopes that will also attract younger people into the business otherwise he fears there will soon be only elderly farmers who may not be around to see how farms have improved he will morgan on to 08 not scored a fan. spends militaria supplying tens of thousands of troops to help but rescue and cleanup efforts after a powerful typhoon ripped through the country's eastern coast more than 6000000 people were advised to evacuate parts of eastern and central japan and check on him this is one of the worst storms to hit the country in decades at least 30 people have been killed and many are still missing in all 5 of those killed were members of a sunken cargo ship the panama registered ship was anchored off the coast of callous saki city just south of tokyo but contact was lost on saturday for other people rescued 3 are still missing a place in hong kong have made dozens of arrests after anti-government protests

turned violent on sunday villages emerged of a man being arrested after a police officer was stabbed in the neck near a metro station a 2nd person was also taken into custody in a separate incident protesters attacked a woman seen helping police clear barricades from the road security forces in bangladesh have killed more than a dozen renter refugees in recent weeks police accuse them of being involved in the murder of a politician but rights groups reject the allegations as tom verge audrey reports from cox's bazar a young mother of 2 children recently lost her husband we have not identified her at her request she doesn't believe her husband was involved in any criminal activities have to do good at the moment that they're alone would have a look i'm my husband used to work as a simple day laborer and the camp he worked very hard for his money it was after 4 days that i found out that he was killed by the secu.