this is d.w. news live from berlin president trump loses another key cabinet member they once stood shoulder to shoulder but doubt defense secretary jim matheson stepping down the announcement comes just after the president's abrupt decision to pull american troops out of syria also coming out. christmas travel chaos in britain at london's gatwick airport tens of thousands remain stranded for a third day due to a deliberate fly over by a drone and i was having

a knock on effect on other british and european airports. and under stress because of their fate christians in pakistan prepare for christmas but they're increasingly the target of deadly attacks we'll find out how one family has suffered but survives. i'm dr thomas thanks so much for being with us the american defense secretary jim mattis has resigned over president trump's decision to withdraw american troops from syria the president used twitter to confirm that mattis would leave his post at the end of february. has said in his resignation letter that he was stepping down to make way for a defense secretary quote whose views are better a line with the president's reports indicate he resigned after a last ditch attempt to persuade the president to reverse his decision on syria

before star marine general became defense secretary when trump took office white house press secretary cyrus sanders denied suggestions that trump had asked mattis to resign secretary mabus has served the president and with the president for two years they have a good relationship i've seen up close and personal on a number of occasions and again they agree to disagree at times but that doesn't mean you can't have a good relationship with somebody he was laying out the reasons that he was stepping down from his post and. beyond that i think it's absurd to try to question the firing they were together for to do there yes there are ok as press secretary there will present trump has also ordered the pentagon to make plans to withdraw half of the fourteen thousand american troops stationed in afghanistan an unnamed official saying they could be home by summer american troops deployed to

afghanistan or call after the september eleventh attacks of two thousand and one since then twenty four hundred u.s. soldiers have died fighting in the tal a bog in america's longest war. but it's the president's decision to pull american forces out of syria that has drawn sharp criticism from his own republican publicans and from key allies germany france and britain all reject the president's claim that so-called islamic state has been defeated inside syria and they say the battle to clear them out should continue. these u.s. soldiers may leave syria very soon the u.s. president says the so-called islamic state has been defeated so it's time for them to come home. the move has sparked surprise and outrage from lawmakers who called his action brush and dangerous none of us will leave. has been defeated. two democrats and one republican saying the same thing the war has not yet been won

the twenty two hundred in syria are performing vital national security functions for us washington's major european allies also disputed donald trump's claim of victory over to terrorist group france germany and the u.k. are part of the u.s. led coalition they are worried that washington's pullout will allow the militants to regroup. with the light against the terrorism is not finished there's been a lot of progress in syria with the coalition but despite continues in a war really facing criticism from many sides trump defended his decision on twitter. does the usa want to be the policeman of the middle east he wrote getting nothing but spending precious lives and trillions of dollars protecting others who in almost all cases do not appreciate what we are doing do we want to be there forever time for others to finally fight. from suggested that by

others he was referring to the military alliance formed between russia iran and the syrian government. the u.s. pullout is likely to strengthen moscow's role in syria's future and president vladimir putin was quick to welcome trump's announcement. of the presence of u.s. troops necessary there no it's not let us not forget that the presence of u.s. troops in syria isn't legitimate that it has no u.n. security council resolution to rely on. the timeline for the withdrawal is not yet clear some officials have said it could be completed within sixty to one hundred days which means seems like this could soon be a thing of the past in syria. let's get some perspective now with russian journalist and analyst constantine agger joining us today from moscow good morning to you is the american pullout being viewed in moscow as a tactical win for the kremlin in syria i think very much and i think that

president putin can say it's now with the americans out of the soon outlets wouldn't like that to see him and the iranians have a country to themselves and i suppose dead it's very interesting that. that happened actually when russia is trying to push forward its own version of a political solution for syria i suppose that the americans leaving syria really confirms to some extent what mr putin wanted to confirm all along since he sent his troops his air force mostly just syrian two thousand and fifteen then he is the world's ultimate authority on stopping regime change as he saw the syrian civil war so i think there is at least for now definitely some reason for this eight technical joy in moscow ok technical joy but what will be russia's next

move now will moscow back a syrian military push into the area now controlled by kurds who want their own state in northern syria. well i think that there is more reliance here on that president ever go around of turkey and it's not accidental that mr putin mentioned him and his yesterday's annual press conference praising him for his resoluteness and for his ability to take his own decisions in spite of being a turkey being a nato member so i suppose that first of all mr putin will see what ever the hondo do because you put in doesn't have any ground forces but of course i think that with americans out he'll be more free for example to get a cuppa or send russian mercenaries a so-called privates i military companies to. do areas which could be of concern for president assad yes i think that essentially what you see you see russia and

iran and having three at hand in syria today. ok briefly if you could president trump says a islamic state has been in syria is that the russian opinion or does moscow still consider islamic state a threat inside syria well i suppose that there is intelligence pointing that that robin and some of the sonic stage although it is pretty much weakened i suppose that russia never really worried that much about isis then that because we're doing most of the fight think what it was carrying about is this safety of the regime of president assad and here i think for now at least we can get to say that the goal is not accomplished is very close to being accomplished ok constantine agroforestry who survived for those comments joining us today from villainess thanks very much. some of the other stories making the news today hungary's president has signed

a controversy over labor reform dubbed the slave law by its opponents thousands of taking part in demonstrations against punished or victory or bonds government since parliamentarians passed a law last week that hikes the over time that employers can demand and allows payment to be delayed by up to three years. severus protesters have gathered in barcelona calling for independence for the catalonia region demonstrations took place as spain's prime minister pedro sanchez met the head of catalonia separatist government. further protests are planned for later today. police in germany say they have massively boosted security at stuttgart airport and it's reports of individuals acting suspiciously their security officials are said to be investigating four individuals including at least one with possible links to islam is a list extremists. well in britain gatwick airport says it is working

with airlines and air traffic controllers to resume quote limited operations in the coming hours but for the moment that airport remains closed after a drone was reportedly seen flying over the airfield police say there is no indication of a terrorist motive at the time where than one hundred twenty thousand passengers have been affected for data for three. seconds night of chaos at one of the u.k.'s busiest airports. planes remained grounded through i think as safe as authorities scramble to find out who's behind the mystery train sightings that frustration shat by thousands of stranded passengers. nine hundred neatness and ses. this is spread out and one thing i'm thinking. this is america. then why didn't the stuff is why it wasn't being shot down by someone not by

strange police say they are considering cheating in trains dang a tactic earlier dismissed as too dangerous they've also put in the army and attending to the public for help. one of the appeals from me is that someone may have an image of the drone we don't yet know what was taught to our knees and of course in terms of our tactics and what we do operationally that is really serious for us just one of the big questions police are yet to answer they say there's no indication of terrorist involvement whoever is responsible is breaking british law which prohibits flying drones within one kilometer of an f. e old or above an altitude of one hundred twenty metres the activity we've seen is illegal and those who are caught endangering a craft can face up to five years in prison and that's legislation that we've already introduced that actually we're consulting on further aspects of this including for the police powers but until these planes are allowed to take off

that's likely scant comfort for passengers facing disruption at the height of the holiday season. it's to pakistan where christians are increasingly the target of deadly attacks at least partly because of severe blasphemy laws that often fuel intolerance and hatred the most high profile case involves a b.b. catholic woman recently acquitted of blasphemy was christmas approaching what is life like for instance christians. beta mere that some of them in islam a bot. christmas is a favorite time of year for this christian family in islamabad the cougars appreciate being together especially as their lives were completely turned upside down seven years ago the shot of cool kid was falsely accused of blasphemy jailed and acquitted five months later in that time he lost his job and home but is grateful he didn't lose his life too although

a free man now shot his detention continues to haunt him. we always live in fear and because of this we feel insecure. so when we talk about your future i think what kind of future can we have it all explained only the law and policies here need to be implemented properly. blasphemy is an extremely dangerous and emotive subject in pakistan and bebe's name will forever be associated with it the catholic laborer spent eight years on death row after being accused of insulting islam she was recently acquitted of all charges response to violent protests across the country some hardliners called for r.c. and the judges involved in the ruling to be hanged. no one convicted of blasphemy has ever be legally its accusers about to start but there are plenty of examples of people in have been killed by lynch mobs just after being accused of it and it's really just minorities here was disproportionately affected by the controversial

laws you know. pakistan's christians make up around two percent of the population and have been the target of escalating attacks in recent he is human rights groups claim accusations of blasphemy is seen as an easy way to settle disputes as a hard to disprove but the acquittal of ossie bibi also provides a ray of hope for this pastor. the fact that an innocent woman can be sentenced to death has made a scandal it will set a bad precedent where they can arrest anyone and prosecute them so when we heard that b.p. was finally acquitted you cannot behave how happy we were we were the two churches and offered prayers thanks to god. for bin laden a kind of a but we were into fearful when we were young but we do have some fears now for example if there are gatherings we don't go outdoors when children go to church and

they see armed guards they do ask why is there so much security security. attacks will continue to happen here no matter what will remain united under the name of jesus. for many christians the fact that he has been freed is a christmas miracle only could not have dreamed of and even though she remains in hiding in the festive period provide some season an obscene isn't for what the future holds. so what can be done to help pakistan's christians for more let's cross over to remote from the international south asia joining us from colombo sri lanka good morning to you. bibi might be out of jail but she has to remain in hiding out of fear of being murdered we heard about the lynch mobs in pakistan how dangerous is it for christians in that country

. well thank you for having me i think it's it's it's absolutely i mean everything all set that's me over here going to look that's me something that can set off a series of events that can really violent and you know we've seen that since in one thousand nine hundred orders of christians have been accused or convicted of or you know killed or something or so you know for something like being accused of insulting the holy prophet or designating the koran or even sort of misusing religious epithets whatever that baby and so i don't think we need to look for more evidence of just how dangerous pakistan can be because it's something that's so sensitive that it's the mere accusation of which can result to quite literally in a death sentence if not in the course and perhaps in the streets as we've seen in the matches where a student was lynched to death by thousands of students in the restaurant so it in the evidence is right in this ok it is there of course and it is in leeds at least

partly due to the fact that in pakistan you have a constitutionally mandated discrimination how much pressure is your organization putting on the government in pakistan to rewrite its laws to and try and religious freedom. i think it's important to remember that. these that's me though i think you know all that sort of focuses on offenses against religious visits against religion that these dogs are in evolution it's star it's something that's been systematically big i mean sort of shrinking the steves for minorities and what started as you know last minute by the british empire has now sort of become quite specific to the bow to the you know sort of insulting the only profit so in terms of depression if you're going to forswear lobbying as hard as we possibly can to meet. to to consistently report on these

beneath lisa's didn't underscore the urgency with which these witnesses reform their. ok now now britain recently deny the asylum to b.b. what should the west be doing to help pakistan's christian minority is granting asylum for some of them at least a way forward i think that if the west is the best place to be of course they're quite they're quite aware just how much danger that danger some of these minorities are and signed and if it is the need of the hour as it is it's it's a shame that the bridge that you government has not been able to walk variable would have reasons that this seemed to have justified it with but i think in that the west has has a critical role to play in terms of pressuring the government to do more to seeing the minorities and. the dean thank you so very much for joining us this morning and all the best to you in your efforts there in pakistan thanks very much.

we have some sports on the bonus league or reaches a crucial point tonight when league leaders dortmund host second place. gladbach now it kicks off the last match day before the men's mid-season break norman last for the first time this term a dozen doors on tuesday allowed to move within six points football fans are ready for a real treat. dortmund coach musume father doesn't look too bothered by their first league a loss of the season but suddenly the title race is back on and the swiss can have no time for sentiments against his former side to gladbach. says. yeah. it is a bit special i suppose nothing more than that. i left a club out three years ago i am a dortmund man now but sure it is a bit strange that on there having

a very good season. and they're very dangerous and one three nil and byron munich that says everything that's mindless. dortmund without three injured defenders against the side who have the second best goals tally behind the hosts fava once his players fully concentrated on plot box threat rather than the festive season all the new mums break before their next game . are very well organized they're very compact sometimes they are defending and suddenly the ball goes forward very very very quickly for platt buck meanwhile can move just three points behind dortmund with a victory but they also have injury concerns. we will go there with eighteen guys but we are maybe without seven players but it doesn't matter who starts dortmund our problems to. dortmund held

a christmas sing song this week the team will top the table at the mid-season break whatever happens tonight but fans want them to hit the high notes once again. of course mark is here now it's a business and there's a lot of oil market volatility is going up it's going down nobody knows why brian right now the price of brant crude is seeing a recovery this morning it's now back to trading above fifty five dollars a barrel that of course after slipping well below that mach yesterday depressed by rising interest rates and fees of oversupply but all prices have been steadily sliding for longer than that it's dropped more than twenty five dollars since the beginning of october and it was hovering above eighty dollars it is now trading in the mid fifty's so investors have pinned their hopes on reports of deeper than expected supply cuts from opec to prop up prices but the cartel of oil producing

countries may find that's easier said than done. earlier this month oil cartel opec and its partner countries agreed to cut production to one point two million barrels a day from january the regime to reduce supply and boost prices the price of a barrel of bread has been dragged down by a combination of factors the global macro economic outlook isn't shining on the oil industry and this week's rate hike from the u.s. federal reserve has exacerbated investor fears of an economic slowdown but oversupply remains the biggest challenge for the industry increasing crude production in the u.s. which is now a top producer worldwide makes it more difficult for opec to control the global market. so while the downward trend of oil prices may be welcome news for drivers it spells trouble for opec an inability to influence price may mean its effectiveness as a cartel is diminishing. the u.s.

justice department has unveiled and dykeman's against two chinese nationals linked to china's government accused of taking part in a cyber spying campaign u.s. officials say the two hacked a range of government agencies or corporations and at least a dozen countries and the operation dates back to two thousand and six the hackers targeted some of the world's leading corporations they breached the networks of technology companies which remotely manage servers storage and other computing tasks and then stole secrets from their clients this case is significant because the defendants are accused of targeting and compromising managed service providers or n.s.p. s m s p's or firms that are trusted to store process and protect commercial data including intellectual property and other confidential business information when hackers gain access to m.s.p. s. they can steal sense of the business information that gives competitors an unfair

advantage the attacks were allegedly part of a chinese campaign known as cloud hopper with the defendants working on behalf of china's intelligence service the managed service providers networks were infiltrated multiple times in breaches that lasted for weeks and months the deputy attorney general described it as part of a trend of state sponsored hackers breaking into u.s. networks more than ninety percent of the department's cases alleging economic espionage over the past seven years involve china more than two thirds of the department's cases involving theft of trade secrets are connected to china despite the indictments it's unlikely the accused hackers will be extradited to the u.s. . other german consumers are known to think twice before splashing out and goods while they seem to enjoy spending more in recent years the old topic looks to kick

back in fresh data shows that domestic consumption here is slowing will christmas make a difference and who will benefit online retailers all the high street we went shopping in berlin to find out more. it's the most important time of the year for teen movie but. it's just a few days before christmas the manager is hoping to see a lot of shoppers in his luxury department store card. he's pleased with this here sales. the personal touch and friendly atmosphere of very important something online rivals don't have the department store depends on both german and foreign customers the employees give buyers advice especially about the current trends. that fans got in but there are various trends when it comes to fashion a classic cashmere sweater is popular toys are still ahead from classic board games to dolls for your daughter but there are a lot of new trends for the home this year like interior design and for the kitchen

. smaller stores are not as a pete because i fried manages three fashion shops in berlin she's found a nice with special smaller sustainably produced brands but she has many regular customers but sales could be better now she's thinking about launching an online shop even though it's a daunting challenge. baz aside from its. very hostile in would require hiring at least two new people purchasing inventory would also be an organizational challenge that's why we're taking our time and being careful and seeing what happens in the coming months. and for. some consumers prefer shopping in their own neighborhood. again i support my neighborhood stores and avoid online shopping whenever possible i'd like to see and feel the president i just think it's better. i think often is catherine it's time

to start shopping in stores walking around and seeing what would suit my parents or siblings. or song if there's a big difference in price or if i can compare items better i buy online but going to a store is always good. but there is growing competition on the internet more and more retailers are doing business online particularly in entertainment and consumer electronics analyst seven crease their growth forecasts for november and december from nine to eleven percent. is bucking the trend by focusing on traditional retail sales only consumers can determine if the strategy succeeds. this is. coming up at the top of the.

building upstream against hopelessness and the destruction of nature in one of cape town's forests. but to. get more. of the fed. gets. youngsters on the streets and interested in my mental protection ecolab africa next on d.w. . midweek matches in the bundesliga it'll be

christmas soon and who's getting the gift. certainly not mid-season story they picked up their first loss of the year against islam. and it'll be a blue christmas for shocker after losing a home to miss. could go sixty minutes to. go on the all. natural riches precious resources of the summer and a rewarding investment farmland has been called easy opiates kringle the country has an abundant supply cleese's it to international agra for juggins. the government export revenues and the corporations high profit margins.

but not everyone benefits from the coming business. the selling out of a country dead donkeys no hyenas starts december twenty ninth on d w. i welcome to the new edition of the quote africa full of environmental studies and ideas from africa and you wrote today will discover what he means to live a life that if truly green and sustainable we have a number of ideas that was sure what your bones are like but pressed let's not get lost.