this is deja vu news live from berlin president dollar loses another key cabinet member they once stood shoulder to shoulder but now defense secretary jim matheson is stepping down denouncement coming after the president's abrupt decision to pull all american troops out of syria also on the show. christmas travel chaos in britain at london's gatwick airport tens of thousands remain stranded for a third day due to deliberate drone flyovers something i'm not gonna fact on all

their british and european airports. and under stress because of their faith christians in pakistan prepare for christmas but they're increasingly the target of deadly attacks we find out how one family has suffered but survives. bryan thomas thanks so much for being with us the american defense secretary jim mattis has resigned over president trump's decision to withdraw u.s. troops from syria a four star marine general has been defense secretary since the president took office in his resignation letter matter said my views on treating allies with respect and also being clear eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in

these issues not a says he was resigning because you have the right to have a secretary of defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects. now reports indicate matt has resigned after a last ditch attempt to persuade the president to reverse his decision on syria white house press secretary sarah sanders denied suggestions that the president asked not just 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 answer is i mean they were together for two years you know yes they're ok the president has also ordered the pentagon to make plans to withdraw half of the

fourteen thousand american troops in afghanistan and unnamed officials saying they could be home by summer u.s. troops deployed to afghanistan you'll remember after the september eleventh attacks in two thousand and one since then twenty four hundred u.s. soldiers have died fighting the taliban in america's longest war. for the very latest let's bring indeed obvious stuff on siemens in washington good morning stefan amount of resignation is the latest in a string of administration departures but is this one different. it's different because it's the most significant we have the other we can enter a secretary right in thinking resigning but he was facing an avalanche of scandals and investigations so that was not a real surprise but matt is resigning and in this form without in this letter you would notice not one word of praise for the president that's

a little bit unusual normally when you write those resignation letters to the white house or to the president you always say loaded are nice things about your former boss this one. turned out to be a little bit of an ugly divorce and it is significant because james readies was always seen as the adult at the cabinets table and as a so called ball work against the most rational decisions of donald trump in terms of foreign policy so yes that is leaving is significant ok now democrats have been among those expressing disappointment at the resignation here's house minority leader nancy pelosi. and what it means to our country for a message it sends to own troops. were any indication what. you will. get this all started stuff on with syria how united are

democrats and republicans in opposing the president on the pullout from american troops from syria. very very united unusually so also there is a bipartisan. bipartisan front against this decision the president made to pull troops out of syria democrats as well as the g.o.p. the republicans are when you saw an old saying this was the worst ideas is a bad move the u.s. will loose the strategic and tactical advantage in the middle east and frankly a lot of republicans even republicans and democrats anyway say like there is really now without james madison james mattis quitting his job secretary of defense there is not really a comprehensive middle east foreign policy by this administration so republicans and democrats united in their outrage and distain for that decision to pull troops out of syria ok this isn't just about syria though the president has also announced

that he's pulling out half of the fourteen thousand troops in afghanistan as well as there been reaction to that washington. and the reaction is pretty much the same as a i just explained towards syria as you reported earlier longest war for the united states quite a significant death toll in terms of or loss of american lives soldiers in this longest war however nobody in a republican as well as democratic or any military planning circles or foreign policy circles understands why the president now is pulling also out of afghanistan even if you just said he's pulling have off the troops out of there yes that was all a promise from during the campaign to bring the troops home but on the other hand does it really make sense to leave than the fear is here that in a few years time the united states has to spend more money and more effort to bring it to spec to clean up after the mess which will be left after of the troops are

leaving so same as in regarding the syria decision not no good vibes towards the president and that decision from republicans and democrats stephens humans in washington thanks very much for that stuff. well as we just heard there are critics of the syria pullout say it has given russia a strategic advantage in the region i asked russian journalist and analyst constantine agard if moscow sees the american pullout as a tactical win for the crumbs. i think very much and i think that president clinton can say it's now with the americans out of rome 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 are leaving

syria really the confessions 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 that 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 joining in moscow ok technical joy about what will be russia's next move now well 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 the president ever go around of turkey and it's not accidental that mr putin mentioned him at his yesterday's annual press conference praising him praise 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 do because putin 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 private so 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 beaten 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 there aren't and so the sonic stage although it is pretty much weakened i suppose that

russia never really worried that much about isis and then that because we're doing most of the fight think what it was caring about is the safety of the regime of president assad and here i think for the now at least putin can say that the goal is not accomplished is very close to being accomplished ok constantine agroforestry who is a very much for those comments joining us today from vilnius thanks very much. now for a look at some of the other stories making news this hour hungary's president has signed into law a controversy all labor reform dubbed the slave law by its opponents thousands of taking part in demonstrations against prime minister viktor or bums government since parliamentarians passed them all sweet hikes the over time that employers can demand and allows payment to be made for that to be delayed by up to three years. separate us protesters gathered in barcelona on thursday night calling for

independence for the catalonia region demonstrations taking place as spain's prime minister pedro sanchez met the head of catalonia separatists government cream thought a further protests are planned for later today. it's to britain now where london's gatwick airport the second busiest in britain says that limited departures and arrivals are now possible after repeated drone flyovers had earlier closed runways now more than one hundred twenty thousand passengers are now stranded at gatwick the flyovers appeared to be a deliberate attempt to disrupt air traffic although the police say there's no indication of a terrorist motive they are considering shooting down the drone or drones it's not certain how many are involved. a second night of chaos at one of the u.k.'s busiest airports. all planes remained grounded through thursday as authorities scrambled to find out who's behind the mystery train sightings their frustration

shared by thousands of stranded passengers. is a neatness and selfish. this is spread out and one thing love believes. this is america. and why did the sound is why it's being shot down not by strange police say they are considering cheating the drains than a tactic earlier dismissed as too dangerous they've also brought in the army and turning to the public for help. one of the appeals from me is that someone may have an image of the drone we don't know what the throne is and of course in terms of our tactics and what we do operationally 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 airfield or above an altitude of one hundred twenty metres the activity we've seen is illegal and those who are caught in dangerous craft can face up to five years in prison and that's legislation that we've already introduced and 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. on pakistan christians are increasingly the target of deadly attacks at least partly because of your blasphemy laws often fuel intolerance and hatred the most high profile case involves ozzy of b.b. our catholic woman recently acquitted of blasphemy. always christmas approaching what is life like for pakistan's christians zabad amir that some of them. 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 to live a free man now shot its detention continues to haunt him. we always live in fear 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 the law and policies here need to be implemented properly. blasphemy is an extremely dangerous and emotive subject in pakistan and his 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 violent protests across the country

some hardliners called for r.c.i. midges 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 its religious minorities it 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 scare and it will set a bad precedent where they can arrest anyone and prosecute them so when we heard

that she had finally acquitted you cannot be of how happy we were we were the two churches and offer 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 by 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 because of that. for many christians the facts 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 provided some season and obscene isn't what the future holds. so what can be done to help pakistan's first

cross over to. from amnesty international south asia joining us from colombo sri lanka good morning to you i'll see abebe 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 is all set that's me our premier good look at see me as something that can set off a series of events that can carry violent results and you know we've seen it since in one thousand nine hundred or as oppressions have been accused or convicted of or if you know killed or something assume you know something like being accused of insulting the holy prophet or designating the koran or even sort of misusing religious epithets whatever that davey 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 the mere accusation of which can result to quite literally in a death sentence if not in the courts 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 and read ok 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 das me though i think you call that sort of focuses on offenses against religious visits against religion that these dogs and evolution it started it's something that's been systematically the main sort of shrinking steves for minorities in the

sand which started as you know last minute by the british empire and now sort of become quite specific to the bow to being a sort of insulting the only prophet 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 been in places that underscore the urgency with which these witnesses reform their. ok now now britain recently denied a cylon to aussie abebe what should the us 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 quite aware just how much danger that the dangers of these minorities are and sign and if it is the need of the hour as it is for us yes it's a it's a shame that the bridge that that you government has not been able to walk for it but whatever reasons they seem to have justified it with but i think in the west

has has a critical role to play in terms of pressuring the government to do more to save the minorities and. rimmel 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 . it's going to businesses market now in the direction of oil prices right now remain very unpredictable one day up one day down yep there's a lot of volatility there the price of brant crude is seeing a recovery this morning that of course after midweek battering that so prices dropped to its lowest level in fifteen months i was yesterday it is now trading again at around fifty five dollars a barrel but all prez's have been steadily sliding for weeks now dropping more than twenty five dollars since the beginning awful toba investors hopes that supply cuts from opaque will eventually prop up prices of the cut tail of all producing

countries may five that is easy as it. earlier this month the 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 us 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. now for some analysis i'm joined by hello by our

investment research analyst. in london good to have you with us clearly a reporter who just today did the oil markets it doesn't seem to be able to rebound properly there's nothing sustainable what exactly is going on there. well i think it's really terms of what's going on in the rest of the markets we've seen equities in the u.s. u.k. germany and around the world really sell off and there seems to be concerns about growth you know quite a bit fears that the u.s. economy is going to slowly slow down next year and ultimately that's affecting the price of oil that we could potentially see demand slowing down so the the on market narrows the overall concerns we see elsewhere but at the same time of course i mean there's certain tool certain measures that can be applied and we've also said i mean opec for one wants to perp oil production the united states boosts all production probably to keep the oil price low i mean who benefits from a low oil price or i think the largest beneficiaries easily going to be america

it's and it's an economy that's hugely dependent on oil. big care you know their economy especially given the fact that they drive quite big you know they go into a lot of internal flights the economy so dependent on around the world to other economies you know the chinese economy got the indian economy who are generally all importers who. will certainly like to like you know see the benefits of lord prices to their economy especially at a time when you know even concerns around growth in china is being questioned but this is beneficial to the u.s. fracking industry i mean they want to earn money don't they. oh yes so i would say you know the u.s. of record industry certainly been huge beneficiary now the reason why they've come back is because all prices since the middle as well since the lows of twenty sixteen have steadily gone back up again up to eighty five dollars back to back in

october and that's really led them to come back in but let's not forget that they've also come back in on a lower cost off to make a number of strategic cost cuts in the process they're far more profitable on the higher the c.e.o. prices or as you saw a few months ago more of a more of them are going to be encouraged to come in but even the old price is now roughly fifty five dollars a barrel sort of that brant even at those levels with a lower cost they're generally going to be more inclined to keep producing and they were in the past when the costs are just briefly opaque obviously the for for many years dominating our oil cartel all over the world and and just recently it would cut production in order to boost oil prices that had little effect what's that telling us well i think you know all opex power is is still there but i believe it is fading we've seen caps are recently decided to decide that they're going to be for other political reasons they believe that saudi arabia is too dominant also you know quite

a few countries that don't adhere to their production cuts we've seen in the past with the likes of nigeria continue to produce on the sides and there are questions this time around whether saudi arabia and even russia are go to commit to that one point two million production car because the judge agree there's going to budge if they don't speak with one voice then apparently held my ear there investment research analyst talking to us from london thank you so much if you don't speak again merry christmas with that tree behind you. merry christmas. the u.s. justice department has unveiled indictments against two chinese nationals linked to china's government they're accused of taking part in a cyber spying campaign u.s. officials say the two hacked range of government agencies and corporations and at least a dozen countries the operation date 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 m.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 involved 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. . and here's a reminder of the top stories we're following for you. u.s. president donald trump is losing another key cabinet member defense secretary jim mattis is stepping down after growing increasingly disillusioned with policies matters took a step after trump announced he would withdraw u.s. troops from syria. you're watching t.v. news live from berlin wall coming up at the top of the alice had them. move.

on to. the. midweek matches in the bundesliga it'll be christmas soon and who's getting the gifts. certainly not mid season storm they picked up their first loss of the year against discs. and it'll be a blue christmas for shocker after losing a home to me cause i'm going. to go.

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