all right let's bring in our guests now in erbil in northern iraq. dean president of the middle east research institute here in doha is a dawn political analyst writer and contributor to open democracy an online publication and in london we have 3 nats months or director of the iraq initiative at chatham house welcome to inside so you so much for being with us. in erbil what do you make of president bob saw his announcement the protesters are rejecting it but do you think it could be a reasonable way out of this crisis that it could accomplish perhaps what the protesters are demanding. well the president underlined the principles of care and democracy he expressed his willingness to cooperate and to carry out the steps that people are asking him to within the confines of the constitution and his role he also explained the word should be the process on what could be the road a road map towards this the end of this demonstration issue but it was expected that it will be rejected by the opposition by the demonstrators by the camp that is now demanding m

all right let's bring in our guests now in erbil in northern iraq. dean president of the middle east research institute here in doha as aidan political analyst writer and contributor to open democracy an online publication and in london we have a gnat's months or director of the iraq initiative at chatham house welcome to inside story john mentioned you so much for being with us today. in erbil what do you make of president by his announcement the protesters are rejecting it but do you think it could be a reasonable way out of this crisis that it could accomplish perhaps what the protesters are demanding. well the president underlined the principles of care and democracy he expressed his willingness to cooperate and to carry out the steps that people are asking him to within the confines of the constitution and his role he also explained the word should be the process on what could be the road a road map towards this the end of this demonstration issue but it was expected that it will be rejected by the opposition by the demonstrators by the camp tha

in erbil in northern iraq. dean president of the middle east research institute here in doha is a. political analyst writer and contributor to open democracy an online publication and in london we have remax months or director of the iraq initiative at chatham house welcome to inside story john mentioned you so much for being with us today. in erbil what do you make of president obama's announcement the protesters are rejecting it but do you think it could be a reasonable way out of this crisis that it could accomplish perhaps what the protesters are demanding. well the president underlined the principles of care and democracy he expressed his willingness to cooperate and to carry out the steps that people are asking him to within the confines of the constitution and his role he also explained the word should be the process and what could be the road a road map towards this the end of this demonstration issue but it was expected that it will be rejected by the opposition by the demonstrators by the camp that is now demanding more and more because at the end of the day the people th

the external factors whether it be the government or whether it be the religious establishment so in erbil where do you see things heading do you think like many people that the current outbursts of anger will eventually run out of steam and be brought under control or do you think that it still has momentum and could actually lead to some sort of change in iraq. i think it has momentum it will get a little bit worse before it gets better we're rocky's we know our country and the dynamics locally regionally and globally we have been through this we have history including in kurdistan as well as the the south of iraq at the moment the 2 camps are both very polarized very armed they are backed by forces by theological sources like in niger and as well as in iran the 2 are at the moment not talking and there are interferences or influences from the region so we've got local actors regional actors global actors all intertwined some working via proxy son directly this is actually a recipe for getting into a kind of dissident sending in to more chaos and more violence however there is a way out

official says the trip to erbil is to reassure iraqi kurds they remain washington's allies. and. one person has been killed in the iraqi capital baghdad when security forces tried to stop protesters from reaching the central bank security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters and a number of people were injured. israel's opposition leader benny gantz has once again called on prime minister benjamin netanyahu to resign over corruption charges it follows that netanyahu saying on friday that he would not step down over the 3 indictments calling it an attempted coup. the whole of we agreed for another liquid member to lead as i said before the whole of and will lead the government as the election results decided. and he's 10 people have been killed in a car bombing in the northern syrian border city of tel aviv several were wounded in the attack in an industrial area of the city which is controlled by turkish backed fighters iran has restored internet access off of the government imposed a shutdown last week in response to widespread protests and demonstrations began

he flew into erbil in kurdistan in the north of the country.d by syrian kurds who say it was a betrayal. after the us military left, turkey moved into the border area around tal abyad and other kurdish—controlled towns. thousands of people have marched in paris and nearly 70 cities across france to condemn violence against women. the marches come at the end of nearly three months of consultations with the government which campaigners hope will produce a set of measures against domestic violence. more than 100 women are believed to have been killed by their spouses in france so far this year. those protesting say they want to have their voices heard. translation: the government must do something to help us. we get punched, we get humiliated, insulted, raped, hit, and this must. the government must really listen to us. the government must really listen to us. the police must stop the courts must listen to us, because we are hardly heard. the south yorkshire village of fishlake, has held its christmas fair today, barely a fortnight after devastati

. >> reporter: following his visit, the vice president traveled to erbill, where he met with the primeister of iraq's kurdish region looking to show kurds they have u.s. support. >> i welcome the opportunity, on behalf of donald trump, to reiterate the strong bonds, forged in the fires of war, between people of the united states and the kurdish people across this region. >> reporter: u.s. relations with kurds in the region have been strained since president trump withdrew american troops from northern syria in october that change in policy a blow to syria's kurds. chuck severson, abc news, new york. >>> former new york city mayor michael bloomberg is making an entrance into the presidential race with an 8 figure tv ad campaign. abc news confirmed bloomberg is spending at least $37 million in ad buys. multiple states around the country. some ads on national networks are set to air as early as today and most other ad wills run on local broadcasts starting tomorrow. bloomberg jumped into the race thursday after filing official paperwork with the federal election commission. >>> following

he went to erbil for a meeting with the kurdish president for reassurance after the withdrawal from syriabefore that, pence landed at al assad air force base, where he served turkey to the u.s. troops and indirectly addressed the administration's impeachment crisis. >> congress should have finished their work on defense appropriations months ago, but you all know that partisan politics and investigations have slowed things down a bit in washington, d.c. >>> also new today, the "washington post" reporting the president has opened up camp david as an adult playground of sorts, according to that headline, to woo gop lawmakers during impeachment. nbc's hans nichols is at the white house with more on that. okay, let's figure out what this is. what is the adult playground at camp david all about? >> reporter: well, the white house is inviting lawmakers they are clearly going to need either for direct political reasons like impeachment or just longer strategies that the white house and the president has for policy purposes. they're going to need republican support. what you see is the office of