dick paul is president of christy's for europe the middle east russia and india. if anyone can explain why works of art can be so mind bogglingly expensive it's him. because it's the value of an artwork is 1st and foremost its thetic value its cultural value and that's determined by art history and the canon and today there's a consensus that because it was an interesting artist. when someone buys a piece for such a crazy price is out of love for art of mine environment is that my experience the overwhelming majority of collectors we encounter i know personally are indeed interested in the art and not just in art as investment though of course there are investors as well versed on the work that fetched the highest price ever was sold at christie's in new york in 2017 salvator monday a portrait of jesus from around 1503 ascribed by some experts to leonardo da vinci . 200000000 is bid so you are the 1000000 who are the 1000232 out of it is dead it may be a significant or even important work of art but it's also an investment it went to an anonymous better later reve

got bogged down in the wars in the middle east while china came up it got bogged down in the wars in the middle east while russia got back on its feet and so these 2 other major centers of power china and russia big enough big enough economies and strong enough militaries and large enough population wise of those 2 countries have come up now both russia and china said look let's make this when when our growth our development doesn't have to be your include the american government doesn't see it that way you know that's such a fascinating point you know because james with rising powers they could potentially in a way we have to stress the word potentially be a threat to the unit polar moment i mean would it be kind of maybe a better idea to engage them instead of you know turning them into hostile rivals and that's exactly what. we have seen happen. so a rising power by definition is a threat again that is a historical when you could look at a number of times through history where rising powers you have to accommodate the international system why because it works for everybody you this what we have now it's in wa

the two major oil producers, saudi arabia and russia, absolutely at each other‘s groups which has all kinds of repercussions for middle east. the news is so fascinating because it's relative. russia's spat with turkey would have been front—page news, saudi arabia's. in russia, roots refusing to cut production. where there was an attempted coup, problems with the royal family of the last several days and saudi arabia, that country has long been shaky and if saudi arabia goes up in smoke politically, those two countries cannot cut production at a time when demand is low because people are not lying or using energy which is obviously good for the environment. so those two countries are not cutting production. you have overproduction and market forces. therefore prices will sink if those two countries do come together and agree on prices, you will see the oil markets stabilise in the may help the global markets stabilise but it may not. the big losers frankly in this, i don't expect any of the oil producers are going to win this, it's a race to the bottom but as far as the shale gas producers in the united states are concerned

seen iran get help from countries like qatar one of its only and closest allies in the middle east from china from russia from the world health organization but even the medical supplies that are coming in are a band-aid on a gaping wound which is the country's struggling economy and it simply is a fact that sanctions are now hurting iran's ability to react to this public health crisis on a national scale we also heard from president hassan rouhani who via video conference chaired the counter carona headquarters the meeting the weekly meeting for the task force that he started at the beginning of this crisis and he said the main requirements right now is for people to remain calm and to increase public participation in the government's health care advice and guidance on limiting movements to try to limit the spread of the coronavirus really it's been a massive problem since the beginning and that is simply because many. well here say they can't close their shops they can't limit their movements they have to go to their offices to continue to try to make money to pay rent and president rouhani also said t

monetary policy can't fix it i think neither russia nor saudi arabia nor the middle east can tolerate prices at these levels. i wouldn't be surprised if two months from now these prices seem ridiculous. >> you say eventually. that's an open ended word. how long do you think it can last >> couple months >> we'll be looking at the price of oil, if not lower, for a couple more months >> i think so. that's an opportunity. we trade i think -- nobody wants this russia doesn't want this even clean energy doesn't want this this prices everything too low i think in today's marketplace where psychology being the way it is, people sell first and figure out later on. late yesterday when the market opened up lower, now we're back to only $6.5 lower natural gas, which i thought would get decemb decimated is uh day. it's a $7 bounce already from the low last night i think $27, i mean, i don't think we'll take out that low this week. anything can happen. i think this is an overreaction to marketplace from russia and saudi arabia and what they did i wouldn't be surprised if two months from now we're b

also knowledge is the importance of turkey turkey after all its a large trade partner for russia in the middle east you just told us $400.00 is vital to our projection the mediterranean and the long run there needs to be conduction to the get really of war mcconville so russia's down thing is alignment with mossad with as you can turn has 2 wars struck and i think in damascus they're recognizing that and assad is increasingly uncertain whether he's going to fight this alone with the russians aboard or whether if turkey yes strikes more facilities bases do initially i complement barney seemed to strengthen him a lot where more and some other areas outside of it and he's going to want a more sort of russian response. we just had confirmation that the turkish president is going to visit russia on thursday to have talks with the president bush and i mean is that going to be a tense meeting or i think that absolutely going to be against meeting regularly well considering the very last week said that he might even meet with her what as and the context of a trilateral meeting with iran and i think it is a

security perspective, are our ability to pull troops out of middle east, and our ability to restructure the geopolitics, of the middle east in russiawhat russia saudi are telling us he they really don't like us being independent. long term energy security at riv here i think we should consider implementing policies to protect that. >> the other day i said this is as much a national security you are the and foreign policy story, as it is an economic story, because you've got russia one corner trying to kill one of the most vibrant industries in america the shale industry, and then you've got china unleashing a virus on the world, at a time that 70% active ingredients in our prescription drugs are coming from china, so how do you even care for your people when you've got active ingredients made in china? that is spurring companies the administration, to encourage more production in america. to take the supply chain back to u.s. doesn't happen overnight. >> i know, but, you know, if thinking long term strategically about national security it is insane allow 80, 90% apis for all of pharmaceuticals made in china because it is cheap at s

painful, but it is also geopolitics. >> traditionally we thought about russia and opec and the deals they're cutting in the middle east. there are better relations in latin america and africa this has been a vehicle for soft power gains for russia and an oil deal had become a trade deal and that was one pushing an argument on the flipside you have to look at igor sechen he has said from the beginning that it should not cooperate with russia because of the tax structure. heap gets more gain the more barrels he puts on the market and his big point is american energy abundance is bad for russia because the united states can sanction everybody we just sanction rothnet trading and we don't pay the price at the pump so i think it is geopolitical and economic for sechen and that's where we stand right now. if the russians decide to cave in and give up those barrels, i think the war ends >> there was a lot of people that will be out there and i've heard from some of them, helima who will say to heck with them u.s. refiners will buy u.s. shale and we don't need the saudis and we don't need the russians and we can put an indepe

russia, middle east, terrorism. they could end mostly did spend their lives preparing for, going to, and following up on white house meetings. one of my colleagues used to say, black suburban problem. they would spend most of their time in black suburbans going back and forth to the white house. my last year, we did 700 pieces of paper or sets a bites on a computer. of those, 400 were pretty directly questions that came out from the national security advisor, the deputy's committee. not purely operational but ones we wanted to keep raising our sights. the other thing that struck me in this strategic, tactical realm was terrorism. i understand the political imperative of terrorism. but, in fact, if you look at jihadi terrorism, muslim terrorism in the united states. it is a trivial -- it's a nuisance. that is not the way it's treated politically and it is not the way people think of it. they think it's a big deal. i understood, we spent a lot of attention to it, but it was pretty deforming to our work in several sens

are quite important they're under threat across the world under threat in the middle east in particular under threat in russia from mr putin who apparently wants to ban same sex is against gay marriage yes i mean i watch it are not you done for political reasons presumably with getting to vote in it although it doesn't stop them going around dressed or undressed in 5 and a half naked on or switch or so many people are sick of all erotic picture no make a thank you well the trouble ministration has just signed a controversial peace agreement in qatar with the taliban aimed at ending the u.s.a.'s longest ever war forgotten appears to be all the u.s. funding of al qaeda and the u.s. war crimes revealed by wiki leaks instead we get leaks is julian a songes in london facing a defacto death sentence arousing questions about the future of publishers and whistleblowers in nato countries was a brilliant job author of there is no mean whistleblower joins me now welcome back to going underground eileen i'm going to get to the book and the house of commons a meeting in a 2nd but it was 5 years ago when you were on last t

seen iran get help from countries like qatar one of its only in closest allies in the middle east from china from russia from the world health organization but even the medical supplies that are coming in are a band-aid on a gaping wound which is the country's struggling economy and it simply is a fact that sanctions are now hurting iran's ability to react to this public health crisis on a national scale but we also heard from president hassan rouhani who via video conference chaired the counter corona headquarters a meeting of the weekly meeting for the task force that he started at the beginning of this crisis and he said the main requirements right now is for people to remain calm and to increase public participation in the government's health care advice and guidance on limiting movements to try to limit the spread of the coronavirus really it's been a massive problem since the beginning and that is simply because. many people here say they can't close their shops they can't limit their movements they have to go to their offices to continue to try to make money to pay rent and president also said th

important aspect of american credibility in the middle east, and bolstering american credibility is vital to preventing our partners from looking toward china and russiafor their security needs. but every battalion that we sent to the middle east is a battalion that is not being sent in supporting someplace other priorities in europe in the pacific. are over, this ramp up in the middle east comes while other priorities such as counterterrorism and security cooperation in africa or being under sourced. so i hope you will address how these new developments to the middle east are changing iran's behavior for the better. or if conflict with iran remains likely in your view, we would like you explain to us what these new deployments are achieving. and with that, i will turn to senator reed. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. let me join you in welcoming general mackenzie back before the committee, and we look forward to your testimony and our discussion. thank you, general. let me also join the chairman and expressing my condolences for the loss of the three coalition personnel at camp taji last evening and two of whom were reported to the american pers

for employees from russia sputnik news agency into the middle east that was attended by police early in the day and questioned. greek police frank migrants at the turkish border after ankara gives the green light to asylum seekers hoping to reach the e.u. in apparent bid to put pressure on the table into backing its offensive in series didley and it's been a long wait for june the sun john his supporters with the space of his u.s. extradition case now complete during the hearings the wiki leaks founder was kept in a glass cage and denied the opportunity to interact with his lawyers we hear from one of them. couldn't take part in the court process this is inconceivable to me how can a person be uncorked without being able to interact will communicate with his lawyers who are representing his interests. times northeastern france and use that belgian in a piece of illegally dumping tons of garbage across the border. hello good evening welcome you watch in the weekly analyse international for employees of russia's sputnik news agency and he have been released after questioning the editor

russia, kuwait, u.a.e. are likely to bring on. melissa: what could our u.s. government do? we know they value american oil producers in terms of security and not being dependent on the middle eastrussia, venezuela. all these places that sell oil, we don't want to be beholdenned to them. we want to keep the u.s. oil industry strong. what could they do? you can only buy so much for the petroleum reserve. but they could do financing. there is credit injections. what kind of things would help producers? >> you mentioned another thing, a number of things that would be helpful. i think the government is probably caught in a little bit after trap here. you don't want to lose u.s. energy independence. melissa: right. >> but at the same time, do you want to help big oil companies? do you really want to be contributing to in theory higher gasoline prices for u.s. consumers? so i feel like in the near term, we're going to see people sitting on their hands in terms of the government waiting to see how this plays out and you know, right now the risk is that at 30-dollar oil, you know, 25 to 50% of the u.s. oil industry could be bankrupt in a few years. this is not a sustainable situation bu

qatar one of its closest and one of the few closest allies it has in the middle east iran has also received help from china russia the world health organization by way of medical supplies but the fact is that this is effective only in the short term it's like putting a band-aid on a gaping wound and that gaping wound is the economy on the macro scale iran doesn't have enough money to throw at bolstering health services that are under dire pressure from the from the corona virus spreading so quickly on a smaller scale in people's homes in small businesses shops they don't have the financial buffer to be able to shut down and close up and commit to the guidance for health care that the government is putting on these people so truly it's a case of sanctions making it very difficult to manage this health crisis by having a compound in effect and the fact is people just don't have that financial buffer to be able to withstand dealing with this health crisis. to the us now where president's donald trump has put the country under a national emergency which frees up money to fight the coronavirus to unleash the full powe

for over 40 years, i want to get back to importing 60% of our crude oil from the middle east and highly dependent upon russiai arabia, and our gasolineply needs for the next 20 to 25 years. taylor: let's play it out and say that they say ok, russia says ok. does that mean prices are going to rise to what? scott: there's some type of uniform cut and alberta is also,g at it in canada talking with north dakota. they do not have the right to prorate but they are looking at stopping all flaring. there's estimates that would cut 10% of their production. the state of oklahoma has the right to prorate that it could raise the price that away from $20 up to 30 so $30, we saw a $20 price drop after march 6 from the time that saudi and russia blew up the meeting in vienna and we have seen a $20 drop. ofneed to get at least 10 that back so i think that's probably the best guess if there is some type of coordinated cut. what is the appetite among your peers among all the different players? you ande gallagher -- mike gallagher are in a good position. before last friday, we had probably many producers did not want to prorat

i don't want to get back to importing 60% of our oil from the middle east and being highly dependent upon russiai arabia, and venezuela for supplying our gasoline needs. and sayt's play it out the commission says ok, saudi says ok, russia says ok. does that mean prices are going to rise to what? scott: i think if there is some type of uniform cut and alberta is looking at it from canada also, we are talking with north dakota -- looking at stopping all clearing. we are talking to the state of oklahoma. they have the right to prorate. it could raise the price back away from $20 maybe backup to $30. we saw a $20 price problem from the time that saudi and russia lou of the meeting in vienna. we see about a $20 drop. 10 ofd to get at least that back. that's my best guess if there is some type of coordinated cut. alix: what is the appetite among your peers for that, among all the different players? obviously, you and matt gallagher are in really good positions, but what about the other guys you are talking to? what they be willing to do something like this just to get it back to $30? wett: before last

middle east. here's the pool with the mystery. of the supreme. turkey releases for employees of russia's put naked news agency the journalists had been detained on saturday and questioned by police. greek police clash with migrants at the turkish border after gives the green light to asylum seekers hoping to reach the e.u. in an apparent bid to pressure nato into backing its offensive in syria's. it has been a long week for julian assange and his supporters within the 1st phase of his u.s. extradition case now complete during the hearing the wiki leaks founder was kept in a glass cage and to deny the opportunity to interact with his lawyers we hear from one of them. couldn't take part in the court process this is inconceivable how can a person be in court without being able to interact with communicate with his lawyers who are representing his.

dislocation and the united states and put a lot of pressure on the middle east economies because they're very dependent on oil revenues and russia's resilient and will pay a price. >> sometimes you see one market move. sometimes you see an outsized move. we're seeing the oil market crashing and the stock market pausing. it feels a little dangerous here, doesn't it? >> it certainly does, christine. we were working together back in those days. 2000, it starts to feel like that bubble is bursting. we had automatic growth in the stock market. you could think it was a one way bet. same thing in the mortgage markets. the valuations were very high. dislocation in the stock market alone on the coronavirus is big. now you add in a very nasty fight between saudi arabia and russia in oil and i don't see any winners on this one. it's a big, brash move by saudi arabia after the russian response, but it doesn't look promising for the oil patch. >> watch the space. >> thanks so much, john. good to see you. >>> a big test for u.s. efforts to keep coronavirus spreading on u.s. soil. 21 people aboard the grand princess have the coronavirus. those

transform the global oil market which had been controlled by the middle east by nigeria by the other major oil producers in opec and and russia and so on and the united states wanted quote unquote energy independence it could have and it should of gone after getting free of dependence on fossil fuel it didn't do that it made a different decision because it's more profitable to go into fracking fracking is very expensive so the fracking companies went to america's banks borrowed the money because they promised this is a wonderful deal look at the price of oil lend us the money will bring up the oil we'll be able to pay you back of fact interest rate would be profitable everything was premised on the notion that the price of oil would stay high the saudis and the russians were hurt by the emergence of the american fracking industry they hated that industry from day $1.00 it's a competitor and now finally the russians together with the saudis and the notion that they're fighting each other is an illusion they are together fighting the united states because by bringing the price of oil down all of those fracking oil companies go

russia. they tried to go in places like middle east, like africa, and we see also the limitation it provides to all of us. our sentiment is russia is by definition a power which has to have -- which is a european power in a way. not the same with the eu, but it's in the grand europe, and in italy or it's in europe. our view that we cannot in the long term have this power next to us without having in some way a dialogue. a lively dialogue. you know, we are putting and we have trying to find find ways to engage in concrete issues like cyber, where we feel we can make progress. i think the number -- of the meeting that was held a few weeks ago in paris president zelensky, president putin, president macron, were in the same room. after a number of steps on the prisoner exchange, on -- on a number of things is a on the prisoner exchange, on -- on a number of things is a progress. for sure it's not the end of the process. for sure, you know, there are still conflicts, still, you know, elements of violence, the flow, the organization is not subsidized we know that. but our sentiment is it would be i

qatar one of its closest and one of the few closest allies it has in the middle east iran has also received help from china russia the world health organization by way of medical supplies but the fact is that this is effective only in the short term it's like putting a band-aid on a gaping lived in that gaping wound is the economy on the macro scale iran doesn't have enough money to throw at bolstering health services that are under dire pressure from the from the corona virus spreading so quickly on a smaller scale in people's homes in small businesses shops they don't have the financial buffer to be able to shut down and close up and commit to the guidance for health care that the government is putting on these people so truly it's a case of sanctions making it very difficult to manage this health crisis by having a compound in effect and the fact is people just don't have that financial buffer to be able to withstand dealing with this health crisis and the comments from mr rouhani today particularly to do with the latest figures that we're not getting. that's exactly right the president has open the task force

russia face off on a price war. despite a call to cancel all non—essential travel, some conventions in the middle east are relying oner powers to fight the coronavirus. let's show you the financial markets in asia at the moment. you can see the heavy losses on share markets. the n strengthening and oil prices are falling. energy companies are seeing their shares sold off dramatically as the price of oil plummets. let's bring you more detail on the market turmoil. a dramatic price war has broken out between two of the world's oil producers, opec and russia. while prices have plunged and thatis while prices have plunged and that is spilling over into as av that is spilling over into as a's stock—market patrol lower. let's go to a asian business hub. talk us through what is happening. you pretty much highlighted it at the start of the programme. all of those equity markets here in asia are making various deep washes. that crash and oil prices adding to the panic with energy firms taking a battering against the backdrop of the rapidly spreading virus which is spanning 50 years over the state of the global economy. these

more tonight i'm joined here at the big table by middle east analyst daniel good to see you again so let's talk about what's what's happened today russia in turkey they've agreed to this ceasefire in they've promised humanitarian aid for civilians is there any reason to believe that aid will reach the people who need it. well yes i think it is totally possible that aid is going to reach certain people certainly not all of those in need but i think the russians and the turks were really serious today we have seen cease fire negotiations and deescalation zones for the last couple of years. didn't hold for long as this one different well look i think and a half i cannot figure out why the turks have agreed to this but something really interesting has come up today and i was very surprised to read this we've been talking for the last months about a highway the m 5 which is leading from the mosque goes to a level which is considered by the syrian regime as the the useful syria that the axis of central syria and there's been a lot of fighting going on going on on this highway because the syrian regime wanted to secure this highway with russi