as an eyewitness that's what is just. unbelievable it sounds like an agreement between criminal bosses it's like trading in stolen goods that have been taken by the place if anyone ever comes to ask the question then sort of throw their hands up in the air and say i don't know i was just nominee director we're doing a investigation into. ukraine could you say bribes you've been corrupt and i've been not corrupt i did just what the president say challenges here investigations the only gods at this time. they say he's. a moron in the. the author of an explosive book on donald trump hits back comparing the president to a child. hello

i'm maryam namazie in london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up the truce village preparing to host the first high level talks between north and south korea on tuesday. this famished and sick in yemen the u.n. warns the countries facing the world's worst humanitarian disaster in fifty years also. i'm going hey in northern thailand home to many ethnic minority groups many people living in these hills who've lived here for generations but still can't officially call thailand home. the author of a controversial book on donald trump says the u.s. president has no credibility and his staff say he is like a child the book by michael wolff has gone on sale for days early despite threats

of legal action from trump's lawyers the president has described fire and fury inside the trump white house as full of lies misrepresentations and sources that don't exist insisting he never even spoke to wolf but that claim has been refuted by the author who said i absolutely spoke to the president it was not off the record. i spoke to him after the inauguration yes and i had spoken to i mean i've spent about three hours with the president over the course of the campaign in the white house so my window into donald trump is. is pretty significant but even more to the point i spent this i spent in this was really the sort of the point of the book i spoke to people who spoke to the president on a daily sometimes minute by minute basis so this this book was really i mean in a sense in a sense there was one question on my mind when i began this book what is it like to

work with donald trump. patti call hain is live for us now in washington d.c. and. the white house has responded to this by attacking michael's credibility but it seems to have backfired because of course we now see the early publication of his book. exactly though it was an almost actually was unprecedented that a u.s. president would send his lawyers send a cease and desist to a publisher saying don't release this book that doesn't happen in this country they ignored it they moved up their release here it is with the bookstore that our producer went to sold out in thirty minutes and lucky for us it has an index so i've just started skimming through it one of the more controversial claims he's making when it comes to foreign policy is about saudi arabia he says that basically trump was taken in by saudi crown prince mohammed bin solomon talked at length about the display they put on for him saying that it was

a seventy five million dollar party and that when solomon says he's known displaced his rival. that the president boasted into this is a quote we put our man on top basically bragging about a potential coup he describes it in saudi arabia so a lot more to get into this book lot of quotes on the record quotes now some people are saying they thought they were speed off the record of who was taken out of context and wolf is responded well he's got it on tape now just how much they're going to go into these details on those tapes well we'll have to wait and see but according to him in this is michael wolf according to him literally every single aide to the president thinks he's stupid. he's. a moron. there's a competition to sort of get to the bottom line here of this me on is let's

remember this man does not read does not listen so he's he's like. he's like a pinball just just shooting off the saw. i mean these revelations provide a fascinating insight i mean it's also quite frightening in some ways speaking to a point about foreign policy how much concern will that be about the very real risks to national and international security well i think for people who are already opposed to the president president donald trump and if you look at opinion polls that's the vast majority of the country this is just going to confirm what they already feared about the president and a lot of what's in here has already previously been reported that the president doesn't read and that the intelligence community tries to sneak his name into his daily intelligence briefing because then he'll be more interested so for those

people who are opposed to trump i think this is only going to further make them afraid quite frankly because wolf says that he had his words he's lost it that the president is not mentally stable and that he's not recognizing longtime friend so that is going to be concerning for those who are opposed to trump or even who don't really have really any sort of sway any sort of belief in the print this president but now the question becomes what about his hardcore believers we've seen scandal after scandal controversy after controversy tweet after tweet norm being broken left and right with this president but they stayed loyal to him he's been able to say to that any bad news you hear don't believe it it's fake fake news and when you speak to reporters that i do often they will tell you that they simply don't believe it in the media that it's just fake news so the president trying the attacked again with this book you know it's i can tell you if you want to get it on amazon you're going to have to wait a month and it's only a bookstore so there's obviously quite

a bit of demand now is that going to be any term supporters well we'll have to wait and see. me there isn't it thank you so much in washington d.c. . after more than two years of silence north korea and south korea ready to re-open direct lines of communication tuesday's face to face talks will focus initially on the north's participation in next month's winter olympics in the south but officials in seoul say discussions are expected to move on to what they describe as other areas of common interest florence lowy reports in a few days the truce village of panmunjom on the demilitarized zone that separates north and south korea will be a hive of activity representatives from the two countries will hold high level talks here for the first time in more than two years earlier this week north korean leader kim jong il dialogue at his new year's day address four days later his

government agreed to hold talks the announcement came just hours after the u.s. and south korea agreed to postpone and your military drills for the february these have long been regarded as provocative by pyongyang. the leaders agreed not to conduct south korea u.s. joint military drills during the olympics and to do their best to ensure the security of the olympics. next week's discussions will center on north korea's participation in the upcoming winter olympics as well as generally improving into korea relations but officials here in south korea are also hoping the negotiations will eventually lead to north korea returning to international talks on its nuclear program even so president when jay and it's cautiously optimistic saying we should refrain from making permit or a judgment or expectation. the japanese defense minister also sounded

a lot of caution but. north korea goes through phases of apparent dialogue and provocation but either way north korea is continuing its nuclear and missile development we have no intention of weakening our warning and surveillance. speech said north korea with its nuclear weapons program and even called for the mass production of deployment of nuclear warheads and this sounds. from the conservative perspective in north korea trying to buy time the majority seems to believe the north korea is trying to finalize its technical development to to achieve operational i.c.b.m. so you know as us the cia has announced before they are talking about two three month time in terms of finalizing the i.c.b.m. system and it looks like this is a perfect action on their side you know to buy time. last year north korea test fired three intercontinental ballistic missiles or i.c.b.m.'s including one that

says it's capable of reaching the u.s. mainland but he hoped the upcoming talks remain the best option for now of deescalating the crisis on the korean peninsula largely al-jazeera so. russia has called for closed door talks out of a u.n. meeting on iran on friday the u.n. security council is having a special session to discuss recent protests in iran with the u.s. accusing to iran of stifling the voices of its people but iranian leaders say larger pro-government rallies suggest otherwise as the reports from on. another day of pro-government rallies in iran seemingly part of a two pronged approach to keep detractors off the streets a large show of public support and a heavy police presence across the country with critics inside and outside iran predicting the downfall of the islamic republic the government is determined to publicly project the power of the state at friday prayers in the capital to her on

a senior cleric reminded people of iran's real enemies who he says are behind the unrest in the country. this is what is happening saudi arabia gave the money the u.s. did the planning it was coordinated from u.s. control very heavy. weapons being transferred little by little to iran they wanted to finish is in february that was the plan. but he also sympathized with public demands for better economic conditions it's her are thought to have the protests was right those who lost their money and it's not too long protest for them people are saying death to high prices we're saying not to what people are saying should be heard people's rights shouldn't be missed in the middle of this mess. meanwhile what was essentially a leaderless protest movement with competing demands seems to have fizzled out but on social media sites people are still sharing week old videos of anti-government demonstrations protests last week were the boldest challenge to rather stablish

lives in nearly a decade but crowd size has only ever numbered in the thousands in contrast in two thousand and nine more than a million people came out into the streets to protest the reelection of president mahmoud ahmadinejad but for now activists who oppose the government have been sidelined by much larger crowds who support. the un has condemned a recent series of death sentences in egypt with twenty people reportedly executed there in the past ten days and human rights office says death sentences should not be used to combat what they call terrorism and also express concern at the use of military courts to try civilians was seriously concerned that in all of these cases due process and fair trial guarantees do not appear to be followed as military courts typically deny defendants rights accorded by civilian courts reports also indicated the prisoners who were executed may have been subjected to initial inforce disappearance and torture before being tried. united nations humanitarian

chief says yemen could become the worst humanitarian disaster in fifty years the war is having a devastating impact in yemen with widespread food shortages and a major cholera outbreak as fighting continues in many parts of the country stephanie decker reports. forced to live out in the open these yemeni families of escape the fighting near the border with saudi arabia now they have to bear the elements on the streets of data their daily routine now for everyone to see this war has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. i came from we ran for our lives now we sleep on the floor no mattresses or blankets and it is really cold we have no income our children are suffering if any of us fall sick we cannot afford treatment our condition is really terrible needless to say we are living in fear. this war now almost into its third year is all about regional politics and control

and the consequence of that has created what the u.n. calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis the situation in yemen today right now to the population of a country looks like the apocalypse we need to scale up our response the cholera outbreak is probably the worst the world has ever seen with a million suspected cases of the under twenty seventeen this terrible news demick of diptheria a bacterial disease which should be completely preventable by immunization as already affected it's up to five hundred people with dozens and dozens of deaths in the last few weeks that is going to spread like wildfire and aid agencies are not able to access the majority of those in need them xanana we had to skip the war our life has turned upside down and we can't afford a decent meal we're now begging to eat and feed our children were living in the streets on charity. some basic supplies are getting through

a blanket to keep warm it is winter now and temperatures drop at night in a fire offers little comfort these people face an uncertain future with no idea when they can go back home what will be left of it once they do stephanie decker al-jazeera. you know watching out is there a still to come respect the rule of law we'll bring you the latest from the french president's meeting with his turkish counterpart in paris and we travel to one british town to look ahead to how bracks it is likely to shape up in twenty eighteen. we've had some rather lively stolz across the eastern side of the mediterranean sea our circulation hit the pair of life for us has been bringing some very heavy writing and some very windy conditions as well that will clear through little dry

up as we go on through the next couple days i am pleased to say by region around sixteen degrees celsius just about getting up into double figures there and to run a little more cloud just around the southern end of the caspian for most of us it shouldn't be too bad over the next that see much to see want to see winfrey flowers into northern iraq as we go through sunday behind that is the sunshine returns in the sunshine stretches across the raven peninsula chiles of want to see showers just around the southern end of the red sea but for most it's going to be fine settled and sunny temperatures here and getting up to twenty five or twenty six degrees over the next couple of days now for southern africa slahi five in trouble we come across into madagascar and here we do have a tropical cyclone eva still bringing some very wet since a very windy weather in across the region widespread disruption here i think some pasta the eastern side of madagascar we'll see damaging winds and of course the flooding rains we're looking at two hundred three millimeters of rain for some and

that will cause widespread problems for the country. partners.

welcome back with al-jazeera an update of the headlines the author of a controversial book on donald trump says the u.s. president has no credibility and his staff say he is like a child north and south korea will face to face talks for the first time in two years on tuesday and the united nations security council is preparing to hold a special session to discuss anti-government protests in iran. french president has warned his turkish counterpart that democracies must respect the rule of law during a meeting between the two leaders in paris visit to france was russia type first since the failed twenty sixteen who one of only a handful to europe it was confronted by a dozen human rights protesters who are attempting to block his arrival to the n.s.a. alice said recent developments in turkey did not allow any progress on its new accession. but turkey is ruled by law europe

always tells us that the judiciary must be independent well in turkey i would you do street is independent they make their own decisions independently. terror does not just happen after the killing for those who support terror they water it they prime it well they're like gardeners who grow plants they nourish tara. but. i really do believe that we have a challenge which is wonderful leaders but also in democracies democracy must be strong against terrorism because the legitimacy of the state means it must protect its citizens the same time democracies must respect the rule of law. joins us live now from paris and hash there are clear points of disagreement at the moment between turkey and the did we see inside did we see signs of these tensions arise in the meeting between macron and one. was no doubt there was a large focus on the relationship between turkey and me you miss meeting i mean

that relationship has been absolutely in time low over the past two years the e.u. highly critical of turkey's poor human rights record especially after that twenty sixteen a failed coup the e.u. saying that and crow has taken far too heavy handed approach to war diseases his political opponents tens of thousands of people arrested or sacked now what's person my course said in this meeting was the turkey of course is always welcome as part of the e.u. as a future member but perhaps we should be thinking more in terms of a partnership rather than a full membership a person did want for his part said the talks are simply fed up of waiting but there is no doubt that the turkish president was here in europe meeting with president markov to troy in may be repaired those really bad relationship between turkey and the european union because he knows that the e.u.

of course gives a large amount of funding to turkey in order to prepare the country for a future membership it is money that he would not want to be seen ferguson and at the moment there is no doubt that he is also looking for allies and that is why he is looking here to france especially france because it is one of the main countries in europe still which has a talking relationship with turkey yes and. certainly hasn't been afraid to seize the initiative when it comes to foreign policy matters how might we see things develop between the e.u. and turkey going forward it. will be very interesting to see i mean there is no doubt that the president over one knows that he needs to look for allies because the relationship between turkey and the united states has become extremely tense the situation is fragile in the middle east and that is why he is looking towards the european union he has also said he said back in december that one must

try and reduce one's enemies and try and increase one's allies and he has found in a way an ally and present my call this new young president who wants to make his mark on the international stage and who takes a very pragmatic approach to politics he certainly raised for example the critical issue of human rights with president over one but there is no doubt that for president he says that i will raise the issue of human rights i'll talk about it frankly but that doesn't mean that turkey and the european union should not have a strong cooperation and partnership when he wants turkey's help to do things like help control illegal immigration to europe and to work closely with europe with turkey on combating what he calls the fight against terrorism. thank you. at least four hundred thousand people in thailand are considered stateless with no registered citizenship by any of them are members of ethnic minorities living on the country's borders it's a problem the thai government wants to resolve by two thousand and twenty four

wayne hay reports from the my tan districts. in the hills of northern thailand there are millions of people whose lives have been hanging in the balance for years people in this village in chiang mai province belong to the ethnic group whose ancestors migrated around the region centuries ago facing persecution along the way . those living here now have been in thailand for generations but many still don't have type paperwork the village chief says he was the last person here to be granted citizenship sixteen years ago. in the past i only had a car that identified me as a highlander but now i have a tiny nationality car i'm very happy when i have money i can buy everything i want i can buy a house a car i'm glad those things remain a dream for so many others like hmong tong d who was born in thailand to parents from me and mob eight years ago he won a paper plane throwing competition and was granted

a temporary passport to represent thailand at a competition in japan the government at the time promised he would be granted permanent status upon his return. he's now twenty and is still stateless he works part time in a drone shop in teaches stateless children how to fly them. i feel very sad because people promised they would give me time nationality they were senior people and had promised me when i was just a little boy but they broke their promise. last year the military government valid to grant time nationality to another eighty thousand people but that would still leave hundreds of thousands if not more waiting there are many challenges facing stateless people in thailand they have to ask for permission before leaving their village they have difficulty accessing proper education or employment and can often become victims of corrupt government officials trying to take advantage of their vulnerability. in fact in the last few years many people have had their id cards revoked after it was found they had paid bribes for them at this small government

office alone four thousand corrupt cases were uncovered the government sinton more staff to resolve the problems but those in charge so the workload is huge. this is a very delicate job and it can slide into corruption before we have to be careful that's why we can only process two nationality cases per day but i'm a good for people waiting it's not just a case of having an id card it's a matter of dignity pride and a sense of belonging after generations of uncertainty when hey al jazeera may turn district thailand well now pakistan has responded angrily to the us a suspension of military assistance to islamabad pakistan's foreign minister has told the wall street journal that the white house is not acting like an ally washington has cut millions of dollars worth of aid to the country on tuesday it blames the government for failing to take action against taliban fighters targeting u.s. troops in neighboring afghanistan while on choose save u.s.

ambassador to the u.n. and now it's the suspension of two hundred fifty five million dollars in security assistance to pakistan but washington is considering what to do with the nine hundred million dollars it already approved for pakistan last year as part of the operations in afghanistan four hundred million from that amount has been withheld until pakistan does more to fight the afghan a carny network group now the remaining five hundred million is in question let's call alistair this as pakistan has already been shifting towards closer ties with china. john is a very you know this is a partnership which is called strategic cooperative partnership with china we are building everything from the fighter aircraft to the sea back to the major investment of sixty billion dollars that john is making in there it's everything is happening on the basis of partnership but been bogged down in china so basically this strategic direction has already shifted from washington to building it's just

that there is certain mindset still in islam about that maybe we still need to be connected with washington and maybe at a limited level so was as the time goes by and if the u.s. sanctions going to new i think august on the united states might. for a long time to come the devastating snowstorm gripping eastern parts of the united states has left emergency services scrambling thousands of people are without power flights have been canceled and streets are crowded with snow and florida it's so cold they have been falling out of trees elicits a struggling to warm up enough to move the city of lake with people helping out by moving them from the road. two thousand and eighteen is set to be a critical year in british and european history of breck's it plans jews to be finalized so for the latest part of our looking ahead series we travel to counter

brain england to understand people's attitude to one of attitudes to want to pursue the most significant and divisive decisions in recent years our u.k. correspondent barnaby phillips brings us this report. all the busy holiday. towns deep did igloos history and one which voted in favor of brics it by almost exactly the same percentage as the entire u.k. so a good place to find out what people will think about brics it and whether to reserve may to meet the challenges of twenty eighteen. inches not over at a moment where would i say you should just roll over for a supplier interest robert de niro used by select in order to excrete trip to this law. i'm pretty good about rick said. i think the economy. i think it's embarrassing.

i think. yeah. just like the people of canterbury the governing conservative party and the opposition labor party are badly divided over breaks it in twenty eighty the realities of what it means will become much more tangible and prime minister to resign may and labor leader jeremy corbett will struggle to hold their parties together. the prime minister faces a dilemma does she choose a so-called soft breaks it that keeps britain closely aligned to the e.u. to victimize economic disruption. or does she choose a heartbreaks it bore divergence from europe both freedom for britain to make its own decisions but also a risk that it becomes a poorer more isolated country. is seen by his supporters as the prime

minister in waiting but he too has dodged the most difficult decisions on bracks it if he wants to lead the country labor's ambiguous some say confused position will have to become much clearer in twenty eighteen. scottish nationalists and their leader nicholas sturgeon had a disappointing twenty seventeen support for independence dropping but if bracks it talks louder they will sense opportunity so which way will the political winds blow for the future of the united kingdom and not just its leading politicians a crucial year to be phillip's al-jazeera countering. quick look at the top stories for you now the author of a controversial book on donald trump says the u.s. president has no credibility and his staff say he is like

a child like ovals firing fear inside the trump white house has gone on sale early despite the president's attempts to help publication it paints a damning picture of a government this function that the us administration has branded it lies. i spoke to him after the inauguration yes and i had spoken to i mean i've spent about three hours with the president over the course of the campaign in the white house so my window into donald trump is. is pretty significant but even more to the point i spent this i spent in this was really the sort of the point of the book i spoke to people who spoke to the president on a daily sometimes minute by minute basis so this this book was really i mean in a sense in a sense there was one question on my mind when i began this book what is it like to work with donald trump. after more than two years of silence north korea and south

korea will reopen direct lines of communication juz days face to face talks will focus initially on the north's participation in next month's winter olympics in the south but officials in seoul is a discussions are expected to move on to what they describe as other areas of common interest. bosher is cool for closed door talks out of a u.n. meeting to discuss the growing tensions on iran on friday u.n. security council is having a special session to discuss recent protests with the u.s. accusing tehran of stifling the voices of its people but iranian leaders say larger pro-government rallies suggest otherwise at least twenty one people have been killed in the on rest which began over the country's economic instability rising food prices. the u.n. humanitarian chief says yemen could see the worst humanitarian disaster in fifty years the global organization has released more funding to try to prevent hundreds of thousands of people dying through family and disease civil war in the country has resulted in more than ten thousand deaths. and up to date with all of our top

stories now the news hour will be coming up in twenty five minutes time so do join me then that's after inside story which starts now stay with out there. the hotline link in north korea is in use again young wants to talk about next month's winter olympics but seoul also wants to discuss this nuclear program when next week's meeting. will make things well this is inside story.

come to the program.