more important to the u.k. than anything no bricks as we can the u.k. and a fire in the u.a.e. i would be thinking that the u.k. isn't as powerful as it once was but so is that when you think it is the u.a.e. sending a message in a way rebalancing the power between them i think that is certainly a message that the u.a.e. feels confident that they can assert themselves without fearing replications from the u.k. and also from america too because donald trump is certainly reset international norms on this front and people in the gulf probably feel freer to literally i mean just a statement that he issued on tuesday about the case effectively saying that it's going to be fine with saudi because you know that the trade relations and the financial aspect is more important do you think that that changes the balance in countries like the u.a.e. as well right across the middle east you think that that message is part of what happened to matthew had just absolutely i think that the world is so different now from barack obama to donald trump and in the u.a.e. and saudi arabia these countries certainly feel freer and more able to exert themselves when it comes to these kinds of issues especially because their response

in the last five years to the arab spring has been to shut down civil society spirits and people who ask questions about why they're doing their foreign policy are not tolerated and they feel it will to shut those down so what swayed easing the u.k. is going to have now in trying to get matthew hedges these pardon maybe and i think that they would like to see him part of the middle east in the past that's what i would say would likely happen quite quickly now i don't know the statements from the u.k. have been particularly strong but i would be surprised if they go any further than statements moving forward a lot of people i'm making the comparison between as an ins or diary who is in iran kept prisoner there and this one what would you say the similarities are i think the similarities are the both countries the u.s. and iran are trying to exert power over the u.k. one way or another and trying to get one is meant to be allowed one while announced foreign secretary jeremy hunt said today one that claims to be an ally i thought it was very important word that he said and it was that's why it was such a strong statement i thought that he made today and rory dinner here we're going to

have to leave it there thank you so much for sharing your views with us from the emirates center for human rights thank you. well speaking of breaks it here here prime minister tourism a will hold last minute breaks the talks in brussels on saturday hours before a special summit to sign off on the e.u. withdrawal agreement may many european commission presidential include earlier for discussions on future relations yeah the twenty seven e.u. members are expected to vote through the brics a deal of those spain's leader says he'll vote against it if he doesn't get assurances on gibraltar the deal also faces significant opposition in the u.k. parliament. it's in his government says it will not change its spending proposals despite the european commission rejecting its budget for two thousand and nineteen the e.u. is concerned that roams a borrow and spend plans could trigger another debt crisis and create a domino effect in the eurozone but that is your prime minister mattel's savina he says he will not back down lawrence the reports now from brussels. rome may be the

eternal city but it's looking like someone needs to give it some attention the social as well as physical fabric of italy has been unraveling for years with high unemployment and the persistently stagnant economy. rather than pointing to the endemic corruption italy has always suffered the populist coalition government to squarely blames austerity imposed by the european union on its problems but their vows to break hardline spending rules from brussels has led inevitably to an all out confrontation with the european commission which has said it will impose sanctions and fines honestly if it doesn't change its budgets in the strace the situation in italy is of common concern euro area countries are in the same team and should be playing by the same rules the response to all that from opponents of austerity would be look what happened to greece which eventually agreed to european demands and suffered years of economic hardship from which is still barely

recovering the most important politician in italy the hard rights interior minister matteo salvini said he was ready for a fight. the letter from brussels has arrived i was expecting one from santa claus as well we will respond politely as we always did but i will not back down the obvious political risk for the european commission in trying to beat italy into submission is it is a political tool for people like salvini who will say it only proves how undemocratic european institutions are asserting solving rights will be a key thing for populists not just in italy but across the continent before european elections next may if the european commission doesn't get its way by then the european parliament could look very different if he looks determined to change the direction of europe's economic strategy the consequences could be destabilizing lawrence li al jazeera brussels. meanwhile poland's governing body has bowed to an

e.u. ruling and move to reinstate supreme court judges it had forced into early retirement in october the european court of justice ordered poland to immediately suspend its decision to lower the retirement age of supreme court judges from seventy to sixty five this futile or force around two dozen judges off the bench and within the supreme court chief justice it's quite large protests with critics calling it a violation of the constitution. i'm joined now by love and passion professor of european law at the university of little six and an expert on the rule of law on matters of the e.u. so thank you so much for joining us here on al-jazeera so obviously poland had been criticized for a while over this you know by the e.u. specifically why did they decide to act now do you think it's an interesting timing they were given a month or a month ago to comply with this court's ruling you mentioned so yesterday monday

was the expiry of the deadline it came as a bit of a surprise this morning then and they would essentially comply with the court order haven't seen the details of this lation because it was initiated essentially was pushed for this morning and is since to have been rushed there were no preconceived notions and we're talking about a piece of this nation introduced in the morning adopted in the evening possibly it strikes me as a tactical retreat they were under pressure to comply with the court's ruling if they had failed to comply then financial sanctions would have been possible but let's not forget that's just one of many you would have louis shoes which have been raised repeatedly by the commission so it could be that essentially what i say by tactical retreat is you give some concession regarding the supreme court hoping that the commission and the other usage they're going to forget about the other one of the problems it's interesting because of course this is a european court of justice ruling ordered to roll in because that. parliament has

also issued i think article seven towards poland but that could have been circumvented well we know it's become to go because we have several trucks ongoing so but essentially a month ago for the first time the court of justice stepped in into the debate but it's one thing not to comply with the commission's request or the european parliament request it's another thing to refuse to comply with the binding whatever power to cut the funds basically they have the power to impose financial sanctions until you comply with the ruling ok so i mean you said that you were surprised that all of this happened you know this morning it was all passed in a rush says so why the rush what do you think chunk change could be that their domestic pressure there were elections recently local elections which they didn't win as well as expected and he has been said that the ongoing fight with the us editions on the on this judicial front is costing them in the polls it could be also there isn't a very important piece of legislation being debated by u.s.

officials about cutting access to e.u. funding on all of the grounds and poland is receiving a lot of e.u. funding and why it's being subject to this rule of law processes it's losing a lot of capital which he could use them to influence essentially this ongoing discussion on this legislation so the crisis with poland has been averted for now we know that this that the country's trying to defy the e.u. and obviously there's a lot of different institutions and different reasons we've just talked about and seen the situation with this leigh do you think that we're seeing in each you that there's sort of realize that needs to show its teeth a little bit more with countries that try to defy some of the rules and i think that actually the institution is built for that. very interesting question let me just go back to poland very quickly the crisis is not over it's just one step i don't think it's going to get worse from where it gets over and we have one area as well in the background and the tension the possibly the issue we are seeing is that once a number of countries a number of governments you other governments getting away. with basic violations

of basic rules then they'll be tempted to try to essentially get away with the rules they don't like so in the time in cases century it looks like they're trying to do what paul and us try to get away with but it is hard to sanction some of these countries because in poland's case for example hungry it always said it was going to vote against anything that was going to harm current trends i mean about is the e.u. ready do you think to really deal with these issues. possibly not i mean essentially assumption has always been that once you are part of the e.u. you are going to come play you're going to comply with you mean i'm a big oceans on you going to play the game you're going to corporate sincerely we've all there in your situation what we're seeing essentially is that now a number of national governments are not corporation in good faith and i don't think the system was designed to essentially deal with this kind of governance and maybe not even the size of the as it is correct their own passion professor of european law at the university of middlesex i hope to have you on again so we can

discuss all the details. thank you so much thank you and lots more to come in this hour including the stories behind the scars of a range of refugees and by a refugee in bangladesh tells us why she will never go back to me and why and we'll tell you why prisoners in a syrian jail have gone on unger strike plus in sports multiple roads are crossed in a single freestyle slope pronk for the first time peter will have all the action coming up. hello get a welcome back to your international weather forecast well across europe we have seen plenty of cold air particular here across central europe and we are going to continue to see that cold air mostly for central eastern europe over the next few days where we are going to start to see some modifications out here towards the west now temperatures here on thursday are still going to be in the single digits

as a high temperature so london at eight in paris at seven but we're going to see those temperatures start to rise slowly as we go towards the end of the week we're also picking up a lot more moisture wicking of this of the flow and storms coming out of the atlantic so we'll be watching this very carefully also some snow over here towards the italian alps over the next few days down towards rome it is going to be a cool day if you where the temperature of eighteen degrees well here across another part of africa we are going to be seeing the rain continue over here towards morocco but finally a change in the forecast as we go towards friday that frontal system makes its way through robot finally and we are going to be seeing maybe some more showers push across and then as we go towards the weekend it could be parts of algeria also over here towards the northern coast of egypt we are going to be seeing some rain mostly for alexandria over the next few days that's going to continue for most of the eastern med but here across libya it is not looking too bad few we are looking at for policing a partly cloudy day with a temperature of twenty four. because

we're not defending sure that. rights not being vineet. and freedom being stripped away. in the sand anniversary. wishes of the whites that stand out. like this stand up for human rights. china could be facing a debt iceberg that's according to s. and p. global the trumpet ministration just been insisting towards the saudis and other old producers that they want to have more production to cool down the prices we bring you the stories that are shaping the economic world we live in counting the cost on al-jazeera.

al-jazeera where every. time now for a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera the saudi foreign minister has described the premeditated killing of journalist journalist as an unfortunate accident speaking to us media. also said there's no question of the saudi crown prince being sidelined over them or. save the children says nearly eighty five thousand children under five have died from extreme hunger or disease since the civil war broke out in yemen in two thousand and fifteen and britain's foreign

secretary has warned there will be serious diplomatic consequences for the u.a.e. after it sentence the british man to life in prison thirty one year old matthew hedges has been convicted of spying for the british government. heavy rain is expected to complicate search efforts in northern california were officials are still looking for victims of the deadliest wildfire in the state's history teams are sifting through rubble and the search for bodies in the town of paradise the blaze left at least eighty one people dead and hundreds more missing while wednesday's rain will bring some relief to firefighters there are fears of a washed away human remains and cause flash flooding. after a brutal today selloff u.s. stocks rose on wednesday led by a rebound in internet and technology shares the spy the dramatic fluctuations in the stock market consumer confidence and employment are at a high and trump needs them to stay that way alan fisher has more now from

washington d.c. . it's been a volatile few weeks in america's stock markets dramatic losses partial recoveries millions white out of personal retirement funds but all this coming against the backdrop of good economic news consumer confidence in the united states is at its highest level in eighteen years that's good news too for the u.s. economy as retailers are about to start the busiest month of the year add to that unemployment is at its lowest level in almost thirty years corporate profits are up even wages are starting to rights but the stock market problems could be an indication things are not heading in the right direction if you look at stock markets ahead of historical recessions recessions have in the past frequently been so the preceded by a period of high stock market volatility that idea has been dismissed by the president's chief economic advisor. recession so far in the distance i can

see so what could tip the u.s. economy in the wrong direction the president's trade war with china and others over steel could drive costs up for u.s. consumers the president's tax cuts from last year didn't drive business investment we hope and it's going to push up the national debt and the u.s. central bank the fed has raised interest rates three times this year to stop the u.s. economy overheating that makes american exports more expensive something the president doesn't like i'd like to see the fed with a lower interest rate i think the rates too high i think we have much more of a fed problem that we have a problem with that it would out what could also store economic growth is an outbreak of political uncertainty confidence drives markets a wild twenty. twenty presidential campaign things right down even if they have the physical and economic ability to maybe spend spend more of the time i think they will be they might be slightly reluctant and that's all it takes if consumers and

businesses a world let's wait let's wait a year or two and see what happens the u.s. markets have stumbled before then recover trump is tied himself to the rising stock market seemingly choose his policies are working the recession relation much harder come twenty twenty and fischer washington. clashes have broken out between protesters and police in venezuela's capital caracas the protesters were rallying to demand changes to policing when tear gas was fired to disperse them they responded by strolling rocks and sticks demonstration was marking the sixty first anniversary of a student uprising against the take a ship of my post but as he manages the unrest there's also been fueled by venezuela's worsening economic crisis and soaring inflation which has left many unable to afford basic foods and medicines. hundreds of thousands of the hinge refugees in bangladesh are in limbo after a repatriation deal between bangladesh in myanmar was put on hold last week more

than seven hundred thousand to him just fled their homeland last year after a vicious crackdown by me and more as military described by the united nations as textbook s. think cleansing many are terrified to go home mohammad jew has been listening to one woman's story. for him to refugee from the scars may be healing but the pain is constant. point about i'm not even i am and if i were there my husband was shot and killed three of my children had their throat slit and then they hacked their bodies to pieces afghans will say well. montages recalls how in august two thousand and seventeen being moore's military attacked her village of tula tolly rights groups called it a massacre that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians after being raped says she was locked in a house that was set on fire she shows me the burns she sustained before managing

to escape with her sole surviving child eight year old razia for whom these marks from a machete serve as a reminder of the kind of trauma people three times her age would have trouble processing and could therefore indicate why did he know he was getting a little what did our children do to them or about our how divided them. out of there how about the why did the military attack and kill them how can anyone expect us to go back there when taj asks that question because of a much criticised repatriation deal between me and more in bangladesh that was set to begin last week it was ultimately delayed but not before causing a huge amount of concern for him to refugees in bangladesh terrified of the prospect of returning to me and more in august a u.n. fact finding mission accuse top military leaders and me and mark a perpetrating a genocide against the rangers in october the head of that fact finding mission

went even further saying that the genocide in myanmar is ongoing montez like so many other refugees here wants to know why the international community isn't doing more to help of one thing though she is certain not a member of the island even if they could bring my husband and my children and my parents back from the dead even if they brought back all of them we wouldn't go back we wouldn't go because of how much we were persecuted. resolve it seems conquering despair even though the sorrow will never go away. mohammed atta at the blue kali refugee camp in cox's bazar on the dish. the united nations says urgent steps must be taken to avoid a catastrophic famine in central african republic which could kill hundreds of thousands of people the un office for humanitarian affairs is the clear the level for emergency food insecurity status that's just one level below

a famine it says the government has the guarantee safety for refugees to return to work the fields and produce food more than a million people have fled fighting since two thousand and thirteen. left alone. this is a warning to be reaching level four it's a warning and we're not talking about teen people we're talking about a few hundreds of thousands of people blowing the whistle not to say a famine will happen tomorrow but to say that all the measures must be taken to avoid it happening we are regularly criticized for not doing enough prevention well that's what this is preventing famine and it's a collective responsibility we alone cannot change the circumstances to avoid a famine. complaining is officially underway in the democratic republic of congo ahead of next month's long delayed presidential election the main opposition candidate marching for you as greeted his supporters after arriving back in the country earlier on wednesday he's the unity choice of several opposition parties

twenty one candidates are hoping to succeed president joseph kabila was stayed on for two years beyond the constitutional two term limit of reports the three activists working on his campaign have been beheaded in central province. prisoners in the syrian city of hama have gotten hunger strike they're demanding the withdrawal of death sentences passed on eleven political detainees who have been put on death row for taking part in peaceful demonstrations in two thousand and eleven so in a heart of reports now from neighboring lebanon. from inside hamas central prison an appeal for help detainees and now it's an open ended hunger strike more than a week ago to protest against the verdicts by a syrian court eleven and mates the latest to be handed death sentences for taking part in a peaceful protests in two thousand and eleven the beginning of the uprising that led to the war now in its eighth year. we speak your conscience we

appeal to your humanity. and ate our suffering we have been imprisoned for years we are exhausted we have the right to live human rights groups say the verdicts are unjust the international committee of the red cross has been denied access to the prisons where detainees don't have lawyers serious counter terrorism law has also been criticized for criminalizing almost all peaceful opposition activity many political protesters and political dissidents who are basically picked up by the syrian security services or detained checkpoints and taken into these detention facilities without any form of due process. those held inside hama prison retained control of much of the facility after a mutiny in two thousand and sixteen they have phones and internet access but despite managing to draw attention to their plight the international community

remains silent. tens of thousands have disappeared others are being tried in military field courts or counterterrorism courts where proceedings on up to international standards little action has been taken there's also the silence of the un refuses to discuss the file. the family see the case of at least eighty thousand detainees and the forcibly disappeared needs to be dealt with in any post conflict settlement a few months ago and after years of silence hundreds of families learned their missing relatives have been registered that they fear the government may be trying to cover up crimes against humanity human rights groups estimate that between five thousand and thirteen thousand people have been executed in prison and a further eight hundred thousand have died in other prisons after being tortured and because of poor conditions since two thousand and eleven but said no year has been singled out by amnesty international as nothing more than

a human slaughterhouse it's not the first time detainees in hama prison are resisting transfer to said they are reaching out to the world for help through their hunger strike asking others to be their voices. beirut in germany the race to replace angela merkel as leader of the christian democratic union is gathering pace in the base up and down the country rank and file members are getting the chance to question the sri people standing for the post should their next leader stick with merkel's policies or set a new course from either dominic cain reports on the latest debate. one of these three will become the next christian democrat leader but to do so they must first convince their party one is close to angle americal and seen by some as her natural successor for her competence in government are the watchwords i look there's an issue like this and. i bring my personal outlook and previous experience

as a federal minister and prime minister of south and if the question is about character and that's why i am the right candidate for you to elect by me then there is the young pretender who believes the party should move further right and reengage with voters last during merkel's time in office ya. yes the turnout in the general election was up but our vote dropped last people's trust voters sent us a message that things weren't going how they should like for example or diesel they're asking themselves will they be able to drive their cars in the cities or not finally there is anger merkel's former rival a man who left politics after being sidelined by her nearly ten years ago he's returned now to say the party needs reinvigoration are you giving us more funding for and we will only achieve it if we stay firmly anchored in the political center

ground don't turn left or right but we must win back those we've lost in the last few years this will only work if we were a christian democratic union that welcomes people whatever their background but which is clearly identifiable with western christian and jewish values. the post was about giving the members the time to see these three candidates up close and personal and for them to work out which one they think can take that policy forward and when the next general election just mine is it isn't distinguished by my feeling is. i was very impressed by. but the nicads come. all so very interesting. from the three candidates with experience mounts because i'm very happy that he comes back into the politics and he was so most impressive for me. they'll get the chance to cost them votes in

december dominicana zero. still ahead in this news hour as scott that occurrence that counts down to the world cup we look at why the head of world football wants to expand the competition to forty eight teams. and research in poland paves the way for a concrete solution to urban pollution. business updates brought to you by qatar airways going places together.

business updates brought to you by qatar airways going places together. and now here. with this point. thank you very much the countdown to the twenty

twenty two world cup is officially on football's biggest tournament will kick off in qatar in exactly four years time it's been moved from a traditional june july window to november and december to avoid extreme heat cuts it will be the first country in the middle east to host a world cup and fee for president giani infantino believes the region is already benefiting. when you think about all the debates and discussions on human rights on the workers' welfare when we hold the world cup these debates would not have happened and the improvements which have happened it would not have happened either so the world cup has already had before even it starts a great social impact and this would be a great legacy not only for qatar but for the whole region sports correspondent andy richardson was at an event in doha to mark the four year countdown earlier and has more on what will make us as world cup unique. well in four years' time some of

the world's best footballers will be kicking off a game with slightly more significance than this little kick about it was interesting talking to the fans at the world cup in russia just how many were still unaware the world cup was moving from its traditional june july window and into this november december slots when cats are bid for the world cup and won it in c thousand and ten they were bidding for a summer world cup and the eight stadiums that we use for that solomon will have air cooling technology whether or not that will be necessary this time of year is a different matter but what is definitely the case is that for the hundreds of thousands of fans will be coming to cats are the experience will be that bit more pleasurable for coming during these cooler months and of course it will cause considerable disruption for many domestic leagues already this world cup will be the shortest since nineteen seventy eight twenty eight days as opposed to the thirty two days we saw in russia to try and minimize the disruption to some of the

domestic leagues but it's inevitable that leagues will have to start sooner and finish a little bit late so what the organizers are hoping is that one of the compensations will be that often when international coaches get their players for it's all events it's at the end of a long season and the players are exhausted that will not be the case for starting in november now one of the ongoing uncertainties about preparations at this point is just how many countries will be taking officially is getting ready for a thirty two team world cup just like the one we saw in russia fee for president giani infancy no still pushing the idea that maybe forty eight countries could be involved it's very much his idea he's up for reelection as president next year and you know that by inviting more countries to a world cup it is a popular votes when now officially being diplomatic in france at the big polo it's about the idea there is a feasibility study under way we will get closure on the issue next march when faith makes

a final. decision on just how many teams will be out this world cup in twenty twenty. in other football news the republic of ireland have parted ways with manager martin o'neill and he's assistant roy keane o'neill and former manchester united midfielder keen to charge a violent day in twenty thirty nine guided them to the last sixteen of the euros two years ago but ireland haven't won a competitive match under the pay in twenty eighty seven time grand slam tennis champion venus williams has settled her lawsuit over a fatal car crash she was involved in last year a seventy eight year old man who was a passenger in the car that collided with williams died thirteen days after the accident which took place near williams's home in florida no charges were brought against her or the other driver the terms of the settlement have not been disclosed six time n.b.a. champion michael jordan is returned to his hometown to meet victims of hurricane florence in september jordan donated two million dollars to the american red cross and a hurricane response fund the former chicago bulls star handed out thanksgiving dinners

and donated basketball shoes at a boys and girls club where he once played in wilmington south carolina but this is my home you know and sometimes you just want to trust the people who are giving money on the long. term you win on the street so you get them understand that you are human amount of what could do you manage a situation you know i can partner with certain people cheaper to steal things that we can improve the conditions german. takes a lot of me. but i think i just want to be a big united to the process work because you know it's going to take a long time for this thing gets back to. wherever we actually contribute you know. tiger woods and phil mickelson are preparing for the head to head go for match in las vegas on friday that the former world number ones have been rivals for more than twenty years and will play a first of its kind match with the winner taking home nine million dollars in prize money skeptics of criticize the golfers for putting the match on pay per view

television and also for failing to use their money to which mickelson responded by raising the stakes at the news conference the challenges are coming directly out of our pockets ok and i feel like the first hole is a great.