over the last few years particularly from the government which says they came to power in a mystical into thousand and fourteen and i think they are seizing the opportunity here is still called to show the international community that they are flexible and they are willing to move forward and this explains why since yesterday they started floating the idea of a presidential council to lead yemen in the near future so one of them told me that well if we are having issues with the government we need to know who are we going to hand over weapons to and therefore we need to have an authority all of the yemenis except that the government does not really believe the these are genuine about any political settlement in the future this isn't what your body had to say. and he said. you had this is not the issue you know going to have started all name is the military coup that took place in two thousand and fourteen. if you mean i think that i was going to. through aggression took over our country i thought of

part of it i did then i believe let's say the hardys out of nowhere you know musculature is not going to solve them relaxed have a moment on the contrary i want to talk so i know there will be the ongoing fighting over. and i want all of you is the leader is there said no you got your wish has hijacked the state so my last question to you do you have any hopes that these talks will bring about some breakthrough how to. do. that on the. if you want policies you know what about peace we are genuine about peace. edgier this is quite a delicate situation in yemen there are two key players taking part in the talks in yemen except for one which the decided not to take part the secessionists in the south their influence has been on the rise to thousand and eleven and they say that

the absolutely have nothing to do with northern yemen they want to have a republic of their own in areas like god and how that are most and they say it's just about a matter of time before the will announce their own republican this is something which is putting pressure on the international community they do understand that if they cannot come out of here with an announcement saying that all the parties are willing to negotiate a settlement yemen might disintegrate. many thanks live in remote just north of stockholm well especially saying a third group that isn't at the tent city suite is the southern iraq movement they've are new deck calls for the saudi u.a.e. coalition to withdraw from the city of eight and hundreds of people marched in protest on saturday calling their presence in the city an occupation as a protest as accuse the saudi u.a.e. coalition of deepening the suffering of people in provinces that are under government control we're going to weather update next here on al-jazeera then china

summons canada's ambassador to protest against the arrest of a high to a high tech executive. at a museum reopening in belgium confronts the country's dark past. how the winter snow is showing now has been for about three days in north and normal recently central china this line is if you like the winter fronts of the snow in the northern sides be falling in the yangtze valleys come a long ways it said not attempts to sas that as well hong kong's down to sixteen year in the rain for sunday is warmer and considerably wetter on the coast of vietnam we've seen over one hundred millimeters in the last twenty four hours is more to come of that it will be some flooding the snow doesn't make

a full sudden progress nor does the car was still at three in one hand and shanghai's with miserable twelve in the rain. that's been quiet for a couple of weeks now and throughout most of india pakistan pakistan violation the pole the some cloud up in the hindu kush far north of india if you like it's cold in kashmir valley and that cold quiet weather extends further south not to the same extent but it's quiet still and with fog or smog even the rain in sri lanka is rather limited at the moment just reaching colombo possibly west of that but of a breeze from a dive the north for another day for sunday affecting kuwait qatar for example but that becomes quieter so things are going to be warmer on monday. the lights are on. and there's nowhere to hide isn't the easiest way to solve this

to allow u.n. observers who you invited into the country earlier this year to finish the job i haven't said it's a right wing conspiracy or anybody's conspiracy straight talking debate do you think we're going to see some kind of sea change in the u.s. relationship with saudi arabia we have an obligation there's a journalistic integrity and then to end this case it was betrayed totally up from his own al-jazeera. well again this is out zero the main news this hour french police are using batons and tear gas and scuffles with protesters in paris hundreds of people to tell you this the so-called yellow vest anti-government movement tests for the fourth

weekend. one of the latest sticking points to emerge from the third to have talks in sweden to end the war in yemen is of a transitional government who the rebels believe it would work if it includes all of yemen's political parties however government because he says resisting is. china's foreign ministry has described the arrest of an executive from the tech giant way as extremely nasty beijing as some of the canadian ambassador to protest against a decision to keep long long joe in custody over the weekend man was arrested in canada at the urging of the u.s. it claims that long breached iran sanctions kristen salumi reports. among china's business elite among ones who is considered royalty the daughter of the founder of telecom giant hallway the company's c.f.o. and possible heir to the throne but to the united states mom is a wanted criminal the charge confirmed in

a canadian court on friday fraud specifically using an unofficial weiwei subsidiary to do business with iran in violation of u.s. sanctions china's foreign ministry has condemned her arrests and demanded the evidence. she do what i can tell you is that neither canada nor the u.s. have provided any evidence to china that the person of the cases violated the laws of the two countries until now. canadian prosecutors acting on behalf of the us argued against freeing man on bail saying her wealth made her an extreme flight risk while her lawyer said she'd never do anything. to embarrass her family or her country in court filings the united states argued that mung was likely to flee to china if released on bail the united states believes that walkway officials have been avoiding travel to the united states since april of two thousand and seventeen when they became aware of the investigation and furthermore that they had been

moving u.s. based employees out of the country who could have been called to testify in the case that's why when they became aware of her travel to canada on november twenty ninth they requested her extradition monza arrest comes amid mounting trade tensions between the u.s. and china and news of her arrest rattled investors the dow closed down more than five hundred points for the week racing games for the year but experts say the case is not about trading i think it's very much sanctions issue and the desire to make sure that people know that we aren't kidding when the u.s. imposes sanctions nevertheless it could complicate trade relations as the two countries attempt to work out their differences kristen salumi al-jazeera two significant legal developments a piling pressure on u.s. president donald trump documents released by prosecutors in new york for the first time directly linked the president to financial crimes allegedly committed during

his twenty sixteen white house campaign separately robot mode his team which is investigating suspected russian interference in that campaign says that last go contacted donald trump's then post the lawyer michael cohen as far back as twenty fifteen well as team also says the trumps former campaign manager paul maeder thought violated the plea deal by lying to them on five different matters including his contacts with the russian associate the white house says that none of this reveals anything new or damaging about the president there are of course several strands to this story. should have returns it breaks it all down for us now from washington. shortly after the release of some of the prosecution documents the u.s. president expressed his lack of concern totally clears the president he wrote thank you it's not clear exactly what he was referring to but some believe the contents of the latest memos should provide some cause for concern for donald trump michael cohen was trump's long time lawyer and fix up he's pled guilty to tax evasion and

campaign finance violations and it's this latter charge that now directly implicates the president in its filing prosecutors in new york say code made to hush money payments to women in contravention of campaign finance law that filing says asco has now admitted with respect to both payments he acted in coordination with and at the direction of individual one individual one is assumed to be donald trump so prosecutors are directly implicating the president in the crime the special counsel's moment about cohen confirmed what was already in the public domain about failed attempts to build a trump tower in moscow that continued even as trump was on the campaign trail expounding about his proposed russian foreign policy however there are two new areas which might be of concern to trump firstly miller writes cohen provided the special counsel's office with useful information concerning certain discrete rusher related matters core to its investigation that he obtained by virtue of his regular contact with company executives during the campaign and cohen provided relevant and

useful information concerning his contacts with persons connected to the white house during the twenty seventeen twenty eighteen time period. it's unclear what information miller is referring to during the campaign but it's striking cohen is also discussing trump's first year in office with the special prosecutor. miller has also submitted a document about former trump campaign manager paul manifold he was convicted of illegal lobbying for the ukrainian government as well as financial fraud the special prosecutor says manifold broke a plea agreement reached to provide information in return for like a sentence this involves a redacted name miller says while negotiating the agreement manifold provided information about redaction that was pertinent to an investigation in another district however after signing the plea agreement manifold told the government a different and exculpatory version of the events in addition miller says manifold lied about context he had with the trumpet ministration after he had reached that plea agreement the former director of the f.b.i.

happened to be in capitol hill for a closed door questioning on friday he praised the special counsel's investigation but gave a reminder that a lot of questions remain the most important occasion of that is you don't know anything about it except twenty five something court and that's what makes it so don't trump has now been implicated directly in campaign finance violations but it's not clear what these latest findings have to do with the russian collusion investigation if anything however taken in conjunction with this heavily redacted document that was filed earlier this week in conjunction with the investigation into a former security advisor michael flynn there's plenty of speculation she hammered hansie al-jazeera washington a short time ago the u.s. president dismissed the latest court documents released by special counsel robert mueller and a tweet from says after two years and millions of pages of documents and a cost of over thirty million dollars no collusion. iran's president says that donald trump's decision to re-impose sanctions against his country is economic

terrorism the oil and financial sanctions came into force a month ago after trump pulled out of the twenty fifteen nuclear deal it made speaking at a conference on regional cooperation has on rouhani warned western nations risk an influx of illegal drugs if the sanctions weaken iran. i won those who impose sanctions that if iran's ability to fight drugs and terrorism are affected you will not be safe from a deluge of drugs asylum seekers' bombs and terrorism. a protest march in malaysia's capital is turned into a rally of support for the government decided not to sign a un convention to eliminate racial discrimination malays which of the largest ethnic group were worried the convention could impact the florence louis reports from kuala lumpur. this rally with initially organized as a protest march to demonstrate against the government's decision to ratify a un convention to eliminate racial discrimination and the reason this backlash

against this year in malaysia is because the majority race in the late the make up more than sixty percent of the population are concerned that this move to a. special privileges and threaten the position of islam as the main religion in this country the privileges granted to the malays and other indigenous groups give them an advantage as in a range of things from business to education to. affirmative action all the fees were put in place decades ago because even though they were the main group considered economically disadvantaged compared to the chinese and indians the other two main races in this country and the government mindful of the backlash reversed its pledge to ratify the convention but this rally is still going ahead people here tell us they want to send a message to the government that they will reject anything that threatens the late special privilege to a point. that we've gone through and all that we know enjoy will be affected that

is what we don't want. to do and there's already an agreement made long ago between the military and the chinese and it was in trying to into the constitution there's no need to change anything we already have human rights or equal rights in malaysia but this is also about politics that's rallies organized by the two largest. position in the country one of. the other if i want to lead. since independence for more than sixty years until its defeat in the general election in may well end its intended as a reminder to show the government and the supporters that they are still relevant one of africa's largest museums is opened in senegal the one hundred forty eight thousand square foot venue houses exhibits from ancient black civilizations as well as more artwork that include paintings that recount slaves passage to the americas centuries ago. a controversial museum focusing on belgium's colonial past is

reopening off to being closed for a year events being overshadowed by demands from former colonies like the democratic republic of congo but it return some artifacts the reports. for more than a century this opulent museum outside brussels was a symbol of belgium's colonial past it was created by king leopold the second with wealth amassed from his kingdom's plunder of congo its exhibits portrayed africans as savage and primitive hundreds of congolese people were put on display in a human zoo but there was no mention of the fact that millions of people were enslaved or killed by their oppressors so until twenty years ago belgium didn't have any critical reflector ryssdal on your past and nobody really questioned about how did google is really perceive it and if you talk to the release of the period i'm in they'll talk about your profession about the way they were treated and so when go to visit this museum they'll start reflecting well maybe that the colonial

system wasn't all that good. king leopold presented belgium's colonize ation of congo as a humanitarian mission but that was far from the brutal reality congolese artist mam panny hopes his work will force people to reflect on history or the miles around over priscilla posit it is thinking together about the past the present and making sure what happened never happens again and to end stereotypes and colonize the image of central africa with pierre company came to belgium as a refugee from congo in one thousand nine hundred seventy five he's now the country's first black man he son vincent plays for belgium's national football team he says the museum could be a cultural bridge or you know from now it is museum would be a different color both congo and belgian would better understand the mistakes made in the future that awaits us. while those behind the reopening of this museum hope

that it will help belgians confront their colonial past some critics say it's a missed opportunity that a greater gesture would have been to return some of the looted artworks objects to congo so much. these are not mere outworks they represent our ancestors so if my ancestors are enclosing the museum frozen in time then they are dead so i don't want to celebrate in this cemetery perhaps i would visit in the future if we start returning the works state museums across europe have come under increasing pressure from campaign is to return objects taken from africa they say it would address some past injustices but also force people in former colonial powers like belgium to know and confront a history that for too long has been ignored. al-jazeera brussels belgium.

it is good terry with us hello adrian from going to here in doha the top stories this hour is there a french police using batons and tear gas and scuffles with protesters as the so-called yellow vest anti-government movement demonstrates again in paris hundreds of people have been detained it's the fourth weekend of protests against the high cost of living that have shaken president tonight cause authorities to serve the people have been arrested in belgium as you know vast protests spread across europe police used pepper spray on marchers tried to break into european union buildings the protesters are calling for the resignation of belgium's prime minister sharon michel. one of the latest sticking points to emerge from the third day of talks in sweden to end the war in yemen is over a transitional government who three rebels believe that it would work if it includes all of yemen's political parties however government the go see it as resisting that. this is not the issue.

as our problem is the military coup that took place in two thousand and fourteen. probably. through aggression took over our country had. let's say the hardys out of the equation musculature is not going to solve them on the contrary. there will be the ongoing fighting over. a lot of. which has hijacked the state so my last question to you do you have any hope that these talks will bring about some breakthrough. that i don't know. but. if you don't want is you know what about peace well jenny what about these documents released by u.s. prosecutors have for the first time directly linked donald trump to financial crimes committed during his twenty sixteen presidential campaign it's also been revealed that

a russian who offered quote political synergy with that campaign reached out to trump's former lawyer michael cohen as far back as twenty fifteen richelle has a little over twenty five minutes right after upfront next. on counting the cost castle becomes the first country in the middle east to quit opec un climate talks took place this week in a coal mining town passed by french president emanuel microphones policies are so unpopular counting the cost on al-jazeera. the u.s. government says china is detaining more than two million winger's ethnic kazakhs and other muslim minorities is this the world's biggest most ignored human rights crisis our law school we go activist also on the show the u.k. is trying to quit the european union because the original brics that referendum tainted that's our debate.

according to the u.s. state department more than two million members of muslim ethnic minorities are being held by the chinese government in so-called reeducation camps against their will including eight hundred thousand wingers activists say it's part of a long running government campaign to suppress torture and humiliate the weak as the chinese government say they're fighting terrorism even as they send communist party officials to live inside of we got homes but is the world even paying attention joining me to discuss this human rights crisis. we're activist who was forced to leave china on thanks for joining me on upfront so you for having me you're a weaker activist who fled china in two thousand and three how bad has the situation become in providence the historic we got homeland in more recent months and years do you recognize these horrific numbers from the u.s.

state department eight hundred thousand we get to reeducation camps more than two million members of muslim minorities detained in total that number sound almost unbelievable. yes actually after the force of december the tuesday state department of. testimony in capitol hill and a lot of the news media pick up to eight hundred of then we were actually it's more than two million because we were is a major population over there in shouldn't. because yes what are you hearing from your friends and family back home in injuring about what's going on inside those camps because the chinese government say there have been violent attacks by weaker separatists so they're just the radicalizing the terrorists there they say the chinese foreign ministry says these policies are about improving livelihoods and preserving stability what do you say in response. to that we have

a lot of. the morning witness testimony and also we have the firsthand information from the chinese government's web site and their information and i will ask them what president in young university was a medical university president and a customer university's president the need of from this work ational education kept there in the council there in the electorate as well and how can they become a terrorist if they can promote to due to this union university's president reach means it's a provincial level party member also must be a communist party member which means the communist party members become terrorist now needed to go to what's happening there are we talking about when we talk about this testimony of torture yes. by the state department of land less indoctrination and the harsh conditions inside and it is

a. person's testimony they are in for seeing. their hunger not giving them enough food not enough water and sometimes forcing them to take a madison unknown madison and after that someone. from the woman's testimony there was a pregnancy or most of them and the some kid who was died over there and if that is . in one cell with. description they have model. sixty are on the people inside and some how do we stand at least our families are coming from people who've been released and come out yes very good job in the laboratory of china now we have four make a good. girl and another one lady now he's in turkey so that we have four so that the numbers we're seeing the conditions

that are getting harsher this is an escalating trend clearly but it's not new repression of the we get is being going on for decades tell me about what happened to you you were we were activist in china in the eighty's and ninety's what happened to you years starting very early into the started to abolish that we've got a language teaching in the. university and they always have very strong discrimination. for you sample i was teacher in college your work ational training college that's the real work original and really the only they were the police will visit me and bring me to the police station asking some question and when i give a class to the student of the world put some student morning after me and arrested me twice and beating me and my. broken this is one day use the electric. beaten. me

twice one in a relation with this roughly it was into the then one at what happened to your family your family suffer as well a brother was killed by the chinese mob in total and four after i left and my sister was get arrested because of my activism in poland fourteen and now i got lost who is whole my family members now i don't know if my mom she's still alive my sister is still alive my ex-wife go. lost contact my kid i got here after ten years in two thousand and thirteen in malaysia and my. because i stand him some money and the. post old son close and his tour. in two thousand and nine tucson was get.

there were beaten tortured detained for without any child and just because i send money and send some possible talk to other we get living in exile this is a common experience and i want to hear the very heart of the experience what seems to be in recent weeks of some of the media reports from the associated press and other to be believed if this is going beyond discrimination it's something we've not seen pretty much anywhere else in the world there are reports that the chinese communist party has sent more than a million local government workers to live to literally live inside of we go home to watch the prey raise their kids to monitor them twenty four seven even in private it sounds not just crazy it sounds orwellian yes. it was always morning. was a common practice in the chinese government for the you good if you say no you are extremism. will you and you can send you to a concentration camp or sentence you because just say you don't like them and they

will leave you twenty four hours and one time they go at least have to leave you in their home for two weeks and a lot of the family so hard when it does son demand was all yours in. concentrating can only laugh to war men and their daughters is small kids and if they are taking this and wanted it i heard some of them raping the woman. but from what you're hearing it was a secondhand report from things you're hearing from other activists other exiles is this increasing in number that more people go into more homes there oh yes. when it started two years ago it was just some families seeing it. targeted in that they needed to mourn in term more closely now. it was all your family and it two years ago first time what i heard is before they send in

a car just or we're going to pass in the car. that we are all villagers you cannot lock your door inside when you are sleep at night you'll have to open it and there's a police can any time come into your heart in me the night ask all your family to go outside to wait in the courtyard they will search your home what are they looking for. any seeing. rags or or any. books so what do you want the u.s. government majority countries which have been very silent about all this the international community the u.n. what do you want them to do to help we get in how do you put pressure on a country as powerful as china as economically dominant in the global economy as china. currently for example the u.s. government. true to war is that china and if it's combined who is acumen rides

include that we were to bat. i am pretty sure that we are u.s. government to stand on the high ground also morality and you can mobilize all the western countries to do some sanction to the chinese government who is responsible for this atrocity you say that go the other way couldn't it be that donald trump and president xi do a deal on trade which involves the. looking the other way on what's going on in. yes i'm saying that strands are not very. optimistic and china is calculating what the u.s. action and we already talked about sanctions three months early and until now we didn't see any action and i know if u.s. can sanction some few of which all the rest of the world will follow and the u.n. can stand firm in their commitment to the human rights. we'll have to leave it

there thank you so much for joining me on outfront so thank you so much. french president emmanuel macross government is on the defensive following violent protests against a proposed fuel tax credit was supposed to be a hopeful alternative to europe's right wing populists but in this week's reality check out from producer ryan cole examines whether the french president really is a hero of the global resistance in the age of donald trump and rising authoritarianism many have failed french president emmanuel mccall as the savior of the liberal order even declared himself the main opponent of europe's nationalist populist but is he really well since assuming power has passed a massive an unpopular reconfiguration of france's labor laws by decree critics say this weakens collective bargaining rights and decreases worker security simply dismiss the naysayers slackers his contempt for some of the inconveniences of

french from ocracy extend beyond the workplace in the aftermath of the horrific twenty fifteen terror attack in paris strick state of emergency laws were implemented. however is now incorporated these provisions into ordinary law as a result authorities have been gifted draconian powers to curb the rights of individuals suspected of having links to terrorist networks all without any independent judicial oversight the ombudsman. the man in charge of defending civil liberties warn these policies stigmatize muslims and threaten social cohesion refugees haven't fared so well in france either yes the occasional refugee has been fast track to citizenship because they went viral scaling the building and saving a child but most haven't been so lucky last august passed a law reducing the number of days one has to apply for asylum from one hundred twenty to ninety and asylum seekers whose applications are rejected could be deported before the asylum court has the chance to rule on their appeal for freedom

of the press doesn't always support those seeking. hold power to account in july it was revealed that one of his bodyguards violently attacked two protesters will be illegally disguised as a police officer attack journalist reporting on the unfolding scandal saying that france has a press that is no longer pursuing the truth and media power that wants to become a judicial power the remark or a swift rebuke from human rights watch who said his arguments were dangerous rhetoric well journalists around the world are coming under fire and populist leaders and other autocrats who wish to discredit or prevent all criticism of power perhaps the greatest lesson of the macro presidency is that threats the liberal democracy do not always come from the political extremes can arise from the left the right and yes the center. claims of illegal campaign overspending of russian interference of data theft was the twenty sixth referendum in the u.k.

a free and fair vote as britain prepares to leave the european union next march there's a growing chorus of voices calling for a second referendum partly on the grounds that the first one may have been illegitimate one of the reporters who has broken most of the stories related to face book cambridge analytic on the possible role of russian money in the twenty sixteen vote is the observer journalist carole cadwallader she joins me now from london and from brussels member of the european parliament stephen wolf a longstanding brooks it supporter and former member of ukip the u.k. independence party thank you both for joining me from. carroll let me start with you as a result of your own investigative journalism you have criticized the way in which the brics referendum in the summer of twenty sixteen was conducted that's when fifty two percent of the public voted to leave as opposed to forty eight percent who voted to stay do you believe that breaks it vote was tainted. well i think it's absolutely know that that the vast majority of people voted the way that they did because of their very strong and genuine views that is absolutely not in doubt and

never question not at all there are now multiple criminal investigations i think the last count i did there actually knowing ongoing serious or criminal investigations into laws that were broken during the campaign so that includes illegal overspending illegal coordination of campaigns illegal use of data and then we've got this extraordinary revelation that the the biggest sum of money spent you in the referendum campaign that was supplied by our own banks this bristol businessman who supported nigel for raj his campaign the electoral can commission looked at that donation for a year they investigated it for an entire year and at the end of it they said we're not sure where that money came from and we're not even sure that it's british ok stephen moore did you win that vote in twenty sixteen fair and square carol talks

about all the illegality that's now associated with your campaign. of course we are absolutely won fair and square and i think i'm pleased that carol actually said that people's votes were based on opinions that they had previously formed there is no way that i was campaigning in the streets of the north of england in the early and blackpool in the middle and the home towns that i grew up in that we were being funded by the russians had some sort of dark money from some organizations in the united states but where i do have a problem with carol's assessment is there was no connection between vote leave and leave the e.u. in fact there was the opposite there was a complete hatred between those like karen banks and those who were leading the vote leave campaign there was no way in heaven that these people would have been collaborating with one another stephen what about carroll's point about overspending both levy you and the holy in reported to the police by the electoral

commission and the fact is the main thrust of carol's argument is that nigel for she was involved in some sort of illicit campaign with the russians to fund a campaign to undermine british democracy i'm a star is the main case about it then is compiled probably wrong because that is never what i campaigned on never what the millions of people love i'm are i the people involved in ukip met and worked with carol is that palpably wrong is that your main case and is that probably wrong the vast majority of people this made absolutely no difference at all to you but what is key here is that they when targeted by these advertisements that is not where the money was spent all of the money in the referendum was spent in locating a few people who were called the persuadable and they were the people who were targeted with a fire hose of dish information in the last two weeks of the campaign

and that was where the money was spent it's the fact that it's just seven sensual. if you're going to have a referendum that is going to affect the foundation the constitution of our country you better do that within the law and we know that is not the case we know that multiple laws were broken and an investigation is ongoing into multiple of the laws that might have been broken even one of our in banks this multimillionaire businessman who's been donating to the. cause for years now you know him you were at the top of ukip for a while we've seen all these times now coming out between now and banks and sources in russia did you know about them when you were working alongside him well look i never knew about his various meetings with the russian ambassador but he never knew about meetings that i had with a variety of people in the in the camp various campaigns what i do know is that he

did meet these people carol as pointed these but at no stage has anybody ever said that what he's done is illegal their investigations and that is the point here we can't just run a witch on based upon the idea of evidence that is being pulled together by people that's never been found in a steve carroll carroll you've not convicted these people it's not been proved in a court of law there are three investigations now that the electoral commission carried out and that it has concluded and that has now passed to the metropolitan police so that is overspending by you overspending by leave and overspending by believe and then you say that that the electoral commission has that concluded those investigations to a criminal level of proof and it's passed those over to the metropolitan police so we can say definitively. those laws were broken and that has been proved to even. no no carol come on let's be fair about this this is not beyond

a criminal level of proof because the electoral commission doesn't have a criminal level of proof if it did it wouldn't pass it on to the metropolitan committee police in the first place what they're saying if they had had a nasty that they believe it doesn't fit their particular view which is that the state ruled they are the government regulate process and how different is not saying that a little was they can they are the official regulator appointed by that yes the rules and i broke that ees what they said but now how little there is an old norse with broken northern territory there is a different scene about the electoral commission has said and make your point carol i appreciate your point of interest to me about sixteen times there in the u.k. we have very different levels there is a civil liability law and the recruitment all laws and in the civil liability law that is where the electoral commission is they have no criminal powers and no criminal designation of what it is that's why they passed it on to metropolitan

police because they don't have the powers do you did you can't get money from russian sources given you've got so much money from aaron banks when you were part of you can't. absolutely know how you know. because we wouldn't have been struggling for most of the money that we had in the first place ok karen let me ask you this this is where the nonsense comes from mehdi ok well listen i'm going to sleep well let's try to get a lot of final callisto so i get to the bottom of the alleged nonsense carol you've written an article for the new york review of books saying britain needs russia investigation its own robot given how controversial and divisive the motor investigation has been here in the united states do you think that actually be of any value in the u.k. . well i think i look at this speech the head of m i six made his only his second of a speech since he's been in office and he pointed to the fact that how m i six had been involved in the mass expulsion of russian spies from britain and that

happened after say ok squeeze powell was poisoned the foreign office took this action now one of those people who was expelled from britain at that time we m i six confirmed was a russian intelligence officer this is the person who is targeting our own banks and he wasn't just targeting our own banks any old time he was targeting him in the months before the referendum and banks was invited by the russian ambassador to mr russian businessman who offered him these kind of like fantastic gold and diamond deals and i think we can it's not a question that russia just like writes a check to to a political campaign and that's how it works what we know from past is all across europe is it's this is it's about enriching businessmen who then donate to campaigns about offering sweetheart deals and when we look at the often we look at what was proposed to our banks that just looks like a sweetheart deal it does seem let me ask you this given you want to get to the

bottom of this like karel does would you support almost all investigation an independent investigation i sound like a liberal democrat the answer is yes and the answer is no on the answer is yes because i think it would be farcically show that there is no involvement between ukip and the russians or leave the e.u. in the oceans or more importantly a connection between vote leave and leave the e.u. but on the other side of it would actually continue the negativity and the divisiveness and the dangerous damage to a political feeling that's happening in the united kingdom at the moment whereas i believe that carol has a complete duty as a real reporter to pursue people like cambridge analytical and the case that she's looking at and. but there is a duty on all of us to look at this carefully and responsibly about how we're damaging our democracy when you link things that are not factual with things that are just kind of ideas you mention damaging democracy as time goes by stephen as more and more evidence of seeming wrongdoing emerges more and more questions go

unanswered there does seem to be a momentum growing for a second referendum on sky news did a poll last month that found more than half of britain support a second referendum you're a democrat what's wrong with having a nother vote given all the controversy given it's nearly three years later purely and simply because democracy demands that once you have a vote you have to enact the decisions of the people and this this to you here is different what's being asked is not to enact leaving the european union is to change your mind before actually happens and if you do so there will be millions of people who still would vote to leave and i don't want to see that division between families between rich and poor or between the those so-called who don't know what they're talking about and those who believe that they do continue to try and use that carol final question to you said the british politics now is quote conducted in darkness in britain it's no longer possible to keep money out of politics or even to track it so given

a second referendum would probably be in your view as compromised and tainted as the first one wouldn't how would you get around that problem given your own reporting. well i'm not here to campaign for a second referendum i'm just here to tell you that that was not free of fair vote it was not conducted democratically we can have absolutely no assurance in the outcome of it and the rest is for politicians to to to deal with but yet the role of the tech companies of facebook and of google right at the heart of this there are so refusal to answer questions to our lawmakers that is a massive ongoing problem that. makes holding a free and fair election in years to come. just filled with we with enormous uncertainty and that's why it's so important what parliament is trying to do in trying to hold them to account on that note we'll have to leave it there carol stephen thanks for joining me on the arena that's our show from will be back next week.

al-jazeera is a very important force of information for many people around the world when all the cameras have gone i'm still here go into areas that nobody else is going to talk to people that nobody else is talking to and bringing that story to the forefront. in the darkest of times brave men and women stood up. when oppressed they rose. together they forward for greater justice respect and compassion. they had a dream for a better future. today we are at a turning point. the stakes are high climate change inequality

played speech you may feel overwhelmed but there is hope. you. we together can create the change we want. by speaking out by standing up by taking action. be the leader you are looking for stand up for human rights. live from studio fourteen here at al-jazeera headquarters in doha and richelle carey welcome to the news. on high alert in france protesters and police again

clash on the streets of paris hundreds of people have been arrested as police used tear gas to disperse anti-government protesters the french government says a zero tolerance policy is an attack by the protesters say they will not back down until the president resigns also on the grid the truth about why for the first time is directly linked to illegal payments two thousand and sixteen presidential election at all prosecutors say trump's former lawyer and longtime fixer michael cohen committed a felony at the direction that and the visual one that the president denies the allegations were cohens expected to spend time high in bars and shedding light on a dark colonial past. on a violent and troubled history in the congo by revamping its africa. after decades of exhibiting a one sided approach to the so-called decolonization process looks to tell the whole story but the changes to silence the critics. mission to mars is

sending back insights from the red planet and for the first time we're able to hear what it sounds like on the martian surface i mean to help connect with the show using the hashtag st. you are with the news for it live on air and streaming online for you to facebook live at. the chorus of angry voices to. manning french president mandela resigns isn't getting any quieter for the fourth week and there have been chaotic scenes and the streets of paris thousands of so-called yellow vest anti-government protesters are rallying in the center of the city. even destruction shortly we'll go live to bernard smith who is close to the arc de triomphe pardon but first the parker wraps up the day's events.

the avenues of side streets of paris have become a front line between protesters and police firing was tear gas is beautified liberally to disperse the crowds in. the canisters coke back at police lines. oh yeah the arc de triomphe armored vehicles rarely seen on the streets and from cloud for inflating every. this is the full weekend of on the rest police have stepped up their efforts deploying thousands of extra offices and arresting hundreds. more protests have been violent of the seans elisei demonstrators offered riot police flowers but often national monuments were defaced last week major landmarks including the eiffel tower closed. meeting with security forces early on saturday france's interior minister said police are ready to intervene quickly to see if

a superior to us they have actually be more injuries on the side of the security forces than on the side of the protesters because the idea is to contain things but the toxic has its limits particularly when we're faced with people who want to behave like it's one of the hot began a social media movement called the old or yellow vests named after the high visibility jackets french motorists carry in their cars. a backlash against tax increases on petrol and diesel but even after president emanuel scrapped the price hikes the protests have continued over other issues. if you. wish it up we're all exasperated with what's going on and we drain the people asking for israel to make a living from their work that's all they want to get some help and all that but we're not asking for anything just to be out of make a living from our work. demonstrate his belief the president's package of economic reforms favor the rich many want higher wages others pension reforms some

easier university because of its mccombs popularity has been falling in recent months he can't afford to see it slide any further but it's not clear if he can play the course of voices calling for him to resign. al-jazeera. let's go live now to our. michel i'm at the top of the show's earlies a and this we can this is this far as the isle of us protesters are being allowed to go they want to come to the arc de triomphe this is where last saturday people were able to get through some vandalized in there some got to the top of it and graffiti to face the artistry and so the strategy of the police in part of this time has been to contain the protesters to stop them getting to the national

monuments but they're testing each area there's a lines of police at each access points to the are just trying to stop the people getting through has been occasional sort of confrontations between protesters and the police on the roads running off the shelves elisa you can see some clouds of tear gas down in the background there but essentially these are peaceful protesters wanting to make a point that they've been making for the last few weeks about how taxation and the creasing fuel duty are shall so when at some point will we hear from him and all macron and perhaps the next few days. yeah though the president is hasn't said anything publicly to the french public about this hasn't spoken to the french public is expected to speak next week maybe on choose day we understand i mean the thing is that while the numbers are down considerably over the last few weeks the numbers about thirty thousand protesters

nationwide this week on saturday they succeeded here in paris in getting their point heard in because they succeeded in essentially closing down this major european capital just a couple of days before christmas all the major stores a closed many of the restaurants of closed many in the smaller stores are closed a lot of them how are boarded up this is when these businesses make most of the money on the city is full of tourists of the message is certainly getting through and the people who come to paris to protest to visit those are the protesters who've come to paris who say that they've not been hurt they've been ignored taxation is too high they cannot make ends meet and this is the only way to get the manual micron to listen to them and to respond to their concerns or do you actually made a good point when you said it's about thirty thousand protesters and the numbers have seem to have decreased over time yet can you put in some sort of perspective you know france as a as a huge country thirty thousand protesters of course has nothing to ignore but i

think it is kind of put in some sort of perspective the the impact the presence of these protesters. well obviously the the numbers a much less but i think the point is not have been protests in not just here in paris but in other major friend cities and in other major friends towns and the yellow as protest is what they're they're they're the point of the protest particularly this gas hike the hike in the tax on diesel look was the straw that broke the camel's back there is an enormous enormous amount of sympathy amongst the french population seven to eight percent of people sympathize with the motives of the yellow vest protesters not many people sympathize with those who decide of course to be violent but the main core of the out of this protest is about their lack of ability to afford to go out maybe once a month the lack of they can't afford bus fares of the kind of for petrol for the cars which are essentially in rural france and in small french towns there's

a lot of sympathy for those complaints and the fact that this is the only way they've got them hurt is why people are more sympathetic towards them again because they have to shout so loud to get the president to pay them attention michel ok bernard smith live for us in paris bernard thank you. so intercourse is our social media producer so let's talk about this yellow vest movement it's getting a lot of attention but it seems to encompass a lot of sayings what are you saying on online and what's interesting if you check the trends now richelle you'll see that the number one trend is about the all of us protests as we've seen but the second one is about the climate march so there's tens of thousands of people who are protesting in paris and dozens of other cities across france and they're all calling for greater action on climate change and although they aren't wearing the same yellow jackets for same many have been wondering many of us have been wondering how these protests might relate to the yellow vests movement given the timing of the demonstrations and you can see how

people online are wondering if these groups might come into some sort of opposition since some of the demonstrators started off protesting a carbon tax framed by president macron is necessary to fight climate change this political cartoon i think sums up part of this conversation here you have some animals who are on a floating an iceberg that's gradually disappearing and they are wondering to whom are we meant to direct our demands but you can also see if you go to the organizations page itself this conversation is taking place and one person here had a great comment saying that these groups should oppose each other versioning says that everyone can participate in one or the other the challenge is to move forward together as citizens approach is essential for the world to advance positively she said now this is what the organizers had to say. we're here to tell you that we stumble you're sorry you're here to tell you not to step back we're on the titanic

and the first class kindly asked to sing with the ship we will not. break we will march with you and up to an equal time and social justice who will. step back not to step back. there. see us up to them. if you're watching us from france we want to hear from you whether got a yellow vests protest or at one of the climate protests or one of these people who's floating in between just get in touch with us let us know what you're seeing using the hash tag it's a news group so what role did social media play in these protests for more on how the word spread online m. part because of a new algorithm on facebook on our web site al-jazeera dot com for that story just search france or tests u.s. president all trump is again attacking the special counsel investigation on twitter

saying it's a waste of money and there is no collusion he tweeted and these tweets rather come after documents released by prosecutors in new york for the first time directly linking the president to financial crimes allegedly committed during the two thousand and sixteen white house campaign separately robert muller stane which is investigating alleged russian interference in that campaign saying that moscow contacted donald trump's then personal lawyer michael cohen as far back as two thousand and fifteen mahler's team also says trump's former campaign manager paul man of fort violated a plea deal by lying to them on five different matters including his contacts with the russian associate but the white house doesn't appear to be worried saying none of this reveals anything new or is damaging to donald trump shepparton see breaks it down for us from washington d.c. . shortly after the release of some of the prosecution documents the u.s.

president expressed his lack of concern totally clears the president he wrote thank you it's not clear exactly what he was referring to but some believe the contents of the latest memos should provide some cause for concern for donald trump.