stripped away a. year anniversary on. the rights let's stand up. for human rights. i will contest that vote with everything i've got defiant and combative theresa may braces for a leadership challenge over her unpopular break deal. this is al jazeera live coming up a sentencing hearing underway for donald trump's former lawyer for paying off two women over their alleged affairs with the u.s. president. a nationwide hunt across france for the gunmen who killed at least two

people at a christmas market in strasbourg. calls get louder for the release of to me and my journalist named as time magazine's person of the year. allowed to resign may is just an hour away from facing a leadership challenge within her party it was triggered by forty eight conservative party m.p.'s unhappy at the u.k. prime minister's bragg's she says she will face down the vote of confidence andrew simmons brings you the dramatic developments over the course of the day. to reason finally facing a vote of confidence not imposed by her parliamentary opposition but from her own party and she intends to fight. i will contest that vote with everything i've got a change of leadership in the conservative party now will put our country's future at risk and create uncertainty when we can least afford it.

right she immediately counseled a capital meeting and called off a trip to dublin where she was meant to have last ditch the talks with the irish prime minister instead she was doing battle. and maybe once a meaningful days i'll give a one twenty ninth of march two thousand and nineteen let me leave here at the end . here i mean. totally and absolutely unacceptable the prime minister not government have already been found to be in contempt of parliament her behavior today is just contemptuous of this parliament most of the opposition is about made cooling off of bricks and votes on monday because she didn't have insurance of winning when is she going to start listening to people that want actually to find a constructive solution to this rather than denying parliament the right to be a tape and vote on her deal that's what we see on the other side of the chamber no plan no two no brakes. this is an extraordinary time in british politics most

would say for all the wrong reasons prime minister may whose election campaign slogan was strong and stable back in twenty seventeen now stands accused of being weak and anything but stable except there's a minority of us in parliament who want to honor the decision made by the people in the twenty sixteen referendum and we need a leader of a government is going to make sure that we can stay on that part of the twenty like so much as the basic anxiety that sitting here this isn't the time to be talking about changing leader we're in the middle of a very complex and delicate negotiation with our european partners we're executing something which is of vital importance to the country i stand ready to finish the job. the question is will she get that opportunity time is running out the vote is only hours away and drew simmons i'll just era of london. so what happens next

all three hundred fifteen conservative party m.p.'s can take part in the vote of confidence to resign may need to secure a simple majority to keep her job that's one hundred fifty eight votes if she wins may will remain in office and cannot be challenged again for another twelve months if she loses should be forced to resign and can't join the following leadership race if there are two if there are more than two candidates to replace her secret ballots will be held among tory m.p.'s until there are just two left they will then face a postal ballot of all conservative party members and whoever wins becomes the next prime minister that person then has the tough job of uniting m.p.'s behind a break that deal which must go before the u.k. parliament by january twenty first next year and joins us now from london so long as the people there triggered this vote party what exactly are they trying to accomplish here what's what's their agenda. well they're very

very much in favor of a cut in size entirely with the european union and the not a majority by any means in the conservative policy they're seen as a bit of a puritanical rump but they're the people certainly who have who forced this in the first place right now to resume a speaking to what's called a nine hundred twenty two committee which is effectively grouping of rank and file can serve in peace on the whose opinions her have her future council one assumes that she'll be saying to them effectively what she said a prime minister's questions earlier on which is that if they bring her down and bring in one of these hardline m.p.'s then they run the risk of potentially a general election and a labor government on the jeremy coleman said better she would say to stick with her and wait for her to try to get some sort of compromise out of the european union in the meantime let's take a view from the from the commentary has done from politics don't go to you case here do you think you think she's going to win i think she'll probably win but i'm

not entirely sure she's going to win by very much show an awful lot matters in terms of orthorexic ready you can scrape through let's say she's straight she would one vote for instance she survives technically according to party rules but she doesn't carry with a running authority and she's already in a position where she really can't do anything with the deal she can open up she can get it back into parliament and have it passed once she loses that authority with a party such a one the really what is left of this prime minister so if you think that even if she wins then she would still lose the meaningful vote that needs to take place by the deal but by the end of january yeah exactly there's something in the in the deal that you go back to your good backstop just basically an insurance policy on him now if it's got a backstop in it it's not going to pass through parliament however if it doesn't have the backstop in it it's not going to pass through the e.u. that fundamental problem does not change it doesn't matter who's at the front you can have anyone from the left of the conservative body from the right to the conservative body makes a difference the backstop is the problem and that has not changed and so you're in

a bizarre situation where if she wins she sort of is seen. seen off the no deal pulse of a policy and yet if she didn't lose the meaningful vote then you back into no deal time a tree anyway and it's even worse than that actually it's quite an entanglement because if she succeeds she's a mean from any further leadership challenges for twelve months she will be able to do anything in parliament but they won't be able to get rid of her from the governing conservative party and that presents a quite sticky situation really all of this is happening of course against a very tight time frame just just over three months now until britain foods out of the e.u. twenty ninth of march if britain doesn't have a deal by then it falls out with nothing in a rather catastrophic scenario so things basically couldn't be of any further importance and they all run of course some people say that between now and the vote then the government machine in the whips as they call them might go into action insights will these consent m.p.'s look i fancy a knighthood or a period joel you know who would we how do you fancy the papers knowing about you'll extramarital affairs and why don't you think again about voting for the reasons deal these are the mechanisms by which parliament operates the whips office

where they get you in there they bribe you how would you like better future job prospects how would you like considerably worse future job prospects the will of the people in his new i don't want to be cynical but it may well not hinge on that the other part is that likes to delay the vote because that increases financial panic you see a reduction in stunning stunning was plummeting quite hard yesterday right eat a bit today that would get worse and worse you know deal just peering at you on the horizon and you think that in those circumstances m.p.'s might take a very very bad deal rather than they do it well if she does win tonight then a lot of attention immediately will turn to the labor policy is the main opposition group and then a threat to all of those have no confidence in government do you think that they will be and so much pressure to do that next week before parliament rises for christmas yet the president will have to do it is that so the pressure was on them very very hard yesterday it's now slightly relaxed because the tory party is doing its own attempt to get rid of her they will be called on to do it now there's no limit on the amount of times and labor can try and trigger no confidence in the government probably lose at the moment when they that that's the problem that as

soon as you start saying with a new. the majority for they don't have anything like a majority they need all the other opposition parties to back them or to succeed with a lot of them but not too and they need some people from the government benches or from the do you choose. the right sort of politics to come over i don't think they would make that and according to labor system they basically said you either give us a chance to negotiate you let us get their confidence in the government or we have another referendum and that's the point where that might actually become in thank you very much for all of that it's all terribly complicated. as you can see but it looks at the moment the people out of all these numbers think that she's probably going to get through and if she does no doubt she will say let's bring the country together let's rally behind the plan and compromise and all those sorts of things so probably she going to win and but it's still no clear where it gets really long term is in fact you are alarmed for the moment largely life in london. breaking news coming to us right now president donald trump former lawyer has been

sentenced to three years in jail michael cohen was facing charges of paying off two women over there alleged affairs with the u.s. president and for lying to congress about a possible business deal in russia during the twenty sixteen presidential election campaign the fifty two year old pled guilty to both charges kimberly how kit is live for us now from washington so kimberly he's getting three years in jail this is pretty much in line with what the recommended sentence was if i'm not mistaken. yeah it's in line although there had been the potential that he could face up to sixty three months in jail now it's looking more like thirty six according to judge william pauley in his sentencing the judge saying that it was in his view that michael cohen the former fixer and long time lawyer for donald trump that he had lost his moral compass now as you point out michael cohen has pled guilty and

that's why we were in the sentencing hearing today to considerable charges including tax evasion campaign finance violations as well as misleading congress but michael cohen certainly went down swinging and this is going to certainly make the white house nervous given the fact that he admits that he took full responsibility for what he called the wrong doing wrong doing he said my duty was to cover up for his dirty deeds referring to donald trump he said that he was loyal to the president and he did these wrong doings as a result of that loyalty donald trump has called in the past michael cohen week in a tweet but michael cohen saying that his only weakness was his blind loyalty to donald trump so certainly this is a man who fought back in the sentencing hearing going into it there was a differing view of michael cohen because there were two different prosecutors that

had worked with him the one that worked with him with regard to the russia probe and the robert muller investigation the special counsel said that michael cohen had provided credible valuable information links between donald trump's presidential campaign and a foreign government but it was in the southern district of new york that prosecutor where in fact there was a very different picture of michael cohen portrayed one that harmed national interests hurt the free and transparent elections in a row did faith in the electoral process. it seems that some of that argument seemed to resonate with judge william pauley when he handed down the sentence three years in jail for michael cohen. so where does just remind us where does michael cohen fit into the bigger picture of president trump of the ongoing investigation into alleged russian meddling in the twenty sixth the election. right well michael cohen has known donald trump for years he once said famously that he would take

a bullet for the president it was this blind loyalty though that in the end seemed to cost him essentially what is a problem for donald trump in all of this and how he could implicate the president or has implicated the president is the fact that he in fact said that he acted in court nation or at the direction of donald trump when he paid off two women in violation of campaign finance he says he did this to deliberately influence the twenty sixteen u.s. election when he made these payments to two women with which to donald trump is alleged to have had affairs the so-called money if you will campaign finance law says if you're trying to make a donation you can only give up to twenty seven hundred dollars but this was one hundred thirty thousand dollars in one case and so this makes it an illegal campaign donation this is certainly going to be problematic not just because he has michael cohen who said he acted at the direction of donald trump when he made those

payments donald trump denying he had any knowledge of those payments but also we're hearing from the special counsel's lawyer in this sentencing hearing that michael cohen provided credible valuable information regarding links between donald trump's presidential campaign and a foreign government presumably part of the russia probe getting a lot of interest from the special counsel as he continues to look at possible connections between russia and donald trump's presidential campaign and kimberly is there a sense that that there is more to michael cohen has here is it that he's holding back. well certainly that was intimated more than once in the sentencing hearing that we were watching very closely as as nose were coming out of the courtroom eight seem to and this was one of the frustrations for the lawyer that was representing the federal court in the southern district of new york city or new york state rather that michael cohen seemed to offer selective cooperation is what

the attorney said that there were certainly moments where he showed signs of deception and greed in contrast to robert muller's attorney you that argued michael cohen had in fact been very cooperative so it appears that there was a sense that michael cohen was holding back some information and perhaps that was reflected in the decision by the judge when he did hand down a rather stiff sentence but not the full sentence as the sentence guideline guidelines rather would have or could have allowed to many thanks very much kimberly how could life force in washington. a question of salumi is live outside the courthouse in new york where that sentence was handed down so kristin you were in there describe the scene that forced. what was a packed courthouse has a packed outside the court as well as you can see lots of interest in this case

obviously implicating the president we heard from michael cohen himself and begging for mercy from the judge for a more lenient sentence and. we heard him apologize to his family and to the american people for hiding the truth for them he argued that he would become free today for the first time in years since accepting a job with the media with a real estate mogul that he admired he said he was motivated by blind loyalty and didn't listen to the voices inside of him rather he. did what he had to do to cover up even listen to the darker instincts of his boss but the judge in the end said that a strict sentence so that a. deterrent effect would be necessary with the sentence that they had to send a message because of the nature of these crimes i can tell you also a little bit more about the issue of whether or not michael cohen was cooperating fully which kimberly was just talking about cohen's lawyers said that

michael cohen has answered all questions and would continue to answer all questions they took issue with the characterization that he had not been forthcoming or helpful they said that he was unwilling to sign an unlimited cooperation agreement because that would mean an ending questions and answers and it was too difficult for his family that said the lawyer claimed that michael cohen was willing to continue answering questions and would continue answering questions of a specific nature so all of that to. say that it was a very emotional courtroom michael cohen breaking down addressing his family had several family members in the court there to support him a lot of interest from the media and the public as well but at the end the judge decided that while he had committed of what he called a virtual smorgasbord of criminal conduct that he had been motivated by greed

ambition that he did in fact need to be held accountable and his sentence needs to serve as a deterrent for others who might commit similar offenses in the future and so he ended up with this thirty six month three year prison sentence so where do things go from for here for and for michael cohen in the near term as far as when he's expected to begin serving that sentence. i believe he will begin today he will be processed and treated like any other criminal moving forward at this point does not preclude future cooperation with the special counsel investigation special counsel did testify in the court that he had been very helpful very cooperative that the testimony he gave was credible and went to the core issues of their investigation into whether or not russia colluded to bring him into how russia influence the two thousand and sixteen election and they also said that

michael cohen hadn't tried to elevate his claims in other words they found his testimony to be once he decided to cooperate to be very credible and that he didn't overinflate what he knew or didn't knew but told him things that they could corroborate through other evidence and so on and so that he was very valuable in that sense so it is possible that he will be sought for more information going forward by robert muller's team all right salumi live for us there in new york thanks christine. the suspected gunman in the christmas market shooting in strasbourg has been named cat has been jailed twenty seven times for other crimes is being hunted by hundreds of police and soldiers in france two people were killed and eight seriously wounded including the twenty nine year old with north african origin spanish smith has the latest from the city. preparing for christmas and a heavily armed guard strasbourg on wednesday morning noticeably quieter as police

continue to hunt a gunman who opened fire on police and shoppers the night before as victims lie on the street other sorts safety in narrow alleyways as the sound of gunfire echoed around the city center. first i heard several shots and i thought maybe it's firecrackers or they're attacking a store i saw a lot of people running scared crying kids and all and i was very very scared because it was really quite a lot of shooting there was a moment of panic so everyone was running around there were police officers saying to leave to hide so that's what we did the gunman named by police as twenty nine year old sharif for cat opened fire on a police patrol just as christmas market stalls were closing panicked shoppers ran for cover into shops and restaurants while the wounded gunman escaped in the confusion. of the assailant the town center just a little off on a cat that dropped him off in the new hoff neighborhood the cab driver said the suspect asked to be dropped off without giving

a pacific address telling the driver he would guide the cab driver has attempted but then realized he was carrying a gun and was wounded he told the cab driver he had opened fire on soldiers and killed ten people. strasbourg is near the border with germany where security has been increased because the gunman may have crossed the open front the police say the suspected attacker has served several prison sentences in france and germany his home was raided hours before the market shooting in connection with a robbery in the summer but your cat wasn't there more than six hundred french security personnel as well as border guards are involved in the hunt for the gunman and the french government has raised its terrorism alert level to the highest possible sharif's account is one of twenty six thousand names on a government watch list of people suspected of posing a security risk burnitz with al-jazeera strasbourg a u.s. senators are set to vote on

a new resolution to end american involvement in the saudi and u.a.e. led war in yemen a similar vote was struck down last march after donald trump voiced strong support during a visit by the saudi crown prince the latest resolution appears to have more backing on capitol hill after the outcry over the murder of saudi journalist jamal khashoggi rosalyn jordan is live for us in washington so roslyn what's been happening there. well there is a felt that is going to happen at some point on wednesday but they still have not decided at what point they're going to hold that vote there's also some discussion that as part of the process they might shorten some of the steps needed in order to get this measure on to the senate floor for a final vote also at the same time the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is calling on senators to vote against this resolution which is invoking the one nine

hundred seventy three war powers act because he said that this would set a very bad precedent when it comes to congress exercising its right to declare war in a situation where the u.s. itself is not directly at war with the u.s. has been doing is providing intelligence support to the saudi military coalition and up until last month providing fueling refueling assistance to saudi fighter jets going out there who are the targets inside yemen so there is in fact another resolution that will be introduced at some point that would try to achieve many of the same goals as the yemen bill that's going to be taken up on wednesday but it would be a nonbinding resolution and so mr mcconnell's argument to his fellow senators is that we should take a look at this and try to pass this version because it won't endanger our long running and necessary alliance with the saudi government of course whether the

other senators are going to be persuaded by that argument we'll have to wait and see rosalyn jordan live for us there in washington thanks miles. the u.s. secretary of state says anyone found responsible for the killing of jamal khashoggi will be held accountable and there was no direct evidence linking the saudi crown prince my pump a.o. as for criticism from the senate's. secretary of state pompeo discredits himself the state department and our nation with these statements i was one of the twelve senators of both political parties who were briefed by general hospital two weeks ago she of course heads up the central intelligence agency the same agency the secretary pump ill used to be in charge of it it was clear within minutes of our briefing that this goes all the way to the top and to argue that the crown prince was not involved in this or at least not aware of it and properly directed it is too obviously to ignore the obvious intelligence we have collected. of donald trump is standing by the saudi crown prince despite the cia concluding he likely ordered

her killing cia chief is due to bring its trip to brief the house of representatives soon. murda appears to be putting one of the saudi crown prince's projects in doubt mohammed bin said man as reportedly suggested that foreign investors will not put money in the five hundred billion dollar development of new york city angrily revolve is the financial times senior energy correspondent and one of the journalists who wrote the story she says many future mega projects could be in jeopardy. we were a lot of these projects these kind of big. announcements in saudi if they are going to cancel them they never quite say they're canceling them they just say that things are going to move a lot more slowly in fact we're just going to sort of shelve these projects and it seems like that's what's happening here i would say that completely canceling it but it does look that way the big neon project was one of the landmark

announcements that was made at a big investment conference last year and since then there have been a few of these big mega projects and they're there to sort of signify what the new saudi arabia could look like they're all part of this vision twenty thirty economic reform program been sound man has set in motion. but it's one of these things that was very much linked to the crown prince whether obviously most people in saudi arabia which would have to say yes of course we are behind each one of them but a lot of people domestically and definitely a lot of foreign investors are already wary about. the scale and the scale of these projects but also how feasible they were we've already seen signs of concern that they might not be able to attract these kinds of funds and so what that means is that the kingdom would have to rely more on its traditional economy this is its oil prowess which is why opec policy and the kingdom starts regarding its oil revenues

is in focus again saudi arabia will need higher oil prices to fund. social and economic programs already ongoing. now in the latest battle for power in sri lanka the sacked prime minister. has won a vote of confidence in parliament he was dismissed by president musharraf on a state of siena in october and replaced by mahinda rajapaksa. i live now to outside the courts a federal court in new york where i one of the lawyers is speaking on the michael cohen sentencing hearing i believe this is his. this is one of the noise involved criminal conduct and the role of the president of the united states he lied in march he lied in april he lied in man he lied in. he lied in july

and only until his back was against the wall and he faced significant prison time to these decide to quote come clean he even lied to the office of the special counsel in july of this year michael cohen is no hero he is no patriot his choice time and time again was to degrade my client seek to intimidate her call her and be liars and seek to degrade the office of the presidency of the united states by seeking to buy effectively an election this is an outrage he deserves every day of the thirty six month sentence that he will serve and i will also know with great irony michael cohen well we're port to federal prison exactly one year after we filed the case on

behalf of stormy daniels michael cohen was sentenced today donald trump is next thank you. so you just heard from my foot michael ave. stormy daniels why she was the. actress whose accusations began this whole story in my involving michael curran is obviously not pleased with the sentence that was handed down to mark michael cohen president trump's former lawyer and fixer and he said that he deserves every month every day of the thirty six months that he's getting and i clearly felt that he should have gotten more lots more on that story as and when we get more reaction to it this is al jazeera leads are the top stories we're following now let's get a recap. british prime minister theresa may has vowed to fight

a vote of confidence which will take place within the hour it was triggered by forty eight m.p.'s from within her own conservative party who are unhappy with the briggs's deal. a change of leadership in the conservative party now will put our country's future at risk and create uncertainty when we can least afford it a new leader wouldn't be in place by the twenty first of january legal deadline so a leadership election risks handing control of the brics in negotiations to opposition m.p.'s in parliament the new leader wouldn't have time to renegotiate a withdrawal agreement and get the legislation through parliament by the twenty ninth of march so one of their first acts would have to be extending all rescinding article fifty delaying or even stopping breck's it or don't transform a lawyer has been sentenced to three years in jail michael cohen was facing charges of paying off two women over their alleged affairs with the u.s.

president and for lying to congress about a possible trump business deal in russia during the twenty sixteen presidential election campaign fifty two year old had pled guilty to both charges. the u.s. secretary of state says anyone found responsible for the killing of jamal khashoggi will be held accountable and there's no direct evidence linking the saudi crown prince my complaints provoked criticism from senator dick durbin. secretary of state pump aoe discredits himself the state department and our nation with these statements i was one of the twelve senators of both political parties who were briefed by general hospital two weeks ago she of course heads up the central intelligence agency the same agency the secretary propel used to be in charge of that it was clear within minutes of our briefing that this goes all the way to the top and to argue that the crown prince was not involved in this or at least not aware of it and properly directed it is too obviously to ignore the obvious intelligence we have collected. of the suspected gunman in the christmas market

shooting in strasbourg has been named sharif cat who's been jailed twenty seven times for other crimes is being hunted by hundreds of police and soldiers in france two people were killed and eight seriously wounded in tuesday night's attack police in france have arrested a former leader of a militia in central african republic. now go asuna commanded the christian group which targeted muslims he's alleged to be responsible for crimes against humanity five years ago. sri lanka sacked prime minister has won a vote of confidence in parliament but i mean will come a single was dismissed by president mikey policy to siena in october and replaced by former president mahinda rajapaksa those are the headlines we're back in half an hour right now it's inside story.

the u.n. finally agrees on a road map to help migrants and refugees worldwide what's called the global compact has just been adopted into a cash. and can a compromise with the countries that rejected the agreement this is inside story. and welcome to this special edition of inside story from cash in morocco. the.