pick the terms of this resolution then once that those votes have been taken then there will be a vote on the resolution itself that could happen or between twenty and twenty two g.m.t. between three and five pm eastern time that all depends on how many senators stay in the chamber that certainly speeds up the process if they have to wait for senators to come back from meetings or from constituent visits or what have you then that prolongs the process but the idea is that there will be a vote on this resolution perhaps late afternoon early evening on thursday and what is i mean it's not clear whether they have the votes for this to to make any difference so weak begs the question wasn't whether what we're what they're trying to achieve here. well it's not so much a question now of whether or not this resolution would pass it's a centrally a symbolic vote at this point and that's because the house of representatives which

would have to pass a similar version of this resolution in order for this to actually take a fact rejected this similar version on wednesday and so they're not going to take this up again it's expected not until the start of the new congress in early two thousand and nineteen so what the senate is doing is very much expressing its bipartisan discussed and upset with the trumpet ministration because it is found incredulous that the administration would say that one that the support that the u.s. military has provided for the saudi led coalition in the yemeni civil war has not been harmful to yemeni civilians when there is ample evidence to the contrary and there's really been a set off in the past couple of months since the saudi government carried out the murder against the exiled journalist. at its consulate in istanbul again there

is considerable evidence suggesting that this was in fact the case the cia has said pretty much that it's impossible to believe that this murder could not have taken place without the direction of the saudi crown prince mohammed bin psalm on so what the senate is doing some is basically expressing its disgust and its frustration through this mechanism through this joint resolution but there are other measures on the table the new resolution that you just mentioned was just introduced in the last hour there's another piece of legislation that is still pending that would sanction people for their involvement in the murder of jamal khashoggi as well as stop all u.s. military cooperation with the saudi coalition in the civil war so this is not the end of it but certainly it does send a signal at the end of this particular congress that both republicans and democrats are going to have a more active role in u.s.

foreign policy not just leave it up to the white house roslyn thanks for that rosalynn jordan live for us in washington. brett brewing joins me now via skype from dublin he was the director of global engagement in the obama white house and is now president of the global situation room consultancy firm thanks so much for being with us so what do you make of this agreement there is there a potential. for this to lead to to more last thing pace in yemen look what has happened in the last several months is increasing pressure has been added both on saudi arabia as well as iran you heard up on capitol hill that there is discussed it and what is taking place in yemen that is leading i think the parties to the table it's leading to this temporary humanitarian measure what i think is an open question at this point is whether or not pressure both in washington in capitals here in europe and elsewhere around the world will be anough

to get the saudis the iranians and obviously the parties in yemen to move forward what do you think of the toughest issues here what's what's the biggest challenge to to to this working well look this is ultimately not about yemen it's a power struggle that is trying to achieve greater regional influence for two of these power centers in the middle east and ultimately it is going to be an exercise in trying to work out how the power is actually being diminished if they continue to pursue this path and that's where i think consequences like we're seeing today up on capitol hill are critical to ensure that both iran but also saudi arabia will pay a higher price for continuing to pursue this conflict. so as far as i mean i know

you talk about the proxy aspect of this but how important is it for the u.s. to apply more pressure on on on saudi arabia of this isn't that what it comes down to i think it's both sides there is certainly a need it to keep saudi arabia going down this path but i think the saudis feel that they are subject to greater scrutiny than at any point in the last couple years for actions humanitarian issues in yemen so they are going to be acutely aware of washington's interest in this issue meanwhile iran doesn't want to create more justification for the aggressive posture or that the trumpet ministration has taken so they aren't going to want to invite scrutiny of their actions i there and so i think on both sides there's got to be pressure kept

up on the leaders reverend thanks for being with us to join in. plenty more ahead there on the news out of thousands of voting machines destroyed in a fire in the democratic republic of congo days before an election for a new leader. and in sport the fee for president is in town and is talking about plans ahead of the world cup here in qatar all the details with later in the program. so all that still ahead but first there's been a series of violent incidents between palestinians and israelis in the last twenty four hours two palestinians were killed in israeli military raids two israeli soldiers died in later attacks and more casualties in other violence herefore said reports from western. even without the pressure of a particularly violent night this would have been

a major incident now it risks becoming part of a wider escalation the israeli military surge at least one palestinian man got out of a car near this bus stop in the occupied west bank and fired on a group of soldiers and civilians the army said two soldiers were killed one seriously injured. innocence israeli standing at a bus stop is acceptable we will not accept this terror here in israel and we're going to have answers to this we expect the government. as many homes as possible to do everything possible to stop this terror. israeli army says hamas has been establishing what it calls terror infrastructures and units for attacks in the west bank as it began a manhunt the nearby city of ramallah the seat of the palestinian authority was declared a closed military zone roads in and out choked with stationary traffic in a statement the palestinian president condemned the cycle of violence blaming it on

israeli incursions incitement and the stalled peace process. and gaza hamas celebrated the attack. we praised hysteric and brave operation which is a natural reaction is to crimes of the israeli occupation and violations against our people it all follows two overnight raids in which israeli forces shot and killed two palestinians suspected of carrying out recent attacks in the northern city of nablus soldiers stormed a building and shot dead. who made been hunting since an attack in october in which two of his israeli coworkers were killed in a separate raid soldiers shot dead solid barghouti the suspected gunman in sunday's drive by shooting near the legal settlement of it came just hours after the death of a baby who was delivered prematurely by a woman injured in the attack. and in the early hours of thursday an attack in occupied east jerusalem in the old city a palestinian man stabbing and injuring two israeli security forces members before he too was shot dead and there's been further violence through thursday afternoon

a palestinian drive a shot dead by israeli soldiers near ramallah in what the israeli military characterized as an attempted ramming attack israeli settlers stoning palestinian vehicles along route sixty the same highway where the earliest shooting took place for months these races cutey establishment has been warning politicians here of the potential for a renewed eruption of violence in the west bank the events of the last twenty four hours will only have given greater weight to those warnings are a force that al-jazeera westerners. now the british prime minister is meeting leaders in brussels for what's been billed as last minute talks over her braids it deal to recently arrived there less than twenty four hours after she survived a confidence and confidence vote brought by m.p.'s who are unhappy with her bracelet plan and her simmons says the latest from london. having survived a leadership challenge to reason may is back to business on the road leads to brussels hopes now rest on the e.u. leadership giving legal and political assurances on the so-called back story it's

aimed at avoiding a hard border between northern ireland and the irish republic that wednesday night's move against may had been mainly motivated by the political over the backstop appearing exhausted yet relieved the prime minister tried to sound confident on bret's it so here is a new mission delivering the bricks it that people voted for bringing the country back together and building a country that truly works for everyone members of mays' cabinet who on wednesday had rallied round her once she does show them that she wouldn't stand in the next election try to put a brave face on things but why should the e.u. compromise on anything now may has announced she worked stand in the next election both the u.k. and the e.u. want this deal they've been negotiating for over two years on it both recognise that the backstop is ten feet if indeed we ever get into it because we have options

and same goals to avoid going into the store neither side wants to be in the boat still it's difficult for you or very or even a backstop so it's in the interests of both sides to come to a solution to address the concerns of and in order that the many benefits of this deal which is the only deal on the table can be delivered this minister didn't sound as confident as the school to the possible time to help push every success today make sure to give us all the questions michael it's had backstop but some of those who voted against her say there's been irreparable damage she brought back an agreement that has divided the conservative party and divided the conservative party from. this means we don't have a we don't have a pejorative to govern the country as the media. watches for the next twist in this long running yet critically important political saga conspirators in all parties continue to work out more ways of gaining advantages the public seems to be of

a loss about what those advantages can mean for them andrew simmons out his ear or london. or john howell joins us live now from brussels so john what is she hoping to achieve there. well to be frank it's quite hard to know and it does seem like a rather sort of hopeful trip to brussels this for to resume a look at the context of what's going on here the background she's got a deal that deal struck with the e.u. painstakingly over eighteen months of negotiations that she can't get through her own parliament because a majority of m.p.'s are concerned about the so-called backstop about britain being trapped in that backstop indefinitely indefinitely taking a new rules not making e.u. rules and they want that to change so she wants legal assurances from the e.u. that that's not the case the problem is if peyton plea is the case the backstop

doesn't have a time limit the u.k. doesn't have a unilateral exit from the backstop and that is not going to happen until there is a successor agreement in place it's very hard to see how to reason they can get anything from the european union that changes those sense of facts and circumstances around the backside which is why all she's likely to get at the end of this is some run of vaguely worded language in a conclusion at this summit expressing everybody's dislike of the backstop it will only be in place for a short period they'll say only as long as it's strictly necessary none of that is going to satisfy the dissenters in parliament in britain over the backstop so at this point out of this summit i think she will leave pretty much empty handed so if not now then is there anything they may offer her in the future john. what i suspect this is what we need to look to next what happens next and the key

date is when she brings her deal back to parliament for a vote the government has said they will do it by the twenty first of january they're not being bound to a date yet well at by that point if there are any concessions to be made by the look they'll be trying they'll be hoping to help. her over the line because they want these deals to succeed those concessions will appear in january and we're being told another emergency summit is planned for january presumably they want time now for the lawyers to sit down and work out how can they come up with a form of language to append to the withdrawal agreement because there's no real negotiation going on to it that offers some sense of legal assurance but without changing the mechanism of the backs up again it's extremely difficult to see how even at that late stage assurances can be made that will win over the dissenters in the british parliament. john our live for us in a brussels thanks john now another person has been arrested by french police in his

part of a search for the gunman who killed three people in an attack in strasbourg on tuesday that brings the total number of people detained now to five the since the attack hundreds of police officers and soldiers in france and germany have been looking for the suspect ernest smith reports from the border. border controls are back on the french german front tear at strasbourg as police hunt the man who shot and stabbed shoppers in the city's christmas market on tuesday night. the suspect is twenty nine year old sharif accounts he has a long criminal record for theft and violence and he was on a watch list as a potential security threat. the. passengers faced police checks on trams between strasbourg and the german town of calle french authorities say it's possible that your cat has crossed the border. one of the victims was shot dead as he waited for his family outside this restaurant she lucky

getting a husband of a friend of mine was in his restaurant is a five and he's someone to the toilet but here is. the french government has declared a nationwide its highest level of security alert and asked yellow vest protestors not to march this weekend. simply saying at this stage that given the events that are unfolding after the terrorist attack in strasburg it would be preferable if everyone could go about a saturday before the festive holidays in a quiet way there's been no confirmed sightings of sharif sure cat who's from strasbourg since tuesday night's attack while the manhunt continues here the french authorities say that another one thousand eight hundred security personnel have been deployed at christmas markets across france to prevent further attacks burnitz met al-jazeera on the france germany border. now the french government is urging so-called yellow vests protesters not to hold demonstrations this weekend after the attack on the christmas market in strassburg on monday president emanuel crawford

minimum wage boost and tax concessions the protests which began more than four weeks ago over a fuel tax hike course could quickly escalated into course from across to resign isn't something to start with saying simply that it's not reasonable to protest in security forces have been deployed on a massive scale in the past week particularly in the last weekend paris and following the terrorist attack at the christians. it would be preferable if on a saturday everyone calms down and avoid putting pressure on the security forces should go ahead on the edge of a court ruling in sri lanka that's a big setback for the country's president plus. the un climate talks in kind of its in poland a nation that relies on coal eighty percent of its energy. and in sport justin rose is chase for the world number one is halted by bad weather at the indonesian

masters sun i will have the details later. how the snow has fallen and settled in turkey the klan's and i moved on with us into the caucasus the sweeping grey that came through eleven into words more than egypt is now the past feature so it should be a fine looking day for friday. about fifteen jerusalem so songs that are a bit of work is a bit more snow to come for the eastern side of turkey otherwise it's a draw pictures draw through iran as well to fourteen tarrar was to twenty two in kuwait city the change day very. slightly warmer otherwise it's ok and that's true further south that there's still a potential for various reasons vocational showers in northern saudi and even one

or two possibly in the high ground in this eastern part of monday's more clearly on saturday otherwise is a dry looking picture but a breeze ring up through saudi arabia thirty three in mecca but i suspect a dusty thirty three and a notable mostly returns to for example qatar twenty five next year is not very high at this time yeah it's the rainy season now through well subtropical africa if you like your tanzania catching northern mozambique and the cloud shows it very well it's also there in the forecast it also means that for the time being at least we were dry picture fed sack. the two new zealand scientist who led a double life so secret even kept it from his family. but his activities would have a military impact for which he would pay the ultimate price. for.

outages zero world investigates the life and death of mohamad so ari the tunisian drone engineer. al-jazeera. wherever you. the war on drugs in the philippines is pushing jails to breaking point a record number of inmates languish behind bars for years awaiting trial one on one east philippines locked up on al-jazeera.

and again you're watching al-jazeera reminder of our top stories this hour the u.n. secretary general says warning signs of reach several agreements in talks to end the conflict in yemen they include a cease fire and of course the data and finalizing details of a prisoner swap deal they agreed earlier. u.k. prime minister teresa mayes in brussels to meet e.u. leaders less than twenty four hours after surviving a challenge to her leadership she's looking to get concessions from the block on her breaks that agreement after facing widespread opposition in parliament. has been a series of violent incidents between palestinians and israelis two palestinians were killed in israeli military raids two israeli soldiers died in later attacks and it's been more casualties in other violent incidents. or the killing of saudi journalist america shoji has angered many u.s. politicians it's prompted some to speak out. speak about saudi influence in the

trump administration as patty culhane spoke to democratic u.s. senator chris van hollen. despite the fact that there's overwhelming evidence as publicly reported the the cia concluded that the crown prince was directly implicated in the show you murder despite all that you have the present united states really acting as the mouthpiece for the saudi regime and really becoming complicit in a cover up which is why it's so important that the congress the senate in the house act to make sure that we send a strong signal that this murder was unacceptable what do you think the senate's going to i hope that we will also hold the crown prince directly accountable through the magnitsky act which is a vehicle already in u.s.

law to sanction individuals who have committed gross human rights abuses the main point here is that beyond sort of public combination of the crown prince's complicity there has to be some more direct action to hold him personally liable. a fire at a warehouse in the democratic republic of congo has destroyed thousands of voting machines the first presidential election in seven years will be held in just ten days time the election commission says it will go ahead shala ballots. this is what remains of a large election commission warehouse in kinshasa the capital of the democratic republic of congo inside were voting materials distant for polling seem to throughout the city ahead of presidential elections on december twenty third is that it's a dirty trick because they have guards why didn't they call the fire brigade that night but it's all scheme to find ways of pushing back the elections. it started at

about two o'clock in the morning local time more than nine thousand voting machines were destroyed the majority of election materials for other provinces had already been delivered not impatiently but we have the impression that this may be a criminal act as the fire was the clear it in two places inside the store in the same moment we cannot say more for now but we would like to ensure our populations that the equipment from kinshasa that burned here will be replaced there is no worry about the coming elections even though the damage is serious. voting machines are a sensitive subject in the d.l.c. traditionally elections here are decided by pin and paper ballots they arrive for the first time in february when hundred thousand of being distributed across this vast nation the second largest in africa to be used by forty six million registered voters is the government marketed the benefits saying they would cut costs and speed up vote counting. the protests have been how across the country against the

use critics have argued they need power to work and only nine percent of the country has electricity which is often unreliable others say they are illegal untested and easy to rig at rallies in september and october there was backlash. yes. i know. money did this system by. then having a dubious vote does. we cannot participate in elections that we know already. we will fail because of these voting machines. the election commission has yet to confirm whether the fire was caused by arson now tasked with salvaging in a lecture that is already delays and momentous president joseph kabila has been in power since two thousand and one twenty one candidates are vying to replace him what may be the country's first democratic transition of power since independence

early sixty years ago charlotte dallas. eritrea's president say ourself worki is in mogadishu for talks with somali leaders as the to restore diplomatic relations. it ends a nearly fifteen year break somalia had accused eritrea of supporting the armed group the two signed their agreement to restart relations in july sri lanka's top court has declared the president's decision to dissolve parliament unconstitutional seven supremes court judges pass the unanimous ruling they say president monthly policy has seen a cannot dissolve parliament before its four and a half year term is up serious you know wanted to trigger a snap election after sacking his prime minister and naming former president mahinda rajapaksa to the post and now for nando's has more from the capital colombo . the decision that many out here the supreme court. has historic

basically found that president. was in violation of the constitution. when he dissolved parliament now the bases which had been questioned was the fact that the president according to the constitution could not dissolve parliament before parliament completed four and a half years of its term at the point that presidents in the dissolved parliament it was at least a year and two months short of that time period and the seven judge bench where hearing made a unanimous decision all of them agreed that the president had violated the constitution so what this means is stands basically reinstated the dissolution has been knocked down by the court. now there are still issues yes the entire disillusion of the changing of prime minister sparked a constitutional crisis but there are for the issues which will be coming up in for the day there is the sacking of prime minister. who claims he's still the

legitimate prime minister and his successor the former president mahinda rajapaksa basically has his authority has been questioned in the court of appeal and that order stopping him from functioning as prime minister now he has appealed that restraining order but as you can see many things still remaining to be resolved. a group of forty eight countries has appealed for greater unity between poor and rich nations and there's more focus on countries like poland which is hosting the cock twenty four climate summit it's where coal is the primary source of energy and o'clock reports from qatar we. crossed poland this is still a familiar sight the smoke of domestic coal burning to keep the chill of winter at bay and it's a scene replicated by the chimneys of millions of homes across the country. you

know the acrid smell of coal smoke in the air in this part of the city of kind of it's where the climate conference is being held is almost overpowering and you can really see why in the weeks leading up to the climate conference that the city was found to be the second most polluted in the whole of europe. i head off to meet me dhamma sick third generation miner he received sacks of coal as part of his pay to feed a hungry boiler that heats his home. this is the way ninety percent of rural people heat their properties gas is coming more and more to the cities but coal is still prevalent the climate conference wants to change things i don't think it's possible in our country because the mining industry is too established people would lose jobs. it's not just emissions from the chimneys of people's homes but also of course from the coal fired power stations that provide eighty percent of the nation's electricity it's an industry that provides sixty thousand jobs in industry

into the fabric of the salafis in region of poland and live history many say is it to stay. coal plays a big part in the so-called energy equation and it's important because simply we have it with the sixth biggest producer of coal and i don't see it changing we need to make the important distinction between coal mining and c o two emissions we can still use coal but in an oil friendly way it's clear these are sensitive times for polish coal twenty kilometers from cuts of it this happens. so we actually just started filming the premises here and security from the coal arrived in the car just in calling the police they don't want to hear it too after some debate we're moved on we can't film at the site say to the hay city stand inside the conference venue remember it's all about climate and polling. coal is the thing

is coal jewelry is coal say three of the event sponsors the coal companies this is what i meant of our past we need to focus on our future and in my opinion the diffuser and therefore see this is free in poland there will be up to one hundred thousand new jobs created in clean economic sector in two thousand and fifteen so there is an alternative to the most important is to call me u.k. my nurse president president john j. dude says he will not let out those mud at the polish coal industry coal is here to stay he says it's evident that for coal dependent nations like poland the transition to clean energy is a long long way on. al-jazeera and of itself. or china has confirmed that a second canadian citizen has been detained accused of endangering chinese national security michael spade specializes in organizing trips to north korea earlier this

week a former canadian diplomat michael covering was also detained he doing a visit to beijing. michael corbett and michael spouter are suspected of engaging in activities in danger in national security of the people's republic of china and according to our criminal law the beijing national security council has taken necessary measures against them usually the two cases are still under investigation and our go live now to washington where asked senator bernie sanders is speaking right now on this debate over the u.s. yemen resolution which does not ring the warring parties together that situation will become even worse for united nations and others are telling us that yemen is on the brink of the worst famine that we have seen in a very long time and that millions of people may die third point

it is clear i. for the united states congress to tell the despotic call them that of saudi arabia that we do not intend to follow their leads in their military adventurism their intervention in the war civil war in yemen is the cause of the humanitarian disaster ten thousand people are developing serious illnesses colorado and other illnesses because the water infrastructure up in yemen has been destroyed by saudi attacks so right now we have the opportunity to go forward in a strong bipartisan way and i want to thank all of the members of the senate who gave a.