a lot to pack and a lot to discuss but whether their way to come up with anything concrete at the end of this eight day trip is really what remains to be seen. as you heard there pompei zero will also be seeking to reassure allies after president trump's announcement to withdraw u.s. troops from syria as stacey's a former u.s. state department official who acted as a foreign policy adviser for both the obama and hillary clinton presidential campaigns he says trump's sudden decision on syria is this worst foreign policy decision so far. the priority will obviously be walking back president trump's announcement of a withdrawal from syria we basically are seeing something between either a considerable slowdown of this so-called withdrawal or a complete cancellation of it without an official announcement to follow them by all appearances the israelis have been even more effective than people like senator graham persuading the president that he was making a mistake with this already the cost to u.s.

credibility has been considerable because we've seen the kurds basically already reaching out to both moscow and the syrian regime so even if the u.s. stays which it looks like it is now poised to do we still have immediate and massive fallout from and probably the worst decision the president has made in foreign policy yet in this administration you're already seeing secretary of state pompei to come out and make a very broad claim that the u.s. will prevent the turks from slaughtering was his word of the kurds now that got a sharp rebuke from the turks not surprisingly but that is yet the latest piece of evidence that this is shifted that and without any sort of announcement from the president that that's what in fact has happened nonetheless even if the u.s. stays in place and they have they've been assisting the s.d.f. on the battlefield they've taken additional key towns from isis just in the last couple of days the syrian regime is not all the way in there as they've announced

they are so we've got a situation where the fallout has been considerable the u.s. credibility is falling fast even if this withdrawal is cancelled they announce an f. on the strip came in saudi arabia held its first hearing on the case it's seeking the death penalty for five of the eleven suspects but the trial is already been criticized at the u.n. human rights office i can a house more from the united nations in new york. well the un making very clear that a once and independent international investigation into the murder of jamal khashoggi a spokesperson for the high commissioner for human rights insisting that it's impossible to adjudicate on the impartiality of the process underway in riyadh the trial there of the eleven suspects in the murder beginning this week the spokes person had this to say we are not present in saudi arabia to be able to assess

these trials and we can't give an assessment of the trials ourselves we as you know have been pressing for justice in the case for months now. and we've been calling for an investigation independent investigation with international involvement and this has not happened yet now while we are aware that a trial has taken place in saudi arabia this is not sufficient first of all and second of all we are against the imposition of the death penalty in all circumstances a number of human rights organizations have also cost outside of the legality or impartiality of that process in riyadh also calling for some kind of international independent investigation into the murder but the situation is that the un is quite capable of initiating such an investigation by itself all it requires is one of the legislative bodies of the united nations the security council of the general assembly to give

a mandate to the secretary general to start such an investigation however it would appear that un members are looking for some kind of political cover they want one of the interested parties in the situation to approach the security council or the general assembly and make such a request the interested parties turkey and saudi arabia it's unlikely it would appear that saudi arabia would make the request turkey has insisted that it does one some kind of independent international investigation headed by the united nations but as yet it has not made an official request to any of the united nations bodies. let him ahead of the news hour including take a look at the unintended consequences of colombia's peace deal with far rebels plus . pollin in hong kong reporting on how the prophet trip an artwork behind one of the city's traditional games if that is appearing. the world number one suffers

this first defeat the new season here. tropical storm public has weakened after making landfall in southern thailand but the risk of flooding remains earlier one fisherman died another is still missing after their boat capsized the storm knocked down trees blew off roofs and forced thousands of people to have to evacuate it's thailand's first tropical storm of thirty years or until he joins us live from the tourist island close to moist so florence as we said the storm has made landfall what is what's happened on the ground. well the storm is now moving in a northwesterly direction across the thai the southern provinces of ivan and it seems to be losing strength it's expected to be downgraded to a tropical depression. by the end of sausage day the storm would have moved into

the andaman sea the worst affected area surf os seem to be not kongsi tama where as you mentioned the storm made landfall on friday afternoon trees were uprooted buildings were damaged electricity poles were down streets were flooded but thousands of people have been evacuated ahead of the storm and loss of lives has been kept at a minimum now the worst seems to be over for not consciously tamarod which bore the brunt of tropical storm and services that was suspended on friday looks set to resume on soc today that says and seems to be the case for some way as well where we are which is about one hundred fifty kilometers north of. the island in the gulf of thailand the flights to and from somewhere you will resume boats or boats and ferry services to select a destination is set to resume. today off to you as well now the storm as i mentioned is moving in the northwest in the direction which means that the tourist hot spots of krave and. the south but west of where we are launching the sped now

is still going to be bringing packing heavy winds and strong winds and heavy rains but really it's not it's expected to be spread large damage and still many tourists with seeing choosing to leave some of the small islands around cricket before the storm arrives you know has not turned out to be as strong as ignition a bit but the thai chamber of commerce says economic losses could still reach about one hundred and fifty million dollars stemming from the need to seize business activities. thank you very much of florence laurie thank you. five teenage girls have died after a fire broke out in a room where they were playing and escape game and northern poland the girls all age fifteen for celebrating a birthday party please don't yet know what started the fire but the government's order checks at every escape room and poland games involve players being locked in

a room and having to figure out a series of clues to get out. and surely at least sixty homes have been destroyed in dozens of wildfires as the central coast suffers an intense heat wave some of the fires are yet to be contained with more than twenty six hundred hectares burned so far the fire season there is just now getting underway for ministers from latin america and canada say their governments won't recognize nicolas maduro as venezuela's president when he's sworn in for a second term next week the lame a group of states is meeting improves capital to discuss how to step up pressure on the doro i say elections in may we're not credible and they're calling for power to be transferred to the national assembly until a free vote can be held millions of venezuelans have fled the country because of a political and economic crisis and israel is accuse the u.s. of orchestrating a coup well you idea that is really experiences from where you are very in republic of venezuela experiences great bewilderment at the extravagant degree ration of

a group of countries of the american continent which are receiving instructions from the united states through video conference have agreed to encourage a coup to turn. around a sentence has more from lima. the foreign ministers of the fourteen countries members of the group decided not to recognize. next president to take over office again on january the tenth they said that the election didn't comply with international standards it was not transparent it didn't have any opponents and it didn't have any international observers now the group decided today. officials from the government will not be allowed to enter any of the member countries it was expected in the last few weeks that at least a rule would break diplomatic relations with minister. and minister said that they

are increasingly worried about the humanitarian and political situation in venezuela foreign minister said the country's urge president to step aside and do not take off again on january the. sun a shot as i specialise in u.s. latin american relations and director of international consulting the layman group is trying to help restore democracy and it is failing. well actually they do not recognize they go over men because they consider the go over make is illegitimate. you may recall when my daughter won the elections it was without the participation of the opposition so that's why they them believe in transpired in seo these elections and actually they are trying to send the message to go back to dialogue let's go to negotiate is the best way in more of their

to do to get back to. their more korat the pot in venice where they want to negotiate with mother water with press in nicholas mother would know what will be the best way to negotiate a democratic. bennis well i can find he so on way to the market i see again like calling again for the new elections we have seen how the opal seizure has been on their mind a lot of political leaders are imprisoned right now so talking about the opposition in venezuela is a very difficult one because we don't have a phase a man said straight now s. not just solely that wealthy people they're wealthy people or the middle class is also the poor people freedom from by this well from the evidence well and prices from the political economic crisis who was created by the nicolas maduro gold arm

and saw it is a message that everybody wants a change in venezuela a change of government. and the southwest of colombia community leaders and human rights advocates are being killed at a rate of one every three of them targeted by armed groups fighting for control of land to cultivate drugs but the rate of killings as an increased sense the government signed a peace deal with dark rebels two years ago as the any reports of. hundreds of dinners indigenous people attend the funeral of. a young community leader he's there late is the founder of human rights shot dead in the cocoa region of colombia his brother says it's only seen we're speaking out he made a strong statement against armed at a community meeting and sentenced himself to death as they say they were there that day but who knows which ones they were they could be any of seven different

criminal groups dissident rebels paramilitaries and other armed gangs fighting to control this land for the lucrative cultivation of coca crops the plane too used to make cocaine. and illegal gold mining. at the two thousand and sixteen peace deal with fire rebels ended the decades long war against the government but left the power vacuum that the state as failed to feel. indigenous leader and senator. has received death threats for denouncing the criminal groups activities. he was given an armored car but no body guards. we don't know who will be next it could be me a family member or a companion we are living in constant fear of what can happen in any given day the norden cow can degenerate association has compiled a list of the death threats received by its members but says the government needs to recognize the systematic pattern of the attacks. there's

a killing every day indigenous social leaders human rights defenders we are denouncing the government's lack of attention. to. the overall number of killings yes fallen since the signing of the peace deal but the same is not true when it comes to community leaders and human rights defenders four hundred have been killed since two thousand and sixteen one hundred sixty four in two thousand and eighteen alone. under pressure the government invited the special reportorial from the united nations on a fact finding mission he met with hundreds of community leaders and victims of attacks i mean you can only. somehow it's a systematic against the founders want to blame this government but. really. the government of president says many of the problems date back to the previous administration but unless more is done people will

continue to pay the ultimate price for speaking out. the. speculation is mounting about a historic visit to south korea north korea's kim jong. the fourth summit between the two leaders and the past year and it comes as both sides work towards reconciliation provin relations are having a marked and market impact on the heavily fortified border that separates north and south are south correspondent our south korea correspondent pardon me rob mcbride travel to young kong island a short distance from the north korean mainland from its observation points you can clearly make out the coastline of north korea just twelve kilometers away and at times of extreme tension young people on the island has found itself in the sights of north korea's guns eight years ago it was the scene of an artillery jewel that killed four people and wounded nineteen others the most serious clash since the

korean war. today the same water front is it.