all. signs a new golden age with professor jimmy levy. a panel of british m.p.'s lawyers say the saudi government has failed to respond to our request to visit detained activists. boy or watching al-jazeera live from doha also ahead venezuela's opposition leader declares himself president russia warns the us against any intervention. the first

peaceful transfer of power in the democratic republic of congo. to be sworn in as president will be live in kinshasa. i think that's a great blog all the incredible country that we all of donald trump is forced to wait until the prashant government shutdown is over to deliver his state of the union address. thank you for joining us human rights watch and a group of british m.p.'s say saudi arabia has failed to respond to their requests to visit saudi women activists in detention the deadline of january ninth for a response by the saudi embassy has not been met. we're not fully engaged why say we present to the panel and unless it's to the saudi ambassador on the second of january and then a couple of weeks later we didn't so followed up with a less. formally of congratulations to the new foreign minister in saudi arabia and

also again in that. front door drawing attention to the the outstanding requests that there was to the saudi government to engage with us and oversee giving the reasons why we believe it would be a wise thing to do for saudi arabia to officially engage with us and enable us as a panel to be able to consider. that side of the. side of the story alongside the evidence that has come from human rights watch imus international and other. organizations including one might say the united states state department. and i speak to chinese in london with more on what came out of that news conference charlie first of all this is not an official government committee but those assembled there were all members of parliament what they have to say has some weight doesn't it. yes so this is a member three members of parliament one from the conservative labor and liberal

democrat party and they came together at the request of i.t.n. solicitors to hold the evidence of the alleged treatment of these dates he detainees in saudi and they said that the evidence was compelling enough for them to form this panel. and and take some action as you as you heard that the left is so what they're looking at in particular the treatment of the eight women and four men who were arrested between may and june and the charges were not specified these are celebrities of the international women's movement academics who've been campaigning for the right to drive in saudi arabia and the end to mate male guardianship rules so these are no it's just the everyday pretenses these are real i couldn't hold that women's movement in saudi arabia and they say that. the allegations are that between may and over think taken some unofficial detects incentives and the allegations have emerged of electric shocks of whipping of

waterboarding sexual harassment and psychological torture now the human rights watch representative in said what was. difficult to understand about this is that normally saudi authorities when they are treating detainees and i say i'm only trying to elicit some kind of false confession or names of other people that they would then go on to arrest this doesn't seem to be the case with these detainees it seems that the sole purpose is to humiliate them right so saudi arabia does say it has made its. i mean inquiries into the treatment of these women but the panel here said that they. are not independent of senior saudi. what they're saying is that they have an open mind they want to go in person to the saudi detention centers and visit these women to see firsthand how they have been treated but as you heard

in that sound bite from christian conservatives no response to that left this one so for the second of january another one on one with the saudi ambassador here and they say that if they do not get their response by the twenty ninth of january they will be forced to. submit this report based on the human rights watch and amnesty international evidence they would like saudi cooperation but if it's not forthcoming that report we published no doubt would be quite damning thank you for charley on july for us in london and other world news in venezuela as many as thirteen people have been killed in the past two days according to y. scopes as a political crisis escalates the head of the opposition majority national assembly has declared himself in the gym and president with backing from the u.s. and regional powers including brazil but nicolas maduro insists he is the leader the u.n. secretary general is calling on all sides to pursue every effort to prevent violence

teresa ball has our report. thousands of people responded to the call by the opposition to take to the streets they're calling for freedom and the one venezuela security forces to join their fight to end the presidency. we are using what they are throwing at us to continue with our protests we want an end to the usurper and demand freedom. bill sloper they talk about is nicole a model who was sworn in for another six year term earlier this month. one where you don't is the man that challenges his illegitimacy he's the president of the national assembly a powerless opposition controlled body that has proclaimed him the country's interim president karl rove i swear to assume the powers of the national executive as the interim president of venezuela to secure an end to the usurpation and treasonous government and to have free elections if it is to be let god and country

reward us and if not let god and country demand. on wednesday why the last claim to office was recognized by u.s. president donald trump and several other leaders in the region who regard a dictator he still controls the military and the country's main institutions. accuse the united states of promoting a coup to take control of venezuela's oil resources considered to be the largest in the world and. the only interest is to which i swore before the people to respect and be respected and to be independent sovereignty and the peace of the republic are decided to break diplomatic and political relations with the imperialist government of the united states those on the street say they are tired of an economic crisis that has forced millions of people to flee their country venezuela's national guard used tear gas and rubber coated bullets to disperse them . the united nations is asking both the government and the opposition to deescalate

the situation and agree on a dialogue but those who oppose the government say the time for talk is. they want solutions for the problems millions of people in venezuela face every day and have stopped believing my daughter has the answers to resolve them that is i will. or russia has called nicolas maduro the legitimate president of venezuela and says outside attempts to use or power in the latin american country disregard international law and speak talk are spawn and in moscow really challenge rory russia and the u.s. again on opposing sides this time in venezuela's crisis. yeah the latest lines from the kremlin coming from its spokes person. dimitri peskov are that the this is an attempt to usurp power in venezuela and as such it contravenes international law and is dangerous asked whether

russia would grant nicolas maduro asylum if necessary the kremlin spokesperson said well he is the legitimate president of venezuela and therefore we consider that question to be inappropriate he went on to say that venezuela has not yet asked russia for any assistance over the internal political crisis there and that venezuela is a key economic partner of moscow what that means really actually is that moscow and china as well are basically the two countries that have been propping up venezuela in recent years they have lent their country billions and billions of dollars usually in loans for oil deals which of actually created further problems for the event venezuelan economy what can russia do in this situation well it's it's a in a difficult position how much can actually step in and defend one of its key allies

venezuela one of the few countries twenty or so that actually recognize the russian annexation of crimea and russia or in recent times has shown displays of strength like flying strategic bombers all the way from russia to venezuela late last year. but there is a question about whether russia can actually militarily step in to help out nicolas maduro probably overtly it won't choose to do too much but. could be much more that russia has in its power perhaps using. groups like the private military contracts which is seen activity in both the creating conflicts and in syria but of course none of that is being discussed and we have to wait and see if what russia chooses to do next in this thank you for that role in moscow. to the democratic

republic of congo now where felix she said katie is you to be so when the country's new leader the inauguration ceremony is underway in the capital kinshasa as you can see on those pictures say this monster first speech will transfer of power since the r.c. gained independence from belgium in his last televised address as president outgoing leader joseph kabila to support his successor. is covering this inauguration ceremony for us in kinshasa joins us now live it's seen occupation supposed to happen any time now talk us through the timeline of today's events and who is attending this ceremony. we are expecting the outgoing president joseph kabila to arrive any time from now we have seen a motorcade approaching and at the palace of the nation where this inauguration is taking place and then also felix just the kid who will be sworn in we understand perhaps in the next hour or two or about a few thousand members of the public have gathered on one side of the ground you're

cordoned off security trying to manage that crowd and we've seen the members of the diplomatic corps and as one of some representation of the european and african union also the almost secret general of the african union who had previously brokered a dialogue at one point during the political crisis and i think the presence of u.s. officials would would matter to leadership in the d.r. theon that these two blocks at one point had. expressed some concern around the election the outcome and also the claims of fraud by the opposition leader martin for you lou within took those claim to the constitutional court that was dismissed so we are expecting a quite a significant diplomatic presence but also though we had understood that african leadership or heads of state would be here today we've not been able to confirm that any of them are in attendance that the presidency here in that the r.c.c.

says that they haven't officially invited anybody but that they were welcome to attend perhaps wanting to manage that lack of presence but lete program is due to begin any time from now and that should last for perhaps two or three hours until the theory in there are many of appeal extra security. summit as we've said this will be the first peaceful transfer of power in the d.r. see since independence from belgium and that can be underplayed how much is there hope for real peace now and prosperity despite the contested election results. i think that will be our economic and challenge for the incoming president felix to security is one of the first things he's going to have to do is appoint a prime minister and speculation is because the. outgoing government leave

the party of the national front of the outgoing president joseph kabila continues to have a majority in parliament at least three hundred fifty seven seats in a five hundred seat parliament they will be some sort of collaboration a coalition that the outgoing president kabila in the centrist to the congolese last night had said that he wants to work to some sort of coalition he wants the support from the congolese people are very incoming president so just exactly how the parliament will look how it will work and how for sochi security is able to talk to the congolese society people who won weren't able to vote at the end of last year we know there were three main cities where there were security and how to breath and at least a million people that didn't vote at all but also the dissatisfied supporters of martin kalulu who theory that their leader of their party was wrong dog of victory

thank you for that family the military for ting live from kinshasa where the inauguration of. the r.c.s. new leader is getting underway still ahead on al-jazeera the former governor how to contact is now a free man why his supporters have been asked to tone down their celebration. hello again we are cross another part of asia japan is going to be seeing an increase of snow over the next few days you can see here on the satellite image those clouds are making their way toward the western portion of japan well those are sea effect snow clouds bringing a lot of snow here towards the western areas and friday not looking too bad in terms of the snow across the region but as we go towards saturday we see a big increases no not only for the higher elevations but also down here towards

much of the south or soka you're going to see a mix of rain and snow as well particularly in those overnight lows go below freezing out here toward so well it's going to be cool few with a high temperature of only one degree there was a break away down here towards china really not a lot of talk about in terms of rain a lot of clear areas across much of the area we're going to be seeing some clouds here across parts of the central area for hong kong it could be a hazy day for you with a temperature of about twenty three degrees here on friday going down to about twenty one degrees as we go towards saturday and winds coming out of the north for shanghai we do expect to see a high there of about six degrees for you and then down here across parts of jakarta it is going to be very heavy rain over the next few days for you up towards bangkok to the northern part of thailand looking much better we're going to be seeing temperatures into the mid to low thirty's with thirty three degrees there in call and her it is going to be a partly cloudy day at thirty three. where there is water there is life but finding it to the street is arid deserts it is

a skill few still possess they took us to a small school those are and this was this is a very important place where they've been telling us about for the last five days between. the orders against all odds an aging population is policy on. the rainmakers. on a. slogan you're watching al-jazeera i remind of our top stories this hour human rights watch and a group of british and b. say saudi arabia has failed to respond to their requests to visit detained saudi

women activists the deadline of january ninth for a response by the saudi embassy has not been met its. rights groups say as many as thirteen people have been killed in the past few days in venezuela opposition leader one who has declared himself interim president challenging nicolas maduro as grip on power and in the democratic republic of congo felix choose to katie's you to be softening as the new president inauguration ceremony is underway in the capital kinshasa this marks the first speech for transfer of power since the country gained independence from belgium. by u.s. president donald trump says he won't give his annual state of the union speech to congress until there is an end to the possible government shutdown there was speculation he delivered somewhere else to do that and comes after democratic speaker of the house nancy pelosi with jury invitation to allow him a platform in the house of representatives tweeting earlier. i will do the address when their shutdown is over i'm not looking for

a tentative venue for the state of the union address because there is no venue that can compete with the history tradition and importance of the house chamber he added i look forward to giving a great state of the union address in the near future mike hanna has more from washington on the one side the speaker of the house nancy pelosi on the other the president of the united states the country's two most powerful political figures locked in a bitter dispute over the annual state of the union address. last year the president addressed a joint session of congress in which republicans control both senate and house and extend to you. but in the benders elections of democrats seized control of the house of representatives nancy pelosi became house speaker and after the shutdown began she withdrew the necessary invitation to the president to speak in this letter the president brushed aside her stated security concerns and told the house

speaker he would be in congress on tuesday night to deliver the speech. not so said nancy pelosi in a letter by return of messenger she would not allow the speech in the house chamber to go ahead nancy pelosi or nancy as i call or she doesn't want to hear. the truth and she doesn't want to hear more importantly the american people have the truth so we just found out that she has cancelled and i think that's a great blog which all the incredible country that we all love it's a great great horrible mark. the president was expected to use his address to once again press for a wall on the southern border and continues to insist he will veto any funding legislation that does not allow kate five point seven billion dollars for the project there is serious and justified concern that this president which shut down the government any time he does not get his way legislatively that is why we must

hold the line on this shutdown. but in a late night tweet the president conceded this particular argument saying he was not looking for an alternative venue but would hold his state of the union address until after the partial government shutdown is over mike hanna al-jazeera washington i let's get the latest now with kimberly hocket our white house correspondent in washington d.c. so kimberly the state of the union the latest casualty of the shutdown or any signs that it could end. well there are some political posturing that's likely to take place in the u.s. congress today given the appearance that the lawmakers are doing something but it really appears that nothing is going to be accomplished what we have happening at all eyes on the senate thursday as there are two bills that will be voted on and considered but neither is expected to pass the first one is republican backed what it would do is give donald trump the five point seven billion he's looking to build

his order while on the southern border of the united states and mexico this is been the sticking point that leg. to this shutdown but this would need some democratic support democrats say they're simply not going to vote in favor of this no the other one that is going to be voted on the senate has already passed in the democratically controlled house of representatives the lower chamber but this one is not expected to pass it would open the government at least until february eighth but it doesn't include money for the border wall donald trump sticking point in his insistence as though this is not likely to pass because republicans say they know the president won't sign it into law something that is necessary so what we have here are the democratic party and the republican party on divergent paths and the stalemate continues folley is now in its thirty third day and what impact is this prolonged shutdown having kimberly not just politically but also on the american people. it's increasingly being felt across the united states the list getting

longer every day the latest the federal courts are saying that they will no longer be able to after january thirty first look at all their cases that means the civil cases will be brushed to the side we know that the f.b.i. has a number of its employees that are saying they are very concerned because they will not be able to put in place some criminal indictments and they're concerned about public safety cyber experts say the united states now more risk of a cyber attack the coast guard says that many of its members are using food banks their school lunch programs that are being affected national parks where the trash is beginning to pile up because the park rangers are not there to oversee that collection and one in ten airport screeners now say that they are not showing up for work they can't afford the gas to get there so again the american public is starting to feel this more and more with each passing day and their lawmakers failing to find a compromise in order to leverage levy the suffering kimberly thank you very much for that can really help get on white house correspondent there in washington.

turkey has renewed its call to launch an international investigation into the murder of saudi journalist. who has the latest from istanbul turkish officials have been retreating that a time for an international investigation has come for jamal khashoggi murder case because i have been complaining about the lack of corporation and collaborations with the saudi prosecutor's office they have been claiming that everything is transparent about the legal process and turkey but they received no information no evidence even no records of the interviews of the suspects from the from the prosecutor's office in riyadh and turkey's foreign minister underlined that presents are gone has ordered his team to push for put to push efforts for an international investigation to be launched and they have been saying that they are already in touch with other countries to start such a process also turkey's foreign minister said today that un report charge dr reckless column art is about to visit turkey on january twenty eighth and if he has

time he will have a special meeting with her as well and the u.n. side also has has said before that this is an extrajudicial murder they have told it to al-jazeera and other other media platforms of course it is interesting that the human rights watch panel in london they say that an international investigation must be handled under the supervision of the united nations and it is all important because it is still the saudi authorities have no corporation with the turks or other countries and it seems that it is not only turkey who has lost confidence in the indic or pressure with the saudis but it is also the human rights organizations and other third countries. every ford has documented evidence of soggy arabia constructing its first known ballistic missile factory according to the washington post several weapons experts that examine satellite images showing the suspected misawa sites near every yacht at the moment saudi arabia does not possess any

nuclear weapons but crown prince mohammed bin salman has previously expressed his desire to obtain them to counter what he called a threat from iran in sudan one person has been killed and several others injured after fighting broke out between national intelligence service an army troops overnight when say the incident in port sudan is the first of its kind since anti-government protests began a month ago demonstrators have been calling for an end to president obama shares thirty year rule north korea's leader kim jong un says he trusts u.s. president donald trump's approach as officials from both countries prepare for another summit north korean state media say kim jong un is satisfied after receiving a letter from trump he's ordered preparations for a second meeting with charm say he'll wait with patience and in good faith it's all those weeks of warning that kim could seek a new path if the u.s. did not lift its sanctions. beijing says

a chinese australian writer is being held on suspicion of endangering state security china's foreign ministry says the australian government has been officially notified of young jones' detention meanwhile canada as ambassador to china has question the strength of the us legal case against our ways chief financial officer main ones who is fighting extradition to the u.s. after being arrested in vancouver in december at the request of american authorities he's accused of violating sanctions which is denying. the c.e.o. and chairman of french comic a renault has resigned carrasco and has been detained in japan since his arrest on suspicion of financial misconduct in november the sixty four year old was removed from nissan's board almost immediately but there are still questions over the future of the twenty year old and renault nissan mitsubishi alliance go on denies the allegations against him when all is board is meeting this essay to name his replacement in indonesia former jakarta governor best sokol jaya or nama also

known as a hawk has been released to seven two years in prison on blasphemy charges in twenty sixteen the first ethnic chinese and christian governor of the capital made comments about a verse in the koran which led to massive protests so vast and has this report. handful of supporters celebrating the former governess release in the latter. poor mamma had asked people not to come to the prison to greet him instead to quietly laugh together with his son who posted this on his answer account. someone i have no words to describe how happy i am two years he was here in prison two years for something you strongly believe he was falsely accused. better known as a hawk was a popular governor because of his efforts to clean up just kept us corrupt bureaucracy and improve infrastructure but after of video went viral in which he questioned the use of

a qur'anic verse all went rapidly downhill for him the. mass rallies by conservative groups left to his arrest and he lost his reelection bid his case was widely seen as a sign of increasing intolerance against minorities in indonesia supporters of former governor. urged to tone down celebrations for his release just three months to go to the elections the campaign team rather than soberly dodo is concerned that remarks by the outspoken. the former governor could endanger the platen reelection . so instead of attending welcome parties will go on vacation and accept speaking engagements abroad there are reports he wants to start his own television show that's likely to worry the government because opponents are watching while all who. all thought he got a lenient prison sentence we respect the fact that he went through the legal process but if he starts doing the scene thing again if he becomes noisy again will

leave it up to the people. has sat he doesn't want to be called by his chinese nickname a hawk any longer assigned you wants to make a clean start in the latter he also sad to thankful for his time in prison because otherwise he would have become more arrogant the main question now is when the controversial former governor will break his silence and return to politics step last an al-jazeera check after. that again for the battle with the headlines on al-jazeera human rights watch and a group of british m.p.'s say thought to arabia has failed to respond to their requests to visit saudi women activists in detention the deadline of january ninth for a response by the saudi embassy has not been met. we're not fully engaged when i say we presented the panel in unless it's of the saudi ambassador on the second of

january and then a couple of weeks later we then it's a follow up with a less. formally of congratulations to the new foreign minister in saudi arabia and also again in that last. for george drawing attention to the the outstanding requests that there was to the saudi government to engage with us and oversee giving the reasons why we believe it would be a wise thing to do for saudi arabia to officially engage with us and enable us as a panel to be able to consider. that side of the. side of the story alongside the evidence that has come from rights watch imus international and all the. organizations including one might say the united states state department rise to say as many as thirteen people have been killed in the past few days in venezuela opposition to one who has declared himself the interim president challenging nicholas schmidle as great on power at the u.n. secretary general is calling on all sides to pursue every effort to prevent finals

in sudan one person has been killed and several others injured after fighting broke out between national intelligence service and ami troops overnight on wednesday the incident in port sudan is the first of its kind since on thai government protests began a month ago. katie is about to be sworn in as the democratic republic of congo's new leader of the nation ceremony is underway in the capital kinshasa this mosque the first peaceful transfer of power since the country gained independence from belgium u.s. president donald trump has been for suppose for his annual state of the union speech or until the possible government shutdown is over the move was welcomed by house speaker nancy pelosi who called on trump to accept a funding proposal to end the shutdown now in its thirty fourth day you're upset with headlines on al-jazeera the news will continue here after inside story to stay with us.

italian leaders attacked the french president over immigration in recent days to senior politicians have called on a terrible president and accused. africa so what is behind this dispute and is it politics at play this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program i'm richelle carey italy and france have long been close allies and fellow founding e.u.

members but relations have taken a turn for the worse since italy's populist parties came to power in june much of the dispute has been.