more. to survive twenty first century america. here at al-jazeera headquarters. to the news the u.n. is calling for calm and dialogue in venezuela. spiraling out of control opposition leader has the president. going anywhere.

picking sides we have a team of reporters covering this story for you and the u.s. congress is once again trying to pass two bills that could end. in american history the problem is both bills appear to be dead on arrival we'll have a live report coming up from washington the first peaceful transition of power in the democratic republic of congo a new president is sworn in. takes the oath declared him the winner. by his runner up. federal workers continue to. tweet me. thanks for joining us here with the news. live on air we're streaming online

through you tube facebook live and at al-jazeera dot com as well venezuela a country divided with two men claiming to be the legitimate leader of the country the opposition leader one pie dough who heads the national assembly has declared himself presidents but nicolas maduro insists he remains the only true president rights groups say as many as thirteen people have been killed in the past two days as that political crisis escalates the u.n. secretary general is calling on all sides to pursue every effort to prevent violence so the international community is split over who to support in venezuela russia turkey and china they've all voice support for president nicolas maduro china's foreign ministry praised him as a force for stability meanwhile russia warned that any u.s. military intervention in venezuela would be catastrophic in the americas mexico says it still recognizes madeira as president for now while bolivia and cuba also

remain on his side but there is growing support for opposition leader of the united states and canada are both calling on madeira to resign and brazil is also backing why go along with several other latin american countries including argentina chile colombia and guatemala we have three correspondents on the story rory chalons will join us from moscow in a moment we have diana easterbrook in washington for the point of view from their terrorism pose in born and brought osiris she begins our coverage so as we're saying there is a countries now seem to be choosing sides but despite this there was a real political crisis in the country just bring us up to speed with what's going on there. well most definitely after the massive demonstrations that abend on wednesday it's not clear yet whether they will continue there are reports that for a third consecutive nights there's been looting and clashes between security forces and protesters many of this protest are happening in poor neighborhoods something

that was unheard of and still several of until since two thousand and seventeen when the last massive protests really happened in venezuela president nicolas mother would've said on wednesday that he was breaking relations with the united states gave the diplomatic mission to leave the country seventy two hours to leave the country but on the other hand one way though who has proclaimed himself an interim president is asking diplomatic missions to remain in the country the united states has answered back saying that their diplomatic mission is staying and that at the same time is warning the government that if anything happens to their diplomatic body in venezuela there will be consequences was all of this situation is playing out that we are seeing that members of the military from different military bases in venezuela are coming up on air on venezuelans fête television swearing in and recognizing the call of my the widow as their precedents and also

saying and rejecting the interference of foreign powers especially the united states in the way of in a swell of political affairs this is just another situation happening right now in the country as tension continues to go up many are saying that what the opposition is trying to do right now is increase the political cost for nicolas mother would go in and try to raise awareness about what they say is happening in the country that they believe is slowly turning into a dictatorship a right to their isabeau with the updates from one osiris thank you for that let's bring in diane he's the brooks who's joining us from washington so diane you heard to resign. a moment ago just talking about maduro breaking diplomatic ties with the u.s. ordering american diplomats to leave the country within seventy two hours we know that trump himself did recognize quite oh shortly after his announcements what might the u.s. do next. well that's interesting and what we're where the smart thing at the

organization of american states which is kind of like the u.n. for the region they focus on human rights they focus on politics in the military within the region they call this organization called a special meeting on tuesday to address the events specifically that are unfolding in venezuela what's interesting this morning that we're going to be watching for is is how heated is this meeting of these members going to be. the secretary-general luis el mago has been a very vocal critic for a long time the last couple of years of nicolas maduro he's been calling for regime change and yesterday he threw his backing behind one why though he last night even posted a video on the oas website congratulating why don't you and the venezuelan people advocating for democracy there critics say that's an overreach because this group

the oas represents a collective group of members and well as you said you have countries like the united states and canada and many countries in south america have who have been indorsing and backing why do not every nation has including bolivia so it'll be interesting to see what transpires here this morning the other thing that we're going to be watching for is what does then is way laju it has been in the process of pulling out of the oas for several months now why though yesterday. announced a new representative for the group so he basically halted the withdrawal from the oas so it'll be interesting to see this morning if the oas body recognizes this new representative and if there are any other declarations that this group makes about what is happening in that country ok diane we'll speak to you as and when that meeting of the oas takes place for the time being thank you for that update from washington let's go now bring in a retile and fuse

a joining us from moscow because rory the russians have waited and they have supported mature and they've criticized the united states what more is being said. yeah the russian finger is being pointed firmly at washington d.c. in a moment we've heard from the russian crew at the kremlin basically the president's office we've heard from the ministry of foreign affairs and we've heard from the prime minister as well the foreign minister sergey lavrov says that once again we are convinced that the united states which is paranoid that someone was interfering in their elections without any evidence is itself trying to decide on the fates of other nations and simply interferes in their it's an all internal affair as venezuela is not the first case says lavrov just one that is especially flagrant he also said that we call on the venezuelan opposition not to become pawns in someone

else's very criminal game now the kremlin was asked whether it had received any request for assistance yet from the majority government it says no they haven't and also asked whether moscow might perhaps provide me with political asylum if necessary well the response to that was he is the illegitimate president of venezuela and therefore the kremlin considers that question to be inappropriate but there is a question of course which is what might moscow do to help nicolas maduro there are close ties between russia and venezuela economic ones russia has lents venezuela huge amounts of money billions and billions of dollars it's restructured that debts fairly recently. and there are also military ties to it's too soon definitely to say whether moscow might flex its military muscles to help out nicholas maturer what it might do in the short time is try to protect him in the united nations and

of course there are various perhaps more things that it might be considering doing at the moments there are private military contracts is one particularly coal wagner which has been operating. the ukraine conflict and also in syria and in places like the central african republic moscow might be looking at vats as a potential way of trying to safeguard them and offer across the world the rights of a rich island with the update from moscow thank you well as expected venezuela has been trending on social media sara horowitz is here with the latest online reaction hi sarah you know there's been plenty of trending hash tags and was one person summed up on twitter the venezuelan government is running state media with a lot of censorship happening which means that as well and they're relying on social media of course to find out what's actually happening on the ground but people have been also posting pictures and videos as well of protesters being shot and they're accusing the armed forces of being violent towards the protesters now

anti-government demonstrations on wednesday took a turn for the worse when at least seven protesters were reportedly killed and some of those dead all said to have been students in their early twenty's and hashtags venezuela as well as long as well as far as we are materie manure you can just see there and yankee go home which is a very interesting one that they've all been trending worldwide for the last twenty four hours with some venezuelan saying that they're not happy with the united states interfering in their affairs in this also gives you an idea of what they're saying because they're showing you pictures before us intervention in other countries and after you have iraq there libya syria as an example and then a big question mark on venezuela at the bottom but interestingly the tweets using these has trashed aren't just coming from the jury supporters because many say they don't support the president but they object to any u.s. meddling in one of those is author eva college and she says the coup sets a dangerous precedent for sovereignty and she also adds the u.s.

only wants venezuela's oil and that's why some venezuelans are warning the u.s. to keep their hands off that oil in fact it's also worth noting that venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world and right. now it's largely dependent on the cash it generates from its oil exports that's about ninety eight percent of export earnings but the us refuses to recognize mature as that it has met president as we said and is considering expanding its sanctions on venezuela as you can imagine is a lot of anger that amongst them is where it is but the twenty sixteen u.s. presidential nominee just signed she also treated the u.s. has of. his back right wing kooks up and down latin america for over one hundred years no one was about democracy and she always supposed to believe that this time in venezuela it's any different and some people have also criticised the opposition leader. for swearing himself in as president of venezuela on a few of them have also been joking that maybe they should just make themselves

into a president of the us this is running here who says that because it seems so easy to do so and in venezuela christopher he. says he has a clear message and that's to the u.s. he writes moore is our president with many mistakes and difficulties but it is our problem to deal with guess and such if you have any thoughts on that story and the hash tag is aging these grids yes sir sarah thank you are also covering the story extensively online you can head to al jazeera dot com you'll come to this page one as well in crisis all the latest updates updated around the clock by our online team and if you have any comments or questions about anything you've seen on the program so far in particular on that as well or you can send them into our online platforms we're on twitter use the hash tag a.j. news grid our handle is a.j. english we're also on facebook at facebook dot com slash al-jazeera you can send us a message on whatsapp or telegram the number there is plus nine seven four five zero triple one one four nine. now to another big story in the next few hours

the u.s. senate will vote on two bills to try and end the partial government shutdown so president donald trump triggered the shutdown by demanding five billion dollars to pay for a border war with mexico on wednesday trump was forced to postpone his annual state of the union address the house speaker nancy pelosi barred him from delivering the speech in the chamber all parts of the government remain shut down mike hanna reports 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 controlled both senate and house next into this gamble. but in the vendors elections the 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 and as you personally or nancy as a caller 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 is careful that i think that's a great blood which of 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 cut 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 also from washington is can really help that's where she is joining us from so are the two sides in the stalemate any closer to a resolution at all kimberly. well you know the appearances are there but the reality is no what we're seeing in the senate on thursday is that there are going to be two measures that will be taken up to attempt to reopen the government but neither are expected to pass the first one is one that was passed already in the

democrat controlled house of for representatives what this would do is reopen the government give it funding until february eighth but it does not provide money for donald trump's border wall the other measure that is expected to be voted on is a republican measure it gives five point seven billion that sticking point that the democrats and republicans are arguing over but it is largely expected to fail because it needs sixty votes and republicans don't have sixty votes so they need some democratic support some to cross over and support this democratic or rather republican measure that's unlikely to happen also so what we're seeing is kind of some political posturing the going through the motions like the lawmakers are trying to make this work but in reality they are not going to be any close as they were when this day started so what we've got is the ongoing stalemate and really two different political parties and different divergent paths with no resolution in

sight all right kimberly thank you for that update from washington will have to return to our top story now about is the crisis in venezuela will cross over to davos that's where we bring in our diplomatic editor james bays he's joining us from the world economic forum for reaction from there on venezuela james. absolutely venezuela is the moving event in the world where world leaders and business leaders are gathered here in davos fast moving moving developments with two rival candidates it seems for president to different countries recognizing different governments in venezuela putting all that politics to one side to the humanitarian element and moving to refugees the u.n. high commissioner for refugees joins me for the program day how concerned are you this political upheaval will mean more people fleeing venezuela with we're quite concerned because at the moment we see about five thousand venezuelans leaving the

country every day for a variety of reasons some lack of food some lack freedom some suffer violence and they are spread out over three million of them who fled in the past few years all over the region fifteen twenty countries receiving them so it's a massive humanitarian situation that needs attention let's look at some of the other big issues you're looking at one of the myanmar you were planning to do a visit there that got perspire own and how frustrated are you about what's going on on that situation and the lack of movement when we have an agreement the u.n. and the government to try and create conditions for refugees to go back to the hinge refugees that fled if you recall in two thousand and seventeen the progress however on that agreement is slow because what needs to be address is really freedom of movement the citizenship issue access to jobs and services and for the remaining rohingya this is not yet happening and those that are out are looking

back arse and look are watching what's happening to their brothers and sisters who are left at home and they're not yet encouraged to go back of course we have still the millions of refugees who have fled from syria refugee emergences around the world is it still all continuing bad news. well it's a world in which krises emerge all the time and existing ones don't get resolved so the consequence of that you can almost measure it is people fleeing their homes and you cannot have solutions to displacement if you don't have political solutions if you don't address the root causes and this is what we see in so many parts of the world especially in africa any good news anywhere well in africa i think there is there's a ray of hope with the progress in ethiopia good leadership. reaching out to every

tree and ending a conflict that has lasted for so long in a region which is has been tremendously affected by force displacement so i see the potential for progress in death region in the horn of africa i commissioner on your way i believe to ethiopia very soon thank you for joining us here on al-jazeera the u.n. high commissioner for refugees all right james bay is reporting from james thank you. so in just a moment ago we were telling you about the shutdown over in the u.s. and that in just a few hours time the u.s. senate in fact will be voting on two bills to try and end the partial government shutdown so let's take a closer look at the impact of that partial shutdown outside washington d.c. what's happening is that around eight hundred thousand government workers affair are affected since it all began and a significant number of those affected include airport security and in toronto revenue service employees well thousands are being forced to apply for unemployment

benefits to pay their bills and feed their families the benefits are only available for a limited time and will have to be paid back when the shutdown is over and some workers are not eligible to apply let's make the tom tom in he's the anchor of the federal drive at the federal news network he's joining us from washington d.c. tom temin thanks for speaking to us right here on al-jazeera so day thirty four off the longest shutdown in u.s. history effectively tell us about the impact that it's having and some of the stories that you're hearing from federal workers that you speak to. well during as you mentioned eight hundred thousand federal workers are directly affected but in reality probably all two million are affected because there's a lot of interagency activity that is not happening if you are in an open agency like health services and you have to talk call someone at say housing and urban development which is closed that person is not at the other end of the line so this is really affecting the entire government we've never seen anything go into thirty

four days like this i was around for the mind the six shutdown and that seemed forever and it was about twenty one days the difference here is now employees in a couple of days are going to miss their second paycheck for the pay period that ended last saturday and so this is unprecedented to pay periods is a long time to go without money and that's the thing tom a month without a paycheck a month without a paycheck is very long and presumably that's going to snowball into serious financial difficulties for some families how worried are they that this is just going to keep going on. weather extremely worried and you know it's not just necessarily the lower paid federal employees all they were being hit the hardest the first year t.s.a. screeners and so forth than people of the middle levels of the managerial ranks in the government but even the higher paid in some of the senior executives many of them are of the age where they might have children in college which is a high expense so it's hard to gauge but a lot of the attention has been on the people at the lower pay levels but really

it's affecting i think everyone up and down the line a lot of the federal credit unions and some of the local financial institutions are offering no fee let loans of maybe ten thousand dollars or more no or so no interest to be paid on those a lot of the food banks and the charitable organizations of open their doors to federal employees and the sad part is the federal employees affected feel the need to take them up on these offers so this is really unprecedented in what is ordinarily a very well functioning and frankly well to do city and are you able to gauge at all of who people blame for the sat down we see both sides are really digging their heels and both sides are digging in their heels i think the only thing we don't have going on today is a snowstorm luckily it's only raining here that would add to the perfection of the gridlock in washington but my sense is blame is pretty much going around political parties you've got several parties involved here i mean stem simply it's only the

democrats and republicans but there's a couple of different strains in both parties and then you have an unpredictable white house so it's really a brew of politics we haven't seen in a long time what the breakthrough might be really is anybody's guess but i don't think federal employees are focusing that much on who to blame they just blame the system which has really failed them at some time and we thank you very much for joining us on on to zero. so we're now on day thirty three of the partial u.s. government shutdown as we're saying and thousands of federal workers still really struggling to make ends meet any updates on the terror that you're seeing online well i know we have covered this quite a few times even on our social media segments but it's worth noting that these stories just keep on coming in fact the latest videos we've been seeing on social media have been of a protest has been happening in washington d.c. in the hashtag occupy hearts has been used for the story it's in reference to the hot sun it's building where hundreds of federal workers gathered and they stood

together in complete silence for thirty three minutes you can imagine why except thirty three days a minute for every day that passes because political deadlock and the paper plates they're holding they're all symbolic so they need to return back to work to feed themselves and of course their families now some of the government workers have shed their personal stories on how they've been affected we work money we've worked hard to make sure that the american people are safe that we produce quality work and for us to get zero still service it's heartbreaking to not be able to tell my nine year old if he's going to have. food or to be able to do extracurricular activities because i have no paycheck i basically have to have a furlough fund ok we have followed on so i went to my furlough fund all right and you know and then we have to have an emergency fund like it's good that the water heater breaks or the car breaks down or something like that so life happens. you

really feel the anger there because shortly after that dozens of protesters walked over to the office of senate majority leader republican mitch mcconnell. and they demanded for him to help reopen the government but twelve union rights were venture arrested by us comfortable police and they've been charged with trespassing now we're also seeing a lot of reaction online to the president's decision to postpone his state of the union address until after the shutdown is over and we've seen many tweets like this one from joe who tweeted the only thing this country needs to hear from donald trump is that he's ending the shutdown and paying federal workers and people are also retreating congressman woman on xandra cortez he says the state of the union address needs an immense amount of planning by federal workers they need to get paid to do the work and she uses the hushed just down can see the pay the full well if you happen to be watching us and you are a federal worker in the u.s.

then do get in touch with always keen to hear your stories and the hashtag we want you to use is a genius grit sir thank you and we do have an interesting opinion piece on the home page of al-jazeera dot com where the author argues that trump shutdown is a historic opportunity for real chains a ritual gilmer goes on to say that a support for trump is waning the leftists need to stop playing it safe according to her and present a new vision for this country have to al jazeera dot com and read more about what rachel gilmore has to say. you're with the news if you're watching us on facebook live you'll see a story for you coming up on an interview with ken robinson who shares his thoughts on reforming children's education and ahead in just a moment what's in a name the move that could end the decades long dispute between macedonia we'll bring you the latest developments in a moment. hello

again welcome back we're here cross live on we are watching a weather system out here across parts of the mediterranean you can see all the clouds right there making their way towards the west so as we go from friday and into saturday we're going to be seeing an increase of rain as well as winds across much of that areas of iraq are really not looking too bad here on friday but then as we go towards saturday we're going to be seeing more clouds and more winds coming into play there cyprus you'll be seeing some winds as well down here towards the south jerusalem is going to be a partly cloudy day at nineteen and beirut twenty two degrees is going to be your high well here across the gulf we're going to see our temps are starting to rise across much of the area so if we don't have really not looking too bad here on friday with twenty five degrees winds coming out of the south those southerly winds will continue as we make our way towards saturday so we're going to see their tempers rise as well over here towards it is going to be a partly cloudy day with twenty six degrees and here across parts of madagascar we

are still watching very heavy rain a new cycloid is potentially going to develop in the mozambique channel so that's going to be some very heavy rain across much of that area of course we did see some flooding across much of the region as well down here towards durban it is going to be a cool day for you at twenty one but a very hot day for to join his spirit with a temperature of thirty degrees there. in the next episode of science in a golden age of the good will of those governments that are fostering and my fixers from venezuela where the minister of defense is speaking on the political crisis let's listen in a constitutional. solution a constitutional solution and we are not going to do anything at all that is outside of the bounds of the constitution. there in lies all of our proceedings are

for our way of proceeding and our convictions as a soldier i am most grateful for all of the gestures of goodwill on the part of those governments that seek balance reason understanding and that our fostering dialogue. that that is what we the soldiers of the homeland here are going for and not for a war what has just happened. is a shameful act. shameful event i mean look at the. one feels very bad bill to see what is happening with factors where people are off center and not thinking clearly but if you people who are. seeking to violently and in a skins fan of united and a national manner. create this rupture and it is. very dangerous those who are promoting a de facto

a parallel government you know that the moneygall basis for that is you know it is completely no and anything that is done without a legal foundation that is not legal constitutional does not have a felicitous fate it is. doomed to failure and chaos it will not be victorious and we the men and women in uniform. children of these men and women who gave us our liberty would be unworthy of wearing our uniform if we did not defend the constitution our independence and our sovereignty we have taken an oath to die. with our homeland with with venezuela with our people and we're going to do it we're going to follow through on that oath that we have taken to the homeland to god to our flag the oath to defend our homeland and its institutions our democracy which

we have given ourselves so after having heard. and you know all of the commanders for which strategic regions for him to grow the fence and. having . reviewed everything that happened yesterday it's a very dangerous i look at the people of venezuela it is very dangerous for our integrity and for our social peace so i learned to. the people of venezuela at that age who day ties being carried out against the institutions against our democracy against our constitution and against president nicolas maduro who is the legitimate president of the bolivarian republic of that is what i'm going to read a communique. from the national national both very known for since that post together the feelings of all the men and women of our institution i'm going to read

it so that there is clearly what the position is of the voluntary national armed forces in the face of the serious events. that have been unfolding in venezuela and which we are and we're not going to allow that to happen we already have the experience of two thousand and two and the sentiments of two thousand and two the experience of two thousand and two and we are not going to allow that to happen again i read a lot of it for a long time a vulgar coup d'etat has been in the planning against the original kind of student government of the bolivarian republic of venezuela by ultra right sectors sponsored shamelessly by imperial agents this criminal plan in which flagrantly threaten the sovereignty and independence of our nation. yesterday reached the limits of a very dangerous situation as an effort was made to install

a de facto parallel government that lacks legality or popular support with the dark purpose of creating chaos and anarchy in our society. i mean. it is like a reissue of the events of april two thousand and two when through a self a proclamation an effort was made to repudiate the constitution just articulated in just such a curating the branches of government and leaving the citizenry in a state of you know defined in definition the us government along with other governments of the region and officials of multilateral organizations i mean they are carrying out the very well known. script for overthrowing those progressive governments that are not to in keeping with their imperialist and visions and that is why they are carrying out a hybrid war unprecedented against venezuela that includes an economic and financial blockade of sabotage dissin from asian and fake news among other

techniques in order to bring about a situation of ungovernability and to justify a military intervention in the face of such a nefarious situation the national poll a very non force is expressed to the people of venezuela and the whole world as follows firstly we reiterate this strict adherence to the constitution and national cause and therefore we categorically reject the illegal actions with which an effort is being made to install a parallel government in our country. as well as the calls that sectors the ignoring of the values and principles that characterizes have been making. to try to move us off the path of democracy second in addition we will be as forcefully as possible reject the growth of acts of meddling and carried out by foreign governments which we consider are just respectful of tension national law

and of the principle of self-determination of peoples more over their sense of. the dignity of all persons in venezuela third we will guarantee at all times citizen in peace and the proper operation of the institutions of the state we're not going to tolerate vandalism or terrorism by groups that will foster violence as a perverse mechanism for attaining their ams forth. as we indicated in a solemn public act only ten generally twenty nineteen we recognize as the general present of a very republican venezuelan commander in chief citizen nicole last motos who was elected by the vast majority of voters in free universal direct elections with secret balloting held last twenty may know what of twenty eighteen

the vote very national armed forces. who have faithfully adhered to the traditions from the liberator seen on believe i will never accept a president in posed under the shadow of what our interests nor one who is self proclaimed unlawfully nor will it ever be subordinated to a foreign power or a government that is not democratically elected by the people of venezuela. long live java's. independence and socialist homelands and if not. the son of venezuela rises and icici evo even if. good afternoon to you relistening to the venezuelan defense minister. vladimir pedrito lopez is his name and he was speaking outlining the position off the armed forces and the military and what he said was this is that the opposition is

carrying out a cuckoo against nicolas maduro and he also called venezuela's maduro the legitimate president of the country also accusing the united states as well as other governments of carrying out an economic war against the country so this is all according to the defense minister and he also did say that anything done without the legal basis or not within the realms of the constitution will not be victorious so effectively the military coming out defending the constitution as expected and also throwing their weight and their support behind nicolas maduro the palestinian group hamas is refusing to accept aid money from qatar because of the conditions imposed on the funding by israel because ari envoy. is in gaza a day after israel approved the donation so the money was sent to fund the civil service and support the gazan people israel had earlier blocked the payment and hamas says it refuses to be blackmailed charles stratford joining us from gaza so

do we know what more how mass means when they say that they're refusing to be blackmailed and what those is really conditions are. well certainly it's important to put this in context this reference to political blackmail as hamas is cooling it comes during election season in israel we're expecting an election in early april in israel and hamas so it's being reported are refusing to accept these conditions because israel is demanding that if this money comes through then there has to be a halt to the protests that we see every friday along the border post there's a lot here at stake certainly for prime minister netanyahu in israel this transferring of this money this being the third installment all of this country money to gaza has caused a political storm in israel netanyahu cannot be seen to be soft on hamas but at the

same time is understood does not want another war before the elections and of course how most desperately need this money for the two million gazans that are been suffering this blockade now for around twelve years this money as you say going towards commerce employees and vitally would be used to buy fuel as well for full gaza we've seen in the recent days certainly announcements from the ministry of health for example that hospitals here are suffering an incredible shortage of fuel but of course we are going into friday tomorrow and the big fear is that these protests that we expect well certainly will happen again that we could well see an escalation because of the refusal from hamas to accept the conditions on all of this of this payment certainly we spoke to hammer us earlier today and they said

that it was important to point out that these protests have been going on since march long before any agreement was put forward or any agreement on receiving discuss or money they say these. anyway until the siege israel siege is lifted from gaza already developed in the ceiling this refusal from have us to accept these conditions certainly or a development for the two million gazans and certainly a concern for israel when we go into friday more protests expected along the border trial stratford's thank you for that update from gaza the new leader of the democratic republic of congo felix just a kennedy was forced to take a break from his inauguration speech saying he was overcome by exhaustion and emotion so state television temporarily interrupted its broadcast of the historic events it's the first peaceful transfer of power since the d r c game in the pendants from belgium in the one nine hundred sixty s. in one thousand sixty in fact he is taking office after

a disputed election he used his address to call for unity. we want to build a strong calling guys in its cultural diversity he will promote its development in peace and security a conduit for each and every one everybody will have his or her own place if this stage of this democracy is the end of the conflict to have to think of the new era the new destiny the beginning of our fight we want all the people to be involved. greece's parliament has postponed a controversial vote on a deal to change the name of macedonia so if approved the country will be renamed north macedonia which would allow the nation to apply for nato and european union membership but many greeks oppose the move fearing it will lead to its neighbor claiming ownership of the mare memory off a greek warrior johnson proper was is joining us from athens so how is the

political debates around this issue shaping up john. well as you say the debate has been postponed the vote has been postponed simply because everybody in parliament all three hundred members of parliament want to speak and that is for many reasons it's an enormous national issue but also don't forget greece is in an election year we're not just talking about the european parliament elections and local elections which are due at the end of may but this is a national election year and i think everyone wants to show their constituents where they stand so the party leaders will speak tomorrow around lunchtime the debate has broken down quite accurately along party lines with the opposition especially the conservative new democracy party accusing the government of simply not listening to the people not inviting opposition parties to the negotiating table so as to create a national front and going off on its own and in

a great rush putting together a compromise solution that crosses all the greek defensive red lines that have existed for many years not recognizing a macedonia an ethnicity not allowing neighboring countries to steal as the greeks see it greek cultural heritage and helen and hellenic history and also not allowing them to monopolize the macedonian identity because macedonia was a larger area when the ottoman empire was still in existence and was carved up between greaseball garia and what it was at that time south serbia so all of these accusations being flung at the government which says look we are resolving the issue that none of you people managed to resolve for three decades and is that perhaps the reason why you're unhappy so these are the partisan lines along which the discussion is down being carried out but despite the polarization the

government is expected to gather the one hundred fifty one. i believe bull votes that it needs in the three hundred seat chamber to get this post tomorrow all right john thank you for that update from athens let's now take a look at some of the other stories making news around the world and the un special rapporteur on executions is set to head an investigation into the killing of a saudi journalist seen according to the reuters news agency agnes calmar will begin the inquiry in turkey next week and expects to present her report in june she was murdered in the saudi consulates in istanbul in october the trial of some of the suspects is underway in saudi arabia after riyadh refused to extradite them to turkey ankara has been calling for an international investigation into how she's death while saudi arabia was also under the spotlight for its detention of women's rights activists human rights watch and the group of british m.p.'s say riyadh has

ignored their request for access to the women we've not formally engaged to i say we presented the panel in the last of the saudi ambassador on the second of january and then a couple of weeks later we then it's a followed up with a less. formally of congratulations to the new foreign minister in saudi arabia and also again in that last. point 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 your rights watch imus international and other reputable organizations including one might say the united states state department charlie angelo has the latest from london. 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 both celebrities of the international women's movement academics who've been campaigning for the right to drive in saudi arabia and the and to meet male guardianship whose cities are no it's just to every day pretenses these are real i couldn't hold the women's movement in saudi arabia and they say that. the allegations are that between may and august they were taken to an official detention center and the allegations have emerged of electric shock of with things of which aborting sexual harassment and psychological torture now the human rights watch representative in that said what was difficult to understand about this is that normally saudi authorities. when they are treating detainees in this way i normally trying to elicit some kind of a session or names of other people that they would then go into arrest this doesn't

seem to be the case with these detainees seems that the sole purpose is to humiliate them so saudi arabia does say it has made its own inquiries into the treatment of these women but as the colonel here said basis they are not independent of senior saudi. a report has documented evidence of saudi arabia constructing its first known ballistic missile factory and according to the washington post several weapons experts have examined satellite images showing the suspected missile site near riyadh's at the moment saudi arabia does not possess any nuclear weapons but crown prince mohammed bin sandman has previously expressed his desire to obtain them to counter what he calls a threat from iran. a prominent former british politician has been charged with two counts of attempted rape and nine of sexual assaults alex semin appeared in court

in edinburgh after being arrested on wednesday the former scottish first minister has also been charged with indecent assault on breach of the peace salman stepped down as leader of scotland's ruling party in august after the allegations were made he denies all the charges and former ukrainian president viktor yanukovych has been found guilty of high treason he was pushed from power in twenty fourteen by mass protests against his rule he fled to russia soon after and hasn't returned well despite his absence a judging kiff sentence and thirteen years in jail saying coverages conduct's open the door to russia's annexation of crimea and conflict in eastern ukraine. if you're watching us on facebook here's another video for you coming up from a. phillips american elder who made headlines following the people's march that was recently held in the u.s. coming up for you on facebook coming up in just a moment the sports news u.s. olympic skier lindsey vonn posted. on instagram.

on what could be the start of her work. in just a moment. he

is here to tell us what people are talking about in sports of a highly hey well we'll start with qatar actually the twenty twenty two world cup in qatar has put the spotlight on workers' rights human rights watch said last week that progress has been made but there is still a long way to go in protecting workers from exploitation and an interview with al-jazeera is lee wellings the organizers head of workers' welfare mom said that

attitudes were changing and their work is already building a legacy outside of qatar. the criticism well from here is you're doing a good job but you can do better or you know you know going fast enough you know these in order for this to be sustainable and or for to be long term and exist beyond twenty twenty two it you know it has to be done in a gradual way you can't rush these things qatar is a small country it's a new country it's been effectively you know what people often forget that we haven't had hundreds of years of trying to really combat this issue of human rights and so on and so if you look at what has been achieved in the past you know ten to fifteen years you can see there's a tremendous commitment not just by our organization but also the leadership of the country as well in a very very important topic the exit permit was abolished as as you're aware. and last year another system is obviously being looked at minimum wage is being studied by the ilo today along with the ministry of labor and the permanent minimum wage will be passed and many many other things you're always going to have resistance changes not easy and there's a cultural change it's happening in qatar today with our contractors with the water

population no doubt we've had an amazing breakthrough in two thousand and eighteen one of the more complex issues in human rights is the issue of recruitment fees there's over twenty five million people worldwide that are effectively been in debt bondage or been amount of money just to find a better home for their families better opportunities and and of course is not the other is no exception we have this issue as well that we are thrilled you know at the end of two thousand and eighteen we were able to effectively convince over why . one hundred twenty of our contractors to reimburse a total of about twenty two or twenty two us million dollars to have up to about thirty one thousand workers and we're seeing the spillover effect we we've actually seen it for the past few years in fact obviously this particular breakthrough has received tremendous attention both within qatar as well as globally. in fact we are we came to london yesterday to actually sit and present to a group of multinationals as well as human rights activists and other stakeholders on how we were able to achieve this breakthrough in recruitment fees is the reality

for work coming in to cats all from a country like nepal or bangladesh in the year twenty nineteen is a very different reality so the coming in five years ago or more than five years ago i do you still feel that there is a lot more to do to make it the life that it needs to be for one of those workers the situation leads not perfect the one thing that we as far as we as a supreme committee in relation to our workers we can only guarantee that there will always be continuous improvement everything we have done to date is really to try to address the issues that we have seen working with colleagues and partners such as b.w.i. an impact on others but the situation is not perfect it's certainly a lot better today than it was yesterday i will continue to improve that's the commitment that we have made we continue to make so for us in terms of our standards in terms of what we've been able to apply we can certainly say yes the situation for our workers is absolutely better today than it was yesterday. all

right let's switch gears to skiing there's been a lot of tears lately for us a lympics skier lindsey vonn. the eighty two time world cup champion said knee injuries kept her from finishing the super g. and corteen a last weekend and could keep her from her goal of winning eighty six titles after the emotional opening ceremony she explained more about why she was crying in an instagram post she says she's had nerve damage that has left her with severe pain and hinting at retirement she said i'm taking things day by day and we will see what happens i know that i might not get the ending to my career that i had hoped for but if there is a chance i'll take it thanks for all of you that so have shown support to me it helps keep me going now she's had an incredible amount of fan support and she's even been liking many of their posts like this one from athletics i called funk bod the founder wrote her a letter saying dear lindsay the sucks as a true fan i wish i had more eloquent words your fans have followed you from your

worst crashes to the top of podiums it's only right we follow you through the better into sincerely a heavy hearted fan here's funk founder who wrote the letter aside to write lindsay a letter after her race in court tina when she struggled on the slopes and everyone after was saying that it was time for tire music are no good and that there was no way she was going to ever secure those five more wins she wanted so bad to break that record and just to hear as a fan i thought of what i would say to a friend in the situation because she does feel like a friend after following her story for so long both through news outlets and her own her own words on instagram and twitter so i wrote her a letter to commiserate to thank her for all she's done. for empowering women showing us you know what it means to have grit and determination body positivity all those good things and i just want to let her know that her fans are still here for her no matter what comes next. well that's it for me here in sport if you want

to tweet me about any of the stories we're talking about you can get to me there at leonhard a.j. but joe will be a bit back more at eight hundred g.m.t. with more all right leah thank you for that and thanks for watching the news here and we'll see you back here tomorrow at the same time see you then bye bye. in september twenty seventh team the people of the kurdish region of northern iraq voted in favor of independence from baghdad. but joy was short lived as the iraqi government reacted forcefully against any idea of separation. al-jazeera world

travels to the kurdish regional capital of the ability to investigate independence and the iraqi kurds on al-jazeera. an army of volunteers has come together to help with the influx of tens of thousands of evacuees. but their retreat to a church shelter has brought new challenges an outbreak of norovirus and other gastrointestinal problems. smoke from the massive wildfires now blankets much of northern california leading to some of the worst air quality in the world but with more than twelve thousand structures lost in the wildfires concerns remain about long term accommodations jobs and medical care. local officials say there isn't enough housing stock available. russian filmmaker andrina christophe expose how putin's russia impacts the very values of the nation. russians are famous for their cultural legacy but can tradition and conservative be the source

of stagnation and authoritarian rule why wasn't the use you waited by the police to the shoes ukraine six homosexuality the significance of your book into the russian elite is that he's like a feature who controls the colebrook in such a putin's russia on al-jazeera. venezuela's military pledges its allegiance to nicolas maduro saying opposition leader one guy joe declaring himself interim president is a coup d'etat. on our intelligence is al jazeera live from london also coming up. but it's his acadia sworn in as president of the democratic republic of congo after basically

disputed elections last. the u.s. senate prepares to vote on competing propose.