well. venezuela's minute train pledges its allegiance to nicolas maduro with the defense minister accusing opposition leader one of launching a coup. hello i'm maryam namazie and london with al-jazeera also coming up on the program. the next issue katie is sworn in as president of the democratic republic of congo off to basically disputed elections. we speak to children arrested and beaten along with hundreds of zimbabweans after the recent fuel price protests and as the u.s.

senate prepares to vote on rival proposals to end the shutdown the commerce secretary tells on paid workers to get a loan. welcome to the program and as well as military has pledged its allegiance to president nicolas maduro this a day after the country's opposition leader declared himself the interim president and won the support of us president donald trump. heads the national assembly for himself and as leader on wednesday following another day of national protests but madeira insists he remains the only true president and venezuela's defense minister says the opposition is carrying out a coup. all the people of venezuela what happened on wednesday was very dangerous to the integrity of the nation to our peace to our society to venezuelans that is

a coup d'etat is taking place against institutions against democracy against our constitution and against our leader nicolas maduro the legitimate president of venezuela reported on in just three weeks that is while an opposition leader who has risen from obscurity to become the self declared interim president a country is in the middle of a deepening political and economic crisis that's created a regional divines hommage i'm jus reports now on the political newcomer is staging a major challenge him the duo's rule. as soon as he was sworn in to lead venezuela's opposition controlled congress earlier this month one of why dole made his intentions clear promising to take up the battle against president nicolas maduro who is increasingly viewed both inside and outside the country as a dictator. we propose to reaffirm the illegitimacy of nicolas maduro for not holding elections on may twentieth starting january tenth he would

be usurping the presidency from the republic as a result this national assembly is the only legitimate power elected by the venezuelan people should assume the representation of the people. if you've been as wayland had even heard of an industrial engineer and former student leader before he was named president of the largely powerless national assembly. as a member of congress white house served as the head of a commission that investigates government corruption and earned a reputation as a consensus builder in government has already detained and put on trial dozens of political opponents and accused them of plotting against him in mid january why do it was briefly detained after being released he told supporters at a rally he would not be deterred. by wednesday as large anti-government protests were taking place in venezuela's capital caracas why go to clear himself the country's interim president was wide always quick to receive support from u.s.

president donald trump canada and numerous latin american countries but with a defiant majority saying he's still the legitimate president and the economic crisis only deepening it's not clear why those next move will be a homage and doom. all asunder m.p.'s he joins us now from on colombia's border where that is layla and so here we have the military refusing to break ranks with nicolas maduro what does this possibly mean for the position of one. well marian we've seen each and every regional commander of both the military but navy and the air force going on television throughout the morning reading statements of support and loyalty to president nicolas maduro it was a show of unity among the. reeds jeem and their supporters then

while this is not surprising we know that some opposition leaders were hoping that the momentum that came from whence the massive protests being practising in other cities in venezuela would have pushed some key military members to break ranks with the government that hasn't happened and of course this is a step back for one. and the growing international coalition that pushing for it he didn't do it all and hoping that he will step down and bring about a change in venezuela by calling were saying in the piece it sounds clear what the next step will be for why door there's no doubt that many minutes with the hope that this means that there is a possibility for change we spoke to many venezuelans here who again are crossing inside the colombia today looking for food medicine and access to basic health

services that they can access in their homeland and they received the news with a mix of hope and wariness. you were mentioning protests in caracas and elsewhere tell us more about the implications of these competing claims to power now could it mean more instability in a country where the situation was already said franchise. well a lot of observers feared that what happened on wednesday means back to their and off between the government and the opposition will become or could become more violent in the coming days if the opposition calls for more matthew they haven't done so today on tears they were still waiting to see what will happen in coming days but there have been clashes for my last night in

cracker grandmothers between regular daily swell and then security forces there have been reports or so looting and at least one monitoring organization in various where there have been at least twenty people that have been shot dead during the nyclu protests the we're going to have to see what happened again tonight all right well thank you very much. joining us there in could time and we want to take you live to crack has now this is the scene in the venezuelan capital at the moment you can see. seems of applause there and a sense of ceremony as president nicolas maduro addresses the opening session of venezuela supremes clearly he will want to be seen to be asserting his authority and his the just missy is the rightful leader of the country and he will certainly

a felt his position somewhat strengthened by the military and of course and that decision is key in a situation like this they are refusing to turn against him and that perhaps raises questions about the sustainability of opposition opposition to one why does claim to power despite international statements of support for him so this is the scene now speaking. it's for this in the morning and midday in a very positive way. when i you know that's you know what i i had a phone call just as i was leaving from the president of russia vladimir putin of medicine. with whom i spoke. for about twenty minutes. to see. president putin always expressing his solidarity with venezuela. he conveyed the full support of russia and its government for these legitimate and

constitutional government that i preside over his full support for peace integrity and sovereignty of venezuela. he told me president mahmud zero point two you can count on the unwavering support of russia and now more than ever we are going to work on all of the bilateral cooperation projects for the development of venezuela we were talking for a while. but he asked me about my interpretations of these events russia has already made a pronouncement it issued a lengthy clear direct communique denouncing the interventionism of the powers in an effort to try to destroy venezuela. but. i told president putin. a major provocation is underway in venezuela directed personally and directly by

the us empire and. i believe that in the world there is no doubt but that it is donald trump himself who wishes to impose a de facto unconstitutional government a coup d'etat in venezuela against the people and against democracy there can be no doubt but that donald trump with his. insanity of thinking that he is the policeman of the world. believing that he. is the one in charge of latin america and the caribbean it is a major provocation. but i told. them you know i tell you president putin i told him by phone just. as i told the people yesterday nerves of steel. tranquillity maximum consciousness everyone to work everything will work and the country continues to go forward the government continues to govern. the government protecting the people. the

civic military union defending peace. and nothing more. i also told him what i told the people. of the constitutional issues and their interpretation or offenses that are carried out crimes carried out against the law and against the constitution matter for the head of state of course to alert him to act but. this. is a question of extravagantly. couple of assuming and. proclaiming oneself a national authority in reclaiming oneself the head of state in a political activity in the street forgot to even in a more degrading manner then the carmona so because that was carried out as

a coup they carried out a coup they overthrew president chavez they kidnapped him they invented a letter of resignation from company commander chavez and they set up the whole paraphernalia and then you know floated as a palace carmona proclaimed himself president that didn't happen here someone who was wavering a legislator. but very frightened so as to not say something else very frightening thought. for assumed in the most informal and vulgar man. that he from that moment on is president of a country. where has that been seen. is that constitutional. so we've been listening to a president nicolas maduro addressing the opening session of the country supreme

courts in the capital caracas very keen to make a show of strength and to really assert his authority on dramatic developments over the past twenty four hours with opposition leader one to put claiming himself the interim president it's significant that the military has weighed in a very soon after quite a made his move the military indicated that they are refusing to break ranks with the duo so it seems as though for the moment has the offer hand in this situation and its impact importantly he did mention that he had had a a twenty minute phone conversation with the idea of pollution who expressed his solidarity with venezuela and his support for the duro and speaking of the international community's reaction to all of this there are divisions over who to support with russia as we were just mentioning china mexico cuba supporting the duro and a host of south american countries backing why does it of american states has been

discussing the situation addressing the meeting in washington u.s. secretary of state might denounce nicolas maduro and call on the venezuelan security forces to support as the new president the time for debate is done the regime of former president nicolas maduro is illegitimate his regime is morally bankrupt second obviously incompetent that it is profoundly corrupt it is democratic to the core i repeat the regime of former president nicolas maduro is illegitimate we therefore consider all of its declarations an accurate and actions illegitimate and invalid. it will either of these facts we call on venezuela security forces to ensure the protection of interim president coitus physical integrity and his safety we've seen reports that a number of protestors were killed yesterday and that more than one hundred were

arrested so i reiterate our warning about any decision by remnant elements of the mature regime to use violence to repress press the peaceful democratic transition or died as a brit joins us live now from washington where that oas meeting was held a muslim watching developments very closely when the military said that it essentially did not back and they were sticking with the existing power structure and continuing to back nicolas maduro what might then next move be now. well this meeting today was actually scheduled a couple of days ago and was an opportunity for these thirty five member nations to sort of blend their voices to what is going on right now in venezuela nineteen of those countries said that they backed quiet oh and then the rest were sort of either backing or sort of on the fence you had countries like the united states and canada brazil argentina all saying that they backed argentina saying that he's

restoring democracy to venezuela on the flip side you had countries like venezuela saying that what why don't did amounted to a coup d'etat same response from nicaragua el salvador is calling for nicolas maduro to stay in power then you had smaller nations like granite dean and st vincent throwing out a warning flag saying be very careful about other countries weighing in on something like this because it sets a very dangerous precedent and you had mexico calling for more dialogue which sort of flew in the face of what pompei i was saying earlier that all the debate is over that these member states need to get behind one. and that how entrenched is that position is there any talk that of kick starting some sort of process of dialogue to bring competing forces in the country to the table to have some sort of

negotiation to resolve this peacefully. not at this point but what we're seeing here today really was just an opportunity for all of these countries to voice an opinion about what is going on there not not intervening in any sort of way we did hear secretary of state my comp am saying that the u.s. would be lending support to venezuela in the form of about twenty million dollars in humanitarian aid for food medication and possibly going in and rebuilding the country but we didn't hear anything like that from any of the other countries not yet well thank you very much john as to book reporting on that meeting the organization of american states in washington. i. think next to she katie has been sworn in as the democratic republic of

congo's new leader. i think. believes i takes office after a disputed election in december his victory was marred by accusations that he struck a backroom deal with the outgoing president to deny victory to another opposition candidate modify unit the constitutional court confirmed these when on saturday and his inauguration speech during which he was briefing taken ill educated called for peace and security questions and. we want to build a strong congo in its cultural diversity we will promote its development in peace and security a congo for each and every one where everybody will have his or her own place if this stage of this democracy is the end of the conflict we also have to think of the new era the new destiny the beginning of our fight we want all the people to be involved. at least two more protesters have been killed in sudan the deaths were

announced just hours after security forces fired tear gas at student protesters in the capital hard to him the university students want president amal bashir to step down protests have broken out in several sudanese cities following a call by trade unions for a mass rally they have been daily demonstrations against bashir is this year rule since last month the government says twenty nine people have been killed in the on west but rights groups say the death toll is actually much higher well despite its own political problems sudan is hosting rival leaders from the central african republic the peace talks conference and hard to miss being attended by government representatives and fourteen armed groups and the morgan is live for us now in the sudanese capital so quite an odd situation there where you have sudan in the midst of some of the worst protests the country has seen for years at the same time hosting these c.a.r. peace talks what is the mood what's the atmosphere like at the moment. well we spoke to the minister from affairs and he said that the current situation

in sudan with the we were at a government protests will not impact the peace talks it's expected to go on for fourteen days two weeks and it's bringing together at least at least one hundred people including civil society leaders u.n. representatives ear president representatives and of course members of the armed groups now we spoke to some of the armed group leaders and they said that they are very optimistic this time around that they really want to see peace materialize in central african republic but they also said that because they're basically being very cautiously optimistic and that if talks to not lead to a concrete peace deal signed then they will go back to fighting once again with the government. all right thank you very much the latest on those talks about morgan in khartoum or to zimbabwe now the army there is saying soldiers accused of beating this during recent protests are impostors security forces have been cracking down on violent demonstrations that began last week after the price of fuel more than doubled hundreds have been arrested some of them children are metastasize more now

from the capital harare. these children say they spent two nights in a police cell they are out on bail and have been charged with public violence for participating in last week's protests they are all under eighteen police also accused him of looting. this sixteen year old says he told the men who came to his house he's innocent but they beat him anyway. it was sore when they beat me and i'm still in pain and all find it hard to use in one ear and sometimes it's two bleeds. the lawyer says excessive force should not be used on minus we don't really know whether they really are all soldiers or police officers but the children were assaulted there using buttons digs change and i think you saw that one of them is a go she was alleging that one of the male soldiers actually had to a solitaire by talks and i actually think that was improper conduct on the child when the price of fuel more than doubled overnight in zimbabwe last week people

demonstrated activists say a dozen died and scores were injured more than a thousand people have been arrested lawyers say some of those detained with children. if then detained these children should be separated from adults so that at least those with children but this is really as a lawyer as a way. into the police cells the children together with it is its own. implications and maybe in that so some children would be mixed with head cool criminals zimbabwe's army says soldiers accused of beating people are in pastas who are tarnishing the military's image the government says it will investigate cases of child abuse. that there were some kids were being used as human shields by the people that we are talking the police station to put in kids in front and the

suspicion that they had been given kind of biscuits some of them because the us appeared to be high on something that regardless the law in zimbabwe is such that when they during those arrested they are released into the custody of their parents . these three insist they had nothing to do with last week's protests it's now up to a court to decide how to al-jazeera. the un executions investigator says she will travel to turkey next week to discuss an independent international inquiry into the murder of jamal khashoggi agnes will evaluate steps taken by governments to respond to the murder last october at the saudi consulate in istanbul and will look at the nature and the extent of state and individuals responsibilities for the killing her findings and recommendations will be reported to the u.n. human rights council in june now in the next half hour the u.s. senate is due to vote on two bills aimed at ending the partial government shutdown the longest in the country's history president donald trump triggered the shutdown

by demanding more than five billion dollars to pay for a border war with mexico on wednesday he was forced to postpone his annual state of the union address house speaker nancy pelosi barred him from delivering the speech in the chamber while parts of the government remain shut down at a call he joins us live now from washington and so patty what can we expect to happen in the coming hours. well there are two bills of the senate's going to take up and what's notable here is the set it's really been trying to stay out of it they already passed a bill that would fund the government it was unanimous and then the president the president after some critics some conservatives said he didn't build the wall well that he said i'm not going to sign that so the senate has stayed out of it but now they're weighing back and there's two bills there's the one the president wants which would give him the more than five billion dollars for a border wall and reopen the government the democrats are not going to vote for that and quite simply the republicans need a lot of democrats jump on board of it's going to pass it has to get to sixty votes the other one is i think the more questionable one which basically opens up the

government for a few more weeks while border security can be debated so what we're seeing is the president keeps tweeting out about republicans being united but we have had some republican senators indicate that they will vote for that bill all of this is much more complicated now that we've heard from wilbur ross the commerce secretary he was interviewed and he was asked about how many federal workers and contractors are really hurting because of this action and well here's his response. the credit union should be making credit village to them when you think about it these are basically government gurn to glooms because the government has committed these folks will go to their bare bones this whole thing gets a little detail so the really is not a good excuse why the really should be liquidity crisis through the people might have to have interest but the idea of the it's or zero is

not a really valid. and of course that those comments from to power levels between wilbur ross and marie antoinette and and that famous comment and democrats pouncing on this to say that it shows trouble ministration officials are out of touch classy has that baena much of a backlash against a trump ministration. as the polls first before we go into that let me just explain a little bit something that wilbur ross perhaps doesn't understand many federal workers live paycheck to paycheck the for example the people who check you at the airport there are some of the lowest federal were paid federal workers they don't have the savings so they're about to go with their second paycheck missed that means they're not paying their mortgage are not paying rent and they are going to food banks in record numbers to actually feed their families and when you talk to a family that doesn't actually have any extra money say well they'll pay

a little bit of interest. misses the point that they can't afford to pay a little bit of interest and then it can start to stack up that said this is hurting the president his poll numbers are plummeting the vast majority of americans say a couple of things they don't want the wall they don't want to pay for the wall they don't think the wall is necessary and they think the shutdown is a bad idea and they blame the president so by some accounts his poll numbers have dropped by more than ten points and this is a president who cares about poll numbers now will it all be enough for him to basically blink well we'll see thank you very much patty calling in washington and one of the stories we're following hundreds of police officers have been stationed across athens ahead of demonstrations there opposing on historic agreement and it normalizing relations between greece and macedonia. sale neighbors to sit in to change its name to north macedonia that's been pushed back to friday earlier communist party ban it was draped across the acropolis opposing

the move. rondo is named its new chairman and c.e.o. following the resignation of kahless go and has been detained in japan since his arrest on suspicion of financial misconduct in november which he denies john dominic so now does the new chairman while terry butler takes over as c.e.o. rana had been under pressure from the french government to remove in order to preserve its alliance with nessun gun was removed from the sounds board almost immediately after his detention and the chief executive of abacus has warned that it could move its operations out of the country if there is a no deal departure from the e.u. to mend it says brecht it is threatening to destroy a century of development in the u.k. which has been a global leader in aviation don't listen to the brakes it is made with which is thirds of it because we have huge plans for your reload movement would always be they were wrong of course it is not possible to pick up and move over large u.k.

factories two of the ports of the root immediately. because the long term business that we could be forced to redirect future investments in the event of a no deal breaks it and make no mistakes there are plenty of countries over who would love to build the wings for grooved u.n. chief intended to terrorise has won the world is losing the race against climate change in a speech to delegates to the world economic forum in davos he also stated the political will to enact change was slowing as a climate science camp above the slopes that dabbles however john hall spoke to businesspeople and activists and found that the world's decision makers might finally be listening to these warnings. hi on the world economic forum agenda this year is climate change recognized by many decision makers here is both a threat to the planet and in the business of mitigating its effects an opportunity

so high above davos climate scientists have made camp to explain how fast melting arctic ice affects weather patterns and rising sea levels so we think about these extreme weather events that we're starting to see more happening more frequent and more persistent around the globe a lot of this is tied to what's happening in the arctic today sixteen year old greater thermal burke has joined them the young swedish activist spent a day a week throughout two thousand and eighteen protesting for government action against climate change we are facing the biggest crisis human face and what we do now what we do or don't do right now we reflect my entire life and the lives of my children and grandchildren the point about an event like this isn't just to show off a bunch of scientists and activists braving subzero temperatures they do that sort of thing all the time it's a way of bringing home to the davos elite the reality and urgency of climate change among them of course the sort of people who can make real change happen leading

climate change negotiator christiana figueres was a key figure in bringing about the recent paris agreement she believes big business is finally listening i were beginning to understand that climate change is the biggest threat that humanity faces. at the same time wrestling with climate change harmonizing investing into public infrastructure putting in. actually. and if they are listening it's despite the trumpet ministration pulling out of the paris accord. speired i think it gave an opportunity for businesses to go faster i think cities are also going faster we have to act and business can act much faster than government reason perhaps for optimism that out of crisis comes opportunity and opportunity there is hope join all al-jazeera at davos switzerland. and a quick reminder of our top story this hour venezuela's military has pledged allegiance

to president nicolas maduro. a day off to the country's opposition leader one by joe declared himself the interim president and i am lead us for himself and on wednesday after another day of national protest but venezuela's defense minister says the opposition is carrying out a coup. well oil ministry and. all the people of venezuela what happened on wednesday was very dangerous to the integrity of the nation to our peace to our society to venezuelans that is a coup d'etat is taking place against institutions against democracy against our constitution and against our leader nicolas maduro the legitimate president of venezuela coming up next on al-jazeera it's the strain.

hi i'm finding out and i'm willing to update on the war in syria to show that you acting in a team voted for so join us with your syria related comments and questions live on you tube or on twitter stream. the marker for the boy on the beach and you are. a big thanks to everyone who voted in last.