venezuela's military commanders line up in support of president nicolas maduro saying efforts to replace him amounts to a coup. i'm fully back to boyer watching al-jazeera live from the headquarters in doha also ahead the afghan taliban appoints one of its founders to join negotiations with the u.s. says talks to end the conflict appear to gain momentum plus we speak to zimbabwe and children who say they have been beaten in custody during a crackdown on protests and from the streets of paris to southern iraq yellow

becomes the color of protest in basra. thank you for joining us venezuela as president has hit back at his opponents at home and abroad with backing from the military and world powers like russia and china but the u.s. and his latin american allies are demanding that nicolas maduro be replaced by opposition leader one who has declared himself interim president the trumpet ministration is also calling a special session of the u.n. security council to discuss the crisis andy gallagher will tell us more about that in just a moment but first. reports from google town venezuela's border with colombia. one of to be other business well and regional military commanders took to the airwaves to declare loyalty to president nicolas maduro saying that the opposition efforts to replace him with the transition. the government where an attempted coup was

a position reiterated by the country's defense minister bloody me by being. alert the people of venezuela that a coup is being carried out against our institutions against our democracy against our constitution against our president nicolas maduro the legitimate president of the bully varian republic of venezuela it was a show of unity and strength for the embattled government of unequal last month. and it came the day after the largest anti-government demonstrations in the country since two thousand and seventeen in after the younger position leave their. proclaimed himself the legitimate interim president. been this well a number of countries including the united states have backed away those claim to legitimacy and on terror is the u.s. secretary michael. was up for the time for debate is. the regime of former president nicolas maduro just illegitimate. his regime is morally

bankrupt. economically incompetent it is profoundly corrupt the president answered ordering all venezuelan diplomats home from the united states in giving us diplomats in venezuela seventy two hours to leave other world powers like russia and china came to my rescue warning the u.s. against external intervention in the country. just attribute it is another flagrant interference into internal affairs of a sovereign state as you know that has been several attempts to oust the duma from power including attempts on his life just as it's here on the border city of the thousands of venezuelans keep crossing into columbia on a daily basis in search of food medicine and basic health services they can't access back home they say they've received the latest news from venezuela with a mix of hope and wariness i look at we needed this to happen to bring about change

and fortunately it will take more injured the country. is not an option. local n.g.o.s say twenty six people have been killed since the latest wave of protests against my doodle began four days ago the president called for dialogue with the opposition but few see any alternatives to more turmoil in coming days alison and. over the decades the united nations has tackled some of the world's biggest humanitarian crises and many say the situation in venezuela is no different to millions of fled into neighboring countries as venezuela's economy continues to crumble colombia alone has taken in over a million refugees placing a strain on its economy speaking at the united nations colombia's foreign minister made it clear his nation is no friend of venezuelan president nicolas maduro we've done record among several the government of nicolas maduro on we give full support

to the national assembly and to the decision of the you know with the competency that they have based of the venezuelan. declaration that he's now going as well as interim president has gained support across the world but for the united nations this remains a sovereign matter and so far it's not taking sides at this critical time what the secretary general emphasized and he emphasized it again in davos is that he urged all actors to lower tensions and pursue every effort to prevent violence and avoid any escalation that remains our priority but as tensions in venezuela grow and its people become more desperate analysts say the united nations should take a stand and i understand you know and they have been important of them becoming a stain impartial but i also you know this is the kind of crisis can either make the u.n. relevant or make it irrelevant and that would be my my i guess my my my my my

argument or just some sort of more proactive role in this crisis venezuela may now have two presidents but it's unlikely the united nations will follow the us canada and the u.k. in backing. the un's priority is to prevent violence and as long as china and russia permit members of the security council continue to back venezuela that position is unlikely to change at a gallacher al-jazeera united nations headquarters. in other world news the afghan taliban has named a co-founder to lead its political office in qatar while abdul ghani baradar is expected to join negotiations with the us which looked to be gaining momentum the talks in doha were originally scheduled to run for forty eight hours but have been going on for four days now other senior leaders have also been put in to keep his ations in the taliban's negotiating team habeeb why doc is the national security analyst and a founding member of transparency afghanistan he says as appointment shows a commitment to the peace process more law brother is

a senior. taliban official who was serving and pakistani prisons for the past so many years he was a close confidant to lead more omer served us a deputy to moamar he is somebody who all was favored negotiations in peace talks and therefore de pakistani government put him in prison years back and here he has this is anti pakistan narrative a does seem time favoring crees and in a strong supporter of the peace process i think this is an excellent move by the taliban this shows their commitment that they are committed to this whole notion of peace one thing is for sure the united states had to talk to the taliban after seventeen years they realized that the local partner

they have in the form of the african government it has to the stick of deterrence not of the option it failed to absorb the general african public indulged in massive corruption lacking good governance and this caused a whole set of problems for the united states president of on the star. the un special rapporteur for obvious hurry killings says she will travel to turkey next week to head an independent international inquiry into the murder of saudi journalist. agnes connemara look at the circumstances of the crime and the responsibility of any state or individual suspected of being involved she oh report her findings to the un human rights council in june this is a visit by a special aperture and they work independently of us and and they can follow their own guidelines in terms of dealing with topics such as in this case the topic of extrajudicial executions you're aware of the position of the secretary general

about the need for a full and transparent investigation and he continues to stand by that. our diplomatic editor james space looks at the significance of the u.n. special wrapper toys investigation. let's put this into context there's been for many months a call from human rights groups for a panel of inquiry or a commission of inquiry set up by one of the main bodies of the un the general assembly the security council all the human rights council that is not what this is this is an initiative of dr agnes kalamata she holds an important un position as the special rapporteur on judicial executions arbitrary killings and summary killings now under the existing remit she can visit anywhere she wants and that's what she's doing she's going to turkey she is independent she is international because she's a u.n. experts so this in those terms is an independent international inquiry it's also

worth noting that any special rapporteur when they go on a trip anywhere around the world at the end of it writes a report to the human rights council she so she will be representing a report but this is not a formal commission of inquiry having said that saudi arabia should be worried about this because she has already said in fact in an interview with me in november that given the senior figures that were involved in the killing she believes on the information that's publicly available that saudi arabia is culpable for the death activists in sedan say at least two more people have been killed during anti-government protests rallies which carried on through the night where some of the most widespread since the unrest began last month the government says twenty nine people have been killed since december but rights groups say the figure is much higher. i'm a senior national says it's obtains new reports of female activists being tortured

in a saudi detention facility last year the rise reveals similar testimonies of sexual abuse by people who had been jailed british politicians and lawyers want to visit them but haven't received a response from the kingdom charlie angelo reports from london. these are some of the saudi activists the british politicians international lawyers a demanding access to they want to investigate allegations that the women being illegally detained and tortured the women some of them academics were campaigning for the right to drive in the relaxing of male guardianship rules they say they've been given electric shocks whipped water boarded and sexually harassed in unofficial detention centers inside the kingdom are two sides to this story and what i want us to be able to do is to be able to fairly report. on both and come to a judgment about. the progress of human rights in saudi arabia the request comes as the saudi government struggles with the international fallout from the killing of

jamal khashoggi the journalist was killed by a saudi hit team in the kingdom's consulate in istanbul in october. britain is saudi second most important partner for arms sales and security but the murder of khashoggi has put the human rights record under scrutiny it seems as though the torture took place merely to humiliate the women merely to teach them a lesson. to perhaps make them afraid to talk and say anything once they once they leave detention saudi arabia denies the allegations of mistreatment but this panel are insisting on visiting the women themselves that is being sent that saudi arabia is not responding to the requests the campaign to say they will publish a report on january twenty ninth detailing the evidence collected by human rights watch and amnesty international if sad refuses to comply charlie rangel al-jazeera london. the weather is next on al-jazeera and soon the head bills pile out for us

government workers going without pay because of the shutdown we need one woman who can't afford to heat her house and the big problem is being pushed aside in britain as its leaders are consumed by proxy to see if it's. how i was still got more of those heavy showers the rumbling away across central parts of the med it's right and they are easing further east which well so pushing across in secrecy into turkey more heavy downpours coming through here snow on the northern flank of that some rather strong winds and some choppy waters too much of the western side of the med now it is the rain just continuing just around the pyrenees in the world of course be some snow over the high ground and serve some moderate coming into london for friday ten celsius that fall under just five

degrees in paris to stay in pretty cold across the eastern side if you want to go gets up to minus twelve over the next couple of days this will gravity lift the temperatures in moscow but still another cold one on saturday and fair bit of snow coming in here at this stage unsettled weather continue to have it all season sort of the met office could see some showers by saturday the west was still getting up to double figures for london proud of the rain parting in that cross the british isles as you move through the weekend in place not say mild across northern parts of africa still some lively winds there in. bits and pieces of rain still on the cards as is the case too into northern areas of libya that right eases its way a little further eastward it's by the end of the weekend. saudi who's never been a real. foreign investment approach or the reserve growth rule early understanding

or others that. they own those shares your company or the people but. you're watching al-jazeera live from doha a reminder of our top stories venezuela's military has reiterated its support for president nicolas maduro saying attempts to remove him amount to a cool opposition leader who has declared himself interim president with u.s.

backing is still pushing the door to resign and says he'll consider amnesty if he goes quietly the afghan taliban has named one of its co-founders as the leader of its political office in qatar abdul ghani baradar is expected to join negotiations with the us which appeared to be gaining momentum. and the un special rapporteur on executions. will travel to turkey next week to head an independent international inquiry into the murder of saudi journalist. shall report her findings to the un human rights council. now the u.s. senate has again failed to end the partial government shutdown the republican and democratic parties try to pass competing bills but neither had enough votes as in donald trump is refusing to fund the government departments until he gets billions of dollars for his mexico border war mike hanna has more from washington well as expected neither the bill in the senate to receive the necessary sixty votes

however it was significant that the bull drawn up by the democratic party was supported by six republican senators who crossed the floor there's a sign perhaps of a splintering within the republican party however there is discussion continuing the senate leaders meeting for a number of hours to try and find some form of compromise however president trump remains adamant that he will not accept any funding legislation that does not include money for his wall and said he would be extremely unhappy if the government reopened without such funds being provided why when we hear of it i wouldn't be happy but we have a lot of alternatives artist that we have everybody look for the most part people agree with i say everybody i would say almost everybody agree we have to have border security we have to have a wall in order to have border security you cannot have border security with all but we can play games and we can talk about technology we can talk about drones

flying very difficult to see what happens next the senate leader mitch mcconnell says discussions are ongoing there is as well increasing speculation again about the possibility of president trump to clearing a national state of emergency however the senate has finished proceedings it will reconvene again friday but no end in sight to this ongoing partial shutdown. well about eight hundred thousand government workers are about to miss a second monthly paycheck because of the shutdown and many say they're drowning in bills gave elizondo spoke to one such woman in kansas city for defeating hansen the bills just keep piling up that's because she was sent home without pay a month ago for her customer service job at the u.s. tax agency field office in kansas city the longer the shutdown lasts the more pressure she feels like below is two hundred thousand dollars

a month. so it's to pay half the light b.-o. and half my heating b.-o. because it's cold. to buy food or to buy a partial medicine chiquita goldsby has worked for the taxi chintzy for twenty five years and without pay since december even before the shutdown bunny was tight now even paying for the basics is a challenge is hard because it is i'm just like everybody else you know paycheck to paycheck and i have to figure out where my gas water's going to come from figure out where my next meal's and rent rates do every month but it's worse chiquita has severe asthma and can't afford the sixty dollars for her prescription it says i have forty six.

inhalations that will only last till the end of the month i ask her what will happen when it's gone then i'm out i'm out. just here in kansas city there are seven different federal government agencies that have offices here including the department of commerce the internal revenue service and the environmental protection agency just to name a few and just here in this city there are nine thousand federal government employees that are currently not receiving a paycheck for what you say about the parlow employees as the two women try to map out a strategy to financially survive the shutdown the challenges mount as defeated thinks about the deadlock over the funding for donald trump's border wall she's increasingly fed up they're supposed to hear our voices into things like nobody's listening and some a message to washington. and i've said this before we are not we should not be used

as your collateral damage in a political game in washington with workers in america losing out gabriels on to al-jazeera kansas city ever since britain voted to leave the e.u. in twenty sixteen breck's it has consumed the workings of its government campaigners say this has taken the focus off other important issues like poverty and homelessness which they worry will only get worse if a withdrawal agreement isn't reached lawrence leave it for some north hampton. no more than one hundred kilometers north of the bright lights of london and you're in a different country. many of the homeless people looked after this center in northampton or the working poor or cannot manage a meager government benefits the center itself is threatened with closure they dearly wish politicians and the media would pay more attention to them than they do obsessing about all the bickering over bricks. here they may have two jobs and

still be on the street because work does not pay if you're a low skilled to clear term i know from to my rents are really quite home due to our proximity to london. and so we're seeing increasingly a change in the in the characteristics of homeless people in that more and more and not the traditional image of a kind of tramp who is on who's on drugs and not like a ring around the corner more volunteers give up their time in the food bank or else it's quicker than finding out a generous public means there is no shortage but plainly many who come here because even afford the most basic items the counter that gave england its first poet laureate has even had to consider closing every public library to save money as it stands yet more volunteers keep many of them running this local author who wrote the graphic novel v for vendetta is apoplectic at the political class who seem so

absorbed with the intricacies of brecht's it's so remote from the decaying country they are elected to help wall everybody is focusing upon this absolute fos that is happening in westminster which will possibly devours all nobody is paying attention to the ongoing collapse of services in this country. nobody. in fact it might you think. is serving any form to it as a matter of. the market square tells of a long forgotten polis where northampton was a proud thriving market town has got to tell the difference although behind the first good british service they said look there's noses up. all the traders here told us things have never been loss there's barely a customer in sight northamptonshire county council which is in charge of public services here is effectively bankrupt as it is the projection of

a no deal bricks it is that they could shrink the british economy by getting on for ten percent more than after the banking crisis of two thousand and eight that could wipe billions of dollars off or central government is able to give to local authorities the fear is that places like this that are close to rock bottom already could find they have far further to fall. on the main shopping streets the homeless live in tents outside an abandoned one psychotic british department store no doubt the status quo has failed northampton that in frustration fifty eight percent of people voted leaving the bricks at referendum but it is genuinely hard to see how grand talk among politicians in london of brecht's is allowing britain to trade with the rest of the world will do anything to help people in this abandoned england lawrence lee al jazeera northampton greek police have fired tear gas to

disperse crowds gathered outside parliament to protest against the deal over the name of neighboring macedonia some chanted traitors as politicians inside the building debated the thorny issue for a third day they're arguing over whether to ratify the un brokered agreement under which macedonia will change its name to north macedonia this is to differentiate it from a greek province called macedonia critics say the deal was signed away greek cultural heritage. now the iraqi city of basra has faced months of protests against corruption and poor services demonstrators now say they want to get more organized and unite with other groups and their embracing a movement that began in france rob matheson as a story. yellow is no the color of protest in the southern iraqi city of basra angry crowds mainly of young people have adopted the brightly colored vests first seen in demonstrations on the streets of paris a few months ago for her if the allies are universe movement symbolizes the rise

against corruption by the people of basra and iraq we'll wearing these yellow vests to deliver a message to politicians that even simple oppressed protesters can make a change about seventy percent of iraq's oil sits beneath the land around basra. yet people who live here say little of the money comes to them. the city's electricity supply barely works the top water is on drink at all because it's full of salt. and there's high unemployment care for adults class telford all enough is enough the iraqi people have been suffering we need to wake up these politicians are making a joke out of us they can't even resolve their differences in parliament how can we manage a country street protests began in the summer of twenty eight when barely functioning air conditioners couldn't stave off the burning heat the protesters in basra blamed the problems in their city mainly on corruption in corporations but also in parts

of the government which is based here in baghdad iraqi prime minister the marquis went to visit basra just recently to see the problems for themselves in october his predecessor i got a love body did the same thing but despite these high profile visits the people of basra say nothing has changed these latest protests a different this time they're organized by yellow vest say they want to join forces with other protest groups and put even more pressure on the government and today i have the element and i must rise always going to be a part and the situation will go out of control of things aren't solved. the color of protest in basra may have changed but the problems are still the same rob matheson al jazeera baghdad. children ends in badly have described to al jazeera how they were beaten after being arrested during protests the army denies

abusing detainees and says anyone guilty of such behavior isn't a real soldier. reports from 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. and the eighteen police also accused of looting. this sixteen year old says he told them a new came to his house he's innocent but they beat him anyway i was able ads is saved. it was sore when they beat me and i'm still in pain and all find it hard to create one and sometimes it's. their 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 baton stieg still using chains 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 to 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 adults it is its own. implications and maybe in that so some children will 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. there were some kids were being used as a human shields by the people that we are talking the police station they were put

in kids in front and the suspicion that they had been given kind of biscuits some of them because the appear to be high on something. that regardless the law in zimbabwe is such that when they do in 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. well again i'm fully back to bo with the headlines on al-jazeera venezuela's self-proclaimed leader who says he would consider granting amnesty to president nicolas maduro if he helps to restore democracy the u.s. and its latin american allies are demanding nicolas maduro be replaced by wide or adore has accused the u.s. of trying to stage a coup and is backed by the military and while powers like russia and china the

afghan taliban has named one of its co-founders as the leader of its political office in qatar absent ghani baradar is expected to join negotiations with the us which appear to be gaining momentum. is a national security analyst he thinks about as appointment shows a commitment to the afghan peace process. a lot but are there is a senior. taliban official who was serving and pakistani prisons for the past so many years he is somebody who all was favored negotiations in peace talks he is anti pakistan not active in a decision time favoring preez in a strong supporter of the peace process i think this is an excellent move by the taliban this shows their commitment that they are committed to this war lucian of peace. the un special rapporteur on executions agnes connemara well child to turkey

next week to head an independent international inquiry into the murder of saudi journalist. showy porter findings to the un human rights council in june activists in sudan say at least two more people have been killed during anti-government protesters as ronnie's which carried on through the night where the most widespread since the unrest began last month the government says twenty nine people have been killed since december but why schools believe the figure is much higher the u.s. senate has again failed to end the partial government shutdown now in its thirty fifth day the republicans and democratic parties try to pass competing bills but never had enough votes those are the headlines on al-jazeera the news continues right after inside story stay with us.

it has. the a. but as late as political and economic crisis turns into a power struggle to u.s. and regional countries put the support behind

a man who declares himself lida but where does this leave president because this is inside story. welcome to the program. venezuela's political crisis has escalated dramatically over the last few days the head of the opposition controlled national assembly one declared himself the interim president of the biggest protests against nicolas maduro in two years the us canada and much of america quickly through the support behind him.