al jazeera world travels to the kurdish regional. to investigate independent of the iraqi kurds on al jazeera. venezuela's military commanders lined up in support of president nicolas maduro saying efforts to replace him amounts to a cool. clovis is al-jazeera life my headquarters in doha i'm fully back to bore also ahead the afghan taliban appoints one of its founders to join negotiations with the us plus we speak to zimbabwe and children who say they have been beaten in custody during the recent crackdown on demonstrations and from the streets of paris to southern

iraq yellow becomes the color of protest in basra. venezuela's 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 its latin american allies are demanding that nicolas maduro be replaced by opposition leader one declared himself interim president a trump administration is also calling a special session of the u.n. security council to discuss the crisis and you've got to go tell us more about that in just a moment but first. reports from kolkata on venezuela's border with colombia. one of to be other venezuelan regional military commanders took to the airwaves to declare loyalty to president nicolas maduro saying that your position efforts to replace him with the transitional government were an attempted coup. 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 nicole 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 leader why don't proclaim themselves illegitimate interim president outside business well a number of countries including the united states have backed claim to legitimacy and on terror as the u.s. state secretary michael. was up for the time for debate is. the regime of former president nicolas maduro just illegitimate his regime is morally bankrupt. it's economically incompetent but 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 to show that it is another flagrant interference into internal affairs of a sovereign state as you know that has been several attempts to oust the dual from power including attempts on his life just as it was here in 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 receive 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 unfortunately it will take more injured country. is not an option.

local n.g.o.s say twenty six people have been killed since the latest wave of protest 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 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 several the government of me will last my. 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 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 on the stand you know and they have been important of them becoming a stain impartial but they 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 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 u.s. canada and the u.k. in. the un's priority is to prevent violence and as long as china and russia permanent members of the security council continue to but venezuela that position is unlikely to change to gallacher al-jazeera the united nations headquarters in other world news the afghan taliban has named a co-founder to lead its political office in qatar when abdul ghani baradar is expected to join negotiations with the us which looked to be gaining momentum the talks in doha where originally scheduled to run for forty eight hours but have been going on for four days now other senior leaders have also been put into the taliban's negotiating team david said me was the deputy assistant secretary of defense for afghanistan and pakistan under u.s. president barack obama he says there is reason for hope in the afghan peace process . the appointment of mullah baradar is a startling change. ten years ago in two thousand and nine more liberated or he led

a dissident faction of the taleban that wanted peace talks with the government of then president hamid karzai the government of pakistan was opposed to those talks they arrested her held him in prison until last fall during which time he was allegedly treated very toughly and perhaps even tortured last fall at the request of the u.s. the pakistanis released more liberated are many people thought he would fade into the distance but instead he's taken advantage of a fractured taliban leadership and the desire of many taliban for peace to reassert his authority so this is a major major change for the taliban and one that bodes very well for peace or has been on the side of peace for over a decade and this is a sign that there is great hope that he things could go wrong but there has been no such hope for peace in afghanistan for the last twenty years almost. i think one of the biggest things is the desire for peace on the part of all afghan people

including polygon fighters and their families last year in june there was a three day cease fire that was greeted really with ecstasy across the border in afghanistan taliban fighters went into the cities sat down had tea put flowers in their guns families who had not been reunited for over a decade were able to get together the afghans saw what pieces like then the taliban went back on the offensive and started killing a lot of civilians a people's peace movement group in afghanistan chastising the taliban for their extensive killing of civilians many taliban fighters became disenchanted with the number of civilians they were killing so that was in afghanistan. amnesty international says it's obtained new reports of female activists being tortured while being detained in saudi arabia the rights group says it has testimonies showing ten women have been hurt and sexually abused in an informal holding center and two of the activists were forced to kiss each other while interrogators looked

on others spoke of being tortured with electric shocks. similar reports last november those claims were dismissed by saudi arabia as faceless the group says it's written to saudi authorities request an access to the detainees but has had no response let's speak to lead. international's middle east research director she is via skype from beirut thank you so much for being with us again so amnesty but also human rights watch expressing concern about the well being of human rights activists in saudi arabia what more can you tell us first about their condition has it worsened since we first heard about them at the end of twenty. so what we know so far is that they are still being held in detention on an arbitrary basis there are no charges against them they have no access to legal representation it's been almost nine months now that they've been detained. some of them have been moved from one prison to the other and now the reports that we have that we did obtain

with regards to the beatings and the ill treatment and the torture that they've been subjected to have to do with the first three months of their detention when they were detained in and location that was undisclosed and they had no contact with their families so we do we remain very concerned today about their wellbeing and that is one of the main reasons why we're saying that unless you international and human rights watch today are saying we do need access for independence monitors to be examining the situation of these detainees where are these abuses been happening i mean are they happening in prison as it was reported at the end of twenty thousand or is is it also happening at other detention facilities in saudi arabia. or we don't have confirmed reports what we do know is that these the torture that they were subjected to were in an undisclosed location in the beginning of their detention the first three months of the detention. but you know

the lack of information the lack of ability to verify these reports just hi and like it's the urgent need for access to independent monitors but saudi authorities as you know lynn said to have opened two investigations into these torture allegations by women rights advocates through these investigations knew of you have a chance of getting to the truth. well what we've heard from the media basically the saudi human rights commission visited these women and then the public prosecutor's office visited the women but knowing the structure of the judiciary in saudi arabia we have no reason to believe that these can be independent investigations in any way i mean we know that the human rights commission it's a state aligned human rights organization at a time when all of the other independent human rights organizations were disbanded and their co-founders are in jail today so this is

a state aligned human rights commission that visited the women and then the public prosecutor's office reports directly to the royal court so there can be no independent investigation into the well being of these detainees the detention review panel which brings together a group of british m.p.'s an international lawyers rights groups like amnesty have as you said been requesting to visit these detainees inside jury guess so far they hasn't been a response to this request how else are you hoping to engage with the saudi government what's going to be your next move we're going to keep calling for that this is the only we want to keep the pressure on the so your thor it seems to allow for the success if the so do authorities today are genuine in their in their narrative of being reformist and wanting to do to reform the society then this should be the beginning of the conversation access to independent monitors into the

country is the beginning of the conversation and this should be the starting point into the situation thank you very much for speaking to us. thank you thank you thank you lynn lynn malouf of amnesty international joining us there from beirut thank you for your time. the weather is next on al-jazeera and still ahead bills piling up for u.s. government workers going without pay because of the shutdown we meet one woman who cannot afford to heat her house and that large social issues being pushed aside in britain while the state is consumed by bricks that. expected the biggest showers recently probably the next two days are going to be over in daisy this is clearly white streaky crowd and that's affected job a sudden borneo sudden sumatra the scenes of fairly big shows two three days ago in

the philippines this massacre that is heading south through borneo don't think it'll come to much to be iraq should be focusing further south maybe singapore but more especially down in jakarta otherwise showers are pretty well scattered the weather is changing you know australia the extreme heat in adelaide in melbourne has just about been pushed out of the way it's still there in camera still there inland in new south wales this is the active feature front if you like it's a change of wind direction so the higher temperature on saturday in in adelaide twenty six twenty eight in melbourne i say only but look at camber of forty there's active weather in the north of the monsoon is trying to show itself so heavy rains in the tropical queensland and further west of the cyclon just off the coast there eighty mile beach person is on its way up thirty four dry this is on sunday it still clabber potential big thunderstorms rolling down through new south wales as the heat is edged ever further north camber is down to thirty five and melbourne

down to a far more reasonable twenty five. in afghanistan billions of dollars of international aid have been donated to girls' education but where is the money gone when east meets girls desperate to learn and asks why is the system failing them on al-jazeera i mean this was different whether someone is going for someone who's very rich but this meddling in the street i think it's how you approach an official enough that it is a certain way of doing it on just. a story in my out.

again our top stories on al-jazeera this hour venezuela's military has reiterated his support for president nicolas maduro saying attempts to remove him amount to a coup opposition leader one consider ominous see if the door goes quietly the afghan taliban has named one of its co-founders as the leader of its political office in qatar baradar is expected to join negotiations with the u.s. which appear to be gaining momentum and moving on to other world news the un special rapporteur for killing says she will travel to turkey next week to head an independent international inquiry into the murder of saudi journalist. agnes connemara will look at the circumstances of the crime and the responsibility of any state or individual suspected of being involved show report her findings to the un human rights council in june. our diplomatic editor james space looks at the significance of the un special rapporteur us 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's 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 israel says it summoned islands ambassador and plans to reprimand her response to the irish parliament advancing legislation which if approved aims to criminalize any business that deals with israeli settlements in the occupied west bank prime minister benjamin netanyahu has called the planned law a disgrace the u.s. senate has once again failed to end the partial government shutdown which is now in its thirty fifth day the republican and democratic party is trying to pass competing bills but neither had enough votes present. refusing to fund government departments until he gets billions of dollars for a border war with mexico what about eight hundred thousand government workers are

about to miss their second monthly paycheck because of the shutdown and many say they're drowning in bellows. 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. taxi chancy field office in kansas city the longer the shutdown lasts the more pressure she feels my life below is two hundred thousand dollars a month. or so with to pay half the light b.-o. and half my heating bill 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 bunnie 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 i have to figure out where my next meal's doesn't come from and rent writs do every month but it's worse chiquita has severe asthma and can't afford this sixty dollars for her prescription it says forty six. inhalations lives 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 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 from 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 dough al-jazeera kansas city. ever since britain voted to leave the e.u. in twenty sixteen breaks 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 an agreement isn't reached now

and see reports from 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 who cannot manage on meager government benefits the center itself is threatened with closure they dearly wish politicians in the media would pay more attention to them than they do obsessing about all the bickering over bricks. they may have two jobs and still be on the street because work does not pay if you're a low skills to clear turn one of them to my rents are really quite hot due to our proximity to london. and so we're seeing increasingly a change in the. characteristics of homeless people in that more and more and more the traditional image of a kind of tramp who's on who's on drugs and not like a ring around the corner more volunteers give up their time in the food bank gross

experiences quicker than fracking up a generous public means there is no shortage but plainly many who come here because even afford the most basic items. the county the 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 breck's it's so remote from the decaying country they are elected to help like war everybody is focusing upon this absolute fos that is happening in westminster and which will possibly devour us all nobody is paying attention to the ongoing collapse of services in this country. nobody it's over in fact it makes you think.

it is serving any function to it as a massive door. the market square tells of a long forgotten past where northampton was a proud thriving market town has got to tell the difference or they go behind the first good british service they said look these losses are or a tell all the traders here told us things have never been less 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 breck's 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 what 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 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 leigh al-jazeera northampton. the iraqi city of basra has faced months of protests against corruption and poor services demonstrators now say they want to get more organized then unite with other groups and their embracing a movement that began in france rob matheson has 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 our 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 tap water is on drink at all because it's full of salt. and there's high unemployment. the most placid and i tell of it 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. 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 had the. idea 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 in zimbabwe have described 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 so 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 as able as 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 two blades. the lawyer says excessive force should not be used on minus we don't really know whether they were 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 actually think that was improper conduct on the killer

child when the price of fuel more than doubled overnight in zimbabwe last week people demonstrated activists say a dozen died and schools 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 which includes

a 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. hello again i'm fully back to bo with the headlines on al-jazeera venezuela's self-proclaimed leader one says he would consider granting amnesty to president nicolas maduro if he helps or restore democracy the u.s. and its latin american allies are demanding maduro be replaced by glider adorers accuse washington of trying to stage a coup 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 appear to be gaining momentum. is a national security analyst he thinks more about guys appointment shows a commitment to the afghan peace process. but are there is a senior. taliban official who was serving and pakistan the president for the past so many years he is somebody who all was favored negotiations in peace talks is pakistan not active in a decision time freeze 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 war. the un special rapporteur tour in executions agnes qamar will travel to turkey next week to head an independent inquiry into the meadow saudi journalists. show report

her findings to the un human rights council. israel says it has plans to reprimand the irish ambassador it's in response to the irish parliament advancing legislation which if passed aims to criminalize any business that deals with illegal israeli settlements in the occupied west bank prime minister benjamin netanyahu says the planned law is a disgrace and the u.s. senate has again failed to end the partial government shutdown now in his thirty fifth day the republican and democratic parties try to pass competing bills but neither had enough votes present refusing to fund government departments until he gets billions of dollars for his mexico border wall those are the headlines on al-jazeera one of many states next.

with three. in war torn afghanistan simply going to school can be a privilege. especially if you're a girl. like me. too i don't read girls don't attend school this is by billions of dollars in aid spent on education over the last two decades . i'm steve chad.