al haynes is on the story for us from washington. tell us more about this indictment what is alleged to have done well according to the special counsel office robert muller who by the way since stone just said it was politically motivated mohler is a lifetime republican the same as the president. but anyway the nine and basically says that stone was acting as a conduit between wiki leaks which we know to basically dumped thousands of hacked d.n.c. democratic e-mails including those from the clinton campaign manager who was trump's rival he was talking to wiki leaks they say he was talking to julian assange its founder and also talking to officials in the trump campaign about when and what wiki leaks had now he's not charged with collusion but he basically is being charged with when he was asked about this to the house intelligence committee they he said basically there's nothing i've had no communication no text messages no e-mails nothing so they're saying that he obstructed that investigation five counts of lying to members of congress which is

a felony and the other count is apparently when what he said to explain the fact that he tweeted out in advance that all of these things were going to come that this other guy told him about it while this other guy said i'm going to tell the truth and then stone is alleged to have written an e-mail to him basically saying prepare to die and i'm going to kill your dog to sounds like hardball tactics but that is exactly what roger stone is known for. roger stone is a man who really likes the camera it is better to be infamous they'll never be famous at all that is from a netflix documentary that profiled a political operative who thinks of himself more as the agent. known for his particular kind of fashion political dirty tricks and his unusual tattoo yes that is a permanent tattoo of richard nixon's face on his back stones time in politics began with the nixon campaign he became a mainstay of conservative politics after helping elect ronald reagan he and his

partner paul mann a fourth became the first in washington to use their access to the powerful to lobby for some of the most brutal dictators in the world stone push to make man a fort terms campaign manager he's now facing prison time as part of the special counsel's investigation stone was eventually disgraced by a sex scandal in the ninety's but he found his way back into the mainstream by recruiting the least mainstream presidential candidate in history for decades he has been close to donald trump and for many years was pushing him to run for president once trump one stone came under increased scrutiny as part of the investigation into potential collusion between russia and the trump campaign in part because of suspicious tweets before the election stone tweeted out that wiki leaks would post damaging e-mails from the clinton campaign once writing it would soon be pre-destined time in the barrel not long after that clinton campaign manager john podesta has hacked e-mails were released he now insists someone else

gave him the information and said as much to a house committee under oath i expressed my view that i am aware of no evidence whatsoever of collusion by the russian state or anyone in the trump campaign but there were questions about whether stone was truthful in that hearing line to congress is a crime and as the months passed stone who loved to talk to the press refused to talk to. senate panel. have elected to invoke my fifth amendment rights when it comes to the witch hunts being conducted by the senate intelligence and the senate judiciary committee soon he will have to decide if he will testify before a jury roger stone is a man who thrives on division and dirty tricks soon to find out if he crossed the line from controversial to criminal we know that roger stone has been a very close unofficial adviser to donald trump for a long time so that will be

a great deal that he knows that could possibly more information to be revealed what has been the reaction been from the white house. well the white house press secretary sarah sander said exactly the same thing she said when everybody who's been close to the president that's gotten diet is saying this no there's no collusion there's this has nothing to do with the white house this enough to do with the president and she added in a new line saying it was ridiculous and insulting that people were even asking about this the president for his part he's a bit on camera twice today's only talked about the shutdown which is a bit surprising but he did put out a tweet as typical calling it the greatest witch hunt in the country no collusion that you are border coyote's drug dealers and human traffickers are treated better that was a reference to how stone was arrested so federal agents showed up at a house in florida pre-dawn knocked on the door they were full body armor guns drawn and said basically f.b.i. open up so f.b.i. agents are saying yes this is how they do it if they think either their weapons in

the house or the person is likely to destroy evidence so the obvious a lot of conservatives criticizing the way the f.b.i. handled the arrest but for now stone has been released two hundred fifty thousand dollars bell and he says he's going to fight it now we'll see every single other person has said they're going to fight the special counsel and they've ended up turning on the part of turning on the trumpet ministration. all right thank you very much patty call hane in washington as most lead for you on this news from london a dramatic rescue in southeast brazil where hundreds of feared missing after a downed gust. the un's myanmar envoy calls for the army chief to be charged with genocide against the rango who could now be sent to live on a remote island. and castle make history to reach the final four of the asian cannot be to have the details in sport.

or political tensions are mounting in venezuela as opposition leader one guy doe calls for free and fair elections two days after swearing him self in his interim president during a speech in the capital caracas he accused president nicolas maduro of tightening his grip on power against the people's wishes at least twenty protesters have been killed in anti-government demonstrations this week three hundred fifty more have been arrested since wednesday russia and mexico both offered to mediate between the leaders but his supporters to come back out into the streets in the coming days. so you coming with us this saturday and sunday. the next week's big demonstration of course we are going back to the streets. will the venezuelan president nicolas maduro says he is ready to meet his political rival

but insists his government will stop the opposition's plans to take over his government. or. we will defeat a coup that intends to intervene in our political life to throw venezuelan sovereignty aside and install a puppet regime for the interests of the united states and its allies in the western world. al-jazeera latin america editor lucy newman is live for us and could turn on the venezuelan colombian border and not care what happens next now because there has been this offer of mediation but really the two sides are so deeply entrenched in these competing claims to power that any option for dialogue seems to be out of the question at least that's certainly the case right now mary i'm in fact one wise little address that specifically he said that the only thing he wants to talk to president muscle about incident stepping aside

resigning stepping down allowing an interim government and then holding elections that would be internationally supervises and that's the only thing that's negotiable that the time for the other types of talks and dialogues that they've had over the last two years with the government are is over that they don't trust the government and that even though president other insisted that he's willing to sit down and talk to why law and russia as you say mexico and even oregon i have offered to barter those talks there seems to be very very little. will certainly on the part of the opposition to do that because we're going to feeling very emboldened right now we may be jumping the gun though president mahmoud abbas said also that anybody who goes out on to the streets and causes trouble he's referring obviously to opposition protesters could get up to twenty years in prison for doing that so he's he's upping the ante he's making it far more costly for opponents of the government to go out there and to despise his rule at the same kind of course

he's receiving a lot of support from the from from russia from president putin specifically as he prepares rather he's already sent i understand foreign minister to new york because tomorrow there's going to be a security council meeting an emergency one called by the way by the united states to discuss the crisis in venezuela. and the opposition leader one has called his supporters out onto the streets but he's also been urging the military to abandon nicolas maduro how strong is the military's backing from the douro well you know it's always very strong until it isn't anymore right now they seem to be solidly backing men who at least certainly the generals the higher ranking members of the military have made it clear that they are supporting him they have full yesterday but also announced that they are going to pass an amnesty law over the weekend and that it will be distributed to the families of the military to coax them to live on my little to join with he said the people of venezuela and the

constitution so we'll have to see which way this goes but it's becoming more and more tense but right now there is no sign that the military is ready to abandon president michael thank you very much our latin america editor lucien human joining us there from good time so news from brazil now a fiber gate saying that some two hundred people are missing after a dam collapse near the city of belarus on today in the country's southeast several people are confirmed dead after the disaster helicopter rescue teams are searching for survivors the collapse of the dam part of an iron ore mine complex on least a torrent of lud on nearby villages president says he will fly over the area on saturday to assess what measures need to be taken meanwhile in indonesia the number of people known to have died in floods and landslides and so in a way sea island has risen to fifty nine many villages living near an overflowing dam had to be evacuated thousands more have been forced to leave their homes since

tuesday after torrential rain triggered severe flooding across the region earlier this month another landslide and java killed thirty two people. the un special rapporteur on me on mars just completed a ten day fact finding mission in thailand and bangladesh although the government of myanmar refuses to cooperate she says it's clear the country isn't interested in allowing the rangar refugees to return as natasha going to reports from dakar she's also urging the bangladeshi government to accept the fact that it will lead to host the refugees for the forseeable future. the ruling the refugee crisis has become a fast growing regional problem with global repercussions that's the latest assessment of the un special rapporteur on human rights in me and mark young he cited the recent deportations of rohingya refugees by saudi arabia and india to me and mark a violation of international law in his memo was not working to me and conditions

returned. i was in. intimidation and harassment its neighbor bangladesh has been struggling to accommodate this predominantly muslim minority since august twenty seventh t. more than seven hundred thousand have sought refuge here it is clear it into refugees in bangladesh can not return to me in the near future. the government is beginning to gauge longer term planning and preparing the. nation for this you know that bangladesh wants to transfer about one hundred thousand refugees to the remote flood prone island of bashar in the bay of bengal lisa says despite the government's quote tremendous efforts to prepare the island she's concerned about the security of refugees and isolation does. especially in the event of. natural disasters without. fully

informed consent of. the bangladeshi government says the refugees who moved to boston shar would have access to health care and education be able to fish and farm and visit their families in the camps in cox's bazaar despite the challenges of living in the world's largest refugee settlement none of the refugees we spoke to want to move to a place they fear is dangerous natasha in a zeroth dhaka. now to developments in sudan where the leader of the largest opposition party has called on the government to bow to mass protests and relinquish power so the address hundreds of supporters at a mosque in hard to human rights groups say more than forty protestors have been killed since demonstrations began last month a rally started out as protests against rising food prices that have grown to an uprising calling for the end of president tomorrow bashir has thirty year rule that morgan brings us more on this story now from hard to. following friday prayers

dozens came out to protest against the government of president armitage bashir people have been doing straight in for five weeks now demanding that the president and his thirty year rule and step down and dissolve the government they've been demanding for an interim independent government to be formed until elections which they say they want to make sure are credible free and fair are held and that a new government is formed now president obama bashir has been defiant he said he's not going to step down until elections are held next year and there is a possibility that the constitution may be amended for him to run again the government says at least twenty nine people have been killed but activists who've been tracking the death toll since the protests started in december nineteenth say that that number is not the reflective it's not reflective of the reality in that at least fifty one people have been killed since the protests began sudan's government have been also criticized for using what some foreign governments like the e.u. the u.n. and the u.s. have termed as brutal excessive force they say that the protesters who've been

protesting peacefully and an armed have been met with tear gas and live ammunition resulting in deaths now today the opposition leader assad the go ahead he has also joined the coalition of our opposition groups and civil societies that have been calling for the government to step down he said he and other his party and other parties will sign a document that will create a better future that would reflect a better future for sudan and that they will implement it as soon as the government steps down now this has been going on for five weeks the president has been very defiant he said he's not going to step down and he said he's going to try to introduce economic reforms but let's remember sudan's economy is not what it was two thousand and eleven when south sudan seceded with the country's oil fields so at the moment the country does not have much of economic support to be able to try to make reforms or introduce reforms and people seem to know that better is why a lot of people who have been demonstrating say that these are promises that will not be fulfilled and that the only thing that will stop them from continuing their demonstrations is for the government to step down more protests are called for in

the coming days and it's not clear how long this would go for but both sides seem to be very good. and each side achieved what they want still to convoy on the program as queen elizabeth asks persons to seek out common ground to report on some of the people being ignored and all the bickering on the back said. she these are facts all. he says palin ratifies the agreement renaming macedonia ending a long dispute but leaving many grapes angry and novak djokovic sets up another date with rafael nadal at the australian open final peter will have that story. welcome back to international weather forecasts were here across europe we are watching a fairly big storm here across the central part of the mediterranean notice the circulation right here really affecting parts of italy as well as into greece and

this storm is expected to bring very heavy rain and gusty winds to many places over the next few days the storm is going to slowly make its way towards the east and so for saturday we're going to be seeing a break as we get towards that western part of greece but we are going to see still for athens rain and winds are going to be a problem particular in the morning towards the afternoon you're going to have to clear up but a lot of that weather is going to start to make its way towards turkey and we are going to see some problems particularly on that south westerly coast over the next few days as we go towards sunday things really do improve here across much of the area but what we are going to see a problem is out here across the english channel we do have this new area of low pressure and that is going to bring very windy conditions across parts of the benelux region as well as to france up here towards anyone we could be seeing some very gusty winds and some wind damage along with that well here across another part of africa that same storm the mediterranean is going to continue to bring some very heavy rain across parts of libya over here towards egypt as well benghazi it will be a rainy day at thirteen degrees few in cairo where you'll see some better conditions

with cooler temperatures in your forecast for the terms of their eighteen degrees. in the next episode of science in a golden age i'll be exploring the contributions made by scholars during the medieval islam a period in the field of chemistry they transformed the superstition of alchemy into the science of chemistry. many of his chemical procedures of those which most do we use today. all while. science in a golden age with professor jim a lily on al-jazeera. when the news breaks a few minutes ago we were able to hear a huge explosion fifty people are still missing when people need to be heard and the story needs to be told we need to invest in development group and best making sure the people on the left behind al-jazeera has teens on the ground join us for

this historic step in american politics to bring you more award winning documentaries and life moves on and on line. welcome back to the news hour a recap of the top stories u.s. congressional leaders and president donald trump have agreed to a stopgap spending plan to end the longest government shutdown in the country's history it is hopes the payment will reopen federal agencies for at least three weeks. roger stone a close ally of u.s. president donald trump has been arrested on charges brought by special counsel

robert muller stone is accused of obstruction of justice witness tampering and making false statements. and venezuela's opposition leaders called for new elections in the country as a rally in caracas has claimed to be the country's interim president has produced an international standoff between countries backing him and those against. so let's discuss the arrest of roger stone now with constitutional lawyer bruce fein who was an associate deputy attorney general in the reagan administration thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us so the story today is that roger stone was allegedly an unofficial middleman between truong campaign officials and wiki leaks what does this indictment reveal about possible collusion between russia and the trunk campaign. will it the connection with russia is that it's well known that

a son that was close to. putin the russians he really was a primary instrument and having it snowden house now in russia he paid it snow and hotel bills in hong kong and so you can't really separate in my judgment a son from russia and that's why i believe russia when they hacked into the e-mails of the d.n.c. and mr podesta e-mail account they used mr assad and wiki leaks as the publication vehicle and we know from the if the allegations the diamant are true that mr stone was working as at least a middleman or a cut out from the campaign to coordinate and be apprised of the timing of the publication of the e-mails to maximize the political use now one thing that's critical to remember is that mr assad in wiki leaks is he's not a u.s. citizen he's australian so foreign entity that under u.s.

laws would be criminally prohibited from doing anything to influence the outcome of the presidential election so there are serious to be a vulnerability on mr stone even though it wasn't alleged that he was receiving are collaborating with the use of foreign valuable material to influence the outcome of the election i believe that mr stone is not only it was instrumental in the campaign but he's been with mr trump for decades going back to mr trump's effort to get compared to competition from indian gambling quassia the state level federal level or otherwise and he is the closest one to trump now who is under indictment as you say. to do a nation ship can i just can i just ask you this because it's very interesting you have the obviously the specific actions of roger and then you. we have the bigger picture of russian interference allegedly in the u.s. election but in terms of the back channel the sort of information between stone and

wiki leaks or julian assange is do we have the full picture do you think or is that are we going to learn more about this sort of level of coordination on e-mail releases and information is damaging to the clinton's campaign. well i think we can really we'll we'll learn more in oh if the case moves forward to a trial i remember we also know from an inverter leak that mr assad is under indictment now with the new president ecuador seems less likely to let him remain in the ecuadorian embassy forever so it's conceivable he would come back for a trial as well so i do think that there's going to be more information that will come out as to how close this so-called coordination collusion was what we still don't know for certain is how high up in the trunk campaign was mr

stone regularly alerting to what was happening in coordinating the campaign tactics with what was expected in the next day's newspaper regarding the democrats and in hillary clinton's e-mails the allegations you know they refer to an important person in the campaign but that name isn't there i'm sure it will leak out before too long and then we'll know how close that person was to mr trump but in my judgment it's already very unlikely that mr stone given the lifetime collaboration with mr trump wouldn't on a matter of such significance have communicated in some way directly or indirectly to mr trump himself what was transpiring remember mr trump at one time in the campaign when he was alerted to the publication in the access that mr wiki leaks had to the information was encouraging the russian i think yeah i mean or even ailes and have them public can i ask you one thing i'm right about the other big

story out of washington today which is a temporary deal to end the government shutdown in the u.s. now in three weeks' time if there isn't some sort of compromise trunk has threatened another government shutdown or national emergency to get the funding which existing laws could be used to get the money if you could just tell us briefly. we'll there are certain laws relating to spending by the army corps of engineers the defense department none of which in my judgment come close to satisfying the existing conditions remember he's claiming he's going to declare an emergency we've been sitting on this for a week after week after week which discredits the idea of an emergency having looked at it i believe a lawsuit would be filed immediately if he declared an emergency and things would be frozen for years where the case was litigated up to the u.s. supreme court i don't think that's an out for mr trump well thank you very much for sharing your expertise with this bruce fein associate deputy chinee general in the

reagan administration thank you thank you. now the european commission has added saudi arabia to a draft list of countries that pose what it describes as a terror threat the list drafted by the e.u. includes countries that have lax controls against terrorism financing and money laundering saudi arabia has been facing international pressure over the murder of jon. at the saudi consulate in istanbul last year other countries on the list include iran iraq syria and yemen one palestinian has been killed off to protest synagogues us from tail with israel man was shot by the israeli army as thousands gathered at the primitive fence a mass about to intensify the protests off to israel delayed money sent to the strip by cattle it was intended to fund salaries for gaza and civil servants who haven't been properly paid for months after weeks of postponement hamas has now turned the money down cattle says it will be directed to the united nations. so

with sixty three days left until the united kingdom needs the european union and politicians unable to agree on any plan queen elizabeth appears to have entered the debate green is obliged to be politically neutral and has not mentioned rights it directly of course but in a speech to a women's group she urged the nation to respect different points of view come together to seek out common ground and never lose sight of the bigger picture but ever since the united kingdom voted to leave the e.u. in two thousand and sixteen breaks it has completely dominated the government's agenda a campaign as a saying this has taken the focus off important issues like poverty and homelessness which they worry will only get worse if a deal with the e.u. is not reached aren't clear reports now from the midlands town of los hampton. new more than one hundred kilometers north of the bright lights of london and general a different country. many of the homeless people looked after at this center in

northampton for the working poor who cannot manage a meager government benefits the centrist self is threatened with closure pay dearly wish politicians in the media would pay more attention to them than they do obsessing about all the bickering over bricks that. they may have two jobs and still be on the street because were does not pay if you're in los skills to clean a term i know from to my rents are really. due to our proximity to them. and so we're seeing increasingly a change in the. characteristics of homeless people in the more a more and more the traditional image of a kind of tramp whose own roots on drugs are not like that at all around the corner more volunteers give up their time in the food bank gross experiences quicker than from taking up a generous public means there is no shortage but plainly many who come here for policy will afford the most basic items. the county 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 breck's it's so remote from the decaying country they are elected to help like war everybody is focusing upon miss absolute farce 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. in fact it makes you think. it is serving any function at all it is as a matter of dog. the market square tells of a long forgotten past where northampton was a proud thriving market town was going to tell you the month in advance or there

will be a good first good british service they said look these losses are or a tell all the traders here told us things have never been worse 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 rex's 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. goose has ratified an agreement to end its decades long dispute with macedonia it's agreed to recognise its neighbors north macedonia and then are there it's a party managed to pull eight extra votes from across the island one plaudits from the e.u. and nato north macedonia may now enter but not happy about this as john psaropoulos reports from athens. despondent protesters against the name change lingered outside the parliament where lawmakers ratified the agreement had prime minister alexis tsipras put it direct to the people in a referendum two thirds of greeks would likely have voted against the deal a bit the gloom sounded a note of optimism. this is

a historic day for greece where protecting the heritage of ancient greek macedonia is also a historic day for the balkans with a long history of disputes and nationalist a trade we're turning over a new leaf we're making room for peace corp friendship solid overtake a mutual understanding north macedonia is now clear to enter nato but the opposition conservative new democracy party which enjoys a ten point lead over the ruling seat is a is still promising a hard line position if it comes to power. to say love which. i shall not give up on greece's right to veto scorpios entry into the european union i shall fight with all my strength to mitigate the negative impact that is sure to arise from this problematic agreement. the principle of those who oppose the agreement is that it creates a basis for greece's neighbors to claim not just that they are citizens of north macedonia but potentially that they are a race of ethnic macedonians the agreement cuts through decades of greek foreign

policy to recognize a macedonian language and nationality that is the nub of the disagreement with the deal many don't mind sharing macedonia as a political term. but they see of macedonian identity as spurious. because wanted good relations in the balkans they should never have recognized the macedonian state ok even a macedonian identity to people it doesn't belong to or in macedonia language when you know that there has never been one we know that what's being ratified today in the parliament will be scrutinized by greek and european courts the government admits the agreement is not perfect but it has at least got the other side to agree to stop claiming ancient greek history for its own come september images of alexander the great are to disappear from north macedonian schoolbooks as our maps of a greater macedonia north macedonia is most illustrious history now perhaps lies in

its future. al-jazeera athens a climate change was one of the main topics on the gender economic forum in davos this.