intelligence offices and another group of russians the social media campaigns designed to influence the election and hacking of e-mails lots to talk about and we're joined now by steve clemons he is the washington editor at large for the atlantic magazine and he's joining us now from the u.s. capital mr clemens very good to have you with us on al-jazeera on this very busy and he's already in the u.s. well stocked with roger stone how does his indictment do you think compared to the many others so far in this investigation i think roger stone's indictment is a punctuation point of extraordinary significance because we've been thinking that the motor report would be released fairly soon within you know within weeks with maybe within a month a month and a half but but for that to happen some of the other big fish in the story were sitting there on tape and so in my book i had been under the impression and we had talked in the past that as we get closer to the release of that report we have some

knots that still haven't been sorted out one is roger stone the other is the president's son who had donald trump jr who had a meeting that was organized and there were there were statements about that meeting we now know to be untrue and so donald trump jr is still a not left undone there are other names as well a prominence but what we see with roger stone is as you just outlined with michael cohen with michael flynn with paul man of fort the density of people right around the president of those that have fallen to robert muller's indictment direction has been fairly impressive is it a coincidence do you think mr clemens that on the same day that someone so close to the president has been indicted and the investigation the president. decides to temporarily end the government shutdown. well you know that. look maybe the president is a master of the politics of distraction when when robert mueller was tightening its

grip on something with then then the president would do something with north korea i could make the same thing i just flew in from switzerland from davos switzerland to washington and our plane was nervous that we may not be able to land in washington because of the concern that like warty airport in new york had actually closed because of air traffic control so you could make a simultaneous argument that may have been the pressure that was coming from the federal aviation administration and air traffic as this but but look at fits a pattern that the president is tries to distract the news media from from one hand and look at the other but there are also other excuses and i think we should consider them as well and some why do you think president trump agreed to the stopgap measure now the shutdown hasn't been popular his approval ratings are down tone deaf comments from the commerce secretary wilbur ross about those affected by the shutdown as you mentioned you know why the spread delays at major american airports. this president now has the highest disapproval ratings he has had since

he's entered office and there seem to be new cracks among some of the core constituents that he has because many of those that are hurting that are in pain they're constantly commentary now in the american media both on radio and t.v. families down to their last dollars of children who can't have birthdays of parents that are basically looking at not how they will pay their mortgage or or their rent and that is political and it is really denting the president's popularity in my view the president is is very driven by where his bases and when he began to see cracks there now again there may be other reasons for this could be the motor investigation but i think that when he sees his popularity cratering i think that put more pressure and he was just getting nowhere mr clemens what do you think puts more pressure on this president. you know the suffering of more than actually the eight hundred thousand federal workers who've been directly affected by the shutdown or right wing commentators like ann coulter who called him

a wimp tonight for four in her woods and other is now giving in to the democrats to end the shutdown temporarily without funding for his border wall. it both can be true and coulter and sean hannity are are really responsible for getting the president to take the track of of rejecting a unanimously passed appropriations bill that would have funded the government and it created this and they said you can't do that you will lose your base that's how this shutdown started now as the president is compromising and giving in and restarting the government and coulter has said that he has now surpassed george h.w. bush as the greatest wimp among presidents and right now i think the president is very sensitive to the cultures in hannity's but he also sees his popularity with his base being dented and i think that is the bottom line that before his base was pleased with him but when this pain is come about and people begin to feel their

real lives their lives being impacted and their friends and family being impacted in serious ways i think that's had the greater impact at this moment but you should always never never underestimate the ability of you know one of these right wing talk show host to be able to get the president to change change course again that's a kind of great to get your expertise as always that is that the atlanta steve clemons live in washington d.c. thank you thank you. now to venezuela where the self-proclaimed later. street protests against president nicolas maduro in a speech in the capital caracas he reached out to russia and china the two superpowers which are backed by the little moscow has offered to mediate between the government and the opposition to end the political standoff meanwhile washington what's recognized why though as venezuela's interim president has appointed a controversial new on boy elliott abrams to handle u.s. policy on venezuela. they are never going to steal our dreams away from us again in

the presidential palace they believe this movement will run out of steam those who assert the symbols of power believe we will become tired but we are going to leave here stronger no one is going to give in we are going to dream of a stronger venezuela. but as well as a republic is in a critical moment its existence and ongoing values at the moment we love and as well and we fight for its existence there has been an immense campaign of money and fake news director that the bolivarian republican venezuela there is similar tenuously they intend to make a coup d'etat against venezuela and a coup against our republic and our values there is even an intervention there wrecked it possibly by washington. latin america editor lucien newman is joining us now from the colombia venezuela border the president was a little calling this a critical moment what are you hearing about the situation over the border and just how tense all things there. well i was

at it right at the bridge that separates both countries a short while ago people from that is whale of a humming over in larger numbers than usual to buy supplies because they are convinced that over the weekend and beyond there's going to be an upsurge in violence in a rest and did deaths of course and they have already been we understand up to thirty now people killed in the last seventy two hours since one wide door was proclaimed they called it the self-proclaimed interim president of venezuela the very very tense situation indeed and now we're hearing that elliott abrams had you as you just mentioned has been named as the special envoy by the pale the u.s. secretary of state now who is elliott abrams he's a well known name from the seventy's and eighty's in central america he was accused of having covered up for the atrocities committed by the military of the us back

military in countries like oh salvador honduras and guatemala as well as the u.s. backed contras that operated in didn't. just drive them a short while ago is a man who is a major defender of human rights so that is certainly not good news for a lot of people in the human rights community and certainly not for president nicolas my little also a short while ago the treasury department put out a statement saying that in keeping with it the u.s. government's recognition of the. as the legitimate president all of venezuela from now on all commercial transactions with venezuela will go through the the interim government and not to the not through president in other words the u.s. government is putting all the funds or all the money the supply of u.s. dollars and beyond the little government and that is certainly going to make it things even more difficult so how much more pressure that push on nicolas mother

little's government in syria and does any of that external pressure matter enough to for the government and venezuela to change as long as the military support some of the widow and for now it is. that is the hundred million dollar question elizabeth there's no doubt about that now why the when he spoke earlier today offered more than just an olive branch to the military has said that the national assembly which is controlled by the opposition but which has really no power at all in this country at least right now an amnesty an amnesty law which will be put on twitter and distributed to the families of military officers in the hope that they will turn against president bush you say there's been no sign of that in the meantime russia has come out strongly in support of president warning the united states not to intervene in venezuela there is going to be an emergency session of the u.n.

security council this was called by the united states but venezuela's foreign minister my biggest foreign minister will be there and certainly russia is going to be there to say that it will not accept any transitional government and that the only legitimate government according to russia and china and a few other countries that support is himself since he had thank you very much for that finale that latin america editor lucien newman with the very latest live in thank you. now the russia's news agency is reporting that the european commission has added saudi arabia to a draft list of countries that pose what they call a terror threat the list includes countries that are seen as having lax controls against terrorism financing and money laundering saudi arabia has been facing international pressure of the murder of john and jamal khashoggi at the saudi consulate and istanbul last year all the countries on the list include iran iraq syria yemen and north korea well let's get more on this now we're joined by giorgio coffee he's the c.e.o.

of gulf state analytics and he's joining us live from washington d.c. very good to have you with us on al-jazeera how damaging is it for saudi arabia that the e.u. commission is even considering putting them on this. you know it's of course important to keep in mind that this is merely a draft it's subject to change but of course the fact that we're even talking about this in the first place bodes poorly for riyadh let's keep in mind that in september the f.a.a. t.f. decided not to give saudi arabia full membership for many of the reasons which are obviously in play here is saudi arabia is going to need to make some changes in order to convince its allies in the west that its leadership is very sincere with all of this talk about countering extremism returning to so-called moderate is a lot there is definitely a war of narratives in which saudi arabia is facing some major problems and you

know not just talk of countering extremism but leveling allegations of supporting extremism at all the countries have been leading a blockade against other of a cup they're accusing it of financing terrorism which though has always denied how much more does that weaken the saudi position this you know the e.u. commission considering putting them on this list. is saudi arabia's trying to convince western governments and societies that the kingdom now with mohammed bin some man at the helm is truly committed to this campaign against radicalism and violent extremism it really undermines their arguments that the problems are coming exclusively you know from the usual characters iran the cuts are turkey the muslim brotherhood it's adding momentum to the arguments that saudi arabia has also been

a root cause of terrorism from at least certainly a financing standpoint and apart from the reputational damage what would being put on the list mean for the saudis relations with the e.u. and not just financial the nation's. well the war in yemen is creating more outcry in europe as the murder of jamal his shoji is also adding to this condemnation along with cases of human rights women's rights activists there is a lot of who are jailed in the kingdom there is a lot of tension that is increasing between european states and saudi arabia i think saudi arabia would like western leaders to follow more of the lead of donald trump in terms of trying to give saudi arabia the benefit of the doubt but it seems that at least some of the european states are refusing to do so we see more

lawmakers across europe who are becoming increasingly vocal in their criticisms of saudi arabia i think this latest development would only add to this dynamic across europe as a coffee to thank you very much for your analysis on the. coffee i don't live in washington d.c. thank you thank you. now the un special rapporteur for human rights and is in myanmar and says that the head of the military should be prosecuted if a genocide yankee lays investigating an edge crimes against the henge a minority that it forced hundreds of thousands to flee the country lace had cases ready being compiled for future. the independent mechanism that i recommended be established last year has been formally established and funded and recruitment has started just as for victims is it. it was easy to conceive is really the question about visions of crimes committed in the creation of the case files being against

alleged perpetrators these cases will be ready for growth for prosecution is a credible international or international court. also said that myanmar as an interested and allow the hangar to return and she's urging the bond that they should government to prepare to host the refugees for the foreseeable future natasha the name reports from dhaka. the ruling a 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 mar a violation of international law in his memoir is not working to me end conditions returned. to madrid absolutely as 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 really into refugees in bangladesh can not return to me in any of engine the government is beginning to gauge a longer time i'm paying the. nation for this you have a team 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 that. 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 and it's hostage in a zeroth dhaka. still ahead on the news hour a call for compromise like windows of a fallacious state is being seen as a veiled reference to the acquiring of a bronx says. that all of gori and so on yet so much but people are so. painful about the hopes the change on the new congress president in exchange for petty and how to make his trade to reach the final four at the asian cup would have the details and sport.

hello again well this hour we're going to start here across parts of north america we did see one major storm make its way off the eastern seaboard that brought a lot of rain but some damaging winds and also a reported tornado down here in florida we're going to see some better weather but in terms of the temperatures those are coming down from many locations take a look at the two of minus thirteen new york at zero toronto at minus nine and you factor in the winds with that and it's going to feel much colder in minneapolis minus fourteen but you're wind chill is going to feel more like minus twenty degrees there down towards dallas it will be chilly for you as well we expect to see about sixteen degrees in your forecast well same follow boundary is causing some problems down here across parts of the caribbean you can see the rain showers across parts of havana up here towards nasa and that is going to continue because that front is going to go stationary bring some very heavy rain showers across much of that area over the next few days out here towards the west where you can see in the gulf heavy rain showers associate this area circulation is going to be some

coastal rain across parts of mexico down towards got amala it is going to be twenty four degrees in a partly cloudy day for you there well across parts of as we are going to sing a few showers in your forecast heavy rain to the north across parts of real a sense attempt a few at thirty eight and better conditions as we go towards parts of sunday. sattar has never been a real easy sell for an investment how much are the reserved after all are they understated or overstated they own those shares in your company for the people by the. if you were looking at this from the outside you would really wonder what was going all. rights is a religion that they have an in-depth exploration of global capitalism and our

obsession with economic growth this is still the center of capitalism there is no limits i view myself as a capital order we are trying to break through the world. we don't want to be realistic in the world we would rather have a fantasy growing out just zero. zero where ever you. go to have you with us on the al-jazeera news hour these are our top stories u.s. president donald trump has agreed to a deal to reopen the government for three weeks stopgap plan doesn't include money

for his border with mexico are the reason for the political deadlock with the democrats. as well a self-proclaimed why though has to lead street protests against president nicolas maduro in a space in the capital caracas he reached out to russia and china are the two superpowers which have backed the will and at least seven people have been killed in one hundred fifty others a muslim in southeastern brazil after a dam burst at an old man mine an operation is underway to evacuate residents and stem the flow of mud well let's get more on this now we're joined by mohammad he's an assistant professor of coastal engineering at barnard university in london he's joining us from there via skype very good to have you with us on al-jazeera as we wait for more information from the dam about what might have happened what do you know about it and why it might have been what could have caused this.

thanks for having me here. maybe i need to explain that taking a killing down is a type of environment which is constructed just for the hazardous material from the mining activities going on there mining activities are produced the notes are hazardous. material and did these if you don't need to be stored in a safe place and a tail is doing that kind of stale delays or he's a part of the trio and the challenge of this type of downs is that they are not really constructed they are not a treaty one so and the reason is that. you have. a land committee which is the mining activity. of these type of the smaller dams and on site these named business is not really. constructed and then the challenge is that

clearly got down you have lots of instruments ation not some of the money three but these monitoring are not really happening very well for peace. and as we reported earlier this is not the first time that the mining company valley has been involved in the dam burst and we've got and an environmentalist saying that they did not learn from the marianna dam best. yeah not only in brazil but also what we have been since the many years of these times maybe this is the challenge. for us all. so maybe push push the lever for more regulations oh say fifty lines or maybe that's a challenge because there are lots of resistance but you can imagine that the severance

is. going to be there and that seems they think we have. seen further regulations originations mongering. from a very different sectors mr mom and i there's other thank you very much for your time on this we appreciate it that is. live in london thank you. now with the sixty three days left until the u.k. leaves the european union and politicians are unable to agree on a plan quite a lot of it has appealed for common ground and respect for different points of view the queen's comments didn't direct directly refer to bracks that are being widely interpreted as a rare royal intervention into the political debate paul brennan has more she may be head of state and leader of the global commonwealth but under the u.k.'s constitutional monarchy queen elizabeth remains firmly

a political so her comments during this visit to sandringham women's institute have sparked a keen analysis particularly as britain's politicians are currently in deadlock over breakfast as we look for nuances in the modern age she told her audience i for one prefer the tried and tested recipes like speaking well of each other and respecting different points of view coming together to seek out the common ground and never losing sight of the bigger picture to me these approaches are timeless and i commend them to everyone. in a regular encounters with the prime minister and heads of state the queen is firmly neutral and doesn't express political views this latest speech made no direct reference to the bricks at deadlock or even to politics but the interpretation has been unanimous what the queen has said is what we're all thinking that there has to be a compromise here that we have to find some common ground not keep advocating for positions

that people have been staking out for years but recognizing that the clock is ticking the sounding of speech echoes the queen's annual christmas message perhaps indicating a regal concern about levels of intolerance and animosity in much modern discourse politicians hoping for explicit world gardens that are destined to be royally disappointed with former prime minister james callaghan had an anecdote about an occasion he asked the queen for her opinion on a subject that he couldn't make his mind a point she looked at me with a twinkle in her eyes he said and then she told me that's what you get paid for paul brennan al-jazeera westminster graces parliament has now only voted to ratify a landmark agreement with its northern neighbor to change its name to north macedonia great politicians wanted one hundred fifty three to one hundred and forty six in favor of the un brokered deal signed last june it was approved following days of heated debate but not all greeks support the deal last 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 amid the gloom sounded a note of optimism. this is a historic day for greece where protecting the heritage of ancient greek macedonia it's also a historic day for the balkans with a long history of wars and disputes a nationalist a trade we're turning over a new leaf we're making room for peace corp friendship solidarity 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 does it go much as i 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 impacts that are 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 greeks disagreement with the deal many don't mind sharing macedonia as a political term but they see macedonian identity as spurious. because wanted good relations in the balkans they should never have recognized the macedonian state or given a macedonian identity to people it doesn't belong to or a macedonia language when you know that there has never been one we know that

what's being ratified today in the. and it will be scrutinized by greek and european courts the government admits the agreement is not perfect but it hasn't least got the other side to agree to stop claiming ancient greek history for its own come september images of alexander the great to disappear from north macedonian schoolbooks as a maps of a greater macedonia north macedonia is most illustrious history now perhaps lies in its future. al-jazeera athens to saddam now with the leader of the largest opposition party has called on the government to give in to mass protests and step down so they can address hundreds of supporters at a mosque and cart full human rights groups and more than forty protestors have been killed since demonstrations began last month the rally started out as protests against rising food prices have gone to an uprising calling for the end of president all model she is twenty nine years old where you hear. the demands of the government to step down and be replaced by

a national interest government his job is to achieve comprehensive pace freedom and human rights an incremental emergency economic program lift the suffering of the people now there's a way of to move them across the democratic republic of congo as people welcome their new leader despite the economic hurdles ahead the public is eager to see how felix deal with high unemployment corruption and providing basic services from of the many reports from kinshasa. it was just as former president joseph kabila took office eighteen years ago that abraham was opened this roadside printing shop he says he started the business after he couldn't find a job in a country hit by high unemployment now that new president felix she said katie's been sworn in abraham says things may be different. i think with the new elected president things may change especially in the economy so that my business can grow

but it will have the same individual sharing the wealth of the country i will be very disappointed to see katie controversially won the election in december with the result still disputed by rival martin for you know people here have long accuse the government and elite of benefiting from the country's wealth with little trickling down this market is popular with students it's when many take a break between classes most is now which is about to complete a degree in communication he says he wants more opportunities for new graduates our country we are so rich because we are very thought of garlands a dime loans and so on yes so we did but the put us through what you see and we don't understand what's the reason for why the people must stay in the poverty the d.r.s. he has an estimated twenty four trillion dollars worth of natural resources including iron ore natural gas gold and cobbled according to the u.s. geological survey the d r c produces more than a half of the world's cobalt and more than twenty percent of global diamonds yet it

remains one of the poorest countries in the world many have come to the capital kinshasa to find work with more than ten percent of the eighty five million population living here the city's overcrowded housing is expensive and hard to come by especially for the poor developments like this one when meant to provide homes for them but instead it was rented out all force up by the wealthy many people here say the government hasn't followed through on its promises to help the plush. corruption along with insecurity and conflict continues to hamper economic growth ninety percent of the population doesn't have access to basic services. the first challenge for the new president is infrastructure electricity and water you must put into action projects which will develop the country this will increase the level of income and through this we will reduce corruption. felix's

security begins his first week in office not only on a wave of optimism but also realistic expectation while the d r c goes through its first peaceful handover of power the challenges remain great for the new president for me deborah al-jazeera kinshasa. more than one hundred people were detained in egypt last year for criticizing the government that's according to a report by amnesty international says at least one hundred thirteen people were jailed for peacefully expressing their views adding that critics often sent to solitary confinement or face force disappearances amnesty wants is now the most dangerous time in egypt's recent history to speak out against the government has been no response from the egyptian government jose involve me as amnesty international's egypt researcher and he says that a huge variety of people have been targeted by egyptian authorities. this comes from people who were arrested for supporting. people were coming.