zing their lives at the not alarming rate new figures released by the un's refugee agency shows six people died on average every day last year it estimates more than two thousand two hundred migrants died or went missing one attempting the crossing route was particularly deadly for boats leaving from libya one person died at sea for every fourteen who arrived in europe despite a major drop in the number of refugees reaching europe hundred thirty nine thousand arrives in two thousand and eighteen that's the lowest number in five years charlie yaxley is a spokesman for the un refugee agency he says the number of migrant deaths in two thousand and eighteen was deeply concerning. the number of people arriving on european shores by mediterranean routes down substantially compared to previous years we're back now to levels that we were typically seeing throughout the two thousand but what is deeply concerning is that for the fifth year in

a row more than two thousand people lost their lives and this is happening particularly on the central mediterranean where on the route from libya to europe a combination of smugglers and traffickers attempting ever more dangerous journeys figure of more than two thousand dead could in fact be quite far higher these are only the ones we know about and there remains a lack of ngo's operating search and rescue operations because of restrictions that have been imposed on them by states and we're seeing that deadly consequences of that now many of these people who are in need of humanitarian assistance many of these new people are in need of international protection and this is having a deterrent effect on boats who may wish to conduct search and rescue operations one of the things you in a.c.r. is really concerned about is that if this situation continues we may have vessels

particularly commercial ships waver or even ignore distress signals for fear of being stranded at sea for days on end so i had an al-jazeera an all time low for the u.s. in canada with record freezing temperatures. more on the power struggle in venezuela will examine why china is standing by nicolas maduro. hello here to welcome back well here across parts of china we are seeing some rain still over the next twenty four to forty eight hours but then things are going to be improving particular up here towards the northeast so here's that rain we're talking about all dealing with a system that's also impacting parts of japan as well in china though it's mostly going to be the rain we're talking about where temperatures here in shanghai at about twelve degrees here on thursday by the time we get to friday things improved

but temperatures do come down we expect to see a high temperature of only nine degrees there but overnight clear skies in the overnight lows going to get down into the low single digits down here towards hong kong know it is going to be a nice day for you with a temperature of twenty one degrees well across the northern part of india we are seeing some clouds passing through with these we could see a passing shower it could be actually snow in the higher elevations as you can see up here but for new delhi we do expect to see a high temperature few of twenty haze in your forecast as well down towards the south though colombo is going to be a little bit warmer where temperatures there of about thirty one degrees we do expect to see more clouds and rain coming into your forecast and then here across much of the gulf things often quite nice for here in doha we are seeing temperatures there of twenty five degrees over towards about twenty four and as we go towards friday doha you get a little bit better twenty six degrees but a beautiful day down towards the law with a temperature of about twenty eight degrees there.

we're heading to the place some deep in the truth really amazon it's taken us two days on this boat just to get from the search for a plane to techno look at what is being done to protect one of the region's most iconic creatures. disappearing. legal pads change the looming. reintroduction of my clients as a viable option to save some of these population really good young techno on al-jazeera. welcome back you're watching al-jazeera and it's time to recap our headlines but as well as president nicolas maduro has accused three desserts as of plotting

a coup from colombia the accusation follows his statement earlier russian media these ready to talk to opposition rival. has declared himself into. the british parliament has authorized prime minister to resign made to go back to brussels politicians also voted to make it harder for britain to leave the e.u. without a deal the head of the european parliament says it will be very difficult to renegotiate . at least twenty eight people have been killed when two boats capsized off djibouti a boat carrying at least one hundred thirty migrants and refugees when they tipped over shortly after departing. more now on his way into china is also standing by in the. he's regarded as beijing staunchest ally south america friendship underpinned by huge loans investments and weapons sales is china

correspondent adrian brown. they were jumping for joy when president nicolas maduro was lost in china four months ago but today the leadership here is not excited about the prospect of venezuela without him at the helm. china is venezuela's biggest creditor has invested heavily in its oil industry and regards president maduro as its strongest ally in south america china has lent more money to venezuela's upwards of sixty billion dollars than it has to any other country in the world it's probably been repaid up to two thirds of that but that leaves anywhere in the neighborhood of twenty to thirty billion dollars venezuela china analysts say china's leaders are concerned about whether the deals will be honored if the opposition party takes power but for now china continues to voice support from the duros coupled with veiled warnings to the united states. since china

opposes for interference in the internal affair of finance wella especially when israel and government to uphold national sovereignty independence and threatening military interference and continued to support efforts made by the stability. the growing political economic and humanitarian crisis in venezuela has attracted global headlines and concern the main evening news on state controlled television has shown pictures of the protests but so far made no mention of the violence or suffering of the people. as in africa chinese influence in south america is expanding fast especially in venezuela besides money china has also been helping the mature regime in another important way it's no venezuela's biggest provider of arms including weapons for crowd control which have been proving so effective during the current unrest adrian brown al jazeera beijing. china's vice premier

louhi is in washington for trade talks with the trumpet ministration trying to resolve a dispute that seen the two countries impose trade tariffs on each other relations soured further on monday when u.s. prosecutors filed new criminal charges against chinese tech company weiwei and its chief financial officer mang one joe is appeared in court in the canadian city of vancouver has been under house arrest since last month the us is seeking her extradition for allegedly violating sanctions on iran as well as accusations of theft fraud and conspiracy apple has disabled the group chat function in its face time fixes a software bug that allows eavesdropping face time users have been able to activate the microphone and another person's apple device and secretly listen to their con for say sions of the family of a forty year old boy who discovered the glitch says they tried to tell apple about it for a week before it became widely known to the public it's an embarrassment for the

tech giant which is trying to distinguish itself from competitors by stressing a commitment to users' privacy max iser is a lecturer in computer network security from the university of central lancashire he says apple needs to explain why it took so long to fix the problem. the bug was reported eight days ago and then they didn't really pick up on the now from one point of view you can argue that the company wouldn't react really quickly to this kind of report because they will be afraid of a malicious attempt or a hoax however that didn't doesn't really justify a day's delay to respond to this bug it is normal to be cautious it is normal to make sure that when before you announce a bug like this for a combination on the big scale and how to view taishan like apple especially when it comes to privacy and the trust issues they have to be careful they need to do

a thorough investigation to make sure the bug exists and it has. you know harmful effect now having said that that again doesn't really just defy the eight days and i think when they come about to talk about this and explain why did it take them eight days to respond officially to this book so every time we install and we use and we accept this risk however it's also the developers responsible sitter make sure these bugs free that these apps will not even drop on us without our consent or without us being aware of that happening but like i said unfortunately this is one of the risks we are accepting when we are using these technologies. the saudi u.a.e. coalition in yemen says it will release seven prisoners after the who these released the saudi prisoner on tuesday the international committee of the red cross facilitated the transfer of the prisoners back to riyadh is suffering from advanced

hepatitis c. the u.n. envoy to yemen martin griffith says wants to make prisoners wants more common attempt to preserve a shaky cease fire. online vacation companies have been accused of supporting human rights violations against palestinians amnesty international says israeli listings of homes and activities is directly contributing to the expansion of illegal settlements laura birdman the explains and the c. international is accusing some of the world's best known hotel booking travel companies of supporting illegal settlement expansion in the occupied west bank and east jerusalem it says air b.n. b. booking dot com expedient and trip advisor a fueling human rights violations against palestinians by listing hotels and activities in israeli settlements air b.n. b. had three hundred listings trip advisor seventy booking dot com forty five and

expedient nine after an investigation by al jazeera and human rights watch in november the m.p. said it would remove the listings in settlements in the occupied west bank but not occupied east jerusalem and the sea says many listings aren't honest about where the hotels are such as one who tell in the far enemy incessant booking dot com says it's twenty five kilometers from the dead sea with panoramic views of the youth who deserts but the website doesn't say it's in an illegal israeli settlement where the bedroom village of qana is less than two kilometers away israel supreme court gave the green light to the eviction of all villages in september it's rumors of them two places to move to one beside a former rubbish dump near abu dis and the other an old sewage plant near jericho well armed see international says it's time for these companies to stand up for

human rights by withdrawing all of their listings in illegal settlements. police in sudan have released a senior member of the opposition party after she was detained on wednesday. mandi was arrested at her home along with other party members security forces of also cordoned off the university of khartoum where professors are staging a sit in against the government protests continue to spread across the country amid calls for president on the road this year to step down he started after the government cut bread and fuel subsidies in december. tanzania's government is giving itself more powers over political parties a new law will allow a government run registrar to blacklist parties and potentially jail their members president john magaw foods government has already banned some newspapers and restricted opposition rallies even before he moved into the white house donald trump was known for using language against opponents that no president had ever

uttered in public at least and he hasn't changed his ways he's currently accusing rival democrats of wanting to let murderers flood into the country or that's creating concern these permanently are pending american politics and provoking violence and helen fisher now. and the radical democrats president donald trump thinks nothing of attacking opponents using claims and nicknames to win political advantage is angry as presidents get to congress and the bureaucracy and reporters and their news organizations other presidents have not tried to deal edge atomized them and so i think that's an important difference because he wants to degrade them as institutions in october last year a number of pipe bombs were sent to a points of president trump a florida man a trump supporter has been charged with sending thirteen devices one target says

the president isn't blameless in all of this his rhetoric too frequently i think fuels these feelings and sentiments that well or bleeding over into potentially acts of violence though trumps most recent target speaker of the house democrat nancy pelosi it's too bad with their she policy which is that it's radical democrats they become a radical i was part of they really have they've become a radicalized party. i actually think they've become a very dangerous party for this country but he's not the first president to speak frankly or attack opponents lyndon b. johnson frequently used profanity to push politicians to support him richard nixon despite its black people and jews in oval office recordings released after his death and how to truman called a political opponent the equivalent of hitler the difference no according to one political expert is modern media creates a stronger connection with the audience what makes it so extraordinary is not

really the language but the presentation of the language the fact that we see it in real time the fact that we are all able to hear about it through social media or the mainstream media that is really what's new there was a social media storm after a new democratic. congresswoman use trumped like language to describe the president bullies don't play and the baby did not because we're going to go in there really. the strong language on both sides highlights the polarization of american politics makes it harder to reach a middle ground it's perhaps reflective of where society is and with the presidential election season about to get underway the same post to where we're headed alan fischer washington a blast of arctic air is bringing dangerously cold weather to parts of the u.s. and canada the midwestern united states are being hit hard chicago the states of michigan are blanketed in heavy snow while minneapolis recorded its coldest

temperature minus twenty nine degrees celsius. has more. the midwest is accustomed to freezing cold temperatures but nothing like this the u.s. national weather service says record low temperatures could drop to minus forty degrees celsius in some areas that's about forty degrees colder than usual schools have been cancelled companies have closed their doors even a few minutes outside could lead to frostbite so millions of americans have been warned to stay home local governments are taking measures so people can see warm in-doors landlords face fines of up to five hundred dollars per day per violation while the town it is without heat from south in north dakota to the states of michigan and ohio eleven states spending nearly two thousand kilometers are bracing for the coldest weather in at least a generation. the polar vortex has it's known is moving across midwest states

bringing a dangerous wind chills with it that sasol reach in parts of canada and chicago the famous river that runs through its downtown is covered with blocks of ice in some areas temperatures could be colder than parts of antarctica. getting a car out of the driveway in this weather is challenging even for those who are used to these temperatures maybe you know or. some like that. you know it's going out it's got a layer of ice underneath it. going to be real lucky if i get out today the subzero temperatures have caused problems on several airports with more than a thousand flights canceled. with extreme weather making life difficult for millions of americans many have no option but to wait and hope for warmer days katia lopez will yawn al-jazeera.

time to take you through some of the stories we're following here on our just syria but as well as president nicolas maduro has accused three desserts is a floating a coup from colombia it follows his statement earlier as a russian media he's ready to talk to opposition rival one way those declared himself interim leader brazil's vice president says going to brazil for humanitarian assistance the british parliament has authorized prime minister to resign major go back to brussels politicians also voted to make it harder for britain to be the e.u. without a deal ahead of the european parliament says it will be very difficult to read negotiate al-jazeera as jonah hall has more from london. the first point of contact since the vote on tuesday night between the government and the e.u. will happen in a few few hours time this evening a phone call between trees and men don't trust the council president he is likely

to tell her just as the party you european parliament president did earlier this morning it just as michel barnier the brits negotiated did this morning as john called claudia the commission president told her yesterday the withdrawal agreement is not for reopening the backstop cannot be renegotiated saudi u.a.e. coalition in yemen says it will release seven prisoners after the who these released the saudi prisoner on tuesday the international committee of the red cross facilitated the transfer of the prisoners back to riyadh he's suffering from advanced hepatitis c. police in sudan of released a senior member of the opposition or more party after she was detained on wednesday and met he was arrested at their home along with other party members security forces have also cordoned off the university of khartoum campus where professors are staging a sit in against the government. at least twenty eight people have been killed when

two boats capsized off djibouti the boats were carrying at least one hundred thirty migrants when refugees and refugees rather when they tipped over shortly after departing it's the stream now stay with us on our. from sunrise to sunset cross. the city explore. story one on one. ok i really could be here in this dream today will nigeria's muhammadu buhari win a second term as president we also nigerian journalists what to watch out for ahead of next month's elections do you have questions for them leave your comments in the you tube chat we will do our best to fit in the n.t. today's conversation. and.

nigerians head to the polls on february sixteenth to vote for their next president and national assembly incumbent. faces more than seventy challenges chief among them former vice president. of the main opposition people's democratic party or. bihari was elected to office in two thousand and fifteen riding a wave of hope that he and his all progressives congress party could equalize nigerian society and effectively fight the armed group millions of nigerians though remain unemployed hari has come under fire for suspending the country's chief justice just three weeks ahead of the election a move that prompted the opposition to halt its campaign for seventy two hours in protest with us now to discuss the election and some of the major issues affecting the campaigns we have journalists missing a bank of news wires based in a in lagos who reports for quartz africa and i live in the stuff is the managing

editor of course of america's house a service to having all his generous welcome everybody i want to recreate a moment that i had just a couple of weeks ago so i looked up the. national electoral commission the final list of presidential candidates and i said as i started to scroll down whoa look at how many people in contention and i scold and scold and scold and scold and i won't keep scrolling we have a show to do there's a lot of girly in there you and i apparently are not the only one surprised i want to share this tweet we got from al harry who says i'm really surprised to hear seventy people are contesting nigeria's presidency i've heard and seen six candidates their campaign posters around but only two seem to actually be campaigning i know only five political parties with their logos i have no idea what the others are or what their logos look like so merci give us some context here

seventy plus people is that unusual for nigeria selections. i don't think it's unusual frankly but this is a two horse race elections we have to be very realistic about. between and. in terms of the numbers in terms of popularity and. reach across the seven hundred seventy four local government in nigeria that's what it is about i mean it's good for people to be who. you want to govern this country to decide about this country as it is this is an election between the a.p.c. and the. it's not election night or an election where you between five major. elections in nigeria for two thousand and nine times. thinking this is country one hundred and eighty. citizens many of the vote

how can it be a two horse race when the only candidates actually so no we have a chance. you know this is this is typical of most democracies actually in most places where elections like this take place it's usually a two way race in the united states as we know. nigerians natura political and this is politics so everybody wants to be part of who they really want piece of cake and so it shouldn't be surprising that after seventy second to be elected by the end of the the they're all going to merge into this two political parties and they were. p.d.p. so take it from someone online i am now most voters don't even recognize all of these candidates some of them will be better off in the house and the senate also they don't have grassroots structures to enable them to win an election most of them won't even own their own polling unit so one skeptical take there but i wanted to share this otherwise you know me i'll give this one to you the same person says

truth be told we only have two or three presidential candidates others are just there to improve their c.v. or resume and make up the numbers pm b. which for our non nigerian audience is the abbreviation you'll see online for president president hadi i am not says he has seventy five percent chance of being elected so there's some surety there you know me what's your take here why is it that people feel so sure that there's really only two candidates. because that's that's a reflection of the reality even though every lection cycle we seem to be caught up between choosing between the idealism of once in a different sort of political leaders and the reality of accepting that you know only candidates from the dominant boxes stand a chance of winning so it's a real reflection of the reality there's some school of thought that's just that a lot of these people who are aiming for the presidency probably better off any for you know legislative positions in the national assembly the senate or the house of

reps or maybe even a need for governorship positions for the down the line as opposed to shooting straight for the presidency different people think different things as regards this but it's maybe a reflection of the at the rallies if you're being honest there are two dominant parties. we can chase idealism a once in a different sort of of this but obviously running for president has to accept that that reality will not come to twenty nineteen maybe in the next election cycle it requires a lot of work over three four five election cycles before they are strong enough you see to have any realistic chance of winning you know the interesting part of this in a condition as the similarity between the two major candidates. both i know the newest one in the military but that won't. but no nigerian politics as you're saying is we have actual cots for both of these candidates so let's put them side by side because you're saying that there are so many similarities so we stopped at one of the. i just said on to to make you laugh about. the other

side and i also would enjoy wallowing in the crowd and you know i'm not too far from them so i was just really had that kind of thing that we had the but i'm very split in the votes right now regionally both of them i know there's like i said they count one is from the know the ones that are from the know there's some part of the country and both of them i finance all of that i mean. we you know we talk if we talk and we've been in the northern part of the. and you know it is it can be any if you want anyway but when you split it among nigerians generally you know yes it's almost reported there perhaps an issue because he's the incumbent president but this is the next election that could well you know we. talked about the experience of the candidates al you described it as. the experience of thing candidate seniority of the candidate but there were young people also in contention and that's unusual for

a nigerian election correct yes sam i think frankly in a mopey party democracy you would expect a lot of people who are. to want to govern at some point but the young people that awful thing trying to get into the office of the president for this election i think that we have seen what do all of our people are doing and we realize that we are more even more competent that the argument than what we think they have gone through so fairly it. is a competition between competent for a generation of the all that are there all that. they need or that all the political elite as it where and the younger people that some of them think they have been able to manage business and they have been able to manage young people at different stages india and their careers and they feel they have the competence to

govern this country much better than. the president. i think people on line at least in our stream audience agree with you michael says for the first time in our history as a country we're having so many young aspirants failing to become president it's a new wave they're all capable and able hands with incredible record so there's there might be skepticism on that from some other people and how incredible those records are but young people is a talking point also female candidates i want to direct your attention to this. was in the race and she's a prominent candidate who was backing the bring back our girls campaign she dropped out not too long ago and our audience is talking about. one person says this is a good decision to have a formidable opposition to unseat the though it does week and betray the position

of women in terms of leadership you know me i want to give this one to you and this person is tweeting about that because one of the reasons that she dropped out is because she said she wanted to create a strong and viable coalition to defeat the incumbent would you make about. before we talk about the possibility of a coalition you know just to touch on the second part of the tweet saying if we can see the sort of the many are some some people seem to draw or or it's fair that you know obviously dropping out is a blow to women in politics but to be honest you know if we men but it's their standards. haven't you know politicians that. possibility is concerned if you truly feel that it's a little too late elections only three weeks ago they really a.b.c.'s of. coalition two thousand and thirteen but that question happened a full two years before the last elections even what if that happens right now. and

it could likely be for them as to having only three weeks for the election right and very little time to live to organize to mobilize and it's on it's pretty much areas so let's put that stat one more time because i know that you spoke to the president of nigeria last year. what challenges. reluctant caricature on the women part first before we go to that when clearly into whatever you want to you know three things that militate against women candidates in nigeria when is lack of resources to is lack of good fathers and third which is the biggest one is. that if they have something that i also got for the reason you know you have to have a big gunfight a big guy behind you to have lots of money would empower but the most important ingredient that is militating against women is the lack of mutual support for each other that women don't seem to support women in nigeria political culture for all around paul and you need to give us an example where every day ever every time you

see a big politician or a rally most of the people behind the guy would be women but if there is a woman candidate moving around with the people behind her we meant easy but to the issue of. ok but i think you want to say that. i don't agree that i don't agree with. this. process in nigeria in fanning the political elites have fallen away to appropriate the question of justice them to women and i said this because when you look at the major political parties they have a position called a women leader what does that mean why don't they have a men and you're looking at positions about nine percent eleven twelve positions one is a sense of just one woman and the qualities a woman leader and i always try to x. myself what does that mean if we're going to ensure our some level of equality what

unity for both men and women that it will stop with the political process let's look at your money money first let's look at the. open offices why should a political party with about nineteen to eighteen offices not sign its credit simply good numbers six nine ten eleven and i'm sure that women are also actively participating in that process rather than just saying oh well we have one position for you guys it's called women leaders and did it come things that bring women to just come and dance and that segues the left over us and get to work so i feel like it has to be a point sharp and a deliberate effort that he's led and driven by this potential to go practice with an ideology we got on the stand and that women and men can actually help to move this democracy from one point to another rather than. oh well where manager you guys when you want what we can offer you and that i frequent. ok i think that what

i let me come back to the question as about having his men mission of the movement he's to sneak into the three basic compare agenda that he had back in twenty fifteen if i can boko haram fighting corruption and the economy but he still has challenges and also three of them. has been you understand about what i do around you know in your in your interview with him and he was actually quite upbeat about how much progress happened right let's have a little listen to that and have that. one retreat in. four to five for at least seven or eight to look at it go months in the northeast and know you can check for people that the book is not holding in the field who can go month. so that. welcome

house arrest of a halt that it had before i present a high was in power absolutely and that is true if you were to the know this had been committed. the base for what was probably some hot at night is your biggest impact on nigeria and that's why the border town between you had a knee jerk cameron and at a country that had devastated by the boko haram insurgency. life has returned to normal basically but they still managed to you know run around and attack especially military installations and things like that so and like the president said using young girls to just they just attacks suicide bombings and things like that so that part is. the economy now has refused to but it still remains at one dollar three hundred sixty nine which it was it was less when you first came into office so and with corruption is where you have he's having his staff is fine we've got we've got three we've got three. connell and corruption right count right

. if i may jump in yeah yeah me go ahead and then i'll come after you because those are exactly the three things that everyone online is saying focus on me right i mean there's a three main issues they haven't changed it was the same in twenty fifteen however the dynamic changed. a majority of the people in twenty fifth possibly worried a lot more about insecurity and corruption more than they did the economy well right now that dynamic has changed a lot of people are worried about the economy because. still make great reading for example nitrogen out of the profits a couple of the world unemployment has more than doubled on this administration and it's not to say that people aren't worried about the security of course it's a big worry and the dynamics of it have also changed because i'm of the big threat in twenty fifteen now the reds have actually changed much so now i just got a big. you got a story conflicts in the middle of the country and those have been sent. it's what you regard as a for free response from the government so i do agree that those are the three main

issues but in terms of what people care about the most also the economy is definitely an insecurity has also changed that's why and i like lee said carson is a problem and that's the president's big tagline and to corruption the fact that he hasn't scored a runaway success in that field that's that's telling me so i want to share this just one second i want to share this because we just got this live on you tube peters says i think i'll go back i will defeat bihari on february sixteenth because bill harley has woefully failed to fulfill the yawning aspirations of nigerians and one of those some community members are saying as we've all heard already is about the economy so i want to play this video comment we got from simon a taiba he's the publisher of today's news africa space here in d.c. and here's what he said in less than two weeks nigerians go to the polls to elect a new president and to me one of the key issues these unemployment more than twenty

two percent of nigerian unemployed demick see more than twenty million names yet who cannot find work and there's an astronomical number been exposed and we have to fix unemployment both at the economy and and then show that corruption is really for. so mercy it we saw on that fact card earlier about the opposition member former vice president of a backer he's also an entrepreneur he's a businessman and so worries about the economy do you think that those will be reasons that some may vote for him. i think between the economy. include kerry and put this to issues the major candidates have been putting that agenda forward but more importantly this election is about the first time voters from one thousand nine hundred ninety six new young people are going from young people are going to be voting for the first day and of this number

we have about forty three million young people in the in the in the registered. ballots according to the independent national electoral commission and of this number about twenty two million i don't people first time voters so it's going to be an election where young people are saying to themselves we had fifty three million extremely poor people. who is putting out the economy issues for and why does the white of the economy matter you know what i demand from another point of view that there is well if we don't fight corruption corruption will graham nigeria there and that is where the incumbent president is that he is fighting corruption and he wants to come back and keep right in russia. are. you saying that this economy needs to be fixed and it has to be fixed now. is it pretty

much look depends on who you want to keep looking to right i need to also add that there is in so i can speak in the northern part of nigeria with the incumbent president and you invite your me rightly pointed out that i'm prepared to have change and there's been an upsurge back in the not so it's ok i mean i'm going to push on less i'm going to push on because because we actually have three more programs two more programs we're going to talk about the elections i want to push on so i really think it's important to get in and nigeria's chief justice has been suspended this is what the nigerian bomber so slow still had to say about that have a listen never had a time like this. have we experienced you know this kind of assault on the fundamental law of this country and because students of law and i referred to lawyers in this case must be the ones to meet and then determine who will forward and i'm in this particular case to the best of my knowledge the m.p.

is requesting that there be outright of the suspension of the justice of nigeria because it follows the fundamental law of the land it destroys the very foundation upon which is built and it is worth some of trouble song for us at this moment. so in an election where it would be contended all might be contended that chief justice is the person who would decide who overseen what happens next so there is concern that that chief justice is no longer in a job right now so many what is our community saying about this being a free and fair election they're giving it aside this is an economy and twitter who says this is french and of the chief justice is a bad move it's another hypocritical decision it makes us doubt if the government can allow credible elections a lot of people online are talking about wanting free and fair elections it's something you often hear when it comes to countries are in the west you never hear that about the west but is it valid in this case especially because we know in

twenty fifteen largely what observers say is that they were free and fair elections i think it's the timing that matters in this election i think the timing of the sister nation by the president of the c.g. and is what is triggering this this noise this political battle over the place and their two recent appointment that but i remember that triggering this kind of controversy when it if you just says that the police chief and both of them have a lot to do with the outcome of the elections when you're supposed to oversee the legality of the election the security aspect of the election and so when you make changes to these positions let's not a month to the election you should expect a lot of reactions like this right now the country is divided along the agree disagree you know with the with many but everybody is politicizing this of course is he in the airwaves with you know criticizing behavior over this and by it is trying to say this guy has not declared he's said so that's why he has to work but

no matter what reason the government advances for the suspension of the troop just says this is going to be controversial obviously. yeah we don't have to that yet so i agree with a view of the timing definitely might as well more than a time in the process as well you know is incredibly cordial so likely you said the chief justice who is not a suspect that is supposedly an investigation for a four i said to collaboration scandal in quotes. the government has said that his trial has been delayed by technicalities but then again for a government that blames that delay on technicalities it looks as though it is itself taking advantage of a technicality so to suspend him it's essentially not a question of whether you know he may have done what he did or he may not have done what he did it's a question of due process and to. to take this step only three weeks before the election given the time it is bound to his question so i do agree

the timing much has been to do you process of removal or appointed a new chief justice absent the trumps everything else due process of respect that's what we have a country of laws all right let's just take it a little sitting right there. playing with her actually very closely in the atmosphere right now is what. i think young people are excited about it and i hope that you know the process is you know i speak as full as we wanted to be. and it's you know tension here and there but you know. there is this excitement for the younger generation especially those that would be put in for the first time i mean they have been concept that they've been. program to get out by going to. our site then all right so messing thank you thank you thank you community thank you before we go two things to tell you about so i called an audition team are running an initiative corps nigeria speaks as election approaches

it is a close facebook group right here so if you want to join it you can just look out for nigeria facebook and special programs many. special programs we are planning here at the stream we're going to air two one hour election specials february thirteenth and fourteenth each show will be on t.v. with an hour on line see they're. afraid can tell a story without uttering a single. unconventionality of like. witness three demands of the. on al-jazeera. stand the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world.

al-jazeera in recent years the sawhill of north africa as witness the so-called war on terror. but is this official narrative. masking a larger battle. a battle for the earth's natural resources. shadow war in the. colleague must much the same as now being held in pretrial detention for two years what is his crime. why hasn't he been tried yet why hasn't justice been applied in this case is he detained because he said charnel us as journalism become a crime have moles become a tool to silence voices of truth we will continue i news coverage with

professionalism and impartiality our work will remain credible and accurate but journalism is not a crime incarcerating journalists is not acceptable we demand the immediate release of all colleague mamu to same and all journalists detained in a gyptian jails free mahmoud's and all his colleagues we stand for press freedom.

getting strong support from both russia and china as he says he is now ready to negotiate with the country's self-proclaimed president but also russia and china are. also on the grid finding a way. britain. exit. the. winter in the north from its. real extremes we'll have one of our own in-house meteorologist explain the science . and the concept. and. why.

online through you tube facebook is the red dot com and russia has now stepped into venezuela's crisis saying it's ready to help mediate between the two men who say they are president now the elected leader nicolas maduro also says he is ready to negotiate with his opposition rival. the man who has declared himself interim president however. russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov says for negotiations to be successful venezuela's opposition needs to drop all preconditions related in the region that it will to model if this mediation sees any attempt to include any kind of preconditions dinette kind of mediation is unlikely to be fruitful or useful it is unlikely to be supported we call upon the opposition to refuse ultimatums and to work together independently god is only by the interests of the venezuelan people

so let's not worry chalons in moscow hiring i guess it was only a matter of time until we heard in the russians with regards to venezuela what more the circle of i've had to say and what does it tell us about things going forward. well i think it tells us the russia is using parts of the same playbook that it has used in syria now in its dealings with the opposition in syria and with president bashar al assad russia has long said and long been a part of the negotiation process saying that basically for these two sides to come together and talk the opposition has to be able to drop all its dumond's and negotiate with the governments of damascus now how the opposition in venezuela negotiating with the president in caracas basically no preconditions no

demands we have to do this impartially we have to do this in a legitimate way because from the russian perspective. and nicolas maduro both the legitimate leaders of their respective countries so that's really what russia is is doing at the moment it is saying that it is willing to play a role in this negotiation process this mediation it's not saying at the moments that it wants to take the leading role there are other countries that nicolas maduro has as touted as being possible intermediaries as well but russia is certainly putting itself as. you know any interested party here and so on who a country that it believes can try and resolve this of course with its own interests that it wants to safeguard on the ground in venezuela a good way of comparing things actually with syria they're just one of the quick

question really in this is about nicolas maduro speaking to russian media i believe about what he says is a quote unquote coup. you know just a kook nicolas maduro has been saying that actually believes that the donald trump administration is trying to kill him and has lost the colombian government and the colombian maffia to basically do that job now obviously nicolas maduro is feeling slightly in secure of the moments more insecurity is felt in a good long time there are protesters out on the streets over recent weeks and he has. an opposition member. this this man who basically you know leads the national assembly has been more effective in opposition than anyone has been in in recent times and venezuela so nicolas maduro is feeling insecure he is turning to russia to try and protect him he's turning to china as well there is

this big question what is russia doing now it has been reported in reuters news agency it's been reported in the russian press as well that there are mercenaries who have been sent from moscow to venezuela to basically be bodyguards for nicolas maduro he was asked about this in the interview that he did with three and overstay the russian news agency earlier he wouldn't comment and they. venezuelan ambassador to russia deny those reports the kremlin has said it's got nothing to say about it as well but there are credible reasons to believe that there are certainly things that russia is doing to try and safeguard nicolas maduro personal security at the moment ok thank you for all of that that's right chalons in moscow we're going to bogota now without asunder yet he is following developments and the highlights andrea we hear a lot about nicolas maduro there from rory what about mystic wedo one greater what

is happening with him in light of. the attorney general's. desire to investigate him. well the first thing to say is that there are new demonstrations that are expected to star in two hours time. can ask as any other cities across the country this time they are expected to be different from the mass massive rallies that we see that we've seen a week ago in. venezuela and who support the opposition very expected to stage walk out from work from their houses noon venezuelan time and stand on sidewalks for a couple of hours holding white sheets of papers demanding regime change in the country and free elections and they're also expected to make calls to

military to soldiers to policemen on the streets and whether they know that they can reach out to demanding asking them to essentially join them in their fight for a regime change and there is a man's for him to do it or to step down in all this since you were saying it's happening just one day after the attorney general's office in venezuela and noun the beginning of an investigation into what they are describing as anti-government actions on part of the leader of the opposition and self-proclaimed including presidents. ok thank you for that update alessandro in bogota what we want to do now is broaden things out further because along with russia china has a strong vested interest is what is happening in bed and sway that it is also a staunch ally of nicolas maduro and wants him to stay in power to china correspondent adrian brown explains why. they were jumping for joy when president

nicolas maduro was lost in china four months ago but today the leadership here is not excited about the prospect of venezuela without him at the helm. china is venezuela's biggest creditor has invested heavily in its oil industry and regards president maduro as its strongest ally in south america china has lent more money to venezuela upwards of sixty billion dollars than it has to any other country in the world it's probably been repaid up to two thirds of that but that leaves anywhere in the neighborhood of twenty to thirty billion dollars venezuela china analysts say china's leaders are concerned about whether the deals will be honored if the opposition party takes power but for now china continues to voice support from the duros coupled with veiled warnings to the united states. china opposes for

interference in the internal affair of especially one as well and government to uphold national sovereignty independence and threatening military interference and continued to support efforts made by the stability. the growing political economic and humanitarian crisis in venezuela has attracted global headlines and concern the main evening news on state controlled television has shown pictures of the protests but so far made no mention of the violence or suffering of the people. as in africa chinese influence in south america is expanding fast especially in venezuela. besides money china has also been helping the majeure regime in another important way it's now venezuela's biggest provider of alms including weapons for crowd control which have been proving so effective joining the current unrest adrian brown al jazeera beijing writes that is china don't forget russia or is well in

fact this article from al-jazeera dot com today is a good reminder of that crucial strategic partnership in fact that's what vladimir putin said as well strategic partner it's called what russia stands to lose in venezuela and it vladimir rivlin ski was a foreign policy expert at the university in columbia says if i can find it here venezuela is russia's last asset in latin america clearly that is not something it will just walk away from or indeed take lightly so let's discuss that and more with latin american affairs specialist robert valencia joining us on skype from new york hi robert this feels phil india russia and china on one side and the west slash everyone else on the other side of a. regional dispute i'm guessing that wouldn't really worry either russia or china they're looking after their own interests. of course i mean let's let's look at what happened a couple of weeks ago when president my little visit i mean putin and basically

moscow offer a lifeline to caracas with six billion dollars and they sign on a rate of of you know business dealings russia sent two nuclear bombers to caracas which actually rattled washington because this we haven't seen anything like this since the missile crisis now back in the one nine hundred sixty s. so certainly cuba and russia and turkey also has interests in venezuela there's no doubt about that it's not just the united states is not just and america there's a lot at stake here and in addition to the riches of an israel that we have a humanitarian crisis three million people less than israel since twenty fifteen so there is a lot here to to these cuz there's a lot yes they can i mention so it's in everybody's interest to have a stable but israel one of our viewers watching on facebook live has its can russia and.