all the noises coming out of brussels say we told you before we're not going to do that those noises the messaging has been consistent and unified from brussels and it's continuing right now i should just say that apparently tourism a has responded in the last hour or so from from comments in brussels saying that she knows reopening the withdrawal agreement will not be an easy process and that there will be reluctance on the use side that's possibly the biggest understatement of the year in the last hour or so both junk john claude young. head of the european commission and michelle downey a the chief breaks it negotiate to have stood up in front of the european parliament and said basically we're sticking by what we've always said which is that the withdrawal agreement is the best and only possible deal which avoids a hard border between northern ireland and ireland and guess what that's exactly

what to resume a was saying until just a couple of weeks ago trying to get parliament to line up behind that deal will now she's saying that i'm sure that when push comes to shove the e.u. come counterparts will actually budge they'll blink at the last minute many of her supporters say that's what the e.u. always does but what the e.u. traditionally has done is given way at the last minute to accommodate one of its member states and to keep them happy in this situation we're asking ourselves will it budge to to accommodate a state which has asked to leave the club and to make very happy now michel bunny specifically said that the irish backstop is sacrosanct because of the nature of the good friday agreement. on the island of island in the

last few hours the irish foreign minister has said there are more important issues to us than economic interests sure will take a hit as will other e.u. countries but what we just can't tamper with the idea of having border checks once again on the island of islands now treason may says that there are a magical ways of getting round this but until she actually says how bad it's going to happen we're really not in the clear on the clock is ticking that involve a thank you the bodies of at least forty three migrants and refugees have been found after two boats capsized off djibouti the boats were carrying at least one hundred thirty people sixteen were rescued but many others are still missing thousands of migrants from the horn of africa try across the strait from djibouti to the arabian peninsula where they hope to find work in gulf countries the united nations is warning that refugees and migrants crossing the mediterranean sea are

losing their lives ass on alarming rate new figures released by the un's refugee agency show six people died on average every day last year it estimates that more than two thousand two hundred migrants died or went missing while attempting the crossing route was particularly deadly for boats leaving libya where one person died at sea every fourteen who arrived in europe last despite a major drop in the number of refugees reaching the continent one hundred thirty nine thousand arrived in twenty eighteen but is the lowest number in five years charlie actually from the un refugee agency says the number of migrant deaths in twenty 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 there could in fact be quite far higher. still ahead on the program the deputy head of sudan's opposition is questioned by security officers as protests against president bashir continue. and naive and wrong president from his own intelligence agencies often better assessment differs from his. hello again 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 homecoming though it is going to be a nice day if 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 or even quite nice for here in doha we are seeing temperatures there of twenty five degrees over towards abu dhabi about twenty four

and as we go towards friday doha you get a little bit better twenty six degrees but a beautiful day down to a salon with a temperature of about twenty eight degrees there. a face can tell a story without uttering a single one. and knowing god. can guide us. a simple touch inform us. the unconventionality of life witness through the lens of the human eye. is what inspires us. witness documentaries on al-jazeera.

welcome back under mind at the top stories on al-jazeera venezuelan opposition supporters have been called back out onto the streets to try to urge the military to defect from the elected president nicolas maduro he's been paying another visit to troops out amid a free face in the capital caracas. u.k. prime minister trees a mayor has met opposition leader jeremy cool then to try to find common ground on a brick soup with a draw deal british parliament has given may a two week deadline to try to reach a new agreement with the e.u. . on the bodies of at least forty three migrants and refugees have been found of the two boats capsized off duty boats were carrying at least one hundred thirty people and many still missing. but if the head off saddam's main opposition party has been questioned by security forces mariam study family says she was arrested at

home in the capital khartoum along with several other party members before being released hours later a father is the former prime minister decal mctee his return from exile last month coincided with the start of protests against president omar al bashir his government security forces of also cordoned off the university of khartoum campus where fesses all staging a sit in. turns out is government is giving itself more powers over political parties a new law will allow a government run registrar to blacklist parties and tension in jail that members president john mica foodie's government has already banned some newspapers on restrict its opposition rallies its rival say the changes will effectively turn tanzania into a one party state hundreds of millions of people across north america are being hit by harsh winter storms and records low temperatures

a blast of arctic air has been sweeping across the midwest and is now bearing down on north eastern states bringing a once in a generation deep freeze. has all. 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 called their doors even a few minutes outside could lead to frostbite so millions of americans have been warned to city home local governments are taking measures so people can stay warm indoors 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 as it's known is moving across midwest states bringing a dangerous wind chills with it that's also reaching 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 an hour or so mike that. you know it's going out it's a layer of ice underneath it's. going to be real lucky if i get out today the subzero temperatures have caused problems at 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 with al-jazeera or wendy wolf it joins us live from an old people's

home that's currently being used as what's termed as a warming center in chicago what if us was tell us just how bad all the situations are outside light. well felicity good afternoon to you we spent about ten or so minutes outside before we came into this war means then or i can tell you it's about ten eleven degrees below zero from the time i left home it went down to about negative eighteen so very very cold out there and that's why the city has opened more than two hundred seventy warming centers just like this one because it's simply not safe to stay outside in these kinds of temperatures frostbite can set in and as few as five minutes millions of people as we've been talking about across the upper midwest hunkering down today as the wind chills are set to go as low as seventy

below zero schools are closed most offices are allowing people to work from home and it's so cold the u.s. postal service which almost never stops service has suspended mail deliveries in eleven midwestern states as you also mentioned thousands of flights have been cancelled not because of the planes but because it's simply dangerous too dangerous for crews to work on the aircraft or load and unload luggage perspective here felicity we are colder here in some parts of the united states colder than antarctica siberia and even the base camp at mount everest we are set to challenge here in chicago of the record temperature set back in nineteen eighty five negative twenty seven unfortunately the forecast is going to get worse before it gets better we are set to have accumulating snow tomorrow the warmer temperatures though are set warmer i mean thirty's and forty's are set thankfully for this weekend you know

i mean when. i would have to for now back to you in london. what i was going to say you guys are used to dealing with such really really cold weather. but you know what about people who might be actually cause all for you know you literally can't get out of the houses because of the snow. you know what they have been warning us about this polar vortex and its approach for a good a week or so now and so people have been planning they have been going to the stores they haven't been getting all of the supplies so most people because we are here in chicago and we are used to cold winters most people are prepared for the worst and unfortunately it as we see the forecast is going to get worse before it gets better but thankfully we are used to these brutal brutal went to years and certainly this is going to go down in history as one of the worst certainly is

wendy thanks so much well u.s. president donald trump a slash at the country's intelligence services calling the naive and rolled over the threat posed by a rome itself to trump's own intelligence officials contradicted some of his claims on key national security issues that included syria north korea the president's assertion that ted rowlands is actively seeking to develop nuclear weapons let's go to our white house correspondent kelly how could we get more details on this and kimberly i guess the intelligence services they were used to being criticized by a president. yeah and it seems that donald trump was watching the television news chat shows early this morning because all of the networks were covering the apparent contradictions between donald trump's foreign policy and what was being said by we should point out a republican appointed. director of national intelligence dan coats when he testified before the senate intelligence committee on worldwide threats in congress

on tuesday with respect to iran felicity dan coats the director of national intelligence said and directly contradicted donald trump when he said that iran is in compliance with the twenty fifteen agreement that the united states of course with of course withdrew from to limit iran's nuclear program he had fact testified that is not taking steps to build a nuclear weapon that didn't seem to sit well with president donald trump as you point out he called that assessment passive and naive in fact he said they are wrong talking about his intelligence agency he said that iran is testing rockets and coming very close to the edge but again that is not the assertion of the top intelligence official in the united states and we should point out this isn't the first time he's clashed with dan coats in fact he did so again last july when coats once again reaffirmed what the intelligence agencies have been saying about the two thousand and sixteen u.s. election and that is that russia interfered is clearly a fractious relationship between trump on his intelligence services but does not

relationship does not actually affect the wook all the intelligence services on oh oh. well you know many people would argue that this is the way the u.s. system of government is set up it's a system of checks and balances that the congress and and many of these institutions are holding a check on the presidential or executive power and we've seen this even as the president was talking and touting the successes of the relationship with north korea as well on twitter we saw the fact that the testimony from the director of national intelligence was very different saying that they believe the united states believes that north korea will never give up its nuclear weapons even as donald trump was saying tremendous progress had been made we should also point out in terms of action to kind of make sure that the president's policy sometimes which can be rash for example the announced troop withdrawal with respect to syria that the president made abruptly a december nineteenth well what we're seeing there on capitol hill in recent days

is a move by the top republican the president's own party mitch mcconnell working on legislation to ensure that when those troops are withdrawn from the from syria that in fact it will not be hasty so what we're seeing here is a very unusual relationship typically we see presidents backing up the intelligence agencies not questioning them publicly but that appears what we're seeing right now and certainly we are seeing congress as well as other agencies proceeding in spite of that indeed kimberly in washington thank you for that people from across india are gathering in the capital new delhi to protest against worsening living conditions for me offices foremost women's rights activists and ethnic minority groups were among those taking calls on the first day of a nine day demonstration against the national democratic alliance government retired officers a demanding a single pension scheme which new rights of modi promised during his election campaign but it's failed to deliver. the authorities in the thai capital

have closed hundreds of schools this talk six small chokes the city a thick haze has hung over bangkok the weeks prompting growing fears about the health of local people on wednesday students were sent home from school as the authorities try to manage the situation there blaming the problem on traffic few construction crop burning and pollution from factories. but the mind of course you can find out much more about that story and many of the others that we are covering by going to our website usually dresses al jazeera dot com al-jazeera dot com for your latest news force and breaking international news. and reminder the top stories on al-jazeera thousands of venezuelans are expected to return to the streets urging the military to confront the elected president nicolas

maduro as pressure grows for him to step down earlier madeira visited troops as a military base in the capital caracas he signaled that he is willing to negotiate with the opposition leader one why do we declared him self the country's interim president last week duros close ally russia says it wants to help open talks with the opposition. it's in the region that it will to model if this mediation sees any attempt to include any kind of preconditions the next 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 bin as well and people that. british prime minister to resume a has met the opposition leader jeremy corbyn to try to find common ground on a deal for leaving the european union parliament has given may a two week deadline to try to renegotiate an agreement with the e.u.

m.p.'s have also to go back to brussels to demand changes to what is known as the backstop that is the contentious issue of the border between ireland and northern ireland. the bodies of at least forty three migrants and refugees have been found after two boats capsized off djibouti the boats were carrying at least one hundred and thirty people sixteen were rescued but many others a still missing the deputy head of sudan's main opposition party has been questioned by security forces. family say she was arrested at home in the capital khartoum along with several other party members before being released hours later hundreds of millions of people across north america bracing for brutal winter storms and record low temperatures a blast of arctic air is bearing down on northeastern states bringing a once in a generation deep freeze the u.s. midwest is especially hard hit chicago and michigan are blanketed in heavy snow

while minneapolis recorded its coldest temperature minus twenty knowing degrees celsius thousands of flights have been canceled and schools are closed and those are the latest headlines witnesses coming next to stay with us.

the pay. wall why they always move it in a. hurry. in here. oh yeah. he was in there i don't know if we're going to hear. what they got a feel for. this case they said. it was.

dallas or yeah i'm down time yeah call you have found a place but i need something hudson to go. ahead of myself and i feel by hand i'm with you. i never had. it's a model. and one of. our flaws are the. way women don't pass sound hinted on that hang out at washington. where i walk hanna come up and guess what i do and neil what else. i lease i mean you got to trash. so which i sure will pick up. on and.

you know he'll go sure don't you know me and johnny's huge huge you're going to as you're going to go now i hope the home is your voice you. did when i posted them. i mean jane she didn't receive me from one subject because i really mean what i hear because who will see your way that you had to pay off the child for. a lot of hope and that is what you know about was that with the thought of i thought the. one with the one with the thought that if i look. away a woman's. you know the one with john impulse you got the heart of the. whole i've had other you know again that it was a lot. he seemed to. stop stop stop. stop stop. stop stop.

stop stop this book because i am not you know from i don't know what. to do you know. where to find one you know we. i. wish he thought. that by his this is what i have to do the army is good enough to know you have power and i did and i did it over to the town where the car.

thought that we are today in one year not enough to really win. but i find points all of the somewhat up without point. changing you want to lose you know. this is the song. you need to sleep just to move his.

name when the man you know well i'm going to jump looking at you oh you know you're not going anywhere never live in the jungle will shock the. united airlines i know that you rock on the way you are as a player but you know. that working group here here with you as an iowa is as good a on the triad back behind us as up on the high pretty content. and not just your letter your real out where you. feel body as he was he was not sure what you saw you big you have on your back with all the lashing you got without going off to the. other you are. almost all of the locals of the day you may have. heard.

it done yeah i want to look they have four more years. so i. thought oh yes ends well. it's a judge of you is the unanimous jayna. here for three who are three full monty which. we're going to talk about. but it was a it's a slippery slope of the because. i'm waiting on a woman any of us have. to know when you ask

her that evening at lax going to be you mean will you go see you yeah someone has to ask you what has us as a potential this man so neither the tom who you know one. who was on me we. need any source who didn't you you mean you would say you would see doing it and it was your way of. putting forward what's wrong what. will happen you know. what i can only wish amaro blaggard would when you see any man who they are you know i mean a minus from iowa which means you have had. the whole lot in your we ain't she.

seems to know who was going on there. if they hired. you are you going to go. on a nice yacht. for us and me show you what you're saying yeah this was. you know her innocence in the idea that you and i can. feel the presence of a soldier killed today because some good news yeah so how are some of them a system for not going up the case here that that's a new one and if you're running a nice choice or did your father was an ex-con you know maybe someone you mario that can hire you are you. sure are you thinking rationally enough for you when you show you some we'll see what the doctor who was also that i will from my we

had you had. resigned you had your. chance and then i can say your thing that you bought policy you know and. you know what you mustn't go something. for you but i was in the army. most going out after the some kind of the scenes and since then. well you know not often the other guys on it so i mean yes just on the brink got you out so. for me you were so yeah laying on june nineteenth when union unseemly how. you know about her. and i just you know how.

to be a lot of. force concept behind the call that. i saw so my. daughter got a throughout. if there were one or more. if he had to then the accuracy of. the purpose of what they got out of what that. it is it may hope the net for that woman are but i don't. agree that your gas can yet not good that we did you can tell us any of them agree that d.f.

got up and took his gun out i mean i'm on ha. and these he was on set i'm told to hold out on the hobo he was here at moma. hiding from the head on hold. until an end to this that he could a new skill and it's being paid to put this on he hoskin in law and he made it to his on teammate anthony home. in that and. then yeah in the county of the law that had tons of money on someone i mean some of it should. i assume you get what little of that you guys have and you've left. the i'm a guy who was so positive. that what's on the high.