specht 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. 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 its 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. let's move to other news the u.k.'s prime minister has met the opposition leader labor leader jeremy corben as they try to find common ground on a deal to leave the european union the british parliament given may a two week deadline to renegotiate the break that agreement she signed with the

e.u. in the van m.p.'s have asked her to go back to brussels demand changes to what's known as the back stop an arrangement to avoid a hard border between the republic of ireland and northern ireland however european union leaders insist they want renegotiate that deal to weave dual agreements remains the best and only the. do opinion so in november. we set sail in december. after the first million new full vote in the commons in general. the debate unfolds in the house of commons yesterday do not change that far we've gotten agreement we look the rigidly renegotiate. so here's november in london to talk through some of this in the dream it just feels like or looks like even that the u.k. is now going into a phase where they know the answer already or what the answer probably will be from

the e.u. but still pressing on anyway. that's reuters although things have changed obviously here in the u.k. you are talking about that first meaningful vote two weeks ago in which to reason may's deal was hugely voted down in parliament and so now and tuesday night what we saw was in fact m.p.'s voting to say we will accept the withdrawal agreement or the deal that's being signed between the u.k. and brussels if you go back and renegotiate that backstop the thing that's causing so much so many problems for particularly the right wing of trees made conservative party and the democratic unionist party so what it was referring to was the best and only a deal that's exactly the language language that to resume a was using up until that big defeat as she suffered now she's saying well i've

been given a mandate we don't know exactly. what exactly she's going to do but it's clear that she is sticking to her guns in part minister's questions she was asked by the leader of the opposition jeremy corbyn to outline what alternative arrangements she might have up her sleeve that she's being urged to go and put to to brussels she couldn't specify she then did meet jeremy corbin privately for the first time in quite a while he's refused to me or until she ruled out a no deal breck's it was she didn't do that exactly but now there's a mandate also from parliament to rule out they've said we rule out no deal breaks it in theory then discussions now are ongoing here but many people are asking themselves well what kind of hope is there if as you were saying the other side of the table a so resolute in saying there's no time and no willingness to renegotiate something

that's taken two years and i'm right in saying again we're now on a two week deadline i mean it feels like we've had deadline after deadline here and things get extended invites happen and things happen what's what's the plan for the next two weeks and then who knows what after that. that's exactly right well the the the key deadline is march the twenty ninth and the default position is unless there is a deal which is passed by the u.k. parliament as well as the european parliament on the other parliaments then the u.k. leaves the european union some people say it will be crushing out without a deal and there have been die of warnings recently from businesses around the u.k. from food suppliers from people who work in the health care sector warning of shortages of medicines as well as food and so on and the e.u. is admitting that it's of concern to itself as well the irish foreign minister in the last few hours said that he obviously is concerned about a no deal breaks at the germans have been saying the same but the message is some

things are more important than the economic hit we'll take and that's code for we don't want to do anything which will in danger of the good friday agreement and bringing back a hard border on the island of ireland and people like. the key negotiator for the e.u. has said that this is this is just not going to happen they're saying you can't come and talk to us about the future relationship and perhaps we'll get somewhere in striking a deal a trade deal which means that that backstop won't be necessary but don't ask us to take it out unless you've got a real plan b. apparently jeremy called it into reason may have been talking about the idea of a customs union something the labor party wants in future but there's nothing of substance so far and so people in the u.k. still wondering are we going to leave the you with a deal are we going to do it on time so much uncertainty still here extraordinary stuff thank you nadine barber in london. and we're always pleased to have done to

her about going with us author of from partition to brags that the irish government and northern ireland so done i can. feel like i'm going to probably end up asking you the same questions i asked you last time we spoke because nothing seems to change much particular the fact that as names just saying the backstop is the sticking point and it doesn't really look like there's a way through. yes but you have to look good from the i guess your perspective that you know the bush doctrine is. the backstop indeed it was in many respects the british government also in december two thousand and seven that's all for a year ago and at that time doris johnson was the secretary. david davis was the secretary the very people who have been complaining about the box since then and you know this is solidly agreed and now we're revisiting an issue again this

debate you've been here thirty nine billion euro but the british stock is supposed to pay here and that made for a new position as well i think it's worked up a size in about you know from the european union's perspective this is nothing has changed i mean driesum a still does not have a stable majority she's still dependent on people who at heart perhaps don't want any deal certainly some people in this your research group in parliament don't want to deal and they haven't offered an alternative to the buck stop there's still big talk about technological solutions that have not been burglarized anywhere else the world and the european union it's got to go and that's your job isn't you've said there are some things that are more important to the european union the no deal and particularly single market for example is one of them. so you don't think then that there is a chance of the e.u. . if i can put it this way blinking first because it almost looks like that is the british position now we will go we will negotiate even though we know the e.u.

doesn't want to negotiate and we'll just hope they blink first. you're absolutely right and that is now the assumption of a critical number are individuals within the house of commons they think that this is a game a matter of great britain ship that he was bluffing on the backstop and there's that in hard to let you know it's also based on the assumption that when it comes to comparing britain and ireland britain will always be of more value to the european union so essentially our it will be dumped at a critical juncture when it's clear that britain won't move on the backstop but i think it's important to show. what the german foreign ministry said today and they said that germany for example at the entire european union is is behind bars and on the back stop it won't allow ireland to be isolated on this issue and there will be no reopening of negotiations on the backstop because that would be reopening the withdraw would be much of that made it quite clear that it's not in their interests

to do with zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero you know they've already visited these issues before they are the other two extensive. or two years they did at this stage i don't think trust truth ability to deliver on anything she has agreed on so far and certain nothing that she will agree are in the near future danica back on it's always a pleasure talking to you thank you. there is plenty more ahead for you on this news hour should he be minding his language the problem with the president in the white house who has shall we say a colorful way with words. also. thousands protest in india's capital to demand what was promised to them and they say this is just the beginning. and in sport the rugby league team that could miss out on the world cup to see interference from their own country.

so that story from india now where thousands of former service members are gathering in new delhi to demand money promised to them through a scheme called one rank one pension it is the first of many planned rallies by various groups who are fed up with india's worsening socio economic conditions mohammed has this story. demonstrators in new delhi former indian army officials gathered to express their mounting frustration ahead of elections in the coming months i mean men are very angry with. government because they have not fulfilled that promise with them make that are the sole job whenever he makes a promise even if he has respective eyes it's like he's ready to do that they don't thinking what would happen to his family what will happen to student and every time . that unfulfilled promise is a scheme known as the one rein one pension the program was supposed to provide an

equal amount of attention paid to defense personnel retiring in the same rank and with the same length of service regardless of their date of retirement over two million x. servicemen and hundreds of thousands of war widows stand to be the immediate beneficiaries. we're not asking followed the rules really not asking for the. it is a little late which this should not have been a does phone. oldies ears this gathering marks the beginning of nine days of planned protests near parliament to highlight what participants say is the worsening socio economic conditions under the government of prime minister narendra modi who came to power in two thousand and fourteen at the time one of the main promises he made was to implement the equal pension plan demonstrators say it still hasn't happened. maybe he had promised the man one rank one pension in his twenty's election rally if they supported him in the twenty fourteen elections men fulfilled their promise and supported and helped him become the pm but he has forgotten his

promise to government officials say they've begun implementing the policy but these demonstrators say that's not the case now in the run up to this year's general election many will continue to ask when or if this long standing demand of the indian armed forces and veterans will be met. and. china's vice premier is in washington for trade talks with the trumpet ministration trying to resolve the dispute that saying the two countries impose trade tariffs on each other relations sod further on monday when u.s. prosecutors filed new criminal charges against the chinese tech company while away and its chief financial officer if before he moved into the white house donald trump was known for using language against opponents that no president ever us at least publicly but he hasn't changed his ways and he's accusing rival democrats of now wanting to let murderers flood into the country it is creating concern that he's permanently up ending american politics and provoking violence even the

support from alan fischer. and the radical democrats president donald trump thinks nothing of attacking opponents using claims and nicknames to win political advantage as angry as presidents get congress and the bureaucracy and reporters and their news organizations other presidents have not tried to deal agenda minus 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 your policy which is that it's radical democrats they've become a radical as 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 his 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 trump like language to describe the president bully don't play and maybe don't because we're going to go i mean really. i 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 al-jazeera washington 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 mcafee's government has already banned some newspapers in restricted opposition rallies his rivals say the changes will effectively turn tanzania into a one party state authorities in bangkok have closed hundreds of schools

as toxic smog chokes the city a thick haze is hung over the thai capital for weeks prompting growing fears about the health of residents on wednesday students with stents sent home from schools or thora his try to manage the situation there blaming the problem on traffic few construction crop burning and factory pollution u.s. senator bernie sanders has announced the resubmission of a draft resolution to stop american support in the war in yemen urging congress to put a stop to this war and they told me very clearly when yemenis see made in usa on the bombs that are killing them it tells them that the united states of america is responsible for this war. this is not a message the united states should be sending to the world the united states should not be supporting a catastrophic war led by

a despotic saudi regime with a dangerous and irresponsible military policy our on authorized engagement in the war in yemen must end what the united states senate said in no uncertain terms is that we will not continue to have our military posture dictated by a despotic murderous regime in saudi arabia a regime which does not respect democracy which is not respect human rights or regime whose leader was involved in the horrific murder of dissident journalist jamal khashoggi in the saudi consulate in turkey and subsequently how going about as a white house correspondent feels like kambli the issue of the war in yemen had taken a back seat for a while it had the momentum while the jamal khashoggi story was strong but now it comes back perhaps with any sound as. yeah it feels like we've seen this movie

before because we have we saw very similar actions taken at the end of twenty eighteen we saw the senate pass this effort to require congressional authorization for u.s. military support for the saudi led coalition in yemen but it didn't pass in the house and under u.s. law in order for legislation to pass it needs to do it in both chambers and then be signed by the president into law but we have had a change of congress now we have democrats in control of the house of representatives and so we've seen this where these legislators in the senate a bipartisan we should point out are reintroducing this in the hopes that it will pass in both chambers and then will be a very uncomfortable test for donald trump whether or not he will veto this or sign it into law how much of a force is bernie sanders the senator i mean you sort of everything starts getting viewed through the prison of twenty twenty now and his name does still pop up but he seems to hold on to the issues that are important to him like the war in yemen.

i think what's important to note is this is not potential presidential ambitions once again of bernie sanders an independent but the fact that he was standing there with democrats and also republicans i think that is what's notable and the fact that the there seems to be a lot of support in the house of representatives in the lower chamber for this legislation something that we didn't see before i think what is important here is that we have seen an expansion of presidential power particularly when it comes to the use of military force since the september eleventh attacks that was the justification back then for this broad and sweeping use of military power that increasingly the american public has become very uncomfortable with so it is very possible this is going to succeed in both chambers again has to be signed by the president but this could be important because this is an exceptional this is the first time we've seen congress kind of reasserting its role that is

constitutionally mandated this use that will require congressional authorization moving forward for any sort of use of military force not only is this notable because this is utilizing a nine hundred seventy three act but this could have implications beyond yemen for example in venezuela or just this week we heard the national security adviser john bolton saying all options are on the table when it comes to military intervention there as well chile how it could in washington thank you when one vacation companies have been accused of supporting human rights violations against palestinians international says israeli listings of homes and activities is directly contributing to the expansion of illegal settlements or a burden man that has been taking a look at that. and the sea 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 few links 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.b. said it would remove the listings in settlements in the occupied west bank but not occupied east jerusalem and the sea says many of those things aren't honest about where the hotels are such as one hotel in the far adam 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 for the eviction of all villages in september israel has

offered 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 we've got an e-mail with us now co-founder of electronic intifada which is an independent news website and he's in amman for us thanks for your time. i mean it's good i guess from your perspective that amnesty is drawing attention to this you think people are going to take notice and that it will be something they would actually think about when they're booking a holiday. well there's no doubt that people will take notice the companies are taking notice b. and b. has as mentioned in the report already said it will pull listings from parts of the west bank not yet occupied east jerusalem but that's the result of

a grassroots pressure the results of the message coming to these companies from human rights groups and others that they are involving themselves in criminal activities really promoting and aiding and profiting from the supplements is no different than walking into a store robbing it at gunpoint and then going out into the street and selling the stolen goods for your own profits but we're talking about something much more consequential than good stolen from a store we're talking about people's law and their lives their history their heritage that israel is violently stealing from them and particularly so in jerusalem this is not just hotels and b. and b. around poles but sites like trip advisor also promote israel's so-called aki a logical sites which being built in occupied east jerusalem for example in and

around the village of sin one where israel is systematically destroying the homes of palestinians in order to expel them to build these bogus archaeological sites that are advertised on trip advisor so company these companies named by amnesty a directly aiding and abetting the destruction of palestinian homes and the ethnic cleansing of palestinians from east jerusalem and from other parts of the occupied west bank and they must be accountable for it and who will hold them accountable they can be if people want to they can take action themselves and just not book on these web sites or not go to these destinations other than that way can the accountability come from. well underway but remember as i mentioned already that the fact that b. and b. has taken notice at all is because of the grassroots campaigning by palestinians by

human rights groups by activists and that has to continue and let's take another example the site booking dot com there is a campaign around that in the netherlands web booking dot com is based but there's also are these these companies are responsible and should be held legally liable but it's also governments the dutch government to pose as the occupation but is doing nothing to enforce international require its companies like booking dot com to to to respect it so the dutch government to swell as well as the us government companies have based also are liable must be accountable to their citizens and to international law to stop dutch other european and american firms for aiding abetting and profiting from israeli crimes which they claim on paper pose the

question that people need to us these governments is why do you sit back and do nothing while these firms help israel to demolish and destroy palestinian homes villages and livelihood can anything be gained from pushing the israeli government any say in that way because obviously they believe they are right has to be there and benjamin netanyahu says the settlements they have to stay. well you know as nice to use my example if someone goes into a store gunpoint and robs it you don't go and ask them if they think that's a good idea or the right thing to do you take them to the law and israel as a rogue state an occupier as it is on the international law as a perpetrator of war crimes is the subtle months needs to be held accountable and if governments in the un of failing to do their jobs then we need to see

a much bigger growing grassroots response as we have seen with the n.b.a. and we need to see it with these other companies and ultimately boycott divestment and sanctions to hold israel as an occupier accountable just as apartheid south africa was held to accountable by the world community a generation ago israel is doing this israel is doing it because they can get away with it because it's profitable once it's no longer profitable or once there's a price israel will stop now they have an email from electronic intifada in thank you for your time it's been revealed the united arab emirates took advantage of spying software to hack the i phones of activists diplomats and rival foreign leaders a reuters news agency investigation found the u.a.e. use the tool known as comma to monitor hundreds of people in twenty sixteen and seventeen among the targets were cutters emir

a senior turkish official and human rights activists lebanon's currency the lira is under pressure and there are fears that without much needed reforms it could lose its value even more worsening an already bad economic situation the central banks dismiss those fears but for the first time it is taking measures to safeguard the currency and what it has more on that from beirut. the lebanese the euro has been pegged at one thousand five hundred to the dollar since one nine hundred ninety eight there have been concerns over the years about its value especially during times of political and economic instability which are all too common here but now some lebanese fear a currency collapse the central bank says that won't happen but is preventing exchange dealers from making statements so as not to cause panic despite the assurances people are worried and a vocal about it has become but the central bank tells us that they devalue but the economy is bad people barely can afford to eat. if the economic situation continues

the way it is than the lira will really be in danger we need a government to deal with the crisis lebannon has been without a government for nine months now politicians are fighting over the sectarian distribution of seats which means much needed structural reforms can't be carried out the little bit. the lure is at risk people have little faith in the national currency ninety percent of them used dollars money transfer firms must now exclusively use local currency when dispensing cash sent from abroad it's part of preventive measures adopted by the central bank to support the legal route we are now using the demand. is near and terms of monetary policy which means that we will have more stable prices. like there is an emergency need that pushed them to issue this decision at this time. banks are also taking action to choose offering high interest rates to persuade customers to convert their savings

into lior as the world bank the international monetary fund and credit rating agencies are all warning about what they describe as the country's worrying financial condition they say lebanon's risk profile is rising and that's the problem because investor confidence is needed to attract foreign capital lebanon's economy relies on that. banks have also been trying to bring in dollars not just to sustain the value but fund the government which spends more than half of its revenue just to service the national debt. that is short of foreign products and this is that reflected level of interest and all of that in my service that are taken by the center of back so far those measures have a devolved what many fear such as the capping of the dollar withdrawals that would be a good indicator of lebanon's monetary stability. beirut these

twenty eight people have been killed when two boats capsized off djibouti the boats are carrying at least one hundred thirty migrants and refugees when they tipped over shortly after passing many of the migrants still missing thousands from east africa often attempt to cross the red sea to find work in gulf countries the vice president of sudan's main opposition party has been arrested and released it happened hours after the intelligence chief ordered the release of protesters who'd been detained those freed before the order came though say they were physically abused by security forces morgan more from cotton in the safety of her home which is not her real name recounts the details of what happened to her nearly two weeks ago she says she was taking part in anti-government protests in the tombs eastern district of battery when security forces started firing tear gas and live ammunition which forced her and more than twenty others to seek shelter in

a home. armed men broke the door and stormed into the house they treated us like war criminals not like unarmed protesters they arrested us and told us to walk in front of them beating us as we walked the men started touching the girls including me on our private parts and called us demeaning names they took us to an open square. and some were brutally beating the boys. anti-government demonstrations started in mid december over rising bread prices the quickly morphed into demands that president obama and his thirty year in security forces have been accused of using excessive force with bullets and tear gas used to disperse unarmed protesters the government says twenty nine people have been killed since protests began but rights groups say that number is at least fifty and over a thousand arrested. on tuesday sudan's intelligence chief announced that arrested will be really the.