the big issues as to why the economy has collapsed because they've what the oil industry collapse but the us objective in doing this is to either for some sort of split within the government or to encourage the forces to abandon eclipsing the do i completely that hasn't happened yet if we don't see some shift in that direction sin will this momentum behind why does eventually dissipate possibly because the history again if we're in a learn from history is that the protests only last so long before they they fizzle out and people have worry about day to day survival when getting basic needs basic food basic medicines if the sim people are dying of diseases that are treatable what about are a days in where you are right now is the situation there is really great and the reality is that while my guru has co-opted the military by putting it in charge of the oil industry repeating it in charge of food distribution by basically buying it off that way he's bought off the upper levels of the military and little. last week

from iraq the rank and file in the middle level officers are seeing their families suffer their extended families in particular who may not have access to what they have access to so the suffering is so widespread the poverty rate is almost ninety percent it is a terrible situation there and i don't know how much longer it can last without there being some sort of blow up so finding some sort of way to transition peacefully to democracy is essential to avoid some sort of bloodbath thank you very much for sharing your insight on this story with us antonio mara joining us there from miami my pleasure. now to another story we've been covering closely the u.n. human rights experts are now calling for an impartial investigation into friday's dam disaster in southeastern brazil at least eighty four people were killed when a dam holding mined waste collapsed and caused a sea of mud to engulf parts of the time. around two hundred seventy six others

a still missing brazil's the world's largest iron ore mining company valet has vowed to cut production to avoid another dam failure. the bodies of at least fifty two migrants and refugees have been found after two boats capsized off djibouti boats carrying at least two hundred thirty people sixteen were rescued but many others are still missing thousands of migrants from the horn of africa try to cross the baba monday straight from djibouti to the arabian peninsula where they hope to find work in gulf countries. well the united nations has issued a warning saying that refugees and migrants crossing the mediterranean sea are losing their lives at an 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 what attempting the crossing the route was particularly deadly for boats leaving libya where one person died at sea for every fourteen who arrived in europe that's despite

a major drop in the number of refugees reaching the continent one hundred thirty nine thousand arrived in two thousand and eighteen the lowest number in five years well the u.n. high commissioner for refugees is blaming politicians for the crisis. it's a release between countries not to peak the people so it's a negative race it's an anti solidarity race but the governments for political reasons are performing pushing the responsibility of this rather simple gesture to pick a few. miserable people. in their country. still ahead for you on this news hour from london president trump tells his own intelligence chiefs . to go back to school after death threat assessments contradicts his views. thick smog chokes the thai capital bangkok causing hundreds of schools to close and

later in sport rugby league team that could miss out on the world cup due to interference from their own country. now the saudi led coalition in yemen says it's attacked ten to three rebel training camps outside the data region u.a.e. foreign minister said the coalition would use what he called calibrated force to push the who sees out of the city of data as part of a u.n. sponsored cease fire deal coalition has been attempting to retake the key strategic port that since june. i'm joined now from new york by peter soulsby who's a senior analyst on yemen with the international crisis group thank you very much for speaking to us so ominous comments here about the prospects for this ceasefire deal surviving we know that they're already been multiple primes of

violations by both sides what are we likely to see happen next. well that's a really good question and it really comes down to how do you want to respond to each other over the weekend and we have reports that the who feeds them liberally or not it's a stew food storage facility with a mortar which lets the loss of a lot of food to day there were plans to reopen the summer data road coalition is blaming the who he's prevented that from happening another ignores the these airstrikes so we're seeing a lot of attacks on one of the knots yet in that sense really get things going again in the city so what we have to hope for is that u.n. special envoy martin griffiths can convince them one not to really get back into it data and to get these redeployments of forces from in around what they read in the

some moving because those of frozen stock really of the parts much and this is the problem because this appears to be what the way foreign minister is. well implying when he speaks about calibrated force to push the his these out of the city this was a very contentious issue in that cease fire deal which local forces will control the port of a data and the area around it. that's correct so the deal that was made in stockholm last december between these representatives of the internationally recognized government you know so that the who these were redeploy their forces from inside and out of port to other ports the north and that they would be replaced by quote unquote market forces the government interpreted that to mean one thing which was in effect their guys would come in and who these in terms of another way which was that they were going to take their frontline fighting forces out and replace them with police forces affectively no oil to them and that's been

a real bone of contention and an issue has really been they can't concert agreement over what those local forces look like and until they can do that it's really difficult to see how this moves forward. what is your sense of how whether or not this agreement is likely to survive the u.a.e. are obviously implying that there could be further action that would in some ways perhaps violate the spirit of the dail if not that the detail of it. launching some sort of military action on the areas around her data is this just is this a form of tactical pressure or could we see a full scale assault on her data i mean that's the question when you look there's been plenty of violations of the ceasefire by both sides although the reason we get forces far can't say there is

a ceasefire which is more or less what's happened not months nor of a technical document outlining what it is but knowing that it's one side the coalition in the movies during each other pretty hard outside of that they wrote this ceasefire serious. again and the real issue is one of the city itself and whether or not either side is really willing to try and take new mulch a major new offensive in one direction of the of i think that really what was sitting at the moment is both sides waiting for the other the lady to make a mistake so they can point that i think visit them and say you broke it you it's all it's all new that hasn't happened yet not quotes and to be honest with you that's the best we can hope for is. thank you very much for sharing your analysis for this pizza sold pray that senior analyst at the international crisis group joining us from neil meanwhile republicans and democrats have been

launching a fresh attempt to end u.s. support for saudi that coalition in yemen politicians from both parties announce the resubmission of a draft resolution that was passed by the senate in december but blocks in the house of representatives. 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 our despotic saudi regime with a dangerous and irresponsible military policy is president donald trump is increasingly finding himself in challenge by his own stuff and his own political

posse and most recent disagreement centers on some of chums policies in relation to foreign hands at the hall has more now from washington but american leadership is absolutely essential this doesn't usually happen the republican leader of the senate introducing an amendment urging the president a member of his own party to change his policy and not change the level of u.s. troops in syria or afghanistan so what we must remember mr president is how hard won these gains have been. our response to this progress of us not be to take our foot off the gas pedal but rather to keep up those strategies that are clearly working. this followed another highly unusual move the president's own intelligence chiefs telling congress tuesday that their boss the president of the united states is wrong along and north korea not going to give up nuclear weapons on iran not actually violating its nuclear agreement eisel isis will continue to be

a threat not really defeated and the southern border not mentioned not a crisis the president was not happy and he took to twitter to call his own officials extremely passive and naive and in another tweet suggested perhaps intelligent should go back to school the president of the united states for two years this is a president who has mostly gone unchallenged by his cabinet by his party in congress but that seems to be changing now product line al-jazeera washington and you know what developments u.s. and chinese officials have kicked off a pivotal round of trade talks in washington it's hoped the two day meeting will produce a way out of a months on trade war president trump and chinese president xi jinping agreed a ninety day truce in december but if no deal is reached the trees will come to an end in march and the u.s. will increase tariffs on chinese goods recent u.s. charges against chinese electronics from huawei have also added some of these

complications now at least seven people have died in the united states as a polar vortex brings a once in a generation deep freeze to a large swathe of the country it's been colder in some parts of the midwest and northeast than in antarctica john hendren has more now from willis michigan. in arctic freeze envelops the american midwest bringing dangerous cold in record low temperatures this is an event unlike any we've seen in a generation and i think it's really important that we protect people the arctic air of the polar vortex is sweeping the region driving temperatures down to thirty below zero celsius it should goggles o'hare airport with wind chills in the suburbs making it feel like minus forty eight the predicted low of minus thirty three at o'hare on thursday would be chicago's lowest temperature in recorded history the weather system stretches across a huge swath from the dakotas in the north that minus thirty degrees celsius to

maine in the east and as far south as alabama to prevent freezing chicago sets the train tracks on fire schools post offices and businesses are closed even a few minutes exposure to temperatures this low can cause frostbite one local forecaster is warning if you shut your eyes for too long they can freeze closed it's that kind of cold. the frigid air that forms the polar vortex one spun around the stratosphere over the north pole but its current now disrupted is pushing down into the u.s. the arctic blast leaves a mess of crash cars and broken pipes with days to go before the cleanup begins john hendren al-jazeera willis michigan. wendy walsh joins us live now from an all peoples home that's being used as a warming center and chicago could you just describe for us what it's like there at

the moment and what conditions feel like in chicago itself. marion it is brutal outside when you open the door it's absolutely will take your breath away right now it's negative thirteen air temperature so about negative thirty six for the wind chill thankfully though most people seem to be heeding the warnings and staying indoors during this dangerously cold stretch of whether we can confirm at this point n.b.c. can confirm that there have been eight weather related fatalities because of the system so far schools are closed most offices are allowing people to work from home today and with wind chills predicted to go as low as negative seventy the united states postal service has even suspended deliveries in eleven states here across the midwest meantime thousands of flights have been canceled not because the planes

can't take off and land but because it's not safe for people to service the aircraft as well as load the luggage and that would just require too much time out side perspective as you've also mentioned it's colder today here in the united states than and arctica in siberia and the base camp of mt everest absolutely brutal outside we are looking for accumulating snow tomorrow that is predicted here but a downright ball me warm up predicted here mariam we're going to get into the thirty's and forty's over the weekend so we're looking forward to that you know what we are some tough people here in the midwest during winter weather but this is absolutely brutal got the latest here live in chicago i'm with you wolf now back to you all right thank you very much when you will for bringing us all the latest there from chicago where a the conditions are fairly unprecedented as

a result of the polar vortex well now moving on and hundreds of schools have been closed in the thai capital. as toxic smog chokes the city thick haze this hung over bangkok for weeks increasing fears about the health of residents on wednesday students were sent home from school as the authorities try to manage the situation blaming the problem on traffic fumes construction crop burning and pollution from factories or parents and children there in the city even speaking about how the small has been affecting them. oh my b. i heard in the schools have closed so rushed here my son's health is not good because. they didn't even know my i don't want school to be closed because it's getting close to the final exams but i'm worried about my kids' health. the. oil always wear a mask i don't leave the house without it. i have for you on the program the united

arab emirates is accused of using spy way. rival diplomats and leaders here britain's prime minister meets the opposition to try to forge a new approach on breaks it but. no new deal will be offered and south korea's forma olympic speed skating coach gets more jail time after being found guilty of abusing athletes. hello there is no shortage of cold weather across europe as one would expect at this time of the effects of the mild side of its rules as eastern areas further west. skies are going up quite nicely playing of wintry showers coming through as we go on through the next twenty four thirty six hours or so we are going to see some of the wintry weather making its way in across the british isles snow already

showing its head across some very good weather coming down across wales the southwest approaches of england down into that western side of france indeed into northern areas of spain and portugal some very disturbed weather here london and paris just four degrees celsius system. switching say snow there for a good part of wales a good part of england pushing across into the low countries dry weather comes back in behind for friday but it's going to be bitterly cold lots of ice to watch out for as well those temperatures will stay down the lead. it into the weekend cold enough to just around the outside to see some more snow coming through here some wet windy weather into the western side of the mediterranean further race there we go with moderate to celsius for kiev minus two there for moscow as for the temperatures starting to fall away meanwhile temps just picking up across northern parts of africa will see highs in algiers the eighteen celsius and rising.

the plundering of armenia's natural riches has uprooted residents and desecrated the habitat of some of europe's most endangered species. but a remarkable campaign by local residents is challenging the mike two of the country's investors and putting high hopes on its newly elected prime minister people in power investigates army new mining out the left. on the. right out of a hamas script examining the headline with again with the fractious issue of palestine and israel and the us news of the setting the discussions what makes them different as far as you're concerned sharing personal stories with a global audience nobody feel safe explore an abundance of world class programming designed to inform motivate and inspire. the world is watching

on al-jazeera. welcome back a recap of the top stories this hour venezuela's self declared interim president want to join thousands of supporters rallying in caracas calling for the military just stop supporting the elected leader nicolas maduro. the bodies of at least fifty two migrants and refugees have been found after two bites capsized off. the boats were carrying at least one hundred thirty people and many are still missing. and the saudi led coalition in yemen says they have attacked ten who see rebel training camps outside the port city of data it's warned it's. ready to use what

the u.a.e. at least is described as calibrated force to push the movies out of the city as part of the u.n. sponsored cease fire deal. well now the saudi royal court says it's ended a major crackdown on corruption that's gone on for more than a year ordered by the crown prince mohammed bin selman public prosecutors says it's reached settlements with eighty seven people who confessed to charges against them around one hundred seven billion dollars in assets have been recovered they include real estate commercial entities securities and cash but the court says it's refused to settle the cases of fifty six people jus to existing criminal charges against them they remain in custody another eight people refused to reach settlements and still stand accused of corruption well in other news the u.a.e. has been accused of using spy software to hack the i phones of activists diplomats and rival foreign leaders a reuters news agency investigation found the u.a.e. used a tool known as comet to monitor hundreds of people in two thousand and sixteen and

seventeen among the targets casseroles amir a senior turkish official and human rights activist the hackers stole photos emails text messages location information and passwords are now two of the reuters journalists involved in the investigation christopher being and joe shechtman have been speaking to al-jazeera about what they discovered they gave more details of how the hacking happened and the tools that were used. q. funding was the existence of project raven which is a cyber mercenary unit in the united arab emirates that was largely staffed by former us intelligence operatives the country hired these people over through a contractor to essentially run their own office of cyber program so this included surveillance of dissidents journalists rivals in the region and as we found out in our story it also eventually included the law americans karma was a was a cyber weapon that was used by project reeve in to infiltrate and to hack into the

i phones of opponents are enemies of the u.a.e. and what made it really unusual was that like with most of these types of exploits or hacking tools you know will send somebody an e-mail or send somebody a text message and they have to kind of trick them into clicking on that link right and that's usually the trick here what was really unusual is that all you needed was the person's phone number or email address and it would automatically send a text message to that person then you have to click on it they need to interact with it all he would just automatically begin to infiltrate the person's i phone all they need to do is receive the message and then from there or the the tool could begin to just download all the person's photographs all of their e-mails all their location data. and you know all their i messages there is a great interesting to tar obviously because that is a kind of a regional rival of the u.a.e. specifically they went after

a lot of members of the royal family including the emir of qatar himself they were able to hack into his i phone and or at least an i phone at least we know it to be an i phone that was used by him and the i phones of many of his family members and you know people associated with the royal court. tanzania's government is giving itself more palace than political. a new law would allow the government wrong registrar to blacklist and potentially jail and members. president john mica foodie's government has already found some newspapers in restricted opposition rallies his rivals say the changes won't affect of return tanzania into a one party state also news from sudan where the deputy head of one of the country's main opposition parties has been questioned by security forces my am sadik these family says she was arrested at home and capital khartoum along with several other party members before being released hours later her father is the former prime minister's sadik on his return from exile last month coincided with

the start of protests against president bashir his government well the arrest came hours after the intelligence chief ordered the release of protesters who had been detained some who've already been released as saying that they were physically abused by security forces here but morgan has more from khartoum in the safety of her home saga 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 and to government protests in the tombs eastern district of butchery 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 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 they 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 those arrested will be really nice the ruling national congress party says it understands the grievances of the youth and will try to make reforms. we've embarked on a youth to youth dialogue to accommodate the dreams and aspirations of young people that have not been met by political parties we understand now that the political reforms have addressed the grievances of politicians but not everyone in sudan

these youth are aware and are connected to the issues facing the nation even if they're not politically allied with the protests have become the biggest challenge to president bashir and his ruling party since he came to power and in a country that has seen two uprising which led to new governments this is the longest wave of anti-government protests some analysts say that attempts by the government to appease those protesting won't end the demonstrations. government releasing the prisoners is an attempt to show those protesting that the government is serious about wanting dialogue with the youth but hours later they arrested opposition figures this will agitate the protesters more than the fact that the protesters have lost lives during demonstrations and have seen the brutality by security forces all. which have been recorded and distributed on social media any attempt by the government to end the crisis. started says that despite the abuse she faced she and many others are still determined to continue protesting against the government. what they did affected us emotionally we have

experienced what was heard and read on social media about how they were dealing with the protesters it's her ific but we will continue to protest until the government goes away. protesters have called for more to months creations in the coming weeks to continue demanding that president bush years that down but if he remains defiant there are concerns of more arrests and violence to come people more going on to zero how to turn a prominent human rights activist in zimbabwe has been released on bail after his arrest hearing recent protests. could face twenty years in jail if convicted on subversion charges he was an outspoken opponent of robert mugabe and fears nothing has changed under mugabe successor amisom and. it is a very sad day for me even though i am i must be joyful that i'm being released it's a very sad. that i have to be in this situation again we went through this with the mugabe regime and here we are again. going through the exact same thing.

and it breaks my heart more than anything else it's a loss to the young people of our nation it's a loss to the old people of our nation. and one hopes that since injustice somehow prevails. french police could face legal action over the use of force cheering the yellow vests protest more than two thousand people both protesters and police have been injured since the demonstrations started in november over economic problems in france. the government has defended the use of force by police but rights groups are now seeking a ban on the use of rubber bullets which are blamed for many of the injuries. well here british prime minister terry's a may is been missing with opposition leader jeremy corbyn to seek common ground on a deal for leaving the european union are limit is given her a two week deadline to renegotiate her agreement with the e.u. want break sets but as nadine barber now reports the e.u.

appears to be holding firm. westminster one day closer to break sit down and whisper it's signs of cross party efforts to find a way forward jeremy corbett leader of the opposition labor party finally held direct talks with prime minister to resume a he previously refused until she ruled out a no deal bricks it was very pleased that the house voted yesterday to take no deal off the table and house of promise assurance that we were not back into the territory or threatening no deal as a way of getting support failed deal which is obviously got very limited support in parliament the prime minister the parliament also voted to pass to reserve ways brix a deal if she could negotiate changes to the so-called irish backstop the house did vote to reject no deal but that cannot be the end of the story the only way the rights of the general says and i think that's i think that's the first time he's

actually accepted that you can't just vote to reject no deal you have to vote for a deal was. well that prospect may be looming large or at least that's what the head of the european commission told the parliament in brussels from time to time i have to push. some hope that the twenty six other countries will be burned. at the last minute but this is not a game the e.u. is chief negotiator was also resolute calling the withdrawal agreements the best and only means of avoiding a hard irish border that could threaten the historic good friday agreement. the backstop is not being dogmatic it is a realistic. solution throughout the negotiations under your control we sought solutions to the problems created by brics itself in particular but not only in ireland and while islands clearly worried about and brics it dublin says some

considerations trump economic interests we need a backstop or insurance mechanism based on legal certainty and not just wishful thinking for now we're left with mixed messages from the politicians here m.p.'s have said no to no deal without any clarity or consensus on how to stop it just a green light for reason made to try once again to tweak that deal that she reached with brussels well she's now said she realizes it won't be a breeze that could well be an understatement between barbara al jazeera london online holiday companies have been accused of supporting human rights violations against palestinians amnesty international says by including homes and activities in illegal settlements the firms are directly contributing to their expansion or about in money explains. 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 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 november 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 listings aren't honest about where the hotels are such as one who tell in the far atomium settlements 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 to come.