for change and for prosperity the forty years later many of them say that the caretakers of the revolution like after the founding father of the storm of homework if you lose caretakers have let them down and they will suffer. for years on and many of the promises of the revolution they feel now have been broken. the u.s. senate has back sabella amendment opposing president tom's plan to withdraw troops from syria and afghanistan the senate voted sixty eight twenty three on the measure put forth by majority leader mitch mcconnell and says pulling out kurds allow iceland al-qaeda to regroup and destabilize both countries it's a rare rebuke of trumps foreign policy by the republican controlled senate. the weather is next and then the face of a long fight against wartime sexual slavery south koreans well a much loved campaign and again demand an apology from japan. and on lawrence lee

in romania which has just taken over the presidency of the european union and his government stands accused of complicity in the mass illegal logging but some forests. and over the weather is quite quiet over the northern parts of asia at the moment we've seen the latest system gradually move away from us and behind it there's just a little bit of cloud floating in from the sea of japan that will give us a few showers some of which will turn to snow and elsewhere that should be some good spells of sunshine to tokyo should be fine at twelve degrees and at around ten towards the west twelve beijing will be at around four so not too bad for us. getting to minus sixteen as our maximum those temperatures a new drop away there which we head into sunday and this time it will be rather chilly minus twenty two never thought that towards the south and there's plenty of

settled weather across the southeast in parts of china so we're looking at sixteen in shanghai in around twenty two in hong kong forward to sunday we see a bit more cloud begins to form in the northern parts of our map so for some of us in the who bay province and across towards the east there is likely to be a few outbreaks of rain during the day every further towards the south and for many of us here this plenty of sunshine but there are also water to showers around most of them over parts of borneo and the northern parts of java and there's a stretching up into parts of somalia as well so this is where the showers are currently they'll stick around in this general region as we head through saturday and sunday further north there's a better chance of getting away with a dry day. every attack in europe creates fear and division amongst its citizens where stories of loss go untold. is sweeping association of islam with violence leaves

european muslims facing the stock reality of being ostracized by the very communities in which they live. and moon the tragic loss of life. on al-jazeera. and what challenges there has reminder of our top stories this hour the u.s. is expected to announce it will stop observing a decade's old need to miss out using russia of violating it the kremlin denies the allegation. senior figures and routing policy have met the un investigators are looking into the murder of the saudi dentist in the office of g.e.

and advised its of the turkish president says the u.n. will listen to what you have recordings of the ken lay. and thousands of iranians have gathered to mark the fortieth anniversary of the islamic republic and its hollow amazed from exile revolution was followed by weeks of confrontation and rest . venezuela's opposition leader has warned national security forces loyal to present a clear majority stay away from his family. queues the showing up at his apartment off his baby daughter was at home last america and he said newman reports from caracas. the. self proclaimed interim president why dog had finished presenting a plan for national recovery at venezuela's central university when he made a personal announcement at this special forces agents are at my home asking for my wife. accompanied by diplomats opposition leaders and the media rushed home

residents told us the police agents on two motorcycles had been there but had already left our then i ordered a soldier so this country not to intimidate us or poles has remained firm we are speaking of the national plan while they were harassing my family because that's their modus operandi. the u.s. government has warned of severe consequences should anything happen do i lol government supporters call it a cheap publicity stunt opponents a useless attempt to intimidate them and to add more drama to the day the interior minister announced what he called a plot by mercenaries allegedly paid by the opposition to assassinate keep politicians and members of the military this he says in order to raise the level of upheaval in venezuela. and now he says that if you evidence the telephone analysis and interrogations and i produced this morning to capture petard conal.

not only is a cruel it's fifty four years old wanted for attempted assassination treason instigating an uprising attacking military facilities. earlier had presented the opposition's plan for the nation a road map pretty good political stability. the first priority he said is to obtain urgently needed humanitarian aid and that could put the army and president in a dilemma. neighboring colombia and brazil are offering to send the transition government food and medicine immediately now now i mean in the next few days the next few weeks so it's up to the armed forces it's up to the military if they're going to allow that food and medicine to conquer the border or if they're going to you know keep supporting the block so they're going to have to choose between their families and their leader or at least their what they call their presence. so

far there are no signs that the military high command is planning to break with my little who insists that he's the victim of an imperialist could a ta. see in human al-jazeera products. the u.s. president says progress has been made during trade negotiations with china officials have been meeting and wasn't. to try to end a trade war but donald trump says no deal will be finalized until he meets china's president in. chinese trade is happening hoping for a breakthrough as they go into the lunar new year but as our china correspondent a.j. and brown reports the era of the pig is looking tough for godless whether an agreement is reached or not. it's the world's biggest annual exodus when china becomes a nation in motion some of these travelers leaving beijing railway station face journeys of more than thirty hours but as people prepare for their biggest celebration of the year there's apprehension over the slowing economy and rick

criticism about who people blame don't tell by the common say it's good but they're not doing it well she reports he seems to manage the high ranks well but he doesn't seem to know how the people are actually doing. the rhythm of chinese new year is not for everyone he. manages a popular cuban dance studio in beijing she's decided not to travel to her family's home in northeast china this holiday partly it's because of the cost and partly because of the endless parental questions about why she still single. or people. in their thirty's like me some call the left the over spring festival probably means burden of pressure for them parents and pester me to find a husband all year round not just to do. so and rather used to it or even see. zoo

is also used to smaller class sizes now as more people cut down on luxuries and that includes salsa classes. official figures show that consumer spending is remaining static while manufacturing output dropped for a second straight month in january the slowdown wasn't caused by china's trade war with the united states but it's making things worse. analysts say this is why president xi jinping is under pressure to make a trade deal with president donald trump as a prolonged dispute creates another risk he doesn't need right now. she is so worried that a few weeks ago he convened a seminar of high ranking party officials to discuss how to reduce the risks to china's economy the gathering lasted for days a measure perhaps of the seriousness of his concerns on monday chinese people here

and around the world will begin celebrating the year of the pig traditionally the pig year is a lucky one the last time it was marked was twelve years ago when china was preparing to host the summer olympics and economic growth was a robust thirteen percent today it is less than half. as china glides into the new lunar year there are predictions the economy will continue to cool in what's supposed to be a year that brings fortune to all adrian brown al-jazeera beijing. farmers in india have been protesting outside parliament demanding learn way there's a better prices for their proxies around six hundred million indians depend on agriculture for their livelihoods and many have huge debts the government is allocated almost eleven billion dollars for rural funding and tax cuts and it's twenty nineteen budget north korea has agreed to dismantle two of its military

sites and open them outside inspections ahead of an expected summit between donald trump and kim jong un u.s. special envoy stephen by going to meet with korean officials next week to discuss the next steps washington has a list of demands for pyongyang to destruction of all of its uranium enrichment facilities as expected to announce the details of the next leaders' summit on tuesday. hundreds of people have attended the funeral for a prominent campaign of the south korean women kept in sexual slavery join world war two ninety three year old ken buck dong was amongst thousands who were forced to work in brothels one by japan's military she was one of the first victims to speak out publicly about pride reports from seoul. it was a highly charged event walking alongside the coffin of a woman who's come to symbolize a cause that touches nearly everyone in south korea forced to work in a brothel from the age of fourteen kim bach dong devoted the latter part of her

life to making sure others wouldn't suffer like. she traveled widely to speak on the issue and supported groups helping the young victims of violence in conflict zones. and the lieutenant as the japanese empire was waging war and order was issued to collect young korean girls they said we would work in a factory to make uniforms for soldiers they just supposed to be took us. as evidence of her influence president in lead senior government figures to pay their respects ahead of the funeral. japan's military brothels and slaves thousands of women and girls from neighboring asian countries many from korea. the funeral procession led to the front of the japanese embassy where campaigners hold a permanent vigil. rather than saying it has taken legal measures japan should offer a sincere apology that comes from the hat. kim taught us the universal value of

humanity and that women should no longer unfairly fall victim to war. often frosty relations between japan and south korea are especially chilly right now. tokyo and seoul is still disputing a close encounter at sea between a japanese military aircraft and a south korean warship in december and the incident came soon after south korea's supreme court ruled in favor of laborous forced to work during world war two by japanese companies with those firms now ordered to pay compensation japan called the decision totally unacceptable claiming the question of compensation had been settled by an agreement back in one thousand nine hundred sixty five as for the comfort women it says an agreement reached with the previous south korean administration in twenty fifteen was meant to have resolved the matter once and for all accusing the current administration of reneging on the deal. many south koreans

believe the fight for justice is far from over for campaigners kim was a symbol of that struggle in death she symbolizes it still the bride al-jazeera so . at least twenty nine children have died in a refugee camp in northeastern syria over the past two months most of them from hypothermia more than twenty three thousand people including many women and children escaping fighting have arrived at our whole camp since the end of november but health organization says families made the journey on foot and children babies are said to have died along the way all soon after getting out of the camp. romania has taken the rotating presidency of the european union for the first time but it's already proving controversial the government is being accused of corruption and mismanagement environmental activists have also told al-jazeera that romania has been complicit in the destruction of some of europe's oldest and most important forests as lawrence lee reports. these high hills have proved rich pickings for

people who show scant regard for the importance of ancient forests supposedly immune from exploitation they don't even try to hide their business it's all piled up on the roadside despite commercial logging in the national park being illegal nor did it take long to find the locus we've been warned they might be so we kept our camera at a distance they insisted it won a government auction which allowed them to do this fairly. the environmental activists trying to stop it's say none of this could happen without the government knowing if you slogging conservations are most of the times approved by the state but when we write letters and make complaints the minister herself is answering to our said there should be no logging in national parks so there is a little contradiction here they approve it and they say it's not legal at the same time but you can see it i mean we just drove up the track and it's here you can't you can't miss it all over in any nation are parked in the town which sits below

the national park a huge steel works used to provide employment for nearly everyone but not anymore nothing was found to replace the jobs so it's easy to see why logging became such a large industry romania's forests are vast which is partly why the locals get away with it some of this woodland is among the oldest in europe but large areas have been cut out of it the government keeps secrets any records of what's legal and what isn't so global companies which buy romanian timber furniture cannot know the origin of the wood alina worked for the forestry agency for fourteen years when she complained about all of this she says she was intimidated and isolated ultimately forced to resign and first came out the law or the addict out of the bottle i was questioned by my directors as a biologist i was prevented from doing field work that didn't from going to logging areas in the park they kept me on minimum wage they did everything they could to

stop me from being able to speak out they cut me off remaining a currently enjoys the privilege of holding the presidency of the council of the european union which means it has the opportunity to set policy objectives for the whole of the e.u. including on the environment and yet despite all the evidence to the contrary the remaining government still insists that nothing illegal has been happening inside its own protected forests. their own ministers have been saying as much to the european parliament even though it has been presented with evidence suggesting the very opposite we are talking about illegal logging in private forests where there were no proper services for guarding these forests thirty years ago the remaining people rose up against their dictatorial leader nicholai ceausescu and embarked on a journey to democracy which for the first time has put their country into a leadership position across europe for all of that remaining maintains a reputation as having

a thick covering of corruption it seems unable to shake off largely al-jazeera in western remain. that is confirmed astray or is in the grip of a record breaking summer heat january was its hottest month since records began in one thousand and ten and for some succeeded thirty degrees celsius the bureau of meteorology says the heat has contributed to a summer of extremes and the wildfires in the drought stricken south and floods in the tropical north strayer has recorded the warmest january on record for maximum minimum and to mean temperatures and in fact it's been the warmest of any month of record on record for stray. can be found on our website address the al-jazeera dot com. now with these are our top stories the u.s.

is expected to announce it will stop observing a decade's old nuclear missile but accusing russia of violating it the kremlin denies the allegation now white house correspondent kelly alcatraz before. what this would do would allow the united states to develop an inter continental missile essentially this treaty has been the real centerpiece for superpower arms control since the cold war so this is certainly significant donald trump has been hinting about this for many months as recently as back in october he was very strong in his comments when he said that russia has been violating this treaty for years so we're going to terminate this agreement it's significant when you put into context this is something that was signed by ronald reagan mackell gorbachev senior figures in policy have met the u.n. investigator looking into the murder of saudi journalist jamal khashoggi and advises the turkish president says the u.n. will listen to audio recordings of the killing. thousands of iranians are marking

the fortieth anniversary of the islamic republic and the holidays return from exile revolution was followed by weeks of confrontation and unrest. venezuela's opposition leader's war national security forces to stay away from his family. offices loyal to present it was moderate turned up at his apartment but his baby daughter was at home. u.s. president says progress has been made during trade negotiations with china officials have been meeting in washington to try to end a trade war. north korea has agreed to dismantle two of its military sites and open them for outside inspections of an expected summit between trump and kim jong un special envoy c even by. korean officials next week to discuss the next steps or since it has a list of demands of pyongyang including the destruction of all of its uranium enrichment facilities. farmers in india have been protesting outside parliament demanding learn wave is

a better prices for their produce about six hundred million indians depend on agriculture for their life and many have huge debts. you know with all the headlines more news here on the al-jazeera story. congress and u.s. involvement in the war in yemen group of senators say they have enough votes to do so they say help for the saudi u.a.e. coalition must stop but even if the resolution is passed it's not clear if donald trump will back it this is inside story.

hello welcome to the program i'm richelle carey for the past four years much of yemen has been at war united states has firmly back the saudi coalition which has been fighting who the rebels but peter does hacks on civilians by the coalition has drawn widespread international condemnation and has contributed to the world's worst humanitarian crisis now things could be about to change group of u.s. senators as pushing to end washington support of the conflict the group of democrats and republicans led by senator bernie sanders plans to resubmit a draft resolution the senate passed and december but the house of representatives rejected sanders has issued a warning over america's continued role in the war bring in our gas in a moment first here's more of what the senator from vermont act to say. late last year i had the opportunity to meet with several very brave human rights activists

from yemen urging congress to put a stop to this war and they told me very clearly when yemenis see made in us a 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 so let's take a closer look at the u.s. involvement and yemen washington began supporting this saudi u.a.e. coalition back in two thousand and fifteen and until recently much of that assistance was in the form of and flight refueling for saudi jets which ended in november by mutual agreement but the u.s. still provides intelligence and is the top arms supplier to saudi arabia and the

u.a.e. it says its officers advise on potential targets to minimize civilian civilian that is casualties yet saudi strikes have killed thousands of civilians including dozens of children on a school bus and saddam province last august. let's bring in our guests in london adam baron visiting fellow at the european council on foreign relations adam is also a journalist formerly based and yemen's capital saana joining us via skype from birmingham scott lucas professor of international politics at the university of birmingham and editor of the a world view a website specializing in news coverage and analysis of the middle east and then berlin catherine shacked m. who has consulted the un security council on yemen as a researcher at the center for strategic studies so i'll come to all of you scott i want to start with you is the timing right for u.s. congress to pass this resolution ending support for this war. well you

believe something like this should have been done back in two thousand and fifteen before the saudi led intervention escalated of the deaths and yemen but politically what you have right now is a donald trump who has weakened on a number of fronts democrats have taken control the house of representatives that means that sort of the house republicans who have held off previous congressional attempts to kobach american intervention in yemen well that is now shifted donald trump is at war with the own intelligence agencies those intelligence agencies believe for example that the saudi crown prince mohammed bin solomon is responsible for the death of jamal the soldier the journalist last october so he doesn't have or trump doesn't have the support of his own personnel and i think also trump faces and washington press which thinks that he is weak in the combination of his general

witness in front of the truck russia investigation the recent government shutdown and the washington press a specific concern over saudi activities after the death of associate i think that means that this is probably the best opportunity that congress has to check executive power and the u.s. intervention in yemen and and i'd be interested in your feedback on some of those and points that scott made it to to say that he thinks this might be the right time for this do you agree with that analysis. i mean to a large extent you're a invigorate democratic majority in the house and for that matter when you add that to the fact that the said it was able to pass a bill prior to the elections they feel like i to some extent they stay small blood on the water when it comes to linking trump to saudi arabia. and they see yemen as it as a key potential opportunity for that that being said you know as someone who focuses more on domestic politics in yemen than the domestic politics in the states i think there really is a danger within seeing yemen over the through the eyes of me through seeing all

of this through the eyes of yemen's domestic or the united states is domestic politics ok so in a lot of ways there's there's a we're there's a worry of what is an extremely calm complicated conflict in yemen being being used for for political hits in many regards ok and i think that's actually a great point we will we will definitely come back to that point catherine same question to you though do you think this is the right time to get some sort of action on this. you know i do i do i think i agree with scott i mean politically no is to time you know to to address the yemeni issue that i also agree with adam in this sound stuff yemen is indeed very complicated and i don't think anyone in washington not even democrats are actually willing to drop so do. you know as far as a point their foreign policy is concerned it will still be a key ally in the region for the u.s.

but i think that now we moving forward to have a different formulation of foreign policy as far as the saudi are concerned and the kind of position that would be given moving forward and i think that you know we seeing these these a break now occurring you know away from the haven't been summoned policies because he has failed not just in yemen but in regards to many other duties and i think that this will be reflected and it's maybe a signal from washington maybe these a need for a change of the guard in riyadh and that even though the u.s. is still willing to of course to support the saudi for very obvious geopolitical reason that these two ports will be very different and i mean we have to remember too that the many war crimes committed committed in yemen on a daily basis by the saudi and of course the u.a.e. actually on account of your u.s. intelligence and so questions needs to be answered and i think that the u.s. doesn't want to get to that point where the war ends and questions are being leveled at washington i don't think that anyone wants to be in that position and of

course we're moving towards you know election time the presidential election will i mean the race will begin quite soon so i think that people want to position themselves and try to use yemen is a kind of you know a political called. scott why their reluctance on the part of donald trump to. to push the kingdom to push saudi arabia it is it can't really just be about money. that's part of it we know there were discussions between people around trump with the saudis and with the u.a.e. just before trump took office and just afterwards and term zero took office around various projects we know that specifically donald trump's son in law jared commissioner who has sort of been designated the unofficial middle east envoy for the ministration is very close to the saudis including the mahomedan solomon we know that that's one reason why trump has tried to resist his intelligence agencies over the affair and why donald trump has gone so far as to support saudi arabia

against its gulf neighbor qatar when the saudis put the blockade on in may of two thousand and seventeen and trump said oh it must be because the qataris support terrorist so all of that is in the mix but i think the main thing here is is that donald trump actually knows very little about what is going on within yemen and the fact is is that no one has clean hands here the americans don't have clean hands the saudis don't have clean hands the u.a.e. doesn't have clean hands iran doesn't have clean hands and the real question here is whether this u.s. congressional initiative not only might restrict some american arms that go toward saudi arabia but in some sub small way linking up with the yemeni domestic space that i'm not so well with but open up some type of move towards political talks we had a flutter of that at the end of november but it sort of came and it's gone will those talks be revived so that we can get everyone out of the conflict and reduce the death toll that is affected millions of young unease and adam right before we

brought you on that brought you into the conversation we played a little bit some comments from senator bernie sanders where he said that you know in many ways see weapons there that have you know made in the u.s. there and and they say that america is playing a big role and killing in many ways you know you many you know you many politics what how is the u.s. perceived there. i mean to be honest when you're in it when it comes to the opinion of the u.s. and yemen they can't really win of it's and it's a difficult position in the sense that you're in even to the extent that you have many people even that are that are pro coalition that are somewhat frustrated with the u.s. role feeling that they haven't been giving even enough. even enough effort of support to the saudis but i think at the end of the day there is widespread acknowledgement that not just the united states but you know if you're sort of coordination between the u.s. and other key powers is what's going to be essential. to bringing this conflict some sort of resolution you have seen that sort of flutter of activity particularly

secretary not as we've seen is rather key in terms of the work behind the scenes that ended up leading to the signing of an agreement in sweden late at the end of last year even before that you did have efforts albeit in the obama administration coming from secretary kerry. to to sort of push things forward when it comes to when it comes to a potential solution in yemen but i think really when you look at u.s. policy in yemen even beyond the issue of of airstrikes or of discipline to support the coalition there is really a sense particularly now that not us has has left the administration that there is a real vacancy no one is taking the lead on yemen within the trumpet ministrations so let me lead to better going what we we are sort of the no that's not but i was going to get you there because i am it is it is it just enough the that politicians want to disengage i mean what it's got to be more than that what else should the u.s. be doing besides just disengaging that's not better that may help obviously in the

immediate sea but what does that really do to solve the bigger issue of yemen. oh yeah exactly i mean something like ending airstrikes may be or excuse me adding direct u.s. support to the coalition may be something that could be symbolically used as a victory for some people but it's something that absence of a wider political process may well have very little effect and indeed may end up actually helping the who is so absent the real key more than anything is you need i think a degree of greater united states leadership particularly in coordination with american allies in europe and involving greater and more more productive channels with with the gulf states and other regional actors. what yemen needs is a political process and you've seen the inklings of a beginning of a political process here but at least for now it's it's something that really does need a key power like for example the united states where particularly the u.s. and and the u.k. really pushing things along further.