in iran. there's a boost for egyptian president abdel fatah as sisi as a parliamentary committee approves a proposal to extend the presidential term to sixty is. a low i maryam namazie in london you know with al jazeera also coming up on the program venezuela's self-proclaimed interim president pleads with the military to let humanitarian aid in as the calls for president nicolas maduro to step down

grows louder. giving peace another try the government of central african republic agree a deal with fourteen on the groups to end years of violence. and a once in a century brain full cause is catastrophic flooding across the australian state of queensland. we begin in egypt where parliament is advancing plans to let abdel fatah sisi stay on as president well beyond the end of his term the move is raising fears that the country is slipping back into authoritarianism he is after the overthrow of hosni mubarak an initial proposal to extend cc's presidency by another six years after twenty twenty two has been approved by a committee of m.p.'s well the proposal will need to pass a final vote in parliament as well as a national referendum before it becomes. a constitutional amendment c.c.

led the military overthrow of the muslim brotherhood government in two thousand and thirteen he's since presided over an unprecedented crackdown on dissent and was reelected last year after all potential challenges were jailed or pressured to leave the race old timothy told us is a nonresident fellow at the taria institute for middle east policy he says that international criticism surrounding the move will be largely subdued. you know it's one that we've expected points of time but it's it's one formal step that we presidents you see in power until twenty thirty four opposition groups largely already were dealing with the government with the expectation that this was coming it was really more a question of when rather than if. certainly it's. there are opposition groups are going to be on the a lot of pressure regarding whether or not they may publicly campaign against a move to amend the constitution although already

a number of them have been voicing their opposition to doing so quite frankly this is more about the longevity of c.c.s. rule that no specific leaks are meeting the opposition reality is unfortunately that there's already a number of measures in place to repress opposition in egypt and a number of leading opposition figure it's have either been imprisoned forced into exile had their assets frozen or been banned from fragile there's already extraordinary pressure on anybody critical of the government publicly. this amendment process isn't really primarily focused on that i don't think although as a byproduct of that brought us process it is likely that more question will come in an effort to suppress any campaign to oppose extending cc's time in office i think that it's likely that there will be some spoken criticism that when president i knew about problems and i was in this recently he did raise concerns about the human rights situation and argue. that repression actually damages rather than

hands to stability one of the key government points is that it justifies its repression as for preserving stability. that said it did not appear to affect any of the material elements of the relationship whether it be the sale of arms or large trade deals and i don't anticipate frankly that many governments if any are going to take a material stand against expanding its power and pursuing. as much as two decades in office well now to our other top story this hour u.s. aid trucks carrying food and medical supplies have left bogota bound for the colombia venezuela border u.s. officials say the trucks are headed to a good start at the request of venezuelan opposition leader one by doe last month declared himself to be interim president but it's unclear how humanitarian aid would arrive without the cooperation of the military which has remained loyal to him battle president nicolas maduro well to raise a vote joins us live now from caracas so why don't those called for humanitarian

aid to be allowed in we know that some is on its way to the border but how likely is it that the military will allow the aid in. well that's the big question we already know that some of the aid has started to arrive to the city of who got it's right at the border between venezuela and colombia the national assembly that's controlled by the opposition here in venezuela has announced that they have a plan in place for it to start entering venezuela but it's not clear yet when that exactly is going to happen and the big question is as you just said is whether the military is going to allow it to come inside the country the litter ship the military leadership remains loyal to the. control strategic sectors within the economy and to your ministry defense ministry among others but that's why the has been appealing to the lower ranks to the troops that are in desperate need to like many other venezuelans for suffering from shortages of many things so the big

question is how are those soldiers at the border going to respond when that aid starts entering the country to raise or you are outside a maternity hospital there in caracas how critical is it that the aid does get through. well people here are telling us that it is critical that there's a demonstration right outside this maternity hospital in qatar because of earlier today we were at another one and what people are telling us that they're in desperate need of medicines of medical equipment of baby formula of disinfectant they say that interest hospital infections are spreading in many of the countries and that's costing people can call saying many many deaths and that's why this people are demanding that humanitarian aid is allowed into the car country about a year in january there was a power cut in a hospital here and that left to several people that just because the generators

were not working let's not forget the government is denying that there is a crisis in this country and that of course what people here are telling us is that that's definitely not the case. thank you very much from caracas to raise and bring us the latest thank you tracy. a taliban attack in northern afghanistan has killed at least twenty six members of the security forces a pre-dawn raid targeted an army base in kunduz province it happened as representatives from the taliban holding talks in moscow with the former president hamid karzai and opposition leaders tony berkley has more now from kabul on the latest attack we're told this was a predawn attack on police checkpoints at an army base on the outskirts of condors which is the provincial capital that six hundred fifty kilometers north of kabul a group of large group of taliban fighters attacked three police checkpoints on the base we're told that twenty six personnel were killed eleven of them were police officers and the taliban have claimed responsibility for this the afghan

authorities say that at least twenty two taliban fighters were killed and about twelve were wounded but this is not be confirmed by the taliban who confirmed the attack now it shows that even though the taliban had many for breakthrough so-called breakthrough talks with the u.s. just a little over a week ago the peace talks may be one thing but when it comes to war it's business as usual i think they're underlining their strength they've been gaining territory in the last three months and they want to push this to the wire and show that they can strike when they want and inflict casualties yemen's warring sides have been meeting in the jordanian capital amman to discuss the implementation of a deal that would see an exchange of prisoners a deal which was agreed upon agreed in sweden at the end of last year would see an exchange of up to fifteen thousand prisoners of war in yemen the u.n. envoy martin griffiths is saying the prisoner swap would help advance efforts at a political settlement to end the four year war and list of prisoners is to be

handed over to the u.n. and the international committee of the red cross. so me is president of mara bashir is holding a ceremony marking the end of peace talks between rival factions in the central african republic a deal between the government and fourteen armed groups was reached on sunday hard to after two weeks of un led negotiations a formal agreement will be signed in bungay on wednesday and represents a rare hope for one of the world's poorest nations thousands have been killed and millions displaced since the fighting began in two thousand and thirteen mohammad vall has more from khartoum the government of the central african republic and fourteen rebel leaders have signed a peace agreement that has been long in the making difficult negotiations for over a week here in the sudanese capital khartoum the heads of state of sudan and the central african republic have attended the signing with initials here today the final signing will be on when is the in the capital bangui the capital of the

central african republic what distinguishes this agreement is that it is a it is the fruit of the first time had to have face to face negotiations between that of believers and the government of the central african republic eet ees labeled an agreement of peace and reconciliation and it is going to open the door for a unity government in the country and also for an ominous t. to that of believers that amnesty to that of the leaders has been a sticking point in the negotiations soul all the parties to the this conflict and the sponsors i hope that this time around this agreement would hold and it will bring fine of peace to the people of the central african republic. well in all the stories we're covering the bodies of two people have been pulled from a storm drain jaring catastrophic flooding in the australian state of queensland days of severe rainfall described by forecast as as a once in a century event is forced thousands of people to flee their homes andrew thomas

reports now from the city of townsville. from a safe distance some are sightseeing the gates of the ross river down have been fully open since sunday the river downstream boat can only take some of the overflow away much of the rest is here surrounding and submerging people's homes tens of thousands of them emergency services and the military are rescued hundreds here but not all could be saved the bodies of two men were found inside a store bought to dry they were suspected of looting a shop nearby the prime minister visited townsville on tuesday to offer comfort and consolation as the waters recede recede here. and we start to move from the response phase to the recovery phys there will be big shops for the community as we've seen this morning as they return to their homes not the whole city is flooded

in places the way life is normal and those whose home so the state of the water coming to see its power and much. else to think is. kind of freaky actually. with the dam dates of the reservoir upstream fully open the vents any risk of that dam what you'll saying is well over a million liters of water a second pouring down. the river banks are high enough to cope with that but that's not the case further downstream in the suburbs on the hearts of townsville well over a year's worth of rain fell in townsville in less than a week and the forecast is for more downpours although not with the intensity of the last forty eight hours so the worst should be. andrew thomas al-jazeera towns. so i have for you on the program the temperatures plunging into iraq there

are calls to protect the children living in displacement camps. and ringing in the here in the hague chinese communities around the world celebrate the most important holiday of that canada. hello again it's good to have you back where across the southeastern part of china over the next few days temperatures are actually on their way up it's going to feel more like spring in some locations so started here in hong kong at twenty six degrees food show at twenty six degrees as well we are going to see actually thirty degrees in food show by the time we get towards thursday we're also going to see some rain up here towards the north so for shanghai you're going to start to get

ready by the time we get to wednesday into thursday and those temperatures will be coming down taipei a hot day for you at thirty degrees as well here across parts of india it is going to be up to the north in the higher elevations that we see the mix of rain and snow over the next you days the wind watch that very carefully on our forecast map you can see the snow in the rain right there as we go towards thursday we really start to see the increase of snow across much of the area for new delhi though rain is going to be passing through the good news with that is the air quality is going to be improving with that situation down here towards the south in sri lanka things are going to get better the rain is going to be ending most of the rain will be down along the southern coast and here across much of the middle east we're looking quite nice across much of the area riyadh is going to be a little bit cooler in one thousand degrees doha at twenty three and as we go towards thirty thursday dubey attempt a few of about twenty three degrees as well. welcome

back a recap of the top stories this hour now egypt's patent is advancing plans to let

abdul fatah sisi stay on as president well beyond the end of his term and the move is raising fears that the country's slipping back into authoritarianism eight years after the overthrow of hosni mubarak. u.s. officials have sent a trucks about as well as border with colombia at the request of the opposition leader. and a ceremony has been held in sudan to mark a peace deal between the government of the central african republic and fourteen armed groups. now the u.k.'s prime minister says she has an unshakeable commitment to prevent a hog border between northern ireland and the republic of ireland to resume a is visiting northern ireland where she's been trying to reassure residents about plan but she says she the controversial backstop mechanism which is meant to achieve a seamless border won't be accepted by the u.k. parliament. i can only deliver on the commitments we have made if i can get a deal through the u.k. parliament and meetings with m.p.'s across the house show that i can only get

a deal through parliament if legal changes are made to the backstop and that is why the u.k. government and the majority of m.p.'s from across the house of commons supported the amendment from brady last week it reaffirms our desire to leave with a deal and our commitment to no hard border between northern ireland and our land and our so graham himself set out it would mean replacing the backstop with another arrangement which avoids a hard border or making legally binding changes to the backstop to introduce the timing of it or create an exit mechanism paul brennan is in belfast and joins us now to resume a they're trying to reassure people but really how likely is she to succeed on that and what sort of reception has she had over all. well this is a numbers game now for the prime minister the two years of negotiations that we've had an hour boiling down to just over fifty days left before march twenty ninth and

britain's exit from the european union and yet we still don't have a deal that has been agreed and signed off by the u.k. parliament now what she came here to do was to try to reassure businesses that a deal will be done and there will be no hard border in northern ireland but there was no expectation that there would be any specifics on this there are various working groups or example this one particular working group working back in westminster at the moment to try to find some practical way of working around the backstop proposal to avoid a hard border and we weren't expecting any specifics here in belfast that was one intriguing part of the speech though where you know as you said in the in the introduction it's either get rid of the backstop or make a legally binding change to it and what promise to may said was i am not proposing to persuade people to accept a deal that does not include an insurance policy what parliament has said is that

they believe there should be changes made now that is a very firm way of saying the backstop is here to stay she just wants a reform to it what we don't yet know is exactly what form that reform will take the big problem that she has is that the european union stands on all of this and sabine way and who is the deputy chief negotiator for the european union has said as follows we looked at every border on this earth every border the e.u. has with a third country and there is simply no way you can do away with checks and controls and i think that sentiment the difficulty of putting these ambitions into practical reality was borne out here in the audience which gave the prime minister only lukewarm applause thank you very much thanks paul o'brien there in belfast. at least ten people have died in paris is deadliest fire in more than a decade another thirty were injured in the overnight blaze after an apartment block that police are treating as possible arson

a forty year old woman has been arrested and offices have opened a criminal investigation. donald trump is due to deliver his second and delayed state of the union address us president was forced to postpone the event last month because of the longest government shutdown in american history the bitter political battle over his five billion dollars a month for propose war with mexico has pushed his approval ratings to a new low our white house correspondent can really help get reports. for weeks donald trump has hinted immigration will be a big part of his tuesday state of the union address the white house says trump will try to unify a country divided over the issue listen closely to the state of the union i think you'll find it very exciting. the wall which is wasteful and doesn't solve the problem for the u.s. president has been in a political standoff with his democratic opposition over his request for five point

seven billion from congress for a border wall he hopes to build along the u.s. border with mexico his speech was scheduled for last tuesday but was postponed by house speaker nancy pelosi during a congressional government funding battle that shut down parts of the government for thirty five days. the short term funding approved by congress to reopen the government will soon run out many will be watching to see if trump declares a national emergency to bypass congress and get the money he wants for his wall you'll hear the state of the union and then you'll see what happens right after the state of the union. investing in infrastructure is another topic the white house says trump will cover as he did last year and calling on congress to produce a bill that generates at least one point five trillion dollars for the new infrastructure investment but other trump controversies overshadowed that effort on

tuesday trump's expected to try again he's also reportedly planning to promise and end to the hiv epidemic in america disk. thus the trade war with china. and the political turmoil in venezuela. overall the tone of trump speech is expected to be conventional sticking to the teleprompter as he did last year as long as we are proud of who we are. and what we are fighting for there is nothing we cannot achieve in his last two speeches to congress trump appeared willing to reach out to his political opponents to achieve shared legislative goals but within days of each address truck quickly returned to attacking democrats on his twitter feed a sharp contrast to his appeal for unity still the white house says president trogs goal is to bring the country together but after two years in office the country remains divided angry and opposed to many of trump's policies most polls show the

president goes into his state of the union speech with just a forty percent approval rating can really help get al-jazeera washington. united nations children's agency says iraq's future could be at risk if more isn't done to protect its children unicef says freezing winter weather could be fatal for some of the hundred fifty thousand children in displacement camps it's also calling for more money to be spent on education matheson reports now from the capital baghdad. some of these children may not live through the plunging temperatures of iraq's winter. the un's children's agency is warning that those already weakened by hypothermia and disease after severe flooding in november might not survive the home's cold. we need a lot to be done health is the lifeline of our society but we're not seeing much happening people organize rallies but our calls are falling on deaf ears unicef

says iraq spends just under six percent of its annual budget on education even though many young children are determined to go to school. a little schools open across the city of mosul our school is one of several which have more than six hundred students we can barely cope unicef says there have been big improvements when it comes to health care children it says that less than one percent of children die in childbirth and that's because eighty five percent are now how can in hospitals it also says that ninety two friends of the rockies children like these children at this kindergarten in baghdad are likely to go into primary school but he says that number drops significantly when they get to secondary school the state of security in areas which have been badly affected by called. according to unicef in areas such as the northern province of nineveh province to the south only

one child in every form goes to secondary school instead many have to work to help support their families there must've challenges of the if the situation continues as it is today in iraq the children of the future will have very little future how are you going to provide today so they have a future for tomorrow how are you going to invest in them so they can aspire for a future a future that they are part of the government has set up a three hundred million dollars fund to help the poorest people. living areas hardest hit by conflict with unicef insists more needs to be done to stop children like these becoming iraq's last generation wrote months of dizzy them bug them. a british man has been arrested in the united arab emirates after he wore a cast on national team shirt to a football match twenty six year old ali ahmed travelled to the u.a.e. for a holiday in january while phenomena was there he went to watch

a match between castle and iraq where he wore a. game it's claimed that he did not know in doing so he had committed an offense that is punishable with a fine and prison sentence. now searches say it's the climate crisis you've never heard of but environmental disaster looming in the world's tallest peaks will affect an entire continent more than one third of glass is in the himalayas and the hindu kush will melt by the end of this century even if current efforts to combat climate change succeed that's according to a new study and if the world fails to stop temperatures rising by more than one and a half degrees celsius the loss of ice sheets will be doubled one point nine billion people in south asia that's a quarter of the world's population depend on the glasses for water a rise of even two degrees celsius will disrupt rivers from india to china reducing icy peaks to bad rock and possibly devastating the crops have suffered as an

environment resetter the university of california she says that we need to take steps now to protect those who will be affected by climate change. that's very much in line with recent news that we've seen showing that the pace and magnitude of climate change is even greater than scientists have said even as recently as in the past five or ten years in october there was a big report from the united nations international government our panel on climate change that showed that greenhouse gas emissions are warming much faster than we expect we've also seen a recent report showing that sea level rises accelerating so again very much in line with that recent reports showing that actually is needed and needed now with this report shows is that it's critical to take action because if we don't take action and then we could see if the last of the glaciers in the region double so if something bad is going to happen but we can take steps to limit it from being much worse at the same time we can't cool ourselves and think that nothing is going to

happen we're already seeing the impacts of climate change today so we need to take steps now to protect those will be affected for instance by thinking about how to reuse water when you won't have as reliable water supplies but he's a people around the wild have been ringing in the loon and you hear many i think for fortune and prosperity of the year it's a pick and there's a lot at stake like the trade to speak between china and the u.s. and its consequences for ordinary citizens adrian brown has more from beijing. well this is the town park or park in the heart of beijing and a very popular place to come on the first day of chinese new year now traditionally the year of the pig is a year in which you make friends and make money so that possibly bodes well for the current talks between china and the united states to try to diffuse their trade differences the outgoing year the year of the dog was not such

a good one for chinese people the economy here continued to slow and many people lost their jobs so what do ordinary people want in the year ahead. i wish all my family members will have good health and a much better life in the new year i have a son so i have one big mission to accomplish in my life for the new year i'm getting married i hope all my family will happily stay together for china's president meanwhile she jinping has been touring a neighborhood here in beijing extending new year's greetings and also trying a bit of dumpling making eating dumplings at this time of year is of course very popular indeed even amongst chinese leaders. and on monday night some eight hundred million people tuned in to watch the annual chinese new year television goller this is the most watched television program in the world even more people watch this than the super bowl which of course was shown in the united

states less than twelve hours earlier many of the people you see here in the town park are domestic tourists they've come from other parts of china to feast and to celebrate and it's a celebration that for many people will last until the weekend. or as more and everything we're covering right here the address al-jazeera tell cong. to recap of the top stories this hour now egypt's parliament is advancing plans to let abdul fatah sisi stay on as president well beyond the end of his term the move is raising fears that the country is slipping back into authoritarianism eight years after the overthrow of hosni mubarak an initial proposal to extend his presidency by another six years after twenty twenty two has been approved by a committee of m.p.'s the proposal will need to pass

a final vote in parliament as well as a national referendum before it becomes a constitutional amendment. usa trucks carrying food and medical supplies of left bogota bound for the colombia venezuela border u.s. officials are saying the trucks are headed to the request of venezuelan opposition leader. last month declared himself to be interim president but it's unclear how humanitarian aid will arrive without the cooperation of the military which still backs him battle president nicolas maduro stories about who has more from caracas the military leadership remains loyal to the motherhood control strategic sectors of within the economy and to have been a street defense ministry among others and that's why one way though has been appealing to the lower ranks to the troops there are in desperate need to like many other venezuelans were suffering from shortages of many things so the big question is how are those soldiers at the border going to respond when that aid starts

entering the country. a taliban attack in northern afghanistan has killed at least twenty six members of the security forces a pre-dawn raid targeted an army base in kunduz province it happened as representatives from the taliban are holding talks in moscow with the former president hamad karzai and opposition leaders. and sudanese president omar bashir is hosting a ceremony marking the end of peace talks between rival factions from the central african republic a deal between the government and fourteen armed groups was reached on sunday in khartoum after two weeks of un that negotiations formal agreement will be signed on wednesday i was the head lines this hour coming up next the self-proclaimed interim president of venezuela lays out his case against nicolas maduro watch. next on talk to al-jazeera.

only michael. you will. see. that as well in populist president nicolas maduro is sworn in for a second consecutive term following the elections deemed fraudulent by his opponents and much of the international community. under his presidency the country with the world's largest oil reserves has plunged into acute poverty hunger is widespread hospitals a crumbling the most basic medicine is impossible to find and children are dying from malnutrition and preventable diseases. this year inflation is expected to surpass three million percent at the current rate millions of desperate venezuelans

flee to neighboring countries unleashing the biggest migration crisis in latin america. with the crucial.