they haven't been able to independently verify it because it seems reading between the lines in the statement that they were given a copy of it but of course you mention that i think most damning me she does for me point the fingers of planning and perpetration of this killing with saudi officials so again we're going have to wait and see what she says when it comes to the human rights council a couple of months from now and whether that will trigger a real international inquiry stephanie thinks of zero stephanie death about life in istanbul in an unexpected twist thailand's upcoming elections have become a battle between the country's royals and the military and the sister of the king has been declared a leading candidate for prime minister in the first elections since the generals took over in twenty four team she'll contest on behalf of the tiny rocks a chop party who made the shock announcement one of the members have a voice a name. agreed that this is the most appropriate name. to be in doubt he emptied at least four quire oxide shot we all agreed you know. so i think that this is he

would be the hope of his country. i believe that this is the best of the best and the only one to be being that most people to the situation right now will move breaks a longstanding tradition of tyrone staying out of politics princess. roger kanya is the eldest sister of the king and is known to the public for her roles in thai films she was put forward by the party lawyers of the former prime minister taksin shinawatra who was ousted by the military in two thousand and six and now lives in exile chief and current leader fry of channel will also contest the last twenty four votes he seized power from the democratic government in twenty fourteen making himself prime minister has when a reports now from bangkok. the intriguing and often unpredictable world of thai politics just went to another level this is the official launch of the election campaign that vote due to take place on march twenty fourth but the event was

completely overshadowed really by the announcement from the thai child party that it would be fielding a member of the royal family as its candidates to become prime minister in that election that member of the royal family princess the oldest sister of king what year long called this is intriguing because it's never happened in thailand before the royal family always seen as being above politics even though that everyone in this country knows that they are the most powerful body in the land it's intriguing too for which party this is this is a party that is backed by the former prime minister taksin chynna one who was ousted in the coup in two thousand and six the government of his sister. was ousted in the most recent coup in two thousand and fourteen and i've always been seen as anti establishment and the battles between the supporters of the shinawatra the supporters of the elites in the establishment mainly in the capital bangkok is why

we have seen so much violence on the streets of thailand over the past decade or so to now have a member of the royal family being nominated as a candidate to become prime minister by this party backed by the shinawatra certainly an intriguing development also the current prime minister. except being an invitation this is the man that led the coup in two thousand and fourteen he has now accepted an invitation to become the candidates ought to be prime minister again by the. party another new party very much a pro regime party so he has finally signaled his intentions that he wants to stay on in politics dominic folder is this as he said as of nick asian review a weekly magazine he's also authored a book on the time royal family and joins us now live from bangkok this is as wayne just said intriguing to say the least it's been called a political earthquake what do you make of it.

well the rumors of him floats your mom for about a month and nobody took them very seriously because it's such an enormous step but this way they've built up and of course today the rumor has become a story and as wayne pointed out. this is a big big departure traditionally the monarchy the palace of kept well apart from politics. certainly that was a whole mock of the last train can do a pons right so they kept apart from party politics any interference was avoided this this situation is intriguing because princes all been rot is technically no longer a princess she was the first born of king bhumibol own but she married an american in one thousand nine hundred seventy two and spent thirty years living in the us and because of that she forfeited her title she wasn't stripped of them it's a if you marry a common there you lose your titles if you're

a thai princess and she came back and those titles have not been restored so there's speculation about whether they would be restored and this plays into a very complicated narrative that concerns the coronation which is due after the election in may and we have to see what will happen she's one of three candidates for this particular party for prime minister we'd have to see what happens after that if afterwards she had a titles restored that would be a very interesting develop we know that she was a film actress does she have the credentials to run for the post of prime minister . she has no political experience that i'm aware of as as was mentioned before she has a very high profile on social media she's appeared in films she's interesting people who've interacted with say that she presents quite well she speaks extremely

good english obviously she studied at the massachusetts institute of technology academically she certainly has a background but in terms of politics untested completely untested what are her chances then of winning. well winning is the wrong term i mean they contested elections they say it's a new system nobody has been through this before so we've got to watch and see how it plays out first of all. get elected to parliament that's the first step and general prayuth numbers in the same boat once that's happened the parties will get together and work out who they will put forward as the prime minister not the new constitution almost guarantees that no party will get a majority so there's going to be this horse trading that goes on and that's the time. the more that we will have to look and see how this unfolds whether she's actually going to go the next stage if she's elected and become prime minister and

that would be completely unprecedented to me i could still see many thanks indeed dominic folder the associate editor of the nikkei asian review the weather update thanks to an al-jazeera then showing off its military firepower iran unveils a long range ballistic missile as a clock forty years since the islamic revolution will be live in tampa. hello again welcome back to your international weather forecast where here across the western part of europe watching several weather systems making their way through now some of these are colleagues and very big problems in terms of the winds right now we have one pushing across parts of scandinavia and then into the northwestern part of russia over the next few days we then have another one coming in off the atlantic and this is going to bring some very gusty winds across parts

of the u.k. as well as into eilidh notices when streams are here coming in from the southwest and that is means we could even see some power outages because of this very gusty winds rain along with that with london at about eleven degrees and then as we go towards saturday that makes its way more towards the north into parts of sweden here across much of the south though it is going to be cloudy down towards madrid. we do expect to see a cloudy day for you with the temps are there about thirteen degrees where here across the northern part of africa things have improved we did see one big weather system make its way towards the east bring some dust as well as some winds things are getting better you can see we are looking at partly cloudy conditions temperatures in the teens for most locations tripoli a fifteen degrees there on friday as we go towards saturday much of the same across the region up here towards morocco robot is going to be seeing a nice day for you at eighteen degrees and over here towards tunis we do expect to see a partly cloudy day for you with a temperature of about eighteen degrees there. well

again this is al jazeera a reminder of the main news this hour the u.s. envoy to venezuela says the time for dialogue with president nicolas maduro is over

washington wants him to leave the country and hand over to a transitional government trucks with aid and supplies from the u.s. of arrived at the border in colombia but it's not clear when they'll enter. a reporter the new york times says the saudi crown prince threatened to go off to jamal khashoggi in twenty seventeen if he didn't return to the kingdom in a conversation it's set to by u.s. intelligence and some of his hood saying that he views a bullet against the show. and in an unexpected twist the sister of thailand's king has been declared a leading candidate for prime minister in the forthcoming elections the army chief who's the current prime minister will also run. donald trump's son in law jared questionable travel to the middle east later this month and his role as a senior advisor to the white house he'll be visiting to present part of his peace plan for the region krishna will brief diplomats on the economic sanction of a u.s.

proposal for peace between israel and the palestinians his delegation will visit amman bahrain saudi arabia the u.a.e. and qatar one hour from mike hanna in washington. administration officials say jared cushion will be accompanied by this special middle east envoy jason green blatt now he is going to be visiting a number of arab nations but interesting enough will not be visiting israel according to administration officials the reason for this it would appear because of the elections taking place in israel in early april now the official say as well that kush no will be discussing the economic portion of this middle east peace plan as it is put now the official adds that they are well aware that arab leaders will want to know the political component of this plan before making any economic commitment so certainly there will be some discussion of the political component to it but the greatest stumbling block still ahead in the face of any emergent peace

plan is the fact that the palestinian leadership continue to boycott any trump administration officials because of president trump's illegal recognition of jerusalem as the capital of israel iran has unveiled a new long range ballistic missile denouncements in an underground facility as part of the celebrations of the fortieth anniversary of the revolution it's a show of military strength after the u.s. withdrew from the iran nuclear agreement and imposed sanctions on tehran iran has dismissed the european union's criticism of its missile development program let's go live now to the iranian capital and zero same bus ravi is there the significance of this saying in the context of iran's weapons arsenal. well adrian any time iran unveils a weapon of this magnitude it is militarily significant it is technically an escalation of of the military capability in the middle east and it stands to reason

that that raises tensions but at the same time we have to remember that iran does much of its military activity most of its operations both inside the country and abroad in allied countries the forces that it has deployed are conventional military forces and it does most of its military operations to conduct operations with conventional military arsenals so it's important to this is really one of those stories it's important to stand that it's as significant what didn't happen this was not a launch this was an unveiling i think iranian strategists are aware that a launch would escalate tensions and send the wrong message and this unveiling is very much about messaging the messages to both allies and enemies to allies in europe who have criticized the missile program iran's ballistic missile program it's a message to say don't waste your time don't waste your breath we will continue to develop the weapons we feel we need for our own defense to enemies it is a signal that we have the capability to retaliate when fired upon now it is the fortieth anniversary of the islamic revolution that brought the current republic

into power for decades ago so the timing is also significant the military leadership here wants to get maximum p.r. value for its developments for its advancements and that really ties back to his speech the supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei made last year saying that american rhetoric cannot be in or ignored american aggressive rhetoric coming from the administration of president donald trump cannot be ignored and military strategists must develop the technologies required to maintain defensive capability and so this is really an opportunity for the military leaders here to show that they have accomplished that goal that they've met that demand so many thanks to zero sample strongly their tech wrong. protesters in sudan are calling for the release of activists who were detained during weeks of demonstrations against president omar al bashir. rally was called to express solidarity with the hundreds of people who've been arrested since protests began there december human rights activists say that at least forty five people

have been killed president bashir is acknowledge the growing economic hardship in sudan has angered young people and sent them on to the streets e.u. leaders are still insisting that they weren't make any changes to the brings that deal agreed between brussels and london that was the message given to britain's prime minister to resign may when she met european commission president john claude on thursday both sides though agreed to hold more talks to try to avoid the u.k. leaving the e.u. without a deal one of the main sticking points remains the border that separates the republic of ireland which is in the e.u. a bowl of islands which is in the u.k. . we've had robust discussions but they've been constructive what i've said charges are clear position that we must secure legally binding changes to the withdrawal agreement to deal with the concerns that parliament has over the backstop and taking that changes to the backstop together with the other work that we're doing

on workers' rights and other issues will deliver a stable majority in parliament and that's what i will continue to push for now it's not going to be easy but crucially president you and i have agreed that talks will now start to find a way through this to find a way to get this over the light after nearly eight years of war syrians living abroad are using their creativity to continue the message of change and resistance some are using music others are performing arts some of enjoy it as one such group near the syrian border with turkey. for centuries there would has been used to express joy or pain it's the instrument of choice for syrian artist or just jihad in yemen the used to design graphics and interiors in aleppo and fled across the border to gaza. when the syrian revolution began jihad started to sing tunes of resistance. aleppo remain at the heart of the uprising until it was seized by syrian government

forces with the help of rain in troops and russian jets. he tries to immerse himself in writing songs and composing music but what he saw in aleppo never leaves his thoughts far then i'm unsure of should not for a long we crossed the street where children were playing with a yellow football i heard the sound of a barrel bomb and we ducked and we went to check on the kids and all of them were dead do you know how painful it is to see body parts of young children scattered in front of you i will never forget that things incurable many syrians had no idea that their creativity would be. their pain but now some who can really are method of change and resistance are you laughter an art. you had in yemen designed some tyrant comedy sketches to take a poke at armed groups the assad regime and fellow syrians they say laughter is the best medicine and that's why they have created a small studio with the help of a turkish friend. first it wasn't enough but now they make ends meet by selling

their content to some online channels. says they don't know if their work makes people happy but it helps them forget their pain even if it is for a few minutes. we didn't leave aleppo we had to escape from aleppo from the regime the bloodbath and the destruction at the beginning we just wanted to deliver a message now that we have an audience people always ask us for more. the group says much of syria's creative talent is now scattered some of been killed some opted for living under the regime while others are living in other countries. this didn't romanticize about the message of the revolution in theory it was only about freedom. of hope they will return home some time. these days that's all they dream about.

it's good to have you with us adrian finnegan here in the headlines and i was here at the u.s. envoy to venezuela says that the time for dialogue with president nicolas maduro is over washington wants him to leave the country and to hand over power to a transitional government trucks with aid and supplies from the u.s. have arrived at the border in colombia but it's not clear when they'll be allowed to enter venezuela president duros launched a petition demanding that the us stay out of that as well as affairs speaking at a rally in caracas he once again denied that there was a humanitarian crisis. because of their meats oil resources minerals and other great wealth critics are pushing and to national coalition he did by the united states so that they can commit an act of insanity and militarily attack venezuela under the false excuse of a humanitarian crisis that does not exist. we will go to the

white house bring in more than eighteen million signatures calling for pina's wyler to be respected demanding peace for venus while a report in the new york times says that the saudi crown prince threatened to go after. in twenty seventeen if he didn't return to the kingdom in a conversation conversation intercepted by u.s. intelligence mohammed been sound man is heard saying that he'd use a bullet's against. the sister of thailand's king has been declared a leading candidate for prime minister in the upcoming elections the army chief who's the current prime minister will also run. final trump son in law jared kirschner will travel to the middle east later this month and his role as a senior advisor to the white house he'll be visiting to present part of his peace plan for the region krishna will brief diplomats on the economic aspects of the u.s. proposal for peace between israel and palestinians is delegation will visit among

saudi arabia the u.a.e. and qatar. even catch up with news at any time he wants just by taking a look at the web site at al-jazeera. as era of the inside story next. we understand the different scenes. and the similarities of cultures across the world center matter how you take al-jazeera and we'll bring in the news and current affairs that matter. al-jazeera. coming together against one man rule egypt's opposition leaders reject a move in parliament to extend presidential terms nearly six years after the military coup the port of power will abdel fattah el-sisi ever leave office this is inside story.

hello and welcome to the program i'm peter dobie there is alarm in egypt today of a proposed changes to the constitution they could allow the president abdel fattah el-sisi to stay in office until twenty thirty four and others well after the official end of his second term in twenty twenty two opposition leaders are rallying against the changes to stop what some are calling an arab spring in reverse. sets up our discussion. its supporters say it's a crucial step to ensure stability opponents fear their country is moving to a talk or see egypt seems divided over a package of amendments introduced and approved by a pro-government block in parliament the changes extend presidential term limits to

six years instead of four specifically mentioning the current leader of the fatah has sisi but they have to be approved by parliament and put to a referendum if the amendments get a yes vote it could pave the way for president sisi to stay in power until twenty thirty four. almost in one thousand nine hundred seventy six egyptian president mohammed and what outside that amended the one nine hundred seventy one constitution to the war we're going through a war that is more intense the warning sign i on the wars we are facing by other countries that i would like not to name. but the opposition is trying to rally support to block the changes president sisi who came to power in a military coup is serving his second and last a spur the two thousand and fourteen constitution which clearly states that he cannot run for office after his term and in two thousand and twenty two.

the transfer of power is a moral principle which was created by the revolutions of the twenty fifth of january and the thirtieth of june it's not allowed to tamper with this moral principle or else will be in a position that will cause people to remain with no morals or preservation of the principles. ceases supporters have also introduced new changes creating the post of vice president reintroducing a second chamber of parliament and giving minorities a bigger say the changes are likely to be approved by the path. element where c.z. supporters have an absolute majority but it's the referendum that will be a test of the president's popularity human rights groups though are concerned about whether they say is a widespread crackdown on dissent and arbitrary mass trials or presidencies these opponents. for insights laurie. we're a lot to get through with our guest in just

a moment but first the outcry on social media many egyptians are criticizing the proposed changes to the constitution among them mohamed el baradei the former interim vice president who was awarded the nobel peace prize back in two thousand and five now he's on twitter today and i quote projects to amend hash tag egypt constitution unfolding and in full throttle main features extending presidential term limit diminishing judicial independence and annoying ting military as the guardian of the state arab spring in reverse. ok let's bring in our guests joining us from cairo on skype today is timothy coll darcey nonresident fellow at the institute for middle east policy here in doha is mohammed el masri associate professor and chair of the journalism program at the institute for graduate studies and in brussels james moran associate senior research fellow at the center for european policy studies and

a former ambassador to egypt jordan and yemen thank you to you all for joining us here on inside story timothy called us in cairo first these proposed changes what do they mean well they're an effort to build expand and consolidate and as you. which is a project that's been underway since he came onto the scene and became president when ford. seemed that it would legislative efforts to expand its control over judicial appointments now they're trying to embody those efforts in the constitution. were seeing the addition of another upper house of parliament of which a third of the members will be appointed by the president again increasing his power over that body you also have more control over the choosing of the selection of the public prosecutor so there's a variety of mechanisms here to extend its control of various state institutions while simultaneously extending his role potentially until twenty thirty four mohamed el masry here in doha the opposition how much real politic they have i think we have to be really careful when we talk about egyptian opposition i don't

personally like that term all serious opposition to military rule in egypt was effectively eliminated during a campaign of elimination isn't in two thousand and thirteen and two thousand and fourteen we saw the elimination of political parties mass killings mass arrests of political leaders mass death sentences draconian legislation and terrorism does ignition so there is no serious substantive political opposition in egypt we have watered down opposition if you will. they are very weak that is by design they will it's very unlikely that their movement inside of parliament will generate any steam report suggests that there's already a super majority in support of these proposed amendments and ultimately this will go to a referendum which will be controlled by the state as all other elections and referenda

have been during the c.c. period or the c.c. era and we'll see the yes vote win out in a in a landslide election which will be decried as a sham by analysts and scholars in human rights groups james moran to listen to mohamed el masry there it looks like we're on the road to more l.c.c. as far as the european union is concerned is that a good thing or a bad thing. well let me just say when this constitution of two thousand and fourteen was promulgated i was the ambassador there in cairo i remember well it was welcomed in the international community pretty widely as being just about the most positive thing to come out of all the turmoil between two thousand and eleven and two thousand and fourteen and there were high hopes for this constitution why because for the first time i think in modern times it looked on paper that it was

going to provide proper checks and balances against. authoritarian presidential rule it also took to a much greater extent than previous constitutions of individual rights and freedoms it wasn't perfect but it was pretty good outcome now with the changes coming i would be a little bit worried about the medium term because egypt has been down this path before of presidential rule in the era notably of hosni mubarak and look what happened if it's about stability you have to ask the question is this really in the best interest of the country to make these sorts of changes because they will certainly erode in a pretty fundamental way all those checks and balances that the two thousand and fourteen constitution was trying to introduce timothy held us from where you are in cairo we're talking here about a grouping of what ten or eleven political parties what are the chances they get support across the country i don't think the focus should be on the political

parties. mom is correct in the sense that the in the opposition within parliament itself is quite limited. and they don't have the votes really to do much in terms of stopping the referendum of stopping the members to move to referendum there are a number of civil society human rights groups that have called on egyptians to go no and what is somewhat unique about this i don't disagree that ultimately the government almost certainly get the result it wants regardless of public opinion but it is an interesting moment a sense that. unlike past elections where the president could imprison or drive out of the race. through intimidation any of the candidates the word no is not something he can lock up and so egyptians actually will get to vote against the president's he's continuation for the first time with actively. and whether or not that vote gets recorded in publicized if people actually go out and do it people within the regime will know that that happened and that could affect his position

internally but i think it's almost inevitable that the that the the of the amendments will will eventually come into force unfortunately mohamed el masry what's your reaction to the logic here that says well we've got to push through with these changes because what he wants to do with the economy what he wants to do to turn the country around he's hampered by the constitution as it stands today this is none of this is surprising right this is this is a continuation of what we've seen post two thousand and thirteen i was on al-jazeera and writing on al-jazeera in two thousand and fourteen about this inevitability that this was going to come there were whispers back in two thousand and fourteen that ccs that sisi would need to have a prolonged extended stay in power this is what egypt's deep state wants they want they want to strongman they believe that this will help preserve their interests allies in the region like this because they believe that it brings

creates an sustains stability which is what which is what they want. so all of this you know all of these justifications as far as i'm concerned as somebody who supports democracy are absurd what's what egypt needs is a legitimate democratic transformation it needs sharing of power it needs balance of power checks and balances the kinds of things that the other guests have been that have been talking about i also want to note that in. my estimation and again a lot of people wrote about this back in two thousand and fourteen but the two thousand and fourteen constitution was was not really a way forward the two thousand and twelve constitution was also flawed but the two thousand and fourteen constitution represented actually a step backwards a step closer toward authoritarianism james moran in brussels that is the opposition here was that betting essentially floored with a betting that after the last election ninety seven percent in his favor on

a very low turnout just over forty percent that was the opposition then betting that once he'd won well they would say once he cooked the books if you will he would then soften his stance but he hasn't softened his stance so then rising up with this opposition amendment plan is actually a reaction to that. well that's possible difficult difficult. on the opposition i think it's not just about parties in parliament there are a very small part is of course the conservatives to grandma and a couple of the others but between them they must have only about twenty odd m.p.'s but there is also in civil society a couple of movements that have been announced one of them took my attention the other day the union for the protection of the constitution which i think has signed up with a number of prominent personalities in the country including a mom and i'm also that and some other politicians so civil society i think is

going to be working. to do what it can an opposition although i must say i kind of agree with the other guests the prospects for success have got to be considered fairly fairly dim one other thing the president did say on more than one occasion i think most recently even last year that he had no intention of changing the constitution or serving. term out beyond what was actually in the two thousand and fourteen constitution i can't by the way agree with your previous guest when he compares it to the two thousand and twelve document but let's put that on one side . but the president does say that now i wonder with that in mind of course this all has to go to the president at some stage in the parliamentary process. it'll be interesting to see how he reacts to the report that will come from the parliament proposing these amendments when he has to sign off before the referendum is taking place it'll be very interesting to see how he explains that because he has been

very clear since he came into power that he was going not to change the constitution that he was going to stick to the two terms as laid down in two thousand and fourteen timothy kaldis give us a sense of how people perceive him there in egypt some of his critics say he's actually worse than mubarak the military and the people that have run egypt have come from the military on so many different occasions if you put him in the the gamut the range of past presidents where would you play would you see him. i mean he's undeniably the most repressive. person to lead egypt and it's my spirit it's not even i mean it's not really debatable but to be fair on the best around point he also promised a white thirty not to run for president at all so i mean embracing his words and extending his rule and control over the country is hardly surprising. and on the constitutional debate i mean they're they're both pretty bad documents that have poor checks and balances built into them. i think that fundamentally the

population's approval of c.c. has been in decline for a number of years due to the deteriorating economic situation do it for most of their purchasing power is collapse and the currency collapse inflation has been at record levels it's starting to come down now but for quite some time we were well into we were getting thirty plus percent. so people have been struggling for quite a long time and he said that promising that there will be some sort of respite from this but they haven't really been feeling it and with the in just a bit further reduction of fuel subsidies that should be coming it's a strike this year it will continue to give momentum to the inflationary challenges that the country already faces mohamed el masry why is the outside world been relatively quiet about him being in the top job and how he does it when he occupies that office because you know about it was there for a long time he was kind of normalized there was a distinct sense with him latterly before the arab spring there was a sense that yes we can work within one thinking about the relationship with the

united states peace in the middle east the palestinian territories etc but with l.c.c. the sense the feeling is something different. you know well when you say the outside world i mean it really depends on who you're talking about i mean if you're talking about saudi arabia and the united arab emirates and other allies in the arab region it's pretty clear why they want the egyptian military establishment to remain strong and to remain powerful they're opposed to any sort of democratic movement or momentum in the area because they're scared about their own holds over over power in terms of the west i think that western governments have made some strategic miscalculations you know the obama administration had a brief window of opportunity in two thousand and thirteen to simply declare what happened in egypt a military coup d'etat which would have been forced to the united states out of its funding relationship with the egyptian military the u.s. would have been forced by american law to stop funding the egyptian military. there

obama administration opted to continue its relationship and it's been more or less business business as usual and i think the reason i don't agree with it but i think the reason why is they perceive sisi and other authoritarian leaders to be capable of bringing about the kind of long term stability in the region that they that they desire and being able to more broadly help achieve american and other western strategic interests i think that's a miscalculation for many reasons but if you look at the last five years and i think timothy was speaking to this there have been there's been more instability in egypt over the last five years post-coup than at any other time in egypt's modern history there been more terrorist attacks more violence by vigilante groups and also by the state than in other than any other point in time so sisi has failed on that front he's failed on the economic front as timothy was also speaking to and on and in other areas as well james in brussels to really he's

a clever guy but does he know that his popularity is waning the there's the issue of the two islands that he has in effect gifted to saudi arabia the austerity message is not popular toll across the country and the economy is not flat lining but it's going down the way. well yes a certain popularity had to come down from the stratospheric heights that he enjoyed two or three years ago but on the economy. here i'm going to have to disagree with the previous speaker i think that's an area where there have been developments i'm not saying that's necessarily because of the type of governance that egypt's had over the last two or three years is to do with many other. things but they point to they've been lucky there have a major gas discoveries in the eastern mediterranean which will make a big difference to the country in the next ten twenty years they have had a fairly successful i.m.f. program in place for the last two or three years i know it's plain to some extent of the inflation of a couple of years ago and people continue to look upon it critically but it has

made some difference on the fuel subsidy frankly speaking that's good riddance to it most of the people that benefited from the fuel subsidy it were the rich the elite diplomats like i was i mean we used to pay a pittance for our petrol it was quite scandalous of this was the case and the fuel subsidy frankly speaking was really doing nothing for the poor and the unemployed in the country now the country does have an opportunity ahead of it in the next few years to actually develop reasonably well forecasts are showing five percent plus growth it's not brilliant but it's not bad on employment has come down just a tick in the last twelve months there is a possibility of going forward here but i wonder whether these are members in the constitution will really help that i don't think so they talk about stability was the ability fine but if you're going to have a situation where you don't have a good dialogue between the different sectors of society you're not nice the business elites and the government and the governance and if you're going to have

difficulties with military involvement in the economy which of course is another issue which has come to the horn the last couple of years you're going to have difficulty at the end of the day in raising the egyptian economy is competitiveness and sustainability in the longer term ok and just let me interrupt you because we'll get all solution in the program. and i do want to hit a couple of final points first point you mohamed el masry here in doha fast forward twenty thirty four and we've had l.c.c. in power for all those he is would you would you recognize egypt then compared to what it is today egypt's been more or less the same authoritarian state for the better part of sixty years so i guess i guess yes. i would expect also if if he's still alive in two thousand and thirty four that there would be another amendment to give him a lifetime you know lifetime rule very briefly if i may this idea that ccs popularity was at stratospheric heights back a few years ago is is not really accurate the only opinion polling data that we

have a scientific opinion polling dating that data that we have from two thousand and thirteen at his height is from zogby and pew and they both put his popularity his approval rating at about fifty percent which was about the same as the president that he ousted mohamed morsi. and on the economy quickly it's true that some of the macro level measures show that egypt has improved but at the micro level which is what timothy was speaking about for the average egyptian things have become almost unbearable timothy held us in cairo are we also saying that his true ability to carry on as president of egypt really comes down to three things i guess trumps patronage because you already talked about the u.s. administration and also the american and the israeli belief that he can keep a lid on the country because that's got to be a mirroring function of their strategic interests in the region i don't think i

would limit his longevity to external support and is a lot of internal variables within the government the different centers of power within the regime and how everything gets negotiated he has been very effective at consolidating that power and putting loyalists and very powerful positions such as minister of defense head of the intelligence service center. that said i would i would also expand the pool of external support to europe europe has basically concluded that if she hears it is useful to them or supportive to their agenda of preventing migration from egypt then. his other crimes can be overlooked and while they might make comments about them in press conferences it doesn't affect them it's your relationship whether it be related to arms sales or. or other trade deals the reality is that. the presidency she is seen as the devil they know and one that they can do business with and they have james moron in brussels is there also a chance here that he might react in the worst possible way if he thinks his his

potential problems are mounting an increasing exponentially. i'm not quite sure what you mean by that react against whom react against the people react against other politicians he is known as being very very authoritarian ism i don't think that is going to happen anytime soon. my feeling having returned to egypt number of times since being the president is that there's a certain fatalism in the country about what is to come in the years ahead. there is also still a worry i think in the general population about the return of instability in the streets and whilst his popularity certainly whatever we would you wouldn't which other figures we take his popularity is nowhere near what it used to be when he first came in there was a lack for the time being of a credible alternative leadership that is partly explained of course by the policies of the regime itself in terms of oppression and so on but i think for the next few years he is relatively secure and i don't think we're going to see any

great civil unrest from either side in the years to come what i'm what i really worry about here is that this constitutional amendment process is basically throwing what's left of the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to the more positive changes that came after the revolution of two thousand the ok that is a great pity and a great shame i just want to put the last point of the program to timothy called us in cairo you were there timothy ground zero have we been asking the wrong question on the program today should the question really have been when is the next revolution coming into egypt and i'm asking that quite seriously because it occurs to me that you know mohammed was saying basically we've had military dictatorship or something they're all for close to the past what fifty five sixty years but timothy should the question be it's all going to change but we just can't anticipate when i don't think that we have a realistic way of predicting that. and it gets asked a lot i think every time there's a little bit of unrest there's a little bit of activity people jump to conclusions grounded largely in wishful

thinking about what in. i mean i mean when they were reshuffles of the security apparatus. a year ago n.c.c. was replacing the defense minister and have intelligence people thought that oh there's turmoil in the regime and we can in reality he consolidate is a very effectively without any consequences measure put his loyalists in these extremely powerful positions and lock up the former head of the armed forces so that in the seventy two hours or so i mean the end he's clearly sticking around but is it possible that people reach a breaking points given all the economic pressure they're under short is there any sense of inevitability on that front i don't think so i mean also keep in mind that from the perspective of most egyptians they've overthrown two governments in the last several years and their lives have more or less gotten economically worse after each instance of that so there's also limited faith in the ability of an uprising to deliver positive change and convincing them otherwise is going to be part of the challenge going forward should they seek to try to do bring an end to this authoritarian rule gentlemen we must leave it there thanks to all our guests

timothy held us mohamed el masry and james moran and thank you to you too for watching you can see the show again any time to the website al-jazeera dot com and for more discussion go to our facebook page facebook dot com forward slash inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter at a.j. inside story or at peta don't be one for me put it all be on the team here in doha thanks for watching will do it all again this time tomorrow. on line. with couldn't you for them we've not got this or if you join us on saturday all of us have been colonized in some form or some fashion based is a dialogue we are talking about a legal front and you have seen what it can do to somebody people are using multiple drugs including the funnel and some people are seeking it out everyone has a voice and that's your posse or twitter and you could be on the street and join

the global conversation on mountains iraq afghanistan has also geology both mentally resources and i'd refer to why are they so poor the measures you guys are trying to form the government. of the toxin when essentially nowhere the more we would close down the more they push back we knew it was coming to question was do we sit back and wait or do we surprise them with a preemptive strike talk. on just. inside venezuela's crumbling health system with aid to the border children a die as hospitals run short of pets.

oh i didn't forgive this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up breaking with tradition the sister of thailand's king will stand as a candidate for prime minister. a new york times article sheds light on the lengths the saudi crown prince was willing to go to use of force jamal khashoggi to return . every look at the films of the coveted golden barrel bored of the bowl in film festival. the u.s. says that the time for dialogue with venezuela's president nicolas maduro is over washington wants him to leave the country had to hand over power to a transitional government trucks carrying food and aid from the u.s. arrived at the colombian border the city of kuta but it's not clear yet how that aid will enter that as well or without the support of the military which backs president nicolas maduro one area which desperately needs

a is venezuela's crumbling public health system in the coastal city of barcelona fourteen children have died this week alone from contaminated food and water hospital workers say there's a need for medicine of zeros to risible as our exclusive report. this is a pretty tricks emergency room at the louis recipe hospital in the venezuelan city of. about three hundred kilometers east of us here dozens of children are in desperate need of proper treatment most of them have been diagnosed with a more b.s. is a form of dysentery transmitted by contaminated food or water lady check on store to reality is three months old she suffers while her mother says she has been abandoned the advair my daughter has diarrhea she almost had a heart attack we have nothing you arrive here and there is nothing i was in

a crisis because i thought i was losing her children here have diarrhea with blood in it and they are vomiting but nobody is helping us i want this government out now it has destroyed us. we were allowed to film because staff here say they want the world to see that they are unequipped to save children's lives just this week fourteen children have died the figures could climb you can see how desperate the situation is here there's several children on each one of those very people are telling us that there's no medicine and there are not enough syringe is among other things many of the children that are arriving here are dying from one day to another madeline in my teen years baby boy was one of them he was two months old on tuesday night he died he's forty remains in the hospital because she hasn't been able to get together the money needed to buy a coffin in the dinner but i don't i don't live there is nothing here they have no medicines they don't have food and now my son is date there are. people who

believe the outbreak was cost when a switch by broke and contaminated the local water supply there was no chlorine or other chemicals in supplied to treat the water parents with their children continue to line up for treatment staff at the hospital say they don't have the resources to help. with any of them here that three years ago we stopped receiving goals and alcohol there are not enough syringes or serums to hydrate children. the government of president. denies there is a humanitarian crisis in venezuela however he recently announced he is reforming the country's health care system. this is a public company recovered by the revolution because while it is going to produce all the medicines made for its public health care system and social security we can reach everyone like it should be and socialism. the situation in the last city

hospital is one of the reasons why the self declared entering precedent of venezuela one way though says humanitarian aid is urgently needed but some aid officials advice if it does a rival it needs to be carefully managed well you want to put in work on the work of humanitarian aid is a mechanism that every country has it's a mistake to make politics out of this there are great needs in venezuela and it has to be controlled managed by the united nations and other agencies so it reaches those who need it. a crisis that has people at this hospital watching and hoping that their children will survive. but of venezuela. on that u.s. aid shipment waiting at the border between colombia and venezuela. reports. honking their horns to larger t.q. later lorries in six moller trucks arrived in the border city. carrying

the aids relief elements same by the united states relief agency usa id this is part of a larger plan by the opposition together with its international supporters to try and start a humanitarian corridor. but it will not be easy given the fact that president nicolas maduro remains steadfast and its refusal to let aid in the bridge called last year. should become a humanitarian corridor is blocked on the side with barriers and large trucks the aid will be brought or is being brought now inside a a warehouse where it will be stored for the next few days we know that there is food and medical supplies much needed by the venezuelan population and we'll get

more details the morning of friday when the u.s. here together with the colombian government and four deputies from the venezuelan and national assembly will give a press conference and give us more details of the aid and their plans on how to bring it inside. president has launched a petition demanding the u.s. stay out of venezuela's affairs speaking at a rally in the capital caracas once again deny the existence of a humanitarian crisis. because of their oil resources minerals and other great wealth critics are pushing an international coalition heated by the united states so that they can commit an. given sanity and militarily a take venezuela under the false excuse of

a humanitarian crisis that does not exist. then suddenly we will go to the white house bring in more than eighteen million signatures calling for being as well a to be respected demanding peace fourteen as why la. in an unexpected twist thailand's upcoming election has become a battle between the country's royals and the military and pop the sister of the king has been declared a leading candidate for prime minister in the first election since the military coup in twenty fourteen contest on behalf of the tire rocks a child policy who made the announcement one of the members have before said name the augury that this is the most appropriate name. to be in doubt he emptied at least four high rock sides not we all agreed you know. so i think that this is it will be the hope of this country. i believe that this is the best of the best and you only want to be being that most people the decision right now will move

breaks a longstanding tradition of tyrol to staying out of politics princess. roger kahn is the elder sister of the king that is known to the public for her roles in thai films she was put forward by the party loyal to the former prime minister taksin shinawatra who was ousted by the military in two thousand and six lives in exile on the chief and current leader fry of channel china will also contest the march twenty fourth he seized power from the democratic government in twenty fourteen making himself the prime minister let's go live now to bangkok zero zero scott hyder can tell us more has been described as a political earthquake what are people making of it. major an absolute political earthquake political shock shifting of the political tectonic plates here in thailand all are appropriate for several reasons but the biggest one obviously is because this is historic never before has someone in the

royal family and politics like this like the princess has and there has been tradition as you said that they stay away from politics and they're above politics anyone in the world family so that is something that's that's never happened before so that has really been the been the big shock but also as you alluded to age and behind that it's the party that she is being fronted by also it's tied to talks and shinawatra now this is a political dynasty he's the leader of the political dynasty that saw his sister also be prime minister she was ousted five years ago in the coup but the current government overtook the government the current military governor say over to the democratically elected government and she is now the princess is now part of this party that has been fronted by the shinawatra which is very interesting because they gained all of their popularity kind of being anti-establishment and here you have a royal now who's being fronted as their prime ministerial candidate adrian sort of times of the political parties making of this.

well the political party that's being fronted by the pro-military parties and being fronted by the military government they also announce their prime ministerial candidate and that's going to be the current prime minister now they say they believe that what is taking place here on friday that the princess is being named as a candidate is possibly breaks campaign election laws they say because the royal family is not supposed to be part of any type of campaigning they believe that there could be. some illegality with this announcement obviously we're going to hear that come through of the next couple of days this announcement just coming out over the last hour or so so that obviously has to be worked through what the electoral commission does in reaction to that claim we don't know what's going to happen just yet but obviously interesting days ahead adrian scott many thanks i was in a scott high to there live in bangkok turkey is accusing saudi arabia of not being transparent when it comes to the investigation into the murder of the journalist

jamal show jeep and cross says its findings are in line with the u.n. human rights envoy investigating the case special reports of a column and says that she's death was a brutal premeditated killing planned and perpetrated by saudi officials she's been on a week long mission to turkey to examine the evidence will this as a new report in the new york times says that the saudi crown prince threatened to go after jamal has shown she in twenty seventeen according to the reports ahmed been some and told an aide that he would use a bullet against the journalist if he didn't return home and in his criticism of the kingdom the conversation was intercepted by u.s. intelligence agencies to show she was murdered inside the saudi consulate in istanbul in october of last year stephanie decker reports now from istanbul this is a preliminary statement that. the un special rapporteur for extrajudicial killings is in.