to book the eight new month to month into business will. so i mean one why don't himself it sort of created this day of the twenty third of february in the sense that that was the day he said the aid was going to flow into venezuela i guess he was trying to to shame the government perhaps to get more defections from the military and bring aid into the people who are suffering venezuela but he failed on those fronts and in a frank effectively was a huge miscalculation on behalf of one where there was an it yes it is but the thing news that when he said that he thought he had the assurance that the military will lead the humanitarian aid to get into the country but what happened yesterday was that was not the military who didn't allow that into the country what the parliamentary ganz that my daughter used to come from but what

is important because because if you use that as a reference you know that that is not the actual if you recall last night or years to nobody from the military team and there is not a statement from the military people i mean all if you notice all the news none of them was on the news last night and yesterday afternoon but when we hear mike compared the u.s. secretary of state saying president to do those days are numbered and then we have this meeting in in bogota and again we know that maduro is not going to back down on the aid issue i mean it really does all seem to point towards the possibility of a military intervention and what i'm asking you is how likely you think that is. i think it's going to happen because you remember that their role the right or. the responsibility to protect the venezuelan and been suppressing all that right

ok and so does now the humanitarian aid will be with an international force and that is again change or are actually to the situation we've been as well and turn it into cruise executive director of inter-marriage can trends thank you so much for sharing your views with us thank you sir. now coming up on the news hour from london u.n. figures show more civilians were killed in afghanistan last year than at any time since records were kept as ballots are counted in nigeria reports as many as thirty five people were killed in violence in saturday's election and this argentinean superstar reminds everyone that you vent this is more than just a one man show syria.

but francis has called for an all out battle against the abuse of children by priests he made the comments as an unprecedented meeting of senior catholic clergy wrapped up at the vatican but after four days of talks abuse survivors aren't happy with what they've heard or a challenge reports from. the a religious service in the painted splendor of the vatican marks the end of this extraordinary meeting then pope francis gave high ranking clergy his concluding thoughts he called paedophile priests ravenous wolves and tools of satan and insisted this is a problem everywhere not just in developed countries where most cases have been exposed or ray. here i would reaffirm that the church will spare no effort to do all that is necessary to bring to justice those who have committed such crimes the church will never seek to hush up or not take seriously any case it is convinced of the sins and crimes of consecrated people offer the tainted by

infidelity and shame they just take it the countenance of the church and undermine its credibility. words that seem to go down well with those present i have a very good feeling. and also the speech pope francis cave after mass this morning. full of strength and so very resolute so i think this meeting is not a finish up it's a start and we know there are some still active at least but survivors of abuse were angry they wanted to hear the pope say that abusive priests and those who cover up for them will be thrown out of the priesthood. but all it's. just words words words avoided seven years for change and others have been waiting thirty years for change and again he needs to do something concrete to remove bishops who have covered things up if there's a pope for the media critic of the corrie mob it. traditions are vital to the

longevity and appeal of the catholic church such as the angelus prayer given by the pope each sunday in st peter's square but the traditional secrecy with which the church has covered up decades of sex crimes is a threat to its very future while people still flock in their thousands to hear the pope speak in person at the vatican and there are hundreds of millions more roman catholics around the world but pope francis is aware that sexual abuse is a nexus tensional problem for the catholic church it's driven away worshippers and if it's not properly handled more will leave. the vatican never said this unprecedented meeting would solve the problem cardinals have called it a step on the road they must now produce follow up measures for clergy to take back to their countries and put into practice rory chalons how to zero the vatican. the un says a record number of afghan civilians were killed in two thousand and eighteen due to

an increase in suicide bombings and aerial attacks a report shows three thousand eight hundred four civilians died in the conflict last year nine hundred twenty seven of them were children that's an eleven percent increase on two thousand and seventeen and more than any other year since the un un began keeping records ten years ago of those killed one thousand one hundred eighty five died in operations by pro-government forces their aerial attacks caused four hundred ninety two child casualties the u.n. says the taliban was responsible for one thousand seven hundred fifty one civilian casualties last year while i sold killed and wounded two thousand one hundred eighty one civilians in two thousand and eighteen the were in afghanistan has taken a terrible toll on civilians and twenty eight witnesses deplorable levels of harm inflicted upon. the us so the highest number of civilians killed in the conflict

since the united nations began systemd systematic documentation of the impact of the war on noncombatants an explosive devices killed at least twenty four people in syria's central hama province it went off as a van packed with workers passed by syrian state t.v. says the device was one of the many left in the area by isis fighters leaders from the european union and arab league countries have gathered in egypt for their first ever joint summit the two day meeting which is taking place in sharm el shaikh will discuss yemen syria security and business deals but migration is also high on the agenda unsurprisingly the e.u. wants president sisi to order the egyptian coast guard to pick up refugees and migrants leaving libya and take them back to the african mainland to ensure that they don't become europe's responsibility. well actually bob. unlike son

we see the issue of migration not as a challenge but as an opportunity a corporation between the arab region which has an abundance of labor force and european countries whose economies need diversified sources of labor therefore cooperation between a regions in order to guarantee safe and organized migration would help in realizing our common interests. observers say as many as thirty five people were killed in election violence in the area on saturday votes are being counted in the closely for general election it's expected to be a tight race between president mohamed bihari and his main rival a key. voters queued for hours into the night or polling stations and had opened late because of violence or malfunctioning ballot machines a handful opened again on sunday to make up for the delay john has been following developments from the capital of. well the first official comment is out we've

heard from the chairman of the independent electoral commission i nec confirming what many suspected that this election is not in fact entirely over he confirmed that some polling stations during the course of saturday were forced to overrun into sunday because they opened too late to finish on the day he said that voting in many places you still ongoing or has just finished he also confirmed that some polling stations weren't able to open at all because of tech technical malfunctions or a combination of violence and intimidation at the polls he didn't say how many nor did he say whether or when votes would need to be rescheduled in those places and whether that would affect the outcome speaking of which he said counting continues at a state and local level as early as this evening after six pm it is possible that one or two states might declare their results they'll be announced here at the central collation center that out of thirty five is not going to give and indeed indication of the final result of course that may still be

a few days away but as long as this process continues to be extended the more concerns will rise about the possibility of a disputed result not just because of the events and mishaps of saturday but because of course of that delay to the vote last week it is not the outcome many nigerians would have hoped to be looking at in the aftermath of this election and one leading observer group that we've been speaking to jaeger has passed its comment saying this was not the election nigerians expected nor the election nigerians deserved i mean idris is monitoring the situation in nigeria's north where there have been some reports of violence. northern nigeria is relatively calm after the early morning scare on election day there were also fears of violence breaking out in many parts of the north after the two leading political parties accused each other of plotting to disrupt the coalition and the announcement of results process p.d.p. and a.p.c. accused each other of planning to send folks to burn down offices of the election

commission nothing much in that regard happened in most parts of northern nigeria however people will be watching closely to see the body language and the behavior of supporters of the two parties when the results started coming out what will be their body language and will be able to calm their supporters and also accept defeat when the results are fully in the meanwhile voting is wrapped up in senegal's presidential elections president mbeki sallis seeking a second term and faces four main rivals to his bid since coming to office president saleh is developed infrastructure projects and the economy is said to be booming opposition candidates though say ordinary people are still suffering because of poverty and high unemployment nicholas hockey gave us this update on the vote count for a polling station in the capital dhaka it's going on across fifteen thousand polling stations and work in one of the polling rooms we've just seen earlier these officers taking out each envelope. calling out the name of the candidate.

this is in front of observers from the political parties and from the election commission the election commission here says it wants to make the process as transparent as possible i mean this is democracy in action and they go and so they go as one of the most stable democracies on the continent in much of it is to do with this electoral process it's gone through eleven elections and all have been a peaceful transition in power now in this polling room specifically multi-cell came on top that doesn't mean that the rest of the country will follow but it surely is an indication of the mood because we've seen for the last two weeks markey solid campaigning aggressively across the country like you said. praise showing his accomplishment during his time in his mandate in power police have

fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of demonstrators protesting for the third day in a row against president abdelaziz bouteflika protesters in the capital jeers a calling a defeat that to abandon his plan to run for a fifth term in elections in april if you want to roll there's only been seen in public a handful of times since suffering a stroke in two thousand and thirteen. security forces in sudan's capital khartoum have fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters calling on president omar al bashir to stand down the continued violence follows bashir declaring a state of emergency across the country on friday he said he was dissolving his government but just hours later appointed six new ministers and eighteen state governors from the military is trying to quell weeks of unrest across across the country which began over the increasing price of goods heba more again has the latest now from car too. we've seen hundreds of people coming out to protest despite a state of emergency being enforced since friday by the president are going to

achieve now let's remember people have been out in the streets expressing expressing their frustration with the government saying that they want the president to step down and basically they want to see an interim government that has been happening for ten weeks now in sudan it started in mid december over the course of the costs over the rising cost of food commodities and it just quickly morphed into people demanding that present i'm going to push you and his thirty rule and step down now today now on friday when from when the president declared a state of emergency he dissolved the cabinet and dismissed all our state governors and appointed eighteen new military governors instead and he also appointed six ministers on friday itself and yes they have pointed to some some more including the prime minister and the vice president also were sworn in today but people are saying that they do not recognize the government that has been formed by the president they don't do not recognize the state of emergency that has been for that that has been announced let's remember a state of emergency would give the military the power to raid any house or any institution that they feel like it's threat that they feel is threatening the

institution they also the state of emergency also gives the government the right to arrest whoever they feel is threatening sudan stability and economic stability and political stability and people are saying that that's not going to stop them to say that despite the heavy presence of security in hard so many various parts of the country they will continue to protest and tell president i want your steps down something he said he's not going to do an indian police officer has been killed in a soldier critically injured in a gun battle in the district of indeed administered kashmir at least three fighters are also believed to have been killed they says shops and businesses in the region shut down in protest at the arrest of more than one hundred separatists on saturday tension in the region is high after a suicide bomber killed at least forty indian security forces lastly. a suspect who allegedly tried to hijack a plane and was shot by bangladeshi commandos has died from his injuries the boeing jet was forced to make an emergency landing and bangladesh's chittagong airport

local media says all one hundred forty two passengers got off the plane safely after it landed the flight had been going to divide in the u.a.e. . well still to come in this hour a high turnout as cubans get the chance to vote on a new constitution for the first time in decades plus. one big at the golden globes but can bohemian rhapsody take best film of the oscars already rocked by controversy. and their own anytime in sports capital pushes to become the front runners in the sport of kings. we will gradually see some quieter weather coming into central parts of the

mediterranean just around grace southern parts of the balkans we had the violent winds here recently that bora wind further south some very very a wet weather at a time some wintry weather still cold enough a little bit of snow into parts of greece as we go through monday temperatures in athens get up to around eight celsius still quite a keen wind not quite as windy as it has been over the past day or so and those winds easing back to just around the adriatic further north it is generate dry bits of clout there perhaps some wintry flurries over towards that western side of russia to ourselves to support for vienna we're getting into the mid teens once again in london paris will love the sunshine and it warms up further as we go on through choose the gorgeous weather coming through writing celsius there for madrid western parts of the med still find there just some wet weather to the eastern part of the med just sliding across cypress just heading over towards levant bright woman weather coming back into athens by this stage thirty celsius there thirteen celsius achiness fourteen degrees the trippy northern parts of libya still looking

at some wet weather just in the coastal fringes pushing across the fog north of egypt dry weather does gradually come back in behind not too bad to the northwest. a face can tell a story without uttering a single one. and knowing gone. can guide us. a simple touch inform us. the un convention manatee of life witnessed through the men's of the human nine. is what inspires us. witness documentaries on al-jazeera. donald trump says he has a special bond with kim jong il and the north korean leader and the u.s. president are about to meet again in vietnam the letter they were signing is very

comprehensive and i think both sides are going to be very impressed with eight months soft of a historic summit in singapore come a strike a deal on nuclear weapons and to finally end the korean war special coverage of fabric the twenty seven. reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera venezuela's opposition leader. of the international community to keep all options open after saturday's violent border clashes over american aid at least two people were killed in the efforts to

get supplies into the country. but francis has called for an all out battle against the abuse of minors the pope made the comments as an unprecedented. catholic clergy wrapped up at the back. and the u.n. says a record number of afghan civilians were killed in two thousand and eighteen due to an increase in suicide bombings and aerial attacks three thousand eight hundred four civilians died in the conflict last year nine hundred twenty seven of them. now cubans have turned out in big numbers to vote in a new constitution for their country a final draft of the new constitution was adopted by the cuban parliament last december it makes modest changes recognizing the free market in limiting the president to two consecutive five year terms while still ensuring communism as the island's official political ideology let's go live now to mariana sanchez she joins us from havana and many of the polls that will be closing very soon how is the voting go in and what are voters saying about this referendum.

well barbara actually we have not seen very many people voting today we've seen we've gone around several voting polling stations we saw we saw two three people in one to three people in another but the reason is because there are very many pulling stations around the city and around the country and now what we have been able to see is of volunteers people that have been helping the government knock on people's doors to come out and vote so the official turnout so far is about seventy four percent or just above seventy four percent which is a lot now we've been able to talk to many cubans today but we've not been able to find people who voted no who perhaps people who were did not want to talk in front of the camera but analysts have said that between twenty and thirty percent of cubans would be voting no the people who we talked to and who told us that that

they were voting yes told us that they were very happy that socialism socialism continues to be the guiding force in this country but it is historic that between twenty and thirty percent would be voting no because it's the first time that cubans. vote against a government proposal out in the open and mariana tell us a little bit about some of the topics that have been controversial in the run up to this because the issue same sex marriage actually came up a lot it was much this costs that tell us a little bit about how that played out and especially religious groups how they feel and how they were involved. well exactly the the issue of same sex marriage was discussed a heavy lead in the last year when the draft was being talked to. different in neighborhoods and among different groups and it it was it was so controversial that in the end the the draft ended up without any mention of marriage. the

actual constitution says marriage is between a man and a woman and that's what they wanted to change so it said marriage you calls. it's between two persons now they've taken completely that issue out of this new constitution and that has angered religious groups because they don't want to change the status quo they're furious they protested that this is against their principles so many groups many religious groups for catholics and especially even gelett goals and protestants have joined and they have promoted the no vote for this constitution despite other other proposals that are very interesting for cuba they said that this is very important for them and it's about a million people who make up these religious groups so apparently these are the outcome of the no boat will be based

a lot in what this religious groups have been promoting and it could be significant mariana sanchez will of course cross live to you again for the latest for the moment the live in of on the thank you now in just over sorry hours the ninety first the cademy awards will kick off in hollywood well reynolds looks at the films in the running for this year's coveted oscars. the red carpet has been rolled out on hollywood boulevard and the on globes with the names of the winners are ready to open this year's academy awards feature a diverse slate of best picture nominees including the exploits of an african superhero in black and. the life of an indigenous mexican housekeeper in the one nine hundred seventy s. in roma. and working for black in the deep south the problem is

a story of overcoming bigotry and creating interracial friendship in green book and the life of a brilliant but troubled gay rock star in bohemian rhapsody. films and performances selected you know the she is nominated this year for the ska certainly reflects that hollywood has a greater understanding and is putting forth a greater commitment towards diversity and inclusion and i think that's a good thing but the four other best picture nominees are vice a bio pic of former vice president dick cheney a star is born a remake of a venerable tale of fame fortune in fate with a helping of popular songs black klansmen director spike lee's comedy drama about a black policeman infiltrating the k.k.k. and the favorite a lavish dive into the intrigues b. trails and lesbian love affairs in the eighteenth century british royal court the

best female actor nominees include yet operates you know in roma lady gaga in a star is born and melissa mccarthy can you ever forgive me but there's a clear favorite i mean glenn close it's like finally i mean glenn has been the bride for. i am so i think everybody is like it's like the best male actor award contest looks like a dead heat between christian bale's startling in person a sion of cheney in vice and romney malek's passionate portrayal of the talented and tormented freddie mercury is bohemian rhapsody the television ratings for the oscars broadcast have been shrinking for years and twenty teen was the worst year yet by including a broadly diverse slate of nominees this year the film industry hopes to bring

those numbers back up and if the academy awards more relevance robert oulds al-jazeera hollywood or we can go straight to rob he is live for us on the red carpet in hollywood as so rob the awards not far now in the run up to this year's oscar ceremony really has been i mean usually full of control proceeds. yes that's right barbara first the academy of motion picture arts and sciences that's the people who will pick the winners here and who will run the ceremony decided they wanted to try and streamline the ceremony so among other things they asked if they could they wanted to create a new category best popular picture that was to write it as both patronize inc and sort of condescending so they have reversed course on that then they decided they would they're going to shorten the program try to keep it to at least three hours

and no more by cutting out some of the categories such as a film editing and cinematography hair and makeup and giving those awards during the commercial breaks of the show a lot of filmmakers point out that stuff like cinematography is actually what makes a movie a movie so they reversed course on that as well and then you may ask where's the host well there isn't one. barbara because kevin hart the actor and comedian. was assigned to that role but he backed out after several of his past homophobic tweets and jokes surface and apparently nobody else was interested so this is going to host. ok well we'll see how that one goes a few years ago there was also an outcry over a lack of diversity in the film an acting nominations and also not as many women nominated as the rector is has that changed to this here if you notice the change.

you see a tremendous amount of diversity here in the films in the themes in the actors in the directors for example you've got black panther this is the first big superhero film ever nominated for best picture and it is a black lead film it is about an african kingdom and a superhero who operates out of that you've got black klansmen of the film by director spike lee who's been passed over multiple times for oscars maybe this is his chance you've got a green book which is about race relations in the one nine hundred sixty s. and those that movie is received a lot of mixed reviews what's not what you're not seeing however is a female director nominated for best picture or best director that hasn't had that that happened last year but a great group has passed over and no one has won will feel director as one sits

karen bigelow for hurt locker there was ten years of our by robert reynolds who are a lot of cheering behind you so i'm guessing some of the stars are arriving will definitely be checking in with you in the coming hours for the moment rob thank you and joining me in the studio to discuss the potential winners is film critic rebecca perfect thanks so much for being with us so let's start i guess with best the best picture who tell us a little bit about the runner ups and who you know the nominations and who you think might win well it's a great selection this year i mean the chair from across all of the nominations has to be the favorite and right both nominated for best picture and we've also got black fur as well the first suit pair. movie to be nominated in best picture which is groundbreaking within itself as well a star is born is in that vice as well incredibly buried and i think one of the ones that i'm really looking forward to seeing how it does overall is the humean rhapsody as well which is obviously the queen biopic now i think the big winner of

the night for the best picture might well go to roma which will be really exciting a foreign language film you know here in the best picture category and also one of the front runners as well overall because foreign language films have been nominated for best picture before but none have ever won and rome is also particular because it's a netflix film and yet never really mainstream release do you think that that's it because it was a netflix film or do you think it's just that the academy is getting more diverse and more open to different kinds of well i definitely think there's a balance there i mean netflix is a powerhouse as a studios in itself it put a lot of money behind its campaign for roma i think the academy is step by step becoming more diverse in the way that it is looking at its nominations as well but i think it's all a really positive step because more people can access films like roma thanks to streaming platforms like netflix and it also allows us to see that you know more people are being able to choose two things that maybe we won't necessarily have

gone and seen at the cinema or maybe here in the u.k. for instance until right up to when the awards season is actually happening so we open that up to a much wider audience and it also reflects our viewing habits as well so it's very positive let's take a look at some of the other categories ladies first so let's go with the best actress yeah that actress in a leading role i actually think it's a two horse race here we have glenn close and then we've also got a libya coleman british actress that's a great host is nominated for the wife and she plays a very reserved character in this and quite the opposite is coleman in the favorite very eccentric very over the top so those two are the ones that have been picking up awards left right and center you know throughout the entire award season and what's interesting about both of those films actually because of course it was a lot of sex and control. see in hollywood is that the films themselves focus on the female character yes absolutely i mean with the favorite in fact in the best supporting actress categories as well we see emma stone and so rachel weisz also being in there and that film in itself for the favorite is it's based around three

women and it's so interesting to see and then also in terms of the wife yes she's a long suffering wife who essentially ghost writes her husband's books and he's lauded for about you know and that's the thing and it's a really interesting topic line that they were right in thinking she's never actually won the best actress oh no she's always been the bridesmaid never so. later on tonight the best actor best actor now i for months of thought christian bale is an absolute shoo in because of his brilliant portrayal and transformation to dick cheney in vice now interesting across award season what we've seen is romney malik the human roxy who again does a fantastic portrayal of freddie mercury golden globe and the golden globe he got the bafta award as well it's all great indicators that he might be in that dark horse at the beginning who now is going to be the front runner for the office. very excited to get our coffees ready because it is going. rebecca proper film and t.v. critic thank you so much. well still ahead in this in.