rail. located in the heart of europe you are connected to the. experience outstanding shopping and dining office and triall a services. biala guest at frankfurt. managed by for. this is g.w. news live from berlin tonight the downfall of a key player in yemen's civil war the rebels turned on former president ali abdullah saleh killing him in

a rocket and go on the attack what was behind his killing also coming up the european union says there is no deal with britain on the unlocking the next stage of brics it talks and it is an irish problem why is that we'll bring you analysis from brussels and london and police involved to arrest ten people in connection with the murder of journalist daphne rwanda going to see if she reported on corruption on the island when she was killed in a car bombing in october. i'm bringing off it's good to have you with the rebels in yemen have killed the country's own former president ali abdullah saleh just south of the capital sanaa sally was fleeing after abandoning support for the rebels in yemen's complex civil

war it's now no closer to ending after attackers ambushed vehicle with a rocket propelled grenade. it was a gamble the turn fatal for yemen's longtime strongman. who the rebels killed their former ally ex president ali abdullah saleh as he tried to flee the capital sanaa saleh was one of the conflicts central figures his killing comes barely two days after solid tore up his alliance with the who feels in favor of a saudi led coalition. we will turn a new path without and start dealing with them in a positive have because what's happened to yemen is enough. but you have a problem with. those words put the who the rebels on the defensive in sana'a with clashes spiraling on sunday the rebel group claimed it fired a cruise missile towards a nuclear plant in the united arab emirates with the saudis having the upper hand

and talk that iran's backing of the movies may be waning the country's years long civil war enters a potentially critical phase. well i'm joined now by an. expert here in berlin for university with a special focus on yemen it's good to have you on the show let's talk about what has happened to. just in the last couple of days now he reportedly changed saw and what was it just two or three days ago. and abandoned the hoody rebels and now he's been killed by the who is this a revenge killing. market off either way what we saw in libya. similar yes. i understand his defection as a coup against the states in. the trade. but it wasn't a very confident alliance it was very fragile they entered this alliance in two

thousand and fourteen as a matter of convenience to. to join forces against president had he who is in riyadh. but i have to decide i was always flirting with the idea of talking to the saudis and to find a way out for himself so this was an opportunity now and it clearly backfired as he underestimated the strength or how much influence does it really have because he resigned what was it five years ago right so was he did he have still had impact then on the country he certainly did he remained general secretary of the general people's congress party and he was pulling strings of strength from behind so he he was sanctioned by the un because he was sabotaging the transitional process at the time and he also contributed to the whole thesis taking power in santa and by directing loyal military commanders to let the

who these tasks for instance so he was a key player in the conflict and his death is certainly first a sign that his him and his support base weakened in the us so what does it do then to this proxy war that we're seeing in yemen does this mean the saudis no have a stronger foothold in yemen is that what we're looking at and you know it's actually the opposite yes so the saudis are already signaling that they would take on and support this i'll have to listen and they were hoping that this could give them a way out of the conflict and now the who is proof that they're still the stronger ones and i think the saudis are going to retaliate with much force and of course they're not going to lift the blockade there was i was when i was in your means retaliate what does that mean you've got the blockade there you've got people

starving to death are we looking at a humanitarian crisis going from bad to worse and that's where we're going. to see more airstrikes i also believe that the saudis are going to try to support ground fighters more. especially now that the supporters are most probably going to join the other side. so we're going to see a realignment of the fronts and definitely violence is going to escalate further into a negative picture there for the future unfortunately in iraq it runs village with ruins for university thank you very much. well here in europe hope of real progress between britain and the european union seems to have been dashed after reports that a breakthrough had been reached over the irish border european commission president jiang called younger and britain's prime minister to resign may announce today that they have not reached agreement in their talks those talks of course designed to

unlock the goshi ations over trade relations. despite our best efforts and to significant progress we and our teams have made over the past days on the street main we've told issues it was not possible to reach a complete agreement today. we know have a common understanding on most relevant issues was just to us we open for discussion. for consideration for the negotiation and further discussion as president has said we have had a constructive meeting today both sides have been working hard in good faith we've been negotiating hard and a lot of progress has been made and on many of the issues there is a common understanding but it is clear and it's clear crucially that we want to move forward together but on a couple of issues some difference is do remain which require further negotiation

and consultation and those will continue but we will reconvene before the end of the week and i am also confident that we will conclude this positively. you know there's a lot of bureaucracy there to filter through let's find out what is going on to do that i'm joined by our correspondents barbara vessel in brussels and bearded mohsin one good evening to both of you me start with you theresa may zhong called younger they were very optimistic when they went into this lunch meeting today when they came out. they certainly had not had dessert what happened. yeah dessert was not served because they had hard and constructive talks which is diplomatic speak for it was quite terrible obviously they couldn't move on. the weekend a draft resolution had been circulating about ireland how to avoid a hard border an island and the magic formula was there should be regulatory

alignment between the two sides that means in plain speech it should be more or less the same on both sides off the future e.u. border and however at the last minute this deal was scuppered and all singers are now pointing towards the d u p.t. the northern ireland unionist party and our need for a senate it's her fault yeah i think it's her fault and bigot i want to ask you about that first so let's take a listen to what the yeah what arlene forrester said from the day you feed today when she got word of the plan for this exception for northern ireland take a listen. we have been very clear northern ireland must meet the european union on the same terms as the rest of the united kingdom and we will not accept any form of the regulatory divergence which separates northern ireland economically

or politically from the rest of the u.k. so big it did we just see the northern irish already start breaks that talks in their tracks is that what we were just watching. well possibly is what british media are reporting we of course really officially confirm it but also it's what the irish shock has been sort of suggesting he said that there was an agreement that had been make read with him with that reason may with you but then it didn't happen that he was disappointed that this couldn't go through however it's not really a surprise because we knew that northern ireland would be a major stumbling block we knew that the d u p the unionist really want to do everything in their power not have any border between northern ireland and the u.k. this is for them the most important thing they want to stay close to the u.k.

they don't want something like korean if it cajun of island by the backdoor by having northern ireland and the republic be sort of with the same regime but not the u.k. so this is really not a surprise that we had this reaction from the do you peter day and what has happened with this beer get now if recent mayors willing to talk about an exception for northern ireland well can scotland also asked for an exception london can't wondered also ask for an exception isn't this a pandora's box there's been a. yes for sure and i mean they have been asking for nicolas sturgeon the first minute of scotland she came forward immediately and said well if northern ireland gets a special treatment we also want to stay in the single market scotland never wanted to leave the e.u. scotland voted against bracks it and of course london as well london voted against rex it so everybody it will come and make their demands so it's very very tricky

situation for tourism indeed and barbara i mean you see things from where you're sitting i mean you know the cynic in some of us could look at this and say that maybe theresa may is her strategy here is to actually kilbride's it before it happens. that would of course be a very extensive interpretation of this one that of course in many of british media has already been aired during the last days and said this was the most certain way to sort of go underneath it however what will have on the ground here in brussels is that talk will continue this week with a lot of skepticism because frustrations are really sky high here and nobody really knows how to you know where a possible solution could be after this da if this deal that was a more or less on the table has been killed at the last moment then what now do it to now and we know the president of the european council don't notice because last

friday i'm almost handed the veto to island he was in dublin and he said no decision at the e.u. summit next week will be taken against or without you so it's really now the ball is in the court of the irish they can now say whether they want to go ahead and let britain go ahead bruce breaks the talks next you go into phase two talk about the future and a trade deal or not so dublin has the key you know double has the power who would have thought that would be the case today for who is a force on the story in brussels big muscle mystery force in london to thank you. here are some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world leaders of germany's social democrats have agreed to hold talks on the possibility of forming a new coalition government with chancellor angela merkel's conservatives though their decision still has to be approved at an s.p.d. party conference later this week party leader martin scholtz initially ruled out a coalition with the conservatives

a court in spain has ordered the release on bail of six former cut along cabinet members who were being held in custody for their part in catalonia as declaration of independence however the judge upheld the jailing of four other men who have been in prison since november. the u.s. and south korea have begun their biggest ever combined air force exercises involving more than two hundred thirty fighter jets this has drawn a predictably response from north korea with state television there describing it as an all out provocation that could lead to a nuclear war. well tis the season to be jolly and that was definitely the case at the sunday reverse ski resort in the u.s. state of maine on sunday as santos sunday hit you see it behind me in the ski slopes over one hundred sixty skiers were decked out in santa claus costumes they raised money for local charities with so much festive joy and serious skills on

display it really does raise the question to santa need us to leave the year to get the job done or should he just stick to its game what about a robot. looks like he's been on a diet as well. our drive to date with g.w. news i'll be back at the top of the hour with more world news followed by the day have to see in the.