terms and conditions and documentary on instagram. this is deja vu news from berlin tonight who holds the power in venezuela is the opposition now on the verge of forcing president maduro. hundreds of thousands of taking to the streets across the country to demand his resignation the opposition leader has declared himself in its way this interim president will go live to caracas for the latest in this fast moving story also coming up germany's

chancellor calls for the reform of global institutions saying the change will help counter what she calls the fragmentation of the most high level world world and two of syria's power brokers aiming to settle the war torn countries face turkey's erda one says that he and russian president putin have agreed are agreed about setting up a security zone in northern syria. it's good to have you with us we begin to been its way where the picture of power is unclear at this hour hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets of the capital caracas and cities across the country demanding the resignation of president nicolas maduro they say that mature rose government is illegitimate and they are demanding the return power given its one of those national assembly the opposition leader one. wedo has declared himself the country's interim president the united

states and canada have already officially recognized him as president but he has sworn an end what he calls a usurpation of power by the madeira. government at. the latest on this now we want to go to our correspondent oscar schlager he joins me now from caracas could he do you have oscar so opposition leader won or you know i mean he has declared himself president what more can you tell us about that you know one way to go is a congressman in our own that was elected in two thousand and sixteen and this month these just last month he became president of the national assembly now only one has been declared us all a democratically elected body and many countries and they are asking to be the next in command after all even whether or not they get

a law calling other rights or early next year it was an experiment he swore to and the new term president that they could actually name server because they were against elections already and they and a lot of failures and a lot of the call it is raw so right now we are seeing ourselves in a conundrum of all president here. i mean there is impossible to say who actually holds the power in the country i mean who is in control of the military right now. when you were asked whether it was intentional or the high military how did you manage the military and we've seen that there has been a great command for many of them because we've seen uprisings rondell it's very just this week and throughout the past couple of years we've seen uprisings from the military in lower commissions home however the government and the cost of the

government has a good control over of the military and that's what worries me here in misrata that a small i mean you know you've got movement here we've got canada the united states the organization of american states recognizing the new interim president but you've also got mexico saying that for the time being it is not changing its policy on but it's way less this is not a unified front in terms of foreign powers and their relationship with and it's working that is that going to hurt or help madeira well i it's really hard to tell but it's just very complex the china and russia will surely go we have the european union back in the national assembly hall us canada and other countries are recognizing why you know it's really.

really difficult to say at this moment what's going to happen without knowing. who or what the government is saying about this new the swearing in of the president when president of the national assembly want to go and we know that people were killed overnight protests i mean what is the situation right now i mean are we looking at an escalation of violence. definitely there will be an escalation of violence in the us whether. here or whether we are just now and that's your guess. they're already being put out by you for the opposition groups throughout the city in the country we will see an escalation well that's. all right our respondents because they're joining us from the capital of and it's where the caracas where it is unclear tonight who the president is or who is in control of

the country oscar thank you well here's some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world asylum requests here in germany are declining the country's migration agency says it registered just under one hundred eighty six thousand applications last year that's down sixteen percent numbers have been falling steadily since the two thousand and fifteen migration crisis when nearly nine hundred thousand people applied for asylum here thousands of mourners have attended the funeral in northern israel of an arab israeli student killed in australia twenty one year old. was raped and murdered in melbourne on her way home from a comedy show her death sparked protests against violence against women acclaimed zimbabwean musician oliver mtukudzi has died at the age of sixty six in a career that spanned forty years and sixty seven albums he became the most successful artist to emerge from zimbabwe to coop as he was no i've been suffering

we understand from diabetes. turkey's president to write a tell you a better one has said that he and russian president vladimir putin have no disagreements about a plan to safe zone in northern syria of the zone would be a buffer between turkey and kurdish fighters who are one considers to be terrorists speaking after talks with putin in moscow everyone said that it was of crucial importance that the plan the u.s. withdrawal from syria did not leave room for the terrorist groups to roam freely putin said more action by both on her and moscow was needed to liquidate the action of terrorist groups well i'm joined now by john thing can from the german marshall fund of the united states and has expertise among other things in russia and u.s. relations with turkey it's good to have you on the program jonathan would this

meeting between ever won in putin would it be taking place at all if trump had not announced the withdrawal of u.s. troops from syria i think the relationship between putin and heir to one has grown substantially over the last couple years just this past year they've had seven one on one meetings and this is in two thousand and eighteen eighteen phone calls they had one recently so the cooperation between turkey and russia and syria has grown substantially so this conversation opted i think a push to try to address some of the challenges and concerns that turkey sees and also it's an opportunity for russia to solidify what it sees as the right position in syria what do you make of this talk about a buffer zone in northern syria between the turkey and the kurds does that say that turkey is not willing to intervene militarily against the kurds in other words it's

not willing to go against the wishes of washington. i think that's to be determined of course turkey has legitimate security concerns with respect to the p.k. k. and kurdish terrorism but also as the united states has said and the national security advisor mr bolton has said that whatever takes place in northern syria can impact the kurds and so there is a real challenge here right now of course there is the security imperative for turkey and there's also the u.s. relationship an ongoing relationship with kurds who were with united states side by side in battling isis and what about the role of russia is it looking to avoid complications with turkey over its syria strategy or do you see moscow having a longer term interest in improving ties with.

look i think russia's interest lies in and trying to recover all of syria from mr mr assad and maintaining its influence in syria i can't really think of an instance where russia has played a positive peacemaking role anywhere on the globe and that includes syria and i think this should be of real concern too as it builds on this relationship in syria as it looks to potentially fill fill in where the u.s. is leaving that creating a relationship with russia based on mutual trust and reliance is one that they should not rely on and the track record of mr putin in these situations usually leads to russia trying to assert its own interests and a negative way that destabilizes regions and peoples and what about america's allies the kurds in syria can the u.s.

choose them over turkey in the long term. look i think that president trump has already spoken he has ordered u.s. troops to to leave we've already seen equipment leaving syria in northern syria u.s. troops would follow i think he's made a choice. president trump and that is to withdraw u.s. troops and i think part of the concern in washington and this is been a challenge with this administration president trump is that he does not value allies and he's incredibly transactional and for the kurds i would be worried and i don't think that the u.s. is a reliable partner right now with president trump in position to determine what the policy is but we saw it just last week an attack on u.s. military personnel with isis claims it's obviously a disconcerting situation i think the worst case scenario for the united states is

that isis reemergence and that you continue to have a destabilize region. jonathan accounts with the german marshall fund of the united states and we appreciate your time and your insights tonight thank you thank you thor germany's chancellor angela merkel has told the world economic forum that global institutions need to be reformed to avoid what she calls the fragmentation of the multilateral world she told the gathering of political and business leaders in davos switzerland that institutions like the world bank and the international monetary fund must be ready to compromise but they don't have to be downgraded. she's been held by some of the leader of the free world today at the world economic forum in davos german chancellor i'm going to appear to live up to this title as she pleaded for corroboration among nations. i think we should understand our

national interest in such a way that we always remember that others have their own vested interests in fact that man and then shape a win win situation that will guide us in international politics. a global architecture will only function if we're able to compromise as a whole. it was a rebuke to the isolationism of us present donald trump who at the last minute made his point by canceling his trip to davos to reinforce her point michael also called for stronger global economic ties among the no obvious no new one in the european union we've always been it with the united states. we've been able to complete trade talks with canada and i think others should follow. but merkel's please stand in sharp contrast with actual events. exit from the u. this is one example of international ties being severed and that though didn't stop her from addressing the subject of pressures that. we all have to deal with the

shock that britain wants to leave the union all my efforts go toward trying to see this happen in a well ordered manner we want to have a good future partnership. the future of the partnership michael says is now in the hands of the british. analogy the u.s. canadian border and the natural wonder of niagara falls a winter storm has taken temperatures down to minus twenty five degrees celsius transforming the falls into an icy spectacle take a look at that the majestic waterfalls partially frozen providing a stunning sight for visitors amazed. you're watching news live from berlin i'll be back at the top of the hour with more world news followed by the day i hope to see you then.

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