this is g.w. news live from berlin tonight a power struggle in venezuela as an opposition leader declares himself president hundreds of thousands of taking to the streets to demand that president nicolas maduro resign opposition leader one quite bold positions himself to take power backed by the united states has kicked out u.s. diplomats from the country we will go one to caracas for more on this breaking story also coming up the men who would make peace in syria the turkish president

heir to one says that he and russia's vladimir putin have agreed to setting up a security zone in northern syria and germany's chancellor has doubts about the future of our world order and the americans says change and reform will help counter what she calls the fragmentation of the multilevel whole world. i'm bring golf it's good to have you with us we begin and minutes where you live where the picture of power is unclear at this hour hundreds of thousands of taken to the streets of the capital caracas and in cities across the country demanding the resignation of president nicolas maduro they saying the government is illegitimate and they are demanding he return power to that it's where he lives national assembly the opposition leader a one go i though has declared himself the. country's interim president he was

swiftly recognized as the new president by the united states and several south american countries and euro has accused the opposition of carrying out a coup and he says essentially all diplomatic ties with the us as a result. own one quite ill took the extraordinary step of swearing himself in and president here's how that took place take a look ma no. other meat i swear to formally assumed the powers of a national executive. was the president's affinis way. amazing images there let's take this story now to caracas our correspondent oscar shanker is on the story for us good evening to you. up the opposition leader we just saw one quite of his declared himself president i mean talk to me about what

the situation is right now is he in power. well actually one way to go is the president of the national assembly our congress he and then out for years now the congress has put us on the road and use a server on how. the recent assuming a number we're going to smuggle in his new controller determined that. that stance so. far in the constitution they are proclaiming and so out of congress as the newly elected. democracy is so vast the european union the united states and several other countries that accept that the congress and our current is the only democratically elected institution that they will be to so it's only in our constitution one might go assume the role as president but this is an unprecedented

situation where not so we're rocking on uncharted waters. and yet here we are we're going to reports to you that madeira has called on the military to stay united what does that tell you is he losing control of the generals in the military. well he definitely has control of the generals and this is a government that has allowed the generals to take a lot of power and they control several. this. state and congress as well so of course they have a loyalty to my room because there were those that status with any other to come into power however the lower ranks had been. uprising against government we saw one last week just this week on monday we've seen several

residents in the past couple of years. there is a break in the chain of command we just don't know how strong that chain of command is a moment or how that break. i mean obviously a very volatile situation and i'm wondering how dangerous is it now for civilians and for journalists like yourself i mean you told me earlier that you could smell tear gas yes there are skirmishes in different parts of the city they say calm down. absent yet but it sure is that heat when it starts getting darker here people start going out and protest as we've seen in the last few days and there have been some doubts there has been some looting and just general instances of violence so this kind of scale it and we've seen it in two thousand and fourteen with a wave of protests and we see an escalation in violence in two thousand and seventeen so it is safe to say that there is violence is going to escalate here in

two thousand that team did i mean who responded dr schlanger with the latest from caracas oscar thank you in stay safe. all right let's take this story now into the u.s. capitol washington d.c. our my it's waiter is standing by good evening to you while we have heard that venezuelan president maduro he has broken off all diplomatic ties with the united states what's the real reaction from washington to that and it looks like. it looks like we lost our line there to washington we apologize for that we'll see if we can't get it back well let's stay with this story didn't we use michael casper claridge she got reaction to tonight's events and minutes way a lot from the canadian foreign minister who was in davos switzerland at the world economic forum now canada is a member of the lima group of nations seeking a peaceful end to the crisis in venezuela take

a listen so let me say on behalf of canada that we recognize and express our full support for the interim president c. of venezuela assumed by the president of the national assembly one quite though in compliance with the constitution of venezuela and we the members of the lima group are preparing a fully written statement which we hope will come out very soon it's an important day for venezuela and i'm grateful for the solitary of the lima group in speaking out on this that i was going through parliament and that was the canadian foreign minister there with representatives from the lima group reacting to those breaking news events in bennett's way look well here's some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world u.s. president double trunk former attorney michael cohen has postponed his play in testimony to the u.s. congress cohen had been due to testify early next month while yours cited threats against cohen's family by president trump as the reason for the delay. turkey's

president rajapaksa battle one says that he and russia's president vladimir putin are on the same page regarding a planned safe zone in northern syria that safe zone would be a buffer between turkey and kurdish fighters who after one considers terrorists at the talks in moscow the pair are valid to coordinate their actions more closely on syria. well germany's chancellor angela merkel has told the world economic forum that global institutions need to be reformed not downgraded to avoid what she calls the fragmentation of the multilateral world now merkel's hold a gathering of political and business leaders in davos switzerland that compromise must not be seen as a dirty word. 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 michael appear to live up to the title a subpoena for cooperation among nations. so i think we should understand our

national interest in such a way that we always remember that others have their own vested interests and factor them in and then shape a win win situation that will guide us in international politics you know a global architecture will only function if we're able to compromise as a whole. it was a rebuke to the isolationism of us president 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. and all of this new one in the european union we've always been a champion of free trade i'm delighted that starting the first of february will have the e.u. japan free trade agreement and we're also in favor of trade talks with the united states. we've been able to complete trade talks with canada and i think others should follow. but michael's place down in sharp contrast with actual events

britain's exit from the e.u. is just one example of international ties being said it. didn't stop her from addressing the subject of bricks and i. you know 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. then. the future of that partnership michael says is now in the hands of the british. are less recap of our top story for you and that is the political crisis in venezuela the interim president tonight if it is true what we are hearing is a man named one saying that he is taking over from the illegitimate president nicolas maduro but jury's reaction to that tonight has been want to cut diplomatic

ties with the united states who want to take this story now to washington d.c. maya swager is on the story for his good evening to you my if so what has washington reaction been to these diplomatic ties being severed. i have read well yeah it's been a quite an escalation of rhetoric in the past not just ours but the past few days with trump calling my door a huge server and then my door as we've seen cutting off diplomatic ties with the u.s. now we've seen these kind of expulsions before when ties break or when situations as kool-aid in this matter between two countries but i should point out there's a big question mark here because maduro has given us diplomats seventy two hours to leave the country and the u.s. government is in the middle of a shutdown right now so they can't exactly just charter a u.s. plane back home to the states so there's a big logistical question as to how they even can leave the country if they are able to comply but this is a drove really putting pressure on the u.s.

exacting some sort of revenge for coming down on what it will see as the wrong side here why are you hearing the u.s. diplomats the foreign service officers who are in venezuela or are they say for me and have there been reports of threats to their safety from the office of mature. we haven't heard anything specifically from even the state department yet as to how they're going to comply with this as we can see from the pictures coming out of caracas there it's not a very stable situation so of course we wish everyone who's there stay safe but this is something that president trump has been pushing for very strongly since the beginning of his presidency even more so than his presence or barack obama did his administration has passed a slew of sanctions against not just individual venezuelans like him adorable and

his associates but things to target the venezuelan economy in general in fact there were reports in the u.s. media that the travel minister had ready to a new round of sanctions specifically targeting venezuelan oil and had held off on putting the sanctions threat are now saying they have to see what happens with the situation whether it's a teary or it's you know the situation is a powder keg as we said earlier we're getting reports that madeira was calling on the military to stay united which would suggest that there is concern about him being in control of all of the generals in venezuela that's one concern also a concern of how this has happened today u.s. president on the trip he recognized one why though is that it's one of those leaders just moments after going go had declared himself interim president what do

you make of that time to tell us anything. well venezuela is one of our it was one of the more important partners for the u.s. in south america and latin america it's one of the big three producers of oil in the world so that's the big reason why the u.s. has tried to maintain close ties with and as well a but it was also simply up until recently one of the more stable democratic country is in the region which is something that of course the u.s. tries to value so this is this is something that the u.s. is going to have to simply watch play out even as the trump administration pushes for. to take power and have new elections yeah marcus where there in washington though very volatile situations and i see in the video it's regular where one why there has declared himself in the in president taking power away claiming to take

power away from president nicolas maduro market thank you very much you're watching t.w. newsline from berlin more news coming up at the top of the hour we hope to see you then everybody thank you. if you ever have to cover up a murder best way to make an exit. raring to. never read a book like this. list. the streets. of . the music so long enough to.