this is news live from berlin venezuela's self declared president ramps up demands for fresh elections. vows to keep fighting until the country gets a new transitional government and international support for him is growing. and u.s. president donald trump blinks he's backed down on his demand that congress fund the construction of a wall along the mexican border immediately is retreated and is the longest government shutdown in u.s. history.

i'm max foster thanks for joining us. francis spray spain britain and germany say they will recognize venezuela's opposition leader one good way to go as president if elections in the south american country are held within eight days kwaito declared himself an interim president earlier in the week he says he won't give up his fight for fresh elections he's announced large scale protests for next week and called on the army to switch its allegiance to him at the military continues to back incumbent president nicolas maduro duros describing credos rise as an attempted coup against his government. for more let's go live to caracas where de w.'s oscar shanker is standing by oscar what influence can european countries have on the power struggle there. both have

a lot of influence and they influence up to this point because it was the european union and many of the european countries that along with over sixty countries rejected the elections of the twentieth of may and last year that elected model as president when the new term began on january tenth he was no longer president because they did not. see those as fair elections so that immediately puts the president of the national assembly which is one way though as president interim of venezuela so they are actually playing a very big role in how this comes about but other foreign countries are supporting the duro turkey china and as specially russia how important is that well it's no surprise russia will support him. a few months ago moscow delivered two

russian bombers to caracas when tensions ran high between motherwell and washington there is a lot of economic and political interest in venezuela for the russians but it seems like they have backed down a bit saying they are open to being heaters for dialogue between mother in law and the opposition suggesting they want not to back him up militarily however we also received information that russian military contractors were sent to aid my hunger for his security in case any attempt to arrest him either defense minister has commented on that report. and what signs do you see as close as you are to this unfolding story that. goto is winning or losing this contest. well it's been very impressive how his support has grown over the past few weeks this is a congressman that we knew very little about he wasn't in the media all that much and came president of the national assembly because it was his party's trial for that presidency and his family congressman who was up for the position is sheltered

and she was embassy awaiting the government's persecution even the party's founder their political offices and house arrest so you can imagine the risk of holding that position however it might go has done an impressive job of talking to the masses the masses speaking calmly and constantly holding these open air assemblies that have gathered huge crowds that we've seen some of the largest in the past twenty years so for many people here it's a fresh face in politics that people wanted to see and that has managed to unite the opposition a task many thought was impossible towards the end of last year. in caracas thank you at least nine people have died after a dam collapse at an iron ore mine in the brazilian state of me nash share ass and that's in the country's southwest firefighters have saved more than two hundred workers but around the same number are still missing the dense collapse unleashed

a massive and deadly flow of mud. it's a race against time for these rescuers. a torrent of mud has devastated a vast area with hundreds of people still missing. their families fraught with worry. where parents the fathers the mothers that went to work earlier today nobody's telling us anything. where's my dad but. nobody is telling us anything about our sons our husbands the drama unfolded when owned by brazil's largest mining company collapsed at an iron ore mine on friday sending a torrent of mud across a vast area and the head of the mining company offered no explanation for the tragedy which comes three years after a similar to mine in the same state which killed at least seventeen people was

partly owned by. main victims are employees of. the employee restaurant was buried in mud. it's an enormous tragedy that took us totally by surprise i'm completely torn apart by what happened. to the regions governor said there was little hope of finding people. brazil's president. said he would visit the affected area in order to evaluate the situation with. greenpeace at the dam collapse was a sad consequence of the lessons learned by the brazilian government and the mining companies and highlighted a lack of regulation fd and now to some of the other stories making news around the world. in vienna hundreds of protesters have rallied against an annual ball

organized by the freedom party the f.p.o. is the junior coalition partner to the conservatives of chancellor sebastian quotes in the past the ball has attracted right wing personalities from across europe. spanish rescuers have found the dead body of a two year old boy who had fallen into a deep narrow well on the thirteenth of january miners had been drilling day and night to reach. the tragedy has gripped spain with the country closely following every turn of the complex rescue operation. stemming from the investigation into possible collusion between russia and trance presidential campaign stone called the charges politically motivated. the longest government shutdown in american history is over for now thirty five days into the standoff with lawmakers president donald trump has passed

a short term funding bill to temporarily reopen the government but his funding request for a five point seven billion dollar border wall with mexico the issue that started the deadlock is not part of the deal and he still wants a wall. i this was the announcement federal employees across the country have been waiting for and not just them. thank you very much my fellow americans i am very proud to announce today that we have reached a deal to end the shutdown and reopen the federal government. agree to temporarily reopen the government until mid february even without having received the funding for his request a wall on the border to mexico his retreat came after intensifying delays at some of the nation's biggest airports and another missed pay day for hundreds of thousands of federal workers. the american people do not like it when you throw

a wrench into the into the lives of government workers over an unrelated political dispute working people throughout america empathize with the federal workers and were aghast at what the president was doing to them since the beginning of the shutdown the president's approval rating has hit an all time low he was increasingly accused of being out of touch with the ordinary people. but despite all criticism trump has not given up on the border wall just yet republican and democrat lawmakers will now negotiate in order to find a mutually agreeable solution for border security and trump already made clear should he not be satisfied with the outcome the shutdown could continue. a german government commission has announced a plan to end the country's reliance on brown cool in

a move aimed at curbing climate change the panel agreed to phase out the use of cooled by the end of twenty thirty eight environmental groups say that's too late but the mining industry has warned the transition could cost thousands of jobs plan still needs government approval to take effect. for more now i'm joined by our political correspondent kate brady kate tell me around of a third of germany's energy comes from coal why is it happening now that this decision really has been a long time coming and something that particularly environmentalist groups have been calling for for decades now but of course if this is part of germany's efforts to reduce carbon emissions which as we know drives climate change and it's no secret here in germany that berlin of the german government has done very little to cup and emissions so far and it's falling behind all the world leaders every year

it's already announced last year the german government admitted that germany will not reach its twenty twenty climate goals nor will it for each of the targets set under the two thousand and fifteen paris climate agreement so there's still a lot of work to be done and there has already been criticism even over this plan which as you mentioned is still yet to be approved by the german government with many critics saying that they aim to is to phase out coal by twenty thirty is simply too long but of course germany does find itself in quite a unique position in that at the moment it is also in the middle of a nuclear phase out which was prompted back in two thousand and eleven and germany's pion phase now all of its nuclear power plants by twenty twenty two so at the moment they say the german economy minister has already said that the coal phase out is going to take slightly longer than would have been usually planned so they can offer. the nuclear phase out as well we also know that the cold will cost

billions upon billions who's going to pay for that in fact they were looking at figures around forty billion yards at the minute and that is all going to be footed by the government again there has been criticism over the financing of the phase out as well as critics saying that the government will effectively be spending huge amounts of money to then effectively buy often entire energy sector which is only then going to be shut down but of course it is also washed remembering as well that the german government has been pumping subsidies into its coal industry for decades now to offset their losses which would be made by the decision to buy coal cheaper coal from abroad and so they've been trying to keep the german coal industry afloat for decades now with these subsidies to keep people in jobs tell me briefly if you would about the thousands of people who work in the coal industry or industries associated with it how are they going to be compensated what happens to them while they're already plans in place to work with trade unions as well to make sure that people still of working age can then move into different energy sectors

a make sure that they get the right training to make sure that they can still carry on and have a good korea ahead of them and many people there that work in the coal industry at the moment that are around the age of fifty they've also been offered a chance to take early written a redundancy payment or early retirement for example say there is a strategy there it's just now making sure that that implement it ok lots of work ahead thanks so much keep radio the decision to give up cool in germany about twenty thirty eight. and the ferry over for germany at the world and ball championships millions of people here had been gripped by handball fever as co-host germany ratcheted up their victories but the run came to an end when they were knocked out by norway in friday's semifinal. germany got off to the better start to take an early three one lead i said no way we're on face and forth their way back.

and even the balance match in the chain side numerous times. i. it was a tough sissoko battle that wasn't always fair towards the end of the first half for players with bench for two minute penalties noice scored from a last second penalty throw to take a fourteen twelve lead into the break in the second half no control. led by their star place and a circus and the scandinavian goalie did signs captain things against him i kept german hopes alive with seven goals. but it wasn't enough to close the gap norway held out and ended germany's dream run winning thirty one twenty five mm norway will now pay denmark in sunday's final.