much more on that story and everything else that we have been covering here on al jazeera on our website on your screen right now, aljazeera.com. targeting jihadi john. a u.s. air strike goes after the most recognizable face of isil. >> how stupid are the people of iowa, how stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap. >> trump lashes out. the presidential hopeful takes on iowa voters and ben carson.

>> the pentagon says it's still trying to figure out for sure if an air strike killed the man known as jihadi john. >> it was his covered face that appeared in multiple videos showing the killings of american and other western hostages. we're joined live in washington from john terra. what did we learn there? john terry? >> good afternoon to you. reasonably certain is the line coming out of the pentagon that they have got jihadi john this

british guy seen beheading americans like james foley and steve sotloff. we think -- they think jihadi john was caught by a hell fire missile while travelling in a car with his new worst best friend who think believe was a taxi driver. according to colonel steve warren, the process now begins to try to work out whether they really did get jihadi john. it's going to take' couple of days. colonel warren says it's not an exact science. >> the intelligence indicators

that we had gave us great confidence that this was jihadi john and an opportunity presented itself with minimum civilian casualties and we took the shot >> a couple of things worth noting, colonel warren says he was an isis celebrity and not strategically significant. he also pointed out that they have been killing mid-to upper level leader leaders at one a day now since may. >> there is also news of new tactics regarding isil oil fields correct? >> kind of new on one hand but not on the other. according to colonel warren, they've instigated a new operation called tidal wave two.

tidal wave one is something that stems from the second world war when the allies went after nazi oil installations and these pictures show the coalition going after isil oil installations, refineries, separation units, dumps, pumping station. that sort of thing. now the idea and that's what these pictures are showing you is you put these places out of business for a year. john, good to see you. thank you families of some of the hostages killed at the hands of

jihadi john have already reacted to the news saying his death would bring little closure. >> he is a murder. he was shown in those sickening videos of the beheading of british aid workers. he posed an ongoing and serious threat to innocent civilians not only in syria but around the world. and in the u.k. too. he was isil's lead executioner. let us never forget that he killed many, many muslims too. he was intent on murdering many more people. so this was an act of self-defense. it was the right thing to do. >> the group takes advantage of anger in young people to get new members. >> they're are grievances that

are manipulated by recruiters and they're taught to look at the world through a particular world view. we call it islamism as opposed to islam the faith. it's a new sense of identity based on victimhood and a range of divinity things and basically the only way you can find solutions is to join our gang and carry out certain activities. what we've learned is that, that world view, that's the soft end of recruitment to violent extremism and it really needs to be tackled by civil society in all different ways. we need to deconstruct and promote better alternatives in the same way we do with racism and fascism. >> one reason the u.s. government went after jihadi john is because of his being kind of the best seller of the

isil brand. sinjaar is on a key supply route between raqqu and mosul. the group has held the town since last year. we have more on the strategic significance. >>reporter: without seemingly facing any stiff opposition, pashmerga forces have gone into the center of the town of sinjaar and declare they control the whole town now. they came in through the north which was controlled by them. they took that in an operation in december where they opened up a humanitarian corridor allowing yazidis trapped in the mountain to flee. this last final push seemingly quite easy for the kurdish fighters. there's something quite strange happening here that we have not really seen before. isil social media accounts are on black outon this separation. normally they're quite active. i've spoken to a pro isil

journalist who told me isil fighters met on november 11th but there's a discrepancy. isil was telling fighters they needed to stay or they would be executed and that has not happened. they went into the town without facing much force. the town of sinjaar is very strategic. it's one of the major supply routes. let me show you what's happening behind me. you can see a sign there that says mosul. it's important because that's where the kurdish president is. he's monitoring events quite closely. this is one of the key supply lines. when they took over in august, they actually got as far as where i'm standing before they were beaten back by kurdish forces. right now, the kurdish pashmerga are inside the town of sinjaar

and say they control it. >> despite todays progress, u.s. kurdish forces say the situation in sinjaar remains dangerous more blood shed in israel and palestine today. two israelis shot and killed by a passing car in hebron and a palestinian died as a result of confrontations of hebron. soldiers responded by firing rubber bullets and teargas into the crowds a secret service agent is going to court today to answer charges he solicited a minor for sex. he sent messages and images to an under cover agent posing as a teenage girl. he sent the messages while on duty in the white house >> last night in iowa, donald trump went after ben carson over his history. trump said this about carson's

tales of nearly stabbing a friend and having a bad temper. >> he took a knife and he went after a friend and he lodged, lodged that knife into the stop of his friend but low and behold, it hit the belt. it hit the belt. and the knife broke. give me a break. i have a belt. somebody hits me with the belt it's going in because the belt moves this way. how stupid are the people of iowa. how stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap. so here's the good news. he's now saying all of that stuff happened because otherwise he's a liar. >> carson's campaign called trump's words expected. the washington post says there's

talk about drafting mitt romney to run for president again. students marching over race and how they pay for school. a jury

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moscow has banned egypt's major carrier from landing in russia after the crash of a flight in egypt. today a supreme court could decide to take up its first abortion case since 2007. the state of utah is stepping into a custody case and speaking out against one of its judges who ordered a lesbian couple to give up their foster child. the state disagrees with the ruling and the reasoning. >>reporter: for the last three month's, april and becky have been state-approved foster

parents to a 9-month-old baby girl but a judge said no. >> he said through he search he found out that kidses in homosexual homes don't do as well as they do in heterosexual homes. and when they asked to show his research, he would not. >>reporter: now the state of utah is supporting the couple arguing the judge went against its recommendations. the state of utah will appeal the ruling >> i don't expect my caseworkers to violate a court order but also i don't expect them to violate the law. >> he made an uninformed biased decision based on

widely-debunked research. >> the couple just wants to keep the girl who they consider their daughter. >> we've been told to care for this child like a mother would and i -- i'm her mother. that's who she knows. and she's just going to be taken away in seven days. to another probably good loving home. but it's just -- it's not fair. and it's not right. and it just hurts me really badly because i haven't done anything wrong. >> the couple has hired an attorney who says she's planning to appeal the judge's ruling at a hearing set for early

december. >> i definitely relate to the university of missouri and stand in solidarity with them in everything that they're doing. >>reporter: at the university of michigan, she's one of the roughly 4% of black students on campus. she says her years' long fight took a turn and erupted at the university of michigan. >> do you think that could happen here? >> definitely. i don't think that our students are afraid to do it either. >>reporter: in 2013 after a number of racially-charged incidents, kendall helped launch a movement that helped shed light on the challenges african american students faced on the

predominantly white campus. >> do i think that anything has been different from 2013? no. >>reporter: last year michigan's black student union issued a list of demands to college administrators calling for improved racial diversity and inclusion on campus. kendall says that so far a few of their demands such as providing more financial aid have been met but she says much more needs to be done. >> i can say there are a couple of new black faces on campus and that's cool but it's still an uncomfortable environment for african american students. >> i think they've acknowledged

that we do not have the diversity they claim to have. >> it's ending an eight-day diversity summit and in december 2016, they're expected to implement a campus-wide diversity plan. the vice provost at the college says they take the subject of race very seriously. >> higher education is on notice that issues of inclusion and opportunity and diversity and equity are paramount to what we do. >> i definitely plan on holding the university accountable and taking some type of action if i'm not pleased or satisfied with the diversity plan.

lead leaders is -- the centers for disease control now have some form of autism. that is up from just over 1% or 1 in 80 people. researchers caution. finding the inner beauty in ugly fruit. why millions of fruits and vegetables end up in the trash instead of feeding the hungry. >> and a major international store will close its stores on thanksgiving. why the store says it will help its bottom line.

we are just two weeks away from the biggest shopping weekend of the year and some stores are switching things up staying closed. employees at h&m will now be able to spend thanksgiving day at home this year. they followed staples in abandon closing its stores on the

holiday. >> i'm proud of what they're doning. i like the idea that they put families first in front of the bottom line. >> more than two dozen other retailers including home depot and rei will close up shop on thanksgiving day but rei is keeping its doors shut on black friday as well. >> there were some tears actually. the idea of being in retail and having the opportunity to actually spend thursday and friday with your family is pretty special. >>reporter: retailers say decisions like that seem to generate some brand loyalty among customers. according to the national retail federation, black friday weekend sales were down 11% last year. retailers say that could be because of earlier thanksgiving day sales.

two weeks ago today the lure of the discounts will still bring out the shoppers including those who hit the stores hours after eating their turkey. but last year fewer shoppers headed out to stores. in november 2014, shopper traffic dropped 5%. many chose to go on the web instead. >> a lot of the strength in sales this week goes along for the holiday channel. especially with mobile-toting consumers. while several stores will be closed on thanksgiving, the web will be busy. the adobe digital index predicts an 18% increase in online shopping that day worth more than a million and a half dollars in sales more than half of that shopping on smart phones. a utah judge is reversing

his decision to remove a baby from a lesbian couple and placing it with an heterosexual couple one of the world's largest glacier is melting in greenland. eventually there could be enough melted ice to raise ocean levels worldwide by more than 18 inches. the study of satellite imagery suggests warm waters are melting the ice while scientists call the changes staggering it's called freak fruit and it's important because nearly 50 million people in this country don't know where their next meal is going to come from. nearly half of what is grown is never eaten. it is wasted. it is just not pretty enough.

>>reporter: before he eats his food will have traveled through a vast industrial system to get to the grocery store. and that in a country where 48 million people don't have daily reliable access to healthy food, billions of pounds of less than perfect produce never make it into shopping carts and is never eaten. >> it's wasted and not eaten because of these cosmetic

imperfections. >> the cosmetic standards come from the u.s.d.a. who has produced tens of thousands of pages of diagrams with reasons why fruit and vegetables should be divided into higher and lower classes. it's not just the grocery. our government is involved in grading standards it creates. in a statement the usda said changing them would not have an impact on -- they would simply find another way to make that distinction in the marketplace. it went on to say the produce industry requested rate standards determine levels of quality and value in the

marketplace. a small fraction of this unatractive produce ends up at good food banks are not the same as supermarkets. we saw some of these so-called uglies in if a massive warehouse just outside of manhattan. it's run by a nonprofit that helps feed new yorkers facing hunger. >> most people see something about this size and symmetry. this looks great. when people see something like this, i mean, i could -- you could drop this on your foot and break your toe with it. so they're aprehencive. >> while you were sleeping overnight a mistierous piece of space junk collided with earths atmosphere. scientists say it most likely burned up. what didn't burn up probably ended up in the indian ocean.

thanks for being with us. tony harris from new york. the news continues next live from london. >> hello, i'm barbara sarah, and this is news live from london. coming up in 60 minutes, iraqi captures a town from isil. killed in a drive-by shooting in the occupied west bank as two palestinians are shot dead. a rock star appears at a