witness documentaries that open your eyes at this time on al-jazeera. in a country beset by poverty and lack of infrastructure. sometimes we risk our allies in taking these boats to scare them saving lives is it dangerous job the vaccine so it's only good for twenty four hours there are patients waiting for these medicines who must be a lifesaver threats. a week ago one of the gang stops some vehicles on the road but that kind of good luck with risking it all guinea at this time on al jazeera.

fighting breaks out between curtis and iraqi forces as they battle for control of the north. you're watching al-jazeera life from a headquarters in doha i'm setting up a gate also ahead criticism from the u.s. secretary of state for the four arab countries blockade in qatar ahead of his visit to riyadh and. the very says it's hammered out a united position on trade for negotiations on the ukase exit. russia warns any break up of the iranian nuclear deal could affect the situation on the korean peninsula. hello kurdish peshmerga are sending reinforcements to the front line north of where their battle. iraqi forces. a bridge was blown up near the town

of cooper oh as the sides exchanged mortar and rocket fire the kurds took up new positions on the road between erbil and kerr kook on thursday three days after they pulled out of the city well two and a cooper all lies near the border between kurdish and iraqi federal areas about forty kilometers northwest off occurred kook stephanie decker is on the erbil curfew cry away and you're just a few kilometers away from that front line stephanie tell us about it and what more you're hearing about these clashes. the fighting continues from what we understand were a couple of kilometers away as you mention we have seen smoke in the distance and just looking at the road really tells you a story immense military reinforcements being sent by the peshmerga counterterrorism forces also a lot of trucks with ammunition and you checkpoint has been set up further behind

us where there wasn't one before further towards a deal so of course they are defending their positions their concern of course is that the iraqi forces will push further up along this road towards the city of and below now just to explain just rough job griffey there is still the main checkpoint into and below just a couple of kilometers down the road from off around a kilometer from that is where the fighting is going on there's also been ambulance a lot of ambulance activity and we do understand there have been injuries at the moment numbers difficult to confirm we did speak to a hospital in erbil there have been brought back so why this at the moment during an active front line one must wonder what the end game here is for at least the iraqi government have they been saying anything. well we've heard from a few days ago that that had they had taken the territory that they were meant to do so this now is a question is it that the iraqi forces want to move towards the main checkpoint of

air below and stop there because as i mentioned they're still around a kilometer away around the town of. fighting around there so that's still a big question mark there were skirmishes at this checkpoint yesterday we were told you spoke to refugees from car cook they said they tried to go back there was fighting but this is a concern people say another ambulance heading down to the front line now people don't want to go back because there is still this active front line they don't want to go back many of them telling us because they don't trust the forces inside the city so it is a very fluid situation and the irony of all of this is darrien depressionary got trained and armed by the iraqi army and forces trained and armed by the u.s. these two forces were fighting together just a year ago when they pushed towards mosul and now they're turning those guns on each other right as the doctor thank you.

for the u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson has criticized the four countries imposing a blockade on qatar accusing them of refusing to engage in talks to ease the crisis he's kicking off a week long overseas trip with stops in saudi arabia and qatar as well in june saudi arabia the united arab emirates egypt and behind closed airspace and severed trade and diplomatic links with qatar they accuse it of fostering terrorism charges doha strongly denies a month later to listen bartz on his first shuttle diplomacy mission as you can see in a bid to shore up kuwaiti efforts to solve the disputes u.s. president donald trump's also offered to mediate pushing for a quick resolution but the u.s. state department now says there is little hope of agreement anytime soon. we want to see these come countries keep their focus on the areas of mutual cooperation that we have and that includes the fight against terror terrorism and other things

of that nature so i think the secretary is you know certainly discouraged that nothing has been resolved just yet he's talked pretty consistently although folks haven't haven't paid much attention to it recently about the disappointment that the nations haven't been able to do so the g.c.c. crisis we hope that they will we hope that they'll sit down and have talks but it seems like they're not ready to do that yet. has more from washington d.c. so it's those comments in an interview with bloomberg news marked a significant change in tone gone was the optimism we heard three months ago when tillerson last visited the region instead he expressed his frustration saying there appear to be a real will unwillingness on the part of the quartet of blockading countries in. progressing with these talks in contrast saying qatar has been very clear that

they're ready to engage now the fact that tillerson is returning to the region this following week and to push further these talks is a long ways from where the u.s. policy on the gulf crisis started back in june if you remember that's when u.s. president donald trump was quick to come to the aid of saudi arabia praising its leadership in initiating this blockade and trying to claim credit that was a direct result of president trump's visit to the region since then the white house has been more silent on this topic while the state department has taken a lead here with tillerson returning again. the british prime minister has told you leaders in brussels they do not need to worry about the u.k.'s financial obligations connected. to reason may try to kickstart stalled negotiations she had sought to expand talks to include trade but other leaders wanted more progress on e.u. citizens rights and the border with northern ireland they'd also hope to resolve

issues about how much money the u.k. with pay to break from the bloc but may says that won't be finalized until the end of negotiations i've made clear to my e.u. counterparts in relation to financial contribution is what i said in my florence speech which is that i have said that nobody need be concerned for the current budget plan they would have to either pay him all or receive less as a result of the u.k. leaving and that we will honor the commitments that we have made during membership now there has to be work on those commitments as david davis is said we're going through them line by line and we'll continue to go through them line by line and the british taxpayer wouldn't expect its government to do anything else while brics it isn't the only issue on the use agenda so leaders have discussed catalonia secession bid so far the e.u. has refused to intervene in the standoff the german chancellor angela merkel is pushing the e.u. to cut funds to turkey over human rights concerns and the blocs leaders are

unanimously backing the iranian nuclear deal it's so support for the greenman that's being denounced by the us presidents well the processing group the catalan national assembly is calling on its supporters to withdraw their money from five of spain's largest banks this is in response to the spanish central government's plans to suspend the region's autonomy on saturday catalonia as president carlists puja ma has threatened a regional parliament vote on independence if madrid goes ahead. andrew simmons joining us from barcelona to tell us more on what exactly that would mean andrew. well what it means is this according to a socialist senior politician who was speaking on t.v. the public t.v.

channel it means that there's a deal now between the government of mariano rajoy and the socialist party the p s e and they have agreed to regional elections or they will impose regional elections on catalonia in january part and parcel of this article one five five which is being very described by some observers as really the nuclear option in that it will bring back direct rule from madrid to catalonia and of course this is going down really badly with the pro independence campaigners now these elections will necessarily guarantee a reversal of the feeling here certainly not in some quarters of opinion and that there is going to be a number of other measures which will be announced on saturday morning after a cabinet meeting and then there will be

a referral to the senate and there will be almost a guaranteed approval of what the cabinet decides because of the p.p. the popular party alliances and support from other parties now there is no doubt whatsoever what all this amounts to is an escalation of this crisis. having said that what is the reaction in barcelona for the expectation that med red is going to invoke article one fifty five on saturday. we've heard nothing from. the president of. yet he is some feel. to make a decision on whether or not to declare independence that is unclear we're not going to hear much warning of that if it should take place no comment whatsoever but the feeling amongst people is that this is not of or indeed even

legal option that the government could take in imposing elections on them that is really the feeling of the people who feel they need to protest others spoken wants people who are perhaps more apathetic to the whole issue of a referendum there are numbers that are not as vocal they are with the view that maybe this is possible way out but really when you look at the picture the both sides in all of this are getting more and more entrenched there's a standoff going on it may be a slow motion in effect but it's still no doubt whatsoever the biggest political crisis in four decades of democracy in spain anderson thank you still ahead on al-jazeera china's president takes a page from ours little red book thoughts. on the communist party's constitution stories coming up in a moment. overshadowed somewhat by tension surrounding the

presidential election. i think we'll see some drier weather in the forecast for to pad at least for the next twenty four to thirty six hours the rain will return and there we go shima seeing around one hundred four millimeters of rain in the space of twenty four hours to see this area cloud which is in the process of pulling away that allows brighter skies to come back in behind you back across the korean peninsula and pleasant sunshine for so seeing those temperatures getting up to around twenty two degrees celsius here's our next area of rain though that pushes up across q shoot into southern parts of honshu for saturday these are the outer bands of typhoon land which will bring some increasingly wet and windy weather it as we go on into

the early part of next week but even ahead of the storm a possibility of flooding rains for the southern half of japan and then meanwhile we've got to clear skies across a good parts of central and southern china largely settle weather here we do have a little bit of wet weather over towards the western side of the country but for many as you can see pleasant sunshine hong kong around twenty eight or twenty nine degrees over the next day or so we'll see the showers extending down across the philippines more lively showers coming through here some more wet weather coming in across northern parts of malaysia pushing over towards thailand but for much of todd it is fine and dry certainly to the west. as we embrace new technologies rarely do we stop to ask what is the price of this progress what happened was it was started getting sick but there was a small group of people that began to think that maybe this was related to the. investigation reveals how even the smallest devices. are

a mental health we think ok we'll send our you waste to china but you have to remember that air pollution traps around the globe death by design at this time on al jazeera. top stories on al-jazeera kurdish peshmerga are sending reinforcements to the front line north of kirkwood where they're battling iraqi forces a bridge was blown up near the town of soon as the sides exchanged mortar and rocket fire the u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson has criticized the four countries imposing a blockade on qatar for refusing to engage in talks to ease the crisis he's kicking

off a week long overseas trip with stops in saudi arabia and qatar as well the british prime minister has told you leaders in brussels they do not need to worry about the financial obligations connected to brock set to resume try to kick start the stalled negotiations she is seeking to include trade in the talks but other leaders want more progress on citizens' rights on the border with northern ireland. well more on this story from jonah hall who's in brussels. well the summit conclusions here in brussels are in and it is clear that the e.u. twenty seven to resume a's fellow leaders do not feel that sufficient progress has been made so far in bragg's talks to be able to move them on from the difficult deadlock question of money the so-called break to divorce bill to trade talks which is something britain very much wants to see britain's future relationship trade relationship with the european union what they've done the e.u.

twenty seven is they've set a new deadline fourteen december that's the next e.u. council meeting at which time progress will again be assessed and if sufficient those talks can move on but what they want to see by that point is more detail from to resume a on precisely how much money britain is prepared to pay for its outstanding commitments and liabilities they're simply not convinced by her offer so far to meet britain's budget liabilities for two years after it leaves the block they want to commit to much more too on a long term commitments to projects of the european union that will long surpass britain leaving the block a figure essentially tens of billions of dollars higher than anything she's offered so far well the reason may has steadfastly refused to provide that additional detail a press conference she gave a short while ago this is what he had to say i have said that nobody need be concerned for the current budget plan that they would have to either pay it more

for receive less as a result of the u.k. leaving and that we will honor the commitments that we have made during our membership now there has to be detailed work on those commitments as david davis has said we're going through them line by line and we'll continue to go through them line by line and the british taxpayer wouldn't expect its government to do anything else so no big breakthrough here for to reserve may the appeal that she made to her fellow leaders over dinner on thursday night essentially to help her to meet her to join her in the effort of making progress has gone largely unheeded. there is this there is a commitment in the conclusions here for the e.u. twenty seven to begin discussing among themselves what sort of trade relationship they might like to have with britain when those discussions begin when it is green lighted possibly in december that at least would mean that there is preparatory work done that they are a little bit ahead of the game that's all that to reason may has now to take back to london with the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov has warned that abandoning the iranian nuclear deal could undermine the chances of curbing north

korea's nuclear ambitions he was speaking at a nuclear nonproliferation conference in moscow us in north korean delegates are at the meeting in what could be a rare opportunity for a dialogue the u.s. president donald trump has been denouncing the iranian at the same time applying pressure to north korea over its nuclear program but with these objections i mean usually with but in tackling the nuclear program on the korean peninsula we must prevent an armed conflict that would inevitably bring about a humanitarian economic and environmental disaster parties must show restraint and reserve let me remind you that in every u.n. security council resolution on the korean peninsula its side sanctions their statements about the need to return to negotiation that there is no alternative to a diplomatic settlement. the chief executive of kenya's election board has announced he's taking three weeks' leave for personal reasons the opposition has demanded the sacking of before the presidential election rerun next week the

results of the election in august was an old by the supreme court because of voting irregularities catherine soy has more from nairobi. but this is a day that's supposed to be unifying kenyans a day when celebrate men and women who fought for the country's independence those who fought for democracy in the one nine hundred ninety. rose who have on the country in different ways. by political uncertainty over the election people a deeply divided along ethnic lines politicians are speaking completely different and statement this week with the electoral commission chairman he felt that he cannot guarantee free fair and credible election under this. political environment he said that he wants to between present to looking at and right that he did meet with. i mean he said that he wants the election. and

electoral reforms carried out then he can participate in another election rooting out of the president said that he will not. let a commission he out its money to go back to the supreme court to seek guidance we also we've also seen. chief executive officer leave me out in the election commission stepping aside he said he's taken a leave and he's one of the people who the opposition has been pushing to have removed i had a letter now he stepped aside but then rile up the supporters saying that he's still a. late in the process has already been damaged they do not want an election held on the twenty sixth. the twenty one year old irish egyptian citizen has been released after four years behind bars in egypt the news of her but i am home i was

released he was welcomed by his family and the government in ireland last month he was acquitted of charges including inciting violence and rioting linked to the fatah hamas demonstrations and twenty thirteen hundreds were arrested there after protests against the military coup that ousted president mohamed morsi trust me kind of a lawn is an irish activist who is campaigning for what i was released she says many in our land fought tirelessly for his freedom it was not good if you find it prime except protester. personally because i am married to an egyptian myself we have a half irish half egyptian family and it's pretty happy it could have been my son has that was arrested and actually wanted to a prison for four years when this happened all the activist off behind me bring me

. what you must remember that there are actions living here in ireland as well and i am part of that community and i must admit that even that tiny community. down the middle. due to the. arab spring in egypt rather goes against brother here and bought. the irish actors were all to have a name released and i said there was no proof that he was getting a man think except that he was protesting peacefully. the president of china is said to have his own political theory incorporated into the constitution of the ruling communist party chinese state media is reporting the so-called xi jinping thought will have fourteen principles but it's not yet known what they are she's thoughts are expected to further consolidate his power putting him on par with the founder of the communist party. adrian brown with more from beijing.

we've had the chairman mao era the dung sharping era welcome to the xi jinping era state media has confirmed the president xi jinping name is going to be written into the constitution this means he's now in the same club as chairman mao who led the communist victory in one nine hundred forty nine and dunk shopping who was the architect of china's many economic reforms but it took chairman mao decades for that to happen and also done shopping's name wasn't added to the constitution until after his death she jinping has achieved that in just five years this has been the congress where he's been stamping his authority outlining his vision for china not just for the next five ten fifteen years but for the next twenty and he now wants to be around to ensure that happens and the fact that his political thinking is now going to become the party's guiding ideology will of course make it much easier for him to remain in power perhaps for another twenty years now the past few years of

course have really been a period of political shocker nor here in china he has turned the communist party upside down tens of thousands of card rates have been purged in his anticorruption drive that drive has also extended to the military now it's expected that at the end of this congress which will wind up early next week will get final confirmation that we're now entering the xi jinping era much needed help promised by the us government still hasn't arrived in pretty rico a month after the american territory was devastated by hurricane maria president donald trump has given the u.s. government's a ten out of ten rating for its handling of the crisis islanders say they're having to fend for themselves as alan fischer reports from kwento blanco. van human is got tired of waiting one month after hurricane rita struck his community was a mess so he called some friends we are in the process to clean up the creek

because basically the crane was there. a real damage i guess the houses and around twenty blanco is a ninety minute drive from san juan the island's capital the people here feel that far away from the center they are far away from a company far from the belief that anyone is going to help the government is almost absent there is almost no coordination woman here just staying with someone. but their reality is right here we see sometimes and i see our guard just providing water but just a couple of patients are no more we ask and then we're begging them for at least two up some excavator to clean over. the area and what we're being told is this isn't a one off but there are communities across this area that have asked for and waited for government help and know they're doing what they can where they can the hurricane they say it was a problem the greater tragedy is a lack of government action. not far away from here at the hurricane brought

a flood that overwhelmed and destroyed the bridge that was a lifeline to a nearby mountain community so the locals built a pulley system which carries food and water and diesel having heard. we are going to have a great we don't know anything. you know we are just disconnected across the island people are putting in their own fixes to get what they need a local stream by the roadside suddenly with plastic piping becomes the only source of fresh water for clothes washing drinking and even some fun. there is no who wasn't well equipped to deal with a storm the size and intensity of maria one of the federal agencies here see few places there's this island was pummeled by over one hundred fifty mile an hour winds what that does to the infrastructure that is in excellent condition versus ordinary condition it's still the same it's highly destructive because governor

disputes things here are slowly getting better in fact he says they may be getting worse and many communities fear they are being forgotten after a storm none of them will ever forget alan fischer i'll just point to blanco puerto rico. insurance companies in california estimate the bell from the worst wildfires in the state's history will be more than a billion dollars at least forty two people were killed and nearly seven thousand buildings destroyed most in the northern wine making region. it's the end of the road for cars made in australia holden has sucked down the last remaining factory ending nearly seven seventeen years of history andrew thomas looks back on the end of an era when in australia two thirds of people drive to one big distance road trip holidays a common and classic car fare as a popular affinity with cars here is cultural and ingrained but after friday calls

will no longer be made in australia it's lost car factory will close the company closing its general motors owned holden has been a fixture of australian industry and culture but decades old is in likened to a strike like the kangaroo in the make pies and i was brought up with the holden cars my father bought one example is from holden brain you. holden's advertising played on there as being all of the cars they'll continue to sell cars in australia they'll now be imported from europe asia and the united states where production costs are lower a study is over on car industry was not a huge that is peak it made really hot a million cars year but that was when it was protected against imports at one point there was a tariff on them of almost sixty percent as tariffs disappeared and other countries

made cars cheaper australia is common to fracturing suffered ford was the first big player to close its factories earlier this month toyota shut down production holden has held out just two weeks longer the end of australian made cars like this one is a sign of the changing nature of australia's economy but it's not necessarily a sign of its decline. australia's unemployment rate is low at five point six percent as manual work declines people are getting more skilled worker. all work in high tech manufacturing capitalism and economic evolution is a story of industries slowing down and evolving and the important thing is to concentrate on what needs to will solve that next twenty five years he says you kiss full on the nomination twenty four. hold and says it will keep on hundreds of designers and engineers in australia and it will help its thousands of former

factory employees to find jobs and al-jazeera. hello again the headlines on al-jazeera kurdish peshmerga are sending reinforcements to the front line north of kirk luke where they're battling iraqi forces a bridge was blown up near the town of cooper as the sides exchanged mortar and rocket fire the kurds took up new positions on the road between erbil and her kook on thursday three days after they pulled out of the city stephanie decker has more from close to the front line we have seen smoke in the distance and just looking at the road really tells you a story immense military reinforcements being sent by the peshmerga counterterrorism forces also a lot of trucks with ammunition a new check point has been set up further behind us where there wasn't one before

further towards appeal so of course they are defending their positions their concern of course is that the iraqi forces will push further up along this road towards the city of. the u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson has criticized the four countries imposing a blockade on cats are for refusing to engage in talks to ease the crisis he's kicking off a week long overseas trip with stops in saudi arabia and qatar. the british prime minister it's a reason may has told you leaders in brussels they do not need to worry about the u.k. meeting its financial obligations after its exit from the union she sought to expand talks to include trade but the other e.u. leaders are demanding more progress first on the e.u. citizens rights and arrangements for the ira supporter the processing group the catalan national assembly is calling on its supporters to withdraw their money from five of spain's largest banks this is in response to the spanish central government's plans to suspend the region's autonomy on saturday catalonia as

president carter's puja mom has threatened the regional parliament vote on independence if madrid goes ahead the russian foreign minister has warned that abandoning the iranian nuclear deal could undermine the chances of curbing north korea's nuclear ambitions. gets are to moscow conference and what could be a rare opportunity for dialogue between the two sides. those are the headlines inside story is up next on al-jazeera. takeaway. what's next for the catholic.