here with their families a little ahmed was a fighter in the southern province of that are the most recent area taken back by government troops he shows us video of when he was involved in the war and like so many others who chose to leave he doesn't trust the government. i see the reconciliation as a big mistake because the regime will start arresting us author a wall and put us in prisons we've already heard of a few people being killed by the regime. came to live from ottawa in homs the area was besieged by government forces for almost three years and he's now joined one of the local armed groups in italy. we left because of the heavy bombing and the siege we were starving i didn't agree with the reconciliation the regime says they will take it live let them say what they want we have dug trenches and tunnels god willing we are ready. the various rebel groups are preparing for the expected government offensive in it there is a complicated mix of armed groups on the ground here each with different

allegiances and they will often turn their guns on each other but most say they will fight together against the expected offensive it is home to almost a million internally displaced syrians in those tents that you see crammed together behind me that's province and that's just a small snapshot of what is a major problem in the united nations is warned of a humanitarian catastrophe if there is an all out military offensive on eleven turkey's borders remain closed many opposition supporters don't want to admit what this offensive may mean but are some speaks frankly he came to the problems from southern damascus he too was an opposition fighter there. or what. if the regime takes so it lip that means you have lost the whole revolution everything it's like if you took the mask of the whole of syria would fall to us it was our damascus if the tickets or. many predict that is only a matter of time stephanie decker al-jazeera on the turkey syria border the u.n.

says a ceasefire has been agreed between rival factions in libya who've been fighting in the capital for more than a week at least sixty people have been killed and one hundred fifty more injured in and around tripoli under the deal all fighting will end in the cities only airport will reopen. head has more from tripoli the united nations support the mission in libya has announced that it has reached a cease fire between the warring groups we understand that the united nations support the mission in libya has held a meeting with representatives from the groups in tripoli alongside the representatives from the internationally recognized government of national accord and the aim of that meeting was to put an end to this conflict in tripoli and to save the lives of civilians who understand that the conflict or the clashes that

have been going on for more than a week now have taken a heavy toll on civilians more than a thousand illegal migrants who have been detained in a detention center close to the. area where the clashes are going on they have been released by the illegal migration combat department and supervisors of that illegal migration combat department say that they had to release the illegal migrants in order to save their lives we understand also that many civilians have been forced out of their homes in the southern suburbs of the libyan capital tripoli since the beginning of the clashes on the twenty seventh of august also the have been a lot of random stray rockets landing in densely populated areas and more than forty people have been killed since since the beginning of the clashes and many of them many of them are civilians. at least nine people have been killed as typhoon gebbie back to japan the government has issued evacuation advisories for more than

a million people and canceled hundreds of flights jetties the strongest typhoon take japan in twenty five years teddy said and he has this update for us from tokyo thank you and j.b. has moved away from the japanese back to below it's now on the island of hokkaido north and japan still weather officials are cautioning warning people to be cautioned against the high waves and going green in the area where. the sights and the way from japan people are now trying to evaluate the damages not refuting them. but not the main focus was. on second which was hit by the by this icon and cause strongest typhoon that japan face within twenty five years no protector. been knocked out in many areas. kobe i don't see the hundred thousand. in the night we don't

think that they. put in that city which are connected by a bridge built on the sea. port that was flooded yesterday and one of the runway it wasn't working about five thousand people were stranded in the airport and today they were in favor of this operation since midnight and. that is their their promise people to do their awful to restore life but soon as possible especially that many public but they have been also damaged by the time by that don't fight like. central station where the two. who are partially due to the strong green. of the leaders of pacific island nations have been meeting in now too that's where australia has an offshore prison camp for refugees before they form is focusing on regional peace and security and improving

the health of the island's people but the prison camps and the treatment of the refugees there is casting a shadow over the conference around sixteen hundred people are being held in two camps one a narrow the other in papua new guinea's man assad and andrew thomas has more from sydney. the pacific garden for me is the big annual meeting for leaders from across the pacific to discuss the big issues that face the more things like climate change the existential threats that rising sea levels pose to know fisheries stocks across the pacific very low they need to be managed carefully improving health outcomes across the pacific and balancing regional stability the balance between the united states and its allies on the one hand and the increasing interests of china across the pacific on the other those are all things that will be on the formal agenda but of course all this is being overshadowed by the destination for this year's forum no room famous for the place that australia same's many of the refugees that have

tried to come to its shores by boat and now held there in many cases for over five years journalists allowed to go to the route to report on the refugee issues and most journalists including me have been banned from attending this year specifically on a forum because it's happening in the room and they think as well as the form we would want to discuss refugees and i'll choose day a journalist who was allowed in from new zealand was detained for a period of three hours by police for daring to speak to a refugee so you can see how sensitive the issue of refugees agents for in the room nonetheless in a sense by denying journalists and n.g.o.s amnesty human rights watch and others from visiting the room even now when the all eyes of the pacific are on their country well this is all backfired because here we are talking about refugees and not primarily the big issues facing pacific island countries. all right still ahead on agassi you know well the adoption of an international definition of anti

semitism helped the u.k. opposition put aside its differences. and protests on social media but backing from sports stars after nike makes american football a calling captain in the face of its latest campaign. hello the been some nasty poky showers in pakistan recently but i've just done a particular but it's right on the charts there's nothing in iran there's nothing sorry rock from the point of view of anything other than hazy atmosphere and hot weather the wind direction tense change things that's not particularly strong and it's pretty similar on shore breeze the bay routes in the thirty mark felt humid to dry are also weather but so middle forties a bag of high forty's further south in iraq and in the northern part secure white

house didn't really stop forty nine degrees is a regular occurrence because nothing else happening in the sky occasional shower on the sun caspian if you're lucky and given the wind is not that strong it's been very humid again recently in bahrain that's not going to change forty degrees is there when it's that he would that's very typical dry weather and dry heat i should think the low humidity further west some showers recently in yemen and southwest that is not really much in the forecast to see a repeat of that decent rain has skirted through the western cape recently in the forecast for wednesday is a good potential for rain if you want it and you do in cape time thirteen degrees in the clouds which should go eastwards and turn quite substantial. and instantly shifting news cycle the receiver in change in america tweet the

listening post takes and questions the while to meet all. of the details the kind that cannot be convicted in two hundred eighty characters or fewer exposing how the press operates it is their language is their culture it's their context and why certain stories take precedence or ignore it we can have a better understanding of how news is created we're going to have a better understanding of what the news is the listening post on al-jazeera. and again you're watching al-jazeera a reminder of our top stories this hour airstrikes have hit syria's province at least seventeen people have been killed and russia says it is aware the syrian army

is planning an offensive on the last rebel held bastion the u.n. is warning of a potential bloodbath there. a cease fire has been agreed between rival factions in libya been fighting in the capital for more than a week at least sixty people have been killed and one hundred fifty more injured in and around tripoli under the deal all fighting will end and the city's only airport will reopen. at least nine people have been killed as typhoon batters japan the government issued an evacuation orders for more than a million people and canceled hundreds of flights is thought to be the strongest typhoon to hit japan in twenty five years. a cambodian m.p.'s are being sworn in and every one of them is a member of the ruling people's party long time leader who ran virtually unopposed in july's election after the main opposition group was outlawed late last year he's been criticized by rights groups for cracking down on the sent. plans to form

a government late to this little week flora's louis reports now from kuala lumpur in neighboring malaysia. the prime minister who sends party the cambodian people's party is in full control of parliament who can send himself has ruled cambodia for thirty three years and he said he intends to be in power for at least enough a decade and the general election held in july was widely considered a sham by political observers and human rights groups and the results were hardly a surprise to anyone over the course of the past year and has systematically destroyed all forms of opposition to his government he imprisoned can soak up the co-leader of the main opposition party last october on charges of treason. still in prison awaiting trial and not long after the courts which are known to be under the control of one cent or at the very least supported his government or that the main opposition party the national rescue party to be dissolved forcing hundreds of its

members into exile independent media who are less joe sol and more critical of consent in his government have also been shuttered so this is the cambodia that putin's government over the election results and wednesday swearing in of members of parliament all of whom come from lutherans political party i suppose is a way to give the can vote in government a veneer of legitimacy and after all defying international consensus maintains that he won the election in a free and fair manner and that the polls were held in a free and fair way but there's no escaping the fact that cambodia is now a de facto one party state. off the more than five hours of discussions the u.k.'s opposition labor party has voted to adopt in full an international definition of anti semitism its leader jeremy coleman has been accused of holding anti semitic views and being reluctant to expel party members who've expressed opinions against

jewish people lawrence lee reports. can you say what he wants to about israel without being accused of hating jews these people who support jeremy colvin believe it is entirely legitimate to condemn israel as institutionally racist without being cautious as racist themselves ludicrous and you know i mean this is the party that could become the party of government and we can discuss matters of foreign policy the rights of the palestinians to their own self-determination the the suffering that the palestinians are experiencing at the hands of israel we can discuss that in the labor party because it will be defined as anti semitic. tactic of god but these british jews friends of israel said that his bigotry fascism of jewish people at the moment everybody i know is considering leaving the country young people are leaving the country i know loads of young people in that twenty's have

gone to israel and you know if jeremy corbin looks if he's going to become a prime minister you will see a stray mcgeorge people leaving the united kingdom that has to be terrible. at the heart of it was labour's refusal to accept several examples of anti semitic language and views as defined by the international holocaust remembrance alliance or i h r a it is deemed anti semitic to say for instance the jews are more loyal to israel than their own country or that the state of israel is by definition racist or that israeli government policy is like those of nazi germany colvin and his supporters. the claim this prevented them from properly criticizing israel's actions towards the palestinian people. under huge pressure to adopt the i.h.r. recoat the party executive finally did but also reserve the right to criticize israel even the deputy party leader didn't seem convinced so somebody said that the various rail is

a racist endeavor now will they be disciplined by the labor party look the caviar is what it says you could make your own march the critics will accuse the labor party of trying to play with words in this supposed compromise what is the difference between criticizing israel and expressing support for the palestinians and criticizing israel's actions towards the palestinians one might not be anti semitic one might be is open to interpretation and certainly it is not the unequivocal backing of the anti semitism code that many labor politicians have been demanding i the danger in this for cool bill is that in trying to keep his political party happy he will have upset his grassroots supporters who want to say what they like to see about israel this decision may not have clear that anything more recently al jazeera london. inside yemen protests have been going on in the south against the saudi and the rotty coalition's military campaign was

demonstrators in the large governorate chanted for the coalition to leave calling it a puppet of the us some yemenis blocked off main roads and carried placards blaming the coalition for the collapsing economy more protests took place in the south over the government's failure to take measures against rising prices and the collapse of the currency. a u.s. president donald trump's pick to be the next supreme court justice has faced a chaotic confirmation hearing in the senate democrats accuse republicans of withholding documents about a nominee brett kavanaugh has passed service in the white house was in jordan reports from washington go. through. the moment brett kavanaugh sat down for his confirmation hearing to become a u.s. supreme court justice outburst after outburst at least thirty people were arrested on tuesday for disorderly conduct then it was the democratic senators turn to disrupt the hearing. is determined we have been denied we have been denied real

access to the documents we need to a diagram and regular order is called which turns this hearing into a charade and a mockery of our norms well mr chairman i therefore moved to adjourn this hearing the democrats and her aggressive groups are trying whatever they can to stop kavanagh from joining the high court they accuse the appeals court judge of wanting to outlaw abortion of favoring businesses over employees unions and consumers and of wanting to end overstretch and on firearms ownership democrats are also accusing republicans of trying to rush through kavanagh's confirmation for political purposes namely to protect the president donald trump the interruptions and accusations angered republicans who run the judiciary committee this is the first confirmation hearing for a supreme court justice i've seen basically according to mob rule can i ask my

colleagues on the other side of the aisle how long you want to go on with this because i'm not going to entertain any of the motion and you're making do you want this to go on all day because i have been patient at the end of the day cavanaugh finally had a moment to speak and he addressed the question about his ability to be fair over the past twelve years i've ruled sometimes for the prosecution and sometimes for criminal defendants sometimes for workers and sometimes for businesses. sometimes for environmentalist's and sometimes for coal miners despite the protests and the parliamentary maneuvers it does appear that judge brett kavanaugh will be joining the us supreme court republicans control the senate as well as the judiciary committee and they're convinced that they have the votes as well as the confidence to get their man on the high court rosalyn jordan al-jazeera capitol hill a new book by washington post journalist bob woodward has claimed that u.s.

president donald trump wanted to have syrian president bashar al assad killed last year that request was ignored by his defense secretary a fear trump in the white house has quotes from the president's own aides questioning his ability to lead the white house says the book is in its words full of fabricated stories woodward is known for his investigative reporting that helped bring down president richard nixon in the watergate scandal of the washington post has published all of a telephone conversation between trump and bob woodward in which they discussed the book. look at the rules in the street in. the right to i assume that means it's going to be a negative book but you know i'm some sort of fifty percent used to that right some are good and say maybe it's going to be. about to go high and has more from washington. really explosive reporting coming from bob woodward the preeminent and

pretty one of the more credible journalists in the entire country his book comes out and he says the president don't terms top aides had some very disparaging things to say about their boss he says that chief of staff john kelly has called the president an idiot saying he has come often gone off the rails and saying this is crazy town he reports that secretary of defense jim mattis basically compared the president's ability to understand to a fifth or sixth grade level and that he reports to gary coleman once the president's chief economic adviser once took paperwork trade paperwork off the president's desk saying that he wouldn't remember and he was trying to protect the country you also reports that the president has had very nasty things to say about his top aides including attorney general jeff sessions according to woodward trump said that he was mentally retarded and he referred to him as this dumb southerner. their white house is pushing back on this releasing a statement saying that this is basically fake news and the president's come out and said that bob woodward has a credibility issue he really hasn't ever had

a credibility issue and he has said today he stands by his story still the president's taking to twitter we've seen kelly mattis the tribes former lawyers come out and flatly deny all of these allegations again the president saying that this is fake news bob woodward saying that he stands by his reporting. was patty mentioned trump's been tweeting his response he quoted a statement from secretary of defense james mattis that said the contemptuous words about the president attributed to me in woodward's book were never are to by me or in my presence while i generally enjoy reading fiction this is a uniquely washington brand of literature and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility and another from chief of staff john kelly saying the idea i ever called the president an idiot is not true as i stated back in may and still firmly stand behind i spend more time with the president than anyone else and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship of the market value of online retailer

amazon has passed a trillion dollars it is the second u.s. company to reach that figure following tech giant apple last month. critics of american athlete calling kaplan a cab been burning nike trainers to protest a new ad campaign that features him the former n.f.l. quarterback spot controversy after refusing to stand during the american national anthem as a symbol against racial injustice and police brutality christensen he has more from new york. believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything nike's new just do it ad campaign is proving as controversial as one of the stars chosen to deliver it former national football league quarterback collin capper nick he hasn't played football since repeatedly refusing to stand for the national anthem before games during the two thousand and sixteen season prompting other players to follow suit not only my burning in my favorite pair and nike is your burning your

sales ad like the protests have provoked anger among some n.f.l. fans and president donald trump they consider it disrespectful to the american flag and the military some have called for a boycott of nike products night here know they make cullen but supporters say it's meant to call attention to racial injustices and is respectful expression of the speech nike which has a contract with the n.f.l. to supply uniforms and sideline clothing appears to be taking their side also announcing a new catalogue of captain excuse in t. shirts. sports branding experts say it's a calculated business decision to my take they're going to be a rallying cry for those people to come and support nike ford has done because it's bold it's brave it has risks we want that from brands we expect that from brands and nike is the kind of brand where you demanded to be on the edge all the time the former quarterback says team owners have colluded to keep him off the football

field and if all ratings have been in decline though the reason is open to debate. the n.f.l. has struggled to come up with a policy regarding conduct during the national anthem. satisfies both players and critics such as the president and with the opening game of the season scheduled for thursday fans are just as likely to be focused on the sidelines as they are on what's happening on the field christian salumi al jazeera. this is al-jazeera that's going to remind a of the top stories as strikes have hit syria's province at least seventeen people have been killed russia says it is aware the syrian army is planning an offensive of the last rebel held bastion the u.n. is warning of a potential bloodbath there the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. says it will not tolerate a chemical weapons attack on

a village what you're saying from us and the fact that the security council wants to talk about it is do not let a chemical weapons attack happen on the people of it lead the people of syria have been through too much this is a tragic situation and if they want to continue to go the route of taking over syria they can do that but they cannot do it with chemical weapons they can't do it assaulting their people and we're not going to fall for it if there are chemical weapons that are used we know exactly who's going to use them and this is the exact same playbook that russia and iran and assad have used every time a ceasefire has been reached between armed factions fighting over the libyan capital for more than a week rival armed groups have been battling for control of tripoli more than sixty people have been killed one hundred fifty injured at least nine people have been killed as typhoon gebbie batters japan the government issued of evacuations advisories for more than a million people and canceled hundreds of flights gebbie is the strongest typhoon

to hit japan in twenty five years. a new book by washington post journalist bob woodward has said that president donald trump wanted to have syrian president bashar al assad killed last year that request was ignored by his defense secretary the book titled fear trump in the white house has quotes from the president's own aides questioning his ability to leave the white house says the book is full of fabricated stories the leaders of pacific island nations have been meeting in now real that's where australia has an offshore prison camp for refugees for a forum is focusing on regional peace and security and improving the health of the islands people but the prison camps and the treatment of the refugees there is casting a shadow over the conference there are around one thousand six hundred people being held in two camps one in now the other on papua new guinea's mannish arland those are the headlines the listening post is next. one of the

best health care systems in the world. trust with local doctors as the gatekeeper we have really good consumers who care now and people well makes you a better job but as the population ages what challenges does the u.k.'s national health service face that's a big problem most people in the internal practice in droves because of the stress of paperwork and reduce financing the u.k.'s frontline on the people's health on al-jazeera. fire damage story about a trial locked away that's a long time friend a friend helped actually kill our president did not commit a crime firing i'm watching now like to say what is fast becoming one of course weeks for president trump since he took office. hello i'm richard burton you're at the listening post here are some of the stories we're covering this week inquiring

minds prosecutors and the american news media all want to know what does the man in charge of the national enquirer have on donald trump out of amsterdam and into darfur the radio station that beams news and information to citizens left in the dark facebook takes down another twenty accounts in me and maher among them the commander in chief of the armed forces and no one can read the mind of the white house press secretary but we can read her lips i just can't stand the faces of the people that. the question in washington these days is not just where is the muller investigation into president donald trump going but who is next after seeing both his lawyer michael cohen and a central figure in his business empire alan weiss libert agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for immunity trump then learned that david pecker a long time friend and a key media player had done the same that there is the chairman of american media

inc am i which owns the national enquirer a supermarket tabloid not known for stellar journalism the enquirer is part of the trump story not just because of the stories it published but because of the ones that didn't the practice is known as catch and kill it works like this if someone had a potentially damaging story about donald trump for sale the enquirer would buy it and bury it so that that bad news would never see the light of day so what about the legal precedent though a newspaper under investigation that prosecutors argue the enquirer is no news outlet it's a political tool or a starting point this week is new york city. i mean. they're dropping like flies flipping like pancakes one by one some of donald trump's closest confidantes have become witnesses for the possible prosecution of the president those people are michael

cohen who is trump's longtime personal attorney and his longtime fixer and you also now have ellen white so byrd who wasn't the c.f.o. of the trump organization and was sort of the guy who took care of trump's money and david packer who would headed the group that owned the national enquirer and kept a lot of kept secret so you have the guy get rid of his legal troubles the guy who got rid of his money problems and the guy who got rid of his scandals now are cooperating in these investigations and the. now that david pecker might flip. is a surreal huge development i don't think you can overstate it because the fact of the matter is i think these two guys know a lot about each other and if one of them starts talking about the other one in this case the publisher talking about the president. there is no end where that will go but it cannot be good for donald trump. the publication the david pecker

controls the national enquirer holds a unique c.d. place in the american media landscape founded in one thousand nine hundred twenty six it's a supermarket tabloid and it goes where other papers do not openly paying sources for stories of the most sensational kind joining the two thousand and sixteen presidential election campaign the enquirer's support for donald trump was flagrant it lauded the candidate went after his republican rivals with dubious allegations and then did the same with hillary clinton. the enquirer's journalism was not worthy of having an effect on the election's outcome however given its visibility it may well have been the national enquirer is a trashy political ploy that not even political but most of its coverage is about celebrity scandals half of which are not true however it does have a prominent place in u.s. culture both for the kind of just pleasure of reading the fallacious gossip that it

propounds and also because physically in all supermarkets across the nation the national enquirer is found right at the checkout line the cover of the national enquirer is seen by millions and millions of people who are low information voters who don't even need to buy the magazine and they read their headline and they think at least a lot of them do that is at least credible if not totally or real that's something you literally cannot purchase it was very obvious that. quire through donald trump's friendship with david pecker was an arm of the trump campaign in fact they were doing things that the campaign would never dream of trying to get away with. the national enquirer is also where stories go to die when those stories are potentially damaging to donald trump in august of two thousand and sixteen just months before the election the enquirer paid

a former playboy model karen mcdougal one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for her story of an affair with trump the agreement stipulated that mcdougal could not tell her story to anyone else but the enquirer never published it caught the story then effectively killed it and the paper did the same with a story alleging trumpeted fathered a child out of wedlock in the late one nine hundred eighty s. and those are just the catch until stories involving trump and the enquirer that we know about no one would be shocked if there were odds what david pecker does is he buys the rights to those stories but then he never publishes those stories those stories never see the light of day he keeps them in the safe but in return david packard gets other things from trump other stories other bits of gossip and he trades on that with donald trump if you go out and pay a substantial amount of money for a story and then you put that story aside you kill it during the course of

a campaign you're effectively making a campaign contribution if we've got a circumstance where information that would be of interest to the great mass of people is being pulled out of the process and hidden on behalf of a particular candidate it's hard not to see that as beneficial to the candidate so they are both responsible for burn.