and you data if that port closes even for just a few hours that means that assistance can leave the city and get to the people who need it there are so many civilians who were wired that aid that's why everything has to be done to keep the port open or also at the united nations france's foreign minister met with arab leaders to discuss the situation in libya showing wants to ensure that a plan agreed to in paris to hold elections in december goes ahead smoothly because of fighting between rival groups in libya's capital is now forced more than five thousand families to flee the the international organization for migration says the numbers leaving have gone up sharply in the last few days the battle for control of the area near tripoli's airport erupted late last month violence continues despite a u.n. brokered cease fire agreed three weeks ago. all right lots more snow to come here on the news hour including. the u.s. condemns moscow's decision to give syria an advanced added fence missile system.

and donald trump supreme court nominee talks to the u.s. media about the allegations against him. and as for the best of the footballing world is recognized by the ceremony in london details coming up with fire in the sport a little bit later. now the u.s. has warned russia is making a major mistake by deploying its state of the art missile defense system in syria the kremlin is sending the s. three hundred system to syria a week after one of its planes was mistakenly shot down by syrian anti-aircraft fire at the time syrian air defenses were responding to raids by israeli jets in the province of attack you for a challenge reports. russia's s. three hundred the air defense system that's russia has held off from supplying to the syrian military until now that you. would think that within two weeks

a modern surface to air missile system the s three hundred will be handed over it's capable of intercepting air assault weapons on a range of more than two hundred fifty kilometers and at the same time can hit multiple aerial targets having an advanced facility and high fire rate the system will strengthen syrian air defense combat capabilities significantly defense minister show you gave little doubt why the russians have changed their position but you're going to that issue that has them going to let me make a point at the request of the israeli side and twenty thirteen we halted delivery of the s three hundred which was ready to be shipped to syria while syrian service personnel were given appropriate training today the situation has changed not by our fault the defense ministry holds israel responsible for. the deaths of fifteen military personnel a week ago their reconnaissance plane was misidentified and mistakenly shot down by syrian air defense admits the confusion of his radio strikes and his ready military

delegation sent to moscow last thursday failed to convince the russians it wasn't their fault. but interesting aspects of this rift is the way the ministry of defense approach differs from that taken by the kremlin the m.o.d.e. has kept pushing the view that israel is culpable but. his spokesperson have been soft pedaling saying it was just an unfortunate accident and that the asked three hundred decision is not say that israel. israel has previously been able to count on russia turning a blind eye to its airstrikes inside syria of which there have been some two hundred in recent years but if damascus really does get its hands on s three hundreds the israeli military will have to rethink its tactics is the first time in the history of the conflict that we see the syrian defense

is equipped with a mother in. missiles that can deprive the israeli air force from their freedom of movement and the syrian air space part is not just the israelis who will be affected by the move u.s. national security adviser john bolton has called it a major mistake any other country operating in the region will now have to realize that syrian airspace isn't theirs to use it will rory chalons al-jazeera moscow. the u.s. government does approve the sale of three hundred thirty million dollars in military equipment to taiwan it includes spare parts and other support for f. sixteen fighter jets and other military aircraft the us is the only country that sells weapons to the island and has done so for nearly forty years but china claims taiwan as part of its territory and opposes all u.s. military sales there. well the u.s. can't official diplomatic ties with taiwan in the late one nine hundred seventy s.

after washington recognize beijing's one china policy but the two have been building stronger relations since u.s. president donald trump took office last year taiwan's president sighing way phone trump to congratulate him on winning the u.s. election it was the first phone call between a taiwanese and u.s. leader in nearly four decades and cause concern in china then in march trump signed legislation encouraging the u.s. to send senior officials to taiwan to meet their counterparts the move further angered beijing and in june two officials close to the u.s. president met the taiwanese leader during separate trips to taipei they discussed regional peace cross trade issues and bilateral trade between the two countries let's talk to russ feingold he's the asia political risk analyst he joins us on skype from taipei raso three hundred thirty million dollars seems like a relatively small weapons sale so how significant is this and what kind of weapons or parts is taiwan actually getting. you are correct my dollar amount is relatively

small and frankly these are spare parts for relatively old aircraft some of which are decades many decades old so it's not our offensive weapons it's not even the addition of more defensive weapons were taiwan it really is spare parts for very old weapons systems however the key thing here is that this is being announced as a standoff one alone sale and the hope from the taiwan side and its supporters in the united states and both in the government as well as in congress is that going forward what in sales from the united states will be made on a case by case basis before our sales were made in large packages and the reason for that was so that the anger from china could be digested by the united states in one go so once every two or three years the united states would announce a large multibillion dollar package china's anger would be dealt with all together

and then they would revisit the issue a few years later the next time he u.s. would agree to herself if the u.s. is going to change its policy to announce sales to taiwan periodical that will be a significant shift in have an impact on u.s. china relations yeah and what we do know is that this weapons sale will clearly angered china we know that but how much is a slot to further strained relations between washington and beijing who are already embroiled in a worsening trade war. well given that it's a relatively small dollar amount and spare parts by itself it wouldn't anger china however the totality of the circumstances are certainly indicative that this will contribute to more tension between the u.s. and china and we've seen so many issues arise just in the last week or two whether it's u.s. military patrols in the south china sea the tariffs the sanctions on certain chinese companies the collapse for now of trade talks with the cancellation of

a high level visit by a chinese official to the u.s. and now this announcement of sale weapons sales to taiwan so it's one more issue that will now be on the agenda in clearly they'll be a period of recriminations from both sides in the pentagon says the sale will contribute to u.s. national security by helping to improve the security and defensive capability of taiwan but in reality it cylon could never defend itself from a full frontal chinese attack anyway could well this is a matter of some debate among experts we simply don't know how long taiwan could withstand a military attack from china but from the u.s. perspective anything that you can do such as sell these the spare parts or what is likely in the future additional weapon sales does help taiwan prevent a chinese attack and the goal of course is to make china not think once or twice but think long and hard about the ramifications in the damage that china would

occur if it were to attack taiwan see these kinds of actions helped put taiwan in a better position and thus there's broad support among republicans and democrats in the united states for this russ feingold thank you for talking to our desire. u.s. deputy attorney general rod rosenstein is set to meet president trump at the white house on thursday amid reports his job is on the line rosenstein is overseeing the investigation into alleged russian interference during the twenty sixteen election last week the new york times reported he'd been looking at ways to seek a record trump to help build a case for his removal from office committee help get us more. as donald trump at with heads of government at the u.n. general assembly in new york back in washington his own government was reeling with speculation about the fate of this man deputy attorney general rod rosenstein you want to have very very few words of openness of the border immediately right at

that after a single tweet on social media that rosenstein the man overseeing the investigation into alleged trunk campaign ties to the kremlin was resigning reporters scrambled to find out what was going on. the president is reportedly fuming over reports rosenstein suggested secretly taping trump last year in an effort to invoke the twenty fifth amendment to removed from office. trump is already fired others connected to the best a geisha into his campaign leading former f.b.i. director james comey deputy attorney general sally yates and deputy f.b.i. director andrew mccabe at a campaign rally on friday in missouri from suggested more could be coming there's a lingering stench should we're going to get rid of that. many believe trump was referring to rosenstein that led to monday speculation that rather than rosenstein resigning travel was going to carry out his threat the president would like someone

in that role who he see as loyal and personally there to protect not necessarily there to enact or in fact the justice for the entire country. trump's next move is unclear and meeting between the two is now set for thursday the timing is raising eyebrows in washington that's the same day donald trump supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh testifies before congress defending himself from accusations of sexual assault leading to speculation that trump's thursday meeting with rosenstein is a deliberate distraction kimberly hellcat al-jazeera the white house on his committee was saying that president trump's embattled nominee for the u.s. supreme court has been speaking out after facing new accusations of sexual misconduct but kevin offered a blanket denial in a t.v. interview john hendren has the latest. you know. as protesters faced arrest to

demonstrate against president donald trump supreme court pick brett kavanaugh is striking back. appearing with his wife on fox news a day after not one but two new accusers emerged he insists he's been wrongly accused saying the truth is i have never sexually assaulted anyone in high school or otherwise i'm not questioning and have not questioned that perhaps dr ford at some point in her life was sexually assaulted by someone in some place would i know is that i've never sexually assaulted anyone kevin i was seventeen when his original accuser christine bloody forward says he tried to rape her cavanaugh and ford are scheduled to break their silence at a senate hearing on thursday but the white house considered that too late president trump is standing behind his nominee for the united states highest court this is a fine man and we certainly hope he's going to be confirmed and break with republican leaders in congress aren't backing down either this is what the so-called resistance has become. a smear campaign

pure and simple democrats would let a few and convey to things like a complete lack of evidence. arctic users requests for confidentiality to get. at a good smear it's despicable. on sunday kavanagh's nomination was struck with back to back bombshell first the new yorker magazine published the account of deborah ramirez who says the cavanagh exposed himself to her while they were both students in a university then the lawyer for stormy daniels the woman who was paid one hundred thirty thousand dollars by president trump's lawyer to deny that she had an affair with the president says that he has another client who says that she also was assaulted by kevin oh now the republicans who run the senate judiciary committee are considering whether to go ahead with the thursday hearing or to postpone it to investigate further with just six weeks to go before the november midterm elections

that could shift control of congress and the supreme court nomination to democrats john hendren al-jazeera washington. gaza health officials have confirmed the death of a palestinian man by israeli gunfire ten dollars or wounded when soldiers fired tear gas and live rounds of thousands of protesters on the beach and in fishing boats along the border with israel demonstrations against the israeli blockade of the gaza strip have been going on for more than six months palestinians are demanding an end to the blockade by israel and egypt and their right to return to ancestral lands. and staff from the e.u. an agency for palestinian refugees in gaza say they don't have enough money to keep going thirteen thousand teachers and health workers have now gone on strike in protest it all comes after united states decided to pull its funding from under last month under needs its funding to run schools hospitals camps and social services the millions of palestinians u.s. relations with palestine a worsening since president trump announced his support for israel and recognized

as its capital last year reversing decades of u.s. policy or a force that reports from gaza. we're here at the gaza h.q. of the owner agency you can see some of the thirteen thousand local employees who are on strike this monday the consequences of this strike are being felt all across the gaza strip two hundred seventy four under our schools serving two hundred eighty thousand children are closed along with sixteen food distribution centers twenty two medical clinics the reason for this strike can be traced back to a decision by the us administration to cut more than three hundred million dollars in funding for enron and more recently decided to end its funding of the agency in its entirety the workers here say that the effects are being unfairly felt by then more than one hundred of them already either sacked or put on early retirement with six hundred being strikers with their jobs being lost by the end of this year they

say that an ra could have done more to try to lessen the impact of all that and give people voluntary redundancy voluntary rates. i meant those sorts of options here's how the head of the agency here in gaza responds to that charge the rest of the organization has borrowed us forty five million dollars that we don't have for gaza to allow us to continue food to allow us to continue almost three hundred jobs full time and yes sadly move some two part time we've had to make some adjustments but i believe on the basis of facts i can demonstrate we've done a lot to make things as smooth as possible under very very challenging circumstances would be talking to one of the striking employees here and his story does give you a sense of just how deeply these cuts will be felt he says that is twelve hundred u.s. dollar a month salary supports twenty eight family members and that if he does lose his job as he's threatened with by the end of this year that's going to have

a devastating impact on a huge family and that is a story that is being repeated here many times over and so that's why these potential job losses could be felt so why this. time for a short break here and al-jazeera when we come back. the families of the victims of the latest landslide in the philippines calling it a manmade disaster. in the u.k. inquiry into how thousands of people were given infected blood almost fifty years ago. stranded in the middle of the indian ocean is finally rescued another story coming up in the schools more today. from the waves of the south. to the contours of the east. and we've got a lot of heavy rain have a pulse of china at the moment for look at the child then for tuesday you can see

the wettest of the weather from chengdu across to hanna not gradually sinks its way southwards into queasy there as we head through the day on wednesday symbol heavy. rains are expected further east though should be fine and dry force in shanghai for the south for hong kong should also stay dry throughout the day even further towards the south and there's plenty of showers across the southeast in parts of asia as you'd expect you can also make out this whirling mass of plant here this of course is a typhoon there's no mistaking that very well defined eye but that's working its way away from the philippines so for the philippines then some sunshine one or two showers nothing more than that to worry about further south also some showers here across borneo and quite a few of them as you head up towards thailand some of these around parts of somalia to a lot used to being wrong all the heavy across towards india and there's also been a lot of heavy rain here recently too you can see one area of town stretching up through new delhi there up towards the north that's given us some fairly heavy rains it gradually breaks up though as we had three choose days and not a great deal left to it and actually the rains looking fairly subdued force on

tuesday few showers around a positive pool if you are around the eastern parts of india but for the west it's looking dry for us karate there in the sunshine getting to two thirty. the weather sponsored by cat time piece. on counting the cost this week tariff some thousands of products the biggest trading giants on the planet escalate that trade war but was performing currency in asia india's rupee plus what ice cream sales are melting away in kabul. counting the cost on al-jazeera. volcano kill way erupted explosively last thing boiling clouds of steam and ash and rock high into the atmosphere scientists say it's not unusual for eruptions to stop and start up again later as for kill away a it has been spilling lava continually for more than thirty years native hawaiian

spiritual beliefs say eruptions reflect the mood so of the goddess pale a. native hawaiians family is always nice to us whether she takes our home or not we accept this type of event. welcome back a quick reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera the european union's foreign policy chief says the e.u. will set up a new mechanism to facilitate legal transactions with iran despite u.s. sanctions follows the trump of ministration withdrawing the us from the iran nuclear deal earlier this year. yes president donald trump says he will have

a second summit with north korea's leader kim jong il in the coming months made the announcement signing a trade pact with south korean president on the sidelines of the u.n. general assembly. and the u.s. has warned russia it's making a major mistake by deploying its missile defense system in syria the kremlin sending the s. three hundred system a week after one of its planes was mistakenly shot down by syrian anti-aircraft fire. now britain's main opposition party plans to vote against any deal the british prime minister makes with the e.u. the labor party's brags that spokesman says it's increasingly unlikely to reason his plans will pass the sixty six tests the party is set on wednesday may will meet u.s. president donald trump to discuss a possible post bragg's a trade deal but in bob reports. whenever that general election comes we're ready we're ready to campaign for victory we're ready for government shadow chancellor john mcdonnell outlining how labour's economic policies will transform the economy

but while the pact all enjoyed his pitch much of the talk elsewhere was about something entirely different break since the idea of a new referendum is popular among labor members but would it include the option to stay in the european union on tuesday these people will be voting on a text that took many hours of hard negotiations to agree on it says that if the party fails to force an early general election it will keep open the option of backing a so-called people's vote but what that means exactly depends on who you are. early on monday all the talk was of a clear breakthrough opening up the possibility of a brics it deal being blocked by a majority in parliament and then put to another referendum once you have got first parliament throwing it out and then the population is a whole throwing it out you can then say look the tory government has spent two and a half years on this absolutely wasting everyone's time it's now on the table here's a manifesto to fix all the problems it breaks it never fixed but in a radio interview john mcdonald seemed to suggest any second referendum could only

be on the deal itself in other words the terms of bracks it and not on staying in the u. and some observers see a certain wisdom in labor making a snap election it's priority what happens if there's another referendum on for instance we vote fifty two forty eight to remain on the smaller turnout than in twenty six states that would hardly settle the question so i think for the moment labor perfectly happy to let the government stew in the bracks mess. and to say we would do this better and to leave it is very good. for now the conference vote is almost certain to back the need for exit policy but whether it can keep everyone on board for labor remain is to labor leaders it's hard to tell the debugger al-jazeera political. a public inquiry in the u.k. is being held into. contaminated blood scandal dating back to the nine hundred seventy s. and eighty's at least two thousand four hundred people died after being treated with infected blood reports. these are some of the

thousands of people infected with contaminated blood i had a postpartum hemorrhage i was rushed into hospital jackie britain's among those sharing her story at the opening of a government inquiry into the scandal in one thousand nine hundred three she was given a blood transfusion after giving birth infecting her with hepatitis c. the virus went undetected for thirty years leading to cirrhosis of the liver. traumatized. the next. in the one nine hundred seventy s. and eighty's infected blood from the united states was imported into britain some was used to make a clotting protein called factor eight used to treat hemophilia it was given to sufferers including young children to help them live normal lives but some of the blood was made from pooling plasma from thousands of donors including drug addicts sex workers and prison inmates half of all infected hemophiliacs are now dead

that's almost three thousand people as many as thirty thousand people may have been exposed to infections through transfusions the victims are ordinary people infected during childbirth or during treatment after road traffic accidents husbands or wives in fact of each other parents infected their children care that was meant to have save lives has caused devastating it's a sobering thought that the consequences of what happened there. may be continuing to cause death even now. many inquiries are about events which have happened. where it is known exactly how many people may have died. few if any this may be the first. deaths continuing the inquiry will examine how and why contaminated blood was

widely used and investigate claims of a cover up by successive governments of the one nine hundred eighty s. former prime minister john major and five former health secretaries under pressure to give evidence the blood scandal wasn't confined to britain and france and japan officials and drug companies were found guilty of negligence. many british victims have campaigned for years for this inquiry they want justice. al-jazeera london a russian court or sentenced opposition leader alexina valmy to twenty days in jail he was arrested early on monday over allegations of staging illegal protests that happened moments after he was released from jail not only finished a thirty day sentence for planning an unauthorized demonstration in moscow in january and she called for a boycott of local and regional elections for the ugandan pop star turned politician bobby wian has issued a warning to president you're wearing a seventy he's back home after receiving medical treatment in the u.s.

for injuries he says he suffered in police custody the opposition leader was charged with treason alongside thirty two other politicians following violence during a byelection last august i want to know what you feel when you treat your people like these mr president how does it feel to continuously praise keep your boot on the necks of your people there was a time when you are not in power you must remember that there will be a time when you are not in power so you should treat people the way you want to be treated. thousands of protesters of marched in the streets of the liberian capital monrovia. they're demanding the return of a hundred and four million dollars in missing cash shipments of new notes from printers overseas disappeared after passing through the country's main port

a number of people are under investigation including the son of the former president ellen johnson argentina's largest labor union has called for a nationwide strike over the government's austerity measures president morsi a macro his new budget is at the center of their anger but he says it's needed to secure additional funding from the i.m.f. to raise about reports on what is ours. lever unions in argentina i few yes with the government of. the economy shrinking and argentina is reducing spending and increasing borrowing from the international monetary fund to pay the bills. he said teacher who has taken to the streets and when a site is to demand better wages if they find out of it this shows the discontent workers have with government this is the beginning of a plan to fight the austerity measures he's implemented for the government the priority is to defend bankers and multinational companies not people like us.

took office three years ago with a promise to improve argentina's economy after years of double digit inflation and recession but this year a bad drought sapped argentina's grain export sector and the peso currency depreciated almost fifty percent due to a lack of investor confidence in emerging markets mackley says he's been forced to seek help from the i.m.f. and implemented shock austerity measures to prevent a major financial crisis. this is the fourth strike against his policies. unemployment an increase in food prices currency devaluation these are all had a huge impact on low income households it affects the lives of the millions of people that live under the poverty line these strikers include truck drivers state employees teachers and doctors. and if we were able to negotiate

a twenty five percent salary increase but we know inflation is going to be well over forty percent but it's not only that the government has shut down the health ministry they're putting people's lives at risk. is banking on an upturn in the country's finances with some forecast for next year. there will be presidential elections and he's expected to run the big question is whether it will be enough to help him regain the votes he has already lost. a new report is recommending that countries start regulating drugs that have a lower potency as part of an effort to control the illegal market reports been released by a group of former world leaders john ahmann reports from mexico. this new report on drug policy has a fair amount of weight behind it it's been put together by a group including twelve x. heads of state and its message is simple and stark prohibition has failed it says

and the world needs to legalize and regulate drugs and look good on the yeah pass to see what we've done for a century has been a mistake prohibition doesn't work it's causing a lot of damage it should be eliminated and instead we should have policies based on brake elation. the group some veiled the report in mexico because it says that nowhere better shows the failure of prohibition there's been a full frontal assault on cartels here for a decade but it's just because turf battles and deaths as kingpins have full and and others have to take their place. as well as that human cost the report also emphasizes the vast amounts being lost to governments in the form of taxes from what is the largest illicit market in the world the former leaders have got a lot of suggestions on models for legalisation from state monopolies to purely personal production they also talked about the vulnerable people at the bottom of the drug world if legalization happens so little boys little girls that are in the

drug trade what happens to the mothers who are smuggling from one country to the are that the risk of their lives so our next step is really proper should merely be for the punishment of these of these people reintegration in society development of measures of integration the incoming mexican government is a step without talking about an amnesty for some of those on the lowest rungs of organized crime as well as possibly legalizing marijuana and opium that's been incredibly controversial and what is still a very socially conservative region but a growing number of countries worldwide are taking a look at what legalization could mean. a small political party has been officially banned in hong kong raising questions about rights and status in the territories the governments accuse the group of threatening national security sarah clarke reports. he's the leader of hong kong's national party it's

a small group promoting independence from china but the government has deemed it a threat to national security the party is now banned in hong kong. what the agenda of the hump on national party. aims to is. in strict contravention to the basic law the fungal national party also. spreads hatred and discrimination against maine and in hong kong the police made the initial recommendation the government agreed but the party latest says he doesn't advocate violence and made this statement at the city's foreign correspondents club in august due to the nature of how the chinese propaganda machine works the national party was instantly demonized as some sort of extremist group due to this single word independence in reality what the national

party is chasing out is no different from what many homeowners wish for.