south of london they suspect the operator deliberately caused the disruptions. to transport and flying around as we say the sudden perimeter of beds and ports and as far as we know the airport still closed at least twenty two hundred g.m.t. . and turning to the headlines now on al-jazeera the united states is announced criminal charges against two who allegedly worked for the chinese government the justice department is accusing them of waging a cyber campaign that focused on the large scale theft of commercial intellectual property and alleges it allegedly targeted entities across the u.s. europe and asia china's goal simply put is to replace the u.s. as the world's leading superpower and they're using illegal methods to get there they're using an expanding set of nontraditional and illegal methods china's

state sponsored actors are the most active perpetrators of economic espionage against us in short to strengthen themselves and to weaken the united states and while we welcome fair competition we cannot and will not tolerate illegal hacking stealing or cheating in other news the presidential election in democratic republic of congo has been delayed till december thirtieth the announcement was made earlier by the electoral commission president the vote had been scheduled for sunday but the ebola outbreak and a fire that destroyed polling machines in the capital are being blamed for this delay us president donald trump's defended his decision to withdraw american troops from syria he made the announcement on wednesday while declaring the defeat of isis meanwhile the leaders of turkey and iran say they'll be working closer. together on syria in the future. in

a major policy change the united states will start sending some asylum seekers who entered the country illegally back to mexico mexico has agreed to accept the migrants for humanitarian reasons that says it still has the right to admit or reject the entry of norman mexicans into its territory a judge in new york to squash the request to have a sexual assault case against disgraced hollywood producer harvey weinstein dismissed the sixty six year old whose alleged crimes inspired the me to movement is charged with rape and other sexual misconduct a pretrial hearing has been scheduled for march those your headlines we're back with the news hour after inside story with imran khan that's next.

has also really been defeated in syria the u.s. president thinks so you know this is the total withdrawal of american troops america's allies a critical and what about. to help the u.s. battle i said this isn't such. a low morgan to the program. donald trump is defending his decision to withdraw u.s. troops from syria and his announcement that i saw has been defeated his tweet surprised just about everyone home including in the pentagon and abroad france is warning that eisel has not been wiped off the map and the fight needs to continue rebel groups fighting ice will say a u.s. pullout could destabilize the region. sets up a discussion. it's

a massive move that will dramatically change the landscape of the war in syria and one not many saw coming the u.s. president tweeting out that isis has been defeated and that was the only reason u.s. troops were in syria we have won against isis we've beaten them and we've beaten a badly we've taken back the land and now it's time for our troops to come back home. but according to the u.s. government the islamic state of iraq and the levant is not actually defeated a point stressed by the president's own state department just last week i think it's fair to say america will remain on the ground after the physical to feed a caliphate until we have the pieces in place to ensure that that defeatism during the move comes after a phone call between president trump and president urged one of turkey he's made clear he wants to target the kurds who have fought beside the us and that is more difficult to do if u.s. troops are in his way just a few months ago the president himself has played heralded as a sacrifice the kurds have made and we're trying to get along very well we do get

along great with the kurds we're trying to help them a lot so they fought with us they died with us they died we lost. tens of thousands of kurds died fighting isis now many worry what will happen to the kurds what this message sense is we don't stick with people our friends without the kurds in the syrian democratic forces we couldn't have beaten isis we couldn't have taken back and rock of course we were not willing to commit all of those troops that were necessary others say that should be a concern for the u.s. first time in my lifetime we have a prayer a president with the courage to declare victory and bring the troops home this came as a surprise for many on capitol hill some senators calling this a big mistake it's hard to imagine that any president would wake up and make this kind of decision with this little communication with this little preparation if this decision is a withdrawal of all of our forces in syria or dramatically listen this isn't

a bomb of life move because now that the u.s. has withdrawn or is going to withdraw from syria we have left basically turn the country over to russia into an even greater extent iran the administration and the pentagon both released statements saying the fight against i so isn't over but the u.s. is simply transitioning to the next phase of the campaign they didn't say what that phase might look like. al-jazeera washington. president has threatened military action on the border with syria if u.s. but fighters don't leave saying the holder is following these developments from the turkish capital ankara thirty five percent of syria in one way or another is up for grabs the north eastern enclave which is under the control of the kurdish armed groups the white p.g. the u.s. this is a to withdraw its troops leaves the white p.t. in a very vulnerable position yes the u.s. had some two thousand troops militarily this is insignificant but it was

a deterrent and just a week ago turkey threatened a cross border operation to and the y.p. g's. in that enclave because it sees this as a national security threat now what will the white p.g. do will it reengage with damascus earlier this year it wasn't talks with the syrian government to find some sort of an arrangement it broke off those talks after the united states convinced them to do that now engaging with damascus with in one way or another stave off the possibility of a cross border turkey operation but turkey government repeatedly says that we have no territorial ambitions in syria what we want is to get rid of quote these terrorists and the turkish defense minister reiterating that what they call terrorists have been digging trenches and that the turkish military will bury them in these trenches when the time comes so turkey keeping up the pressure but it will have to coordinate with russia and iran its partners in the ass in the process if

it does engage in any military action inside syria this is being seen as a concession to turkey it's seen as efforts by the united states to improve improve relations with turkey to try to pull it away from the russian and iranian camp in syria. over to our panel in london. at logan burg a specialist in kurdish politics he was in syria recently in washington d.c. general mark kimmitt former assistant secretary for political military affairs under president george w. bush and in moscow alexy klebnikov a middle east analyst at russia international affairs council welcome to you all i'd like to begin with you general mark kimmitt in d.c. has the white house simply abandoned the very people that helped defeat. no i don't think so i think there's a lot of misunderstanding about what this announcement means this just says that we're pulling the two thousand ground troops out of syria it will not stop our air

support it will not stop our intelligence support it does not stop us from training and equipping troops outside of syria this is very similar to the strategy that we've used inside of iraq the local forces in that case iraqi security forces have been giving a lot of support by the americans but not ground troops and i think what has been done in iraq is a justification of the strategy those two thousand troops on the ground truly weren't making a significant difference. in london. you've heard well general mark kimmitt had to say that they know about issues the reach shifting of the strategies of the syrian kurds likely to see it that way i don't think so because there's not the real indication of there are supporters continuing today there's a meeting between between the kurds and the coalition about this issue and actually the kurds are afraid that in any moment turkey could attack them and also they are

afraid of the regime and iran so they're now asking the world for more support to let the u.s. troops stay because the u.s. troops are there basically it's a terror and for turkey to attack and until now isis is thought to feed it and if there's no u.s. troops on the ground it's going to be very difficult to defeat the last fighters of isis in syria despite the very strong language of the turks have used there is still the russian involvement in all of this that needs to be discussed as well let's bring in alexey klebnikov in moscow the russians are still that does this mean that the russians are now the key player and they're the ones that be able to stop ticky coming in to lansing any particular offensive in northeastern syria one of the first place we should rush into conclusions about whether u.s. withdraws completely or just goes down as much your presence as michael is going to see right there mentioned this statement doesn't mean the full and of

support to the kurds so they're basically several sin there is the first narrow if united states basically. just lowers down its military on the ground leaving special forces. equipment training that doesn't change much on the ground basically just a business to turkey and us keeps guarding kurds in the area the second scenario is basically that yes u.s. withdraws from northeast syria which actually leaves the. back home for turkey and iran to live in damascus to try to get those areas under the control which also exacerbates tensions between russia and turkey and the third scenario is that kurds under those circumstances will be more inclined to negotiate with moscow and damascus on possible terms of reintegration back into the syrian state you know

to an agreement that general luck came out why is that well first of all i think that was a very balanced presentation from my colleague in russia. but i think what is left unsaid here is this notion that the united states has a significant responsibility to the white p g a y p g as testified by our former defense secretary directly links him to the p.k. k. second when we made this deal with the with the white b.g. it was said that our responsibilities and our assistance was going to be temporary transactional and tactical the president has determined that that that six actually where things are right now we are going to withdraw isis is not an existential threat to the united states of america so let's be practical it has been defeated but has not been destroyed so let's let somebody else do that work whether it's the

kurds whether it's the turks whether it's the russians why is that the united states' responsibility to talk about the final destruction of isis. let him is the turkish government is long regarded as part of the p.k. k. which it regards as a terrorist organization they've been a war since the one nine hundred eighty s. is this the opportunity for turkey to go in and simply destroy what is a us supported ogunnaike zation them alongside with the syrian democratic forces is this turkey's reason to now go in because the us has pulled out its law turkey wanted to go in one week ago when i was there and syria but the us was then telling turkey that if you go in you will not be allowed to go in because it will hit you because the u.s. they told turkey that this will undermine the fight against isis and they will not allow turkey to intervene but with this new southern of a draw and decision of trump things are changed and there was like a policy of the u.s.

led coalition and also by the syria envoy james jeffrey to stay for a certain period in syria till things called on until there is a solution with the muskets in geneva but if the u.s. just pulls out its troops then the u.s. will lose always leverage and credibility in the region it will help iran it will help russia so i i really disagree with michael that were previously talked here this is completely on the mining the policy of the syria envoy james jeffrey and also of the u.s. led coalition there was no plan to meet leave a draw that should have been a face withdrawal but now it's just sudden withdrawal without a clear plan and actually u.s. soldiers are now afraid was going to happen were on the ground because rules say that the d.s. of will not fight isis i mean it's a very dangerous situation for u.s. soldiers in this chaos to withdraw from syria because that nobody knows exactly what's going to happen turkey could attack the regime could do something it's very very unclear situation now but both the guests in washington d.c. and in moscow have said that this is

a tactical change that there will still be support full syrian kurds a just will take a different shape are you still cynical. so cynical because in the past. and on the the coalition it was quite clear what the policy was but now there's a sudden but roll so now it's very unclear what's going to happen before it was clear but this decision is made by the us president this it's against the policy of the pentagon this against the policy of the state department is going against all the advice of his advisors like francis defense secretary so i think this is leading to a lot of instability and chaos in the region while for instance they could have taken two years to have like a face with raul to reach some form of accommodation with turkey make some administrative changes and reese also a peace deal on syria with russia and others but now u.s. will lose all its leverage and now it's up to russia on iran to decide the future of syria general mckibben emotion d.c.

has president donald trump going against all the advice he's been given has he gone against the pentagon is this a decision he simply has taken on himself and with himself well two things first of all i would say that i was with the military command last week in baghdad so i think i think that some of the things that our colleague from moscow may have heard in syria didn't seem to translate to the senior commanders there. so let's talk about president trump from the day he started on the campaign trail he said he was going to get americans out of stupid wars in the middle east now i don't know if the syrian boy wasn't listening i don't know if a succession of diplomats that had been working weren't listening but the factory may.