or to be surprised with a young boy coming. on to. hello i'm a softy the top stories on al-jazeera the u.s. president is predicting victory over eisel as early as next week donald trump says the coalition is close to reclaiming all the territory previously held by the group in syria the united states military our coalition partners and the syrian democratic forces have liberated virtually all of the territory previously held by isis and syria and iraq it should be formally announced some

time probably next week that we will have one hundred percent of the caliphate u.s. secretary of state's mike pompei or says the planned withdrawal of u.s. troops from syria won't be the end of america's fight but. the drawdown of troops is essentially a tactical change it is not a change in the mission it does not change the structure design or authorities on which the campaign has been based it simply represents a new stage in an old fight the drawdown will be well coordinated and i've also heard syria have remained unchanged the united nations has warned against using aid as a poor in venezuela u.s. officials say trucks carrying aid have arrived in colombia for delivery to venezuela the opposition is accusing the military which backs president nicolas maduro of blocking a bridge on the border with colombia at a sonder m.p.'s he has. the government of nicola might do to remain steadfast in

its refusal to let any aid to into venezuela this spike the international effort to do so and none of the aid so far has reached here the city of kuta on the border between colombia and venezuela we're hearing from the colombian outlawry to use the first convoy with food and i jean supplies sent by usa id the united states the relief agency should leave the capital of colombia bogota at some point to on a wednesday and arrive here on thursday there's no information about medicine having arrived to colombia and a number of government having promised the millions of dollars in aid the feeling here is that it will take many days for the collection center to be ready here

at the border and so far government authorities are telling us that there's no concrete plan on how to cross this aid into venezuela unless there is a change of mind on part of president nicolas maduro or the military inside venezuela that so far remains mostly loyal to the president's supporters of breck's it have reacted angrily to remarks by one of the e.u. is top politicians european council president donald tusk says there's a special place in hell for british politicians who supported leaving the european union without a concrete plan amnesty international has accused the united arab emirates of supplying weapons to armed groups in yemen the right script says the u.s. needs events billions of dollars worth of arms after buying them from the west. brazil's former president who is in last year lula da silva has been given an extra thet teen years of jail time for corruption and money laundering he's already

serving a twelve year prison sentence for another corruption conviction a court found him guilty of allowing construction fence to renovate a rural property in exchange for contracts with stays oil company petrobras he denies the charges saying they're politically motivated rescue teams and turkey are such in for survivors of a building collapse in istanbul at least two people were killed several others are believed to be trapped under the rubble of the eight story apartment block firefighters in the u.s. state of california have been tackling a major blaze after a gas explosion in san francisco huge problems a fire and spoke prompted evacuations of nearby buildings it's believed work isn't storing fiberoptic why is cause the fire by cutting a gas line those are the headlines i'll be back with more news here after al-jazeera wild to stay with us.

down on the banks of the river tigris in the iraqi capital but. the river source is in turkey and it flows southeast through the capital until it eventually meets the euphrates. for centuries since the first urban

settlements grew up in ancient mesopotamia thousands of years before the common arrow fishing has been a lifeline running in families for generations. this is the story of the fishermen and women living now in the land often known as the cradle of civilization. college lives and works on the river in baghdad. already until their uncle i mean while you watch and. i didn't hear so i hope. you know that. this was one of the men that i limit. the euphrates flows from turkey through syria and

iraq and is the longest and one of the most historically significant rivers in asia . the vast ancient mesopotamia and marshlands sit where the tigris and euphrates meet in southern iraq. tens of thousands of iraqis live in marshes like these in. like a bull hide and his wife who rely almost entirely on fishing to make their meager living. i leased out also. i don't like as i left on the. why then why that why. the tigris and euphrates meet in basra province in the south of iraq where they form the shuttle waterway where camels live fishes on one of the trawlers.

and outside of the that way we think this fellow. said that and i would tell. you that you know when i don't want to fit a god who had a hole in the bit about how to get out of a fight. with. this bass channel flowing into the arabian gulf is iraq's only source of marine fish on which the country's once thriving fishing industry was built. near here and it is a foul and iraqi port on the borders with kuwait and iran and the center for landing and auctioning marine fish for many decades.

this is a region steeped in ancient history and its relationship with water the rivers and the scene goes back thousands of years. the tigris and the euphrates made ancient mesopotamia part of what was called the fertile crescent where agriculture and. earliest human settlements grew up. fishing continued to develop in mesopotamia while it was part of the ottoman empire and then under british rule in the twentieth century. the country became one kingdom under king faisal of iraq in one nine hundred twenty two then gained independence ten years later. fishermen sold their catch in

the baghdad fish market to merchants from other iraqi provinces as well as to the citizens of baghdad. now when baghdad and in the marshes of the south and on the shuttle a lot of waterway whole ways of life are under threat as outside forces and manmade pollution are damaging the tigris and euphrates in reversible ways for all his commitment to a life on the tigris. days as a fisherman may be numbered all the others. are on hand. well what about. on a so. you only want to sign a soft soft.

sound that the most i will have on the on. for the better. the better machine want to own. that the machine. does have a she was just. on a fit and she had a modest. dolly the. wind. is very small scale especially compared with. there are fewer boots on the tigris compared with when he started out with his father. making a living here is tougher now than after. both died has been through appalling of

people in the past three decades and that has affected the river environment as much as the land. a layer. of whatever. i'm going. to lodge with one shell at. all out of hand and will. you know what an angel. i like i want to hear when i'm strong. as the capital baghdad has been the focus of the outside attacks and internal turmoil that have hit iraq in recent years. but for. the people of the marshlands in the southeast disruption to their way of life goes back further to the one nine hundred fifty s.

am in some ways little has changed here for the past hundred years. are still produced and hung just as they've been. the long fishing boats are still builds to the same design as they were in the one thousand. between the one nine hundred fifty s. and one nine hundred ninety s. large areas of the wetlands in the tigris euphrates river system where people like his wife live were trained. the reasons were primarily political to force people. out of the area. and to punish them for their

part in an uprising against the government in one thousand nine hundred one. saddam reduced the nine thousand square kilometers of wetlands in the one nine hundred seventy s. to just seven hundred and sixty square kilometers when his government fell in two thousand and three. the displacement of in the first two hundred thousand marsh arabs and the campaign of violence against them let the international community to condemn it as ethnic cleansing. the united nations has described the draining of the marshes as a tragic human and environmental catastrophe on a par with the deforestation of the amazon rain forest. but the marshes were lead to be flooded and the high didn't his wife returned to the water.

and i'm not proud of her i've got around we are. really the heart of the middle very. very well you know we're home without you and i feel overwhelmed with love right now lone dogma on our homicide i didn't mark. well. i don't know if i had until the whole way on a fatalist in atlanta why did we hate him. and why that. and not hating the whole. long list of what a divisive acquited wise policy but i'd then even if it didn't laugh it would have been why had i didn't go through that like me a lot of other haven't yet. that i'd let us know finale never had

a love hate live look at involved with another seven and no one has that oddly other levels like. oh my god love the hell out of heaven she was actually over sick of the man of the love of god at those times and once i got honest and she with a wide well thought of and listen to your heart one of the why they have this admission that now i now have a headlock on the lot of them and glad i got all unary of a live i'm. glad you know of a vehicle i'd live in and even if. well i had. a whole lot. of the little article we're.

going to have to have when our house will have one our own will for one. you know. and what the other article i. don't hide there's area of champaign is now recovering thanks to the reflooding following the fall of saddam hussein in two thousand and three. large areas of the marsh and three ancient cities have now been included in us schools list of world heritage sites but the reflooding has not restored the wetlands to

their pre-drawn each state the damage to the iraqi environment has also not been limited to the marsh. iraq as a whole has suffered massive turmoil in the past thirty years. saddam's invasion of kuwait in august one nine hundred ninety led to the first gulf war and defeat by a coalition led by the united states the effect on the country was described as near apocalyptic taking iraq back to the pre-industrial age. then the two thousand and three u.s. led invasion of iraq and fall of saddam hussein's government the occupation and violent insurgency caused further widespread destruction. the armed group i saw was the major part of the post-war insurgency its military activity in iraq and the campaign against it by the iraqi government and western forces have led to huge

damage to infrastructure and the environment. the tigris in baghdad where ahmed khalid ekes out a living has been badly affected by this prolonged period of violence and instability. if i'm with a. lot of fun a social. i don't have the belief. that she was one of the best about usual. out of the. house only now because she doesn't know i'm innocent.

all of i know one. was. not head to. head the cia would not have. been a had on the other not a question any in the head and fear. the instability and tighten security. have led to an increased police presence on the river. harvey. said i want to. know something to come or so not one. of the soldiers that is one of the fellow with one of those or innocent the could do with that i mean the moment i think. right. in the way. i believe i got.

want to. get those who. know. that i'm on the one on the back with a gun because i want to. it's problems on the tigris are to do with restrictions on his movement but on the euphrates in the south the issue is with water quality. salt levels have risen because of dams higher up the river in syria and turkey there's waste from agriculture. and sewage from cities all of.

the sudden. bad. and the good bishop of feeding. at the door. there was one hundred.

dollars. or so war. and i'm a lot. couldn't lives in our city a city where people cannot drink the water from the euphrates because of the drop in water level increasing its salinity. furthermore in late twenty eighty when tens of thousands of freshwater fish died in the euphrates south of baghdad and soaring pollution is believed to be

a major factor behind the sudden death of the fish i mean. how wildly how. monopolists. we're doing on a song that's a lot of. a lot of. how. you measure i don't. i mean it's not so much and if you watch a lot all shop so much as it was. not the muscle me this is the well i still. think i've gotten really. good a mother. just

. well just. the dams built up river on the euphrates in syria turkey and iran are also having an effect on the marshlands in southern iraq. this is impeding conservation and restoration efforts in the wetlands the dams have reduced the flow of water reaching iraq since one nine hundred seventy by as much as the hof. hundreds of people have been forced to migrate from iraq's once fertile central marshes because of the lower water levels still at night in a i've never had anyone i've never had all the of it i've never quite know that all

and i've never seen or they didn't hardly have a record of living well. now than we are now he'll be ok i know he's a flea i hope. of lego star i didn't hear any one would have arrived. and there weren't within their war room deal so i didn't want to do it all on my. world on monday you know did i was that good i did want to go i would argue. the. front on my wall thing and i know hitting. on my own and i didn't.

know what i will yell and let it get in any of them have i. missed already. know we had it in. my head right now as if there were a lot of knowledge that you. i don't know. but the problems of the marshes and the upper rivers extend on a larger scale beyond the points where the two inch intruders the tigris and the euphrates merge at basra. from here the vast channel of the shuttle out of waterway runs through basra province into the gulf. coming up the shot to the heart of waterway faces an environmental catastrophe it's taking with it livestock and fisheries and i really want to get out there walk it and let you know what. mark what i say and as this year's at nine majority malitia start here the eve of ashura. and iraqi fishermen say they often fall foul of the kuwaiti

indian we need these patrolling maritime borders on the frontline of a dispute that once led to out an outdoor others are all the yes but and anywhere. near. me then. go on them in. public work but not meet up old man of me and me and others in the rubble out of. many. of us are ya. february on al-jazeera reinvestigate the toxic legacy of south africa's mining industry and examine exactly what is hiding beneath old is toxic waste africa's largest democracy heads to the polls join us for live coverage as nigeria votes out as their world showcases the best of the networks documentaries with powerful

untold stories from the middle east and north africa as cubans are set to vote on the possible changes to the constitution what impact will be outcome have on the country and the world sunny day witness visits ghana and sweden where a community polarized by mining clans questions their heritage february on al-jazeera. rewind returns a pair brayer people back to life from start with brian you updates on the best of al-jazeera documentaries in libya was the thought of that plus a no like and the other student rewind continues with joseph's journey this is the . struggle continues book. from baghdad. to. use distance rewind on al-jazeera.

al-jazeera it's just swept every single. hello i'm to start with the top stories on al-jazeera the u.s. president is predicting victory over eisel as early as next week donald trump says the coalition is close to reclaiming all the territory previously held by the group in syria the united states military or coalition partners and the syrian democratic forces have liberated virtually all of the territory previously held by isis and syria iraq it should be formally announced some time

probably next week that we will have one hundred percent of the caliphate the united nations has warned against using aid as a poor and in venezuela u.s. officials say the trucks carrying aid have a rived in colombia for delivery to venezuela the opposition is accusing the military which backs president nicolas maduro of blocking a bridge on the border with colombia supporters of brecht's that have reacted angrily to remarks by one of the top politicians european council president donald tusk says there's a special place in hell for british politicians who supported leaving the european union without a concrete plan amnesty international has accused the united arab emirates of supplying weapons to armed groups in yemen the rights group says the u.a.e. diverts billions of dollars worth of arms to buying them from the west brazil's former president who is in last year's lula da silva has been given an extra that

teen years of jail time for corruption and money laundering he's already serving a twelve year prison sentence for another corruption conviction he says the charges are politically motivated the u.s. says it's cutting some military aid to cameroon over allegations of human rights violations and comes off to videos circulated online said to show security forces shooting and killing civilians. rescue teams in turkey are searching for survivors of a building collapse in istanbul at least two people were killed several others are believed to be trapped under the rubble of the eight story apartment block and five five says that the u.s. state of california had been tackling a major blaze after a gas explosion and found francisco huge claims of fire and smoke prompted evacuations of nearby buildings it's believed it was caused by workers cutting a gas line those are the headlines now back to al-jazeera. you leave this place children in this refugee camp the latest victims of the unending sectarian violence

in central african republic among them are survivors of unspeakable violence ten year olds in work his mother is dead her father is gone killed because they were christian by their own muslim neighbors this is a least you home an overcrowded refugee camp of twenty three thousand people surrounded by armed militia groups celine wants answers she says she wants to be asking the questions and so we traded places inch took the microphone will we find peace how can we make the violence stop when will i be able to return home. for thousands of years two famous rivers the tigris and euphrates made iraq one of the most fertile regions in the middle east. the first urban settlements grew up on the lines between them and the cradle of civilization. but today things are

dramatically different for the rivers and the people who depended on them decades of war sanctions upstream dams pollution and a phone in water levels have seriously damaged iraq's ancient rivers and water resources. waterway runs one hundred eighty four kilometers south from the confluence of the tigris and the euphrates in basra province and forms the border with iran. it provides access to their gulf iraq's vital source of commercial sea fishing. in how i just tell us they are zero out of the new terminal and i was resolved so i counted the tunnels and the tunnel and don't live as i want to.

go the commute to work as you know one doesn't have the most thought at the gun and already. somewhat of. a marble off the album. and etc. i've been told i'm a bit. then mocking alan and don't know if he has some of that as i thought i was there or. jonathan out there are none. other can let david minute go in. a minute jonathan listen i have to challenge and it was the saudi and their little white house. give me an islamist agenda to be a how hard to stuff on the engine and unless i had stalled here and the guy i think got this dollar business jim and saddam

a while. only in america if it said how's it now they all mean. until it was march of death or was it if achieve some sort of time while. the market. ruled the world because. it is so i don't do that with the law those who would. have been doing. might that have been a million enlisted as opposed to just leave the g yeah there was a difference much of the bottom of it just as i did i myself actually saw a bunch of them right the how it ended as i must begin to kind of i don't i still come out of the success of the front in a sort of but i don't know how to a large if they are my guess so the me i me a home scene is. these boats now stand idle in the port of an fowl at the south east end of the and fall peninsula on the right bank of the shuttle.

rusting old diesel boats pollutes the waterways. and foul has around forty thousand inhabitants and is a traditional fishing community but town officials admit that's hundreds of families have now left in search of other work leaving the ports in danger of becoming a ghost town. mark without. know it as a highly. you know an eternity. i was just going to dump it nothing got done about the being out of that meeting. has about me got me arrested beat. me. at the piano. well you know enough about thirty macho in my fellow. to get it if they were.

because i write i want. out of the outside that that is weird. on. our blog at that's my house i'm at our. one side of a peninsula is a fifty kilometer stretch of coastline darva to peace in kuwait. the other as the shuttle watch away which runs alongside the marshes of southern iran. pollution intercept a lot up and produced fish stocks in their own territorial waters have forced iraqi fishermen to risk sailing close to rainy and kuwaiti waters. believing them richer in fish stocks or to deliberately trespassed into foreign waters in the hope of a quick and easy catch.

these fishermen used to be protected by the iraqi navy but that's now to p.t. and largely carnitine the country's oil terminals. and. out of. out of it really a lot. out of me i'm on the. right. island we are on i thought i would tell you that i invest seventy two point. two out of it but i'll be a lot of through us i want to quit through a lot had the money. to get the place has a lot of there's neither why i left. they are going to. hear of how the media and. media. will be.

missed and a living will do it on. then no other. outlets and where you know. what i've done. not in my robin is yet to do and i'll say i do want to do off then they are involved you know out of them in. public finance meet up and manasseh me and mean there is a level at a. minimum i want to so i look what i want to so on. as if pollution and the perceived threat from kuwait and iran were not enough the fishermen on the shop. and the guys have to deal with iraqi security checks.

as once young women are developed the heart of a lot of the good market would work as well keep the ball going to be there no luggage you could dorio about it i didn't even go to the hours that i'm going to. get out because of the wall of unlike. other malaysian me you know that would have been my or the gravel on it that they're going to do with those i go by only out on a lot of want to. go to. the wrestle for control of the shuttle what i'm watching way was one of the causes of the long costly and bitter war between iraq and iran throughout most of the one nine hundred eighty s. . that

border dispute is still not settled. kuwait and iraq have also yet to agree on a sea border in negotiations which have been going on since the dam for sands invasion of kuwait in one thousand and ninety eight that sparked the confluence. many fishermen at the docks say iraqis are viewed with hostility by iranians and cretins who are still bitter over their conflicts with iraq in the one nine hundred eighty s. and ninety's. on the shuttle out of the in basra province. yes this is not the size of fish or catch the days men meet to earn a living. it's a meager turn for a day on the watch. the shuttle out of here

suffers from increasing pollution with industrial waste domestic sewage and agricultural fertilizers after finding their way into its waters no surprise then that fish stocks are diminishing. the salty tide from their arabian gulf has also advanced north up the shuttle ata resulting in an act of fresh water. some fishermen have also resorted to damaging ways of catching fish including using poison to bring them to the surface to leap syria

or jordan at any minute join us and with. jani i don't know whether. as a ticket that i sent you and i. know if there was. a and i. can work it up i id dynamic. john. and that's it all with. the animals and what are they and as ishi i said now in majority my list up as southey a j e the bash up the month of am i going to market i tell you there's been much and i shop where i know i live off i don't mind me no job us no one god then and head in and i thought i'd been wise when i damaged already i would and i could outta shut the a room or hide them i just thought i didn't mulder i was shocked.

to learn that i'd heard of the. best. i think you know i love dial if you will but i will be a test. in the series what it means what it is i just really just said we know how to do the dishes in the chicken yard he said and said i said i was then exactly so i said i got the bit i did when you look. he doesn't have a plate i don't want to how do i not do with another because. i haven't said a lot of well you know her.

well luckily not just because but. when i see justice i. know what i'm on not to mind a shop and i settle with that at the shop. i shall see china as have them russia of course i was there when i might you know most of them got. shot. back in baghdad methodic now talks in a similar negative way about life on the tigris. not have one of those. not had a law ministry and walked out of the one. i had not thought of not as high as it like. and how long hand has of it i know.

and on the southern marshes inch by inch the un environment program sees that thirty seven percent of the permanent twenty lines have now been restored. their food recovery will take many more years. well as to why the mom market was a good look at another john model year when i was in the a while when i was a dollar a model as you know of another now when i was in the i have thought oh my god girl i'm going to very much for the third of the wood near all of it i would than the amount of coverage i'd like i had my own more than i had a live there and the rats were how do you know under five hundred i was under the yard undercover i was there no i don't i. know you i give your my i give you not

any. wow i. hear. a shout out. but away from the problems facing professional fishermen and the pollution of the euphrates and shut. down there is one positive heartwarming

story. i resent that. when i look at. that site i. doesn't come from a fishing family but has befriended a local tigris fisherman. and discovered a love of the ancient river. like a god. or their. backyard and. give him

a should get more. he got one of the air. at the other betty. where mother bear. does a lot of us are there so i was so with it. at the end there i said. an atlatl. of the just. a matter. so what i mean yet i am. not on the record fella. in real life as definition constitutional to my own i only tell.

what i'd much time so really trying to say with brought. a lot of doors a. huge huge. i'm a seventh oh yeah no question you are you are you thank you thank you. michel pulled over. also. a lobbyist after. the juggler but on clue issue i didn't even have so i was only shown to have a command to wait have a computer on me with it but any leans in only i ok it lead to a quick obvious i look at communism come in and say that i said god bless the drug field really them and they're so we.

didn't even mean why no no no. we're not man. i'm not. one i'm not a federal law and offered no. they are not they are near government and about five not anyway i family of of them. i'm going to go look at the not so much comes in below me and you can go to any college in another layer by ramtha county near if you're going to run your address is done than good by county so we. are for honeymooning give this much effort a significant in on high for ideas on how i can shovel had done and you. are

no business in a toilet for how i assign you lucky hyphen of me and if i join it and you show on your leg. then the leather way. then mess up the damage that the pajama bottoms not in the way that an affair while you get how well it would not have an obvious even a monster. out of the blue say trouble. oh no as it is it

alexander shot last this year none of this the i'll be out as out as i will just tell what i'll. call it a little odd well. i watch our early. earth understand that i love her a lot of it i don't love him well. that's just a. mess goof is a traditional mr putting in dish made by cooking seasoned fresh water car on the fire. cooked it in the marshlands and it's often considered iraq's national dish. but that prides itself in making the best mess go with the up you know was district almost dedicated to the dish in its dozens of fish restaurants.

had no gullibly. really. so i live i live. i one what i meant after five when. as being. us is you me push us and i was just so. good job. said judd story shows how iraq's greet each inch rivers are still close to the heart of its people. today's crisis means that iraq won so abundant in water resources now imports sixty percent of its fish but above all it's threatens the roots of iraq's identity as the land between the two rivers the tigris and the euphrates on which the country and its people have depended for thousands of use.

a story of revolution defiance and murder them dogood a major figure in the war against the french occupation while cheering a friend. whose bravery even impressed and amends and to inspire others in the fight for independence after his death is that a good deed we did a lot of the ben mcgeady the algerian revolutionary on al-jazeera.

welcomes another look at the international focus because severe storms moving across central parts of the u.s. at the moment anywhere from the lakes of the midwest right down into the southwest and coating to see that they sting this band of plant now ahead of it it's miles decent temperatures twenty five celsius for atlanta and from miami getting up to twenty one in dallas remember that twenty one in doubt assessment for the north minus twenty two the full winnipeg so quite a big contrast temperature contrast across the country and this is where we got the most severe storms and around the up midwest pushing into the appalachians over the next couple of days icing problems around the midwest further north well still a fair bit of snow that will drive its way further east was twenty one in dallas we're looking at six for friday to check the least it will be dry by this stage that disturbed weather makes its way eastwards in some new york through new jersey

pushing wrought up across new england he says sort of kind of this things and rather the weather we hang on to that modest twenty two in winnipeg temperatures not changing too quickly killed enough over towards the or western side of the country fifteen in l.a. that's around five or six degrees below the seasonal average so it is a little chilly here much of the sunshine for the caribbean it's fine dry warm and sunny thanks to the high of twenty nine. whether on line. with that is your for them with not to drop it or if you join us on the set all of us have been colonized in some form or some fashion this is a diana react talking about illegal friend you have seen what it can do to somebody people are using multiple drugs including a funnel and some people are seeking it out everyone has a voice from death your thoughts here twitter and you could be on the street join the colobus conversation amount is there on the dissolute mother waits on the

border between ukraine and russia occupied crimea for news of her missing son. numerous young three men have disappeared following her arrest these disappeared other victims of a crackdown on the top population of crimea by russia since its occupation in two thousand and fourteen. before the invasion of two thousand and fourteen crimea was a part of another country ukraine really formed when the soviet union broke up into separate states but many russians including the president vladimir putin were unhappy with this. russia is determined to keep its alleged abuse of human rights away from public scrutiny. as the only indigenous group still openly opposing the tradition russia sees this muslim minority as a threat. from sunrise to sunset

across asia. and the pacific explore untold and fascinating story one on one on al-jazeera. this is zero. and this is the news. coming up in the next sixty minutes we will have. one hundred percent of the caliphate u.s. president donald trump says the total defeat of eisel is imminent. the united nations says desperately needed aid is being used as a political pawn.