using. that matter to you. investigating the ukrainian plane crash in iran the us president pointed to a mistake as your sources say it was likely shot down by iran. unarmed taylor says al jazeera live from london also coming up a senior iranian commander says attacks on u.s. military positions in iraq targeted military equipment not personnel and we're just the beginning. this is us politicians debate a resolution designed to limit the president's ability to use further military force against iran. and australia's bushfire emergency high temperatures are forecast to return officials warn residents to be ready to evacuate.

the u.s. president donald trump says he suspects the ukrainian jet which crashed in iran could have been brought down by mistake or 176 passengers and crew were killed moments after taking off from tehran on wednesday intelligence officials in washington believe the plane was most likely brought down accidentally by iranian air defenses president trump says he has a terrible feeling about the disaster but offer no evidence. i have my suspicions it was very i don't want to say that because other people have those suspicions also. it's a tragic thing when i see that it's a tragic thing. but somebody could have made a mistake on the other side could've could've made a mistake it was flying it was it was flying in that our system there had nothing

to do with us it was flying in a pretty rough neighborhood and somebody could have made a mistake some people say was been cannick i personally don't think that's. even a question let's get our white house correspondent can really help it now committee do we have any further information about what the president is basing this on. very for evocative statements from the u.s. president but no clarity where he is getting this information or what evidence he would have to support his insinuation that iran may have been responsible for the downing of this ukrainian passenger plane now we do know that the u.s. military as well as others are poring over data military intelligence and fact satellite radar electrical data all to try and determine the cause of this crash which up until now it was blamed as being mechanical but the timing is certainly clear eous because you have to remember that this crash came shortly after the

united states was aware that 2 of the bases it was using in iraq had been hit by missiles by iran and the u.s. president potentially the question becomes is whether he bears any responsibility at all of this given the fact that he said if even one american was killed he would retaliate so it certainly is within the realm of possibility to think given the fact that the united states had stage b. 52 bombers in the indian ocean at the base diego garcia we don't know if those were in fact in flight but certainly it would not be out of the realm of possibility for tehran to expect that it could receive a retaliatory attack from the united states whether or not there was a mistake on the radar potentially seeing this passenger plane thinking it may have been something else those questions need to be answered so expect that the u.s. president as he leaves the white house in the coming hours to head out and depart

for one of his make america great again rallies expect that he will be posed with those questions should he stop and talk to reporters but at this hour still not a lot of clarity on that insinuation now even more questions than answers but certainly again a provocative statement from the u.s. president pointing the finger at the u.s. adversary iran committee how could thank you very much indeed. a national day of mourning is being observed in ukraine but there were many nationalities on board nor about money has. friends family colleagues coming together in grief. these were the 9 crew members of ukraine international airlines who was supposed to land the tumbling care of a wednesday that's the site i had just assumed was it's a tragedy for the whole world for ukraine and every one of us this is a grief which is difficult to express in words ukraine's president vladimir the

lenski join that that you'll join you're probably do i will speak with iran's president to step up cooperation with ukraine to establish the truth i'm appealing to the international community especially to canada to take part in the investigations. most of the passages were iranian. as well as more than 60 canadians in toronto and elsewhere in canada there were more candles more flowers and pictures of those who'd been killed it means a shock to me as well as the iranian community and the world that this happened i mean just think about the lives that were lost and this was so i necessary video on social media appears to show the boeing 737-2801 fire before it crashed in a city suburb emergency crews on the ground work to recover evidence from deborah

that was scattered to several columbus's ukraine is cancelled flights were run and says it expects to see a transcription of the black box cockpit recording the airline says the plane was one of its best and the pilots among its most experienced. there were many national board as people gathering grief around the world investigators will want to find out why the flight with 176 passengers and crew never reached its destination you're about a manly al-jazeera. and iranian revolutionary guard commander has warned wednesday's missile attack on a base arresting u.s. troops in iraq is only the start of their retaliation. day says iran strikes weren't meant to kill soldiers but to damage the american military machine dosage of our reports from tehran. a country in mourning thursday's memorial

ceremony began in the supreme leader's residence in tehran. the commander in chief of iran's armed forces accompanied by the man who has replaced is sas a native general hossam saw the money as head of the revolutionary guards what's force what's. similar memorial services were held across the country to mark the u.s. killing of general salim ani in baghdad on friday. and on wednesday this was iran's promise response this video was broadcast on state t.v. it appears to show members of the revolutionary guard loading ballistic missiles. before launching them into the night sky their target a military base across the border in iraq housing u.s. soldiers the man in charge of that operation is the head of iran's revolutionary guard aerospace unit brigadier general allie hodges. in. about 3 months for with a missile attack conducted against the u.s.

military base was a move that god willing continued in iran was not after killing u.s. personnel our goal was to hit u.s. military equipment. an immediate diplomatic solution to the crisis seems unlikely iran wants u.s. forces to permanently leave the gulf region i think there are events for don't fall in many foreign news is something marius strategy in for one term and as their leader himself also mentioned it is to make the americans leave the region and i think that many nations in the region also are supporting this will be fickle faces the u.s. says it's targeting of course i'm still the money in an air strike was in response to an attack in iraq in which an american contractor was killed and for which it blames iran. but a recent unclassified memo appears to contradict trump's claims the general saw the money pose an immediate danger to the united states iranian officials have united in their response the soleimani for now

a number of countries are trying to use all political channels to the escalate tensions between the united states and iran but solomon is that is not likely to open a path of dialogue between the 21 time adversaries. alpha 0 terror on. the u.s. house of representatives as usual on a resolution limiting president donald trump's ability to take military action against iran as the fallout from the assassination of the iranian general custom sort of money continues or does your question is following events for us on capitol hill to us through what the limiting measure will include. sure lauren so this resolution is quite strongly worded by the democrats who crafted it says it would direct the president to terminate the use of united states armed forces to engage in hostilities in or against iran further explanations have said that this would be a 30 day window that without the president coming to congress 1st to get its

authority a congressional declaration of war on iran that the president can do no more after this 30 day period so certainly it's a very strong wording but whether or not this resolution has any legal power that actually is an open question right now it's been introduced as a concurrent resolution that is non binding keywords that under law means that it does not carry a legal weight and in essence the president can disregard it because it will not be going to his desk for his signature or his veto and the u.s. supreme court has said that anything any law passed by congress requires that signature to be inactive house speaker nancy pelosi the top democrat in the u.s. house of representatives insisted earlier today that even though this resolution that is is expected to pass by the end of the day even though it will not be going to the president's desk that it is

a statement of congress she says that would have legal teeth. would have been. in the view of many of us is not committing peace but an escalation not that we have any confidence in the goodness. of the good intentions of of iran and we certainly do not respect and from my intelligence background know just how bad she money was it's not because we expect good things from them but we expect great things from us. so democrats having no confidence in the president's decision making going forward on military actions toward iran and some will republicans notably have also joined that criticism yesterday after the intelligence briefings here on the capitol hill

by top members of the trumpet ministration there were 2 republican senators who said that that actually shook their confidence in how the administration has proceeded that the legal justification and the intelligence shared with them they said was insulting and that those administration numbers said that congress should not be debating this which is taking away the power the shared power of congress to wage and declare war in fact a pending resolution to this one though the war powers resolution is also going to come up on the u.s. senate side if both of these measures pass though they're still have open question exactly how or if they'll be enforced by the requester thank you very much indeed. still to come on his era. of commons finally passes the bill that will see it leave europe but the e.u. has a warning for boris johnson's president line. my

. hello there it is a mostly fine picture across much of mainland europe plenty of god has been streaming in but not much weather with it the has been plenty of rain and also some snow the eastern end of the med we saw says i'm really just lingering for a few days and in the cold air and to mainland greece this is what we source of fairly heavy amounts of snow some strong winds over the rules in power outages but that has cleared out of the picture as we go through friday across an basin pieces of rain work their way through denmark on towards the baltics but really as the northwest is the u.k. across a much of this is where we're going to see very heavy amounts of rain and also some barry strong gusty winds a really no reprieve even as we head off into south of them by then we've got that rain and the snow pushing across in particular to norway some heavy snow some strong winds 6 celsius the high that is still not bad in london 10 degrees and really as i say the bulk of europe is fine just some snow pushing into that fall

western side of russia so that system clearing out of the eastern med that does mean the showers that work in time within it they will also drift away but we will see some showers they're going to be further to the west of the system in the western med so that means showers along these coast in aerials of algeria and they'll tend to push across the east was as we go through saturday and maybe some showers just a bit further towards the south. the latest news as it breaks this bush season is far from over but it's caused so much devastation across a stray. with detail coverage campaign to save it a 100 soup children and seen ages of sleeping on the streets of taras and feel as journalism senators are preparing for a briefing on the u.s. military strike and whatever response it may bring.

we. are going to one of the top stories here now to syria u.s. intelligence sources say they believe the ukrainian jet that crashed on wednesday was most likely brought down accidentally by iranian air defenses u.s. president donald trump says he suspects the crash could have been the result of a mistake in 176 passengers and crew were killed. iranian revolutionary guard commander has warned of wednesday's missile attack on a base hosting u.s. troops in iraq is only the start of the retaliation early hajis a day says iran strikes weren't meant to kill soldiers but to damage the american

military machine. that u.s. house of representatives is due to vote on a measure limiting president donald trump's ability to take military action against iran as the fallout from this us nation iranian general custom silly money continues. but some breaking news from syria where russia and turkey have just announced a cease fire in the country's last rebel held stronghold it's got a latest from our correspondent who's in the turkish capital ankara or drug tell us what you're hearing. collarless been very much awaited so much needed only from a humanitarian perspective agreements between the 2 major regional players when it comes to the syrian war that is namely charkhi and russia russia has announced but im able to reach an agreement to a century and to our east cease hostilities in italy now why that's significant is because over the past few months or at least since the middle of 2019 some

700000 civilians have fled it live fled the fighting the bombardment also namely also russian air forces that have been attacking the $300000.00 of those just in the month of december alone so obviously turkey being one of those counts were as of a stun a process which was meant to deescalate fighting in russia being the star struck and obviously iran being. the turkey being the one most at stake because a lot of those if not the vast majority of them with nuclear have been heading towards territories and obviously you're talking about millions of syrian refugees already inside turkey and it is something that has come more and more of an issue as far as turkey is concerned so that is the significance or at least the context when we're looking at how important it is that this agreement to be reached today how long it will hold of the sea people will be waiting but apart from ensuring the

people don't believe it's going to be welcomed by aid agencies who've been finding difficulty in deliverance 8 there and one last point which also adds to the significance in terms of the timing the work spec'ing on friday james jeffries who is the u.s. representative for hope to just syria he's meant to be coming to turkey as well to discuss latest developments with the turks so it will be some more positive news than what otherwise been a very very devastating time jim a chance thank you very much. the libyan warlord hurley for have to has rejected calls by turkey and russia for a cease fire to be implemented by sunday the 2 countries support opposing sides in the conflict moscow backs have to his forces have been trying to seize tripoli since april turkey has begun deploying troops to support the un recognized government based in the capital e.u. leaders are banding together on a political front warning that libya could become

a 2nd syria as if if a ceasefire is not reached soon another mass evacuation is being urged in heavily populated parts of southeast australia as the return of high temperatures threaten to fan bushfires there are several warnings in south australia new south wales and victoria fires are already threatening homes south of perth in western australia 27 people have been killed and more than 2000 homes destroyed since september 1st year washington has more from sydney. from the coast to the mountains fires have burned through an area larger than south korea thousands of houses have been destroyed businesses disrupted and dozens of lives lost the blue mountains in the west of sydney a unesco world heritage site has been hit particularly hard in the neighboring region of penrith it's almost impossible for people to avoid breathing in bushfires

smoke and more than once this summer head north has become the hottest place on earth so we can't ignore the fact that you know temperatures are going to take ridiculous levels and. they are at a point where we've never seen them before we've never had time to divide 50 degrees in my lifetime. as a kid we've never experienced. a strategy as severe drought has worsened the bushfires season which arrived weeks earlier than normal and those fires have become political just months ago scott morrison won the election in a landslide appealing to voters who were concerned about their personal finances but the scale and scope of this bushfire season has made many ordinary straley and realise the personal cost often environmental catastrophe experts say politicians are now facing increasing pressure with many people blaming climate change and demanding action the situation is trying to quite considerably certainly coalition

governments caught climate policy issues have been brought into question big fast themselves. but how the conditions have arisen has become the key question of people really interested in the government has been reluctant to make the connection between climate change and the fires now the prime minister says there is a link but the government isn't prepared to reconsider the country's reliance on fossil fuels this push by season is far from over and so too is the political impact jessica washington al-jazeera sydney australia. the nation's anticorruption commission has raised a series of order recordings featuring former prime minister najib razak seeking help from abu dhabi's crown prince to conceal a deal linked to the one m. d.b. corruption scandal and we're recording najib asks the crown prince to help clear his son on money in order accusations.

or to. act. out only we can result. 'd in the world. something. 'd he or. your or you or your. so. we. will be the closest we need to it. and his 20 soldiers have been killed in the

attack in northeast nigeria where 2 sources say an armed group storm the town of long goodnow in borno state on tuesday evening hundreds of homes or reportedly destroyed in the attack forcing people to flee into the bush to safety. even special envoy to west africa mohammed in us has warned the security council that the sahara region is experiencing a devastating surge in violence in 201-6770 people were killed during attacks in booking a fast so mali and michette that number jumped to 4000 last year in the confess so 80 people were killed in 216 but a shift in the focus of attacks eastwards from mali and seen the number killed a rise to more than 1800 in 2019 the humanitarian cost is also growing the u.n. estimates half a 1000000 people have been displaced by the moderns a 10 fold increase in 3 years there's

a common interest has more from the nigerian side we've seen an uptick in violence over the past few months and it's the same across the sahara over the last 2 or 3 months the trend is more daring attacks by groups fight armed groups in the region a book coram in nigeria islamic state i saw islamic state in the levant in this a hell area we're seeing several attacks especially in the border areas of mali booking a fossil energy as well as on the lake chad side where we've seen several attacks inside cameroon in nigeria in the gerrards of and of course chad i recently there were reports of child in troops withdrawing from the idea which was confirmed by the judge you know forty's but they said it's an indication that their tour of

duty in nigeria has ended so violence in the region in west africa is actually on the high side following that we launch of civil attacks and violent activities by armed groups in the area. after months of turmoil the british house of commons is finally passed the brics it withdraw agreement bill passed 33223199 vote majority and when i move to the house of lords for approval it paves the way for the u.k. to leave the european union on january 31st after that there will be a one year transition period the 2 sides have to come up with a deal on their future relationship in that time the news chief negotiator michel barnier says it won't be possible to reach a comprehensive agreement with the u.k. in a year and have expect a new park about what lies ahead for those negotiations with the e.u. has repeatedly said that it won't go easy on the united kingdom have some very warm words though from the new e.u.

commission chief delay and she has promised unprecedented cooperation she said a partnership that goes beyond trade is closer when it comes to things like climate action data protection fisheries energy so on and so forth but just to remind you this bill that's currently going through parliament includes a clause which means that there cannot be a further extension so if there isn't any economic partnership by the end of the year then well britain ends up leaving the european union on something of a cliff edge johnson is hoping to have an economic partnership in place by july that's very very soon many people think about but maybe a little bit too ambitious but johnson says he can achieve it britain's royal family are reportedly hurt and disappointed after prince harry and his wife meggan said they're stepping back from senior roles within the monarchy a couple made the announcement without consulting the royal family saying they

become financially independent but as you know how reports from london critics say that isn't possible if they want to maintain a role in public life. i it wasn't long ago that the american actress make a mark ogle seen as injecting new life into britain's stayed war will family marrying prince harry sick in lying to the throne in 2018 but the mix of transatlantic glamour and whorl to quickly turned toxic in the press with the duke and duchess of sussex criticised for a jet set lifestyle at taxpayers' expense and accusations in return against some newspapers of racism in an interview late last year meghan hinted with that it might all be to march british rand said to me and sure he's bring that time because the british talent 12 destroy your like there will be critics of the sussex is decision to go their own way becoming financially independent they say

splitting their time between the u.k. and north america while retaining their roiled status it's so they looks the outside world as though they're try to how that cake and eat it they're trying to cash in on that celebrity status while maintaining that high a level or which is royalty i don't think there's 2 things can go hand in hand easily and the idea of using your royal title for make money this something which sudden british royal family has never ever entered into before outside buckingham palace expressions of support and regret i think it's a shame that the bio family is now slated to be pride's face and now we're. going to fragment the country she's come from a different background and he's come from a different background and they're trying to make it work for both families just isn't it trying to make a situation where while the u.k.

press carries the story on every front page the queen deeply upset we're told apparently she wasn't even consulted in advance of prince charles and harry's brother william in candace and with rage and this talk of civil war inside the royal family it's the sort of gossipy reporting that is so common and which harry and meghan seem to think will cease all reduce once they put a bit of distance between themselves and this institution but members of the royal family sometimes forget but the taxpaying public has a legitimate interest in their extravagant lifestyles harry's uncle andrew was reminded of that in his disastrous televised attempt to excuse his friendship with a convicted paedophile harry and meghan meanwhile have already been removed from the royal wirksworth display at madame tussauds but there are likely to escape the media spotlight jonah hold al-jazeera. i know when my can catch up any time with all the news reporting on my checking out our website al-jazeera dot com and you

can also watch us live by clicking on the orange live icon out there dot com. and one of the top stories here intelligence officials in washington say they believe the ukrainian jet that crashed on wednesday was most likely shot down accidentally by iranian air defenses u.s. president donald trump says he suspects the crash could have been a mistake. i have my suspicions it was very i don't want to say that because other people have those suspicions also. it's a tragic thing when i see that it's a tragic thing. but somebody could have made a mistake on the other side could've could've made a mistake it was flying it was it was flying in that our system had nothing to do with us it was flying in a pretty rough neighborhood and somebody could have made

a mistake as some people say was be can i go i personally don't think that's. even a question and the iranian revolutionary guard commander has warned wednesday's missile attack on a base hosting u.s. troops in iraq is only the start of the retaliation he had jesus day says iran strikes went meant to kill soldiers but to damage the american military machine the u.s. house of representatives will vote soon on a resolution limiting president donald trump's ability to take military action against iran as the fallout from this escalation iranian general custom sort of money continues what happened. in the view of many of us is not promoting peace but an escalation not that we have any confidence in the goodness of the good intentions of of iran and we certainly do not

respect an act from my intelligence background know just how bad so money was not because we expect good things from them but we expect great things from us. russia and turkey have announced a cease fire on the country's last rebel held stronghold at least 1300 people have been killed in their lives since september 28th. the u.n. reports almost 300000 syrians have been displaced from libya since mid december. there's a top stories do stay with us if you can stream is up next and i'll be back with more news for you straight after that thanks for watching.

i have a me ok and your in the stream today we're diving into 3 stories making headlines around the globe u.s. president trumps next move with iran venezuela's political power struggle and a strain is a bush fire battle to give your take on these topics really easy you can tweet us at a stream or leave a comment in a live chat it is curated don't be scared be kind to each other and you too could be in the story. tensions between the u.s. and iran have dominated the headlines since the start.