o d a . does me it makes me happy. makes me feel those i was with me. oh. and he's 15. people are killed in an earthquake. that shook southern ecuador and

northern group. ah, i'm on the inside. this is out there a life also coming up. 20 years after the us led invasion of iraq, we look at how this information from washington damage the credibility of the united nations. growing reports of mass killings and rapes is thousands of displaced. people continue to arrive in camps in the democratic republic of congo. many people here question why the government hasn't done more to support its forces and we have more on allegations of filipino as being targeted traffic. i'm forced into a life of crime. ah, at least 14 people have in ecuador one in parade. after

a strong earthquake hit off the coast of ecuador, the magnitude 6.8 tremor was centered south of the 2nd largest city k r. kil, alex bad has more streets littered with crumbled facades. rescue teams in ecuador scramble to save those still trapped after the earthquake on friday afternoon. who will remarkably, a part of the facade collapsed. them fell on a vehicle that had already been removed by the police. we had one victim without vital signs. a male person, a number of buildings have collapsed to cross the coastal state of laurel and us. why in the andes but gathered all i can to sally at people ran out, they yelled in despair. all the people got out of their cars. i don't know how an earthquake would feel in a car, but they were desperate. they ran, they yelled, yodi cried. there are ports of damage to infrastructure across the region and landslides, blocking civil roads. the trim was also felt across the border and northern peru

where a young child was killed. when her home collapsed. the hollow, the baby was playing, where the stain of blood is. she was playing with my other niece and the brick fell on her ecuador and peru, a prone to earthquakes. they straddled the so called ring of fire in the danger, isn't over yet with aftershocks still ongoing. alex bid al jazeera russia state media is reporting president vladimir putin has paid a visit to russian, occupied maddie pole in ukraine and says he is in a region annex i'm moscow. last year. it was nearly completely destroyed in a month's long russian siege. according to state mediate putin met with residence and visited areas under reconstruction, south korea and japan. all reporting that north korea has 5, a short range ballistic missiles towards the sea of the east coast of the korean

peninsula. the latest then soon follows fridays launch of a house song, 17 intercontinental ballistic muscle tension in the region as increase in south korea. in the u. s. began an 11 day joint military exercise on monday. on sunday, march 20 years since the start of the operation. iraqi freedom, the us led invasion that toppled saddam hussein. the military operation was launched without un support. and like the 1st gulf war, or the invasion of afghanistan and diplomatic editor james bay's looks at how the invasion damaged the credibility of the un un weapons inspectors in iraq, their job to track down the countries chemical and biological weapons. we now know there weren't any, a former iraq he rulers, saddam hussein had ceased his w. m. d program years earlier. but in 2003 us president george bush was backed by the british prime minister, tony blair was saying he was hiding

a huge stock pile. and they claimed they had the intelligence to prove it. the u. s . secretary of state colin powell now known to have been privately skeptical himself, tried to make the case in the security council, even wielding a vile. he said could be anthrax about this. the u. s. and u. k. bitterly opposed by much of the international community, including france and germany, failed to get a security council resolution to authorize a war. they launched one anyway. and the aftermath one british diplomat, who worked as his country's expert on iraq in the security council resigned. do you think the united nations ended up damaged or strengthened by the war 20 years ago? i think without doubt, it was damaged by the 2nd general at the united nations didn't assert his authority to say that the war was the legal and should not happen. which later, he admitted, i'm, i think collectively the quote unquote un, this sense of

a global community of nations. a sense of a shared set of rules took a very big hit as a result in iraq or so where does that leave things now? 20 years on. once again, the security council is deeply divided and there's no doubt that the invasion of ukraine by russia, a permanent member, was a breach of international law and of the un charter. but western diplomats, when you speak to them privately, will tell you that their efforts to put pressure on moscow are even now hindered by the memory of what happened 2 decades ago. the run up to the war in iraq in 2003 was marked by defiance and disinformation, resulting indeed damage to the un system and the rule of law around the world. so much may have changed since, but the repercussions of events that haunted the you and then a still being felt. james bays al jazeera at the united nations in the

democratic republic of congo attacks by the n 23 rebel group have displaced more than 800000 people over the past year. the group widely believed to be bagged by runs continues to seize territory in the east, despite regional efforts to end the violence. malcolm web reports from the city of gum, josephine one meaning and boot seed a breeder. both told us their husbands were killed when the n 23 armed group attacked their villages. many people in this camp on the outskirts of goma tell similar stories. josephine says she went back to her village last week and found her husband dead among about 30 men who were killed with machetes and left, barely buried in shallow graves. dick in the runs and throw em 23 killed him, one as we were running away, they caught us and separated the men from the women. many men were taken by the 23 in the bush. most of them were killed and my husband was among the democratic

republic of congo. his army says its fighting rwandan soldiers under the guise of end $23.00 wonders widely understood to back beyond group. they were wandered, denies it. the army has failed to stop and 23. the many people here question why the government hasn't done more than 43 times 10 years ago. but at the time they had substantial international military support. busy and one that was sanction this time in east african regional forces meant to help randi and soldiers of the latest to arrive. that is not clear if any of the countries contributing troops did not have the political will all the resources you got to fight and $23.00 or even were wanda. here in congress general constant fema is the 3rd commander to take over condos, military operation in less than

a year. just as a regional deadline for m. 23 to withdraw is due to expire. your i'll position in mcguire was attacked earlier today. this is why we have to repeat that we still have multiple violations of the ceasefire. m. 23 blamed congos forces for breaking the cease fires and denies committing atrocities. in spite of mounting evidence, there are growing reports of mass killings and rapes from the hundreds of thousands of new arrivals in the camps. but city says her husband was trying to protect their herd of castle last month when m. 23 fighters tried to forcibly recruit him and killed him when he refused. unable to say, this is deborah yearning. she says we, i need help with suffering. and we can't go back to our farm on, on below level. and she recalls in, but she's lost the malcolm web

al jazeera, goma, democratic republic of congo, britain's home secretaries while a brave and then has visited, wander, working to respond to a controversial deportation agreement with key garley. under the $146000000.00 deal agreed to last year, when there would accept migrants who arrived in britain without permission, no deportations have yet taken place. as right campaigns challenged the legality of the policy in court. or than 45000 people entered britain last year by crossing the channel. the big point here is that there will be a package of high quality humanitarians support for people who will be we locate trolanda that combined with our robust new laws, will be able to, will enable us to break the business model of the people smuggling gangs on the u. s. president donald trump says that he expects to be arrested on cheese day. he

made the remark on his truth, social media site incisive, but he called illegal leaks in the manhattan district attorney's office called on his supporters to protest. my kana has more from washington d. c. trump is referring to a case that has been ongoing in new york. there has been a grand jury hearing into hush money paid to to a woman one, a former porn star. this money was allegedly paid by tramp through an intermediary and to get them to keep quiet about having had sexual relations with him. in the past. now trumps then attorney michael cohen has appeared before the grand jury. and although grand jury proceedings are secret, cohen has stated publicly that he orchestrated the payment to, to women in order to keep them quiet about having had sexual relations with trump. now the significance of this is it's timing because the payments were made during the campaign period before the 2016 election. and what the grand jury has been

deciding on is whether this was, in fact, a contravention of campaign funding laws, which is a criminal act. now the arc and the new york district attorney has given trump the opportunity to appear before that grand jury that was a week ago. and that normally does precede some form of indictment in this particular case. so this is what trump is referring to, no confirmation whatsoever from any other source. in fact, trumps and spokesperson confirms that this is from what trump calls illegal leaks. there has been no official notification whatsoever. a cause in pakistan's capital, as counseled former prime minister mon cons arrest warrants his supporters class with police outside the court in islamabad. and outside his home in the hall, the case was adjourned, and con was ordered to reappear at a hearing on march 30th. he faces a number of legal cases, which he says,

all politically motivated. meanwhile, in the whole lease entered the home of the former prime minister, breaking through the front gate as offices and com. supporters clashed industries and the 60 restful made. what he say, a search of the property, reveal weapons and a large amount of ammunition still hands on al jazeera whereas a military base in bogota to meet some of columbia's 1st female army recruits and more than 2 decades. and how an ongoing heat wave and receding flood voices a killing of marine life in australia. ah ah, hello. there will have a look at africa in

a moment. the 1st to the middle east and much of the unsettled weather can be found across northern parts of the region, but we will see some of that rain start to shift its way south of the next few days . the area of low pressure, however, has already caused flooding into kiya and syria. you can see some of that rain intensifying across northern areas of iraq and pulling into iran with snow on the mountains. now the wet and windy conditions continue to affect eastern areas of the mediterranean. we could see some of those clouds bring some of that rain across parts of saudi arabia, into guitar and the u. e sunday. in to monday. certainly by monday you can see some of the heaviest rain falling across parts of oman and yemen. now we could see a shower or 2, maybe even some thunderstorms, effecting north western areas of out syria, but certainly is the wind. that's the story here. we've got warnings out for puzzle fan storms for western areas of libya to nicea, as well as algeria. now winds also the story in nigeria along with thunderstorms,

stretching from the gulf of guinea all the way across that central band of africa. some welcome rain coming into somalia and though freddy may have disintegrated, we've got a legacy of showers continuing formula we on sunday. ah tough times. the man tough question. what exactly are you asking for you? what liberal, the rigorous, the re, we challenged conventional wisdom racism deeply entrenched in the country that is identified with american. so when you challenge racism, it looks as if you're challenging home mirror and demand the truth. there's no serious discussion about this because it goes to the very root of you. we are with me, mark them on hill on al jazeera lou

. ah, welcome back to watching al jazeera mind. if our top stories are sour, at least 15 people have died after a strong earthquake hit off the coast of ecuador, the magnitude $6.00 tremor was centered south of the 2nd largest city g, a jak hill, and also impacted northern group. a number of buildings have collapsed. former us president donald trump says he expects to be arrested on tuesday in a case linked to a payment made to the form stars stormy daniels called on his supporters to protest . and it's 20 years since the start of the us led invasion of iraq had topple saddam hussein. up to 300000 iraqis were killed on the wall between 232019.

the military operation was launched without un support. as get more in this, i'm joined by professor mahmoud out and software. he's a political scientists and former rocky diplomat. he joins us now live from color lump, or thank you for your time sir. anniversaries are often a time of reflection as an iraqi yourself. how do you look back on the war? did you welcome the american intervention at the time? and how would you describe what happened in the years after that? oh ok. thank you very much. thank you for having be in your around what i can tell and this one gets a diversity to today's everybody's side of what happened before. no matter who was welcoming or who was not. i myself, i did not welcome that. i was at my living a very good life, although the blockade and bible affecting me, my family, all of my people around me. but we had at the time we have,

we have peaceful life. we have life a lot lower standard of living due to the bible, but still they like you, they can get to the basic needs through a very good program by the government. led by the time being bible, i mean the invasion came to destroy everything good in iraq at the how the judicial system, the education system, whatever we had developed through more than 18 years, grew 1921. when he knew how the stablished, by the kingdom of that time until the and the beginning of 2003. when a sat down on the party was ruling the country until that lot of issues and development

happened to the ease. all of them gone because of the american asian, that invasion, which was based on any ethical, oh, judicial adventures at all. as they came without any, any kind of justification. they talked about the destruction and they didn't find it after 20 years. now, they talked about the link time relations with the ida on the tourist. they didn't find it until today on bunch of the end of the day. we bought some apologies from here on lucian, but we had with apologies, totally destroyed countries. how would you say the iraq was impacted the united states place in the world and the world order more generally?

what i'm telling you the the issue is everything i think is a thing to them. the united states is actually losing lost on losing its apollo. i mean, american and it's all, it's all on the wall on there. we don't have a real security council that can maintain the peace and the wall now of the dog. definitely. we saw a lot of kind of was came into a through know, basic ethics or any kind of want world terms on conditions or rules. so that's why i got the, the, the whole, i mean they're in dia, region is facing a big problem with the,

with the since them. so let me ask you more specifically about today, iraq today, looking at it now has any real political and economic progress been made for ordinary iraqis? is there anything to feel hopeful about for the future? that's exactly all your watson, johnson giving watson itself. but the way that you out of questioning is there any? because if you, if you try to go out and find any hope and you will not find it is definitely today is lead on dominant by here. any and malicious approach goes to where to on the supporting in yemen. so there is no hope in the at all. we lost everything today with no clean water, no electricity, no hell, no, no good health system, no good education system. that's why it is no whole at all with what's happening in

iraq. the people who are going to iraq is just feeling all the resources and be, and everybody knows about it to the united states, the united nation, the all united states ally and everybody knows what's happening. but unfortunately, nobody wants to take the responsibility on and bring back the lights to the keys that they have lost in 2003 ok. professor mahmud out and stuff. a really good to get you said he was ready to sign the document and blame savvy as leader alexander church for refusing to sign off on the plan because of declared independence in 2008. so be a house, refused to recognise the split. they use different diplomat. describe the negotiations is difficult. israelis have taken to the streets in the 11th straight week of protests against government plans to curb the supreme court's

powers. critic see the plan as a threat to judicial independence. business leaders, legal experts and retired military leaders have joined the protests and some israeli reservists have threatened to stop reporting for duty if the plan becomes law. the president isaac has oak, has appeal for the policy to be postponed. women in columbia can now enlist for voluntary military service, all to being bound for decades on $5000.00 women are expected to join this year. many of them hope it will lead to professional career with in the army. i was under, i'm petty met some of the 1st batch of recruits as a ministry pace, in boca early morning, military drilled by these new female recruits there. among the 1st 1300 women to voluntary and live in columbia army in more than 2 decades. all the physical exercises are grueling and the hours long, but they say they're up for the challenge and happy to be able to serve learners as

opposed to me on leave it on. it's a tremendous opportunity. we have the same abilities as men and the physical requirements are the same. we expect no preferential treatment for being women. it fills me with pride that we are eligible for service once again. like many here do me a barry says she always wanted to be a soldier, but lack the money to pay for a military academy. she hopes this will be a gateway to achieve it from the ceiling. a professional career is too expensive for many, but now we have an opportunity to be here and do what we always wanted, where the uniform and serve our country. recruits were received 3 months of training here before being assigned to a base across the country. earning a monthly stipend of about $80.00. yeah. anybody says she entered the program to help her mother in siblings and understands the dangers of serving in a country,

still plagued by rebel groups and drug mafias. think as long as the fed up with the risks are high, but that's why we have a chain of command and we are being trained for whatever we will have to face in the future. women leak up just one percent of the countries. $240000.00 soldiers and columbia still relies on drafting $50000.00 men every year in 2 compulsory military service. the overwhelming majority of them come from poor families, while wealthier colombians pay to avoid it. something the government is planning to change. visited gustavo pathos, trying to eliminate compulsory military service, allowing young recruits to choose social services instead, while increasing the number of both professional in volunteers, including women, lisa ala kate is increasing the number of women in the army, changes the culture of the institution. and the idea is to rely on the more different activities security defense where they can contribute

a lot gloomiest planning to enlist at least 5000 women in 2023 alone strengthening the role and working to diversify and evolving force. allison and beauty undesirable would that how santa santa phillip lynn says she's uncovered and operation that traffic to filipinos and possibly other nationals and forced them into crime. she says victims were lord and to call center jobs in cambodia and myanmar then pressurized into taking part in fraud on below reports. now from manila, so now celibacy, lung coming young area. this clip was taken by filipinos held at a combo deon police station. in january's, they say it shows they were victims of human trafficking by phone number 2 of the group of says, returned home and told al jazeera, their experiences were horrific. now, with a broad, bruno doesn't want to reveal his identity and says he was made to travel from one

country to another illegally. and by boat, 17 guy, me, me my lit up or there was have been in the 1st in a small with in bold, including an infant and luggage. that was the most dramatic part. we cause to vote with upsize anytime. and no one would find out if we dana, this was her destination in cambodia. a large business complex with many buildings . mile says there were given customer service jobs, but then forced to carry out online fraud. st. prepared b. the 3rd day of chatting is one we offer potential victims fake crypto investments. the lowest offer is $50.00, but it can go up to as much as $50000.00 a month. but unlike bruno miles was florence come bodya posing as a tourist. what are the more common routes and methods? according to victims, filipino trafficking victims who come forward said they're usually questioned at border checks when leaving the philippines. but they pass through with relative ease. they say at least one immigration officer stamped their passports,

let them straight through. at least 6 officers are being investigated by the bureau of immigration or b, i. following senate inquiries, the b, i should not be a scene of the crime. it should be the last line of defense for our migrant workers . so it really has 2 cracked down on the syndicate or syndicates still operating within human trafficky during the legislative hearings. it was also revealed that the government had rescued. $200.00 victims caught in a similar schemes up on board. there were not only from cambodia, but laos and me on mar, that's raced. fierce many more crimes like these are going undetected. warranted. below al jazeera manila, a sally's new south wales is dealing with the largest number of fish deaths on record. millions of fish have washed up near major river west of sydney,

nor to say an ongoing heat wave and receding flood waters. a partly to blame nor con reports. her dish white blanket and dawning river is laid up. a lillian dead fish the rotting remains of maley. breen caught him perch a clogging australia's 2nd longest river and disrupting the lives of people in the small town of men. indeed, are you walking around in a draught up medicine and near smelling as putrid smell, and a set of terrible smell and horrible to say, all those dead fish? local authorities say unusually hot weather has led to a lot algo bloom in the rivers. this coupled with receding flood waters and drying riverbeds have starved fish of oxygen. in a statement, the new southwell state department says the hot weather is exacerbating hypoxia. as warmer water holds less oxygen, the cold water,

the fish have higher oxygen needs at warmer temperatures. this is the 3rd mass dial for fish in the darling river in 2019 nearly 1000000 fish perish them. but the new south wales department of primary industries says the latest is the worse, with hardly any fish being left alive. as just a feeling of hopelessness, said that nick, no one wants to take any responsibility for it. and really all we want is to maintain a healthy river authority, say fish populations, usually boom, during the floods and then full as fatwas as receipt. but local people, blame poor water management, they say more needs to be done to improve the drainage. and.