i'm staying in the old city of damascus by the eastern gate of bob sharkey and i walked across the street across a highway into a neighborhood about a few 100 meters away that had been controlled for 4 months by jaish al islam the wahhabi militia backed by saudi arabia and met residents who had actually lived under their fear craddick rule who described kidnappings rape of women people being executed in the street for violating the theocratic rule and how happy they were to be finally freed from this gang what i was observing was a city and outside of the city that is much much safer since i last was there last and i was in syria was 2 years ago there was still fighting it was still on save there were checkpoints everywhere now that the government has taken back many areas especially around accidents baskets outside of damascus you can travel to the suburbs and beyond the suburbs without going through a 1000000 checkpoints not being worried about being kidnapped or being sniped moreover our life has gone to a reasonable degree back to normal for a lot of people women fall and running coli

travel to the capital damascus with the aim of speaking to locals and observing series recovery from my sil and they say they received no funding from the country's government were among those angered by the visit journalists from c.n.n. and the intercept to accuse them of white washing and also government support here are some of their reactions. this is sam goebbels presence in your old syrian government luxury tour posting tourist photos near torture centers and maki syrian refugees who can never return to their country with their frisking being tortured to death started to read a certain journalist's thread from inside damascus this am then found myself getting palpitations which progressed into spasms of rage how can anyone be so blindly credulous on a cosmic sin volved it is such a disgrace. l m a o iranian mocks are in damascus neither of them speak arabic yet they claim to be talking to many syrians there why aren't they disclosing who's translating for them and helping them out. this is to be expected and so they're trying to intimidate americans or europeans and people from

l m a o ron and mocks are in damascus neither of them speak arabic yet they claim to be talking to many syrians there why aren't they disclosing who's translating for them and helping the mount. this is to be expected and so they're trying to intimidate americans or europeans and people from the west from coming here they're trying to break a cultural exchange between us and average people who just happen to live in the area controlled by the syrian government where most syrians live and what we've been able to see and report already has threatened the narrative that's been conveyed by western corporate media and a pack of kind of dime a dozen correspondents acting as state department i mean i think the people attacking us have an agenda they're either convinced that they're right or they're working on behalf of somebody else or both this isn't something we're we're that's new to us we're used to it i think it's why we can recognize an operation when we see one and this is if it's very coordinated you know these people are talking in some d.m. group and coordinating against us and it's

i'm staying in the old city of damascus by the eastern gate sharkey and i walked across the street across a highway into a neighborhood about a few 100 meters away that had been controlled for 4 months by jaish al islam the wahhabi militia backed by saudi arabia which was operationally involved in september 11th and so i think it's significant today to talk about this and i met residents who had actually lived under their theocratic rule who described kidnappings rape of women people being executed in the street for violating the theocratic rule and how happy they were to be finally freed from this gang and what's really so shocking is how close they got to the christian area of sharky they were just a few 100 meters away but i was observing was a city and outside of the city that is much much safer since i last was there last and i was in syria was 2 years ago and the war was starting to wind down but obviously there were still fighting it was still on save there were checkpoints everywhere now that the government has taken back many areas especially around accidents baskets outside of d

now that the government has taken back many areas especially around accidents baskets outside of damascus you can travel to the suburbs and beyond the suburbs without going through a 1000000 checkpoints not being worried about being kidnapped or being sniped moreover our life has gone to a reasonable degree back to normal for a lot of people. well most women fall and run you how did travel to the capital damascus with the aim of speaking to locals and observing syria's recovery from i saw and they say too they received no funding from the country's government were among those angered by the visit were journalists from c.n.n. and also the intercept to accuse them of white washing and also government support of their reactions. this is sam goebbels prancing around syrian government luxury tour percy tourist photos near torture centers and maki syrian refugees who can never return to their country with their frisking being tortured to death started to read a certain journalist's thread from inside damascus this am then found myself getting palpitations which progressed into spasms of rage ho

says conditions are abysmal but it can't do anything without the approval of the authorities in damascus. we were told 2 days ago that the u.n. and will deliver aid either on the 4th or the 5th of september since february we have received only a small amounts of food and medicine through smuggling routes but they are not enough and too expensive. a u.n. team visited the camp in august but its mission was only to determine how many people remained inside and who wanted to leave the organization says it is planning to help those wanting to return voluntarily to government held territory. brooke bandcamp was estimated to accommodate about $40000.00 syrians in recent months the u.n. says almost half have left for syrian government controlled areas it believes some $15000.00 remain and it survey showed nearly half don't want to leave. we didn't register with the u.n. to return to regime here is un couldn't give us guarantees they told us they can't guarantee what happens when we leave receptions into. the syrian government is effectively giving the people in iraq than no option but to return

says conditions are abysmal but it can't do anything without the approval of the authorities in damascus. we were told 2 days ago that the u.n. and will deliver aid either on the 4th all of the 1st of september or since february we have received only a small amounts of food and medicine through smuggling routes but they are not enough and too expensive. a u.n. team visited the camp in august but its mission was only to determine how many people remained inside and who wanted to leave the organization says it is planning to help those wanting to return voluntarily to government held territory. brooke bandcamp was estimated to accommodate about $40000.00 syrians in recent months the u.n. says almost half have left for syrian government controlled areas it believes some $15000.00 remain and it's survey showed nearly half don't want to leave. we didn't register with the u.n. to return to regime here is you and couldn't give us guarantees they told us they can't guarantee what happens when we leave receptions into. the syrian government is effectively giving the people who look bad no option

also that might help to convince kurds to be more flexible and prone to dialogue and talks with damascus and here moscow will come. useful broker. can ask a provocative question many in moscow believe that the turks back in 2015 after the shooting down of the russian military jahan a very strong economic push back from us but that they have learned the lesson and that they won't try because patients again is that still a safe assumption well i don't see any reason why on korea would pursue this. this logic or even during the idea of repeating that scenario and i think that in the last it's already been 3 or 4 years to countries managed to establish mechanisms of military to military intelligence to teligent channels of communication to basically avoid any potential clash or incident which could slide into you know bigger compensation interestingly it was said in ankara that russia and turkey intend to step up their operational coordination which i take as an indirect indication that the syrian army offensive on that leap is likely perhaps to intensify and turkey may want to. protect its

their guns plans for this buffer zone probably in exchange for ultimately getting it live on the damascus controlled well the east of your freydis area has not been formally discussed yet so let's stick with the evening for the moment do you think turkey is deliberately dragging its feet or is it indeed so challenging to you put into practice what has committed to on cora's. ability to influence militants and terrorists and even opposition on the ground of over exaggerated because for the last several years i mean it. couldn't stick to its commitments even for the last year we see that it's basically failed to implement what it promised to actually personally to put in there against that yes we will would make everything to stop or prevent attacks on russian military infrastructure russian personnel russian objects and also a syrian army but that continues so here it's also very hard to took this leadership took knowledge that and. basically object themselves from what they previously been committing for 4 years supporting a position groups and rebels on the ground and now just you know a

says conditions are abysmal but it can't do anything without the approval of the authorities and damascus. we were told 2 days ago that the u.s. and will deliver aid either on the 4th or the 5th of september since february we have received only a small amounts of food and medicine through smuggling routes but they are not enough and too expensive. a u.n. team visited the camp in august but its mission was only to determine how many people remained inside and who wanted to leave the organization says it is planning to help those wanting to return voluntarily to government held territory. brooke bandcamp was estimated to accommodate about $40000.00 syrians in recent months the u.n. says almost half have left for syrian government controlled areas it believes some $15000.00 remain and it survey showed nearly half don't want to leave. we didn't register with the u.n. to return to regime here is you and couldn't give us guarantees they told us they can't guarantee what happens when we leave receptions into. the syrian government is effectively giving the people in iraq than no option but to re

relations are now opening these border crossings the syrians are encouraging embassies to reopen within damascus itself and the idea seems to be that they want to normalize relations with their neighbors not be things like this that helped them do that there are number of countries however in the arab league for example which syria wants to be readmitted to that will have a very different perspective on the will not want president bashar al assad's syria to be readmitted but there is clearly some sort of diplomatic mission going on to try and get syria back into the fold of the international community whether it works or not remains to be seen but things like this are very key ok thank you very much indeed emraan joining us live from the crossing. u.k. prime minister boris johnson is coming under increasing pressure over allegations of misconduct it's overshadowing the 2nd day of your conservative party conference in manchester where we've got lawrence lee covering the story for us from manchester but 1st let's go to our site the british parliament charlie reports on the worth of the parliament

investigation secretary of state might form peo is condemned damascus he said that from the administration has been working on preventing such attacks against civilians bashar lass's regime has been accused of several chemical weapon attacks against the syrian people during the country's 8 year long civil war president trump has been pretty vigorous in protecting the world from the use of chemical weapons previous administrations haven't been prepared to do that and the syrian regime should know in the world should appreciate the fact that we're going to do. it we're going to do everything we can reasonably do to prevent this kind of thing from happening again the u.s. says impose sanctions on cuba's former president raul castro for supporting what it calls gross violations of human rights in venezuela its president donald trump's toughest action against cuba's communist leadership since he took office in 2017 u.s. secretary of state might on pay or says castro is responsible for helping prop up the medulla regime in venezuela which is really accused of suppressing anti-government demonstr

most governments are not returning embassies to damascus given the status quo goes toward re- engaging the contracts are not going to do that for the threat of u.s. sanctions. russia knows that they need aid that comes not just from the united states bilaterally but from the european government with financial institution all of which at this point in time are following the u.s. lead in holding the line on those issues. what we are seeing is over the time horizon at this point in time it is unlikely to change the calculus but does russia tire of him and its regime and its current behavior when it wants to be done with the current state of play, perhaps. we also consider the alternative, which is if the withdrawal of the forces are just allowing the acknowledgment that he's going to stay but not insist the regime behavior change without save lives. we think they were going with his security forces with russia and iran to have another type of situation on the local partners that fought and bled and died in the counter isys fights with us and number two, all of those under his control righ

says conditions are abysmal but it can't do anything without the approval of the authorities in damascus. we were told 2 days ago that the u.n. and will deliver aid either on the 4th or the 5th of september since february we have received only a small amounts of food and medicine through smuggling routes but they are not enough and too expensive. a u.n. team visited the camp in august but its mission was only to determine how many people remained inside and who wanted to leave the organization says it is planning to help those wanting to return voluntarily to government held territory. brooke bandcamp was estimated to accommodate about $40000.00 syrians in recent months the u.n. says almost half have left for syrian government controlled areas it believes some $15000.00 remain and it's survey showed nearly half don't want to leave or not. we didn't register with the u.n. to return to regime here is un couldn't give us guarantees they told us they can't guarantee what happens when we leave receptions into. the syrian government is effectively giving the people in iraq than no option but t

that this is a blatant abuse of diplomatic immunity as those 15 people who came to istanbul to kill damascus ship were members of the state the saudi state and they were called actually as diplomats that's why he believes that this caused a big chaos and controversy for the international order but prior to compared to his previous statements prisons add on's rhetorical as seem to be soft and with regard to saudi arabia underlines that this is not a bilateral issue between turkey and saudi arabia but an international issue in terms of justice and diplomacy and he underlines that king solomon and sell nuns loyal subjects are different than those people who are murdered jamal khashoggi and prisons are dong calls them as thugs in his opinion piece another thing he underlined is that the transparency because he believes the court proceedings in saudi arabia is not transparent and there is not public access to the trials and that's why he insists the trials the trials are fair in saudi arabia and the perpetrators are subject to the necessary punishment. here's freezing agency fitch has downgraded

small businesses survive the terrible suffering and war torn syria we have an exclusive report from damascus. and despite the trouble in recent weeks a vote of confidence in hong kong as a good place to do business brewing john and investors passed a floating asian business that for $6600000000.00 u.s. dollars. first this is business africa welcome. foreign of violence rocks in a city johannesburg businesses are struggling to keep the doors open and economic downturn africa's most developed economy is making things difficult anyway popular culture a mob neighing for example is feeling the pinch visitors there are counselling plan trips and many business owners are too scared to trade the toxic mix that puts a decade of work and rejuvenated the formal slum area on the serious threat. that john is big in the city has been rocked by 2 youths of violence hanging mobs looting and destroying anything in the pub with foreign owned businesses feeling the brunt of this and that there is nothing that just about. any form of this conflict between south africans and the foreign nationals should. get wha

most governments are not returning embassies to damascus given the status quo. most that would engage in reconstruction contracts in syria are not going to do that for threat of u.n. sanctions. russia knows that they need reconstruction assistance and aid that comes not just from the united states bilaterally and from european governments and financial institutions all of which at this point in time are following the u.s. lead and holding the line on these issues. over the time horizon at this point in time unlikely to change assad's calculous and does russia tire of him and his regime and current behavior at some point when putin wants to be done with the current state of play in syria? perhaps. we also consider the alternative which is if we -- that the withdrawal of u.s. forces or just allowing acknowledging that he's going to stay and not insisting through our non-military tools on regime behavior change will that actually save lives and our conclusion is no, it will not. if u.s. forces leave northeastern syria, we think assad will go in with his security fo

says conditions are abysmal but it can't do anything without the approval of the authorities and damascus. we were told 2 days ago that the u.s. and will deliver aid either on the 4th or the 5th of september since february we have received only small amounts of food and medicine through smuggling routes but they are not enough and too expensive. a u.n. team visited the camp in august but its mission was only to determine how many people remained inside and who wanted to leave the organization says it is planning to help those wanting to return voluntarily to government held territory. brookbank camp was estimated to accommodate about 40.

he's the spokesman for the syrian negotiations commission and on skype from damascus talib abraham a former professor at auburn university welcome to all of you thank you very much for coming on the program i'm going to start with you mr mooses to talk about the prospects of this new agreement that's been reached to try and change the constitution there have been several rounds of discussions prior to this do you think this is this how optimistic are you that this time we will see some kind of progress towards some kind of a resolution. well i mean as the secretary general says this is really a positive development development that any dialogue of progress on the constitutional committee on those form of the political progress is extremely important from my perspective humanitarian it's extremely important to see progress on the political millions of refugees of internally displaced really we are very much looking forward to see progress on the root causes of what makes a situation exterminated this is called unchallenging on the inside syria syria still remains as a humanitarian cri

says conditions are abysmal but it can't do anything without the approval of the authorities in damascus. we were told 2 days ago that the u.s. and will deliver aid either on the 4th or the 5th of september and since february we have received only small amounts of food and medicine through smuggling routes but they are not enough and too expensive. a u.n. team visited the camp in august but its mission was only to determine how many people remained inside and who wanted to leave the organization says it is planning to help those wanting to return voluntarily to government held territory. brookbank camp was estimated to accommodate about $40000.00 syrians in recent months the u.n. says almost half have left for syrian government controlled areas it believes some $15000.00 remain and it survey showed nearly half don't want to leave. we didn't register with the u.n. to return to regime here is un couldn't give us guarantees they told us they can't guarantee what happens when we leave receptions into. the syrian government is effectively giving the people in rock band no option but to return

that this is a blatant abuse of diplomatic immunity as those 15 people who came to istanbul to kill damascus ship were members of the state the saudis state and they were called actually as diplomats that's why he believes that this caused a big chaos and controversy for the international order but prior to compared to his previous statements prisons add ons rhetorical seem to be soft and with regard to saudi arabia underlines that this is not a bilateral issue between turkey and saudi arabia but an international issue in terms of justice and diplomacy and he underlines that king some are meant to sell nuns loyal subjects are different than those people who are murdered jamal khashoggi and prisons are dong calls them as thugs in his opinion piece another thing he underlined is that the transparency because he believes the court proceedings in saudi arabia is not transparent and there is not public access to the trials and that's why he insists the trials the trials are fair in saudi arabia and the perpetrators are subject to the necessary punishment well the u.s. rating agency fitch has down

residents in damascus takes closure shook the city aid workers being pulling the dead and injured out of the rubble the house he's playing with saudia marotta coalition fighting in yemen saying they targeted to previous university who is being used as attention to prisoners of war the who they say people under lock and key were trapped after the bombs fell. but the saudi coalition says the fight was storing drones and missiles. i swear to god i don't know what happened we were sleeping at night in the in the it was about 3 or 4 airstrikes maybe 6 it was targeting the jail i really don't know how many times it got hit but it was targeting a detention center and the city of demand we were $100.00 people on the ground level and around $150.00 at the upper level and in the red cross came. the coalition has come under intense criticism by human rights groups for targeting civilians in previous ass strikes it says it took measures to protect civilian casualties. there is a crime committed by the these taining political activists and journalists and. political dissidents whom they used to in

to cairo damascus and beirut everywhere people had seen that on television and where. absolutely amazed that the western leader could speak that way through israeli forces which no one had done before in 2003 the u.s. president george bush failed to persuade chirac to join the invasion of iraq winning the french leader praise from some quarters memories of his leadership will be sullied by the corruption during his 18 years as paris may 20 levon he was conflicted of embezzlement jacques chirac though was a consummate french politician a survivor but his legacy is uncertain and damaged by his personal failures natasha butler al-jazeera paris well you can find much more on our website including ongoing coverage of all the developments from washington the address al jazeera dot com. hello i'm astounded today with the headlines on al-jazeera the acting u.s. director of national intelligence has testified before congress over his handling of a whistleblower complaint which has now been made public it details how the us president tried to persuade his ukrainian counterpart t

taking in the damascus international share and in order to stifle any economic activity in syria. and. failing to achieve their goals is through armed terrorism as these countries have resorted to comic terrorism and the equally brutal form of terrorism embossing a blog and you know rather unilateral coercive economic measures. and. therefore we call on all peace loving countries on that album hoard international not to come together and adopt an effective measures to counter this phenomenon which is not only used against syria but has also become a weapon of political and economic blackmail against many other countries. or in hunan. from the strong. we call the once again the further lifting of such illegal measures imposed on syrians and on the other independent people and by the collar the people of iran venezuela the d.p. r. k. . and l. arose and we stand with china and russia in the face of the unjust american policies. of a. we have made it clear on several occasions that the doors are open for the voluntary and safe return of all syrian refugees to their homeland so that an

that this is a blatant abuse of diplomatic immunity as those 15 people who came to istanbul to kill damascus ship were members of the state the saudi state and they were called actually as diplomats that's why he believes that this caused a big chaos and controversy for the international order but prior to compared to his previous statements prisons add on's rhetorical seem to be soft and with regard to saudi arabia underlines that this is not a bilateral issue between turkey and saudi arabia but an international issue in terms of justice and diplomacy and he underlines that king some are meant to sell nuns loyal subjects are different than those people who are murdered jamal khashoggi and prisons are dong calls them as thugs in his opinion piece another thing he underlined is that the transparency because he believes the court proceedings in saudi arabia is not transparent and there is not public access to the trials and that's why he insists the trials of the trials are fair in saudi arabia and the perpetrators are subject to the necessary punishment al-shabaab fighters have carried out to

damascus to beirut . thanks so much. still ahead on al-jazeera the families who say their lifestyles in the amazon are under threat because of the destruction of rain forests. this duffy means everything to me today. words of joy rafael nadal hold series now of in an epic final to win his 4th u.s. open title. hello good or welcome back to your international weather forecast for the next couple of days are going to be quite stormy here and wet and cloudy across parts of central europe we do have a couple areas of low pressure to talk about one right here across central europe that is going to be heading towards the north it's going to be a lot of rain from parts of germany down here across parts of austria as well so for berlin expect to see a wet day here on monday with 15 degrees out here towards the west we do have a system that's going to bring some rain across parts of the u.k. so for london expect to see some winds and some rain at 15 degrees paris not looking too bad but once we put this into motion