negotia negotiators for the teachers union in denver schools met for six hours on saturday, after which union leaders announced they would go forward with the strike as planned. two sides have been going on for 14 months how to improve the pay scale for teachers which the city says is tied to the teacher turnover rate. the top u.s. commander in the war against isis agreeing with the u.s. intelligence community s assessment that there are, quote, tens of thousands of isis fighters there. i m on the line where the intelligence community is on this. they ve talked about tens of thousands who have been dispersed and disaggregated from the area. so they re spread from areas from iraq to other areas in syria. and they re dispersing but there is leadership there. there are fighters there. cnn s ben wedemen live near the front lines in eastern
to get to the bottom of this murder. george? your right, as far as the optics coming out of that, our teams of course following this. and we ll bring you images as soon as we get them here. ben, thank you for the reporting and the context. a new wall street journal report claims the national security council asked the pentagon for military options to strike iran last year. a newspaper says the request followed a september attack by iranian linked militants near the u.s. embassy in baghdad. national security advisor john bolton reportedly led the talks. in a statement to cnn a spokesman for the council says this. quote, we continue to review the status of our personnel following attempted attacks on our embassy in baghdad at our basra consulate. and we will consider a full range of options to preserve their safety and our interests.
saudi officials is says u.s. policy has been consistent, that is despite the white house questioning intelligence reports saying the crown prince was behind the killing. secretary pompeo s tour through the region has been to reassure allies that the u.s. withdraw from syria will be orderly and not premature. equipment is being rotated out of the country, but the 2,000 u.s. military personnel there will remain. meanwhile, president trump tweeted a message to turkey, don t attack the kurds. mr. trump says the u.s. will devastate turkey economically if it doesn t comply. turkey considers subkurdish groups to be terrorists. the president adds the u.s. doesn t want the kurd to provoke turkey either. turkey s spokesman responded telling plump, it was a mistake to equate syrian kurds with kurdish militants. live in the region cnn s ben wedemen following the story in cairo, egypt. and the president s threat to
east strategic alliance as some describe as an arab nato. just down the street from where i m standing is the arab league which has decades of experience in putting arab unity into action, and it s hard to imagine how a collection of arab states is going to confront iran which is an enormous economic and industrial power in the region and has managed to grow and expand its influence despite decades of u.s. sanctions. you were seeing a live video of pompeo in qatar while you were speaking then and we will certainly continue to follow his trip. ben wedemen in cairo, thank you. a saudi teen who says she faced death in her homeland has now arrived safely in canada. she caught the world s attention when she was almost deported
welcome back to newsroom. the u.s. secretary of state mike pompeo will meet with the saudsy crown prince on sunday. he says he will address the murder of saudi journalist jamal khashoggi with mohammed bin salman. she was killed last october, you ll recall in the saudi consulate in turkey by men with close ties to the saudi crown prince. ben wedemen is covering the story for us. he s live in cairo for us. and last time the secretary of state met the crown prince it was all smiles. can we spect anything less this time around? reporter: yeah, that those pictures of smiles and handshakes with the crown prince happened on the 16th of october. that was just two weeks after the brutal murder and dismemberment of jamal khashoggi