winning the will of the people hinges on the mass media state p.r. machine let's go into overdrive. but just he's been feeling saying. we just don't know yet where the lines will be drawn between what can be said and what conduct that. some journalists decided to sacrifice their integrity for outside the polling the media opinion the listening post base time on al-jazeera. the trump of ministration takes action against russia and mounting sanctions for meddling in the two thousand and sixteen election and this as the u.s. joins force in france and germany in condemning russia for the nerve agent attack in the u k.

hello i'm maryam namazie in london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up after three weeks of heavy bombing five years of siege and seven years of war thousands of syrians stream out of eastern ghouta. the murder of a journalist and his fiance promise of vacuous prime minister to resign. and why bottled water might not be as good for you as you think. the united states has announced sanctions on russia targeting nineteen individuals and five entities including russian intelligence services for meddling in the two thousand and sixteen election they are the most significant steps that have been taken against moscow since president donald trump took office but the

administration targeting only gods and government officials close to russia's president vladimir putin. well of course the other big development is that the u.s. has joined britain france and germany in blaming russia for the poisoning of a former double agent and his daughter here in the way they've released a joint statement saying there is no plausible alternative explanation for the attack on wednesday britain expelled twenty three russian diplomats and suspended all high level contact with moscow i u.k. correspondent on a b phillips has our report. the prime minister visits spary a spool english cathedral city but a cost of to this level of international attention we do hold russia copiable for this brazen brazen despicable arch that's taking place on the streets of. and while she met the people of seoul spree her ministers continued to

press home their argument that russian guilt is indisputable something by the way in the kind of smug sarcastic response that we've heard from the russians that to me bit-o. indicates their fundamental guilt they want to simple tenuously to deny it and yet at the same time to glory in it and the reason they've chosen this this nerve agent is to show that it's russia and from the defense secretary words that may cause even more offensive moscow frankly russia should go away should churchill up a joint statement with the americans french and germans described events in salt spray as an assault on british sovereignty and from nato this this is the first of france civ use of a nerve agent on alliance territory since nato's foundation all of us agree that attack or sick clear breach of international norms and

agreements this is unacceptable it has no place in the civilized world as for the russian reaction contemptuous of british accusations. the british prime minister has made several statements over the last few days in parliament they were completely insane accusations against the russian federation against our country against our nation. so now it's london bracing itself for the retaliation that moscow has promised and with everyone in the british government assuming that vladimir putin is about to be reelected the seams no prospect of anglo russian relations improving for years to come but to be philip's al-jazeera westminster. well russia has said that it will announce retaliation measures saying or and say has more on that now from moscow. given how

absolutely vicious the rhetoric has been between the u.k. and russia or of the last forty eight to seventy two hours and he continued on thursday from the british government it is striking that if anything the russian side has slightly held back a bit on thursday yes of course they still continue to condemn the british actions yes they will expel some british diplomats but they're not going to do it yet they going to wait and see and it seems to me they're trying if anything to regain a little moral high ground why would i want to do that well on one level clearly they can say to the british look you don't know who the we boys and script how do you know that this is true you can prove it you're being hysterical but if that then if the united nations the americans and the french and the germans all say well actually we agree with the british then on the month the russian position it also i think leaves the russians feeling very very isolated and it has led to a lot of the resurgence of a lot of old gripes and very very very bad blood against the russians the new

american sanctions because alleged meddling in the election the european union still furious with russia over the accession of crimea the downing of the passenger jets of ukraine all these things were never properly result and it seems like all these countries are now using the poisoning as an opportunity to say to russia we just had enough of you in this can ever carry on in the same way and i think there is a bit of a realization in moscow that that is something of a problem for them even if i think the british thing is a small incident everybody else isn't so much equally is the election this week and let me putin's in crimea he wants that and it will be through the weekend he wants that to be a heavily choreographed event about the glory of crimea in the glory of russia and all the sorts of things he may not want to spy things get in the way of that he might say but equally he might wait until next week when he's president again it's all going away and he can give a much more considered response. as many as twenty thousand people are reported to have left rebel held areas of

eastern ghouta exactly seven years after the war in syria began the government is inching closer to taking full control of the enclave near damascus as reports they now hold seventy percent of it for weeks syrian government and russian forces have been. more than a thousand people have been killed many of them children alan fischer reports now from the turkey syria border. we had a choice stay and face more bombardment or leave to an uncertain future they choose to leave it started with hundreds it grew to thousands grabbing what they could carry what they could stuff into vehicles and a mind of a home they may never see again my own i know there's no water no medicine that could be provided to our children not even food the situation is miserable. we're so happy because we're safe right now in the hands of the army we were living in a jail not in the ghetto way not one of not that had. a mass exodus of

azhar procession on the seventh anniversary of the start of the syrian civil war was leaving came from home area a city that's been under attack for three solid weeks and the area once controlled by anti assad forces are completely surrounded by their enemies. something like this have been expected since the syrian government forces backed by the russians effectively cut guta in three they've used their military pressure to force people to leave i mean i'll be looking at a similar solution in other parts of the area the regime offensive because that used to alter and which has been besieged for the last seven years i'm just finally you know falling victim to government start isn't about negotiation that is really where the regime is using exploiting the opportunity it has that the other fronts are. moralists. but even as the civilian streamed out of the besieged on cleve is strikes an aerial bombardments reported else willing to turn. and in the north of

the area in a police controlled by josh all islam a convoy of trucks into the turn of the twenty five more days caring enough to leave for twenty six thousand people for one month once more there were no medical supplies allowed in. i'm a normal you are doing that nice weather we're sleeping in the corridor of this house it's too difficult to walk inside because of the huge number of displaced people who are here don't measure on could see a quarter how in the people leaving will be identified in process that offered some aid this will be seen as a major victory for the syrian government for the people who managed to walk out it will be seen as survival and fisher on the tukey syria border. thousands of civilians are also fleeing the main city and a free in syria's north as the turkish military closes in their images of emerged of people climbing on to trucks and track to draw carts to get away people who've stayed in the city are lining up to buy food in preparation for

a siege turkey is trying to retake the area from the kurdish y p g which it considers a terrorist group or u.n. investigators accuse syrian government forces of raping thousands of men women and children sharing the war they say it was part of a campaign to punish opposition communities and amounts to crimes against humanity even though incidents of sexual and gender based violence throughout syria comprise violations of the most fundamental human rights and humanitarian laws perpetrated by most parties on the ground nowhere has the phenomenon been brighter than in instances perpetrated by government forces and affiliated militias this was a perpetrated rates during ground operations house raids at checkpoints and in detention. the most severe cases were recorded in the early years of the conflict with your cases being recorded in two thousand and sixteen and two thousand and seventy well the rate the checkpoints have been recorded as late as september two thousand and sixteen in isolation says

a donor conference in rome has raised an extra one hundred million dollars to fund the u.n. relief agency for palestinian refugees the agency which is the oldest and largest u.n. relief program in the middle east is facing a funding crisis after the u.s. government slashed its aid the u.n. says it's still running about three hundred forty six million dollars short for two thousand and eighteen and officials are warning that critical services could be scrapped if the money doesn't come through christopher gunness is the chief spokesman for the un relief and works agency he says they now have enough funding to keep them going for several more months what's at stake for refugees for the palestine refugees that we serve is for example nine million patients consultations a year by doctors five hundred twenty five thousand children around the middle east receiving a daily education one point seven million people receiving food assistance the timelines are quite short we had been saying before this conference that we were

going to be running on empty by may june now we are able to extend that and say that we have money to maintain our services to the middle of the summer so things are tight we are certainly not going to be complacent thousands of brazilians are protesting what appears to be the targeted killing of a city councillor and her driver thirty eight year old male franco an anderson pedro gomez were killed when their vehicle was fired on this franco was a popular public official and a critic of killings carried out by police in some of rio de janeiro's poor districts military took charge of policing in the city last month. so basically i mean you have very sad because the day a black woman who was always posted in our fight and who lived in the favelas was taken by all this in just a mattress and that exists in rio de janiero we're not going to let this continue mary alice here mary alice here mary alice here. and watching out is there are much

more still to come despite a rise in violent crime against women in afghanistan record numbers are joining the police. our side tracked. the toy store that defined generations of childhood is shutting all its shops within weeks . welcome back to see more heavy rain affecting parts of europe in the forecast sorry through friday mild air push across many western feed into central areas to we've got some heavy rainfall up across australia some snow over the alps move the forecast into the start of the weekend some really heavy rain down across parts of the balkans snow continues in the alps and across ukraine into russia we're looking

at some heavy snow for you los is the winds coming in from the east and that's really kind of a big impact on temperatures which will be falling away quite dramatically over the following few days on the other side of the mediterranean we've got some showers for more coastal parts of morocco through towards algeria and temperatures not great either so cool off in childress but it should remain largely dry here further towards the east the wind is coming up from the desert so suppose it comes out at twenty nine degrees into central parts of africa plenty of showers for east africa at the moment kenya tanzania seen heavy downpours looks so good bonnie is going to be seeing some heavy rain west africa a few showers around certainly but across in ghana there should enjoy a fair amount of sunshine at times into south africa are we going to see a tropical cyclone fourteen impacting on the east coast of madagascar some flooding rain likely here for most of the scene some heavy showers around parts of the eastern cape.

we are witnessing around the world this hungry money which is only looking at how to make the next profit from devastating economies devastating ecosystems putting a price on the protection of nature green economy is sound good it was all about privatization of nature should our environment be for sale what we're trying to do is destroy people to watch the crunch giving them a financial incentive to do that pricing the planet at this time on al-jazeera. or a quick reminder the top stories this hour in ited states has an ounce new sanctions

on more than a dozen russian individuals and groups in response to election meddling and malicious cyber attacks. meanwhile the leaders of britain the us france and germany say they are united in blaming russia for the nerve agent attack on sergei scruple and his daughter. and other top story this hour thousands of people of finally leaving the syrian enclave of eastern ghouta after weeks of bombardment by government forces in total some twenty thousand people have left rebel held areas that since the syrian war began seven years ago let's get more then on the u.s. imposing new sanctions on russia our white house correspondent kimberly how it is in washington and joins us now kimberly the white house briefing is going on what's the press secretary saying about this. yeah i just stepped in to catch just the top of that to try and see what she was saying essentially about the action that was taken place by the treasury department of course part of the trumpet ministration putting those sanctions in place on entities as well as individuals russian

individuals for election meddling in the twenty sixteen presidential election when asked about this by reporters sarah huckabee sanders remained consistent in what she had to say she says although reporters would differ with this a little bit she said that the administration will remain tough on russia until moscow changes its behavior but i can tell you that in previous press briefings this week when the press secretary was pressed about the u.s. response to that nerve agent attack that occurred in the united kingdom well those actions were strongly condemn sarah huckabee said or seemed very reticent to mention russia by name so certainly this is striking the fact that she has now come out saying in fact that the u.s. needs to be tough on russia until moscow changes its behavior that is certainly stronger language than we've heard from the press secretary even just earlier this week now another important development the u.s.

special counsel robert miller has issued a subpoena for information relating to president trump's u.s. businesses just tell us about what it means his investigation. right so this is very interesting because what we have heard repeatedly from donald trump's personal lawyer is that this russia investigation was going to wrap up quickly first it was by thanksgiving i believe he said then he said by the end of the year meaning the end of two thousand and seventeen well of course of the still going on and now we have robert mueller issuing a subpoena to the trump organization demanding any and all documents so the breadth of this is very wide in the scope of this is very wide with respect to its interactions in any way with russia what this indicates maryam is that this investigation is far from over in fact it is still continuing and continues to in fact testify all right well thank you very much can really get with all the latest

there at the white house several people have reportedly been killed after a pedestrian walkway collapsed in the u.s. state of florida a bridge fell onto a busy highway near a major university in miami trapping cause underneath the crossing was only installed on saturday and was set to open next year if the students so i guess prime minister has resigned over the murder of an investigative journalist and his fiance even his deputy to form a new government. group feet so is the latest political casualty in the scandal seen thousands of protesters take to the streets of bratislava but many of those demonstrating say they don't trust the current political leadership to form a new government and a calling for fresh elections a killing of john is young could siac and his girlfriend last month the sparked outrage he was investigating links between slovak politicians and an italian mafia group al-jazeera correspondent. says demonstrators are unlikely to be satisfied

with features resignation. the biggest question now is this going to be enough because or when when the feet thought he said i will resign but only if the next prime minister come from my political party so this is what's happening now we have. a greenie put on smears so we have the same political party in the same ball it exist just two different the names and even the president. said ike sept to this but i'm not sure if public will violent crime against women is on the rise in afghanistan with an eleven percent increase in cases last year despite a record number of young women are joining the police force to find convention and sometimes death threats tony but he has their story this the latest batch of young

hopefuls sitting the afghan police entrance exam seventy young women were included in the four thousand applicants the highest number to date it's a korea about honor and survival. i want to join the place to help defend my country and fight for the rights of my people and the rights of women the war in afghanistan has touched many but few as hardison mira and her family her two sisters nor all hire a menorah were police officers in fiza battin but action province as they drove to work with their mother the taliban stop their car drugged the young women out and strangled them their bodies were dumped in the river they were targeted because they were police. i couldn't do anything my daughters were screaming help me mother help me it was terrible. the family had to flee the province after receiving death threats samir a still clutches the cord used to kill her sisters despite what happened she's determined to join up. i am scared of the taliban and we even they

say yes they will kill us perhaps they might riddle me with bullets or strangle me i can't go home anymore so i am determined to join the police for the memory of my sisters and to serve my country. females in the security services are often treated more harshly by the taliban which is consistently opposed women's rights those rights of steadily improve for some women in afghanistan mainly in the cities but not as fast as many would have liked the drawing up of the new penal code left out a section about penalising violence against women and a draft law aimed at making the houseman to women and offense has been left untouched for a year younger than i am they deliver speeches and play politics with their words and the women of afghanistan are tired of the empty promises and lies changing lives is one thing but changing very conservative mindset in much of the country is quite another there's definitely mirth freedom and support for some women in the country today but even so the number of cases of physical and sexual abuse the

great swimming is not fairly there raising. last year saw an increase of eleven percent in those cases and two thousand three hundred women and girls committed suicide because of abuse but in reality those figures are said to be much higher because many women are too scared to report violence to a male dominated police force samir a sisters were victims not only of war but also of deep rooted discrimination it seems clear that long after the last bullet has been fired the women of afghanistan will still be fighting a battle tony berkeley al-jazeera kabul. some boys junior doctors say they won't and their strike until the government meets their demands for higher pay and improved working conditions critics of the government say the situation has worsened since president came to power and now nurses say that they could join a nationwide walkout as well tass reports from harare. harare central

is one of the largest hospitals in zimbabwe ginia doctors have been on strike for two weeks to demand more money and better working conditions patients say they don't know when things will return to normal so. some of us are in pain if the doctors don't help us then our heels will deteriorate think about what we are going through many state run hospitals across the country are struggling financially gini doctors say it's frustrating working in them with a lack of equipment and drugs the doctors are some of the worst paid in africa. ending three hundred twenty nine dollars in a month and that's by. far too good. to be able to. afford the particular services that we offer as a junior doctor and not actually to pay for my medication or to put a ring at royal st paul or. health

minister david pairing atlases he needs more than one billion dollars to increase salaries and improve resources but the government's broke and there's a shortage of foreign currency nurses and some senior doctors are trying to keep things going looking after patients who are in some of the wards the doctor strike is getting quite serious is now into its second week in some public facilities across the country don't even have access to a single drugs. the main opposition leader nelson chamisa to zimbabwe's health sector has deteriorated since a president in a similar took over from robert mugabe in november you can't come in and say you are open for business things are happening when they're not happening the. meaning for. that is an acceptable. and wisdom go away is accountable for every day that we've recorded and then god was the biggest challenge is fixing zimbabwe's economy ruined by decades of corruption and mismanagement government ministers are talking to leaders of the striking doctors trying to convince them to return to

work. all over with and a paid mrs in public hospitals are also threatening to down tools if that happens the already die situation could get much worse. the rise of online shopping is being blamed for the demise of one of the wells biggest toy companies toys r us will sell all close it's us still is buzzing thirty thousand jobs at risk so says shutting down its one hundred outlets hit and person i was on the reports. that it was an umbrella type racket for generations of children in america and around the world it was a playground for picking out the latest toy everything from a new dole bike or to a race car toys r us like the name so aptly implies was synonymous with any and all toys for kids stores could be found all over america including in one of the most important intersections in the world times square in new york city as

a business empire expanded it opened in more than thirty five other countries as well as babies r us stores that clothing and supplies for infants but was shoppers increasingly going online at sites such as amazon major high street stores are taking a hit to their profits toys r us managers finally gave up announcing that after seventy years in business they were shutting their doors for good and closing or selling off all of the nearly eight hundred stores in the u.s. and around the world i think were toys are struck the bowls and a few areas one is their online business so while everybody is growing their own wine business tours are us was down twelve percent they perform extremely poorly online trouble had been brewing for the company for years and its chief executive complained last year about the challenges that faced it's so competitive it's a twenty five billion dollar industry and every marketer out there wants to try to

get there or. arms around those young families certainly be on line business has made it even more attractive for customers to price shop and look at various alternatives so it's a very competitive business but toys r us has many self-inflicted wounds primarily about five billion worth of debts which meant there wasn't much money to upgrade stores the company filed for bankruptcy last year toys are a simpler he's about sixty thousand people around the world now they're looking for new jobs gabriel is on to. new york. well health organization is no inching a review off to a study found was ninety five percent of bottled water contains tiny pieces of plastic or such as in new york looked at hundreds of water bottles from nine different countries and found an average of more than three hundred plastic particles politesse tested samples include some of the world's biggest bottled water brands such as aquafina the sonnie evian and nestlé only bingham is the chief

executive of all the media a u.s. based nonprofit media collective that conducted the research he says the next step is to figure out how consuming micro plastics will affect our health. everyone in the world relies on water to survive and some of us in cities or locations where the tap water is potable drink bottled water as a luxury i think presuming that it is better for us or it is cleaner than the tap water however two point one billion people don't have access to potable water and they rely on bottled water for their consumption if the science on how consuming michel plastics impacts our bodies is really nascent and the answer to that is still very unclear however i think what is clear is that we as people around the world are consuming plastics and micro plastics in the water and probably in the food that we eat and that it's important given the ubiquity of micro plastics in the environment and in our consumption that large institutions that research human

health step up and start to figure out what that means and i'm happy to see this morning that the show is done exactly that and announced that they will be doing a full review of the impact of human health on micro plastics in water and how people in finland have been treated to a dramatic light display in the sky over the arctic circle the northern lights phenomenon because when charged particles from the sun react with the atmosphere it's been a bright week for finland which was just at the world's happiest country by a u.n. affiliated group so there's more in everything we're covering right here al jazeera dot com. a quick look at the top stories this hour now the united states has announced sanctions on more than a dozen russian individuals and groups it's in response to russia's alleged

meddling in the two thousand and sixteen presidential election and cyber attacks the u.s. says additional sanctions are planned against russian government officials and only got russia denies interfering in the election. meanwhile person in the u.s. france and germany say they united in blaming russia for the nerve agent attack on sergei script all in his daughter britain's expelled twenty three russian diplomats and suspended high level contact with moscow over the incident russia is expected to retaliate with similar measures and all the headlines thousands of people are fleeing the rebel held and the east and due to in syria the government is inching closer to taking full control with reports that they are in control of seventy percent of the area now syrian government forces have been bombarding guta for weeks killing more than a thousand people many of them children in total some twenty thousand people have left rebel held areas and go to since the syrian war began seven years ago in all the developments u.n. investigators accuse syrian government forces of raping thousands of men women and

children during the war they say it was part of a campaign to punish opposition communities and amounts to crimes against humanity even though incidents of sexual and gender based violence throughout syria comprise violations of the most fundamental human rights and humanitarian laws perpetrated by most parties on the ground nowhere has the phenomenon been brighter than in instances but perpetrated by government forces and affiliated militias this will says that perpetrated rape string ground operations house raids at checkpoints and in detention the most severe cases were recorded in the early years of the conflict with few cases being recorded in two thousand and sixteen and two thousand and seventy well the rates at checkpoints have been recorded this latest september two thousand and sixteen. and the united nations says a donor conference in rome has raised an extra one hundred million dollars to fund the u.n. relief agency for palestinian refugees the agency is facing a funding crisis after the us government slashed its aid the u.n.

says it's still running about three hundred forty six million dollars short of two thousand and eighteen. as the headlines all see a bit later after the stream which is next. hi i'm really could be and this is gilbert glenn's power and american sign language interpreter he'll be helping us conclude our weeklong coverage of the south by southwest conference in festivals in austin texas with a look at innovations in assistive technology for people with disability you're now in the stream live on al-jazeera and on you tube be sure to ask your questions in

the chat and we'll do our best to get them into the conversation.