ground lake it's a large body of liquid water twenty kilometers wide and one point five kilometers below the surface and it was found using radar instruments on board the european space agency's orbiter mars express scientists looked at radar readings from the planet's southern ice cap which provided ideal conditions ice is a very thin aspirant medium expression if the school the impurity the electromagnetic waves and so it's a it's a good there they can make the applied to the the much simpler caps of course these and these cops. have some impute this magnetic the icy school there then the ice on . mars might be cold and dry now but we already know thanks to rovers on its surface and other probes examining it from orbit that it was once a warm place with plenty of liquid water and lakes the new study doesn't tell us how deep the reservoir is so research has can't say whether what they found resembles an underground pool or is simply a layer of sludge but they do believe it's potentially

a huge breakthrough liquid water channeled exist on the surface it's simply not possible because of the yeah miscarry pressure on mars is still incredibly thin so how water to remain liquid it has to be very deep underneath the surface and it also has to be very very. very of is also of huge importance because a stalled water lake is potentially exactly the sort of place you would go to look for life form the search for life on mars has been going on for decades scientists now have to find out whether this discovery can help them in that quest nadeem barber al jazeera. longo she is a science reporter at the verge news website which also specializes of course and technology she's joining us on skype from san francisco thank you very much for being with us if i understand correctly this probe has been scanning mars for since about two thousand and three was it only made this discovery no well they took

a long time to make sure that they got the measurements right they actually took measurements from i believe twenty twelve to twenty fifteen and then they spent extra years to make sure that they had ruled out all possible alternatives that could explain those that weren't water and all they came up with is water had to be the explanation for it because it matches the signatures of subglacial lakes here on earth scientists had little doubt if i understand it correctly that the had been water on mars before but how significant is this in the broader scheme of things right so we know that water does flow periodically on the surface of mars in these things called recurring slope lenny a there are these really strange dark streaks that occur during the warmer time of the year on mars but like i said there's there are periodic they're not very stable they're not very big and they're very thin so they're not the best places for microbes to thrive for instance they wouldn't be

able to survive there but this place is potentially a habitat we know from places here on earth where you take you know underneath the ice of antarctica or greenland that microbes in microorganisms can thrive insult the water just like this so it really opens up the possibilities of what might be lurking down there and looking further down the line the obvious question i guess is does this give us any benefits as far as the eventual colonization of mazas consigned. well it opens up the question if there is one are there more there could be a whole network of awkward furs on mars that we just haven't detected yet so if we could find more underwater pools or lakes like this that could potentially guide where we send humans in the future because we might want to land on one of them we can't land on this one it's on the polar icecap it's not the best place to go but maybe other places would be better for us to land and then we could send humans there to drill and see what's what's lurking inside there is

a sad side to this discovery isn't there because the scientist who designed this system which has made this discovery actually possibly in twenty fifty before the results were in was they didn't. i know that but that is the tragedy and the risk of science exploration these things take such a long time but hopefully his legacy can live live on and you know this is such a monumental discovery that hopefully we're all celebrating today but yes it is a sad so it's a no that the person who designed this it won't get to experience it looking at the shorter term does this mean that it's more likely that we're going to see more satellites being launched to investigate mars with specifically this project in mind well i think those discussions will definitely happen now i spoke with nasa says chief scientist jim green and he said that there will definitely be some urgency to maybe send a more sensitive radar instruments in the future nothing is planned at the moment

that would be able to verify this directly we do have another lander going to mars called insight that might be able to probe the heat coming from the planet which could tell us that maybe liquid water is sustainable at the south pole but for now we don't really have anything planned to confirm this directly so i think those discussions will definitely be happening in the light of this finding we really appreciate your time longer thank you very much indeed thank you so much for having me. still ahead on al-jazeera it seems. extraordinary before confirming this gold will explain the sport.

it's time for the sports. well in the meantime let me tell you about the fact that there's been no break for the chocolate giant nestlé in the trademark row over its bar after a ten year legal battle the european court of justice throughout its challenge saying the shape was not well known enough across all the e.u. countries to warrant the trademark the case was brought by a rival chocolate maker cadbury whose parent company produces a similar product in norway now his job with the sport not to kick out barr thanks very much twenty three time major tennis champion serena williams has once again complained of discrimination because of the frequency of being drug tested earlier this month the american said she was being tested more than any of her

compact she is by the u.s. anti-doping agency reports is back that up showing williams has been tested five times in the first six months of this year more than any other male all female athlete in the u.s. sports his serene a series of tweets she wrote and it's that time of the day to get randomly drug tested and only test serena out of all of the players it's been proven i'm the one getting tested the most discrimination i think so at least i'll be keeping the sport clean hash tag stay positive but i'm ready to do whatever it takes to have a clean sport so bring it on i'm excited. another athlete who's had his fair share of doping drummer's four time tour de france champion chris froome he managed to clear his name on the eve of this year's competition but the defending champion is struggling through the pyrenees froome lost ground in stage seventeen on teammate and overall leader thomas thomas cross the line third on the short sixty five climb

to stage the walsh man who is seeking his first grand total victory now leads by two minutes and thirty one seconds colombian right now i reckon tanner won the stage two time dakar rally champion nasser ality it says he's still in the hunt with two days to go in the silk way rally in russia now the roma claimed his first stage women volgograd on day five of the race but mechanical failure and bad weather could still play a big part as drivers battled rough russian terrain as they head for moscow katter's ality is among the leading pack and says anything can happen. every day have. some driver but. we're early and then we have good days and we have a lot of gold with. or to win this week but i know many more or three hundred or you can all meet that it will be not easy maybe the weather will be. in

or some rain but we will get a better world you know or more and we'll see. when this. italian clubroom are considering legal action after barcelona pick them to the signing of priscilla and malcolm fast learner agree to a five year contract worth forty six million dollars for the twenty one year old just a day after a misled they'd struck a deal with his former cardboard malcolm joined bordeaux in two thousand and sixteen and scored twenty three goals in ninety six games for the club. and i jury and football coach has been caught on camera accepting cash payments for supposed asians was filmed by a television crew accepting a bribe from two investigative journalists posing as football agents he said was the assistant coach to the national team at the well cup in russia when i gerry in football journalist solomon is a schelm says the problem is widespread among poorly paid coaches in africa from to

go to ghana to egypt to south africa zimbabwe it is very common for for for coaches to accept bribes and sometimes this relationship is initiated by the coaches who don't get paid much and they begin to use the players not to be able to get some sort of financial reward and another part of it is that agents really instigated it because they upset them players that they need to market across the world across europe just so they would be able to showcase their skill and they come in and give a coach or coach is some sort of our arrangement where they would be able to pay them a certain percentage are they will pay the monthly it depends on the range of mint and you know we see a lot of that in the under seventeen and under twenty one group competitions and also it grew football and eyes wide that has really affected african football but

the relationship is there the more football in africa is being commercialized the more we get businesses and pumping money into football making it profitable the more we see this relationship growing and that is exactly what is happening in africa. three time n.b.a. champion twain wade is considering his options for next season he's a free agent with his former team the miami heat saying no decision has been made on a new deal for the thirty six year old but according to reports in china the guard has been offered a three year deal worth twenty five million dollars by shady john golden bulls it would make him the highest paid player in china and could also be the biggest overseas deal any n.b.a. player has ever had. a result full football official has used a variation on the sport's controversial videos distant referee technology toward a goal doubts were raised over this long range effort during a couple pre-match because the ball slipped through

a hole in the net so just to be sure the referee sought the assistance of a sideline spy he went over to check footage on a photographer's camera not the f c written most so needed that vase assistants as they won ten mill anyway. and that is all useful for now you'll have more later and that's it for me rob matheson for this news hour i'll be back in a moment with more of the day's news out of our.

the world's primary could change producing nation. is at the forefront of the war on drugs we're talking about serious organized crime as a country where reaching a critical point while some have made fortunes many others have suffered at the hands of this multi-billion dollar industry the author of what does business will go on forever it will not change almost global policy is the who are the winners and losers of this illicit trade snow of the andes on al-jazeera i was imprisoned for twenty one years based on false allegations that just made in the last couple of years there's been a number of high profile exonerations of the wrongfully convicted based on police and prosecutorial misconduct you can check me for gunpowder check my truck i don't really buy i don't have any going to do nothing if the prosecutor is going to seek convictions for the sake of seeking convictions prosecutors dangerous exploring the dockside of american justice the system with job or danger on al-jazeera.

every armed attack. creates fear and division amongst its citizens with stories of loss no one. is sweeping association of islam with the violence. in muslims facing the stock reality of being ostracized by the very communities in which they live love and moon the tragic loss of life twice a victim coming soon on al-jazeera. saudi arabia holds oil shipments through a key waterway off the coast of yemen. i'm about this and this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up celebrations as

early returns put in long khan's party ahead in pakistan's elections but also devastation after a suicide bomb kills dozens at a polling station. fighters launched a series of suicide attacks in southwest syria. and the u.s. and the e.u. find some common ground on trade and agreement to help counter china's growing influence. saudi arabia says it will temporarily halt all oil shipments through the straight after an attack by who the fighters on two vessels carrying crude oil the straits located between yemen on the arabian peninsula and djibouti an editor in the horn of africa the coalition says it's trying to protect shipping routes such as the red sea which is used to bring middle eastern oil and asian goods to europe through the suez canal and oil can't transit through

a major to. unlike the bubble monday even temporarily it can lead to substantial supply delays and higher shipping costs that could push up energy prices worldwide saudi arabia and its coalition of sunni muslim allies have been fighting in yemen for three years against iran aligned who fees during that time the u.s. has issued several warnings to its commercial ships about using the route that have been attacks on u.s. turkish and saudi m. iraqi coalition boats but in the most recent incident who theme media doesn't mention an oil tanker and instead two separate reports outline an attack on a coalition warship off the western coast of yemen bob kuttner is an oil and gas industry expert he says it could have a major global impact. it's already had about a dollar per barrel price effect where prices are up in after hours trading today this kind of shipping halt will clearly affect supplies in terms of delay they move

about five million barrels a day through that straight from the western side of saudi arabia and that will be delayed some of the crude can move to the other side of the of the country and and be shipped out of the persian gulf but this clearly is going to have some effect on global supply well like in the u.s. we have a fairly large supply of strategic oil in our selves here but in terms of demand typically the the price reaction of crude or other other commodities been especially crude is exaggerated to the amount of the shortage and so this very sensitive to shortages so it even a small shortage like two or three or four million barrels a day could have a substantial effect on on crude and that causes an accordion effect throughout other global economies so it could have a long term effect. counting

is underway in pakistan's tightly contested general election where millions have cast their votes but the election has also been marred by allegations of fraud manipulation and violence voting has been suspended in a constituency in quite a stun province after dozens of people were killed in a suicide bombing at a polling station and the projections have so far put former cricket hero imran khan and his p.t.i. party ahead of the race he's widely thought to have the backing of the powerful military but his rival shot by study for the leader of the muslim league now was has already dismissed the results of the polls saying it's blatantly rigged meanwhile pakistan people's party leader was on dottie has questioned the delay in announcing the first set of official results some a binge of aid has more from lahore. counting is underway and baucus on landmark election the election which was supposed to see the handover of power from a second civilian government to another and the vote count has already been made

controversial box on the city there was one of the parties which was in power in the previous assembly has alleged that there's been widespread bringing it's leader and president saying that they reject these results and they've asked the election commission of pakistan to take note of all the irregularities one of the leaders coming out and saying that they have recorded at least eight hundred of them and there are seven hundred irregularities which will be deported but other political bodies as well so apart from imran khan steady and soft body which is leading the polls with expected to meet the polls all the other political parties the base concerns about the delay in the announcement of these rebels as well as the conduct of various election stuff where polling agents these are people who are the representatives of political bodies who were told to leave boiling stations they couldn't see when the seals were broken in the votes were counted and what was going on and then later they were handed in sort of the official form forty five plain piece of paper with a stamp saying this is been the vote count and not has been the bone of contention

throughout the day there was of violence in various areas the election was largely peaceful in cities but in rural parts of the one baluchistan there were some scuffles in the jobs bill there was at least one death and then there was the suicide attack which killed more than thirty people but now all political parties have said that they will try and come together on thursday they will talk to amongst themselves and with the parties and chart a future course of action to try and salvage the results of this controversial election more joseph is an associate vice president of the asia center at the u.s. institute of peace he says the legitimacy of the votes has been questioned which could affect the winning party. i think it's unfortunate we did the election this time it was digitized it's a lot in all systems that this won't happen this was exactly what happened in the last election but unfortunately i think it is now again

a controversy that said the wine and the scene is actually not between political parties and the violence is terrorist violence going to be appalling will go before that even political candidates and released two of them unfortunately got killed in the run up to the elections when political parties have not been granted in pakistan's history and sanction not one of the things that happens usually so i'm not entirely sure that the risk is mine and my political parties against each other as much as it is that if the opposition yesterday get there and rejects the election results it means the legitimacy of the new government brings it into question even before they begin and then we also remind you that in some way it is the likely prime minister to run for the cricketer turned politician and this is a bit of a missed of his own medicine because he did exactly this after the us elections and looked at the election results took to the streets and basically brought the government to a standstill for months on end so and you know i don't put it beyond the opposition

do to rebuild the theme of. this. program and media in the syria reporting at least one hundred forty seven people have died and i saw suicide bomb attacks that happened in the southern city of also at a close to the border with jordan so again troops are trying to clear an iso held area close to the israeli occupied golan heights from where stephanie deca reports . a rare attack in the government held town of psuedo syrian state television says a suicide bomber blew himself up in the market and two more attackers were killed before they could detonate their explosives according to the reports. we heard the sounds in the early morning people started screaming there's an explosion stay away . i salute claim responsibility for the attack it says it targeted government soldiers the group has lost huge swathes of territory over the last few years one

of the last pockets of territory that i still controls is here behind us in the southern golan heights how the bombardment has also been very close to the fence with the israeli occupied golan heights has been intensive campaign underway by the syrian government and its russian ally to take it back he's really army is keeping a close eye on what is happening. russian jets roared through the sky before unloading their explosives we've seen syrian jets to one of which was downed on choose day by two israeli patriot missiles we heard the warning sirens go off we immediately saw this field on fire and we moved closer to find out what we could see. we weren't the only ones these israeli soldiers arrived soon after to inspect the ground. another field on fire and this one right opposite the offensive against eisel and in the area where the jet went down. on wednesday both syrian and russian jets were back in the sky sources tell us that the syrian government is sending reinforcements to this area and one succeeds here it will be back in control of all

of southwest syria stephanie decker al-jazeera in the israeli occupied golan heights u.s. president donald trump has pushed back his proposed meeting with russian leader vladimir putin on u.s. soil until twenty nineteen the white house says the summit's been delayed because of the ongoing investigation into russian interference in the twenty sixteen u.s. election trump invited into washington after their controversial talks in helsinki on july the sixteenth many members of congress had objected to the two leaders meeting again and said putin would be welcome. the u.s. secretary of state says he personally warned russia of severe consequences over alleged interference in the u.s. election in twenty sixteen my pompei was being questioned by the senate foreign relations committee he said president trump and made it clear to president putin that washington would not stand for any interference by moscow in its internal affairs but he also faced scathing criticism for the administration's flip flopping

on russia the administration tells us don't worry be patient there's a strategy here but from where we set it appears that in a ready fire aim fashion the white house is waking up every morning and making it up as they go rosalynn jordan has more from washington d.c. . wednesday was the secretary of state mike pompei as opportunity to try to explain exactly what happened between the russian president vladimir putin and u.s. president donald trump during their meeting in helsinki earlier in july it was a contentious hearing for the most part than a small pail told the legislators that there wasn't any effort for the united states to undercut its authority during that meeting with the russian leader here's more of what happened during wednesday's hearing the president disclosed what he said divided by putin about russian interference in our elections and he said that

he is confident that as a result of the conversations lattimer understands that it won't be tolerated and i personally made clear to the russians that will be severe consequences for interference in our democratic processes i would also add that president trump is well aware of the challenges that russia poses to the united states and our partners and allies he's taken a staggering number of actions to protect our interests senators also question pompei oh about another big national security issue north korea and its nuclear weapons program pompei were insistent that the two page agreement signed by the president and by kim jong il the north korean leader is being complied with but he said that until there is proof and actual verification that north korea no longer has the capacity to build or to use nuclear weapons u.s. and global sanctions on that country will continue. donald trump has reached an agreement with the european union to reduce the impact of the global trade war almost immediately u.s. financial.