we approach a u.s. senate banking committee hearing on russian sanctions the treasury department reporting back on the punitive measures taken to counter what is described as illicit russian activity against the united states though russia's wine activities continue its adventure in and out of that by the knowledge that we can bring even more economic boom to be here using our powerful reins of authority and that we will not hesitate to do so if the conduct does not demonstrably and significantly change the latest sanctions are against companies and individuals accused of breaking u.s. sanctions against north korea by shipping in banned items b.s. it's all in the u.s. saw frozen and they'll forbid and from doing any business with u.s. companies another set of sanctions due to be introduced on retaliation for the alleged russian poisoning of former agent sergei scriptural and his daughter in the united kingdom russia has tonight any responsibility but no public mention was made

of any of this punitive action at a summit meeting between the u.s. and russian presidents in helsinki eyebrows were raised as president trump appeared to a few simply praised his russian counterpart just days after twelve russian intelligence agents were indicted on spying charges in the u.s. and a spike u.s. intelligence agencies confirming russian involvement in the us electoral process there was no review from president trump of president putin's denial he just said it's not russia back in the united states president trump is now waging an all out twitter campaign against a special council appointed to investigate russian collusion in recent months he's used the words witch hunt on more than four hundred occasions. but the type special counsel robert miller has not responded to the constant attack from the chief executive not yet imparting any knowledge he may have that a comes from the

apparent division between the executive and legislative branches of government as to russian intentions in the united states mike hanna al-jazeera new york here's what's coming up for you on this news hour not business as usual as u.s. sanctions hit iran's industry and its workforce. tributes pouring in across india for those killed in the worst floods to hit the southern state of carola in a century. and school china sets a new world record this is in the pull of the asian games the details coming up a little later on. russia has dismissed claims from microsoft that it's been targeting u.s. political groups to cyber attacks the world's biggest software company says it stopped fake websites that were set up to steal lock information from visitors

ahead of the u.s. midterm elections but the russian foreign ministry says there is no evidence to support microsoft's claims and is calling the allegations witchhunt she ever turns it with more from washington d.c. . microsoft says russian hackers set up several domain names which were removed last week by microsoft pretty quickly they say without any damage being done but these domain names resemble other web sites that people are familiar with users all familiar with they end their web addresses with words like senate groups and that dot services org i r i or go to the international republican institute dot org it's where phishing campaign trying to get users to log on to these web addresses and enter their credentials they think they're communicating with the senate or the right wing think tank but in fact by giving their credentials to hackers the russians deny any involvement this is what a kremlin spokesperson said we do not know what hackers they're talking about we don't know what is meant by influence on election we hear confirmations for america

that there was no influence on elections who exactly are they talking about we don't understand what the proof and the basis for them drawing these kind of conclusions such information or proof is lacking microsoft hasn't really furnished us with any real evidence of the russian involvement but certainly this adds to that atmosphere of fear about russian involvement or alleged involvement in the election process here in the u.s. and facebook has taken down more than six hundred fifty fake accounts that were part of dissent from asian campaigns originating from russia and iran social media giants as the fake accounts targeted users in the middle east latin america u.k. and the u.s. but the company was unable to identify a link or any coordination between the separate campaigns in a statement posted online facebook says they used similar tactics to mislead users about who they were and what their objectives. so let's talk to larry magid of technology john the c.e.o. of connect safely dot org he's joining us from silicon valley in california always

nice to see you larry let's start with the facebook story. six hundred fifty fake accounts of been taken down which sounds good but then facebook has two point two three billion monthly active users so i'm wondering how much of a win do you think this is well it's significant and by the way we can add a couple of hundred more from twitter which announced later in the day that they also went after some iranian accounts look at significant weather in the big she of facebook of course they're tiny but these are accounts had reached over one hundred fifty five thousand facebook user their facebook user accounts as well as accounts on instagram so it has some impact i'm not going to tell you it's going to influence an election but certainly it helps propaganda and getting the point across and it's a violation of facebook's terms the sheriff here in authentic accounts representing foreign powers to try to influence american opinion and his part of the story the fact that facebook is actually doing this in the first place regardless of the

number of accounts it manages to take down the fact that it is active in the fight against it because it takes a lot of yeah isn't it mark zuckerberg talked about that in a press conference today where he said that the company is big proactive docs should be reactive and that was after two thousand and sixteen we're kind of get too little too late but proactive in trying to deal with it as they are actually built so in some of these cases they're able to take pages down literally in real time as people create them what you think of microsoft's claims i mean it's no surprise i said this to an earlier guess it's no surprise that russia would deny it and even using it to which comes i think which is ironic. what do you make of microsoft's claims. well you know i've been to their security center in washington state and seen the work that they do and i have tremendous respect for their security researcher and i don't think they have any political reason why they would do that if it weren't true so my i believe them i think that these were in fact sites set up by people associated with russia as your report said just you know

credentials potentially do misinformation and potentially even drop malware on people's devices much of a difference do you think all of this will make in the end the why should this two ways of looking at it one is the difference that these accounts could have made if they were allowed to carry on and also the difference in our minds by taking them down are we actually seeing you know a step forward in the two months out from the from the midterms well it's whack a mole right you're not going down another one pops up but i think that you know contrary to what some have claimed i think the russians that claim to trumpet claimed there's no evidence that these accounts have not influenced our election we may not have proof that they did but there's certainly no evidence that they did get in fact if you look at the way campaigns spend money a lot less money if spent on things or more money i should say on things like lawn find in television ads obviously people think that they influence the electors voters so why wouldn't fake accounts on facebook in ads on facebook and instagram

and elsewhere influence a people who vote larry i'm so glad you used the whack a mole analogy because i use that earlier as well so i feel quite smug now thank you maggie joining us in particular to investigate thank you. now iran has unveiled a new fighter jet as tensions with the u.s. continue to increase president hassan rouhani got a firsthand look at the cockpit of the aircraft which will be produced domestically rani says iran will keep boosting its military because that is what he says is stopping the u.s. from attacking iran of course the u.s. has placed new sanctions on tehran and president trump says it is the sanctions that are the only way to keep iran from developing its nuclear program and the impact of those sanctions is being felt throughout iran the unemployment rate at twelve percent now that equates to three million people out of work and many of those who have jobs are just struggling to cope with rising living costs it's a matter of a with more from tehran. the busy birds of

a factory floor where business suits and boardrooms are left behind for overalls and dangerous work mirabeau makes industrial scale water valves and employs hundreds of people around the country and if things go to plan the intend to hire hundreds more obvious than that there are some industries inside iran more development in the more export we can do the more factories will be brought online so we could employ some new workers business leaders and industry chiefs want to shift iran away from an agriculture based economy and develop its ability to make and sell manufactured goods it's in big factories like this that or one sees its financial future heavy machinery being worked by a skilled labor force making important things but if you were to drive by this industrial park on the outskirts of the capital to run you might not notice these buildings for a hive of activity and that's part of the problem to say it's time to i mean first

thing an industry needs financial resources one of the solutions is foreign investment we are providing some incentives to a direct foreign investors definitely foreign investment speeds up industrial development and consoled the issue of unemployment. iranian manufacturers boast about cheaper labor costs than china but foreign investors point to problems of scale and quality control factors holding iran back from taking on a production powerhouse that's been called the world's factory american sanctions also hang like a question mark over iranian factories the government hopes offering free land tax breaks will make it easier to convince people that iran might be their cup of tea. away from the factory floors some three million iranians are still looking for work . is a forty six year old air conditioning technician he's been out of work for

a month and his age the job situation is not good opportunities are taken by people with connections have no university degree my resume doesn't register anyway when i lose my job i have to start again from zero and fortunately there is no way for people like me security. basic necessities are so expensive having fun is something no longer think about he'd be willing to do anything to earn an honest living but says the job market is saturated with young people also looking for work . he's too old for the government to care about him and that he's putting his faith in god but he admits being unemployed is destroying him. people across india are paying tribute to those killed by the floods in kerala the worst to hit the southern state in a century in the northern city of better done hundreds of people were out on the streets praying for those affected by the floods more than four hundred are

confirmed dead so far candlelight vigils were also held in the capital new delhi where volunteers have been collecting relief materials to send to caroline but after days of torrential rain there is some good news coming out of the region the flood waters are finally receding however more than a million people are still in makeshift camps after their homes which was washed away and are thomas reports now from some of the evacuated residents decided to go home despite the risks. we've met daniel thomas in an evacuation camp fisherman rescued him from his home on friday now he wanted to go back but on tuesday morning the only way back was by canoe. if we can. because they usually go from there they read is that it. we're going to see. as we were paddled for kilometers across

over paddy fields and through people's gardens we heard and saw animals left behind and occasionally came across people. thomas' village itself is on relatively high ground the central street almost now dry it's very different to when the greatest volume of water barrel through on saturday after thomas had left. his adult son had stayed behind to help rescue others and say forty could home he took us inside the news generally good a both property and people anybody in this town died low on getting over it will. get a lot of. use. from before all of it. will go on . that's remarkable when you see the damage. thomas' neighbor state to his house shook as it cracked it's still under

water and in the front garden made there was another hazard. but all day tuesday the water was dropping and back on the main streets a surprise two big wheel trucks from the national disaster response force had managed to drive in people. and then queues formed past. the men brought the basics rice biscuits water they also brought hope. these trucks carrying it is a really good sign of the waters are receding and bad though the situation is still it's it's getting better under thomas al jazeera man of care a lot. still ahead for you here on al-jazeera venezuelans are braving attacks to make their way into neighboring brazil to escape the economic crisis back home.

that's being billed as the world's highest rafting and making competition definitely not for the faint of heart the details coming up a little later and. from the clear blue sky of the doha mooning. to the fresh autumn breeze in the city of love. however we can expect to see some of the wet weather continuing to southeastern parts of china over the next day or so hong kong never really too far away from that wet weather further north it looks largely dry up towards shanghai but even here we can't rule out the possibility of the odd shower or two as we go through the next couple of days shall as long as both of rain continue down towards the south and some of that wet weather also affecting the far north of the philippines luzon seeing some rather lively downpours from time to time a scattering of showers too across southeast asia and parts of borneo still seeing

some rather wet weather for a drive for the asian games looking good in jakarta temperatures here getting up to around thirty three degrees over the next day or so no sign of any rain in our forecast further north you might to see one or two lives showers there into some are into them and they pull into showers pushing up towards thailand over the next few days joining up with the rather wet weather that we do have which will make its way towards me and mom please assess little shariah once again across southern parts of india into carola see how the wetter weather nudging its way further north but these on the shore breezes always bring the possibility of one or two showers right along the west and gas and that does i'm afraid include carol. the weather sponsored by cats on everybody's. weather on line this isn't some abstract fish can eat a bit into their shops or if you join us on sect rather than stopping terrorism it's creating a base is a dialogue and just the community is want to add to this conversation we need

a president who's willing to be a villain or a short while everyone has a voice i'm part of civil society i do talk but i never get listening to by those in the corridors of power joining the global conversation. on out to zero. pakistan did not have the ability to take on every network known as also to get the fight all of them big enough to sponsor and phone them as well in search of the missing pieces i was in every important meetings about from the moment he said i like doing over exactly what the pakistani puzzle when you go to the news of bin laden was killed were you surprised or was the reaction oh they found in the place we continue we will but we don't want anyone to know mehdi hasan goes head to head with the former pakistani foreign minister on al-jazeera.

this is al jazeera. it is out of here and it's the news hour as well and these are your top stories investigators in the united states have successfully prosecuted two big players from donald trump's twenty sixteen election campaign michael cohen once the president's personal lawyer says he broke the law under direction from donald trump . mr cohen guilty to campaign finance charges one for. and on lawful corporate contribution and a second one for personally making an excessive personal contribution both for the purpose of influencing the two thousand and sixteen election. and in a separate trial a jury found trump's former campaign chairman guilty on eight charges manifold is now facing sentencing for breaching campaign finance laws to tax fraud and for

failing to disclose foreign bank accounts donald trump insists it's nothing to do with him. something like. three. weeks from. now the northeastern coast of venezuela has been hit by a strong magnitude seven point three earthquake this was close to the coastal city of. forced people to flee buildings in the capital caracas six hundred kilometers away this is the strongest earthquake to strike venezuela and over a century the quake also caused damage to the caribbean islands of trinidad and tobago and grenada. businesses in venezuela meanwhile have closed as part of a twenty four hour strike organized by the three leading opposition parties this is because of a growing economic crisis there venezuelans have been fleeing their country seeking

a better life elsewhere some of them trying to move to neighboring brazil but history is about reports they've not been welcomed by everyone there. brazilian troops now at the main point offend treaty between brazil and venezuela. basis what the border town of my looks like after the anti migrant violence over the weekend. the money. has been waiting for her three children four hours the venezuelan has been living with her husband in brazil with what is going on at home she's decided to send for her family. i have three children and we cannot risk it any more we have to bring our children here because in venezuela they cannot survive and we don't know what would happen in the future. in this northern brazilian state say the scale of the influx of men women and children from venezuela is now on the scale of an emergency the state government wanted to close the border temporarily

but their federal counterparts said doing that would be illegal around eight hundred venezuelans come to this place every day escaping the crisis here they're given a meal their vaccinated and they're given an identification by brazilian authorities tell us that they want them to leave this part of the country as soon as possible in order to prevent confrontations with the local population. last weekend a crowd of brazilians attacked a temporary camp in back i'ma saying some venezuelans had assaulted a local man they destroyed the improvised housing and forced back across the border more than a thousand people. they got a little known was one of them he has returned because he says he cannot survive in venezuela. we all had to run to escape they destroyed everything i own my id my clothes and my positions but i cannot go back to my country we cannot survive

there it's a disaster and i won't go back as long as nicolas maduro is in power we are stranded all thought is have increased security and are trying to process people as fast as possible. we see lots of people crossing every day and it is. there is more fluidity some people are passing by going somewhere else so the challenge is to try and help them get where they are going and then give paperwork to those who want to stay. for those who want to stay they will find refuge in brazil but neighborly hospitality is being put under severe strain by venezuela's economic crisis. and to see that back at a map brazil. a message of peace in afghanistan has been interrupted by violence rockets were fired just as president he was delivering a speech for the muslim holiday of at a mosque the attackers just two days after the president offered a ceasefire to the taliban or from ben smith. afghanistan's president might have

been hoping for a quiet start to the holiday but as i reviewed his troops and officials gathered for prayers they were all reminded that there are fewer and fewer peaceful days here. that was the sound of one of two rockets fired towards the presidential palace could do you think it gave if they think that with rocket attacks this nation will surrender they have to think again this is a brave nation as always ready to defend its independent honor and islamic tradition. i source says its fighters were behind the attack armed groups numbers are growing in afghanistan although it's the taliban that remains the greatest threat. that was made clear in a recent attack on the nearby city of gas that exposed the government's fragile grip on security thousands of taliban fighters stormed the city cutting communications and access to the highway to kabul at least one hundred fifty

soldiers and more than one hundred civilians were killed in the five day battle to regain control of the city the government says hundreds of taliban fighters were killed. the taliban has been at war with the us backed afghan government for nearly seventeen years but one analyst has told al-jazeera while the taliban leadership believes it's doing well on the battlefield many foot soldiers see things differently most of them never see an american for all you know one wants to the next so they're on the convince that they're actually fighting against an occupation but they don't have a way out so i mean they're stuck the war continues the leadership are resisting serious peace talks those inside the movement who are actually broadly in favor of it because they're in a centralized top down movement have no way of affecting the decisions of the leadership. tuesday's attack on the presidential compound ended when an afghan helicopter gunship targeted the house where the rockets were apparently

fired from bernard smith al-jazeera taiwan says it won't bars of pressure from china after yet another country has cut diplomatic ties president sighing when criticized of salvador's decision to establish relations with beijing instead of taiwan the third nation to do so this year china's been pressuring countries and companies to recognize taiwan as part of its territory side ascribe china's behavior and out of control. and out of the world. today's china is not only a menace to cross straight relations what china is doing right now all over the world no matter if it's interfering in the end if it is of countries or destroying the order of international markets it has already caused a high degree of global instability we need to remind the international community that this is not only related to taiwan that we will not tolerate the serious situation in a more. brown with more now on the story from beijing. well this is another

important symbolic diplomatic victory for china as it seeks to pick off one by one those countries that still have diplomatic relations with taiwan since zion when became president of taiwan in january two thousand and sixteen five countries have severed ties with taiwan el salvador now joining that lengthening list on choose day taiwan's foreign ministry reacted angrily taiwan's foreign minister joseph who said the china was luring away taiwan's allies with promises of vast financial aid he said this was a game that taiwan was not prepared to play well of course this all comes just as zion when has been on a stopover in the united states she'd been visiting billie's and paragliding two of the seventeen countries that still recognize taiwan she made a speech in the united states the first time

a taiwanese leader has done that in ten years that upset the chinese and then lo and behold literally just a day later we learned that el salvador has decided to sever ties with taiwan now taiwan said that it knew what el salvador was planning to do in fact it had an idea this was going to happen back in june it a try to persuade el salvador not to do this but of course in the end it simply lost out in the inevitable bidding war with china there is now just one country in africa that has ties with taiwan that is swaziland and i think china would very much like swaziland to come into its orbit before early september because that's when president xi jinping will be hosting an africa china summit here in beijing. me and my leader says it's up to bangladesh to repatriate the more than seven hundred thousand range of refugees the muslim minority group fed me and miles

rakhine state after a military crackdown began last year and so she says the danger of what she calls terrorism is still real and present the danger of terrorist activities which was initial course of course of events leading to the humanitarian crisis in rakhine remains real and present today and this is security challenges address the risk of intercommunal violence will remain it is a threat that could have grave consequences not just for myanmar but also for other countries in our region and beyond. the greek prime minister i'd like to think that us has officially declared an end to an era of austerity as the nation exits the biggest international bailout in history greece avoided bankruptcy three hundred billion dollars of international loans john psaropoulos looks at the past eight years. prime minister alexis tsipras may have been trying to custom self in the role of a hero when he chose to send

a message to the greeks that their economic odyssey is over this is the island home his hero odysseus finally returned home to after twenty years of war and adventure and live the same this see matter today a new day has dawned for our country historic day the bailouts of austerity recession and a social desert are finally over our country began to the right to shape its own future and fortunes like any normal european country without external duress blackmail or sacrifices by our people for this group of young people the news comes too late the economic crisis struck at the beginning of their teens and changed their lives you know to go see one who is studying political science but what he really wants to do is three d. animation there's no market for that here so he'll go broad in my parents had invested everything in government bonds we lost everything it had a huge effect on our psychology and it immediately changed how we lived it was as

though you had flipped a switch stefanos going to studying molecular biology the great genetics market is shrinking as people have fewer children so he plans to end up in the united states or canada and look at last got me as has a job waiting for him upon graduation at a u.k. company you know has many my parents are divorced the moment i realized there was a crisis was when i watch my mother counting out money to be eternity bills and i thought i have to finish school and find a job quickly so i can have my family i have two smaller siblings and they need a chance to grow up to you know. all three would prefer to stay in greece they just don't think this economy will produce the jobs they want nor do they believe greece's political elite can create that economy at least half a million young educated greeks have emigrated over the past decade in search of better jobs and that brain drain is likely to continue greece is forecast to grow. by only about two percent a year for the next five years but over the same period it's obliged to spend at

least three and a huff percent of its economy repaying debt so its gains will be swallowed by its commitments the markets greece will now depend upon for its borrowing a looking for signs of stability that includes keeping up debt payments but not everyone believes it can you know to go step on us and look in the us all studied the all to see in school they're well aware that to deceive us was the sole survivor of his homecoming expedition all his men perished whether this has done enough to ensure greece's survival as well as his own political survival remains in the lap of the gods jump several pull us out just a athens still ahead for you. to prove the doubters wrong to become a professional footballer in australia that the rest of the sport.

changes in coal mining technology could be behind the rise in black lung disease poor screening is also being blamed as this potentially deadly respiratory disease is now being diagnosed in younger mine is dying estabrook it's more when was the last time that you remember that your breathing was perfectly normal that your lungs were fine seventy year old chris byron recently traveled halfway around the world from australia to chicago to find out how far his black lung disease has progressed a lot of heart he was diagnosed two years ago after fourteen years of mining i kept getting my new. lady of the lungs from the two.