in washington at the moment he is of course talking first of all to the man who sitting in the white house donald trump who he's trying to tell the door is still open. to me putin does not hold on trump personally responsible for the sanctions against russia he says that the meeting that they had in helsinki recently he views positively and it was useful and that nobody could expect so many years of bad blood to be corrected within a couple of hours of meeting but that they made a good start then of course there's another audience in d.c. and that is the wider political establishment. believed to be deeply russophobia in. a lot of the police and police where these sanctions are originating and he wants to tell them that it's not going to work that russia will weather this storm and that when. d.c. realizes this they'll have to come back and ask russia for better relations essentially there are more sanctions that are likely to be coming down the line as

well we've got this first round that's being unveiled today then there are going to be more likely in ninety days time and we of course got a senate bill is being discussed at the moment that could be even more punitive so none of this is likely to be good for the russian economy. the new sanctions target shipping shipping companies for violating a ban on trade with north korea two individuals were also sanctioned over cyber related activities washington's expected to impose further sanctions in the coming days over the poisoning of former scribal mike hanna reports from washington we go to 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 malign activities continue its inventors and doubted lee has been sacked by the knowledge

that we can bring even more economic pain to bear using our powerful range of authorities and that we will not hesitate to do so if its 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 the assets 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 script 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 us 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 russian 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 sierra a new york reuters news agency is reporting that saudi arabia has called off both a domestic at international stock listing of state oil giant to wramc oh it would

have been the largest i.p.o. in history and the plan was central it was cool to the saudi crown prince mohammed bin solomon's raft of reforms it was to raise funds aimed at restructuring the kingdom's economy and reducing its dependence on oil. still ahead our. political turmoil. coming up. first. challenge by the main opposition party to last month's presidential election result opposition leader nelson. rigged in favor of president there are some. one just over fifty percent. has been phone pending this for. what for

a commission denies claims of us. covering the legal proceedings so where are we in the process. all the process is today throughout the day we had lawyers and. they have documents that show that numbers were in. favor of the rulings on it they say in some parts of the country the rule areas village heads with telling people in the village to vote. don't they will be given food in other parts of the country that it's claimed by the opposition that people were told once you get to the front of a line and vote they need help voting and those people who came to help them make sure they voted. in the judges have questions for these lawyers they say it always . say that polling stations numbers were inflated when those polling stations the lawyers couldn't answer that question and the judges then asked and he saying some

people are being intimidated who are these people always it happened independently verify this the fact they couldn't do that either then lawyers representing zanu p.f. navia representations. so the medicine be thrown out of court they also say that they feel the ever. when the opposition has his weak nine judges will make a ruling on friday the twenty fourth of august at two pm local time one thing made that decision that is final will be no room for appeal michele what and what are the types of rulings that they could come down well they could declare a winner and then that person has to be sworn in within forty eight hours they could order a recount or they can order a christian nation and that has to be held within sixty days which means the country if that happens the country will still be in limbo and have to go back again back to the drawing board and vote all over again in means things can't really move economically in parliament con convene anything you have an economy you

pointed throughout the day it was the bombings all over the country watching proceedings those couldn't get into the courtroom watching in bars restaurants hotels in their homes in the offices keeney waiting for the outcome they have to wait until friday for that announcement it could go either way both sides a very very confident of winning this case all eyes on those nine judges and what they will rule on friday ok herman taso live for us thank you they secretary-general of the organization of american states has called for an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis in venezuela the u.n. says more than two million people have fled venezuela's economic turmoil and place it is projected to hit one million percent this year and there are widespread shortages of basic necessities this week the government introduced a new currency in a bid to contain the crisis for. let's go to our. reports now from caracas. venezuela

a government supporters tried to rev up with. economic measures described by president reagan as an economic revolution to defeat hyperinflation conspicuously absent from a rally in front of the presidential palace himself who hasn't made a public appearance since an apparent assassination attempt on august the force. if the right wing crosses a path will run over them like a train nothing will stop. just blocks away many shops and markets remain closed some in here into an opposition call for a national strike others unsure how much to charge now the five zero seven slash the currency head of a compulsory thirty four hundred percent increase in the minimum wage they go into effect september first the price hikes are into eighty. two hours ago these eggs cost fifteen hundred and when i came back with the cash they were two thousand the

bus company that takes the border remains shut until further notice and that's the web page. for the moment it is not operational one of the few things that has not changed prices are these bananas they're now live of the. five hundred thousand. which is roughly the same if you take away five zero but according to the people selling them by next week probably three hundred percent of the government blames a crisis that brought on precedented hunger and illness and what it calls a domestic and international economic war but many economists warn the new measures will only make things worse. there are measures to increase while refusing any type of international aid so they'll keep printing out money and we'll see that hyperinflation. and amid the uncertainty neither it seems will the exodus of an is

whalen's desperate to find relief anywhere they can. see in human al-jazeera got access. and brazil is one of the countries which has seen a large exodus of venezuelans has been to a camp and the main city in the brazilian state of our am on the border with venezuela. this is the city of the i mean this is about three hours away from the border between brazil and venezuela and this is a shelter that was set up to attend venezuelan refugees there's about nine shelters like this one in the city and in each one of them there's between six hundred and seven hundred people living here it was set up by the federal government with the help of the united nations refugee agency n.p.r. people are provided with food shelter and they helped later on get an idea. that they can go to other parts of brazil or to other countries the government is trying to move people away from this border areas and send them to other parts of brazil

mostly especially after the violence that took place in this state between brazil brazilians and venice well and refugees over the weekend a camp was attacked by brazilians and people where violence from one side of the border from the brazilian side of the border towards venezuela people here would like to go somewhere else to find work but the process has not been fast enough the united nations refugee agency is saying that they need at least forty six million dollars to cope with the refugee crisis by venezuelans all around latin america but so far they have only received around seven percent aid agencies in india say it could be days before the full extent of flood damage in the state of carolus no there has been no rain for the last three days but vast areas of the tropical ration remain under water many people still don't have a drinking water or electricity and her thomas this update. and team has moved away

from where the worst of the flooding is in kerala so i'm not suggesting by any stretch that all of the. the water level has dropped this sort of level nevertheless it has been sunny across the state on wednesday and that means that water levels are dropping that's good news of course but it does mean that pools of water like this are being left behind this is getting pretty stagnant it's smelly it's the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes and that's a big concern because mosquitoes of course carry diseases now the relief efforts continue they're not yet into a reconstruction phase they're all about getting food and water and other things like that is essential to people for a construction effort will take months if not years in the u.s. government has told the times of india informally that they are going to turn down more than one hundred million u.s. dollars worth of assistance that has been offered by countries predominantly in the middle east there are sensually saying thanks but no thanks we've got this we're going to cope on our own india hasn't taken overseas aid since the two thousand and

four tsunami and they're saying at the moment they can cope with this disaster on their own. the slate muslims around the world are celebrating. a bit in india to minister kashmir the holiday has been marred by violence and name has more. the sounds of pellet gun shots yelling and smoke from tear gas canisters filled the air in several towns in the indian administered kashmir this week muslims are celebrating the eat or festival of sacrifice leaving many streets quiet. but not here in srinagar after evening prayers on tuesday hundreds of protesters demonstrating against indian rule carried signs hurled stones and even threw tear gas canisters back at police a lot in the at the year. many of our brothers are in jail many are injured with

shotgun pellets and many have been martyred the indian forces are suppressing us with their mind we're facing tyranny every day. here is a muslim majority himalayan region it's claimed by both india and pakistan many kashmiris have been opposing indian rule since independence in one nine hundred forty seven. was their cost cutting but actually appealed to the international community especially to the organization of islamic cooperation in the united nations to intervene and take notice of the atrocities committed here so that in just oppression is stopped. a boundary known as the line of control divides the region in half with one sided ministered by india and the other by pakistan india would like to formalize the status quo and make it the accepted international boundary but pakistan and kashmiri activists reject this plan because they both want greater control over the region pakistan's new prime minister imran khan has

proposed talks with indian premier modi to resolve the long standing to sue. huge over kashmir natasha going to iraq. still ahead on al-jazeera down to just one meal a day to many struggle to feed themselves as a civil war drags on. the bowlers in spain are not happy with plans to play a game in the united states we'll tell you what they're doing about it that's coming up in a bit in sports. hello there it's mostly dry unsettled for many of us across the middle east at the moment we have had a fair amount of cloud in the northern part of our map between the black sea and the caspian sea that's been plaguing us for the last few weeks still a little bit more there at the moment so the chance of see one or two more showers

on the other area where we've seen quite a few showers is up in the northeastern parts of. the scene one or two looks like there will be a bit drier as we head through thursday or friday there is still the risk of a few showers returning further south largely fine and settled though as i say and hot at the moment in baghdad about forty five kuwait even hotter of a forty seven but here in doha not quite that hot and that's because the winds are changing once more i think they'll be coming in more from an easterly direction over the next few days to do expect things generally to be a little bit more sticky as you head down towards the coast of a man here there's a bit more cloud that's over muscat at times to do expect a little bit of gray weather times for salon i looks like it should be a little bit brighter than it has been recently down towards the southern parts of africa and for many of us here there is plenty of dry weather but we do have this area of cloud ted has been giving us some or all the heavy outbreaks of rain that's trying to pull away towards the east there as we head through thursday durban may still be a bit grey at times there and ninety. i'm

near a new car many new developments. kristie. retrieved people's approval is fleeting frustration grips the. result. of. a six part series. china's democracy. on. hand in hand with old. refusing to be defined by. mexican women of bringing out that dancing machine. and rediscovering.

the viewfinder. at this time. taken to the briefing room at the white house where press secretary sarah sanders says the answering questions let's listen what's in the campaign but how do you draw the line between the campaign contribution and what might have been a major somebody or other person to go i'm not going to get into the back and forth of the legal part of this i would refer you to the president's outside counsel in that as i told cecilia what i can tell you is what the president has stated a number of times he did nothing wrong there are no charges against him just

because michael cohen has made a deal doesn't mean anything with their records to the president the center of the presidency to this morning frustrated like calling rove rush you could shed a little more light on that because the implication is that the microcode gave up something president would rather state she uses that we should read an introduction to the president has expressed his views on that i don't have anything further to add every one of the question is the president now planning on or on part mean all out of the manic for a case doesn't have anything to do with the president didn't have anything to do with his campaign it doesn't have anything to do with the white house. it's actually going to snap into more of only asking this line a different way even if it has nothing to do with the president still can have the power to harm this community what is that something that suits doesn't it seem to be out to come out and i'm not aware of any conversations regarding that at all and how difficult that was other than actually when he was asked by a news outlet earlier this week and he said that he hadn't been thinking about that

at all. in in time because of the returns and has the white house is often turned to her. whether they need to need to adjust to the political issues or you know with the old with voters with internally with the leaders does the white house meet. he just moves in terms of funds and she says. these murders. have. been kind of respond to protected we were. right there. i wouldn't view it that way at all and would disagree with the premise of your question the white house is focused on the same things that we were focused on the first day that we got here and that is growing the economy which is doing extremely well protecting our borders strengthening the safety and security

of all americans those are the things that we're focused on that day one january twentieth and those are the same things that we're focused on right now they think there's a lot of sort of i can graduate into this if you want one hundred three thing and there's no way you do what you do everybody is these go through the questions but from our colleague john sloan over actually recently wrote and i quote several top republican operatives working on the midterm elections told me from townsville redwing predictions could press republican turnout and ironically serve to make the blue wave even bigger so are you familiar with any republican operatives who would concur with this please. not that i'm aware of i think that the thing that's going to encourage people is the lack of a message by democrats they have nothing to run on other than attacking this president and not only does the president and the record that republicans have had over the last year and a half under his leadership is a great one to run on we have an incredible story to tell the economy is booming record numbers just today we're going to continue focusing on the things that

americans care about and i think that'll be certainly what encourages them and certainly what will help push republicans to do well in november just to get to the president's stated goal of this bill will pay the price for the amount of not enough an exact quote though should israel be concerned that the price they may have to pay would be one that they're not prepared to willing to pay just me. we think that the president's decision was the right one to move the embassy something that other presidents had promised and failed to do in this is a president who's been delivering on the promises that he's made i'm sorry what kind of talking about what president israel has and i don't have anything further for you and john thanks a lot of stresses those guilty verdicts yesterday all that a fourth president has said some things about mr bennett what he's called a good manager the person that feels badly for what has happened to him he tweeted today i'm like michael cohen he refused to break make up stories in order to get a deal he tweeted such respect for a great man is this tremendous work

a simple matter to work presidential pardon once again that's not something that has been up for discussion i don't have anything or you just happen on nomination or some democrats that are saying that the delamination should be put on hold because of the legal developments just today why and senator the zero put out a statement she said just president is an unindicted coconspirators conspirator in a criminal matter does not deserve the courtesy of it's not what your reaction to that's here this is a desperate and pathetic attempt by democrats to obstruct a very highly qualified nominee the hearing date has been set for september fourth and judge kavanaugh will be their state yes they're out on trade talks between the united states and china are resuming the president earlier this week expressed quite low expectations for those talks i'm wondering if doubt is changed in what

you would like to see come out of these discussions or were as you said these conversations are continuing i don't have any announcements on them their ongoing certainly what we'd like to see is better trade deals for the united states the president wants to see free fair and more reciprocal trade between other countries particularly with china and we're going to continue in those conversations with. sir does the president feel betrayed by my colleague concerned about what he might say well. i don't think the president's concerned at all he knows that he did nothing wrong and that there was no collusion and we're going to continue focusing on the things that americans care about that we can have an impact on for less than three years you have to see the new mexico and united states on that i'm not going to get ahead of any potential i now it's meant for decades now after has harmed american workers and cost the u.s. billions of dollars we're focused on making sure we deal with the new address those

problems and we'll let you know we have an announcement to think sarah was interviewed today the president said he found out about those payments that michael has made later on but he's on tape discussing how to make one of the payments with michael cohen so before the payment was made so how do you explain that once again i've commented on this pretty extensively what i can tell you about this is that the president did nothing wrong there are no charges against him there is no collusion for anything beyond that i would refer you to the president's outside counsel that pretty early on he is not a taxpayer funded spokesperson for the president you are somehow i mean that is one thing the president said today on the grounds of the white house that seems to contradict an audio that has been confirmed that it is of the president once again i have addressed this a number of times just because you continue to ask the same questions over and over i'm not going to give you a different answer the president has done nothing wrong there are no charges against him there is no collusion that's what i can tell you about this if you want something further i would refer you to the president's outside counsel to always

make sure i call them francesco and like you name the name the president did not have affairs with here and me to bill or stephanie for we've addressed this in a maritime francesca's one who thinks they're russian first you say that there's been no discussion that well potentially already in her home and for so you're not ruling it out entirely i mean if there's no discussions about it right at this point the president hasn't said he won't do it it's possible that. there could be a pardon for him in future the only comment that the president has made on this was when he was asked by a news outlet earlier this week and he said no he was not considering well beyond that there have been no other discussions that was before homeland for i boys convicted on eight of the eighteen counts at the time when the president has that's why i'm asking now now that he's been convicted on those counts and i mean ensuring you know that there have been no discussions at the white house on that matter you know i think on a different point last time that we were in here you read off some x. officials and one current official who the president was kidding sitter and taking

away their security clearance i want to follow up on that and ask you to do is first of all who is to adopting that review to determine whether or not those security clearances will be and second of all i wanted to ask you about a tweet that the president thanked saying that he caught the attention james clapper is being nice to him so that he doesn't lose his security clearance is that a threat that if james clapper isn't nice to him you lose the security clearance no i don't have any other announcements on that front we're continuing to review when we have an announcement like you know they're really going to be able to i'm sorry who is doing the reviews on the number of people involved here in the white house that truly go ahead there and tweet about a comment for this morning the president seemed to be praising him for mentioning refusing to cooperate with federal prosecutors saying that they implicate him president. is that what he meant to suggest to me does not seem to indicate that he thinks that loyalty to him only is more important with abiding by them are cooperating with the government and an investigation not at all a metaphor case doesn't involve the president doesn't involve his campaign has

nothing to do with the white house the president is expressed his views exact things are michael holmes lawyer has suggested because there is you have these they would like to present about for knowledge of election acting such as the president of the white house maintains there was no four knowledge of any election talking during the twenty sixteen campaign i'm not aware of anything no there are two questions of the three. given that five convicted felons are now linked to the president for his campaign and given that the president promised to hire the best people he fell in love up to them but the president has employed thousands of people in his lifetime and had an incredible successes both in business and in public service he's the president of the united states so i think you saw him quite well and colorado my second question here is not which is you have the right i understand that you don't want to answer this impression of million times and you said the president did nothing illegal but i didn't hear a response to the question did he lie to the american people when he talked about

this on air force one you know in the president's address a number of come to think after the question the president trying to says he feels that the first point and manner for one of the men pleaded guilty to crimes the other was found guilty of crimes including tax fraud which robbed the american public of tax dollars they were wanting to see feel bad for either of these men once again the president has expressed his views on this matter and i have nothing else to add i'm just following on that does he believe that there is an intrinsic problem with the justice department or does he only believe if someone who is close to him. is a victim of the justice department i think we've certainly seen a lot of concerns come out of some of the activities of people that worked at the department of justice whether it's peter shakur lisa page or james komi we've walked through those a number of times and certainly i think it's given calls for a lot of americans some of the activities those individuals and gaged and trainers

are ok it's not like the supposed to have to write. down as you have his own justice department is not doing its job and again certainly the president has expressed his views on this matter and he's raised concerns about a number of other problems that he's seen within the part of justice i wanted to follow up about the earlier question about the president's comments from fox news. with regard to the payments to the studios and distributors home what exactly did you learn about them and also are there any other payments he has now become aware of or those the only two women who've received money for agreeing not to repeat their stories of the legit affairs with the president once again i would have addressed all that i'm going to say on the cohen issue for those specific questions with more details i would refer you to the president tonight sounds like hershel matters to the outside counsel can we bring them in here for the briefing they don't worry or they don't work here in the white house but i would certainly encourage you to reach out to them john thank you sara going back to the security

clearance and all signs are this is the first time a president first laid out the handling of the removal of security clearances. to be done by superiors even here in the last two big espionage cases of the cold war the urban star the case of nineteen sixty one and felix brock of ninety nine b. the secretary of state who the security clearances will be with you of espionage you said the president and others are reviewing who are these others review again and does the president take a deep personal role in the photos trolls who should certainly the president has the constitutional authority to do so i know this will come as a shock to you but i'm not aware of the details of the specific cases that you outlined but the president has the authority to make that decision he's also consulting with members of his national security team and members of his legal team

here at the white house to make this decision one of the is he also considering. a policy of just simply having all security fastens attorneys give one someone to serve and i'm not aware of that as a policy certainly we would like the ability if needed to be able to consult with individual. ols on national security matters but they do feel the team here that we should look at the security clearance process as a whole minor standing is that there are roughly five million people that have security clearances here in the united states and we'd like to take a look at the overall process of who has and who maintains a security clearance to see deborah yeah. you're right about the president having constitutional authorities are as i understand about security clearance this is well it's hard so i guess the question i have is even though we has had already is

anybody in the white house thought. look at security clearances for former. personnel and are this is well because the president doesn't seem to be consulting the pardon attorney a.g.'s office and it is the policy of people with the thought of doing something would be more transparent perhaps not as certainly as the review of the security clearances but there is a working group that is looking at the overall security clearance process and who maintains those and whether or not those are needed across the board within the government in terms of the pardon process again the president has the authority to carry out those decisions he takes input looks at him on a case by case basis where it's not there anything that he considers some of the good that.