in which a report has to be made and if that report shows saudi government complicity then names have to be named and sanctions have to be imposed it's not not easy to escape this so that's the other big thing going on i think is there is this. investment. conference planned in saudi arabia for i believe next week to which the u.s. treasury secretary was supposed to go as well as some very prominent american business figures we're starting to see some of those american business figures pull out or express doubts and it's not clear yet whether secretary will go that's very important because it connects directly to mohammed and so munns need to bring foreign investment into the kingdom so that would be an important signal if the united states were to say well we're not attending or this conference should be postponed or something like that but the administration i mean regardless of what comes out and right now i mean let's face it it's not looking good when it comes to

the disappearance of jamal khashoggi but regardless of what comes out i mean the administration is going to be very very reluctant to sever ties with saudi arabia even just to impose sanctions there is economic factors as the president is talking about and obviously political international relations factors as well the u.s. seems to have based its foreign policy in the middle east all being allies with the saudis. well i do think it's correct that and a lot of people now are saying you know this may be has been a mistake you know to to base put too many eggs so to speak into this basket of saudi arabia and specifically the crown prince but you know a lot of things relating to for example the administration's israeli palestinian peace plan and so forth are are you know related somehow to things that saudi arabia might do in the future now as well as this new middle east or teach it to

lions that the that the administration has started talking about but look i think that you know this this issue of she has become very big there's constant breaking news on it it's not something the administration can entirely put out of the picture they're going to have to deal with this and i and i i want to give them a little bit of credit i do think that they see i think that people like president trump and vice president pens for example see that they don't want to send a signal that extra judicial killings are ok i don't think they want to go back to the bad old days when leaders like saddam hussein or mom or qaddafi you know killed their opponents with impunity all over the world including in western countries i think they they realize that that's that's dangerous and they need to send a signal that that that's not ok if that indeed is what has happened here michele

dunne from the canadian dome and for international peace madam thank you for sharing your views with us thank you. well there's all sorts of pressure on saudi arabia right now the u.n. committee for child rights is added to the pressure urging it to immediately stop its bombing campaign against civilian targets in yemen it also wants those responsible for unlawful airstrikes during the three year war to be prosecuted. the other bit of data is that nearly twenty percent of the deaths of civilians are children so that's one in five civilian killed is a child under eighteen there's a lot of children. so you know this is why we were concerned about the airstrikes but not only the israelites i think we also mentioned to them in the dialogue the aerial and naval blockade. well the statement follows the airstrike which a school bus in august killing thousands of children the students who did survive

are now back at school taking part in mourning drills and attending classes last month the saudi led coalition accepted responsibility for that airstrike the u.n. estimates that five hundred thousand children have dropped out of school since the civil war began in two thousand and fifteen. with said after we lost our dearest schoolmates and we're worried that the enemies will strike our school that. we tell the enemies that our classmates blood won't be invariant and they will avenge them by getting an education we will avenge them by learning thank god who saved me from the strike and from the hands of this right this crime. all of those wounded continue to attend school without exception as long as it's ok for them to attend they come on crutches we would chose what we've shown is that education for our children is paramount the attend in spite of their wounds and their fears. well coming up on this news hour from london.

i'm reporting from the capital of ukraine on another battle with russia this time within the orthodox church which looks like suffering its biggest split for a. while also look at the damage to the multi-billion dollar illegal wildlife trade is doing to the world's biodiversity and the. great escape against pakistan santa i'll have that story and more later in the program. but first russia has opened a criminal investigation after a rocket bound for the international space station failed shortly after takeoff the two man crew on american and the russian survived after making an emergency landing in kazakstan but it means the current space station crew could be stuck there until

january or a challenge has more now from moscow. with the traditional wave of departing spacemen cake and alexi of gin in said goodbye to worth they'd be back sooner than they thought since the demise of nasa space shuttle program russia's so you system is currently the only way for people to get up to the international space station the russian and the american will shed jill to begin one hundred and eighty seven days in orbit lift up but first they have to get there the launch seemed to go well initially the rocket lifted off into the cloudless skies above baikonur kazakstan but one hundred nineteen seconds into the journey there was a catastrophic malfunction you hear the soyuz making its way into space inside the capsule video shows the two men being shaken about before the feed is cut to a computer graphic for ourselves we can live in the florida minute for five seven. the failure of the bush hearing there but there has been an issue with the booster

and we're standing by for information the men and their capsule were now in a so-called ballistic re-entry parachuting back to worse they landed in the wide kazakstan step six hundred kilometers away from the launch site the rescue teams found them there helps them out of their confinement and into waiting helicopters but you're. hoping that this incident requires a more thorough investigation including visits to the manufacturing facilities the accident occurred in iraq at that how to lend the incident free history this is very bad news on the other hand the emergency rescue system book excellently and this is good news. in fact two investigations are now underway one looking into what happened and another criminal one to assess whether there was any foul play or negligence involved in the rockets construction rush or is also grounding manned soyuz flights the work course of international space missions until more is known

about this catastrophe. we'll have knock on impacts of course the crew currently orbiting on board the international space station will have to stay there a while longer and officials will be looking at whether resupply rocket flights can actually take place for frank fully there was no loss of life in a launch failure that could so easily have been fatal retellings zero mosque or macon bar tells a senior writer at space dot com when she joins us now via skype from new york madame thank you so much for joining us here on al-jazeera just following on from what the rebbe our correspondent there was saying i mean incredible really something like this could easily have been fatal but was it and how rare are similar situations and how lucky do you think the two are the two men the american and the russian are to still be alive these situations are definitely rare so this is the third launch of a soyuz vehicle with crew members aboard that has had

a problem like this the previous two were in one nine hundred seventy five in one thousand nine hundred three so it's also been a while. that the every piece of the rescue process worked perfectly so well of course it is a serious situation it's there is good news and as well the fact that everything in terms of the rescue work perfectly is definitely comforting for astronauts from everything that you hearing i mean is it clear to you what might have gone wrong so the sense that people have right now which is absolutely subject to change as the investigations can can continue. is that there was a problem with the booster separation in the first or second stage of the launch. ok i mean this launch failure also comes quite closely i think it was the end of oldest another soyuz issue where a hole was

a friend effectively discovered on the spacecraft which you've left on pended it could have been disastrous for the astronauts see inside i mean that's two issues in what around two months do you think there's something to worry about i mean it's definitely not great news for them both cases of really important remember in the case of the arrow week astronauts were never at risk the team on board the space station was never in danger they hatch the leak and with a hole is actually in a piece of the soyuz module that doesn't come back to earth so even when they come back if it hadn't been discovered they still would have been fine in this case of course it was significantly more serious but again both astronauts made it back safely really important and what their impact mean i don't know if you can answer this but what would the two astronauts have been feeling when they were sort of you know pushed out of the of the of the rocket and sent back to earth physically i

mean we saw some of the images but what would it have felt like. it definitely would of so they did actually reach weightlessness they were in freefall for a little bit and then as the reentry continued they started to they've up to about six point seven g.'s which is definitely uncomfortable but it was for a brief period of time and it is not the most serious anyone has ever experience so they definitely it wasn't the most comfortable way of coming back to earth but it was save the. test and that is built into soyuz capsules for events just like yeah i bet it will pick comfortable. with they were feeling i just got a final note i mean they were obviously going to go up to the space station that's not going to happen what do you think that does to the psyche of the astronauts on the space station now because of course this will have delayed or change their plans so how exactly nasa rose cosmos and the rest of the international space

station will adjust to this stuffing change is still really up in the air it's not clear yet when the next crew will be able to get up the crew that is up there right now which is three astronauts there's nothing stopping them from coming back to earth as scheduled they have a capsule up there they'll be fine to get back it's possible that the space station will look to extend their stay up there basically to avoid having the international space station be unintended. but whether or not that will happen how long that will happen and when the next crew will launch all that is still very much in the air so nasa is crossbows or both investigating and they're both looking at how to move forward but again they can only move so fast i guess i mean it only did just happen megan barsel senior writer at space dot com night and thank you you thank. now in the us hurrican michael has now killed six people after smashing into florida it's

pushed on northeast across georgia and into the carolinas which are still recovering from hurricane florence just last month many coastal towns in ne florida are still cut off twenty four hours after the category four storm made landfall and residents are being advised to stay where they are unlike most americans michael didn't drop to a tropical storm until it had traveled more than three hundred kilometers inland and gallagher has more now from the coastal city of apalachicola well as night fell here on wednesday it was difficult for us to get a picture of how much devastation hurricane michael has caused but it's a clear picture now on thursday and it really looks like panama city and next door mexico beach got up saluted devastated by this storm they were in the eye of the storm that's where it came ashore and it looks like tornadoes hit those communities and not a hurricane we've seen roofs ripped off schools absolutely leveled hospitals have been evacuating patients is

a very serious situation in that specific area here in apalachicola we're on the more powerful side of the storm the damage is limited but getting around is almost impossible because you have situations like this where there are downed trees downed power cables all over the place eight hundred thousand people without power across this state and states north of here so this is a very serious situation and hard for the emergency services to get to the places they are now most needed. meanwhile at least five people have died in india after a cycle made landfall in the eastern states under pradesh three hundred thousand others have been evacuated from low lying coastal areas heavy rain and strong winds have downed trees and caused widespread power outages across the two states neighboring bangladesh which is currently home to about a million refugees is also on alert both have been ordered ashore and some ferry service. indonesian officials are saying it could take up to two years to rebuild.

after it was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami two weeks ago firefighters and soldiers are conducting a final search for survivors. the rescue effort was extended until friday the request of local residents officials believe that up to five thousand people are still missing more than two thousand have been confirmed dead. more to come in this news hour including how senegal is trying to tackle coma one of the world's causes of blindness archaeologist discover at least fifty eight ancient shipwrecks in an underwater graveyard in greece and then we're going to take a look at the events aiming for an olympic foothold. in argentina.

we've had a lot of flooding over parts of the western mediterranean recently we've had some of the spanish islands and then you can see that area of heavy rain work its way through the southern parts of france into the northern parts of italy southern parts of france we've seen some flooding here as we have in sicily to this system though is easing as we go through the next few days so there will be some heavy downpours probably for sicily but i think other than that the showers will become more manageable by the time we get to lunchtime on friday the worst of the storm over ireland will be clearing away still plenty of rain though across many parts of britain and ireland and that's going to stick around as we had three saturday as well just making its way towards the northwestern parts of the iberian peninsula as well elsewhere for the eastern parts of europe largely fine and dry and quite warm still in warsaw with a maximum temperature of twenty one degrees for the other side of the mediterranean we've got a fair few showers here they've been working their way eastwards over the last day or so so we'll see some around choosier there for friday and probably there we just edging eastwards into the northern parts of libya as we head into saturday for the

central belt of africa still some lively showers here some particularly heavy ones over parts of south sudan i think as we head through friday but even further south over policy you gander is looking fairly wet at times and in the west is to. we're. i have dedicated almost my entire professional life to the bench and fight against corruption and what i have learned is that we need champions we need also to shine the light on those shampoos and this award bridges that gap that existed in this.

nominate your own for us from here all shined a light on what they do and to have not shine a light on your hero with your nomination for the international space award two thousand and eighteen for more information go to ace award dot com. welcome back here's a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera turkish security sources say they have definite evidence that. was killed which they've shared with washington turkey has

also announced a joint investigation. russia has opened a criminal investigation after a rocket bound for the international space station failed shortly after takeoff the two man crew to make an emergency landing and at least six people are now known to have been killed by hurricane michel in the u.s. after it tore through coastal towns in ne florida it's now moved on to the carolinas as a tropical storm. ukrainian president petro poroshenko is hailing a decision that gives his country's christian orthodox church full independence from russia calling it a victory a service to mark the historic move has been held in the capital kiev it follows that the situation by the many call patriarch in istanbul the spiritual leader of three hundred million orthodox believers worldwide russia's orthodox church is now set to break away from istanbul in the biggest splitting christianity for more than five hundred years andrew symonds reports from. their old

faith but there's nothing spiritual about what's going on beyond the silence of prayer and thought leaders of the orthodox churches here all split there are the pro russian all they want to depend on the brakes being on to the orthodox patriarch in moscow. as a true we try to be independent from. because we don't like russia or so or something else but. how russian in part are through some interest you. also books church in our land as a tool of imperial policy in this sacred place to the faithful the archbishop's words sound political that's because they are there's a potent mix in ukraine of religion and power politics you only have to look around the corner here to see the sort of messaging that's going on violence and death

more than one hundred protesters were killed in the my down uprising of twenty fourteen that led to the fall of pro russian president viktor yanukovych which then came russia's annexation of crimea and the conflict with pro russian separatists in eastern ukraine now in its fifth year. ukraine's president petro poroshenko stands accused by russia of pushing for orthodox church independence from moscow to boost his chances of winning another term in elections next year in moscow the patriarch eight sees itself as the mother church and it says independence for ukraine will be a catastrophe at that you school. it's an artificial establishment and every time politicians meddle in church affairs it leads to pain suffering and often bloodshed because religious conflicts supported by politicians are the most violent and tragic we know that from history and from what is happening in the middle east.

here in ukraine not all orthodox church members are in agreement with what's happening. it doesn't matter whether it's a russian or ukrainian church it's hard to see how believe a stat conflicts such as this one either her or the church should report. in there as a state ukraine needs faith as a pillar to hold on to so that we understand who we can be in the future. what of the future ukraine's president is declaring a victory while russia warns of religious conflict and drew simmons. a judge and in the united states has dismissed one of the six sexual assault charges against movie producer harvey weinstein weinstein appeared in a new york court for the situation a year and the day after the initial accusations were first publicized he was

arrested and bailed in may weinstein is pleaded not guilty on all counts and then as the allegations made by more than seventy women. wall street has continued its the kleine for a sixth day with both the dow jones and the s. and p. five hundred closing down about two percent on thursday their lowest levels since july and that's on top of falls on wednesday which saw stocks take their worst losses in eight months the sell off follows investor fears that the u.s. will hike interest rates and global growth will stall earlier european shares hit their lowest point in more than twenty months and then china's stock markets plunged to their lowest levels in four years. gunmen have abducted the man said to be young africa's youngest billionaire as he entered a hotel gym in dar es salaam in tanzania forty three year old mohammad who's worth around one point five billion dollars is head of the multinational any group of businesses is also former politician and

a noted philanthropist the idea is easy is the world's leading cause of blindness almost two hundred million people live with it most of them in africa but it is curable now senegal is aggressively tackling the disease aiming to eradicate it completely on world side day nicolas talk reports from an eye hospital in eastern senegal. it is all a blur explains by more start to help volunteer going to. recognize his grandchildren. is losing his sight every blink is more painful than the other. it's true coma an infectious disease that causes a breakdown of the surface of the eye if left untreated sarky go blind it's not too late for him is eyelids have turned inwards and are damaging the eye this is caused by repeated infections it could have been easily prevented if saw had washed his

eyes regular. but sar does not have access to clean water at home flies landing close to the eye spread the disease to others contagious yet preventable is the world's leading cause of blindness and if i lose my science completely i'll be useless to my family and i want to end up like other blind young ones abandoned and on the streets begging seen as a burden children with to come often suffer the most but not here at senegal's only school for the visually impaired. the children compensates they have a stronger sense of hearing and of touch surpassing that of the known visually impaired given the chance we see that our students do well in the job market beyond social stigma the un estimates the economic loss globally from untreated coma to eight billion dollars annually sending l. wants to get rid of the disease offering free treatment now the top is not

a doctor but trained by the ministry of health in order to operate on patients that have the symptoms of a coma he's about to cut a small incision only i live in order to get rid of the disease despite the possibility of bleeding or permanent scarring of the eye the benefits outweigh the risks. that it looks as todd can you see. after a ten minute procedure fifty eight years of suffering comes to an end alone so our walks home gradually lighten colors flood into focus. nicholas hawk algis iraq eastern senegal polls indicate that german chancellor angela merkel's bavarian allies are heading for their worst showing in state elections in over sixty years despite

a booming economy one issue has dominated the campaign immigration the mccain reports from bavaria. early autumnal day looks like a scene from a postcard in this placid place the thought of an intense election battle seems distant and yet these are the voters all parties must convince which subjects are most important to them it's not like it was two years ago or it's calmed down a lot when the big refugee wave happened it was a bit weird but now the topic as i see it is no longer current means being critical of closing the borders i don't think it works i think controls yes but closing borders is nonsense i don't need to talk about europe and then closed borders and that's the issue which propelled the politics of this state into national into european prominence over the course of this past year with the governing christie and social union here threatening to topple the national coalition if you didn't

get its way and yet right now in this campaign it finds itself on the defensive over this issue. in news conferences c.s.u. ministers admit the effect immigration has had you have noticed we have had many irritations in the past few years the higher number of refugees that came into our country the question of integration and the big controversy about that merlin but the most important factor is we are concentrating on a strong campaign. in recent months the c.s.u. has sought to move further to the right to prevent the populist anti immigrant a.f.d. from encroaching on to its grand but analysts say ministers in berlin have resisted c.s.u. plans for the sea as you could always problem with and proposed but in fact they couldn't bring home anything they promised they over promised and under the liver it this is why conservatives now turn their back on them and flock to the after is that which explains why that party is heading to sunday's election with confidence

i think it's important for the country to get the fifty into the year in parliament. to make it very also one of the states that. support opposition against merkel. and yet in this deeply conservative state there are signs not everyone likes the right wood trend in politics many here in keams a say they want their politicians to concentrate on schools health and mainstream issues the local green candidate says he thinks his party could spring a surprise in this election we'll know if he's right on sunday evening dominic cain al-jazeera in bavaria. the u.k.'s electoral regulator has asked police to look into whether several campaigns committed criminal offenses during the two thousand

and sixteen brita british referendum to leave the e.u. it wants police to investigate leave dot edu vote and its affiliated campaign. to see if they breached election spending or vote leave was fined eighty one thousand dollars in july for similar offenses police are yet to agree whether to open an investigation into the campaigns. a major conference underway in london is hoping to stop the illegal wildlife trade and protect some of the world's best known species the trade in ivory tiger parts exotic birds and more is worth up to twenty three billion dollars a year and it's causing untold damage to the world's biodiversity there clark has more now from central london. across the globe there's a war raging the slaughtering of wildlife like never before the enemy criminal

syndicates who ordered the killings that will this an all too familiar scene across africa elephants killed tusks hacked off spirited away to be turned into trinkets in pseudo medicine for the asian market. thousands of miles away from the killing fields in london such atrocities are focusing minds one thousand delegates from eighty two nations determined to step up the battle. there. is three ways we could have stopped at. the. top which that response. but the demand side is international markets sold the. stops. of course is not just the elephant take the wild tiger there's been a ninety five percent decline in numbers in the past one hundred years today there are fewer than four thousand left in the wild

a thousand roy slaughtered every year one point three million birds are taken from the wild in southeast asia alone i merely then there's a shot for in trade the pet trade baby chimpanzees in iran and times being sold taken from their mothers who are often killed in the process the list goes on and on. and now many say the trade needs to be treated in the same way as major organized crime like the drugs trade and human trafficking wildlife crime is organized crime organized crime undermines the rule of law is on the minds governments we see a situation where governments are deprived of revenue from economic activity that their digital mccleon tied to too because it all goes under the counter we see enforcement officers including rangers being killed in the course that usually communities are being threatened. since nine hundred seventy there's been a breathtaking fifty eight percent decline in wildlife numbers around the world if the killings continue at this rate experts say all future generations will see rich

global biodiversity will be behind bars in a zoo. al jazeera london. divers in the greek islands have discovered a massive ship graveyard sixty meters below. so far the remains of fifty eight wrecks of being discovered on the seabed dating back from ancient greece all the way to the twentieth century much of the cargo is remarkably well preserved and untouched since the ships went down owing to the depth of the wrecks the project organizers say must have been one of the business. world. i would call it probably one of the top archaeological discoveries of the century in that we now have a new story to tell of a navigational route that connected the aging mediterranean and this was the focal point this was the place where they were all crossing by each other so i had the. us open final.