a huge row between behind them as quickly as possible. obviously the. more from mike hanna now who joins us from washington d.c. so mike tell us more about this pressure from some in congress to learn more about the president's own financial ties to riyadh well in the latest move a group of democrats senators have sent a letter to president trump demanding that he disclose any financial ties he and his family may have with saudi arabia now in the letter they say that they want all these details for the past ten years they listed a number of off arrangements the president trump had made with saudi businessmen including the sale of apartments in new york even the sale of a yacht this letters being sent to his sons to the executive offices of the trump corporation as well now they are absolutely adamant that this must be done the background to this is the magnitsky act that we heard paul ryan referring there in

alan fishes report now this at could provide for accountable debility for human rights violations it has been put into effect by a bipartisan letter from the senate which gives president trump one hundred twenty days to decide what kind of sanctions should be imposed and whether such sanctions would be imposed the background to this letter said only by democrats is they fear that the president's decision making may be affected by any business ties he might have with saudi arabia mit clear president trump is actually tweeted that he has no business interests with saudi arabia which on its face just isn't true if you look through the records. well indeed yes see did that tweet in the last twenty four hours saying i have no business interests in saudi arabia and then in parentheses or indeed in russia but president trump himself just two years ago was boasting

about the number of apartments he sold to saudi invest is that democrats have listed a whole lot of dealing the seas had with saudi businessmen over the years there's also been a record kept up the amount that saudi businessmen have been spending in trump branded hotels since he became president the hotel here in washington just down the road has seen a lot of saudi custom so all of these factors coming together very difficult for president trump to say oh i've got no dealings whatsoever the problem is though is the legal basis of this lead to put quite bluntly it has no legal basis it is a request effectively from the senate is a request which president trump is likely to brush away. all right mike hanna live for us in washington mike thank you let's take a look at the man a to sit at the center of this this disappearance this mystery jamal khashoggi is a journalist who crittle criticize that is saudi arabia's monarchy after mohamed

bin someone became the center of power and the kingdom last year he accused the thirty three year old crown prince of introducing a new era of fear intimidation arrests and public shaming fearing for his safety he fled to the u.s. in september of last year where he wrote a regular column for the washington post but before his career as a journalist because he was close to the saudi royal family and served as an advisor to senior saudi officials germany's foreign minister has joined other nations in urging saudi arabia to cooperate with the investigation into showed his disappearance he said attacks on journalists are not acceptable. the forest or deaf like this case is and remains extremely worrying the current accusations a serious and one has to say disturbing therefore of clearly explained our expectations to the saudi arabian sides very early on that this case has to be completely clarified immediately that those responsible will be held accountable. as director of the arms and security project at the center for international policy

he joins us from new york we appreciate your time very much so president donald trump has been very blunt very clear about the importance that is he sees it as the relationship between the saudi arabia and and the u.s. when it comes to money arms oil etc etc now to be clear the united states doesn't really need saudi arabia when it comes to oil anymore does he have a leg to stand on on these other claims that he's making about the importance of this relationship. no he doesn't he keeps touting a figure of one hundred ten billion dollars in arms deals that's a fiction. as of trump's entering into office there has been one major contract sign for a new weapons platform and there's been letters of acceptance you know unbinding commitments for about fourteen billion which is only about ten percent of what trump was talking about so a lot of this is more kind of p.r.

for president trump to say he's a good deal maker but it's really doesn't do much for the american economy or the american worker it's certainly good for lockheed martin boeing raytheon a handful of people be the main beneficiaries of of the business that is going on even if what he was saying was true let's just say that was all true can you can you put that way that on one hand with the other hand we're talking about the possible. ghastly murder of a journalist is there any justification for maintaining these ties or at lot or at least not demanding a transparent investigation no i think it's an obscene comparison and no amount of money should justify supporting murder supporting the kind of indiscriminate killing that the saudis are doing in yemen with u.s. weaponry and so you know even if trump were closer to the mark which he is not

about the economics of it i see no justification and of course as you heard earlier they seem to be willing to accept the saudis investigating themselves which of course is ridiculous if you want to get to the bottom of this does. it does the u.s. need to stop the trumps administration need it the saudis for what they're trying to accomplish with iran do they need them. i think saudi arabia at this point is a detriment to u.s. foreign policy they've claimed that iran is a major player in the yemen war but in fact their secondary their hooty have their own grievances that are longstanding they're not fighting because of iran they would continue to fight whether or not they had support from iran and if anything the saudi slaughter is making iran more popular in yemen so and i think the intelligence that we get from saudi arabia is fairly minimal as you mentioned the arms sales are not particularly important in the scale of the large u.s.

economy so i think certainly president trump and the saudi leadership want to play the iran card to justify continuing business as usual but i don't think there's a security argument that really holds up in that respect is there a scenario in which had been solomon is somehow contained or sidelined and then the us is able to maintain the status quo with saudi arabia. well it's interesting senator lindsey graham who at this point former trump critic who sort of joined at the hip now with president trump said on fox you know we can't do business with hamas been summoned anymore almost implying that he wanted the saudis to remove him from the you know the ascension to power now what that would mean how that would happen i think that would be a mistake i think you have to look at the fundamentals of the relationship not individual personalities. william martin thank you so much for your expertise we

appreciate it thank you. but you were head of the news hour hand clothing totally dough canada legalizes recreational marijuana only the second country to do so. and yes me too movement has its first big when as a journalist term politician is forced to resign as a minister. and the richest contract in sports history has been signed we'll have that story coming up a little later in the program. the man the united nations tasked with helping bring peace to syria has announced he is leaving the post u.s. special envoy stefan to mr will step down at the end of november seventy one else says he's moving on for personal reasons are diplomatic editor james bass reports when he took the job over four years ago stefan de mistura described it as almost

mission impossible now off to seventy years of war with over twelve million people displaced from their homes in syria and over huff a million killed he told the security council he was stepping down with a peace deal far from sight let me old to give you some heads up if i may i would myself be moving on as of the last week of november mr de mistura tried everything from local truces to meetings of key international players in twenty sixteen he managed to get syrian government representatives to geneva to meet with a delegation for the first time represented many of the opposition elements including key fighting groups this promising opportunity stop to be its tracks by military action during the talks by syria and its russian ally if there for taken the decision to bring him bertie for them dreaded for they did not and you

know the fate of the haven't they basically formed your top. i am not referring to military activity. it was russian air power and iranian forces on the ground that change the balance of power the russians then began to pushing talks first in a starter then in sochi as a rival to mr de mistura as geneva process in over four years at press conferences and in interviews they seem to one thing that was your mantra there is no military solution and yet in that time we've seen starvation used as a weapon we've seen repression including torture we've seen aerial bombardment including barrel bombs we've seen the repeated use of chemical weapons the syrian government clearly didn't believe you and it now controls most of the country so it did have a military solution to it. you see i work for the u.n.

and i've been working for the end now forty eight years in twenty two borth or mission conflict area i have learnt one thing and i know defectors in a few very strong elective what matters if winning the peace mr de mistura isn't finishing quite yet he's making a last trip to damascus next week to persuade the syrian government to accept a finalize list for a constitutional committee they've been dragging their heels on that for nine months it's unlikely his decision to quit will give him any more leverage james zero of the united nations. shastra landis is director of the center for middle east studies at the university of oklahoma and editor of syria comment block he joins us via skype from norman oklahoma and thank you so much for your time so their timing and this resignation what does it signify to you. well the war is

coming to an end and the u.s. and it has very little role to play in it you know we saw de mistura do really our roic work trying to bring together the different sides but the it's a problem here was that the sides did not want a peace agreement and the united states and russia cut off it's in a secure and a council which which really paralyzed the u.n. because the united states the west what assad to step down and regime in shipping and russia and iran wired aside to stay so there was really very little grounds for dialogue and for some cut i mean a peace agreement and yet he kept it together for these four years trying to play for time trying to make a little agreements that would hopefully bring the two sides closer together it never happened this was settled on the battlefield so the idea of a constitution realistically can that be draft dead before november or through

november. it's unlikely look at syria has had a number of very constitute the problem is that nobody follows them and and president assad is still a lawyer he does not agree to who sits down amongst the opposition he's got the power in damascus. he's not going to let the opposition write a new constitution that's going to push him from power and and so you know in a sense this process will drag on the united states seems to be committed to it it says that there's going to be political change in syria that there will be a peaceful transition of power by the u.n. overseeing elections in syria and this is why the united states is staying in syria will control a third of syrian territory into the infinite future in order to rollback iran and get this kind of peaceful transition as pump. it all seems very unrealistic today

all right landis joining us from norman oklahoma thank you pleasure at least nineteen people have died after an explosion and shooting at a school in crimea arson investigator same eighteen year old student went on a shooting spree before taking his own life step boston has more from moscow. panic in crimea as the bomb exploded in a school in the most eastern city of here. ambulances and military trucks rushed to the scene among the dead many teenagers dozens of students in the vocational training school suffered injuries they were taken to hospitals in both crimea and russia the two story school is having a damaged a gas explosion was initially thought to have caused the blast but it soon became clear it wasn't an accident investigators say the bomb exploded in the canteen and

the gunmen walked around the school with a rifle shooting everyone he saw then police found the body of an eighteen year old student in the school library they say he shot himself and consider him to be the only attacker your future in the world if. it is already clear that this is a crime motives and versions of this tragedy of being carefully investigated russian president putin held a minute of silence for the victims after his meeting with egyptian president sisi in sochi but in recently opened a new bridge which connects russia with crimea the peninsula was annexed from ukraine by russian troops four years ago and the violence in crimea has the potential to escalate simmering tensions between the russians and ukrainians there's been an outpouring of sympathy for the victims of the school attack here in moscow russians are laying flowers at a memorial near the kremlin mourners are asking what brought a young student to commit such

a bloody attack step fasten al-jazeera moscow. still ahead on al-jazeera one of the world's youngest democracies for a people are hoping the latest election will lead to a brighter future in pakistan's batsman put them in firm control of the second test against australia details ahead in sport. holloway have flood warnings in force for good parts of central texas at the moment was a cloud just showing up here you see this conveyor of cloud pushing in from the southwest who rode up to the east coast it's been tipping down here for the last couple of days more rain to come over the next couple days you see that west or whether they're just around central parts of texas down towards new mexico dry weather

ahead of that cold look at that just nine celsius in new york four celsius therefore also well but at least as far and dry crisp sunshine coming through by friday those temperatures do not doubt the cloud also not just up as well that pushes up towards the lakes by this day to the east of that generally settled and generally sunny the wet weather will continue for a good part of texas i would towards the west coast that's the place to be warm sunshine there in l.a. around thirty one celsius not see bad say for seattle here getting up to ninety degrees in the twelve there for good measure in calgary meanwhile lots of sunshine across the caribbean there be a few splashes of rain there was some showers just drifting into the windward dollars into the leeward islands and what weather there never too far away from jamaica k.c. some heavy downpours as we go through thursday the wet weather that's been plaguing the chorale q. and guatemala that set to continue and it's not doing furthermore. the

frustration. the cricket world isn't about match fixing i mean you have to think why would he give me a go because then we didn't burn him again it's a it would never make it that. al-jazeera is investigative unit reveals explosive new evidence documentary confirms the moment now is a very hard profile figure in match fixing and international cricket even though this al-jazeera investigations cricket's match fixing the manoa files.

watching al-jazeera let's take a look at the top stories this hour turkish forensic experts were finally allowed to search the house of saudi arabia's consul general in istanbul two weeks after a saudi journalist jamal khashoggi disappeared officials have told al jazeera more evidence has been found joshi went missing after he was last seen entering the saudi consulate as president donald trump has denied he is helping saudi arabia cover up its role in the case as speculation grows about possible conflict of interest some senators are demanding that trump disclose any financial ties he may have with the kingdom and stephon them a store of the man united nations tasked with helping bring peace to syria has

announced he is leaving his post seventy one year old u.n. special envoy says he will step down for personal reasons at the end of november on the job for four years. european union leaders have rolled out a special summit on brocks it in november because they say not enough progress has been made towards a deal earlier on wednesday british prime minister theresa may address them but they say she offered no new ideas to break the current deadlock reports from brussels. the hopes of doing a break do you look at this summit. british prime minister to resume a huge positive tone on a rival won't be impressed many here in brussels so what we've seen is that we've sold most of the issues in which strong agreements there are still very strong the question is and. i believe everybody around the table wants to get a deal from by working intensively and closely becoming she's not jill i believe a deal is achievable now is the time to make you have to. spend less than half an

hour addressing her fellow leaders on the status of exit talks before they went into dinner without for the summit of the u.k.'s growing isolation within this bloke he presented them with. no new ideas to break the current deadlock so there wasn't much to discuss e.u. leaders are running out of patience with britain just as britain is running out of time they called off a planned emergency summit in november judging that insufficient progress has been made to expect a deal by then it looks that to still we do have a lot of discussions and i'll try not to approve man told to stand still there would you keep on still and it's sad and difficult for europeans the side to negotiate it with their person who has no full support of the position they know she's politically weak at home the reason may has bowed to different factions in her government and parliament rejecting the e. hughes plan for a backstop or insurance policy against

a future hard border on the island of ireland they insist it's non-negotiable and there's more and more talk about all of this ending in no deal disruptions of borders tariffs on trade british passport holders requiring visas and work permits on the continent. there is one new idea doing the rounds the a use potential willingness to extend the so-called transition period after britain leaves the e.u. allowing a full three years for trade talks to take place before that thorny issue of the backstop applies it might soften some opposition to the backstop hardly imaginative thinking at this stage but possibly all they've got the prime minister and others stressed that a deal is ninety percent. but on the problem of ireland they're still miles apart jonah al-jazeera brussels a suicide bomb attack in afghanistan has killed a paramilitary parliamentary that is candidate the blast happened in the southern

province of helmand at least ten candidates have now been killed in the run up to saturday's elections the taliban is warning people not to participate in the vote scarlet bella from kabul. was killed inside his electro office in lashkar gah on home and province he died when a bomb that was strapped to the bottom of this cheer exploded i people who were wounded three of those people who died of taliban did claim responsibility for this attack they called it a tactical attack and they had warned that they would do this they put out a statement two weeks ago saying that they would attack campaign offices and try to disrupt saturday's parliamentary election as much as possible they essentially see it as an extension of american influence in afghanistan and they don't they won't stand for it this is the tenth parliamentary candidate they have coup since campaigning began they've also abducted some candidates and wounded others. karami

and is a well known politician he was formerly was a general and fought during the soviet days he went away to moscow and he came back when the taliban fell in two thousand and one and has been a politician here ever since prison and helmand three years ago are quite a difficult posting because of course helmand is a taliban stronghold but. man was was very strong and very respected and had a lot of support in helmand he was much love his surname actually means and champion or hero and i think for a lot of his supporters a lot of people who would have voted for him on saturday certainly believe that the true. favorable is on a policeman had been killed in a gunfight in indian administered kashmir the violence broke out and short of our worst security forces were searching for rebels thousands gathered at the funerals of those killed they carry the bodies through the city chanting anti in the end slogans. every day there is bloodshed this will continue till the

kashmir dispute is resolved the tyranny and oppression from india is ongoing india used to say illiterates are picking up the guns but now educated youths are picking up the guns a government minister in india has resigned as. for as many as twenty women accused him of sexual harassment and assault and jr was the deputy foreign minister the allegations against the sixty seven year old date back to his time as a leading newspaper editor in the late one nine hundred eighty s. and ninety's he is suing the first female journalist who reported him on twitter for defamation is part of a long list of prominent men who've been named in what's been called india's need to movement and data shah is co-director of the akshara center a women's rights organization in india she says this is the start of a wider movement for change. it's a huge ridiculous soon for all of. gates to get so it shows that if so many women come together we can actually really go change in

the revolution in some really and who asked me to has been a kind of a process like that that you know it is allowed us to bring sexual habits and did well in the center of discussion and need to have been abroad in march me to in india has just that it's been amazing that it's it's so many you know the being quietly just accepting board at whim or what expedient they had and they would have come out. because he started the defamation case that so many women came out and supported the woman who had actually said the first time and i think that's an important thing that men kind of behave as if they don't remember our they didn't do it completely get into this denial mode and that you know just if you really it's women been meant to see that you're not going to now be quiet and more

hundreds of women have been unable to enter a hindu temple in south any a despite a supreme court ruling for centuries the temple and carla stayed banned women's or girls older than ten because they were a ministry to age and considered impure but india's top court said that in french on the right to worship and all that they can visit the temple starting on wednesday despite that crowds of angry protesters. from even getting near the temple. or just in haiti have turned violent as anger grows over billions of dollars are missing funds haitians want to know how money from the venezuelan sponsored oil assistance program was shoes to the fans were to provide social care and improve public services and he jocasta reports. police important clue. inspired live ammunition at unarmed protesters wednesday as thousands spilled onto the streets in the capital and across the country the demonstrators accuse the

ruling party of corruption and ignoring the needs of its people you know pay day we're living in a country where there's no health care there's no good schools for our children and the farmers are bad and then with no support from the government and in the same country you have a couple of people who stole over three billion dollars. haitians are demanding an investigation into what happened to some three point eight billion dollars from a venezuelan oil agreement the money from the petro caribbean fund was supposed to be for social development and public works yet either levon years after the fund was started forty thousand haitians still live in displacement camps and millions of people have no running water when. water is life for us and without it we cannot live we don't even have enough water for toilets protesters accuse politicians and administrators of embezzling the money the protest campaign started on twitter two months ago with the hash tags petrol karim

a challenge and where is the petrol karim a money banners and sort of people coming together and sort of again from very different walks of life from different political backgrounds from different socioeconomic backgrounds haiti's president juvenal moyes is himself implicated in the corruption scandal as he commemorated the death of haiti's founding father wednesday the sound of protesters could be heard throughout the event under mounting public pressure when he says he supports an independent investigation. we have a big protest all over the country a big protest a request of the government. gives us an explanation as to how the money from petro curry day was spent. with business is shuttered and schools closed around the country haitians say this protest is unlike those that have gripped the country in the past they say this time the people are more united they say this time the government will be held accountable heidi joe castro al jazeera. and as one of

the youngest democracies in the world are now bhutan is about to choose a new government only be the third election since two thousand and eight the economy and the environment are major concerns they parker reports and returns capital and. it is a rustic landscape of peaks and paddy fields a country seemingly at all odds with the modern world. less than two generations ago bhutan had a subsistence economy now it's hoping to graduate from the un list of least developed countries to a developing one things are a little slower here war manageable than other places but there's globalization is this explosion of media is forces beyond our control and we're being in that pried open open prized. determined became a democracy in two thousand and eight under the orders of the previous king it's a change the country still getting used to thoroughly stations have been set up

even the remotest corners of the country voters will choose from one of two parties there's very little politically that separates them including their names the d.p.t. the town's first ever ruling party and the d n t political newcomers it's really at the crossroads because we are a new party what we are offering people is that the must strengthen democracy and then i say. they must strengthen democracy they must strengthen the bridge between the people and the government they are looking at firstly bridging the development gap then you're looking at income gap then it's gender gap then generation gap and then we're also we also have a strong social agenda we believe in doing what is right not likely popular both parties also want to protect the driving force of p. towns economy hydro power and accounts for

a quarter of the country's national income most of which is sold as electricity to neighboring india i can all my growth for better health care and education if improved roads created more business opportunities in industry but there's also a fierce political debate on how best to balance this economic growth with protecting the environment and group hands unique cultural heritage nature is the backbone of the economy but hydropower is also responsible for half of all external loans making bhutan the second most indebted nation in asia after japan in proportion to population since it emerged from international isolation in the one nine hundred sixty s. the terms gone through seismic change markets in the capital are now flooded with food from india growth is everywhere to be seen but it could be many more years before this one secretive nation stands on its own two feet. leave syria

to the time. israeli air strikes have targeted twenty sites in the gaza strip killing at least one palestinian israeli military says it was her response to rocket fire that hamas which controls gaza distance itself from the attack and says the rockets were an irresponsible attempt to undermine egypt's efforts to broker a new long term truce and israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu s issued a warning to palestinians responsible for the violence so the law because. israel regards these attacks in the most serious way the attacks on the border fence on the communities residing next to the border be a shiver everywhere as i sit at the opening of the cabinet meeting this week school if these attacks will not stop because we will stop them and i want to tell you today israel will act with great force.