cern's jonah hole has the latest from brussels. if there's been concern about a slow response by european nations at a political level to the alleged murder of jamal khashoggi well that may be changing britain france and the netherlands have all announced that they're withdrawing their ministerial level delegations to the financial investment summit or davos in the desert as it's been dubbed citing that now is simply not the time for that level of engagement this was what french president emmanuel macron had to say. leafy. the facts we know today are mr g. string the serious and worrying we expect to throw light on this matter we have had exchanges with saudi authorities to clarify all this but in the current circumstances we have sides a postponement political visits including that of our economy minister european countries of course faced something of a quandary in their response to saudi arabia do they go in hard on riyadh demanding answers threatening action risking the possibility of wrecking lucrative trade and

investment ties particularly in the sale of arms and also very valuable intelligence contacts that have been credited with water going number of attacks on european soil or do they stand behind that much from put to value of the european union the global rules based system casting all else to one side well it seems they are making their minds up now even though the call continues to go out for a thorough into in independent investigation this was donald tusk the president of the e.u. council earlier. we need an open transparent and to further investigation it's in all the best interests of the forethought we are there and outside the european union but nevertheless watching closely the russian president vladimir putin where he also of a rush to judgment. first of all we should wait for the results of the investigations how can we russia start this. what relationship with saudi arabia

without knowing what in fucked up and death. what may happen in future when nobody is quite facing waiting of a third for the investigation to calm clues of one clue though comes from a close ally of angela merkel speaking in berlin on wednesday he said europe may have to adjust its relations with saudi arabia meanwhile twitter has pulled several accounts that were apparently pushing a pro saudi government agenda following the disappearance of. the accounts of being taken down for violating spam rules a us broadcast network handed over a list of accounts to twitter which have been tweeting the same pro-government messages at the same time of summer so hot as associate professor of middle eastern studies at the university of oklahoma he says the bots were created to influence public opinion on the case inside saudi arabia the tweets were both in arabic and in english but this crisis has not only affected how people outside of saudi arabia

look at mine there is a great fear i think inside saudi arabia that this will negatively affect his popularity in standing inside the kingdom especially if there are negative economic consequences associated with this gruesome act and we've seen them already and so if saudis then hold him responsible for negative economic consequences to their country that's quite concerning so i think these these tweets are primarily directed at saudis to try to sow doubt in their mind that mohammed bin some man in the saudi government are responsible for this and therefore not to blame them for this crisis. time for a short break here al-jazeera when we come back why afghanistan's shia minority sees saturday's election as maturity to get a bigger say in politics more on that stay with us.

hello again where across united states we are still looking at a flooding situation across parts of texas you can see the clouds are still there and we do expect to see more rain across that state so flood watches warnings are still in effect there what we're going to see up to the north though is going to be a front pushing through and that means a change of temperatures so winnipeg eight degrees is going to be a high then that begins to slide that front under slides over here towards the east and we're going to sing those temperatures drop so here on saturday new york is going to be a cloudy day at about nineteen also quite cool down along that front with washington eighteen but still quite nice for miami as well as for los angeles with a temperature of thirty degrees there well here across central america as well as mexico where looking at a flooding situation as a tropical disturbance is developing here in the pacific now what that's going to

be doing is we think intensifying over the next few days and we are going to be picking up some showers along the coast that means storm surge flooding mudslides could be a possibility as well as wind damage just depending on how close that system does get towards the shore up towards venner though it is going to be a nice day a warm day for you at thirty one degrees as well as nasa thirty and over jamaica we are going to be seeing temperatures into the low thirty's with kingston jamaica seeing attempt a few about thirty one degrees. you don't know where public service stops and private interest begins what's at stake is the very essence of democracy and we have never had a president so brazenly treating the oval office as an opportunity. for lines follows the money investigating whether donald trump is profiting from the presidency and asking what the cost will be for democracy in the usa and the

president's profits on al-jazeera. welcome back. here on al-jazeera u.s. president donald trump has for the first time publicly acknowledged that saudi journalist is likely to be dead. of severe consequences if it's responsible for the death. top politicians in the united states are pulled out of a major investment conference next week more than forty u.s. politicians. are going to saudi arabia and a letter addressed to president. denied any knowledge of what happened but

al-jazeera one of his bodyguards was allegedly in charge of the operation which involved fifteen men. so let's take a look at the man who was at the center of this mystery. criticized saudi arabia's monarchy after mom had been sound man became the center of power in the kingdom last year a soldier accused the thirty three year old crown prince of introducing a new era of fear intimidation arrests and public shaming fearing for his own safety he fled to the u.s. in september last year where he wrote a regular column for the washington post but before his career as a journalist she was close to the saudi royal family and served as an advisor to senior saudi officials. i've been sound man's rapid ascent to the international community took them by surprise in the last eighteen months he's consolidating power and attempted to project himself as a reformer a modernizer case a swung a spotlight on to other policies he's led as this report. since is debut on the

world stage it's been a rapid rise for saudi crown prince mohammed bin some on in two thousand and fifteen seemingly out of nowhere the twenty nine year old favorite son of saudi arabia's king solomon been up to lizzie's was appointed defense minister he became chief architect of saudi arabia's military intervention in yemen a campaign of aerial bombardment that has helped create what the u.n. calls the worst humanitarian crisis in the world human rights organizations accuse the saudi led coalition of bombing civilian targets such as hospitals and schools in saudi arabia where most of the population is under thirty been so man has been heralded as a man who would bring much needed economic and social reforms but that's changed in recent months however no hell of a sermon with with the with general has it's come about at a time when reforms have been slowing down he gave women the right to drive but

imprisoned women activists there are still many reforms that have been take been very slow in implementing in saudi arabia and people quite frankly have run out of patience with regard to have a visit. in june last year mohammed bin some on that the blockade against qatar creating the worst crisis in the g.c.c. since its inception in november saudi security forces arrested several hundred business leaders and senior royals many had to pay billions of dollars to secure their release. the saudi government called it an anti-corruption purge but analysts said that this was mohamed bin solomon's way of removing people who could potentially pose a threat to his power and also a way to raise much needed funds for a struggling economy. later that same month saudi forces detained lebanese prime minister saad hariri on a visit to the kingdom it took weeks before he was released in march of this year

mohammed bin solomon visited the united states. the whirlwind tour and charm offensive led to largely favorable coverage in the international media helping the crown prince sell his image as a reformer who would open saudi arabia up to innovation and investment since then a range of other civil society activists and clerics have been jailed observers say saudi arabia's strategic relationship with western powers is a delicate one to balance i think the problem that the white house has and indeed what a lot of european allies have is that there are a lot of cases going on in the region a lot of crises in which saudi arabia is a major player and is required to be a major ally this includes issues regarding iran this includes issues in yemen this includes issues regarding palestine and israel now with the jamal khashoggi suspected murder inside the saudi consulate in istanbul causing more international outrage critics wonder if the saudi crown prince can survive the scrutiny. for such

a party al jazeera. shooting in afghanistan's southern province of kandahar has left three government official dead the local intelligence chief the police chief and the governor all killed in the latest violence out of saturday's parliamentary election where three americans were also injured in the attack on the governor's compound the taliban have claimed responsibility among the dead was also a top afghan security commander general had previously survived numerous attempts on his life the taliban have repeatedly threatened to disrupt saturday's vote. afghanistan's president ashraf ghani has encouraged voters to participate in the election despite the violence. as my demand for my wish for the people of afghanistan especially for those who are over eighteen and nominated for the election is to go and participate in the election holding this election is going to be a victory for the brave afghan security forces that it will be

a victory for the people of afghanistan and for democracy. has more from kabul this is a major setback for the afghan government because in one single attack they lost we see a local government officials in. general for example the top police command was on top of the hit list for the taliban for quite some time here has survived many suicide bombing attacks and his father was killed in an attack by the taliban who's known for his staunch anti taliban stand saying that there is absolutely no way that can play into the future role in afghanistan and also highlights of the challenges that the americans the afghan government and nature will face in the near future also comes against the backdrop of the upcoming elections many people how do i hope that those if the saturday elections could pave

the way for more stability and you parliament there could tackle the problems the afghan government faces particularly inefficient governance corruption and the need to find job opportunities for millions of people i think after this attack people would have questions about whether it's safe or not to go and cast their votes on saturday russian investigators say the suspect in wednesday's attack in crimea mayor place twenty people were killed and more than fifty injured after an explosion and shooting at a school in the eastern city of courage step vasant has more from moscow. the full creational training school in courage has turned into a shrine hundreds of people have come to mourn the death of the students their teachers and school workers those who managed to escape wednesday's attack recount horrific scenes so even if your read of so among the wounded are so

a girl are no natural you are trying to save her i carried her to the ambulance i left her and went to help the others. are so a lot of people bleeding and lying on benches it was awful. speculation is rife about what could have to have an eighteen year old flooded slough rushed off to commit such an attack. some say he was angry at his teachers others suggest he had links with right wing groups but no clear answers have been given so far security camera footage has emerged from a few days before the attack in which a student is seen by an shotgun shells at a local store authorities say he recently obtained a hunting license. the young man did not provoke any negative feeling he showed the permit to hold weapons and those he was allowed to buy a permit was new and it was checked. reveals russia has been described as a quiet boy investigators have been searching his home for any clues about his

motive is. most important is to find out the reasons what pushed this inhumane person to commit this crime we don't understand that yet he had all positive characteristics he always behaved himself he never caused any trouble. crimea was annexed by russian troops from ukraine four years ago despite continuing tensions there's been no major outbreak of violence since then president vladimir putin blames the internet as a breeding ground for the attack. it's just. it's a result of globalization and the strangest toll on social media on the internet we see that there is a whole community that's been created everything started with the tragic events in schools in the u.s. in moscow people gathered at the monument remembering the fight in the city of courage against the nazis during world war two they laid flowers to remember those

who were killed in a different era over eleven hundred kilometers away mourners are saying prayers for the mostly young victims the attack occurred has been the worst school shooting in russia in recent years and many are asking for stricter security measures in schools others are pointing out the fact that this by high security measures in place in crimea a young man could still walk into a school have fully armed step class and al-jazeera moscow. to singapore now where u.s. secretary of defense james mattis meeting with his counterparts at a regional security summit there's been increased tensions with china after the u.s. sent two b. fifty two bombers over the disputed south china sea. from singapore. this gathering of defense ministers from southeast asia is an annual event to discuss regional security issues bit as is often the case with these events it's the small the bilateral meetings taking place on the sidelines that provide more interest and the

focus this year is upon the meeting between the u.s. defense secretary james mattis and his chinese counterpart. given the deteriorating state of relations between the united states and china we don't know exactly what was discussed what was the outcome but the fact that they met at all is being seen as progress here given the fact that mattis is a visit to beijing where he was meant to meet with way that was canceled as their relations have deteriorated with the u.s. accusing china of meddling in its elections of stealing gets military technology and more pressingly for the delegates here at this meeting accusing the chinese of a military build up in the south china sea both the united states and china seem to accept that keeping high level relations going between their two defense ministers

is important as a way of diffusing any possible clashes in the future or misunderstandings as we saw recently in the past couple of weeks with a very near collision between two warships in the south china sea still the united states insists that it will continue to carry out what it calls these freedom of navigation exercises exercising what it sees as its right to send its warships through these waters and also its aircraft with to be fifty two bombers carrying out a patrol across the south china sea within the past few days. our time for a quick check of the headlines here on al-jazeera u.s. president donald trump has for the first time publicly acknowledged that sounded germany is likely to be dead he's warned saudi arabia of severe consequences if it's responsible and secretary of state might bump a zero as asked trying to get more time before deciding on what to do next. we made

clear to them that we take this matter with respect mr show you very seriously they made clear to me that they too understand the serious nature of the disappearance of mystical shogi they also assured me that they will conduct a complete thorough. investigation of all of the facts surrounding mr to show that they will do so at a timely fashion and we have a long since nine hundred thirty two long strategic relationship with the kingdom of saudi arabia they continue to be important counterterrorism partner they have custody of the two holy sites they are an important strategic alliance of the united states and we need to be mindful of that as well the saudi crown prince mama been solomon has denied any knowledge of what happened but al jazeera has learned that one of his bodyguards was allegedly in charge of the operation in which involved fifteen men i'm just international is now calling for the u.n. to establish an investigation the reason that we need to do anything he actually

even begin to think things he can't eat his vision to actually do something so it's not that we give enough or we do and even though we do think that it is they owe him anything and this is only us it is time and time again and they stimulate you to me to wait until you know nothing you can right now because every time he listens to me he may think you'll be. in naples another tragedy and literacy skills and your population that is empty and everything will. meanwhile politicians from the european union pulled out of a major saudi investment conference next week they include the french and dutch finance ministers and the british trade secretary and more than forty members of the u.s. congress of britain to president trump calling for sanctions against saudi arabia.

well those were the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera off the fault lines which are. on behalf of her majesty's government i apologize reservedly a historic apology for one of british intelligence his darkest episodes but was it really new grievances that the libyans could be quite useful to the west seven years after the death of gadhafi al-jazeera world investigates westen collusion with the libyan security services. gadhafi rendition on the west on al jazeera. when the power to get away with. because they have the money and the connections to rick this is just. people lose confidence in our law. and confidence in their

future. of vote for hillary is a vote to surrender. to public corruption. cronyism that brehm's to survive come our constitution. you know the fact that they've broken the law they're pretty clear about it but how do you like prove it how do you like sure people like it actually matters. in the two years since donald trump was voted into the oval office artist robin bell has focused on a movement ending the kinds of misdeeds it can be hard to see. my contract with the american voter begins with the place to end government corruption. trump the self-help billionaire railed against corruption on the campaign trail. one of the things i've tried to tell my friends is that not to get cynical because like that's

his strength. as president trump has mixed private business and public duties in unprecedented ways. yes giving rise to allegations that he's using the highest office in the lands to enrich himself and his family logic is basically like everything's cool so if everything is from the maze well if the most prefers. the right we're going to washington d.c. . we are going to drain the swamp. in this episode of faultlines we check into one of the swamps finest venues to examine the charges the trump is profiting from the presidency. and violating the constitution of the united states.

our investigation begins just a few blocks from the white house of the trumpeter national hotel in washington. it's housed in the old post office as storage building on by the u.s. government. there sure is could the welcome to trump d.c. i wish an enjoyable stay with us as for us. back in two thousand and twelve the trump organization want to competitive bid to lease the old post office from the government's general services agency. barely two weeks before the two thousand and sixteen election and reopened as a hotel expenses. the washington operation is just one of the dozens of luxury hotels condos resorts and golf courses that bear the trump brand from las vegas to vancouver to the bud. before it launched

critics of the hotel project to be too expensive to prove profitable but what most didn't anticipate was of the owner would. when the white house. we're in the sweet at the trump international hotel it's named for the president's daughter it cost a thousand four hundred sixty five dollars to stay here and that's on the less expensive side of the luxury suites but like so many visitors to the hotel whether politicians tourists or journalists like us the only reason we decided to come here is because it's owned by the president of the united states when he was elected trump owns more than five hundred companies mostly under the umbrella of the trump organization and the president elect of the united states of america. in a controversial decision trump refused to divest from his company instead he put them into a trust these papers are just some of the many documents that i've signed turning over complete and total control to my sons i spent thirty years of my life tracking

them am because i thought he was culturally significant i did not expect him to become politically significant investigative journalist david cay johnston has long reported on the ups and downs of trump's business ventures you know with donald trump said he was giving up ready to businesses putting you into a trust i literally erupted in laughter donald trump doesn't run any businesses dumb trump is not a competent businessman he leaves it up to other people. and furthermore the trust that set up his sons have said they tell dad about what's going on in the business to avoid the possibility of conflicts of interest previous u.s. presidents put their financial assets into a blind trust to ensure they would know how their wealth was handled those who owned businesses sold them jimmy carter had to sell his two bit business after putting it in a trust and nobody for a minute thought that his little peanut warehouse in rural georgia was going to

have any influence on government policy can donald trump actually take profits out he can reach and withdraw money at any. tanika whether or not he's done so we don't know but this is not anything at all like a blind trust this is like what you expect to see in a family business posing as a country. first. right after donald trump was sworn in at the chapel his motorcade went to the white he had the presidential limousine known as the beast stop. he stopped right in front of the trump international tell he was sending a very clear signal you want to do business with my been strafing he will pay tribute to me and bingo that hotel suddenly was full of business. zach everson is a freelance journalist who's created a whole new be out of covering the trumpeting national hotel and the people who patronize it on your twitter feed you've kind of highlighted

a lot of what's happening on social media with alltel so what are some of the kind of ones that stand out this is a picture i found on instagram of russia's ambassador to the united states and he was posing with the founder of a russian nail art chain and she she attacked him i mean it's got the instagram account r us the usa and the caption said in english thank you to our russian ambassador russian flag in the usa american flag for a warm welcome in washington d.c. maine's governor page's band here rudy giuliani is here a lot so this was a guy instrumental classic pete and you know guy's night with a couple of his friends and america's mayor and tag maggie has tag saturdays are for the boys trumps financial disclosure forms in the kit that the hotel brought in more than forty million dollars in two thousand and seventeen according to federal documents reported by the washington post they'll tell made a remarkable profit in the first four months of that year the hotel expected to

lose about two million dollars and instead it made two million dollars so that's a four million dollars swing. it has one of the highest room rates in d.c. it's been reported but one of the lowest occupancy rates and that to me says that they have a set market of people are going to come here and they don't need to necessarily push their homes competitively so would you say donald trump and family are profiting from the presidency. through the hotel corridor yeah and part of the reason they're making good money is because trump is president i think that's why a lot of people do come here. since the hotel opened the president has visited at least ten times and there are streams of evidence the trump family members administration officials republican politicians and lobbyists all make appearances . the federal election commission filings show that republican candidates committees and powerful donor groups have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at trying to see. foreign governments including malaysia saudi arabia and romania have also made

a showing kuwait as celebrated its national day at the hotel two years running. in june the philippines embassy hosted an independence day celebration the ambassador explained his choice of venue to filipino news agency having it in a hotel that happens to have his name is and but that's hardly the end all and be all but it's a it's a state it's a statement that we have a good relationship with this president. whatever the intent of events like this have raised criticism that foreign governments are patronizing the hotel to curry favor with the president. in the penn state party was held as the philippines lobbied for free trade agreement with the united states philippines president rodrigo to territory had proposed the two countries explore a bilateral deal when he met with president trump at the end of two thousand and seventeen so was it reasonable for critics to see a connection i would see it as a cut and dried transactional thing after two years in afghanistan as a reporter and then as an advisor to the us military sarah chayes writes about

corruption and its casualties around the world it's not like in the on follow is the use of trump hotel and then you get in return a piece of public policy that's how the u.s. bribery statute is now being construed by the supreme court but that's not how they stop work this stuff works. because you do your network partner a favor they are in your debt they do you a favor and it goes back and forth like this you don't have to spell it out trump's business history in countries like the philippines is hard to separate from his current duties as president an ad from two thousand and twelve shows how trump's name is emblazoned on the sky rise in manila represented a great opportunity. to defer the developer. is the philippines trade envoy to the united states. philippine envoy is double headed

private public the president united states is double had a private public that means every interaction between the two you don't know where public service stops and private interest begins. although the trump organization vowed not to pursue new foreign ventures while trump is in office. there's wide overlap between his business interests and the international relationships he must navigate as president. a chinese government owned bank runs a twentieth floor of trump tower in new york city at a trump property adjacent to the un saudi arabia and india own apartments. the new unit there this year. trump posts foreign dignitaries at mar-a lago his private club where membership rates doubled after his election his companies have been granted approval for trademarks in china even as the president negotiated trade policy with its leader so far i have got nothing absolutely nothing but the potential conflicts of interest are many and they've raised charges that trump is

violating the us constitution in the news that the charges are laid out in several lawsuits one of which is now focused on the trumpeted national we decided to file a lawsuit because it was a violation of this country's oldest anti-corruption law and that is the emoluments clauses both foreign and domestic. we would like a federal court to order the present united states to cease violating the emoluments clauses and that would i think mean at the present nine states would be ordered to divest in a clear and transparent way from his businesses. seen as the attorney general of the district of columbia the democrat and with his counterpart in the state of maryland he's suing the president and frankly we saw it as our obligation particularly given the fact that in the case of the district of columbia is violating the law five blocks down the street.