close to the saudi royal family and served as an advisor to senior officials in afghanistan there were calls to suspend saturday's vote in kandahar after the taliban killed two senior officials in the city it happened just after this meeting between the most senior u.s. military officer in the country and afghan commanders the taliban says that the american general was the targets the incident has raised concerns about the security situation ahead of saturday's election where u.s. defense secretary jim masses says that the attack would shake his country's commitment to afghanistan i've met general result. if the loss of a patriot but we remain absolutely committed. to an afghan led afghan reconsolidation. we need to find. but right now. we are going toward the election and we will continue to defend the people

lived out of kabul and i was serious about a question tell us more about these calls to suspend saturday's election. i have just received a statement from the presidency saying that president assad will on a hundred decided in fact to suspend the election for one week in the province of punjab to continue a thorough investigation of exactly what happened during the shooting yesterday this comes after the afghan independent election commission has asked for a delay of the election sightings as security concerns i think ultimately after meetings of the senior security leadership in the country this side it is better this time to delay the election because they're concerned about potential attacks by the taliban in a country how can the how is one of the volatile regions in afghanistan and taliban issued statements over the last few days saying that they are determined to disrupt the elections and they said that they are going to do

a target polling stations across the country this of course comes against of a backdrop of the shooting yesterday in kandahar where. at least two senior local government officials were killed the taliban complained and claimed responsibility for the attack and this is definitely something which is going to be further taken into account by the cia officials their biggest hope is to be able to ensure smooth elections on saturday but i can tell you adrian that this is already raising tension across the country people are pretty much concerned about cutting their ballots tomorrow and i think we're going to see massive security deployment in the coming hours to ensure that there are no attacks across the country so breaking news this the election the afghan election in the province of kandahar suspended for one week what are we to make of what the u.s. secretary of defense james mattis was saying we heard him a few moments ago. i think his methods were it was an attempt to boost morale

because this is quite a delicate moment the americans have been playing a crucial role over the last few months helping the afghan government to ensure smooth elections and this is very important for them because they want a new government because this government is going to once elected it will have to tackle massive challenges the country faces political talks with the taliban security in instability in the country and job opportunities for millions of afghans who have been disillusioned with their previous governments but i have to say that the attack yesterday could deal a massive blow to attempts by the americans to talk a political settlement with the top taliban if it's confirmed that this is something that has been done by the taliban i think it will undermine chances for any settlement in any em in the near future but i think we're going to see over the last few hours is an attempt by the nature of the americans the afghan security

forces to ensure that the major centers across the country are secured we're definitely going to see thousands of troops deployed and security forces. deployed to to prevent any major attacks by the taliban because if you see attacks tonight or early morning tomorrow this is going to deter millions of afghans to cast their votes in this very crucial moment for the country many thanks indeed just to remind you once again the breaking news that. the election in the afghan province of kandahar is to be laid did is to be delayed by one week after the election commission recommended that it be delayed that's according to the spokesman of the president will get a weather update next year and i was in syria then from guatemala to mexico donald trump threatens to deploy the military to stop a large group of migrants headed for the us.

by this guy nine of an asian harbor or off the coast of the italian riviera. hello there we've got some severe weather warnings in for several parts of europe at the moment mostly for the eastern parts of spain it's all mediterranean region has been incredibly stormy over the last week or so we've seen quite a bit of syria whether and now is the eastern parts of spain which is most at risk of seeing some flash flooding there were warnings out for over one hundred eighty millimeters of rain in potentially twelve hours so that would give us quite major problems here that's for friday then as we head into saturday the rain in the east begins to ease a little bit but instead we'll see heavier rain for the south and that means for the south of spain a potentially over into parts of portugal it looks pretty wet here for saturday elsewhere across europe and actually the weather soaking fairly calm we're looking

at around seventeen there in london around fourteen in warsaw in the southeast they could be one or two showers but in between those showers this is should be some sunshine coming through as well now for the north coast of africa we've also been seeing some of that severe weather has been affecting other parts of the mediterranean recently it's been parts about geria and tunisia where we've seen some of the wettest of the weather one hundred thirty millimeters there is the most i've seen that will have caused quite a few problems as we get through friday will see some more very wet weather working its way into morocco and then working its way steadily northeast. the weather sponsored by cattle and race. when they're on line for humanity has been taken out of its goals are great but it's all about numbers on a spreadsheet or if you join us on assange i guarantee no one else has a back story like yours this is a dialogue and i'm just tired of seeing the negative stereotypes about native americans everyone has a voice this sort of thing that's your comments your questions i'll do my best to

bring them into the south join the global conversation on how to zero. zero get the top stories this hour or the us president has for the first time publicly acknowledged that the saudi journalist jamal khashoggi is likely dead he hasn't been seen since entering the saudi consulate in istanbul seventeen days ago donald trump says there will be severe consequences for saudi arabia if it's found to be responsible the u.s. treasury secretary has become the latest cd official to withdraw from an upcoming investment conference in saudi arabia the head of the i.m.f. and many prominent c.e.o.'s have already pulled out of the conference nicknamed

devils in the desert. but it afghanistan saturday's election of the southern province of kandahar has been delayed by one week after the taliban killed two senior officials in the city it happened just after this meeting between the most senior u.s. military officers in the country and afghan commanders the taliban says the american general was the target. or on our top story the disappearance of jamal to show cheap saudi crown prince but haven't been solved rapid political rise took the international. by surprise in the past eighteen months he has consolidated power and attempted to project himself as a reformer. but the case swung the spotlight on to other policies that he's led of zero store such as barry reports. since is they view on the world stage it's been a rapid rise for saudi crown prince mohammed bin samon 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 help to send men with with the with general has its come about at a time when reforms have been slowing down he gave women the right to drive but imprison 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 met in june last year mohammed been 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 mohamed bin so man 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 twitter has to lease it multiple accounts which had been tweeting the same proof saudi government message about the case accounts were taken

down for violating spam rules a u.s. broadcast network handed over a list of accounts to twitter someone shot is an associate professor of middle eastern studies at the university of oklahoma he says the bots were created to try to influence public opinion 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 hamilton's online 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 on in the saudi government are responsible for this and therefore not to blame them for this crisis into the zia is threatening to cut ties with the strain over a plan to relocate its embassy in israel the story as prime minister says that he's considering the move from tel aviv to jerusalem despise a warning that the shift may provoke protests in gaza the west bank after thomas reports from sydney. a spokesperson for in these years foreign affairs ministry said that the issue of palestine is very important in the sudan and the people of indonesia and said that depending on what australia did with its embassy in israel they would adjust their policy or action without spelling out exactly what that meant could in effect a free trade agreement between indonesia and australia which is in its final stages in the go see action could it influence whether military cooperation continues between the two countries he didn't spell that out in

a more candid exchange of text messages that have been links between in the names as foreign affairs minister and australia indonesia has told australia is that any move of australia's embassy in israel would be a slap in indonesia's face and will affect bilateral relations and scott morrison australia's prime minister announced that he was considering moving australia's embassy in israel on choose to and that immediately spot that he's asian but he was doing it for political reasons on saturday there is an important byelection in sydney in a city that has a very high jewish population twelve and a half percent cynics say that he was announcing this consideration of a move of the embassy because of that by election which is an important one because the government to lose it it would take away the majority in parliament it's also now been revealed that on monday australia's intelligence services warned the prime minister a potential unrest even violence in gaza and the west bank australia to confirm its

move of its embassy scott morrison the prime minister says at the moment there is no suggestion that's going to be violence based on what he has announced as a consideration and that's all it is at the moment just considering a move nothing definite has been decided. there's concern about how a slowdown in chinese economic growth may affect the global economy you figures show that the world's second largest economy grew by six point five percent in the third quarter of this you know that's the weakest growth period. since the global financial crisis of two thousand and nine china has also started coming under pressure to use the u.s. trade war the trumpet ministrations put turner of some more than two hundred fifty billion dollars worth of its exports to china and europe are joining forces with mexico and canada to challenge donald trump's trade tariffs they're asking the world trade organization to invest the event to gape the legality of the steel in the alley many of levies imposed earlier this year the u.s. is also asking for a similar ruling in return of the retaliatory tariffs imposed by china at the e.u.

canada and mexico ecuador and venezuela have expelled each other's ambassadors it follows an accusation from a venezuelan government minister that the ecuadorian president lied about the number of migrants crossing the border hundreds of thousands of venezuelans a fled an economic and political crisis at home in recent years u.s. president donald trump is threatening to deploy the military to stop a caravan of central american migrants heading towards its southern border the caravan of some four thousand people began in honduras on saturday it's making its way through guatemala and then mexico a serious pull chad again reports. they've been hiking through muddy jungles. and crossing rivers traveling for a week now from honduras to guatemala determined to find sanctuary in the united

states. i found was murder and criminal gangs threaten my daughter that's why i am leaving. many have left their homes to find a safer place to live others only want to chance to work and earn a living. i don't know there were no jobs there was no work it was hard to live in honduras there was nothing to eat. and nothing will deter them not police forces nor border agents not even a threat from president donald trump to deploy the us military. they will not stop us only god can stop us donald trump is nobody even if he is the president of the united states will not stop us mexico has started processing the first of the migrants who arrive those with passports and visas will be allowed to enter others will have to apply to enter as refugees. we are

a peaceful caravan we're not hurting anyone on the street we're looking for a new life a better future. with thousands of kilometers until they reach the u.s. border with mexico hope for better life continues to push these migrants north. al-jazeera plenty more video the latest news analysis comment and sports. as well as links to some of our programs take a look at the website you'll find it. it is good terry willis adrian finighan here in doha the top stories this hour the u.s. president has for the first time publicly acknowledged the saudi journalist jamal khashoggi is probably dead he hasn't been seen since entering the saudi consulate

in istanbul seventeen days ago donald trump says that there will be severe consequences for saudi arabia if it's found to be responsible and the u.s. treasury secretary has become the latest senior official to withdrawal from an upcoming investment conference in saudi arabia the head of the i.m.f. as well as the prominent c.e.o.'s of several companies have already pulled out of the conference dubbed davos in the desert. in afghanistan saturday's election at least in the southern province of kandahar has been delayed by one week after the taliban killed two senior officials that it happened just after this meeting between the most senior u.s. military officers in the country and afghan commanders the taliban says the american general scott miller was the target the u.s. defense secretary jim massa's says the attack will not shake his country's commitment to afghanistan i've met general result. if the loss of a patriot but we remain absolutely committed. to an afghan led

afghan reconsolidation. we need to find done. but right now. we are going toward the election and we will continue to defend the people president trump has threatened to close america's southern border with mexico to stop what he says is an almost rules of migrants that includes three thousand two hundred euro making their way north through guatemala towards the border trump says he'll cause aid to guatemala honduras and el salvador if the authorities fail to stop them at least five people are dead two missing after flash floods in tunisia heavy rain caused waters rise of a number of cities in the north of the country damaging homes and shops ecuador venezuela have expelled each other's ambassadors it follows an accusation from a venezuelan government minister that the ecuadorian president lied about the number of migrants crossing the border. and there's the headlines the news

continues here on al-jazeera after today's edition of the stream thanks. afghanistan is finally preparing to hold parliamentary elections by constant violence and continually influenced by foreign powers many afghans are hoping for real change what direction the country takes will give you an in-depth coverage of the afghanistan elections. and you're in the stream three. member states have been brutally murdered in the past year causing some industry experts to wonder whether this is the start of a trend or explore each of these cases and what they move for the future of press freedom in the region but first things out. with more. victoria married over looks like the latest grim statistic in the dangerous world

of journalism her body discovered in a bulgarian town where she was investigating the corrupt misuse of european union funds she joins the likes of daphne. blown up near her home in malta by a car bomb john ku's yak shot dead outside his home in slovakia punitive runs at over ninety percent most people think. it's likely they'll get away with killing a journalist and what often happens is maybe the killer gets core but the intellectual mastermind the person who planned it the person he paid for it the person who instructed it they get away scot free and indeed many of them become political leaders in different countries around the world or certainly people with a high up in business or high up in corporation. not only is there a dwindling political defense of free reporting but increasingly an apparent acceptance that digging for stories may result in physical harm. so what can be done to ensure accountability. and of course protect journalists working to expose

corruption to help us explore these questions weren't. horsley joins us now from london william is the media freedom representatives of the association of european journalists he's also the a fashion director for freedom of the media at the university of sheffield and with the latest on the murder of veronica manning over and explain the debate about whether her murder it was tied to her work as it is cheap enough is the editor in chief of biz or not b.g. that's an online newspaper he's also an outgoing board member of the organized crime and corruption reporting project c c r p it's good gentleman to have you here in the stream of fort lee for a very tragic story after this first of all what do we actually know about the murder itself what have you been able to glean what do you feel is actually true. what we got from do authorities. and this is.

not related to the work. they suspect. or from some gypsy minority who was the. one who did this but it's still not clear what the it's so we're likely to know more about or about his motives and details of. the investigation sure what kind of what did victoria do what kind of t.v. journalist washing. so she she was a t.v. host she was not investigative journalist technically she was house think. patrol. maybe a. more lifestyle show but they went to marseille show. problems and about the. journalists and our exposing career exposing her.

problems of the society and she was very engaged with people with disabilities if you look at this issue that she was wearing the black saying the system is killing us this is the bishop who had invited by by the mothers of. children with disabilities who tried to have a fire. by the state so she was really engaged and and the last. the last show ship that bad. its name to detector was turned to investigative journalism and she planned with her. team to to make it an investigative journalist in shock. and in the first role she invited two journalists one from our website and one problem of mine you have. that. they were working together on

investigation with. you. they were so she's looking into corruption there and you are looking she started looking into corruption and i think she was very sensible to this because she cited in her last words on the t.v. show we don't think she really she she was well. sure sure sure sure not. in germany. but she was in germany a bit like what i'm doing today when she's talking to people about corruption and talking about investigation exactly. let me let me just bring this in here because we've got lots of comments about what happened to victoria and this one comes in from dr wright is that she says because he has been ranked one hundred eleventh in the world by some press freedom by reporters without borders around worse than all the you countries and all balkan countries which are aspiring members harassment is

common william let me just bring you into the conversation here can we make a connection here between what may have happened to victoria because she was a journalist and the reporting atmosphere in bulgaria. i think i'm just gonna bring in william because i'm interested in his thoughts i come right back to you to have william. yeah ok i think the suspicion suspicion is the jumping to conclusions it is a sense about the killing of victoria not a nova arises from two things one is the large number of contract killings against journalists in europe in the last couple of years and going back to anna politkovskaya in russia more than fifteen years ago. and the other is you know the fact that this the investigations into systematic e.u. fraud for the e.u. monies going to bulgaria is a story that goes back many years and clearly many people in the top little

compositions have got a lot to answer for and they. are curious this accused many times of covering up and making accusing and this excluded journalist to investigate and indeed you know making making their own kind of private kleptocracy in a sense based on you front so the public suspicion is very high that when big very big public demonstrations not only recently are very nervous kelly but over the over the last couple of years when this show a couple of things t.v. audience are watching this right now this is maria sparrow's has tweeted maria as a journalist is what's out there from time to time and i'm just going to show some of how the public small room acting to victoria's death rituals are is about has an interesting comment to make on this kind of wind up this whole section right elsa says john is a facing a plethora of hundreds working in

a climate of political instability and the need a system that one has proposed camillus rejection of any government control a policy interventions and decide to follow western journalists norms and trends i have to tell you that the toil shows that she started russia was looking into investigation and corruption is going to continue or even. victoria has passed away that is her legacy afghanistan q very much we will keep an eye on this investigation william i'm going to ask you to stick around with us as we move our discussion to slovakia and the deaths of journalists because the ad and his partner martinez has no over who were killed in february now at the time al jazeera charlotte bellis report human nature of his work i would look. to see i could been investigating suspected corruption between the italian mafia and people close to prime minister robert fico. jaan cruz iraq expose the

activities of people connected to the italian mafia and their business and slovak year especially when it comes to the drawdown of e.u. funds various government contracts suspicions of tax fraud blackmailing. that's a danger said you know. there is. so mounting public pressure and calls for justice eventually led to the resignation of the then prime minister robert fico alan's government and in september prosecutors charged three people with the killing of cosi at rover drew sullivan is the editor and co-founder of the previously mentioned o.c.c. r.p. he joins us from sario welcome i'm wondering if this case it is this a win is a success is this justice here because an administration had to step down. well it's. the administration step down but the that as

a mirror steve party is still in charge so robert feeds the political party is still in charge and controlling things so so it really hasn't changed and they've you know changed the faces but it's still the same power structure can you remind us because these are stories that we don't always notice these killings of journalists in different parts of the world but the e.u. countries are going under the radar what happened to arm and what happened to respond. well yon was reporting was looking into you know robert vito's assistant who worked for a book previously to him with the italian mafia and so he was investigating and drug it up its ties to this american little party its ties to that power structure looking at their use of european funds in farm subsidies and electrical you know green power subsidies and how they had. amassed

a large amount of money over seventy million dollars from these types of funds and so he was really looking at the the the classic area that gets you in trouble which is that nexus of organized crime and political corruption and that's the really the most dangerous place to be and in a sense you know journalists like yawned they're really canaries in a coal mine because when you've got these really serious nexuses you know operating you know that you don't the public may not know about them and so when a reporter way kyon ventures into that territory and gets killed we realize that the corruption and the problems are much more severe than we thought when he said this with you i think it's different now when we look at these rules about as a journalist is that there is a community of journalists all right around the public who care about the world around. brass tacks so there's over yonder and that's peace

a body he. says more than three hundred journalists signed a statement expressing dissatisfaction with the investigation the murder of our martina as well as political changes in the slovak republic how much pressure is this continuing to put on the administration on the authorities. well we love the think that it's putting a lot of pressure on the authorities but really there there isn't i mean the whole investigation is being controlled by you know the ruling parties there and so they pretty much can control who gets to charge with things and who doesn't so you know yawn was working with with us on this last story before he died and you know what we understand is that you know. what i'm going to mafia is embedded in you know large parts of europe and they go into places like eastern slovakia which are not particularly democratic or.