u.n. committees another from n.g.o.s which complained about the operative detentions about the use of the death sentence about the stonings amputations against children on the issue of jamal khashoggi could not be a scaped. the king of saudi arabia has already expressed regret and pain for the death of. king and in a season has already instructed the prosecution to proceed with the investigation into this case according to the applicable laws in preparation to reaching all the facts and bringing all the perpetrators to justice to the facts to the probably. the interrogation here in the chamber split along broadly partisan lines close allies of saudi arabia chose to simply patting them on the back and encourage them to continue the existing progress of reform but what was really interesting was the history teacher allies such as the united kingdom

and the united states pointedly make reference to the jamal khashoggi murder and to criticize a broad raft of other problems that they see with saudi arabian human rights record . united kingdom is great be concerned about the deteriorating human rights situation in saudi arabia progress on women's rights has been overshadowed by severe constriction of political space mass arrests of human rights defenders increased use of terrorist courts to political dissidents and continuing extensive use of the death penalty but most concerning is the murder of her mouth and it was indicative i think of a greater willingness here to hold saudi arabia to account for a whole raft of issues that the international community is concerned about on the back of the murder of jamal khashoggi and the final report when it comes we're very interested to read in the. still to come a. jury selection begins in the trial of the man known as el chapo one of mexico's most notorious drug lords thus. i'm for me in madagascar where this week's

presidential election could be the most expensive ever yet to more than three quarters of the population lives in poverty. hello this moment in southern china dry weather we're talking about seeing the northeast monsoon convincer humidity is gone the only cloud is visible up here that will develop i think along the yangtze valley again significant rain is likely from move towards shoot shanghai courses dry in hong kong is twenty eight pleasant low humidity degrees and that will just just intensify i think the rain in the next day or so this is winter trying to come south but it stuck at the moment he got the northeast monsoon in india now which tends to suggest heaviest rains for lanka

maybe tamilnadu we got a stray shower running up the western side of the peninsula as well temps distil quarantined for mary thirty three not poor but we're down to twenty six in new delhi it's not particularly breezy here otherwise either so the air quality is not as good as it could be but we've seen the change a season is still pretty apparent in the arabian peninsula this terror in the green that might even spark showers as far south as bahrain is on its way through kuwait into iran which means the punisher itself is now largely foreign very few showers left over from what was quite active a week ago so here's the current running running out through iraq towards well the sudden caucuses but focusing in iran. on carol they would cost the u.s. a white still the largest on regulated gun market in the developed world who pays it goes wrong plus the seychelles leads the way in the eco finance world blue fall

. counting the cost. among the top stories. united states is calling the latest sanctions against iran its toughest so far the measures target the oil and financial sectors iran's president insists it will be business as usual for his country. turkish media reporting members of

a saudi team centrist to investigate the murder of journalist. focused instead on removing evidence from the saudi consul general's residence. speaker of sri lanka's parliament says president my trip on a serious cena has repeatedly misled him as a constitutional crisis over the appointment of mahinda rajapaksa as prime minister until the second week m.p.'s won't get to vote on it until november the fourteenth as the speaker says serious cena promised him polman would sit earlier when it smith reports from colombo. he might be able to draw a crowd of thousands but your line because new prime minister still hasn't been endorsed by parliament that's a constitutional coupe critics say president might through powerless or is saying a small in his former ally then a rival now ally again and suspended parliament more than a week ago the speaker accuses the president of repeatedly not keeping promises of

an early recall of parliament karo jayasuriya says he'll only recognise mahinda rajapakse as appointment if m.p.'s vote for it he said it's difficult to remain silent in the face of the severe violation of democratic principles the forcible taking over of the administration of media and other public sector institutions the majority of m.p.'s is of the opinion that all changes made in the parliament are undemocratic and inconsistent with the traditions of parliament but his supporters as appointment is justified at the got to get out of but the fact that it went to the internet you know this is a leader who won the war the one who saved the country i mean look all the legal things have been done and dusted he's now prime minister we're not big on the guy we're going to be out on murder rajapaksa accuses create assessor of increasing the tax burden and abusing power a man who was fired to make way run away from a single says he's still prime minister and has the parliamentary support to prove

it. he won't leave the official residence until m.p.'s get to vote question over a week to go before parliament this week you are suggesting the rajapaksa come be just a handful of votes to give him a majority he needs to get seats and he'll probably remain as prime minister but the manner in would be the chief power risks polarizing the lankan politics but it's an al-jazeera comedy. and a phone separatists have claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of around eighty people from a boarding school in western cameroon video released by the embers onya freedom fighters shows the students giving their names and the names of their parents the rebel group took at least seventy nine students and their principal from a presbyterian school in the city of demand on sunday it's in the country's english speaking region where separatists are fighting for an independent state civil rights groups fear millions of americans are being denied their right to vote in

the midterm elections they say states on the republican control unfairly purging voter rolls affecting minorities one example of this is in georgia where a white republican faces strong competition from a black democrat john hendren reports from atlanta. daniel known go was puzzled by the government letter the civil servant had voted in georgia for a decade but this time the state told him he'd done it wrong so he phoned the secretary of state's office. the woman on the phone told him he filled out his ballot correctly and signed it but he failed to sign the on velo ballot came in we get we just can't get a credit we don't have the only information we need and the option to you know. you know does enough doesn't work and langley don't really have that option they don't have to marry you. this voting rights advocates say is voter suppression in action the man they accuse of leading

a campaign to prevent minorities from voting is georgia's secretary of state brian camp he oversees voting in the state and just happens to be running as a republican for governor he's in a dead heat against democrat stacy abrams who hopes to become georgia's first female black governor. camp has purged one point four million voters from state electoral rolls critics say disproportionately blacks and minorities who tend to vote for democrats georgia is one of several states who knows the state of the confederacy. the civil war has never ended as a campaign with many too many ways to continue to try to suppress the vote a lawsuit by the new georgia project and other civil rights groups says three hundred forty thousand in georgia were wrongfully purged most of them minorities it is a confidence or. on its face you can keep your thumb on the scale and impact the results of this election video kemp is strictly enforcing voter id laws in an

registering those who have not voted for two elections or have moved this is someone who has to be held accountable to do his basic jobs we have made it easier to vote and hard to cheat and just because miss a brahms flossy balts lawsuit or the new. georgia project it doesn't mean it's right the lawsuit by civil rights groups says similar voter purges are happening in twenty six republican controlled states across the u.s. at many polling stations like this one in atlanta you can vote early but for some voters by the time they found out there was a problem with their registration it was already too late one thousand year old linnea gordon was looking forward to voting in her first election for stacy abrams . a letter where i. know same that i'm even more information but i gave all the information that i needed they sent the letter before me after that day seen. it more information

in daniel new and his case the state has the discretion to allow his mail in ballot it's just decided not to as the phone kemp's department he got one other bit of bad news so and that's the case with mine and my wife's that is correct. with a few days left election day his wife will also be notified that her ballot has also been rejected by the state of georgia john hendren al-jazeera at lamda. christensen who joins us live from pittsburgh pennsylvania christine how much of an issue is this alleged disenfranchisement of minorities nationwide. it's an issue across the country and more and not just voter suppression like we heard about from john hendren but it takes other forms and it varies from state to state because every state has different laws governing the way elections are run here in pennsylvania for example there's been an issue with the way voting

districts are drawn earlier this year panel of judges ruled that the voting districts had been unconstitutionally drawn in this state to favor republicans and new districts were drawn up in time for this year's elections a similar ruling was made in the state of north carolina that the districts there were unconstitutional but there they haven't had time to redraw them in time for this election so it really is an issue that is playing out across the country when a party in power tries to consolidate their power by passing laws that favor them in the elections but what about the state you're in pennsylvania how important is it to these midterms. yeah democrats consider it very important the republican nominee for president donald trump didn't win here in two thousand and sixteen but it was the first time in nearly thirty years that the state had gone for a republican candidate for president it's

a classic swing state democrats do think they can make gains because of those new voting districts for one also because. unions have been very strong in this state for many years labor unions and they tend to support democrats so there's a history of supporting democratic candidates in the state and also there are a lot of women running in this state we've heard a lot in this election cycle about the pink wave taking over the country it's really strong here in pennsylvania where there are dozens of women running for. office both at the federal level and at the state level i'm at the headquarters for lindsay williams who's running for state senate and she says that she was fired up after the two thousand and sixteen elections to get into politics so democrats are hoping that all of these factors will play and allow them to pick up seats here in pennsylvania that will help them regain the majority in the congress next year kristensen we thank you very much. jury selection is under way in the u.s.

for the trial of one of mexico's mission a tourist drug lords you're looking guzmán also known as of chapo has been held in solitary confinement in new york for the past two years security for the trial is expected to be high especially for witnesses and juries. which is a new kind of their news referendum have voted not to break away from france there were celebrations in the capital noumea after final results showed fifty six percent of voters chose to remain a french territory there's concern it could reignite tension between europeans and cannot people who are the original inhabitants of the south pacific nation most can actually make up thirty nine percent of the population wanted to split from france . at least two people have been injured after two buildings collapsed in the french city of must say crews warn people to avoid the area while i combed through the find of can through the rubble to find if anyone was trapped.

cuba's president has met the north korean leader as part of his first overseas trip since taking office in april again then held talks with kim jong un in the capital pyongyang both are on the u.s. economic sanctions and vowed to strengthen their relationship guess kenya who also travel to china vietnam and laos. i guess here is preparing for what could be the most expensive presidential election in its history or additions are spending more than ever on their bid for the top office in a country where more than three quarters of the population live in poverty i mean a minute reports from antananarivo. deep within antonymous are evil thousands of people eek out a living in the mountains of rubbish at the rally truck dump one of africa's largest dams it's a mess of a waste flies and stomach churning smells from beneath the dirt these people hunt

for what others may consider to be waste but for them potential treasure potential at all i've been working here for twenty years he and his children are looking for any valuable metals all bones which are used to make a local medicine they earn four dollars for every bag of scrap collected. work does not pay very much and the most difficult part of doing it is digging deep into the dirt is so much dust by the time i'm sorry mention what i'm covered in sweat and sand nearly eighty percent of the population lives on less than two dollars a day according to a world bank report one political crisis after another has significantly contributed to madagascar's high level of poverty and the country's done very little to improve the wellbeing of its population now is the madagascar hits to the polls critics say far too much money is being spent on electioneering rather than

helping the poor. father pedro picker has for decades been working to help the poor in the suburb of a commercial he says while the election is a chance for democracy politicians serve their own interests he needs many of the people he's helped with food housing and education in a sunday mass. this. witness to this poverty of being a medical ask a fifty years i've seen this country descend into hell and here we've shown that with education discipline and respect we can fight poverty this week's presidential elections expected to cost even more than it did five years ago they are more candidates running. and there are no laws limiting campaign spending what we know is that probably the election two thousand suit teen was you know one of the most expensive elections in the history of what i guess can also when you compare my guess got to other countries there was a study for instance by the european union that came out in two thousand and sixteen and it basically claimed that the budget to complain budget of the not in

the last present the outgoing president who was one in two thousand and thirteen was forty three million u.s. dollars that actually means that he has spent you know by voter then present donald trump in the united states as campaigning draws to a close those we spoke to at the rally to try to damp say they will vote they say if it's voting that saves them from life in the dump then it will be worth it i mean al jazeera antananarivo and when you can catch up any time by checking out our web site it's us versus ours or dot com and you can watch us live by clicking on the live icon under sarah dot com. and one of the top stories on our united states is calling the latest sanctions against iran its toughest so far the measures target terror arms oil and financial

sectors and your sect of state might bump a zero warned there will be consequences for any country that continues to do business with iran in response iran accused the u.s. of bullying and said its tactics are making washington more isolated internationally we hope a new agreement with iran is possible but until the right mix changes in the twelve ways that i listed in may we will be relentless in exerting pressure on the regime . as a reflection of that result today we are closing sanctions that were previously listed under the nuclear deal this includes sanctions energy banking shipping and ship building industries to his newspaper is reporting that members of a saudi team sent to istanbul to investigate the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi focused instead on removing evidence the publication is reporting that among a saudi team that arrived nine days after this us nation were experts on chemicals and toxicology they were reportedly given the job of getting rid of evidence

meanwhile the u.n. human rights council has been reviewing the actions of saudi arabia and its record on rights violations a saudi delegation in geneva faced questions over the murder of jamal khashoggi addressing the council it restated the kingdom's position that it's investigating the killing and will prosecute those responsible for tens of thousands of people have rallied in support of sri lanka's newly appointed prime minister one hundred rajapaksa at a rally in colombo president susannah told crowds he fired run a rich missing a because he was neglecting local people the speaker sri lanka's parliament says you're saying has repeatedly misled him over the constitutional crisis and your phone separatists have claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of around eighty people from a boarding school in western cameroon video released by the amber zone your freedom fighters should students given their names and the names of their parents the rebel group took at least seventy nine students and their principal from

a person or tyrian school in the city of bam and on sunday was a top stories do stay with us here are counting the cost is up next by fire. hello i'm sam is a than this is counting the cost on al-jazeera the weekly look at the world of business and economics this week why the united states continues to weaponize and what impact that is having outside its borders. also this week breaks it budget the

cost of a disorderly u.k. exit from the european union plus there's no question it's the right thing to do. walking out on google thousands of workers around the world protests declaring time is up on sexual harassment. it's a long lived and established industry that likely won't be going anywhere anytime soon we're counting the cost this week of the weaponization of america the latest atrocity on october the twenty seventh eleven people were killed when a heavily armed gunman opened fire at a baby naming ceremony at a synagogue in pittsburgh police said he used a legally purchased assault rifle and three handguns in our previous investigation into this industry we noted how gun manufacturers themselves rarely give interviews dozens of companies have ended partnerships with the national rifle association or n.r.a. the pro gun lobby by the u.s.

president donald trump immediately directed attention to the lack of an armed guard at the synagogue claiming the shooting has little to do with the country's gun laws to create. i know they are in shock they might have been able to stop the reading of. the if they were right in that they would put a stop to barry webber was one of those who survive the synagogue shooting i think the n.r.a. has so much political clout that there is no way in the world our poll politicians have the the strength to take them out of the equation who needs an a r fifteen who needs a semi-automatic weapon that's a good four maybe target practice but that's all it will be us gun industry is

estimated to be worth fifty one billion dollars so guns are big business the lack of regulation is key to the industry's profitability military style weapons are a consumer products in the us a background check is conducted only in store purchases part of the reason for the lack of gun control is the national rifle association it says it speaks for american girl owners who have a constitutional right to bear arms venders the u.s.a.'s role in the global weapons trade the u.s. spies and sells almost as much weaponry as the rest of the world combined so what happens in the u.s. has global impact. well joining me now via skype from london is andrew feinstein andrew is the executive director of corruption watch the author of shadow world inside the global arms trade good to have you with us science to just the put things into perspective at the start how profitable is the u.s.

guns industry compared to others we need to start by saying that the united states produces some with a tree in city five and forty percent of all weaponry in the world so this is an industry that is worth tens of billions of dollars to the united states the industry is small and light weapons handguns machine guns rifles etc is a smaller component of that globally worth about eight billion dollars so in the u.s. probably worth around four billion dollars there have been repeated public outcry that gainst gun violence the industry has managed in the u.s. to successfully insulate itself against any sort of backlash hasn't it though how well absolutely i think the national rifle association the main gun lobby group in the united states of america has been incredibly successful in creating a public climate that is pro-gun but far more important than that it has

effectively pulled the support of the politicians who would need to regulate the industry and unfortunately that flow of money to those politicians which enables them to stay in power because america is often described as the best democracy money can buy or as i describe the weapons procurement business in the united states as a form of illegal driver e those politicians are effectively insulated from public opinion now there is a possibility. in the imminent american elections that we could for the first time in many decades start to see a shift slight shift in that we're seeing a number of. public groups really good groups like. moms demand gun control for instance who are trying to energize voters not

to vote for any candidate who is not critical of the gun lobby and doesn't commit to much greater regulation of guns in the united states let's broaden the discussion a little bit how does that situation impact the economies of other countries taking countries close to the u.s. like mexico for example it has a massive impact in the world on two levels really first of all it creates this global environment of militarism so again remembering that the united states is involved in more conflicts than but any other country on the planet in fact. the united states government employs more people to run one at craft carrier than it has diplomats across the entire world and the united states today has eleven men have crossed carriers how that affects america's immediate neighbors is even more insidious so a country like mexico that has seven law and order problems relating to the drugs

trade and relating to gun running the vast majority of those guns in mexico used by militias used by criminals both organized and informal come from the united states of america so i'm not trying to talk about building a wall between the united states and mexico what he doesn't seem to realize is that there is an enormous a very profitable flow of guns into mexico from the u.s. that he probably wouldn't want to stop so you have the flow of guns into mexico and in return you have a flow of drugs and other illicit activities into the united states of america so what this is doing is it's a boost destabilizing those neighboring countries like mexico where it's giving criminal groups enormous power and fire power but at the same time attending a devastating impact in the united states itself how do you respond those who who would criticize that line and say you're mumbling two separate things the n.s.a.

it and the licit trade in guns i've been i've been studying the trade in arms for seventeen years the boundary the borders between the legal and the it illegal are incredibly fast so our governments and the weapons makers the celt would have us believe that there is this formal legal trade in whatever. that only opposite side of the spectrum is the black train the the illicit trade the reality is that the vast vast majority of these transactions therefore aircraft carriers of jet fighters will be there for handguns and semiautomatic weapons take place somewhere in the middle in what i describe as the shadow world in the gray market where there

is bribery and corruption and this includes by governments including the governments of the main weapons producing countries of the world it also includes executives of the main weapons producing companies because bribes don't only flow in one direction they also flow back to the executives of the countries play paying the bribes so in the work that i've done over seventeen years i could literally count on one hand the number of armament transactions that do not involve and image of illegality the problem then becomes that most of these transactions and most of the people who operate in this shadow world which include some of our most senior politicians and government ministers some of our most senior military leaders and of course the weapons making companies the vast vast majority of them act in this trade with

a degree of illegal impunity and this is the first reflected in the reality that we recorded and this was going back all the way to the end of twenty eleven or in a final point tell us how the n.r.a. influences international efforts to try and regulate and control the global trade in arms. so what the n.r.a. does very effectively the n.r.a. is actually quite a small organization but it is it incredibly christie linked not only to the manufacturers of handguns and smaller like weapons but also to the be in much of the global weapons industry so the lockheed martin's the northrop grumman is the be a systems it is from these sorts of groups and it gets most of its money so what it does in the work that it does in the united states of america which is to create a particularly conducive environment to america later the environment for the sale of weaponry the end the n.r.a. together with these companies then try and spread that message throughout the world

so the message is not just about the issue of unregulated got own shipping very closely linked to issues of freedom and liberty but also the need for an environment of militarism where military force is the preferred way to resolve conflicts and we see that manifest in all over the world so for instance with a lurch to the far populist right that we have seen in brazil over the last few days part of the agenda of that far right movement in brazil is the deregulation of gun ownership in a society that has problems of gangsterism that has problems of armed criminals so the n.r.a. is affectively spreading the american message of liberty and militarism though that under feinstein thanks so much for your thoughts thank you very much. still to come

on counting the cost is the only country in the world to measure success not through g.d.p. but through gross national happiness what does that mean i mean park in the mountain kingdom of bhutan join me later in the program. but first staff at google offices around the world staged walkouts this week they're protesting the internet companies lenient treatment of executives accused of sexual misconduct rob reynolds reports. in cities around the world employees of google walked off their jobs in protest over the company's policies and practices and workplace sexual misconduct from its headquarters in silicon valley to new york washington and.