to negotiations with the u.s. on its nuclear program however it's worth pointing out that even though this attack happened nearly 2 weeks ago there is yet to have been a security council meeting to discuss what happened and to try to figure out what should be the diplomatic way forward which is of course something that ambassadors sitting on the security council really prefer to pursue that said it's very clear that the saudis are not thinking that they're going to be making any friends with terror on any time soon and that although this automatic process of continuing their political rivalry will continue. around this president said his country will of course engage in talks with the united states but only if sanctions are lifted hasan rouhani made the comments on the sidelines of the u.n. general assembly in new york but he also reiterates said that the trumpet ministrations current tactics are not working and diplomatic etta james bay is has more from the u.n. they spoke at the same podium in the u.n.

general assembly hall they were in the same city for 4 days but all the high hopes of a breakthrough following a flurry of diplomatic activity led by the french president emmanuel mccall came to nothing no progress and no meeting between president trump and president rouhani the dangerous deadlock continues as trump perhaps was preoccupied by the impeachment allegations against him that was being formed while he was in new york developments the iranians were clearly following closely mr president while you've been here in the u.s. how closely are you following political developments here and is. now president trump either being impeached or being defeated in next year's election. with regard to what's happening here in america we hear the news of what's happening but it doesn't matter for us because it's an internal matter for america

what's very important for us is that the american government re stores the damage trust back to the world for now the u.s. is focusing on the drone attack in saudi arabia and it clearly wants to use its assertion that iran was behind that to add to its maximum pressure campaign on terror on what i expect to see happen is when saudi arabia concludes its investigation and is done with the site exploitation where the attacks took place and cake they will then refer this matter to the u.n. security council for appropriate action i think that's the right thing to do because this was an attack on the world and it requires a response from the world un officials agree that this is coming back here to the security council the un they've had 2 separate experts in saudi arabia and their mandate is to formally report their findings james space al-jazeera the united nations well while international efforts have been underway on the sidelines of the

general assembly to broker a new u.s. iran talks a group of families say their loved ones are being held as political hostages by terror and there are slim signs of hope that they'll be released china reports. i can't get over the fact that i'm paying the price for some dark politics between iran and the u.k. in 2016. radcliffe took her infant daughter on holiday to visit family in iran she's been a prisoner since accused of spying her husband richard on his 4th visit to the u.n. general assembly in new york calls her a hostage held he says for political leverage right now as nameless commits the crime those hostages to the hells happen puts her in some sort of legal process it's a placebo crisis so she wasn't allowed to speak a trial had a chance whenever my public even to her and think of the present and she was convicted of having been told that listen if the british government makes agreements one charge of one sentence or nazanin is not alone iran is currently

thought to hold up to 30 dual nationals whose families insist they did nothing wrong this year we've known the family's alliance with a number of promise to say this now well there's still more to it happens to a hostage taking now iran is to keep the state isn't it is not the intention to tell the end there is a way in which actually the world is to worry if this can happen more moral that is they will not the same with tensions in the gulf spiraling an international effort is on the way to broken new talks with iran through zuma briefing you negotiations are a good outcome at this point conflict would not make it without doubt that the situation of war is not good for my family one things i've seen this week is there's been increasing pressure on iran so this is unacceptable this cannot be allowed to continue. to the british i think the most important that we think of for us to have over citizens at the absolute sense and investigations in

a recent phone call nazanin said i truly hope this will be the last time that you go to new york for the u.n. i hope that this time it pays off in very blunt terms that we're not to that when he sent somebody to talk about some point 7 some of his life the the. attritional volatile being held in the city all but 3 brutal way behind some desolate and. garri radcliffe has previously been on hunger strike and there are deep concerns for her mental health as events evolve on the international stage over which the family has no control there only the faintest hopes of an imminent release i don't know how al-jazeera the united nations in new york. now palestinian president mahmoud abbas has threatened to terminate all signed agreements with israel if it onyx as a key part of the west bank and comes off to israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu announced plans for more illegal settlements in the occupied west bank speaking at the un general assembly about the international community to help end what he

called israeli aggression in palestine. a week before the israeli elections prime minister netanyahu came out to our acutely amounts that should he prevail in the elections he would annex and apply israeli sovereignty to the jordan valley northern dead sea and israel's colonial settlements despite the fact that all of these areas. palestinian territories we reject this plan entirely all responses if the israeli government is to proceed with this plan all signed agreements with the government of the occupation and any obligations will be terminated. home plenty more ahead for you this news hour including britain's prime minister has suffered and another political blow as he tries to push ahead with breaks it. hong kong's chief executive hopes have fans to

meeting with the public in the hopes of ending a long political crisis. and the cream of wild are less eggs is in doha has the support from the international stadium. now the u.s. is proposing to cut the number of refugees to its lowest level ever if the plan is adopted the number of refugees allowed in over the next 12 months will be limited 218000 that's down from 30000 let's take a closer look at how this proposal would work officials say 5000 people fleeing religious persecution would be resettled there would also be a large number from iraq and central america with space for people to apply from other countries the new limits would apply from choose day which is the beginning of the new financial year previous cuts have triggered protests from human rights officials while the aisle shocker is a senior u.s.

advocate at refugees international and has testified before congress on asylum seekers she joins us now from washington d.c. michelle one of the reasons that the trump administration are giving for why they're doing this and is it likely that they'll face a challenge. well i don't think will face the challenge necessarily although human rights groups again are very opposed to this the reason that the trump administration has given for reducing this is they say that because the united states expects to process about 350000 asylum applicants this year it's necessary for them to limit the number of refugees resettled the same officers who process asylum applications also screen refugees overseas the problem with that argument is that most because of policies that been put in place over the last year in the top administration has really limited the number of people who get asylum and whether or not you can get asylum so very few of those people who are going to

be processed are actually going to get asylum what we're going to actually have is very many many fewer refugees being resettled overseas and very few people getting asylum we're basically just not going to be having a lot of people gaining refuge in the united states at all. just talking through these numbers if there's a cap of 18000 and a lot of these spots are already allocated to certain groups as we just described does that mean that other people fleeing other crises or unanticipated disasters should they happen they just won't be allowed in that's correct and even some of the people because this is as you have noted a drastic reduction from last year and then the year before as well ministration has continually continuously slashed numbers each year people already in the pipeline people have been vetted people who have already been referred for resettlement in this country will actually be not able to come from other areas that you that were not some of those that you mentioned well i also realize i think

that until president trump took office the u.s. was the world's leading destination for refugees so how does this now change the way that the rest of the wild views the u.s. . i think that's right i mean up until 2017 the united states had resettled more refugees in any country in the world combined not per capita but in terms of raw numbers and what's happened is that we've really become ob reselling many many many poor people and what i think is going to happen is what we've seen kind of play out the message as i described before where i've sort of been a race to the bottom where nobody's basically gaining asylum or refugee status we might actually see that happen global globally where you see a race to the bottom the trouble ministration is basically saying well if we do less we're hoping other countries will do more that's actually not what happens with refugee resettlement if we do less if united states does less it's likely that

other countries are also going to do less how can the united states expect other countries in the region especially in regions that are hosting millions of refugees how can we ask them to continue to take more refugees in places like colombia the welcoming thousands of venezuelans every single day places like jordan and turkey which are welcoming or hosting thousands and millions of syrians on how can we expect them to continue to take people or not to return those already there at the united states isn't taking any refugees at all we've always only taken the most vulnerable bowl refugees from different parts of the world very few people but that small number of people with whom you have resettled has shown the world that we care about refugees we support their efforts so welcome refugees into who is refugees and without that sort of moral commitments it's really hard to see why other countries would necessarily do more and continue welcoming refugees where they haven't this will lead to regional instability might need to return to

refugees to countries where they might be at risk and so i think this could have it could be a kind of global race to the bottom in terms of refugee resettlement you know shaka that has seen us out of could at refugees international thank you for joining us and giving us your insights on al-jazeera and chaka. now the syrian government did use chlorine as a chemical weapon in its battle for that's the finding of a u.s. investigation secretary of state mike pompei o has condemned damascus saying the white house has been working on preventing such attacks against civilians but the regime has been accused of several chemical weapons attacks against the syrian people during the country's a.t.n. long civil war president trump has been pretty vigorous in protecting the world from the use of chemical weapons previous administrations haven't been prepared to do that and the syrian regime should know in the world should appreciate the fact that we're going to do. it we can do everything we can reasonably do to

prevent this kind of thing from happening again. now a u.s. democratic senator has accused the trumpet ministration of supporting egyptian president sees regime chris murphy has also called on the government in cairo to allow demonstrations to take place egyptian rights groups say that security forces have now arrested many 2000 people since anti-government protests began last week and more protests are planned for friday. president trump has been you know an absolute disaster for global democracy causes use and powered autocrats all over the world of the top of that list is president also you see the congress is going to be watching what happens is these protests some fold tomorrow we have seen words you see has done over the past week or so walking up hundreds of dissidents disappearing many we're going to be watching we expect these protests have be able to be held and we are going to hold the egyptians to account if they once again of

respond with force indiscriminate detention. trade talks between the u.s. and china will resume in 2 weeks according to u.s. media reports it's believed a meeting will take place in beijing on october the 10th u.s. officials had said they expected talks to resume next month a trade war between the u.s. and china has softened slightly over the past few weeks with with the nifty in of some tariffs the british government has admitted to further breaches of a court order that bans the sale of weapons to saudi arabia and had agreed to back in june to stop sales to the country on the basis they could be used in the war in yemen under questioning in the house of commons international trade secretary liz truss admitted further breaches of the agreement she's added that it's possible that even more cases could come to light. my department identified the errors that

had taken place in the export licensing procedure in relation to the saudi coalition's activities in the conflict in yemen. as i stated publicly on the 16th of september i am reservedly apologize for the extra long since is the my department issued an error i have also given my own reserved apologies to the court . now saudi arabia's crown prince says he bears responsibility for the murder of journalist. because it happened under his watch that's according to a documentary set to be aired next week on u.s. television now have been silent hasn't spoken publicly about the killing inside the saudi consulate in istanbul last october but un special rapporteur and yes calum says his words mean nothing without actions e's a crown prince of saudi arabia so clearly everything at printing in saudi arabia or related to to saudi arabia is our printing under your watch i you know i haven't

found the statement as riveting as maybe some people may find it. i also think that. act speak louder than words as far as i know he has not return an apology to the family he has not written an apology to the feel c. of mr. he has not demanded an investigation into the chain of command and the mastermind behind the. killing and the one person that has been repeatedly mentioned by the saudi prosecutor in relation to the killing meaning mr sauer don't get any advisor to mohammed bin simon that that person has not been charged and he's not facing trial so those words don't mean much for me. still ahead on al-jazeera why many afghans say they've lost

faith even before saturday's election. coming on type in mexico families wait for answers 5 years after the disappearance of dozens of students. and in $47.00 tries for england at the rugby world cup far out as a reaction. hello there what a much better picture it is across much of china at the moment there seasonal rains coming to the end of the season so much dried generally little bit of cloud in the last few as really nothing more than that so dry in hong kong right there around to shanghai for the next couple of days rain showers likely into northern and eastern sections of taiwan but even then all the philippines staying dry for the next

couple of days a manila enjoy the sunshine with a high of 32 celsius on saturday but the rains are pushing for the south again we're going to begin to see this as a sign of 4 calls over the next weeks and months to come this hour of high clouds here giving an idea where the rains will be and in fact really pushing further south as we head friday on into saturday fairly hazy conditions as well at the same time with all this try to insert into kuala lumpur and again we could see more of those scattered thunderstorms more rain particularly across into india still these long seen rains are very heavy particular across northern and central sections not just there was seen some very heavy rain into colombo in sri lanka over the last several days so the streets looking like this and we have got more in the forecast but it's particularly heavy through talk pradesh and particularly up and to be whole states in fact the india met department about warnings in place really through the next several days very heavy in particular into kolkata with a high there of 27. was sponsored by the town.

but the bodies on the lawn for india's biggest on earth but the industry stunt performers are unknown and on the 51018 made the men and women risking it all for the brought lots of bollywood on al-jazeera. al-jazeera. where ever you are. an ethiopian woman determined to tell the world a new story about her country our ships our humanity is the most beautiful thing we've got and i wish we can just realize that it can't just love about despite the challenges she became c.e.o. of tourism and head of ethiopia's land development project my ethiopia on al-jazeera.

hello again i'm just a reminder about top stories this hour the acting u.s. director of national intelligence has testified before congress over his handling of a whistleblower complaint which has now been made public it details how the u.s. president tried to persuade his ukrainian counterpart to investigate his political rival and. the pentagon is deploying a battery of patriot missile for radar systems and $200.00 personnel to saudi arabia in order to bolster the kingdom's defenses comes in the wake of an attack area this month on a saudi oil processing facility. and saudi arabia's foreign minister has the

international community to band together to combat iran relations between riyadh and tehran nosedived this month after that attack on those saudi oil facilities which was blamed by the saudis on iran. now protests over the disappearance of dozens of students 5 years ago have turned violent in mexico. it's believed the 43 students were abducted by gang members with the help of corrupt security forces nobody has yet been convicted demonstrators marched through mexico city demanding justice. christina says she has hope her son is still alive even today 5 years since he went missing along with 42 other students from the town of i. hope was. every year when it's my son's but they i miss him most i want to give him

a hug is the love i have for him that keeps me going and i won't rest until i find him. other parents have been the driving force behind the constant protests to pressure the government for answers. but they fear that those truly responsible for their children's disappearance may never face justice there have been a 142 arrests made in connection to the disappearance of the 43 students but the investigation found that much of the evidence presented to prosecutors was obtained illegally. a handful of the accused were found to have been tortured in order to obtain false confessions as a result as many as $53.00 of the $142.00 detained have been released this includes the locals the leader of the so-called good ladles needles the group believed to be responsible for the disappearance of the students. this is an example of the miserable rot that's spreading through the country's justice system and it smells rotten oh your. word after years of misleading narratives the

official investigation continues to drag on. the linking complexity of this specific case has become emblematic of mexico's problem with impunity and done to the end this is a country with 40000 missing persons what makes this case especially relevant is that high level farnese are under investigation along with members of federal and local police the military and for many years and governess. mexican president and the lopez over the us has vowed to parents of the students his government will get to the bottom of the case even if it requires starting a new investigation. but for the parents of the i.o.c. napper $43.00 could mean an even longer wait for answers when. mexico city. the u.s. has imposed sanctions on cheever's former president raul castro for supporting what

it calls gross of violations of human rights in venezuela as president donald trump's toughest action against communist leadership since he took office and 2017 u.s. secretary of state mike compare says castro was responsible for helping to prop up the madeira regime in venezuela which has been accused of suppressing anti-government demonstrations and over an economic crisis. now britain's prime minister has been delivered another blow in his push for an early election the house of commons speaker says under current force it wouldn't be possible to go to the polls before october 31st and that's when britain and its shuttle to leave the e.u. charlie and the has more from london. following one of the most serious debates in british parliamentary history an attempt by the speaker of the house to restore some dignity to politics. yesterday.

the house did extol no credit. there was. an atmosphere in the chamber. worse than any i've known in my 22 years in the house on both sides passions were inflamed angry words were uttered. the culture. was toxic roll of the promised to unite the culture there are calls for boris johnson to apologize are dismissed pleas from lawmakers to tone down his divisive language and said the best way to honor the memory of murdered m.p. joe cox was to get bricks sit down cox who back to remain in the e.u. referendum was killed by a far right sympathizer but there was no apology fuelling concern that this is part of the prime minister's plan to pit the people against parliament ever directed the

use of language yesterday and over the past few weeks such as the surrender bill such as invoking the war so just talking about the trial and treachery it has clearly been tested workshopped and worked and it is entirely designed to inflame hatred. only hours after her statement the offices of m.p. jess phillips were attacked by a man calling her a fascist meanwhile in brussels the european parliament steering group met to discuss the current state of play insisting they're still waiting for the u.k. to put forward a workable alternative deal. because a solution would mean 1st finding compromise with european union then. building compromise in westminster to pass in the green and so maybe strategies and also one belief it has been all along is to provoke. on friday the u.k.

minister to join the table for more talk so the mousavi the nos have it. back in parliament lawmakers voted down the government's request for a recess during next week's conservative party conference schedule into disarray. this is now a parliament of point scoring but trust has broken down and only consensus can bring it back but there's no indication that is the prime minister's plan with just 5 weeks to go before the u.k. is due to crash out with no deal unless an extension is secured or deal passed charlie and. now a fire as a chemical factory in northern france has forced schools to close and people to stay at home the blaze broke out in the early hours in the port city of $200.00 firefighters were needed to help to douse the flames safety experts are now concerned the river send could become polluted. well with the hong kong protests

now in their 16th week the city's leader has opened talks with the public for the 1st time now for many involved in the so-called dialogue session it was an opportunity to voice their anger at the government scott hype the reports. they were the 150 people selected by a lottery to go face to face with hong kong chief executive kerry lamb in a so-called town hall meeting her 1st direct interaction with the people of this divided city she controls after nearly 4 months of protests that were sparked when a bill allowing extraditions to mainland china was presented. lam later showed the legislation permanently but it was too late for the protesters they expanded their demands focusing on alleged police mistreatment of protesters and less control from the g.m. . and i'm a white guy no matter how difficult it is my colleagues and i think that it's time to start a direct dialogue because in the last 3 months i'm sure no matter what political stance one holds they must be feeling very sad and worried or angry but empathy was

met with blunt to statements from some participants a young lawyer like i will say that you know younger it is you because you're useless at governing i say listen you're responsible for what has happened in the protests you must step down. as the to our dialogue continued inside the hundreds of protesters out front continued with their chanting and their demands for kerry land and her government they listened on their phones as they swarmed the street in front of the meeting venue. this political observer sees the dialogue as too little too late i think it's more akin to the show and it all looks a bit of it fosco these days because she talks about engaging in dialogue and since august 18th the massive variety off $1700000.00 people in half the rain but often more than one month. what people does she says see

a lamb made one announcement during the meeting the authorities will end the controversy a practice of taking a rest and protesters to a detention center near the border with mainland china but the concession appeared to have little impact on the focus of the protest movement with many events planned for the next few days it's got harder al-jazeera hong kong. and massive security operation is underway across afghanistan for saturday's presidential election 100000 security personnel will guard polling stations following taliban threats the fear of attacks means many voters particularly in rural areas will stay at home while others say the voting system favors the powerful and not the poor chinee bad he reports from kabul broken bodies and minds a familiar sight in any conflict zone but after 40 years of war many afghans have known only conflict and suffering at the international red cross center in kabul tens of thousands of afghan civilians disabled by fighting have been treated many

come every day tomorrow was courting crossfire between government and taliban fighters in fallujah province a bullet lodged in her spine leaving her paralyzed and unable to care properly for her 2 year old son that over there there was a fight i was trying to flee from my street and this happened to me on the why i felt the sharp shock and found down i don't remember what happened after that nowhere is safe especially from suicide bombers the capital kabul has suffered hundreds of attacks in the last 18 years 38000 civilians have been killed in the war another 40000 have been wounded and those numbers are rising as fighting intensifies so far this year a record number 4000 afghan civilians have been killed because of the war that's almost 70 every single day and more and more afghans are saying that if they had the choice they would leave the country yet most european governments for example are refusing to give them sanctuary because they don't consider afghanistan to be

dangerous enough. so people have to endure afghan affluent are able to survive the hardships but an estimated 54 percent of the population live below the poverty line while he mohammed and his wife and 4 children have just arrived in kabul after fleeing the fighting in helmand province he's having to build a shelter from mud and rebuild their lives but he's not expecting saturday's presidential election to bring any improvements for the other so why not a little more so we need shelter water plastic and food there are people in this camp that don't have food for tonight president danny has made promises in the past but nothing changed that's why many have lost belief in elections they say they only believe in food and survival after lizzie's fled to herat from his home in baggies province because of heavy fighting he and his wife and 6 children survive on handouts home is now a mud hut john. elections are meaningless to us we need security we don't care if

it's the taliban or the government or whoever we just need the fighting to stop so we can go home and start our lives again usually elections in afghanistan bring some kind of hope but for many there is now only fear and fatigue they say they are scared of the war tired of the hardships and no election will change that tony berkeley al-jazeera carbon. flash flooding in western india has killed at least 11 people 6 more are missing and 28000 evacuated from poona and surrounding areas the city has seen significantly more rain than usual in this year's monsoon season but into september and the landslide at an illegal gold mine in the central african country of chad has killed about 30 people the defense minister says the incident happened in the northwest near the border with libya illegal mining in that area has grown rapidly in recent years it's feared that more victims are still buried under the rubble.