this is. from berlin tonight the united states hitting russia with new sanctions over a nerve agent attack in britain the u.s. state department accuses the kremlin the breaking international chemical weapons ban with an assassination attempt on a former russian spy and his daughter in the u.k. we'll go live for the latest from washington also coming up. mornings about climate change as a record drought turns vast areas of all straw into a dust bowl it's the country's worst dry spell in fifty years and across the globe

raging wildfires and extreme heat have scientists raising the alarm they warn that rising temperatures could reverse simply disrupt the earth's climate turning our greenhouse into a hot house. and lawmakers in argentina are voting on whether abortion should become a legal issue has been highly controversial and divisive in the homeland of pope francis. off it's good to have you with the united states says it will impose new sanctions on russia in connection with the poisoning of a former russian spy and his daughter in britain the u.s. state department saying that moscow used a chemical weapons in violation of international. all former russian spy sergei

screwball and his daughter yulia are believed to have been exposed to no be choke a military grade nerve agent in the english town of souls bury back in march they spent weeks recovering in the hospital britain has accused russia of being behind the attack the kremlin vehemently denies that in july two other people came across a container believed to have been used to transport the poison one of the two died from the exposure i for more on this now i'm joined by i were corresponding in washington on simone stefan it's good to see you tell me what more do we know about these new sanctions i mean does the united states have new intelligence balance this poison. well right after to tell you i just got a note because we just went over conference call with the state department on background. so what those sanctions are about is really comes down to

a ban and i read this year on granting licenses to export sensitive national security goods to russia so that's a sanction in effect right now the president i don't think that there is new intelligence i think that the president and the administration it looks at least like this is now following suit on what the congress in march when this attack actually happened in england in salisbury what the congress u.s. congress asked the trumpet inspiration to do to determine if there is a determination that russia violated international law this determination has been done and succeeded by secretary of state might pump a zero and that's why we have the same which is that the timing on this is certainly interesting martin back in march congress asked the u.s. president to use these sanctions now in august it's happening is there any indication that there is domestic politics behind this. well i

don't know if there's any indication to this but. as an observer and other observers in in washington are probably more likely to say or to give your firm yes on this answer i'm not prepared to do this but of course the white house in the trunk and it was traced and as good as good it is that they do this now they're about two and a half months late and over the deadline what congress had asked so it smacks a little bit off that this action the administration takes now has a little bit of a political gain or smacks of political advantage there as you also know the president can't shake. sitting close to being involved in the investigation to russia probe if you remember he stood in helsinki next to. russian president vladimir putin they didn't mention this incident at all however

on the other hand shortly after he was asked by threesome made to expel diplomats he did so and expel sixty russian nationals and diplomats from the u.s. and then you heard for months nothing and now this yet the timing is a little bit suspicious and the timing certainly appears to be a factor there or correspondent stefan simone's in washington stefan thank you. all straw yes most populous state new south wales is gripped by its worst drought in decades wildfires are raging in portugal and spain and in the united states and the heat wave is scorching parts of asia as well as right here in europe the impact of the blistering temperatures is visible from space and take a look at these images from the european space agency they showed the united kingdom turning from a familiar green back in june to a park in july. this was denmark in two thousand and seventeen and this is the

country just last month desperately in need of water. the searing temperatures calm as a new study warns that the earth could be entering a period in which its ecosystems are irreversibly disrupted. it's been more than fifty years since the state of new south wales in australia has seen a drought like this farmers pray for rain as their crops and livestock die some are forced to shoot starving cattle well others face the prospect of having to simply abandon their land. on the other side of the world a similar story the french of those mountains are simply too dry about half of this farmer's corn crop has already died in the us record temperatures are fueling the worst wildfire in california history the twin blazes dubbed the mendo sea no complex have exploded to cover an area the size of los angeles in less than two

weeks. scenes like this are likely to become the new normal according to an international research team's latest study they call the trend hot house earth i said. it's when the climate is much warmer than it is today three to four degrees than it already is four to five degrees warmer than in the pre-industrial climate. international climate targets aim to limit the earth's warming to two degrees celsius but scientists now think even that is too high setting in motion processes which could create a domino effect such as glacial melting researchers argue that without putting in place specific human made climate protections the seas could rise but up to sixty metres so how to curb greenhouse gas emissions scientists say we need to cut industrial carbon travel less by plane and car and eat less meat they say already

the earth is on the brink of irreversible warming with severe effects like those in australia the government there has announced a multi-million dollar relief package for farmers but with dry conditions forecast to continue that may not be enough. yes severe weather around the world to talk about that i'm joined now by lutes by sure he is a climate policy analyst with the environment and development in geo german watch which is good to have you on the show you know people around the world are asking if droughts wildfires heat waves are all of these connected in some way and are they all connected by climate change it's hard to say for an individual extreme weather event and it's connected to another individual event it's also hard to say if an individual event this was caused by climate change but what they all do have in common what's true for droughts what's true for extreme rain and what's true for the intensity of hurricanes all of that's becoming more likely so the connection

here is that manmade climate change the global climate crisis is making these events happening more often and often also in a more extreme way what about this new study warning of a hot hells earth now i was reading the paper today and this is climate change but it's like it's the end of the real scary version of climate change isn't it yes what this scientists look at is what happens if we don't manage to stop global warming at one point we get to tipping points it's like in a domino game you have a domino effect you tip over certain changes in the earth system and then global warming just reinforces itself and gets warmer and warmer and it's hard to stop it and it could lead up to five degrees of global warming it could lead up to ten meters of sea level rise up to sixty meters if you look over several centuries and those would be absolutely catastrophic effects even much worse than what we're experiencing now but climate scientists are not saying that we have reached

a tipping point now they're saying that there is still time to reduce c o two emissions and keep the temperature increase below two degrees celsius is that correct that's correct they're saying but reidy dangerously close to those first tipping points in one. if you tip over the first domino you can get you know a spiraling effect and they say that first tipping point is between one and two degrees somewhere so we have to reduce emissions now to make sure we avoid this in the paris climate remit is it enough considering what we're hearing now about hot hells earth the pair's climate agreement says limit global warming well below two degrees and aim for one point five one point five would probably avoid the tipping over these dominoes the problem is not the goal of the paris agreement the problem is governments are not doing enough to implement it so you're saying if the if everything that we see in the paris climate if it were to be abided by and it's here to then we wouldn't have to worry about hot hells earth then we they we could

avoid catastrophic loss or was he would be able to say that with certainty. ok so that's the long term in the short term what can people do i mean if you're saying state actors should do more and keep their word but what about non-state actors and just what people in general what can they do you can use energy more more efficiently you can save energy you can. use more efficient appliances you can avoid taking a car or taking a plane all of that helps but at the end of the day we're all citizens in a democratic system and we have to demand that our political decision makers take action because it requires some political decisions to reduce emissions it's very true look it's climate policy analyst with the german watch here in berlin look it's good to have you it's really appreciate your insights and i thank you thanks. well lawmakers in argentina are currently discussing a controversial bill to make abortion legal the debate comes ahead of

a key vote on the draft legislation is expected to stretch into the early hours of the morning it's a controversial decision with fiercely polarized campaigns for and against thousands of demonstrators from both camps gathered outside the senate building today pro bush and campaigners have strong support among young people opponents have the backing of the powerful catholic church in june congress's lower house passed the draft legislation by the narrowest of margins this time it is widely expected to fall short of the votes necessary to pass and told will. write our ethics in religion correspondent martin is following the abortion debate in decision force in argentina it's good to have your to be table martin so what are we going to see when the debate is over how do you think this is going to pan out it's hard to say i mean the lower house debate started said the same way it was everything indicated no vote would actually when he ended actually impose itself i

mean that yes impose itself so it could happen here too in argentina women are struggling for struggling for decades for their rights of illegal abortion what does this tell us then about women's rights in the country right now well i mean argentina is a record of ferdie progressive sexual sexual morality or sexual politics. track record i mean including gay marriage in including things like selective gender assignment and so on and so forth this particular case it's one that doesn't quite cleanly across the lines or through the lines that usually we have debates motive origins which is a woman we discern set of rights and then a disposable former but serial some sort of which the questions that she. have the right dispose of it's very much across the board not only on the right but also on the left idea that it's really about the competition between two different sets of

rights the fetus for the baby and the woman the issue here is that abortions are happening and what he's trying to use to side whether how we said that they're going to deal with the reality that he's already taking place. in poll numbers or do we know what the people think is there a majority backing legalization we have a fairly uniquely country i mean also because the country itself is actually divided geographically into some very conservative areas and very progressive arias so when the site is with actually voted or moving a very different direction and. nonetheless i mean the problems also that it is in those states which are further away from the center where most of the cases and the lack of state infrastructure makes this case more and more severe. time and of course there's the factor of you know the pope being from argentina as well our ethics and religion correspondent martin jack as always mark thank you very much.

here's some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world bill russo authorities have arrested several journalists including dortch avella correspondent how the you can be called ski his apartment in minsk was also searched the reason for his arrest has not been officially confirmed to critics say the move is part of a crackdown on independent media has launched a protest with a bill of ambassador in berlin and demanded his immediate release the democratic republic of congo's longstanding president joseph kabila will not run in the upcoming election that's according to a government spokesman the announcement ends months of speculation to be the second term officially ended in two thousand and sixteen but he had refused to step down now he has chosen former interior minister in mind well the money shot out to represent the ruling m.p. coalition in the vote. as tensions grow in zimbabwe after last week's disputed presidential election police today briefly arrested

a senior opposition leader as he tried to cross into neighboring zambia a former finance minister tendai biti a leading member of the opposition m.d.c. has since been released and is imported to be urgently seeking asylum in zambia the m.d.c. has announced that it will formally challenge the results of the election which is which it narrowly lost to the rulings and p.f. party the result protests that were met with deadly military force concerns are now growing of a government crackdown. or more of this now we will go to our correspondent through college was fun he joins us from harare privileges good to see you what is the opposition hoping to achieve by challenging the election results in court.

they are seeking the nullification of the. election results that we announced last week early on in the day their legal team address the news conference saying that the ad ready to file papers and they have good overwhelming evidence that they are saying that it's enough to nullify the. it results that we announced last week what they are praying for the courts is that the courts would entertain them and nullify their results that we announced last week and this could have also a bearing. you know gratian which is planned for sunday and. more what do we know about this former finance minister tendai biti. a leading member of the m.d.c. it was briefly arrested today do we know why and why is he trying to leave the country he is

the police are interested in. beattie because they allege that he broke with their law by announcing that. they're leading presidential candidate for the opposition had won the elections before they will feel results we are non's by day zimbabwe electoral commission so today earlier on it was say that he was. arrested in the process will file crossing the border from the book brought up between zimbabwe and zambia where he was trying to seek asylum but to wit that we hear is that he has been denied asylum and that. he's being kept in zambia in preparation probably for the zimbabwe or thirty's to deport him back into the country and privilege very briefly are you expecting a peaceful inauguration to take place.

you know the recession could come on sunday if only the a challenge that is being mounted by the opposition is not successful but i think plans are already there because the foreign min ministry we saw the day before yesterday they already issued out a letter to embassies in that we're inviting them to be part of the you know gratian all right correspondent privilege on here your reporting tonight from. privilege thank you very much. chief executive ilan musk wants to take the electric come a can privately test such as such by eleven percent on the news before trading was hold it for more than an hour on tuesday and wednesday the board of directors said it's going to evaluate the plan. if musk can succeed in taking

tesla private it would be the largest leverage buyout in history. musk tweeted on tuesday that he was considering taking tesla private at four hundred twenty dollars a share saying that he'd secured funding a deal at that price would represent a price tag of about seventy two billion dollars he didn't say where the funding was coming from shortly after his tweet musk published a letter to tesla employees on the company's blog where he said that going private would be the best path forward and would allow tesla to operate at its best free from distraction and short term thinking going private would also be one way to avoid close scrutiny by the public market musk has feuded publicly with regulators critics short sellers and reporters some analysts believe he would prefer to have less transparency the company is still trying to overcome production challenges which have held up its new model three sedan on which tesla's profitability rests

that hasn't stopped musk from announcing major projects like multibillion dollar facilities in china and europe analysts have expressed skepticism at those plans must statements about taking the company private are facing similar doubts but if followed through this could be a make or break moment for the silicon valley company as competition from european automakers is poised to intensify with new electric vehicles from our d. and jag you are with more rivals to follow suit next year. the new york times described him as arguably the most successful and important entrepreneur in the world became c.e.o. of tesla motors in the aftermath of the two thousand a global financial crisis in an interview in two thousand and eleven he said he hopes to send humans to mars within ten to twenty years but who is it on musk and what does he really want. why some have called him the architect of tomorrow others

say he's a con man but either way elon musk is a highly intelligent driven individual and the south african born under par new has achieved things many can only dream about in one thousand nine hundred ninety four he founded his first company at the age of twenty four by the time he was thirty have become one of the co-founders of pay pal but mosque is better known for his other headline grabbing projects tesla space x. and hyperloop with tesla musk is revolutionizing the car industry by building electric cars a business for which he has come under pressure the company has spent more than ten billion dollars without ever making a profit but that hasn't stopped musk he wants to change long distance trouble with hyperloop b. idea is to send an electromagnetic lee levitated vehicle through a long pressure tube over thousands of miles. lift off his space x. project is aimed at sending the first people to mars it seems that not even the

stars can limit elon musk thirty seconds away from. china has fired back against new u.s. trade tabs it's announced additional import duties of twenty five percent on sixteen billion dollars worth of u.s. goods you know one came just hours after washington said it was imposing you tariffs on chinese products worth exactly the same amount the chinese tariffs will apply to u.s. products such as fuel motorcycles and medical equipment while the u.s. said it was talking industrial products like metals chemicals and electronics the trumpet ministration already slapped new tariffs on chinese imports last month but china's foreign trade has so far shrugged off the dispute exports showed surprising growth in july at moving twelve percent compared to the same period last year. saudi arabia's government is not known for tolerating criticism that the current spat between the oil rich kingdom and canada is escalating into

a full blown diplomatic crisis riyadh as canceled its medical treatment programs in canada and will transfer saudi patients to other countries now media reports say the saudi government will also relocate fifteen thousand saudi students from canada the conflict a rose after a tweet issued by canada's foreign minister criticizing the arrests of human rights activists in saudi arabia. for germany has wrapped up a deal that will send migrants who had been registered initially by spanish authorities back to spain spain has become the main entry point for refugees crossing the mediterranean the u.n. says more than twenty three thousand migrants have entered spain so far this year many more than italy or greece to deal with spain the german authorities starting on saturday to reject those refugees who have already been registered as asylum seekers in spain german chancellor angela merkel she wants to reach similar

agreements with austria italy and greece. are you to the european athletics championships underway in berlin on thursday germany you put its hopes in discus thrower veto now hers is a story of fighting against the odds she was born shortly after her parents arrived here in germany from angola seeking asylum now after a successful junior career is ready to prove that she is you are best. claudine v.t. has medals in her sights she's already thrown her personal best this year sixty five point one five meters and now she heads into the qualifying round of the european championships in berlin ranks second this is her moment. but i was in the stands at the two thousand and nine world championships in berlin as a fan now i can hardly wait to experience it all down on the field as an athlete and it. reads it was born in one thousand nine hundred six in frankfurt near the polish

border have parents fled there from angola and spent many years in a home for asylum seekers they weren't easy times for the family but sports helped claudine to find her way in life and overcome plenty of obstacles including racial discrimination. it doesn't matter what skin color you have as long as you stay true to your roots and your country so i'm so happy that i can represent jam he championships. claudine beats it was already a force to be reckoned with youth level she grabbed gold at the under twenty and junior european championships and that's despite her rivals towering over one meter seventy nine peter is a good ten centimeters shorter than the competition in the discus circle. i may be smaller than the others but i have very long arms which gives me

a wider radius when i throw. my belief the smaller you are the more nimble you are in the circle. and her coach us could combine those former olympic gold medal winner in shot put make the perfect duo ahead of the competition they're using every opportunity to make minor improvements maybe that'll be enough to help claudine v to bring home a european championship medal. you're watching the news after short break i'll be back to take you through the day. so.

cut. in church the conflict zone with me should sleep on from the treatment of migrants to freedom of expression to anti terror laws standards of human rights across you're all slipping my guests in ghana is michael flood the director of the new agency for condom and god does he believe you up is doing if ten to protect human rights conflicts so for sixty minutes g.w. .

sarno just couldn't get this song out of his head. ecologist began searching for the source of these captivating sounds. deep in the rain forest in central africa. the bike up people. hanging in buckingham. in the letter to mislead anybody who. knew him well and when one fit is. my only behold. he was fascinated by their culture that he stayed. only a promise to a son was meet some real need of the jungle and return to the concrete and glass john. the result reverse culture shock. ready for

a comeback you realize how strange the artificial little is really connected to life. the prize winning documentary from the forest starts aug ninth on d w. even from outer space you can see the change just in the last month record heat re coloring the map of england from summer green to summer brail scientists now say a more extreme form of climate change could be taking place tonight as europe cooks america burns and else trail you dries up a warning that our greenhouse could tip into a hot house i'm burnt off in berlin this is the day.