one man's quest to realize a lifelong ambition. and. going behind the lens. brings his personal story to life. al jazeera correspondent my own private bollywood this time. iraq's kurds voting right now in an independence referendum despite fierce opposition from neighbors iraq turkey and iraq. hello i'm adrian for the get this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up a fourth for a week and angle of merkel in germany as far right nationalists make it to

parliament for the first time since the nazi era. donald trump adds north korea chad and venezuela to the list of countries whose nationals face a u.s. travel ban. and the impact of hurricane maria on the caribbean island of dominic. this was the first time in nearly six days that there's been any water distribution here you can see people are anxious to get water they're thirsty they're hungry there's no electricity here. iraqi kurds are voting right now at a controversial referendum on the region's independence the president of iraq's kurdish regional government supersonic cost his ballots in the last hour around five million kurds are eligible to vote the referendum is non-binding but it could trigger a process of separation in a country that's already divided along sectarian. ethnic lines we have

correspondents right across the region under simmons's and in turkey just on the iraqi border turkey fiercest fiercely opposes that referendum let's start with hoda abdel-hamid who's in a bill the capital of iraq's kurdish region given that this referendum is non-binding how enthusiastically are people voting. actually they're very interesting when you speak to people especially the older generation they will tell you that it was something they had lost hope. in their lifetime and really what we've been one of the been seeing for the past two hours since the polling stations open is that you see entire families coming vote bringing their young children i was speaking to one woman asking her why are you bringing the children she said well this is a historic moment we are voting we are saying yes for the future of our children and even if the children come vote we want them to witness and remember that day

now the question that. people are asked today is actually world the kurdish regions and areas outside of the kurdish region but under kurdish administration to be part of an independent state this is the ballot and you have the question in four languages kurdish arabic assyrian which is the language of the christians and turkish because this vote is also going to take place in disputed territories where people might not be speaking. here you have ballet which means yes and here you have no doubt most of the people we spoke to here in air bill said that they had voted yes this is a stronghold of president barzani and he is the man behind this push forward is known by the referendum even though he said clearly yesterday that this would be the first step towards independence. people who are. late last

night baghdad. international airports and border crossings of the region iran also yesterday that it was closing its airspace for flights coming and going from the kurdish region people. reaction they know it's going to be difficult they also know it's going to be difficult to have all the different couldst political parties agree on the way ahead but as just for today they want to enjoy the vote all right many thanks dave let's bring in andrew symonds then who's in have on the iraq border as we said. very opposed to this referendum its foreign ministry has issued a statement that said. that's right that statement issued as iraqi kurds were voting but it says once again that any result here is

likely to be yes of course will be null and void as far as turkey is concerned and did deed all of its neighbors and some of the international community says that all measures under international law will be taken if this vote threatens national security the question is what is the trigger point the vote itself or possible ramifications possible actions after that vote result is announced so not clarity yet about any action is taken but certainly a lot of measures are already settled already worked out one behind me which would be military intervention is certainly being looked at a lot of homework being done on international law agreements that go right back to nine hundred twenty six and nine hundred forty six with iraq on cross border operations going to be quoted in any run up in any action taken by the turkish army

also expect coordination with iran and the iraqi government of course as well the turkish president. had a telephone conversation with the house and rouhani the iranian president on sunday they'll be further discussions between the two in tehran at the beginning of october and furthermore all chiefs of staff from the army is concerned have been in contact coordination also with the iraqi top soldier who actually visited and corral to speak to the turkish army so certainly a lot of things are being prepared and also not only that economic measures which could have more bite in the short term than anything else economic measures which could include closing the border just close to here between turkey and iran. and also shutting the all pipeline turkey buying oil from the kurds of course that is

going to be painful not just for the iraqi kurds but also turkey itself to trade very very big with this area and of course bizarre me message bizarrely the leader of the regional government in iraq had been a friend of turkey so there's a real level of bitterness here about how the man regarded as the good guy amongst the kurds has really let down turkey and turkey feeling that yes this is going to be a real struggle in the future all right andrea many thanks indeed before we move on let's just give you a little background to this imran khan is here to explain why this referendum faces such strong opposition in iraq most neighboring countries and beyond. the kurds are spread out across the region and they here in northern iraq in turkey they are mainly based in the southeast and make up the largest ethnic minority in the country that's around fifteen percent of the population in syria the kurds are based mainly in hasluck

a governorate and also make up the largest ethnic minority in iran kurdish areas include west as advisor kermanshah province kurdistan province and a large province and have a population of nearly seven million but the independence referendum is only being held in northern iraq in the semi autonomous kurdish region they're moving ahead with the vote but the borders of any potential kurdish state are problematic for example is disputed territory between iraq and the kurdish regional government and just under half its population is turkmen and arab a yes vote won't automatically trigger independence and the birth of a new kurdish nation it'll likely take years of negotiations and talks between all the various parties to reach any decision and the iraqi kurds are alone the rest of iraq and much of the international community u.s. and the u.k. included all oppose the vote thank. the

german chancellor angela merkel has won a fourth term in office so the tree came as no surprise however she will need to form a coalition of is expected to face some challenges when parliament convenes social democrats came in second but the hard right party the a.f.d. made huge gains one seats in parliament is the first time a hard right nationalist party has made it to parliament since the nazi era let's take you live out of berlin zeros lawrence lee is with us the morning after the night before lawrence it was merkel's night despite some losses and what those around eighty seats in parliament won by the f.d.a. is the dust settles what people say. well you're quite right a.j. and i mean clearly you can spin this in more than one direction yes it was michael's night history was made the first time someone's going to be this long in power in germany since helmut kohl is the father father of germination for term

zero frankly merkel she still unbeatable the most important politician in europe the most important female politician in the world with a huge weight responsibility on the shoulders really now but at the same time as every opinion poll and predicted and even though it appears to be cause a surprise by some people there was a backlash against her decision to take in the million refugees and that's prompted the alternative for germany to enter the parliament for the first time since the late one nine hundred forty and it's all reflects as you'd imagine in the in the newspapers the red tops built germany's favorite tabloids the turn to the right shouting here again this is the. historically worst c.d.u. that smuggles party performance since nine hundred forty nine the right part of the f.t. the first time in the bundestag historically bad it says but this is the other way of looking at things is the much more sober front for the algo mind which is the equivalent of the sort of wall street journal in some ways of the financial times

the union that's the c.d.u. is still the clear winner despite some losses and so they're basically taking it the other way around that well ok you know she made this extraordinary session taking the million refugees you know which might have cost any other political leader in germany their job entirely and it did you know lead to a backlash but she still are interested in charge and you know she knows how to when she got a tricky coalition to get organized but the f.t. not the official opposition even if they kind of sound like they think they are and she's still got power you say she's got a tricky job of forming a coalition how long is that going to take. well usually it takes weeks and the complication with this is that it's sort of uncharted territory because he's got probably not going to involve the greens who are not as lefty and liberal as as you might expect and they are other countries they're actually quite conservative and in one part of germany we visited earlier on this week they're

actually in coalition already with the c.d.u. that's down in the black forest but then there's this other right wing free liberal right wing economic policy and they're probably going to want to hold the finance ministry. and that could be quite tricky for marco as well because if he is the right wing economic base that's upset some germans not just to do with immigration but to do with poor living conditions and poor quality of life that led to this revolt some people. wanted to back the f.t. as well so that could be difficult but you know she she is still in charge and she will get a coalition what she has said and she said so already is of the main job is to try to get those voters back to. germany has a massive budget surplus it's got loads of money and you would think probably the main thing to do is actually start to spend some money on poor workers houses and wages in living conditions so they don't think that immigrants are the problem all the time all right lawrence many thanks indeed. and while lawrence is speaking

there you can see live pictures on the right of the screen there a press conference by the far right part of the a.f.p. which is one eighty around eighty seats in parliament that was. the party's. speaking to the press alexander. the other leader of the party was speaking a little earlier we had people listening in to that we'll let you know what was said in that press conference a little later on. now monday marks a month since the latest military crackdown on the hinge of began in may and mass rakhine state nearly four hundred thirty thousand people have been forced to flee but as jonah hill reports now from cox's bazaar in bangladesh those who've escaped on being welcomed by bangladeshis government. well the aid response is scaling up quickly here in southeast bangladesh there is a far greater presence of international aid organizations on the ground backing up

adding to the very impressive work that's been done done by bangladeshi n.g.o.s since day one in this crisis and the u.n. looking at funding now to last six months that's as far ahead as they are looking anything up to two hundred million they are likely to be calling for in october but already they must be looking even longer term than that because there is no political solution in sight to this crisis the region may be here for a very long time and so that is something that worries deeply the bangladesh government to have seen and anticipated if you like the threat of the range of population spilling over into this country for years they don't want to see these people integrate into society become a burden on the economy they see them as a security threat and efforts are under way now to to concentrate to confine to isolate really these refugees into a very tight pocket of camps in the southeastern corner of bangladesh they're not allowed to beis din cards vital for communication don't they have no freedom of

movement the army is patrolling now ensuring that they don't leave this area so the messages from the bangladesh government if you like that if they are going to be here for a long time then they are going to have to remain tightly controlled and isolated in this area dozens of missing hindu villages are feared dead in myanmar after twenty eight bodies were discovered in a mass grave i mean the military says that it's evidence of a massacre by range of fighters in rakhine state hindus say they've also been victims of ethnic violence since a military crackdown against rangers began one month ago today let's go live again going out of here at scott hyder is there scott what more do we know about this. well a journey of that word coming out this discovery by those men more government forces on sunday and we're coming out between sunday and monday the details of it as you mentioned twenty eight bodies found hindu villagers in two separate graves majority

of them were women there also some children in discovered in those graves we know that they're searching again today on monday to see if they can find any more graves no word was coming out from some of the refugees who crossed over into bangladesh hindu refugee saying and different points of view different perspectives on the story some saying that there were attacks by these were hints of fighters on the hindu small hindu population in rakhine state because some saw some of the fighters saw them as spies for the myanmar government that's one side and then but then some other refugees hindu refugees in those camps in bangladesh saying no these there were attacked by me and more forces so obviously a difference of opinion the government here says that they're going to carry out an investigation to see if they can find out exactly maybe some friends and friends and evidence to find out exactly who did these attacks now again as we're hearing some of these numbers we heard a couple of hundred fighters coming into some of these hindu villages and more than one hundred hindus marched out right now we only have confirmation twenty eight

were killed obviously this investigation is going to continue and the government soldiers are still out in this area around these hindu villages looking to see if they can find any more graves all right scott but i think scott hyla any angle we'll get a weather update next here on al-jazeera then. i've never said anything about right this is nothing that would raise anything else. with respect for our country and respect for our market a political rally has put it donald trump against america's most popular sport. praying for protection for the just the brace for what's expected to be the first eruption of a volcano on the island of such. hello and welcome to international weather forecast we've got some pretty stormy weather

affecting parts of the adriatic and down through into the odeon sea at the moment meanwhile we've got an area of high pressure trying to dominate across much of europe so we're pushing these weather fronts back out towards the west resisting the ones coming in from that direction so we're going to see more storms developing through the adriatic and ionians in the greek islands look to be quite lively of the next twenty four hours some big storms here meanwhile out across more western areas we've got rather cool conditions and the front trying to make its way in from the west heading on through into choose day temperatures recovering a little bit ahead of the next frontal system coming with that direction you know drawing but rather cool weather beginning to push in moscow i think is sort of weather that many northern areas will be seeing in the coming days as that high begins to dominate me on the other side of the mediterranean weather conditions are draw and fine temperature into low thirty's in car and we've lost the showers through the gulf they should be gone into central parts of africa it was still

seeing a swathe of showers across to downsize down. republican cameron. far south as well they're picking up wanted to but bamako mali should be dry here of thirty three.

well again the top stories here on al-jazeera the iraqi kurds are voting right now in a controversial referendum on the region's independence the president of iraq's kurdish regional government. is among those who have cast their ballots. cause one a fourth time in office in germany but now faces coalition talks a populist surge weakened the chanceless party the c.d.u. as well as the social democrats the hard right a.f.d. has won seats in parliament for the first time in more than fifty years. dozens of missing hindu villages and feared dead in me and after twenty eight bodies were discovered in a mass grave myanmar's military says that it's evidence of a massacre by hinge of groups in rakhine state hindus say they've been victims of

ethnic violence since the military crackdown against began a month ago i gave away in a member of the kofi annan commission and the chief convener for the islamic center of me and maher joins us now live from yangon good to have you with us. what do you make of the discovery of this mass grave and where this fits into the the mess that is the conflict in rakhine state well it's. a shock and we're really concerned about that and things are getting very confused as this go on this conflict. has a very very mean fact that. making think think dangerous in that area so we don't know exactly who the culprits are the news about from different sides saying that the being

murdered by deals terrorists and we don't know what the actual facts are we need to verify that and try to find out the culprits and what about the ranger who have fled to bangladesh they are pretty much stateless at the moment not wanted it would seem on either side of the border. well if they are just fighting for their cause we don't agree with struggle if they are fighting for their cause they can do that in other ways but having said that even if they are doing the struggle of the have a right to fight with the armed forces non combat should not be dutch if a civil union an innocent non-combat that attack this clearly show this is

terrorism and its general we cannot accept this what about the kofi and i'm commission which after a year of consultations published its report a short time ago. i mean. are its recommendations more or less useless given what's happened since the publication. well i don't think so because we just need to prioritize the recommendation first what is needed is just story sion of law and order there must be many of law according to the code of conduct accepted by the international community that norms must be met and after they meant an insult of law and order there must be humanitarian assistance then we have to find out the truth and reconciliation process should start with the reconciliation process the program can come in and that do communicate the

they can negotiate and they can leave. peacefully co-exist peacefully as they had done before in the history i think this is not a hopeless hopeless case all right so good to talk to you many thanks indeed for being with us. thank you the indonesian island of bali has declared a state of natural disaster seismologists are warning that a volcano eruption is imminent been hundreds of tremors around the area of mount gong in recent days and signs of magma rising to the surface tens of thousands of people have been moved to temporary shelter the last time the volcano erupted was over fifty years ago when it killed more than one thousand people. her career has left widespread devastation on the island of puerto rico people are without power and basic necessities and a gallop reports from the capital sun. hurricane maria struck puerto rico in the

early hours of wednesday morning as one of the most powerful storms this island has ever experienced it's now sunday and many streets here in the capital look like this there are downed trees all over the place blocking off roads telegraph poles have been snapped like toothpicks but there are some very basic needs here that are going to make this a long term recovery firstly let's deal with fuel if gas stations are open there are a very long lines and people are now being rationed but for businesses and places like hospitals that are running off generators time is now running out particularly for important places like hospitals if they can't get fuel they are in deep trouble the other big problem here is things like fresh water that's also being rationed which is an incredibly difficult situation but power may be the biggest issue of all if you look at the power cables here you can see why this island and i mean the whole island has no power at all officials say it may come on sometime next year but in neighborhoods like this families are coming together and doing what they can

they're finding food and water wherever they can buying it but they're also coping with there being no power and no telecommunications and for many this is an incredibly difficult long term situation every day it serves you becoming like more of a reality you know because it's like surreal like i say you know it's. you know we think that this is going to be back to normal and which is hope that that's going to happen and here's yet another problem the entire island is facing whole communities a submerged below flood waters and all of this has been here for days it's starting to smell because sewage is leaking in oil is leaking in and it's simply heartbreaking for people in the street behind me but what we can say for certain after spending a week in puerto rico is this is going to be a long and painful recovery and for many people simply heartbreaking and gallacher all the zerah san juan puerto rico all our cameras claimed at least thirty one

lives including at least fifteen on the island domany. officials there estimate that seventy to eighty percent of domini constructions of st storm damage ranging from ripped off roofs to the a total destruction of gable is on the reports. the devastation here on domenico is on fathomable look at this neighborhood here right here it is completely destroyed hurricane year maria came through here washed out the entire neighborhood the situation remains very bad as you can see there's lots of people here there's a water distribution point this is one of the first times in nearly six days that there's been any water distribution here you can see people are anxious to get water they're thirsty they're hungry there's no electricity here the reason there's been no electricity on the island is because all of the power lines are down the situation is very difficult sir how are things here right now things are pretty rough out there in the yeah what do you need what do you need really to water we

need food and. how bad was a hurricane it's a very very bad it does miss america and they were very very rightly going to go in there with everything. thank you as you can see the situation is very difficult here again more than six days after the hurricane came through here and there's no other way to describe it. then a catastrophe both going to physical scale and for the humans the people they live on this island for all intents and purposes the country. is completely gone and it's a debris field. north korea has been added to an updated travel ban signed by u.s. president donald trump it extends restrictions on people from eight countries replacing the original ban on citizens from six muslim majority nations and it's expected to take effect from october eighteenth trumps original restrictions targeted to countries that the u.s.

considered to have poor security they were sudan iran libya syria somalia and yemen now full travel bans have been placed on citizens from north korea and chad in venezuela restrictions are limited to certain government officials and their families and sudan's removed from the list leaving eight nations with complete or partial blocks on blocks on travel to the u.s. . a lawyer for president trump son in law has revealed the white house aides used his personal e-mail account dozens of times to communicate with colleagues in the administration between january and august kirshner either received or responded to around one hundred e-mails from white house officials using his private account during the presidential campaign trump repeatedly attacked hillary clinton for her use of a personal e-mail server while she was secretary of state or donald trump is defending his criticism of players who are taking part in the national football league's national anthem boy because he says his objection has nothing to do with race. we

have a great country. great people representing our country and told her. that they would bring back that. you don't respect the american flag or the n. that's not. that's nothing to do with race i've never said anything about race this is nothing to do with race or anything else to do with respect for our country and respect for us. could save us adrian finnegan here in the headlines and i was here up iraqi kurds of voting right bout a controversial referendum on the regions in the pendants the president of iraq's kurdish regional government my suit by sunday is among those who've cost his ballot within the past hour aguilar muckle has won

a full time in office in germany but now faces tough coalitions extending a populist such weakened the chanceless party the c.d.u. as well as the social democrats the hard right a f d won seats in parliament for the first time in more than fifty years dozens of missing hindu villages a feared dead and after twenty eight bodies were discovered in a mass grave man was but a tree says that it's evidence of a massacre by hinge of groups in rakhine states hindus say they've been victims of ethnic violence since a military crackdown against the hinge of began a month ago. north korea has been added to a travel ban signed by u.s. president donald trump extent restrictions on people from eight countries replacing the original ban on citizens from six muslim majority nations trumps the original restrictions targeted countries in the u.s. considered to have poor security they were sudan iran libya syria somalia and yemen now full travel bans have been placed on citizens from north korea and chad in

venezuela restrictions limited to certain government officials and their families but sudan has been removed from the list leaving eight nations with complete or partial blocks on travel to the us the indonesian island of bali has declared a state of natural disaster seismologists are warning that a volcano eruption is imminent there have been hundreds of tremors around the area of not arguing in recent days and signs of magma rising to the surface tens of thousands of people have been moved to temporary shelter and president trump son in law to use his personal e-mail account dozens of times to communicate with the white house according to his attorney between january and organist kirshner either received or responded to around one hundred e-mails using his private account during the presidential campaign you remember that trump repeatedly attacked hillary clinton for her use of a personal e-mail server while she was secretary of state i'll be back with more use for you here on al-jazeera right after today's edition of inside story next.

on counting the cost germany's outlook it's europe's largest manufacturing economy but is it in the slow lane when it comes to the digital economy we'll talk to swiss re about ensuring for climate change plus can we stop companies from using our internet data without our knowledge counting the costs at this time on al-jazeera. europe's biggest. two thousand flights is affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers ryanair says it doesn't happen all pilots to cut a holiday leave but what are your rights as a traveler this is inside story.