witness documentaries that open your eyes at this time on al-jazeera. a new perspective can change the wilds. for one chin izzie and what began as a hobby has grown into a caution a way of life. teaching the next generation to strive for a higher level. and in so installing in his country a sense of freedom and strength. new heights my chin is at this time on al-jazeera. russia's president pays a surprise visit to syria and orders a potion withdrawal his military forces from the country.

i don't see on this is al jazeera on the line from london also coming up thousands in lebanon answer a call to protest the u.s. decision to recognize jerusalem as israel's capital and they can new york after a man detonate an explosive device in the subway and the heights of the morning rush hour plus how recession in greece led to a revolution in solar energy meaning the country will now meet its climate change targets. russian president vladimir putin has ordered a partial withdrawal of his troops from syria it comes after an unannounced visit to my mean base in syria's lattakia province where he held talks with president bashar al assad person also stopped in egypt where he met with president abdel

fattah el-sisi in just time. at a military base in western syria a visit but a lot of beer putin it's the first time the russian president goes to syria since the start of the war nearly seven years ago he was greeted by senior officers and warmly embraced by president bashar al assad. putin's forces have been helping his troops since two thousand and fifteen when the syrian government was on the brink of collapse in a speech putin declared victory over what he described as terrorists and announced the partial pullout of his soldiers from syria my general you don't know much about but he goes there to the general command i give the sort of russia's military presence in syria has come to an end the motherland awaits you friends safe journey i thank you this. putin also pledged to continue to support syria's military by keeping some of his forces on the ground before departing for the egyptian capital

where he met with president of the fatah el-sisi the leaders have been strengthening ties in recent years has purchased billions of dollars worth of russian military hardware and has approved a draft agreement to allow russian jets to use egyptian military bases putin and c.c. also signed a deal under clear power. bickering ties between russia and egypt the second largest recipient of u.s. military aid after israel could potentially strain relations between cairo and washington but it's yet another sign of putin's attempts to grow russia's influence across the middle east it's also part of his. his way actually to express himself and to exhibit maps of project power in the middle east by by by by visiting two us allies we're talking here about egypt we're talking who also about about to actually has been closing has been has been drawing closer to russia over the past couple of years so he's trying to make he was. difficult the relationship

the u.s. allies are having with their international pattern in order to present a project his influence in the region whatever the case it's clear of putin's interest and influence in the region appears to be expanding into al-jazeera. putin's next stop before heading back to russia. i was about to land about now i don't cry when the how of the dow jones says life and how much do you think i mean just a few hours ago him and now saying that he's going to have a path draw with bashar al assad from syria how much is this going to take you on board to how they see the future of syria coming out. well so we can confirm now that president putin haas london his flight has just landed in and he will be on his way to the presidential palace where i am right now

shortly and yes that is exactly what the biggest part of this chip is about bringing president of on board so that they are on the same page regarding syria which is going to dominate their talks it's also the announcement he made this morning in syria also goes a long way in phil feeling some of the pledges made during the meeting between iran . and russia in sochi for the withdrawal of foreign militaries from some places in some places completely allow for the did militarized zones and ensure that the syria now. goes forward in its political process of course they are venting. in many ways from. differences in opinion between russia and turkey particularly on the issue of

whether assad continues to stay in power in post conflict syria and also the issue of the. cubs which the syrian kurds that he doesn't want to see being included in the political process i meant this lightning check across the range into these three areas with this latest almost feels like he's making capital out of the fact that there is until trial going on in the region a moment. well not seems to be the case officials here tell us that the issue of jerusalem and present thrums recognition of that city as the couple told of israel is high up on the agenda of the talks between the president of turkey and putin of course putin husband really reason in stature within the middle east ever since he come in fool support

of his ally bashar al assad and also millet suddenly ensured that bashar al assad got the victory so this is something that's going to be discussed and just coming a day before the organization of islamic countries summit here in turkey thank you mohammed ali the latest on that visit by the russian president. as a protest as a rallying in lebanon against u.s. recognition of jerusalem as the capital of israel mass demonstrations were called by hezbollah leader hassan nasrallah and follows violent confrontations in beirut on sunday between protesters and security forces and the u.s. and the same. at the let these going to do nothing had we are all in this war we have all experienced our brothers in gaza any demonstrations no matter how big or

small only give more resistance or make us feel that we are not alone the american israeli resolution which is supported by some arab countries the aim of it to clear the palestinian cause that's the dangers that the palestinian people face we should confront it the nation as a whole should confront this dangerous american project and try to impose a solution for the palestinian people. well that's. how much is this making the most also of trauma's problem in the. decision in one way or the other. ever since its inception as of late in the past few years hezbollah has lost a lot of popularity in the arab world it was once seen as a resistance movement that stood up against israel it supports the palestinian cause but like i mentioned a few years ago it intervened militarily in syria and has had really

a backlash in the region saying it's a sectarian militia and. arm in the region serving iran's interest in the say turmoil since two thousand and eleven of course that means the arab spring was a result of an american conspiracy and the aim was to eradicate palestinian rights and to make sure that the palestinians ever get their rights back so all those trying to justify why he decided to join the fight with syria saying that in one way or the other they were. trying to make sure you know get political capital if you like from trumps the situation. is recognized as the capital of israel do you get the sense momentum is growing around this should the u.s. be worried. well he did call for protests to continue and protest continue but this is not the first time we've seen an. american sentiment in the region this is not the first time the united states has been accused of being biased towards

israel the question is what will happen next like someone like the believes in the armed struggle palestinian group hamas which also believes in the armed struggle they're calling on the palestinian authority to end all forms of negotiations whether that will happen it's too early to say but clearly hezbollah saying now that the resistance axis what he calls the resistance axis it needs to you know. i didn't come up with a strategy to confront israel but he really was very careful in his speech he didn't say what what is the strategy then say what has action it's going to take because that is going to have a domestic backlash in lebanon its opponents will say well it's not up to you to declare war or peace so hezbollah is in a very difficult position but clearly the voices we have been calling for an armed struggle are becoming louder and they have been strengthened by trump's decision been trying to send a hold of that bringing us the very latest on the ground from beirut. dozens of palestinians have been protesting against about training delegations visit to israel these images show demonstrators in gaza in the arrests crossing with israel

the bahraini news agency says the trip by the interfaith group is a personal initiative by its members but israeli media has reported the visit is part of efforts to strengthen times between israel and behind israel's prime minister you're up to follow washington's lead and recognize jerusalem the country's capital and the man yes and you know who was speaking at the head of a meeting with e.u. foreign ministers in brussels where he's facing pressure to restart middle east peace efforts. all. countries the embassies to. record those traditional images rouge capital. for security prosperity. police in new york have arrested a man with a pipe bomb strapped to him which went off in the subway near times square the man

who's been identified as twenty seven year old. was injured in the blast which happened at the height of the morning rush hour three other people suffered minor injuries new york's mayor says the suspect was believed to have acted alone. let's be clear as new yorkers are large revolve around the subways when we hear of an attack on the subway it's incredibly on settling. and let's be also clear this was an attempted terrorist attack. thank god the perpetrator did not achieve is ultimate goal. thank god our first responders were there so quickly to address the situation to make sure people were safe across a tsunami is in manhattan for us question this given that as night there of what the situation is than now and how the investigation is progressing. well so i can tell you that investigators are still on the scene i am on eighth avenue just south

of times square what's normally a very busy thoroughfare and you can see the street behind me is completely blocked off maybe in the distance you can see some police and squad cars here this happened over three hours ago not quite four hours ago in the early onset of morning rush hour when lots of people were commuting it happened in the subway tunnel right below me and i'm also standing right next to new york city's main bus terminal so this is a major transit area and clearly no accident that the attacker tried to set off an explosion near here police are saying that they believe it went off unintentionally when it did go off it was not what the bomber had intended he had what they're describing as a makeshift kind of pipe bomb strapped to him four people injured in total including the suspect thankfully none of the late injured in the no life threatening injuries in this attack but a very scary situation for new yorkers in this crowded subway station below ground

when the explosion went off as for that investigation police are saying and the mare was saying that they do not have any reason to believe that the suspect was acting in concert with anyone else. but as you said his name is a coyote he's twenty seven year old they think he may have come from bangladesh seventy years ago to the united states he has made a statement to police police are not revealing what he said in that statement but they're looking now of course to see if he did have any connections with any known groups and of course we'll be watching and investigating all of those leads they're also promising to have a heavy police presence around subway stations throughout the city and above ground as well as this investigation continues as much to reassure new yorkers and the many tourists who are now in new york city at the beginning of the holiday season. for their visits to reassure people that they're safe given this disturbing

incident this morning thank you chris and chris johnson remain with the latest on lots of. talk and you will. still to come on al-jazeera supporters of ukrainian politician mikhail saakashvili clashed with police as he appears in court accused of trying to topple the government on the deal to repatriate the hinge of refugees aren't by their. own why some rights groups say it's simply. welcome back across the southern and eastern parts of china the weather's fairly quiet at the moment temperatures in a bit on the low side for this time of year hong kong you normally see temperatures about twenty degrees but otherwise it's looking dry as we head on into weapons state not a great deal of change expected but shanghai and that is struggling to even reach double figures is fine across vietnam we've lost the showers here isolated showers

across lows but otherwise through meum our weather conditions are looking fine so if you have across into south asia generally it looks fine on the satellite imagery just see little shower a cloud there across parts of bangladesh and want to those showers of yielded some large rainfall totals still risk of some heavy showers across some of the eastern states of india even that doesn't show up too well here otherwise we're looking i want to show is across sri lanka ten on two and carola but for the rest of india much pakistan is looking fine just some rain up into the hill stations there and snow up over the himalayas so let some of the forecast on twenty four hours that snow tends to die away temperatures falling back there we got twenty one is a mixture in delhi twenty three over in crunchy here in the arabian potentially for the fairly british mild blowing down through the gulf of us the twenty four hours is still there on choose day by wednesday should have gone temperatures just edging upwards here in doha a maximum of twenty five. all

the counting the cost the gulf cooperation council although there's not much cooperation these days look at all the regions being affected by it pools in economic relations with the shocking numbers on the plastic economy o.-m. g. twenty five years since the world's first text counting the cost at this time on al-jazeera. come back remind of the top stories here and i'll just russian president vladimir

putin has ordered a caution withdrawal of his troops from syria he made the announcement on a surprise visit to a russian base in the talk here province where he met syrian president bashar assad thousands of protesters have rallied in lebanon against u.s. recognition of jerusalem as the capital of israel must demonstrate it is helping call by hezbollah's leader hassan nasrallah and placing new you'll have arrested a man with a pipe bomb strapped to him which went off in the subway near times square a man was injured in the blast three other people suffered minor injuries. hundreds of supporters of ukrainian opposition politician mikhail saakashvili have clashed with police outside the courtroom on the first day of his trial the former georgian president is accused of conspiring to talk of ukraine's leda petro poroshenko gena how a small. following large demonstrations on sunday supporters of opposition figure in ukraine mikhail saakashvili confronted police outside

a courthouse in the capital kiev inside a plastic defendant's box the former president of georgia saakashvili responded to allegations that he conspired to topple ukraine's president the chocolate billionaire petro poroshenko there is room for a very simple. there. we own words for a. profit out of our view that you wrote once an ally of saakashvili accuses him of failing to fulfill the anticorruption promise that was central to mass street protests in two thousand and fourteen against the then russian backed government a prominent backer of the street uprising saakashvili had been rewarded with ukrainian citizenship and the governorship of the western odessa region now he and his supporters many of them soldiers return from the front lines in the country's east are demanding impeachment when you take you away like that i think we have

forty enough we don't want any more wars or bloodshed but if it does not do what he is obliged to do and uses force against us then we will respond adequately for the man who led former soviet georgia's rose revolution who then his daughters leader fought an ill fated war with russia denies conspiring with russian businessmen to topple ukraine's president the latest dramatic chapter in saakashvili is career saw him arrested on a kiev rooftop last week before being freed by supporters from a police van who's now on hunger strike those of a possible five years in jail join a whole al-jazeera. scuffles have broken out between spanish police and catalan separatists protesting against the removal of medieval works of art from the region several hundred people attended a demonstration outside the museum museum in the capital and town. a court has

ruled the fuji for religious artifacts were illegally imported by catalonia in the one nine hundred eighty s. and have to return to a monastery in neighboring arab and that spanish government took control of a semi autonomous catalan catalonia region in october after voting for independence in an unofficial referendum. a massive wildfire is threatening coastal towns in california and shows no sign of slowing down the fire has already torched nearly eight hundred buildings and ninety three thousand hectares is currently burning in ventura and santa barbara county is about one hundred sixty kilometers northwest of los angeles firefighters have been handed by the mountainous terrain nearly five thousand eight hundred of them are working to contain the blast but call in some being traded on a major exchange for the first time people can now bet on the future price of the virtual currency on the chicago board options exchange become prices have surged

recently attracting the attention of even the most skeptical investors so let's follow the money trail become started the year on just below one thousand us dollars by october it had reached five thousand dollars and it doubled its value to ten thousand in november but after bitcoin made its debut only c.b.o.t. exchange the price for future contracts and in january surged past eighteen thousand dollars and then fell slightly highlighting a volatility that's how some investors excited but some others nervous earlier we spoke to economic historian gary coleman via skype from the university of cambridge is not predicting a big bitcoin crush but still urges investors to take care. i think it is a very high risk extremely volatile asset class that is starting to gain more legitimacy and it's becoming safer to hold and store technology and safeguards have come a long way since the two thousand and fourteen mt gox half which affected thousands

of equate investors a half and billion dollars was lost but still even if you do time your investment wrecked we are still seeing a number of large tax seventy million dollars was stolen from that point my uncle last week and so security is still a concern volatilities concern and generally i would still advise people if you are going invest only put into this what you are willing to lose. results from venezuela's municipal elections show that candidates supporting president nicolas maduro have won across the country the vote was largely boycotted by their position on a shrine a has more from the capital caracas. president nicolas maduro saying that candidates that support his government have won in more than three hundred of the three hundred and thirty five districts being contested in municipal elections he's also said that those opposition candidates boycotted the vote on the part of the political landscape which implies that they will not be able to stand in

presidential elections scheduled for next october many here asking how is it now after eighteen years of chippies mall first of all this and for the last four years nicolas maduro with the economy in a perilous state inflation rampant food and medicine scarce the governing party candidates in the so convincingly across the country one of the reasons being that the opposition is fragmented the country is polarized many tens of thousands of venezuelans predominantly those who oppose president nicolas maduro have left the country to escape this economic its economic difficulties the opposition now trying to work out how to respond to this what appears to be a convincing victory administered by the elections for the government and the apparent by all of its candidates on the political map so venezuela. now looking as though. nicholas magruder has consolidating his hold on power with

many asking just how has he done now. working on a plan to send hundreds of thousands of or hanjour refugees back to me i'm old but the u.n. and rights groups say the scheme is flawed because it doesn't guarantee protection this child struck for one refugee his friends family four times over the last seven decades he says it's time. up to salaam says he is over one hundred years old his wife will stuff a big and guides him to the shelter in the cool to par long refugee camp he says the first time he fled violence in what was then burma was when the british were fighting the japanese during world war two but he has fled military crackdowns on the ranger three times since then in one thousand nine hundred ninety eight one thousand nine hundred ninety two and two and a half months ago and this time he says he won't go back. i don't write it i feel bad for my home but i'm afraid to go back because they can if you like and says

there's no point in sending us back to myanmar because there is no security force there rights groups say the ranger have suffered systematic atrocities by the myanmar army in recent months hundreds of range of villages have been destroyed and burned to the ground the un says women have been gang raped by myanmar soldiers. it's estimated that hundreds of ranger men women and children have been killed up but the bangladeshi and myanmar government so already working on a plan to send back hundreds of thousands of refugees to me amah. they say it will be voluntary and is aimed to start in two months so what would the range of refugees go back to inside me and the myanmar government doesn't recognise them as an ethnic group if we do their citizenship in one thousand nine hundred eighty two giving them limited access to education and health care and making them vulnerable

to arbitrary arrest by the un says how can a people go back to a country in which they are still vulnerable to the kind of violence and persecution from which they fled. the un says the root causes of persecution such as lack of citizenship must be addressed first. may suffer more violence one of the things we need to really underscores we shouldn't rush into this conditions for return need to be addressed and we're clear conditions today in me and large are not right for refugees to go home to salaam says his village like many others was burned down by the myanmar military he has no way to go back to what they will not allow a single ranger to live he says they will slip through school please don't send this bank as bait for the monster the fear of

a man who has fled for his life time and time again chance traffic are just zero could you prolong refugee camp bangladesh. in recent years greece has seen the second process growth and so the energy in the developed world after spain the government now wants to pass a law that will make it easier for city dwellers to switch to solar but as john psaropoulos ripple some clouds still linger on the horizon. greece's solar revolution came from the countryside forty two thousand homes like this one turns their power bills into checks from the power company by selling electricity back to the grid to pension of. an extra nine thousand dollars a year have made a difference they don't it's my pension all over again without it we'd be printing our pennies in this economy it means i can help my children my daughters in school my son is unemployed my wife doesn't have a pension over five years household installed three hundred and seventy five

megawatts of generating capacity equivalent to a mid-sized power station and that's not counting farmers who turned over their land to larger scale production or industrial installations in solar and wind power both of which greece has in abundance but the government quashed this revolution in twenty fourteen strapped for cash it cuts the rate at which the grid bought power from homes from fifty five cents per kilowatt hour to under twelve cents but twenty fourteen law effectively removed households from the renewable energy market until then more than four thousand homes would install solar panels on their rooftops each year but in that year the number fell to just sixty three and it has never recovered. a new bill now aims to bring the solar revolution to the cities where more than half the population lives by encouraging groups of five or more homeowners to install solar panels but the twenty fourteen rate cut still haunts

people like full of them voters whose proceeds fell by half. things that i'm not sure whether the broken promises of the past make it possible for investors to go forward today we're talking about an investment of about seventy thousand dollars the bill quotes a guarantee purchase price but there's also a clause allowing the environment minister to change that price can someone trust that after an entire solar economy collapsed because of a law greece still depends on fossil fuels for two thirds of its electricity that's because its power stations burn imported oil and lignite coal it's only abundant native fuel but lignite use has hovered in the past ten years while renewables have doubled to thirty percent of the electricity supply if policy is consistent greeks have shown they will reach for the sun jump zero plus al-jazeera love you.

top stories on al-jazeera russian president vladimir putin has awarded a partial withdrawal of his troops from syria he made the announcement on a surprise visit to a russian airbase in lattakia province where he met syrian president bashar al assad and his says that moscow is to hear military campaign went to mass chaos has achieved its mission of destroying i sell her ten who also travel to egypt is now in turkey to meet president there will now meet out in ankara the announcement he made this morning in syria also goes a long way in phil feeling some of the pledges made during the meeting between iran turkey and russia in seoul chief for the withdrawal of foreign militaries from some places in some places completely to allow for the did militarized dissolves and ensure that the city and now. goes forward in its political

process. thousands of protesters have been rallying in lebanon against u.s. recognition of jerusalem as the capital of israel mass demonstrations are being called by hezbollah leader hassan nasrallah it follows violent confrontations in beirut on sunday between protesters and security forces near the u.s. embassy israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has urged europe to follow washington's lee and recognize jerusalem as israel's capital that's in your home speaking i had a meeting with e.u. foreign ministers in brussels where he's facing pressure to restart middle east peace efforts for. police in new york arrested a man with a pipe bomb strapped to him which went off in the subway near times square the man identified as twenty seven year old ola was injured in the blast three other people suffered minor injuries scuffles have broken out in the spanish town of jericho

between cleese and catalan separatists protesting against the removal of medieval works of art from the region a colt has room the religious artifacts were illegally caught by catalonia in the 1980's and that they returned to neighboring arab and those are the top stories here on al-jazeera stay with us counting the cost us next. hour on come on santa maria of this is counting the cost on al-jazeera your weekly look at the world of prisons and direct.