the to be. freedom of the challenge is going to be something many women to believe forces that are available next al-jazeera story is that we just don't tell you what the founders of the story want to know the government is not going to do the one thing the demonstrators want to apologize for that's what al-jazeera does we ask the questions so that we can get closer to the truth. russia's foreign minister says his country will expel u.k. diplomats off to britain twenty three russian embassy embassy staff over the spy poisoning scandal.

are you all watching al-jazeera the other top stories today more action against russia across the atlantic as washington imposes new sanctions over alleged election meddling. thousands of civilians leave besieged with another round of talks on syria's war begin. and doctors in zimbabwe on strike for a second week the first big challenge for president. ok a developing story for you this hour the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov has said moscow will expel british diplomats in response to britain's decision to order out twenty three russian embassy staff in london over the poisoning of a former double agent and his daughter in the u.k. eleven days ago moscow denies any involvement lavrov. added that moscow had stopped

paying attention to comments from britain after the u.k. defense minister told russia to quote go away and shut up live now to moscow and our correspondent lawrence lisa lawrence the tit for tat thing has now well and truly kicked off when do they start packing their bags. well the i mean they haven't said so and in fairness what's the level of said today is only really repeats of what the russian ambassador to britain was on the. had said several days ago and it's entirely to be expected it's a normal procedure when there's when there's a scandal of this sort and one side expelled diplomats the other side to do exactly the same it's called tit for tat the reciprocity so so so that's not new it was an iteration of some of the already been said by the things that were there they also said in some senses were new and more interesting first of all this extraordinary right how this now develops between mr love rolph who is with the ring the rude

when he feels like he's been doing the job forever and the new british defense minister who's a man called gavin williamson he said yesterday to an enormous amount of criticism even in britain that he wished that russia would quote go away and shut up and i mean plenty of politicians let alone the media in britain for that was a wild thing to say. said in response that a part of this morning that he thought that mr williamson perhaps wanted to go down in history but didn't have the education. and so that clearly demonstrates the level of sarcasm and the reflects the total collapse of relations between these two foreign ministers but past that i think the most significant thing was that mr lavrov also said that they had no intention saying anything else it's all about this cripple case the poisoning case until the u.k. referred the thing to the criminal that at the chemical weapons board that the social board and allowed russia to have a say because he thinks that the moment the u.k. is not playing fair the russian ambassador to london i see as well being rather

withering talking about maximum pressure there was speculation what three or four days ago that moscow might even say pull the plug on all the b.b.c. site puts across the country the national broadcaster based in london of course i do you get the sense where you are this morning that that's kind of where we're heading with this. now i think i think at the moment and this is just an opinion i think at the moment the the russian side has started to realize that this isn't now only around within them in the u.k. it's all very well for them to say look britain you can't prove that we did this you're being hysterical but as i said before if if the french and the germans the americans all say well actually you know what we believe the british then that does present much more repro blame for the russians and so i think what the russians are trying to do particularly as is the election this weekend and they want to get on with having a nice time relaxing footie and. get that out of the way and not let this ball

issue become too much of a distraction in the immediate term and as a keep saying i'm not be wrong but i think what will happen is that they will wait until after the election before they announce these expulsions and i think at that point they probably will try to draw a line on the rates. i think it's most unlikely that the british government will want to shut down russia today because they know that if they did as you say the b.b.c. and sky news another internationally respected broadcasters would get shut down the most go as well and the british don't want that to happen so in many ways the russians do have some grounds for saying that they're not very frightened by what the british have of this leave for the time being and if it just becomes a straight spy swap and no further clarity about who poisoned scriptural and probably that might be where the russians really want to leave us lawrence thank you well it's not just the u.k. taking action against russia cross the atlantic the u.s. announced new sanctions this time of a moscow's alleged meddling in the twenty sixteen u.s.

presidential election his can really help kids out white house correspondents on those latest measures from washington. last july the g twenty summit when u.s. president donald trump met with latimer putin he said it was an honor to meet the russian president days or ninety eight and in august when the u.s. congress passed legislation to sanction russia iran and north korea trunk grudgingly signed it into law but failed to sanction moscow for alleged meddling in the twenty sixteen u.s. election until now on thursday the us treasury sanctioned twenty four russian entities and individuals including two russian intelligence agents for interfering in the twenty sixteen presidential vote the announcement coming just as the white house issued a joint statement with the united kingdom germany and france blaming russia for the nerve agent attack in the u.k. leaving a former russian spy and his daughter comatose to

a very sad situation it certainly looks like the russians were behind it something that should never ever happen and would take an adverse seriously the u.s. says thursday's sanctions are part of a broad effort to target what it calls russia's malicious cyber activity and critical infrastructure clued in america's energy grid nuclear facilities water supply and aviation industry but also targets an alleged russian troll factory the u.s. justice department recently singled out for the reported interference in the twenty six thousand vote for months members of congress have been pressing the trump administration to act questioning why it has delayed responding to what it calls russian aggression and we're still waiting for the president president trump to order one word of public criticism for what putin is doing to the u.s. and democracies around the world i say to president trump your silence speaks on

this issue. the white house disputes that accusation i think you can see from the actions that we've taken up until this point we're going to be tough on russia until they decide to change their behavior this move by the trumpet ministration will immediately freeze russian assets in the u.s. and block the sanction to individuals from traveling to the united states only adding to the tension between the two countries kimberly health at al-jazeera washington. turkey's foreign minister met look awful sort of a soldier has warned that syria's eastern future is heading towards disaster has called for the violence to stop he's been holding talks with counterparts from iran and russia and the kinds of capital stan of the three nations are on opposing sides of syria's war but the up in working together for more than a year to try to reduce the violence joins us live from so you know what can they realistically achieve here i mean they want to go to the next round of talks in

turkey in april. well yes this is supposed to prepare the agenda for this summit in istanbul these three presidents from iran russia and turkey they're going to meet in istanbul it will be the second time they meet since november and we have to point out in november there was a picture really of deepening cooperation between these three countries and they were talking about a post-war syria they were talking about a peace conference and they did hold a peace conference they sponsored a peace conference and in late january but since them all political initiatives have come to a halt there is the political initiative in fact what is happening on the ground is a military escalation that what we heard from the three ministers today really was a message to the west that you know we are disregarding the u.n. led the peace process that we are we believe that the past in the process is the way forward it is here where decisions have been taken that have reduced the violence on the ground they talked about that the escalation agreements that were

reached last year and asked and the escalation agreements that reduce the violence for a while but and allowed really the pro-government alliance to you know freeze the conflict in the west of the country in order to take territory in the east and now those the escalation deals for example in eastern who is nothing but a battleground so they are praising these the escalation agreements but on the ground what we are seeing is military escalation here explaining to us earlier saying the one of the reasons that these talks are making some progress is because the idea of a post syria. would involve having bashar al assad still in play in damascus is that up until the point when they can say we have something approaching peace across the country or is that a given that they would expect to remain in place for the foreseeable future. well and not go straight to the agreement a settlement is still far away and bottom line is that the russians and the

americans will need to come up with some sort of a deal and right now there is a very bad relationship between these two countries russia iran turkey they can push ahead with their view of what a peace agreement is going to be like championing their own peace but they only represent the syrian government is clearly not enough now you hear statements from the russian foreign minister saying to the united states is unacceptable your threats to hit them ask this but the end of the day they have to work together and what we understand is that for example russia and turkey they are not her and iran they're not happy with the u.s. presence in the north east of the country so the country really is a fractured country divided in different spheres of influence the united states making sure that it stays there in order to have leverage in negotiations because under the obama administration really it lost all influence in syria the trumpet ministration trying to gain some leverage on the ground so it's a very complicated picture in terms of reaching a settlement but russia turkey and iran seeing that they can push forward and what how they see a peace agreement should look like thanks very much thousands of civilians are also

leaving their homes and three in these military clothes in there people have been cramming into trucks and trying to draw on carts to get away those staying in the city are buying food to prepare for a long siege turkey is trying to retake the area from the kurdish one p.g. which it considers a terrorist organization un investigators are accusing syrian government forces of raping thousands of people during the war they say it was part of a campaign to punish opposition communities and amounts to crimes against humanity . even though incidents of sexual and gender based violence throughout syria comprise violations of the most fundamental human rights and humanitarian laws perpetrated by most parties on the ground nowhere has the phenomenon been brighter than in instances perpetrated by government forces and affiliated militias this forces that perpetrated rape string ground operations house raids at checkpoints and in detention the most severe cases were recorded in the early years of the conflict with your cases being recorded in two thousand and sixteen and two

thousand and seventeen well the rates at checkpoints have been recorded as later september two thousand and sixteen slovakia's prime minister has resigned after a nationwide protest over the murder of a journalist robert fico thinks demands for a thorough investigation into the killing of young and his partner last month was probing links between slovak politicians and the italian mafia the slovak president has asked for a close deputy to form a government or a corresponding elaina. says demonstrators are unlikely to be satisfied with the faecal resignation the biggest question now is this going to be enough because or when when the feet so he said i will resign but only if the next prime minister come from my political party so this is what's happening now we have. any norms to manage so we have the

same political party and the same paul it just two different thing names and even the president. said ike scepter this but i'm not sure if the public will still come here on al-jazeera thirty years on from a chemical attack that killed thousands of iraqi city of a larger survivor said the pain is never far away. from the neon lights of asia. to the city that never sleeps. hollow will find the base from the east returning to the western side of europe as we go on through the next couple of days firm ounce of clouds spilling in from the atlantic it is quite a mobile flow at present but this area of high pressure is the one that is set to win out so it will drag the winds in from at least lee direction always

a rather chilly direction and set a cold enough when those winds are coming out of siberia still getting into double figures thirteen sales is there for london and paris on friday night is but as we go on through friday in susannah stay here comes the cold or the snow on that leading edge winds coming in from the east minus two celsius there for warsaw and for berlin monist nine in moscow we're struggling to get to seven snakes therefore we're at london and paris there will be some snow once again across the alps into the peyronie's and wet weather to get into parts of spain and portugal a little bit of that wet weather also just lapping the more than the shows of morocco and algeria some firm ounce of cloud here as we go on into into saturday seventy celsius the top temperature in algiers and also in chile sixteen celsius there for algiers we'll see a little bit of rain there a possibility for some little more cloud into libya but warm dry and sunny for current. the weather sponsored by cattle race.

the scene for us where on line what is american sign in yemen that peace is always possible but it never happens not because the situation is complicated but because no one cares or if you join us on sat there are people there are choosing between buying medication and eating this is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who's an activist just posted a story join the global conversation at this time on al jazeera. welcome back here with al-jazeera live from doha a quick recap of our top stories russian foreign minister sergey lavrov moscow will

expel the u.k. diplomats now that spirit allegation to britain or twenty three russian embassy staff over the poison for former double agent and his daughter in england last week moscow dollars any involvement. russia is promising to retaliate meanwhile after the u.s. announced new sanctions over moscow's alleged meddling in the twenty sixteen u.s. presidential election the trumpet ministrations threatening to keep tough policies in place to moscow changes its behavior. turkey's foreign minister medlock of a solo has warned that syria's east and is heading towards disaster has called for the violence to stop talks have been taking place between turkey iran russia and kazakhstan in the latest round of decisions to try to end the conflict. thousands of brazilians have been mourning the death of a city councilor after what the president's calling an assassination marielle franco and her driver was shot dead in their car on weapons day in rio these. thirty eight year old was

a critic of police killings in some of the city's poorest districts the military took charge of policing in rio last month. the murder of council member mariano dr anderson gomes is unacceptable like other assassinations that happened in rio de janeiro it's an attack against the rule of law and against democracy the president is facing impeachment for a second time for his ties to a brazilian construction giant petro public narrowly survived the first bid to remove him from office in december mariana sanchez has the details from lima. oh. most of these politicians want to remove president. from office for moral incapacity eighty seven voted in favor fifteen against and fifteen abstained in a motion that paves the way for me pietschmann debate next thursday was it's been less than four months since he narrowly survived the last month to oust him.

now that a decision has been made to admit for debate i can see marshall that has adequate basis that reiterate suspects that have already been evaluated in a cry of i can see the only thing that remains to do is invoke the seriousness of parliament. to avoid impeachment last december made a political pact with congressman kennedy for humanity in exchange for votes. soon after he pardoned can just father his former president then right before he was in jail for human rights violations supporters say opposition parties are now claiming revenge they may feel lucky the truth is that we're going to debate a new vacancy because there are political groups that do not agree with the party and that president bush gave to mr alberto fujimori but opposition members of congress say this is not a witch hunt not in your no sir we are very clear this is nothing to do with. this

apparently incapable plea means we can't defend those even kurt and corruption the president has strongly denied any wrongdoing he first said he did not know the brazilian construction giant other bridge paid his miami based private consulting firm nearly eight hundred thousand dollars where he was serving a spitters finance minister more than ten years ago then he said the consulting fees were legitimate or that it has admitted to pay in millions of dollars in bribes and bid to former president in jail it was seeking to extradite former press . from the u.s. for taking bribes and several top politicians and presidential candidates are being investigated for taking money from all the evidence in addition to impeachment proceedings kaczynski is also due to testify before a congressional committee about his dealings with all their verdict but many politicians already believe he received bribes and will vote for his impeachment

next thursday the motion needs eighty seven votes to pass in the opposition dominated congress the same number who backed the renewed moves to oust him. former president robert mugabe says he never thought the current leader emerson would turn against him the ninety four year old has been speaking for the first time since being pushed out in november he told foreign journalists at his home in a robbery that his removal was a coup and assumed the presidency illegally. we had. been brought into government. worked so hard. to save. the west.

we've had. we would be. staying in zimbabwe and doctors are striking for a second week over pay conditions and a shortage of drugs as the first major labor dispute since president took over from harare. harare central is one of the largest hospitals in zimbabwe doctors have been on strike for two weeks to demand more money and better working conditions patients say they don't know when things will return to normal so. some of us are in pain if doctors don't help us with our health will deteriorate police think about what we are going through many state run hospitals across the country are struggling financially gini doctors say it's frustrating working in them with a lack of equipment and drugs the doctors are some of the worst paid in africa.

ending three hundred twenty nine dollars in a month and he said that's. far too good. to be able to. afford the particular services that we offer as a junior doctor i'm not able to pay for my medication. or in hospital. let alone the. health minister david needs more than one billion dollars to increase salaries and improve resources for the government's broke and there's a shortage of foreign currency nurses and doctors trying to keep things going after patients in some of the wards the doctor strike is getting quite serious is now into its second week in some public facilities across the country don't even have access to a single drugs. the main opposition leader nelson chamisa to zimbabwe's health sector has deteriorated since president in a similar robert mugabe in november you can come in and say you are open for

business. things are happening when they're not happening in the hospitals were not doing for patients for people that isn't acceptable. and was then not go away is accountable we're every day that we've recorded and then god was the biggest challenge is fixing zimbabwe's economy ruined by decades of corruption and mismanagement government ministers are talking to leaders of the striking doctors trying to convince them to return to work overworked and underpaid nurses in public hospitals are also threatening to down tools if that happens the already dire situation could get much worse. it is exactly thirty years since iraqi forces killed five thousand people in the worst chemical attack of the iran iraq war people in the kurdish town of halabja are still struggling with health problems believed to be linked to the attack and warning you may find some of the images in a solid inch of its report distressing. this symbolic graveyard is as close to

closure as somebody a hummer can get to thirty years on the horrors of the chemical attack on her hometown in northern iraq stem. cells. on the sixteenth of march we were having a meal we heard fighter jets they struck the area and then we were hit by a chemical attack in the afternoon we ran towards the hills we were so scared every one of us went on our separate way some of us went to neighboring iran others who couldn't make it died in the city it was like deemster i lost four of my children in her luggage on that day there are still many cases of psychological disorder skin diseases and respond to problems for the survivors and fortunately no one is taking care of them thousands of kurds were killed when the iraqi army said it attacked iranian forces in the gloating stage of the iran iraq war. a peace museum aims to keep alive the memory of those who died and to raise awareness about the horrors of chemical weapons kurdish doctors say three decades later the effects of

sarin mustard gas are still causing defects and ailments. we don't have enough medical centers or medicine to treat these people who are still affected we need more specialized doctors in these fields and further cooperation about the baghdad and erbil governments to treat them as the chemical weapons convention was signed in one nine hundred ninety seven who have been doing the manufacture and use of chemical weapons the vast majority of countries signed up but despite that chemical attacks have not stopped there have been more incidents of men women and children being killed in large numbers dead from breathing in poisonous gas none of them had any wombs trauma or injury you see down here and i see in hutto near the syrian capital damascus president assad's forces killed more than fourteen hundred people in a chemical attack in two thousand and thirteen since then most of the syrian chemical weapons stockpiles have been destroyed but the assad government has been accused of using concentrated chlorine gas on opposition held areas doctors say at least eight

attacks have been reported in syria at the cia. in there are people like sabra say they can relate to what's happening in syria victims in both countries want the world to put words into action and stop more attacks some of the job aid is there. ok let's wrap up kind of this half hour of your wealth news where we started talking about the russian election victory virtually unassailable of course for the russian president vladimir putin there are seven other challenges on the ballot one is the reality t.v. star sending a sub check an opposition candidate widely considered a kremlin puppet she's held a rally in moscow and on and she'll create a new liberal party from moscow. previously at home on russia's reality t.v. screens the one time party girl can send your sob jack turned political party girl challenging vladimir putin for the presidency. stuff i didn't think

we need them to stop stealing our freedom and you to stop stealing our common future nonsense. pull a share their audience these days less impressed by bling jewelry and branded clothing more interested in what she can do for russian democracy i don't know whether there's something you are. going to separate out or only make or maybe a. definite good start. for the future and about the russian opposition that will she won't win of course none of the seven kremlin approved candidates in this election have any chance of toppling me uprooted so what is this. politics all about it seems a long time since t.v. shows like blood and in chocolate featured sobchak as a spoiled rich kid with dubious morals and of the racist spending habit her turned

towards opposition politics in the street protests of two thousand and twelve was as sudden as it was unlikely yet she swapped sports cars for police vans seemingly with these telling al-jazeera that her mission was to save the underdog it's like you know when you see a fight which is a. big guy bowling. you go in and tried to to help. a normal person her name is political solid gold because then his father anatoly sobchak was putin's mentor before he died in two thousand. jack protection from corruption charges already some believe the younger subject might one day succeed putin able to pay back an old family death by keeping him safe from future prosecution. it's an idea to send his mom herself a senator in russia's upper house rejects. we know the circle of putin's friends

who are everything they have to hand me and my family and not a part of this circle do you believe she has what it takes to be president of russia not now back in the future i'm sure. you know if so she'll need to prepare for more of this reduced to tears by a barrage of gender based insults in a televised election debate it remains to be seen whether to send your soap jack has it in her to swap dirty dancing for the sometimes dirty world of russian politics jonah how al-jazeera moscow. this is al-jazeera these are the top stories the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov says moscow will expel british diplomats now that's in retaliation for the u.k. ordering a twenty three russian embassy staff over the poisoning of a former double agent and his daughter in england last week moscow denies any

involvement and russia is promising to retaliate after the u.s. and i was new sanctions over moscow's alleged meddling in the twenty sixteen presidential election nineteen people and five russian entities have been targeted trumpet ministration is threatening to keep tough policies in place until moscow changes its behavior turkey's foreign minister met look i was warned that syria's eastern ghouta is heading towards disaster that has called for the violence to stop talks have been taking place between turkey iran and russia in kazakhstan in the latest round of negotiations to end the conflict tens of thousands of people have fled eastern ghouta in what's believed to be the largest exodus in one day in the syrian war most left town at the center of the heavy fighting between rebels and government forces. zimbabwe where the former president robert mugabe says he never thought the current leader emerson would turn against him the ninety four year old

has been speaking for the first time since being pushed out in november he told foreign journalists at his home in harare that his removal was a coup and assumed the presidency illegally. i. never felt he had. been brought into government. and whose lives were. so i used to think. west very thin with hanging. over climbed when. he would beat the man and. turn against. thousands of resilience have been mourning the death of a city councilor after what the president is calling an assassination mariel franco and her driver was shot dead in a car in rio the thirty eight year old was

a critique of police killings in summer for use through neighborhoods those are the headlines up next is the stream also use a bubble. hi i'm molly could be and this is gilbert glenn's power and american sign language interpreter he'll be helping us conclude our weeklong coverage of the south by southwest conference in festivals in austin texas with a look at innovations in assistive technology for people with disability you're now in the stream live on al-jazeera and on you tube be sure to ask your questions in the chat and we'll do our best to get them into the conversation.