al-jazeera. and. where ever. russia's foreign minister says his country will expel british diplomats after the u.k. boarded twenty three russian embassy staff over the spy poisoning scam. i'm

peter w. watching al-jazeera live from our headquarters here and also coming up more action against russia across the atlantic this time as washington imposes new sanctions over alleged election meddling. mexico's accused of torture during the investigation into dozens of missing student. i'm wayne hay in central vietnam where people are marking fifty years since an american war crime that went largely unpunished. now the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov says moscow will expel british diplomats it's in response to the u.k. ordering out twenty three russian embassy staff over the poisoning of a form a double agent and his daughter in england last week moscow denies any involvement so you lever off added that moscow had stopped paying attention to comments from britain after the u.k. defense minister told russia two quotes go away and shut up john all joins us live

now from moscow so jonah they're saying this will happen soon or do we have any idea what soon means. no look still not giving a definitive outline of moscow's response to britain's chucking out of twenty three diplomats lavrov made these comments as well on thursday saying yes i'll do it and i'll do it soon i promise you that and of course his ministry has already promised an equal and opposite reaction as is fitting with diplomatic protocol in these circumstances diplomatic expulsions are usually met with a mirrored response that may well come now after the election on sunday beyond that his comments at this conference in syria in astana did go some way towards highlighting the depth of ill feeling that's been generated by the scrip case between the u.k.

and russia he was asked about those comments by govern williams in the u.k. defense secretary that russia should go away and shut up and mr lavrov put aside his diplomatic hat for a moment rather cuttingly replied that mr williamson may be trying to go down in history but perhaps he has no education and beyond that russia are essentially saying lavrov saying we're not listening anymore to anything further that the u.k. has to say on this matter there is a procedure to be followed through the o.p.c. w. the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons by which all the signatories go through an investigative procedure and decide how to respond russia in that instance would be given ten days to respond all of this therefore is out of procedure britain has jumped the gun and until they go back to treaty procedure russia essentially seems to be saying they'll have nothing more to do with it there seems to be a feeling of the entire country that we won't hear from mr putin until after the election that you touched on there is his calculation that this might mobilize

voters in his favor even though everyone saying look he's going to win the election anyway. well i mean of course to state the obvious who knows what his calculation might be but the thinking up to now is that the narrative that builds around a case like this one of russia under siege under threat by the west and so on. plays into the idea that the russian people have been been fed over the years by putin and the kremlin that he's the only man in place to protect russia and therefore they should go out to the polls and vote i think there may be some worry now that you can have too much of a good thing because what's happened in the last twenty four hours is a real rallying of support around the u.k. by its nato allies by france germany and the u.s. of course applying its own brand new sanctions against russia that is not the sort of international attention perhaps that putin had banked on two days before the election because it risks of course putting the election into real obscurity here with the state airwaves going bananas about what's going on over the script while

case they may want to now escalate at least in terms of domestic opinion because of course this is an election that will elect putin but they wanted to do so legitimately they want a decent turnout at the polls and they don't want all of this to form too much of a distraction so the people simply don't bother and i guess he's playing the really strong guy routine in as much as he's not talking about it so he's he's rising above it and he knows that he's being perceived i suppose as catering to the russia vs the west narrative whilst not actually engaging with it. well i mean look don't forget peter it is the likes of so gay lover of who do most of the talking. principally does most of the talking on matters like this in engagements with the west and making these sorts of announcement it wouldn't be putin ordinarily who would do so he does tend to be above the fray he does tend to maintain a sort of situation an image of himself as being

a man above accountability on this but on these sorts of matters does he know about it did anyone tell him did he discuss it did he approve it he doesn't give away too much of his own involvement anyway traditionally so i don't think it's unusual that we've not heard much from him he's responded utterly dismissively about the entire thing up to now he may well continue to do so if ever drawn on the subject the person to watch is surrogate lover of john thanks very much. well not just the u.k. taking action against the russians across the atlantic the u.s. has announced new sanctions this time of moscow's alleged meddling in the twenty sixteen u.s. presidential election his committee held it. last july the g twenty summit when u.s. president donald trump met with vladimir 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 sanctions are part of a broad effort 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 it 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. has warned that syria's east and is heading towards disaster and has called for the violence to stop he's been holding talks with counterparts from iran and russia in the conflict capitalist on the three nations are on opposing sides of syria's war but they have been working together for more than a year to try to reduce the violence in order joins us live now from a stone or so clearly the most challenging situation as of today as over the last couple of weeks is east and what can they achieve over that one specific areas in. what we understand is that there is a russian military is engaging with negotiations with rebels on the ground it is clear from the very beginning since this bombing campaign began that the pro-government alliance wants to recapture eastern at whatever cost and they have taken a lot of ground seventy percent of that enclave and it's not just that they've encircled

the enclave some areas into three different pockets and what we understand is that . the rebel alliance in the north is in negotiations with the russian military and they are ready to leave part of this evacuation deal but we also understand this man a rebel faction in the south in the southern pocket well they are continuing to fight they are refusing to surrender so the pro-government alliance clearly wanting to recapture this area words comments from the turkish foreign ministry the minister excuse me stop short really of any condemnation criticism but no condemnation at the end of the day yes turkey russia and iran do not see eye to eye on everything in syria but they do have a lot of common interests common interests that allow them really to continue cooperating in this so called as stand up process is there russia moscow the kremlin always stressing that a star and geneva are interconnected interdependent processes but if the russians are driving this and they're making progress partly because the the turks are there

and the iranians are there as well even though they're diametrically opposed to what they want to see happening in the immediate future how can they say that those two things will come together in a positive way when they are getting positive results arguably out of what they've been doing there in the proceeding seven rounds of discussions. well the message we got today from these three ministers is that. this is what is important this is a successful initiative almost really a slap in the face to the united nations led process in geneva we know that russia really is the architect of this process that has wanted to sideline the west and that's the way to do this by moving the negotiations here to a standard but at the end of the day these three players are championing their own peace what is their peace they are not ready to discuss any political transition for example what they want to discuss is about rewriting the constitution some reforms and the opposition is refusing to accept anything that doesn't involve

political transition so it's not really clear what they can achieve if they don't have the united states and the west on board at least an illegitimate peace deal dana thanks very much. elsewhere in syria at least thirteen people have been killed in freeness turkish forces trying to take the town from kurdish fighters turkey launched an offensive in january to remove the syrian why p.g. and establish a buffer zone along the border there turkey considers the y. peachey as a terrorist organization because soldiers forced tens of thousands of people to leave the area still to come here on al-jazeera robert mugabe speaks for the first time publicly since he was ousted from the presidency in zimbabwe. and political turmoil in slovakia. yesterday journalist and his fiance.

how about the usual rash of showers across southeast asia the heaviest of which will be across malaysia down into parts of indonesia see the how the cloud is lining up in streets here as he's often the case so we'll see some very heavy rain there into job educate a thirty one celsius the wet weather continuing then as we go on through sunday further north it doesn't look too bad just want to showers up towards thailand southern parts of china but it's back down into northern parts of australia just around indonesia where we are seeing the heaviest of the downpours still circulation here that is tropical cyclone marcus so go on through the next twenty four to one thirty six hours we may even see those winds picking up to around one hundred twenty hundred thirty for them to pass a damaging winds coming in here a loss of rain as well further south of the temperatures thirty celsius to brisbane and sydney adelaide pious still there in melbourne in the strong winds coming in

from the interior there are bushfire warnings in falls right across the toria will be a little colder as we go on into sunday for melbourne when started to come in from all over westerly direction war heavy rain around the top end and it looks like a really hot one for sydney where the top temperature thirty six. a global economic superpower that's underperformed in the world of football when he explores how china is now spending billions in his quest to conquer the beautiful game at this time when al jazeera i mean this is different whether someone is going for something is very wrong doesn't matter when you think it's how you approach a picture and i think it is a certain way of doing it. welcome

if you're just joining us you're watching al-jazeera the top story so far today the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov says moscow will expel british diplomats in retaliation for the u.k. ordering out of twenty three russian embassy staff over the poisoning of a former double agent and his daughter in england last week. russia is promising to retaliate after the u.s. announced new sanctions over moscow's alleged meddling in the twenty sixth presidential election the trumpet ministration is threatening to keep tough policies in place until moscow changes its behavior. turkey's foreign minister metal cover solo has warned that syria's eastern culture is heading towards disaster has called for the violence to stop the talks have been taking place between turkey iran and russia in cassocks on the capital in the latest round of

talks to end the conflict. aside from you american sanctions against russia the investigation into whether the kremlin meddled in the twenty sixteen election is turning its attention directed to president trump's business interests the special counsel robert muller has reportedly subpoenaed the trump organization to hand over documentation patty call heinous that story now from washington. robert mueller wants to know what business the trump administration has done in russia president donald trump often says none but the special counsel wants to see if that's true according to the new york times he has sent a subpoena to trump's business requesting all documents miller could have just asked for them but a subpoena sends a message everything has to be turned over or else legal scholar bruce fein says this sends a message that the investigation won't end with the indictment of russians that he was building his case step by step yes now he's got one side of the equation with

regard to the russians. he's indicted for attempting to influence now he's looking at the trump campaign to put the puzzle together well who was the recipient and beneficiary and what kind of orchestration or coordination that there was between trump officials and and the russians it's not clear if he's asked about businesses outside of russia but president donald trump has indicated that could force him to act this from a previous interview with the new york times. it would be your money and your family's finances right there. for that period we should what is actual i wish you would see it but there isn't much the president can do about the investigation he could try to fire miller directly but that would likely end up in the courts or he could try to dismiss the people in charge of mahler but that would be politically risky. the last president to do that was richard nixon and the

political backlash led to him quitting before he could be impeached trump is still reportedly thinking about taking some steps to stop the investigation with the hope history won't repeat itself al-jazeera washington. the u.n. human rights office is accusing mexican police of torturing dozens of people while investigating the disappearance is a forty three students four years ago and says there is strong evidence some of those arrested were subjected to average attention and human rights violations john holeman from mexico city. it was a case that horrified mexico forty three students pulled off of buses by corrupt mexican police working with a criminal gang they would never seen alive again for months after the capital's main avenue reverberated to describe. alive you took them alive we want them back now authorities are accused not just of failing the students but the suspects

in the case. a new u.n. report says there were strong indications that officials thirty four of those the attorney general's office detained and. the detainees denounced in the detail and consistent why the torture that they were exposed to beatings as fixation with plastic bags electric shocks waterboarding torture threats to rattle their wives and daughters. it all puts more doubt on investigators findings mostly based on suspect confessions that the students were killed and burnt in this rubbish dump many believe those conclusions were rushed out in the hope of putting a full stop on the controversy but the cases continue to haunt authorities already accused of what and human rights abuses on many other occasions if those at the attorney general's office want to remind us of the case it's further down. an already tarnished reputation they need look no further than the poem in

a protest camp devoted to the disappeared students that's right on their doorstep it put out a statement casting doubt on the un's conclusions it said the ongoing investigation and the evidence recorded in our case files does not support the conclusions of the report. so many here simply won't wash especially after the un also revealed that the same attorney general's office had failed to hold any officials responsible and staff until now we have no knowledge that anyone's been held responsible for these acts of torture and other violations of human rights the officials who are responsible remain unpunished many will see that not as a surprise but another indication that authorities are more ready to protect them so when the public john hoeven i was dizzy to mexico city to zimbabwe where the former president robert mugabe says he never thought the current president 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 assume the presidency illegally. he whom i had. been brought into government. and whose life i work. to save. us threatened with hangman. why. we would be the man. turning against. let's get more on that we're joined here on al-jazeera by ernest and he's the director of the independent zimbabwe media center he joins us live to harare

ernest's what did robert mccartney really think was going to happen to him towards the end of his tenure as zimbabwean president i mean you could say what happened to him was the least worst option for him and his family. getting the lucky day you may know president mugabe was pretty. was. is why i was going to do. what developments within is done and where point. and i think we've lost the line there to harare we will go back to. if and when we can. slovakia's prime minister has resigned following nationwide protests over the murder of journalists robert fico face 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 because deputy to form a government al-jazeera correspondent elaine i grew shocked says demonstrators are unlikely to be satisfied with ficos resignation. the biggest question now is this going to be enough because or when when 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 there is so we have the same political party in the same ball it didn't just do different the names and even the president. said i could step to this but i'm not sure if public will. to colombia where the government has revived peace

talks with the only remaining rebel group that's the national liberation army or e l n n negotiations between the two sides ended in january when the group initiated attacks just after a temporary ceasefire expired the president's juan manuel santos says he is resuming the talks to save lives ahead of maine's presidential elections colombia started to investigate and prepare cases of war crimes committed by the fark rebel group victims can now file complaints with the newly created special jurisdiction for peace became a political party after it signed a peace deal with the government in twenty sixteen to end the fifty year long conflict it's been fifty years since one of the darkest moments of the vietnam war u.s. soldiers moved into a village and killed more than five hundred civilians when hey as the story. it's normal to see grave sites scattered around the villages and rice fields of vietnam but in this area there's a common date etched on them the sixteenth of march one thousand nine hundred sixty

eight that's when most people who lived in the village of me live with killed some of them raped and tortured first in a four hour assault by u.s. soldiers during the vietnam war. pantani kong was eleven at the time and among the few who survived when the soldiers opened fire on his family he was shielded by the bodies of his mother and four siblings. the soldiers killed people in the rice fields and on the roads first then they came to every house and killed everyone they killed every person and every animal they saw then they burnt the houses believing there were enemy soldiers and me lie the americans were told to kill everyone five hundred four unarmed men women and children were murdered the main site is now a parking museum where people come to learn about a massacre that was covered up by the u.s. for more than a year. people come here to remember them africa but it's not about holding on to

bad feelings it's a reminder to the world that the war was bad and together we must maintain peace the just one u.s. soldier was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison but later had his sentence commuted. the message and other similar incidents helped galvanize the antiwar movement in the united states and turned more vietnamese against the american soldiers today of course the vietnamese haven't forgotten the war but for most there is a sense of moving on. relations between the two countries have steadily improved to the point where they see strategic and economic benefits of being on the same side . last week saw the largest u.s. military presence in vietnam since the war as the navy visited the city of dumbing and took part in several community events. but moving on is not so easy for those who survived one of the most horrific acts of the war. from the one he meets are

forgiving the local people who will always retain some hated the american soldiers who had no humanity that day getting a massacre the letters homeless i do feel lonely life today the fields around me lie a peaceful just as they were before the u.s. helicopters landed fifty years ago but for survivors of the darkest of days the serenity will never be able to raise the memories wayne hey al-jazeera me lie vietnam ok let's go back to that interview we tried to bring you a little earlier with this one zing gave the director of the independence and bubbly media center on the surprise media interview offered and accepted by robert mugabe the former president of zimbabwe ernest sorry about our technical issues just a little earlier you were explaining to us what mr mugabe thought should have actually happened to him when his time in office was quite definitely brought to a pretty fast speedy conclusion. yes

our thing i've got to present to mugabe as the blonde wise to harass easy why does my dad into the void zisha not political power and zimbabwe before what i've been used in november took him by surprise how does he see the country today compared to where the country was when he took it over given this interview because he's saying the country is now all topsy turvy you could say well joining his time in office the country was more topsy turvy than it is today it stumbled from financial crisis to a degree of isolation to a lot of isolation to less isolation as he was trying to build friendships with people who were kind of off the spectrum of acceptable friendships at the time. yeah yeah i think dems of who isolation now i would to say that he we have seen the sour mood changes to the new president. yes'

come up with the police or opening up a zimbabwe he talks of opening up a zimbabwe for business or guise of mugabe yeah i did clip to the policies that he . said to do as they look is the policies we're raising not that way saying zimbabwe is open for business for everyone india as we speak they are overjoyed to rejoin the commonwealth as we speak who we are yet in that he. invests in men's commitments made the way that i wanted to do and you have been said he what was in baba which was not to the case during the prison of isolation we are seeing it as that could be all the zimbabwe move away from isolation but be on the ground in terms of the economy we need to see changes point one point i want to quote briefly please he's also saying in this interview that what happened with mr

mann and should be seen as nothing less than a coup even if he is right can i suggest to you that the people of your country they're ok with that because they got rid of him that's all that people are not ok with that because they don't like president mugabe because of what is i suppose they did with this rule why didn't god then maybe saying maybe i bowed to the public a sentimental is truly going are going to see i'm ok we'll leave it there. many thanks. this is al jazeera these are the headlines so far today russia's 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 take action after the u.s.

announced new sanctions over moscow's alleged meddling in the u.s. presidential election is nineteen people and five russian entities have been targeted the trumpet ministration is threatening to keep tough policies in place until moscow changes its behavior. turkey's foreign minister has warned that syria's eastern is heading towards disaster and has called for the violence to stop talks have been taking place between turkey iran and russia and kazakhstan in the latest round of negotiations to end the conflict has more now from a start at the end of the day these three players are championing their own peace what is their peace and they are not ready to discuss any political transition for example what they want to discuss there is about rewriting the constitution some reforms and the opposition is refusing to accept anything that doesn't involve political transition so it's not really clear what they can achieve if they don't have the united states and the west on board at least illegitimate peace deal

elsewhere in syria at least thirteen people have been killed in the turkish forces trying to take the town from kurdish fighters turkey launched an offensive in january to remove the syrian why p.g. and establish a buffer zone along its border turkey considers the wipe e.g. terrorists the assault has forced tens of thousands to flee the area as we've just heard the zimbabwean former president robert mugabe says he never thought the current leader emerson. would turn against him the ninety four year old has been speaking publicly for the first time since being pushed out last november. kurdish people in iraq thirty years since the devastating chemical attack during the closing days of the iran iraq war five thousand people died when iraqi forces bombarded the town with mustard consigner and gas in one thousand nine hundred eight saddam hussein accuse people of siding with iran you are right up to the top stories up next it's one one east i will see you very soon the. u.s.

president has said. for us. to. bring you the stories that are shaping the economic world we live in counting the cost at this time on al-jazeera. china isn't a limp big sporting superpower. but football has always been easy. they've only qualified for the world cup i am lost and we see. this.