subzero temperatures extreme altitudes. this is where the hard part because of the extraordinary journey from polish to tajikistan braved quite ordinary jointers that's what we do high up there's no oxygen. just to experience life simple pleasures. risking it all kurdistan at this time on al-jazeera. russia's foreign minister says his country will expel british diplomats after the u.k. ordered out twenty three russian embassy staff over the spy poisonings go. alone

welcome i'm peter w. watching al-jazeera life my headquarters here and also coming up the united states imposes new sanctions on russia over its alleged election meddling. thousands of civilians leave besieged east and counter with another round of talks on syria's war beginning in a stunning. about pouring of grief over the death of a popular politician brazil's president calls it an assassination. the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov says moscow will expel british diplomats that's in response to britain ordering out twenty three russian embassy staff over the poisoning of a former double agent and his daughter in the u.k. last week moscow denies any involvement or off added that moscow had stopped paying

. attention to comments from britain after the u.k.'s defense minister told russia to quote go away and shut up in a moment we'll go live to barnaby phillips who's standing by for us in london first let's talk to my colleague john hall who's in the russian capital moscow when this is may was talking about the twenty three expulsions from the u.k. she was talking about people engaged in espionage the identifying or labeling similar people in moscow john. peter they're absolutely be bound to be doing just that the foreign ministry and the kremlin of course they're not telling us the media about any of that a lover of the foreign minister has all but conceded that they will be diplomatic expulsions they're likely to be mirrored mirroring the u.k. expulsions when we'll hear about them though is unknown if you know it becomes extremely difficult really to guess what the kremlin is likely to do next in any

given circumstances you'll know if the kremlin anything if it is anything rather is nothing if not unpredictable. what the kremlin tends to do in situations where it is accused of wrongdoing by the outside world particularly the west is go down very broadly speaking two avenues one of which would be to massively accelerate matters ratchet things up in the hope that the other side folds first the other technique which is very often used is to stonewall with repeated denials and then to sort of take the more reasonable upper hand and that seems to be what's going on in this case we've heard from dmitri peskov the presidential spokesman in the last hour also saying there's no need for talk of a new cold war here he called such talk apocalyptic and unnecessary for the time being though he did say the kremlin was surprised by london's actions which he said contradict not just international frameworks but also common sense london he said

will simply have to engage with russia at some point to sort all this out and you could read that as the kremlin saying let's everybody just carm things down now there's an election in forty eight hours here let's take the pot off the boil for the moment and resume sometime next week jonah thanks very much let's talk to barnaby phillips who's in london for us this hour on the b. obviously the u.k. government knew this was coming and i guess they'll be trying to second guess what may happen next. yes i mean that they'll be anticipating the these explosions peter that's right i think what's interesting here in the u.k. is the fact that a lone dissenting voice has emerged and that is the labor leader jeremy corbyn standing very much in opposition to the governing conservative party as you would imagine but also quite significantly in opposition to many senior figures within

his own party and he has published an article this morning in the british newspapers not just read you a little bit to give you a sense of where he's going he's saying there's a danger of the british prime minister rushing ahead of the evidence that a fever parliamentary atmosphere is neither conducive to national security nor justice that britain needs to remain calm and measured the carby a mccarthyite intolerance of dissent on who was responsible for the attack insoles three he calls it an appalling attack he raises the possibility that it may have been the russian mafia it may not have been the russian state although he does support the expulsion of those russian diplomats i think this is interesting politically because the consensus here over the last few days has been that the prime minister to resign may have had a good week she's put the woes of breck's it to one side she's appeared statesman like she's stood up for national security and in contrast germany corbin has

appeared weak perhaps even unpatriotic now jeremy corbyn i think can live with that consensus because received wisdom about what the public thinks about him and his positions has not always been right in the past just on that idea of how she's handling it for a second barnaby briefly i mean does it make her look good because there was an opinion polling this time yesterday and it was a sky news opinion poll saying that sixty three percent of people thought she's handling this well and they've done an about face because there was. perception that the whole brics it thing there was a lot of drift and a lot of strong feelings of look let's just do this let's just stop talking about it and jeremy corbyn when it comes to how he's handling it was down to about eighteen percent talking about the reaction to the spy poisoning scandal would germy corbin would no doubt argue that in the long positions which he has taken on foreign policy which appeared unpopular at the time and in fact this morning he's

referring to those namely the invasion of iraq the attack on libya in twenty eleven were unpopular at the time but history he would argue vindicated him so that would be his argument as regards to resume a yes i i see a pattern in fact throughout our premiership when she tries to deal with bricks it and all the contradictions and splits within her own party and just the enormous headache which that project is she often appears frankly because armed miserable when there is an issue of national security for example the attacks in london and in manchester which we saw last summer or this attack in salt spray she rises to the occasion and she appears quite statesman like and it plays to her strengths bonnie thanks very much well it's not just the u.k. taking action against russia across the atlantic the united states has announced a new sanctions this time over moscow's alleged meddling in the twenty sixteen us

presidential election white house correspondent can really help it reports no on washington's latest measures. 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 trump administration will immediately freeze russian assets in the u.s. and block the sanctioned individuals from traveling to the united states only adding to the tension between the two countries kimberly healthy at al-jazeera washington at least fifty people have been killed in strikes and shelling by the syrian government and russia in eastern guta the rebel held enclave has come under heavy bombardment for the past month forcing thousands of people to leave russian media says two thousand fled the area alone on friday now that's on top of the twelve thousand two left on thursday making that the biggest exodus of the seven year conflict the u.n. children's agency unicef says is preparing for fifty thousand people to leave the

area. this means significant progress on minimizing violence in the field but breaches of the ceasefire today are concerning particularly the situation in eastern is that disaster we discuss what we can do to improve the situation in eastern huta has been caused by the regime. and at least thirteen people have been killed in three in as turkish forces try to take the time from kurdish fighters turkey launched an offensive in january to remove the kurdish y p g and establish a buffer zone along its borders so he considers the group a terrorist organization the assault has forced tens of thousands of people to leave that area to let's bring in my colleague alan fischer who's live for us on the turkey syria border as to a free and alan what's the latest information you have for us. well we understand that people are leaving by a route towards the south which has been opened up this humanitarian corridor that has been established by the free syrian army and also the turks but also there are

widespread attacks being reported an african city itself we are hearing as well that from the north and the experiencing attacks again the free syrian army and the turkish military would be behind that there was certainly a strakes in the airlie hours of friday and just in the last few hours as well as you see we're hearing that thirteen are being killed there but they're expecting that number to go up because a number of people were very badly injured and pictures are circulating on the internet which are very graphic and also a number of buildings were targeted as well and there's every possibility that people could be trapped under the structure so that expecting that number to go up but the fact that we're seeing three syrian army troops backed by the turks attacking the north of the city would suggest that the final push on afrin city is no underway something we've been waiting for over the last few days the turkish forces yesterday and the day before alan was saying we are a matter of hours away from achieving what we want to achieve but it's not proving

to be as easy as they apparently initially thought it would be. well to be clear it was the presidential palace the presidential spokesman and the president that was suggesting that they could be in the city within days and that was a comment just a couple of days ago it seems that the politicians are perhaps getting slightly ahead of the military the military are staging this operation the way that they want to do it they have swept through our friend region there on the edge of afrin city they have no circled the city although there is this opening to let people use the humanitarian corridor and small that it will close that circle and move into afrin city itself and as i said we see the first part of that offensive already underway but certainly me and it may well be that the politicians are hoping that this battle is over sooner than it's going to take because there will be some level of opposition from the people in our friends but we know as you see a robin somewhere in the region of two thousand people have moved out of. just in

the last few hours allan thanks very much now the foreign ministers of iran russia and turkey have been holding talks in the capital of kazakstan stana to try and resolve the syrian conflict the three countries are on opposite sides of the war opposing sides but they have been working together for more than a year now is in a hotter has more now from a star. syria has brought them together stakeholders power brokers in the syrian conflict the russian the iranian and turkish foreign minister is they may support opposing sides in this war but clearly they have more common interests to keep this alliance together to allow this cooperation through the us found a process to continue we heard from the three ministers each of them attaching a lot of importance to what they call the stand up process the iranian foreign minister even saying that any political solution in syria will be forged you know in a stand clearly a slap in the face to the u.n.

led peace process in geneva we also heard from the minister saying that they will not allow any external intervention of course in reference to western nations saying that you know they hold the keys to peace in syria but a lot of people will argue and say you know what has been achieved you held a peace conference in sochi in late january but since then all we've been seeing is military escalation on the ground at the end of the day these three countries cannot champion peace alone they will have to deal with with other countries so right now it seems that the way forward is we're going to see a stepped up military escalation on the ground in the absence of any prospect of of a negotiated settlement turkey is involved in its own military operation in africa and the russian and the iranian government supporting the syrian government in its fight to recapture eastern huta and they're talking about the summit in april there are three leaders holding a summit in april but the last time they held a summit yes there was a picture of deepening cooperation and they were talking about a post-war syria talking about the syria political some sort of a political deal but right now it's clear that there is no political settlement in

sight. when you still to come here and i'll just do it including robert mugabe speaks for the first time since he was ousted as the president of zimbabwe. i'm wayne hale and shane troll vietnam where people are marking fifty years since an american look crime that went largely unpunished. we should see plenty of spring sunshine into japan over the course of the weekend this area clad now in the process of pulling away surprise to skies coming back in behind high pressure just squeezing that cloud of rain out of the way so there we go they'll be some spring sunshine there across much of japan eleven celsius in tokyo so not as warm as it has been recently but not doing too badly having said

that the sunshine also stretching its way across the korean peninsula for a time by the time we come to our sunday there will be more cloud coming in here but japan not doing too bad forty celsius to tokyo at all so if a sendai warmer still in a saka that increasing cloud making its way into the korean peninsula will also affect central parts of china down towards the southwest towards chengdu we have got some clouds and some rain here that rain will intensify as it heads towards the yellow sea towards the east china sea shanghai not too bad at least for this weekend twenty degrees celsius twenty four celsius there in hong kong but notice a little bit of cloud there down towards the southwest the fos out west pushing into northern parts of vietnam for much of indochina it will be fine and dry as is the case across much of the philippines or the two showers a possibility we're always into the charts of further heavy possibly flooding rains for much of indonesia.

we are witnessing around the world this whole reminyl which is only looking at how to make the next profit devastating economies devastating ecosystems putting a price on the protection of nature green economy is sound good but it was all about privatizing of nature should our environment be for sale but we're trying to do this for straight people to stabilize the country by giving them a financial incentive to do that pricing the planet at this time on al jazeera. welcome back you're watching al-jazeera i'm peter w. indows how your top stories russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov says moscow

will expel british diplomats now that is in retaliation for the u.k. ordering out twenty three russian embassy staff over the poisoning of a former spy and his daughter in england last week moscow denies any involvement. russia is promising to retaliate after the u.s. announced new sanctions over moscow's alleged meddling in the twenty sixteen u.s. presidential election the trumpet ministration is threatening to keep tough policies in place until moscow changes its behavior. and at least fifty people have been killed in strikes and shelling by the syrian government's at its ally russia east and built up the rebel held enclave has come under heavy bombardment over the past month forcing thousands to leave in the past day about fourteen thousand fled making it the biggest exodus of the war. zimbabwe's former president robert mugabe says he never thought the new leader. 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. assume the presidency illegally. he. broke into government. we've had. in the capital harare any reaction from president. well he just released a statement that in the statement he stated that this is

a free country. to say whatever he wants to say. look. he said also that the country is trying to move forward people must stop living in the past. things from the past and. focusing on holding elections in a few months time i was reacting to this. well mixed opinions those who support him those who perhaps felt not happy with the way he was removed say the big bad that they heard in stephen glad to be had a say but some to go to saying so what it hasn't changed the price of grade based on high unemployment there's no money in the bank a genius doctors on strike in public hospitals they say that mugabe had a lot to say but nothing really new he had no viable alternatives of a way out of the bobbies crisis is a slightly ironic that he decided to give the interview to two foreign broadcasters

i mean there are many many years indeed you know outside broadcast as they were completely persona non-grata as far as he was concerned exactly it is and he gave the interview to south africa and one british broadcaster one can assume that his handlers are trying to target that particular audience for whatever reasons he has suddenly had a speculating that he's a new opposition party that's just being formed these allegations he may be behind it he may be backing some of the leaders in that party people will start campaigning in a few months for these elections perhaps things become more and more clear but it was clearly some kind of strategy he hadn't said why he did it but people are suspecting he could have nothing to do with the upcoming elections in a few months time do you get the sense that robert mugabe has finally accepted his political days. or is he maybe at some level thinking and actually they might invite me back at some point in the future. apparently in that interview

with those journalists he said that he's old and he wants to now sit back and recap but it does give within that interview had he been defiant angry with the way he was removed he doesn't like the fact that praise the man and god what is now in charge he called an illegitimate it was a coup so he is giving mixed messages what is clear though is that he themes to be the most quietly backing this new opposition party we awaken the next few months who is actually in the people in the crowd when they give the new people run for their money the ruling party which could make this election very very interesting how many thanks. tens of thousands of brazilians have protested across the country to mourn the apparent assassination of a well known police critic marial franco a councilwoman from rio de janeiro was shot along with a drive on wednesday night his hand. and we'll get back to that report

for you if we can before the end of this half hour the colombian government has revived peace talks with the only remaining rebel group the national liberation army or e l m in the go between the two sides ended in january when the group initiated attacks just after a temporary ceasefire expired president juan manuel santos says he's resuming the talks to save lives ahead of me is presidential election colombia started to investigate and prepare cases of war crimes committed by the fog rebel group victims can now file complaints with the newly created special jurisdiction for peace the phone became a political party after it signed a peace deal with the government in twenty six to end the fifty year conflict. it's more like. this is a historic moment which marks the healing of wounds who are good knowledge meant of truth and responsibility and from this exercise truth through can all enjoyment allows us not to repeat the history that has been so painful and so cruel for this

country asking me and then without it almost makes me want to cry for the happiness i feel to see what the president has done what many should have done and about how many people were killed i lost my father my brothers my life has been tragic but ok let's return now to that story we tried to bring you just a little earlier coming to us out of brazil has had. despite the music and dancing this is not a happy occasion protesters gras in the streets of sao paolo to mourn the murder of prominent politician once described as a tireless social warrior the biggest marchers were in her hometown of rio de janeiro where tens of thousands of brazilians gathered outside the city's council this is the woman whose killing has provoked such outrage marielle franco the thirty eight year old councillor has become a voice for gay and black rights as well as fighting against police violence in poor areas of the city. police officials say she was deliberately targeted frank

who were shot four times in the head and her driver was also killed her assistant who is sitting in the back survived brazil's president was quick to speak out to condemn the killing even though the two had disagreed over his recent plans to put the army in charge of security in rio de janeiro. the assassination of councilman r.t.l. and her driver and us and go as is unacceptable in admissible like all the other murders that happen in rio de janeiro is truly an attack on the rule of law and on our democracy has promised to carry out a full and transparent investigation. the people on the streets are angry and point the finger at the are far too nice to say that because there is a lot of indignation against this cowardice they want to silence a woman who fought for rights for justice for young black women. if there was a place where we were in two thousand and eighteen in the injustice carries on

that's why we gathered here today we're tired of injustice we want this to go not unpunished for our friend our colleague our sister's death not to go unpunished because her blood cries out. one of franco's farno posts on twitter criticized the police killing of a young man as he was leaving charge. he remarks groups say police are responsible for at least one thousand killings last year. on a hoax that al-jazeera. and it's been fifty is since one of the darkest moments of the vietnam war american soldiers moved into a village and shot more than five hundred civilians his way in haiti. 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. there 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 in midline 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 had in these are forgiving the local people he will always retain some hatred for the american soldiers who had no humanity that day and committing

a massacre the letters home lists i don't 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 that darkest of days the serenity will never be able to raise the memories wayne hey al-jazeera me lie vietnam egypt wants answers after the death of a teenage student in the u.k. mariyam a staffer is reported to be assaulted by a group of british girls in the city of nottingham last month the eighteen year old sustained severe head injuries and a coma before dying in a hospital police say there's no information to suggest the attack was racially motivated egypt's foreign ministry said it's following up the case through the embassy in london. this is al-jazeera these are the top stories so far russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov says moscow will expel british diplomats it's in retaliation for the

u.k. ordering out twenty three russian embassy staff over the poisoning of a former spy and his daughter in england last week moscow denies any involvement and russia is promising to retaliate after the u.s. announced new sanctions over moscow's alleged meddling in the twenty sixteen u.s. presidential election the trumpet ministration is threatening to keep tough policies in place until moscow changes its behavior. at least fifty people have been killed in strikes and shelling by the syrian government and its ally russia in eastern guta the rebel held enclave has come under heavy bombing over the past month forcing thousands to flee in the past day about fourteen thousand to fled making the biggest exodus of the war. this means significant progress on minimizing violence in the field but breaches of the cease fire today are concerning particularly the situation in eastern said disaster we discuss what we can do to improve the situation in eastern huta has been caused by the regime at least

thirteen people have been killed and three in as turkish forces tried to take the time from kurdish fighters turkey launched an offensive in january to remove the kurdish y p g and establish a buffer zone along its border turkey considers the group a terror organization the assault has forced tens of thousands of people to flee the area the foreign ministers of iran russia and turkey have been holding talks in the capital of kazakhstan to try to resolve the syrian conflict zone a holder now from. 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 more news on the web site it's always there for you of course al jazeera

dot com tweet me at peter i'm here from ten g. tomorrow between now and the top of the hour inside story. britain takes its case against moscow to the u.n. over the poisoning of a former russian spy at a time of friction of an unpredictable white house how will a divided west tackle resurgent russia which is again defining itself at least according to president putin as a great power.