stories of life. and inspiration. a series of short documentaries from around the world. that celebrate the human spirit against the odds some of them come before a focal. al-jazeera selects change make this at this time. a potential new problem for donald trump the fired f.b.i. deputy director reportedly hands over notes of his conversations with the president of the investigation into russian meddling in the twenty sixteen u.s. election.

this is al jazeera live from i had called just in doha i'm fully back to poll also ahead it's election day in russia there isn't much doubt about the result but what it will mean for longer term policies much less one live in moscow plus turkish forces and their allies prepared to begin the final phase of their offensive against kurds in the northern syrian city of a free and i new debate over facebook and privacy after revelations that data on uses found its way to a political research for. us present donald trump has lashed out at the probe into alleged links between russia and he's twenty sixteen election campaign and for the first time on twitter has used the name of the man leading the investigation robert mueller is all part of a growing political storm surrounding the firing of a senior f.b.i. official trying tweeted the miller probe should never have been started in that

there was no collusion and there was no crime and then he went on to call it a witch hunt christensen only has our report former deputy f.b.i. director andrew mccabe insists he was fired in an attempt to undermine his credibility months before his dismissal he told congress he can corroborate the former f.b.i. director jim commies account of his firing which is under investigation by special counsel robert muller simply puts or you cannot stop the men and women of the f.b.i. from doing the right thing protecting the american people and of holding the constitution . now multiple news agencies citing anonymous sources say mccabe as acting director of the f.b.i. kept notes of his interactions with the president which had been handed over to muller. president tram's own statements have linked conan's firing to his refusal to shut down miller's russia vest

a geisha and i don't believe he's going to fire robert muller but i can tell you this there's a lot of pressure on the congress on the attorney general to put an end to this fishing expedition not one shred of evidence has connected the president of the united states when he was a candidate and now that he is president any connection to russia there has been no russian coalition that has been uncovered thus far attorney general jeff sessions says mccabe was fired at the recommendation of disciplinary officers for misleading investigators about the bureau's handling of the hillary clinton investigation for months trump has painted mccabe as a stooge for democrats because his wife received campaign money from a clinton ally the fake news is beside themselves that mccabe was caught called out and fired trump tweeted how many hundreds of thousands of dollars was given to wife's campaign by crooked age friend terry m. who was also under investigation how many lies how many leaks komi knew it all and

much more. komi responded with a tweet of his own mr president the american people will hear my story very soon and they can judge for themselves who is honorable and who is not erotically it was call me call me out a week before be all action and reopening the investigation into secretary clinton's e-mails that really swung the election to trump because well who are battling the secretary clinton have been a little bit ahead and then he plyers him because the fact that he didn't want him to would investigate the collusion it all when in fact that i had to have been or all of the evidence that they have about what russia was trying to do with the election mccabe was fired less than two days before his retirement and pension were due to kick in kristen salumi al-jazeera another well the turkish forces have begun their advance inside the northern syrian city of

a friend following weeks of fighting it's one of two major battles at opposite ends of the country which have to space tens of thousands of people civilians have been streaming out of territory in african held by kurdish white b.g. fight is a circus forces and necessary and allies have fought their way into the city and southern syria near the capital damascus thousands have left rebel held areas in eastern guta over the past day more than one hundred people have been killed in strikes by government and russian forces in the last forty eight hours that capture two more towns and are now in control of eighty percent of east and go to the techie syria border and are simmons reports. anywhere else in the world they'd be running for their lives but this is syria it's a slow procession the body language of mental exhaustion and fear they may not know what lies ahead of them they've only been able to bring what they can carry but they feel there's no other option but the eastern ghouta. the command of the syrian

army urges all civilians to leave the areas under control of the extremist organizations through the safe corridor we affirm that we will continue to fulfill our national and constitutional duty to defend the nation until the return of security and stability throughout the country there is no united nations operation here and you'd be mistaken to expect a full ceasefire not far away reports of airstrikes killing more civilians one of several districts zamalka hit again on friday activists had reported incendiary bombing which russia had denied the head of the main syrian opposition group criticize the un the failure to protect people. from alone we hold the united nations and the security council directly responsible for being silent around these crimes and for failing to take action to prevent these crimes but let us not forget that the syrian regime holds direct responsibility for these crimes along with the

countries that continue to stand by it airstrikes are known to often coincide with such operations to evacuate civilians the opposition say it's a deliberate ploy to cause more terror and the syrian observatory for human rights says at least thirty civilians died as they attempted to fleeced and go to on saturday in a separate battle civilians caught between the kurdish white b.g. and the turkish backed free syrian army fighting in a fringe had been leaving in larger numbers and the turkish military denied attacking the city hospital killing sixteen people on friday. it said these pictures were taken on saturday morning showing the building unscathed but the syrian observatory for human rights has shown video the damage building it claims is the hospital. as f.s.a. fighters took control of a prison and turkish forces maneuvered the un born dick was deeply along by reports

of civilian deaths and it was also concerned about reports of kurdish fighters using civilians as human shields and drew simmons al jazeera killers of the turkish syrian border u.k. prime minister theresa may says she is considering the next steps after moscow announced they were expelled twenty three british diplomats as a response to the same number of russian diplomats being ordered to leave the u.k. the diplomatic action follows britain's accusation that the kremlin is behind the poisoning of a former russian spy and his star in light of their previous behavior we anticipated a response of this kind and we will consider our next steps in the coming days alongside our allies and partners but russia's response doesn't change the facts of the matter the attempted assassination of two people on british soil for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the russian state was

culpable. meanwhile u.k. police have contacted several russian exxon's over concerns for their safety following the assassination murder of a prominent businessman nikolai a us found dead in his home in london on monday police say he died from a compression to the neck and an investigation is under way it was granted political asylum in two thousand and ten and the u.k. had dropped attempts by russia to extradite him. meanwhile the polls have just opened in the russian capital for the presidential election as the largest country in the world russia spans eleven time zones which means voters in many areas have been casting ballots for hours these are live pictures from moscow where again the polls have just opened it's widely expected that vladimir putin will win a fourth term in office that means he would leave the country for the next six years according to russia's constitution is the last sermon he can say let's go live to our correspondent in moscow john a hole so jonah you were at a polling station there what so what's it like of people turning up to vote.

yeah they are actually falling is just opening literally in the last few minutes it's eight am in the morning here in moscow on a very chilly morning but a pretty healthy stream of people also about let you have a look at that a pretty healthy stream of voters making their way into this central city polling station the question is of course whether this stream of voters adds up to a healthy turnout in this election because that is really one of the very few questions in play in this election that is not in question for instance whether by the emir putin will win or simply no credible opposition to upset him he will get his six possibly final six year term enough to see about that but for the kremlin what matters is legitimacy and didn't legitimacy is linked to turnout there's a plan it's dubbed seventy seventy they hope to see a seventy percent turnout for him to win seventy percent of that turnout i think

that's going to be challenging in a true vote because there is a high level of voter apathy out there an awful lot of people who even if they do the gist of at least support president putin may see very little reason in needing to come out to the polls at all no credible competition opposition you say. john and tell us about this competition why is there no one who can beat that in a party. well on the surface there is a very vibrant contest going on there are seven candidates a raid against vladimir putin there were just three in two thousand and twelve. they're all essentially approved by the kremlin none of them pose any real threat and not been given any real support in the in the international media and so on for their policies some are little known others little trusted but have been around a long time simply nobody with a constituency big enough to make much of a difference it is if you like a show of democracy it is intended to look like

a democracy it's also intended to excite the electorate and make them more interested in proceedings they've been televised debates that have descended largely into farce on national television over the last two weeks there's one notable exception of course and that is a man named alexina valmy he's possibly the real opposition leader out there and to corruption lawyer who has managed in the past to bring hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets in protest he's been banned from standing and he has called on his supporters to boycott this election john i wonder how is the diplomatic fallout over the poisoning of the former russian spy in the u.k. and the allegations of russian interference in twenty sixteen u.s. election how is that all playing into this today. well we don't know definitively of course whether that is going to make an impact but it has been playing at the top of every news bulletin on every channel for just about every day this week and for the last ten days and of course the message that

is put out in all of those bulletins is that this is nothing to do with russia russia completely innocent of all charges that this is the yet another instance of a country be sieved under assault under attack by its western enemies and of course by issuing countermeasures on saturday the day before the vote that was presented on news channels just last night the eve of the election as being a strong robust and fearing response by the kremlin and of course who sits in the kremlin validly of putin so if you join up all those dots it's not it's not an awfully big leap to suggest that that may give the turnout a bump and in turn the vote for president putin obama thank you very much for that john allen in moscow for us as a polls open there for russia's presidential election a story that will follow throughout the day here on al-jazeera and bringing you the results of course thank you very much john. takes on china's rising influence in southeast asia. for the first time in sydney. from the

moment the world health organization rolls out a mass vaccination program as a different area outbreak takes hold in yemen. hello there more rain is pushing across the middle east at the moment you can see very clearly on the satellite picture this huge area of white cloud here working its way through parts of iran and into parts of afghanistan more cloud here during the day on sunday and a fair few outbreaks of rain to that gradually retreating eastwards as we head into monday so still a few showers here not stretching all the way out but you do kazakstan behind that system that only a small break for the next one kicking up a lot of dust not a great deal of wet weather to it as it works its way process parts of iraq and then there's a third system that's making its way through turkey wet and windy here particularly

in the west the further towards the south we've seen a few spots of rain here in doha but as we head through into sunday the winds are feeding down from the northwest so that will just bring in some flight lead less hot air so twenty eight or twenty nine degrees where the maximum temperature we're expecting here over the next couple of days further south for since a lot of thirty degrees will be our maximum as we head down towards a southern parts of africa and here we've been watching a tropical cyclone that's been his to madagascar has gradually now working away down towards the south but there's still quite a few showers lingering behind it particularly for the northern parts of the island further west there's lots of dry weather to be found here but not in the northern parts farm up for some of us here is still looking pretty wet. the train and equip the opposition in syria so they can help push back these terrorists be people in power investigates how the us supplies soviet style weapons to its allies through private companies then be u.s.

government could wash their hands and say well we didn't know where it was coming from so when that was supplied by the us government may well end up being pointed at us soldiers yes outraged that we pick it up let's meet in the insulting the professional america's guns secret pipeline to syria and this time on al jazeera. welcome back our top stories on al-jazeera donald trump has lashed out of the probe into alleged links between russia and his twenty six in the election campaign it follows we force that five f.b.i. official andrew mccabe kept memos on his interactions with the u.s. president and that those documents are now with the special counsel investigation

thousands of people are fleeing a freedom in northern syria as turkish forces prepare to begin their advance inside the city is an ages phrase in a two month of pensive to push aco dish find his home take irregardless sarus and the polls have opened in russia's capital moscow for the presidential election as a notches country in the world russia spans eleven time zones which means voters in many areas have been casting ballots swallowers is widely expected that vladimir putin will win a fourth term in office. now leaders of southeast asian nations have been discussing regional security a d.s.a. and summit which wraps up in sydney australia is hosting the two day summit for the first time despite not being part of the ten nation bloc is looking to strengthen political and trade ties in the region amid china's rising influence the australian prime minister malcolm turnbull has said talks would include the threat posed by north korea's weapons program live to our correspondent in sydney andrew thomas so andrew what are we expecting the final communique to look like. well for the thing

i call it the city declaration and we're expecting that within the hour and that should address some of the themes that have been front and center of this conference all the way through namely the security threat in this region terrorism of course the need to promote free trade in the frights of protectionism from elsewhere north korea you mentioned of course and then as well the territorial disputes in the south china sea particularly of course as they relate to china as a say we expect that declaration within the hour and press conference as well from the various leaders but as much as what's in that declaration it's the fact that this summit is happening all the leaders in southeast asia gathered here in sydney and the fact that it's happening in sydney because of course australia isn't a member of a z. and it's not in southeast asia it's too far south and east one joined now by aaron connolly from the lowy institute for policy think tank and quite a coup for australia to have this summit here and there's been some talk hasn't there of australia joining the un at some point is that going to happen well

president of the indonesian president really sort of spoke out of turn and off the cuff when he suggested earlier this week that it would be a good idea if i asked really aware to join us here but there is no support for this within the indonesian system and several other r.c.m. countries would likely be opposed to that proposal is going nowhere fast so why would it be a problem as the un countries apart from indonesia wouldn't be happy i mean it would make sense wouldn't it australia is in this region well as you don't operate by consensus and so you need all countries to agree before anything to be done australia is quite different from some of those countries it has very different views on china in particular from some of the mainland southeast asian countries like cambodia laos and small countries like brunei and so they would be very concerned about allowing such a different member into their organisation and allowing yet another veto audience had some trouble agreeing to statements in the last few years so adding yet another view to an eleventh veto would be very unpopular with some of the members is this summit all about show or is there going to be substance in that declaration we're expecting within the hour and to ask you a contradictory question do you expect anything unexpected from it but i think what

world. for the declaration is how they characterize the disputes in the south china sea many of us who study these disputes we always look at the declarations because again they're create they're crafted by consensus and so they really represent the opinion of the region on these disputes and they've kind of become the arbiter of what's legitimate in this really important regional regional geo political question and so whether or not the statement mentions china by name that'll be a key indicator as to how tough the statement is on china if it doesn't mention china by name or if it doesn't for instance mention the un convention on the law of the sea which is really the governing document here then that will be a softer statement with regard to say of the philippines as the only asean leader not here is that significant in the context of what you've just been saying because he is seen as the bit closer to china about some of the other countries and it's a real mystery why they did not decided not to show up in sydney he was expected to come up until about a week ago but decided to stay behind and attend a military graduation ceremony not something that seemed to be terribly pressing

his foreign minister is here and they've been apparently fairly pug nations and some of the senior officials meetings where they've been crafting that statement so it's not a sign that philippines has a result in any way or step back from its positions in aussie on but it does perhaps indicate that the target is a little bit less keen on australia than he is on some of audience other dialogue partners aaron connelly from the lowest to thank you very much well the other story of this weekend has been the protests that have been going on outside the conference venue members of the writing of community particularly here in australia but also cambodian australians be at the maze of studies they are very upset that leaders of their former countries a hero too because they think that having this summit and having those leaders here at legitimizes human rights abuses back in their home countries they'd be less pronounced on sunday than they were on saturday but nevertheless that has been the backdrop to this summit thank you very much for that andrew thomas live for us in sydney. china's economy task and from new times for more top officials among them

is premier league achang as as well. terry end knowing foresman heads lee technically holds china's second most powerful position but analysts believe his influence may have been diminished by the choice of one his vice president was voted in on friday along his allied spray on my president xi jinping. now china has hit back at after us present donald trump signed a bill encouraging expanded contacts with taiwan taiwan travel after laos for unrestricted travel for u.s. officials to meet with members of taiwan's government beijing says the decision is contrary to the one china policy which has been a cornerstone of u.s. china relations since the one nine hundred seventy s. it's urging the u.s. not to put the bill into effect. although it's not a legally binding bill it severely violated the one china principle and the three joint communiqué the bill interfered in china's internal affairs and damage the development of military ties between china and the us. the attorney general for the

u.s. state of massachusetts says he will investigate how millions of facebook profiles were harvested by u.s. firm called cambridge analytic it was employed by donald trump's election campaign to provide personal details of potential voter you say very poor say details on fifty million profiles were gathered but the users didn't know rob matheson has a story. politics is about persuasion to win votes politicians need to know who to persuade and how to persuade them that's where firms like cambridge analytics in the us come in they collect huge databases of information about people that means companies or political parties can tailor their adverts or messages to specific audiences harvesting the information is legal as long as the people giving it know it's being collected i think people are getting the getting to a point where they're just providing information and not thinking about the

implications and there are security issues there are privacy issues and there are issues there hey it ain't none of your business and i think everybody ought to think twice before they reveal any information unless they know why they're doing it details from millions of facebook users were gathered by a professor from the u.k.'s cambridge university using a personality testing out created called this is your digital life those facebook users gave their permission for the information to be used by him but it's alleged the data was then sold to a third party cambridge analytic or in violation of facebook's own policies. cambridge analytical was employed by donald trump's presidential campaign in twenty sixteen the often personal information it held on millions of facebook users is said to overload the trump campaign to influence how many of them voted the companies also said to have done the same thing in the run up to britain's bragg's it vote in twenty sixteen cambridge analytical denies wrongdoing it says it deleted

all relevant records in december twenty fifth when it discovered how the data had been obtained from facebook it also says none of the data was used for the trump presidential campaign facebook also says it's done nothing wrong its legal counsel says we are moving aggressively to determine the accuracy of these claims if true this is another an acceptable violation of trust and the commitments made we will take legal action if necessary to hold them responsible and accountable for any unlawful behavior while facebook has suspended cambridge analytical some say it's not doing enough the entire statement that facebook published essentially contradicts itself because it talks about you know all these measures that they are going to take to protect the data but on the other hand they knew that you know there had been a bridge data and they hadn't done anything this latest controversy is again

raising questions about whether personal information should be used as a political tool rob matheson al jazeera sri lanka's president has ordered left of the state of emergency a nationwide curfew was imposed twelve days ago following on race between sinhalese and was in a mob set fire to muslim owned businesses and a mosque during riots in kandy the violence began when a group of muslim men were accused of killing a man belonging to the majority buddhist community. at least sixteen refugees including six children have drowned after their boat capsized in greek waters three people managed to reach the shore and let the authorities it happened near the island of i got tony seen near the turkish coast greek authorities believe twenty two people were aboard the wooden boat and a cell searching for those missing the world health organization is racing to vaccinate people in yemen against rapidly spreading outbreak of diphtheria about

one thousand three hundred people have been infected and more than seventy have died since the disease was first detected six months ago and hoxha has the details . children and desperate parents from a disorganized queue at this medical clinic in sana money not for a potentially life saving vaccination against that area local health workers are enforcing the world health organization must box a nation program to counter the rapid spread of the disease across the country they've inoculated over two and a half million children aged between six weeks and fifteen years old there's been a diff theory outbreak in yemen since late last year and there are now almost thirteen hundred cases of to syria including more than seventy deaths most governorates most areas of yemen have been affected by this to syria outbreak diptheria is a serious bacterial infection that affects the mucous membranes of the throat and once infected toxins are released and spread through the bloodstream causing the thick gray coat seem to the nose throat tongue and blocks away. eighty percent of

the sufferers a children and young adults under twenty five years old there is common in many developing countries where sanitation is lacking. these facilities here a basic yemen's health system has almost collapsed after nearly three years of war most workers have not been paid this year fairly fifty percent of all health facilities are functioning there's also a devastating cholera outbreak diptheria outbreak and the cholera outbreak but the symptoms of a failing health system because people are not that's in asia is because they do not have access to safe water because their sanitation has been ruined by war all of these are symptoms of a collapsed health system and this is in true jews of the war and this will only improve once there is peace. peace looks a long way off yemen is engulfed in the war between government forces helped by saudi led coalition against iranian backed who think rebels as the conflict

continues so does the suffering of millions of yemenis trapped in a situation the un has cooled the world's largest humanitarian crisis. new video has emerged of the moment annually builds pedestrian bridge collapse in the u.s. this dash cam video taken on the road at florida international university in miami shows how in a split second the bridge crashed on to vehicles below the investigation is now turning to a voicemail left by an engineer who reported cracks in the bridge days before it fell out if out workers have begun removing parts of what's left of the bridge from the road at least six people were killed when several vehicles were crushed in the wreckage on thursday. fears of a rigged election have triggered protests across venezuela anti-government activists have rallied in the capital caracas and twenty three other states the vote in may is largely being boycotted by the opposition present

a craftsman dural has denied the election will be undemocratic. more than thirty african leaders have signed a petition aimed at protecting elephants from poaching the presidents of kenya uganda got bone and botswana leading the call for the european union to ban the sale of ivory more than half of africa's savannah elephants live in those four countries. and now for a taste of decadence the world's most expensive chocolate the treasure is gone on display in the portuguese town overall beat us there is a limited supply of these a supplier of these bon bons just one thousand worth almost ten thousand dollars each and they're covered in edible gold. the headlines on al-jazeera donald trump has lashed out at the probe into alleged links between russia and his twenty sixteen election campaign it follows reports

that fired f.b.i. official andrew mccabe kept memos on his interactions with the u.s. president and that those documents are now with the special counsel leading the investigation thousands of people are fleeing a free man in northern syria asked his forces prepared to begin their advance inside the city it's the latest craze in a two month offensive to push his fighters home turkey regards as terrorists the polls have opened in russia's capital moscow for the presidential election as a largest country in the world russia spans eleven time zones which means voters in many areas have been casting ballots for hours it's widely expected that valve may put in will win a fourth term in office. they hope to see a seventy percent turnout for him to win seventy percent of that turnout i think that's going to be challenging in a true vote because there is a high level of voter apathy out there and awful lot of people who even if they do differently support president putin may see very little reason in needing to come

out to the polls at all u.k. prime minister theresa may she says she's considering the next steps after russia announced it would expel twenty three british diplomats it's in response to the same number of russian diplomats being ordered to leave the u.k. brain has accused the kremlin of being behind the poisoning of a former russian spy and his daughter. leaders a sofie say asian nations have been discussing the threat posed by north korea's weapons program a c.s.a. and summit wraps up in sydney australia is hosting the two day summit for the first time despite not being part of the ten nation bloc it's looking to strengthen political and trade ties in the region i mean china's rising influence. and china has hit back after a u.s. president on a charm signed a bill encouraging expanded contact with taiwan the taiwan travel on to laos for unrestricted travel for u.s. officials to meet with members of taiwan's government beijing says the decision is contrary to the one china policy which has been a cornerstone of u.s.

china relations since the one nine hundred seventy s. . you have to deal with the headlines on al-jazeera coming up next year it's people in power. we are witnessing around the word this hungry money which is only looking at how to make the next profit to devastate economies devastating ecosystems putting a price on the protection of nature green economy is sound good but it was all about privatized sation of nature should our environment be for sale what we're trying to do this destroyed people that was the crunch of giving them a financial incentive to do that pricing the planet at this time on al-jazeera. it's wrong or the united states explodes billions of dollars worth of forms towards our loans.