before the people do better in school i link up our people on time to take more of their needs are different from the stronger man our song one that you are getting the growth of rejectionism of this world because the model doesn't work europe's forbidden colony episode two at this time on al-jazeera. the turkish flag is raised in the syrian city of a free present and says kurdish forces have been pushed out. and you watching all just their life my headquarters here in doha coming up in the

next thirty minutes russia's vladimir putin is widely expected to win a fourth term as president but one opposition leader is urging voters to boycott the election. also a state of emergency is lifted but the dispute between three lanka's buddhist and muslim communities is far from over. and australia takes on china's rise influence in southeast asia hosting the ten nation at sea and blog for the first time in sydney. welcome to the program turkish president rest of the birds one has declared the center of the syrian city of a free and to be entirely under the control of his forces now the turkish flag has already been raised in the former kurdish stronghold free syrian army forces backed by the turkish military captured the town center just before dawn on sunday the

free syrian army says seventy kurdish why p.g. fighters were killed during the advance. now the development comes almost three months after turkey began its cross border operation to push kurdish forces back from its border turkey views the white p.g. in a freenet as an extension of the band kurdistan workers party also known as the p.k. k. it's been engaged in an armed campaign for independence from turkey for more than thirty years now turkish forces have been backing the free syrian army while forces loyal to the syrian government have supported the y.p. g. since late february early one says he won't hand a friend back to the syrian government wants turkish forces are in full control he's also vowed to push his forces east beach next where u.s. troops have been deployed. understatements as our correspondent in turkey syria border and declaring what amounts to a victory and we've been asking this question all morning is it really just too

premature andree. it would seem that in terms of this city it is apparently all over more or less bara the follow up operations which are ongoing clearing areas all of. it providing the advise explosive devices out of course the other operations going on in other why p.g. held areas that turkey wants to take over we're hearing now that there are vases going on in various other locations within the occupied territory occupied by why p.g. so we're certainly not at the end of this operation no our freedom is a key area in terms of what's turkey wants to do but of course as you're saying it has to move east as far as walk happen is concerned it was quite fast in the end because overnight saturday sunday their walls detachment of special forces

according to turkish c senior sources within the military that was to actually deployed following on from that the free syrian army deployed attacked from the west and the east and apparently a lot of why peachey fighters at a stake already to the south to the regime how dare is and as a result there was limited resistance to the offensive this part of the offensive and it certainly wasn't as big as some were expecting and then we had early this morning a declaration from the president and it went like this. i was exhausted other than most of the terrorist have already fled with their tails between their legs our special forces and members of the free syrian army and cleaning the remains of the traps i left behind in the center of offering our flags of trust and stability away even in sort of rags of terrorists. of course andrew when we hear about the ongoing

conflict not just in a freend but in other areas one worries really and wonders about the civilian population where they are what's happened to them and how they managed to find some route out of the conflict zones. yes so more and more humanitarian questions being asked not just by the media like us but also the united nations and a variety of humanitarian organizations the turkish are trying to assure everyone that they've done their level best that this is a military operation that they have done everything in their power to avoid civilian casualties however there is a lot of information sifted through by the syrian observatory for human rights for instance which shows the opposite and they're all a big disputes about exactly what targets are being hit or what haven't also the x e x ting root of civilians there have been tens of thousands of civilians a scaping and they've been going to the south mainly to the syrian regime held

areas where they have been afforded some security and given some form of refuge but we don't have any information on this there is a large gap in the way that this whole thing has been covered because the syrian the turkish have been controlling media in a very heavy way say i say heavy heavy not absolute word but a selective way in terms of allowing them to see things they want them to see and as far as the kurdish are concerned very limited media outlets and much information coming from them so the united nations want to know how civilians being targeted or are they so-called collateral damage and they also want to know whether or not the kurds have use civilians as human shields they've got questions to be posed to both sides meantime as you heard in the rhetoric from the turkish president there this

operation isn't over the people he regards as terrorists who are a fighting force who have been allies of the united states in fighting eisel to the east have yet to have the last say in all of this man beach a key city that house. take it according with his next stage in another operation moving east he wants to basically take all of these areas from the the kurds declare them turkish will they hand them back as under international law to the syrian state and what time these are answered questions as well so this is by no means the end of the story it's certainly possible close of one chapter or for the moment we'll leave it there of course come back to you when the situation develops thank you indra. well meanwhile the main rebel group in syria's southern eastern ghouta old plane says it's negotiating a possible ceasefire with the united nations at least twenty thousand people are

fled the fighting in the past week the rebel group. says it's in discussions about getting aid to civilians and evacuating people with urgent medical cases the syrian government backed by russian air power has recaptured almost eighty percent of the rubble on klav since february the eighteenth. voting is underway in russia as one hundred ten million eligible voters choose their leader president vladimir putin is seeking a fourth term which will give him six more years in office has shown a whole report from moscow the kremlin is hoping for a high turnout to boost the digital mysie of putin's expected victory. you know there's a presidential election going on because of the banners in the street that say presidential election and schools are full of adults on a sunday voters are presented with a seemingly vibrant

a row of choices eight candidates a veteran politicians is a communist an ultra nationalist and a former reality t.v. star who some fancy is a future leader but not this time. this time the result is not in doubt. this man says he's voting for the father of the nation and. i trust putin and i like the way he read. the array of choices not all it seems a series of televised election debates over the past fortnight featuring seven of the eight candidates minus putin of course quickly descended into a circus like fast in fact circus is a word the kremlin has used to describe the other seven election candidates so it's more a show of democracy than the real thing. conspicuously absent from the

ballot is this man alexina valmy and to corruption lawyer turned opposition figure who's led enormous street protests in the past he's putin's most outspoken critic barred from taking part after a conviction for embezzlement a charge he says was politically motivated novelli has called on his supporters to boycott the election as the voting day wore on low turnout what the kremlin really cares about seem to be high so to the number of alleged voter violations reported on social media big numbers will add legitimacy to the putin victory and it does appear that big numbers have turned out to vote. from the russian capital of course what the authorities would like to see is a very large turnout which you've mentioned in your report because that's going to legitimize the vote not just for the domestic audience but certainly want to you might say beat the international community over the head with us while.

well it's not just about britain winning is it because that's pretty much guaranteed what they want is to be other show a resoundingly national mandate behind him over the next six years as you say for domestic consumption as much as international but something in the kremlin has invested a lot of time and effort in trying to entice people to to the polls because they know that eighteen years of power for president putin no meaningful really meaningful election in all of that time and and the foregone conclusion of him winning a further term means there's a great deal of apathy among the electorate here so they've entice people to the polls across the country with all sorts of things free food at polling stations in some places competitions where you can win big prizes and there's a plan a plan dubbed seventy seventy but the kremlin has been engaged in hoping for a seventy percent turnout higher than two thousand and twelve of which president putin would win seventy percent of that turnout now but you know when they achieve that it has to be said it's looking pretty good for them at the moment certainly in terms of the figures coming from the central election commission at this stage

reporting turnout from the east where polls have been open for many hours now many more hours than here in moscow it is looking like there is a substantial turn up but said that there are also multiple multiple reports of allegations of voter violations lots of ballot box stuffing trying to get that number up those will have to be investigated in time but it does appear as if the kremlin project to get a big turnout is at least on course jonah jury president putin's very long ten year international spats whether they be or involvement in syria crimea the most recent spat obviously with the united kingdom and the expiry poisoning seem to play into the discourse touring in a campaign such as an election how does that sort of fit into putin's image that he's a safe pair of hands and a reliable pair of hands for the last russian electorate. well

it clearly fits very well with that narrative and that is a long standing narrative that the kremlin has used the press putin has used over his eighteen years in power that idea of foreign policy of restoring russia to its former great this following the fall of the berlin wall the end of the soviet union the chaos of the ninety's and so on has been an absolutely substantiative cornerstone of what president putin has been there to do and it is often touted that it is his greatest achievement that russia is once again viewed with respect if not fear around the world so this idea of the critic the spy case in the united kingdom and notably russia's response countermeasures to three's amaze measures in response to the poisoning of the script all fair in london were delivered on saturday the eve of this election it was it was a bold response it was certainly being portrayed that way in the media at russia failing for refusing to back down before john justified provocations from the outside world that that's the sort of way the story is told and it doesn't hurt at

all the polls and the turnout figures i'm sure will still several more hours before those polls close we come back to you throughout the day thanks joe the owner of the correspondents in the country is also following the poll that's what we challenge seasons of us to poll the largest city in crimea which russia annexed from ukraine four years ago. this is basically a little medal has been given to all the voters who come here to this voting station. and at the top it says sevastopol the name of the city underneath its marks the date of the referendum the sixteenth of march two thousand and fourteen the referendum in which crimea has voted to rejoin russia a referendum which of course much of the world sees as a kind of thin democratic veneer for what was essentially an illegal attic sation on the back and then says with russia for ever. it basically ties this presidential election with the referendum four years ago that's never been to surely declared as

a kind of campaign platform but it is let me repeat it was here a few days ago making one of the last big appearances before the election in sevastopol he thanks crimean so voting in the referendum later on this evening after all the voting is finished we are going to get a big celebration in red square in moscow and that celebration is called russia several stop all crimea for the kremlin the reunification as they call it of crimea with russia is one of the the main campaigning advantages that they have in this. russia's ambassador to the european union has suggested that the nerve agent used to poison a former spy could have originated in the united kingdom the british government has dismissed the claim britain accuses moscow of being behind the attack a charge it denies russia and britain of expelled twenty three of each other's diplomats over the raul foreign secretary boris johnson says international experts

will conduct further analysis on the poison. tomorrow. technical experts from the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons will come from the hague to the u.k. we will share the samples with them they will then be tested by the most reputable possible international the burra trees well still ahead here on how to zero a potential new problem for donald trump reports say the f.b.i. his deputy director who was fired on friday has turned over his private notes to the special prosecutor and we begin a series on water shortages around the world first opposite africa's cape town which could run out of water by july to stay with us here on al-jazeera.

welcome back we'll look at weather conditions across asia this time and starting in northeastern arison see this line of cloud coming across the yellow sea through into the sea of japan well as a frontal system it is going to give some pretty heavy rain for central and southern parts of japan in particular seeing so that rain developing here in the course of monday but choose days still that would gradually games begin to clear away so tokyo will see dry conditions later on in the day but pretty cold up across colorado so sapporo seeing temperatures at minus one best house where ferment a claim for beijing but it should remain dry with temperatures just into double figures across more southern and eastern parts of china you can see a fair amount arranger in the course of monday it will get better from the west slowly so some improvement is likely still some rain around for hong kong. vietnam is pretty warm after knowing now temperatures rising but with the threat of a few showers in northern parts of the country for southeastern parts of asia the weather is generally fine across the philippines there with mileva seen sunshine

highs of thirty three as we get down into a borneo that want to showers around but again the weather conditions are looking pretty good as it moves through. to choose they will be a few showers for java but as a moose through the mill a pinch of the weather is looking fine for both singapore and kuala lumpur there will be want to showers around the gulf of thailand. in the past seven years over three million home stories. and eleven million people displaced. syrians made homeless by war share their stories. in the ruins of a dream at this time on al-jazeera. welcome

back you're watching i was there i'm still rob a reminder of our top stories the turkish president recipe the one has declared the center of the syrian city afraid to be entirely under the control of his forces turkish flags have been raised in a free as troops battle to clear the surrounding area of kurdish fighters also vladimir putin has cast his ballot for russia's presidential election seven other candidates also vying for a share of the vote but it's widely expected that putin will win a fourth term in office that means he'll leave the country for the next six years. as president has lifted a nationwide state of emergency it was imposed twelve days ago following unrest

between sinhalese and muslim communities muslim own businesses than the mosque or said hold fire during the riots and in an attempt to prevent further incitement the government also introduced social media bands which were lifted just a few days ago but it's with reports from the north of the country from jaffa. now when intercommunal violence first broke out two weeks ago the police and the government were criticised for not doing enough to stop the violence that was directed mainly muslim owned shops businesses and homes so in response to that they quickly imposed a state of emergency in as part of but they blocked all restricted access to what's up viber to facebook because the government says messages inciting racial violence were being spread by members of the sinhalese majority nationalist community to the muslim minority now one of the lessons the government has learned is that it says in future it's going to much more closely monitor what goes out on the social

media because now for two weeks people not been able to get access to water or baseball. or imo because of those restrictions considerably inconveniencing people here but he says he needs to monitor what's the message is that the spread on those social media platforms and indeed facebook was called in by the government last week to say what it could do and facebook has said it will work with the government try and stop these messages and messages of. racial incitement being spread by its powerful leaders of southeast asian countries have expressed grave concerns about the situation on the korean peninsula at a summit held in sydney the militarization of the south china sea trade and counterterrorism also discussed at the leaders' meeting hosted for the first time by a stroller under thomas reports. sydney felt like parts of southeast asia on sunday it was unusually hot and humid but australia is not

a member of the association of southeast asian nations so hosting an at the end summit was a diplomatic coup for australia's prime minister malcolm turnbull but securely in the face of the ever growing power of china and a more isolationist united states turnbull wants australia and as the end countries to speak with one voice and says that's what he's got the countries of r.c.n. are among our closest neighbors they're our friends and increasingly our family as well the so-called sydney declaration issued at the end of the summits commits as the end countries to support trade and resist all forms of protectionism it supports action to address climate change and the full implementation of the powers agreement that a correlation stresses grave concerns about the escalation of tensions on the korean peninsula and it commits as he and countries to further cooperation on counterterrorism it just sensual. it just keep and it is imperative

that we have legislations that prevent acts of terrorism rather than just deal with the aftermath the declaration also calls for restraint in the south china sea before the summit some analysts said but one test of the final declaration strength we whether it mentioned china as a country by name this declaration doesn't presumably that was seen as too provocative but it does emphasize the need for non militarization and self restraint in the south china sea outside the summit venue there were protests against some of the leaders attending australia welcomed me and unsung to cheat despite the range of crisis viet nam's prime minister knew and one foot was there too despite human rights abuses in the one party state but the biggest protests were against cambodia's prime minister hun sen who has cracked down on opponents and had promised before the summit to find and beat up anyone who burned in effigy of him in sydney protesters did it anyway the fact that there were protests here is

a great sign a lot of countries when they hold these summits they're not progress or they're at such a far distance from the summit site they can't possibly have an impact it's forecast to cool down in sydney on monday by then most as the end leaders will be home after thomas al-jazeera sydney no us president donald trump has lashed out at the investigation into links between russia and his twenty sixteen election campaign and for the first time on twitter he used the name of the man leading the probe it's all part of a political storm surrounding the firing of the f.b.i. his former deputy director trump tweeted the probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion there was no crime it was based on fraudulent activities and a fake dossier paid for by crooked hillary and the d.n.c. and improperly used in the face of court for surveillance of my campaign witchhunt our correspondent kristen salumi reports. 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 upholding 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 have been handed over to mohler. president trump's own statements have linked conan's firing to his refusal to shut down miller's russia best again. 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. cami 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 coming out a week before beyond action and reopening the investigation into secretary clinton's e-mails that released long the election to trump because well or badly secretary clinton had been a little bit ahead and then he fires him because the fact that he didn't want him to would investigate the collusion when in fact that i had to do you have been or all of the evidence that they have about what russia was trying to do with the young election mccabe was fired less than two days before his retirement and pension were due to kick in christensen loony al jazeera. people in cape town may be forced to turn off the taps in july because an unprecedented drought in south africa if that happens it'll become the first major city in the world to run out of water malcolm webster reporter is the first off to series on water how conflict

drought and pollution are affecting its availability. cape town's water is running out this has become a common site city of thought he said people should use no more than fifty liters of tap water per person per day so some line up at these communal spring collect some extra and take it really very difficult for some of us of getting the gardens to be things we just did not wash our cars so it's just a question or of a patient that in the country that they should have to. but it's a kind of insurance that many south africans are familiar with. about a third of the city's residents live in informal settlements like this one and only consume about four percent of the water but for generations they were already been collecting it from communal taps and carrying it. all thora to say the city will

reach day zero on the ninth of july that's when they'll turn off the water in the homes that have it only the communal taps will stay on angela van vike lives right next to one since she heard about the shortage she saves as much as she can i save my water by keeping the same or day as i did my wife's make issues i don't i don't want that way i just keep it for tomorrow and i use the same what i did this was. the city's taps are fed by reservoirs this is one of the largest gazelles gallup where four years ago they would have been under twenty five meters of water since then the province has suffered the worst drought on record kevin winters researched it for years he says the city was vulnerable because it relied only on rain filled reservoirs this climate change wake up call this quarter a school on the back foot and so this is a wake up call in the city like cape time needs these kind of loud something wake

up calls to say it's time to actually diversify that water and now you've got a repro tries which is what city of caked on is do. water is now being pumped from aquifers here works began on a plan to desalinate sea water with accessing new sources takes time. so for now more lines water saving measures have already postponed day zero by three months everyone here is hoping the winter will soon bring enough rainfall to make sure daisy road never comes malcolm webb al-jazeera cape town south africa. your children their arms the whole raman these are all top news stories the turkish president receptor bird the one who has declared the center of the syrian city of a freend to be entirely under the control of his forces the turkish flag has already been raised in the former kurdish stronghold free syrian army forces backed

by the turkish military captured the town center just before dawn on sunday the free syrian army says seventy kurdish fighters were killed during the advance. most of the terrorists have already fled with their tails between their legs our special forces and members of the free syrian army a cleaning the remains in the traps they left behind in the center of affray al flags of trust and stability away but instead of rags of terrorist meanwhile the main rebel group in syria's southern eastern ghouta on clay says it's the goshi to a possible ceasefire with the united nations at least twenty thousand people have fled the fighting in the last week the rebel group of man says it's in discussions about getting aid to civilians and evacuating people with urgent medical cases the syrian government backed by russian air power has recaptured almost eighty percent of the rebel clave since february the eighteenth. has cast his ballot for russia's

presidential election as the largest country in the world russia spans across eleven time zones which means the process will last at least twenty two hours for one hundred ten million eligible voters president putin is seeking a fourth term which will give him six more years in office the kremlin is aiming for high voter turnout to boost the gist of a sea of putin's expected victory. and russians are basset are to the european union has suggested that the nerve agent used to poison a former spy could have originated in the u.k. the government the british government has dismissed the claim britain accuses moscow of being behind the attack a charge that denies russia and britain have expelled twenty three of each other's diplomats over the round the foreign secretary boris johnson says international experts will conduct further analysis on the poison sri lanka's president has lifted a state of emergency and a nationwide curfew imposed for twelve days has been following the arrest of

buddhist understand communities and those who wear the news headlines inside story is next to stay with us here on al-jazeera. the national home of the jewish people that's what a controversial bill that's being fast tracked through israel's parliament wants to achieve but where does that leave millions of israeli palestinians what will be the regional fall out this is inside story.