clase the so-called secret city getting to the heart of the matter is activists to live in jail just because she expressed herself hear their story on the talk to al-jazeera at this time. all jews iraq. where ever you. on track for a commanding victory in russia's presidential election amid accusations people have been pressured to vote.

a low i maryam namazie in london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up. turkish forces say they've captured the syrian town of afraid off to ousting kurdish fighters. president assad meets syrian troops in eastern goods where they've now we've taken eighty percent of the enclave. trumper news is attack on the special council investigating the us presidential election publicans warned him not to sack. the residents of cape town may be forced to turn off the taps by july . now polls have officially closed in russia's presidential election which is widely being viewed as a foregone conclusion with an overwhelming victory for incumbent president but in a putin is the latest on the exit polls with first two percent of the vote counted goosen is projected to take seventy three percent of the vote is nearest rival is

communist counted it in who's sitting on eleven point two percent gruden in is a multimillionaire tycoon who's been critical of the government but not to send just behind him on six point seven percent is ultra nationalists vladimir zhirinovsky former reality t.v. star cosign a sob was one of the most high profile candidates but she's in fourth position with just two and a half percent of the vote well in the absence of credible opponents to putin the kremlin has focused on boosting the turnout to give the election as much legitimacy as possible people have reported being pressured to go to the polls and some polling stations have offered free concert tickets and even cancer screenings to vote as well russia's opposition leader alexina valley was barred from running in the vote he and his anticorruption group say they have been dozens of violations in polling stations across the country so selves are people going to vote and out of curiosity i went on twitter to check on the count that since you're writing about

violations they are behaving as if nothing is happening people who are observing these elections keep writing about things other violations and they are complaining about it and the people who are remaining silent don't care about this they are cowards this is just a kind of election i guess. the head of russia's election commission says the vote has been carried out accurately. last option you note that we don't have any information from presidential candidates and parties that delegated observers were not allowed access to polling stations they did have misunderstandings internally within their parties but they didn't have any issues related to the local electoral commission that i have requested information from candidates at least twice and i haven't supplied any complaints i'm very happy about it. these are the scenes right now in the center of the capital last go where people have actually been celebrating the an exception of crimea with this election being held on the fourth

anniversary of that event lawrence lee is our correspondent in moscow let's get to him now and laurence first of all what are the exit polls showing. good news for the kremlin i think is the show's on sabai the wait till just tell me putin's motorcade just rolled down the road behind me a few minutes ago on the way to that rally just mention the pictures also he's going to speak in a few minutes time to think they think the central thing my own they need to understand about this election is that the kremlin was very worried the putin's been in power for so long and they were so obviously was going to win that they thought the people wouldn't bother voting which which would have been disastrous in their view for putin's legitimacy because they they need to have a sense of enthusiasm for him being president for a fourth term of six years and so they built up a formula which said that they had to expect seats and woman said that to be a seventy percent turnout and that putin would get seventy percent of the vote

seventy seven now the way it's looking based on the exit polls we have so far is that putin will have go over seventy percent of the votes so that it's fine turnout looks like it might be a bit lower maybe mid sixty's that's not exactly what they wanted but i think they'll probably decide that it's within the range of acceptability and so they'll regard that as being basically a total validation of hussein being having a fault clearly he's up against a field of virtually nobody the fact that the communist guy the new guy go eleven or so percent in second place that's quite a good result for him but everybody else is on single figures for almost nothing and so you can argue that is putin the against nobody but you know you've still got to get people to vote in the end and i think the fact that sooth as a russian voted in very very cold weather given that they knew what the result was going to be is probably the most as much validations the kremlin could expect and what about these reports of people being pressured to that. well i

think pressure they would say that that's quite strong words i mean in it i mean no one's got a gun so they hadn't told they got to go and vote but they they wanted to get this air of celebration to coax people said to the polling stations and it's true that they were offering you know a free phone or something if you win a prize and go vote and there was and their policies and things like this in some places it looks it looks like it's a bit false but you know they still had to do it i think more sinister than that in some ways of these videos that have turned up from supporters of aleck's in the valley it was obviously the opposition politician this barred from taking parts there's lots of videos that you can find on twitter and we're going to show them in a report in the next hour of frankly reasonable looking old ladies stuffing ballots since the thing in voting over and over again in places which you know have reported enormous floats in the boot in so that there was probably wide scale irregularities was enough to alter the vote no absolutely not he still won by miles

thank you very much laurent li with all the latest from moscow with joining me now in the studio is the of a she is a russian analyst and senior visiting research fellow at kings college here in london thank you very much for coming to speak to us so what's motivating people to vote in this election in russia. first for ten is. fairly popular if north with all the russian people but with a majority of russians people here reflects their values he is seen as somebody who is a good leader. and somebody who has brought welfare jobs and stability to the country so this is not that much about choice but it's a statement off some kind of what does a patient right but when you have flaws in the election process voting irregularities that we were hearing lawrence lee just describing there and essentially an unfair playing field with son candidates being barred to vote it's impossible to really gauge the scale of his popularity even if you was to win.

voting irregularities is not something which is so completely unusual in this elections and probably in future elections are they major i would think so places where it's very easy to forge fortunes victoria is like in a prison minute there are a few months. police stations people vote for put you in your home. up there will be probably counted those crying foul that's completely normal doesn't make porton illegitimate if you don't know because alexei while he is somebody who is extremely popular with western media i am not sure that his popularity we're going to be seeing devoted you know if it's we're not going to know because he wasn't allowed to take part so even if putin would have won an election against me hands down if you have flaws in the process and you have someone who clearly has control

of the lives of state and that gives him a clear advantage over all candidates or potential candidates how will we ever really know what the result would have been felt that this system is over reacting even to some small hint of a problem that's true that's not a good sign but when they were poor parliamentary elections when the while it tried to forge allies with kind of this to actually seriously contest for the month three elections nobody could cross even one percent so here's there is support but we should move to see somewhere which can make a credible challenge no but when you have when there is a total lack of openness and transparency around the process when you have footage emerging of old ladies stuffing ballot boxes it is this is something that could potentially affect the accuracy of the result no and that's going to affect the legitimacy of the result itself we can look. take some sounds.

incidents or something which is such a big overwhelming trend for thought you need bigger demonstrations you need much bigger evidence you need to have far far greater percival to get access in order to monitor and gather this type that if you or i have to do in the elections and i saw observers quite a lot of stations would have observers yes there are places ways difficult to penetrate but as i said yes to come for chiller in mental hospital but that's sort . of the cause dulled or poor overall legitimacy i think putin wants to have a reasonably clear victory i do not think that having seventy two percent or eighty one but does hugely for him i think that if i cannot see him planting in order for all to lead it to

a stop about the books really has been the is that it's really been these human rights well thank you very much and that we weren't alleging that that was necessarily something that could be. ready always if it puts in person the mirror long lining is thank you very much for your perspective and i'm at the ever and i'm going to other top story this hour kurdish fighters in syria's northwestern afrin region have vowed to fight on after the main town was taken by turkish forces and their allies turkey launched its operation to clear the enclave of kurdish y p g fighters in january after marching into african its forces immediately raised the turkish flag and tore down a statue linked to kurdish culture the kurdish administration says it will now use guerilla tactics to become quote a constant nightmare for the turkish forces turkey considers the white b.g. a terrorist organization linked to the p.k. k. . well until it's not. 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 i left behind in the center of a frame al flags of trust and stability away even inside of rags a terrorist. the kurdish administration says it will now use guerilla tactics against the turkish army was that the how our forces in every area in a free will be a nightmare to the turkish troops and their allies the resistance in a free and will continue into the liberation of every inch of it and until the return of the residents into their villages. well this is a situation in syria at the moment with turkey in the free syrian army having captured last ways of afrin district but kurdish forces remaining in control of most of the northern territory that's east of the euphrates edler province in the northwest remains the largest rebel stronghold but syrian government forces backed by russian airpower have divided the rebel held and play the eastern go to into three parts cutting off key rebel supply lines or the syrian president bashar assad

has visited on the positions in eastern guta where his forces now control almost eighty percent of the territory assad met with soldiers who'd been part of the effort to retake the damascus suburb the un is said to be negotiating a possible ceasefire with the main rebel group there on the rebels say they're in discussions about getting aid to civilians and evacuating people with medical cases some of binge of aid has the latest on what's happening in eastern guta. this is still happening in the besieged pockets of rebel held eastern. here strikes and shelling have continued on one of the largest and most populated parts of the entries from inside this footage from a drone shows the shrinking boundary between rebel fighters and advancing forces loyal to president bashar al assad thousands of people have been wounded in more than fifteen hundred killed in the latest on slot. should. we hold the

united nations and the security council directly responsible for their silence around these crimes and for failing to take action to prevent these crimes but let us not forget the party that holds direct responsibility of the syrian regime and the country. as they continue to stand by it. like much else of rebel held syria relentless bombardment of the has forced most of it into submission the buildings over parking garages no longer stand that's a washing machine hanging out from the shell of an apartment block a fridge shows what was once a kitchen another floor appears to show but and the caved in roof the cameraman who filmed it says this used to be his neighborhood craters on top of buildings are the entry points from where rockets and bombs entered these buildings until recently eastern there was home to almost four hundred thousand people the u.n. is said to be negotiating with rebels for an evacuation deal many don't want to leave because they fear conscription arrests reprisals and revenge wants to leave.

more than twenty thousand have fled to government controlled areas but tens of thousands still remain inside. we lived in horrible conditions we did not have food water or water. syria's military has released videos of tanks and soldiers rolling into the streets of towns across the eastern quarter in addition to russian air cover government forces are backed by iranian troops hezbollah fighters and shia militias from iraq and afghanistan they say they have almost one but they're taking over another area decimated by syria seventy a war some of a job with al jazeera. you know out as they are still to come you dash cam footage shows the moment a newly built pedestrian bridge collapsed in miami. and of course first be n.r.a. showcasing art and culture in one of pakistan's biggest cities.

was the was. the in. hello there for some of us across europe it is bitterly cold at the moment there's also a fair amount of snow around the reason for it is an area of high pressure the sitting across the northern belt and that's ensuring that it's cold here and it's also mostly dry the west the weather is in the south you can see all the cloud working its way around the area of high pressure and then sneaking up through the eastern parts of europe where this wet weather hits that cold air that's where we're seeing the snow a few bits and pieces in the way of snow are going to be seen again on monday but we'll see some significant downpours on choose day to heaviest snow making its way through parts of remaining and up into ukraine towards the west well the cold air is actually being cut off here so the temperatures are recovering eight degrees will be the maximum in london by choose day and force in paris will be up at around

seven for the other side of the mediterranean here it looks like we're going to see things turn increasingly wet as we head through the next day or so so forth on monday there's actually a good deal of dry weather around the temperatures aren't too bad either we're looking at around sixteen in algiers but then there's more wet weather that's pushing its way and so for morocco algeria and into two news yeah there's going to be more cloud more rain and it won't be feeling that warm either a maximum temperature this time is now just of just a thirty degrees. the a. when put on the open top the spirit on the bridge is the european problem and it's not a cold and it's impossible for people to use for link up our people don't want to take more and then leave that to focus on a stronger man or song woman while getting the growth the projection is and it's

probably because the models of europe's forbidden colony episode two at this time on al-jazeera. with al-jazeera kept the top stories exit polls from russian state t.v. give president vladimir putin seventy three percent of the vote with thirty percent counted so far in sunday's presidential fight. all the election coincides with the fourth anniversary and it's a shadow of crimea which people are celebrating right now in central moscow and our other top story this hour syria's president bashar al assad has visited soldiers in the enclave of eastern ghouta which his forces now control almost eighty percent of

. republican senator has a warning u.s. president donald trump not to fire special counsel robert muller they say he must be allowed to investigate alleged russian meddling in the twenty sixteen presidential election in a series of tweets over the weekend trump accuse the f.b.i. leadership of lies corruption and leaking information tom ackerman has more from washington. while calling the investigation into his campaign suspected connections with russia a which shunned the us president had indicated he might be willing to submit to questioning by the special counsel but as robert muller's team appears to tighten its focus on the president himself trumps latest tweet storm made clear his open hostility towards the probe why he said as the motor team have thirteen hardened democrats some big crooked hillary supporters and zero republicans another dam recently added does anyone think this is fair and yet there is no collusion on

saturday trump's personal lawyer john dowd called for a shutdown of moaners investigation at first saying he was speaking for the president but later backtracking he spoke after former f.b.i. acting director andrew mccabe was fired for what government investigators said were on authorized media contacts and a lack of candor about alleged disclosure of classified information mccabe disputed the allegations and said his dismissal was an attempt to undermine his credibility because he could corroborate former f.b.i. director jim commies own firing by trump who's admitted it was intended to and the russia investigation amid reports that muller has presented the white house with questions he wants to ask the president even under threat of a court ordered subpoena there's growing speculation that trump is ready to fire muller that say members of congress would be a big mistake this is a serious investigation and if the president tries to terminate it prematurely i

think it will be. a true constitutional crisis but meanwhile mccabe's firing just two days before he became eligible for a full government pension has prompted at least one democratic congressman to offer him a temporary job allowing mccabe to preserve his benefits tom ackerman al-jazeera washington . now russia's ambassador to the e.u. is suggested that the nerve agent used to poison a former spy could have originated in the u.k. the british government has dismissed the claim saying the poison used on sergei script and his daughter yulia came from russia person 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 route with both sides considering further retaliatory measures foreign secretary boris johnson says international experts will conduct further analysis on the poison on the help us to understand how the

stockpiles of nobody. go missing and how some of it could have turned up on the streets of will in this way or else i'm afraid we will be forced as a problem to sit in the house of commons to draw the conclusion as we did in the case of alexander litvinenko that the trail of culpability leads inexorably to the kremlin an israeli has been stabbed and wounded in the occupied in occupied east jerusalem as a specter attack and english shot by security forces was a turkish tourist tensions have been escalating in jerusalem since u.s. president donald trump recognized the city as israel's capital at the end of last year meanwhile israeli forces are saying they've destroyed a new tunnel network dug by a mass in the gaza strip the military says the tunnel was two hundred meters from the israeli border and was going to be used to mount cross border attacks it was cut off during the two thousand and fourteen gaza war and how massive been working

to get it back into operation a spokesman for hamas has denied the claims and accused israel of marketing fake achievements to increase the morale of its soldiers new video has emerged of the moment a newly built death stream bridge collapse in the u.s. state of florida killing six people this dash cam footage taken on the road at florida international university in miami shows how in a split second. the bridge crashed on to the vehicles that were moving below the university says engineers met hours before it collapsed and concluded a crack in the structure was not a safety concern we believe that we've recovered the final two individuals final two victims from underneath the bridge so that makes a total of five people that will recover from underneath the bridge there was one individual or passed away at the hospital for total of six people and i believe that is the final count. al the world was

a four and kicks off in brazil this week and addressing a looming global water crisis as well as climate change it's human factors like overpopulation and migration into urban centers which are making things worse well this is certainly the case and south africa's cape town where day zero is fast approaching that is the the day when the city may be forced to turn off all its taps malcolm webb explains. cape town's water is running out this has become a common site city you authorities say people should use no move than fifty liters of top water per person per day so some line up at least communal spring collect some extra and take it home really very difficult getting pulled some of us a beautiful garden to be things dying we just did not wash our cars so it's just a question for a book patient that i don't think a country like that they should have to. but it's the 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 the only consume about four percent of the water but for generations they've already been collecting it from communal taps and carrying it. all thora to say the city will reach daisy 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 says as much as she can i save my water by keeping the same or day as i do a wash my dishes 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 because they'll gallop 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 wakeup call this quarter a small on the back foot and so this is a wake up call in the city like cape time needs these kind of large some people wake up calls to say it's time to actually diversify their water and now you've got a repro ties in which the city of cape town is doing. water is now being pumped from aquifers here work began on a plan to desalinate sea water that 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 never comes now can webb al-jazeera cape town south africa.

now artists musicians and poets from around the world have been flocking to lahore for pakistan's first ever be an early the art festival not only aims to promote cross cultural exchange but to place pakistani art on a global stage al-jazeera is kemal haida went to have a look. bushby and knowledge thanksgiving. art lovers and enthusiasm. once known as lotus garden by the british in the mid nineteenth century since been renamed you know garden after bugger sounds founding father. is rejecting rejections entertain the audience with classical music and to allow depressed. but outside the music is more. and some of the originators find years hard to dictate the rhythm of their drop everything is so wonderful and fantastic

and so you know to be participating. he was a case study and gallery and then to show them foxes. even we don't visit modern enough culture and cultural events are important to any country absolutely any country because that's what. we are i think said really nice things about pakistan i think the people every person i've met in pakistan has been fantastic so you couldn't ask for a better investment or for the country as a rare time by the pakistani to show the original show. the bigger gnarlier first off it's going to and their historic edwards. or the rest of the word but also give an opportunity for bugs. to learn from all those people

who have come all the way to bach to shepherd and district of and although there are more than fifty taking part from bangladesh india iran syria longer europe and the us focused on iraq or south. i feel really excited it's like a new journey has been. and we are learning from them they're learning process now not only an exchange of culture of british history of experiences and. of relative calm and peace and security situation improves all good i believe it really encourage people. if you're very right. now is an opportunity for world travel for people to come and visit for. for. casual. and to be able to see the whole to be able to see that we all are living in we all are part of the same global culture and it's business as usual

here things go up and down but things are going up and down all over the world. locations for the year very. difficult to understand their reach. but the message here is that love orders. with this rich tradition are. the whore pakistan was more in everything we're covering right here al jazeera dot com for all the latest comments analysis and video on demand you can watch us live there as well by clicking on that little icon on the top right hand corner of your screen al-jazeera dot com. a quick look at the top stories now exit polls from russian state t.v. give him a landslide victory with seventy three percent of the vote in the country's presidential

election that's with thirty percent counted so far the elections coincide with the fourth anniversary of the onyx ation of crimea which people are celebrating right now in moscow well the head of russia's election commission says the vote has been carried out accurately. last option you note that we don't have any information from presidential candidates and parties that delegated observers were not allowed access to polling stations they did have misunderstandings internally within their parties but they didn't have any issues related to the local electoral commission that i have requested information from candidates at least twice and i haven't supplied any complaints i'm very happy about it. and our other headlines kurdish fighters in syria's northwestern africa region have vowed to fight on are the main town was taken by turkish forces and allies kurdish administration says it will now use guerrilla tactics to become quote a constant nightmare for the turkish forces. and kurds been trying to clear the

region of y.p. to fight it since january. syria's president bashar assad has visited army positions in eastern guta where his forces now control almost eighty percent of the territory soldiers who've been part of the effort to retake the area the un is said to be negotiating possible a possible ceasefire with the main rebel group there. republican senators are warning u.s. president donald trump not to fire special counsel robert muller saying he must be allowed to investigate alleged russian meddling in the twenty sixteen presidential election trump has renewed his twitter attacks on both the f.b.i. and muller since the firing since firing the bureau's former deputy director andy mccabe on friday became is reported to have kept detailed notes about his interactions with the president russia's ambassador to the e.u. has suggested that the nerve agent used to poison

a former spy could have originated in the u.k. british government has dismissed that claim saying the poison used on sergei scriptural and his daughter came from russia the trial jazeera is next. in war. cyprus has long had an important geopolitical position in the mediterranean but has been at the center of an ethnic disputes in nine hundred seventy four which is divided. the public of cyprus.