is like a panic button and twenty four seven drive his. stories of life. and inspiration. a series of short documentaries from around the world. that celebrate the human spirit against the odds kind of coming from the someday someday. al-jazeera selects change makers at this time. to. luton celebrates his victory in russia's presidential election with a promise of success and a call for unity. hello

i'm maryanne demasi this is al-jazeera life from london also coming trumper news his attack on the special counsel investigation the us presidential election republicans won him not to sack robert muller. turkish forces say they've captured the syrian town of afrin off the ousting kurdish fighters. and level was first be an ahl a showcasing arts and culture one of pakistan's biggest cities. but ima putin has said a brace of his victory in russia's presidential election with thousands of supporters in moscow and a promise of success in the future for what he called a great country based on partial votes counted so far pollution is projected to

take seventy five percent of the vote is nearest rival is communist candidate pavol good in his sitting on thirteen point three percent who didn't is a multimillionaire tycoon who's been critical of the government but not of putin just behind him and six point three percent is ultranationalist body image aronofsky former reality t.v. star because sandy is so jack was one of the most high profile candidates but she's in fourth position now with just one point four percent of the vote live now to lawrence lee who's in the russian capital moscow and lawrence the result of this election was widely expected very much a foregone conclusion but when you look at the turnout perhaps slightly less than the seventy percent the kremlin was hoping for. yeah probably yes but but not that much of the latest figures are that with more than seventy percent of the votes counted putin's own seventy six percent of the votes cast and so clearly

it's mathematically impossible now for anybody else to get anywhere near him so yes he's won and it's all over and it's worth bearing in mind the benchmark the kremlin set itself before this all started they decided because they were worried about the inevitability of the putin when the people model to announce a vote that they did want to try to get a seventy percent turnout as you say but they also wanted putin to get seventy percent of the votes to the jet similes and validates him and so clearly they're going to get the seventy percent of the vote costs but even if they end up with with a sixty two or sixty five percent of turnout i think they'll probably accept that as being enough how did they get to this position well clearly it was a variety of different means for one thing they got virtually the entire russian media on board the range of candidates against putin was frankly pitiful as well as that they would the because they were worried about people not bothering to vote there was a range of inducements and to some extent coercion to badger people to go in votes

as a civic duty as they put it which in terms meant voting for putin and there was some evidence of irregularities as well ballot box stuffing and that sort of thing but the result stands they've got their own way and one way or the other putin is going to have his full term. they call this election but such is the status of blood in your putin in russia that he was in reality a little more than a coronation was the security you could lead you to get out you mean it's very important to maintain this unity to attract those who could have voted for other candidate we have to stand together shoulder to shoulder we have to think about unity not about differences we should think about the future of our people about the future of our country we are destined for success. it was never a contest got the overwhelming percentage of votes cast and more than six out of ten russians voted for the kremlin it went more or less to plan of course russians

knew perfectly well that when the television told them that they had to go out to vote because it was a civic duty what they really meant was you have to go and vote because we have to get putin back in the kremlin that meant this wasn't great election about who was going to win but it was about but how much several instances of fraud were caught on camera harmless looking old ladies voting twice or stuffing reams of papers into boxes not enough to alter the outcome but four alexina valmy banned from standing in the election evidence of a corrupt vote so thousands of people went to vote and out of curiosity i went on twitter to check on the candidates to see if they are writing about violations they are behaving as if nothing is happening people who are observing these elections keep writing about the things other violations and they are complaining about it and the people who are remaining silent don't care about this they are candidates it's just that kind of election i guess but putin barely even took part in the campaign and was entirely absent from the t.v.

debates but during the election videos surfaced on the internet like this one which gave a glimpse of how the kremlin wants people to think. the film depicts a man who tells his wife he can't be bothered to vote for something which putin himself had warned against and the man then has a nightmare in which black africans suddenly appear in the armed forces to his horror as a homosexual in the kitchen the message is clear is day this is what you'll get if you don't have to to challenge and of course it's coupled with the promise from the president spend more and more on the military. which in would very much like to normalize ties with the west but his personality means you can't show weakness it can't be seen to be giving up yet he understands very well that with international isolation his regime is open to risks and dangers his fourth term begins with a flat out diplomatic crisis with the west's events which are uncertain and fast moving but political change in russia continues to move as fast as the ice on the

moscow river and more is in a series of seemingly spontaneous off the cuff remarks version was speaking to reporters and he was aust about these i poisoned in case here in the u.k. he was very keen to project a position of being quite reasonable and rational and open to cooperation. yes yes he was on on some level this was the first time it actually expanded on the sorts of faces has been put forward by by other arms of the russian government involved which was there's no way the russians could have done this we gave up chemical weapons a long time ago why would we do this and yes you're right it was there was elements of carrots and sticks who were the olive branch to to the u.k. and the u.k. friends which which continued to believe in the strongest terms it was the russians he said we're very happy to cooperate with the u.k. but the u.k. doesn't show any signs of above of wanting us to help but the other thing that he

said which was actually quite interesting was he described as quote utter rubbish and ravings the idea that the russians could have done it and his own acumen was and i will read it out because it's quite interesting for someone in russia to let them sell do such pranks but which he means a chemical weapon attack we call it a prank if you like before the presidential elections in the world cup is unthinkable and so i was going to think is it it's the reverse of the arguments come from the west the aga from the west was the russians did this before the election so this anti western mood in russia the russians say look they're accusing us of all this again you must vote for putin putin say well that was it it's the other way round why would we create this atmosphere which might lead to other countries not signing up for the world cup and upsets they that they're the narrative around the election so it clearly you know they they continue to maintain that is absolutely nothing to do with them and to do think that though and even if

they do hope that the the diplomatic tit for tat twenty three russians out twenty three british to us out of here even if they think that's the end of it it's not going to be because the start of next week weapons inspectors are going to turn up in the u.k. to take samples from where the strip of poison take them away and so there's no way this is going to go off the headlines on the global agenda for the coming days and weeks and i thank you very much in the russian capital moscow. journalist michael binyon is a former moscow correspondent for the times he says i russian standards hooten has one sunday's election fairly varied hoped for at least seventy percent and it's looking at around sixty five all thereabouts which is not particularly good and it's a suggestion that a lot of younger russians have listened to the call from the opposition leader who was barred from standing in the valley who said well just don't to go to boycott the election because it's manifestly unfair and it looks as though quite

a number of younger people probably have down that road by russian standards he is absolutely legitimately elected it was an open election the were a handful of opposition who kind of lives they didn't score very much but they were there and he can claim that he had the overwhelming support of the bulk of the russian people which is true you know starts the more difficult job of trying to make the economy better trying to sort out syria trying to get an end to the conflict in ukraine and trying to revive the economy which is going to be quite a big challenge republican senators of wanting 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 and 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 witchhunt 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 trump's 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 an 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 . so for more on this our correspondent patty cohen joins us now from washington and it's the question we ask repeatedly patty is trauma likely to fire her.

i'm sure he'd like to especially after that tweet he doesn't mention miller by name so this is a new development in the intensity of these tweets several of them really focusing in on the special counsel's investigation shows that is really starting to get to president donald trump here's the problem for the president he doesn't have the power to fire special counsel robert mueller he could try to change the regulations but that wouldn't open court he could try to fire rod rosenstein the deputy attorney general who is in charge of mahler then you have to try and find somebody to take that position who would for in fact fire moller or he could fire the attorney general jeff sessions who recused himself from this investigation giving rosenstein the power now it does seem a bit in the weeds but this is the scenario that a lot of people in washington are starting to talk about he could fire jeff sessions and replace him with somebody who has already been approved by the senate to serve in his cabinet the name that comes up a lot is the e.p.a. administrator pruitt if that happened for

a short time being he could basically sit on any findings moeller has and not release them to the public if any of these things happened though if it does look like muller is going to be sidelined or even fired you could expect that the american people would protest in huge numbers the lot of pressure would be on the republicans then to change robert miller's title from special counsel to special prosecutor it's not just a different title it would give him unlimited authority and it would also make sure that when he finds out what he finds out at the end of the day he has to tell the american people everything right so there are these mounting fear is that trump could cross that red line of firing or attempting to find a special counsel and how much is that being driven by the investigation getting closer and closer to trump and his family. it is getting closer we know that don junior's been looked at her his son in law's been looked at he spent

a lot of time in his lawyers office of recently it is getting closer to president and his businesses robert mueller has subpoenaed all legal documents from those businesses in regards to russia used a subpoena that's important that says to anyone if you don't hand over the documents to find out about it you're going to be in legal trouble so that's going on in the ms thomas to this story the fact that muller has said i could subpoena you to talk to me and here are the topics i want to talk to you about to the president the president's lawyers reportedly said don't talk to robert mueller will think it's a subpoena it doesn't matter that he's the president night states you have to sit down and talk to muller he could plead the fifth and refused to answer questions that seems highly unlikely given president trump's nature he reportedly thinks he wants to sit down with miller because he thinks he can handle it it's important to point out this is a president who sometimes seems to have a hard time distinguishing between truth and lies and lying to a special counsel would lying to the f.b.i. even if you're not under oath that's a felony he very much with the latest from washington and al jazeera much more

still to come president assad meets syrian troops and. they've now retaken eighty percent of the. why a fifty year old massacre in the philippines is still. in mindanao. hello there are still marcus is now clearing away from australia this is the storm that brought us the power outages across many parts of darwin then grazed the northern coast of western australia and now it's working its way steadily into the open ocean and as it does so it is expected to intensify rapidly so it's a good job it's not going to hit land again for us across the northwestern parts then there will still be more in the way of cloud but the worst that we've seen from the storm is now over further south force in perth is now hot will get up to

around thirty four degrees there on tuesday but it's a little cooler for the southeast look at that only nineteen at the maximum in melbourne if we head over towards new zealand we can see we've got a little bit of cloud with us at the moment but the main event is still on its way that's working its way towards the south island and forcing fjord and and westland it's looking pretty wet on monday and choose day they could well be a little bit of flooding thanks to the system further north it's mostly falling though falkland twenty two degrees will be our maximum on tuesday but it could just be one or two shower as we head up towards japan we've got a lot of rain that's working its way across us it does look very wet there on monday system sweeps through though and by choose day it will be beginning to dry out for many of us behind that system though it won't be that warm are much the moment sendai just nine.

hold the benefit. of. witness documentaries that open your eyes. at this time on al-jazeera. come back al-jazeera let's update you on all top stories a democracy in a celebrated his victory in russia's presidential election with thousands of supporters in moscow and

a promise of success in the future hold that great country. republican senator has a warning u.s. president donald trump not to fire special counsel. they say you must be allowed to investigate alleged russian meddling into the twenty sixteen presidential election . 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 anglais of kurdish y p g fighters in january occasion ministrations says it will now use guerilla tactics against the turkish army under simmons reports from on turkey's border with syria. they reached efrem at sunrise columns of free syrian army fighters turkish special forces have been active on the ground ahead of them kurdish y p g fighters have withdrawn in large numbers that was limited resistance on one side of the rebel fighters backed

and directed by turkey with ground forces and their strikes prepared to declare a victory here. before and after we enter the free and we've liberated all the center buildings we will declare a victory statement on the terror we are telling the civilians to come back to our friends it's safe now. within hours celebration so the city sent. the syrians and the turks. believe this is a gift from the turkish armed forces to the turkish people and our glorious martyrs on this day a reference there to the victory of turkish forces against the western allied forces one hundred three years ago in deliberately in the first world war the turkish president was at the commemorations and made this announcement call us.

most of the terrorist 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 vincit of rags of terrorist. and so on the fifty eighth day of operation olive branch turkey's first objective is realized. some civilians had choosing to stay instead of joining tens of thousands of others into syrian regime areas to the south. it's reported the kurdish y p g now in terms to avoid direct confrontation with turkish forces instead engaging in guerrilla types of action the turkish have proved with force their intention to push back the wipe e.g. away from its border and it doesn't and they'll be moving further eastwards this is

likely to be one bottle of several andrew simmons are jazeera. syrian president bashar al assad has visited on me 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 that mine the rebels say they're in discussions about getting aid to civilians and evacuating people with urgent medical cases. shrank as president has lifted a nationwide state and agency which was imposed to stop anti muslim violence the order came into effect twelve days after anti muslim riots which killed two people and damaged hundreds of muslim owned homes properties and lost much of the violence was carried out by sinhalese but this was concentrated in the central candy district and israeli man who was stabbed in jerusalem's old city

earlier has died of his wounds the suspected attacker was shot dead by security forces at the time of the incident 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. ceremonies taken place to mark the fiftieth anniversary of a massacre in the philippines local leaders say because it remains unresolved it's holding back peace talks between the philippine government and armed groups in mindanao jimmy on an. island. the island of the door was scene of one of the most decisive battles in the second world war it was the last line of defense for american filipino troops from invading japanese forces since then it has become a memorial of bravery and sacrifice. but for many muslim filipinos could he door is also a place of a national betrayal i don't know man if jesus walked through these walls hoping to

see the name of his grandfather it isn't here he says but it does not diminish the importance of what happened here fifty years ago i studied. in the bottom more history and then i found the story of this. and so. we are to conduct a study in justice because we are the future of the bombs and mortar. in the late one nine hundred sixty s. before martial law was imposed the philippine government already wielded enormous control forces and many of its operations were shrouded in secrecy operation where decca was a covert military plan by former president for dinner and marcus to destabilize sabah and take it back from malaysia filipino muslims were recruited under the guise that they will be able to join the philippine military but the plan failed

and the massacre or more than twenty philippine the muslims spark to rebel union mindanao that continues to this day. it is believed that a total of about sixty filipino muslims were recruited and most of them remain unaccounted for various armed groups and rebel leaders have for decades demanded separate state for more communities in mindanao more than one hundred thousand people have been killed and millions more displaced governments are tried and failed to achieve a peace deal many local leaders believe that's because historical injustices have never been acknowledged but jobby the massacre is not taught in schools are written about in history books and so in a small and solemn commemoration of jab those who died. fifty years ago those filipino muslims being trained as soldiers but their names on these

walls local leaders say this may have been a desperate act as they were being held captive by the military and probably already knew they would be killed. but they wanted the country to know they did exist and remember what happened here. is iraq could hit their island central philippines. new video has emerged of the moment a newly built pedestrian bridge collapsed 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 vehicles below the university says engineers met hours before it collapsed and concluded a crack in a structure was not a safety concern israeli forces say they've destroyed a new tunnel network dug by hamas in gaza the military says the tunnel was two hundred meters from an order it was going to be used to mount cross border attacks

it was cut off during the twenty fourteen gaza war and a 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 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 surprise pakistani art on a global stage commo haida want to have a look. bushby and knowledge are thanksgiving weekend. art lovers and through d.h. . lawrence garden by the british in the mid nineteenth century since been renamed juno gardens after bulger sounds founding father.

is rejecting rejections entertain the audience with classical music and to allow to produce. outside music is more. and some of the originators find years hard to dictate the rhythm of their drop everything is so wonderful and almost fantastic and so you know to be participating. here today to historians 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 shareware or jammed by the buggers. the

original shelves. the beer gnarlier first off it's going to and there's historic edward norton progress on the rest of the word but also give an opportunity for progress on the. learn from all those people who have come all the way to their shepherd and district of and although there are more than fifty are just taking part from bangladesh india iran syria longer europe and the us bogged down in. 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 a very comforted drive of relative calm and peace and security situation improves all good i just believe it will encourage people to partnership bridge it is very right. now is an opportunity for world travel for people to come and visit for four

artists folks. for. casual. and to be able to see the hall 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. one of several locations for the year very. difficult to understand their reach. but the message here is that love orders. with this rich tradition are beauty. or pakistan. let's take you through our top stories before he. has been celebrating his victory in russia's presidential vote with thousands of supporters in moscow and

a promise of success in the future for what he called a great country with three quarters of the ballot counted cruisin is projected to take seventy five percent of the vote but there have also been multiple allegations of violations at polling stations across the country. meanwhile putin has dismissed bush allegations that russia was behind the chemical attack on a former double agent as nonsense as expel twenty three russian diplomats in protest of the poisoning of second and his daughter in southern england last week. it was because i learned about this tragedy about script poll i learned about it from the media i think it's quite obvious that if it is a chemical weapon immediately it doesn't have any chemical weapons which destroyed all its chemical weapons under international observation some of our international partners promised to do so but we haven't done before with open to corporation. moving to our other top stories republican senators a warning us president donald trump not to fire special counsel robert mueller

saying you must be allowed to investigate alleged russian meddling in the twenty six thousand presidential election truong has renewed his twitter attacks on both the f.b.i. and miller since firing the bureau's former deputy director at the mccabe on friday mccabe is reported to have kept detailed notes about his interactions with the president. kurdish fighters in syria's north western africa region have vowed to fight on after the main town was taken by turkish forces and their allies the kurdish of ministration says it will now use guerrilla tactics to become quote a constant nightmare for the turkish forces anchors being trying to clear the region of y p g fighters since january. well in all the developments syria's president bashar assad has visited army positions in eastern guta by his forces now control almost eighty percent of the territory assad met soldiers who have been part of the effort to retake the area and the united nations is said to be

negotiating a possible ceasefire with the main rebel group there those are the top stories that set for myself and the team there in london witnesses next. on counting the cost are russians getting all they bargain for economically as lemay boudin heads for reelection plus saudi aramco keeps the financial world guessing the globe's largest i.p.o. on ice will be asking what's behind the delay counting the cost on ages you.