always watching at home and abroad. one on one east investigates how far china will go to control its citizens. on his era. it's impossible to underestimate the size and scale of the economic crisis it's not just about the billion trillion dollars of debt it's all just about the banks it's not just about the governments to my real people. syria's new power brokers gather the russian and turkish presidents meet in ankara to be joined by their iranian counterpart. hello i'm barbara starr you're watching live from london also coming up on the

program. this is just the start french rail workers begin their first day of rolling strikes that are set to run for months a lawyer who worked closely with president trumps former campaign chief is jailed for lying to the u.s. special counsel about his links and winnie mandela as allies on the radical left paid tribute to a woman they say should have been south africa's president. welcome to the program just a few years ago they were practically enemies but russian turkey's ties are only getting stronger letting me putin is again visiting his turkish counterpart recha taipei had to hand the pair launched the construction of turkey's first a nuclear power plant a twenty billion dollar project that will be built by russia the two leaders are also set to discuss the war in syria those talks will begin in earnest when iran's

president joins them on wednesday well some of inge of i joins us now from osama it's worth mentioning we are waiting for a news conference between the two leaders we're waiting about for a while it will be interesting to see what they have to say but tell us what the focus of today tuesday the first day of putin's visit has been. yes trade in economy being the highlight of the day one of president putin's first visit since he was reelected he chose turkey a key nato ally to try and make a show off that that he is actually not just not just talking to the ally of nato but also an ally which seems to be closer to getting closer to getting closer to russia rather than its traditional ally which is nato and the united states of you've been hearing the inaugural statements as the president announced

a twenty billion dollar power project first nuclear power reactor which is going to be operational by twenty twenty three according to president of the gun who says that it will be in line with the centennial present celebrations of the republic of turkey decides that there is also deals happening with the expedition off the s four hundred missile defense system the controversial missile defense system which a nato has raised objections to words turkey says it wants these missiles to be installed as quickly as possible and according to president putin it's going to be a priority that turkey is provided with these missiles in addition to that bilateral trade including tourism which is a twenty six billion dollars industry has also come under discussion on the first day of president putin's visit in the last half hour we've heard that iranian president rouhani has arrived in turkey and had the big meeting is going to take

place tomorrow where the three leaders are going to sit down and try and chart out their food future course for syria yes i mean i suppose that's sort of easier said than done in a sense considering just how different a lot of. these three leaders want to happen in syria how optimistic should we be about that meeting to be held on wednesday between the year. turkish and russian presidents. well these three countries have been able to begin a process in the city of us tana which has been able to provide some results on the ground in syria the only results that we've seen so far in the last few years as many actors on the ground in syria say that the geneva peace process is dead these three actors have been able to persuade their respective sides to try and come to an agreement we saw the establishment of deescalation zones and we saw what happened in as well which was supposed to be one of the deescalation zones where

severe relentless bombardment of displaced hundreds of thousands of people yet again in the conflict in syria so this is going to be important because this is the first time that after the events that took place and these leaders are meeting and also before an imminent operation in the north of syria in city is about to begin been hearing reports on the ground that the syrian government has been stepping up stepping up attacks on its front there and also we. wait and see for turkey's reaction to what it calls terrorists on its border on the syrian front where there have been objections that have been raised by the syrian government is it as well as its iranian allies about turkey's involvement inside syria so yes on the surface these are three parties who are aligned to conflicting sides of the conflict inside syria but they have been able to gain results and this is what many are expecting that will be coming out as they meet again some of in your five or the latest from

ankara some of the moment thank you. and some i was mentioning it live there well inside syria at least six people have been killed in airstrikes in the rebel held province of idlib tens of thousands of people have been moved there from eastern who tapped after rebels there are agreed to evacuation deals. in the area in italy . well. we are in the city of in the city's open market this market was targeted by three strikes launched by the syrian regime's jet fighters as we are filming now a number of jets are hovering over our heads a long silence blaring across the city through. this particular market has always been the target of strikes over there you can see the aftermath of tuesday's shelling this market is the destination of not only the city's residents but also for the people in the neighboring towns and villages dozens were killed and others injured as

a result of the bombardment. as i said this marketplace has always been the prime target and on every occasion it's mainly civilians who are killed or injured this is also the third day in a row where the city of has come under aerial bombardment it follows the arrival of a number of evacuees from the one. the cities not attacked with residents and those displaced from elsewhere in addition to people evacuated into the area but. trains have been canceled across france as railway workers strike against president manuel planned reforms just one in four of the trains in paris has been running and just one in eight of france's high speed t.g.v. now the rail unions are planning to strike for two days out of every five and they're going to do that for the next three months they are demanding the

government give up its plans to cut their benefits and pensions still to sunday yeah go now she's at one of paris's main train stations that montage last sunday good to see you first of all what's the impact being there in paris and in france of this strike so far. well it has had some form of an impact here for example the rush hour was here were certainly more modest in the numbers of people that was seen going through the stations here but saying that this was an event which was highly publicized already so people of travelers had taken pains to make alternative measures to try and avoid the worst of this there had been however a demonstration taking place in central paris from the head headquarters of the rail workers union together with the refuse workers unions as well marching from there into guard to no itself and that caused a bit of sort of quite

a bit of problems around the station itself but going on to this this is something which is not going to just take place on this stage tuesday and wednesday but it's going to be as you mentioned earlier a sustained effort undertaken by the unions they want the message to get to president that they will monex cept the labor reforms as he sees it he has a mandate to push through some of these. employee reforms these labor reforms amongst those he wants to see. loosening opposite. of trying to hire fire workers as well as trying to limit the changes at the pensions as well and also in effect he wants to see more direct involvement from companies with their employees and that would of course remove the unions from this they're of

course against this whole idea of this but also in particular they are really worried about some of the benefits they've created over the years such as the right to a job to life the right to retire early among other things as well and with the rail workers in particular they are also worried about the possibility of france's national. the rail. company becoming privatized they say this is something just absolutely unacceptable to them and they are can continue this sustained action but at the moment about the latest polls about seventy five percent of french citizens believe that mr mccall will be able to push through with the reforms economists and business leaders are supporting him on this but this is really this is just the beginning of this campaign and if it is anything like it has in the past before then it's going to have less of an effect on actually managing to reform those labor laws if the unions have their way and they're able to convince the french

public that really they need to have their employee rights protected so there you go with the latest from paris thank you. the un's refugee agency says it's the supported by israel canceling a deal to relocate half the african refugees living in the country just hours after the deal was actually announced protests against the u.-turn have been taking place in both television and jerusalem prime minister benjamin netanyahu faced intense pressure from right wing groups over the deal which would have led at least sixteen thousand africans say and another sixteen thousand resettle in western countries stephanie decker has more now from tel aviv. some of the activists we've been speaking to will say that even this deal that it has been hailed they were cautiously optimistic before that u. turn by the prime minister they said that deal was floored why because they say israel should be doing its part in taking in refugees asylum seekers because it is

a world wide problem certainly now the situation remains in limbo the bottom line is these people up to forty thousand mostly from eritrea and sudan have been here for years they speak hebrew they work here and they pay high taxes israel has never sorted out their final status that is not processed or applications they don't have refugee status nor do they have any form of temporary or permanent residence the message is that you are not welcome here and we will make it as difficult as possible for you to want to leave and this is what activists are saying is the issue here and now they still remain in limbo but it is a situation that is not going to go away and it will have to be resolved one way or the other. still ahead here on al-jazeera why sharing fake news in malaysia could now land you in jail.

however the last of the dust therefore the yellow skies really manifest themselves across iran and beyond what cloud there is a pay natasha can't just east of may well briefly bring down a bit of orange precipitation but on the whole we see the lawsuit that with the still a enough of a breeze and cloudy bells here which suggests you might be picked up once again so the skies are not particularly blue even once the cloud has gone through a drop in temperature gives tara nineteen on thursday so twenty six in kuwait and back to iraq two of the eastern mediterranean coast israel should be fine middle twenty seems about right this time these or see hotter at any mecca but it's not forty and we see nice temps she's well the last month or two to be honest the breeze is noticeable pick up more dust from the east side of society kuwait qatar for example in the us greatest is cloud in the skies not blue skies we've recently

seen some pretty big showers once again in south africa and they still showing up on the satellite picture in the curl of cloud goes up through maybe obviously the biggest downpours now are up in the tropics but if you still wanting some rain even the western cape well you're lucky still tight certainly in the forecast big showers are anywhere in south africa.

a reminder now of the top stories on al-jazeera russia's president vladimir putin has arrived in the turkish capital ahead of a three way summit with the leaders of turkey and iran the war in syria is at the top of the agenda trains have been canceled across france as railway workers strike against president in my new home across the cuts their benefits and pensions and the un's refugee agency says it's supported by israel canceling a deal to relocate half the african asylum seekers living in the country just hours after it was announced. israel's defense minister has warned protesters

in gaza that anyone who demonstrates on the border is risking their lives eighteen protesters have now been killed in gaza since friday and hundreds injured many palestinians say they're angry not only with israel but also with their own the vi that leadership mohammed reports now from. by all appearances the phone call looks routine with no hint of the desperation it feels good. everyone asks why we hit a certain this isn't just taking away our land it's not just killing people this was also taking away our loved ones without giving us the opportunity to say our goodbyes every day israel is giving us a new reason to hate it that was there as a palestinian from gaza living and working in the occupied west bank now is trying to arrange permission to get back home and mourn with her family she says her nephew were among a former was killed by israeli fire while working his land before the mass protests

in gaza on friday. i still don't know whether i'll get the permit or not i'm tired of going to bury people and come back i'd love if i got a permit to go to gaza eat fish have fun and see the people i love. over the course of two days in the west bank demonstrators came out to express solidarity with the people in gaza against the israeli occupation and to denounce american policy which they say is biased toward israel but attendance was sparse in light of the numerous calls for a campaign of escalation in the west bank this week you would have expected a protest like this to be much larger but here in ramallah it's a pervasive sense of resignation that seems to far outweigh any feelings of anger. in many instances it's a growing cynicism toward the palestinian political leadership that has been behind the twinkling number of protesters over the past several years. palestinian officials don't deny the existence of that sentiment. the position of that in their

ship is it is strong and tough but it has to be translated into terms of of policies on the ground and i think that's when we have grown that's what we have not really been able to do lead in downtown that i'm alone some residents worry the split between the two main palestinian groups to have and how must will seep evermore into the social fabric in can we need to tell the politicians enough dividing us stop saying west bank and gaza so we don't feel this division others expressed their frustration that has in the the knesset it says i don't feel that there are people who encourage and push us to go to protest it's not enough for one or two people to show up you need leadership to encourage you and you need daily demonstrations but with levels of fatigue here as high as they've ever been many worry things will only get worse mohammed gentleman does either i'm alone in the occupied west bank. who the rebels have struck

a saudi oil tanker in the red sea off yemen's main port city has data that's according to saudi owned television who these say they targeted the tanker in response to an airstrike in her data that killed at least fourteen civilians seven of them children the u.n. says that strike was one of the deadliest attacks on children since the saudi led coalition began its aerial campaign in two thousand and fifteen the special counsel investigation into russian connections with donald trump presidential campaign has handed down its first sentence that's lawyer alexander's van has been sentenced to thirty days in jail and a twenty thousand dollars fine for lying to federal agents working on robert mueller is investigation he was found to have lied about contacts that he had with someone working on the trump campaign she had returned see has the latest on that from washington. the special counsel may have begun his probe as an investigation into allegations of a russian meddling in the twenty sixteen presidential election but over the months

it has expanded its scope greatly into the business dealings of various associates of donald trump notably paul mano for donald trump's former campaign chairperson alex found as well as one of those paul mandell for hired to help his lobbying work for the ukrainian government years before the presidential election well as one got into trouble was when he was being interviewed by the special counsel he wasn't forthcoming about some communications and some documents with. deputy want to pull him out of his business associates in ukraine so. goes to jail not because of collusion with russia but because he lied to the special counsel and that's the significance of this conviction and sentencing that this is a warning to others not to lie to the special counsel. staying in the u.s. donald trump has just announced he wants to send the u.s. military to the mexican border kimberly how he joins us now from the white house

kimberly what else do we know about this. well we know the certainly wasn't expected announcement fact what we were expecting is a joint press conference with donald trump along with the leaders of a stony alysa way and latvia but in advance of that joint press conference which is still scheduled to take place the president speaking to reporters in the white house cabinet room announced that he plans to send the u.s. milk apologies kimberly let's take you straight now to ankara where we're hearing and watching that news conference between the turkish and the russian president. ordering members of the delegations and respected members of the press and. extend you my most cordial greetings first and foremost. i would like to express my gladness of hosting honorable president mr putin and his

delegation in our country. so. i would like to congratulate my distinguished friend. in regard to his reelection. this is my honorable friends first foreign visit. and it is a pleasure to us the source of happiness that this visit was made to our country. this visit. represents the level which the relations between the russian federation and turkey have reached. meanwhile the the treasure. which was experienced in russia. is something which i would like to refer to i extend my condolences. to all those who lost their lives in this fire disaster. the great majority of the people who lost their lives were children

and this adds to the severity of the disaster. we have just concluded a meeting. and within the context of this council meeting which was carried out of want to one and between delegations. we have had the opportunity to examine all aspects of our relationship. and whilst carrying out meetings with my honorable friend. high level consultation meetings took place between other members of the delegation. our political dialogue also extended to economic matters military issues economic issues cultural issues.

were also subjects covered it was a wide spectrum of subjects discussed our trade volume. has. increased by thirty two percent by our calculations. and it has gone beyond twenty two billion dollars but of course our goals are much higher our aim is to reach one hundred billion dollars of trade volume between the two countries the service will be and the investment agreements discussions must be concluded as soon as possible and in this way we will get closer to our goal of one hundred billion dollars of trading. as you know. today we carried out the inauguration of the aqua nuclear power plant.

we want to conclude complete the works on this power plants by twenty twenty three there are four phases but my expectation is that we will go much faster. and to finish works much earlier but. of course to figure determined at this point is around twenty billion dollars but i think it will exceed this figure the amount of investments made. and investments of this. is a great asset to our country and my distinguished friend has contributed a lot to this. and with this. we're going to be providing for ten percent of turkey's electricity requirements the pipeline is continuing the construction work continuing. at

a pace. another matter is cultural and humanitarian relations. in this context in twenty nineteen there will be cultural and tourism year activities in russia in turkey. the moscow going to say recall chile institute. and the russian cultural center will contribute to this process. in twenty seventeen we hosted. four point seven million russian citizens. so this means that among the people who visited the tourists who came to our country. number of tourists coming from russia. the first among everyone else and we expect this number to rise to six million this

year. we are expecting the liberalization to happen as soon as possible in addition to by a letter all relations we looked at this syria issue. and we also exchanged ideas in relation to regional matters such as you know in the us down a process we realized no conflict zones even those sorts of breaches took place we've regardless achieved a lot in this regard it wasn't as much as we hoped for but. we have managed to. prevent civilian casualties it's important for all parties to respect the process. and we were also able to discuss further steps that can be taken. or rainey and counterparts will join us tomorrow and we

will carry out a tripartite meeting. so we will discuss the us start a process and we will be able to discuss it in a. new light we have efforts to find a solution in relation to syria. in regard to operation all of branch we had discussions with my distinguished friend. i gave. my friend put in information about the results of this operation in relation to. the security of our country this operation had other important aspects as well. to achieve stability in syria and to find a point of safety we shall continue to work together at this point. we

are in. agreement and have the same concerns with our russian friends. why p.g. and p y d. shall not be able to. exist. we have to focus on our common goals and we will continue our called operation in this respect your members of the press turkish and russian relations have improved in fifteen years. on the basis of mutual respect. this collaborations has benefited our civilians but not only that the whole region has benefited. at times this relationship was tested.

certain parties. did attempt to poison turkish and russian relations but thankfully we have overcome these tests. our. relations overcame these tests and thrived and became stronger. this high level commission meeting has led to four agreements being signed and this has deepened our relations i believe. in this respect i would like to once again say welcome to my distinguished friend putin and his delegation and i hope that our discussions lead to good results thank you. thank you very much distinguished president ladies and gentlemen. first will russia just like to note that the program of

today's visit was very very exhaustive and full of content and we are very grateful to the president. for furthering our bilateral relations in this way and also raising a lot of regional and international issues. the this meeting was held with the participation of a number of notable ministers. and we have tackled a whole range of policy defense economic and humanitarian issues. and we have also set out the plans for future development in all these areas and signed a whole raft of documents as you have just seen. and we have also signed new agreements and just like to note here that the development tween russia and

turkey is developing very consistently particularly the political dialogue last year for example we had eight fully fledged meetings with the president. and we have also particularly with regard to military planning and technical cooperation. ministries both being locked into this is well as a parliament. and business communities as well i just like to add that today we have focused particularly on commercial commercial and investment issues and the major coordinating role of course is played by the into parliamentary committees on both sides. very much that. we will see continual growth as we have over the last year in economic.

performance on both sides and as the president has just said russia has become the third main importer for the turkish. republic after china. and. it is also one of the major economic partners of the russian fed federation we have very much that investment will continue this will foster an investment platform and that with the help help of the russian investment fund and the turkish self in front. we are also cooperating very closely in terms of atomic energy together today with the president we launched the first reactor of the atomic power. plant in a coup you. and we have.