dramatically reducing travel times it cuts the journey from hong kong to shands and across the border from one hour to fourteen minutes a journey from hong kong to beijing via joe was twenty four hours the express trail will reduce that to around nine hours sarah clarke reports from hong kong. it's three years behind sched jewel and three billion dollars over budget the hong kong china high speed rail link is now officially open. the city's chief executive kerry lamb was joined by the governor guandong declaring the mega project a bright light on china's calling card so as they fight so if further perfect this transport system and promotes cultural economic and social exchanges between hong kong and china the express train links hong kong to forty four mainland cities it's hard travel times delivering passengers to go on joe in less than an hour he moves all through the integrate hong kong and macau into the overall development plan of

china but the project has been shrouded in controversy hong kong's legislative council passed a bill to allow joint immigration checkpoints in the terminal passages from china will be inspected here not at the border for the first time mainland officials will enforce national laws on hong kong soil around a quarter of the terminal will come on the mainland jurisdiction to be designated signed which will include the joint immigration checkpoints but critics argue importing nationals here in hong kong is yet another attempt by beijing to tighten its grip on the former british territory. by pro-democracy groups have led the protests they say the joint checkpoints undermine hong kong's autonomy under the one country two systems deal adopted when the territory was handed back to china for certain it's damaging to one country two systems and that is so what we've been promised. at the pace of law and also from you know should government. back to

twenty years ago and now when you look at it that may be just the beginning that's what we already have out the government says the joys immigration checkpoints will save passages clearing immigration twice but it raises alarm bells for pro-democracy groups who believe the city's political future is at stake it appears to be no deterrent to the public though with tickets sold out this weekend sarah clarke al-jazeera hong kong a three and a half years of war of destroyed normal life in yemen but the southern city of aden people are trying to revive one popular pastime cinema tickets have been selling fast to see a locally made film of the first public screenings since the war began anderson as reports from nearby chip beauty. perhaps it's a distraction from a daily struggle that attracted so many people to the first public screening of a movie in yemen since civil war broke out tickets costing two dollars or something well despite the broken economy. ten days before the wedding stands out

because it's a yemeni production a love story that takes in the wall with many of its effects russia whose wedding plans nearly fell apart because of the conflict falling incomes and rising prices have a big effect feels a mamoun struggles with different issues raising a dowry for example. and. we wanted a movie to show what's going on inside the houses of the city and the whole country how families are affected by the state of the economy how the hopes of young people also collapse everyone is worried that if something simple collapses then everything will collapse with it the whole house we tried to portray the mental state of the yemeni people. those viewing are impressed thing to me i heard that this is a beautiful movie so i came with the family to watch it having a movie made in aden is more than just entertainment there is

a sense of pride here about the production. in the philippines when you compare yemen to the rest of the arab world we are maybe more than one hundred years behind on producing movies but this is a milestone and i hope the government in the private sector will continue to support such projects that helped to create a cinematic awareness. the makeshift cinema in aden isn't set in the main conflict suffered elsewhere in yemen pro-government fighters recaptured the city from huth the forces three years ago but there have been frequent attacks by wide range of disparate fighting groups since them. this movie may be a form of escapism out of it though comes one small hope that a vibrant young filmmaking industry may emerge from this conflict a war that some people feel has no end unlike the movie untrue simmons' out

zero djibouti. look at the top stories now iran's president has promised a crushing response after gunmen opened fire on a military parade marking the start of the iran iraq war at least twenty nine people were killed many were members of iran's revolutionary guard both eisel and an arab separatist group the national resistance of prime responsibility for the shooting but the iranian government is blaming gulf countries with ties to the united states and israel. two days after a ferry capsized in tanzania rescuers have found a survivor the man was in an air pocket inside the ferry making him one of only forty one people who survived at least two hundred nine others drowned when the ferry tipped over close to the shore of lake victoria on thursday tanzania's president is blaming overloading an apparent negligence for the disaster well other survivors have described how they escaped the sinking ferry. the working mother of

no who were governor we were just about to dock when it overturned due to the load it was carrying and then we found ourselves in the lurch i thank god because i was able to jump out of the ferry and held on to an object nearby and that is how i survived philippines has suspended all quarreling operations in seven regions of the country after the latest fatal landslide at least twenty nine people died in rescuers are searching for forty still missing after a hillside collapsed on thursday near a limestone quarry a naga city on cebu island the collapse was triggered by monsoon rains. officials in north and south carolina a warning the worst flooding from the aftermath of harken florence is yet to come in towns and cities along waterways immobilizing rescue crews and putting out thousands of sandbags more than a week after florence made landfall and the woman who's accused donald trump supremes of sexual assault has just a few more hours to decide whether and how she will testify christine blazin ford

says brant cavanagh assaulted her it's a party in one thousand nine hundred two she's been offered the chance to go before the senate judiciary committee ahead of cavanagh's confirmation hearing according to the new york times ford's lawyers have until saturday afternoon to negotiate the terms of her testimony i have more on that story and everything else in about twenty five minutes time top of the next hour but coming up now it's people in power the orthodox connection.

as paper reported in twenty seventeen a resurgent church has become central to president putin's ideas of russia i just an echo chamber to the kremlin's expansionist policies that. now has the orthodox church in pro western savoring the brain seeks to break from the oscars despite warnings the tension in the region about to be increase where reshowing are episode on the significance of the ties between russia's church and state. the russian orthodox church claims the allegiance of three quarters of the

population. so it's no surprise that blood to me of putin acknowledges its importance. all that its spiritual leader patriarch kirill returns the favor calling the president a miracle of god. but some say the relationship between putin states and the overdog faith goes far beyond mere recognition and expediency but it's a much made in heaven. that christian art of books church has made russian id. others see it as an unholy alliance blaming the all the dogs church for everything from the war in ukraine to providing cover for intolerance and repression. to squeal with a stolen trigger. to skirt or even name because it's so what lies behind

these ever closer ties increasingly evocative of russia's pre-code meanest imperial past. present putsch and our leader that. given to us by good. clues to the synchronicity between church and state can be found in most corners of putin's russia take the mike nissen by the ministry situated on an island in the middle of lakeland doga europe's largest despite its remoteness thousands of pilgrims come to the sacred monastery which according to legend stands on the site where st andrew planted a cross. but these days the island is also home to a private waterside dutcher the. used by president putin strictly off limits. it's a sign of the times since the collapse of the ceviche union the russian orthodox

church a seen a dramatic rise in its fortunes. twenty five thousand new build or restore churches eight hundred one of stories millions of them believe us we are on other way not a trend if europe you question is goes down in venice and go down in russia we have moral trends back to christian rules. every week a staggering nineteen new orthodox churches are either built or restored in russian . many welcome this increase including president putin seen here opening a new church with patriarch kirill the primate of moscow and all russia. but not everyone is happy. you have kenny lebedev is part of a group of parents who oppose the churches illegal seizure and i frequent

utilization of a mosque a park in order to build a new church. but it will not. reach it. what it is it is not much and it shouldn't surprise you. to be sure that almost i say get a receipt. that you will need it but he actually not but is ready. for you on your . most sundays he and dozens of other locals gather to share their position. i. put it openly questions such developments carries a risk as yevgeny discovered in november two thousand and sixteen. his home along with eleven others was stormed by police office. as in much time raids across the capital. it's going to be

a novel novel what is done to the us what if you will of the bridge of being my nation when you are going to go because many of the bullies what have you will for whatever some of it you know if you have the good work that we go through. with work easily still got what we did. they offices were investigating a possible violation of a relatively new russian law that makes it a criminal offense to insult the feelings of religious believes. the raids were broadcast on national t.v. but the patriarch denouncing lebedev and his friends a spade and cultists. special with almost certain of the gospel but now were to show me where put it from you and us because that lost out of process of six written off. me it was for the youngest just saying it's not for the fun you took it was richard butler pitt oking the ute. so we park why didn't you.

the new legislation was introduced in the wake of a now infamous anti putin protest by punk band pussy riot in moscow's christ the savior cathedral in two thousand and twelve. when members of the group mounted the older to such a rise the increasingly cozy relationship between the church and state. following the protest members of the burned served two years in penal colonies. it is laws are based on fear and actually all this power all. power based on fear to lose this power. that's why they try to bend everything it means that he afraid of that. we wanted to talk to the russian

government to get a response to these claims and find out why it feel so strongly that insults against religious sensibilities should be a criminal offense. blasphemy laws are still in place in some parts of the world europe and the west put more emphasis on protecting freedom of speech. and all of the officials we contacted were prepared to be interviewed. critics claim the wide scope of this law has given a green light to religious zealots bent on stifling any views they disagree with. your brought you. brought you across but are not. brought your thought or see. the country is not a war with groups who hold back to pre-revolutionary russia and the mana came. by

clean all the dogs by now bearers whose motto is also dog see all day if. the russians are showing lunch a little. show and i wish but i thought boys were shit sunless to do that it should not cross loads me up. perhaps the most controversial and belligerent of these groups is sorel cough funded by most gay businessman andreyko mukund which it was. one of us. every also in the group holds this extraordinary event. muscular brand of orthodox christianity is very evident.

east which the got to get it's pretty obvious from the. piece they used. so i still got thirty it's going to start of the former for best i know aren't. what are so. small rocks or a cough or frequently compared to near a node c.s. they are unashamedly nationalistic and say critics openly intolerant of other faiths. teach st. i see it takes. some time. before mr aslaksen at low level to. address your. sorrow or deploy to deter protesters as church construction sites.

but they are a must see. but the opposite slows books. about this which by the put there are six laws book for them but they would put more liberal elements within the church feel uneasy about the patriarchs links to such groups. should go move the observer system in the bush we sleep in the you chris. unchr that you so that english was full just when the concorde. what the question you're still to deal with cesc shows the other two or some of these works of. the chemo guy gets around the local corner of the school get their. news who criticize wrong doing from within the church can face chilling consequences. the new kid scheme ministry is russia's oldest

when a former monk mikhail bottlenose explains how his superiors had encouraged a husband to abandon his wife and child in order to join the ministry squire he was abducted and taken to a nearby forest hung upside down and beaten. she just because that area which i'm bitter as you move you know you or you are very well i you. are grouped with that are nearly and that is that. what you. now are by a thought yesterday about a store where the give below one thing will create checks in the creech at least the most look at the shut she does not. want to.