presidential election is crucial. and after a month on the right we catch up with central america. one more to reach the united states. making it a ten. grains president is warning of a full scale war with russia. between the two countries as well and already tense relations. to crimea and ukraine. in parts of the country for thirty days we have correspondents in both countries. and first report. as to the heart of his country goes on the.

president is making a stark warning about russia accusing it of sending tanks to its border. says he wants ukraine to do more to defend itself against the threat of invasion. have not yet been removed from there they're still there i don't want anybody to think those are toys the country is under threat of a full scale war with the russian federation. the goal of this martial law is to show that the enemy will pay a very high price if he decides to attack us it will be like a cold shower that will stop the mad men who have plans to attack ukraine and if there is no further aggression we will assume that the goal of these actions the cheve. remarks will do nothing to calm down the tension russia is announcing the deployment of more s. four hundred missile systems in crimea and donald trump says he may now cancel his meeting with vladimir putin that's jew at the g twenty summit and bought

a saris this week with twelve of the twenty four captive ukrainians given two months detention orders on tuesday in. war or now expected to be issued. what's made things more charged is russia's filming of some of the crew giving what ukraine says forced confessions under duress breaching the geneva convention which should give some protection to prisoners of war. internationally the pressure on russia appears to have no effect on its foreign minister sergei lavrov visiting paris here on choose. or if the ukrainian side like its partners in europe is interested in avoiding such situations in the future it is obviously necessary to send a signal to kiev not to allow such a provocation that is not for us to do but for those who maintain close contact with the korean authorities mr lavrov certainly didn't appear willing to meet his

french counterparts request. so gay lovers go just to get told sergey lavrov that a gesture is expected from russia at the prisoners and the boats being held must be free to soon as possible but i will also call my ukrainian counterpart to encourage him to seek a deescalation in this region. and now it's emerged that not all the arrested crew are sailors ukraine's state security services the s.b.u. says it had counterintelligence officers on board that also says two missiles were fired by one of two russian fighter jets at the boats one of those agents was seriously injured. what happens next to the detained ukrainian servicemen may be unclear what's certain though is that without their release the crane will continue to ramp up pressure for some sort of international action against russia all who join and just a moment the first to rory moscow because we're

a person appears to be poor in cold war so this conflict flare up was even saying you're speaking a short while ago it's an investment forum organized by russian bank and he did address the current straits crisis basically by doing two things he downplayed it as an incidence. also unsurprisingly but all of the blame on ukraine for its he said that essentially it was a provocation that had been organized by the president and designs for the upcoming presidential elections in ukraine show jewels for march and elections that petro poroshenko is not an expected to do very well and he's currently in third place which would mean if that was the situation that's on polling day he wouldn't even make the runoff. so. putin says that we know that it is

a provocation because this was a small border incident he called it not a war what's happening in the east of ukraine he said it is a war bartz through all of that time hasn't put martial law into effect but a small incidents in the black sea says putin and now we have martial law that's how we know it's a provocation russian soldiers he said russian sailors did their duty what's happening is a dirty political game within ukraine and ukrainians are unsuccessfully selling anti russian sentiments because they have nothing more to sell and one wonders then worry why he would be announcing a plan to send more s. four hundred seventy the air missile to quantify it. yeah there are three battalions of the s four hundred in crimea already the defense ministry announced that the third arrived in september now we're being told that

a fourth is being sent there it will be operational by the end of the year according to the ministry of defense now the s four hundred is a sophisticated top of the range defense system that can shoot down planes and missiles both ballistic and cruise missiles so essentially this is you know a warning to the west and to ukraine not to escalate this any further certainly as a warning to nato because it's just the sort of planes that nato flies that the f. four hundred is designed to shoot out of the sky so you know this is russia basically reinforcing its defenses in crimea in the region of the black sea the region of the as of sea and saying to the west don't try anything ok well that's the side from the kremlin from moscow thanks very much worry let's go now to kiev

joining simmons say putin and who is calling this martial law a provocation well such a push i'm going saying about this. well he's saying that it's central it's essential to defend the country because he's saying effectively that russia is preparing to invade he is being quite categorical about it in his series of interviews he said that the tanks are being massed on certain border points that he has to see martial law through simply because people have to be mobilized the defense of the country is paramount and he has to also get more restrictions through which will mean restrictions on media freedom locally and also pile of different measures to restrict movements and that curfews in the areas of the ten regions involved most of them border russia also coastal districts

and sea of as of he says is territory that belongs really to ukraine but is supposed to be divided but he says russia intends to take the whole see it as off that will cripple the ukrainian economy in terms of exports and imports and so really the situation is by no means calming down you heard in rory's report the nature of the rhetoric in russia and also the action with the s. four hundred extra battalion being deployed in the crimean peninsula before the end of the year we think and this is all added to the tension and want to reno about the fates of these ukrainians who were on board those ships and were detained by russia. well we know now that the the latest a court hearing has competing completed and now there are

a total of twenty who have been detained for the whole two month period according to this order that's been imposed there are three according to the russians three of the remaining crew members these are these men are in hospital their conditions have not been given any any real information on however we do know one of them is an intelligence officer and he is seriously injured ukrainian say that he was on board one of the one of the birds when two missiles were fired from the two russian fighter attack aircraft on other updates from levels of support for ukraine across the board nato has had very serious words of warning to russia the u.s. is also said the situation very seriously the u.s. president donald trump has indicated in the washington post that he may cancel his

meeting with vladimir putin which is due in the g. twenty summit later this week and also just to bring you right up to date news wires now saying that kurt volker the u.s. special representative for ukraine is saying he wants to encourage our european allies to look harder at what additional sanctions against russia could be implemented over the situation in ukraine now this is quite important because ukraine is saying everyone is condemning what russia has done but no one is taking firm action so lots of rhetoric but not action and the u.s. hasn't been really close to crystal clear on what it wants doing so this is a point of contention for ukraine not of developments means keep across many thanks for keeping us updated that can. now people in georgia directly voting for their president for the last time to form a minister in the run off poll off the neither one

a majority in the first round the country is transitioning to a parliamentary system future presidents will be chosen by members of parliament and it will have reduced powers of enforced a walker has details from capitol simplicity. of a choice of two candidates. who is an independent but who has the backing of the governing party and griego if i should say who is a member of the country's main party so let me really is french born and a former french diplomat. nevertheless has returned. which is really to connect with enough voters in the first round to get more than fifty percent and her and her now really neck and neck in the opinion polls. despite the fact that the presidential powers into which are have been limited they

still have a role to play in foreign policy and this election is being taken very seriously indeed by both sides and it's been considered really a vote of confidence by the electorates in the governments in this in this race. taiwan's president is in doubt after her ruling party was defeated in last week's election questioning relations with china seem to have contributed to the poor result an exclusive interview with al-jazeera taiwan's foreign minister is a kid in beijing of meddling in the aisles of politics and there is a jim brown reports from taipei. in the lobby of taiwan's foreign ministry the flags of the dwindling number of countries that recognize the island republic just seventeen now in the past three years five diplomatic allies have been lured away by beijing taiwan's foreign minister joseph woo told me it's all part of china's strategy to isolate taiwan internationally and that each defection hurts and of

course our people here feel betrayed and that they can sing about can be very strong here but you know since they decide to choose china that's their choice and the important thing for taiwan is that we want to make sure that those diplomatic ilyse remain loyal to taiwan china's diplomatic squeeze of taiwan began after the election of president zion when almost three years ago her party leans towards independence china regards taiwan as part of its territory to be taken back by force if necessary the intimidation has involved military drills in the taiwan straits as well as other high profile military exercises the fraught relationship seems to have been a factor in the recent local elections which saw the ruling party lose political control of seven cities the opposition wants better relations with china who says

there was another reason for the party's poor showing a chinese disinform ation campaign. china denies it if taiwan selection can be seeing. chinese success of their interference then it's going to be very difficult to stop china from trying again and again or double down the interference on taiwan's relations with the united states woods says they couldn't be better the trump presidency has been good for taiwan there have been plenty of high level exchanges between officials from taipei and washington and during the past two years the u.s. government has approved arms sales to taiwan of more than one point seven billion dollars. taiwan once every thirty five fighter planes but for now they're not for sale to taiwan in time once defense much more than just one particular item in taiwan in the united states have been discussing very intensely how taiwan

can. beef up its own defense taiwan is part of the reason for the heightened tensions between china and the united states the outcome of last weekend's elections could add to the friction adrian brown al-jazeera taipei. and you can watch the full interview with taiwan's farman center at fourteen thirty g.m.t. that's seven so that's an hour's time here on al-jazeera. the last senate seat that was still up for grabs in the u.s. metabolites and has been decided to close and controversial race in mississippi republican cindy has smith's win by a series of racially charged comments showing at the campaign including telling supporters she would accept an invitation to a public hanging john hendren reports from jackson mississippi. in the last senate election of twenty eighteen cindy hyde smith made history couldn't graduate i sen

and now senator on sunday. appointed temporarily in april she is now the first elected female senator from mississippi the reason we won is because mississippi and know me and they know my heart and thank you for stepping out mississippi. she did it by rallying her base in a reliably republican state and by blocking democrat mike espy from making history himself he would have been the first african-american senator from mississippi since the nineteenth century do you know that we built the largest grassroots organization al state has ever seen in the generation. smith had to recover from a series of self-inflicted wounds telling his supporters she would accept an invitation to a public hanging and sit in the front row it was a major gaffe in a state where five thousand black men were lynched following the american civil war she posed in a confederate civil war cap here where that conflict still holds the power to

divide and she joked about voter suppression here where african-americans claim they have been wrongfully stripped of their voting rights here in the birthplace of elvis presley it was all too much for big campaign donors including wal-mart and major league baseball who demanded their money back donald trump made an election eve swing to save the republicans campaign we win tomorrow will be at fifty three forty seven which is substantially more than we. i here in the republican deep south the math was always with pride smith no democrat has won statewide election here since nineteen eighty two president trump won here in two thousand and sixteen by eight thousand percentage points and now voters have doubled down choosing a candidate who not only has the president's face on her campaign bus but who has voted with him one hundred percent of the time espy inspired more hope among democrats in mississippi than any member of his party in years but in the end his candidacy reveals the limits of the democratic wave of twenty eight eighteen and

the strength of republicans hold on the u.s. senate john hendren al-jazeera jackson mississippi. well it's cold even in mississippi at the moment but no snow. no not this fosters that would be caught surprised that they haven't recovered from the thanksgiving storms twelve degrees in the gulf coast below that same new orleans but luckily proper winter is staying further now also example if you were driving in the east up towards new hampshire that would be what greeted you yesterday and of course they are preparing for this because it's always like that in the winter in the northeast it's not as bad as it was but the circulation is fairly obvious here. the lights these were lines are quite tight which means they're waiting for lake effect snow and the preparations are ongoing in pennsylvania was taken just before dark yesterday of course is probably still dark to be off at the moment there's not soon coming out of the snow falling and given you've got lake effect so this can carry on now for another twenty four hours you could see on the twenty's that said to be just more and that

situation on the forecast but leave that away we'll take you beyond and look further west as a streak has stuck across the plains the midwest but look at what's happening in california now it should snow in california up in the sierra nevada during the winter this is what builds up the snow pack and this is proper snow now i've looked at the enduring forecast the next three days never see the green here is rain we could see twenty thirty said that said millimeters of rain even more this is thirty useful but the snow who i suggest lead up to a meta before it moves away. rob thanks very much still ahead here on out is there are more gray skies ahead for bright side even as the u.k.'s prime minister tries to sound upbeat. around the talks on syria's war with russia looking for the chance of a breakthrough. and insupportable half in the world boxing champion who has an axe to grind ahead of latest title fights.

xenophobic violent and beating the drum for an ethnic civil war in the heart of europe. infiltrates one of the continent's fastest growing far right organizations. and exposes links to members of the european parliament some time now for our. generation a. special two part investigation coming soon just. over one hundred years ago britain and france made a secret deal to divide the middle east between them now we can durham in the second episode we explore the last in the effects of this agreement that there is a regional set to six because it's at those borders were drawn with consulting the people who have to live with the. sykes people lines in the sun.

top stories this hour saudi arabia's crown prince has arrived in argentina's capital for the g twenty summit. legal complaint in argentina it wants them. into. human rights abuses during the war and. the director of the cia will reportedly not take pause and a u.s. senate briefing on the matter. is

a face of state and defense will brief sentences on wednesday on the saudi journalists killing. and ukraine the president is warning of a full scale. with russia moscow says it plans to deploy more of its s four hundred seventy two and the south to crimea after a recent confrontation in the black scene and ukraine's impose martial law in parts of the country for thirty days. there's a u.k. government forecast released today say that the british economy will be worse off once the country leaves the european union if the u.k. crashes out without a formal agreement approved by parliament its economy could shrink by more than nine percent over fifteen years despite this violence the trees may insist she has to go she adds and the best deal our deal is the best deal of a double for jobs and our economy that allows us to honor the referendum and realize the opportunities of rocks it. this is this analysis does not show that will be poorer in the future than we are today doesn't. it show. it

shows will be better off with this deal what would make a score over which have an impact on our economy for the future will be the policies of the right honorable gentleman this is bigger on the same day that that statement was made the prime minister said this is the best possible deal it's the only possible deal well i mean to say it's not hard to be the best deal if it's the only day in my definition why therefore this is bigger by definition it's also the worst in. one and joins us now live from westminster and paul talk us through these figures which is a pretty bleak picture isn't that if there is no deal to be had. yes a bleak picture and yet another boisterous session in prime minister's questions in parliament this lunchtime as you heard from the clips that you just played there

both sides having a go at each other but the headline figures and this is an eighty three page document and it's compiled by government departments themselves and then amalia made it into one report into the likely economic impact that directive will have based on various different scenarios so this kind of sliding scales with the headline figures are as follows if the britain departs from the european union under the terms that mrs may the prime minister has negotiated already with the european union over the space of the next fifteen years britain will be three point nine percent worse off in comparative terms and it's important say in comparative terms because obviously the economy keeps on growing so britain will get slightly better off but it won't get as well off as it would be if it's still stayed within the european union and the figures also show that if britain crashed out of the e.u. without a deal then they the u.k. economy would be nine point three percent worse all over the next fifteen years so

really stock figures and really focusing the minds of the m.p.'s who on december the eleventh will have to vote in this house behind me as to whether to support the prime minister's deal or not what they want to these figures do and what is this team from a chances of selling that deal in parliament. well the arithmetic has already been very difficult indeed looks like she could lose by as many as two hundred votes in parliament what she's been doing this week is trying to go over the heads of the m.p.'s go out around the country she was in wales on tuesday she's going to scotland now she'll be in scotland this afternoon trying to go out to the public can sell it to the people effectively talking about taking back control of british waters so that fisheries the fishery industry can be totally controlled by the u.k. but she's been pushing a message that the whole deal is good for jobs good for the economy good for britain and frankly the statistics that her own government departments of released

make that a very hard sell indeed ok paul many thanks for the update from london at least thirty civilians and sixteen taliban fighters have been killed during a military operation in southern afghanistan the provincial council in helmand blamed most of the deaths in an airstrike that struck a house the governor's office says the armed groups stockpiled weapons in the area and packed a car with explosives that decimates ensuring the strike while this as the afghan president announces a road map for peace negotiations with the taliban speaking as an international conference in geneva afghani's said he had formed a twelve person team to negotiate with the armed groups he said next year's presidential elections were an important part of the process after several months of intensive consultation with our citizens across the country we formulated a roadmap for peace negotiations we formed the required bodies in mechanisms to

pursue a peace agreement where now moving into the next chapter of the peace process we seek a peace agreement in which one would be included in a democratic inclusive society. joins us live from geneva the big question here is whether or not the taliban is on board with this road map. absolutely that is the crucial question this new announcement by the afghan president was welcomed on wednesday by the secretary general of the united nations antonio terrorist saying we may have a rare opportunity to move to direct peace talks between the afghan government and the taliban but of course so far the taliban have not accepted the afghan government's offer earlier this year of unconditional talks and notably they have not attended not just this conference but previous ones as well for a bit more on the implications of this announcement i'm joined by job of nada who

heads a network of afghan civil society nongovernmental organizations how realistic do you think this prospect is it's a bit difficult to tell because today we had a better solidarity of the international community on the peace. countries such as the united states and russia who have recently not been i to eye on afghan peace they emphasized on their common positions the regional countries also said that this fully supports an afghan led peace process so there is that international and regional solidarity but on the other hand we see that the taliban are expanding their control they are consolidating their control over large swathes of the country but also threatening more population so they are at the moment expanding militarily so there is very little hope that those gains military gains can be compensated by international solidarity we know that the taliban have not issued

any official statement about their conference today which is actually a good news. the afghan president says that his new road map has come after months of talking to citizens across the country about their views in your opinion how widely have ordinary afghans been consulted ordinary afghans are tired of the negotiations not yielding any fruit because the current levels of violence has brought to the country to a breaking point at the moment there the high several conscience of million casualties and also use of ordinance in various parts of the country has contributed massive the to the economic degree deshaun of understand large number of population are displaced from their areas so people are thirsty for peace and ceasefire however people also want to see what is the price tag for this peace

doesn't mean that the citizens will lose their rights doesn't mean that women achievements in the last seventeen years will be compromised on these issues people have a strong views i think both the government and the international community should listen to the afghan people on these matters you mention women's achievements in the government has been pointing to progress in areas like getting more women participating in the running of the country what kind of verse school what kind of record does the government have in terms of the actual numbers and numbers are still impressive i would say if you compare it with the time of the taliban we have sixty percent girls going to school for example so this is much better than disease or person during the taliban but it also means that forty percent of girls are not attending school we have a lot new people in the leadership of the of the guy afghan government more m.p.'s in the parliament so these are steps in the right direction but it also means that the society as a whole have not changed their perception about women's rights

a lot of a lot needs to be done both by this government and the future governments thank you very much for your time well as we've been hearing both on tuesday and. a whole range of really really tough problems for the government to get to grips with but underlying all of those challenges of course the ongoing violence as we were just hearing about daily killings of civilians and the sooner that that peace that roadmap to peace negotiations can start the better for ordinary afghans. will hear from geneva thanks very much that in russia turkey and iran are to hold new talks on syria on wednesday and thursday in kazakstan catalyst starner delegations of the syrian government and the opposition are expected to attend in a hotter has more from. another meeting on syria in the capital asked to know a negotiating track shaped by russia iran and turkey it has become a forum for the main power brokers in the syrian conflict who use their influence

over the warring sides to make deals the latest was a prisoner exchange between the syrian government and the opposition it's hoped that the detainees file will see progress during the talks but they haven't been as effective when tackling of the main political issues supposed to be resolved in the geneva based un led process to having so many players involved and just having one sort of side or part of the actors in that isn't enough to come to some sort of comprehensive peace deal there was an attempt to expand the asked in a format to include members of the so-called small group during a meeting in istanbul last month russia and turkey brought the leaders of france and germany to the table but there was no commitment for a second summit instead the europeans insisted a u.n. committee should start work on rewriting the syrian constitution before the end of the year.

on the. all. but russia is believed to be pushing for some kind of achievement that it can sell to the west damascus has so far refused to cooperate with the un led diplomatic efforts president vladimir putin sent his special envoy alexander to damascus reportedly to remove obstacles in the way of forming the committee for the kremlin asked in a is where breakthroughs in russian diplomacy must be made an agreement on a constitutional committee would be just that it will however need the backing of the united nations the u.n. says it must be.