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for moscow controlled regions of ukraine are voting to decide whether to join the russia. the west is calling it an illegal land grab ah, the nor bothersome. this is al jazeera life, and doha also coming up at least to 60 people, are dead off to their boat sinks off the coast of syria. we are in lebanon near with a vessel went down the u. k. unveils it, planned to kick start its economy, but critics say it will do little to ease the high cost of living. we need a massive over, we know massive upgrades in infrastructure. picking up the pieces in puerto rico after hurricane fiona leaves a trail of destruction. thousands are still in the dark moscow controlled regions in eastern southern ukraine of voting and whether to become part

of russia. the referendums are taking place in the hands de yeske zap alicia, and how song that's about 15 percent of ukraine's territory keven it's western allies to say the votes, a sham and an unlawful land grab it comes as ukrainian forces continue to recapture swath of territory in a major counter defensive of a more on today's referendum. let's speak to calder abdul hamid. she's joining us live from blue cross in ukraine and give us some background to this. what's going on? why is the referendum being held well, people are being asked whether they want to join the russian federation. busy or not, now, this has been long time in the coming the ground for all of this has been set back in 2014, when the pro ration separate is antoniette. and logan's regency 1st started making their demands at the time they had proclaimed these 2 repub legs. they said they

were independent from ukraine, but no one had recognized them for a year as not until 2 days before this war started. busy so on february 22nd, when president vladimir putin made an official recognition of those 2 places. but the demand had always been to join the russian federation. and actually russia has been distributing russian passports not only in the nets and against in the areas under separate his control, but also recently in, for example, that bridger russia hold the but about half of that region in the have sun region in the south of the country so that this has been well prepared in and for a long time the one issue you have there is that not all of the original residents of those regions are still there to actually vote for the vast majority of people living in den, yes, in the gans had already left 8 years ago,

more left when the war started either towards ukraine or jo, words, russia. so you have the issue about who exactly is voting and how can that be legitimate, considering that the original residents are not in those areas. at this point, i know you've been talking to a few of the people who are remaining in those areas. how are people feeling about this vote? i talked to people who actually left those areas of the mo, many of them reaches that body gender, ukrainian control side. that would be their 1st stop. to then move further west were or towards western ukraine, or even bolen. and now they were saying yes, there is a bite of the population in those areas that do support or russia, they would say mostly the elderly. and that is something that have actually witness

myself, for example, in the, in the, in the land in places that do ukrainians have recently retake and cities like bella clear and is you, you had people there who were supporting russia who died. no problem living during the rational division, they said they had food, bad water, they had electricity so that things were not too bad as long as you then get involved with the rush as there is that mentality still, but this seems to be a bit of a generational divide there, there, i've heard very few young people actually showing support to the russian occupation. and now we spoke to some of those people who had just come out a day before this referendum is said to take place. and this is our report escaping russian occupation leave for it becomes nearly impossible that lana and her daughter carina just arrived from the from sun regions of hours before

a referendum, organized by russia is due, should take place after the dentist present april saint if seem decent about 70 percent of people are jobless. we were 5 months without any mobile connection. the feed is coming from crimea and we have to pan roubles. they have been telling us that our home town is parts of russia and it was liberated from ukraine. karina's husband had to stay behind because men of fighting age aren't allowed to leave. that's why it took like c and his family for days to travel from no hands to the ukrainian control. part of that put a job. despite the permit issued by the separatists. his wife gulard tells me she was worried. he would be mobilized with nibble's brochures. alexey says russia referendum is a sham, and now is the time to choose sides. as soon as you go through blue, there are people who are going to vote. there are people who really believe a flu,

hence, joins russia. life will become better and they will be happier. i'm surprised because most of them work for ukrainian companies and they owned a good living. now they have nothing but the supporting russia. people still living in jeopardy jack had a son and a dumbass will be asked if they want to join russia. russia doesn't fully control any of the 4 regions with this. so called referendum is taking place in the areas under ukrainian control. come on the regular attack, day and night. this is the latest one in the heart of the city. one of the several that rocked the procedure early morning. the target was a hotel, said to host this place people on their way further west people like tanya and julia who made the journey together for milly toppled. it's painful. her parents stayed back home. part of an older generation nostalgic about the soviet union. eula shows as

a video where she was taunted by collaborators and russian soldiers forced to praise the russian motherland and sing the national anthem. who would you give me looking at? if i kept my children at home at school, there was too much pressure on them. they would get punished if they spoke ukrainian. i'm afraid i won't be able to return home after the referendum. there will be special permits for people to get in and out of there. no one had doubts. the outcome of the referendum devote has already been discarded by ukraine and its allies, that russia will use it to stretch its borders closer to western ukraine. went up that honey elder, 0 zepplin jeff code walker's the former you a special representative for ukraine negotiations. he says the outcome of the referendum won't change ukraine's determination to reclaim it. more territory. this is all a sham. it's all a charade. being orchestrated by couldn't to have a referendum. everyone knows this fake to then say that they become part of russia

. whichever one knows or not. so i don't think this has any impact on the ground whatsoever, and won't change. ukraine's determination to recover capture territories, nor will change the determination in the west to try to help you claim, defend itself against this version, aggression. if russia wanted to use nuclear weapons, they could use them today, and they're not doing it because they know it would be a bad idea. and so, even if they claim that these territories are now part of russian territory and doesn't change the basic calculation, that using nuclear weapons will mean the destruction of the russian military and possibly the russian state. and they don't want to reset. he's lost so many forces already. you know, the estimates are anywhere from 224-0000 casualties. ukraine's claim 55000 caching or depths, but i think there may be high, even suppose it's 40000, multiply times 3 to get the number wounded. you're talking about

a substantial piece of rushes. conventional military forces that have been destroyed in ukraine equipment along with the personnel has also been destroyed. so what goodness doing is you're going to the general population getting retired military people, people who are older, out of shape, not trained, saying come back into the military. this is not going to add a substantial capacity for rushes, military forces. it's a matter of desperation because he has lost so much already. and he's 60 people and 9 known to have died out of the boat, capsized off the coast of syria city in authority, say 20 people have been rescued. the boat had left from lebanon. it is, it called us in rita and northern lebanon, near the boat sank. that boat capsized late yesterday off the coast of the syrian city of talk to us, which is not really far from where we are standing, some 50,

a minute drive. this is not the 1st incident of its kind, but it is the most deadly incident. in april, a boat capsized 6 kilometers. 6 off the coast of lebanon after today, 30 people remain bissett missing. at 10 bodies were found trapped in the boat, which is about 450 meters below sea level. so, despite these incidents, these tragic incidents, people continue to attempt to make the journey to europe, northern lebanon, the coast of northern lebanon, is now a gateway, not just for syrian refugees and palestinian refugees, who are the ones who were making this journey in the past. it is now lebanese lebanese have joined this exodus because of the worsening economic conditions in the country. among the dead women and children is that the bodies of a mother with her 4 children have already a right to live and on, and they were buried early. this morning, so another tragedy,

we still know how many people are missing because there are conflicting numbers on how many people were on that boat. some say 80 other survivors say more than 100 aaron's arm is wanting. it's going to confront what he calls enemies as protest continue against the death of a 22 year old woman in police custody motto, harmony died last week after being arrested by the so called morality police for allegedly violating the countries headscarf policy. president abraham ice is called the demonstrations of chaos or unsaid t v. 's reporting that at least 26 people have been killed during the unrest stuck in a study in missouri, ham, go to their house. they have always been protests and we hear their demands. but there is a difference between riots and protest. her nobody accepts riots. why did they ever demonstration against policy or anything else in a random we have freedom of speech, can we see it on different levels? but there are differences of opinion. that's not a problem at all,

but when there is a riot, it's different than a protest. i mean is that? oh, so it was commenting at a media conference in new york. oh my gosh. i all was there for quite a while for the rain. presidents are just one of the main concerns or issues with regards to run country and that is the nation wide protests that have been spreading across the country over the past couple of days following the killing or the death of that young running girl, or allegedly at the hands of the morality police there, as the president says, he said that it was still not clear as far as the investigations was going on, whether she did die at the hands of both morality. he did, however, say that he contacted her family. he said that there was a right for iranians to protest. differentiates between what he described as peaceful protest vandalism. however, he fell short of talking about what type of accountability would happen. he said that there was a need for the traditional process to take it. you course before anything could

happen that aside, the other main issue of discussion or draft by the reading president was the nuclear deal, the j. c. p. o, and any hope that it could be revived. the firm on that run spawns with regard to guarantees needed from any new deal that the united states would not renee on its commitments, as he says it's had done in the previous deals. it's, there was no discussion, however, or address about the situation in syria accountability for obviously the war time is committed there by around to ally the regime or other topics. there still had an old is it on hundreds of or he is a trapped a no man's land after bangladesh seals. it's border with me in march and we are in a u. s. aircraft carrier ahead of joint military drills with south korea. it's a show of strength against north korea.

ah. by the next few days will be picky weather, i think in the northern philippines. so luzon, because that class has developed into a circulation. and also in vietnam, both north and south in laos, cambodia, thailand. and be in bo, this is effectively seasonal rain with perturbations. it, it, south of that is an increase. now, you might expect in the shower likelihood the thunderstorm likelihood with the flashlight potential in borneo in sumatra. maybe in java, little the less to the east of that, that australia we've had flooding on the ground. something ridiculous like a 100 millimeters in one hour. and the wet is place. just south west of brisbin threaded in 179 hours. that flood risk goes south with the rain during saturday

into new south wales, just catching up with victoria west about next frontal system on its way through west australia. so pers left with 18 degrees and be the children. the breeze, not much in the way of pat or rain, and that's the front on his way to adelaide for later on sundays, the sun comes out. for sidney. in new zealand, the picture has been a very wet one in north ireland recently. there are no warnings of any significant weather. maybe some big thunderstorms in nor fallen, but principally the we can season increasingly warming trend ah, in australia indigenous with missing that disproportionately high weights. 11 east investigate is enough being done to help find missing appalachian only on al jazeera ah

al jazeera. when ever you oh, oh oh, you want to watch 0 reminder of our top stories this are for moscow controlled regions and eastern and southern ukraine are voting on whether to become part of russia. the referendums are taking place in the hans done yet. cuz alisha and household grains dismissed the votes. as a shop, a margaret boat capsized off the coast of syria killing at least 60 people, syrian authority say 20 people have been rescued. the boats had left from lebanon. iran's armies warning it's going to confront what it calls enemies as protest

continue after the death of a 22 year old women and police cost to be there on state t. v. 's reporting that at least 26 people have been killed during the unrest. the british government unveiling a huge package of economic measures meant to stimulate growth from ease the cost of living. the budget includes measures to designed to tackle rising energy prices, finance minister, and also said the energy plan is expected to reduce inflation by 5 percent lowering the cost of living. nelson and tax cuts and reforms aimed at boosting economic growth on johnny, me and i from westminster is harry faucet hurry before at this announcement came, we knew it was going to be tax cuts and spending. what other details do we have? well we know now that it is a very major departure in terms of economic and fiscal policy by this new government, which has just come into being through a small electoral process of conservative party members. really ripping up

a lot of what had gone before and are putting all of this faith in what they believe will be the result, which is a major stimulus to economic growth. and their target is from the current negative growth, 0 point one percent. they want to see that get up to 2.5 percent a year, which will start to pay back to the vast amounts of borrowing required to do what they are doing now. and to spell out exactly what some of those policies are a quasi quite telling the chance of the exchequer. the finance minister in the u. k . r made pretty significant tax announcements reversing the rise of national insurance contributions, which went into force earlier this year. freezing corporation tax at 19 percent that was due to go up to 25 percent a year are bringing forward the plan reduction in the basic rate of income tax that everybody pays or least that over certain threshold of earnings pays that is going down from 20 to 19 percent per year and abolishing the very highest additional tax

rate of 45 percent for those earning over $150000.00 pounds a year. that's about a $168000.00 us dollars a year. so a big boost there for the very richest income brackets. and we did hear from ms. trust, the prime minister during her leadership campaign that she was less worried about redistributing wealth more worried about trying to increase economic activity and the size of the economy. something that she and the chancellor say will benefit everybody, but this is a big play being made. it's pretty radical stuff on a lot of france and the labor party opposition. b shadow chancellor. rachel reeves got up and late in 2 quasi caught saying, saying that this was essentially a menu without a price. it was a last ditch roll the dice by a government that she blamed for the so low levels of economic growth that we've seen over the last 12 years. so a major political debate already underway. overall this and

a big economic question mark, hang over it. yeah, a lot of the critics have been suggesting that essentially this is just something that is going to benefit to the rich and, and corporations. it is a big change, isn't it from the way that the economy has been run, certainly over the last few years. yes it is, i mean a lot of friends, one of the, one of the criticisms that the shadow chancellor made was that that he was only reducing a national shorts back to what it was in march and not increasing corporation tax from what it, what it is now, so she questioned some of the radical nature of this, but on a lot about the france, it is a big shift in emphasis towards the sort of small estate free market ideology that both the chancellor and the prime minister share. so they're a big questions fiscally, in terms of the government finances at a time when a borrowing money is becoming ever more expensive. they've already spent for the next 6 months, some 60000000000. they estimate on trying to pounds. that is on trying to help with

energy bills, which have been skyrocketing in recent months as well as that there is all this extra boring required for these tax giveaways. so how will that work? economically, the bank of england is trying to reduce inflation, which is at its highest level since the early 19 eighties. they're worried that this kind of stimulus could have the opposite effect. so a tug of war. so the economic orthodoxy, which the government is self avowedly going against some of that orthodoxy as fighting back one former policy chief of the bank of england is saying that there could be a run on the pound that it could end in tears in a way that we saw in the mid 1970, so very big stakes being played for right now. harry, thank you very much. indeed. harry faucet in westminster. un secretary general until you'll tell us, has requested an urgent report into the allegations of abuse carried out by aid workers at a un run camp in self sudan and investigation by al jazeera and a non profit news agency. the new humanitarian as exposed years of widespread

sexual abuse and account for displaced people in markle. allegations 1st emerged in 2015 but no action was taken despite a un led task force charged with dealing with it. aid workers are accused of raping and sexual abusing minors as well as pressuring women and girls to have sex in exchange for gifts or joshua crazes, an independent research on south to down. and he explains the delay by the un to investigate cases of sexual abuse. the basic problem is that if you look through all of these task force set up to prevent sexual exploitation, since it was begun in south dawn, is what they do is they provide sensitization training. they provide hotlines, but the topic for structurally from mandate from new york does not do investigations. investigations are left to the individual. and you and agencies who staff members are accused of sexual exploitation. and the problem is they look back

at upstanding office. i'm a huge 6 expectations scandal and it's funding was affectively by half. so, but none of these organizations is actually materially in that interest to really do investigation. so what happens is things that come up and all of the measures that have been announced by the un thus far have largely been reactive measures. so then measures about making sure that everyone has training. the problem is there is no proactive investigative capacity within the task force. all within these organization is just give you an offense. what they do is that they investigate the claims made to them beer a series of mechanisms that report allegation, claim report sexual exploitation allegations. however, many people get them coming forwards. many people are worried that will impact on stock family members who have jobs with these injures. many people are worried that they cases will be dismissed by bodies that are linked to the community. actually want to come access or endanger access from the injures. more than 1000000 people

still don't have an activity in puerto rico following how can feel now the storm hit on sunday, causing an island wide black out more than 3000000 people are affected by awful reports from san juan. on the outskirts of puerto rico's capital son, one victor serrano, an electrician is helping his neighbor repair power generator cables. in the wake of hurricane fiona, i'd helped any one of my neighbors were all yet to help each other. with a generator cables repaired, luis, albert is hopes to power a few appliances in his home. after 5 days without electricity, success, the lights are back gone. at least until the petro powering leases generator runs out your window. many people i feel, i look at my situation. i think about people who don't have the economic and how do they get by without electricity and running water? those on the island fortunate enough to have generators are managing through the

persisting blackout but for low income residence lakes mandel. and he said, well, no electricity has met, spoil, food and sleepless nights. and i get really loud. i think i'll go there right now was coming is a heat wave temperature a 40 degrees and we're already filling it. many hearsay power outages have been a problem for years. blaming and antiquated powered rich and poor management by luma. the islands power management company. what able to settle in energy sector? whistleblower says fiona, dealt a death blow to an already crumbling electricity infrastructure. i think we need a massive overall we know massive of greats in infrastructure in the streets. but we also need a massive overhaul in our power generation. the u. s. government has promised to increase aid and assistance to puerto rico in the wake of fione. though many seem

skeptical, the help will be enough. in the islands commercial centers, it's clear that lack of electricity is having a damaging impact on the local economy. as night balls oversight won the sounds of power generators echoed through the streets, and the question on everyone's mind is how much longer will it be before power is fully restored on the island and read up a little al jazeera son, juan puerto rico authorities in bangladesh. say straight ammunition from fighting in me and mar is landing on its territory. at least one person's been killed and several have been injured. people are being caught in the crossfire between the military in miramar and fight, as opposed to the santa target charging reports in the border between bangladesh and milan. in turns fighting on the other side of the butter is billing over into bangladesh. 22 year old knobby, whose son fled to no man's land with his family 5 years ago. but mortar shells from me and mar, have still found him. that that of alaska anti sat at the booth hanging out near

disconnected when a mortal shell fell about 50 meters away from us, killing one of my friends and injuring 5 of us duty. esha donovan distributed it since august at least 12 mortar shells fired from man mark have landed in bangladesh, a territory that security has been tightened in the border areas. this is tim rose se bangladesh. even while we were filming mortar shells exploded on the other side, close to us. fighting between the rock kind bud, this rebel and me, and my military continue near the bangladesh butter, causing panic in the communities and increasing fear among the rowing. i was living in the no man's land, the escalating tensions have driven morrow hunger into bangladesh, abu crossed over recently with full family members. we have not identified him at his request that brought a better thought of the land. we live, to whom village,

because of the intense fighting between the rock and rebels and the min mom millage . the military told us this is not a country. he should leave that they started a techno village with helicopters in heavy weapons buying. others kindly offers refuge to nearly 1100000 ro hanger and the government said it will not allow any more to enter bangladesh. ah, ah knight to sin bangladesh as a responsible and peaceful country you have seen, we have been tackling all these issues with much patience for quite some time. now . we told them to resolve their internal crisis, that there are no more casualties and bloodshed on our side on here. the un security council is considering a resolution demanding an, an to all violence in myanmar. but bangladesh is not optimistic about it as an initiative previously failed to pressure me and mark to change its policies. sandwich audrey al jazeera tom, route me and mar bangladesh border. the us nuclear pod aircraft carrier. the ronald reagan has arrived in south korea ahead of

a joint military exercise the hot i see the drills as a show of force, but north korea has long seen the drills as rehearsals for war. robert brides aboard the aircraft carrier in the coming days, the u. s, right group led by this nimitz class carrier will be conducting joint drills with south korean counterparts with the stated goal of showing their resolve in the face of renewed threats from north korea. the last time this kerio was here was 5 years ago. again, at a time of height intentions, which followed a series of missile launches and even a nuclear test by north korea. in the years, in between these exercises have very much been scaled back as a way of trying to allow this phase of summit diplomacy to work, to get the north koreans to give up their nuclear weapons. that hasn't happened and with p o young. now announcing that it has arrived as a nuclear power and it's up to the world to deal with that fact.