especially as there are so many states, a non state actors involved. and when propaganda is often used by both sides, i've been reporting on civil strife and abuse of power, latin america for over 30 years challenging. those will rather we keep quiet, doesn't get any easier. that's why freedom of the press matters if the ability to report the news without fear of being can fill him without fear of getting shot and drive without fear of being sentenced to jane. it's free movement and rights information that those in power don't want you to know. press freedom means being able to report the facts without fear of being reprimanded by thirty's and not having to constantly worry that anything i said could be construed in any other way than what i'm reporting. press free to means having the ability to question authority without consequence. it's protected right in the united states, but it's something that even here is becoming increasingly difficult. it's knowing

that whole, the hard work that we put in here, across the world and across all network senses is getting to where it needs to be bus. taken the voice of those by the helpless, given it to those who canal for the help. ah, teller, again the headlines on al jazeera iran president, but i came to e. c has landed in the syrian capital. damascus is the 1st visit by an iranian president. since the outbreak of serious war president r e. c has said in an interview that he's ready to cooperate with syria and rebuilding the country or so jabari has more from to her on. while the reigning president is the 1st re, new president to visit damascus, since the new job went to syria in 2010, prior to the start of the war in syria and 2011 abraham bracy, clearly sending

a message not only to the international community, but mainly israel, that this is now the time that he felt that was safe for him to make the trip. and it was important to show solidarity with the serial president special outside who is managed to weather the storm in his country for over a decade. now one palestinian has been killed and 5 others injured and is really air strikes in gaza assess fire agreed upon late last night between israel and the palestinian groups appears to be holding. this comes after the death of a permanent palestinian figure who was on hunger strike and is really prison. there has been more violence since who danced capital, hard to smoke, can be seen hanging over the presidential palace on wednesday morning. the scene of intense fighting in the course of the conflict. a fire has broken out of fuel, the po and russia southern crescent, our region. the governor said a drone attack caused it's near the russian annexed crimea, region police,

the 109 people have been killed in flooding, an landslides, due to heavy rains in western rwanda. officials say many others have been injured and thousands are trapped in their homes. rescuers have been deployed to affected areas. those are the headlines on al jazeera, the news hour is at the top of the hour, but up next it's democracy may be is up next. when the taliban took control of afghanistan in august 2021, it sparked a mass exit in a special 2 part report. 11 east makes the chinese entrepreneur with the other white on out of iraq. ah. 3 ah, with,

with my does no i or cooper. he does love each other with love google over here. good worth your money. you again lost a job over the age of knowing it onto the foreman in his asia is not with the that it the will money to my but this is yet. oh, plenty of them or was it on our bill on the bill? i was good level question come late, it fairly easily back to lazy larry mcgill with of village bigelow, in k,

as in laura. hello. a with her mother. they're out of mucus. i believe you said he would let me none that will kill you. the head, you go with a 4 foot blanket book mortem gillies work, maybe if you, if you will let you look up the lipper a oh, nice with you guys with them.

morgan. feel ye good, like hulu. but you know, to put in the new year to the living. ah ah, ah, frightening, saw that in a european country in a 21st century, you have one man in power for more than 2 decades. and that's exactly what happened in russia. ah lucas shanker had a 6 year head start on total. he came to power and $94.00, put in at the end of $99.00. but he, us, which is in your home language in, but he did. yeah. that he has made me get over there. bless that on you. did he day

with some humor gretsch's skin. by the time the putin came to power, look a shank o had already essentially established for full fledged authoritarian system. invalid and began doing many of the same things with lucas shank over there already done. you know, imprisoning opponents, shutting down, independent media outlets. rigging, elections, motoring, political opponents of time. boris themself. call this the lucas, shy zation of russian. or just what's been word, some emoji mill road. she skim is bertina me. excuse me, but his indian aunt with new either azusa gillian on there. your daughter bore brothers computers comp on eurey new mead newkirk. you whom robin the human n. as in by yes, i still not even look leisure of it by at the moon. we will put your room numbers not mutual. yes. that you would so grown me cookie walk, but gives you the middle of thank you. could uncle can afford it so millennia and look at me when she stooges tupelo, 10th of omega. so t shenika,

yoko suitable door to woodson. scuse li mclaughlin spoke you was thrown, can you catch up she worth of it? but and when you, since diana, ha, no, yes. do you think you put him bookstore? i think the way he came to power and away he established his rule. he's also a textbook example of how to transform a democracy to a perfect and solid authoritarian system. didn't happen with a coup d'etat didn't happen with a in a military vanden have moved tanks on the street. it happened gradually, and happened overtime. it happened incrementally as muscle leaning. one said, he should flock the chicken feather by feather to lessen the squawking. that's exactly how could combine tomorrow at noon. an autocrat is some one who rows by non democratic means. any one who is authoritarian in style of rule.

ah, there are many countries in the world now that have been going through this process of gradual descent from democracy to autocracy. m. and then you look at the authoritarian regimes, egypt, saudi arabia, russia, some of the other former soviet states. and of course, china, most of the law and these regimes are even more authoritarian now than they were 5 or 10 years ago. on the 4th day of his motivations, president, in may of 2000 vladimir putin sent armed operatives from the tax police. and the prosecutor general service to raid the offices of russians, largest private, independent media,

hold on for new and they tried to bring in reinforcement for the encampment already surrounding the television tower. 2003. we had a parliamentary election. yeah, some difficult to win an election when your opponents are not on the bottom, but he had them when you a fellow in the next you know them. what would you okay. black when they got back to you. hm. yeah. yeah, the, the with the must bring it the gotta get back to the police. did it by the way i was, did it at them might be biting it and then we still there, but they still go through the sharon, going to sort of technical exercise as to all the pages. everyone will john lamp will know your suit opinion that that may be allowed to use the label it got don't you me boiler but i'd be in will be july. the love hour from where you stand. i see your video. they have done everything they could try to guard against to be for the security services to make mass arrests to threaten in many cases. to matter. political economy pollutant is

a very insecure political leader, and he clearly fears that if he has a serious opposition, canada who is able to speak and travel around the country and mobilize that things may get out of control in russia, which is the land of monopoly power and monopoly greed and a state that is capable of being murderous when it needs to be in the night of february 27th, 2015. barson himself. how much the most prominent opponent vladimir, who can he was why 5 bullets in the back. literally in the shadow of a cronan in moscow, the bar since i was on just a close calling his very close friend. he was someone to whom i owe everything i've

ever accomplished in my political life. it's says a lot about today's russia that this is the price of freedom that you have to pay the ultimate price. i didn't know that i was targeted into occasions both times in moscow both times through sophisticated poisonings, presumably carried out by chemical agency tool used by the security services go back to soviet times. with this method has especially proliferated on to vladimir putin both times i was in a coma on artificial life support. and doctors had told my wife that had about a 5 percent chance to live with. so many people in my generation,

in russia, it was sort of inevitable to become really politicized. this did perhaps smoke the beginning of the end. the 1st conscious political memory was the democratic revolution in august of 1991 the 3 days that ended the soviet regime. as we woke up that morning in august of 1991, tens of thousands gather did this and russian citizens mosque of heights who refused to accept dakota. when are armed with anything? ah, except their dignity and determination to defend their freedom. and they went into the streets and literally stood in front of the tanks. and then the tank stopped the soviet and turned to whitey poise. this was my 1st conscious political memory. i was chinese, although the times use yesterday roaring approval for every fresh you know,

the biggest fear of any autocrat is his or her own people. it has been like this throughout history. nothing changes in this regard. it was the moment of reflection, no foreign invasion. no. a sort of pressure from outside is as dangerous to them as when they see crowds of people on the street with on vladimir hooton's watch that the many democratic peace revolutions. but none of them so far have been as dangerous flatter mapleton as the one in ukraine with russia now is the most aggressive and the meat of democracy in the world. the strategy of kremlin used to build your russian world and did not on the ball at

the minute stop. they bought corrupt shop, it's about the culture. they want everyone to fear. mm hm. and wants to control some parts of this world for they are for they think like empire and ukraine is already a democracy. biggest russian speaking democracy. unfortunately to them, of course, for mm. in with with they will throw

a dignity in ukraine, was a moment when the ukrainians choose not to ship with will, but they can do them from all of the learning the job to look up with the advice from a person to put a more so fujen prego luke row, you got a record, you know you won't pretty all still. no one is not old news alerts, zullie warrior and he was bringing word cook or oven. you us up a j on when you stored will ellie pray grow? lou was any she pretty skis to today. we were conflicted. woodson president bra slower. ah

ah, why you crane these so important for kremlin? and it means that it's sweating, portent for the world for obese bottle for democracy. geographically ukraine. he's was actually in the middle of this conflict between the worlds between the liberal world liberal democratic and asserted that every year we become strong. but kremlin, do its best to. oh, it's resources we to faith because it's impossible to build a russian 17 year old resolve to pray coming

in to learn reinforce but 3 units of ukrainian for ukraine already enrolled in the war. and it's not only a conflict between ukraine and russia. ukraine people is not the our ally and the russian. maybe i believe that it's a war against democracy. it's not a crisis. it's her hand mate. she to be sure if we will lose it. ah, it will be a loss for all the morning. when they're a war politically with your values, principles and institutions, you either have to decide that you're going to defend them and fight back. or we

are going to be a very, very grave risk. as i sit here, russia is massing troops on the ukrainian border as i sit here, russia is mobilizing new military power in the arctic ocean and so on. china is mobilizing its military in the south china sea and bearing down on taiwan. i don't think we should see the cold war, but it is a period, a new period of normative battle over democratic values in the world in . and i think democracies of the world have to recognize this and rise to the challenge

with figuring out how to deal with the rise of china is the great challenge of the 21st century. dis gotten more authoritarian over the past decade, state champion and alternative to western democratic capitalism. that gives dictatorships like china's an incredible vulnerability should a day come when that regime is no longer able to provide economic growth. it will no longer have any reason to stay in power and the only choice it will have therefore, if it wants to stay in power, is to use increasing repression and increasing violence against its own citizens. ah

ah. so in 2014 i was the leader. we had the massive people, the some beat him, women, call it the umbrella. miss ma ah, ah, ah, ah, my people were promised democracy and told me by the chinese government we didn't believe them after the tenant masika. and under that one party they'd have to ship . and so we have hundreds of thousands of people blocking the major on a phone call showing a very strong think. know that we are demanding for democracy and the government should let them draw voice. they saw us troublemakers, or even the traders of the country getting him on

a democratic system in hong kong. so we actually suffered a lot of them at 1st that he's and attacks. i decided to run for election. i managed to win the election at the age of $23.00 and becoming the youngest elected legislative hong kong history. it shows how want to change. yeah. but at the end of the day they go from and they always can find ways to suppress you. they managed to kick me out of the counsel 9 months after i represented people in it. a month. i went to jail, call it the umbrella bisman. i felt definitely bad about it,

but i actually had a mental preparation for that. and i feel like he's actually one of the pest up in our system journey. i at the end of the day, the movement, the not so seat. but it was of very memorable page of history because a b flat, the very 1st massive disobedience movement of our time. ah, i decided to flee out of the city in order to preserve a voice. and soon enough i left the city. i found myself on the want of based off the national security law. if i were to be back to hong kong, i will immediately be arrested and be submitted to the national security court. the

charges they put on me on the metal, the penalty of it is life imprisonment. we are literally facing the most powerful author at heritage in the world. so we are actually facing david versus goliath battle. ah, if everyone wants to change the country only thought about their personal safety, then nothing in history, whatever will sort. we know the risks and we accept them because we think our country deserves so much better than, you know, being ruled in the 21st century by a collector crashing dictatorship. that you will show that the photo for

have to be up and let us what you did or not you but i didn't you know like when i was i me

me. ready i think yesterday was a nor from, nor the show in any i use natural was actually

due to the new model. so i didn't teach at the gym by blue here, but it will give for me what i gave him was a lot of my work. you know, i look at the daily but in the civil capital, you and her sure. no, to give me what was anyway, she left up there and she never get rest of the me is my little zillow. you work for your place in your mind, your pursuing a yes ma'am. i

we sure that ukrainians are ready to die for democracy. you fight or shovels? that's it. that's it. if you are not ready to fight, you will lose any weight. because the idea that these guys, poor jungle shaneka we'll go wild themself, not available. they dea, it's afraid they'll, ah, the most powerful lesson i learned in my life is that however strong a dictatorship, hoa's stronger. providing forces, however strong and half of the repression. when enough people are waiting to stand

up, what's right, they succeed. and i think even in the darkest types, in the darkest days when it seems to be most difficult and most appeal to climb, i think it's very important to remember that you know, so he dissidence i had the saying that night is dark as before the dawn and i think that is a very important fastened term. mm. pro democracy activists risking their lives fighting autocracy was me. i know that i might go to prison. good. so i will join the ron democracy may be exposed. the struggle of those who believe democracy is worth dying for we never know when an opening is going to come when a fruit vendor is going to emulate themselves and say enough is enough. my life for

democracy on al jazeera. ah frank assessment. this tricky crisis with this hopeful moment what countries could come together and stop putting in place the rules allow us to treat the global commons with the attention it deserves inside story. on al jazeera, ah ah,

hello.