work of w. . this is d. w. news live from berlin the turkish air forces say they have taken control of the center all of syria's our free off to a lightning advance against kurdish militia in the city debacle has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes amid fears fighting in syria's eastern koocher as well we are asking is there an end in sight to syria's suffering.

also coming up russians go to the polls to pick a new president that he may put in is expected to easily win a fourth term in office but can he really realize voters turned off by that predictability is the context. now we'll have the latest from the bundesliga would bind fans have something to cheer about as they watch the child take on the hopes for a more open whose last could help the variances they seek to wrap up the bundesliga title this week at. the moment. i'm having a home for him by then thanks for joining me we start with some breaking news turkey's president going to ship typepad one says turkish led forces taking complete control of the center of african town in northern syria.

well he started she's said to show syrian rebels backed by turkey entering our freeness some morning they've been trying to take the town as part of a two month offensive against kurdish fighters ankara says a link to terrorists in turkey more than fifteen hundred kurdish fighters are reported to have been killed in the operation and over one hundred fifty thousand civilians have been forced to flee their homes against. the plan a lot of them were not in the. van avail combat is monitoring the situation from the kurdish city of embedded in northern iraq and that to me explain to us exactly what is happening in our free right now while the spec rebels are moved in. and they've taken control of the free local administration building all schools so it seems that the new state law to me about situation pretty severely is this what's going to have. sorry to interrupt you very

may what can we now expect to happen in a free. turkey probably going to install quaters tracing what they did also on dollar bills but the most the biggest risk is what's going to happen with all the civilians up after three because the syrian government doesn't allow them to go to a level and there are fearing repercussions for because a lot of them they supported the why do you know why did you against turkey so a lot of them they're afraid to go back to a three so where are all the people who are leaving where are they going if they do manage to get out of africa. most of them they fled yesterday through this you have to live there so for the war's oclock close to close to a free and now they're now the problem is like our other kurdish cities in. syria or they will be able to quit like the afternoon but i think most of them.

vladimir if you can hear us of course there has been shelling all of that town how indiscriminate or targeted is that shelling because an airstrike we do know hit the hospital in the city yesterday you're ok most of the foreigners no stock around war don't want to pick the civilians died in this two months with bottle yes i think one or two days ago a hospital was sort. of the strolling it was. criminal like well. but not about those was the over all right let me move on of it and thank you very much indeed. we do apologize for the quality of that line that was got him in a debate and that to russia now in voting is underway in the country's presidential

election eight candidates all in the running but president vladimir putin is expected to secure a victory and his fourth term in office putin himself has already cost his ballot in moscow none of his seven challenges is considered a serious threat opinion polls suggest that putin could win around seventy percent of the vote a russian and lection monitoring group says a growing number of workers have complained that too that their employers are pressuring them to vote. well let's bring in our correspondent in moscow now emily show in amity you all day in the heart of the capital what's voting like and what's the atmosphere like that as voting is underway. who. so i met it's mendenhall in the middle of moscow and that's where throughout the day. political scientists journalists everyone who's basically observing these

elections will be coming together to watch results as they come in and to watch the news as it comes in now what i can also tell you about the atmosphere here in moscow is that there's going to be a concert tonight near red square it was initially supposed to be celebrating bloodier putin's victory and then it was changed to being a celebrated concert for what is known here as the return of crimea to russia which is of course the illegal antics a sion of the crimean peninsula and there will be a concert there with various stars performing as well in the middle of moscow and on my way here to his vista hall i saw that there was also a large police presence in the middle of moscow perhaps the kremlin is afraid that there could be protests after all and not everyone is happy that as it seems there's only basically one choice as people have been telling me on the ballot today and people have been telling me you know what's the point of voting we know

that what you're putin is going to win anyway as you say one choice. that president putin will take a fool's money so with this almost being a foregone conclusion what is this election really about. yes absolutely put in is currently polling at around seventy percent so the main thing to watch in the main goal of the kremlin really in these elections is to show that there are who legitimate elections and they're trying to do that by really having a high turnout the goal is to have seventy percent turnout so really high turnout and they're trying to bring people to the ballots using every possible method method there were selfie contest where you can win an i phone there raffles where you can win a car and a colleague of mine who is in cousin at a polling station said that they're selling potatoes outside of a polling station really really cheap potatoes trying to lure people as many as

people as possible to the polls to show that these elections are legitimate despite the fact that bloody more putin looks very likely to win his fourth term as president very likely. he remains popular but one of the reasons for his popularity let's take a look right now. he's the incumbent he's leading in the polls and for weeks he's constantly been on t.v. since the kremlin controls all of the relevant broadcasters the daily news is little more than campaign ads he is everywhere seemingly immune from criticism so he's refused to debate his political opponents. the growing t.v. plays a huge role in showing how powerful he is how smart and wonderful the use and how much he cares about his citizens. because of the three. even people in the far east republic six time zones away are seeing the same things here horsemeat is

a delicacy available at every tiny corner store it's minus thirty celsius out so it's no problem storing it properly we ask people here if they know who putin's opponents are in the election some check or grodin it and. of course we know the candidates mass media still reaches us here but not everyone knows putin's opponents who does he think he'll vote for well then for putin. but whether he'll even go to vote he doesn't know yet why bother when no one here doubts what the results will be. the cold also helps those at the fish market but prices are falling the vendor say and people have little money. they're going to get that i have to vote for putin. he didn't because there's no alternative of course we hope for a change for the better we've been hoping for fifteen years. but i don't see any

improvement. there's little enthusiasm but few speak openly about putin like elsewhere in the country people are afraid. i don't talk about politics i'm afraid of politics i know who the candidates but i will say silent. the media portray putin as a patriotic father figure he shows off new weapons he says can penetrate western defenses strong feelings of national pride quickly overcome doubts one might have about putin's policies. and has a following like no other candidate the recent friction with the west is likely to help bring his voters home. thank god putin's head now has helped bring back a dying russia from its nice since the year two thousand and two. briefly

back over to you that m.l.a. who all the other candidates do they have even the slightest chance. it doesn't look like and if the other candidates on the ballots they have much of a chance all of putin's opponents are polling in the low single digits there are two candidates i'd say to watch two candidates that are new on the scene that's probably going to dean and he's the candidate for the communist party and he's been rather critical of the current government and he's also been given a platform on state t.v. and state he has been very critical of him perhaps they think that he could be somewhat. of a competition for putin but at the moment he's polling at around seven percent and there's also ksenia sub chuck who is the the only real let's say opposition candidate on the ballot but she's currently polling at around two percent all right

any show where the in moscow covering the russian presidential election which looks highly likely to hand me a putin eight thank you very much. now for some of the other stories making news around the walls with u.s. steel tariffs german chancellor i'm going to merkel and china's president xi jinping have said they want to tackle overproduction in wild steel markets in a phone call the to agree to seek solutions within the agreed framework of the g twenty the group of industrialized nations is set to meet on monday in argentina. in the us critics of the trumpet administration is called the firing of the f.b.i. is former deputy director a political move and you mccabe is a potential key witness in the investigation of possible election collusion between trump's campaign and russia trump supporters have praised u.s. attorney general jeff sessions for his decision to fire the cape.

to the wind as they get by and fans are watching closely as shall cut to convulse work on a saturday now a defeat for the royal blues would help the variances they seek to wrap up the bundesliga title this weekend but wins have been hard to come by for votes but this season could they finally turn that season around what happened. for those folks who are forced to be reckoned with where now i was wearing their colors now with the royal blues the defender is hungrier than ever for goals he's already scored five times this season. both spurred on the other hand are having a torrid time of it they were without a win in three games under coach bruno lava dia. his team got the first real chance of the game no maximillian arnold with this shot after ten minutes of opportunities like this were few and far between. shall kick in particular were in

no hurry to threaten the vols but goal their first chance came just before half time that's not good enough to be a champions league contender. sixty minutes in and shank who were beginning to get their act together rather bolo got as close as you can get without scoring five only some super goalkeeping from countries stales kept the ball out of. those big responded after some desperate play in the books the referee pointed to the spots available in the replay clearly showing the tie in a stance which taking down recently visited the appeal for hard took the shot stopped by rather than on it was the third penalty he said this season shall be made another push in the dying moments of the game the ball speed defense was caught napping and bowler with the cross and the ball touched in a close range by agony for robbing konopka he turned the ball into his own net by chelsea with their fifth win in

a row they keep their champions league hopes alive and tonight by in munich the chance of an early point is league title even more cause for celebration. you're watching t w knees from berlin more coming up at the top of the out at the gate you can always get the latest news and information around the clock on our website at state of a dot com i have been out for the imbalance thanks for watching and forward to seeing you again so. state by state. the most colorful. the liveliest. the most traditional. find it all at any time. check in with a website. take a tour of germany state by state. on t.w. dot com.