mehmet simsek, welcome to hardtalk thank you.nk we have to begin with turkish military operation over its border in northern syria top it isa its border in northern syria top it is a dramatic intervention in the affairs of syria. you said when he began weeks ago that it would be very brief — it no longer looks as if it is going to be brief. first of all, we had no choice but to do these operations. it is all about securing our border, the safety and security of our people. over the course of 2017, we had experienced about 700 skirmishes or attacks originating from and around that area. clearly turkey ‘s intervention is not an intervention aimed at either syrian territory integrity or against any ethnic group. we have no quarrel with either kurds. we want a unified, stable and peaceful syria... you talked about it being brief, president erdogan indicated it would be an in and out operation but in recent days, we had another deputy prime minister, a colleague of yours, saying that if the ypg— what you call the p y d, that you call

what more do we know about them we know for instance there were two very well respected journalists mehmet. who were in this in their sixty's brothers who are respected economists and columnists in in progressive media. in turkey and they were imprisoned just after the failed coup in mid two thousand and sixteen. ironically or bitterly one of them last month mehmet out on his sentence was overturned by the constitutional court of turkey the highest court in the country overturned his. his imprisonment and said he should be released a lower court dismissed that decision by the constitutional court which is against turkish law which just underlines that there is really no real rule of law in turkey at the moment and other people among those six now face a similar fate of life in prison and they're so often charged with a similar targets we know that that these for example today were found guilty they were charged with aiding the plotters of the twenty sixth failed why those charges specifically i mean that many of these journalists who were allegedly supporters of the glenn movement the reli

last month mehmet out on his sentence was overturned by the constitutional court of turkey the highest court in the country overturned his. his imprisonment and said he should be released a lower court dismissed that decision by the constitutional court which is against turkish law which just underlines that there is really no real rule of law in turkey at the moment and other people among those six now face a similar fate of life in prison and they're so often charged with similar charges we know that that these for example today were found guilty they were charged with aiding the plotters of the twenty six failed coup why those charges specifically i mean that many of these journalists were allegedly supporters of the glenn movement the religious movement the president used to be allied with and there's now that it's in his sights as being an opposition movement in a way is the scapegoat organization within turkey that the president has been targeting he sees a connection with those things these charges of terrorism a very vaguely worded very little substance we've seen in the indict

sentence six of the journalists to life in prison without parole among them the prominent brother mehmet an homage both accused of being involved in tuckey's failed two thousand and sixteen coup attempt . and to learn more about those journalists who have been sentenced in turkey you can read our interview with him at all times sister son m. on our website just go to detail dot com. now let's turn to some of the other stories making news around the world and a pakistani man has been sentenced to death in the case of a six year old girl who was raped and left to die in a garbage dump her murder sparked violent clashes between angry protesters and police prosecutors attacker confessed to killing eight girls in total. he was president donald trump has been meeting survivors of wednesday's school shooting in florida which claimed the lives of seventeen people visited a hospital and prison medical staff for their work following the massacre the f.b.i. has come under heavy criticism for failing to properly investigate a tip off about the gunman. well meanwhile a u.s. grand jury has indicted th

among them the prominent brothers mehmet an homage both accused of being involved in turkey's failed two thousand and sixteen coup attempt . all right it's been an eventful day eight so far at the winter games and we saw history on the ice and a major shock on the ski slopes. sports joins me now to break it all down so alina let's start with that big upset in the women's super g. tell us what happened so it was definitely one of the biggest upsets in the history of the winter games so what happened as. they kept them she's a twenty two year old from the czech republic she's a two sport athlete her main sport is actually snowboarding and you see those skis those are not even sure if she had to borrow them from somebody what else and she was really seen as a threat people didn't realize how good she was and at the end because i really thought lindsey vonn would win it comes along and she just knew everybody away. and until today it's really interesting because you can even see the shock in her face she was surprised she thought it was a mistake but until today she thought that she was

among them the prominent brothers mehmet and ahmed. both accused of being involved in turkey's failed two thousand and sixteen coup attempt . well for more i'm joined now by our correspondent in istanbul yulia han and here in the studio with me is the political correspondent nina has a thank you to both of you for joining me now nina i'd like to begin with you we know that dennis you jel was flown to berlin last night and a government airplane where is he now and what do we know about his condition well the last we've seen of him since his release is that video that was published on twitter on friday evening and since then we have only heard from his employer who tweeted on twitter please refrain from trying to ask. is all we can tell you is that he's all fine and well considering that he's enjoying life and freedom all his release was apparently somewhat unexpected and it came after months of campaigning just how likely is it that there was some sort of deal made between the german government and turkey to get him out while this is of

life in prison for allegedly trying to overthrow the turkish government among them are the brothers mehmet and. there are still over one hundred journalists in turkish jails just like tens of thousands of government opponents. my releases left a bitter aftertaste i left behind a cellmate with whom i was together for the past two months he's a turkish journalist who was jailed merely for doing his job. he and many other journalists have been imprisoned for doing nothing more than practicing their profession. five germans still remain behind bars in turkey presumably for political reasons he chose that his own release won't be the end of their story. to learn more about those journalists who've been sentenced in turkey you can read our interview with ahmed alton sister saw them on our website just go to www dot com. now some of the other stories making news around the world three suicide bombers have killed at least twenty people and wounded dozens in northeastern nigeria the blast occurred at a busy fish market just outside mica dairy the capital of borno state the city is the birthplace of

sentence six other journalists to life in prison without parole among them the prominent brother mehmet an homage both accused of being involved in turkey's failed two thousand and sixteen coup attempt . and to learn more about those journalists have been sentenced in turkey you can read our interview with him at all times sister son i'm on our website just go to detail dot com. now to some of the other stories making news around the world and pope francis has renewed a commission on clergy sexual abuse the move comes as francis faces heavy criticism for his handling of scandals involving paedophile priests he named nine new members of the sixteen member commission which includes abuse survivors the commissions initial three or mandate ended in december. a pakistani man has been sentenced to death in the case of a six year old girl who was raped and left to die in a garbage dump or murders park violent clashes between angry protesters and police prosecutors said the attacker confessed to killing eight girls in total. in northeast nigeria at least twenty eight people have been killed and

sentence six other journalists to life in prison without parole among them the prominent brother mehmet and. those accused of being involved in techies failed two thousand and sixteen coup attempt. to the united states now where a grand jury has indicted thirteen russian nationals and three russian companies for allegedly meddling in the twenty sixteen u.s. presidential election the charges are part of the probe into alleged ties between donald trump's campaign and russia russia denies trying to sway the poll and president trump says his election campaign did nothing wrong. fake news is how donald trump seen here with the russian president vladimir putin in hamburg brazil was dismissed accusations that his campaign colluded with russia during the race for the white house the thirty seven page indictment sets out an alleged conspiracy by named russians hiding behind hundreds of thousands of fake online identities to smear trump's opponent hillary clinton sama said to have held political rallies in the u.s. while posing as americans. the defendants allegedly conducted what they called inf

nothing and nobody can stop us the supplies to efren as well as mehmet be into the east of the euphrates river well our friend is part of northern syria and has an extremely complex mix of alliances with several regional and international players all involved last month the u.s. led coalition announced it was intending to build a border security force in northern syria it would consist of thirty thousand mostly kurdish fighters who've been helping in the battle to get rid of eisel but that strained u.s. relations with turkey of course a key nato ally turkey launched an offensive to secure its border and clear a friend of the y.p. g. the kurdish fighters it considers to be terrorists ankara says the group's an offshoot of the p.k. k. the kurdistan workers party with which turkey has been in conflict for three decades russia controls the airspace over threaten but the head of the turkish operation it withdrew hundreds of its soldiers from near the city kurdish fighters held after in six years ago after the syrian president bashar al assad soldiers left northern syria. let's go to our guest

to get the other side of the argument now i'm joined by turkish political scientist and storing dr mehmet parents second is currently in moscow russia and welcome to going underground again we've heard their horrific allegations of turkish military using chemical weapons of killing hundreds in the african against the u.s. backed and defacto russia backed why p.g. in african what is turkey trying to achieve there yeah but. let's go problem to lest. before the military men tension they publish all is like that in the for example before iraqi war to be told that saddam has mass killing new poems and after be apologize for it but i want to underline that in the operation all of branch turkish armed forces are fighting against a terrorist organization not. senior people. and. terrorist organizations et thing bought into syria and in turkey his organization is also it's possible for a large number of terrorist acts in iraq and in iran to that's why the operation of the turkish armed forces is their contribution to peace and security in the region i think why do you think then that the trumpet m

life in prison for allegedly trying to overthrow the turkish government among them are the brothers mehmet and meant out on there are still over one hundred journalists in turkish jails just like tens of thousands of government opponents. my releases left a bitter aftertaste i left behind a cellmate with whom i was together for the past two months he's a turkish journalist who was jailed merely for doing his job. he and many other journalists have been imprisoned for doing nothing more than practicing their profession. all. five germans still remain behind bars in turkey presumably for political reasons he chose that his only release won't be the end of their story. next week rank and file social democrats here in germany will be getting their ballots for a poll that will determine germany's next government they're voting on whether to accept the coalition deal that s.p.d. leaders hammered out with conservatives we caught up with party bigwigs in how they were working to sell that deal to a skeptical base. the past few weeks have been hard for your going canal the social democrat is still

was on a collision course so if so i think here we should just just take that step as a major one mehmet say you can we thank you for speaking to us from istanbul where you can get behind the story with our reporter's notebook and this one jordan gives us the us has taken outlines why this trip to turkey by tillerson could be the most important one yet so you can head to al jazeera dot com click on more and that's where you'll find our reporter notebook over to london with jonah how with more of the international news hi donna. i during thank you south africa's new president. is due to give his first state of the nation address to parliament in cape town in just under two hours' time it comes a day after he was sworn in as the successor to jacob zuma who was forced to stand down by his own a.n.c. party on wednesday over allegations of corruption from a poser is expected to address corruption and economic issues in his speech matheson as more from so wet outside johannesburg where from opposer was born. for a lot of people cyril ramaphosa of the fifth and newest president of south africa

mehmet oz. >> good morning. >> we got up a little early for you because you thought it would be a good stats, right? >> you got to know your numbers. >> there was a recent study that linked age to heart disease. we're obviously very young. you know just for everyone else. >> this is breaking news. and it's pretty important. there's stem cells in our bone marrow, that leads to heart disease. we know people that look perfect that don't have risk factors and still have heart problems. it's not predictive always. but let's focus on the numbers that you can change. you go through the numbers, the most important one to focus on is your blood pressure. i checked your blood pressure. here's your goal. you want to keep your blood pressure 120/80 or below. >> that's the optimal. >> you're going to want to stay 140/90 which is hypertension. and the good news for both of you, because we did your studies this morning opinion you got up earlier. >> there's video proof that we took care of this. >> 120/80 for savannah. and 120/80 for hoda. >> 112/80 for savannah. and 120/80 over hoda. >> you're optim

the bottom mehmet fpd wireslted.scorched. >> i was scared. >> reporter: she's not the only one. the company saying on facebook we have received a small number of reports of the gem 65 8 in 1 multicooker overheating, resulting in localized melting damage. one customer said i have seen bubbles forming on the bottom of mine. >> it's the not something i want to have to worry about. >> reporter: the complaints only about one of instapt pot's 14 models. the gem 65,in 1 multicooker. the only one with the oval shape. instant pot telling abc news and their customers that they'll provide next step about replacements shortly. the company has not issued a recall. >> two years old. a lot of great family meels we kked in that. >> how nice is that. >> reporter: the safety of slow cookers after a popular tv show had a story line that caused a fire in the home. crock pot clarifying for nearly 50 years we have never received any consumer complaints similar to the fingsctional ones portrayed. >> i don't know if i ever want another inst

among them the prominent brother has mehmet and a comet out on but it's accused of being involved in takis failed two thousand and sixteen coup attempt. so lots to talk about on this story in the studio with me you know one of our political correspondents we also have. correspondent with us some you know yesterday's release of the news you chel something of a surprise just some remind us how events unfolded yesterday well they unfolded really quickly and even though we knew something is going to happen in this to you jill's case soon events yesterday really came as a surprise for many of us basically everything started with a tweet by mr huge as lawyer in the early afternoon here in turkey saying his client finally got his release notification so we saw that and then we rushed to solidify the prison at the outskirts of istanbul were mr usual was being held because we were hoping to see him to speak to him like many other turkish and international journalists in the end he was taken out of that jail in a car pretty much unnoticed so we were wondering what's going on what's going to ha