where and for your. education is struggling to keep pace often failing to prepare children for today's world. at some schools the changing the rules our kids. and how. with the results. even. if it goes our. rebel education early learning mexico at this time on al-jazeera. down to business after a landslide election victory but he's getting a frosty welcome from brussels of the u.k. nerve agent attack continues to raise tensions.

i'm seated on this is al jazeera live from london also coming up next it break through the e.u. and the u.k. which a deal on a transition face but still no solutions for oil and. reports that some people who are fleeing what's left of the rebel enclave. are going missing and a war of words iran hits back at saudi arabia's claim it's destabilizing the middle east. first to russia where president vladimir putin has already started to lay out what he plans to do with his next six years in office britain has been receiving calls from leaders all over the world congratulating him on his landslide election victory one that will make him the longest serving ruler of russia since joseph stalin but there is unease among some in particular a european league. we'll be live in moscow in

a moment but first this report from rome which allan's. i with russians around the world looking at six more years of bloody may putin the question what next as an obvious answer but with his constitutional limits of two consecutive terms reached in twenty twenty four there are plenty of people wanting to know if that will be good for putinism perhaps these journalists are so he might return in twenty thirty it's going to do what you say is quite funny name let's count you think i'll sit here until i'm one hundred you know no and when questioned about any constitutional changes he had this reply but there you go to you at the moment i have no plans to carry out any constitutional reforms as far as the head of the government is concerned and the government as a whole i've said that i'm of course thinking about it but i'll start thinking about it substantially from today. putin comes out of these elections with the highest percentage of the votes in his rule so far several instances of fraud were

caught on camera harmless looking old ladies voting twice or stuffing reams of papers into boxes but the central election committee has judged that there's no reason to question the result was that having you in general to compare it with two thousand and twelve well we have a look at the so-called violation map there are at least two times fewer violations even if we count the reports of possible violations in recently an excretion mirror which featured so centrally in the kremlin's electoral fear to prove putin sentiment is strong ninety two percent of people who voted in crimea voted for putin he's seen here particularly in this naval city of sevastopol as the man who saved crimea and the russian black sea fleet from falling into the clutches of ukraine's western leaning governments only the minority population of muslim tarts ours is a significant voice of opposition but. really some russians are unhappy about

political stagnation. you can there will be no developments we will spoil relations with the whole world will hold a dirty world and that will be it this voter in your totenberg also depressed by the lack of change was asked why he voted for putin anyway i don't know don't get worse. it's a measure of russia's aversions of the turmoil that's engulfed it so often in the past and it's a sentiment hootin has long taken for the advantage of voting for him is voting for stability even if for most russians life is unlikely to get any better. out as iraq crimea let's go live to moscow is standing by for now as does putin on the election trail sanden a different they reelected. well yes he really does and he said on sunday night after he won to the crowds in the square over there that he

wanted it was like a big team and he wanted to reach out to his political opponents and the candidates whom he beat and he wanted everybody to be working together and and today he sat with all those candidates and made a series of very very conciliatory observations about things to do with russia's relations with the outside world he didn't want have an arms race and they might reduce the number of weapons they have and they wanted normalization them better relations with other countries as long as those other countries respect russia and clearly it's true as you know not report that russia's got the world cup coming and they want to present a friendly face to the outside world but it is in stark contrast to for example a state of the union address a few weeks ago in which he chose to unveil a whole new raft of very very expensive and powerful weapons which looked like the start of a new arms race so really the opposite but i think the point sees it depends if you think his remarks today. the outside world or aimed at russian consumption

because the entire basis of the of the putin argument is look we're under threat in russia we're trying to be nice but all these other countries are out to get us he can present himself the day after victory to the russian electorate as this nice guy a very conciliatory trying to make friends and build bridges with the outside world but at the same time you have all these european countries saying we don't to be friends anymore backer on the french president on the phone saying would you stop bombing and stop bombing syria and it and it lends to this idea to the russian electorate that the same thing really that we're ok we're trying to be friends with everybody but we're just constantly constantly under attack from the outside world that seems to be the sort of thesis and the premise of what he's getting at in these remarks have you been getting. phone calls from the other european leaders have they been congratulating him on his election. what's what's happening is that this is

a very important week coming directly after the election because today in brussels monday there was a meeting of foreign ministers and that the way they work in european diplomacy is that they set their stall out these foreign ministers meeting because on thursday on friday there's a full european leaders with european council meeting now that meeting was supposed to be primarily about sorting out bricks it's dealing with poland where there's problems with the rule of law in hungary and this sort of thing as well but i think the issue with those with a spy poisoning and relations with russia is not going to be front and center of european politics throughout the whole of this week and what happened during the election in recent days and before the election was you have been the russian government saying look we haven't got the nerve agents in russia but countries like sweden and slovakia in the czech republic do and suddenly you are sweden and the slovaks saying hang on don't bring us into this is nothing to do with us symbol similarly you've got the german defense minister today saying russia is no longer a partner and i think that sort of thing particularly from the germans is going to be a big problem potentially for russia because while routinely politicians here say about

the u.k. where the spy poisoning happens look it's a puny country it's in significant how dare you talk to us like this we're russia and your tiny country they are much more worried about the german points of view is by far the most powerful country in europe is on the cusp of a big new gas deal to import russian gas and if germany suddenly says we don't like you anymore in the states it's gone too far that could be a bigger problem i think in the longer term for the russians in the kremlin. see their life rest from moscow. there's been a major step forward in talks between the united kingdom the european union over breaks it the two sides have agreed the terms of a two year transition phase just a year before britain is due to withdraw is designed to reduce any sudden shock

some person's departure will give the u.k. the freedom to negotiate and find trade deals with the rest of the world immediately but there's still no agreement on the question of the irish border with the u.k. resistant to europe's back up plans of keeping northern ireland in the customs union so you go as move. much goodwill between the u.k. brics secretary david davis and the chief brics of negotiator miss shell bonnie a lot being made about the fact the progress that has been made that means coming to the agreement on those two main issues there one which would include the rights for european union citizens to be able to have enjoyed the same rights as e.u. citizens already living in the u.k. if they are to enter the country during the transition period this was something that had been resisted initially by the prime minister to reason may she had thought about saying that they should perhaps have different residency rights considering that they would enter the country knowing that the u.k.

would eventually be leaving the european union but certainly on the on that point that this is a point that michel barnier was eager to play up in terms of the progress that is being made after all hard work that both sides and put in their mutual read of us really this makes it possible today to reassure the four and a half million people british and european who are affected and concerned by breaks that those are the people who have been our priority from day one the priority of the european parliament the priority of the member state the other issue of course the u.k. is also able to. pursue and negotiate third country deals but it will not be able to implement any of them until the end of the transition period which is the end of december twenty twenty the first day breaks that obviously being the first journey twenty twenty one but the other issue which is a sticking point here is still regarding the situation of northern ireland. is being put into place a backstop deal which would mean that if in the event that the u.k.

would crash out without a deal then northern ireland would be protected in that would still be included as in the single market and the customs union to prevent any fracture or any issue between the border with the republic of ireland lot of work having been put in there of course not forgetting the good friday deal which has been made so much of everything is trying to be placed into a position where tension along that border will be preserved as little as possible during the bracks legacy ations reports are emerging that syrian government forces have arrested hundreds of people as they fled the eastern ghouta over the last few days the syrian government backed by russia launched an offensive to retake the rebel held area near damascus over a month ago since then more than a fountain people have been killed and tens of thousands more have fled they know how the reports instruments vary on the number of civilians who have crossed into

government controlled territory because of military operations in eastern huta but it's believed to be in the tens of thousands many people found themselves back under government rule as frontlines quickly changed the pro syrian government camp is calling this a victory a liberation but human rights organizations are expressing concern following as of yet unverified reports of people going missing or arrested. no one it's fair minded about the violations that we have seen in places of detention by government forces from torture ill treatment sexual violence and even executions in order to ensure the security of these people that are fleeing from the center. we do need to have independent monitors on the ground thousands remain trapped inside an ever shrinking rebel enclave many of them are wanted by the state because they were involved in opposition activities medics civil defense volunteers are particularly vulnerable so are media activists who the government accuses of being terrorists

a reporter working for the syrian opposition orient t.v. is missing the organization says he is being held along with members of his family by the government it is demanding his release activists and journalists are demanding. the. international. leading through state quarters on the president of the un and other international communities what is. the pro-government alliance has recaptured approximately eighty percent of the enclave eastern huta is now divided into three pockets in the north the largest town duma is surrounded it's the same case in nearby harasta and both are split off from the rest of the area the rebels still control some towns in the southern edge. each rebel faction controls different pockets of how to share controls harasta controls the north and five man controls

the southern towns there's three rebel factions are involved in separate negotiations with the russian military they are insisting that the negotiations do not involve an evacuation of civilians and rebels but it is clear that anything short of a surrender will be a nonstarter for the pro-government alliance the situation on the ground is an indication that talks are not going well the pro-government alliance resumed its offensive from the air and on the ground after a brief lull piling more pressure on the opposition since the military campaign began just over a month ago the russian military and the syrian government have made clear that agreeing to leave to go to other rebel held areas is the only option the opposition has if the military assault is to end senator beirut so to come on the program a stark warning from the u.n. as it reveals humanitarian needs have doubled over the last year in the democratic

republic of congo last. i mohammad followed by the shores of lake chad coming up i'll tell you why this source of fresh water for millions of people in the region. hello there we haven't quite seen the last of winter over parts of southeastern china for some of us that we've seen more in the way of snow in fact for the sichuan province we've seen a lot of heavy snow beautiful but it does make things well that disco if you're trying to get about that weather is all working its way now towards the east here it is on the satellite picture working its way eastwards bringing yet more wet weather with it a lot of heavy rain and not too much in the way of snow on tuesday is still clinging on to the eastern parts and the temperatures a dropping as that front goes through says shanghai twelve degrees is the maximum

on cheese day by wednesday we're just getting to nine degrees and it will feel quite fresh thanks to the wind working down from the north for us in hong kong also pushes on too bad at the moment actually holding on to around to twenty four degrees i'm cool with the west and across many parts of india there's plenty of fine dry weather to be found there are a few showers just lingering around in the foss out those should clear away though so by the time we get to choose day there's more in the way of dry weather here there is more cloud over parts of pakistan that's bringing us a few outbreaks of rain trying to work its way towards the east and will bring us more in the way of snow over the higher ground for the south for say new delhi is pretty hot now thirty four. on counting the cost are russians getting all they bargain for economically as lemay putin heads for reelection saudi aramco keeps the financial world guessing

but the globe's largest i.p.o. on ice will be asking what's behind the delay counting the cost and i just you. tell me the. last. welcome back reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera russian president vladimir putin has said his vision for his next six years in office after winning the presidential election by a landslide he says russia has no desire for an arms race and will do anything it counter resolve its differences with other countries there's been

a major breakthrough in talks between the e.u. and u.k. with the two sides agreeing to the terms of the two year transition period after britain leaves the block and there are reports that syrian government forces have arrested hundreds of people who've been trying to flee the enclave of eastern ghouta over the past few days. they donated nations humanitarian chief has given i sobering briefing to the un security council about the situation in the democratic republic of congo he says that humanitarian needs have doubled over the last year in the country with millions and need of food and other humanitarian aid on my job mike hanna joins us now live from the u.n. mike just give us a little sense as to why in this meeting of the security council was called in the first place. well essentially they want to bring attention to the crisis in the d c a crisis that involves many layers there's been ongoing conflict in regions of that

country with militant groups operating there's been a ongoing political crisis with the president joseph kabila overstaying his constitutional term new elections are due in december but there's been great political opposition in recent months and a report just released on this day indicates that there's been massive political violence as well with some forty people being killed in the past year in demonstration related violence but this is what the u.n. representative for the region to see humanitarian needs caused by internal conflict have doubled over the last year thirteen million people need humanitarian assistance more than four point six million children are acutely malnourished including two point two million suffering severe acute malnutrition we're seeing mushroom in epidemics including the worst outbreak of cholera in fifteen years

there's also an epidemic of sexual violence most of it unreported and unaddressed and much of there against children so i wonder if the background to all of this one of the reason for this being at such a crisis point. well as i mentioned there's been layers of reasons there's the ongoing political uncertainty with a president who's overstayed his constitutional term in office there's been ongoing conflict particularly in the north of the country where there are rebel groups still operating there are also militant groups associated with various warlords in the particular region as a result of all of this you have a massive amount of internally displaced people you have large amounts of people crossing over the border into uganda and you have together with all of this the outbreak of disease the worst cholera epidemic in fifteen years so there's layer upon layer of issue that is being faced by the people in the d.r.

see humanitarian political security all linked together creating this crisis at present and the real factor why we're seeing this meeting now and why there is a donor's conference shuttled for the thirteenth of next months is that to date only four percent of the funds needed for two thousand and eighteen have been gathered by the united nations in aid they need to raise more money to begin to address this ongoing crisis thank you mike hanna there on the desperate crisis going on the day our sea life from the united nations. the pressure is mounting on facebook in the u.s. over allegations that the data fifty million of its users was harvested by the consultancy firm cambridge analytic a whistleblower who worked out the political consultancy firm alleges the data was used to build a system that may have influenced voters in the u.s. presidential election cambridge analytical work for president donald trump's campaign and on the u.k.

rex that referendum republican and democratic senators are calling for facebook c.e.o. mark zuckerberg to testify before congress. saudi arabia's crown prince has instigated a war of words after accusing iran of trying to destabilize the middle east mohammed bin salman may become months in an interview on u.s. television ahead of his meeting with donald trump in washington on tuesday in response iran has called the crown prince delusional and naive zain bus ravi has more from tehran. the heir to saudi arabia's throne began his tour of the united states by pointing a finger at his country's arch rivals even though saudi arabia has played a major role in regional conflicts both past and present been summoned blamed iran for instability in the middle east iran and. unfortunately iran is playing a harmful role in the iranian regime is based on pure ideology. many of the al

qaeda operatives are protected in iran and it refuses to surrender them to justice and continue to refuse to extradite them to the united states and this includes the son of some of the new leader of al qaeda he lives in iran and works out of iran and he's supported by iran. and despite the fact that saudi air strikes have killed thousands of people in yemen been solomon said iran is responsible for the ongoing conflict that led to the jihad on the of. the iranian ideology penetrated some parts of yemen during that time this militia was conducting military maneuvers right next to our borders and positioning missiles at our borders do you know. observers say the crown prince is exaggerating iran's role to justify the saudi actions which. we do. not private lot and also in order for the action to rise to.

in order to. yeah he tried to. influence. in yemen her me this before and was a career diplomat he said comparing iran's supreme leader to adolf hitler and minimizing the military strength of iran's armed forces are signs of been so months in experience with. newcomers. to show. here's a strong one on sunday iran's foreign minister signaled that been so mons comments were part of an ongoing campaign to keep iran from reestablishing itself in the international community we have made extensive efforts for normalizing relations and creating a suitable climate for talks with saudi arabia but unfortunately continuation of saudi arabia's illusions in the wake of the twenty fifteen iran nuclear deal shows that the country lacks adequate preparedness for talks with iran to reach an

understanding iran and saudi arabia are on opposite sides of every major conflict in the middle east and recent comments by leaders from both countries would seem to show that a meeting of minds is unlikely to happen anytime soon the same bus ravi old zero to one. three people have been killed in afghanistan and eight more are in hospital after a bomb attack outside of a political rally in the eastern city of jalalabad and a motorbike bomb exploded as the crowd was leaving the rally by controversial former prime minister a military commander go but then next year is a former ally of the taliban who signed a peace deal with the government last year. another explosion has hit the u.s. city of austin injuring two people it's the fourth attack in the texas city this month police say they have been they seem to learn similarities in the bombings and they fail they are connected and reports.

four explosions two people killed and in less than three weeks this is the scene of the latest blast a residential area southwest of austin the capital of texas two men in their twenty's were hurt investigators say they working on the assumption that it is connected to three package bombs left on people's doorsteps earlier this month but unlike those explosions this happened in a different part of the city we have seen similarities in the devices that exploded here last night and the other three devices that have exploded in austin starting on march second again this is preliminary information but we have seen similarities the big difference in this device again is we believe that a tripwire was used in this device the first three explosions all happened in the eastern part of boston package bombs delivered by hand and lift on people's doorsteps the first exploded in much the second killing

a thirty nine year old black man and then ten days later two more bombs the first just before seven that sunday morning killing a seventeen year old black man and injuring his mother and another at around midday injuring a seventy five year old hispanic woman police say they're still looking into where the she was the intended target that the victims from the first three explosions were black or hispanic has led many to speak with the a takes a racially motivated the city's mayor says the two victims in sunday's a tech are white investigators say they still looking into motives but have not ruled out the possibility of hate crime. just hours before sunday's a tech officials raised the reward to one hundred fifteen thousand dollars for information leading to the arrest of whoever is responsible police say they believe the explosions are part of a larger plane and are meant to send a message quite what that message is and why it will be an important part of the

investigation maidana honed out to syria. now to brazil where heads of states and delegates are meeting to discuss the world's growing water crisis one place seriously affected is the lake chad region in central africa it provides water for millions of people in four countries but it is drying up and the second part of our first serious mohamed el reports. for the people of getting philip to the lake is life but these fishermen say things are changing because of the heat of another when water was abundant on the lake we could fill our boats with fish on one trip now the water is scarce and we need ten trips to catch half the previous amount. lake chad was one of the largest freshwater bodies in the world it straddles the borders between chad cameroon and nigeria. in the mostly dry ice ahead climate the lake remains an exception of necessity for thousands of fish animals and plants

species supporting the livelihoods of forty million people living along the. drought and the harsh dusty winds over the last sixty years have turned much of the area into a desert. hundreds of violence began to appear in the middle as the water levels dropped environmental organizations and regional governments have long sounded the alarm bells. villages that were on the shores of the lake years ago are now fifty kilometers away the little studies show that is appearance of the lake is an extremely sad situation within the last twenty five years it's water receded by two thousand five hundred square kilometers and the right of it's shrinking is getting faster now causing a huge disruption in the natural habitat was the climate issues have been compounded by insecurity in recent times. and it's a new islands as a hiding place and base from which it could launch attacks. on the majority of

villages around the lake are now deserted especially on the nigerian side those who fled are living in refugee camps and lack of funds has also complicated regional and international efforts to launch meaningful programs to save the lake. and there's a growing concern that further deterioration of the lakes environment will encourage thousands of the spirits young people to join armed groups as the only available source of income. lake chad. and in part three of our first series we'll look at how drought in northern kenya is affecting pastures and water sources and that is causing conflict in the region she stay on al-jazeera. let's get you up to date on the top stories and russian president vladimir putin has started laying out his plans for his next six years in office hussein has

received calls from many world leaders congratulating him on his landslide election victory that will make him the longest serving ruler of russia since joseph stalin lawrence lee has more from moscow on your change message since his where he said on sunday night after he won to the crowds in the square over there that he wants it it was like a big team and he wanted to reach out to his political opponents of the candidates whom he beats and he wanted everybody to be working together and and today he sat with all those candidates and made a series of very very conciliatory observations about things to do with russia's relations with the outside world that he didn't want have an arms race and they might reduce the number of weapons they have or they wanted normalization the better relations with the countries as long as those other countries respect russia there's been a major step forward in talks with you in the u.k. on the european union over brics that the two sides have agreed to the terms of a two year transition phase just a year before britain is going to withdraw its design to reduce any sudden shocks

on britain's departure will give the u.k. the freedom to negotiate and sign trade deals with the rest of the world immediately but there's still no agreement on the question of the irish border reports are emerging that syrian government forces have arrested hundreds of people who've been trying to flee the enclave of eastern guter over the past few days the syrian government backed by russia launched an offensive to retake the area from rebel groups over a month ago. the un's humanitarian chief has told the security council that the humanitarian needs in the democratic republic of congo have doubled over the past year thirteen many of people are in need of aid republican and democratic senators in the u.s. are calling for facebook c.e.o. mark zuckerberg to testify before congress that's over allegations that data from fifty million of its users was harvested by the consultancy firm cambridge analytic

or may have been used to influence the u.s. election those are the top stories stay with us al-jazeera counting the cost is coming up next. alarm has a seeker this is counting the cost on al-jazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week old million russians getting all they bargained for as lady putin heads for reelection. also this week saudi aramco puts

its i.p.o. on ice and keeps the financial world guessing.