we are witnessing around the world this hungry money which is only looking at how to make the next profit devastate economies devastating ecosystems putting a price on the protection of nature green economy is sound good but it was all about privatizing of nature should our environment be for sale what we're trying to do this destroyed people to stabilize the country giving them a financial incentive to do that pricing the planet at this time on al-jazeera. observateur in russia denounce electoral violations south of london a putin claims a presidency for another six years.

hello i'm seated us and this is al jazeera live from london also coming up next a breakthrough the e.u. and the u.k. reach a deal on a transition phase but still no solutions for island as people flee the rebel enclave of eastern fayez that some are disappearing into the syrian government's jails and a warning from the u.n. on the democratic republic of congo where humanitarian needs are doubled since last year. the day off the bloody may putin swept a victory in the russian presidential election european elections observe a say the poll took place amid a climate of political concho and a crackdown on dissent a person took over three quarters of the vote suppressing the opposite of a mission from the organization for security and cooperation in europe reported electoral violations a lack of transparency and media bias undeterred the russian president is laying

out his priorities for the next six years from moscow alone slee has this report. the russian president spent monday basking in the warm glow of his record breaking success he had said he wanted to reach out to his opponents and build bridges abroad meeting with all the decent candidates his language could hardly have been more conciliatory. but you know we must vote and we will give necessary attention to further strengthening the country's national defense capability but i wanted to tell you now that no one is going to accelerate any kind of arms race issues if we plan to build relations with all the countries in the world in a way that is constructive we will aim for and of course encourage our partners towards constructive dialogue. fears that his vote share might go down have proved groundless after all even if there was the minor inconvenience of people being filmed stuffing huge reams of ballot papers into boxes still the margin of victory

was such that even independent monitors accepted the cheating didn't make much difference it was a one horse race most candidates publicly expressed this certainly that the incumbent president would prevail in the election with many of the candidates themselves stating that they did not expect to win the election lacked genuine competition thus efforts to increase the turnout predominated over the calm pain of insistence after his victory on sunday putin thanked his supporters we're one big team he said but the same cannot be said of his relationship with the european union whose foreign ministers met in brussels on monday in recent days russia had accused several countries including sweden and slovakia of holding supplies of the nerve agents used to poison the spice. the european backing of the u.k. position on the poisoning also led germany to question its entire partnership with

russia to give mr vireo. result of the russian election a surprise or surpass much as the circumstances of the election obviously. it is impossible to speak a fair political contest as we know it a fact that this result was also achieved and what a speck advised is crimean territory some other aspect which we find unacceptable we continue in the knowledge that russia will remain a very difficult part to say that when it comes to finding international solutions russia is indispensable for germany to question the strength of its relationship with russia is a far far bigger problem for the kremlin than the collapse of its relations with the u.k. at so that's hugely condom matri language from countries like sweden and slovakia in recent days and it starts to look like a much bigger structural problem for russia with its so-called european partners only adding to the sense of isolation for vladimir putin the real worry for russia is that germany is on the point of signing

a big new deal to import russian gas poland with long term hostility to russia is now urging the germans to scrap the deal many russians idolize their president because they regard him as impervious to pressure the strong man who can take on everyone single handed he might say he wants to get along with other nations but as he starts his fourth term more and more countries are lining up against him and lawrence is live for us now in moscow strong words from the european election observers there lawrence but i'm guessing this doesn't matter a jot actually in russia. no no they'll take up so you know no notice whatsoever and in some ways so to be honest with you i don't think the language from the from the monitors was as strong as it my said been they didn't say that the election wasn't free and fair which is often the yardstick they use yes of course they said they didn't recognise the result in crimea because they don't recognise the an extension of crimea as being legal because they regard it as being a breach of ukraine's territorial integrity and of course they talked about ballot

box stuffing and this and that that we with all the things that we know about the media manipulation before and so on but you know that the biggest audience of the russians can give to these sorts of assertions is well do you think it made any difference to the results and of course the answer is no it didn't i mean overwhelmingly putin remains russia's choice he's the only person that a majority of russians look to to guarantee stability and you know you think back to when he came to power in two thousand and before that yeltsin that more or less boris yeltsin more or less collapse the country was chaotic and putin has spent eighteen years at the very least stabilizing things and i think for very many russians if the points of the election was to continue with their idea of stability then any any means is worth it so after those eighteen years i think given any clue . as to what he's priorities are going to be for the next six years.

well i think i think if you split it between foreign policy and domestic policy you can see what he might be trying to do but you can also see what the contradictions are inside that in terms of foreign policy clearly those remarks he made today were extremely conciliatory they got the world cup this summer they want to resent a friendly face and yes of course he says he wants to get on with other countries and yet at the same time for very many years he's he's he's developed this whole idea of russia being under threat all these countries are out to get us we're trying to do the best we can but they just don't want to be friends with us and that's the central contradiction that this is very difficult for him to result because if he says that he's trying to defend russia against a hostile west how can he be friends with the west at the same time and reach out to them that's very difficult at the same time he said repeatedly in terms of domestic policy that he wants to take on the corrupt elites and redistribute wealth to the poorer parts of russia well that's barely happened at all i mean if you look around in moscow it sucks all the money in and it's vastly vastly wealthy compared

to very many places has he got the means to plumb down all the corruption and get all the oil and gas money so the more impoverished parts of siberia it's very very difficult to say. with very latest on that new election. it's been a major step forward in talks between the united kingdom and 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 shocks on britain's departure and 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 with the u.k. resistant to europe's back up plan of keeping northern ireland in the customs union

sun your gear go has more. much goodwill between the u.k. briggs's secretary david davis and the chief breaks that negotiator miss shelburne yeah 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 resign 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 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 have put in. this makes it possible today

to reassure the four and a half million people british and european who are affected and concerned by break that those are the people who have been our priority from day one the priority of european parliament and 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. 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 breaks legacy ations the u.k.'s foreign secretary described the use of nerve agent on u.k. soil as a flagrant breach of international law speaking at nato headquarters in brussels boris johnson said they only way to combat increasing russian influence is through a unified global partnership we share the view that the poisoning of surrogate's creep hour is not an isolated case but the latest in a pattern of reckless behavior by the russian state that behavior goes back many years from russia's annexation of crimea to cyber attacks. in the

syrian war russia has shown itself the russian state shown itself to have a blatant disregard for international order international and. of that. reports are emerging that syrian government forces have arrested hundreds of people as they fled eastern ghouta over the past few days the syrian government backed by russia launched an offensive to retake a rebel held area near damascus over a month ago since then more than half hours and people have been killed and tens of thousands more have fled than a hundred reports. estimates 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 front lines 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. leading

through state quote of those on the president of the un and other international community bodies through. 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 factions controls different pockets are out to share controls harassed or socialist controls the north and five man controls the southern towns those 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 so whether beirut. still ahead on al-jazeera pressure grows on facebook as a u.s. senator demands answers over the hacking of user data for political purposes plus. by mohamed followed by the shores of lake charles coming up i have told you why the source of fresh water for millions of people in the region is up to the sky disappearing.

hello there we're still seeing plenty of rain working its way across parts of the middle east the satellite picture shows up the systems very clearly we've got one spiraling its way across parts of iran that's working all the way up into kazakstan then the next one following it is making its way through parts of iraq and then the final one is making its way into parts of turkey now what i have a turkey is fizzling out so by the time we get to choose day just a good deal of cloud around not too much in the way of wet weather and the system that was a rock is also desponding so the temperatures here are rising thirty degrees will be on maximum in baghdad pretty hot for us it's for the east where there's more in the way of cloud that's still going to be lingering over parts of afghanistan or though it does eventually begin to clear away as we head through wednesday a bit further towards the south and here in doha no major changes for us over the next few days so thirty degrees should be our maximum as we head through maybe thirty one paps as we head into wednesday for the south temperatures much in that

insula will be up at thirty one as well for the southern parts of africa where we've been watching all cyclists not spin hitting us in madagascar fortunately the worst of that is now clearing away strengthening as it makes its way southwards and is still pulling quite a few showers behind it so for some of us in madagascar they could still be some heavy downpours.

welcome back reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera european observers denounce electoral violations in russia us president vladimir putin says out his vision for the next six years in office has been a major breakthrough in breaks it talks between the u.k. with the two sides agreeing to the terms of the two year transition period after britain the block and there are reports that syrian government forces have arrested of people who've been trying to flee the enclave of eastern ghouta over the past few days. the united nations humanitarian chief has given

a 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 in need of food and other humanitarian aid mike hanna joins us now live from the u.n. so why was a security council meeting called in the first place. well there's a simple answer to that sue and that is money put very bluntly the un says that only four percent off the funds needed to create a humanitarian rescue act in the d.r. sea has been raised so far this meeting tempting to focus on the diet humanitarian situation in the d.r. c. and also looking ahead to a very large donor conference that will be taking place on the thirteenth of april to begin to raise the funds necessary to address the humanitarian crisis and the crisis is indeed this is what the un's humanitarian chief had to say

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. and what they said is that the political crisis around pretty joseph kabila exacerbating this situation. very much indeed removes essentially a functioning government from playing a role in attempting to alleviate the ongoing humanitarian crisis but also that political uncertainty is another factor if leading to the humanitarian crisis

itself joseph kabila his term ended in december last year there was a deal struck in terms of which he would stand down now there are elections show told for the end of this year but a report released on this day by abundance go that is the u.n. body attempting to stabilize d r c along with human rights council says that political conflict plays a very major role in the ongoing crisis in the d.r. c. points out that last year alone more than forty people were killed in demonstration connected violence violence being carried out essentially by joseph kabila as troops so this political uncertainty once again one of these factors driving people out of the capital driving people out of their homes making them some of the many millions of internally displaced people so a resolution of the political situation absolutely critical if the crisis as a whole is going to be properly addressed good together mike hanna thanks very much

and the united nations a u.s. democratic senator has sent a letter to the facebook c.e.o. demanding a response to allegations that the data of fifty million users was harvested by the consultancy firm cambridge analytic or a whistleblower who worked in the political consultancy alleges the data was used to build a system that may have influence voters in the u.s. presidential election cambridge and the ticket worked for president campaign and on the u.k. breck that referendum republican and democratic senators are calling for facebook c.e.o. mark zuckerberg to testify before congress. this data was used to create profiling algorithms that would allow us to explore mental vulnerabilities of people and then map out ways to inject information into different in different streams or channels of content online so that people started

to see things all over the place that may or may not have been true this is a company that really took fake news too to the next level by pairing it with algorithms saudi arabia's crown prince instigated a war of words after accusing iran of trying to destabilize the middle east been selman made the comments 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 samus reality has more from tech. 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 sellman said iran is responsible for the ongoing conflict that led to the jihad on the if. 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 action which. we do. a 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 sure. 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 as he wrote to her on an israeli parole board has ordered the ending release of a soldier convicted of killing a wounded palestinian. will now serve ten months of his eighteen month term for killing palestinian or sheriff in twenty sixteen of the hey attacked israeli troops the incident was caught on camera and showed as our firing at sharif head on he was lying on the ground still alive. three people have been killed in afghanistan and eight more are in hospital after a bomb attack outside a political rally in the eastern city of jalalabad the motorbike bomb exploded as the crowd was leaving the rally by controversial former prime minister

a military commander who but in but here is a former ally of the taliban who signed a peace deal with the government last year. at least seven hundred people in australia's southeast have been forced to leave their homes as raging bushfire spread the country's two most populous states of new south wales and victoria are mostly affected the bushfires have so far destroyed at least one hundred homes and killed cattle it's believed the fires were sparked by lightning and then intensified by dry hot winds temperatures have reached forty one degrees celsius in recent days. in madagascar at least seventeen people have died as tropical storm kim hit the east of the country more than six thousand others have been displaced after gusts of one hundred twenty kilometers an hour brought heavy rain the storm led to mudslides and swollen rivers fifty one people died in january

after tropical cyclone eva hit the indian ocean island. 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 in the latest part of our first serious momma develop or. for the people of good to fill it the lake is life but these fishermen see things are changing. for not when water was abundant on the lake we could fill our boats with fish on one trip so now the water is scarce and we need ten trips to catch half the previous amount. of 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 that. drought in 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 the disappearance 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. the climate issues have been compounded by insecurity in recent times the group boko haram used it and its new islands as a hiding place and base from which it could launch attacks but in the majority of

villages around the lake are now deserted especially on the nigerian side those who fled are living in refugee camps a 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 desperate young people to join armed groups as the only available source of income. lake chad and an expansive off look at how drought in northern kenya is affecting pastures and water sources and that is causing conflict in the region. on al jazeera. let's get you the top stories here on al-jazeera russian president vladimir putin has started laying out his plans for his next six years in office that it has

received calls from many world leaders congress actually ating him on his landslide election victory that will make him the longest serving ruler of russia since joseph stalin known slay has more from moscow on cruises message since. sunday night after he won to the crowds in the square over there but he wanted 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 has been a major step forward in talks between the u.k. and the european union over brics it the two sides have agreed to the terms of a two year transition phase just a year before britain is due to withdraw is designed to reduce any sudden shock

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

million of its uses was harvested by the consultancy firm cambridge analytic and may have been used to influence the u.s. election those are the top stories stay where they are inside stories next. the u.s. attorney general fired the f.b.i. his death to director on friday there announced it is president donald trump might surprise the sox special counsel robert muller so what does all this mean for the russia investigation this is inside story.