to challenge soviet era methodology use. through making creating performing. turning a generation of children. into the trailblazers of tomorrow. after school. part of the rebel education series this time on how to sierra. al-jazeera. with and for your.

rights are applies to the expulsion of sixty of its diplomats if the rift between washington and moscow deepens. i'm richelle carey this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up an unexpected announcement about syria from donald trump raises broader questions about u.s. involvement there. as thousands of palestinians were paired to mark land a real look at their struggle to hold on to their property. and few surprise this is the first results come in from egypt selection. pressures expelling sixty u.s. diplomats and dozens more from other countries in response to the expulsion of its own tipple mats it's the latest development in

a worsening dispute over who is behind the poisoning of a former russian double agent in britain mike hanna reports from washington d.c. . the u.s. consulate in st petersburg shut down some sixty diplomats ordered to leave the country by the middle of next week sweeping russian retaliation. there will be mirrored measures but not only stopping events the u.s. ambassador is invited to our ministry where my deputy would deliver him the content of these retaliation re measures against the united states they include the exposion of a similar number of diplomats and they include our decision to withdraw our consent to the operation of the united states consulate general in some petersburg as for the rest of the countries everything that concerns the number of people who leave the russian federation from diplomatic missions is also mirrored signal at the root of the dispute the alleged poisoning of a former russian double agent on british soil with

a russian designed nerve agent russia vehemently denied any involvement but in a coordinated move more than one hundred fifty russian diplomats have been expelled from some twenty seven western nations a sanction including sixty from the united states and twenty three from the united kingdom. and the u.s. state department has reacted angrily to the russian action insisting that russia does not have the right to play the victim there is no justification for the russian response our actions were motivated purely by the attack on the united kingdom the attack on a british citizen and his daughter remember this is the first time that a weapons grade nerve agent no overt shock has been used outside of war on allied soil the russian consulate in seattle now stands empty but importantly the u.s. has made clear it reserves the right to further response the diplomatic dispute is

far from. my kind of al-jazeera washington the daughter of the former russian spy was also poisoned in the attack on her father but she's getting better according to british doctors despite your scruples for coverage doctors say she may not be well enough to speak to investigators her father cripple remains in critical condition with reporters and with the nerve agent that was left on the front door of their home in england earlier this month russia has demanded access to her. and a surprise move u.s. president onil trump has told us supporters that american troops will be leaving syria very soon he was speaking at an event in ohio when he began complaining about how much the u.s. spends on rebuilding other countries the u.s. has more than two thousand military personnel in syria helping local groups defeat eisel and by the way we're not going the hell out of isis will become another syria like very soon let the other people take care of it now very soon very soon we're

coming now we're going to have a hundred percent of the caliphate as they call it sometimes you for it to his land take it all back quickly quickly as with some of donald trump's other announcements this one is causing this one rather caught me washington off guard including the state department. i can't comment on what the president supposedly said i haven't seen and i have to refer you back to the white house. i have not seen it myself and said it i have not seen that myself ok but you know you don't you don't necessarily comment or report on things that have been heard secondhand and i'm not going to do that that's ok that's fine so you're not aware of any. determination to point to pull the us out of so i am not no ok so the president is just speaking off the cuff and i don't know i don't know what he will read about in the white house i'm not and i'm not aware it's not just the. the us joined the syria conflict during proc obama's presidency and one mission was to support groups fighting eisel the pentagon says about two thousand u.s. troops are still there to prevent

a resurgence by the armed group and maintain stability and december defense secretary james mattis said he expected to send more diplomats and civilian personnel to syria more than eight billion dollars of u.s. money has been directed toward syrian related humanitarian assistance congress has set aside billions more to help with security operation inherent result which aims to eliminate eisel from syria iraq and other areas has cost more than eighteen billion dollars mohammed is live for us in beirut so this. it's difficult to know whether actually call it an announcement from donald trump because we don't know that it's a policy change but these remarks from donald trump about the u.s. troops how do you think they'll be perceived what might be the reaction in the area . well we shall we haven't heard too much yet reaction only starting to emerge really from activists inside syria just in the past hour or so

and really all we've heard so far has been a great deal of skepticism one activist telling us we have no idea what donald trump is talking about another one saying that these are just words for the media that donald trump is just trying to send a message to the american people one other activists saying this is a wider american involvement that will happen to eastern syria in soon and i do not expect a withdrawal by u.s. forces to happen any time before at least two years from now so really as i said before a lot of skepticism all of this really underscoring the chaos of the trump presidency you have donald trump saying something at a rally speaking to his base then you have the state department basically saying they don't know what the president is referring to and that they have no idea if the u.s. is going to be withdrawing from syria you know underscoring how the position from the u.s. toward syria has been inconsistent for quite some time now i mean if we're talking

about inconsistency in the u.s. position we have to go back to the presidency of barack obama he had declared there would be a red line in syria if chemical weaponry were ever used by the syrian regime when that happened the u.s. did not to intervene in the way people in the region had expected to in many activists even today are talking about that moment saying that a lot of the problems that happened in syria subsequent to that and the russian involvement happened because barack obama did not follow through on his words then we've heard from donald trump for quite some time now even though he's been heralding the fight against iceland what he calls great american victories against isis we've heard for some time that he wanted to get out of syria then almost a year ago precisely you had a chemical attack and who in in syria which was met. by airstrikes u.s. tomahawk missiles are striking the parts of syria in response to that chemical attack so even that was considered inconsistent at the time diplomats have been

scratching their heads for quite some time about what the u.s. might do next in syria but they are involved they have troops there. the state department is that for quite some time it's important for u.s. troops to remain in syria so this really just adding more chaos in the mix at a time when it is very chaotic in syria when the conflict is getting drawn out more and more there are more international players involved and we're just really have to see in the days ahead what exactly donald trump meant and if others in the u.s. administration donald trump will clarify his remarks rasho ok mohammed jim jim live for us and there are thank you. it. was a senior syria advisor to samantha power who is washington's u.n. ambassador touring the obama administration he doesn't believe trump's comments on the troop withdrawal represent an actual policy change. i was literally just speaking with some colleagues of mine former colleagues of mine at the state department who are getting ready to deploy to syria to to do their work out there

in the northern part of the syria where the u.s. military station so i really think this caught everyone off guard and i don't think it's particularly connected to any real policy the united states continues to pursue in the region the policy in the past has been to intervene in as little of a way as possible to try to. address the humanitarian situation without getting in broiled in a broader conflict in the middle east that's kind of been the policy but really clearly has not worked with this administration there's clearly a disconnect between what the president is saying what his military and political advisors are telling him which is the united states should remain in the areas it is in to use it as leverage against the syrian regime the iranians and russians and to keep an eye on potentially eisel returning that's really kind of the consensus on what the policy should be but again just like previous statements the president

shooting from the hip and now everybody is getting all worked up about saying but i really would pay attention to what the united states actually does in the coming days and weeks which i think will be more likely to remain in the areas it's in the palestinian health ministry says the israeli tank fire has killed a palestinian farmer and gaza it happened in the city of qom yunus another man is in critical condition this palestinians prepare for an annual protest along israel's border against the confiscation of land and these are live pictures of the gaza israel border where crowds are beginning to gather in the last hour for those protests out of bellamy has more from the occupied west bank it's a day that's been marked since one nine hundred seventy six then like now palestinians are protesting the confiscation of their land. it's also they weighted demonstrate their attachment to that learned. a bit ahead of where we want to

impose zero presence planted lanes are hard to take over israel always says that it's only taking a barren land that's why we need to play it everywhere. so his property shrink by four hector's and has received notice that another fourteen could be taken away soon much of the land goes two ways building illegal jewish settlements and the exploitation of natural resources or in the case of an off our ahmed foot a construction of a bypass road that now goes over part of his land he can only reach it via this underpass but axes isn't always guaranteed. if the gate is closed we're stuck for hours everyone wants freedom of movement i want to be able to come home here and i built a shack to store my equipment but the israelis won't allow me i can't even install a light to sit here in the summer was integrated by israel's prime minister binyamin netanyahu also pledged two hundred twenty eight million dollars from this

year's budget the building of more roads across the occupied west bank. another project underway is that up the road there to the left now that's the extension of the eastern ring road and it has its own separation wall in the middle now trafficked on one side will be reserved only to israelis on the other side traffic will be reserved to palestinians but they can only travel between their towns and villages without bypasses are designed to circumvent palestinian population centers settlers say it's for their own safety but the plan was initially put in place in one nine hundred eighty three and was only implemented after the oslo accords were signed years later when i because shorter the road could through the west bank in circling palestinian communities and dividing the west bank into account ons they connect jewish settlements to each other and directly to israel in case of an exaggeration there's already a system in place. israel sees the bypass roads as vital for the development of

settlements they expanded by seventeen percent last year or as many palestinians say ever since double trouble became you as president with every dig of the shovel by listing in sea more land lost and the dream of a future state crumbled furder put out that hemi in the occupied west bank. the. preliminary results from egypt's election have delivered what everyone expected a landslide victory for president of the tile c.c. but it appears most voters either stayed at home or spoil their ballot and russia power parts. ones with most votes already counted in egypt's presidential election abdel fattah el-sisi appears to have won a second term by a landslide state media says he secured ninety percent of the vote while sisi

described the election as a source of pride critics described it as a sham millions of eligible voters stayed home over the three days of the election rather than vote for him or his only rival who said mustafa mussa leads a party that supported sisi he announced he was running at the last minute after all other potential challengers pulled out some were arrested some were pressured to drop out a new national has i voted to improve the country's current situation it doesn't matter who you support most of my friends didn't vote for. seven political parties and one hundred fifty opposition figures told voters to stay home rather than grant sisi the electoral agenda mysie he wanted the national elections authority warned egyptians to vote or pay a fine other threats and incentives were used to encourage voters but participation was lower in this election than in the previous two more than one point five million votes were rejected after some voters submitted blah. ballots or wrote in

their own candidates that made the term invalid votes trend on twitter the most popular posts saying the true winners of the vote were egyptians who boycotted the election altogether we all know that it has no that's a constitutional or political legitimacy in a sense of there is not much of participation saw fanfare and so on but he wants to say at least that there was significant turnout. to give him another mandate for another four years especially that most of his promises in twenty fourteen were not fulfilled the security for egypt prosperous economic situation the ending of the crises whether security or political. with a new mandate of sorts and with his reelection secured his strongest supporters are considering the possibility of amending the constitution to allow sisi to run for third term or perhaps even longer and al-jazeera. still ahead

on al-jazeera a year before britain is to to leave the e.u. and prime minister goes on a tour trying to unite her divided nation. beijing is closer to a deal that could give the vatican more influence over the catholic church in china but not everyone has a. nice pink skies by the time hot. or is the sun sets in the city of angels. however got a pretty messy picture for our weather across europe at the moment lots of rain around some bits and pieces of snow looking pretty windy and we have also got some milder rare was some consolation lots of areas of low pressure piling in from the atlantic bringing that moller air in bumping into some cooler air that will still lead to some snow some stormy weather still a possibility up towards that western side of russia temperatures in kiev

struggling to get around four celsius but that moderate already pushing in across beilin and walsall twelve degrees fourteen they have in vienna but the zero recruit sixteen celsius here it is very windy there we got some pretty blustery conditions polly gain and some wet weather of course as you can see them making its way from west to east without the slightest way towards me as we go on through the course of sas day eight celsius the. getting up to twelve in warsaw and thirteen in kiev so warming up here heavy rain that will make its way across italy into the balkans some more snow coming back in over the owls in northern parts of africa some places the frame still a possibility around northern areas of morocco move into parts of algeria pushing into tunisia seventeen celcius and i'll just attempt to starting to pick up highs of around twenty celsius in cairo with plenty of sunshine. the women sponsored by qatar raise. the scene for us when they're online what is american sign

in yemen that peace is possible but not what happens not because the situation is complicated but because no one cares or if you join us on sat there people the little choosing between buying medication eating basis is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who's an activist and has posted a story join the global conversation at this time on al-jazeera. and watching al-jazeera let's recap the top stories right now the white house is calling russia's expulsion of sixteen u.s. to formats a further deterioration of its relationship with moscow it's

a latest move in a diplomatic route over the poisoning of a former russian double agent and the u.k. . in a surprise move as president has told us supporters that american troops will be leaving syria very soon the u.s. has more than two thousand military personnel and syria helping local groups defeat eisel. and the palestinian health ministry says israeli tank fire has killed a palestinian farmer in gaza this is all happening as thousands of palestinians as you can see live pictures are gathering for an animal rally along israel's border to protest against israeli occupation israeli forces are firing ammunition and tear gas at these protesters we'll keep you posted on that throughout the day on al-jazeera. millions of catholics around the world are celebrating the holy week ahead of easter in china to ten million catholics there are signs of growing in ties between the vatican and the communist government from beijing adrian brown

reports. in china catholics have a choice pray in a state sanctioned church like this one in secret but this easter many worshippers will be considering a new scenario a deal between the vatican and the chinese government that may be imminent the agreement could decide the future of the estimated ten million catholics in china who've long hope for a normalization in vatican china relations what i always hope the pope and the vet again stablish diplomatic relations with china i'm so excited. the pope is the symbol of catholics if you catholic you would definitely want to see him that's why i'd be so happy if he came to china surprising views because those worshippers belong to the official catholic church which is not recognize the authority of the pope since the vatican and china severed diplomatic

ties in one nine hundred fifty one but that could be about to change according to francisco c.c. an attorney an academic invited to interview the pope two years ago he says there are even discussions about the vatican establishing a representative office in beijing and this could happen. within these year i would say that sue. i think it is a possibility we don't know there are of course many things to up in the air but there is lobbed in the air as the song would say. before that happens though another deal is expected on the thorny issue of who gets to appoint bishops for the first time that would give the vatican a say in the selection process but some of the underground churches that operate without government approval are fearful about this growing reproach mo and they

have a senior catholic official on their side who's accused the pope of betrayal cardinal joseph zen is the former bishop of hong kong where religious freedoms are still protected many people in that union lesser church may get to scandalize in may who is their faith in the in the pope and the poor pope has so many critics so. we decide when i met there the saudi such criticism of the pope even by a retired cardinal is rare neither the vatican or china's religious affairs bureau responded to our requests for comment but a report in the state controlled newspaper on thursday citing several official sources said the announcement could be made as soon as saturday a day before easter. china represents the last frontier for the catholic

church it's been that way for centuries never more so than now adrian brown al-jazeera beijing. britain's prime minister has been touring the country to sell the benefits of bracks at a year before the u.k. is to delay the european union. says she's committed to making it a success many people though are vets correspondent barnaby philips reports. she didn't vote for bret's it to put on a rapid tour of britain starting in a scottish textile factory the prime minister the country to embrace the idea of leaving the e.u. i believe that we can negotiate a good agreement which is terrorists free in this friction is trade is possible so we maintain those markets in the e.u. but also that we open up markets around the rest of the world breaks it provides us with opportunities. but who's this campaigning

against brick sit outside downing street boris johnson or maybe not but his impersonator and these protesters believe breck's it can be stopped with a second referendum on the final deal from her because she ations between britain and the e.u. says will a student just speaking for a generation that voted overwhelmingly to stay in europe and this is one direction but i feel so perfectly entitled to mobilize and try to persuade our parents and grandparents many of whom are like minded back to back to back us not sure anymore but it's not a right do i'm a number i direction from here but all the older generation persuadable i travelled from london to the english market town of spaulding west seventy percent voted to leave the e.u. the challenge for those trying to stop bricks it is to change people's minds in towns like spalding and that still feels like an uphill struggle it was a matter of ensuring. that i don't think you can lay said what we want in

a skit only but back in london not much sign of rallying round another group sets off on a battle. bus tour around britain supported by some big names in british politics all right so that whatever happens in terms of any effort to. stop it which is take it to a different course from the one that he was in the voice roy said so it's very difficult but i think millions of people believe the country's made its or was. this just come on. this isn't sustainable meanwhile the prime minister travelling all through northern ireland wales and england in one hectic day says there's no turning back but if the bricks that referendum of twenty six stephen was meant to settle the issue of britain and europe for want some for role while it doesn't yet feel that it has to be phillips al-jazeera london. the united nations says it's appalled by

the deaths of dozens of prisoners in a fire and riots in venezuela federals have been hell for some of the sixty eight victims at a police station and a lengthy rights groups are blaming the president nicholas kristoff for failing to deal with prison overcrowding and rising violence there's been no government response so far. he has more from bogota in neighboring colombia. otoh it is in venice where or facing national and international outrage for their slow response to one of the worst disasters to happen in the country's detention facilities more than twenty four hours after the incident that left sixty eight people dead there still hasn't been an official statement by the government of president nicolas maduro the only official statement came via twitter from the office of the attorney general he did confirm the dead talk and said he was appointing for prosecutors to

investigate exactly what happened inside the prison and for a second day relatives of the victims spent a day in front of the police station trying to find out what happened to their loved ones if they were still alive or how to recover the body temporary morgue was set up inside the police station to try and speed up that process unfortunately this has been just the last in a long serious deadly riots in venezuela as detention facilities in the country struggle with overcrowding crowding and the lack of basic supplies in main things. ever worsening a social and economic crisis in the country hundreds of mourners have been to the funeral of a black man who was shot dead by police in the us state of california they said they thought stefan clark was pointing a gun but it turned out it was a mobile phone carrier elizondo reports. friends and family of stefan clarke were

here to grieve and console each other civil rights activist al sharpton gave the eulogy reminded people why they were there we came to have a family we came because there is no i should have to be clark was a twenty two year old father of two kids he was shot and killed by two police officers who mistakenly thought he was a burglar body cameras on the two officers captured the moment on the evening of march eighteenth when officers confronted clark they fired their weapons twenty times clark was killed instantly he was unarmed only holding his cellphone he was standing in the backyard of his grandmother's home both officers are an administrative leave pending an investigation at first the shooting mostly went unnoticed outside of sacramento but as more details emerged so too do the coals for justice street protests growing louder by the day and spreading as far away as new

york white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders said that stefan clark's killing was terrible but that the white house won't have much more to say about it because in her words it's a local matter at clark's funeral in sacramento this was the response to that no this is not a local man. they didn't killing young black men over the country and we are here to say we are going to stand with stefan crack and the leaders of this family emotions are still high and people have promised to not rest until the officers are held to account the city of sacramento is on edge more protests are planned the family lawyer is appealing for calm we must to the ballots to make sure that we protest it's just the first amendment rights in the

most productive way possible but people here know this funeral should never have been needed but stefan clark was killed for no reason gabriel's on to. washington. and we shall carry let's recap the headlines for you on how to say or at the white house is calling russia's expulsion of sixteen u.s. diplomats a further deterioration of its relationship with moscow it's the latest move in a diplomatic or our the poisoning of a former russian double agent in the u k. and a surprise move u.s. president donald trump has told his supporters that american troops will be leaving syria very soon the u.s. has more than two thousand military personnel in syria helping local troops to feed . then suggests that they wouldn't be long before syria was no longer america's problem. and by the way we're not going the hell out of isis will become another

syria like very soon let the other people take care of it now very soon very soon we're coming there we're going to have a hundred percent of the job as they call it sometimes you food to his land to get it all back quickly quickly. israeli forces have fired bullets and tear gas at thousands of palestinians protesting it israel's border with gaza you can see the crowds gathered for those protests there holding an annual rally against israeli occupation and earlier israeli tanks fired and killed a palestinian farmer in gaza it happened in the city of khan yunis the palestinian health ministry says another man is in critical condition the united nations says it's appalled by the deaths of dozens of prisoners in a fire and riot in venezuela generals were hell for some of the sixty eight victims it's all happened at a police station in valencia rights groups are blaming president nicolas maduro for failing to deal with prison overcrowding and rising violence there's been no government response so far the former president of france nicolas sarkozy is to

face trial for corruption and influence peddling he's accused of making phone calls to influence judges who are investigating alleged illegal financing during his two thousand and seven presidential campaign and hundreds of mourners have been to the funeral of a black man who was shot dead by police in the u.s. state of california officers blocked roads as groups marched after the service for stefan clark and sacramento those are the headlines the news continues keep your analysis here of the stream this next. facing realities growing up when did you realize that you were living in a special place a so-called secret city getting to the heart of the matter while it is activists to live in jail just because she expressed herself hear their story on and talk to al-jazeera at this time.