eastern huta but rebels are accusing russia of escalating the fighting a temporary truce in the enclave near the capital damascus russian air strikes killed ten people on tuesday. the u.k. has threatened russia with more sanctions if the russian government is shown to be behind the suspected poisoning of a former double agent. was found unconscious on a bench in southern england on sunday along with his daughter is a former russian intelligence officer who's been convicted of betraying dozens of spies to british intelligence russia has the night. sri lanka has declared a week long state of emergency to stop the rising violence against the muslim minority the military has been deployed in the city of candy and a curfew is now in place after muslim owned homes and businesses were set alight and damaged in riots began after reports a truck driver from the majority buddhist community died following an altercation

with four muslims those are the headlines i have news for you in just under half an hour stay with it coming up next it's this free thank you for watching. hi emily could be and you're in the stream today a check in on three house tags on the stories around them that caught our eye essential win for public school teachers in the u.s. state of west virginia after a nine day strike that kept students out of the classroom and educators gathered at

the state capital then to south africa what impact will a controversial proposal for land expropriation have but first to the border between ireland and northern ireland an issue that continues to be challenging in brecht's that negotiations. i'm calling more and i mean last year on the stream i made the charge starting in the school to break this to you to experience consider the implications on the good friday agreement and the invisible land border currently shared between northern ireland and the republic. in a little over a year's time the island of ireland is said to be split into either you and you turn tories and yes the population here both north and south fears to get an answer to the fundamental question or not how do we avoid returning to the border and the potential civil unrest that comes along side of it in such a situation. the five hundred kilometer border between ireland and northern ireland

is possibly one of the biggest obstacles in britain's departure from the e.u. and there is no agreed plan of what it will look like after may twenty twenty british prime minister theresa may has made several speeches in the past week outlining her vision for the u.k.'s future economic relationship with the e.u. and its exit strategy she's ruled out the return to physical infrastructure on the border between northern ireland and the republic but provided few details she is also pushing for a free trade deal that many lawmakers have. sized here to help us talk about this peter gaytan an irish investigative journalist and writer welcome to the stream peter i want to start with a comment from a member of our community via twitter this is ian who says he's in northern ireland and says that our economy and infrastructure is heavily subsidized by the e.u. also our agriculture which is deeply entwined with ireland's in production and

process no one wants a hard border which would cost billions and i reckon adversely affect funding and more important areas like health and education so peter what could the possible return of a hard border mean for people on either side of it. well in some respects there's never been enough hard border in ireland there was up until about twenty five years ago customs checks and security points along the border and as you mention the border is about five a common as long it is two hundred fifty year old crossings up until around twenty five years ago only about twenty five of those roper any one time and i think the big concern around the border now is we could go back to the sort of situation where you have to have cost some checks you might have to physical infrastructure at the border which is something you know doesn't exist at the moment if you went to the irish border and now at the moment you wouldn't even know where you where the border started or where it ended off and how people tell where they are is using their mobile phones but where did it what what twinned what

tired of paying off was it in the republicans in order to undo it or a great big thing is rolled songs we use miles in. kilometers of a record and put it well you wouldn't be able to tell the difference so any change of the border is all locks you will be seen as a big change for the people who live in the community in the area. especially because so many people are saying that the reason that the border is soft as it is today is of course because of the good friday agreement which which ended tensions known as the troubles for so many years so you have people saying is the potential beginning of a hard border would significantly change things and could raise tensions do you think that there's any truth to that. i think we do some there is some concerns around us because when the reasons that they were able to get rid of the border really was because bullsh the united kingdom and ireland join the european union the same time we joined in one thousand seventy three are along side the british and that meant in the early ninety's when we we both joined the european exchange

rate mechanism we are calling is becoming even closer together that meant that all physical checks were able to go away because we're full partners think american customs you know what's going to happen as of march of next year the way things are going is that the united kingdom are going to lead the coast in june and think the market the republic of ireland will stay in it that will mean that they'll have to be some sort of a customs presence on the concern i think for a lot of people is that the very fact of having something on the border could become something that you know for distant republican people who oppose the peace process it could become a tartars to the head of the police service of northern ireland has mentioned this and i think there was a concern in border communities that anything that that changes the dynamic in these communities where was the successes of the peace process has been the border it's been this previously when what i was going up there to border we would have huge tales box trying to cross the border you could be a couple of hours only going a few miles because of the nature of us they're all totally disappeared and the concerns of anything to change that dynamic it might necessarily lead to violence

it might necessarily need to to something very quickly but it will undermine this kind of coal relationship that has existed on the island of ireland and especially on the border which during the troubles of her two year long basically civil war in which more than three thousand people died the border was a very fractious place right now to borders a very commonplace and i think the concern is for people it's a thing that changes the border can only have a negative impact i think people can see what could a positive impact of a change of already so peter you may have answered just answered this question we got be a twitter this is steven as he says as for bracket there are people talking up to a threat to the freeze process because of it the only threat to peace. violent so my question to those talking it up is who is it that is going to return to violence i believe they're using that threat as a weapon in their negotiations do you think that this is a weapon or being used to scare people to a fear mongering tactic i think sometimes the conversation on the good part

agreement hasn't always been helpful i think some people across the british level are talking about the good friday agreement they're opposed to bracks and they're using the good friday agreement as a reason to oppose breakfast and i can understand why they do it that's not always been helpful i think i think sometimes it's because it's politicized norden or in a place like the good friday agreement on again this idea that there will be you know that people are saying oh it will lead to violence and we so this is some to be worked out but at the same time i think it is important to understand how important this open border is symbolically you know the good friday agreement is all about recognizing the right of people in the northern ireland to be irish british or to be baulked part of being irish for all these people is that they can travel easily with no destruction across the island of ireland right the fact that i live in ordinarily and they can feel irish means they can travel across the border into a public road without any any problem at all and i think the fear for a lot of people including for the police is that any change this border sets of any kind of you know introduction of anything it looks like a checkpoint it pretty become

a target and we know when the haitian ordinarily are here again i i hear that point thank you for making it i think you answered the person's tweet pretty eloquently there so we have to leave it there for now we know this is a big issue with our community though so we want you to keep those tweets coming and continue to follow along with this issue and now to the u.s. state of west virginia our colleagues at eighty plus explain what's been going on. thank you. and thank you everybody thank. you thank you. thank you. thank you we.

want to say west virginia lawmakers said that a deal has been to reach to deliver that five percent pay raise to teachers and all state employees and the governor tweeted about it so what's next for teachers of the state and with us is rebecca diamond a second grade teacher at kellogg elementary school in huntington west virginia but you just saw in that a.j. plus piece welcome to the stream right back i pulled up here on my laptop of the very tweet from governor jim justice who writes i'm very pleased to announce a five percent raise for teachers and all state employees it's time we invest in education and help our teachers and our kids go back to the classroom with pride rebecca first of all i would say congratulations are in order for you have been rallying at the state capitol for days with thousands of other teachers what was your reaction to this tweet into the news hours ago that a deal had been removed. well my first thought was ok is this real is it really

going to happen this week or last tuesday. so you know once we found out. a celebration. we're not the only one this is actually stewart who says teachers are a static though we're hesitant to celebrate until the legislation passes this is a big story for education and what's for dinner but it's also a victory for the people of west virginia we have a long history of standing up for labor rights so what is next we know that there is supposed to be. a signing ceremony later today on tuesday what happens next for you. well they're supposed to pay. just. what the governor of west virginia. three houses already passed it the senate has already passed is that's our last hurdle and right now. we

school tomorrow we haven't heard official word yet and i want to give some context for our international community who may not quite understand why it is that teachers have been striking for the past nine days i pulled up this here this is the a c.n.n. but it is the very best edition of this that we've seen this is from the bureau of labor statistics on the average annual wages for it teachers west virginia's teachers earned among the lowest pay in the nation forty eighth and that's according to the national education association a ranking of salaries average salary forty seven thousand while in west virginia while the national average is fifty nine thousand i know you work a part time job in addition to being a teacher what will this five percent raise mean for you. it could possibly mean that i won't have to work

a second job i took that job because we were one of the lowest paid in the state of west virginia and my husband is a teacher as well so to make ends meet it was just feasible for me to take on that second job to make up at different times of the month. you know what we were missing with our pay being forty eight. in the nation and the when you look at that forty five thousand dollars i don't believe that's a true amount of what west virginia makes them because they average it from the highest to the lowest paid teacher in the state so you know i have nineteen years of experience and right now i'm right around forty thousand dollars my husband has a master's and he's right around forty five thousand so it does pay raise you know our additional household income will be four thousand dollars for the entire year which will definitely make a difference in our livelihood or we found we got a little way and i think though there might be some people in our online community

and global community that still don't understand the fact that you had to work two jobs in the first place being a state employee me. right never done that but you know i have two kids my own. you know i want to provide for them as well and there are things that they need them both in high school you know the second job you know kind of put us over the hump period that we got paid so that we were struggling to do what they needed or struggling when something changed because there's always something unexpected and there was just never enough to cover the second job you know. for those things that unexpected and you know at the end of those two week period so you're like oh my gosh we have three more days to wait what are we going to do when we're going to do it you know i would have the second job that would cover those. you never assume that you're going to have to work another job when you have

a degree. but while this protest and the strike action has caught the eyes of people around the world i want to share this we from jerry white writes australian teacher since message of support to west virginia your determined fight has given a lead to teachers in the u.s. and internationally so keeping that in mind this was a movement led by women mostly and of course there are other people who are teachers as well but this was was headed in spearheaded by women actually steward says the governor may try to take credit for this and the legislators may try to take the glory too but ultimately it was the unity and persistence of west virginia citizens of all sectors but brought about this change i know that not only are you a teacher but you come from a long line of teachers your mother your grandmother you have two sisters that are teachers and now we hear news that there might be a strike coming to oklahoma where where teachers are looking at the auctions in

west virginia and considering a strike there do you think this is the start of a new movement and what has that meant to you. i think this is and how were people to realize that they can accomplish things that they thought was what they thought were actually impossible to do i mean oklahoma's forty ninth and teacher pay and i think it's time that they stood up for themselves as well to show the world that you know it's not just west virginia make this movement happen that other states can follow along other nations can follow along know that you know if you stand up for what you believe in which is exactly what we teach our students in school that this is this is a powerful idea you know women in america have always been let down below me and for all of these women to be out here it is impressive to see their power and their support and to let people know that you know we're not going to lay down anymore we're not going to allow anybody to walk all over us we are just as powerful as

anybody else is it numbers well thanks for being with us today rebecca and please keep us up and you has you had back into the classroom and now to a story that's been heating up on twitter the hash tag land expropriation is being tweeted across south africa more than one hundred fifty thousand times at last count to discuss the approval of a plan some say will reclaim land taken from black people under colonial and apartheid rule the sticking point the current owners of the land would not be compensated the leader of the economic freedom fighters party julius malema sparked the debate with an announcement to the national assembly on february twenty seventh for a lasting peace of security and justice learned must be expropriated without compensation for part of the distribution would have faired to those who came before us if we were to be one for me to you know cite. now the online conversation around land expropriation ranges from expressions of support for reclaiming stolen

possessions to criticism pointing to the economic impact of a similar plan in zimbabwe pierre writes people are so eager for land expropriation without compensation thinking they're getting back stolen property it's a lie you're violating the rights of fellow citizens and you're giving the government the right to take land away from anyone one day that might be you or other say the plan what they call systemic racism against white south africans the debate around the planet follows petitions to western governments on behalf of white south africans more than sixteen thousand people signed a petition asking donald trump to accept white south africans into the u.s. fifteen thousand people signed this petition asking malcolm turnbull to accept white south africans into australia and more than sixty two thousand signed a petition to the e.u. council asking for white south africans quote return right to return to europe unquote so how will this plan impact south africans on both sides of the fray here

with us to discuss the issue mean to play say is associate professor of law at northwestern university and see shanae in go bass a is an industrial sociologist welcome to the stream both of you want to start with this tweet we got from a member of our community skip a twenty three who says it's not like black people were compensated when whites got the land this is a correction of the wrong about it was done in the past does she say do you see this in the same way that this is attempting to address the wrongs of a party. well in short there is an absolute need in south africa for legitimate land restitution where there have been and where there is evidence of black individuals who've been dispossessed historically that's not in contention for for anybody in this country the issue becomes the means and language group creation without compensation is essentially giving the complement the. little

power to confiscate property from and it was all just white individuals it's also black individuals essentially what they. see have agreed to do is to tinker with our constitution specifically section twenty five which deals with property rights now these are rights which are fundamental to any to mock recy trying to build a prosperous and property owning generation a master blacks and whites of africans one of the if if the a.n.c. are actually quite opposed to this if you really look at the launch of conclusion of handing the states that sort of power to confiscate something without compensation i mean taking that in mind we got this from jackson jack who says it's procreation needs to happen as much as the debate does given the complexity of the topic the discourse is really lends itself to populism this increases the risk for quick and easy irresponsible unaccountable fixes which could result in more

unhappiness for the majority do you think that there is a way to do this so that it does not lead to unhappiness for the majority and if so i think we need to take. but we. are going to attempt to re a savage that connection with el nino but in the meantime you see this week here do you think i mean i think i know where you're coming from on this but do you think that there is a way to do this because there are people online who say that it should be done. rap's lutie i mean again the general consensus among south africans that there are ways to do this and these of course require a legal rational and methodical. sort of weighing up of the evidence and the data as it relates to specific land claims now this again is done through

a rule of law and this always and this should be adequate compensation because one thing we need to remember is that you know historically whether you look at the. colonial era in this country or the patent era it was always the institution of government which used coercive manipulative power in order to just possess one group over the other and essentially i'm not advocating that it's that very same government today albeit democratically elected that has to now act a process of restitution what it must compensate those who don't just possess in order to return land back to its original inhabitants and but way there's also another element here we have hard data in this particular instance i mean ninety three percent of people who had land returned back to them have actually started to take cash instead of latin why because there is a recognition by and large that's all africans not all of us are agrarian all of us

want to do farming a lot of us are grouped into the cities and one to live middle class lives. of farming there are leaving or even have the means to do farm and to live that agrarian lifestyle i mean i look at it looks like your connection is back with us what it. i'm not i just want to add that i think we need to acknowledge that there has been a failure in land reform in south africa and this was also the finding of a high level report by parliament last year and i mean this this creates frustration right so we still have quite in equitable land holdings we white people have the majority of the land and black people seem most people seem. most people are less and less so i mean that creates tension and they feel by that we seem to be losing a. contract that we made around ninety four of you know restored of justice of going this about the rights post way

nation building and so on that was all disconnected from the land reform issue and now it seems that all that is playing out in. the land reform irene arena and that sort of creates opportunity obviously for populism what frustrates me is that experimentation is a very very technical issue so what people think will happen and what will actually happen there are two different things because even if you have explode relation without compensation you still need to follow in the eagle proces you still need the state to implement or to expropriate property and the state hasn't used its powers as it can in terms of the constitution full of five past twenty four years to do land reform so i think why would you know it's just it's just so complex. and it's shaking in there doesn't like he agrees to say we

got this i'm sorry we got this from you tube life i don't want to read this first africa as i need and says the constitution does not allow for the expropriation of land without compensation the a.m.t. is setting itself up for failure the government has plenty of land why not start there. yeah look i would agree with that partially but i'm going to come back to this point of oh you know dan that's appropriate compensation would follow a rule of law i'm sorry but the record of history especially on the african continent would disagree with that and we just have to look to our neighbors to the not in zimbabwe to get that case example i mean i can say that other examples of trends are near and the policy of. to property from indian residence and you think she took over the business of the get the underpinning behind this is socialism and socialism on this continent has been a killer of african aspirations for one prosperity and to liberty

a deal that somehow given the states the power to script. i have to pas he there i am positive though and i'm saying thank you to you and me because we will be following this story very closely and we'll look to do a lengthier follow up show so we will be back to this if there are any other stories on social catching your eye from members of our community tweet us hash tag a.j. stream until then we'll see you on line. to

. get. to the fleet center. in a. march on al-jazeera. with all potential challengers out of the way egypt's president of the fattah el-sisi is poised for a second time in power. a series of short personal stories that highlight the human triumph against the odds as president putin dominates the russian political scene and his reelection becomes more apparent we a sense what direction russia might take. with media trends consummate changing listening post analyzes how the news is being commented. and as more people around the world struggle to find clean drinking water leaders and research as governor in

brazil to address a critical issue in march on al-jazeera just is in the in the same. sun journalists decided to sacrifice their integrity for out in the media opinion that listening but instead they style i'm on al-jazeera there's no one way of telling the story a key thing is to tell you the rights and to be respectful there is a great chance to get to know the person fully tells. hello i'm barbara starr in london these are the top stories on al-jazeera hopes are building for a breakthrough in peace talks on the korean peninsula after a delegation from the south held a successful meeting with north korea's leader they say kim jong il agreed to meet

his south korean counterparts next month and is willing to talk about getting.