Happy Monday, this is Anna breaking down today's top stories for you.
Brexit transition deal - The UK has agreed a deal on the terms of the Brexit transition period after making a number of concessions to Brussels and accepting a plan of keeping Northern Ireland under EU law. After intense talks, Brexit secretary David Davis said agreement on the terms of the 21-month period, ending on 31 December 2020, was a 'significant' moment, which would give businesses and citizens reassurance.
Putin’s expected victory - Vladimir Putin has been re-elected for another six years in Russia after winning a record victory in the country’s presidential election. However, there has been a hushed reaction in the West, and from opposition activists who highlighted a number of cases of vote rigging. Final results showed Putin had won his fourth presidential term with 76.6% of the vote, his highest ever. The total number of ballots cast on Sunday for Putin exceeded 56.2m in overnight counting. Putin’s most serious rival, the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was barred from the race. This was a vote in which there could be no other result. The opposition pointed to video evidence of voter irregularities at a number of polling stations across Russia, including ballot stuffing and attacks on some vote observers, as well as reports of ballots being cast by ‘dead souls’, people who have died but remain on the electoral rolls.
Mourning a fighter - A British woman fighting alongside Kurdish forces in Afrin, northern Syria, has died. Anna Campbell, from Lewes, East Sussex, was volunteering with the US-backed Kurdish Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) – an all-female affiliate army of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – in the city of Afrin when the convoy she was travelling in was struck by a Turkish missile on 16 March.
Explosions in Texas - Another explosion in Texas’ capital, Austin, has injured two people after three package bombs detonated earlier this month in other areas of the city, killing two people and injuring two others. Austin-Travis County Emergency Management Services reported that an explosion in southwest Austin injured two men in their 20s. Although the cause of explosion is currently unknown, previous blasts began when a package bomb exploded at an east Austin home on 2 March, killing a 39-year-old man. Two more package bombs then exploded on 12 March, killing a 17-year-old, wounding his mother and injuring a 75-year-old woman.
Falling to death - A highly-experienced Cirque du Soleil performer has died after falling to his death during an aerial straps routine at a show in Tampa, Florida. Yann Arnaud, 38, fell on Saturday night during a performance of the show Volta, according to Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group. The French performance artist died of his injuries at a nearby hospital.
Denuclearisation - South Korea’s foreign minister has said that North Korea’s Kim Jong-un has ‘given his word’ that he is committed to denuclearisation. Donald Trump has agreed to potentially historic talks after South Korean officials relayed that the leader was committed to making the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons and was willing to halt nuclear and missile tests.
No appearance - Myanmar's controversial State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi has canceled a public appearance in Australia due to ill health, where she was expected to face questions over her country’s alleged crimes against humanity from the audience. Suu Kyi was scheduled to give a speech at Sydney's Lowy Institute on Tuesday but the think-tank said she was ‘not feeling well.’ Her government has been accused of ‘ethnic cleansing’ against Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya population, where at least 688,000 have fled across the border to Bangladesh in the last six months.