the, the, this is the, the, you news live from berlin, the us and britain launch military strikes on cruelty targets in yemen. the action is in retaliation for attacks by the wrong fact group on ships in the red sea. also coming off israel is to defend itself against accusations of genocide in gaza and south africa has set out the claims at the top united nations court in the hague. isabel dismisses the allegations as atrocious and absurd, and people in taiwan are preparing to vote in an election that to change the territory as relations with china, with fears of an invasion high on the agenda, dw, ask some of the candidates about their plans. the

. i'm sarah kelly. welcome to the program. the united states and britain have carried out air strikes against targets in young men in retaliation for who few rebels attacks on shipping in the red sea. u. k. fighter jets happened, taking off from bases in cyprus to join the us. let strikes a who's the controls, media channel broadcast videos of explosions in the capital. so not and elsewhere. the around back group says that it has been targeting vessels linked to israel, to support palestinians and gaza. who with these also said that there was no justification for the air strikes. and they will continue to attack ships heading toward his real the janelle do malone has more from washington. there is now an official statement from the white house saying that the u. s. and the u. k.

authorize the strikes along with other countries mentioned in the statements. so australia, bahrain, netherlands, canada, along with them. we know that top a dozen targets were, were the target of the strikes. and that these targets included inventories of weapons. weapons that the who tease had been using to launch their attacks in the red sea. so the emerging objective of these air strikes from the us and the part and its partners appears to be just to be able to send a message to the who t saying that the us and its partners can and will of act to kneecap who tease capabilities to launch these attacks, attacks which have not only crippled international shipping, but also raise the specter of a wider war in the middle east. now, in the statement that the white house released president joe biden also said that the us will not tolerate attacks on personnel or allow hostile act actors to

imperil freedom of never navigation. and that biden will not hesitate to, to act and direct more protective measures to this end. so that clearly means that this could be the beginning of what could be a drawn out process, even as biden is already starting to garner criticism from various corners for acting without congress on this. and again, a mid fears of the us being dragged into a large or middle eastern bar, something of course, which the us has some experience of. so that was to now to milan and washington. israel will defend itself at the international court of justice in the hague today against accusations that it is committing genocide and gaza, south africa, which brought the case set out. it's arguments yesterday. israel dismisses the allegations as baseless on the 1st day of a genocide case against the state of each row in the hague demonstrations on both

sides, much to the u. n's talk caught in search of 2 different visions of justice . inside the quote, some of the legal team for south africa, she brought the case against israel, made the opening arguments to the publicly available evidence of the scale of the destruction resulting from the bombardment of garza and the deliberate restriction of food volta medicines, under electricity available to the population of casa demonstrates that the government of israel, no jewish people, is raised, the citizens, the government of israel, and its military is intent on destroying the palestinians in gauze as a group of lights under the proceedings could take use. in the meantime, south africa is asking the court to order israel to stop its note,

treat operations in gaza. hi civilian casualties and the humanitarian catastrophe. have led to international condemnation of these rarely offensive. the mos run health ministry says more than $23000.00 palestinians have been killed. the un says one and 4 people in gaza. a staffing but israel vehemently denies allegations of genocide. it insists its campaign is about targeting him us and not the palestinian people. israel says it is acting in self defense after that. how must terror attacks on october 7th, 2023 is good to a service organization that committed the most terrible crime against the jewish people since the holocaust instruments. and now there are those who come to defend it in the name of the holocaust. the what audacity an upside down world is ro will

address the quote on friday. a decision on emergency measures is expected later this month. ordering a ceasefire is one possible option, but as the court has no way to enforce its rulings, there was hoping for a quick end to the war, may be bitterly disappointed. correspondent tonya cramer in jerusalem told me about reaction in israel to the 1st day of the case in the hague as well. i think these seem very harsh reactions in you could say across the political spectrum and resend the south african legal team, detailing the suffering of the residents of posting and in gaza. they also were highlighting very controversial comments made by a very senior is really a politicians in recent weeks or some ministers up to the prime minister

among them. and is, is basically saying of, you heard from the foreign ministry spokes person that says, africa is the most piece of hum us. they also said it's one of the greatest shows of hypocrisy. and we also heard from a prime minister benjamin netanyahu, that he said a, we have fighting terrorists. we are fighting. nice. so this is the line, as we've heard here, and reactions since yesterday these, this is real, will present its defense liter today. what's to be expected? well, it's a house deployed, a very robust team to come to those arguments. uh they have a oh, of course, very firmly uh is or is reject rejecting those accusations. we are expecting that as well to lay out their rights to self defense, especially of to the atrocities of the terror attacks that happened and october 7th,

perpetrated by extreme, this group, hamas and other militant groups in garza, that will be saying are we are targeting homeless and not the posting and people, and that they do the most no to harm a posting and civilians. but of course, this is exactly what critics say, a given the high dest hole, and that they want to see a more accountability or accountability from israel on that. tanya kramer in jerusalem, thank you. it's thousands of troops and police are on control in ecuador, and the stand off against the drug cartels that has killed at least 16 people. a man hunters underway for a fugitive gang leader who broke out of jail. scores of prison staff are being held hostage by inmates and a state of emergency is in force. security forces patrolling the streets in the

port cd of wire keys. one of the hot spots of the crisis at the local market, most soldiers can be seen. then buyers, many people are still too afraid to go outside. people are scared and the situation has not normalized yet. still, we come to see if we can sell something as otherwise we don't have money to buy food. ecuador was heed by violence on sunday, with a series of kidnappings in explosions across the country. president daniel and the bar declared a 60 day state of emergency, sending more than 20000 troops to fight drug gangs. the 36 year old and a boy who's been in power for less than 2 months, says the nation is a war 3rd on given to evil, never getting fight tirelessly. always long live ecuador. in one of the most

dramatic episodes, moscow gunmen stormed a local to the station threatening journalist during a live show. on thursday the channel went back to broadcasting raising hopes the government would soon be back in control. get our system. we had a force thanks to the military and police forces for that professionalism and impeccable. what that in less than 15 minutes subdued those who tried to so tara, but instead of an order such an outcome is something out there it could. dorians can only help for families gathering outside of jail in central part of the country . the prison is one of 7 facilities where inmates to thousands of guards and stuff hostage, their relatives like this room and preparing not to show her face. say they don't have any information about their loved ones. this is a pretty good,

but we award because we have not heard from my husbands, sons and daughters for 5 days of his closest e close. e says the violence is the result of years of growing control by drug cartels using ecuador sports to shape cocaine to the us and europe. despite the government stuff, response, man, if you're the conflict may become permanent, turn in the country into a narc, a state here are some other stories making news around the world. the u. s. federal aviation administration is launching a formula investigation into the boeing 737 max 9 aircraft. a cabin panel blew out during a flight last week, leaving a hole in the fuselage. the aircraft made an emergency landing us airlines have grounded their boeing 737 max 9 planes. the tesla is pausing production at a plant in germany because attacks on ships and the red sea have disrupted its

supply chain. the electric car maker is to halt manufacturing outside of berlin for 2 weeks. at the end of this month. tens of thousands demonstrated in slovakia is capital products slavic against plans to change the criminal code. the government wants to produce penalties for corruption and financial crimes. the european union has also criticized plans to shut down a special prosecutor's office. photos in taiwan, head to the polls on saturday in a tight race dominated by relations with china. the governing party is defending its record of a tough line against beijing's threats of invasion. the opposition says it's time to restart dialogue to de escalate. china claims that taiwan is its own and has warrant that the election could be a choice between war and peace. use chase. international editor, richard walker reports now from taipei, where voters faced

a difficult decision. 2024 is a year of watches for democracies around the world. what you've donald trump with is the white house again. which of the european parliament gets over run by the far right. but the 1st big what if of 2024 is about to play out right here in taiwan, off the use of antagonistic relations with china focus here might be about to choose something very different. a friendly approach to badging. we spoke with a man who embodies, that's how i did mine. joe was the last president of taiwan, subbing from 2008 to 2016 now he hopes his k m. t party will win the presidency again. with him is one of its top power brokers. and he says the current government's whole approach to china. boosting the military to determine attack is flat out wrong. no matter how much you defend himself,

you can never fly to what was the maintenance and the neighbor when the too large, too much stronger than us. so we should use a noun, used a place where a means to reduce the tension. instead, my calls for dialogue with china picking up where he left off. when he met, she didn't ping in 2015. i mean say like that between siege and pain and the car and tie when he's president is almost unthinkable. but mine, joe says that under a different president, taiwan could work with she and even trust him. so you're saying you can trust what, as far as customer relations you have to. well, this actually goes further than mazda and our team. it's candidate for president who you are. he says he is committed to taiwan defense and has no illusions about the chinese leadership taking the bottle that i've never had any unrealistic ideas

about the maintenance intentions. i'm very pragmatic and steady in my approach to the main to bottle the the governing parties kind of did william lie also gave us his response. thanks. yes. so he said he's also prepared to talk to china in quite he won't make concessions to make that happen. and it's planned that for him. deterrent just comes in the clear 1st. this week we spoke woman. sweet, your cookie. we see peace through strength, not by the goodwill of the aggression because it's a good will of the aggressive cannot be relied upon as a cobra to that. so what is the right balance between the tyrants and dialogue when facing such a massive and threatening neighbor as china? now it's up to the time when these people to decide that just $19000000.00 out of the billions of votes is around the world who will cost that balance this year. but tie one's choice will have huge implications. in this 1st one case of

2024, 10, taiwan will decide at the polls on saturday, we just saw richard walker, who filed that report. he is joining us now from ty pay. richard, welcome to you. in your report, we saw the former time when he's president saying that type pay has to trust that she's in pain. how does she expect voters to trust china when it's made its intentions with taiwan? quite clear. this is yes sir. and that is one reason why this interview that we did with my angel earlier in the week has been really huge. lead controversial here in taiwan. and people being come helped to be and talking to me spontaneously a. but i would say. and some of the statements that he made, and that seems to be encouraging the 2 that we saw in the report that really have have caused an awful lot of controversy and particularly beside kids that you have to trust cheating. pain on matters across great relations that is seen by many time

when ease as hopelessly not even we saw in the report that mind chose own candid that has had to distance himself pretty clearly from those comments. still though, he's point that taiwan needs to attempt to bring back dialogue with the mainland with china is a point that both of the opposition parties may or may take. both of those combined represent certainly more than 50 percent of the population so. so that is an opinion i think that is shed a pretty widely by tie one of these people right now. and that does make this kind of what safe? um, very interesting. what if the opposition does get through it in this election? it's quite possible is a close 3 way race. it is conceivable that whole, you use the opposition main candidate that we saw in the report that we'll get through, take the presidency and move into what would be quite a new well,

what happens? how does this situation here across the taiwan strait change? if you have a government here that is really willing to try to build bridges with china. so this is what we're going to be watching this weekend. what is facing saying meantime about the election of the yeah, what badging has been saying a lot of pretty familiar things in the lead up the election. so the one spokes person from the ministry of foreign affairs actually said, well, don't ask me questions about this because it's not foreign affairs. it. taiwan is a, china is domestic issue. so this is a domestic election. the chinese of ominously told the taiwanese that they have to make what they called the correct choice, which is taken to mean to vote for the oppositional particularly of, for the part to you of my angel. and this being quite so based on the other hand of, of, of kind of military and what you called grace own activity in recent days. so just today the, the,

the time when these minute of the defense ministry is reporting that the chinese will plains have been flying due to taiwan in recent weeks. that'd be mysterious balloons flying even over the island. and that being of what you call grace own tactics are kind of below the military level, but this information, that sort of thing. but the thing is, this is nothing as of the ordinary for taiwan type wants to be living with this for years, for decades, even so it so, so that really is not as of the ordinary, but certainly china would be delighted if the positive mind, your, if the opposition dates managed to squeak through in this election, the end of the thing was suddenly presented with a government here in taiwan. that was frontier. richard washington is looking quite closely at the results of what's at stake for us ties and the region if there is a power shift in taiwan. yeah, but this is very, very interesting. so the united states of course, insist that it has no preference into selections, that it can what very well with any type one,

each party that it has total confidence in time when you use democracy, which is a crew, of course being proven many times in recent decades, but it is interesting to consider in washington what washington's preferences might be. now the current government, the d p p, which is very stridently antique china. and there was some concerns that that could lead to an intensification of tensions across the street in the months ahead if they do re gain power. but the vice presidential candidate from that party, they spent the last few years in washington as taiwan is representative. that these ex has extremely good connections that so, so that is seen is, is a plus point on this side. on the other side, those, the opposition, the gloaming tank, the positive mind, joe, who we spoke to. i think there's a sense in washington dc is dealing with so many crises in the world. if you look at the war and ukraine, the war in the middle east to have a government in taiwan that is working to try to deescalate tensions with china.

may not be the worst thing in the world, so i think washington is genuinely on the fence here. the seems thing to see that tony blink can be us extra of staples of meeting a see me a chinese diplomat today. also a signal that the us in china a trying to get through this situation, this, this obviously very sensitive situation right. without this escalating into a new crisis right now, richard walker and taiwan is voters getting ready to head to the polls tomorrow? thank you. its ukraine's president below them are zalinski, has again rejected calls for a ceasefire with russia, saying that it would only give moscow more time to replenish its arm supplies. soleski has been touring baltic nations, calling for more political and military support from allies in the region. ukraine's government also wants to mobilize extra troops to fight the russian invasion. neither side is gaining significant ground and the fighting dw isn't connelly visited ukrainian artillery units near box mood for into their 2nd winter

on the front lines. you have them before you see them. given enough time, these men tell us the mice nipple everything from sleeping. so just fingers, computer cables, in an age of satellite internet connection, 5 distorting books, they're still waiting for an innovation to properly defeat rodents. that's what you call the caps that we brought down here. they all run off because they were too scared of the rats. and sometimes a weasel comes by and helps us out with the mice. i don't mind the mice, really. they're pretty harmless. at least it's some kind of distraction. there are some drones have a present in this guys, this ukraine you know, to the unit essentially lives on the ground and then not out firing. it targets a dozen. no. so men hold up together and they've dug out several meters on the frozen ground. satellite internet connect some to their families watching the lives

they now comp peoplesoft stories. and sometimes i call my daughter and ask her how schools go in. and she says it's saturday or sunday, don't hear you lose track of time. every day is the same unless you're outside doing your work. during the summer offensive, they were able to advance to here. they built themselves this new dug out, knowing full well their lives would depend on it. this went to the defending this position against russian troops trying to take it back. started doing it was just recently, a russian shrapnel shell landed outside one of our dugouts. we weren't expecting anything. we were down in the dugout, but it was still pretty scary here. you can see the flash even from where we were. some of the original crew couldn't get used to the constant shilling, and i had to transfer to other units. but there's no criticism of those who left. one thing you hear a lot down here is that there's no such thing as an ideal soldier. so you know, my, there's no point sitting around at home saying you're sick or telling yourself. i

wasn't born to fight someone left, you know, one is sort of to this from what you learned all the jobs. and if you don't learn more, won't forgive your mistakes. everyone is going to have to fight eventually. and there's no point trying to hide. that's the message these men have for their fellow ukrainians. this will heads into his 3rd. yeah. so your crank arrow tiffany connolly who filed that report, joins us now from keith. nick, we just saw you there in the trenches with ukrainian soldiers, mice everywhere, freezing cold. what was it like, what is life like for those soldiers on the front lines? it's certainly not easy. it has to be said that it was a lot more pleasant underground. even with the moist and it was above ground. so everything was frozen and that'd been fresh. rain that have been frozen people fully out of all the ice. there were questions about supplies being voted on time because the roads, which is basically impossible. i think for the most part the,

that unit specifically, people had had a few weeks off of the past year. they had been see that families interesting though, people say that actually it because of those be easy just to stay at the front line and to go home because 2 weeks just isn't enough time to properly let go. of all that stress, that adrenalin, i know for the back home they can get annoyed seeing, mend their age. going to a james going about the normal daily lives going to work and not joining in the fight. so some of them even questioning whether it was really worth a while to go home because it was just emotionally and physically kind of a difficult thing to do. we heard one of the soldiers saying, no one is born to fight, but it's learning on the job. i think we've heard much about the military struggling to recruit new soldiers. give us a sense of how big the problem is and whether the recent plans, the governments announced can likely address it. the thing is so right now you have lots of people who have been fighting since february 2022 or basically been enough for 2 years. lots of them actually know younger tool. this is large,

the middle age man's will right? now mobilization always starts to the age of 27. and if your student then your protect you from that. so you'll see lots of men in the thirty's forty's. even 50 is fighting. some of us have been fighting since 2014, since russia sent those separatists into the east of the country. so lots people who are very tired and it is obviously very controversial topic because uh, lots of members of your friends parliament trying to blow up these new efforts to increase the draft. there's also a fear of the demographic impact in the future. if you have people who haven't had families yet, potentially being wounded or losing their lives. so this is basically essentially saying you're creating politics right now as somebody that hasn't been results. keep your chief nick connelly joining us from the ukrainian capital. thank you so much for that reporting. still reminder of our story is the us and britain have launched, strikes against the targets in human explosions have been reported in the capital,

so not and elsewhere. who sees have been attacking shipping and naval units in the red sea for weeks coming up a dw documentary looking at some endangered species that may not be as cute as the giant panda. the,

the star spc is conservation panda. but what about animals that are less costly? they often find themselves on the side line. researchers want to change all that and call for more courage to be ugly. sample size and the next on

the new will tell you. we are happy that we are back to the story. we have a getting a visa is more difficult than finding gold hosted to use the force and for the future in the stories and issues that are being discussed across the country. news africa. in 60 minutes on d. w. the radios engine via you belong to the 77. interesting because i just got in 65 last last those top 5 years. 3 reasons why 1115. we are here to help you make up your mind to the top because i'm much up to you

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