plus thousands of our programs. award winning documentaries and debt. these reports subscribe. take you chief dot com, forward slash al jazeera english. ah, this is al jazeera ah pelham. so robin, you're watching the old is a reduce our lie from our headquarters here in dough hall coming up in the next 60 minutes. russia's president vladimir putin talks, but just over 2 hours with his us counterpart, joe biden, in a virtual summit focusing on ukraine. the united kingdom introduces new travel restrictions to limit the spread of the aba chron cove at 19 barons and of an

era german chancellor. anglo merkel is about to say goodbye after 16 years running, europe's biggest economy and china condemns the u. s. decision to impose a diplomatic boy course of the beijing 2022 games as a violation of the olympic spirits. and i'm far as small with sport as and the legend steph curry edge is closer to another record. we're coming life life from our special fee for eric cap studio here in cats are where all the quarter final spots had now been taken out. well, bring you up to date later in the news that ah, welcome to the news of a high stakes meeting between the leaders of the us and russia has been taking place, presents joe biden and vladimir putin held over 2 hours of virtual talks focused on russia's troop elder prolong the border with ukraine. now the roof is in washington,

but moscow may be planning to invade its neighbour. according to us, intelligence is preparing an attack early next year, and is amassed $70000.00 troops near the border. russia has denied any plans for an invasion of ukrainian describes the accusations of hysteria. president putin wants to guarantee from the west that ukraine will not join nato and biden has urged the escalation while warning of economic consequences. if an attack takes place on his be working with allies to prepare such measures. well, study by we have charl, stratford and eastern ukraine. bernard smith is standing by in the russian capital, moscow defenseless cross over to our white house correspondent, kimberly hawkins, who joins me from washington, d. c. and of course that meeting did go on for some time. kimberly, we knew it would, but we do. we have any details about what was said not yet, but we are expecting that we will get some details from the national security

advisor jake sullivan. he will be at 900 g m t participating in the white house daily press briefing along with the white house press secretary jen saki at. it's then that we expect that we'll, we'll get an update. those getting an update as we speak are the partners and allies of the united states that joe biden with consulted with prior to his call with the russian liter vladimir putin. those are the leaders of germany, france, italy, and the u. k. we understand that you as president speaking with them at this hour, updating them on what the reactions were to their joint message that was sent to of latter repute, namely that there would be punishing financial sanctions if the unite, if rather russia were to invade ukraine. so what we know is that this was a call that was expected. the 2 leaders after meeting joe biden did tell the partners in of that he would be updating them and stay in close coordination.

because as you mentioned that concern of. 6 not just the united states, but also the european leaders is this russian build up along the ukraine border in terms of what a president biden house in the scope of the power of the punishment that he can give. oh, what can the us directly do and what would he expect his partners to be able to do? yeah, that's a part of the conversation that took place on monday was to what extent would the united states and coordination with its allies be prepared to go in terms of these economic sanctions that we know were of no surprise to the russian president. what we expect is that if russia were to invade ukraine and ignore the warnings of the west, that essentially what we could see our economic sanctions of an isolate russia from the global financial system make it very difficult for it to convert money into

other currencies. could harm russian businesses extensively as well. i had also always lingering. is that so called military option, which the u. s. has been very quiet about. it has said that it would prepare to support its allies at nato, but in terms of u. s. troops. certainly keeping that very quiet, be very cage you. whenever reporters ask that question, we expect that will be asked again at the upcoming press briefing. but for now, what the pentagon has told us is that they see the diplomatic path as being the best path forward. and there's no need for this to come to blows. we shall see. kimberly help them. oh, white house correspondent lester and bernard smith, eyes and russian capital mosca you've monetary will spin guy on certainly from the russian perspective. burnett, the russian president of the government by say that this is all hysteria and everybody really needs just to calm down. but at the end of the day, president putin will want to allay fears. but it also want to try and get something

from these talks. what does he really want he was not only respect from united states and bits to be treated on an equal footing with president biden, but he wants, excuse me, he wants nato to back off from expanding into eastern europe, into areas that russia might have considered previously under its influence, he doesn't want ukraine to be allowed to join nato, nor does he want georgia to be allowed to join nato. i the, and this was, was, this will be, we know, one of the things of law may putin will be saying to joe biden, now brought him if you must also know that it is not really in jo biden's gift to say who can and cannot join nato, it's up to the member states, but what blood may boot in has is now this bargaining chip. he has this large troop of build up on the border with ukraine and russia. that could be up anything up to

175000 troops were told by the you, by us, people who are monitoring this understanding 5 troops. that could be that by the end of january, where if there is going to be invasion, that's when people think it will be. it's been nearly 30 years since the fall of the soviet union as it was in russia. ukraine were part of that. and putin has seen a slow encroachment of western influence onto his borders. so you can see his point of view yet. you know, he, he's, he's drawing the red lines about what is and is not acceptable to him. certainly on the ground. when he sees, for example, the baltic states have joined nato in the past few years. russia did not want to see those former soviet satellites. the baltic states join nato, as the soviet union collapsed, when you craned, if declared independence also at the end of the soviet union,

no longer after the end of the soviet union, brought him puting cold. but common calamity because there's a lot of shared history, centuries of shared history between ukraine and russia. now russia says it sees nate so operating on its doorstep. u. s. navy, having joint operations in the black sea, with ukraine, turkey supplying armed drones to ukraine on the u. s. also helping build up ukraine's military. so the russian view is this is getting too close to areas of its influence and it wants the us to back off. it will though be an enormous risk for russia for blood in a boot. and if he goes ahead with an invasion, taking cold of crime onyx and crime is 7 years ago was comparatively simple, ethnic russian majority people that genuinely welcoming what happened this time you'd be invading ukraine proper, mainly ukrainians. going to war with those people. and now you create an army of

though much smaller than the russia was still better armed than it was. so this would be a very, very dangerous and deadly for both sides. but it's the force in moscow. well, it's called over to charles stratford correspondent in mario pole in ukraine. and if anything to go by from what a kimberly said charles, in terms of telephone conversations between biden and his partners, one can assume there is a telephone call happening very soon. if not already happened to kiev, one can presume that sir hale? yes indeed. erm certainly the feeling here in ukraine, certainly the way that we're gauging it with government circles and so on. is this just this incredible sense of vulnerability that this country has felt in, in recent weeks? as we've seen this reported build up of russian troops across the border. there's

a sense that the ukrainian government is now done all it can really to galvanize as much support as it can form its international allies in nato partners. i mean, not a day goes by where there is and share some sort of statement coming from one of those partners. shang, that russia must, you know, respects the territorial integrity and sovereignty of ukraine and ukraine has every right to potentially a future nato membership and rogers no grounds to try and dictate on a, on that level either. so there is a sense of a vulnerability that shows that this country is feeling and yeah, all eyes are on what has come from that meeting between a president biden and president putin, the americans and their allies acting. it seems certainly amongst the ukrainians, go to the ukraine as they feel as if the americans in their allies are having to act on their behalf. i think we'll have to wait and see how the politics plays out

and how it impacts on kiev itself. but you've been reporting from the frontline, certainly on the ukrainian side, and at the end of the day that reality doesn't change very much for residence on the ground. their lives have become a lot more difficult over the past several years since the annexation of crimea. and of course, that internal civil war as is often being described in eastern don't ask. i mean it's, it's a terrible situation for them to sort of sit around and watch what's happening and what the politicians are deciding on the, the house. yes. as you say, we've been along certain sections of a front line that stretches more than 400 kilometers around the don bass region, speaking to people in the last couple of weeks. and you say, i mean some of the that the suffering that they have endure in the last 7 and a half years is quite incredible. and, you know, we walked into a village last week and that had been shelled by the separatist forces only

a few days. before spoke to elderly people that were gathering their belongings and were should not put too fine a point on it, almost hysterical having to move to other areas in and around the contact zone, but not having enough money to rent or rent another house we spoken to people trying to cross the year, the contact zone on both directions. and they tell us, you know, the difficulties that they facing literally just trying to visit families or collect pensions on on this side and come and get banking and banking details are confirmed or changed on this side for those who live on the other side of the of the, the separatist controlled area. so things are incredibly difficult and look, there are the figures, you know, 14000 people killed in the last 7 and a half years. the un saying that it expects next year,

up to 3000000 people on both sides of that contact zone will need some form of humanitarian assistance. child stratford in mary paul in ukraine. thank you. with hello, the top story that we're covering while the world hall health organization says imposing mandatory vaccine should be an absolute last resort. the warning comes as more countries in europe debate, whether to adopt the strict measure because of a surge of new infections driven by the armor. chrome variance were last month, austria, or announced it would make inoculations. compulsory from next year mandates at on the vaccination or an absolute last resort and only applicable when all, all that feasible options to improve vaccination uptake have been exhausted. they have proven effective in some environments to increase vaccine uptick. but the

effectiveness of mandate is very context specific. mandates must be supported by appropriate policy considerations. a comprehensive implementation plan, including provisions for exemptions and a strong communication component for the population you travel restrictions. so come into effect in the u. k. as a result of the new variance, people traveling there will need to show a negative test results within 48 hours before their flight. now the u. k. government has already been travel to and from several countries in southern africa . foreign minister boris johnson has told his cabinet, the armoire, con variant appears to be more transmissible than delta and re simmons has more from london's gatwick airport. the restrictions on travel have been met with a sort of mood of, of reluctant acceptance by many to days within 2 days, a compulsory covey test to come into the country and also a come cove. it test within 2 days of leaving the country. and so um,

this is an acceptance as i say, nigeria, west african state has been added to the web list of the travel band, which already includes 10 other states there in the southern africa as lot of controversy about nigeria having this restriction placed upon it. but really the issue that's on people's minds more than anything else is the level of the restrictions in the u. k. prime minister, or, as johnson said, tuesday, is cabinet meeting that early indications are that on the kron variance is more transmissible than the delta vary. now, but not be, may not be massively new, but the real concerns or whether this on the chrome very will cause some evasion on immunity. and also whether or not it's more dangerous, whether it will make people even more sick of them. they would be anyway with cove

at 19 and the infection rates is of great concern. our latest estimate suggests that it's doubling every 3 days to or had here on the news are including can be as newly elected president tell to 0, how he plans to get the country through a process of reconciliation, of to days of unrest. and will tell you why reading the refugees, a thing. facebook parent company for $150000000000.00 and and for the beaver experience player, for the 1st ashes test against st. ah, well the u. k. government's foreign office has come under scrutiny after a whistleblower described its african evacuation as dysfunctional and chaotic. the former employee ralph marshall says a number of complaints which he says led to

a vote. avoidable death since the taliban seized power in cobble. the marshal claims up to tens of thousands of africans didn't receive help despite being eligible, while many emails were ignored. the government disputes the claims as bringing what we challenged sees in london and maria raphael marshall, stating quite a lot for the government to actually consider for that committee. what else was said? well there were 3 people on hand in this committee, basically giving their testimony from the foreign office and being grilled really on, on these allegations from rafa marshall that these people were philip boss and who's the head of the foreign office, the highest civil service, civil 7th and in that department, laurie bristow, who's a former ambassador to capital ad nigel, katy of the prime minister,

special representative for afghanistan. all of these people were the instrumental in the way that things unfold. aids in that august evacuation. they were dos, different questions because they had different roles. but for the boss and who is that the head of the, the foreign office said that yes, there were things that they could and should have done better. but this is a complex and challenging situation. they did successfully evacuate 15000 people. they wish they could have got out more and they will look at what they could do better in the future. he was all specifically many times about his holiday because as this event was unfolding the series of events, he was in there. he was on holiday and didn't come back until the 26th of all west africa missed on fell to the taliban. on the 15th of august, he says, effective apologizing that, you know,

he's reflected on this several times and if he could have his time again, he would have come back from holiday much sooner. he repeated this so often this testimony that i think he got that the members of the casino committee got fatty fed up with it. and tom, to not say it's the chair of the committee said yes, you're saying the 70 times that it's starting to sound a bit scripted and not very effective anymore. but yeah, there's been a statement released by the chair of the, of the committee in the aftermath of it's finishing. and he says that today's session left the committee concerned about the foreign office, his role in the evacuation effort, the evidence we've had today, points to a lack of leadership edge and see an adequate resorting. and it's deeply painful how badly we have. let africa stand down that's coming from the head of the foreign affairs select committee for the challenge. the 4th in london,

not 3 political parties in germany have signed a coalition agreement paving the way for the formation of a new government. leaders of the social democratic party green party and free democrats, attended the signing ceremony in berlin. the coalition marks and end of the conservative government led by chance langler michael social democrat, allah showed, says set to replace michael his leaving after 16 years dominate. kane has more from berlin, 4 times angle immaculate, her party into a general election 4 times. she won that election and using a leadership style based firmly in the political center. when the berlin wall fell, chancellor helmut kohl brought her into government where she thrived. and when a scandal engulfed him, she engineered his departure with a ruthlessness which saw her 1st become party leader. and then chancellor in 2005. she was under estimated by her rivals. the rivers talked about the way and the

means they would come to power bud merkle followed the logic of party politics. get power key, power, and get your opponents. and why was away the in suing e you debt crisis propelled her on to the international stage where her star rose as she helped broke a bailout for europe's ailing economies and cemented her position as a german leader. the world's presidents and prime ministers wanted to be seen with, but it was her handling of another crisis which would shake people's faith in her when refugees from serious civil war began arriving on europe's doorstep, she opened germany's borders more than a 1000000 came increasing numbers of senior colleagues in her own party openly disagreed with her policy. her poll rating suffered in the far right populous anti immigrant alternative for germany party thrived, many wondered if mackerel was becoming a lame duck. but then came the corona virus and as infection and mortality rates

rows across europe. so did miracles resolve? one of you was found the me, europe's economy is badly shaken with fundamental human rights have had to be temporarily, massively restricted to an extent, unprecedented for our democracies. these are decisions that are among the most difficult and my term as chancellor. her pragmatism, this time meant agreeing vast grants to ailing european economies. she was brilliant and managing through all the crisis on what, again, not in a very visionary way. there's hardly a project i could link to angela magazine. ok. this is where she actually implemented whatever topic we're discussing, actually a great idea. so it's much more that she managed to to get through all these crazy but cove. it was the crisis she couldn't manage away through alone in her last days . as chancellor. the numbers of daily cases hit record highs now she had to give

way to the incoming government leaders who vetoed her proposed locked air. and as the new parliament deliberates, she is just a spectator looking on as the man who replaces her, does so having styled himself as a male miracle dominant came al jazeera berlin, well jewelry. now from brussels. as steven erlanger, the chief diplomatic correspondent in europe for the new york times could have you with us on the program. so a huge day in german history and one that will be viewed differently depending on sort of which germans you ask. but where does merkel sit in terms of her legacy as far as you're concerned? well, i think very highly of her. i think it is very true. she managed crisis. she didn't have a lot of strategy. over 16 years, people make mistakes, but there were moments where her, her leadership really mattered not just for germany,

but for all of the european union. this involved russian annexation of crimea. it involved the migration crisis. plenty has been certainly involved the euro crisis. and really, the reason greece remains in the you and in the euro is because of uncle merkel. i mean, germany has always been the balancer between east and west. it has europe and they go in it's dna and she was very good. and she built up her authority over 16 years enter stature. said listening to everyone and then coming up with compromise. and this is a much under estimated talent. ok. so let's just focus it on one of those things that you just talked about was the east west relationship and how much of an influence was her east german background in relating to the problems of a unified germany and what, but how to deal with

a society that wasn't always equal socially and financially. well, i think she's been criticized particularly by aussie people in east germany for not paying enough attention to them. i think she wanted very much to integrate. but i, i think where her, her eastern, i mean what was interesting about her is she was an east german protestant, running west german catholic party. and she did it with a great aplomb. and i think she also spends a lot of time trying to make sure the new countries of central europe, the polls, the checks sells more at home inside this broader europe. but certainly in the east there are complaints. there are still the wall in the head. there's a sense that youth are actually leaving for the, for the west for, for better jobs. and i think this is, you know,

a continuing problem started walk so great in the east, and there are a lot of new buildings. but attempt to create jobs has been not necessarily great successful. so where does this all sort of fits when it comes to the issue of migration in 2014, when we saw that influx of people from the middle east, as it was it in my colleagues report, she came for going to the criticism, but she was quite steadfast and you might say she, you know, she was the woman from behind dine cut and she, you know, she knew what she needed to do and she did it. yes, i think this was a very important moral physician for her as an east german and i think she said this, she couldn't bear the thought of armed german police and soldiers pushing people away from a border. and i think she did this in a sense of personal responsibility. her own party was very angry with her. you can

argue it helps create the popularity of the far right populace. alternative for, for germany party in the east. i mean, you can say many things about it, but the fact is germany have an aging society as brought in quite a lot of very smart young people in the next 5 years or so. they will be very well trailed and help german economy and turn germany more and more into a multicultural society. so criticize, but i think in the long run, i think she will be praised even if she didn't think too far ahead. but for taking a very important moral stance, which is what germany felt ought to do after world war 2. just briefly missed out on it because we come to the end of this interview and the time we have unfortunately, she's obviously a woman who is credited with being able to manage vladimir putin were currently in

the same pass over ukraine. at the moment. conversations have been had between saatchi and washington dc this evening. how much of a loss is she in that sort of very complicated jigsaw puzzle of being able to deal not only with the west but also with the east? well, i think it is a loss because she grew up in communism. she speaks fluent russian, and i think she understands putin's mindset. she's always tried to reach out, but without giving away too much. and there's no one i can think of represents such a powerful country that has that same set of attributes now has changed. the world has changed. he's less interested in partnership with the west, but her guidance, i think, will be missed. steven langer from the new york times. thanks so much for joe.

joining us from brussel, sir. good. have you on the program? thank still had here fall out of the long road home. one of the world's oldest religious tax returns to iraq, years after it was looted and sold illegally. and in the n, b, a curry, i just close to another n b a rec, hold those details coming up in fort aah . and away we go with your weather update for the middle east. normally we say it's quiet, but that's not the case now. hello everyone. good to see. we got this storm system slamming into the levant. it's going to play lebanon and pallets that we'll talk more about that coming up. but elsewhere, fine and dry conditions can be found. same goes for pakistan, both for the south and the north. are corruption coming in at

a high of 30 degrees located now to that active weather in turkey, really through the eastern med, as it flattens into lebanon and palestine, lebanon, it's going to be blasted with wind gusts on wednesday, up to 70 kilometers per hour. and we could power up some thunderstorms on thursday, friday, or temperature 19, which is where you should be. temperatures above average for central africa, pretty close to record breaking a job by 39 bungie 35. your december record temperature is 36 degrees. so pretty close to see if we can nadia pen the days to come. got some wet 10, stormy weather. it's for the northeast of south africa, the southeast botswana, pretty much the zone stretches from bill a whale rate to johannesburg. so if we show you the 3 day forecast for bill whale, the risk of some sundry downpours over the next few days and breezy conditions as well. but your temperature.